We' ve Got Her Covered

Two posts in one day: don't go into shock on me!

Immediately after I finished my memory quilt last month, I saw this pattern for a "heartstrings" quilt online and wanted to make one really badly. It is made of foundation-pieced strips laid out so that the red strips form hearts and it is super easy and fast. So I raided my fabric drawer and started, not sure who it was going to be given to. As the month went on, I realized that one of "our girls" (my best friend's daughters whom we've been close to for 10 years) was leaving in early September to go off to college! Could I get it done in time? Yep. I can't post it on my Facebook yet or she'll see it before I give it to her. I hope she cuddles up in it in her dorm room if she's feeling homesick and feels our love. Click on the picture to see it larger.

Here is the embroidery I did in the lower right corner to dedicate the quilt. I backed the quilt with a very soft striped sheet I picked up at the thrift store and tied the blocks with pink embroidery floss.

Just for giggles, here's a pic of me and my hubby at a barbeque this summer. He has new whiskers - I like them.

Outside and In

More construction is underway in the front yard. Hubby is digging a trench in order to inlay the cement chunks we have accumulated into a pathway. As you can see, the little pond is finished and the fishes are doing well and growing. They have survived a few exploratory attacks by the local raccoon gang - the pond advice we received was sound! I've been keeping my worker company, weeding the flower bed while he digs.

Indoors, I have been quilting. I finished a twin-sized quilt which I began last year. It took me a bit because I embroidered 12 of the blocks. It is a memory quilt, with blocks made from our boys' outgrown pajamas, blankies, our kitchen curtains, and lots of family odds and ends. By request I kept it "unisex" with not too much girly pink stuff. I backed it with blue flannel, and I tied it with embroidery floss at the corners and middles of each square side. The binding is pieced out of the extra 2" squares I cut.

The embroidery is kind of random. Images I liked online, drawings I made up myself. The sunflower is from a marker drawing that I did a few years ago.

1-2-3-4-5 and Beyond

Howdy there! Yes, I do still inhabit this planet. I'm doing well, how 'bout you?
j
Lots of good stuff going on, and this kale photo has nothing to do with anything. Yikes, this has been the worst photo-taking year ever! What's new? Well, I got a part-time job at the gluten-free healthfood store where I've been a customer for 5 years, and so far I'm really liking it. Heck, I have been advising people about gluten- and dairy-free stuff for free for years! Secondly, I have gotten a little decorative painting job to do in a home before Christmas. Thirdly, I recently got an email from a photographer who's interested in having me paint her bird photos! And they're beautiful photos too! Hope that happens! Fourthly, I was invited to sell my fabric grocery sacks at a craft fair in 2 weeks, so I am sewing, sewing, sewing. Fifthly, Christmas is coming and my choir is having major long extra rehearsals lately.
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So that's what I've been doing. Hope you are well - I've been checking in on your blogs, I have!

Taking it for a Test Drive

I am working on a longer-term sewing project: a twin bed-sized quilt. It is made up of ALL the cotton prints I have on hand, including a lot of old clothing scraps. My sons' blankies, my college bed sheet, my hubby's old robe - lots of memories. Plus, I am randomly sprinkling in squares with embroidered pictures. Nothing too girly, because my younger son asked me to keep it "unisex" (in case he calls dibs on it in the future I think. He is a sentimental one!)
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But as you can see, someone else is calling dibs on it already, before the squares are even all sewed together.
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"Itz mine, Mommee! OK? Thanx!"

Purple Passion

On Saturday, my sis-in-law gave me some leftover purple fabric that she didn't want. I recently picked up some cute kids' patterns for 99 cents at the thrift store, so I turned around and made her daughter an outfit out of the material. I didn't have enough to do the entire outfit, so the green band and applique were so inspired.
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The bees are going crazy for the lavender out front. It's a little alarming to see them all and all the buzzing, but they could care less about people - they are totally focused on their harvesting!

Projects which Passed the Finish Line

Here're a few projects that have been completed:

My vintage dollquilt that I mentioned a few posts ago. The colorful patches are from my Great Grandmother and probably include some feedsack cloth. They are really, really old and fragile, so I washed them carefully, then quilted them with some new cotton cloth to strengthen them. This is a traditional pattern that could have been used back in Great Grandma's time. Although I did machine-piece and machine-quilt it. I love how it turned out. I'm hoping to find a nice shadowbox frame to put it in, so it can be displayed and preserved.

