Trying to Play Catch-Up - Again

When last I posted, I showed you the Hershey's Bar needlepoint in the blocking stage.  I was able to finish it for my husband, as a belated Christmas present.  It is an eyeglass case.  For he who is too vain to admit he now needs the glasses for more than just reading.  But, it's the only thing my wonderful husband is vain about, so I leave it at teasing him.

Front of case in the large photo above; the small photo above shows the business end where you insert the glasses.  At left you see the back view of the business end.  The back was made from a scrap of a man's wool jacket.  I added a pewter button that is a reproduction of the buffalo side of a "Buffalo Nickel" American 5 cent piece.  In the last photo you can see that a week ago, when I took these pictures, we still had a little of our day-after-Christmas snow on the ground.

 Now on to two things I want to share with you.  Ever since we saw the CEO of Yankee Candle on Undercover Boss we've been buying them; in spite of cheaper knock offs being more available.  But a few months ago I decided that those jars the candles come in are just too nice to pitch into the recycle bin.  So, I've been saving them and cleaning them up.  I have one (not pictured) that is a large jar with a rubber stopper sort of top on it that I've also rehabilitated.  You can see what I'm using the smaller ones for - buttons!  They're perfect because the jars pretty much seal up with those stoppers around the glass tops.

 I've been watching Martha's Sewing Room on PBS and have tried some of the designs of Kari Mecca.  I've also been purchasing Sew Beautiful magazine.  Well, I took the plunge and bought some new tools - whimsy sticks and both of Kari's "Whimsy" books.  I hope to be playing with these soon.  Right now I'm in the process of making my granddaughter a rain coat - with my own whimsy!

I have a friend who is an arborist.  As well as a geologist, an archeologist, an anthropologist, a former White House gardener, and all around good guy.  He just celebrated his 70th birthday.  Hopefully we will be able to pull off a big birthday celebration this spring.  On his birthday I gave him a small gift, and I hope to have this one finished for the celebration . . . it is going to be a canvas bag.  For his groceries, for his books, for his digging tools; whatever.

The bag idea was not mine.  You can see in the bottom picture that they made a bag in the magazine.  This past summer I was at a thrift store and found a stash of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazines.  I sat there the better part of an hour and went through each one, picking ones with charts that I liked.  This was one of them and I thought at the moment I saw it that it would make a great gift for my friend.  But, you see that they were really bland and did their stitching on white and used raw canvas.  I have done my stitching on Country French Tula, 10 count.  Their count was 7 so mine's even bigger.  And my canvas is GREEN.  I used the charts to stitch the trees, but I chose the trees - did even more than they did and did them MANLY.  That is to say, I didn't stitch any of them with the pink froo froo that they had done.  Can't wait to finish this up.

You'll also remember I picked up some quilt squares that were pre-printed and I was stitching on one of those.  Got one done - finally!

I don't know what I'm going to do at this point.  I will say that it was incredibly boring stitching this pre-printed panel.  I have no idea why, but I just hated it.  The other one I've been working on - the schoolhouse - I've been having the same problem with it.

Now to the quilting.  I'm going to eventually add another page to the blog here that will just have pictures of the quilts when they're done.  We had a fine day on Sunday.  The temps didn't quite make it to 70 degrees like they predicted, but we were nearly 60.  In the afternoon I ran out with armloads of quilts and hung them on the line to get decent photos.

This is the Civil War repro quilt that you can see SO much better now.  Sebastian, the cat, would not go away.  He kept rubbing up against the quilts and getting into the picture.

The backing fabric from Keepsake Quilting arrived last week, so I'm calling the quilter on Friday and this one will go in.

This is the Dick and Jane quilt (name of the fabric) that I made a few years ago.  It has backing fabric now so will also go to the quilter ASAP.

 

This is Froggy Fourth of July.  I made it back in the mid-90's and it gets its name from the patriotic frogs that are all over it.  It is a lap quilt or table topper size.  I've not shown this one before on the blog, so thought you might enjoy it.

This is Juliet's Ribbons, my personal Civil War reproduction quilt. This will be a wall hanging in our foyer.  My husband really likes this one.  And I'm pretty proud of it myself.  I haven't gotten the backing fabric for it yet (Hancock's of Paducah really let me down on that) so I'm going to my local quilt shop soon with hopes of finding something.

This is called My Little Red Tractor (based on the print on the fabric) and is a tessellated block.  I made it many years ago and gave it to someone as an unquilted table topper.  She returned it to me after several years never having used it.  People with no imagination don't deserve nice things like this anyway.  I've decided to have it quilted and use it myself.  So there!

