Handmade Parade

I am going to do my best to keep up with the  Handmade Parade from Katie of There and back. It is a blog I just discovered and a link project that appeals to me, since I seem to be doing more and more hand sewing on my quilt projects.

I've put the little button on the side, but I can't seem to make it work in this post.  Check in tomorrow for my little quilty update.  

Create Your Life

Bohemieannie Art Journal Page.  Used with permission.

 The unmarked page is always a challenge.  It holds all the possibles in the universe which can be wiped away by the first touch of pen or pencil.  I'm trying to look at it like teaching...  You labor all day and focus on the ones who don't get it forgetting that you may never know how far a student may travel on the slightest word of encouragement or unintentional inspiration.  Without trying the possibles have no chance and the unheard words remain still.

"Create your life."  That is what my friend Annie always says.   She is an amazing artist who always causes me to think about things in new ways.  Each time I visit her blog I am challenged.  Today I stopped by and found a post loaded with pictures of her latest journal.  An absolutely beautiful work created with things she found.  Things she found after leaving her house on a trip.  She put together a beautiful book made from things that most of us would consider to be trash.* 

Almost at the bottom of the post, Annie talks about her hesitation to actually write in the journal.  She expresses what I think is a common insecurity.  I wrote about it in my second post on this blog, (Sweating Blood.)   I am constantly trying to talk myself into starting a project, putting the first mark on the page, cutting into the piece of fabric, sewing the first stitch.  It is the challenge of rising to the possibilities.  The quote at the top of the page is what I wrote in response to Annie's need to practice her handwriting before starting to write.  I wanted to paste it here so that I could think about it some more and perhaps learn to live it. 



* This is a project concept I am turning over and over, trying to figure out how I can adopt it, adapt it and perhaps share it.  As I said, Annie always makes me think.

Craftster Scouts

My friends over on craftster, particularly Lime Riot, have been having a great time making felt badges.  They even convinced me to play along in a swap.  They came up with the idea to start crafting badges to mark crafting accomplishments (I think to justify their continued playing with felt.)  That lead to an hysterical thread about craftster scouts. 

The number and variety of off the wall crafting badges has had me in stitches... literally.  I just had to haul out the machine and stitch some up!

 

As you can tell, I was going quickly and didn't make the best thread choices.  I need to work on the lettering as well but some of them may end up in the shop shortly.  

How Does This Happen?

I mean seriously.  I started with two relatively neat piles on top of the table.  The next thing you know I have this!  And I cropped it to avoid the embarrassment of showing my good scissors in the pile. 

Perhaps A Quilt (or just the ugly underbelly of the beast)

I can't really show you what I am doing because it is supposed to be a surprise.  However, I am going to show you the back of my insane free-piecing adventure.  I am using tear away stabilizer as the foundation because I happen to have quite a bit of it around.  I started tearing away around a 'finished' section to see how difficult it is going to be.  Definitely difficult. 

Even so, I am pretty much convinced that this is a good way to go for this type of piecing because it not only gives me the general guidelines for shape, it also stabilizes the fancy machine stitches.  Without stabilizer they would bunch up the fabric.  I am wondering if wash away wouldn't have been a better choice, although I'm not sure it would have held up for as long as this project is taking me.  I am also wondering about using paper.  I don't know if it would tear easier.  Suggestions?

Happy Mothers Day

Needles

 

I have lots of hand sewing needles.  Lots of them.  But there are a few that I really like.  It seems that when I am hand sewing I manage to give the perfect needle just a twee little bend.  Those little bent needles are perfect for me and I guard them as carefully as I am able, which I am sad to say doesn't mean very much.  Those little sharps must sprout legs and run away! 

I would have been in sad shape as a pioneer.   Each time, I misplace another needle I think of the catastrophe faced by those prairie quilters if they lost or broke their needle.  Singular!  Needle!  I truly do understand the value of a needle.  I understand why so much attention was placed on crafting needle books and needle cases.  I fully intend to make myself a needle book one of these days.  Maybe I will find some one who would like to swap a mug rug or something for one. 

