Fun in Alabama

I am almost done with my pillowcases.  One is ready for the final pass on the French seams.  The other is about to get it's first seam.  I like French seams because I like the neatness, even more than surging them.  I think this comes through my mother and grandmother.  Grandmother was a professional seamstress as well as a sewing teacher with Singer for many years.  And her daughter, my mother was an excellent seamstress.  She made all of my prom and graduation dresses and I must have been the best dressed girl there.  Unfortunately I did not inherited their skill.  It isn't that I couldn't sew, I just didn't like it so I have done very little garment sewing.  But give me a straight line and I can sew with the best of them.  😛

The above is my plan for the first charity quilt since I got sick.  I plan to use a disappearing 4 patch in multiple fabrics.  This is the beginning of using my stash: these are chosen from my "fat quarter" drawer.  I have two big dresser drawers of these sized fabric pieces: I have a long way to go to use them up. 

And this is how far along I have gotten with my new sweater.  Knitting the two fronts at the same time takes quite a long time but I will feel really good when they are both done.  In about 3 rows I will be adding more stitches on the opposite side for the collar.  Adding stitches will just make the rows longer, oh my.

And speaking of "oh, my," I completed the trial for the back pain stimulator and it was removed last Thursday.  The trial went very well with a significant pain reduction and because of that the permanent one will be implanted this coming Wednesday.  I am both excited and just a little nervous.  With the stimulator implanted I will have two devises in me (I have a pacemaker) both made by the same company.  My husband says I am becoming the bionic woman.

Now, lets all have a great and productive week.  Gari 

Linking with Patchwork Times.

Quilting Slowly

But I am about half done and the end is off the floor, something I get very excited about. 
















I love how the quilting shows so clearly on the colored pieces and then seems to melt into the black and white strips.  Close up all of the quilting shows but the mistakes do not.  Isn’t that great?











This is the label for this quilt.  I didn’t put my name on it because it is a charity quilt and most places don’t want the quilt maker’s name on it. 














This is kind of funny looking, isn’t it?  Can you guess what it is?


It is the 2 1/2” Go die and mat.  I really didn’t think this was something I would want but recognizing that I really don’t enjoy cutting fabric, and that I am planning on making more kids charity quilts which frequently use 2 1/2” strips, I decided this was a more worthwhile purchase than I had previously thought.  Anyway, it arrived this week and although I haven’t had time to use it yet, I am very pleased with it.  Do you see those black lines?  They are there to set fabric on to cut at different degrees for different shapes.  Doesn’t this seem like fun?




And here is my excuse for not getting any more done.  We spent all day Friday chasing the Flea Across Florida trail.  It seemed like a great idea but several of the sites were either not there or we couldn’t find them.  Now understand that we traveled the less populated route, which was a very pleasant ride, and never did get to the city areas.  But I have the names and addresses of several antique sites that we can visit at another time.  Anyway, we did buy this sculpture and the tomatoes (great for BLTs) and some other things I will try to have pictures of next Friday.


Be sure to stop by on Friday when I share my knitting.  And before then click on over to Patchwork Times to see the artwork of other quilters.  Have a great week, Gari

Frame Up

My design wall was used this week to put together the backing for my latest charity quilt.  The rows are 2” wide and each piece are various lengths.  I love the cat fabric at the top and the blue fabric is a Christmas theme which also runs sideways.  I figure that each of them will give the recipient something special/fun to look at.




















Then today everything got loaded on the frame.





























And the quilting has begun.  I am using Glide in both the needle and bobbin and all is going well.























The quilting design is something I saw in a video on The Quilt Show Weekend newsletter:  Angela Walters.















I first drew this on a white board, boy did it look awful.  However I have learned that I quilt better than I draw so I plunged ahead.  I only have 2/3rds of the first row done but I feel I will finish soon.


And I even got the label done but forgot to take a picture so I will post it next week.


And, if you read my “on the needles” posts, you will want to catch next Friday’s post where I will be sharing the “funny on me” joke.


As usual I will be linking with Patchwork Times and then I hope everyone will be having a great week.  Gari

Slowly Moving Along

I have moved this charity quilt to the frame where it is resting, waiting for me to make the backing.  I can’t remember if I told you the name I have chosen, it is “Nothing is All Black and White.”





























I started on the backing but made some mistakes.  Here is where I sewed two pieces of fabric to one piece, not planned: I had done one full seam and half of the second when I noticed there were the two fabrics stuck together.  So I started to unsew the seam and then saw that I had done the same thing with the preceding seam.  It was then that I decided that I was feeling somewhat frustrated and needed to stop what I was doing and spend some time peacefully knitting.