 Last year I bought a fat quarter bundle at my quilt store.  It sat until I was inspired by a background quilt on the Fons & Porter show.  I call this Patty O'Quilt and it is my granddaughter's birthday present this year.  You may recognize the design from her Christmas stocking - I stitched it as the quilt on the bed!  Top left is the blocks that I did in a day.  Top right shows rows in progress.  At left are the white backgrounds that I pulled out (I didn't want to use them in the blocks so substituted the turquoise and orange you see in the top left) but I did use them to make the binding.  Here, below,  is the quilt top hanging out on the line.  I have to go through my stash to see if I have fabric I can use for the backing. I'm thinking not; and I'd like to find something white and sweet like the binding fabric.

Last of the quilts came out of my stash.  Several years ago I bought these panels at a quilt shop going out of business.  They are Robert's Baltimore Album.  The first part was easy, sew the two panels together to make the center or "album blocks".  Then I had to cut the other panel apart to make the swag borders.  This weekend I worked to attach said borders with mitred corners.  Only problem was I soon discovered the panel had been cut about six inches too short to make matred corners.  Huh.  Guess I know why I got it at such a good price now.  So, what to do???  I sat there looking at it so long that when my husband walked by the door of the workroom, he asked me if everything was OK.  Jackie knows what I'm talking about.

Finally, I went to the Fons & Porter show I'd seen just that morning.  It was about making easy LeMoyne Stars.  Well, I didn't use the easy method, lets just put that out there right now.  That means set-in seams. I have a jelly roll of Barbara Brackman's ReUnion.  They are Civil War reproduction colors.  They also happen to be the colors from the cheater quilt panels.  So, I zip zapped with colors and neutrals and made the "test" LeMoyne Star block you see here.  Those blocks will go in the corners.  There was no way I was ever going to be able to match that white background (as there about 50 billion shades of white) so I'll have corners and the swags will run between.

Here you can see the album blocks in the back, the swag border on top and the LeMoyne Star block I made to see if the colors went with.  My husband really liked this one too!

Our weather's been weird here.  Snow on the days before and after Christmas and then so cold afterward that it stayed for two weeks only to be melted away by a nearly 60 degree day.  When the warm air came in that morning, we were treated to super thick fog.

This photo was taken as the fog began to drift away from us, but you can see the top of the fog bank just at the top of the trees in the distance.  The sunny sky quickly went away and we were very dreary until about 3 in the afternoon.  Now cold air is coming back and we are expecting freezing rain over night.  Keep your fingers crossed that we don't lose power!  Hope you enjoyed!

A Very Merry Christmas to You

It has officially been 80 days since my last post.  I wish I could tell you that I've been on a trip round the world.  But, no, I've just had w-a-y too much on my plate lately.  Hugs to those of you who wrote to make sure that I was OK; I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that.

I'm really OK.

And here is the post that I promised you I'd make before Christmas.

So, what's kept me from you?  First of all, I'm writing a book.  It won't be for general publication, but I've been commissioned to write a family history for a local citizen.  This is my third foray into this type of work; it can be extremely time-consuming.  I'm doing most of the research and all the writing.  Printing is scheduled, so far, for sometime this coming spring.

The other big project is winding down - the Civil War reproduction quilt.  I was working on the book and took some time away from the quilt, but here lately, I've been working on putting it all together.  I have finished the top and share with you these photos:

Viewed from one side

viewed from the other side

Viewed from the middle

It is now ready for the customer to see it.  I've ordered the backing fabric, however, sadly, it is on back order.  I will wait until after Christmas to decide if I will choose a different backing fabric, or wait, goodness knows how long, for the back ordered material to come in.  When the backing fabric finally does come, it's off to the quilter.

I've also worked on these client projects:

These were cute - she wanted to put them on top of five gallon storage containers.  So, I made the lid covers and attached the needlepoints to them.

This had been finished by another person.  She'd made it a pillow that looked like it was a shopping bag.  The pillow part was inside the turquoise outer bag and was finished with royal blue fabric.  The client ended up deciding that she really didn't like that finish and brought it to me with the question, what can I do with it now?

 I looked at it and said, well, why don't we make it into a shopping bag, for real?

Then I posited that I could take the inner pillow and make it into the liner for the bag.  Not only that, I could make it into a removable liner.

 So, that's what I did.  I added plastic purse handles to it using ribbon that goes along with the color scheme, but you don't see it until you're looking inside.  Then I made the liner and it attaches with velcro.

Put something messy into the bag and the liner comes out for washing; which will save the outer bag - with the needlepoint on it from a lot of wear and tear.

A few needlepoint pillows . . . .

Two sides of the same coin - applique work on muslin; very pretty.

Finished as a pillow with a foam insert.

    Another sweatshirt makeover.  This one started as a vintage lace collar and aqua sweatshirt.  The client also gave me the aqua and peach daisies and some lace with a peach ribbon run through it to incorporate into the design somehow.

