All Thumbs

I just tried signing in to Google to update this blog and it took me four tries -- FOUR! -- to type in my email address.  First I had my hand on the wrong keys.  Then I had one hand on the wrong keys... boy, it's going to be that kind of day.

Last night was the regularly scheduled meeting of my local quilt guild.  We had a super speaker!  Chris Kirsch is a local quilting celebrity, and evidently she started out in our guild!  She spoke last night about the connections between garments and quilts.

Her web site is here if you'd like to check it out:  http://www.chrisquilts.net/

and her work is stunning.  I especially liked it that she spoke about her faith and how important it is to represent it in her quilting. 

After the meeting we had some show and tell.  That's always fun, don't you agree?  We had just finished a sew-along so lots of ladies had used the same pattern.  I was again amazed that people using the same pattern could come up with such a diverse group of finished items.  There were many table runners and one full quilt among the SAL group, and they were awesome.

We always wish happy birthdays to those celebrating during the month.  My friend Suzi had had a birthday the day before and I'd made her a tote bag from one of the Nancy's Notions templates.  I'd made one for myself and she said she 'coveted that bag'.  So last week I dug around in the resource center and came up with some quilted fabric I picked up, who knows how long ago, and made one for her.  She showed it briefly last night.  Wouldn't you know I forgot to snap a picture of it before I gave it to her -- although I DO have a pic of the original:

Here it is on my ironing board. 

Sideways with the bottom and straps showing.

It's the Florida bag from Clover designed by Nancy Zieman.  We had a big piece of upholstery fabric in our stash at church, and it was too slippery to use in any of our own projects, so we split it between three of us and we all made a bag. 

My piece happened to land near that green check in the 'someday' pile, and I went "Eureka!"...  The center panels are checked, also upholstery weight fabric, as are the straps.  The whole bag is lined with muslin because that's what I had that matched.  The button came from one of my American Sewing Guild conference experiences.

The gift bag is a blue printed double-sided pre-quilted fabric that I think I got at Sewing Weekend one year.  Suzi just happened to be wearing an outfit on Sunday that coordinated in an awesome bout of serendipity... as if they were meant to be together, she and that bag!

I had nothing to show.  My projects at present are all UFOs.  <sigh>

At the end of the meeting one of the ladies told us that another of the members was lucky to be there at all -- here's the story, short form.  She got up in the middle of the night to use the facilities, and she had a pain in her back.  She took some aspirin.  She could not get comfortable and her arm started to hurt, but none of this was bad pain, about 4 on a scale of 10.  Not being able to go back to sleep she decided to call her doctor's answering service.  THEY recommended that she get to the ER.  She called 911 rather than drive herself, although she said she had considered it.

Diagnosis:  heart attack.

Heart attack symptoms in women are NOT like they are for men!  Coincidentally, this week is Go Red for Women in our building... since one of our neighbors on this floor is the American Heart Association, here's a plug for them:

And here's the web site:  https://www.goredforwomen.org/

Having been through this with one of the aunties, I hope everyone gets themselves informed.  According to AHA, one in three women die of heart disease or stroke every year.  33%!!  The next time you're with two other women, or three women if you're a guy, ask yourself which one of them could you bear to lose this year?  Yes, it's that big a deal.

Getting off the soapbox now... carry on!

It's Friday!

This week has gone whizzing by!  Sometimes they're like that.  Other times not so much...

Checking the Blogs:

I have my favorites, don't you?  I really should update my list because I've added a few more and a couple of people aren't blogging regularly. 

Every day I have to check on Rita Farro's world.  She's redoing her laundry room.  She has a thing for painted furniture that fascinates me.

Then I usually check out what's up at Patchwork Times with Judy Laquidara.  Funny thing, I was looking for sewing blogs and hers caught my eye because her last name is the same as a guy I used to work with, but it's not the same family.  I have to hear about Judy's chickens, and her dogs and cat, and what's going on in Texas, like how many scorpions she saw today!

