Loving Hands Quilt Guild

Our church in New Berlin, WI, has a quilt mission as part of the Women's Mission groups.  As my co-leaders Suzi always says, we're "small but mighty".  We have about six or seven core members, and sometimes we pull in other people for a project here or there.

We always have a bag of quilt kits in our resource center, but sometimes our 'parts department' gets a little low.  We love making string blocks, and putting them into quilts, but we stopped making them for a while so we ran out.

This year we wanted to spend a day sewing together, and it seemed like getting some string blocks done would be a good project for all skill levels. You know what string blocks are I'm sure... but here's a sample just in case:

I made these 3 1/2 inch blocks of leftover pieces a while back. 
Our blocks at church are usually 9 1/2 inches. 

We had a whole bag of 'strings', which are the cuts that are left over when you make a project.  Sometimes they're large and can be used again in a quilt, and sometimes the pieces are short but can be sewn together and used, and sometimes you wonder why you didn't throw them away to begin with!

Suzi brought her bucket of strings too, and that turned out to be a BIG pile of goodness! We ended up with a crew of nine or ten, including one teenager and my own Miss A, who is almost 9.  So we went all the way from 9 to 90+!

We work on foundation blocks, pieces of fabric too light to use in an actual quilt; we had a ton of those precut.  Several of the ladies and the two youngsters had never made a string block before.  It's a good block for beginners to start with because it's so forgiving.  A demo of the process was made and we were off to the races!

At various points during the day we ate, played bingo with quilt words and gave away prizes, then returned to sewing.  By the end of the afternoon we had over 30 blocks, 9 1/2 inches square, sewn, pressed and trimmed to size.  Next time someone is looking for a project, this could be the one they pick up!

Sadly I took almost NO pictures during this wonderful day.  Next time, for sure...  A good time was had by all.  I hope we made some new friends, and that they come back again next month.  Our 'parts department' is full again!

Sew on...

Craft Lovers, Unite! We're Expanding Our Skills...

I can't decide which craft activity is my favorite.  I love to:

• sew garments
• make quilt tops
• knit
• crochet
• bead
• make cards
• draw
• color with crayons or other medium
• paint things like small furniture items, fabric or paper
• dye things
• embellish things
• refashion things

I sometimes wonder if there's anything I won't try at least once.  I tried flower pounding at a quilt shop years ago.  Smashing the leaves and petals into treated fabric made interesting designs, but I thought it was a lot of work for results that could be less than stellar.  Although it was a very good way to work off some calories, and maybe some aggressive tendencies!  If you're interested there was actually a booklet on the subject... try googling it to see if it's still in print.



Pounded flowers from someone else's project.  Mine looked nowhere near this good!!



socks I knit...



Miss A and I colored on fabric with markers.



I refashioned a jacket and got many more uses out of it!



I love doing these mindless art projects.

 

all my yarn ends made a warm couch blanket.

The girls painted rocks...

and I painted a flower pot.

My problem is, where do you stash all the craft supplies?  My resource center is kinda bulging.

However, I justify what I'm doing by the following list from Highlights Magazine's website:

Here are just some of the developmental skills your preschooler learns while working on crafts:

1. Following Directions

2. Focus and Concentration 

3. Fine Motor Skills 

4. Patience -- personal note:  I am still working on this!!

5. Early Problem Solving Skills 


So really, I'm contributing to my own education every time I start a new project, right??

Craft on...

Lily or Lilly?

Last fall, one of my coworkers, a man I know well and respect but who is also a friend, became a first time grandfather.  He and his wife and family were then and still are very excited about the baby.

He told me she came unexpectedly early, and he spent quite a number of months going back and forth between home and hospital, in cities that were many miles apart.  But baby is fine now in spite of the difficulties of her early months.

When he told me her name, I loved it.  Of course I'm not sure how they're spelling it, Lilly or Lily, but whichever way, I'm sure she's beautiful!  All grandbabies are beautiful.  It's a fact!

