Here We Go Again!

It’s Tuesday and I meant to post this last night as one of my tips and tricks posts but I didn’t get it done (actually this was written one week ago). The tip is at the end of this post. Okay now for a little update on my UFO’s, Www.allpeoplequilt.com UFO Challenge for 2016.

March UFO Crazy Quilt

March’s number didn’t even get touched. Why? Because I was busy, busy, busy making things to go in the quilt show that my local guild holds every year. I thought I would do a little bit on that project but it didn’t happen. April came along and the number pulled was a good one – number 1 the small aloha quilt. 

April UFO Small Island Quilt

I can handle that. Not. I’m still working on it and here it is well into May. 

May UFO Birds In Flight Crazy Block

May’s number is 7 the Birds In Flight Crazy Block. Now really I should be able to get both of those done this month.

For my tip I was working on this small mini quilt to go in the silent auction held during the previous mentioned quilt show. 

View From My Window Auction Quilt

The small flowers were re-embroidered by me by hand but the fabric was not a quilt quality fabric and I was not happy with the results once I had pieced the blocks together. They were not the right size, and they were not consistent in size. So I did something I rarely do, I took it all apart and started again. Since the flower fabric was a fairly loose weave I decided to stabilize it by adding a muslin backing. I thought the best way to do that would be to use a spray on quilt basting glue. I really didn’t want to do that in the house but I didn’t want to set up a large table outside either. Then I spied this:

TV Tray

Now I know some have covered these and made them into a small portable ironing surface and/or cutting mat. My thought was to cover it with freezer paper (shiny side out) and use that as my glueing table. Worked perfectly and now I have something I can use outdoors when I’m using a spray or a glue that needs a lot of ventilation. I can also use it when I have just a little painting to do. When the freezer paper gets too bad just replace it with a fresh sheet.

Freezer Paper Covered TV Tray

How simple is that!

Oh and the quilt show? My rag dolls “The Slow Stitchers” took second place in their category Textile/Fabric Items.

The Slow Stitchers Rag Dolls

Happy creating!

Rose 

Monday Tip on Tuesday

It’s Tuesday and I meant to post this last night as one of my tips and tricks posts but I didn’t get it done. The tip is at the end of this post. Okay now for a little update on my UFO’s, Www.allpeoplequilt.com UFO Challenge for 2016.

Samantha Doll with refined hair

February’s number was 5. That was a good one for me because I had listed the rag doll I was making for my granddaughter. I’m happy to say that she has received her doll. It took a little bit of doing because of the hair. I had crocheted a cap and then added bangs and a lot of hair to it. Too much hair! So it was back to the drawing board with suggestions from my daughter to start over again. Well I didn’t want to take the time to start over so I stewed over it for a bit. I thought about cutting the cap and reducing the amount of hair at the same time but you know what happens when you cut into crochet work. It unravels! Hummm what to do?

Then I remembered a conversation I had with a quilter at the Houston Quilt Show. She did knitting and crocheting and then cut them up to include in her quilts. How did she keep them from unravelling – she fused them with interfacing. Ah hah! I could do the same. And I did. I’m still not 100% pleased with the hair but it is better than it was so I’m happy for now. I may make some hats with hair attached later but for now Samantha can play with her and I can move on to other works. I’m currently working on three of these dolls for another idea I had.

She Colored Everything Yellow Crazy Quilt

Oh and back to the UFO list AllPeopleQuilt pulled number 3 for March. That is my “She Colored Everything Yellow” crazy quilt. Twelve blocks are sewn and waiting for the hand embroidery. This is another project that will probably not be finished in a month but it will be moved forward.

My tip: Don’t rule out applying ideas from one discipline to another. It worked for me – from quilting to rag dolls.

Happy creating!

Rose 

Finish It Friday

Well that wasn’t so bad after all. I’m referring to the UFO Challenge I joined this year. No the redwork quilt did not get finished but I’ve got 9 blocks completed and I’m working on the 10^th one. I figure if I do one a week all 20 will be ready for the next step in just 10 weeks. 

Nine Blocks and Counting

What is the next step? I’m not sure. Originally I planned to do had embroidery as in crazy quilting on all of the blocks. I did a little on one block and now I’m not sure. I could use my basic machine and do some machine embroidery. The other area I’m considering is putting sashing and corner stones between the blocks. One of the concerns I have is all though I pre-washed all of my fabrics when I sprayed a few with Best Press the red ran into the white areas. Now this quilt is for me so that doesn’t bother me but I had thought to do white sashing with red dots or white with red embroidery. Now I don’t know.