I also read Carrie Nelson's blog.  I used to read her over at Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, but she recently grabbed up a position at Moda, so that's exciting and cool.

Sometimes I pop over to Madison to check in on Denise Russert.  It's her fault She's the reason I started shopping at the Loopy Ewe... !!

Recently I've been checking in on Mary Fons at Paper Girl.  Mary's been on my mind lately because she's going through some health issues but also because I am a big fan of Fons & Porter, and now Fons & Fons!  I've seen Marianne Fons speak at various venues.  Did I ever tell you that I once made a set of oriental vests for Marianne and Liz?  Never saw them wear them, but oh well...  anyway I love Mary's writing style and her fresh approach to quilting.  She's on Facebook if you're interested.  Keeping good thoughts for Mary!

Television:

I don't watch a lot.  I probably watch too much than is good for me, but there are a few things I just love.  Sewing with Nancy of course, CSI in all its versions, NCIS, Major Crimes and Rizzoli and Isles.  Noting a couple of themes here??  LOL! 

But I also watch stuff on PBS like Downton Abbey and Grantchester (both period dramas) and Masterpiece Mystery no matter what's on.

Lately on Thursdays DH and I have been watching Around the Corner with John McGivern.  He goes to some local neighborhood and finds out what's special and cool about that area.  Last night the show featured Sturgeon Bay.  For the non-initiated, you have to drive through Sturgeon Bay to get to the picturesque confines of Northern Door County.  It's in the center of Southern Door County, the gateway to vacationland, but that's another story.

So I'm watching the program and because I've been there I was enjoying it immensely!  When what do I see but a friend of mine on the screen!  Yep, I almost fell off the couch...  first the voice.  I know that voice.  They're showing a small church and I hear a familiar voice.  Then THERE she is on the screen, Nancy Bontempo!  We used to work together a couple of jobs back, and we became very good friends... I adore her hubby too, he's one of those people you just have to love.

Anyway, there she is talking about the Friends Community Church. 

I knew she moved to Sturgeon Bay, she grew up in the area and worked in Green Bay after high school.  But I didn't know she was a Friend...

Looking good Nancy!

The Hair Cut:

I FINALLY got my hair cut!!  I completely blew my January 22 appointment.  Well, it's not totally my fault... they always --- always -- call and remind people of their appointments.  Except when the receptionist takes a vacation.

And that's the one I put in my calendar as January 29.

Close but no cigar.

Turns out several people missed their appointments that week.

I still feel stupid.  And my hair was OUT OF CONTROL for almost two weeks.  UGH!

Knitting:

Yes, I did get something done this week:

I finished everything on this sized three months baby sweater except sewing in the zipper down the center back.  Yesterday I showed it to my daughter while Hubby was looking.  The conversation went like this:

Daughter:  That's cute.  I like the color.
Hubby:  Who's that for?
Me:  Son's co-worker is having a baby in the spring.
Hubby:  How do you know it will fit?  It looks kind of small.
Daughter and me simultaneously:  IT'S FOR A BABY!

Fabric Acquisition Road Trip:

I wrote about going to visit Janice in the nursing home, after which we went to a thrift shop and to Ben Franklin crafts, where I picked up quite a number of yards of fabric.  Mostly out of the clearance bins, but I did buy one piece of regular priced fabric.  It's a floral print with a gray background and pink, yellow and green of course.  I figured out the repeat and cut three pieces to do a Stack and Whack kind of thing.  I really like it!  But I only bought one yard and the repeat is pretty large.  I might have to go back there tomorrow.  Oh well...

Knit and sew on...

Non-Sewing Activities

Saturday my friend Suzi, my oldest granddaughter and I went to visit a lady from our congregation who is in a nursing home recovering from a stroke.  We dropped in with a quilt from the church guild and to offer her a small bit of comfort and love from those who miss seeing her on Sunday morning.

