Janu-whut?

Well, it may be a few days late, but since I've lost all sense of time this "year," anyway...  It must be time for the annual recap.

After moving to a new home/town in January, it took me a while to get back to my stitching.  My first finish was in February - a wee tooth fairy pillow for my niece.

And then March happened.  I was working from home, and my daughter was doing virtual school from home, and then in April we started a kitchen remodel (the house desperately needed it, and I'm still glad we went ahead with it - since we were lucky enough to still have jobs and steady income).  The year didn't get any less crazy as the months went by - my employer offered a retirement incentive that took away about a third of the library staff, and then we had to try to figure out how to reopen the college library with rotating flexible schedules to accommodate all the unexpected changes in the staff's outside-of-work lives, as well as track all the students/patrons entering and exiting our building, while remaining open a (IMHO) ridiculous number of hours.  And oh yeah, there were no summer camps for my daughter, my husband was briefly furloughed, and...and...and....

Anyway.  I managed to finish 20 stitchy things, mostly smallish in nature.  I also worked on a few of my larger projects - I foresee a finish or 2 this year.  And what I'm really proud of - of those 20 finishes, 17 are completely finished!  Not relegated to The Box!  Having a room to stitch  and craft in (that isn't the basement) has been a game-changer, I think.

I also got back to quilting and sewing.  The same niece who received the tooth fairy pillow will also be getting this quilt soon.  (I got it back from my longarm quilter just before Christmas, have finished the binding, and am now just giving the USPS some time to catch up a bit before shipping it out.)

I also put together this one for my daughter, using "quilt squares" purchased from a school art fundraiser - the squares are NOT quilting material, and were terrible to work with.  My longarm lady couldn't even quilt through the fabric - it is more like a shower curtain than cotton.  But my daughter loves it, and that is what matters.

She picked the colors herself, and what you can't really tell from the picture is that it has a bit of a diagonal rainbow effect - it starts with red, then yellow, then green, then purple, and then repeats out to the other corner ending in red again, with a blue border.
And finally...a coworker challenged me to make an Ugly Quilt.  We used the Ultimate Beginner Quilt pattern that she found online, and pawed through our fabric stash to find the most bizarre combinations we could....ta-da!

I learned a LOT about making triangles and matching seams...however, some of my seam allowances are sooooo teeny, I'm afraid this beast won't hang together very well!  It hasn't been quilted yet, and I'm not sure if it ever will be.  Although my quilt lady thinks it is hilarious.  I must admit, it does seem to sum up 2020 in quilt form - a patchwork of strange held together by a few threads in a couple places.  LOL

I wish you all happy stitching in the year ahead!  I'll try to do better at popping in/commenting on other blogs...I do love to see and read what everyone is up to.  I also have an Instagram account, and am a member of a couple Facebook groups...but the narrative style of a blog is still quite satisfying.  And to bookend this annual recap, I'll share my first finish of 2021.  With a bit of background: my mother wants to try having a table at a small local craft show this coming fall - it benefits my old high school, and she has a bunch of thrifted teacups she been nursing baby jade plants in.  She suggested some of my needlework might sell as well, so I've started collecting ornaments and other smalls, along with some of those finished re-purposed jewelry boxes.  And she thinks my tooth fairy pillows could be popular...and they are quick stitches that I'm good at finishing...so I whipped this together last night.

Happy 2021!

So strange.

Like most of the world, my life has taken a bizarre and unsettling turn due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I'm currently working from home, which is odd in itself, since most of my job involves working with People Face-to-Face and Actual Things.  While I'm thankful that working from home is an option, I also feel like I spend a lot of time doing busy work to justify my existence/paycheck.  :/  But I soldier on...

My craft bug is also in high gear, and it looks like my years of stash collecting are finally going to pay off.  LOL  Of course, I'm sure I'll still be missing a floss color or 2 for anything I try to kit up!  Although I have many WIPs I could pull out as well.

Speaking of WIPs, I did finish something over the weekend!  This was a quilt top I started for my niece last summer.  The fabric is a fat quarter pack by Susan Wingett from JoAnn Fabrics - I think it was the "Birds of a Feather" collection.  I used a free pattern called Garden Path that I found on Jedi Craft Girl's weblog.  It is designed to use 5 fat quarters, plus some additional yardage for the background (in this case, the purple I used).  I also used an additional color for the little nine-patch squares - the green was not part of the fat quarter pack.  There was an additional fabric in the fat quarter pack that had dragonflies, but it didn't work as well with the purple - and the purple was important because it is my niece's favorite color.