At the moment I use the wattle on one my wee chickens to hold the needles I am using.  It works for now.  

The whole reason I started this post was because I found the packet of needles that I like to use with pearl cotton when I am tying a comforter.  It is a packet of Size 24 Tapestry Needles made by John James.  See, what I'm doing here?  I'm writing down the name and size of my favorite needle in a safe place that is not likely to get lost, like the packet of needles did for about a year and a half! 

So, what is your favorite needle?  How do you keep track of them?  

Quilt Stand

I am always struggling with taking good pictures of my quilts.  One of the biggest problems is finding a way to 'display' them outside in the sunshine.  You may have noticed this rather unique quilt stand from my post about the family reunion quilt. 

It wasn't the most stable quilt stand around.

When the wind picked up it became particularly difficult.

Aaaah.... the secret to my quilt stand. 

Family Reunion Quilt

 

Mom and one of the grandbabies

A few years ago, my mother's family celebrated a 40th annual family reunion.  Many of us were to gather from far and wide to have a big celebration.  One of the 'activities for the event was to have a table decorating contest.  Each family was to decorate their own space in honor of the reunion.  My mother decided that she wanted to go all out for the competition.  After some brainstorming she/we came up with the idea to do a 'tablecloth' made up of family photos.







Being very resourceful, she figured out what was needed to print photos onto fabric.  She did everything from selecting and scanning the photos to sizing them and printing them out. 

So.... I ended up with a ream (literally a ream) of family photos printed on fabric.  I had to sort them into piles by family and choose an equitable distribution of family members.

 

Some of the spuds

 Yours truly putting the roof on.

She then went and picked out fabric.  Her first choice was the cream colored fabric.  It has a small green and cranberry print on it.  That choice lead to the green and the cranberry prints.  It was too much like Christmas.

Spud 3 and I went to the fabric store to pick out something else.  While I was dithering between green and red prints and red and green prints and cream and green, Spud 3 walked over to the shelf, pulled out the brown and said "Here.  Use this!"  I'm not sure if he really thought about it or just grabbed something to shorten his fabric store ordeal.  Regardless, it was the right choice.  To be perfectly honest, Spud 3 has an excellent eye and is typically the final arbiter of color and placement decisions.









But then what?  My husband cut 3.5 inch strips of all of the fabrics.  I used those to frame the pictures I'd selected.

Ok...  framed pictures of completely RANDOM sizes.  Now what?

As the deadline approached, I just started sewing pieces together until I would get them close in size.  Then I sewed those into strips and finally put the strips together.  It sounds so simple in the re-telling.  Believe me, it was a bit more stressful than that.  Every time I thought I had a row or section balanced, I would discover that there were too many browns touching or no red at all and would have to re-arrange again.

The  final arrangement needed a border.  I added the simple pieced red and green.  We had the top finished in time for the reunion but I had to wait to find some one to quilt it.  This is one of the very first quilts that I ever did that was large and quilted.  Everything else was either tied or small and hand quilted.  The quilting was done by the ladies at Blessings Quilt Shop.


The details...  The quilt is approximately 42 x 68 inches.  It is made of quilters cotton and printable fabric.  The batting is cotton and it is professionally machine quilted.

Broccokitty Quilt

 Since I am stalled out for a while, I thought I would start to add some of my quilting posts from craftster to my blog.  This one was done last winter.  It is a quilt I made for Spud 2.  I posted most of the details here. This quilt has something of a silly story to it.
 

 
You see, the spuds are color-coded.  Each has a different color that is all his own.  We always know what belongs to whom because of the color.  I know it is kind of goofy, but it works for us.  Spud 2's color is green.  I wanted to make him a green quilt.  Spud 2 would love to have a kitty.  I am not a cat person.  I really don't want one around.  Spud 2 also hates broccoli.  It is his one vegetable he is allowed to avoid.  When I saw the pattern for the broccokitty applique (Garden Patch Cat - Broccokitty).  This was the first quilt/applique pattern I bought.  Spuds 1and 3 helped pick out the fabrics and I made the initial block. 

