Fun With Wool

As I click my mouse around to various blogs I find very interesting and talented people, sometimes an hour has gone by and it seemed like only a few minutes. How exciting it is to find such Serendipity's...When I find something that is so inspiring I must try and make it right away.

So here you will find a couple of small wooly items I've been playing with. The tiny pincushions are made using a "bottlecap" (who would even think to use that...not me). The 2 brown ones look like yummy chocolates to me and the taller one like a cherry sundae. If you want to try your own bottlecap pincushion the tutorial is found here. The idea of covering a small measuring tape was inspired by Whip Up. The round thing with cherry's on it is a measuring tape and the square thing with a daisy is also a measuring tape. These designs were done with needlefelting. Have fun....I sure did....

We had another dusting of snow last night, the second time in a few days. Waiting for spring to arrive....:-)

Need to Focus

I've started a sock class last week and for the next class we are to have 2 socks ready for the heel. As you can see I've got mine done...yippee. The third class will be finishing the toe, so by the end of 3 weeks I'll have a pair of socks. I haven't knitted in about 15 years and suddenly had this urge to learn to knit socks, I haven't even done a sweater. The urge came from reading blogs with wonderful pictures. I see all the beautiful stuff you guys are creating and I get inspired to give it a try. That's why I enjoy reading all your blogs.

It's taken me about 1 week to finish (or not) this one basket block, I feel not focused at all. I even met with 2 quilting buddies on Friday to get the block done but it didn't happen. Don't know if you can see there are still some pins where I haven't sewn yet. The redwork block again I started a week ago and I'm so close to finishing. I think the socks have interrupted my rhythm and was too focused on getting my class homework done.

Home Finally

I picked this quilt up from my local quilt shop on Sunday. I made it Jan 2006 and right after the machine quilting was finished the shop owner asked me if they could display my quilt. Well I felt honoured to have my quilt displayed for everyone to see. The pattern is from Crabapple Hill.

The embroidery is 2 strips about 6" wide by 60" long, I don't know if you can see the details. I love embroidery and really enjoyed stitching this. I had it machine quilted and asked for the white area around the embroidery left untouched. I didn't want the machine quilting to go over the embroidery, so when I got it home I did the echo quilting myself all the way around. I'm really happy with how it turned out. My youngest daughter said she liked the quilt but I don't know if that means she would like to have it. She has been expressing interest in a much brighter colours for her (pinks and greens). She will need to pick the fabrics as I don't "do" brights.

On the painting (priming) of my kitchen, I made great progress with 2 coats almost everywhere except the edges I will be doing today. Must finish painting... Then I can buy some curtain fabric...

In the morning I met with my stitching group, made some progress with hand applique on my 1930's blocks, the baskets are pieced and the flowers are appliqued, pictures will come soon.

Pincushion #2 Oh So Sweet

Not much quilting going on because I've been spending time priming the kitchen walls. We purchased our lovely 1912 house about 6 months ago and the previous owners had painted the kitchen the deepest darkest forest green (you get the picture). It was time to start on the painting, over the winter it's been the darkest room in the house. Yuck I can't stand it anymore. I think it might need 2 coats of the primer and then I can paint a warm yellow. It's a large kitchen so it's going to take me a while to get it done.



When I was tired of all the painting, I got to work on the cupcake pincushion. I made some changes from the pattern and cut down the size of the cup. It seemed like the cup was way to tall for a pincushion and the cup would be a nice place to have storage inside so I left the top open to store snips and needles.

Stitching Done on "Sampler"

I always have a stitchery pattern ready to work on when I'm not at my sewing machine. I can watch TV and do hand work at the same time. My DH always says I'm not watching but I listen and look up from time to time. I think I will look for a frame, it's about 11 x 14 so hopefully I won't have a problem.

My quilting friend who lives a few blocks from my house was over last night. We are working on 2 scrappy quilts at the same time. We are cutting and sewing all the blocks together for 2 queen size quilts. We need to make 60 blocks and have 10 complete. Lots of the blocks are close to completion and then each of us will have 30 blocks for a large quilt.

I've been tagged by Pam to post 6 weird things about me. I didn't forget Pam, just been busy. I don't think these things are weird, just normal for me. Here we go....

1. I don't like to stay in my pajamas when I get up in the morning, first thing I have to do is get in the shower and get dressed.
   
2. I have to put milk in my tea, not cream. Every time I order black tea in a restaurant they always give me cream even if I've already asked them for milk. I won't drink tea with cream.
   
3. I love to find free quilt patterns on the Internet. I print them and they go in a pile. I know I will never use the pattern but I print it anyway. When I'm looking for a pattern to use my stash, I think about all the books and patterns I've paid money for and want to get some use out of them.
   
4. I don't get manicures. I don't like to have nail polish on my nails. The chipping of the polish drives me crazy. When I tried a manicure, it took about 30 seconds before the polish got smugged and dented.
   
