{Post 1,739} Lots of Piecin’ Goin’ On

 

I have given away two large quilts in the past few weeks as well as selling one. Lots of progress here. I have a couple reasons why I think this is happening. I bought a rolling cart of drawers. Not only has it helped me stay organized but I can take the whole drawer of precut pieces to my sewing machine, thus getting more done faster. Here are a few pictures. I am working in earnest on the first (Plaid Lightning) and the one with the 4-pointed star design.

This first one is finished except for a border of 6” tall by various width pieces.

This one is finished, quilted, and in the hands of its new and very happy owner.

This is my current squeeze. I have 61/80 blocks finished. I had a lot of small scraps, so the last few blocks have pieced “stripes” in them. Do you see all 3 of them? Some added fun and less waste.

Here is the picture from the book. Virginia Bound by Bonnie Hunter. I love the border. I have done the other two I made with an orange/blue/green color way. I love orange in a quilt, but I think I’ll use something else. 

{Post 1,738} Christmas Decor 2020

 

The little I did seems to have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I worked on the living room off and on all day, and this is all I decorated.

Just to give you a chuckle, I spent over an hour on this garland on the mantle/shelf (I call it that because that is where our mantle was before we removed the fireplace. I still call it mantle out of habit. Please forgive me. I had bought the nativity scene this year and really wanted to make it “shine”. I set it on the mantle then put the garland on. The garland is quite hefty (I love the way it looks). But then I didn’t have room on the mantle for anything but the thin nativity. My husband came up and asked me why I didn’t put anything else up there. I said there was no room. He gave me an odd look and then reminded me that last year I put the garland UNDER the shelf. I asked, “I can DO that??” He just gave me a blank stare. Here is the comparison for your humor of the day...

Just gonna leave that here. I have a few other things to pull our, but that it about it for us this year. I remember back when all 8 of my kids were at home and the constant activity. I miss having my 8 elves to help shop, bake, clean, decorate, move stuff around, bake more, eat lots of cookies...<sigh> those were the days, my friend.

{Post 1,737} Restoring Antique Quilt

 

I recently met a woman who asked me to do three very different sewing skills for her. 

1. Restore a shredding antique quilt.

2. Combine two store-bought comforters into one large one (the edges are worn away and shredded).

3. Machine quilt a top she made from her parents’ clothing.

I have put about 10 hours into restoring the antique top. She agreed to pay me by the hour, so I am keeping track. Time goes a lot faster than I think it does. I LOVE doing this kind of meticulous work, so it flies! It took about 3 hours for me to take all the hand-stitching out. There was a quilt center, then a 4” wide muslin border, then a pieced border, then two more single-fabric borders. Hardly any part of anything except the center was salvageable. I even had to replace many ripped up pieces from the center. I used a similar fabric for them. With fabric that old, it is difficult to find the colors let alone similar prints. Here are some pictures of what I replaced with the last two pictures being what it looks like now. I am putting one wide border on after the checkerboard one. It is called “slub”. It looks like linen, but with some threads thicker. It is mind green like the original outermost border.

Those are all what it was before. Here is where I am now. I need to add the pieced border to two sides then the mint green single-fabric border after that. I looked at two stores for something to replace the light floral right outside of the pieced border (see the picture directly above), but I could not find a single contender. So I am putting a 5” wide mint green border. That is the color of the original outside border, but you can see that that was a total loss.

{Post 1,735} Gifted Quilt

 

Back in September I took 18 intact shirts with me to south GA. I started this quilt then gifted it about a month ago.

It has been well-loved and appreciated.

At that same time I started some rail fence blocks with the little bits that are from the inside of the collars and cuffs. Shortly thereafter I framed squares with 1-1/2” strips of lighter shirts and used the rail fence blocks as alternates. I gifted that to a family I am close to from my church. Here are a few pics of that.

I talk to my friend (the mom) often. She told me yesterday that they all snuggle with it daily. I loved hearing that. Little guy (in third picture) thinks it is all his, LOL!!

I am nearly finished with the third quilt mainly from those same shirts, with LOTS of neutral shirts thrown in. I was showing the two different layouts on Facebook. One of my high school friends (graduated 40 years ago....how is that possible?) asked if she could buy it. I am half-finished with the quilting. Going to cut binding strips after I finish here so that I can put that on right away. 

