Ruby Doll #2

Ruby Doll #2
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Last night I finished this doll for the Sunday school teacher of my grandgirl (Izzie). I made Izzy's doll for her when she went to the hospital to have her tonsils out. She took it to Sunday school at least one time and the teacher sought out my daughter to find out where the doll came from.

My daughter and her family are moving to a new church home in September and my daughter subsequently asked me if I could make another Ruby doll so they could give her one.

This morning Ruby #2 began her journey via Priority to Texas.

I made this one with the same fabrics as I made the last doll, but I did a few things differently. For her cheeks I appliqued 2 of the dots from the fabric I used for her legs. I also made a pocket on the bottom of her "dress" that is supposed to look like an apron. You can see a corner of a little yellow card peeking out. The card says "Hi, my name is Ruby!"

I also made a little scarf for her neck this time and fastened it with a brown 1950's house dress button. If I had time, I would have sewn on a beaded choker since this doll was for an adult. However, as usual I was working down to the deadline. If you'd like to see what Ruby#2's back looks like, click on the photo and you can see the next photo in my Flickr photostream.

I'll be gone for a few days now as I accompany my dh, aka G, to Reno, Nevada where he will play in a golf tournament. Fabric /quilt shops, thrift shops and antique shops brace yourself. Here we women come led by "little Marge" with her new knee. I'm sure I"m in for some stash enhancement of some sort! Last year, remember, I found those WONderful vintage embroideries on velvet. Can't wait to see what this year brings.

I'll be taking some stitching with me. I've got a complicated image I'm stitching on a fairly naked block and I'm working on block #7 of my Redwork Life Quilt which is all about how much I loved starting school oh so many years ago!

Stitch On!

Life Quilt Block #6

Life Quilt Block #6
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is a seaplane very similar to the one that my Dad took me on for my very first airplane flight. It was 1950 or 1951 and we were traveling with my Dad on a business trip to far Northern Minnesota. I was 8 or 9 that summer. We had been to Lake Bemidji before to see the Paul Bunyon and Baby the Blue Ox statues and I loved that park. As I recall it was directly across the street from one of my Mum's favorite places to eat called Maid-Rite Hamburgers. I think that is the proper spelling. I've been told the place is still there today. They made very unusual hamburgers we had to eat with a spoon!

I don't know why, but this trip Dad decided I should have my first plane ride. Maybe we were a bit more flush economically or he had made a big sale that day. Mum stayed on the ground as she wasn't much for heights. What I remember about that short flight was how it seemed you could see forever and I was amazed at this new perspective I had been treated to. Before I knew it the flight was over and I remember begging to go again! It would be many years before I would ride in any airplane again and I have never been in such a small plane again.

After we moved to California one of my Dad's favorite things to do on Sundays was to take me to the airport where we would watch the planes take off and land for what seemed like hours. When I was in high school I was all prepared to start learning to fly and was about to start ground school when my Dad lost his job and my dream of learning to fly became a luxury my parents couldn't afford.

I am not very pleased with this embroidery and wonder if the ache of the osteoarthritis in my hands is affecting my stitching more these days. In person the block looks okay, but in the photo I think it looks very messy. I think I am going to go back and fill in the design streak on the pontoon in the foreground and also make the foreground strut solid as well. I may even fill in the design streak on the side of the plane.

I traced this from a drawing of a seaplane I found on the internet. I think it actually came from the Bemidji, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce site, which I thought was very appropriate. And I also was rather pleased to think that kids apparently can still get their first plane ride down at the lake by Paul & Babe!

I may be taking a bit of a break from the Life Quilt blocks for awhile. I have several crazyquilting obligations I need to concentrate, not to mention a couple sewing projects I must finish too. Our local stitching group's (Delta Crazy Stitchers) August meeting is coming up this Saturday and on Sunday G and I are leaving for Reno, Nevada where he is playing in a golf tournament. I'm not sure what kind of stitching I will take with me, but there's lots to choose from and I never travel without needle and threads. Everything except crocheting or knitting is up for grabs. Boy, I'll be glad when the coolness of Fall arrives so I can get back to working with yarn!

Stitch On!

Cats Flap!

I am trying to play catch-up during this heatwave. It helps to concentrate on precise cutting and piecing and not think about how I will NEVER EVER complain about winter's cold again. It cannot come soon enough for me! Bring on Fall!

Cats Quiltlet/Flap
Originally uploaded by lasassone

A long while ago (maybe last year?) I promised to make this for my brother and today I finally finished it. Finished? Well, maybe not. I think I still need to run a line of quilting along the inner edge of the outer border to prevent sagging, but I took the finished photos already, so here you have it!

In my brother's motorhome there's an empty space in the cabinetry that used to house a television. His 2 cats use it now as a hidey hole and a place to store their toys. He had this piece of upholstery fabric hanging and when I saw that, I suggested that Bonnie & Clyde deserved something a tad more decorative and elegant. I don't think he thought I would embroider a portrait of his 2 Chaussie cats, but on our next visit this past January he saw me doing the embroidery. He has been very patient, but truth be told, he may have given up on ever receiving this.

