Piney's Needle

My grandmother, Sally, and I all share the same dream....to one day have a shop.  Grannie worked out of her home, but Papa added a "little house" onto the garage out back of their house and she filled it with her work.  She would go to craft shows and peddle her wares and word of mouth brought customers to her door.

About a year ago, Sally opened an Etsy shop selling her vintage clothing line and her artwork.  She's done pretty well with it.  She'll start working on the shop for her fashion designs soon.

Today, I opened my Esty shop selling handmade items.  I always wanted my physical shop to be at the home place, overlooking the Piney River in the hills of Tennessee.  But for now...it will have to be in the internet hills.

My shop - Piney's Needle

Sally's shop - SallyMarie

The Girls

This is a picture of our quilting heritage, 4 generations and my aunt (2nd left).  We are each holding a quilt that we have done our self.  Starting at the left....Grannie Carathers (Mildred Waldean McPeak Carathers), RuthAnn Rochelle Carathers (Uncle Gene's wife), my mother (Frances Elizabeth Carathers Lewis), me (Deborah Gene Lewis Boutwell), and my daughter (Sally Marie Boutwell).

Our hands....Sally, Grannie, Mother, me.

I love that these hands work with thread and hold each other up in prayer.

I think everyone has made the comment that while we work on an item, 

we thank about the person that the item is being made for and while

we work our needle...prayers are being said over that person.

Mother made a blanket for a young boy that was having seizures.  When she presented the blanket to him, she told him that she had been praying for his full recovery.  His mother said that he uses the blanket always....and hasn't had a seizure since!  Recently she did a baby quilt for a little one that was very small and had a few issues before delivery.  She asked a group of us to prayer over the blanket before we gave it to the mother.  As each person prayed, they were focused on the immediate issues...but God led me to pray about the time that she would be using the blanket as a young girl (since it was a large blanket), reading her Bible under it as a young teenager and picnics that she would go on and wrapping her daughter in one day.

Each needle prick...each stitch...each thread....a prayer.

Ties that Bind

Update:  Finished, on the bed 8/13/10

It's so close to being done, it's not even funny!  I'm telling you, if I really counted the years I've been working on this monster it would easily be over 10 years.  I undercovered the sewing studio yesterday and found the material for the binding.  I was really afraid that I had lost it or didn't have enough.

I did bias strips and sewed them all together.  I didn't measure to see how much I needed for this king size quilt.  I decided I would just go for it.  I actually ended up with a lot left over.  I did use the sewing machine to attach the binding, but I'll tack it down by hand.

Some history on this quilt:  When I moved to the Gulf Coast (Lillian, AL), I wanted to take something of Mother with me.  She quilts constantly, like her mother.  I've always loved the Log Cabin.  I still have one that is tattered that brings back wonderful memories that Mother made.  I don't really think she made it especially for me, but it was on my bed growing up and I took it to college and well...it's mine now.

I love the scraps she used from dresses I still remember wearing as a little girl.





Back to my quilt.  Mother and I went shopping (at Walmart) for the material.  I love greens, so I bought several basic colors...enough to do a queen size bed.  The material cost me about $60.  I decided on the Barn Raising design, starting with the darks in the center and going out.  Mother can get about 10 stitches to an inch.  Sitting right beside her, I could too.  So I proudly went home with the center started.

But without her right beside me, I couldn't get my stitches right.  Nothing I did fit with what she had done....the ripper and I have always been good friends, so we spent that summer together.  Finally I gave up and started a new center (about 3 times).  I couldn't get everything to match by stitching by hand, so I went with the stack & wack method and cut all my strips and then went to the sewing machine.  With the center pieces all the same, I built my cabins and cut off the excess material.  Once the blocks were all done, then I went back by hand and pieced the quilt.

During that time, we bought a king sized bed, so I had to make it bigger.  Thankfully I was able to find the same material again.  When it came time for the quilting, I moved all the furniture out of the living room and laid my layers out and pined it with safety pins.  It took all day!  My back and knees were killing me when it was over.  Then I started in the center, using an 18inch round hoop and a ruler to mark the dark area the width of the ruler...and started quilting.  Sometimes my spaces are irregular...but honestly...I didn't care!  In the light areas, I just quilted the logs, in the ditch.

This quilt was played under and slept under long before it was finished.  I had to put a table or footstool in front of me to hold the weight and the kids would play under it.  Then I would just get so tired, I would put down my needle and snuggle down under it for a nap and so would the kids.

Once, I had been quilting all day, in the summer, and kept getting hotter and hotter.  I was already feeling a little sick and by the end of the day, I was sure I had a fever.  When Ken came home and I told him how bad I felt, he just laughed....the air conditioning unit had gone out during the day and there I sat under that heavy quilt in the middle of summer in the south! After that, I only worked on the quilt during the winter.

My grandmother is constantly asking me if I've finished it yet, I'll be so glad that by this weekend, I will be able to show her the finished project.  It's got two events it will be in this year before finally being home on my bed.  Yes, Ken built a real log house (3 actually) long before I got this one built...but there is love and memories in every stitch.

From the scraps, I've made small projects, but the one I'm most proud of was for my father, made with one of the many centers I started.  It was just a wall hanging that they actually drape over the back of a rocking chair and then Mother found some of the same green material and made a pillow for the chair.  It looks really nice in their home, but it was also featured on the cover of a book, Quilts from Heaven.

That's it tucked in the front of the basket.  Here's a link that gives a better picture and a little bit about the book.  My grandmother's quilts are also in the basket (all except the pineapple) and then the back cover is her quilt also.  None of the quilts featured on the inside are ours, just on the cover and on some inserts in the book.

Grannie was also featured this month at the Tennessee Arts Center with a showing of 8 of her quilts.  My cousin posted some pictures from the show here.  It was pretty neat to have Grannie honored like that.

Okay...my project this week....finish the binding and get this quilt on my bed!

Christmas Projects from 2009

I ususally try to do something handmade for Christmas grifts.  This year I did pillowcases and a wall hanging.

For my neice Courtney, I applique this pillow case.

Then I did patchwork pillow cases for a couple of gifts and a wall hanging for a dirty Christmas gift.

I made this little frog from scraps from my grandmother and gave it to JonMichael so he would

have something from his great-great-grandmother.  She had already cut the frog out, all I had

to do was sew him and stuff him.  I added real buttons because that was how she made our's

when we were children.  She stuffed ours with birdseed, but the mice liked to chew on them.

Then there was the ornament or mini wall hanging that I put together.  I did a couple of

these for gifts for people at work.

You know, for not starting these projects until November, I did pretty good.