The Samantha Doll

So for the UFO Challenge the next number drawn on February 1 was number five. Number five on my list was something that wasn’t really truly a UFO but I had intended to finish it by Christmas as a present for my granddaughter and I missed that date so I added it to my list just so it would get done this year. I have been working on it though so I’m almost finished with it. Maybe that will be my Finish It Friday today. Just some hand stitching and I’ll be done. And that means I will be done with the February UFO Challenge.

I did take another look at my list though as the doll was something I wanted to finish before I started the next three dolls which have an April deadline and if that number 5 hadn’t have come up I would be challenged to not only finish the doll but work on another UFO. So I wondered what else I had on my list that might be holding up a deadline if it’s number got pulled way after it’s deadline. I’m happy to say everything else on that list passed any concerns I might have had.

Happy Finishings!

Rose 

Monday Tip: Don't Give Up

If you follow my blog you know I’ve been on a quest to finish projects that have been cooling at times, percolating at other times. These are referred to as UFO’s (unfinished objects), WIPs (Works in Progress), WISP’s (Works in Slow Progress) to name just a few. I’ve tried 52 in 52 (one a week), 12 by 12 (one a month), FIF (Finish It Fridays) and other ways to get things done or at least moved forward. Some items did get finished, some have been moved along. But I’ve also started a number of new items – some that were requested, some that I just wanted to try, and some that were “what-if’s”.

So here I am at the start of a new year and a new attempt at finishing some projects. A friend posted an idea on FaceBook and I was off and running. Www.allpeoplequilt.com has a UFO Challenge for 2016.

List 12 projects and what stage they are in. They choose a number from 1-12 on the 1^st day of the month and that’s the project you work on that month. I can do that. 

My List for 2016

So I made my list – just writing down projects as they came to my mind. Truthfully I probably could list 24 or even 36 projects but I just did 12.

The first number they pulled was 2. Oh, oh. On my number 2 line I had listed what is probably my oldest (that I’ve uncovered so far) and most time consuming project. I was tempted to give up right then. I had hoped for one that only needed a little bit to complete and I would have success the first month to encourage me onward. I even thought about making that second list and then I would have an option to choose which ever list seemed best (read easiest). But I decided even though I would not finish it I could at least move it forward.

At first I found excuses to not work on it but then I realized I could do it – I could! So I opened the project box.

What's in the project box?

It’s a red and white crazy block style quilt with redwork in the centers. Three blocks had been sewn. All of the redwork embroidery was done. 

Where I left it in 2008

When I did those I didn’t know about the wonders of damp stretching my work (thanks Karen). So first I damp stretched all of those redwork embroideries. 

Then I had some cheater cloth of redwork squares that I had re-embroidered. For some reason (probably to protect the embroidery) I had fused some lightweight interfacing to the back of those. This caused the fabric to bubble over time. 

Cheater Cloth re-embroidered and bubbling

First I was just going to accept it as is but then I realized I could peel the interfacing off. So I was able to damp stretch those as well. The three blocks which were already sewn would have to stay as they were.

I have sewn two more blocks, and started to do the hand embroidery on one of the sewn blocks. The month is almost over and a new number will be drawn next week.

Will I put this one away? No it’s going to join my WISP’s. I’ve put the five (oh look now I'm up to six) blocks up on my design wall and I’m loving them again. When I started this project back in 2006 or 2007 I didn't have a design wall. Now I do and it is always a pleasant surprise to put something up there that I've done and let it brew for a while. It will take some time to finish this quilt – but I can do it!

Blocks on the design wall 

So I shared all of that just to say “Don’t give up, small starts count, slow progress moves you to the finish line”.

And that’s my tip for today.

Happy creating!

Rose 

Hello there! WWW

Well I haven’t posted a WWW (What I’m Working on Wednesday) post in like forever – well not since May anyway. Does that mean I haven’t been working on anything? No of course not and if you’ve visited my Finish It Friday posts you know I’ve been doing a little bit anyway.

