Stitching Along

We've had some bumps in the road the last couple of weeks, but I've been stitching through them as (we all know) it is therapy.  I'm trying to be careful about my diet and trying to get more exercise as well; trying being the operative word.  I'll find out if I'm being successful when I go see the Dr. next month.

Anyhoo - here's what I've been up to -

More blocks on the Path to the Civil War:

Battlefield

Opposition

Devil's Puzzle

Mosaic

Connecticut

Nine Patch Checkerboard

Both Opposition and Connecticut were meant to be cut out using templates according to the instructions in the book.  I measured the angles of the triangles and did things differently.  For Opposition, I cut the six small 30 degree triangles then attached them to scraps that were long enough to extend out as far as I needed.  Sewed it all up and squared it up to 12.5 inches.  pretty much the same with Connecticut, although, different angles.  Also, used full squares to make Nine Patch Checkerboard - except for the four corners.  This time, I cut the square down, but it was still missing its corners.  I used the triangles that were the product of squaring-up to sew on as the corner ('cause they're smaller at the corners than at the sides).  Savvy quilters will see that I lost a couple of my points on Mosaic.  Alas, my perfect mojo seems to have deserted me.

I've also been working on this; I'm calling it my Hexie Project:

I saw a piece on Sewing with Nancy, this Texas quilt artist - a man - was doing these full size quilts.  He'd learned the technique from the book One Block Wonders.  His quilts were astonishing!  And I thought, oh, I have to try that.  He used large scale prints to come up with his quilts.  Do you know it is not easy to find large scale prints these days?  But I found this:

I quite like the colors and this is the fabric that so far, I've made those six hexies with.  I do not plan to make a full size quilt.  I'm going for a table runner.

Then, there's this:

A friend of mine found it at a yard sale and bought it for me.  Isn't she sweet?  I quite like the design on the cover.  The quilts are meant to be made from scraps no bigger than five inches.  I have quite a lot of scraps and even if I don't make a full size quilt, I can do another table runner just to play.

Finally, I had a little retail therapy.  This one was a gift from my husband.  We'd gone in search of a yard sale a friend had told me about that had lots of stitching and sewing stuff.  We didn't find that, but we found a church sale.  Those can be quite wonderful.  And I was walking along and here was this older couple and she had this box on the table and I went WHOA!  I asked her how much, she told me and I said, can you wait on that for me?  She nodded.  I turned around and scanned the crowd, saw my husband, flagged him over and he came over to me saying "Did you see that on the table?"  I said yes and asked if I could have it.  Now, I'm not the demure, submissive wife, not by a long shot.  I didn't have the funds, that's all.  He asked me if it was a good price and I said yes.  He asked me if I wanted to haggle and I said no.  The price was that good.  So, I turned around and said to the lady, I'll take it!  And here it is -

It's a Singer, 1956, Model 99.  I have been doing a little research on it.  It's not a Featherweight.  They call it a 3/4 size.  I haven't run it yet, but if it doesn't run, I'm sure my husband or my shop can make it run quite well.  I've wanted one of these for quite some time.  That nice lady, she was sort of sad to see it go.  She told me they'd bought it in 58 or 59 - she couldn't remember which, but it was right after they got married.  Her husband was quite happy to wrap it up and hand it off to my husband - no emotional attachment there.  I gave the money to her though.  Just to make the pain of parting a little easier.

So, that's it.  Hope you enjoyed.