settlers peace

The Distractions Are Many

I've finally come to realize that when I have that great hunger, as in obsession, to go shopping, to find new things and inspiration, it is really my greatest desire to steal away some creative time with what I already have.  It seems to have been a pattern for quite some time, as I have accumulated quite the stash of stuff, and I'm just now learning how to curb those urges and reward myself with what I am really craving, which is simple creative action.

 I love the rhythm  of the hand quilting, I just wish that it weren't so difficult for me to sit down and enjoy doing it.  Why is it that I feel so unproductive when I do handwork?  I guess that I'm addicted to the speed of the machine, and yet I am so ready for a change of pace.  Time to make some adjustments and see what creative things happen.

On the speedy side of things, here are a few Pinterest inspired projects that I finished up for Christmas,

Budget envelopes for my sister and a t-shirt scarf for my niece.

Now, I am going to just sit in the sunshine filled window and enjoy some quite handwork.

Oh, Pins and Needles

I recently participated in a Pincushion swap, and got a bit over-zealous in making one to swap.  I simply kept trying out patterns and ideas and have amassed a growing collection.  So here are some that I have made, and a few created by friends.

I received the owl in a swap some time ago, and the makers name is no longer attached, sorry.  Felted wool pincushion and scrappy patchwork pincushion made from leftovers.

Large round pincushions made from this pattern. This cute little pocket was made by Tammi D. and what I came home with after the swap.  Such a clever idea, and the perfect size next to my machine.  I love the little calico kerchief sticking out of it.

The big flower pincushion was my swap entry.  The one in the background is a pretty cool traveling pincushion.  The pincushion is actually sewn to the inside of the plastic lid, so it sits flat when stitching, then the bowl attaches over the pins when done, and can be easily tossed in a bag with no worries of losing a pin or needle during travel.  The precious wool pincushion in front was made by my friend Susan E. 

And if that isn't enough cuteness for you, take a look at this precious hand stitched ornament that I got in a swap during the DMQG meeting this month.

Created by my friend Angie of Retromama's Ramblings.  So blessed to be among several groups of very talents quilters and stitchers, so lucky to call them friends.

Now, a binding awaits!

For the Love of Pinterest

How do I love thee, let me count the ways......

Yes, it is that bad, I even have the app on my phone.  It has been a constant source of inspiration and distraction from my loss of time in the sewing room.  S.  is recovering quite nicely and has regained almost all of her independence, given that each arm still has a cast or a brace.

It seems that I passed the Pinterest addiction to both of the girls, too.  O. has been pinning things left and right, an interesting insight into the thoughts of a college girl.  She had even given in to the crafting bug because of Pinterest, for a moment.

She had grand ideas of going into production of key fobs, but that seems to have dissipated.  I enjoyed having her ooh and ahh over my stash for the time that she was up there though.  I bet she'll be back before long, how can she not find something else to make on Pinterest?

Another reason I love that site, well, I get to 'pin' all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons, my own reasons.  And sometimes it is something that I really want, enough to give it is own board.  And then there are people in your life that are observant enough to notice the fact and take action on it.

Yesterday I had a mysterious package in the mail from a bead company, and inside....

This amazing, tiny work of art.  I'm still giddy from the surprise gift, such a treat.  Thanks, Kathy, much love and hugs coming your way!

So, do you 'pin'?  Come on, join the masses, it's like a magazine in your computer every day, with just the parts you want.

Movements

I went on a retreat this past weekend.  It's so nice to be only an hour from home and yet it feel like you're a world away.  16 ladies from my local guild descended upon a small Texas town, locked ourselves into very comfy retreat house and stitched away.  

I've always been curious about the process for making a Bargello quilt, but never really interested in putting forth the thought to purchase fabric for one.  Another guild member, Denise, designed a pattern using EQ6 to create a quilt using 18 fat quarters, now I had no excuse, I could make one from my stash.  I picked out fabrics and commenced to making a quilt.  It's pretty cool how changing the placement of the color strips changes the movement within the quilt.  My auditions, each segment represents 1/8 of the quilt.

A 1/4 segment in the layout I went with.

and then the entire body of the quilt, completed during retreat.  Whew!

It was a pedal to the metal weekend, with plenty of questions and doubt that I would have enough fabric.  There was no room for a mistake, due to my sewing in the first place.  I'm looking forward to getting borders on this and calling it done.

The weather had cooled off enough to be outside and grill.  Caribbean Chicken, zucchini and peaches.

Today we are setting a new record for the most 100 degree days in a season, I'm just hoping that tomorrow is not another new record.  

Hope that your days are cool and your stitches straight!

