I've been doing some hand work.
It has been so long since I hand quilted that I had forgotten a few things. I should have basted this with a needle and thread so that my stitching thread would not catch on the pins as I stitch. I also should have marked the quilt before basting.
Live and learn.
My fingertips are now raw from thousands of needle pricks. It must be time to do some recovery time knitting. A crafter's work is never done.
I've auditioned a lot fabric colors with the strip pieced triangles.
I really like the chartreuse as a neutral.
I only have enough of the white (I just bought a bolt) so I will have to purchase whatever I will use.A yellow background would have to be a clear buttery yellow. I was thinking of the Kona Ash, a light gray, but I don't have any of that to try. I like the Chartreuse a lot but think it might look "dated" in a few years. I'm not sure that bothers me though. The chartreuse layout really does give me a happy feeling every time I walk by it.
I wish my local quilt shop carried a good selection of solids. It is too hard to make a choice from the small sample on the color card.
It's time to start on another project or get another top ready for quilting while I struggle with the decision. I am ready to listen to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I need to be sewing!!!
Yesterday I finished sewing 165 string pieced triangles for a twin size quilt. The sewing was easy and progressed quickly without much thought. There is a lot of sewing time in that stack of fabric. And I have the added bonus of a pretty big dent in the scrap pile. Woo hoo!Now comes the thinking part. What color or colors should I use for setting. I could use yellow...
or white...
actually, just about anything could be the "neutral" here. What about RED, or chartreuse, or a selection of aquas, or candy corn? The possibilities are endless.If it were YOUR quilt, what would you choose?
My scrap bin exploded this weekend.
I have a lot of longish skinny scraps so am working on a string quilt.
I sew pieces together using my triangle ruler as a guide. As long as the chunk of fabric that I put together is larger than the triangle, I can trim it to size.
The current plan is to sew one piece of fabric to the diagonal of each of the triangles to make six inch squares. I don't know if I want to use the same fabric through out or several different solids.
I progressed quite a bit with both these triangles and the Harry Potter audio books this weekend.
This week we finished harvesting our heirloom corn. After collecting and shucking comes the sorting.
The smallest ears are fed to the chickens. We save the largest and best looking (making sure that we save some of each color) for seed.
I pulled about twenty that I will use in my K-2 art class. I'll have the kids do a macro drawing of the corn with oil pastels.
P has filled a basket with ears that are pink. She plans to plant the pink kernels next year to see if she gets all pink corn.
We'll make corn meal from some of the corn for our Little Red Hen Bread, a family favorite.
What's been keeping you busy?
We had a beautiful and busy weekend here. We got the inside of the playhouse painted. P says it looks like a dorm room inside now - small and white.
P also did a little fall decorating. She put pumpkins on the porch and decorated the house with leaves.
She did this while the rest of us were on the other side of the house. I don't know where she gets her ideas, but I like it.
We also harvested some of the heirloom corn, put our pumpkins by the road for sale, and made progress on a few other outdoor projects.
I hope we have another good weather weekend coming up. D will be home for fall break.
"He had found out that the harder it was to do something, the more comfortable he felt after he had done it."
The Door in the Wall, Marguerite de Angeli, 1949.
Have I told you lately how much I love a good rummage sale?
I stopped at a sale on my way home from the grocery store yesterday at noon. I got this great little suitcase and a fun yellow check tablecloth. P LOVES the suitcase. It is like one that I had when I was little but this one is bigger. She uses my old one for her doll clothes and is eager to use this on a trip.
The table cloth has a hole in it but I am hoping that we can use it with a strategically placed flower vase on the table.
The crafting department was filled with treasures.
Someone had cut out some projects and had them bundled with the pattern jackets. I love that old flannel print.
I pawed through boxes and boxes of fabric and found some real winners.
Lots of vintage pieces, even some large pieces made with narrow width.
And some great old searsucker!
Here is the fabric haul all washed and folded.
The best part of all is that the total for all of my purchases was $3.70!
Three dollars and seventy cents!! And I even got a a few things that were not pictured!Can you believe it?
I'm slowing down to appreciate the warm sunny days of fall.
I even started hand quilting again this week.
It has been a long time. I need to build up some callouses on my tender fingertips.
Yesterday I was sewing with a red hot needle and flaming thread. I had started the quilting on this quilt Monday and finished the quilting yesterday.
I quickly cut strips for the binding and sewed them on. Seeing that I still had some time before I had to meet the bus I started stitching it down to the back.
I even put it through the washer and drier before my quilt meeting last night.
It measures 38 x 45.5 inches.
Whew.
I think it might be time to adjust to a slower rhythm for fall and work on some of my hand quilting projects. I could use a take along project that doesn't require a lot of thought.
