Friday, March 23, 2012

Ruminations....

Went into the sewing room just to glue baste my leaves onto my second (right side) border for BTCT quilt. 


Then I was interrupted by the mailman who brought me this.


It's a bumper sticker that I won because I became a "fan" on Facebook for the group called "The Faces of Kawasaki Disease". 

I haven't talked about this, but my grandson was diagnosed with this just a few weeks ago.  He is just 5.  We won't know how he has been affected by this disease until the 28th of this month when he goes through a whole battery of tests  to see if there is any damage to his heart.  This is a very rare disease and there isn't a whole lot known about it, so they have put it into the "auto immune disease" category.   Anyway,  we have been on pins and needles for several weeks now and saying a lot of prayers. If you are interested in finding out more about this disease, check it out on Facebook or just Google "Kawasaki Disease". 

Well, back to the sewing room......I started thinking of how short life is so I  thought I would get some of  my small quilts organized and send them off to the quilter.  I was going to do them, but obviously, they are not getting done and a couple of them are over two years old.   So, I have been finding backings and piecing batting scraps together and have four of them ready for the quilter.

This is a Schnibbles quilt and it is lying on its backing.


I have two turkeys.


This baby quilt is going.


Love the backing for this one.

But now this one which is just a bunch of left over blocks (hst) from my Crows in the Corner still needs borders and I can't remember what I had bought for it (doesn't pay to clean up your sewing room and organize your fabrics).  So I am interviewing several different fabrics here.


Any opinions?

Ok....I need to get back in there and straighten up the mess that I just made. 

Happy quilting!







Monday, March 12, 2012

Solar flares and the internet...

Internet has been done a couple times and I found out that a whole region in our area was out because of "solar flares".  My bills are paid, so I am sticking to the solar flare story.

Well, with no internet, I got my first BTCT border complete 100 %.  Here's where I was a couple days ago.



With all the free time I had, I even got the embroidery done for the cherry stems.



I am a bit of a perfectionist, so the wonky stems are driving me a little mad, but I have to keep telling myself that I am reproducing an antique quilt and that is what has been the most fun about this quilt.  There is no rhyme or reason to some of the things that are done on this quilt, so I am just trying to enjoy the whole process. If I corrected everything, then it wouldn't  be a reproduction. 

So...on to the next side. I have a rhythm going and want to keep it up until this quilt top is all done.      




Saturday, March 3, 2012

Progressing....

Thought you might be tired of looking at my last post with all the pictures that would only upload sideways, so I thought I would show you what I have been up to for the last week or so.

I am working on the borders for "Beyond the Cherry Trees".


I have traced the pattern on the bottom border.


Stitched all the cherries down (those have been made for months!).


Making enough vines to start my own vineyard.


Glue basted the vine down and my baggie of leaves will be ready to go once the vine is stitched down.

Of course, if that wasn't enough for me to do, I found a new (to me) yarn shop in Berkley, MI called  "....have you any wool?"

I bought this.


Three skeins of Firefly in the color called Venice (to me it's more of a raspberry which is what I was looking for to make the pictured eternity scarf).  The scarf pattern is called Jeweled Cowl by Knittimo and I believe I got it free on Ravelry.

Anyways, it calls for 728  seed beads, so I stopped at Aladda Beads which is a shop in, I believe, Clinton Twp., MI.  Well, 728 beads sounds like a lot of beads to me and I certainly didn't want to buy too many, so this is what I came home with.


Now mind you....I didn't want to over-buy.  I had about 15 of these tubes in my hands because you know, I like scrappy in quilts, so of course I am going to want a lot of coordinating colors of beads for my raspberry scarf.  Sooooo...I had the gal at the shop "count" how many beads were in one of the tubes.....but let me get back to that in a minute. 

The first tube is "chartreuse", a good opposite on the color wheel.
Second tube is called "flame red", which even though the yarn is raspberry, this matches well.
Third tube is "dark topaz" which picks up all the other colors.
Fourth tube is "dk coral lined crystal" which appears more pink and has lots of sparkle.
Fifth tube is "dk smoky amethsyt which is very complimentary.
Sixth tube is "emerald", but is more teal with some purple to it. 

Now back to my NOT wanting to over buy.  Remember, I only need 728 beads.  Welllllllll.....
I had 15 of these tubes in my hot little, color-loving, hands and when I found out that there are 800 beads in each tube, I put 11 of them back and now I have

4,800 beads!!!! 

I hope this scarf is easy to make because I may have to make  another one to sell so I can justify buying so many beads.  I guess I thought I would go into the bead shop and buy individual beads (how naive!!) and then I could get just the right mixture that I wanted.  Actually, I figured I would have to make 6 1/2 of these scarves to use up all these beads.  Oh well.....I guess I have started a "bead stash".

Happy quilting!



Michigan quilters, take note

  Come see us at our first Quilter's to Quilter's sale.   Don't know what that is?  Well, it will be 28 quilters/vendors selling...