But now, after the line of stitching is done, this will go in the mail to Arizona. It measures, by the way, approximately 12" by 16" and if you click on the picture you can see another picture of it that shows the backing which is a different fabric from the front.

My brother will be putting 2 eyelets in the top and it will hang, as the upholstery fabric did, on 2 cup hooks. Thus it will be a cat flap! However, down the road should they not have a need for it anymore, it could be easily displayed on a wall in their home as art!

Now it's on to completing the also-very-late Scotty pillow I promised my #3 granddaughter!

Stitch On!

My 3 Girlies! aka Lulu's GrandGirls

My 3 Girlies!
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Today is a great day! I received pictures taken of our 3 daughters while they were together in TX last month. This is actually a picture I took of one of the pictures I got in the mail today. I seem to be the techy in the family. I never get many digital pix from any of them. Maybe they are just old-fashioned girls!

Left to right they are Cheryl (46), Gabrielle (34) and Nicole (39). they are gonna hate for me to have listed their ages like I used to do when they were little kiddos, right?

I was SO happy to see their smiling faces in my mailbox today! We miss them and their families so much!

tearing up here.......

August TIF Sneak Peek!

Here's a sneek peak at what I've done so far on my August TIF block. At first I was stumped as to what I might put on this block, but then the Olympics began and I slapped my forehead...DUH! I found an Olympic flag on the web and also the little image of the Chinese character for Harmony. I'll be adding a flagpole for the flag and I still have to do the center spider and web too. The print in the middle this month has a bit of a gold web already in the print, so I'll be continuing that into the center. The silk ribbon I have laying there will be used to make a few (maybe 3) SRE sunflowers in that patch above the month's name of "August". Yes, I am going to do some SRE again. I have one of my books out that shows different flowers and I think I can handle a few small ones.

Stay tuned & Stitch On!

Take It Further Challenge July Block

Take It Further Challenge July Block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Only 4 days late, I finished my July block for Sharon's Take It Further Challenge last night. Again this month I have used cottons from my stash even though I now have access to my fancy fabric stash. Matching the colors Sharon posts each month to my DMC floss stash has become something I look forward to along with taking the 5 floss choices into my fabric room and pulling the fabrics from my quilting cotton stash.

I am not too sure how I ended up with the cottage garden print when I was pulling fabrics. I think I was looking for something that would make that lime green color fit in with the other colors. I do remember that I tried hard to find one of JBM's Ornamentation fabrics that would fit into this block, but I couldn't find one.

When I found the gold print that looks like stone, I know that I would continue the cottage's pathway down onto the stone so as to look like a patio. This suddenly seemed very appropriate as during the month of July we were involved in trying to mentally move ourselves back into Hydrangea House while physically cleaning up the yard and patios. Since we sold most of our patio furniture last year during our 4 pre-move garage sales, we even found ourselves cozying up the areas with a new table & chair set with an umbrella and a couple of Adirondack chairs with a small table for enjoying the cool summer & fall evenings when they happen.

I digress....back to the block. I used some outline stitch to continue the cottage walkway onto the patio and then to soften the line between the cottage fabric and the purple and green, I did some feather stitching with assorted colors of detached chain stitch additions.

I have never been very good at the buttonhole wheels, but I recently saw some on an old crazyquilt block that were made to look like fans, so I tried them on the seam between the lime and purple. See the handles are a double row of seed beads. Not sure I would do them that way again, but the way I put the beads on was a tad sloppy and that may be why I don't like them.

Up in that same corner is the summer sun again - we had that here in No. California the whole month despite some periods of smoke filtered sunshine from the fires. Then in honor of the 4th of July holiday, I did some fireworks in gold with the same thread I used for my spider web in the center. At lower right in the name of the month and a little flag for the 4th of July as well.

For the seam between the patio and the lime center patch I did a double run of cretan stitch with the two blue floss colors in July's challenge. The flowers are actually sequins shaped like flowers and anchored with blue seed beads. The rest of the seed beads on the cretan stitches are copper colored.

On the seam on lower right along the blue "fairy frost" fabric, I actually did a couple vintage seam combos from my book of stitches copied from vintage crazy quilts. The base stitches were done with this month's floss colors and then I added to the seams with additional silk pearl thread stitches and seed beads.

On the patio, the cat named Peanuts, who thinks he lives here, sits waiting for G to come work in the garden. He follows G around like a dog and sometimes is too much help like when G was digging holes to plant seeds in. After digging for a few feet, G turned around and Peanuts was covering over the holes as he followed along!

During the month I broke down and actually bought a new beautiful hydrangea bush, but, still holding out hope that we will be moving, I put it in a pot instead of into the ground. I stitched the flowers of my little potted hydrangea on my block's patio with blue and purple colonial knots. I did the leaves with two widths (4mm & 7mm) of green silk ribbon. You all KNOW how I love to do SRE, right? This is as good as it's gonna get!

Now I'm going to try to put in the 4 close up pictures below. Wish me luck......... It worked! Below are the close ups of the July block!

Lower Right corner:

Center:

Lower Left:

Upper Right Corner:

Stitch On!