Thursday, February 27, 2014

Has It Been A Year Since I Started?


 It has been a year,
not a year of constant work,
but a year from start to finish.

It was last February 
while I was staying in Denver,
helping to take care of my little grandson and granddaughter,
that I began this
wool/flannel project
designed by
Primitive Gatherings.

There was lots of prep work:
fusing, cutting
and more fusing ,
along with  some help at the ironing board.
("Hey, Nana, I think it works better like this.")

But the blocks got done.

Well, not done completely.
There was lots of button hole stitching to do.



 I even had help with that.

Then all the borders were appliqued,
 half square triangles made,
and the top was finally pieced together.

Last week I got out my Perle cotton
and started big stitching.

Big stitching doesn't take too long
It is big stitches, after all.

So here it is all done,

quilted
 and bound.
Not bad for a calendar year,
even with help.

 Until Next Time-

Monday, February 24, 2014

A Good Little Gismo

One of my friends had 
the opportunity to go to 
the Houston Quilt Festival last fall.

And she brought me this little gismo.

 It's a needlepuller
from the Netherlands.

I hadn't used it until she mentioned 
it a couple of weeks ago and 
told me it was a wonder when
she was doing big stitch quilting on wool.

She's right!

I  thought I would finally give it a try
on a flannel/wool piece that
needed quilting with some Valdani Perle Cotton.

It did work great!
 I was able to pull the larger needle 
through those heavier
fabrics quite easily.
It's worn on your quilting hand.
The pointer finger is placed through the hole 
and the pushbutton is pointed toward the thumb.

 I was actually able to load my 
needle with a lot more stitches
than usual.
Then you slide 
the eye of the needlepuller
over the tip of the needle,
 squeeze the button with your thumb,

it grabs the needle, 
 and Da-Dah...
you pull the needle through.

It does takes a bit of getting use
to on your fingers.
I haven't mastered that yet.

But it did work very well.
I looked on line to try and find a source.
Amazon carries them, but 
they are out of stock,
so you might have to do more searching
or head off to a quilting venue
with lots of vendors.

Someday you might want to look for it.
It's a good Gismo
to have on hand.

Until Next Time-

Thursday, February 20, 2014

What's the Skinny?

With all of this dreary
winter weather,
my quilt group needed to do 
something fun.

I had found the blog,
with the directions for
 this delightful skinny pincushion.

 I figured it was
a way of enticing the group to
make something sweet without
worrying about calories.

I made a sample 
using two different fabrics from a batik jellyroll.
Added a little bit of rick rack over the
seams and
there was a skinny pincushion that
fit up against my machine.

We swapped last week.
The freezing cold weather
and dead car batteries,
hindered several people being able to come.

So here's the skinny.
This is the one I made to swap.

And here are the others,
just as unique as the wonderful friends
that made them.

It was a simple fun project to sew
and sweet to swap.

Until Next Time-

Monday, February 17, 2014

And I Think to Myself What a Wonderful World

It has been an exciting week.

My newest grandson arrived.
February 9
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Until Next Time-

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Vintage Valentines

 Valentine themes
can define what's happening
in the culture.

Right now there are plenty of  princesses
and
plenty of super heroes

About 15 years ago
I began collecting off of Ebay
Valentines from the 1940's
that reflected
America during the war years.

They are very
patriotic
and full of hope.

They showed women
serving their country

 in  all the different branches of service.

And, of course, guys
as soldiers and sailors
were represented
on Valentines

They showed the reality of 
war

and what was happening

on the battle front

but this was shown in a 
mild cartoon way, but
still expressed the feeling of love
and the desire to have
someone as a Valentine.

Some  showed the countries past times
and funny slang words
yet, were strongly patriotic.

They showed life in the military

 and what life was like
on the home front.

I love the
sentiment.

Until Next Time-

Monday, February 10, 2014

February Is Red and White

 With red and white hearts 
as the popular design element 
for February

you have to think of 
the classic red and white quilt.

  A Red and White Tribute
2011

 The pattern is so crisp and well
defined especially when it's pieced
with solids.

 It has been a popular combination

 
for centuries and
  will continue to be
sewn by quilters no matter the month.

So Sweet
Until Next Time-

Friday, February 7, 2014

I Can Be Such a Cut Up

 We've all known someone 
we would be classified as a
"cut up".

You know, someone who
acts pretty silly and can 
make you laugh.

If you know a quilt maker or
are one, you know
we can spend a lot of time being a
"cut up".
In this case, it is 
the literal translation.

In fact, I spent all of last week,
cutting,
auditioning,
and cutting some more
as I worked on about
4 projects.

It started with wool.
and a project from
Primitive Quilts and Projects
designed by Lynda Hall.

I cut lighter, more springtime colors,
and here it is ready for stitching.
The background is an old skirt,
with the seams included.

Then with two BOM's that 
need to be cut each month,
I dragged out the fabrics and
cut applique pieces for the 

and got the next 4 blocks
ready to stitch.
I'm not sure about the indigo leaves on the 3rd block
sticking straight up.
Maybe those are quilting muscles.

Then the A-Z with Ewe and Me
required more cutting
and designing 
and leaving a huge fabric trail.

And one more,
the Roseville  Album Quilt or
"the quilt that just never seems to want to get done".
I cut out freezer paper templates...

 and cut up
all kinds of small bits of fabrics,
more than shown here.
(Please note: I've finished a second one
of those "delightful" trees.)
Now I'm ready to stitch.

With all of this hand sewing ready,
it must mean I'm heading 
to Denver to wait for a new baby to arrive
any time now.
Until Next Time-