A Cozy Quilter's Christmas...

This is a stitched and scrapped wall hanging made for a sample at the store last Christmas that I now am able to bring home and hang up.  (We had a few more patterns this fall to sell, so I took the sample back to the store until the patterns sold.)  But now it's hanging on a door and I'm very pleased to have it up!

The pattern is from Crapapple Hill and was originally for a pillow, but I didn't want to do all that hand stitchin' and hand quiltin' and have someone sittin' on it!  LOL  I did it as a wall hanging for a 12-inch hanger.

This was my first time using crayons to color in motifs in a stitchery, but it won't be the last!.  It was very easy to do!  I recommend Crayola Crayons.  After coloring what I wanted, I layered the colored area with 2 paper towels and pressed with a hot iron until no more color came off.  I did this before stitching.  I know some people do it after stitching.  Of course, don't do this if you transfer you embroidery design with the blue water-removerable, disappearing pen (the heat of the iron will make it impossible to remove the disappearing pen completely and ruin your day!).  I like to transfer with a brown Pigma pen, so it worked fine.

The scrappy stars and top border were all red and neutral in the pattern, but I like the sparkle of adding green as well.  Striped binding is my favorite! 

It was my first experience with Weeks embroidery floss (a lovely varigated one for the writing - everything else was DMC), and I nearly died when I was gently spritzing away my blue quilting lines and the words just started to run a bit on my background...YIKES!!  Fast action on my part (and a little bit of white Crayola crayon) "stopped the bleeding" and my blood pressure returned to normal.  I had no idea that the Weeks floss was so prone to running.

For those of you experienced in using Weeks floss, does soaking the skein in vinegar or Retayne help to make it colorfast??  My heart won't take another experience like this one!!

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

Oh, you beautiful doll...

My very best friend, Ola, is a wonderful quilter and doll-maker.  With her permission, I just have to share some of her beautiful babies with you.  As her mother before her, Ola takes great care in crafting her dolls with careful attention to every detail.

Ola made some samples for The Quilting Season quilt shop (Saline, Michigan) using some Australian patterns, but now drafts her own patterns and adds lovely little personal touches (I LOVE their hair!!).

She recently made several to sell at a local craft show, but the Michigan economy is so bad at the moment that craft vendors are not doing as well as they should.

Their feet and shoes are awesome! 

I hope everyone is enjoying a cozy Thanksgiving holiday...I know I am!

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

Off the carpet and stitched to a background...

Well, Mr. BOP if off my dirty basement carpet and properly stitched onto a piece of background fabric.  He is block #9 from the Civil War Bride Quilt, and the seventh block (of 20) that I've finished.  He is blind, as I am giving the whole subject of faces some thought before embroidering any more.  I'm not that happy with the eye I gave the peacock.  The Bird of Paradise is a fantasy bird, and apparently lives in an oak tree with crabapples (I guess I should have made acorns instead!).  LOL

There are people who think patterns should be strictly followed, and then there are people like me who go a little "rogue" from time to time.  I followed Lurline's wonderful example of changing the body shape of this bird.  I ended up adding the berries to cover up some imperfections in my applique.  Hiding mistakes is a GREAT excuse to deviate from the pattern!!...(little giggle).

Thanksgiving is this week and Steve's parents will be here for a lovely, long visit.  I may or may not get any stitching done on my ostrich block, which is ready to stitch.  Then, I'm going to take a break from birds and get back to urns, flowers, and leaves, leaves, leaves...sigh.

Thanksgiving will just be the start to the whole insane holiday season for me.  My church music job gets REALLY busy until Christmas.  I also have a whole lot of Christmas sewing to do (finishing gifts, ornament exchange, etc.).  I hope to post some of these items as I finish.

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)

More birds on the brain...

While working on my peacock, I couldn't wait to pull fabrics and start on the tail feathers of the Bird of Paradise (BOP).  I am so loving this Civil War Bride Quilt!  I figured Mr. BOP needed to be bold and regal as compared to the peacock, who looks like he's been sipping umbrella drinks on some beach in the Caribbean.  I can't wait to get  Mr. BOP off my basement carpet and perched on his tree on the background fabric.  I love the bold purple, red, gold and black fabrics.  I think these colors will definitely pull the focus away from the peacock and back to the quilt's name sake!

Thanks to Lurline (visit her blog here), I decided to streamline Mr. BOP's body as well, after her beautiful example.  I didn't feel like the original body matched the stunning, regal shape of the tail feathers. 