5. I have a favorite tea mug that I always use for my morning tea. My daughter gave me the mug with Winnie the Pooh and Tiger holding balloons on it, and it's got my name on it too.
6. I like to put raspberry jam on my grilled cheese sandwiches. I know what you're thinking but don't knock it until you try it. Make the grilled cheese as usual and then put jam on top...yummy.

I'd like to tag Rose and Carol, both are new to blogging as well.

Cupcake

Look what I received in the mail yesterday. I was so excited about getting a package. I opened it up to find fabric, rick rack, buttons, trim, flower and a paper mache cup. This pincushion is called "Cupcake Pinkeep" by Blackbird Designs. What a sweet name I had to start on it right away. This is my 5th BOM pincushion but it will be the second one I've done...if I finish it. From reading the directions there is painting and gluing to be done on the cup. I hope I can make my look as sweet as a cupcake.

Here is the block that will be the top of the pincushion, can you see the star in the centre?. I couldn't believe I made 1" finished half square triangles (the blocks is 6" finished). If I had thought about it longer I might not have made such a fiddly block but it's done now and I only needed to make one. Next I need to cut a circle with a small plate to gather and form the top of the cup cake. I hope it turns out when I'm done.

Charm Packs

I started this lap quilt over the holidays using the 5" charm packs we love to purchase. This quilt took 2 charm packs of Moda Chocolat to make the blocks. The only fabric which wasn't in my stash was the border and setting triangle fabric, I already had the chenille for the backing as well. I didn't use a pattern but simply used a 1 1/2" sashing and set the blocks on point.




Here is a picture of the chenille and the quilting I did. Oh ya...I didn't put any batting in this quilt. It's nice and soft and cuddly for reading a book in the afternoon. Aren't charm packs fun...?

Back to my sewing room, gotta finish the 4 patches.



New Comments added about block construction.
Here is an example of how the blocks were assembled. Sorry the fabrics are not the same as the finished quilt. I didn't cut the 5" squares, I used them "as is". The sashing is cut 5"x 1 1/2" for a 1" finished sashing. the centre square is cut 1 1/2" x 1 1/2".
I did not prewash any of my fabric as I really like the crinkle look when a quilt is washed.
I hope this helps.

Is this progress?

Well now that I've announced to Suzette and Beth that I'm working on monthly pincushions, I have to confess I'm not progressing very well. As you can see I've completed one pincushion out of the 4 I've received.

Here is a stash busting scrappy quilt I recently started. I really like how it's turning out. The blocks are a very simple double 4 patch. These are the projects I'm sewing in between contractors arriving to do bathroom renovations. Yesterday the worker was here all day tiling in the bathroom and it turns out he will need to come back to remove 1 tile and do it again. The tile is too tight around the plumbing. It will be nice when I don't have a tub in the hallway and the toilet sitting in the den. It's a good thing we have another bathroom in the basement.

Needlefelted Postcards

These postcards will be a possible needlefelting class in Mar. It took me longer than I expected to get the inspiration to get going on these postcards. I'm glad they are done now, one more UFO to cross off the list. yippee!!! Oh wait...this project wasn't even on the list. In either case I'm happy to have them done.

I've heard that these postcards can and have been sent through the mail system. For anyone that hasn't seen quilted postcards, they are made with Timtex for stiffness and muslin on the back to write your message just like any other postcard. And the front is made with whatever you like. Machine quilting, wool applique, I've seen many done with machine embroidery, they are "works of art". I enjoy "hand" work too much and don't get into the machine embroidery. I haven't tried mailing them. I would be worried about damage with the stamping machines. I put time and effort into all the projects I wouldn't want to risk it. I would instead mail the postcard in a envelope.

Here is another needlefelting UFO I started oh about a year and half ago...sigh. I will finish sometime. The motifs need to have some embroidery done around to define the flower petals, the bird needs legs and the cherries some stems. Any ideas for what to do with these 5" squares would be very much appreciated.
Have a good sewing day!

To Hand Applique or Not

My second class for Birds of a Feather quilt was on Sat. The biggest concern for everyone was which method to applique, do you hand applique or machine applique? Of the 4 of us in the class 3 are machine appliqueing and 1 is doing it by hand. Everyone had the same reason for doing the applique by machine and that is because we all already have 2 or more projects started by hand. This will be my first attempt to machine applique, I hope I'm going to like how it turns out. Here's my first block done.

I Love to Stitch

I've had a busy start of the year. Here is a very scrappy wallhanging all made from my stash...wow 36 blocks cut and sewn in one month. I'm not a hand quilter but I think this quilt is so "old" looking I will do a "big stitch" hand quilting using floss or pearl cotton. Starting a new project is exciting and fun but now back to the WISP's waiting for me to finish. My goal is to work with fabrics from my stash as much as possible. I have lots of projects already started and waiting for me to bring out of storage boxes such as "Women in the Newspaper" quilt using 1930's fabrics and Double Wedding Ring done in brown and pink fabrics. I will show pictures later when I get working on them again.

Well this was my first attempt at posting I've been reading a few quilting blogs and have really been inspired by what I've seen and read. The pictures are wonderful to see what everyone is doing. I hope to meet some of you soon.