 It sat in my WIP (what exactly is the name of the pile of things that you have started that aren't actually in progress because you have absolutely NO idea what do to next?)  I started looking for fabric I could use and finally settled on a pattern.  It is mostly a subway tile in green, orange and a little blue.

 I framed the applique patch in orange.  It was quilted with a very large meander to keep it nice and fluffy.  I wanted to free motion mice in the border but it was pretty clear that I was not going to succeed at that, so I did some simple outlining of the kitty and the frame.

The backing in some awesome Halloween print I found that had kitties with green eyes and orange splotches.  It was absolutely perfect for this quilt.  

The binding is a loose scrappy one made of all of the leftover pieces from the quilt. 








I am not entirely sure that Spud 2 appreciates having a little broccoli with his kitty, but it was a fun quilt to make. 

Chickens!

 

In 2008, I found this tutorial on Craftster.   I decided to make one.  I ended up modifying the pattern slightly to make little broody hens.  I became addicted and started making lots of chickens.  

 I mean, LOTS of chickens. 

 They started to multiply.  Then Spud 3 decided he wanted a big soft fluffy one.  We scaled the pattern up and started to make big ones out of fleece.  They were a big hit with the kids and even with some of the grown ups. 

This zebra chicken was Spud 3's donation to the trivia night prize pool one year.  The lovely lady who won it still keeps it on her bed!

 

Once I started making crazy hats for the Golden City Brewery, and shawls for all the ladies in the family, I started ending up with scraps of fleece.  They cried out to be chickens!  

Now there are LOTS more chickens.  Spud 3 does demonstrations in front of a local shop.  This winter the manager was looking for more handmade items for his shop.  I took him up-cycled scarves and chickens.  He loved them!  He has a basket of them in the shop now. 

Thus, the reason for the chickens as my avatar.  I just thought I'd share since I am still stuck without my sewing machine. 

I can't figure out how to link to the pdf of my version of the pattern.  If you really want it, send me your email and I will send it to you. 

Hand Quilting

Since my machine is on vacation*, I've been working on some other projects that require hand stitching.  Today it is my barn quilt.  I like the field and how the barn is coming out.  I'm not so sure about using the meandering stitch in the sky.  I keep thinking clouds, but I think the dots look more like stars.  So I am wondering if I shouldn't rip that out and use clear beads on some of the dots instead.   Or should I keep going and add beads as well?  

What do you think?

*and I'm only whining a little bit!

Misson: Clean Stream

I already told you about Mission: Clean Stream.  I don't have any numbers to report yet.  I just like this picture. 

Stuck

My beloved sewing machine is not feeling at all well today.  It is about to go in to the shop.  Sadly, now that I have time to sew again, I am stalled.  Sigh.....

Mission: Clean Stream 2012

 

 Saturday was a beautiful day.  It was sunny until about 2pm.  The weather was comfortably warm.  The flowers were in bloom and we had a trash clean up.  Mission: Clean Stream is an annual event, coordinated by my little organization.  We were scheduled to clean on April 14 this year.  There were 1138 people pre-registered to help out.  That would have set a record for us.  Unfortunately, we had severe weather that morning and had to postpone until this past weekend.  Turnout was very light as you might expect.  Trying to cram one more thing into already jam-packed Spring schedules was just too much.  But we did have somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 people scattered across several dates and locations.  And they did manage to pick up a BUNCH of trash.  

 

Here is part of a load of metal being scoured for useable parts by our Stream Trash ARTists.  START is the brainchild of the gentleman in the yellow shirt.  He arranges to bring in sculptors to the event and they use the trash pulled from the stream to create lasting sculptures.  The sculptures, along with appropriate signage, are displayed across the county to remind folks to not litter. 

All in all, it was a very rewarding experience for the participants and a great day for our rivers and streams. 

And now that it is May and Earth Month is over, I might just be able to get back to some "want to" as opposed to "have to" sewing projects.  But I do it with a renewed sense of my place in the environment and an even stronger desire to find ways to use what I have and what I can upcycle in my projects.