Feeling the end of winter in Texas. The sewing room is probably not going to be at the point we wanted when we started the winter in December but, having done all the work ourselves it gives a sense of accomplishment. Yesterday I painted the …
A Spot of Color It was such a gray and gloomy day for south Texas but a good opportunity to try my newly purchased Dye-Na-Flo paints. Practice comes first before making the “real” project. Checking out the colors on a practice scrap of the canvas …
the day times 50. 
Chocolate was provided and door prizes called out periodically kept the sewists on their toes.
Since March is my birthday month I looked for a block that represented birthdays. My first thought was “cake stand” but I also found “Happy Birthday”, “Birthday Cake” and “Birthday Parties”. Spring Daffodil is adapted from “Happy Birthday” as identified in Jinny Beyer’s book, The …
Remembering: Under the Quilt
I grew up knowing that when you were going to a “dress up” or public event proper ladies wore nylon hose. I learned about hosiery when playing under the quilt as my grandmother and her friends quilted at the country church. When starting a new quilt there was lots of room to play underneath the frame because they always started at the outside edges and worked toward the center, rolling up the quilt as it was quilted. Some legs under the quilt wore very opaque and unsightly hosiery. Often those legs were short and fat. Other legs wore very sheer and natural colored hosiery, almost invisible except for the seam going up the back. Those legs seemed longer and more shapely. Some seams were straight and some were rather crooked as they traveled up the back of the leg. And sometimes there were these lighter stripes–they were called runs by the quilt ladies and it was a disaster to have one. And then some legs had “knee highs”, before there really was knee high hose. I learned that if you didn’t want to mess with a girdle (that’s a whole ‘nother story) you might get by with pulling on the hose and just rolling the extra around the knee. But, before you stood up you had to adjust to make sure the top of the hose were still in the right place. After all, dresses were longer then so nobody really knew your secret—–unless you were under the quilt.
I belong to guilds in three states and probably enjoy show and tell as much as anything. Each guild varies in how show and tell is treated and when it appears on the agenda. Regardless of when it comes in the meeting it deserves the …
Blue Ridge Landscape Internet connections have been frustrating this past week! I’m glad I have a smart phone so that I can use it to get the basics but connection on it is also not the best so I look for excuses to go into …
It’s Finished!! I said that was gong to be my mantra for the first half of 2015 because I have several items to be finished. While most everyone I know that quilts has unfinished projects some of mine are growing into their teen years. Today I worked on a clamshell log cabin started in a class with Joan Belling about 10 years ago—a mere child. The mitered corners on the border didn’t lay flat and the stripes didn’t match so it was put aside some years ago. I really didn’t have time for mistakes. Corner stripes are now square. Simple quilting highlights the design and binding is on the agenda for tomorrow. As I look at the fabric used I will pull some of the remnants out when we get back to home base in spring. By then I am confident I will have a plan for another creation…just hope I have enough fabric for whatever that might be!
P.S. I also finished the insulation installation for the sewing room. My husband has the sheetrock on the walls. That means we have to tackle the ceiling….how long before I can say “it’s finished”? The DIY Texas sewing room is a little like the UFO’s—but still just a toddler.
February Block of the Month You Are My Sunshine This block was inspired by the month of February—Valentine’s Day, anniversary of my parents marriage and of several of their siblings and probably many others out there. It is named for my parents song, “You Are …