P is usually very tired after school but we have gotten in a little play ground time.
The fall food frenzy is also slowing down. We are still getting a few raspberries for yogurt and cereal and I have a few more batches of applesauce to make too.
I have been working feverishly the last few days to get this quilt top put together. I finished all the blocks on Saturday and sewed it together and added a ten inch wide border yesterday.
I am considering hand quilting it and would love to put a big feathered vine in the border but am not excited about quilting the little star blocks. I'll think it over as I work on some other projects. My hand quilting UFO pile is growing.
I am grateful for beautiful, sunny, warm, fall days. We have had great weather this week.
I spent the afternoon making some more tiny stars. A couple more afternoons like this and I'll get all the stars for this quilt finished.
I think I'm finally starting to get in the rhythm of the school day. I have been listening to Harry Potter on tape while I sew. Jim Dale does a superb job reading them. If you haven't listened to his recordings of the Harry Potter books, I highly recommend that you do.
I am making a list of other books to listen to after I finish the Harry Potter series.
What book would you recommend?
Last week I checked out Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing from the library. I have been reading about it and seeing projects made from it and wanted to have a look myself.
I love that the pajama pants pattern includes sizes from child to adult. I made matching pants for me and P. out of flannel I have had for over five years. I think I get bonus points for using the old stuff don't I?
I used Kwik Sew 3042 for P's top.I love the way these pajama pants fit. They have a trim cut and are not as baggy as some others I have tried.
P is thrilled with her new pajamas!
Today I have officially started my holiday sewing. I stitched up another pair of pjs for someone's Christmas gift!
I have my eye on some other flannel that has been in the sewing room for a while for some more pj pants for myself. I just may start to see some progress from this "cleaning up the slow way" business.
I am still on the hunt for a pajama top pattern that I like for myself. I am not so good at scaling up a pattern from child size 5 to adult. Just ask D. I once made him a pajama top that was more like a tent.
"Everything is somewhere."
Everything is Somewhere, Mircea Vasiliu, 1959.
I finally finished my Norwegian Stockings! I love them. I could have made them a little taller for full knee socks but I was afraid I would run out of yarn. It turns out there would have been enough.
I did change the heel flap design a bit because I didn't like how the gusset pick up stitches pulled from the heel flap.
I am thrilled with how these turned out. They will be great winter socks because they are double thick with the yarns carried on the back.
I almost want to wear them inside out!
The pattern is Norwegian Stockings in Folk Socks: The History & Techniques of Handknitted Footwear, by Nancy Bush. The yarn is "socks that rock" by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I used one skein of each Jewel of the Nile and 24 Carat.
I am grateful for late blooming flowers.
Years ago we planted this clematis by the chicken barn. The chickens have always kept it under stress and it hasn't bloomed. This year, some strategically placed rocks have helped it grow.
Now it blooms.And it's PINK!
This is what I did while at my quilt retreat last week. I made tiny stars.
Three inch stars. Seventy five three inch stars.
I was inspired by this fabulous quilt by Gwen Marston.
It is simply stunning. The stars just sparkle in a sea of beautiful hand quilting.
I wanted to try a few other things while I was there but I just couldn't get away from the stars.
I took two suitcases of fabric because I never know what I will want to do until I am there. I didn't use much of what I took just lots of tiny pieces.
My stars have print centers and solid points.
I decided to use a different setting than Gwen used and calculated that I need 153 of the little stars. I am half way there!
I am having a lot of fun making them.
I finish most of my quilts with machine quilting. Sometimes I think a quilt is worthy of the time it takes to hand quilt it. This top already has many hours of work in the hand applique center and the pieced borders.
I love the way the double saw tooth border turned out. It really is straight but for some reason it looks a little wonky there in the upper left.
I am leaning towards machine quilting this. It might be because I am feeling a little unproductive lately and want to finish up these lingering projects and start NEW fun things.
One of my ideas for this is to machine quilt an old fashioned grid over the applique and everything. But, something in me sort of wants to hand echo quilt around all those flowers. But then, again, hand quilting the saw teeth with all of those seams does NOT appeal to me at all. Maybe I should let it rest for a week or two until I settle in to the new fall rhythm.
The first week of school has just about done me in. I am NOT used to getting up quite so early. The bus comes just after 7:00. Yikes. That is early to get a five year old up and ready for school. The return bus gets here at about 4:00. That makes for a very long day for a kindergartener. You would think I would be able to get lots done during that time. But, no, I have been running around doing errands most of the time. Maybe I'll feel better about it after I am more caught up. I had saved up a lot of things until school started thinking that I could take care of them easier without little Miss P. So, I guess I have been productive, just not at the things I am wanting to do. One of those errands is an appointment with the eye doctor. Maybe some new glasses will help.
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