Some lesser birds (don't tell THEM that...) have also been occupying my mind in the past couple of weeks.  These ostriches are glue-basted as well and ready to go (I changed their feet), along with some lovely pale pink blossoms.

Once Mr. BOP and his ostrich backup singers are stitched down, I'm going to work on the two remaining urn blocks, as well as an additional original one (I'm hoping to put the urn blocks on the four corners).

If there were just 3-4 more hours in a day, all devoted to sewing...sigh.

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

Now there's a peacock in the neighborhood!

This is block #7 of the Civil War Bride Quilt, my 6th block finished.  I thought I would never get all of the 63 leaves done!  But I have no one to blame but myself because I re-drew this block.  I found many pictures and drawings of peacocks on the Internet and tried to make him look like out "pet peacock" from my childhood (a run-away from the Birmingham, Alabama Zoo, which was connected to our property by some woods).

The bright colors are true to an actual male peacock.  Fortunately, my dark background helps to tone him down a bit...I couldn't resist using lots of bright lime greens.

I'm working on the Bird of Paradise now, which is supposed to be the dominant birdy diva in this quilt.  I think this quilt top will end of being "the battle of the birds!"

Six blocks down, 14 to go (unless I add another 5 to make the layout 5 x 5)...

Am I nuts to consider expanding this quilt?!?

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

The groom has appeared...

Hi!  I'm back!  I finally got to do a little sewing, for a change!  This is an original groom I drafted to go into my Civil War Bride Quilt.  He's the fifth block I've finished, so I'm officially done with one quarter of the blocks (oh yeah, then there are the borders....).

Here he is with his sweetie:

I may re-do him, as I was hoping they would look better together...I'm thinking his block is too sparse.  It looks like SHE uses "Miracle Grow" and HE does not.  (She should dump him for a better provider!!)

I have not been doing enough personal sewing lately...that makes me a little grumpy.  I did manage to make Riley a Halloween costume (she was Prof. Umbridge from the Harry Potter books/movie #5). 

I also had to design and make a couple of items for the shop's Holiday Dash, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.  This year, the Holiday Dash quilt is a Christmas row style quilt, so I needed to come up with small projects using our block in case our stash dashers wanted to complete something smaller with their set of collected patterns.  I made a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g wall hanging (12 x 56 - that's CRAZY long, but we wanted to show customers they could make a SLICE of a row quilt!).  I also made a more normal sized table topper (that's my rug you see on the corners!).

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

Another Civil War Bride block done (#8)...

This is the fourth block I've finished for the Civil War Bride quilt.  I am eager to start working on a groom block that I have sort of drafted from bits and pieces, here and there.  I love working on this project!

Now, I must go to bed (it is 1:30 AM!!!).

In stitches,

Teresa  :o)

Another binding and U.F.O. bites the dust...

I got another binding U.F.O. completed...this pattern is called "BAKER'S SQUARE" and it is made with a Moda Christmas 2008 layer cake from the line called "S'Mores."  The fabric depicts an adorable snowman that looks like marshmallows on a graham cracker...too cute.

The original pattern had no outer border, but I wanted it a little larger so I added one.  Rhonda Loy, of Dexter, MI, machine-quilted it with a close, allover stipple pattern.

My quilting buddy, Ola, made my buy the kit at the end of the season (quilting peer pressure), which contained the layer cake and inner border and binding fabrics.  I am still a little freaked out by the precuts...I am normally a washer, but I didn't wash these layer cake pieces due to the nature of the pattern (I was supposed to cut the 10 inch squares in half, then sub-cut further.  I decided to cut off the pinked edges before cutting out the pieces, and reduce the size of all pieces accordingly because I was afraid my piecing would lose accuracy by trying to deal with the edges. 

Since I knocked out another U.F.O. (and possible Christmas gift), now maybe I won't feel so guilty working on a Civil War Bride block!

In stitches,

Teresa   :o)

More on "going rogue"...

I started talking about "going rogue" in my last post.  By that, I mean changing an idea, a pattern or going against the norm.  I've always had a tendency to do this, and I think I feel a certain amount of "quilt guilt" about it.  

This is HOME SWEET HOME from a book by the same name by Barb Adams and Alma Allen.  I finished it in early 2008.  I love every book and project these talented ladies publish, and I had every intention of doing it just like the book when I started. In fact, blocks one, two and five are exactly like they intended.  But then, the rogue-ness crept in when I started block three...I had to add my daughter flying a kite.  By block eight, I had my, then, 10-year-old daughter designing a horse for me to include (I mean, I saw the fence and naturally thought of horses - my daughter rides and she doodles pictures of horses on everything she can find).  Well, then I thought we needed apples and an apples tree to keep the horse happy, and whenever I think of happy horses I think of sunshine and rainbows!  Before long I was hopelessly lost in rogue-land.

