Valentine's Chocolate Shop

P has really gotten into the tea party thing. She uses her "not a box" as an oven and sets out a big spread. Sometimes her parties are casual and sometimes she uses the fancy tea set.

If she and her friends drink any more tea they will spend the rest of the day in the bathroom.

Her parties always include something chocolate! I wonder where she gets THAT?

When thinking about Valentine's Day there is one thing that always comes to mind first.

Chocolate. Chocolate shop chocolates, home baked cupcakes, and pink coated chocolate candies, chocolate cookies...

Pink and brown seem to be good chocolate shop colors. They come together in this child size "chocolate shop apron."

The cupcake is actually a pocket.

I made a couple of these. 

Swap Project

Back in the fall, when I was not so far behind, I joined a handmade swap: "aqua, red, and a button." With the due date approaching I still wondered what to make. Then, I got this lovely embroidery piece in the mail from my sister, M. She had started it years ago to give to our Grandmother.

I dug out some aqua and red embroidery floss and found some great vintage red buttons. Once I started working I decided to use only the aqua floss and have the red be the buttons.

These will be little envelope pouches with a button on the flap.

Grandmother's quilt blocks

While we were visiting family for Thanksgiving, my aunt H. asked if I would finish a quilt that my grandmother started years ago.

H. had given my grandmother the fabric and some transfers to embroider.  She thought this might make a good winter project.

My grandmother had all twenty four blocks done in a week!

H. gave me some fabrics to go with the embroidered blocks. I substituted a brighter yellow and put the blocks together yesterday.

It is a twin size quilt. Now I need to get some batting and decide how to quilt it.

I know my cousin will enjoy having this quilt for her boys.

Old Fashioned Scrap Quilts

I love scrap quilts, especially those with an old fashioned look to them.

I have a hard time throwing anything away. Sometimes I go through the scrap bin and cut squares for nine patch blocks. These three inch nine patch blocks are made from 1 1/2 inch squares.

I am working on a second baby quilt out of these old style blocks. The blue one was was set on point. This second one is set square with a border of the burgundy fabric. With scrap quilts, I have learned that more is better. More different fabrics gives them more interest. Even within each nine patch they don't have to coordinate.

This block has five different green fabrics that read the same color from a distance. I think this adds interest in the quilt. And I got to be thrifty and use all of those little scraps even though there were not five of any of them.

The blue quilt is already sold.

My family does not understand

For some reason my family cannot understand my level of excitement when I brought these home yesterday!!! That is one big roll of rick rack!

Needle book swap

Inspired by this little Sun Bonnet Sue needle book that my Grandmother gave me when I was little, I made some of my own for a flickr swap.

I used a 100% wool Pendleton suit that my mother bought me when I graduated college. It had a jacket and two skirts, one plaid and the other plain like the jacket. I could no longer fit into it so I cut it apart and threw it in the washer and dryer. I was left with a "felted" wool fabric that will not ravel.

I added lace and some odd bits of embroidery floss. Inside are two "pages" of wool to hold needles. I used the coordinating solid fabric for that.

The bonnet is a thimble holder!

Handmade Christmas Cards

Today's featured artist is my sister. For the last fifteen years we have been graced with one of her lovely handmade Christmas cards.

They are truly unique works of art. I have to say I love that little gingerbread man. If P. could reach it, I am sure she would kiss it like she does the little felt bears on the tree.

We grew up in Virginia but G. now lives with her family in New Mexico. I am guessing that is what inspired the cactus card. It was the first one of this style card that she made. Each year we eagerly await the new design. Sometimes we also get handmade cards for other holidays. The pressure is on now, dear sister.

She also made the dove ornament featured here and many other ornaments on our tree.

Secret Sewing

We have been cleaning up in anticipation of getting our tree this weekend. We have moved some furniture, which, in a round about way ended up leaving the sewing room less cluttered. And, now I am energized for new projects.

I have to finish up a few secret projects and then I'll start something new.

In the meantime, I'll ask if anyone knows the intended use for this rayon yarn. I found it while thrifting years ago and never knew how to use it. It is packaged in small hanks. Any ideas? 