Otherwise, I bought 2 yards of soft tan corduroy upholstery and recovered our favorite office chair, which was ripped and pink! Didn't go with the new office decor. I took off the old upholstery and used it as a pattern to cut the new and VIOLA! It worked!

Dances with Bears Quilt

OK, I'm officially on a quilting kick! But I'm reading about painting, alright?
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I just finished this small (20" by 24") quilt called "Dances with Bears," made from a pattern in Fat Quarters, Small Quilts by Darlene Zimmerman. I machine-pieced and machine-quilted it on my non-long-arm sewing machine (easier on very small quilts like this).
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I'm keeping this one - it's going on the wall in my bedroom!
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Already I'm starting on a new mini-quilt, before my hand-cramps have subsided from doing the binding on this one. I saw a cute doll-sized quilt at http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/, that uses reproduction 1930s feedsack prints, and I immediately knew I had to make it. When I was about 10, I found a stack of cut patchwork squares in my great-grandmother's attic one summer. I think I was there with my grandparents cleaning out her house when she had to go into a nursing home. Anyhow, I made the squares into a simple patchwork pillow back then and still have it today, much loved and well-worn. I'm not sure of the origin of all the squares, but I remember my grandma saying that she recognized some of the fabrics from clothes and projects my great-grandma had made. So I am cutting up my childhood pillow and featuring the fabric in the little doll quilt, so I can frame it and keep it where we can see it and remember my foremothers...
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P.S. I love the new Director of the National Institute of Health, Productivity and Human Capital. Congratulations, Sweester!

Noah's Quilt, Done!

Finished my Bento Box quilt this morning!
As you can see from the link here, I kinda sorta modified it a little - I tried the colors all mixed up and it looked too unfocused to me with my very limited black-white-royal palette. So now it's more baby-stimulating graphic-y.













I'm really am digging on the bright red binding and soft blue starry back to contrast with the bold front. The colors also are reminiscent of baby Noah's Marine papa. My first quilt with strip-piecing and from a pattern, yay! I didn't have a good idea for a quilt label, so I just embroidered the info in a back corner.

Fun Fabric Fuel

I'm feeling sewy lately. I saw this cute quilt, called "Bento Box" at Pink Chalk Studio, and decided to try my hand at it. My first quilt made using instructions! It's going way faster than my own piecemeal method. And Kathy was so sweet to email me some answers to my quilting and sewing machine questions.
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If it turns out decently, it's going to be for my 20-years-ago-flowergirl and her new baby boy. But I'm already drooling over the possibilities of other color combinations. Maybe out of flannel. I love flannel. Is it a nightmare to quilt, anyone know?

Illustration Friday - "Stitch"

Once again, the completion of a long-delayed art piece and an appropriate Illustration Friday topic have fortuitously collided! I started doodling around on this mini-quilt more than a year ago, but just yesterday finished appliquing, machine-quilting, and hand-binding it. It is part of a series I had conceived of quilt blocks based on memories of my summers at my grandparents' farm. I have 2 others already started. So, I hope fabric art isn't against the I.F. rules, but that's what I'm doing lately...
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Pie Mini-Quilt, 12" square, cotton fabric and batting.

On to the Next Project

OK, I know, it's not September... but I wanted to show off my latest "flower of the month" embroidery! You can see I'm not necessarily doing them in order. I picked this one because I love the asters and morning glories together (once again I didn't use the suggested colors on the pattern, but chose the ones I identify with the flowers).

Getting geared up for Thanksgiving around here. Need to divy up the cooking assignments with my sis-in-law, the 25lb. turkey is defrosting already, and I'm going to make the gluten-free cornbread for the stuffing tomorrow so it has a chance to dry out a bit. Once again, we will work at church on Thanksgiving day helping to feed around 1500 people at meals at 11:30, 1:30, and 3:30, hubby and the boys in the guest children's activities room and me as an interpreter for the Deaf. Then, we will have our family-and-friends Thanksgiving at home on Friday. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

Even Better!

I finished my third rendition of this blouse by Built by Wendy. This time I used flannel (the first was cotton calico, the second pinwale corduroy). I was confident enough in the pattern to start really messing with it...

I like the original pattern well enough, but the deep v-neck was a bit too deep for me and I always wear a camisole under it. So this time I modified the neckline and made it about an inch higher.

I also made the top about 4 inches longer, with the sides split open at the bottom. And I made the sleeves extra long.

I'll give it a test-wear today and see how it feels. I'm off to ride on a bus with three dozen kids to a JBQ competition!

October's Done!

