Art, Craft and Needlework, January, 2013

[Harmony]

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This one was for DGS11; he loves planes so the squares in the middle have planes etc.

[Harmony]

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This one is for DGS11; he's very active so I made him a sports theme.

[Harmony]

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Ok, here's the last one I made, for DGS8; he was very impressed with the shark movies, so I made a fish/shark/sailboat one for him.

[Harriet]

Ohmigoodness, they are all wonderful ,and together, spec ta cu lar! What a moment your family must have had as the boys realized they all had hand made quilts in their gift boxes. I liked each one best as I came to it! I think it's so cool that the oldest boy gets the striking, graphic pattern - wow, easy to see that if you had a problem with the red fabric it was a frustration, and SO glad that worked out. Love all the whimsy in the seashore quilt, and to think the quilting patterns aren't even visible but they played up the seashore even more. The airplane quilt looks like you are viewing through windows, and give a "hangar" or "airfield" feel for me. I am such a fan of scrap quilts and multi-fabric quilts, so probably one of the two multicolor patchworks is my favorite - very hard to pick just one! I'm scrolling back and forth, .

Now, these are the children of two daughters, right? Did either of them have a clue or were you able to keep it a surprise?

[Harmony]

Thank you Harriet. Yes, the dsons of my 2 DD's and apparently it was a surprise. DD2 knew I was doing a lot of sewing, but I had told her some lame story about something I was doing...if she knew anything she was totally surprised that all 5 got quilts together. DD1 had said she was changing one DGSs room from dinosaurs to airplanes, so I did go ahead and tell her, but she saw only his and none of the others.

The red that bled was the red squares in the lighthouse, right next to the white squares. The sports quilt (#5) was the one I put the red muslim back on. The graphic one has more maroon than bright red and I didn't have any problem with that. The last 2 with all the greys, well they have grey walls and a set of bunk beds.

It's a shame the quilting doesn't show. That added a lot, especially the beach one, with fish and boats and clouds and rain etc. sewed in...the first blue stripe all the way across has a line of swimmers .. the border around that one is just piles and piles of seashells. The graphic one, and the airplane one have ropes quilted in the borders; the last one with sharks has "waves" quilted around the border.

What surprised me was their reaction, especially being boys. I had a picture from DD1 of her 2 laying on couches waiting for the new year with their quilts.

[Ivy]

Wow! Harmony! You really did a lot of work! So pretty, too!

I have scraps, books on quilting, all the supplies, a thimble, some quilting hoops, etc... I need to go get some more quilting thread for sewing by hand or would Dual Duty be good enough, too? I need to pick a beginner's pattern, I'm thinking about nine-patch, but am uncertain because there are so many patterns to choose from!

I found a sailor dress outfit in a crochet magazine for a 6 month old baby girl. In July, our new gd will be 6 months. There is a dress in red, white, and blue, a little sailor collar on a sweater pullover, and I think there's a little hat, but I can't remember right now. It's adorable and of course, gma wants to make it.

[Lilac]

Harmony, those quilts are wonderful! Those boys will be able to enjoy them for a lifetime. What a special gift!

[Ivy]

I have a question and I don't know if it's stupid or not. I have a pattern for a little girl's dress. The bodice is crocheted from 100% cotton worsted yarn, such as Peaches 'n' Cream, etc.... Then, once it's made, a cotton fabric skirt is cut out in sections; front, back, 2 sides. The bodice is sewn to the cotton skirt. It's adorable.

I believe they pick cotton yarn to match the cotton fabric because it "matches" in the fibers.

I was wondering if by using 100% acrylic knitted worsted yarn instead would NOT work, because the fibers would not be in the same "family" and the yarn might stretch out funny because it's sewn to a cotton fabric skirt.

There is no "problem" because I've got tons of Peaches 'n' Cream cotton yarn and a lot of cotton fabric or cotton-blend fabric. I was just curious is my theory about cotton yarn being used on a cotton fabric skirt was because of cotton matching cotton and it also would look better, too. Does anyone have any opinions or knowledge about this sort of thing?

I am thinking "in my head" how if a person used 100% acrylic yarn for a bodice, they could sew it onto a 100% polyester skirt just fine, because they're in the same family, too. So my guess is that tops and bottoms in little girls' dresses need to match up in their blends or it might not look right or work out very well.

[Harriet]

I agree with Harmony on thread for hand quilting, Ivy. Unless it is a small, small project that will only be decorative, I would use thread marked for the purpose, "Hand Quilting", which would be carried at almost any cloth store. However, remember that if you are machine quilting you don't use hand quilting thread because it is coated and not meant to go through the mechanism of a machine. There are a lot of threads that are good for machine quilting, and I think Dual Duty would be okay. I have quilts for which I used Dual Duty for both the piecing and the machine quilting and they turned out fine.

I meant to get back and say thanks so much for the comments on the photo of dd's painting, Nancy, BookSaver and Harmony! She has only been experimenting with color in her art a short time, but sketching daily for years. She had been taking more and more time and getting very precise, and there was impact, but she felt the sketches didn't hold people's attention. I told her, naturally the eye looks for color, and she admitted she didn't think she could win competitions without it, when other mediums would catch the eye and leave her sketches behind. I had to really lobby even for watercolor though, telling her to think of it as just a "wash" of color, nothing too hard to commit to, but now she seems to enjoy having a more abstract element to "lay over" precise sketches. Interestingly, I think the magic words were when I told her her dear great aunt (my mother's twin, whom dd loved) enjoyed watercolor and kept an easel set up.

I have a photo of the Zentangle bookmarks we did for her teacher's gifts - maybe I can post that, too. BookSaver, I don't think I'd ever heard of Zentangle until the teacher you talked about here, who used the ideas in fabric art. But after I looked it up on the net and learned about it, I ended up giving books on it as 2 Christmas gifts - a preteen girl's and a "secret Santa" gift.

[Ivy]

Thank you for the tips on quilting thread, Harriet and Harmony. I'm leaning towards doing a small decorative quilting project by hand for my first one. I need to browse my numerous books again, too.

I was wondering if, when picking out a thread for quilting by hand, if you stick to white or you try to have a contrasting thread, so it shows up better or what? I have a spool, which is white quilting thread I accidentally picked up once, but now it's a good thing I did it by accident because now I can put it to good use.

I've never heard of Zentangle bookmarks either. Sounds interesting!