This is my plan for the backing.  Each row will be 20” and the colored pieces will be randomly placed.



























I did get one finish for August.  This little wall hanging was made last year but I didn’t get around to binding it until this last week.  I have a table runner that also needs binding but I seem to have run out of black fabric.  Oh, my, I guess I need to go fabric shopping.    Oh, I got this pattern from Rhonda at Ravelly1.





Tomorrow I will do some unsewing, resewing, and sewing to hopefully get my charity quilt up on the frame.  I really feel like doing some quilting.  But for sewing/quilting breaks I will be knitting: I am almost done with the back of my new sweater.  I hope to be on to one front piece by the time we meet again on Friday.


Meanwhile I am linking with Patchwork Times and I hope you have a great week.  Gari

Design Wall Monday

Looky, looky, I actually have something on the design wall besides the Owl blocks (which are just to the right of this charity quilt top.  I am calling it Nothing is all Black and White.  The colored bits are batiks cut at random sizes






















I have the binding sewn, just need to press it.

















However that is going to have to wait as the frame has this baby quilt on it.  I am using Minkie, again, as the backing but this time I did not put batting between the top and the backing.  I am having some tension problems, I think because there is no batting to stabilize it, so it is taking a little longer than I planned.


















This is how I  am quilting the plain blocks and then there are swirls in the owl blocks.















Another thing that has slowed down my quilting progress is that I think I have developed a pinched nerve that is negatively affecting my right arm.  I am pretty much all right when I am sitting but when I stand up I am experiencing pain and tingling like my arm is going to sleep.  And half of my thumb is asleep all the time.  So I am mostly knitting with just a little sewing until I see the Dr. on the 20th and start figuring out what is wrong and what can be done about it.  Meanwhile I have been learning how to live with ice bags which seems to help, until I stand up. 

I will, as always, be linking up with Patchwork Times.  Have a great week.  Gari

Progress Happens

Once again my design wall only features my owls.  I now have the top of the quilt ready to put together.  I am not doing to do it until the rest of the blocks are ready but I am feeling like I am making progress.





Enough so that I decided it was time to start another quilt.  This will be my take on the jelly roll race.  The strips are black and white and are separated by various batik pieces.











I got the very very long first seem done on Saturday but that’s as far as I got as we spent Sunday on the road.
This is probably going to be a charity quilt.  I don’t know how big it will be because the roll was hand made and I believe it had more than the usual number of strips.  Anyway, I should have this top sewn together this week and then it will be ready for quilting. 

That means that I also need to get quilting on the baby quilt that is currently waiting: the backing is already on the frame.  It begins to sound like I have a lot to do, doesn’t it?













Today DH and I did a walk through an antique mall we like.  While there I saw this bench.  I immediately wished I had had it when my 45 year old daughter was a teen.  And then she could have used it when her daughter was a teen.  And now it could be passed down because said granddaughter is having a daughter later this year …….. we wish her luck. 





I will be linking with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.  And now I better get busy with all those projects I have lined up.  Gari

Needle Magic

The magic is that I have gotten just past the sleeves: can you see them?  Now I will be just doing SS down the body until  I get to the band. 










I did finish my socks today.  I love how the fit and feel.  I am going to start another pair as soon as I find my other worsted weight yarn. 

















Can you see the bind off?  It is Judy’s Magic Bind Off which makes for a very stretchy bind off.  For some reason I had difficulty getting my fingers to follow the directions.  But after a little while of working it I could see what the yarn was doing and it was easy.










And I am moving along with my scarf.  I started over with a thinner scarf, one that will fit around my neck better.  I am about a third of the way done and really liking it.  I didn’t realize that there would be bands of color change until I took this picture.

I didn’t unravel the wider piece I showed last week, I bound if off and am using it as a lap piece under my laptop.  It is about the size of a placemat and fits the foot of my Surface which has been making grooves in my legs. 

Oh, and I completed another dish cloth. 





This is a picture of a bobcat moving dirt in our back yard.  We had 5 trees taken down and the stumps ground and then they filled all the holes with that mound of dirt which is now a flat piece of ground. 


However that was not the best part of the day.  The son of the owner of the company asked me how much I would charge to make some children’s charity quilts.  He said his son has leukemia and has been given some quilts when he is in the hospital.  He said he would like to “pay it back” with quilts for the other children there.  I offered to make them for free but he insisted he wanted to pay for them so we will be negotiating sometime later.  I can’t tell you how good it made me feel to be able to assist him.