When I saw Vicki's patchwork pillow and tutorial, I finally knew what to do with my October flower embroidery! (I'm not fooling myself that I'd get all 12 months done and make a quilt!) I had an 18" pillow form on hand, so I downsized the instructions a bit (left off the edge strips) and went for it last night. I'm pleased with the odds and ends of fat quarters that I had on hand to choose from to match the thread colors. If I showed you the back, you'd see I used two different fat quarters for the backing, with a row of flat buttons to hold it closed.

Thanks for sharing, Vicki! The embroidery is from her free patterns too!

Welcome, October!

Happy October to you! It feels like it's really fall now. We had a warm September and it absolutely flew by! This lovely embroidery was made from the free pattern at patternbee. (I didn't use the suggested colors, I picked my own favorites for the cosmos and dahlias.)

Hangin' in There

Things have been a bit nutty lately.

Pattern by Needlecrafter. Quote by Isaiah.

Feeling Stitchy

School has begun and Mommy-the-teacher was in need of something to keep her hands busy while she corrects quizzes, proofreads French homework (ha!) and sits on a certain bouncy 10-year-old. Crochet? Naaaaah! It's still too hot for yarn. I'm definitely a seasonal crocheter. Embroidery!

I pulled out this bluebird that I started a while back... no real purpose for it in mind yet. It came from a Martha link I found last year. I love all those birds, but I don't fool myself that I'll do all of them and make a quilt. This one could end up as a pillow. Or a sketchbook cover. Or on a tote.

Some of my other favorite stitchy links are Pattern Bee, the Feeling Stitchy blog, and the Bobby Socks Quilt Company. Many fun free patterns at those sites!

Sock Love!

What do you do when big brother is off at camp for the week, leaving an only child twiddling his thumbs?
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Meet "Salmon." He was born this week on my dining table, at the hands of my 10 year old son. On Sunday, when browsing the shelves of the library for Garfield books, J. and I spied this candy store of a book, Stupid Sock Creatures. I see it came out a couple years ago, but I'd never heard of it.
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So after a trip to the dollar store for colorful socks and a lesson on using the sewing machine, Mr. Salmon was born. (I love how J. names things - he is so decisive and sure. Illogical. Nonsensical. But very sure.)
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Now that J. has created his first monster, I think I just have created one!

Scratching My Itch...

Once in a while, I just gotta sew. When I saw this totebag at Pink Chalk Studio, I had to make one.
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Of course, I had to mess with it a little.
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And use recycled jeans.
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I love recycling jeans.
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Especially my "Mom Jeans."

Granny Crochet

I learned to crochet from my Grandma Adams when I was a young girl. She was my father's mother, not "Gramma" the painter whom I have written about previously. Grandma Adams was a very lovely lady too, also a farmer's wife in the midwest. She and my grandpa were Czech and lived in a Czech farming community in Ohio. Our family name wasn't originally "Adams" but that's the name the family chose when they immigrated in the early 1900's. Grandma's Czech name was Ludmilla, which I think is beautiful, but her Americanized name was Lillian. She got married to Grandpa young, and they had 12 children (my dad was #2). I think by the time I was a teen, I had forty-four first cousins. We didn't see them except for in the summers when we would drive up north from Florida to visit everyone.

Grandma gave me this very crochet needle when she taught me to crochet. I used to crochet all the time, rip it out, and crochet something else. I used to make funky amorphous shapes, like crochet banana covers! My Grandma made a baby blanket for each grandchild and greatgrandchild, and an afghan for each grandchild when they graduated from highschool, besides many other afghans for her children's families. A couple years ago, I really got into it again and made lots of ponchos, baby blankets and baby clothes. I recently got an undeniable crochet urge, and dug up a bunch of Lion Wool-ease from my stash and started this "Granny Square" afghan. Good to keep me from nibbling at my fingers when the tension is high at wrestling meets!

Giant Cupcake, No Calories!

I haven't knitted in almost nine months: I guess I burned out a while after knitting/crocheting up a storm for the previous several years! I was looking at last year's Christmas shopping list and realized I made about 10 gifts last year, none this year! As you can see, it was about nine months ago I began this blog when I started drawing again after a 20-year hiatus.

But I have still been ordering new pattern books as they come in at our fabulous public library system and last month there was a picture I couldn't resist! Everyone needs a knitted cupcake, right? I used all materials I had on hand - Lion cotton, Homespun, stuffing, and assorted buttons (yes, I do have a large stash bag to choose out of). This was very satisfying and quick to make - and it went home to live with just the right person!