Handmade Holiday

I have been sewing and crafting for many years, but I won't scare anyone with an exact figure. Yesterday, I had my first ever booth at an art show. I thought I would share photos of my booth.

This was a fun little show. I had great sales and also did a bit of  shopping. I am doing well with my "handmade holiday" pledge. Not all of it handmade by me but so far all handmade!

Thanks to all of you who stopped by to say hi!

Advent Calendars

Today is the day. December 1. Do you have your advent calender out?

About 15 years ago I  made four of these. Now, my kids and all their cousins count down to Christmas on these trees. That was a lot of buttons to sew on. I especially like that giant vintage button at the top of the tree.

My husband had the clever idea to use a current coin as one of the ornaments. He drilled a hole in a penny for the ribbon. Now, we always know what year we started this tradition.

Count down the days with delight!

The Ugly Fabric Quilt

This piece is another that I found in the unfinished projects bin. I do think I will make a doll quilt or little quilt for table top out of this.

It is made from the left over blocks from this quilt.

We call this the ugly fabric quilt. My quilt group exchanged 4.5 and 2.5 strips of ugly fabrics. We challenged each other to make a quilt that included all of the fabrics from the exchange. We could add fabrics but could not eliminate any.

I added some tan and cream color prints along with some of my other scraps.

My son, M, sleeps under this quilt every night. He is the only one who had anything positive to say about this quilt while I was making it. Isn't he the lucky one!

Unfinished Applique

Yesterday, I dug around through my bin of unfinished projects. I pulled out these long forgotten pieces.

I remember choosing the fabrics and hand stitching them.

But, I never made them into anything.

They are still just blocks.

These blocks are made from patterns in Elly Sienkiewicz's book, Baltimore Beauties and Beyond: Studies in Classic Album Quilt Applique, Vol. 1. There was no plan for them when I started.  I just wanted to do the appliqué part. Often I  don't work with a plan. Sometimes it turns out and sometimes I end up with a pile of unfinished stuff. I have thought of putting one in the center for a medallion quilt but am not really happy with that idea. I have also thought of making pillows from them. Now, I am thinking I should just finish them off as little quilts and call it a day.

baby quilt

Scrappy quilts are my favorite kind of quilt.

The more fabrics in a scrap quilt the better it looks. Add one or two fabrics to give a unified design.

This crib size quilt belongs to my youngest niece. She is in first grade now and it is used as a couch throw.

Nephew's quilt

I love sleeping under quilts. This is the quilt I am sleeping under while visiting my sister. I made it for my nephew a few years ago.

I saw a quilt done only in red and white in this pattern.

It inspired me to use the same pattern with light and dark fabric scraps instead. I like the way there are light and dark diagonal rows across the quilt.

There are two double four patch blocks that constitute the pattern, one of light large squares and the other with dark. Just make sure that the blocks are rotated the right way when sewing them together to get the lines of light and dark.

This is an interesting design because different parts of it "pop" depending on the angle and distance from which it is viewed.

Vintage Christmas

I found this great vintage fabric back in the summer.

I love that there is so much of it.

It was screaming to be made into aprons.

I had some help pressing the pockets.

This is one of the finished aprons.

Redwork Turkeys

Redwork has always appealed to me. I have looked at old redwork quilts in museums and books. They often depict political figures, and social events of the time they were made. Many also picture domesticated animals.

Years ago I wanted to make a redwork quilt but I wanted it to mean something to me, to be a unique family keepsake. I thought redwork would be good for a Thanksgiving quilt. Each person in the family traced their hand on a  piece of paper and designed their own turkey that could be stitched. I told them I would sew it just as it was drawn. We each went to a different room so we wouldn't influence each other. You can see the result. Someone evidently got out the bird identification book to help with his design. I had to simplify it a bit for stitching.

I love getting this fun quilt out every year! I didn't put a label on this so I don't know what year I made it, but I still remember the day that everyone worked on their drawings. I just love the way it turned out.

Yes, It has been pointed out to me that we will have to add a secondary quilt. I think I will wait a little longer until P. can design her own turkey. Stay tuned...

Dream Basket - variations on a theme

Several years ago I had a dream about a knit basket. Really. The next day I had to try it out. The basic basket is a very simple design. I made several of them out of different yarns. That one on the left is some of my first hand spun yarn. The possibilities from even a simple pattern are endless. You can try different types of edges.How about fur around the top and a handle?