Hugs and Kisses

In my last post, I talked about my procrastination in getting a project done, right down to the wire.  What I failed to disclose at the time, was one of my design issues.  I was working on a similar quilt with the X's and O's and wanted to do the quilting in large words written in script.  I wanted it to say 'hugs and kisses'.  After several failed attempts with writing it myself, I defaulted to the computer and printed out what I wanted.  I then used tracing paper and drew it out, with a gel pen-it's what was close.  I placed the paper on the quilt where I wanted it and proceeded to quilt through the paper along the lines.  After tearing away the paper, my plans were to echo quilt around the words to fill the doll quilt.  Turns out that the needle pushed the gel ink right through to the fabric.

My white thread was now blue.  Instead of worrying about it, I just started over again.  After the swap, I decided that I wanted to salvage what I could of the first attempt.

So I just cut off the top part of the quilt and finished up the X's and O's that I had and I'm happy.

I've spent the last two days in a workshop with Lola Jenkins on Portraits and am very excited about what I'm working on.  I'll be sharing about that soon.  But Lola is involved in her community and is raising money to buy sewing machine to use to teach minority children in her area to sew.  She pulled out a big bag of the most adorable pincushions that she had made to sale, in an effort to raise funds.  I think I got the cutest one!

 All of those years of glittery shoes that S. has worn, and tomorrow she begins her senior year of high school.  My how times flies.  I'm thinking of raiding the boxes of the girls childhood clothes and making myself a pincushion from their shoes.  A great reminder of the pitter patter of the little feet as I stitch my days away trying to keep busy, avoiding the worry of having teenagers now.

That 70's Throw

This throw brought the 70's back in technicolor memory.

When my Grandmother came to visit, she always brought a basket of mending and a crochet project to work on.  As I recall, Grandma crocheted this throw and mom did the crewelwork of the flowers.  I remember the thrill mom had when she found 'the perfect' avocado green bed sheets and dust ruffle to lay beneath the afghan.

 I grew up believing, and still do, that my mom could make anything that she wanted.  She used the Sear's catalog for inspiration.  With scissors working, she'd carve fabric pieces to make my brother shirts worthy of Star Trek, just in case he cared to be a bit more fashion forward than the other elementary boys, he did not.  My dad got western shirts with custom yokes, contrast piping and pearl snaps. Mom treated herself to the occasional kaftan - aka wearable tent.  I figured she was just tired of sewing.  Or maybe it was that she was tired of hearing us balk about the noise of the machine.  She did her sewing at the dining room table.  Only during TV commercials, as it would scramble our TV signal and you couldn't hear yourself think.  Of course, back then you could save big money by sewing your own clothes, today 'custom' comes at a cost.

Growing up in the Texas countryside, we somehow kept up with the sewing, craft and style trends.  We had the avocado green shag carpet that had to be raked (yes with a leaf rake) after vacuuming, a white vinyl couch and gold appliances.  It is very interesting how some of those colors have stuck with me through the years and how they come and go in style.  I am, however, thankful that the rake has remained in the garage since that time period.  But we were hip and trendy in our own handmade world and I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Coffee Cup Cuff Tutorial

Off the cuff, that seems to be how my days are going lately, lots of fun, limited focus.

This weekend found me playing with scraps and bits and making coffee cup cuffs for an upcoming guild project.  A perfect project to get me through my limited sessions with the sewing machine and have something finished in the end.

The supplies

I used the Fast2Fuse double sided stiff interfacing as my batting, and a template from a cuff that I know works.  Trace around the template with a sharpie-its what I had closest to me.  I then cut the interfacing into sections with about 3 or 4 cuffs in a section.  This is easier to handle in the machine.

Lay strips of fabric, overlapping a bit, to cover unmarked side of the interfacing.  I found it best to run the strips from top to bottom. (when laying them side to side, it's easy to get slivers of fabric when you cut them apart later)

Ever-so-lightly fuse in place.  It would probably be wise to have a piece of parchment paper or a silicone sheet under the piece to prevent fusing to your ironing board, I was living dangerously.  Then take it to your machine and quilt it, have fun, doodle or play with your fancy stitches.

Now check and make sure that all strips overlap.  Oops.

That is an opportunity to embellish.  Simply topstitch another strip over the exposed interfacing.

I was also making a blue set with strips of the frayed edges of the fabrics, and had another oops.

I absolutely love the patch on this one!  It is an old ad transferred onto fabric.

Following the template lines on the back, cut the cuffs apart.  Lay the cuffs on the wrong side of the fabric that you want to line them with, slightly spacing them apart.

Press with a hot iron, from the top.  It takes a bit for the heat to get through the thickness to the back, be patient and careful not to scorch the fabrics.  Once the fabric has begun to stick, flip it over and press from the lining fabric side.  

