Savoring the Process

Now those pictures are sure to get your mouth watering. I made some things that hardly ever are made here, which was homemade cinnamon rolls and caramel candies both hard and chewy...some with sea salt and others without. It was a delicacy to enjoy them and even more so to share them with family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. I also made homemade fudge (the one that gives your arms a workout), but it didn't get into the pictures. I had to get it out of the house as quickly as possible because fudge is something I simply cannot keep my fingers out of. It was soooooooo good.

Next Monday, January 21, I'm participating in a free online Bible Study called Taste and See. Psalms 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!" is one of my favorite verses in the Bible and I love being in the kitchen and making meals for family and friends so how can anyone resist savoring time with the Lord and learning how much God and Jesus loves food too. I hope you will join in with me on the study. I think we will all come away from the table filled and happy.

I love the process of creating. My hands have a difficult time not being in perpetual motion. This equates to having many projects in differing stages of progression. Some things complete faster than others and then there are the long-term projects that spread through years. Many times it is because what I need to do is not currently in my skill toolbox so they wait patiently for me to catch up. The end of 2018 and our Christmas Holiday enabled me to finish one of those long-term projects and I am so pleased to have finally completed her. Her name is The Lady and she has been a decade long project. I'm not sharing a full picture yet because I hope to enter her into a few shows and don't want to disqualify myself just in case they have a policy of not showing the completed piece online.

She is faced to not distract from the front and this stopped me from finishing her for quite some time. A big shout out and thank you to Terry Knott for her help and on-going patience in repeating herself over and over again as I asked for clarification for the umpteen time. Thank you Terry! Love you to pieces!

And then I also finished a a tablecloth that I've been working on for about a year. Sewing all those houses with windows and doors and trees with leaves (Yoko Saito house pattern) took much longer than I anticipated. Of course I made up the tablecloth pattern and got almost a little too creative for myself with the linen insert, fancy joining stitches and cording. Although I do love the linen insert and I am keeping up with my pledge of using as many as possible of all those pretty stitches that are available on my sewing machine.

Here it is with two sides of the 'ground' added.

All done and on the table.

I sure do love it!

And I've had some really wonderful logos to digitize at work too. I had to do a lot of online research to get the cow and tractor details correct since all I had was a shadow. Oh and for those observant ones (you know who you are), I did go back in and add the brand mark on the cow. Sometimes, I can get lost in the trees when digitizing and don't see something until I've stitched it. Of course, then it's blaring in my face and I wonder how I missed it!

This one was fun too. Love it when customers want to GO BIG!

Quick little project for a company. I love making pillows.

And I started working on a small project that Valerie Bothell started last week. There is still time to join in on the fun if you'd like to play too. I'm having a blast hand embroidering the stitches.

Still quilting this Shabby Fabrics Forever My Valentine quilt. I have three more background blocks to quilt and then I can start quilting the hearts. This has been a very enjoyable project and one that just makes me smile every time I look at the hearts. 

Can't end the post without a picture of the 'Bowdee man' all comfy in mama's chair. Enjoy your day wherever you are and know that God loves you.

Friday Finishes

My quilted tablecloth is finished, and it is my first 2015 finish. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. I must admit to be wonderfully surprised and thrilled at how soft became after washing. It was pretty stiff feeling before but the bamboo batting really softened after the soak to remove my markings and a run through the washer.

Vintage linen collectors or hand-quilting purists may not be pleased with my finished project and that's okay. We all must do what brings us the most joy. I hand quilted using the big stitch method with Aurifil 12 weight thread in areas that were visible. The thicker thread really stands out perfectly, which is what I was going after. I also practiced my free motion stitching and machine stitched in areas that are not visible from the front but needed more quilting to hold the quilt together and keep the batting from shifting/separating from repeated use. I'm planning on loving/using this tablecloth for many, many years. It will become a December tradition to pull it out and grace the table with it. I may just have to extend that length of use through out January because it looks so pretty on the table.

I hope that seeing this project from the beginning to the end has encouraged you to breathe new life into one of your own favorite linens or rescue one from a antique shop. They are not difficult to find.

Additional photos are included below. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

In this first photo, you can see the border area I mentioned when I first started (bottom left corner). The manufacturer stamped the cloth just a bit off which made the cream border not as wide on that one end. To fix this, I would have had to cut down the border all the way around. I decided against doing that because I wanted to keep as much of the cream border as possible. I'm so glad I did because I stitched funky trees in it, and I just love how it looks.

Happy New Year!

Only two more days before we all embark into a brand new year. A new year is just like a brand new journal...exciting, fresh, and so full of wonderful possibilities.

One of my goals for 2015 already has a fixed date.  Beginning Saturday, January 31, I will be teaching an English Paper Piecing Mystery Block of the Month class. After all, who doesn't love a good mystery!

