Finished Stuffage and on to The Summer Olympics!

The baby quilts are all nicely labeled and delivered!

So on to other finished projects and one newly started one:

First, the Houswif is fully completed and ready to send off to the Correspondence teacher for review. Here’s some pix:



All folded up and ready to be useful!



Opened up to show the stitching. It is bound with a French silk ombre ribbon. I removed the wires and handstitched it into place.



Opened up to the inside to show the two scissors fobs, the pin keep and the needle case. The inside is silk duppioni. There are ribbon bows to hold various items as well as mother of pearl circles to hold threads at the top. Pleated pockets and pockets stitched to hold my scrimshaw ruler and my laying tool complete the compartments.


Second, I also finished and mailed off a birthday present to a friend:



This was a fun internet pattern to make and felt!

Next, I recently joined http://www.ravelry.com/. It is a really fun and informative site for knitters and crocheters. They are sponsoring some fun to go along with the Summer Olympics. Here is the beginnings of the project I am considering:

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Can’t be certain if this project is a “go” until I complete my training! I need to make a sample (hence all the various needles) and make sure I understand the directions, etc. There’s only 17 days to complete this project – and that is one of my biggest concerns in planning it. How much lace can I really knit in 17 days?

Also, I have been working on a mystery quilt that my quilt guild is sponsoring. Here is a picture of the pieces I have so far. I still don’t know what it’s going to look like!



Finally, the Quilt Guild had it’s biannual Quilt Show last weekend. I didn’t put a quilt in (and I should have!) but I did find a very sweet needle case at one of the vendors. I bought two kits and put both of them together in about 2 hours. What a fun project! I know I will be making more of these:






That’s all for now…..Must. Go. Swatch.

An Update after all this time...

It's been so long since I updated this blog that I didn't even have a Google account to use to sign in. *shakes head in shame*

The good news is that I feel motivated to try blogging again. More good news - just because I didn't blog didn't mean that I wasn't sewing, knitting, quilting, embroidering, etc. So I will have an opportunity to post pictures of lots of new projects and also catch up on not so new things. In any case, without any more unnecessary proctrastination, here are the latest and newest projects!

I. All they need are quilt labels:




My neice just had TWINS! Joshua and Jacklyn are getting flannel baby quilts - one pink and one blue, of course! Their busy mom is also getting matching baby bags made of durable pet screening. These bags are generous in size and will hold all that endless baby stuff the twins will need. They have large interior pockets along with these seperate zippered cases with an outside pocket that matches the larger bag. These were lots of fun to make!

Finally, I figured out a decent method of planning out my quilting. I'm much more interested in piecing than quilting, but have vowed to learn to quilt at least baby and wall hanging size quilts myself. (Yes, I'm finally learning how to do free-motion quilting - after only a bazillion classes, lol)

For these baby quilts I photocopied the blocks for the "crazy eights" pattern I used so I could use colored pencils to try out various quilting patterns before I tried to quilt them. The randomness of these blocks did not lend itself to diagonal quilting, which I like to use since it's so easy. I finally decided to do stitch in the ditch around each block, then do curved shapes crossing in each block. They look like flower petals to me. No doubt they have a name, but I don't know what it is. Anyway, in order to give myself guidelines, I did the math!

The beginning, middle and end of each shape was about a third of the block, so I figured out the size of the square in the middle from the diagonal line of the square, made a template square in that size, and marked each of the blocks with the square in the middle. This gave me something to "aim" at while sitting at the sewing machine. I quilted the stitch in the didtch from the front and the petals from the back. I'm pleased with the results!

Let's hope Mom and babies like it.

II Embroidery project to finish this month:

I am doing a Correspondence Course from the Embroiderer's Guild of America and this project needs to be sent off to the teacher/designer for comment in early September. It is a Houswif - a sewing case that was sent off to the Revolutionary War with your man. It has sampler stitching on the front, pockets on the inside, and accompanying scissors fobs, pin holder and needlecase.



The front is stitched, lined with interfacing and trimmed to size. This piece is 9" x 23" and the stitching represents literally hundreds of hours of work. I started it in February and finished it in June. I made MANY substitutions from the planned project. I substituted my own colors and all silk threads. I replaced half of the bands with designs that I preferred. For example, the Lighthouse at the bottom of the piece is a substitute for a generic New England house that is commonly found on many samplers.

Frankly, once I had completed several bands and realized the amount of time this piece would require I decided to substitute stitches and subject matter I liked better than what the pattern called for. I love lighthouses, and this one is one of my favorites!

More to come on the other parts of this project ....

III How it all begins:

I went to a quilt store today. Have you seen the new fabric by Kumiko Sudo? No? Well, take a look…



I have a few more yards I bought the last time I was there – before they put together the complete set of fat quarters! I think I have plenty for a nice big summertime quilt for my queen size bed. If not, I know where to get more. Now, to decide on the pattern….