Sunday's Project

One more item finished up...well except for the quilting.

Maple Leaf wall hanging.

Finished/Found/Unfinished Projects

I caved and went shopping on Black Friday.  But only the fabric store (and one stop at a clothing store for Sally).  I added the browns and yellows to my stash.  The greens and pinks were from my last stop at the store.  No idea what I want to do with yet, but just wanted something a little different in my line up.  Sally's going through my Framer's Wife book, so I pulled out my Dear Jane.  Maybe.....a Baby Jane or two!?

 I finally got all the quilts put away from the quilt show.  They make a nice little pile.

 While cleaning up the sewing room, I decided to move things around a bit.  I just can't find a set up that I'm completely happy with.  What I found were a couple of unfinished projects, so I finished them up.

I had started this scarf last year, but ran out of thread and would you believe I bought two skeins of the exact same thread a couple of weeks ago...I guess I really liked it.  So....this scarf is finished and listed on my Etsy shop now.

 I was trying to get a picture of how it can be stretched out to come up over the back of the neck....but look at that gray...no white hair.  That white streak keeps getting wider and wider.  I tell people I'm like that girl from the X-Men....every time I use my "power" the white streak gets wider.

 Another unfinished project was this baby blanket.  How funny that the pattern is for "November" from a monthly project crochet book.  So....I'm working on it now.

 I actually through a few unfinished projects away....half-made scarves that need more thread, the ugly quilted blue wall hanging.  I had enough of the blue to do another one and got it hand pieced this past week. I will not be quilting this with blue thread!

 Then I found these little stockings.  My aunt made mine about 30 years ago.  I've added to the collection with each member of my family.  I guess I need to do one for Matt and give Sally's her's.  I wonder if I can still cross-stitch...the eyes aren't as strong as they once were.

 I found these left over blocks from the purple quilt.  Not sure what I'll do with them yet.

So my sewing room is cleaned up and arranged....time for some Sunday sewing.  And I did pull out the Christmas decorations while I was putting the quilts away...just not sure when I'll put them out.

Sunday's Stitches

Grannie's father always told her that every stitch she made on Sunday, she would have to rip them out on Monday....but that didn't keep her from stitching on Sunday.

When I got home from church Thanksgiving dinner, Sally was already stitching away on a purple scarf she was making someone as a Christmas gift.  I had the blue star in the machine so I decided to finish quilting it.

I ripped a few stitches out and then forced myself to finish it. 

Lesson learned:  colored thread is not always a good option when quilting.

Project completed and then thrown in the trash, labeled as the ugliest thing I've ever done....no picture will ever be available of that!

So, needing to create something I did like, I finished my Grandmother's Fan blocks.  It needs a border and then my hand quilting.  Just not ready to put this on the machine.  I like it too much.

Using up the rest of the thread from my button scarf, I made a long crocheted scarf with a simple V-stitch and  shell stitch.  I really like the colors on this one and it's so warm.  It will be on my Etsy shop

Sally and I both finished our scarves and then we both did some mending on blue jeans.  I hemed a couple of pairs for my brother and she mended rips in a pair for her brother.

So why are blue jeans referred to as a pair of jeans when there is only one?

Saturday Projects

First thought this morning was that I would go to Franklin and visit some quilt shops....but I really needed to do some work around here, so I went to my studio and found a couple of projects to finish up, clean up, and start.

The scarf got finished.  I love how soft it is and those buttons!

I put these two necklaces together, simple really, just adding some charms to chains I got at a clearance sale.

I had wanted to have this blue star finished for the quilt show, but it wrinkled really bad during the quilting process, so today's project was to remove all the the quilting.  I took the left over diamonds from this project and arranged them differently and will making 2 wall hangings.  Me and my ripper settled down, thankfully, the quilting was only straight lines and I had stopped when I realized what was happening.

 It was easier to rip from the underside, between the backing and the bating.

 All stitches removed, quilting marks washed out, ironed, and ready to be quilted again.

Then I went to pick up the purple quilt and took one of the pins and bookmark that I had made to the shop owner as a "thank you" for displaying the quilt.

 I also made dressing for the church dinner tomorrow.  As I was mixing it up, I kept thinking of Mom and how much I loved her dressing.  I would always taste it for her to see if there was enough seasoning.  I asked Adam to be my taster tonight.

I decided not to do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Too many memories from last year and the fact that my mom isn't going to be here...so I'm serving chili!

Friday Night Stitches

I finished up one of my mother's projects the other night.  She did this wall hanging using a heat & bond method...but she didn't like it.  So she went to town turning under all the edges and tacking them down.  She got around everything but one tree and then decided that she didn't like the method or the look at all.  She folded it up, put it back in the pattern and was getting ready to toss it, when I took it home about 5 years ago.  I tacked it to my wall, where it hung, unquilted, until Adam decided he wanted it on his wall.  I finished the quilting and then got the binding finished this week.  He wanted some names quilted into the quilting.

 Since the one tree was only applied with heat & bond, it had started to come off, so I had to do some creative quilting  on all the trees.