So began my quest for lily fabric.  I checked local shops, and you could find multiple florals of every variety, but the lilies were day lilies or tiger lilies, or God Forbid Easter Lilies... which I do not like and I don't care for the smell they give off!

You would think that in my mountains of fabric I'd have something appropriate!  Sadly, no...

What to do?  Google, of course... I did try several on line fabric shops, and Etsy and eBay.  I found a lovely fabric on Etsy but when it arrived it was heavy drapery type stuff.  Then I found some fabric with lilies that ended up being much less attractive in person, and was nearly impossible to coordinate with anything to make it so.  Maybe someone else could do it, but  not me!

Not that attractive, and hard to match...

Pretty but a very heavy weight

Ta Da!!  At last!  Something I can work with!!

After receiving three or four packages in the mail, and getting the evil eye from DH a couple of times, I landed on a web site that had what looked like the perfect lily fabric, and when it arrived, it WAS the perfect fabric.

 

The pattern is called Five Easy Pieces.  I'm not sure who the designer was, but it appeared in Quilty Magazine and in one of the Quilty books, so I'm thinking Mary Fons had at least looked at it!  In fact she had made one with a monkey print as the focus fabric.  It's basically a large-centered, abbreviated log cabin.  The pattern comes from alternating the logs around the center block.

 

 

I named it the Lily Quilt.  Because, why not and what else?

 

I actually finished the top in January.  By then I think Miss Lilly was home from the hospital.  I thought "Self, better get going"...

 

Before Easter, I laid the quilt on the table and pinned it up.  Ready to go, right?  Fear struck!!  OMG I have to quilt this thing!!  I'm not a good free motion quilter. I admit it.  I consider myself a piecer, and when the top's done, I'm done.  The only really finished finished quilts I've worked on have been quilted by others.  AND THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!!  But I wanted to do this one myself.

 

Why??  I don't know.  It was completely irrational.  My friend Suzi asked if I wanted her help on it so I could finish it before Lilly starts college.  I declined.

 

Why?  I don't know, it was irrational and if not irrational then silly to say the least!

 

It sat rolled up on my sewing table for several weeks, nagging and making me avoid my sewing room.  Oh really?  Really...  but then I started getting the urge to sew, and dang it, that quilt was NOT going to stand in my way.  I'm bigger than it is, right?  Who says one little quilt is going to stand between me and my Baby Lock??  Ha!

 

Saturday Miss A came over and I said "We are going to sew today!"  Whoo-hoo, let's get down there!!  I gave her a project to work on and got myself set up.  The first stitch was the hardest, let me tell you. 

I was aiming for large, meandering stitches, but it wasn't long before I was crossing myself up so I decided to go loopy.



Those rose shaped just begged me to go around and around... I had this fabulous variegated thread too.

This is the back of that rose shape.  Hey, I'm impressed!

Getting adventurous, I put in the date on one of the sashing strips.



I quilted my name in too, but on the front it's in the patterned block so it's hard to find.  I also put the name LILLY in another spot.

So to those of you like my friend Suzi who do fabulous free motion quilting work, don't worry, I'm not about to give you any competition yet, but I can say I did this one all by myself!

The one thing I forgot to do thus far is take a photo of the whole thing, quilted.

And I did label it.  Don't forget to do a label especially on quilts you're giving as gifts.  I'm so guilty of not doing that.

Sew on...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Clean Up Song

Remember when all the kids were little and they were crazy about the big purple dinosaur?  Well maybe yours weren't but since both Miss A and Master J are fans of dinosaurs in a BIG way (pun intended) I did become familiar with that show.

It was annoying.  It was silly.  Kids loved it, most adults hated it with a purple passion.  At some point I refused to stay in the room when it came on.

Lucky me, they outgrew it!

Which is why this week I'm annoyed all over again because my room is such a mess...