My squares and seams are not perfect, but I think I did okay.  I made some changes to the borders as well - my dark green border is about 1/2 inch wider than the pattern called for, and I added the green sashing to the corner squares which made the purple border a wee bit wider, too.  I think the finished size is right around 57" square.  And this will be the back:

The green coordinates nicely, and my niece's other favorite color is blue!  I think I'm going to find a nice dark purple for the binding.  But my longarm quilting lady is closed for the pandemic, so the final assembly will have to wait.

And now we quilt.

For some reason, at this time of year I always get a wild hair and want to start (and FINISH) a quilt project.  At some point last year I picked up some jelly rolls of Tim Holtz's "Correspondence" line, with no real purpose except I just love his stuff with its vintage look and feel.  So there I was, with random strips of fabric....and I Googled...and I thought, "a-ha!  Correspondence!  I should do a postage stamp quilt!"  Obviously, I'm crazy.  But here goes....

The "pattern" I'm using is this one from Etsy, with some changes made to accommodate jelly roll strips instead of honeybuns.  And I'm using that gray fabric (under my scissors) instead of the white blocks in the pattern - in keeping with all that vintage-ness, you know.  Since this picture was taken, I've put together 8 sets of strips and cut them into rows like the 2 to the left of the gray fabric.  Four more of those to go, and then on to the gray blocks....or maybe I'll assemble a few strip blocks first.  We'll see what mood I'm in!

And then, because in the clearance bin with the jelly rolls there were also some 5" x 5" charm packs (which of course I had to grab), I took a leap and taught myself how to do half-square triangles.  It was actually fun!  I have a quilt pattern that is full of them - it is called "Nantucket Sailboats."

(Don't mind the blechy 1980s colors....)

Once I was comfortable with the technique, I decided to go all-in and make a few with my boat fabric.  Here is my first (adorable!) little boat, with updated bright colors.

Argh.

I had good intentions, I swear.

So I started the WIPocalypse projects, and was stitching merrily along on "Beautiful Sea"....when I realized I was off by ONE STITCH on my octopus.  I discovered this when I tried to stitch the border.  So there was much frogging and gnashing of teeth....  Needless to say, that project has been benched for a while.  Instead I stitched a small (pic coming next week with the monthly Smalls check-in!), and worked on the superhero quilt.  Here's my progress on that:

I'm not using any pattern, but it makes sense in my head!  The measurements are "close enough," certainly not to the exacting standards demonstrated by other quilters I've seen.  It makes me happy, though, and that's all that matters.  (And it might actually get finished, which is also important!)

Oh!  And I want to try one of these.
Lined Project Bag w/Zipper
Has anyone done one like this before?  I have a handful of smalls in particular that seem like they'd be perfect for these.

A non-stitching finish

I've shared this project a few times, but now it is completely finished and ready to be gifted to my 5 year old niece.

I found the squares at the thrift store, and paid about $2.50 for all 6 of them.  Especially from a distance like this, you can tell that the original crafter had some difficulties with the assembly...but I think it adds to the charm.  I squared it all up as best I could with the brown fabric and orange borders, and had it quilted by a local longarm shop.  My niece's favorite color is orange, and the back is an orange teardrop design that reminds me a bit of peacock feathers.

The finished size is larger than a crib quilt, but not quite a twin (the pictures were taken on the work table in the library!).  I think the measurements from my receipt were 47" x 63".  I figure it will be a cute bed topper or throw, or something to curl up with while reading on the couch...and when/if she outgrows the little animals, she can flip it over to the "feather" side.

And here is what I am most proud of...I hand-stitched the binding down on the back side.

The lady at the quilt shop would have done it, but it would have cost an additional $30.  So when she offered to teach me to do it myself, it seemed silly to say no....although I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who enjoy this step of the process!  But I can say I know how now.  And these corners make me very happy.  :)

New Year, New Smalls SAL!

For my niece who loves orange:

"Tooth Fairy" from Oxmoor House's One-Hour Cross Stitch
colors changed!

