11.9.11

My favorite BLOTTO block was the butterflies.  The background fabric was a deep turquoise which appears batik-like in the photograph but it is not. I found little bits of the print that looked like mirror images and cut butterfly wings to appliqué. I prepared the pieces and did lots of research on Sashiko patterns and found an interesting cloud treatment in a Sylvia Pippen book. I drafted it out unscientifically (I eyeballed it), embroidered, and then scattered the butterflies on to flit happily.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience but I hope I do not win the blocks. I don't have anything in my house that goes with those colors and my house is not Asian in style. I submitted them without my name on them and a couple of meetings later, someone tracked me down and made me put my name on them. Oh, well, I will worry about that tomorrow.

11.8.11

What I learned in Sashiko class I also applied to BLOTTO block raffle. The guild offered a free day of Sashiko lessons with Beverly Gibson and Scottie Blumke who are VERY good at Sashiko. That decided me. I would have to buy more BLOTTO solids. I chose a sky blue and copied some of the branching maple section of the print fabric, enlarged it unscientifically (I eyeballed it) and prepared to do the Sashiko embroidery.

When I finished, the branches didn't look right, so I couched tan floss outlines with brown quadrupled sewing thread. Then I wove my own fabric for the stems with the sewing thread. That is not cheating, right? Technically it is embroidery or surface embellishment, not a new fabric. See the close-up? I chose to weave unevenly, sort of higgledy-piggledy to give the branch more of a bark quality.

11.7.11

On my last visit as a guest and my first visit as a member at the Misty Mountain Quilt Guild, I was curious about the BLOTTO block raffle. For blotto, they have a print fabric and several coordinating solids. No other fabric may be used. A participant buys fat quarters at $2 each and returns a 12.5 inch (unfinished) block and receives her $2 back and gets her name put in the drawing to win everyone's blocks.

Here is the first one I made. It is a fan with black background and pieces of the print fabric. I enjoyed this since I was able to use some of the skills I am learning in the Appliqué classes I take with Connie Tackett.

11.6.11

Scarey, huh? I do not like monkeys. I do not like pink. I particularly do not like sock monkeys but someone I care about does. I must find eyes and clothes for these poor pitiful beasts.

Quilt of the Season

The Fall Leaves table runner did not sell and neither did this which is pleasantly hanging at the foot of the stairs as mon édredon de la saison (my quilt of the season).
It is 20 inches square and has a combination of big stitch in various thread types as well as more traditional hand quilting. The stitching around the individual squares I did in a wool yarn which required a little needle grip puller for each and every stitch!

The top left square has a hand appliqued capped acorn with a quilted oak leaf in the background. I wanted the acorn to be central but I did not want the viewer to forget that falling leaves are part of the acorn to tree cycle. I used green thread for the leaf image to further make spring kind of a ghostly past.


The bottom left is a hand appliqued pumpkin with big stitch within the pumpkin and more traditional stitching around it. I used some of my favorite orange plaid and some twig printed fabric for the pieced stem.


The bottom right shows outline hand quilting around two hand appliqued oak leaves. I am sure the outline quilting is too faint in this picture for you to see it. I saw the shapes for the leaves and the acorns in a magazine and knew I had to buy the magazine. I will search out the issue and let you know which one it was.
The top right block has a sort of three dimensional angle from a Debbie Mumm quilt pattern (circa 1985?) I had that showed angels on a Christmas quilt. I used one of them and made a more dimensional angel with changes to the gown to give it an overalls-jumper effect. I made a blouse and arms, neck and head to put the blouse on. The straps on the overall were very fiddly but I got them to work. Here is a secret, her little legs are only attached to the quilt and her dress! She has no body but her feet hang free.

Her wings are not attached to the background and also hang free. They have decorative stitching so tiny you probably can not see it from the photo. I used dark brown thread and picked up two threads from the fabric and then went under two threads and so on. There is outline hand quilting around her wings and the rest of her but I am sure you can not see it.

I have tons of "hair" for dolls and found this lovely reddish mohair for her. She carries a wire twist of beautiful fall oak leaves.

