Ornament #4 Finished!

Ornament #4
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This evening I finished the 4th ornament in the Blueberry Hill set of 12. Today I also made a crazyquilt block and prepped the fabric and pattern for the drawstring pants I want to make for myself. HowEVER, having no table here large enough to lay out 2 yards of fabric & pin the pattern on, I've decided to get out one of our portable tables tomorrow to do the pinning and cutting. I'll do it before I clean the dining room floor which has to be done in case anyone wants to see the house this weekend.

The rest of the evening I guess I will lay out and cut the backing for my July Challenge Doll Quilt. The August challenge was posted today and it's called Crazy 9 Patch. I copied the instruction from the tutorial that was linked to the challenge group and it looks interesting. It's for a full size quilt, so the challenge for ME I think will be to figure out how to downsize the concept for a doll quilt......

Maybe I'll just start Ornament #5!!!!!

Stitch On!

July Doll Quilt Challenge

July Doll Quilt Challenge
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Yesterday I made this doll quilt top for the Doll Quilt challenge group on Flickr. The July challenge was to use this tutorial you can find here to make a doll quilt. I learned a lot and might just do another one now that I have the experience behind me. It was very difficult to put the rows together (see them running vertically?) The final result was only 14" by 15" so that is why I added the borders. I am thinking to finish this one I may just turn the borders to the back for a faux binding.

Since it was the July challenge I used various red, white and blue patriotic prints and a couple reads-as-solid prints the last of which I also ended up using for the borders. I'm happy with how it turned out, but the process of putting it all together was rather angst-ridden to say the least! Certainly no need for matching points in the whole process though!

Since I don't have access to my stash I HAD to go to the fabric store today to get more white fabric in order to make the backing. I plan to use some left over blocks on the back and will post a picture of the whole thing after I finish machine quilting it.

When I was at JoAnn-Fabrics today I also bought a pattern for a simple tunic and pair of elastic waist pants. I bought some linen/cotton blend on sale to try out the pattern. I want to make drawstring pants out of the pattern which I don't think will be hard.

What IS hard for me is finding clothing - pants mostly - that I can wear without altering the length. Being a short person - sometimes even shorter than what they call petite - buying pants is a real challenge. Sunday when the realtor held an open house here for the sale of our home, we drove north to an outlet mall in which is the closest Dress Barn Petite store around. In the past I have always found SOMEthing to add to the wardrobe there. Of course being that it has been inventory time for them and also they are prepping for the Fall Season - don't you know I could find a thing in the store in my size?

Grrrrr......I used to make all my clothes once upon a time but I can't tell you how long it's been since I did any clothing sewing. So, making myself a pair of comfy pants shouldn't be so hard, right? I'm a veteran of many sewing classes and even once made my husband, aka G, a tailored pair of slacks.

Piece of cake!

I'm finding all this spare time I have right now, while we wait for the house to sell, good for stitching, especially during the day when the light is good. I've finished 3 of the BlueBerry Hill Redwork Christmas ornament designs and have already started the 4th one. I am planning on making them into snowball blocks when I finally get access to my stored stash. Meanwhile I have posted pictures below of the 3 blocks I have finished so far!

Stitch On!

Christmas Ornament #3

Christmas Ornament #3
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Christmas Ornament #2

Christmas Ornament #2
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Redwork Ornament #1

Redwork Ornament #1
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Scotty Dog

Scotty Dog for pillow
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Last night I finished up the last of the embroidery on this project. The image has been in my files for some time. I can't tell you what site it came from because my printout doesn't have any web address on the bottom. I used the Crayola twist up crayons for coloring the dog and butterfly before stitching. I was worried about the black smearing as I handled the block while embroidering, but heatsetting it with a dry iron before I began embroidering really worked well even with the black crayon.

This will probably be a Christmas present for my #3 granddaughter who loves dogs. Her room is decorated in the 1930's colors and so I chose these two 30's repro fabrics to go with this project. It will be made up into one of my "infamous" pillows for her bed.

However, right now all my pillow forms are in storage and I think this will be easier to store in a project envelope until we get moved. I'm assuming & hoping that we will be moving before Christmas!

For my ongoing projects I use the 12" x 12" clear project envelopes from Michael's. I find it a good system. You can find them in many crafts stores and even Jo-Ann Fabrics in the scrapbooking area. They stand on the shelf and I can see at a glance what is in each of them. I have like 20 of them I kept here at the house to work on while we wait for the house to sell.

Some contain completely finished blocks ready to be made into a quilt top, but many just contain patterns like my McKim Farm Life Quilt. I finally found the perfect coordinating fabric for that quilt so then I was able to choose the best color of DMC floss for the blocks. Everything is now in a project envelope awaiting me. A lot fits in these envelopes because they have an expandable bottom and sides. I just might start on the Farm Life Quilt blocks as soon as I wrap up a couple other UFO's here.

For now though my daily life is still packing, sorting and cleaning. The papers are all signed and the "Coming Soon" sign went up in front of the house today. Just a few more things to do and then the fun begins!

Stitch on!

Visiting the Stash

Way in Back!
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, a fat lot of good it did, but today I took a trip out to visit the stash! Alas, it was a failed effort since the stash was the first thing moved into the 10' x 15' deep temperature-controlled storage area. I was only able to wave from afar. I took a couple other pictures also which you can see in my Flickr photostream if you click on this zoomed picture of the boxes in back.

I made sure that my stash was the first thing packed & moved into the storage area and placed against the back wall. My logic? Well, I figure if we are moving far afield it will end up on the back of any truck and will then be readily available. It wil either get moved into a large area of our new abode OR.......it will be moved into a smaller storage area so that I can load it into the new abode gradually as time allows.

Logic! Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I'm logical. And I'm organized - just LOOK and SEE! Those boxes all have a number on them. And the numbered inventory exists on paper AND on this computer!

Now back to stitching as the Painter-Man and G put the final coat of paint on the garage and laundryroom. Sheesh! This place didn't look this good when we bought it 23 years ago! Nor has it ever been this empty or quiet. It was filled with the girls' noises and activities for so long, but no more. I'm ready to say goodbye.............

Stitch On!

Dodi Block #2

February? Red Block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

The month that the moderator of that list I was on chose the color red is the month I decided that I was going to add beads to the black stitching on my blocks. I know the other dayI mentioned that the blue block needed beads, but I just realized that all my beads are packed & in the storage unit! So, the beading part of this project will have to wait until we get moved.

The piece of fabric from Dodi's stash is again the center piece in this block. She used all solid colors for her crazyquilt work and most of the time it was either taffeta or satin.

I REALLY love this block. Not only does the black stitching look great on the red fabrics, but I also really think this block pretty much illustrates my personal style of crazy quilt stitching. Although I would probably add some patch embroidery if I wasn't doing this as a tribute to my mother-in-law, seam stitching and layering stitches is my favorite thing about crazyquilting.

Although I have used some silk ribbon embroidery here and there as I worked on class samples and round robins, it isn't the first thing I think of when I look at a naked cq block. Often the first thing I do after piecing a block is to cartoon it on a piece of newsprint art paper. I really like to plan my seam treatments ahead. HowEVER, that doesn't mean I don't stray from "the plan" at all. I often make changes as I go along.

Well, I am procrastinating here...my chore today is to clear all the shelves in the laundry room because Painter-Man will be back tomorrow to help G paint the room so it looks all sparkly fresh and clean. As soon as I finish that and some trimming in the front yard, I'll be back redwork stitching on block #4 for the mystery quilt!

Stitch On!