Chocolage & JBM's fabrics

This is block #5 from the Chocolage Quilt booklet which I finished on 11/6/07. There are a total of 16 block designs and so I have 11 more to go. My backstitching is getting faster and I have been doing these in the evenings while watching tv. I do not plan on making "my chocolate quilt" the same as is shown in the booklet. I am going to frame each block with the fabrics shown above my finished block #5. I will frame each block with strips of the pink and green fabrics and perhaps use the chocolate brown fabric either as cornerstones or fill ins/sashings. I just couldn't resist buying it. I loved how it looked like melted chocolate. The bonbon fabric will be the borders of the quilt.

ARE YOU READY?

As I promised below are the Judith Baker Montano fabrics from her new line called "Ornamentation". I just love these fabrics and after seeing a few fat quarters at a nearby fabric & craft store called Beverly's, I vowed to treat myself by buying a half yard of all of them. I actually didn't buy ALL of them, but I bought MOST I think, only passing on the extreme pastels. I placed the order just before we traveled to Arizona and when I got back the package from http://www.fabricshack.com/ was waiting for me. It took me a couple days to get it all laundered and pressed. Below are 5 pictures of the ones I bought. Aren't they gorgeous?

I've seen the ones in the 4th picture down referred to as faux silk ribbon prints. I can't wait to start using these beauties. I have been unable to find a lot of the colors of the Kaufman Radiance line that are a silk/cotton sateen and coordinate well with these JBM prints. I may have to go back to Beverly's and just get the other colors in fat quarters. I already have one project in mind. When I visited the hospice shop last week, I found an interesting lacy doily intricately woven into asort of a 4 pointed star. I am thinking of making 4 blocks from these fabrics at least 12" square or more. Where they meet I will piece with the same color of the sateen in all blocks so if I put this lace piece over the center where the blocks meet, it will show that one color through. I'm not sure I've explained that well, but I can see it in my addelpated brain and hopefully will show you the reality soon. I've taken classes from JBM in the past in Omaha at the CQ Society's Yearly "do" and so would like to make this a piece to honor my experiences in her classes.

Stitch On my friends!

Chocolage Block #4

Chocolage Block #4
Originally uploaded by lasassone

MOO!!!!!!!!

Last evening I finished this Chocolage block which I started while on vacation in Arizona. I think it's my favorite one so far. It's a cute cow! Also the backstitching for the wording isn't so much of a chore anymore. It seems I am getting it more even and it is going faster now. Practice-practice-practice is what always works, right?

I've traced off a few more blocks to work on in the evenings while watching tv with G, but during the days I need to get busy on Christmas gifts for my daughters and grands. The youngest is a girl and wants clothes for her Bitty Baby doll.

Since I don't own that particular doll (G says it must be the ONLY doll I don't have in my collection), I borrowed a Bitty Baby from my friend's granddaugher. They brought her over today, so now I just need to find a pattern.

I got the shock of my life yesterday at JoAnn's Fabrics when I found the PERFECT pattern with several outfits and by the description it was obviously designed for this 15" baby doll that is from American Girl-Pleasant Company dolls. I about fainted! When did patterns go up to US$15.95? That is just plain crazy.

When I worked at JoAnn's years ago there were always sales on patterns every week or in every sale flyer for like $1.99 each. Next week I noticed in their current flyer that Simplicity patterns will be $1.99, so I guess I'll wait and make sure I get down there on the first day of the sale. At that cost, I could buy 4 or 5 for what it would have cost me yesterday even with the 40% coupon!

The Judith B. Montano fabrics? I haven't forgotten. I'll take the picture tonight, ok?

Stitch On!

Building a Backup Stash

Building a Backup Stash
Originally uploaded by lasassone

The other day we spent 4 hours moving our stored "stuff" from a 10'x15' unit to a 10'x10' unit and by doing this, my stash is now close to the front of the unit. However, it's all so tightly packed in, I can't access too many things. We had to bring all our Christmas decoration boxes, tree and the reindeer for the yard home and G plans to put them back into the attic. Or maybe we'll just sell them - who knows - we thought we'd be moved by Christmas!

I managed to snag a few things while we were moving boxes - like some supplies I had to make Christmas gifts for my grandkids. Silly me, I thought we'd be moved by now and would be making gifts in my new studio.