10.15.11

The morning of the last day of the quilt show. My things in the silent auction did not get much attention, but hardly anything did. There were 65 items and only about 10 had bids on them. My quilt friend says today will be a better day because we live in the country and Saturday is market day. Locals don't spend their money on Fridays, HMHC says, and besides yesterday was payday.

The things in the Boutique made money. In fact, one of the ladies I worked with was sad because she was going to get her friend one of my pumpkin pincushions but they were all gone--EARLY.
I do not have a picture of even a single one but I came home last night and made 8 more. I enjoyed it but I wish I had known ahead what would sell.

This is Iris. She went into the Silent Auction and her sister twin sister Gwendolyn went into the boutique. They are made from Julie McCullough patterns.

People wanted witch dolls, angel dolls, angel ANYthing, and different kinds of pincushions. People COLLECT them! I saw one I wanted but someone bought it before I got up the nerve to spend the money. It was in the most delightful little teacup.

10.14.11

Some vacation, huh?

I have been almost completely absorbed by quilting. I have taken classes in Sashiko embroidery, which I enjoy very much, hand applique, which is probably my favorite, and I will be starting Crazy Quilt and Fiber Active (art quilt) groups pretty soon.

I made some things for the Silent Auction part of my Guild's Quilt Fest which will benefit Habitat for Humanity. I made some things for the Boutique, also. I will get back into blogging by showing you some of the things I have done since May.


This is a table runner I put in for the silent auction. The picture was hastily taken and hastily edited so it is canted a little away from the camera and doesn't look squared up but it really is. The leaf and acorn shape came from a holiday quilting magazine I picked up the day before at the grocery store. If I locate the magazine, I will let you know.

I found some light weight brown ticking fabric in a giant discount store and bought a half yard. I ironed freezer paper traced shapes from that magazine onto the wrong sides of fabric and sewed them to facing fabric, removed the paper, slit the backs, turned and pressed them, and then very carefully machine stitched them to the ticking through the batting and backing. When I was finished with that, I trued up the sides, applied the edge binding and then made big stitch "wind trails". It took about 6 hours with an extra hour at the turn-in site finishing up the big stitch. I think I put $25 as the opening bid. Maybe it was $35.

5.3.11

I am taking a blog-vacation. I have been sewing and quilting and getting ready to leave the home to visit family and there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all that. Check back weekly until June When I expect to return full-time.

5.2.11

It's TURKEY O'CLOCK again! He has a lady who travels with him but she is down off the road and you can only see the top of her head every now and then. See his beard? I never saw a turkey beard before.

WoW! I tried to get a picture of him from the side when he fanned but I kept just missing it.

5.1.11

Three of my finished baskets. If you look closely, you can see one that is NOT finished. Since the photo was taken, I did finish it.

4.30.11

Part 6

Here is Georgia, and of course, a peanut! We have actually bought more apples and pecans than peanuts since living here, but the peanut charm was so cute, who could resist?

4.29.11

Part 5

Here is Florida. On my childhood bracelet, I had always wanted an orange crate and I bought one, finally, when I was in my 50s. I thought about removing it and putting it on this bracelet but it really belongs with childhood. It was the prize I finally gave myself for growing up. What do you think of the charm I chose for my new bracelet? Not too far from the original!

4.28.11

Part 4

Here is New Jersey. What can I say? J said it is the Garden State, so I chose flowers. One memory I have is the beautiful leaves in the park across the road from our apartment. We did not get to go often but the loveliness of the leaves lives on in a painting my father made. He put me and first Little Brother in picture, too.

4.27.11

Part 3

Here is Maine. The moose was an obvious choice even though I do not remember ever seeing one in the wild. If I could have, I would have gotten a Jersey cow or a milk can. Those are among my favorite memories of Maine.

4.26.11

Part 2 of the Charm Bracelet series.

This is New York. I didn't want to do something typical of NYC because I had never been there until I was a teen and even then we just drove through--in a hurry. I remember a few things about New York and among them are grapes and Niagara Falls.

4.25.11

Off and on, I have been making a charm bracelet of places I've lived and places I've vacationed.

This will be the first of my charm bracelet series of blog entries.

I have state charms for Washington, New York, Maine, New Jersey, Florida and Georgia. I also have a tiny representation for each state.