This was just fun to stitch and put together.  The little fairy's tunic is a Six-Strand Sweet color - Pink Grapefruit, I think? - and the cord for hanging is a blend of pink and orange DMC.  The stitched piece is actually a pocket, and the orange border extends as the pocket lining (so little teeth won't get lost in thread ends/white fabric!).

I also have another surprise for the sweet girl who settled on orange as her favorite color after getting attached to the Staten Island Ferry as a toddler...I "rescued" these blocks from the thrift store and squared them up as best I could.  The top is currently at the longarm quilter's shop.

The blocks are a little wonky...there was no "fix" for the wavy seams (which are especially visible in the teal pieces)!  But I think it is kind of charming, all the same.  And I like imagining what its beginnings might have been.  It reminds me of those "easy quilt kits" the craft chains sell, and I can just see someone with few/no sewing skills thinking they could whip this together...and then getting increasingly frustrated as they realize those kits leave almost no room for error.  Finally the project ended up in the scrap pile, but they couldn't bring themselves to just throw it away.  Later - years, perhaps - they found it again, looked at it resignedly, and bundled it off to the thrift store.  And so my "Woodland Rescue" was born.

Smalls SAL - December post

Another year of smalls has come to a close, and I have another 12 small things finished!  I'm pretty proud of this accomplishment.  My track record with large projects may not be so stellar, but this one I can do.
Here is my December contribution - a Prairie Schooler Santa from the "St. Nicholas II" pamphlet.

 As you can see, this was finished as an ornament, and I gave it to my friend who is a fisherman.  This happens to be the same friend for whom I made the latest quilt...and that is completely done now, too!  It was quilted by a wonderful Amish woman who did a beautiful (and fast! It took her just a little more than a week!) job.  Here it is, in all its glory.  Can you see the lovely "waves" she stitched in the borders?  The back is a plain blue-and-brown plaid, and the binding was some brown cotton I had in my stash.  I haven't given it to my friend yet, but I can hardly wait to see his reaction!

I was so busy this weekend!

About how I say I'm "not a quilter"?  I may need to revise that.

This took me less than 2 weeks to plan, cut, and sew!  That picture was taken on a full-size bed, so it is not quite a full-size quilt (it wouldn't hang over the edges).  But still, to cuddle on the couch or even to use as an extra bed topper on a cold night, it is perfect.  And I couldn't be happier with the way the colors worked out.  It simply IS my friend, and I can't wait to have it quilted and finished so I can give it to him.

And after that, I decided to tackle a couple of my smalls and do some finishing - this was a pattern from a 1990 JCS issue.  I found the door at Michaels, and thought it had potential...

Love Love Love

Only 3 rows to go...

(The top row with the tent scene in the center is actually the middle row.  There are 3 rows above it.)

Still Quilting

And my new fabric arrived yesterday.  I wasted no time...

I LOVE it.  The fabric with the boots, hats and creels is more the tan that it appears in the upper left corner - the other side is just closer to my lamp and got washed out in the picture.  That is the full width, although I think I will add some borders (I have a LOT of leftover dark blue paisley fabric from my daughter's pirate quilt), and it will be 7 rows long when it is finished.  So just 4 rows to go!  And the seams are lining up amazingly well so far.

This really is a labor of love. Over the weekend, my friend actually told me he "couldn't deal" with friendship at the moment, and asked for space. This has happened before, and while I could get angry, I know he'll work through things at his own pace. Well, today I got another message - his aunt is suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's, and the family is working to get her home with hospice before she passes. While that in itself is a huge, heartbreaking thing, the other thing I didn't mention is that my friend is transgender. A lot of his family does not understand or even try to do so, and still refers to him intentionally with feminine pronouns and/or by his birth name. So the emotional toll is HUGE. I can give him his space, and put all my love into the quilt. (I don't think I could have timed this project better, honestly...because spending all night cutting and sewing is a wonderful distraction from worry for ME. Not that this is about me, but self-care is important, too.)

Quilting Like Crazy

After getting the pirate quilt back, I was suddenly hit by the urge to start another quilt!  And it didn't hurt that a dear friend of mine admired the pirate quilt, saying that he "could see the love that went into it" and commenting that no one had ever done anything like that for him.  Well then.  Anyone who knows me at all knows what happened next....I went out Googling for free simple quilt patterns, and ended up with the "Snuggly Layer Cake Throw" from Melissa Mortenson.  It is designed for a Moda layer cake fabric pack, but I always have to be different.  My friend is a fisherman and lover of the outdoors, so I started making a color/fabric palette that would reflect that.  Here's my start:

I adore the center piece - the little cabin scene - and the fishermen on the blue (bottom row, on the left).  But I don't think the fabric with the flies is working.  It is just too orange.  So I've ordered a replacement, but of course it isn't here yet...so I wait.  It is not quite as bright, but like the flies it won't require fussy cutting (like the cabin and fishermen did).

