Art, Craft and Needlework, June, 2011

[Harriet]

It makes me so happy every time I stop by this thread and see all of you having fun with your projects. - BookSaver

Look who stopped by with their projects in May:


Nancy is making a knitted striped blanket, a blue and green prayer shawl, and planning her garden.
Nancy's dgd finished her Granny Square throw! Wow, good job!
LisaB is making her dd some flannel pjs this winter, clothes for herself, and working on her Anniversary Quilt.
Lynlee, Harmony and Indiana came in to encourage.
Sunny is quilting her dgd's quilt and gathering project ideas.
BookSaver attended a charity sew-in, worked for her sewing guild, and chatted about knitting cords for bags.
Harriet is working on a baby quilt for new dgs' arrival.

Be sure to let us know about your creativity! We have fun hearing all about it.

[Nancy]

I got four rows knit on the striped knitted prayer shawl today that I"m currently working on.

[Harriet]

Nancy, you said in PWYC some of your grandchildren were going to their mom's. Does that mean you won't have as much time with them as usual? I know they would miss creative time with you.

BookSaver, about the difference in fabric, it turns out this second purchase is lighter at the selvage edges than in the middle of the fabric. The first was the same all over. This is a Moda with a 4-digit number to check to be sure it's the same. It's a marbled fabric of mostly blue with a little white. It's not a big deal in some ways, but I did work with it a little extra to avoid obvious differences at seam lines.

Finished the center of the baby quilt today. Only have the borders left to do, which I might be able to get to tomorrow. I'm 2 days late on my sewing schedule I posted last week, but that's not so bad - I knew it was optimistic. I'd have been farther along but I remade a block today. I had made the wing section of an airplane block wrong and even though it worked out into a block it was too high, with one wing almost to an edge and it was driving me crazy. I'm much happier with it now.

Working with the baby rick-rack to make kite tails was a little stressful. I used a disappearing marker to mark where the tails would go, but topstitching the rick-rack was slow going and the ink kept disappearing! I'd have to stop halfway and go over the lines again so I wouldn't lose them. Finally by the last one I learned to go over the line and make it dark the first time! At one point the phone rang and there was no way I could answer, staring at that disappearing line! I needed to open a new package of the rick-rack for the last one, and it seemed stiffer. So I ironed it with steam and then it was pliable and easy to curve.

[Nancy]

Yes Harriet we will both miss seeing the older two granddaughters this summer we do not see them as much on the weekend schedule. That is one reason I was working so hard with the older dgd so she could do some of this on her own and now I've been getting some yarn for her to work on hot pads and dish clothes.

[Harriet]

Making the quilt label today. I printed the wording with the computer, traced it onto fabric with permanent fabric pen, and am adding a border of a blue 1930's fabric that was too much the color of the quilt's background to be able to use on the front. I'm happy to get to use it, because it has little children playing, and animals. I named the quilt, "The World Is So Full Of A Number Of Things", from the Child's Garden of Verses poem.

Anyone else see the commercial for the "One-Second needle" on tv? That's what I probably need for burying too-short threads within the quilt sandwich, not the Clover product "so you can hide those little ends inside" says the video. But I already bought the Clover one in an order from Clotilde, along with invisible markers, safety pins and seam guides to stick-on the machine. No real problem with the order except that it took much longer than I expected.

[Nancy]

Finished the knitting on the current project now for the crocheting on the edges.

[Lisa B.]

Here is my mom in a lounge-wear type thingy to keep her warm......it's made in a polar fleece....pattern is Butterick 5536.

[Harriet]

Lisa, in the first place your mom looks so young! That is cozy and I like it because it's got the look of a robe that a person would wear around rather than the "snuggie" concepts that make sense for the couch mostly. I actually looked up the pattern to think about gifts. It looks like it was probably fun to make for her. How cold is it there now? I guess it's about the middle of winter? (Also the house is so neat!)

[Lisa B.]

Thank you Harriet......yes this item is perfect for snuggling on the couch......her home is always so neat (puts me to shame with my messiness - there I said it)......

I too would think this is a great gift......

Thank you for saying my DMom looks young......in fact she will be 60 next year April......I will be 40 in January.......I made that for her on Thursday afternoon.....on Friday morning, I made one for myself.....temps here are about late 30s early 40s F minimum.......not yet the middle of winter till next month......our highs are only about mid 50's to early 60s F at the moment.

[Harriet]

Wow, you are flying through projects, Lisa. What color did you make for yourself?

Three sides of the baby quilt are hand-bound. The label is stitched in to a lower corner by the binding stitches, and the top and other side of it are basted. So I have to add the top binding, a top sleeve, and hand-stitch the rest of the label. I'll need to buy a lightweight dowel, I guess, at a hardware store to fit it because dd31 wants to use it to cover the center part of a large bulletin board in the church fellowship hall. It is at the most logical place for a gift table and needs to be ready for photos but is covered in the various things posted. We might take some white poster board along with us to flank it - not sure.