Tonight was a cold night and it just seemed right that I work with some warm yarn.  I bought this yarn last year and decided to do one of my chunky neck scarves with buttons.  Before I called it a night, I had half the scarf done, about to start my row for the button-holes.  Maybe I'll have the rest done by tomorrow night.

Nightly Projects

My words haven't been coming as quickly as they used to.  God seems to be taking me through a quiet season, but He has my hands busy.  So during this quiet time, I'm going to try and be productive every evening with thread and needle.

Here's tonight project:

I have to get the binding put on this wall hanging of a bear claw.  I made this from the scraps of a quilting class teaching how to make grids to make half triangles.  The back is a scrap from Mom's material.  I remember her having a blouse from this material.

 I think the black was from her scraps too.  She had made a vest out of lots of different patterns of black.

When this is done, it will make a wall hanger (sleeve on the back) or a nice tablerunner.  I'll be adding it to my Etsy store along with these.  Just need to get the pictures uploaded and measurements noted for the descriptions.

This is a doll blanket made with disappearing 9-patches in orange and whie.

 Then again with the same oranges and white, another version of disappearing 9-patch made into a pin-wheel.  I practiced doing my free motion quilting in the solid pieces so each one has a different style of quilting in them, but it still looks nice.

 I sold several of these starsnin the quilt show.  I really have to get them measured and downloaded.

Bones is on and I must get to stitching!

Mary Jane's Scarf

Sometime last November my mother asked me for a pattern book.  I had just bought a new one and she was in between projects.  She was looking for quick project and my new book by Mary Jane Butters had plenty of them.  Mom made the hexagon scarf in variegated fall colors.  She wore it to a Christmas party and then left it draped over her bedroom door knob, where I found it in February and took home.

I've had the book out for several weeks now and have been entertaining myself with looking at the pictures.  Finally I started reading the stories within the book.  When I came to the story and pattern for the scarf I was blown away.  I had put a note on the pattern that Mom had made it and found a correction in the pattern.  The story was how Mary Jane had gone to her mother's home after her mother's death and stayed and just went through her things, finding hexagons everywhere.

How odd that Mom had read that story while she was dieing and that I was now reading it 1 year later.

I had thread handy, and needle, so I started another scarf, all in purple this time.

My Quilts - On Display

 It started with the purple quilt, my monthly quilting class, and my desire to bring an awareness for the need for more funding for pancreatic cancer.  I opened my home to the public and displayed ALL my quilts that I had been given, inherited, or made.  There were items for sale (quilted wall hangings, books/bibles, Christmas ornaments and food...lots and lots of sweets!).  Everything wasn't like I wanted it to be.  I didn't have time to put all the name tags of who made which quilt on the quilts (a friend came over to help me and then she ended up having a seizure...but recovered after laying down for a bit, please keep her in your prayers).  Because of the situation with my friend, I postponed my regular quilting class, but honestly, I don't think I could have done it justice anyway....I was having too much fun talking with all the ladies that came to see my quilts.

I thought I had about 30 quilts...but it seems my collection of quilt related and handmade items (crochet, woodworks, oil paintings....etc) is bigger than I expected.  I stopped counting at 90 items on display...not counting just the normal stuff that I have around the house that folks enjoyed looking at. Several people commented on the sewing machine collection and the scissor collection.

Sally came over Friday morning and we started displaying the quilts.  We kept most of them downstairs and displayed all the unfinished projects around the banisters of the loft.  My son had some of his quilts on display in his room, but I didn't get a picture of them.  A couple of ladies had more fun just going through all my quilt books and planning their next quilt project.

Here are some views from the day.  Looking down from the loft, you can see some of the unfinished projects and those in the living room.  I had my grandmother's quilting frame on the sofa with one of her quilts rolled in it. I took down my curtains and hung quilts instead.  There were several on the porch too.

 The gown was made by my grandmother for my mother's high school graduation.

 We even hung a quilt off the fridge and wrapped a closet door with a quilt.

 All the baby quilts and blankets ended up with their own rack.

 I didn't realize I had so much Christmas quilted stuff.  Truthfully, most of them were made by me and given to my grandmother as Christmas gifts, then after her death, they were given back to me.  This quilt rack was made by my dad, painted by my mom and covered with afagans and doll blankets, old baby blankets, and embroidered pillow cases.

 I found this little block, one of Sally's very first pieces.  I finished it up for her with quilting and binding.  She did a really good job on it.  In the background is the one that she is working on now...both are nine patches.

It was a great day with a steady stream of people in and out all day.  We raised a little over $500.  I think that is a pretty good start for my fund raising for Relay for Life 2012.  I could have made a little more.  Our first visitors thought that I wasn't just showing my quilts but had them for sale....I corrected her real quick on that.  Then the store called where the purple quilt is on display and there was someone there wanting to buy it.  However, it has already been given to the American Cancer Society and they plan to use it to bring awareness to the Relay for Life.  It will be on the Christmas parade float and will travel to some events before either being auctioned off or raffled off.  But it made me feel good to have someone like it enough to want to buy it.

My desire for this weekend wasn't just to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer..but also to raise awareness that I am a quilter too.  I'm hoping...no praying....that this opened some doors for me to really do something with this talent God has given me.  If nothing else...I will be busy for a while finishing all those unfinished projects!