So, a crazyquilt friend, former student and member of our local stitching group asked me the other day if I knew that our local Hospice Shoppe was having a "Vintage Sale". She told me briefly about some goodies she found and I was intrigued. So, the next morning I managed to get to the shop soon after it opened.

Gathering all the laces and trims you see hanging there in the picture after their Oxyclean soak was a long process as most of them were buried in bins filled with doilies and other things like ladies gloves, etc. I don't believe I've ever seen so many hand made doilies in one place before. My Mum used to make fancy doilies and whenever I see large numbers of things like that I remember how many hours and how much concentration she used to spend on her crochet projects.

One of the best treasures I found was a little crocheted dress that you can see kind of laying over the top right hand side of the rack. It's ecru with pink trim. It was obviously not an actual doll dress, which is what I thought at first. It IS 2 sided but has no opening, only a little hanging loop on the back side of the neck. It must have been made as a kitchen decoration. As a hot pad, it wouldn't do very well; it's very lacy! I plan to save it for embellishment on my planned doll-themed quilt. I saved some of my daughters' doll clothing in a box SOMEwhere, so I'll add it to that eventually. (If you'd like to see closeup photos of the little dress and some of the trims, click on the picture of the rack and you can see 2 additional photos in my Flickr pictures.)

A couple days before my trip to Hospice, the couple we do our morning walks with returned home from their month-long vacation. Diana, who used to work with me at the doctor's office brought me back a packet of awesome tatting that she and her daughter found in an antique shop in Seattle. Such a lovely thing when you see something like that and realize you know exactly who will love it SO much. I've done the same for her on trips as she is one of our Katie's "other mother's" and cares for Katie when we travel if she can.

So I am sort of tatting & crocheted edging rich! Now if I could just find some motifs! Perhaps I need to go out to the storage place by myself and see if I can manage to reach some of my stash. The other day when I had to go pick up something non-cq related, I actually was able to pull a couple of my embellishment drawers open and fondle some ribbons & such before I to leave.

Did I tell you that I ordered a half yard of most of the new line of fabrics designed by Judith Baker Montano? They were waiting here for me when we returned from Arizona. It's time to make dinner, so guess I'll leave that for tomorrow, okay?

Stitch On!

Final Vintage Embroidery Piece

Final Vintage Embroidery Piece
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is the final vintage piece that I purchased in Nevada. I think this is my favorite of all 6 pieces and I believe this will be the centerpiece of anything I make from the 6 pieces.

I have to say this photo comes up looking like the velvet is blue, but it is not. It is a deep rich teal in color.

Each side measures 19 inches and from the base to the top it measures 17 inches high.

99% of the stitching is done with the old-style chenille thread. There is a little pearl cotton stitching in the center of each of the flowers. The piece is in good shape but there are 3 or 4 places where the stitches are loose. I will repair these discreetly using a strand of silk floss and tacking the errant ends down from the back.

I do not know how this was used originally, but you can see the old seam lines and, in addition, there are evenly spaced small holes inside the seam allowance. It's almost as if someone had used a pushpin to tack this piece up somewhere. I don't have a clue as to what would have made these holes.

So those are all the 6 pieces and now..........

I'm off on a week's journey to Arizona where I will visit with my brother and visit some favorite places. This is the first time in a while that I will travel without my laptop, but at my brothers home I can check my email and some favorite links.

I'm also taking my cpu into the shop where, while I'm gone, they will tweak it and maybe give it a physical and put some life back into it. It may need a transfusion for all I know. Or perhaps it's just getting old like me. At least IT didn't fall on the laundry room steps this morning!

Don't ASK!

LOL! I'm not sure how this "no computer trip" will work, but I have forwarded some things to my yahoo mailbox in hopes I can still check things at my brothers place.. Whether I'll be able to blog remains a mystery. But if I can't, I'll see you all in a week!

I'm taking a lot of stitching with me for evenings when my brother reads. He doesn't watch television!

Stitch On!

Vintage Embroidery #5

Vintage Embroidery #5
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Sorry for the delay in posting this 5th vintage piece. I loaded the picture up to Flickr some days ago as some people have discovered, but along with the last days of recuperating from the hellish virus, lots has been happening around here to keep me busier than I'd like to be.

No, the house has NOT sold, but according to our realtor there's been much more action on the listing since we lowered the price. Remains to be seen what that means.

So here we have the 5th vintage embroidery piece I bought at that shop in Carson City, Nevada. It is also 8.5 inches square and the velvet base is the darkest navy blue I think I've ever seen. The skillfully-done embroidery looks to have been done in one strand of silk. I think this is my "next to favorite" because of the subject.