Designing the first two months has been exciting. Initially, my goal was to have the class use the hexagon shape only, but during the designing, I couldn't help but experiment with other shapes as well. After many hours of designing and redesigning, I settled on three shapes we will be using for the year: hexagon, diamond, and triangle. I chose a 3/4 inch size which I think is perfect....not too big and not too small.

The unfinished blocks measure 11 inches, and the class fee includes a choice of either a light or dark monthly background fabric. My first dilemma was that I could not decide on just one design for January. I liked both of them so much that I decided to include them both and allow the student to choose which they prefer. One block has fewer pieces and is lovely. The second choice looks more complicated but it is not. It just has more pieces. Both designs utilize all three shapes so no matter which you choose, you will start getting comfortable with the shapes right away.

The class will be at Pioneer Quilts which is located at 3101 S.E. Courtney Road, Portland, Oregon. This is near the Oak Grove/Milwaukie Area. You can call and sign up for the class if that is more convenient. The phone number is 503.654.1555. The class is scheduled to be the last Saturday of each month and will cost $10 each month. Class fee includes the design/designs for the month, choice of dark or light background fabric, and 'me.' We will go over last month's block, uncover the new block, and I will provide instructions for how I approached the block.  As the year progresses, it will be wonderful to see all of the variations during show 'n tell. I'm so excited for this year-long journey!

I'm still working on the Christmas tablecloth. I'm so close to finishing the quilting that I almost can't stand it. I have incorporated a bit of machine free motion quilting on several areas that needed more quilting. These are areas where the quilting doesn't show up so it was a perfect opportunity to get some more practice improving my free motion. This is another goal for 2015 that must get more work because The Lady 'must' make her entrance.

I have a couple of new tools arriving soon that will enable me to post some short tutorials. In my last class a student mentioned how nice it would be to have handouts of some of the techniques we covered. Showing certain knots and such in paper form is not as easy as it sounds. What looks understandable to me because I know how to do it, looks undecipherable to someone just learning. However, posting a video showing the technique is much more doable and gives you the best of two worlds:

• You will always have access to the instructions (you don't have to worry about one more piece of paper to keep), 
• You get to watch my hands and hear me describe the process so it's like having me their right with you at home.

I hope that you will let me know what you think when the videos go live.

And remember to follow Dillan's advice: "dive into the wind face first for the most fun and adventure!"

Spirograph transformations & tablecloth pictures

In case you missed my last post, hubby gave me an early Christmas present -- a 50th anniversary Spirograph. It arrived on Friday but I couldn't play because I was working on customer logos.

I cracked open the box today which really isn't a box per se.  Instead it is more like a briefcase which I really like. It has a flap that folds over and is secured with Velcro. Each section has a plastic covering that keeps each dial safely in its section.

You can start playing immediately because it comes complete with everything you need (paper, pens, dials, instructions, and even some play-dough type substance that is supposed to hold the outer dial to the paper). In the olden days (yes I'm that old), push pins worked just fine thank you. The sticky dough doesn't do a good enough job in my opinion and you will end up messing up your creation right as you near the end of it. It can make a grown child weep I'll tell you!

I was mesmerized as my eyes watched each creation come alive and at the same time my head exploded with thread possibilities. What if....and if I did this...and how cool would this look. I could hardly stand it and immediately had to see how the ink spiros would look in thread and how it would look in different stitches.

Here are 6 different versions of the same simple spiro shown in the above picture. Isn't it incredible how such a simple object transforms into something more when done in thread!

Here are a few more photos of my favorite one. It took a little extra time creating this one but I love the look and yes it is still the same simple shape except that it has an extra twist with long jump stitches.

 And as of last night I am now onto the next border on the Christmas tablecloth. TADA.... isn't it looking great!

I hope I've encouraged you to to breathe new life into one of your cherished linens. If you don't have any linens yet, you can start hunting around locally or head to Ebay and even Itsy. Most are pretty inexpensive. Just read the descriptions well and really look at the pictures looking for stains. A few light stains are fine because your stitches will camouflage a lot of flaws.

Lap Quilting & Manic Monday

If days of the week had energy levels, I think Mondays would win hands down. Mondays always seem to bring out the most busy, hectic, frenziness of me and my customers. Everything is always a rush on Mondays!

I made very good progress on the outer most center section this weekend. Here's a view from my lap of how it's coming along. The diagonal quilting stitches looked really nice but adding the other diagonal side takes it from nice to perfect.

On Saturday, I spent the day at Pioneer Quilts where it was Meet the Teachers' Day. They moved into a historic house called the Broetje House in Milwaukie, Oregon, a few months back and are in the process of a lengthy renovation to bring the electricity up to code so that classes can be taught. The house was built by John F. and John H Broetje in 1890, and it really is a special place. I can't wait until summer so that I can tour the gardens, which is complete with a water tower, two garden gazebos and 100 year old Sequoia Redwoods. Linda has already done an amazing job in a short time.