Things are just piled up on my work table...

there IS a cutting mat below here somewhere!

and all I can hear in my head is that obnoxious little song "clean up, clean up, everybody every day"...

Rock on...

Challenge Answered!

Last December when my Local Quilt Guild had the holiday party, we were issued a challenge.

We had played a game where everyone put a half yard of nice fabric into a brown paper bag, we played the game, and everyone who brought a piece took home a piece of quilt shop quality cotton fabric.

Our vice president challenged us to bring it back made into something.  Anything.  Whatever we wanted to make, but it had to have our Christmas fabric in it.

I ended up with a lovely holly print on a beige background. Not everyone had a Christmas print.  There were some lovely batiks, a fair number of floral prints and a few plaids and solids.

We had until the April meeting, and we always meet on the second Tuesday of the month.  So really, we had three months to come up with a project, find any coordinates, and make out item.  Small, large or in between, whatever was wanted.

About 50-60 people come to our meeting every month.  We figured at least half would participate, but you never know.  The problem with gifted fabric is that unless the person knows you pretty well and knows your taste, you can end up with a mis-match.  For example I love bright colors and all kinds of prints but I'm not so sold on the 1930s prints except in certain situations. So if someone gave me a 1930s reproduction print, I might have a hard time coming up with coordinating fabrics.

And the point of the exercise was to Use Your Stash, not make more stash!

I consider myself lucky with what I got.  I love green.  I love Christmas fabric.  I have a good sized bin of Christmas fabric.  I could make a couple of queen sized Christmas quilts if I were so inclined!

I even have two Christmas UFOs...  but that's another story.

I started with a pattern I picked up at Patched Works in Elm Grove.  I made the blocks, and they turned out very well if I do say so myself.  But halfway through I started thinking how this quilt was not going to do well in my blue bedroom, and I didn't want to give it away.

My thoughts went like this:

I love my blue bedroom.  I don't want to make a queen sized quilt.  My hubby likes to decorate the whole house for Christmas.  I have a quilt for the back of the sofa, and he has one for his chair.  I don't have enough blocks for a twin quilt for the guest room.  Hey, don't they make those small skinny bed runner things? They look so cool on beds in hotels.  I know!  I'll make a bed runner that will be decorative and functional.

Problem solved.

The top is done.  Now to the layering and quilting.  But hey, I have until December to finish!!

Sew on...

Lying About Your Age

After the quilt show last Sunday, my aunt and I went to Noodles for lunch.  If you've never been to Noodles you should try it.  Everything's on -- well, noodles.  Or pasta if you prefer.  Although they do have some salads and sandwiches if you are with someone who really doesn't want to eat noodles... but then maybe you should lunch somewhere else.

Anyway we were discussing the important issues of the day, like world peace, clean houses and shoes.  The question of health insurance came up.  Yeah, I think we were talking doctors or medical tests or something. 

I've always been on my DH's plan, because he always had free coverage, and really good stuff too, with his former employer.  When he retired, the coverage continued to be free.  Then he went on Medicare, but my coverage continued, although for the past two years we've had to pay part of the premium.

With one of those milestone birthdays coming up, I received a letter from said insurance company saying that my coverage will end the last day of the month preceding my birthday because -- wait for it -- I will be ELLIGIBLE for MEDICARE!

OMG...  My aunt's eyes got really big and she said "You're going to be 65?"

I said "Yes, I am."

I have never lied about my age... not ever.  Although I did consider it when I was 59 and you could take sewing classes at WCTC for $6 if you were 62.  But really, what's the point?  Maybe if you're a year below the drinking age, and I'm WAY past that.  It's just a number, like your shoe size or your height.  (Not going to the weight thing, I lie about that ALL THE TIME.)

My grandmother used to say you're not old until you hit 100.  I always believed her.  It's more a matter of attitude than years.

My aunt looked at me incredulously and said "You're lying!"

Sadly, no...

Live on and enjoy every minute...