California's official state flower is the California Poppy and they have always been my favorite wildflower. In our former home I used to have 100's of them in our front yard and they would re-seed every year resulting in some interesting variations popping up over the 12 yrs we lived there.

This is a lovely well-done embroidery whose colors are a bit more intense than the photo shows. Somehow I just couldn't get the orange as bright as it should be nor could I get the stems and leaves to appear as green as they do in real life.

I can't wait to work up an idea to incorporate all of these pieces. Tomorrow I will post the 5th, final and my favorite piece. I promise!

Stitch On!

Halloween Pillowcases for the Grands

Halloween Pillowcases for the Grands
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Last night I finished up 5 of these pillowcases for my youngest grands. The one on the left I made for the boys and the Witchey's Underwear ones on the right I made for the girls.

Today I got Halloween cards made for each of them (thanks to the Dover free weekly samples!), wrapped them up and took the 2 packages to the post office where the lines were long - even at the automated teller "thing". The lady in front of me had never used it before and so I and the guy behind me ended up training her! LOL.....she made a mistake twice, so by the time she was finished she'd done the whole thing 3 times and said she'd never forget how EVER!

After that we went to Circuit City and bit the bullet. We purchased a dvd/vcr recorder that is even digital and should last us a long time. We had hoped to avoid any big purchases until we moved, but when your vcr dies, what are you gonna do?

What I'm going to do is recommend that anyone reading this NEVER buy a television with a built-in vcr, okay? Trust me! Three-year-old TV is still great, vcr inside NOT so great aka virtually dead.

So, tomorrow morning, when my mind is fresh, I will try to figure out how to hook it up. The cute young salesman assured me it's simple, but you gotta know by the point he told me that, he was already thinking of how he was gonna spend his commission!

It's back to the studio/sewing room for me! Loads to do before our trip next week to Arizona!

Stitch On!

Oh My! Lookie!

New Judith Montano fabrics
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Look what I found yesterday at a fabric shop over the hills from us called Beverly's Fabrics. It's a chain of stores much like Ben Franklin crafts, but nicer, and mostly located in Northern California towns.

This is one of the 4 peacock prints in Judith Baker Montano's new line of fabric from Kaufmann called "Ornamentation". The fat quarters of solids/sateens (55% cotton/45% silk) are also by Kaufmann and thename of the line for them is called "Radiance". I have to say that the feel of the sateen is SO wonderful. I would love to make a blouse/shirt out of one of the colors - maybe the teal.

The colors of the solids are fairly true in the picture except that the one on the far right is actually a deeper true green than I think it shows in the photo. I took this photo with the peacock fabric hanging over the drying rack in the garage. It's been raining hard here all day so I had to dry it inside after pre-washing it. I didn't pre-wash the sateen. I may just rinse them lightly before I use them.

I'm envisioning some awesome crazyquilt blocks in my future using these fabrics and wondered this evening if I could find any more of the prints online. I managed to find a site called fabricshack.com that has a lot of the prints in the Ornamentation line and some (maybe 5 or 6) of the Radiance sateens.

I recently also found some peacock feather iron on appliques at Michael's that go well with this fabric. I found them in the aisle where they have the iron on rhinestone things and the printer fabric sheets. As I've done in the past, I'll sew them on and won't actually iron them on as I have an intense dislike of glue!

I've no affiliation with either of these places; I am just a happy drooler and sometimes customer!

Well, I said that about glue and now I have to confess that yesterday I also bought a BeJeweler Electric Rhinestone applicator. It's not for quilts or crazyquilt items at this point although I know a lot of quilters are using these for embellishment. I actually bought it because our youngest grand, a real girly-girl named Izzy, is absolutely crazy about sparkly & fancy stuff. I plan to glitz up a pair of jeans for her as soon as her Mum tells me the size I should buy.

Well, it's back to the sewing room/studio for me! I've been busy making Halloween pillowcases for the 5 youngest of our grands and tonight I'm trying to get them finished. They need to be mailed and I'd like them to have some time to use them before Halloween arrives. I've left out the 16 and 18 yr old girls; somehow I don't think they would care much for them.

ta ta! Stitch On!

Happy Birthday Mum!

Mum
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Lulu Mae Towne Sterling
1906 - 1991

Happy Birthday Mum!