She opted for the top setting. This will finish at 70” square. No borders. My first low-volume quilt.

While I’ve been piecing all of these, I am sewing my 2-1/2” square scraps into these. I call them 2 + 4 = 6 blocks. Again using you a lot of neutrals for a place for the eye to rest. I am calling this Plaid Lightning, LOL!! I left some space around the labels in the yoke when I cut them out, so I incorporated a few of those into the quilt. It gives one something to read while snuggling!

I would love to hear a little something from each of you. I didn’t think the isolation of quarantining would get to me because I love being alone, but it is lonely. We aren’t staying away from EVERYONE, but almost!

{Post 1,734} Sew Much Better

If you are cleaning up an atrocious space, I highly recommend taking before pictures. Yes—they are embarrassing. One might think, “How could I let it get like this...AGAIN??” Or “I could never show this to anyone.” But honestly, this result was so satisfying. And I’m not just talking about the being able to walk between the ironing station and quilt frame without twisting an ankle or causing Mt. Never-rest to tumble. I ironed a large quilt without moving stacks of stuff. Then I cut out binding with all but a 10” strip of my cutting table cleared off. I was a young whippersnapper last time either of those happened. Ah—just breathing in the free space!!

Here are the before and after:

There is always so much more to do in here, but I cut, pieced, ironed, applied and sewed down binding on a quilt for a friend that I can give her tonight because there was so much room to get it done quickly and peacefully. Please tell me I’m not alone in this. My sewing room reminds me of a toxic spill. I go in, determined to make it livable, armed with my trusty super sponge. I dunk my sponge in the spill, turn to wring it out in the sink, and it is immediately filled up with other gunk. Yes—that’s my sewing room plan....dunk and gunk. Actually, I just made that up, and it made me laugh. So I will be honest and just say it looks pretty amazing right now. Tomorrow might be another story!

Still looking for a taker for a big box of florals. My sister and I used to make watercolor quilts. I sold all my squares and used up all my florals. Then she blessed me with a big bag of her stuff. If someone wants them and will pay postage, I’ll gladly give them to you. Otherwise, I’ll be moving them to another room until the floral bug strikes (I think it is actually extinct around here).  

Have a great day. I’m just enjoying the view.

{Post 1,733} Much Progress

 

Here is the before and after comparison of my fabric bookshelves. I have one wonderful friend who purchased 2 yards of each neutral and one of each color. That majorly slimmed down my shelves. I got rid of 24 of the empty cardboard bolt forms. That was 15” of shelf space right there!

Now I’m tackling the busy, messy spot on top of and in front of the ironing station. Lord, give me strength!!

I was given a large stack of florals that I will likely never use. I started pressing and cutting for 5 different quilts from them, but my heart wasn’t in it because I am not a floral-lover. Would anyone want the stack (that goes all the way down to the ironing station for the cost of postage?

{Post 1,732} Sew Much Fabric

 

Good AM, readers. I am in a quandary. Some of you know that in a previous life, or so it seems, I sold Thimbleberries’ fabric from my home. I have many bolts. I could never sew this in my lifetime. As I am cleaning up my sewing room (an eternal project), I am wondering how I can sell some of it (most of it, to be honest). So I am just putting this here for anyone interested. For my blog readers, $5 a yard plus actual shipping. This is high-quality fabric with a very soft hand.

Is anyone interested in small (as in 2” square or less) scraps of fabric? As I go through what I have, I am hoping to weed out those and send them to someone who will love and use them. 

Lastly, I am closing my booth at the end of December. It saddens me greatly to say that because I feel like a failure. I guess I anticipated my items flying off the shelves there. Most of them just flew back to my craft room and sewing room. I don’t think I am overcharging—to the contrary, I feel like I am just covering materials and a little extra. Enough said. Now I need to find homes for many little items. I can’t part with my big throws and antique quilts for nothing. <heavy sigh>

Here is my booth from yesterday AM. My husband built me the Christmas tree up on the hutch out of old fence pickets that were in our garage.