Expensive Purses and Their Care and Feeding

I have a thing about purses or handbags.  Well, I'm cheap about them, actually.  I have never purchased a Coach bag at retail, or would I.  Unless it was from the Amazing Goodwill!

I like nice bags.  I like my purses to be nice looking as well as functional.  I just figure a bag from K-Mart carries your stuff as well as a bag from some fancy designer, and at a fraction of the prices.

I've made several versions of a purse called the BFF Bag.  I thought it was a Lazy Girl but I just checked their web site and if it is, it's no longer in print.  Or maybe I have the wrong designer.  It happens.

My cousins love handbags too.  They purchase a lot of Vera Bradley bags.  They go to the factory a couple of times a year for the sales and get all the pretty designs and colors.  I actually got a very nice brown and white patterned bag for my birthday one year from my favorite aunt!

Last fall I found a rack of VB bags at my local resale store... non-Goodwill variety.  I picked up a nice bag for $14.99.  Which is NO WHERE NEAR what they retail for, just in case you were wondering.

I am cheap about handbags remember.

The ladies checked on line and it was an old pattern for Vera, like 10 years old.  It must have been in someone's closet and got donated recently during a clean out or something.

I carried it most of the winter.  It was starting to show some wear on the handles.

The body of the bag itself was fine, but the straps were rubbed off.  And inside the straps was some sort of foam.  When I make a bag I usually line the straps with interfacing, whether it's the special stuff that's cut to size and slotted for folding, or just some regular interfacing.  I've never seen foam except in this bag.



I bought some webbing for new straps.



And some D rings.



Then I cut off the offending straps, sewed the D ring to the body of the bag, and added the new straps.





Clips held the straps so I could sew them to the D Rings.




After I replaced the straps there still were places where the bag was looking a bit worn, and I didn't like the look of that light colored foam peaking out from where I cut off the straps.  I zigzagged over the ends of the parts attached to the bag, but the yellow still showed.

 

Well, I guess that's why Sharpie Markers were invented!  I just colored over the light spots with a permanent black marker.  Voila!!

 

Here's the bag, all done, in all it's splendor, on my not very splendiferous desk.

 

 

 

I think Vera has a few more useful years in her life, don't you?

 

Sew on...



Quilt Show 2016

This weekend I went a local quilt show in Mukwonago WI.  It was sponsored by the Mukwonago Crazy Quilters Guild and I have to say it was amazing!

I meanwhile am still quaking in my boots at the thought of quilting my Lily baby quilt...

After seeing some of these beauties, I'm even more intimidated.

In no particular order:

Applique fancy

and plain (but not really!)



Beautiful poppies, and I love red.

A small shaped quilt, I think it represents and aerial view of Wisconsin!

Lovely strings

details showing prairie points and button trim, embroidery, wow!

This one was called Pickled Clam Shells.  Those points in the arcs are about an inch high.

Urban mania.  Fussy cut small pieces, in the lower row on the right the lady is about two inches high.

Down the center aisle.  Those wooden legs tripped up lots of us gawkers.

Lots of small flying geese made this one so cool and I loved the border.

Lots of amazing black and white plus color...

and black, white and gray

This one was called My Son's Shirts.  I hope he had a few left to wear!

This was a representation of the daily temperatures in 2014. 

Tulle poppies on a wall hanging.

This one is so tiny I missed it the first day, but check out that quilting!

It was so overwhelming the first day that I went back on Sunday to look again.  I'm glad I did because I saw things I missed, and that I didn't get a picture of on Saturday.  My camera on my phone also got overwhelmed on Saturday and the battery petered out about 3/4 of the way through.

Quilters of the world you are awesome!  Even the simplest quilts were gorgeous.

There were vendors too, and I managed to bring home a few treasures.  I bought three patterns, a small kit and one yard of striped fabric plus two charm packs of background fabric, and scoped out several shops for our next Fabric Acquisition Road Trip.

Sew on!!