Wish I could send you flowers like always. But if Heaven is like we all think it is and filled with our favorite things, you are surrounded by flowers every day.

I hope you know I'm still stitching as you taught me and have learned techniques of which you never dreamed. And I'm spreading the stitching love by teaching others, which I wish you had lived to see.

We Stitch On!

Napping!

Over the past few days I've been doing a lot of napping as I continue to recuperate from whatEVER this bug is that I came down with on Sunday night when we got home from G's 50th Class Reunion. My constant companion has been our 12 year old Katie who is a Siamese-Tabby mix. She LOVES naps and is a good foot warmer too!

I took this picture of her last evening when she was waiting for me to finish watching "Numbers" so she could go to bed. I don't think that's the tightest ball I've ever seen her curled up into, but she certainly has all her paws tucked up for sure. Our days and evenings have seemed much cooler this week. The sun has been shining brightly most days, but the house is staying cooler than the outside temperatures. I only know this because I've seen the neighbors outside in shorts while I have been huddling inside in jeans and a sweatshirt!

I think I must be getting better. Since I'm on antibiotics and shouldn't be contagious, I went to our local CrazyQuilt group's October meeting this morning where a good time was had by all I think. I would have hated to miss the meeting. It's always the highlight of my month.

We are really a varied group of stitchers. I took one of my Chocolage stitchery blocks to work on purely because it was the simplest thing I could take. Around the table the other stitcher's were working on 1) Laura: a lovely Fall block with some nice peacock feather pre-made appliques she said came from Jo-Ann Fabrics, (ahem....I MAY need to go shopping!) 2) Sandy: a nice cq block for a grandson that will feature his interests of baseball, football and fishing, 3) Beth: the beginnings of a small tree skirt/table topper in victorian jewel tones, 4) Andrea: a pretty new block with wonderful red satin stitching just done, 5) Pat: a "very orange" fiber art block and 6) Fran, the hostess this month, was doing the final applique work stitching down the patches of her latest totally hand pieced crazyquilt block. As usual Fran served up a lot of delights. I love going to her home for our October meeting because she decorates to the hilt for Halloween and always serves herbal teas & lots of Halloween goodies! The herbal tea felt great on my throat today. The Hershey Candy Corn Kisses weren't bad either!

This is the first post I have ever made directly from the blogger dashboard. I even put Katie's picture in and moved it once! I have always done every post from the Flickr site because it's so easy. You just click on a picture you have in your sets there and then click on "blog this". However, you can't put the pictures just anywhere - they are always at the top of your blog post. With this newly (for me) learned method I can add a picture right here of the doll quilt top I finished yesterday!

Stitch On!

Under the weather

under_the_weather
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I came home from G's 50th class reunion Sunday night and by Monday I had a raging sore throat and no voice. I think I'm on the mend, but what a week this has been. Stay tuned, okay?

I haven't had such a nasty upper respiratory bug in a few years. I'm still coughing and SO tired!

I hope to be better tomorrow and able to get back to blogging!

Stitch on!

Playing with Fall Colors

Playing with Fall Colors
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Today we had an appointment with a professional home stager. which was a real eye opening experience for both G and I. She went through our home showing us things to do, moving things and sometimes frustrating us to no end. We were told by our realtor that we should just listen and then do the things we felt capable of doing. No obligation. Yesterday I told G I couldn't imagine what she would want to change or have us change. I thought everything was fine the way it was. Wow! Was I in for a surprise!

It was amazing watching her as she breathed life into the small rooms of our cottage home. I have to admit to muttering "oh-oh" under my breathe about a dozen times as she went blasting from room to room! After all was said and done, we are doing about 80% of the changes she suggested even though it means the garage is a little fuller now because of the things we have removed from the interior of our home and the front porch. Some of the other 20% either are not doable or will take some time and/or muscle and may get done when we have time.

Some of her ideas were actually forehead slapping moments for me. Because she hasn't lived here, she was seeing things with an unbiased eye. We are looking at some of our old tired things that she moved around in a new way. To us they were nothing special, but she loved much of what we haven't packed away and said more than once that she wished she had come while we were packing up the house so she could have had us leave some more things out.

This wonderful much-loved wooden bowl which is a true antique bowl that cracked many years ago and is repaired with leather lacing was just sitting on the top of G's grandmother's little china cabinet. She had moved a piece of furniture into the den for use as a coffee table and then placed the empty bowl on top of it. She suggested we fill it with something like apples or lemons - either real or fake.