Okay so what have I been working on since May? Here’s a brief (I think) rundown of some of the works:

1. The butterfly vest – all embroidery is finished. I just need to add some sequins, beads, and maybe a few more stitches, and then maybe line it.
2. The monochromatic bird nest – some stitching has been done on the bird nest part but I haven’t worked on it in a while.

   

   Bird Nest Embroidery

3. The summer hexagon wall hanging – the hexagons have been stitched together and now I’m working on adding some border half hexagons etc. Again I put it aside for a while. I’m debating my choice of fabric for the final round. I thought it looked like shiny, sparkly beach sand but now I’m not so sure. I plan to use the same fabric for binding.

   

   Summer Hexagon Wall Hanging

4. The crazy quilt elephant block – a lot more detail has been added but I still have more to go. It gets picked up every now and again. I finally had to print out a copy of it and scratch some notes on it so I could remember what I planned to do to it.  Notice the upper left corner tie fabric. I couldn’t decide what to do on that seam allowance and so I tried to imitate the fabric. This is an idea I’ve been toying with, it isn’t perfect but it’s a great future reference.

   

   Notes

   

   Elephant Crazy Quilt Block

5. The crazy quilt blocks for “She Colored Everything Yellow” have also had a little detail added to them (well to one of them). Bullion loops, French knots, buttonhole stitch and more. I really need to get busy and give them some undivided attention.

   

   She Colored Everything Yellow Crazy Quilt Block

6. Embroidery has really taken over my creative life lately. Can you tell? All of my Finishes have been of small embroidery.
7. I’ve finished embroidering the Love sampler, just need to put it in the framing hoop and I’m done!

   

   Love Sampler Embroidery

8. The scribble “Elephant Bathing” that I did when I was a teenager has taken on a new life as an embroidered piece. Right now I’m just using it to test out a product. I have a feeling I will be doing more than one or two pieces based on that scribble.

   

   Bathing Elephant Scribble

9. In the mix is a scrappy quilt for our guild’s “wounded warrior project”. I agreed to do one that was all cut out from donated fabric. The pattern is Bonnie Hunter’s Pineapple Blossoms.

   

   Wounded Warrior Blocks in Process

10. What there’s more? Yes indeed. I have been busy making little tiny crochet dresses to be used as favors when my granddaughter gets introduced to the world (well to friends and family of the mom). She’s due to arrive in two weeks! Her ‘met the baby’ party won’t be until December though.

    

    Mini Crochet Dresses

11. Also crocheting some tiny doilies to finish off some already made needle “nabbers”. They just need to be added to the pots before they are glued onto a wood circle and little ladybug buttons need to be glued to the flowers. Then they are off to a quilt shop in Hawaii!

    

    Mini Crochet Doilies

12. Okay I need to make this an even dozen. What else is there? Oh yeah that’s right, I worked on trying to make my daughter a sleep mask. Wasn’t too successful in that department. The first one was too small and the second one was too tight.

    

    Sleep Mask

Not to worry though there are more projects waiting in the queue!

Happy Stitching (on Wednesday and every other day)!

Rose

I Love Doing Wheelies!

Buttonhole Wheels

Much to my surprise I found the buttonhole wheel addictive. That’s the stitch assigned to this week’s TAST2012. Maybe I like it because it is round. Round seems to be my favorite shape. I love buttons, fabric yoyos, woven spider web stitch, and dots, just to name a few.

I considered going a different direction for this stitch rather than my usual scribbles but decided to stick with the scribble. I did however scribble in a conscientious way so that I would have round places where I could work the buttonhole wheels. Then I added little individual circles all around my scribble. (And this was even before I knew how enjoyable I would find them!) I like the way it turned out, I used a backstitch to connect my scribble ones and added large French knots to a few of them. I might put a bead in the center of the smaller ones. The thread I used was variegated pearl cotton.

Cretan and Knotted Cretan stitch

The week before was a catch up week but I had already finished working all of the stitches. Before that was the knotted Cretan stitch. Since I didn’t get a post up earlier I’ll show it now. I had trouble getting started with this stitch so I started with a plain Cretan stitch and then worked into a knotted Cretan once I was comfortable with how the basic stitch went.

I’m continuing to work on my butterfly vest. The outer edges of all of the butterflies have been finished as well as their bodies. I’m in the process of adding the antennae.

