BUSY WORK FOR AN ICY DAY

I know that many of you have had day after day of icy weather. We got our first real taste of it today in East Tennessee. Not a pretty snow, but more of what I used to call (growing up in Indiana) "spittin' snow"--those tiny kind of hard not-even-flakes bits of snow. As I was sitting at my sewing machine (in front of a window), I noticed my neighbor driving out her drive way--or so I thought. Within a few seconds, she was backing her car back down the drive way and putting it in the garage. It must have been pretty icy out there. Anyway, it gave me a good opportunity to get some sewing and a little knitting done today. Good thing: after all, spring will be here soon and I'm going to want to be outside playing with my flowers and the new garden bed that my husband has been working on. Only a little garden--just enough for a few tomato and pepper plants. But back to the subject of my blog.

I've been working on this quilt for a while and I finally have the top put together.

Right now it's sitting on my cutting table with 6 of the 20 blocks basted for my stitch in the ditch quilting. I'm excited to do that as it will be the first that I've used my new walking foot.

My last few evenings have been spent knitting a blanket for the new grandbaby-to-be. I thought this varigated yarn would go well with the fabric that was used in her rag quilt and bedding.

It's a bit more than 1/2 done, but perhaps I should get back to that now; she will be arriving any day.

KNIT 7, PURL 1

For those of you who may be wondering--since most of my posts lately have been about sewing: Yes, I am still knitting and here's proof.

This is a set that I've made for my soon-to-be-here granddaughter.
It should be about right for her to wear next winter, I think.

Most of you know that knitting is my evening needlework occupation and the daylight spare hours are spent sewing. I'm still working on my curved blocks. I just have four more curved seams to put together and then I'll be ready to press and construct my blocks. I usually press my seams to one side; however, this time, I think I'll press them open since I'm planning my quilting to be "stitch in the ditch".

For those of you who may be curious, this is how it is made. You can, of course, use any size you want. My strips are 5 1/2 inches wide. The curved seam is cut free hand. (I do a stack for 4 or 5 at a time.)


Then, using the "stack and whack" method, I move one of the top strips to the bottom of its pile. I mark with pins the nadir of my curves on opposite piles to get a good match for the pinning.


I then carefully pin the curved seams together. It' time consuming (Hmm, and I thought half-square-triangles were a pain), but I'm hoping the finished project will be worth it.
The tiny pins I got for some applique this summer work quite well for this pinning job.


Once those seams are sewn together and pressed, they are cut to surround a center square.


As I said, I've got a few more of those strips to cut and seam; however, there's a red dress I have that's a bit long for someone of my stature. Considering the week that is coming up, I think it's a good time to get that dress shortened and hemmed. I'd better get busy with that if I want to get back to this quilt!

AMEN

to my daughter Anna Maria's post!

WASH (The Stash) DAY

Oh, my goodenss, I just took the time this morning to check out the closet that I keep my unwashed stash in. Oops, I have really gone a bit overboard lately. Granted, nothing like some of the stashes I have seen, but a lot for me. Whatever will I do with all this fabric? Well, first of all, I will preshrink it and get it in to the closet for "ready to go fabric".


As to what I will eventually do with it, the upper left corner is Christmas fabric; I've not made a holiday specific quilt yet, but a lap rug might be nice--maybe even one for me and another for a gift. (That fabric was 50% off after Christmas; what more can I say?)
On the upper right hand corner is fabric that I purchased a couple weeks ago when I met some internet friends for a fabric shopping trip. The packets are strips already cut and ready to go and that with it is for the backing. (I'm not washing that; I'm afraid the strips would be a real mess, so it will be sewn in its original state.) When I bought that fabric, I had in mind a nephew's expected twins in case it's a boy and a girl.
Bottom left some Kaffe Fasset that I just had to have and one of daughter Anna Maria's Bohemian prints (no longer being made)--30% off everything in the store that day. Next to that flannel for next years boys' PJ bottoms --50% off. Then some white backing fabric, 30% off.
The bottom right are a couple 1/2 price prints I found while shopping with my internet friends and the last two found the same day--nothing particular in mind, just liked them.

So now it's all washed and put away with the other fabrics waiting to become quilts, PJs, or whatevers. I already have in mind the 2 quilts that will be made from the middle stack (beside the pattern box) on the second shelf.


Now all this talk about washing and stashing really is going somewhere. My sewing machine and cutting table are in my laundry room. Yes, it would be nice to have a room devoted to just sewing; however there are advantages to the combo--even though I do have to fold up my cutting table from its largest configuration to get to my sewing machine: I can MULTI-TASK. Today as I was washing my stash I was cutting pieces for my 30's reproduction baby quilt that I had started a while back. (Jan 2 post)

And the other day I was playing with the embroidery on my machine a bit more. I found that even though the machine does its own work, if there are many colors in the design, you pretty much have to be around to thread the machine. What better time that when folding laundry?
Oh, did I just mention lots of color? Well, here's some color for you:


Add that to my latest embroidery play


And you have this:


This was sent to an internet friend who is involved in the charity, Quilts for Kids. She wanted colorful; I think she got it!

OK, back to my laundry, 'er uh, sewing room.

A NEW DAY -- A NEW SKILL

The beginning of a new day always brings the opportunity for new experiences, but I never really think too much about that fact unless that start of the new day has a special majesty. This past Thursday, the last day of January, was just one of those days. In all honesty, when I saw the sunrise I knew that I had to share its beauty with my on line friends. (The photos were taken at about 5 minute intervals.)






