Art, Craft and Needlework, April, 2010

[Harriet]

The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. – Thomas Moore

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and happiness. – Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. – Duke Ellington

Nancy is inspired by spring colors for her yarns and is learning how to make slippers. helia’s dd11 continues her sewing classes on Wednesdays, helia's dd14 finished a knitted scarf, and helia taught a friend to cast off. Lynlee is half-way through her recent project and ready to start looking at layouts for her squares. Harmony is almost finished with the hand quilting for one baby quilt while beginning to think of the next. Lisa B is enjoying embroidery and learning needleturn appliqué. sherinjoy encourages us and will be visiting a San Francisco art museum that has an Amish quilt exhibition. BookSaver has learned how to make fabric beads and is planning to assembly-line sew some cat-mats to donate. Harriet has all the blocks finished for her quilt project and is starting to set them together.

We're wondering how Emptynester and Sunny enjoyed recent sewing projects (and whether Emptynester's machine is okay). And how Indiana and bittersweet are enjoying their yarn projects.

Come join us – we admire your creativity.

[Nancy]

I'm test driving some patterns for the next hoodie I need to do up.
Dgson is asking for a green & brown hat!

[Harmony]

I'm almost at the end of the long border on one side. I will roll the quilt up and do the other long border next. That leaves the 2 short ends (4" wide at top and bottom). I'm not sure how to hand quilt them because they have no support. I can hold the cloth taut as I sew but that's way more difficult. Any suggestions?

[Harriet]

Harmony, one way is to baste pieces of fabric to the final edges of the quilt layers so that it extends to make the quilt temporarily "larger". Then the places that need to be quilted aren't at the edges any more but "within" the quilting area. The temporary "borders" can be used to pull everything taut. Then you are quilting in the middle of the frame again, and when you're finished you can just remove the basting stitches and take the temporary fabric away.

[Harmony]

Harriet, here's the problem with that: My quilt rack does not have 4 removable side rails. It has 2. The legs are X shaped and between the X at the top are 2 rails, 1 on each side. I have cut the quilt backing 6" or so longer past the batting and it is pinned to the canvas which is stapled to those rails.

Ok I just looked at it, the 2 rails I'm referring to are removable and that is where I roll the quilt. There is a single rail at the top and end. The removable rails sit in notches on these support rails. I would have to attach a piece of material to the quilt at the top and bottom too - the quilt is about 7" away from those stationary (ery?) rails. I guess I could use a couple thumb tacks to secure.

I'm wondering if a couple strips of material pinned on the quilt and secured to the rail would be enough and I could move them up along as I go. Sitting at the ends like that is a challenge too, though because those X legs get in the way a bit.

I suppose I could take the quilt completely off, turn it around and roll it up the other way, too. Sheesh! At this point I'm just looking for a quick way to finish!

I should take a picture of it!

[Harriet]

Thumb tacks, if they would really work and you wouldn't be sorry to be hammering them into the wood. Or, could you baste a piece and wrap the temporary fabric around a frame part and clamp it with a small C-clamp to get things snug a while? Or wrap and then safety-pin the wrapped fabric to itself so it was snug? That seems no-hassle. Even if it was just a 6-inch wide piece that could be sewn to the quilt at one end, safety-pinned somewhere else, it would be like one "extra hand" holding.

I realize I am envisioning this and may not have a thing right in my mind's eye. There have been plenty of quiltmakers who "rigged" strange-looking add-ons to get the last bit of quilting done. I've also taken the quilt from the frame and finished in my lap - worked out okay and only I can see the places I didn't get quite right. However, I hadn't broken any recent bones!

[Nancy]

Got some yarn at the thrift shop today
so I'm a happy camper now!

[Harmony]

Nancy, it sounds like you create things very swiftly for the amount of yarn you seem to be using!

I figured out my sewing / quilt problem! DH and I made a set of clips/straps using tiny alligator clips and a stretch of elastic. We had planned to use this for DMil, to attach a small hand towel as a bib. We never got to use it as she quit eating as soon as she got here.

However, it works beautifully on the end of my quilt. I clip it to the edge, wrap the other end around the stationery rail and clip that end to itself. Works like a charm and I just move it along as needed.

Now I wonder if I should patent this thing?!

[Nancy]

I have to keep yarn for dgds too!

[BookSaver]

I sewed 30 "cat mats" last month while watching my recording of the Oscars red carpet & ceremony. I fast-forwarded through most of the show, the mats really didn't take very long to put together.

Last week I finished a jacket and a Tshirt. It turned out that I cut the Tshirt too large. It was a project from last fall to learn a particular style of neckline, and the teacher specified the pattern. Normally I would have taken more time to measure and make sure I was cutting the right size, but oh well the class was fun. I'm trying to figure out how to reclaim the fabric.

The jacket is a pattern I was testing, a long unlined loose style. I had to grade it up a few sizes because the pattern didn't go up large enough. I used some fabric I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents a yard so it didn't matter if it didn't turn out, but it ended up being ok. The pattern was trickier than it looked, and the directions were very sketchy. Luckily I've put enough shirts and blouses together to figure it out, but the seam ripper got quite a bit of use. I have some royal blue soft rayon fabric to try the pattern again ... someday.

Next up will be to finally cut out the lunch bags I wrote about before, and finish the pretty apron.