Batik block

For the quilt guild I belong to the challenge for June was to use four different batiks and made a railroad block. I found some batiks in my stash and then added two more before deciding which ones to use. I wasn’t sure I liked the combination until I actually put the block together. This is how it turned out. Now I wish I had enough to make a full quilt!

Lion and Lamb embroidery

My blocks for the crazy quilt challenge are coming along- slowly. The lion and the lamb for the March block are done.

I know, I know the lion should be roaring but my grandson (8 months old) loves to look at his Tutu’s work and I didn’t want to scare him! Haha!

Finally went ahead and made the blocks for April, May and June. Now to get them all stitched and embellished.

April block

May block

June   block

Happy Stitching,

Rose

Life Goes On

Well so much for good intentions. I’ve been working on my projects but not as fast as I’d hoped and definitely not posting updates like I had planned. This week was looking good for catching up. I even was almost done with the TAST2012 stitch for this week by Wednesday. Ha! I was going to finish block 2 and 3 for the CQJ2012 project in time to be included on their website with my own page. That didn’t happen either.

Instead I spent a lot of time at the local hospital waiting for the doctor’s to determine exactly what needed to be done for my husband. He had taken a mean fall at home on Wednesday and was in a lot of pain. Thankfully the injuries from his fall were not that serious (he does have to use a back brace and do no work for the next two months). That will be a challenge since he is working outside in our yard all day long.

The doctor’s did decide he needed to have a pacemaker installed. His heart rate was staying in the 30 range and the highest they could get it was 40. So Thursday they did the procedure and Friday afternoon he was released. I was at the hospital almost the whole time so I did not get much rest. I did manage to finish the TAST2012 stitch and add a whole lot of French Knots to the Monkey Face piece.

TAST2012

Wheatear Stitch Scribble

Wheatear Stitch following another one of my scribbles. I decided to use a wheat color thread to work this design. First I practiced the stitch on my sampler since this was the first time I had used this stitch. I wanted to see how well it handled the curves of my scribble especially the tight ones. I’m quite pleased with the results.

Last week the stitch assigned was the French Knot. I love this stitch and have been using it since I was a teenager. I had never seen it worked in a tight style until I saw the work my mother-in-law did. Eunice Balaz was a master of the French Knot and bullion stitch. Here is a sample of her work with close quarter French Knots.

I have a better example which she did on a dress for my daughter. As soon as I can get a picture of it I’ll add it to my blog. Also a picture of her bullion work.  My mother Mabel Ruth taught me how to embroider when I was just a child of six of seven. Eunice taught me how to do the bullion rose. She used DMC floss and a milliner’s needle. The needle was new to me. Her floss was the variegated variety which she bought by the case. It’s not as easy to come by these days. When she used it she would cut off the very pale sections and use only the stronger color. I’m still amazed when I see her work.

For my sample I decided to stick with my scribbles. When I scribbled this one I immediately saw a face so I decided to outline it with French Knots and then fill it in with more French Knots.  I decided it was a Monkey Face and I will add ears to the design. This is a departure from my usual scribble which I normally do not add any more lines once the scribble is done. Rules need exceptions and this is one of them.

Here is the outline:

French Knot Monkey Face

Filling the Monkey Face


And here it is in process of being filled in. These knots are all single loops done with DMC pearl cotton size 8.

CQJ2012 

February Crazy Quilt Block

My February block is finished except for some buttons and possibly beads to be added as I assemble the entire crazy quilt. March is in the works. April fabrics have been selected and should be stitched this week.

Robin's nest in my magnolia tree

9. Air scented with flower perfumes
10. Blue robin eggs
11. Plants poking through the ground
12. Modern technology

Happy Stitching!

Rose

Another Week Gone!

TAST2012:

Stem stitch or Outline?

This week for TAST2012 we were assigned the stem stitch. Oh good I thought! Ha! I made my scribble and looked at Sharon’s stitch dictionary and followed her suggestion for left hand stitching. Take the photo of the stitch into a photo editing program and flip it horizontally. Okay that worked but when I started to stitch I think I kept the thread at the top of my needle rather than the bottom. So I think what resulted was the outline stitch. They are very similar and really the only difference is the placement of the thread in relation to the needle. So now I plan to make the scribble on the computer, print it out on fabric three times and then do one with the stem stitch, one with the outline stitch, and one more with the backstitch. I’ll label each one so I know which is which. Normally when I am outlining a pattern I use a combination of the three stitches. Hopefully this will help me when I need to know which stitch I am using.