Here is Washington with a cherry charm I constructed. I know Washington has apples and lots of other things like the Space Needle, but cherries go with the state's namesake and they are so pretty, too. I think cherries are my favorite fruit.

4.24.11

The rest of the bank's flower bed.

Johnny Jump-Ups

Violas

4.23.11

Work continues on the red, white, and blue challenge quilt. If I get the binding on, I will turn it in today. I will take a picture of the final project to put right below these words. Then, on to more projects!

4.22.11

Aside from my one lone red/orange tulip, none of mine bloomed this year. These lovely flowers grow on the grounds of my bank in Blue Ridge. I don't know who does their grounds but their landscaping is always lovely.

These pretty flowers are bigger than my fist.

4.21.11

The view from the road. We live near a TVA dam. That is, Tennessee Valley Authority. Actually, we live near several TVA dams. This is Nottley Reservoir. It was built in 1941 and crosses the Nottley River with about 2,300 feet of roadway. The name comes from the Cherokee village, Nadhuli, which was on the shores of the river. If you click this link, TVA, you can see a list of the TVA reservoirs. Not only that, if you lightly move your cursor over the names on the right of the map, a little square will show up on the map giving you the location.

Lake Nottley was quite low a summer or two ago. In fact, we had drought conditions. You would never know that now. The spillway is open and people are concerned that the 61,100 acre-feet of storage in the reservoir might not be enough.

4.20.11

A new friend, K, took me to two quilt guild meetings. The first one met in the United Methodist Church and must have had 300 ladies there. It was every bit as organized and hierarchical as the guild I briefly joined in Orlando. It is a very busy guild and has a lot to offer if I can overlook the rigidity of some of its features.

The second one met in Blue Ridge, in a community room of our bank. It is sponsored by a quilt shop, Country Stitches, in Blue Ridge and had about 25 ladies in attendance. It was a friendly and happy group and I really enjoyed myself. The leader of the day showed several samples of what was new in the shop, there was show-and-tell, ladies turned in blocks they did to be assembled into a charity quilt, there was a reminder for a local challenge fabric contest, and then there was the fat eighths pieces challenge which I will write about another day.

The fabric picture at the top is the Shop Hop challenge fabric. I was reluctant to attempt a small quilt for this contest since I only had two weeks to get it ready and everyone else has had months. Not only that, I did not really find the fabric inspiring for a small wall quilt. The shop ladies and my new friend urged me on with it so I dove in. I managed to find fabrics in my stash to round out the palette, created a design, and drafted it out on the first day.

On the second day, I cut and began some of the piecing.

On the third day, I finished the piecing and found batting and backing in my stash and applied the borders.

On the fourth day, I basted.

On the fifth day I quilted and then took out the quilting since I did not like the effect. Luckily, I had hand-quilted and four hours of work only took one hour to remove.

Day six, new experiments with quilting and a new direction. Today is day seven and I expect to do some more quilting. I probably will not put the binding on today but I might. It is early still.

4.19.11

One day last week I happened to bring my camera with me to the library. I was glad to see the pink dogwood up close. When I was almost finished taking pictures, I saw a robin beneath one of the white dogwoods.

He posed very sweetly and didn't seem at all afraid. If I had had food and time, we might have become friends.

4.18.11

In our own front yard. The oak and the maples are showing leaves and we have had visits from quite a few birds: gold finch, titmouse, cardinal, hummingbird, and a new one I don't recognize.

In case you forgot what dogwood blossoms look like close up!

When our tree first bloomed, I thought the blossoms looked pale pink. They did lighten up to bright white a few days later. Just the same, I am glad I got a picture when they still had a pinkish glow.

4.17.11

Lucky for me, I brought my camera to the library! I haven't seen pink dogwood for more than 30 years. Aren't they lovely? It makes me want to have some of the pink variety as well as the white.

4.16.11

But soft! What yarn from yonder box revealed? Chocolate brown for R's owl hat and socks, purple for my dickey--I am already on ball two and all is going well--and some variegated brown gold just because it was on sale and made great hats for sailors last year.

4.15.11

Yes, in our own front yard.

I was ready to immediately run out and buy more dogwood trees. I decided to research best planting practices. The flowering pear trees were beautiful this year, too. I will have to figure out when to put those in. I have not bought them but I know where there is a very good nursery.