Fat Quarterly - issue 16 - SCRAPS

The latest issue of Fat Quarterly is available today! Go get yours, it has lots of great scrappy projects in it, including this one of mine! I am SO glad I can finally share it with you! I worked on this quilt most of last fall.

It's called The Whole Nine Yards because it uses nine yards of background fabric!

It took a long time to make but I really enjoyed the process. There are loads of little half square triangles in there and I got to dig DEEP in the scrap bin.

Most Snow EVER

It's official, southeast Michigan has had the snowiest January on record. Crazy.

We've had our share of snow, cold, wind, and snow drifts.B has been enjoying the snow for skiing. He even got Miss P her own ski gear this week. Here she is having her first lesson on Saturday.

I walked the fields with them yesterday.We came up on a rafter of turkeys. They flew up in the air and landed in the tree tops in the distance. B says he often surprises them when he is out on his skis.

I've been keeping busy but not posting here as often. I'll continue to share the big news here but Instagram is so much easier for quick "behind the scenes" posts. So, if you miss me over here, follow me on instagram - I'm LynnCarsonHarris there.

For now, I need to go throw a few more logs in the woodstove and do a little stitching.

I hope you are keeping warm (or cool if you are in the southern hemisphere) and doing things you enjoy.  

January Doings

We are back from a week of cleaning out and preparing my mother-in-law's house to go on the market. It's a lovely mid century home in northern Virginia. After all the cleaning and moving there and seeing the house stripped down to just the basics, I'm inspired to declutter my own home. I'll never get it THIS empty unless we move out. Still, I think purging a bit of our own clutter will be good for us.

We took part of a day and rode the metro into DC and did a bit of sight seeing around the Smithsonian. My pick of the day was to see the "Workt by Hand" exhibit. It was a wonderful exhibit. I only wish they had allowed photography. I did buy the book but haven't read it through yet.

Miss P loves the Natural History museum.

Barn Quilt

I've been wanting to share this quilt with you but I needed some helpers to hold it for photographing. D was eager to help as long as he got to climb out on the roof of the barn. Hm. This is a BIG quilt.

I made this king size quilt for B's parents back in 1999.  B's dad had told me that he always wanted a handmade quilt on his bed but had never had one. I let him look through some of my quilt books and he chose this Dahlia pattern, Dahlia Delight, from Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts by Leisure Arts.

The hand applique blocks made a nice travel project.

I hand quilted this one on a big frame in our living room and had a couple of friends who came over to helped quilt it. The boys also each put in a few stitches. They weren't very old then!

It is nice to have this one at our house now. M has been sleeping under it while he's been home for Thanksgiving break. It has a flannel sheet for the batting and is quite warm.

Slow Progress

Here's a little peek at some recent sewing progress.

I've ditch stitched the whole quilt and added some little pebbles for texture. I'm still deciding on  how to quilt the larger open spaces in this one.The last few days, however, my sewing room has looked like this.

The sewing machines (that's the longarm on the left), my computer, and desk were all encased in plastic bubbles. B was doing some plumbing work for the new bathroom upstairs that involved taking down some of the ceiling in my sewing room for access. He did not want to be blamed for any damage caused by plaster grit and dust!

This and That

Things have been a bit hectic around here. B has been clearing out his mom's house and getting it fixed up, painted, and ready for sale. I'm trying to merge some of her items into our home, like this dessert china set that was hers. I plan to use it for birthday parties - we'll start next week with a special half century birthday celebration!

Back in September I went to Gwen Marston's last quilt retreat. She is retiring and will not be hosting the retreats any longer. The good news is that long time retreat members Pat Holly and Sue Nickels will be taking over. The 2014 retreat is called Quilting the Quilt. Deciding on and designing the quilting for a quilt is the biggest hurdle for me in making a quilt. I signed up for this retreat next year and I know I'll learn a lot from these two talented ladies. This will be a great workshop for thinking about the quilting even from the very beginning of a quilt design. I am eager to learn a lot about Quilting the Quilt from these two talented ladies. Registration is open for next year so go sign up for a great retreat - don't delay, the second week is already full.

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Colonial Halloween

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Miss P finished her costume last night just after bed time. Whew. She thought it was a lot of work and there may have been some unhappy words at the thought of HAND sewing the snaps and inner ties. In the end she did the hand sewing and was THRILLED to have done it herself.She told me this morning that she thought she was smiling in her sleep all night!

She put one of her dress up tutus on underneath to give it a little fullness at the top of the skirt; it was pretty droopy without the extra fluff.

It is a good thing that the dress is long because we didn't have time to complete the look with period footwear.

A colonial dress has been on her wish list since our visit to Colonial Williamsburg two years ago. I am happy that SHE is happy.