On our trip to Michael's and the grocery this afternoon we laughed when we found that the fake things cost more at Michael's than real stuff at the grocery store. We got this mix of oranges, lemons, green pears and colorful gourds and are very pleased with ourselves at how it looks in the bowl.

We are frantically doing a lot other things before we have to go off for two days for G's 50th class reunion. On Sunday the realtor will be having an open house here and I'll be very curious to see what she thinks of all the changes. And, of course, it remains to be seen if any of the "staging" will help sell the old homestead. Of course, we surely hope so!

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! When I return I will be posting the pictures of the last two vintage blocks I bought up in Carson City, Nevada. I think you will agree when you see them that I saved the best for last. Ideas are bouncing around in my head about how to use all of the six pieces in a hopefully memorable crazyquilt wallquilt or throw. It's no wonder I am having trouble sleeping!

In the studio today I had very little time to do nothing more than quickly admire my Gambler's Special order that arrived from www.fabric.com this afternoon. I have to say that I got two of the most awesome black brocades and one blue one that are just too yummy! If you hurry on over to their site, you might be still able to snag some for yourself. No affiliation, yada, yada - just a very happy (and long-standing) customer!

In the stitching department I have managed to get my September Doll Quilt Challenge piece almost done. All the rows are pieced and I have 7 of the 10 rows sewn together. I'm leaving it out in my studio to show how true my sign is that I leave out for realtor showings. It says "Quilts in Progress - Watch for Flying Fabric!"

Stitch On!

Vintage embroidery #4

Vintage embroidery #4
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Good Morning all!

Here we have the fourth embroidery I recently acquired at a Carson City, Nevada shop. It is worked on a piece of dark navy blue velvet about 8.5 inches square. This velvet is much nicer than the black/dark grey of block #3 and seems more like silk. It's very soft. However, this embroidery was definitely done in one strand of cotton floss. There isn't the sheen to these flowers that the ones on the black velvet have. It's more of a matt look and the threads on the back are definitely cotton.

I believe the flower design depicts nasturtiums which are one of my favorite flowers. If you look very closely you can see on the far right that someone at one time had embroidered an outline of a butterfly. It was removed perhaps because the embroiderer wasn't satisfied with the look.

At first I thought that I would have to embroider another butterfly there in order to use this piece but I have since changed my mind. I have not been pleased with the results of my few threadpainting experiments. I think this piece can be worked into a crazyquilt project quite well with some strategic applique piecing over the former butterfly area.

Today I'll be working to finish the piecing of my September doll quilt challenge piece and then I may try to finish that tiny outline embroidery on the purple and gold crazyquilt pillow cover. I may have to load up on Motrin a bit though before I get into that! My hands are better, but not much. I was hoping the recent Fall-like weather we've been having would help, but guess it's going to take a bit more time.

Stitch On!

Vintage Embroidery #3

Vintage Embroidery #3
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Here is the third piece of vintage embroidery that I purchased on our recent trip. The 8-1/2" square backing appears to be a very soft cotton velveteen and the actual embroidery is in awesome shape. It's done with what looks to be silk floss. It is possible, however, that the thread used was an art or filo sylk which was a common thread available during the early part of the 1900's. I have many such skeins in my stored stash and I believe they are made of rayon.

The stitching has a wonderful sheen or light to it that I don't think shows in the photo. Silky to the touch, it's a very nice example of what these days is being called thread painting. There are many shades of greens, golds and browns used skillfully for the stems and leaves and almost as many shades of reds used in the flowers.

I wonder at the patience and skill this floral piece took to complete. The design appears to have been drawn onto the velvet with some kind of white ink or paint. On the back there are thread ends and jumps that show the fineness of the stitches and threads used.

There are pressed hems on the back on all 4 sides of this piece and some remnants of stitching leads me to believe that it perhaps had a former life as a pillow.

The more I study these pieces, the more thankful I am that I was in the right place at the right time and was able to give them a new home where they are greatly appreciated. I only hope I can do justice to their stitcher's skills when I find a way to give each of them a new life.

Stitch On!

My Saturday Haul!

My Saturday Haul!
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I visited the Diablo Valley Quilter's 23rd Quilt Show in Danville, California today. My husband and I went to high school in Danville and his 50th Class reunion is next Saturday. So, he went scouting for places to buy supplies for the Class picnic that he is helping with which will be held next Sunday afternoon. And I went to the quilt show which was held at Charlotte Wood Elementary School.