I think it will work, despite the fact that it has greens instead of the blues I am using in the accent blocks.  There is still brown and cream to tie it together.

I'm really excited to get this put together!  it will probably be my "week after Christmas" project.

HUGE Christmas gift finished!

So, a couple years ago I made a small quilt for my daughter.  After it was completed, I swore I wasn't going to quilt again....and then she asked for pirates....

Today I got this back from the wonderful Amish ladies who hand-quilt and bind quilt tops at ridiculously affordable prices.

(It is laid out on the work counter in the library.)  It is definitely wide enough for a twin bed, but not quite long enough to hang over very far at the bottom.  Still, it will make a lovely bed topper, or perfect for curling up on the couch to watch movies.  

Quilt Progress

Stitching has slowed a bit....I did start an old kit (on aida, even!) that I found in my stash, but I'm not feeling terribly motivated to work on it.  It is my Wednesday morning project - I drop off the kiddo at daycare around 8, but don't have to be at work until 10, so I take an hour or so to stitch in my car.  Classes at the college where I work will be ending soon, though, so my schedule will be changing for the summer.  Of course, then I could go outside and stitch on my lunch break....  :)

In the meantime, my daughter keeps asking when the "pirate quilt" will be done.  Here is my progress as of last night -

I love the way the colors are working together!  I did get some little wavy spots in my fabric, though....most obviously in that big "map" square in the middle of the lower row.  Hmph.  I'm pretty sure it is because 1) my fabrics are of slightly different qualities, 2) my sewing machine doesn't have a walking foot, and 3) I'm still a novice quilter/sewer.  Ah well.  I'm hoping a lot of this will be disguised once it is quilted with batting and all!!

April WIPocalypse!

First, as promised in my earlier post, here is my quilty-thing.  (This is "sideways" - the top is the left-hand side of the picture.)

It already doesn't quite fit on my little basement table...and I'm planning to add a row to the top and bottom to make it longer.  Right now you can (hopefully) make out the three rows I have started so far - look for the red strips!  The one on the top left, with the skulls and crossbones, should be lined up off the top left corner of the tan map fabric.  So it was decent size to begin with, but the addition of more rows should make it close to twin-sized.  My daughter is just tickled with the fabrics, and I rather like them myself!

Here is the "Wise Old Owl" kit - note the broken threads from where I removed my first attempt at assembly.

Given that neither DH or I got the jobs for which we interviewed on the trip where I bought this, perhaps it is appropriate that I can't get it together properly.  I think the next time I try, I'll 1) use upholstery thread and 2) turn it from the top (instead of the bottom as the instructions indicated).  While this isn't finish-finished, it does fall under my WIPocalypse goal of doing more smalls, so there's that...

And here's a bit of progress on "Family Treasure III."

I wouldn't say I've been ignoring it, but I HAVE been working like mad on that darned owl...plus Just Nan's "Wings" lives by my chair upstairs, and I'd like to get that finished before I go to Celebration of Needlework at the end of the month.

Finally, Measi's question of the month:

Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects? Which do you dread?

I love Algerian eyelets and Smyrna crosses.  I especially love the Smyrnas when they are done over enough threads and with the right amount of floss so as to look delicate and different - for example, I've done some that called for the stitch to be done over 2 threads with 2 strands of floss, and I felt that they just looked like big lumps of floss when they were finished.  I could barely tell them from a regular cross stitch!

In terms of dread....satin stitches.  I think I pull them too hard, because they always look "lumpy" to me, with thin spots and too-big holes.  I've been told in the past to try a laying tool, which helped somewhat, but they still aren't my favorite.  That could explain why "Wings" is still languishing - all the fairies have satin-stitched skirts!