We chose this quilt to deliver.  I'm not sure why, maybe it was the brightness or the quilting or just because it was near the top of the pile.

It must have been meant to be because Janice was wearing a tee shirt in a flowered print with yellow in it.  She smiled a lot when we laid it in her lap.  We told her how much love came with it, and prayed with her that it would aid in her recovery.

She struggled to say something, not because she was choked up, even though she was, but as a result of the stroke she struggles to say anything.  It's frustrating to be unable to convey even the simplest ideas, and my heart just broke for her.  I'm sure she's getting therapy but she's not really able to visit back.  I pray we brought her some enjoyment!

I'm determined to put visiting her again on my list of things to do.  I might find something interesting to read to her next time.

As we were leaving the building we spotted a resale shop we'd never seen before.  We decided to drop in and see what they had.  Kind of restoring the heart after feeling so sad for Janice.

Here are my most favorite finds:

This beautiful bowl is now on my cabinet with fresh fruit in it.

I cannot resist lilies of the valley.  Born in May, it's 'my' flower.

So all in all it was a good day.  My granddaughter found some neat stuff both at the resale shop and at the Ben Franklin Crafts store.  We had a nice lunch and got home before the snowstorm.

Oh yeah, it snowed.  And snowed.  And blew around.

Here's my parking lot today:

Sew on...

Sweater Update

Remember this project from a couple of days ago?

 

 

It's finished!  It looks a whole lot better now, like you could put it on a child and their head would actually look out the front side correctly.  And I don't think you can even tell where I cut it apart and sewed it back together.  Can you?

 

All I can say is: Thank you Eunie Jang and Knitting Daily on PBS for showing me how to do error correction and the mattress stitch!  If you are curious about the mattress stitch you can go to knittingdaily.com or probably any other knitting site and get a tutorial.  Then there's always YouTube...  my favorite learning channel right now.

I sewed the sleeve seams from cuff to underarm, and hand stitched the zipper in the back... and voila!  Wearable sweater for a toddler.

Here's the second one my mystery knitter made:

Pretty darned cute!  And I love the yarn color.  It's sitting right on top of the burgundy one, you can see it peaking out around the edges.

I have so much fun at Family Sewing Night.  How lucky am I??  LOL!

Knit and sew on...

The Fabric Stash

Seems like this is the time of the year when everyone is discussing their fabric stash...  admit it, the Christmas holidays are over, there's not much in the way of entertainment in the cold Midwest in January, so it's probably timely.

 

I've shown you some of mine before...  I have a sewing room in my basement.  I used to put things out on shelves and in baskets.  But then I was invaded by a family of field mice who chewed a couple dozen holes in a piece of silk and linen that rendered a yard and half completely unusable except as patchwork.

 

I hate mice.  Even when I don't see an actual mouse, I hate coming across their leavings.  You see tiny specks of things that weren't there yesterday and you wonder what it is.  Aaagh!! Don't touch it!

 

Enter the bins.  And a hubby with traps filled with peanut butter.  Get them OUT!!

 

Now I have so many bins, and they take up a lot of space.  At first I tried to organize by fabric type for garment fabrics... all the cotton/poly knits together.  Sometimes that worked.  I've also put groups together for what would work for an outfit, or all the pants weight fabric together.  It's kind of a mishmash, admittedly a work in process.  It helps to label the bins.  I've taken packaging tape and a small square of cardboard and placed a tag on the outside of each bin.  Portable and easy to change.

 

If I don't do that I have no idea what I have where.

 

OK I KNOW it's too much.  But it's my only vice.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 Quilting fabric at first was just a small problem issue...

I could group things, tie them nicely and put them in a bin for a future project.

But the stash just started to grow on its own, I swear, while I wasn't looking!

It did help when I was planning a project.  I organized by fabric length.  Over a yard, a yard, half yards, fat quarters, etc.  Then I organized by color, a bin of blue, a bin of red, all the browns from cream to chocolate.  That led to bins of Christmas and a bin of batik, plus a bin of plaid and a bin of dot.  And just for fun, a bin full of miscellaneous pieces that could be cut up for scrap quilts.