CQ2012:

February Block with progress

I did make some progress on my February block. I only have a few more seams to embellish and then add some embroidery. Buttons and beads will be added when I assemble the whole quilt. But I do have a cute cupid button (gold) and some heart buttons planned to cover up the raw edges of my trims. Will I ever learn to add some trims when I am sewing the block together? Maybe on the next one but I’m not sure I have any for April, I do have the fabrics selected for the April block. I should get it stitched and ready for the embroidery work this week. (I have to get my taxes finished first!)

Flower Basket Block for Quilt Guild

Other Projects:

I did manage to get a block made for the quilt guild I belong to. Our meeting was Tuesday and yes I waited until Monday night to get it started. What a mess. First the fabric I wanted to use for the floral part of the basket block shrunk when I pressed the seams with my iron. I had already made all of the squares when I discovered this so I had to start over again. This time I shrunk the fabric before cutting. Next my blade in my one cutter needed changing but I didn’t have a new one handy. I managed to cut my pieces but had to constantly go back where the blade had skipped one or two threads. After that I started sewing and my machine started acting up. I rethreaded and checked the bobbin case that improved it somewhat but it still wasn’t working as it should. I almost didn’t turn my block in but they accepted it. (I did offer to take it back and try and make a better one but they said no need.)

Only other thing I managed was to try and learn to feed my grandson solid foods. As you can tell by his bib it was a little messy but we managed to get the hang of it. He sits in a big chair for his feeding and I think it makes him feel important! Can’t believe he’s six months already and eating food and cutting teeth!

"I'm gonna chew on my toes if you don't get some more food in my mouth!"

• Sound of coffee perking. 
• Hum of my sewing machine
• Son's new smile 
• Daughter snuggling with Jaden 

Happy Stitching,

Rose 

Now For Some Crazy Quilt Updates!

Elephant Block

The elephant block

The elephant block is coming along. Seems like it is taking a long time but there are long spells in between where I don’t pick it up at all. When I do the stitching goes quickly.

Paisley with ribbed wheel

I’ve added some paisley (sort of) designs to the block. One has a woven wheel (some places call these webs) and the other has a ribbed wheel.

Paisley with woven wheel

Other than that they were both done the same way. First there is a chain stitch followed by an overlapping fly stitch, another row of chain stitch and finally the French Knots.

Next I added some straight stitch tassels to the border treatment. I like how they look like they are moving.

Tassels added

Finally I got around to adding a couched spider web in the corner of one section. I plan to add a spider but haven’t decided on the technique.

Couched spider web

I still have some trim to add to the block as well as some mirrors and maybe some more stitching before I’ll be ready to add the buttons and beads and then ready it as a wall hanging.

CQ2012

The January block is finished except for finishing touches of buttons and beads. I won’t add those until I assemble the blocks into one piece. I really like the snow angel and ice skates I embroidered. Winter always reminds me of those two activities. The ice skates were done by tracing them onto some tissue paper and then using sewing machine thread with a back stitch to mark them on the block. This is the first time I’ve used this technique and I’m sure I’ll use it more frequently. The thread I used was a little thick for this so I’ve tracked down some 40wt thread locally and will try that next. There are some snowflakes and an attempt at icicles along with other stitching.

January

 February block is being worked on with French Knots around the center heart, laces, and trims. I think I’m going to stick with the pink colors and off white or cream. I may add a touch of gold as I have a gold cupid button I plan to add when it is finished.

February

March has been pieced and a lion and a lamb have been outlined using the tissue paper method this time trying a single strand of embroidery floss. They will be filled out with French knots and other stitches. The reason for the lion and the lamb is because of the saying that March comes in like a lion (I know it should be a roaring lion but I couldn’t find one I liked plus I didn’t want to scare my grandson!) and goes out like a lamb.

March

 April is being planned with some gray fabrics, rainbows, rain, umbrellas, etc. Well you get the picture April showers bring May flowers. I think you can guess what May’s block will look like!

Name Badge

I finished my name block (well finished enough that I could use it). I still plan to add some yoyo’s and buttons around the outside edge and on the neck strap. I may need to make another one where my name is larger. We’ll see.

Next up will be a post showing my satin stitch sampler for TAST2012 and a praise report. Stay tuned and in the meantime:

Happy stitching!

Rose