A non-stitchy finish

Thanks to a lovely Amish woman, my first (and probably last and only) quilt is complete!  This will be a gift for my daughter, who will be 3 in March.  She hand-quilted it on the seams and added a lovely floral design in each of the 4 large squares, and she did the binding for me, too.  I have one 9-patch block made with the fairy fabric left over, and I'm going to use that plus some of the burgundy border fabric to make a matching pillow.  I really love how this turned out, but at the same time, piecing that top together gave me fits.  I get much too frustrated when things don't turn out the way I imagine them!  I think I'll stick to stitching, where everything is done on a sensible grid....

Kicking things off with a finish!

Woo-hoo!

Glorious Wings "Tiffany"
Just Nan
stitched with kit materials

 

She's just so sparkly....  I tried to catch some of the sparkle and beads in the second picture, but I still wasn't too successful.  Hmph.  I did make one (small) omission -- I left off her bead halo and the sprinkling of beads/butterfly charm over her head.  We're not really into angels, so this way she is a FAIRY.  LOL  And I don't have a charm for "Gypsy Rose," and since I want to display them as a set, this way they'll match a bit better.

I also got out the sewing machine on Sunday and put together a tiny coverlet to protect the top of my little stitching cabinet.  This was my first attempt at piecing, done back before the Wee One's quilt, using the charm pack I won from Anna.  I think Kathy will be familiar with the technique I attempted...a 9-patch assembled, cut apart, turned, and re-assembled.  But 1) I didn't "square up" anything as I went, and 2) I didn't measure - I just folded to find the half-way points.  So it is a bit wonky!  But (IMHO) lovable and cute.  I used a piece of blue floral fabric for the back, so it could be reversible if the mood strikes....

The quilt is back

I know, I know, you all are stitchers and this is a stitching blog, so you expect to see stitching...but I'm just so PROUD.

The top is about 40" x 50", so a decent crib/lap size.  And there IS some stitching in there, after all -- the little piece at the bottom reads, "Where you believe there is magic...you will find it.  Love, Mom."  The dark brown print will be the backing, and the light pink is for binding.  Now, just to get it actually quilted!!!  A friend has offered to help me with that, so we'll see.  My piecing is by no means perfect, but I love it.  I love the colors, the fabric patterns, and the many different 9-patches that make up the whole thing.  I consider my 9-patch obsession an homage to my grandma -- almost every quilt she made was a 9-patch, and they were never perfect.

So there it is.  I know I owe you all a WIPocalypse post, so hopefully we'll get back to sporadic posts of actual stitching soon.....

Yep, I'm obsessed.

Maybe not with quilting on the whole, but with this project.... (apologies if I'm boring any of my readers with constant pics of this)

Here is the top row and the divider strip with the 2 little squares of the rose fabric.  I would have attached the middle row of blocks, but I need to cut more strips of the burgundy fabric and I'm not in the mood tonight.  LOL

I could not be more in love with the way this is turning out.  It is far from perfect, but I think it will make a certain Wee One VERY happy....and hey, as the years pass it will be a reminder that 1) her mama loves her, and 2) her mama isn't perfect either!

Gettng better at...quilting?

The middle row of my quilt (it is the middle because that 9-patch is the closest to perfect of the 5 that I made - LOL).

The top and bottom rows will be reversed versions of this, with 2 9-patches and a rose square in the center.  And there will be more burgundy strips involved somewhere....  Right now that row is 36" wide by 11" high.

Should I admit that I'm having fun with this?!?!?

Fairly fairies

Kathy asked me to post my fabric options...so here's what I like so far.

1) My favorite.  I like the idea of a "big" pattern in the larger blocks next to the 9-patches made up of smaller prints.  (I got the idea from one of the patterns in the Project Linus book I was browsing at Barnes & Noble the other day!  This one - "All Patched Up")

2) Another Cicely Mary Barker print by Michael Miller.  It is a different collection, though, so while the little fairies are similar to the ones in the 9-patch squares, they are a bit more detailed.  And I'm not crazy about the amount of pink.

3) A purple jelly roll that I found on Etsy.  (Yikes, those purples didn't look quite so DARK on my monitor at home!)

4) Another jelly roll with some lighter purple/smaller print.  With this one I might use the floral strips for binding?  Not sure...

So, I'm thinking of cutting 11" squares from the first fairy fabric, and using the jelly roll strips between the different blocks.  It would break things up and make the quilt a little bigger, too.  Thoughts?  (And if you have other fabric suggestions, links?!??)