Hey there Everyone,
How are you doing? I hope you are good and well. I have been spending a ton of time in my sewing room so I have some pictures to show you. I have lots of bags in progress...but no good pictures, so just imagine them for me.
I decided to join in on the "Use your Flea Market Fancy Fabric for something" that
Badskirt Amy is spearheading. I finished 3 hexagons of the greens. They are super easy and use a surprisingly scant amount of fabric.
I am actually using a pattern for this quilt....well I am using the pattern as a guideline, I am going to change it up. The pattern is named Brighten Rock and it is from the
Material Obsession 2 book. I really dig this book. It is for sale here in the US now, so go pick one up if you are a quilt book junkie like I am. Speaking of quilt books, have you noticed that everyone has a craft book out now? It is so hard to keep with everyone. I tried to do a book on my bag patterns....but apparently there is no interest for that. Despite my 300 person wait...still no interest. Maybe I will just try some of the other publishing people.
I pieced my
Row 10 quilt top. I love the chaos of all the crosses. I really went back and forth on the layout of this quilt. I kinda wanted to add sashing, but in the end I just put all the rows together. I am going to add a biggish border of white around the quilt just to even out some of the unevenness of it. The current dimensions of this quilt top are 64 x 88 inches. I added little strips of fabric to the ends of some of the rows because while I was putting it together they weren't matching up. I love it and I LOVE my Row 10 ladies! Thank you all so very much! I think I even know how I am going to quilt it. While I would LOVE to quilt it by hand, I would hate for this quilt to meet the same fate as the one below.
I finished my Birds of a Feather Quilt. This one made me a bit crazy. When I first started this quilt I was so pleased with myself about how fast it was to put together and how much of myself I could devote to making a quilt when I didn't have anything else to work on. You see, I started this quilt when we first got to FT Leavenworth. Back before any of our house hold goods arrived and all I had was some cool shelves for fabric and an old Necchi sewing machine. I decided it would be brilliant to make some 3D flying geese. Well....that is all well and good, but how in the Heck do you quilt 3D flying geese? By hand of course! No problem I didn't have anything else to do. So it began.....but then life intervened and the quilt spent a great deal of time folded up beside the sofa. Our house hold goods arrived and I began sewing on other things and the quilt sat there waiting....and waiting. Turns out I really don't sit and sew quietly...heck I really don't even watch TV enough to get out any hand sewing. So it waited some more. One day I noticed a really moldy smell over by my quilt. What was it? Had is gotten wet? Is something molding in the sofa? Gross! Well, I looked and found nothing out of the ordinary. I have a very keen nose, so I actually convinced myself that the stink was coming from my downstairs neighbor's house (nice of me, huh?). Wellsir, I finally decided to work on it some more one day and unfolded it and found something really really gross. I thought it might be vomit, or maybe a hairball....but on closer inspection (and believe me I got close) I discovered it was a rotten, moldy strawberry. All 3 of my children denied having placed the strawberry in the quilt....heck they denied even eating in the living room. I know I didn't do it, so I guess it walked it's own little strawberry self in and died in my quilt. At that point (well, after I tried to wash it out) I figured I didn't have the lifestyle to support hand quilting. I tossed it up on my sewing machine and began to quilt it. Then the movers came and packed all our stuff up again and Ike and his fat fluffy bottom have been living on it ever since. IT WAS TIME TO FINISH THIS BEAST!!!!!!! So I did. and while I don't LOVE it. I do like it alot better now that it is done and in quilt circulation here at the house. We like to do our homework reading out in the yard now that the weather is lovely. It has had children wallowing all over it since I took it out of the dryer. And that is how it should be, isn't it?
If you look closely you will see the 2 strawberry stains. I was very pleased with how the vine quilting on the boarder turned out. I just love vines! Would you all like me to do a little tutorial on how I quilt them? It is so wonderful....and for me quite easy, so I am sure you can do it too. I also want to show you a couple things I learned from Gwen Marston. I will show you them when I do a posting on
this quilt. I am almost finished quilting it and I love it so much! I guess I can hand quilt as long as the project is small and easily put up out of the way of children and lost strawberries.
xo,
Tia
7 comments:
I love that your flying geese quilt has a great story attached to it. good luck on the book proposal -- I think we need a book with interesting bags in it.
I'm glad your quilt will be loved despite the suicidal strawberry. Perhaps storeing your projects that you're working on in a small plastic bin?
Kids sure do find ways to surprise their parents. I remeber a funny story when I was about 11. That summer we were all gathered in the living room eating watermelon on a rainy day. I was too lazy to throw my seeds in the trashcan so I buried them in a big house plant my mom had. A couple weeks later as she's doing the vacuuming she notices a growing plant in her potted plant. I never fessed up to it of course but it was funny to watch her examine it and wonder how the heck that got in there!
(No mail yet!)
Thanks so much Brenda!
When do you think I should begin to worry about your row getting there? I mailed it some time ago. Anita has hers and I sent them to same day.....
Great watermelon story!
Have you considered self-publishing. My daughter writes and tells me that it's much easier than in the past. There's also the possibility of an e-book. Just thinkin'. would love to see you publish!
Funny strawberry/quilt story!
You totally need to write a book. I love reading your blog,and your bags have such a unique quality to them! Don't take no, at least not without a bit more of a search for the right publisher!!!
Love the FMF quilt, and your geese. I think any quilt that had children under, on top of, dragging around is a winner.
Okay, anymore blocks for your quilt along? I have all three sets, and I am itching to make them into something. I can move forward alone if you are all done :-), but would love for to have your flare.
Thanks again ladies!
Saudi-Laura, Yes we are going to finish that quilt! I still plan to make tiny checkerd squares, tree blocks and star blocks. Maybe later this week....I still have my fabric out!
You know, the more I see your flying geese quilt, the more I like it! The beauty of it is that because you are not liking it as much as some others, it doesn't matter if it gets rough housed, sat on, get dirty etc. You will wash it and use it a lot, it has a story and I am sure because it will be used so much, it will become part of the family and you will love it more than you 'perfect' quilts!
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