I was even rogue-ish in my hand-quilting with every block done differently, hiding little quilting motifs everywhere I could.  What is wrong with me!  Barb and Alma's original pattern was so lovely...here is one of their interpretations from their book..

 

It would be more honest to design my own quilt, rather then change someone else's creativity, but I don't feel like I am artistic enough to do that or maybe I'm just "chicken" (or lazy).

I love, love, love the CIVIL WAR BRIDE QUILT and Civil War Bride Quilt blog dedicated to people working on this fabulous project. 

 

It is my favorite project right now (now if I could just clear my schedule and calendar...).  I originally thought that I would do each of the twenty blocks just like Corliss Searcey designed them in her pattern, based on the original BIRD OF PARADISE quilt top.

 

But then, I remembered that she had taken liberties with the original quilt top, unfinished and located in the Museum of Folk Art in New York City.  Also, I started seeing all the lovely blocks my new friends from around the world were posting as they completed them on their own Civil War Bride journeys,  Then it hit me...EVERYBODY GOES ROGUE in their own way and IT'S OK!!!!  

As the Civil War Bride quilt will ultimately be my daughter's some day...probably her wedding quilt...I am planning to go rogue on some of the blocks to make it reflect a bit of her personality (and mine).

Is it OK to "go rogue" and "get all maverick-y" ?

I used to love the expressions "going rogue" and "getting all maverick-y"...at least until all the American Presidential politics of 2008.  Maybe Sarah Palin/John McCain have ruined all that for me...

I have always looked at "going rogue" as a cute thing, as in choosing to use my Kindergarten crayons to color OUTSIDE the lines or use different colors than the norm...or maybe even turning the schematic, colorless picture over and drawing my own picture on the blank reverse side.

As a quilter, I am constantly thinking about "going rogue."  Every time I start a quilt that has been made by another quilter, or featured in a quilt book, magazine, or purchased pattern, I find I want to change something about it.  This does not mean that I don't have the highest respect for the quilter that put that particular combination of color, shape, and cotton together.  It also doesn't mean that I think I can make it better.  I think my desire comes from an over-developed sense of wanting to make the project my own...have it reflect something of my personality and preferences at this moment in time.

Let's face it...everything we do is a reflection of ourselves.  All of our quilting and craft projects are like a portfolio of out lives.  And that is always changing.  Do you cringe when you look at or think of your first quilting project??  I sure do!

I became a quilter one minute after my grandmother, ill and declining from cancer, gave me the last quilt she was able to make (in the early 80's).  I was 21-22 years old, and she had made me a GRANDMOTHER'S FLOWER GARDEN quilt using some of the flowery scraps I had left over from making summery dresses and shirts.  She had pieced the top and her friends that she quilted with in the community hand-quilted it for me.  Oh my God, you could have knocked me over with a feather!!  I decided there and then that I had to keep this wonderful tradition going in our family.

Well, I rashly decided that in honor of my grandmother, I was going to make a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt as my first quilt!  I looked through my scraps and saw crazy, bright cotton calico and bright royal blue poly/cotton left over from making my college dorm window curtains.  (YIKES!) On your mark, get set, GO and SEW...

Well...I have not finished it.  I still have good intentions.  I mean, it is hand-pieced and the technique was pretty good for a self-taught, first effort...no English paper piecing on that sucker...I did Y-seams!!.  But the fabrics, OH MY GOD!!!  The calico fabric selection of the late 1970's/early 80's...well, it SUCKED!  I remember very few possibilities.  One little ditsy flowered calico, I had it in five, yes FIVE colorways (yellow, blue, brown, green and red).  And all the stripes, dots, and solids were leftovers from making stuffed Christmas ornaments.  That was because there were so few prints and colors to choose from.

Well, I digressed...I guess that first quilt was a reflection of my youth and personality in 1982.  Would I go off in that direction now?  I love traditional patterns, but am also drawn to the bold and whimsical.  I am sorry that I used some cotton/polyester blend fabrics in the flowers and the blue connecting fabric...on that issue, I wish I had a "do over."  When I made that first partial quilt top, my stash fit in a pillowcase...talk about your humble beginnings!  Things are not so sparse now...I think my husband wishes I had my 1982 stash now...  

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)