On the personal work front, I've finished my Juliet's Ribbons Civil War reproduction quilt that has been at least two years in the making.  However, the weather here's been rotten and I haven't been able to get it outside for a really good picture.  I'm hoping for a break in the weather on Christmas Eve, just before some snow pushes into our area.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Otherwise, here's what I've been up to:

 I was at a thrift store this summer and found this beautiful blouse that was hand-embroidered in pink and apple green.  I am almost sure that it was Indian (from India) and must have gone with an equally beautiful sari.  Sadly it was about 85 sizes too small for me to wear.  So, I paid the two dollars for it and cut it up.  The front portion went into making a pillow case for a travel-size pillow that will go to my granddaughter (it's her color-scheme).

Some Christmas gift bags made from scraps of pre-quilted fabric and yard sale-find zippers.

 Recently I was Christmas shopping in an antique store.  It was the first time for me in this particular store.  I ran across a cardboard box with quilt squares in it.  The tag said "45 squares, $45".  I looked at them.  First off, I saw they were red, white and blue (mostly).  Then I saw the handwritten note pinned to the top square, with a really old pin "From Gramma to Tillmer 1922 Christmas Present".

Who Tillmer was is anyone's guess, but she never did get around to making the quilt that her Gramma apparently wanted her to do.  And where these blocks have been since 1922 is a mystery as well.  I am not sure if the ones that are blue/pink were originally blue/red.  I am pretty sure that it's not a hoax though, because these 13 inch blocks are all hand pieced.

As you can see, I've already been planning how to use them.  All of them will make just shy of a King size quilt.  I will need to add a small top and bottom sash and a 5 inch sash on each side.  The little piece of paper will be preserved and become a part of the quilt's history as well.  And who knows, maybe I can eventually discover who Tillmer was.

In December of 2009 - three years ago !!! - I finished Prairie Schooler's "Christmas Eve".  It was stitched with Caron Watercolors on a hand-dyed Tula.  I have finally gotten around to doing the quilted border for it that I always intended.  Got the border done yesterday, now all I need to do is the quilting and finishing.






Over the summer and fall I was working of the Summer House's E Pluribus Unum which I think is just a gorgeous design.

The wings are different sizes.  That being said, I did have to make some modifications to the design layout to get it to fit my piece of fabric.  The linen was 32 count, Wichelt which is a smokey blue.  Remember when I stitched the Opus Magnusson and I got a whole lot of Gentle Art Raven that I couldn't use because it had too much green in it?  Well, I used all that Raven on this.  It required so much that I had to go out and get more.  And now I've got leftover of that.  So, if you need any Raven with the green, let me know; I've got about four or five leftover skeins of it.

I bought this book; I think it's one of their older publications.  I cannot wait until the quiet of Christmas week when I can read it.  It begins with a lot of quilting history.  Information about the fabrics, the styles of fabrics, the dyes, etc.  And then the history of the designs.  Then, it goes into talking about the quilts in the Henry Ford Museum collection.  On a quick look-through, it looks like it will be VERY interesting.

Finally, I have worked the last couple of months on my granddaughter's Christmas stocking.  She's a pink and purple girl and is in ballet.  She was on the cusp of dropping ballet and going into soccer, but she ultimately decided to stick with ballet.

And she loves her dolls.  So, pink, purple, ballet and dolls - those were my design directions.

It took me about a month to design the stocking and then about another two months give or take two weeks - to stitch it.

Here are the results:

What I do is take the Stocking design and tweak it to go along with the person I'm doing it for.  So, this stocking from the Better Homes & Gardens Heirloom Christmas Stockings in Cross Stitch is the one for the the little girl.  I removed several elements.  For instance, there was a sort of old fashioned nightgown hanging on the wardrobe door.  The wardrobe was also painted blue.  I changed it to a ballet dress and one of those French provincial-style that's a creamy-white; like this:

I also added some Christmas art stuck onto the door; like a five year old would do.  The original stocking did not have the Christmas tree with the birds.  That came from another stocking design.  Originally there was a Nativity scene at the top of the window, but I turned that into a lighted village.  

The paintings were designed to have floral motifs, but I designed two ballerinas.  Those are stitched, mostly, over one.

On the bed is a quilt that I currently have in the to-do pile to make for my granddaughter.  On top of the doll house I designed a partial Santa and sleigh with a full reindeer.

On the floor is some more light up Christmas village.

This one is Santa's toy works and outside is the Abominable Snowman ( from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer) putting the star on the tree and the elves relaxation station run by "Elfis" (you can see his name on the sign).  

I added bits and pieces from other stocking designs - mostly the dolls; or changed up their colors to go with the theme.  I thought I had all the petite beads I needed to finish the project, but alas, I do not.  Delivery is next year, so I've got time.  In the spring I'll begin working on the one for my grandson and then I'll be out of the stocking-making business for a while.

So, that's it for now.  More updates soon - I promise.  Until next year, have a 

Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

hope you enjoyed!  Katherine