For those of you who do not know, my husband and I are blessed to live on the banks of the Tennessee River, overlooking the Smokie Mountains. These views were too beautiful not to share.

But since this is supposed to be about quilting and/or knitting, I thought that I'd also share the new things that I have been doing. OK, I know that some of you probably get tired of me showing the same old project in various stages, but I think the PROCESS is just as great as the finished project, so here it is. You have been following the process of my first rag quilt. Well, here is the finished project:

The "raggy" part reminds me of the those frilly nylon ruffles on little girls' socs.

But, wait, there's something else that's new to me on this quilt--no, not just all the snipping with the special spring loaded scissors:



(And believe me, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to be using the keyboard today if I had done all that snipping with regular scissors.)

But in the corner of the quilt (photo taken before the final snipping and washer/dryer cycle), are my initials and the date--done with my Janome Harmony 8100.


Now those of you who are familiar with Janomes know that mine is a dinosaur in the world of embroidery machines. I hate to admit that I have had the machine for over 3 years and this is the first that I have gotten around to playing with the embroidery. I also learned that that model had been on the market for at least 4 years when I happened upon it on sale (about 1/2 price what I knew the initial cost to be) at Hancocks.

I have a few memory cards that came with the machine. I did play around a bit with one of my cards:



Sad thing is: I have learned that unfortunately the cards to fit my machine are not longer made. My machine also does not have the capability to download images. So I will be limited in what I will be able to embroider. Luckily machine embroidery is not something that I would get all that "in to " anyway, but if any of you out there happen to know where I might find some cards (ones for the 9000 series work for it), I'd love to hear from you.

COLOR, PATTERN, AND TEXTURE

Several years ago one of my afternoon routines was to take a "break" and watch 2 home decorating shows and one food show on TV--my only daytime TV. (These days it's Simply Quilts and Martha Stewart, but I usually walk and/or jog in place while watching .) I remember so vividly in those early years of my retirement hearing Lynette Jennings speak of "color, pattern, and texture". As my 2 daughters were at the time in the beginning years their careers in art and decorating, I had as yet not had the opportunity to learn from their expert advice. (Things have certainly changed since then: They ARE my artistic mentors, especially in the realm of using color.) But I digress, I thought I'd show you a bit of my work with these three elements of design, even though it's on something as simple as baby quilts.

I have been making baby quilts for several years, typically sewing 5 inch squares together, basting polyester loft batting to the wrong side of the pieced top, then sewing that right sides together with my backing. Sometimes there would be lace or ruffles or piping sewn in to the edge seam. After turning it right side out, I would then usually follow the pattern of the squares to do some machine top stitching (not sure it would even qualify as quilting). If there was no edge treatment, I usually chose 3 colors from the pattern in the fabric and top stitched the edges. I have in the past year learned a bit more about what I call real quilting, and I must say, that even though I am certainly not an expert, I like the difference in my finished products. But I still like to play with TEXTURE!


This is cotton, chenille, and fleece and the binding is flannel. I love using soft fabrics for baby quilts. (I will admit that until about a year ago I didn't know the difference between "run of the mill" flannel and quilter's flannel. Even though I have to pay more for the good stuff, I'm never going back!)


For this quilt, I even toyed with a different stitch for my machine "quilting". I think that, in itself, adds a bit of texture, too.

So this is my soft texture baby quilt:


Yes, there is a bit of color in the above quilt, but this color and pattern combo (chosen by my daughter- in-law, for their new baby) I think is fabulous. Once I get all the snipping done on the raw edges, run it through the washer and dryer, it will be a rag quilt (another first for me) and also have some texture too, I guess. I had never seen a rag quilt except in flannel, but I really love the combination of the sophisticated cotton and the "down home" rag method.


Well, I guess I'd better get to snipping; that quilt will go into my suitcase when I head to NY to see this new little girl when she makes her arrival. I should have at least a couple weeks left, but who knows?!

STYLIN' GALS

Wow, my new little granddaughter will be quite the "stylin' "young lady with her brand new bedding ensemble that her mother chose the fabric for! Some of you may remember the rag
quilt that I have started.

I'm waiting to get my "good" sewing machine (with its walking foot) back from the shop before I continue. But I thought that you might like to take a gander at the other items that will go with it. I just finished covering her big (Can't believe he's a big sibling now, as he's been the "baby" of our crew for a while!) brother's blue crib bumper with this wonderful print. The same print in a different color will be the bed skirt for a bed in her room, for her to grow in to when she's too big for her crib.


I must admit that when I realized that I was going to have to do a lot of seam matching, I was a little leery of the process. Perhaps this is true of all good quality fabric; I have no idea: but as long as I got the horizontal pattern lined up, the vertical pattern matched up at exactly 1 inch from the edge of the selvage. What a relief!


Now this little "Punkin' Doodle" hasn't arrived yet. (Her expected day of arrival is her great grandfather's birthday. Wouldn't that be a bonus!) However, her oldest cousin--who will be able to give her lots of "stylin' " tips --will turn 16 on Sunday. And this young lady loves and looks absolutely adorable in all kinds of vintage clothing. Perhaps she might like to get a family vintage sweater for her milestone birthday. (That's a collar, not a hood, by the way.)

I hope so! My mom knit this for me when I was in high school. I have always loved it and would love for our special young lady to have it.