Well, it is time to link up with Patchwork Times and begin our weekend.  Hope everyone has great plans and they all work out.  Gari

Progress On All Fronts

How’s this for a bright quilt?  I figure that any little kid would love a bright, colorful quilt like this.  And guess what!  That border fabric is some I “found” in my cleaning.  It has all the same colors as the sashing fabric but MUCH BRIGHTER. 
As for the cleaning, I found that I get distracted pretty easily.  I worked all day Wednesday and got the the cutting table completely cleaned off and everything on it either put in it’s place or thrown away.  The before and after can be seen here.
Thursday I found that I just had to get a new cutting mat so I was out of town all day.
Friday and Saturday I again was in the studio, cleaning. 


This is the top of the cedar chest that sits next to my chair where I do most of my hand work and also take breaks.  It was piled high with magazines, fabric, fabric scraps, and a bunch of other “junk.”  Now it has places for the handwork as well as open spaces for my coffee cup. 




And would you believe there is a couch under there?  Just before I took this picture there wasn’t even that seat showing but DH came in to visit and cleared it for himself. 




Now it is empty with a spot for magazines and even a quilt. 









One of the things I realized was that I felt the need to play with my fabrics.

So I pulled all my batiks from the very messy shelf and refolded it.  Look how easy it is to do when the cutting table is clean.









Look at these very neat piles of folded beauty.






And here they are again in their new home. 

My batiks are now living right next to my sewing machines where I can see them while I sew even when I am not sewing batiks.




But I did do some sewing this week.  I finally got the binding on Henrietta and





And it is finally on the wall.  Funny thing, DH hasn’t even noticed that it is on the wall.  But I know it and love seeing it up there.








Other projects I worked on were:

I drew and prepped the applique fusible for the Fish BOM.  Later this week I will choose the fabric. 









And I am getting ready to correct an embroidery mistake.  This is the back of a denim jacket where the tiger did not sew out correctly.  It was a difficult design that messed up dramatically.




This  is the practice sew out.  I am going to applique it onto the jacket back.






The cleaning is going to continue.  I seem to actually be doing this on an every other day basis so at that rate will have about 1 1/2 weeks to go.   Hopefully after that I will keep up with it…….LOL.

Linking up with Patchwork Times and What a Hoot.

Design Wall: April 30, 2012

 

OK, this is probably my most boring design wall ever.  However, this quilt center is sewn together and now I just have to decide what to do with it.  I have thought of doing a convergence kind of design with it or just add a couple of borders to it.  It is destined to be a charity quilt but I want it to be something fun for a boy.  Oh, and to the left you can see the backsides of several fire appliques for “the dragon”. 

I did finish my color challenge mini quilt.  I blogged about it here.  I am really pleased with myself because I have been able to keep up with these challenges and have used only stash fabrics.  This one is now on my bedside table where it is getting a lot of use.

Because I have been mostly bedridden with a cold since Friday, that is all that has been accomplished.  I was planning on getting the backing for the dragon this weekend but I didn’t make it to a quilt shop, or anywhere else, so it will have to wait until later this week.  I have always planned on him having a black background but am having some thoughts about dark blue.  I want to get that fabric and get him pinned on so I can see him in all his “glory”.  Then, while I applique him I will be thinking about a border: this is a quilt you know.

A Triple Play

From what I can see, this is going to be on my design wall for a little while longer.  I now have 9 wedges sewn and have 9 more to put together.  However, I am still excited about how this is coming together.  The colors are really much brighter than shown here: I don’t seem to be able to remember to take pictures until after the sun has gone down.    Have you figured out what it is going to be?

Also on the wall are these blocks.  It seems that when I finished putting the cats quilt together, I had lots of striped blocks.  So, I cut them into 2 1/2” strips and began sewing them into 12” blocks.   Here are 6 blocks and there will be 6 more.  When I have them all done I will figure out what more will go with them: this is going to be a charity quilt.  I usually have a lot of difficulty thinking quilt patterns that are good for boys but this one is certainly not gender specific. 

 

 

Yesterday I got back to my iPad cover.  These two panels are almost ready for some applique and then I will finish piecing the top.  The interior will be made with the striped fabric as will the handles.  The panels are resting on the foundation.  However, I am being a little slowed down by the fact that I have decided to create two sections, one for the iPad and one for a keyboard.  I had hoped to have this done (February Color Palette Challenge) by the end of this month but it looks like it will not be until March.  Maybe for next month’s challenge, I will make a mug rug.

 

I had planned to have a picture of DH and his new quilt but between his getting sick (sinus and/or cold) and there being no sun for the last several days, no picture of them together has been taken.  So check back later this seek and see if  nature and nurture can conspire to get the two of them together.     Stay tuned………