A Sew Day and What I've Been Doing

My sister called a couple of weeks ago or maybe more to ask where I've been.  She says she keeps up with what I'm doing mostly through my blog.  Yes, that means I'm not a very good correspondent and I rarely call anyone.  It's not that I don't want to, but we live across the country from each other and there is that whole time difference.  Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time, so half the year there is a two hour difference and half the year it's only 1 hour.  By the time I decide I should call in the evening, it's too late where she lives.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Seriously, I've just been busy with this that and the other.  Here are a few of the things I've done in the past few weeks.

First I was invited to a sew day at Evelyn's.  Evelyn had just returned to Arizona from Wisconsin where she spends part of the year.  She is not exactly a Winter Visitor as she has a home here, but it is just a lot cooler in the Summer in Wisconsin and she has a home there, too!  She and several others get together occasionally to sew and this time, they asked me to join them.  Though I was only able to stay part of the day, it was a great time and I got a lot done, too!

 

This is Evelyn busily stitching away.  Evelyn does mostly art quilts.  She is collaborating with a Wisconsin quilter and they enter quilts in shows together.  Her house is chock full of quilts on the walls and draped over furniture.  There is a LOT to see at Evelyn's house!

 

 

This is Judi.  She makes the most incredible miniatures you would ever want to see!  She was hand piecing the most amazing mariner's compass block.  And it was for Sue!  Judi's work is accuracy with a capital A! Tiny pieces with sharp points to die for!

 

 

Tari was piecing blocks. Her lamp is in the way, so we cannot see them.  I cannot remember what block she was working on. She kept her nose to the machine and worked away all day!

 

 

Sue was busy squaring up her applique blocks.  Sue also is a long arm quilter and probably produces more quilts or quilt tops in a year than anyone you know.

 

 

Here is a close up of one of the blocks Sue was working on.  There are pieced blocks in the quilt as well.  It is a lovely soft palette and will be beautiful when completed.

 

Also present was C.J.  She is Sue's cousin and arrived later in the morning.  Her name isn't really C.J., it is Judy.  Since there was already a Judi in the group and since this Judy is Sue's cousin, the group refers to her as C.J. which is short for Cousin Judy as it's less confusing that way.

 

And what was I working on that day?  Sewing the blocks together for this quilt.

 

 

Since that day, I have set the strips together and shortened the vine strips as the star block strips were not quite as long.  Remember I did the vine strips when I was teaching vine and leaf applique so the quilt had not been designed at that point.  I just randomly selected a length for the vine strips.

 

 

The first border has just been cut and placed on the design wall.  It is not stitched yet.  I really like the multicolored striped on the black for this inner border.  Stay tuned for what the outer border will be.  I also have a tutorial almost ready on how to hand piece eight pointed starts that will be coming soon as well.

 

In addition to doing that, I unstitched in excess of 1,200 inches of quilting in the border of another quilt.  I was just not happy with the way it looked so it had to go.  Here is what replaced it.

 

 

It is finally bound and ready to go.  As it is 100" by 100", it took a bit of time to do all of that picking out stitches and re-quilting! I cannot show you the rest of the quilt as it will appear in a magazine.  I'm still working on the directions for it.

 

So that sort of brings you up to date.  I will try not to take such a long leave from my blog again.  I really missed you and hearing from you.  You make my day when you leave a comment so please let me know what you have been doing or what you think about what I've been doing.

 

 

Until Next Time,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois















I'm feathering my nest!

We have a sofa and two chairs in our family room that are slipcovered.  Okay, so white might not have been the best choice for people who work in the print industry, but I love, love, LOVE my white slipcovered furniture!  We looked a long time to find these pieces as when we were buying them most of the furniture stores were loaded with heavy, dark Tuscany style furniture which is beautiful – in someone else’s house.  Me? I’m a blue and white and yellow person.  I like it light and airy!

However, the last time I pulled the slipcovers off to launder them, I had a major problem!  One of the cushion’s inner casing had split.  When I unzipped the slipcover, there were down feathers EVERYWHERE!  This is NOT a good thing. 

It looked sort of like this, only this is after stuffing several handfuls of feathers back into the casing!

I stuffed as many feathers as I could back inside and slip stitched the split together so the feathers could be vacuumed up.  Then another piece of fabric needed to be appliquéd over the split to contain the feathers.  Definitely not the way I had things planned for the day!

Do you ever have days like that?  Days where you have your ducks in a row, but one of them just won’t stay in the row?  Do you handle it well?  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.  Today it’s funny, but at the time?  Not so much!

I really DO like feathers -- especially the quilted type and I use them as often as possible in my quilts and quilted things.

This pillow is one of the first things I hand quilted for use in our home.  It’s sort of plain, but using the blue quilting thread helped me to work on even stitches.

Later when asked to teach hand quilting classes, I designed this fancier feathered heart.  It has not only feathers, but stipple quilting and cross hatch quilting as many quilters use these three types of quilting in their quilts.  I encourage new hand quilters to use matching thread just so they can be proud of their first project and not be hung up on the unevenness of their stitching.  With practice the even stitches will come.

Until next time.

Lois