Whenever I go to this show I always look around for familiar faces, but the town has changed so much since we moved away, I've never seen anyone I know.

It's always a good show though and since they went to having it every other year, it has doubled in size. Most of my "haul" came from the booth of the Blankie Project (Chemo quilts) that I make quilts for. Just look at all those silk threads someone donated! The lace was from there also plus I bought 4 fat quarters of Christmas fabric which were, sad to say, busy in the laundryroom and couldn't make the photo session!

The buttons I bought to put on my Under The Sea block for the Crazy Quilt International charity project block that I'm making. I don't think you can see them very well - they are all starfish things. The cluny trim was a "just because it was there" purchase. You never know when you might need some trim.

One of the vendors had those little lacy corset appliques in black and red. I just couldn't pass the black one up! I've no idea what I'll do with it, but I just had to have it! There were also stylized cats and fancy hats but the corset just grabbed me! And it was only $2!

Be Honest! Could you have left it there?

Stitch on!

Vintage Embroidery #2

Vintage Embroidery #2
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is the 2nd of 6 embroideries that I purchased at the shop in Carson City, Nevada. This one is done on a 10 inch round of an elegant rich teal velvet that is very soft and feels like silk. Typical of the velvets used in many vintage crazy quilts I've been fortunate enough to handle, this one too has a similar cotton-like backing.

The design that was embroidered on this piece is similar to a copy of a vintage embroidery image that own. I don't know what the gold flowers are because my copy did not have a name on it. Could it be Goldenrod?

The embroidery work is done in two shades of chenille, 1 strand of a thread and a ribbon with a crimped look. The thread used for the background stems and leaves appears to be a very thin twisted pearl cotton. The "flowers" were done in a lighter golden colored chenille while the leaves on the left and across the bottom were done in a darker gold chenille with a long and short stitch.

I'm not sure you can see it, but at the very top of the design there is one broken thread in the chenille. It won't be difficult to fix. All the lighter colored gold stitches are french knots and one has come loose. The back of this piece, by the way, has nothing on it to secure the thread ends like the back of Vintage Embroidery #1 has.

The clover or thistle-like flowers were stitched in what, from the back, appears to be 3 different colors of a pink ribbon that has a crimped look to it. On the back you can see the original colors and the bottom of each flower was actually done in bright fuschia pink, but the front of this piece has faded. I'm very curious about this stitching ribbon and have taken a close up that you can see in my Flickr pictures if you click on this post's picture. If you have a clue as to what this ribbon is, please leave a comment here on my blog.

UPDATE 9/16: A friend with more knowledge of vintage pieces than I have says she believes that this stitching ribbon is "silk grosgrain". She also says that Mokuba Ribbon company currently makes a similar ribbon but it is rayon. Sounds fine to me; now I just need to find some! Anyone ever seen this. I don't ever think of Mokuba since they stopped selling the silk ribbon here in our Michael's stores.

I think perhaps this embroidery was stretched and framed or may have been a small pillow. You can see the stitching line in the photo and on the back there appears to be remnants of what looks like a dried glue-like substance in many places but especially around the edge.

UPDATE 9/16: The same friend suggests that this piece may have been put into an embroidery hoop for wall display maybe in the 1970's when doing that was popular. That would explain the glue residue on the edges.

Again with this piece I think it could handle being the centerpiece of a crazyquilted item all by it's self; maybe a wallhanging or pillow. More and more though I'm thinking, after I have studied them all really well, that I might try to find a layout that would showcase them all together.

Because the Realtors are having an open house here tomorrow, my day has been spent cleaning and clearing projects off the table in my slimmed down studio. We are going to take a trip to the closest IKEA store to dream about new furniture for new rooms in a new house!

After that I look forward to getting back to stitching on the crazy quilt pillow I started last month, but first I think I have to finish the Halloween pillowcases I started for the grandkids.

Stitch On!