I brought all of my hexagon projects so that prospective students could see and touch the items that I will be teaching at the shop. I positioned myself in the breezeway so I was able to greet each guest as they arrived. The lighting was perfect and allowed for me to quilt the tablecloth while people were coming and going. Little did I know how much interest I would generate by working on the tablecloth. I am pretty sure I made a few linen converts and more than a couple vintage tablecloths will be put back into use soon. For those who think handwork is not their cup of tea, I recommend starting with something small and playing around with big stitches.  You may just surprise yourself with how much you enjoy the process!

My purchase of the day was Sue Spargo's book Creative Stitching.



I've been eyeing this book ever since Sue finished it. I decided a while back though that I would not buy a book that I could not review prior to the purchase. I've never found it locally to look at until this weekend. It is a great size at 7-1/2 inches tall by 6 inches wide and is spiral bound which I really appreciate. The entire book represents 50 of Sue's favorite hand stitches that can easily transform a pretty top into a exquisite top. It includes great pictures and step by step instructions. It will be a book that will get used and loved for years.

How is your Manic Monday coming along? I'd better get back to the two new customer logos that need out the door!

Slow stitching and the mystery of the disappearing needle

I finished big stitching the center of the tablecloth last night, and I must admit to being really pleased with the look and feel of it. The big stitches in red thread have such a nice look to it. The center area is a snowflake which was stitched first and then followed up with the grid stitching. I did have to pick out a few stitched lines of the grid and redo them to ease in a bit of excess fabric but it was worth the extra effort. It lays nice and flat and really calls out to be touched.

To aid my marking, I tried a new-to-me stencil from a company called fulllinestencil and I must admit to being quite stricken in a good way to it. It's similar to screen print where what you want to be inked is open and the rest of it is blacked out. You use a chalk called Quilt Pounce to slide across the stencil to mark your stencil. Don't do an up and down pouncing movement or you will end up with a face full of chalk dust and no nice line on your cloth. Just rub smoothly across the stencil and it works perfectly.

Unfortunately, my tablecloth material did not like holding on to the chalk so any touching of the fabric rubbed the chalk right off and left me with nothing to follow. Disappointed but not daunted, I pulled out my go-to marking product -- Crayola Fine Line Ultra-Clean Washable Markers. I used the orange marker and marked right on top of the chalk line. It didn't take too long and the nice thing is that I was able to mark a very fine line on top of the chalk...finer than I would have marked had I just started off with the marker from the beginning. I'll report on the stencils again once I have more experience using them on 100 percent cotton fabric.

Slow stitching is so therapeutic. I'm pretty sure my heart rate goes down and my breathing slows as I take each stitch into the cloth. My goal was to finish the center so I could share my progress with you, but I did take a wrong turn that stopped everything for about an hour. 

I'll paint a picture of what happened. Here I am happily stitching away in my Lazy Boy chair. Dillan, my baby dog, is situated in between my legs and underneath the tablecloth (it's terrible keeping him off of anything that resembles a quilt because obviously everyone knows that ALL quilts belong to HIM). I had just run out of thread and threaded my needle, which by the way is not a small needle (#20 Tulip Chenille needle). My knot was popped inside of the batting when I did something I should not have and reached for an object. At exactly that same moment my needle magically disappeared into thin air. Now I know what you must be thinking because I have already thought it. The needle must have slipped off and fallen on your lap, chair, tablecloth, floor...yada, yada, yada. 

When a needle is dropped, everything stops until said needle is found and safely back where it needs to be. Dillan was grudgingly and under very loud protest put into his crate. All lights were turned on and with flashlight in hand, I searched and searched and searched for the missing needle. For the first time ever I could not find the needle. I am thinking to myself -- how could such a big needle hide from me. I ran my hand down each side of the chair hoping to actually poke myself and locate it. The floor was scoured back and forth with flashlight hoping to catch a glimmer of the shiny needle. The tablecloth was searched repeatedly and even squeezed multiple times because needles do not just disappear in thin air.

Finally and as a last resort I pulled out the vacuum cleaner. Surely, I would be able to find it now, but to no avail. By the time I was done vacuuming, my eyes were blurry and sleep was calling. As I fell to sleep I just knew that the morning light would bring closure to the hidden needle. 

However, this morning the needle remains a mystery. I even removed the back off my chair thinking it had to...just had to have been wedged there somewhere, but to my disappointment, no needle was found.

Has this ever happened to you? I'm considering all possibilities now!  Could it be that my arm movement last night broke through the space-time continuum! Who knows where it landed but let's hope a quilter finds it and puts it to good use.