Cut cuffs apart along the edge of interfacing. (I tried leaving a slight edge, so that when I zig zagged the edges it would fold over to cover the interfacing, this was not always successful)  Now is a great time to add additional scraps or fussy cut pieces to help make the cuffs unique. The top stitching helps to anchor the lining fabric to the interfacing, too. 

Next step is to zig zag the edges.  I use various width and length of stitches and go around twice instead of using a satin stitch, just my thing.  You can play around with having a different color of thread in your bobbin as well.  

To close the cuff, I used 5/8" hook and loop strips, cutting and sewing a length onto each of the ends of the cup, where the template piece overlapped.  Make sure that you sew one to the top and its mate to the lining. :)

Wa-La, ready for coffee!

Hope that you can have a little fun with this tutorial.  My mind is already going crazy with more ideas, wouldn't a cuff made out of selvages be great?  Enjoy, and let me know if you try it!!

 

 

 

Packing up

Before I put these away, I wanted to share with you what I brought home from a handmade ornament swap.

Pipe cleaner tree by Julie Upshaw, embellished wool heart by Tonya Littmann, painted inside and out-glass ball by Judy Kriehn, felt and metal snowflake by Carol Morrissey, worlds smallest tablerunner :) by Sharon Zeiner, Zentangled stocking by Sandy Brawner, melted glass tree by Becky Jackson, and the tin house I made.  The funny thing was that they were supposed to be fiber related as we are all part of an art quilt group known as the Twisted Stitchers.  Rebels, that's what we are, unwilling to believe that the rules apply to us, even if we do make them.  What a fun night and a great group of very talented women!

Another bit that was recently packed, was a submission that I made 2 years ago to Stampington, I finally got it back.  As much as I'd love to brag and celebrate that my work was published in the winter issue of Sew Somerset, I'm much more relieved to have the submission returned after such a lengthy visit.

I've learned that submissions to publications are a great way to grow and stretch, AND that you should not submit your most cherished work.  I felt that it had to be something that meant a lot to me to be worthy of publication, it really only amounted to added stress.  I have no doubt that the submissions were well cared for, but I would have been so much further ahead to have sent something that I wasn't too attached to.  Lesson learned.

Here's hoping that the new year doesn't pass as quickly as last, and that we find laughter, love, and adventure around every corner, and........that I get to the computer to blog about it!  Happy Creative New Year!

 

Life is Good in the 'Hood'

I struggled all day yesterday with creative inspiration just bubbling up, and a clear stubborn streak of avoidance.  Creativity finally won out last night, and I drug out an old box of blades of a different kind.  

I even got D. to the table with me, he is much more willing to cut up tin than fabric.  He even went into his stash and offered up some colorful tins to play with.  

So lucky to have someone that shares in my love of color, pattern and graphics, and a willingness to share his treasures for my creative adventures.  While he deconstructed the tins, I got busy creating a new neighborhood.  Basic shapes - squares, triangles and rectangles, come together as little houses, fun little ornaments!

And a tin doll that I made several years ago, seems to be  'sitting on top of the world'.  I know, cheesy, but it made me smile.

What refreshment comes from giving up the battle to avoid creativity and to simply indulge in the ability to play.  Yep, life can be 'good in the hood'.  Here's hoping that you are indulging in whatever your heart is calling you to enjoy.  

Little Bits Done

I have managed to finish up some of the small bits.  They have accumulated a lot of miles on them, having been toted here and there and rarely gotten out and worked on until now, and right here at home.  Go figure.

These little wool pincushions are so stinking cute!  I bought a kit at a quilt show, and now really regret not buying more.  What great stocking stuffers, along with the really cool decorative pins that I bought from Cindy.    I'm really thinking along the lines of gifts since I picked up the new Quilting Arts Gifts magazine the other day.  But I am still trying to reside in reality and think seriously about the abandoned  projects of past inspirational highs.

The flathead pins have been labeled with numbers and letters.  I use them to label the quilt rows.  I am able to pin a quilt or block and take it to the machine and have no worries of what order they belong in.  They also make pressing so much easier-all seams on odd pinned rows one direction, even pins get the opposite direction.  Sometimes I combine the numbered pins for rows with blocks and then the letters for sashing rows.  They are a real time and stress saver for me.  I can pin all of the blocks for a quilt into rows and fold them up on the sewing table, return in a week and sew, not missing a beat or having a question of what goes where.

Another high mileage project is this bottle cap trivet.  I used the small yo-yo maker and then stuffed a bottle cap inside as I was gathering it up.  They are then stitched together and the entire piece is backed with felt.

Now my little cigar box is down to one project in it, and I'm planning on it accumulating many more miles. 

I'm thinking about breaking in that trivet this weekend, with one of these.

 Note the bottom of the pie, when it goes upside down, it looks like this.......

Carmel pecan pie meets apple pie, I think I can get over the fact that it's not pretty!  I know it's yummy!