Vintage Chenille Bird

Vintage Chenille Bird
Originally uploaded by lasassone

On a recent trip to Carson City, Nevada I visited a newly opened quilt shop called The Sewing Studio. The show's owner carries a variety of unusual fabrics for quilting and garment sewing and some vintage textile items as well. This 10" by 7" piece is the first of six I purchased and will share with you over the next few days. The owner seemed happy to find someone who would give these pieces a good home. She said she just knew that someday a crazyquilter would walk in her door!
The shop's website, by the way, is here in case you'd like to see it. After you watch her little video make sure that you click on the slide show button on the left to see all the different rooms and gorgeous things in this wonderful shop!
Aside from the odd shape of this piece, it is in perfect condition. The bird's beak and legs are embroidered in long and short stitch using a single strand of a floss which may be silk. This is like threadpainting I believe and there is a subtle use of difference colors not only on the bird's legs and beak but also in the foliage worked into the scene. The cattails are 3 dimensional and done with a rich brown chenille in a tufting stitch where looped stitches and been cut and then shaped into the cattail shape.
I think the chenille used for the bird's body is the vintage chenille is often seen on vintage crazy quilts. It's very soft and I actually have some in my stash so I'm familiar with it. The bird's eye is glass and has been attached with a very tiny wire.
By scooting aside some of the stitches some white lines can be seen. It appears that the whole scene including the bird was carefully drawn onto the black satin-weave silk fabric with white paint.
Something interesting I noticed is that on the reverse of this embroidery the knots and threads appear to have been sealed with something perhaps to keep them from unraveling. On the other hand, the lighter colored chenille that was used on the bird's body appear to be brown n the back. I don't know if something was dabbed onto the back to discolor it or if it's just the age of the piece. I feels like the sugar-starched doilies my Mum used to make in the 1950's.
I have no idea what I will do with this treasure, but like the other 5 pieces, I think you could build a whole crazy quilt project around him!
I'm still winding DMC floss on bobbins and just heard from a friend that she found another Wal-Mart and managed to get a lot more colors including 54 more for me that were on a list I had given her of colors I don't have.
I'm having a painful flare up of the OsteoArthritis in my right hand and this winding is about all I can handle for now. I've always been very thankful that I only had OA in my left hand, but recently it has appeared in the joints of my right hand sadly. My mum had it in both hands so I expected it actually. I'm anxious to get back to my ladies boot pincushion motif on the pillow, but that tiny work is just impossible for now. But you all....

Stitch On!

Remembering 9-11-01

Remembering 9-11-01
Originally uploaded by lasassone

What can I say? This says it all. On this 6th tearful anniversary, I find myself speechless.

Final Redwork Ornament

Final Redwork Ornament
Originally uploaded by lasassone

The Redwork Ornament set is done! AND....I went shopping for Christmas fabric, which normally I wouldn't need. But with everything in storage, I had no Holiday fabric at my fingertips. I want to make a sample block of what I think I'll do for this Holiday quilt or wallhanging, but first I had to go buy a pad of graph paper so I could try some different settings. Yes, the graph paper is in storage too. By the time we get moved, I'm going to have doubles of a lot of things!
A friend of mine is doing 3 of these designs in red too but she's decided to add gold accents to the designs. I think that's a wonderful idea. I had already decided I might do another set and use beads on them. Another idea I had was to do a set in the real colors of the items, like green on the leaves and purple on the grapes of this last one. Even doing that I could add some beads here and there I think.
Yesterday afternoon I dug out all the DMC floss I had in the Hot Wheel Garage container labeled "stranded floss" and discovered that I actually did not have much DMC at all. Most of it I inherited from my mother-in-law and HER mum, my dh's gramma. I put what little DMC I found into a floss box according to number and started winding some of the new colors that were unique and I could only find one of. Winding actually hurt my hands worse than stitching does! Who knew? I wound last evening until I ran out of bobbins.
Today I made a run to Michael's Crafts for some more bobbins and they didn't have very many. So.........I dropped into the Wal-Mart on the way home and my-oh-my! Those 3 round-y racks have been raided thoroughly! HowEVER......there were still 43 skeins of white and ecru there for the grabbing.
Now if I just knew where my dyes were in the storage place I could make some unique varigated floss!

Well, off to wind away the evening!

A Visual

A Visual
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Recently through a couple yahoo embroidery lists I heard that Wal-Mart stores across the USA were getting rid of their DMC floss and had put them on sale for 10 cents. I thought our store had not done that because recently (before our trip-more later on that) I was there and it was still 28 cents which had been their normal price.

So ... yesterday off I toddled to the closest Wal-Mart store about 11 a.m. where I found the rumor was true and they WERE on sale for 10 cents each. SO.........

I started going through the 3 round spinning racks which I soon found DID have a system to follow the numbers. Wherever I could I bought two of each color they still had. The singles I found I set aside in case I found one to match. Let me tell you - those racks were a MESS! But when I left they were not!