The current box of stuff to be cut up into usable bits...

I got the Scrap Insanity book, did the recommended 2 inch, 3.5 inch and 5 inch squares.  I branched out to strips too.  2 inch, 2.5 inch and 3 inch width of fabric strips had bins of their own.  I made my own jelly roll bundles.  Those are very convenient when you want to actually sew, not figure out what you WANT to sew.

One day I took out the bin of 2 inch squares and went wild...

The right side of my design wall looked like this.

I have a box of projects that are not quite finished, and quilt blocks left over from either testing a pattern or where I made too many or maybe just made some because I could.  Some day there will be a whole rash of finishes!  Really, it IS possible!

a box of UFOs and orphan squares.

 Not only do I have responsibility for my personal stash... but I have to help Suzi manage the church group's stash!  This is how it looked after we spent a little time working on it in November.

It doesn't look that good right now, but we have about a dozen quilts in various stages of completion and there are kits galore for the ladies who want to sew tops.  I think messy and working is much better than neat and organized but nothing's happening anyway, don't you?

I have taken to calling this a personal collection instead of a stash.  After all, does your husband have a beer can collection because he's going to USE them all???  Ha!  I'm stocking up against inflation.  Or a snow day.  Or my retirement.  Whatever --  I love my collection.  Every single inch of it.

If I have to use up everything I have, I am going to freakin' live forever!

Sew on...

Ooops! Fixing a Knitting Blunder

So you know how sometimes life gets in the way of what you're doing?  I think this story might be like that.

 

Someone who shall remain nameless (but it isn't me) was knitting a child's sweater while watching TV or something.  I have knitted this sweater at least a dozen times so I know how this can happen!

 

The sweater has a hood and zips up the back.  You start at the face edge, knit the hood, then you bind off.  You fold the hood, pick up stitches at the sides and join the sides to make the face opening.

 

I don't know how clear it is in this picture, but this person flipped the pieces when picking up the neck stitches, so the face edge is okay on the right side and flipped on the left.

 

She was having trouble on the sleeve cables and frog stitched one sleeve a couple of times.  It finally came together.  Almost.

 

The edge on the left is actually the face edge, the diagonal down the center should be at the center back, not the center front.

Wrong way.

Right way.

Normally I do the hand picked zipper when she's done with the sweater because she hates doing the zipper and I don't mind.

She showed me what happened and was really upset with herself for doing this.  I sympathized!!  Who would want to frog stitch the whole dang sweater???

ME:   What I would do if it was mine would be to clip the picked up stitches, turn the hood the right way, and use the mattress stitch to put it back together.

SHE:  OK, here you go.

ME:  Oh boy.  I was wondering what I was going to do with all my leisure time...

Actually this didn't turn out to be such a bad task.  FINDING the picked up stitches might have been the hardest part.  But since I would be separating a bound off edge from the top edge of the neck band, I was pretty sure it wouldn't unravel.

I put the neck band on waste yarn with a big yarn needle.  That's the light purple you see in the photos.  I cut at the center and unraveled the picked up stitches.  Then I flipped the hood the right way and pinned it to the neck band again.

Now all I need to do is stitch the pieces back together, block the sweater and sew in the zipper.

Piece of cake.

I should be able to knock this off while watching Jeopardy tonight!

Knit on...

Charity Sewing

The church quilting group met this past Saturday to catch up from the holiday hiatus and show what we've been working on since we last met.

Wow, all I can say is wow.

Bonnie worked on a new pattern, a big chevron using strips, not triangles.

This pattern is called Cut Apart Nine Patch.  Quilted and finished.

The pattern for this purple number is called My Favorite Donation Quilt.

Rail Fence, quilted and finished.

Shirley even tried her hand at free motion quilting, a new skill for her!

