Dec 11, 2015 The last of the monthly wall hangings to brighten my mother’s care center room has been received. A year of projects that brightened her room seemed easy as an idea in December of 2014 but did take some time to figure out …
Dec 10, 2015 We went into town this morning to get haircuts and groceries, mundane errands, huh? But we drove by a garage sale just getting started so made a side stop. I still need to find some items to re-purpose into sewing room storage …
December, 2015 wall hanging is machine embroidered snowflakes. December is mom’s birthday month which often means lots of snow and cold but it also reminds me of the December when the school busload of kids was stranded at the house because of the snowstorm that came so fast and hard. Was that 1963? I can’t remember for sure. It was just before Christmas as I recall and I’m sure we didn’t have the weather reporting equipment that is very useful today so schools let out early enough to avoid being stranded. That busload of kids at our house did not include my brother, sister and I as we were stranded at another house about three miles away with another bus. Lots of snowflakes and snowbanks that winter!!
Snowflakes also remind me of the winter games we played as kids—fox and goose, snow angels, snowmen and just playing on the snow drifts, hoping they would hold us up as we climbed around and about on them. Snow was fun as kids, not so fun when, as an adult, there is work associated with it–scooping, shoveling, driving,etc. Perhaps we should take some time to enjoy the beauty of it and recall the simplicity of it as seen through the eyes of children.
Hoffman fabric, Anita Goodesign embroidery pattern (Snowflakes of Rohan)
As I am finishing the Texas sewing room I am beginning to think about the “décor”. I prefer plain and simple, letting the clutter and color be the fabric and projects in progress. Yesterday, as the temperature dropped and the winds blew in colder air, …
I was so fortunate to be going through La Grange Texas on a Thursday when the Texas Quilt Museum is open. I couldn’t have asked for a better choice of displays to be available! Oh, and there was a quilt shop right next to it …
As I am finishing the November wall hanging, Turkey Tracks, for my mother’s room at the care center I am thinking about the width of binding that I use compared to many instructions that I see for commercial patterns. Many patterns direct quilters to cut binding strips 2 ½” wide, folding in half and then stitching to the quilt. Seldom if ever have I seen what seam allowance is being used to accommodate that width of binding or what thickness of batting is being used that may cause more or less bulk. I cut my binding 1 7/8” wide, fold it in half and then attach with a ¼” seam allowance. For me that yields a 3/8 inch finish width. After the machine stitching is done by applying the binding strip to the front side of the quilt I fold it over and stitch by hand for the final step. The binding just covers the machine stitching and “fills” the binding for a nicely finished edge that I understand is desirable for contest/show quilts. Photos below show the stitching line using a quarter inch presser foot and then the corners mitered to match the mitered border. I make sure the binding follows the same straight line as the quilt edge as it extends beyond the finished edge, in the second photo. I also diagonally trim the corners of the sandwich, not the binding, so there is less bulk in the corner as I miter. I don’t know who made the “rule” for the width of binding strips but I liken it to the “ham in the pan” story. Moral of the story: cut binding strips to the width needed for the seam allowance you create and the type of batting that you use, whatever that may be.
November block for my mother’s room at the care center is Turkey Tracks, the pieced version. It is another easy block and I used some older Jinny Beyer prints and stripe for a fall-like color scheme. I love mitering borders and it seemed the perfect …
This post is for those interested in the “Artistic Exploration” session in November. Photos show some examples of improvisational curved piecing. I will share how to do all of the examples but we will concentrate on two on November 7 at Arch Methodist Church from …
On the design wall (no the other things that are in the process are not finished) right now is a group of blocks that remind of a spilled paintbox or the ones I had as a child where the colors all started running together in the tray. The blocks were inspired by the process used in Karla Alexander’s book, ” Dynamic Quilts with Simple Curves”. I made my curves a little deeper than she suggested and used 1/8 inch seams. I am framing them with black and white swirled fabric alternately. Border choices, if any, will come later. Another work in progress.
two improv pieced blocks stitched then framed with swirled neutral fabric from Northcott
Who would guess that what was popular in needlework 90 years ago would be interesting today. Perhaps the slow stitch movement will revive the hand needlework of our ancestors as we slow our movements to contemplate the work of our (and their) hands. I wanted …
Hoffman fabric, Anita Goodesign embroidery pattern (Snowflakes of Rohan)
