Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2015

[Harriet]

Have gotten the design wall up and am brainstorming the large quilt project. The small but important decisions are fabrics for sashing, and for bordering the central medallion. The bigger creativity decision is designing the outer part of the quilt before final border. It is set on the diagonal, so that means designing a pattern of patchwork for large triangles. I want to bring in some elements from the center for that, and am trying to decide which.

In the mail, the little finials for the dowels for hanging mini quilts arrived. When HRH next does any staining, I'll get him to stain these, too.

[Nancy]

I have the back of my sweater done now! I started on one of the front halves.

[BookSaver]

Good job on the sweater, Nancy. That project is coming together quickly.

What colors are you using in this quilt, Harriet? Is this one for you or a gift for someone else?

[BookSaver]

Saturday for the regular sewing group meeting, we didn't have a program speaker because our charity sewing organizer wanted everyone to bring machines in to sew together on a new project. Board members including myself were all worried that attendance would be down by quite a lot, but it turned out ok. Not as many as usual each month, but a respectable number.

I had really talked up the project to the group by posting on FB and sending out extra email reminders. A fuzzy printout of the pattern was all that was shown at the board meeting Thursday afternoon, but it had enough info to identify its source. I found the pattern and a tutorial online and sent out messages so people could see it ahead of the meeting.

I think I ended up doing more publicity than the organizer did, but she did her part by asking the organization that requested us to sew to give us pre-cut kits. What a luxury, to not only have the fabric available but also to have it cut to size and ready to sew. (More or less -- of course we ran into kits with missing pieces and pieces cut the wrong size.)

The project was drawstring backpacks using the instructions from the Lutheran World Relief organization for their school kits. In our case, a local Catholic Church will be shipping the empty bags to parishes in Haiti for children to carry to school. It's the same group for which we sewed school uniforms before.

Here is a link to the instruction sheet we used:

http://tinyurl.com/lb4m2rv

I also found a tutorial:
http://windsweptlady.blogspot.com/2012/ ... elief.html

http://tinyurl.com/kspjdb2

Another luxury: someone else will be dealing with the drawstrings at a later date. All we had to do was sew the basic bags. We were given 100 kits and the group yesterday managed to complete 51 bags.

[Harriet]

Nancy, what color and yarn is this sweater? Something you did in spinning? Or are you saving that for other projects? I think it will be cool sometime, if someone asks you how you made an item, and you can say, "Well, first there was a sheep.. ..."

BookSaver, great charity project. What type fabric did they choose? You probably made the event a success to make sure everyone got better info. I "chain" patchwork sewing like the photos, but I leave about a half-inch of thread/space between pieces so there is less chance of the pieces coming apart. I've heard people mention that chain piecing can look like a kite-tail and mine certainly looks like that, with spaces.

This quilt is a long-term project. Way back, when I completed the center medallion, I had posted a photo - maybe you remember. Back then, I didn't know what I would eventually do about the rest of the quilt. All fabrics are blue-greens, except for whites for backgrounds, so even though there are lots of fabrics (as many as for a scrap quilt), it's become formal looking.

I am not sure if this is a gift for ds and ddil or whether it's for my house. The problem with giving it as a gift is that it has gotten out of hand - it's going to be nicer (fancier, more difficult) than others I've given. ( Oops ) That's also a reason it's taking longer - me wanting to make the other parts of the quilt as nice as I made the center.

What is the old Army warning? Be careful what you do well, because you may end up doing it a long time.

[Nancy]

I am planning a sweater from my handsupn yarn some say...but this one if of wildflower color red heart yarn. Green purple yellow and celery green in color. I just realized I did not work on it much this weekend.

Got to the 3/4ths point on the first half of the sweater front now yea!.

[Nancy]

Thanks for that link Harriet. Dgd 14 has made some similar to that using an old tee shirt.

ToddlerN saw me making a hat for dgd6 and has been asking about one for her so I started one for her in pink and blue to go with her coat. Yarn meeting was me doing that dgd5 crocheting her own necklace and toddlerN doing sewing cards they were sew happy doing that until the mom's came!

[Nancy]

Today is yarn meeting here today. I have a hat for dgson I am working up a red ombre knitted stocking cap hoping it it the right size.

I will be doing vertical button holes on the front of this sweater it is exciting to lesrn a new technique. It is ingarter stitch. I want to do this one in stockenette sp? stitch as well.

[Nancy]

Dgd has crocheted a chain 6ft. Long her folks are asking for lessons on "how to turn a corner" with her crocheting. So I took over some how to book,ets and suggested u-tube.

I got her a spool knitter, it does two sizes and some chinnelle pastel yarn for her Easter. So her basket had balls of brightly colored yarn instead of eggs from me!

[Nancy]

I have made two button holes on the wildflower sweater project! Yea for learning new things.