Another chevron, this time with smaller strips.  You need more strips but you get more colors.

This pattern has a name, but I can't recall what it is;  it is essentially snowball blocks with sashing.

We love our string quilts!  Quilted and finished.

Xs and Os, quilted and finished.

Yellow Brick Road pattern, quilted and finished.

I pieced this 60 degree triangle pattern a while ago and decided it needed to move OUT of my UFO box...

Our new Welcome banner.

Someone asked us if we could make something to cover up the chip in the paint on this wall.  I don't know if it was a joke or what.. the space is about 18 inches wide and the chip is down below where the O in Welcome is!  What could you put there that wouldn't look odd?

So we got creative and I pieced some wonky letters.  I was very into wonky that week!  Then I passed it along to my co-leader, Suzi, and she did an amazing job of quilting it.  We got a dowel and a string and voila!  Chip covered, and not at all awkward.  It's right inside our back door and now is one of the first things you see when you come into the Fellowship hall in the church.

Now, back to those UFOs...

Sew on!

Back to Blogging!

I just looked at the last time I posted anything and I took a seriously long break!  Oh well, everyone deserves to have some time off over the holidays...

I have a bunch of things to finish up and I'm doing some project planning.  I'm not going to call what I'm doing anything like making a resolution, because we all know how those go.  But I do want to do better at starts and finishes this year.  My stash just keeps growing and I have to do something before my family nominates me for the Hoarders TV shows!

I'm seriously into scrap usage these days, and by scrap usage I mean using up those bins and bins of things that I've cut up from the leftovers of other projects.  I was so industrious about cutting small chunks of fabric into the planned 2 inch/3 1/2 inch/5 inch pieces that I now have many more than I can use in a weekend...  so I'd like to get going on sewing some of those bits together.

In my weekly blog review I come across lovely things and good patterns.  Right now I'm crazy about log cabins in all shapes and forms.  You're saying shapes and forms?  Log Cabins?  What?

How about wonky log cabins?  Triangle log cabins?  Hexy log cabins?  Ha!  You knew that, right?

None of these LCs is going to help me on the squares, but they're clearing out the strips and chunks bag.  This week the ladies at the church guild are getting a lesson in how to do these types of squares because I kid you not, we have a stash there too!

Next project I'm going to try with them is to return to my spool blocks or maybe some bow ties.  We can do some nine patches if we can find sets... I think I have a bin of fours and fives of the same colors that the grands sorted out for me one Saturday if I can find it.  A nine patch of two inch squares turns out to measure five inches if your seam allowances are right.  (A four patch of twos should be 3 1/2 inches...)

Here's a nice tutorial about Bow Ties on Quilty Pleasures: 

http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2015/01/qm-bitty-blocks-things-to-consider/

These spools were two inch squares and two by five inch strips.  Matching colors are good, but if you use similar colors and pair them with one background color per block it works too.  I have a box of these units I should finish up.

On the list!

Also to complete:

More doll inventory for the shop in Mukwonago
A commission to make an outfit for a beautician doll
Two Christmas quilts to layer, quilt and bind
My 1600 Inches Jelly Roll batik needs layering, quilting and binding

I suppose I should finish up the Phone Guy's Wife quilt...

 And the Black and White and Stars too.

OK, I'm stopping with the list now.  Too much to do, too little time!  I need to win the lottery so I can quit my job and stay home and

Sew on....

Happy New Year!

Brrrr... the temperature today is above zero, but only just.  Well, OK it's 10.  But the wind chill is minus 2.  Our safety manager sent out a notice on how quickly you can get frostbite in this kind of weather, and it's five or ten minutes!  That's not enough time to get to the bus stop!

It was hard coming back to work after a week and a half off.  I had to put on real shoes.  And my cubicle is still chilly, even more so when the temperature outside is so low.  Yesterday it took about six minutes for the gauge in my car to register more than C and I was a quarter of the way home before the heater was throwing warmth.

Winter has arrived.  With a vengeance it seems.