This one is knit loosely with ribbon yarn and has eyelet holes for a drawstring.

Here is one knit with wool and then felted. Felting is also a great way to disguise hand spun yarn that really didn't turn out well. This would be my very first ever hand spun yarn.

This basket is an experiment with a two color all over cable design. It is not the greatest yarn combination but they were the two yarns that were handy when I had the idea.

I like the unexpected results on the bottom.

A simple project like this is a great way to try new ideas or techniques. Take a base pattern that you are familiar with and change it a little. There are still a lot of variations yet to be made of this simple Dream Basket pattern.

Childhood's End

Several years ago we had four members of our family who were moved into nursing homes. I knew we would be traveling and visiting a lot so I wanted to have a portable project.

This applique design was taken from a small image in a library book on design history. I had originally planned to use is as the quilting design in the center of an Amish style quilt but decided to make an applique project because I knew that once I had the fabrics basted together I would only have to do the sewing. The center is a single piece of fabric hand appliqued to the black background.

The quilting design for the border is an original design in the style of the applique. The quilt is hand quilted and measures 42.5 x 41.5 inches. 

It is called Childhood's End because the making of it encompassed the movement of four relatives to nursing homes and also their deaths. If we think of life on earth as our childhood and the afterlife as the adult stage then this would be their "childhood's end." In another sense, as I have lost so many older relatives and become one of the older generation of my family it is also my childhood's end.

In loving memory of the three who died this week in 2000.

Ken Harris
Daisy Graf
Ruth Carson

Practical sewing

As much as I would like all of my sewing time to be artistic and creative, I also have to face the fact that there will always be some practical sewing that needs to be done. I can put it off for extended periods of time, but there comes a time when there is danger of the mending pile toppling over on me while I sit at the sewing machine. So for the last few days, I spent some time patching work pants, mending sweaters, sewing on buttons, and hemming pants. With that pile down to socks that need darning I moved on to some other practical but more fun sewing.

I looked through my large collection of vintage children's clothing patterns and found a pattern that would work for making P. some pants. She seems to have trouble with ready made pants. She is tall and thin and can't keep them up.

I cut up an old corduroy skirt and a pair of old corduroy pants and made two pair of pants.

Now I feel free to get back to some creative play in my sewing room.

Artistic Challenges

Artistic challenges are fun. My local quilting group sometimes has challenges where we each make a quilt based on a given idea or technique. I enjoy seeing what different things come out of the base idea. I have found that given a challenge like this I often try new ideas. It could be a new technique, color, material combination or something else. The challenge idea gives me a different place to start and I think about the project in a different way than I usually would. It really helps me grow as a fiber artist.

Last year I found the Tie One On challenge hosted by Amy Karol. She has a lot of information on apron history and apron styles on her blog. She cleverly challenges sewers to make an apron based on one of her theme ideas such as "Valentines day," "Rick Rack," or "the pocket." Her latest challenge was "Local Pride." After reading her presentation of the theme I thought about my home town, and state. I thought about what makes it special. Several ideas came to mind, but I settled in on something that my family loves to do every July. We pick blueberries. We go to the local blueberry farm in the early morning and pick berries  before it is too hot. We have our buckets strapped around our waists and pick the berries with both hands. We bring them home and eat them by the hands full. We  bake blueberry pies, scones, and muffins. We eat them on cereal. We make blueberry  shakes.  We freeze pounds and pounds of them to eat through the winter.

This child's apron is my entry in the "Local Pride" apron challenge:

Very recently I found another challenge site, The Purse Project.  Anything you ever wanted to know about bags or purses can be found here! Barb Lawrence challenges her readers to make different kinds of purses, bags, or totes. The most recent challenge here was the amulet bag. This is the bag I submitted.

I have made a number of bags in this style but thought this challenge called for something different. After reading her ideas, and history I decided that my bag needed to be "earthy." I chose earth brown beads with subtle variations as there are on earth and lovely brown perle cotton. The bag is knit with the beads slipped between the stitches as you go. The strap beads include some tubular bone beads.