With a carry basket half full I got in a short line and soon there were 3 or 4 people behind me. When I put the basket up on the counter and the cashier and I started laughing, there were many curious glances thrown our way. When the people behind me saw that each skein had to be scanned separately, they ran to other lines like rats deserting a sinking ship!

The cashier turned off her light so no one would get in line and she and I with the help of another employee began laying the skeins out in lines with the upc codes up. That way the cashier could zap each with the scan gun and then sweep that row into the bag. I don't know how long that took, but I had spent a great deal of time going through those 3 round racks - part of it sitting on the floor! What I don't understand though is why they need the codes recorded if they don't need the info for inventory. If they aren't going to carry the floss anymore, why keep track. Ah well........

So, meanwhile back at the cashier's counter, the 3 of us are chatting and becoming friendly and sharing "mom-stories". When the cashier finished scanning and pushed the button to print the receipt, it just kept on printing and printing.....all 650 items! There were doubles of 300 colors plus 50 singles not pictured. You can see the receipt there on the table folded in half. It measures 83 inches long. It created quite a stir! The cashier said that was a record for her since she had worked there - it might be a store record, who knows! It is surely MY record.

Remember I said I left home at 11:00 a.m.? Well, I got home at 1:50 p.m. Allowing for the 20 min. it took me to go and come home (10 min. each way), I was still there a long time. By the way, after going through one rack I had a fleeting thought that I had bit off more than I could chew. But faced with the daunting task of putting what I had in the basket all back, I just made my self comfy and kept going through all 3 racks.

Hint to anyone off to Wal-Mart to try this: Hide a folding stool somehow in your purse. You have to stand up to see the top 3 or 4 trays on those racks but you can sit for the bottom trays. I really could have used a stool!

Priceless was the look on my dh's face when I came home, pulled the receipt from the bag and said: "Well, I was worried that I wouldn't find anything to spend my Social Security check on this month, but I'm not worried anymorer!"

I also said:
"I WILL NEVER HAVE TO BUY EMBROIDERY FLOSS AGAIN!"

Except maybe for red..............

Notice the teeny pile of red? Well, Obviously some redwork embroiderer(s) got there ahead of me. All the bins for the popular colors for Redwork like 304 and 321 were totally empty.

Today a friend pointed out that I should have bought all the white and ecru so I could dye it. Gosh I didn't even think of that at the time!

Maybe I need to go back!

Redwork Ornaments #9 and #10

Redwork Ornament #9
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Tonight I finished the 10th ornament design in this Redwork set I'm doing. And I started on #11 while I watched that new quiz show called The Power of 10. Scroll down to see #10. I haven't figured out how to put two pictures into a blog post yet! I think my problem may be that I only know howo to blog from my flickr.com site.

I've not accomplished much except these 2 designs in the past few days. Too busy with laundry, ironing and fighting a war with a major ant invasion in the kitchen. I hope I've won, but tomorrow morning could bring a whole new battlefront!

Our realtor's open house here went well (her words) this past Sunday. Three families who have just started the search for a new home visited and seemed to love our home. All three, however, wish it had more square footage. There's not much we can do about that. It is what it is!

I'm sure somewhere in this town they could get more square footage for the same price, but they perhaps wouldn't get our quiet court location, superior elementary school, our large yard, the pool or many of the upgrades we've done to the house like the gourmet kitchen.

There IS someone out there for whom this house will be perfect. We just have to be patient. After the months of preparation, it's a bit strange to just sit here waiting. I'm trying to stay busy. I have actually gone back to regular practice on my piano every day and am doing a lot of reading. Just finished "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini who lives here in No. California now but was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. His first novel was "The Kite Runner".

I have to admit that I'm a bit fearful of the time when the house actually sells because then the angst will begin over where we are going! I'm not so good at decisions these days. I used to be able to move at the drop of a hat, but I am not sure I have the energy it's going to take to make a big move!

Today my order of "back up" cq supplies arrived so now I can continue work on the purple and gold pillow cover. However, one of my silk ribbon colors was out of stock, so that has thrown a monkey wrench into my plans. I am anxious to get going on the embellishment but have a few more stitches to go before that boot pincushion motif is done. I'm finding it hard to work on the fine lines of embroidery in the evenings. Perhaps I need to work on it more during the day. It's not like I don't have time! So I will just.....

Stitch On!