Art, Craft and Needlework, January, 2009

[Harriet]

Got the I Spy quilt top and backing off in today's mail to the machine quilter. Had the machine humming along, really moving and of course ran out of bobbin thread with just inches to go, LOL. That's okay, it didn't slow me down much. It's bordered with a double border and corner squares and pressed one last time. I pressed the backing too after I washed it this morning. It is a "108-inch wide" fabric made to be a quilt backing (really only 105, I noticed, even before washing). Only the second time I've used one of those and I think I'll go back to regular 45-wide fabrics. You just don't have as many choices with the wide ones.

Next week maybe I can work on some more blocks for the blue/green wedding quilt. I can't even remember how many I already have made, but the project's all together in a stackable storage box. I know right where it is.. ... I could go check... ... But not thinking about that until next week! Time to put away the machine for a while and make sure other areas stay on track.

[cathyy]

Ah, yes, the ubiquitous UFOs. I have a couple of those. Two are cross-stitch. One is a lovely pink lotus picture, which I will post an image of when completed. I strated it several years ago, but a couple years of working intervened. The other is a throw, with 20 motifs. The throw has a woven design of squares, and each motif goes in a square. I have 7 or 8 done. I will finish that after the pink lotus picture.

Then comes the sewing. I made a lovely ecru heavy muslin apron this year, a beige baby corduroy jumper, and a pink floral jumper. I altered a dress I made to fit better. And I altered the neckline of a t-shirt to be a bateau instead of a crew neck. I have a blue floral dress and a different blue floral jumper to make. and I need to get busy on making some sport shirts for my husband.

[Harriet]

It would be great to see a photo, cathyy. That's a lot of garment sewing. I made a man's shirt once and never looked back, lol! It was a difficult pattern I admit, but the project really was a toughie and I wasn't very encouraged to try that again! Good luck, hope you enjoy it.

Today I laid out all the parts I've already made for the blue and green wedding quilt, just to get a feel for where I am. I have a center medallion that will probably need more added to it in order to fill in the center. Then I have 12 blocks. And I have several fabrics (already in the project box) I want to use, either for more blocks or some other way in the quilt. I need to get a design wall up, meaning hang a flannel fabric. I also might look at some diagonal settings of quilts in books/magazines just in case I want to try that for this one.

[Harriet]

I got out a calculator and "did the math" to bring the compass block I've already made (11-inch compass in 15.25-inch frame) up to a 25-inch center for the quilt. I want to use Sharon Craig's "Festival Star" block-bordering pattern from that same favorite quilt book I've mentioned so often, "Setting Solutions". (I am dismayed to learn you can't buy this new any more for less than $200, and even used copies through Amazon are $50. Wow. I wish I could do that with stock picking!)

The top left block in this photo of a quilt by Sharyn Craig is actually a Festival Star border sewn around a simple little 6-inch Sawtooth Star UFO block she already had.

I'm hoping it will make a good transition from the long tiny points of the compass to larger, more ordinary stars in the blocks. It does a great job giving the appearance of a circle, but is really just pieced like a squared border. The circle of points will look something like the compass' circular shape, but the actual point shapes are simple triangles just like the ones the blocks have. If I start with the 11-inch base, it would need a 183 percent enlargement of her pattern (which she printed in the book to go around 6-inch blocks). If I start with the 15.25-inch base, it would need a 254 percent enlargement.

I stopped by the printing shop and made those enlargements. Now that I see the size of the pieces, I'm leaning toward the smaller enlargement and adding something outside that to bring the whole center up to the 25-inch square I'll need.

[SuzLew]

Dh finished his black and white seminole piecing block last night and I finished crocheting a dishcloth! It has so many colors in the cotton yarn reminds me of easter. Want to make another that color then will make a couple more to give to Dgirls. Need to find yarn needle to bury threads.