Sunday, May 31, 2020

Machine Embroidery: A Swap and Butterflies

My friend Cindy and I did a little swap.  She had a few pieces of clothing in her Poshmark closet and I agreed to stitch some embroidery in exchange.

Cindy enjoys sewing little crossbody bags and the embroidery gives them a different look than what you normally see on-line.  I like to try some new designs so it turns out to be a win-win for both of us.

I spent Saturday embroidering the leg of a pair of denim jeans.  She'll cut them as she wants for her ideas. 







While I was looking through some of my designs, I pulled out a collection of butterflies I have from Anita Goodesign called Antique Butterflies.  It's a beautiful collection of appliqued and embroidered fantastical butterflies.  So lovely!  I've had the designs at least 7 or 8 years; unopened.  Here's a photo from the website showing a few of the butterflies.  The 12 different butterflies are very large; some up to 8 x 10 inches.



I originally purchased these designs to use on some grey wool I had cut in large rectangles and squares for a king sized quilt in the early 1990s.  The fabric was the tailend of the inventory from my fabric store in the 1980s.  I still have the large unpieced blocks.  Last year I pulled them out and added some vintage crochet pieces in the box with them.  I seem to be thinking an old fashioned look would suit the wool.  

I should at least try stitching one of the butterflies to see if I even like the process. I can always turn it into a pillow. Wouldn't it be so gratifying to use the wool I've had so long?  This would be a quilt for me. I'm going to seriously consider it for a summer project.  

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Do you have a long standing project you could finish this year? 







Saturday, May 30, 2020

The Grateful Threads Project: Beatrix Potter Quilt Pieced

I'm finishing this week on a high note!  I have the Beatrix Potter quilt top pieced.  It's a beautiful blend of subtle vintage prints.

I had a scrap exchange with a friend in my church stitching group who was "sick and tired of these scraps".  I get it!  We all get tired of the same fabrics after awhile.  I sorted through the box pulling the calm prints for this quilt.  I sprinkled in a lively one here and there to go with the little Beatrix Potter images which were also vintage prints & have a touch of color.

The stitching group often gets donations of deceased estate sewing and craft supplies.  I happened to be at a meeting when a large selection arrived.  The ladies in charge of the fabric storage room generously handed a few boxes my way instead of integrating them into the existing inventory.  They were mostly vintage prints and projects sewn with the older prints rarely sell at the church's annual fall market.

In keeping with the vintage vibe I will probably use one of my vintage sheets for the backing.   I now have a roll of white batting so I have the luxury of not worrying about thrifted fleece blankets showing through the top.  It will be lovely when finished.


It's 72 x 86 with 15" blocks

It's been ages since I stitched sashing with posts.  I like sashing as a way to define blocks and they can be very handy when working to a specific desired overall measurement. 

I'm taking the weekend off.  Ha! Ha!  No one believes that!  What I mean is that I am hand stitching more on my raw edge collages & playing with some machine embroidery designs.  

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Do you like sewing log cabin blocks? 




Thursday, May 28, 2020

Filling Time with Extras

With this marathon of quiltmaking I've embarked upon and the current quarantine, I've had to come up with some other ideas for leisure time.  I'm not particularly comfortable with leisure time.  It makes me feel like I might be wasting my time but I'm trying to relax a bit about such a harsh opinion.

Toward that end I've watched a few more movies than in the past.  I usually use Tubi for my movie selections.  It's a free service and 95% of what they offer is just gross junk.  Occasionally they have a decent movie and it cycles around often enough I haven't become a movie addict.  Ha!

Here's my short list of recently viewed & recommended movies (in no particular order):
1. Lonely Hearts
2. House of Sand and Fog
3. The Founder
4. Road to Perdition
5. Passion Fish
6. The Big Short

I'm fond of recommended lists and just recently came across a list of 800 Best Free Movies on TubiTV.  I'll be going through the documentary list and choosing some to watch.  I like movies based on real people's lives such as The Founder, the story of Ray Kroc of McDonald's corporation.

I've also expanded my listening while sewing.  I'm trying out some light hearted audio books.  The first series I stumbled upon is No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency set in Botswana Africa and starring a woman detective.  It's a fun listen and the differences the author Alexander McCall Smith draws between men and women are funny and accurate.

Paperback The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book

If you have any audio books suggestions for easy listening, please let me know.  I am currently using the extensive Harris County Public Library as my resource for books and audio books.

I'm eyeing my copy of Anna Karenina again.  It's a mere 817 pages of tiny print.  I have the Oprah Book Club schedule tucked in the pages.  Sometime in the past Oprah organized members of her Book Club around the idea of reading Anna Karenina during the summer & published a schedule to keep everyone on target.
As luck would have it, if I start reading this week, I can finish the book by summer's end; according to the schedule!  I'm seriously considering it!

Have you read it?   it gets 4-5 Star Reviews.  Seems like a Bucket List item!

 Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club): (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by [Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky]

Last weekend I stitched some raw edge collage pieces.  I had some very nice scraps accumulating in the corner of my worktable.  Since I can't let any little fringed edge go, I took a day with the embroidery machine arranging abstract compositions the embroidery machine could stitch for me.






I've made some adjustments to this composition and started some minimal hand stitching to complement the machine work.  It's amazing how quickly I produced 10 new unfinished projects where once I had none.  I guess my handwork is set for the summer! ha! 

What new activities have you discovered to fill your quarantine hours? 
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Wednesday, May 27, 2020

The Grateful Threads Project: Log Cabin Quilts

I'm spending my summer finishing quilts for a very large fall delivery to the Houston Furniture Bank. 
I have bits and pieces from proposed projects during a previous time in my life that no longer serve my interests or needs.  I'll be repurposing them into serviceable quilts for the No Kids on the Floor Initiative the Houston Furniture Bank manages.  The Initiative puts children in twin beds; for many of the children it's their 1st bed.  It is estimated 300-500,000 children are sleeping on the floor in Houston on any given night.  My commitment is to sew quilts for some of the children's beds. 

I've been dividing the weeks into like-style sewing to make the process faster. I had enough parts and pieces already started for Log Cabin blocks to know a good week of concentrated effort would yield 4 or 5 twin sized quilts.  

Maybe 2 years ago while thrifting I spotted a huge fabric grab bag. It was sealed of course but what caught my attention were some vintage bird prints I could see through the plastic. The bag was something like $5 so I bought it.
When I opened the bag later it was filled with vintage decorator samples. In the lot was a big group of Beatrix Potter printed panels.

Last year some lovely quilters used the panels for Angel Tree quilts. I still had one panel and some scrap pieces left.

With my new resolve to finish what has already been started and turn them into #TheGratefulThreadsProject quilts, the Beatrix Potter printed panel was on the short list. This is log cabin week so any quilts sewn this week will be log cabin quilts. The panel worked perfectly!  A friend gave me a box of strip scraps so many of the prints will be in this quilt.  It's nice to have them ready to go.  I have to alternate various sewing functions to give my hands some rest.  Too much cutting for too long wrecks havoc on them.

Yesterday's 6 blocks are so adorable I can hardly stand it!









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