The pattern is from my vintage children's sewing pattern collection.

edit to add- I helped speed things along by using the ruffler foot on the featherweight to gather/ruffle the lace. She glue basted the lace to the front panel before stitching - that was much easier than stitching the wiggly pinned lace.

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Tiny Pieces

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I'm back from a whirlwind trip to Houston for fall Quilt Market. I haven't fully digested it all yet but I wanted to share some of my favorites from the antique booths.

You all know I have a weakness for quilts with tiny pieces. Have a look at these. I put my lens cap in the photos for size comparison.

I love a good feathered star. There was a double row of the little sawteeth all the way around the quilt.These snowball blocks were pretty sweet.

How about these little fans? Sigh.

It makes me want to cut and sew all my scraps.

This star block was interesting in that not all of those star points worked out the same. This was made by a "make it work" quilter. The slice of muslin at the point on the right sure adds interest to the quilt.

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Halloween Costume Pattern - from the Archives

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Miss Petunia wants to make her own Halloween costume this year. She chose this pattern from my vintage collection and we ordered the paisley fabric online.My job while she is at school today is to make a "muslin" of the bodice so that we can have a fitting after school. She will make the final version herself.

September

It seems that September has come and gone in a blur. I haven't posted much at all. We've adjusted to the school schedule and are enjoying the lovely fall weather.

Miss P has been wanting to wax leaves again so she and I went out this morning hunting for some colorful leaves.

It is a bit early yet for the colorful maples but we did find a few small leaves to dip in wax today. I'm sure we'll try again in a few weeks.

We've done a bit of canning and other fall activities as well as had a birthday party that required 22 candles!

I hope to get some sewing done as the weather gets colder and we spend less time outside. I do have a Halloween costume to make. I should get started on that!!

Scrap Management

As soon as P started back to school, it seems that my brain had some space for sewing ideas. This week I designed a bunch of quilts and started cutting up scraps. I cut a whole stack of triangles for half square triangle units that would finish at one inch. When I started sewing them I realized how small that actually was. Hmmm. I put that project in a bag and scaled up my plan. I cut an even LARGER stack of triangles that will finish at one and a quarter inches. Yeah, because that's SO much bigger.

Fun times, I tell you. I may be finished with the summer blahs and be moving into full fall sewing madness!

It's a good thing I have have at least FIVE quilts started and on my project table right now. I'll be able to alternate between them. When I get the crazies from tiny triangles, I can switch to tiny squares!!! Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

Lucky Girl with Linen

I finished the second Lucky Girl quilt for Jennifer last week and took it to Lake Michigan for a photo shoot. Here's a little pool ambiance for you.

I added a bit of linen to this quilt. This is a pretty linen that I thought was a perfect match to the brownish mustard color in some of the Lucky Girl prints. I used it for a few scattered pinwheels and also the binding. I think it gives the quilt a bit of a sophisticated flair.

I stitched in the ditch around each of the pinwheels but left the solid parts blank. The rest of the quilt is quilted with an allover shellish design. I think I've got the hang of stitching in the ditch with the longarm now, at least on straight lines.

Here's a fun shot from the back with the sunlight shining through.

The finished quilt is 60 by 78 inches.

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Summer Vacation!

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We have had a long summer saying a very sweet, sad, and loving goodbye to my dear mother-in-law.  I am lucky to have known her and love that she was a presence in my life and that my children grew up spending time with her while they grew up.  She did not have an easy life, but always kept a cheerful attitude and positive outlook. She was a hard person to bring down and I strive to be like her in that way.Now that things are settling down a bit we thought we should take a quick get away before starting back into the school routine this week.

One of the great things about living in Michigan is that we are never very far from a beach. We really needed the change of scenery and our little twenty four hour vacation seemed longer than that because we were some place different and had no distractions.

The beach was a fitting place for our getaway. We visited the beach with B's mother a number of times over the years. We treasure those memories and also strive to create new family memories for our children.

We came back refreshed and much more ready to start the new school year. Sometimes you just need to go take a walk on the beach!

Instagram Photos

I finished the Dala Sweater and couldn’t be happier with it! The pattern is #dalasweater by @elenormortensen. More details on my ravelry page. #knitter #strandedknitting #operationsweaterchest #handknitsweater #makersvillage #makersgonnamake
I started this sweater on our car trip last week. I had chosen a different yarn for the horses but it was thinner and didn’t work well with the blue. I frogged the few rows I had knit and subbed in some yarn from my stash when I got home. The y
Narrow hand appliquéd bias strips. 1/16” quilting lines not going over the appliqué. I’m about a month in on the quilting and ALMOST finished. Whoop! Quilted with Invisalign on top and Decobob in the bobbin. Threads by @wo
This summer we watched my two oldest grand kids one day a week. Towards the end of the summer they started making projects on their own in the sewing room. They made lots of little projects from my scrap basket including pillow cases and tiny quilts