So over the holidays I spent some time sewing and knitting.  And then cleaning up my messy room before I could sew again.  (What's new?  HA HA!)  I got all my Christmas gifts done, and I think everyone was pleased.  Christmas Eve was nice.  Church was early since it's always the live Nativity play.  We had a very well behaved donkey this year.  No poops in the gym!  My son said he was disappointed since it wasn't as stinky as last year... 

I received a gift card for Patched Works in Elm Grove.  What an awesome quilt shop!  If you haven't been there, why not?  You should go.  They have what you need!  Here's a link to Julie's blog... Patched Works Blog to find out what's going on there, or here's the store link:  http://www.patchedworks.com/

The day we went, the grands and I took no time at all to spend what was on the card PLUS a few bucks more.  But we got some treasures.  Miss E found some spider web fabric that was on sale, and Miss A found some Angry Birds Halloween that was also 30% off.  PJ bottoms are being planned.

Our pile must have looked strange because the cutting table lady said "What are you making?" like they usually do but her tone indicated that she just didn't understand it AT ALL!  I had two veggies prints, the Halloween prints, a flag print and one with portraits of the presidents, plus three white-on-whites and one very loud orange.  Oh, and two Christmas prints.

"Oh we're just filling gaps in the stash..." I said.  "You know, trying to finish up some projects.  That's my New Year's Resolution." 

I didn't say what year!

Miss A was fascinated by how the lady was whipping the bolt around and measuring.  She asked how she learned to do that...  "Lots of practice!" was the answer.  Isn't that always the way?

After lunch at the sub shop we adjourned to the craft room to look at the treasures and plan some projects.  We had stopped at Michael's on the way over.  Miss E is working on a canvas with melted crayons; I can't wait to see how that turns out!

I have lots of things to start, and to finish!  And I have to remember to take pictures...

Sew on!

Christmas 2014

Embarrassment of Riches

 

So this is what happens when you haven't used up all of your stash...  someone else has to sort through and decide what to do with your hoard.

 

Poor Ruth, she had such plans!  In this box is a kit for a pink baby blanket and a kit for a white afghan shown in the  next picture, patterns and all.  There are also two bags of yarn in sweater type quantities, one red and one green.

 

Afghan kit... complete with yarn to do duplicate stitch embroidery...

 

 This box held skeins and partial skeins.  I pulled out my yarn winder and made some cakes.

The brown box at the bottom of this pile was full of "misc balls of yarn" according to the label.  Yes there were small balls, and wads, and loops and a couple of skeins of cream yarn that were missing their labels.  I tossed a lot of little wads of the unidentifiable, the tiny and the otherwise unusable schnibbles.  I still had a box full of small bits. 

This was even after I donated a big bag of larger misc. skeins and balls to the preschool at our church for craft projects!

On top of the box is a pile of stuff, and next to the box is a bag that is overflowing with bulky yarn.  Sadly, that was mine before I added the endless treasures from Ruth! 

Lest you think I'm a total hoarder, the reason that bag is falling over is that I've been digging in there for yarn for the hats I'm knitting for Christmas.  I am NOT showing those yet... not that much of my family reads my blog but it's the principle of the thing you know.  Gifts.  Surprises.  'Nuff said.

I've knit so much this fall that I'm buying stock in pain-relieving hand lotions and rubs!  My knuckles ache on a regular basis.  In fact they're aching right now just looking at the picture of this bag.

 

Oh this little bonus bag?  This is the result of a trip to Michael's to replace a skein of brown that was wound into balls and then hopelessly lost in the embarrassment of riches that is my yarn stash!  I just needed ONE SKEIN to finish my project!

Ha!

I justify it by saying it was all on sale, then I had a coupon for 15 or 20% off my total purchase so I would have been irresponsible not to purchase some if later I would have had to go back and pay MORE than I paid that day!

I know you get that... I know you would have done the same.  Or not.  LOL!

Knit on...