Baby Boy Quilt

My aunt made this quilt with a panel and some yardage. It is flannel and very soft.  This is meant to be a gift for her friend who has a new great-grandson.

She asked me to quilt it for her using free motion quilting.  Over Spring Break I have managed to resolve some issues with tension and thread breakage and my own projects came out looking pretty good. So I did it.

I am pretty pleased with how it came out. My aunt likes to do her binding by hand, so I am leaving that part to her.  I prefer machine binding myself.

Spring Break is almost over and I am not ready to go back to working for a living.

Gale

Southland in the Springtime

Bluebirds of Happiness & a Baby Quilt Top

Last night I sorted the charm squares and then chose some to cut in half.  This morning I started sewing the top together using these directions from Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson!

There is a mistake and no, I am not taking it apart to fix it I do not look forward to frogging it.  I used Kona cotton for the pink sashing.

This afternoon I used the freezer paper method to cut out these birds and wings from an assortment of fabrics in my stash. I wanted to see if I had any better luck doing machine blanket stitch without using any batting under the fabrics. It worked out pretty well.

 

                     I will make this into a narrow wall hanging. 

I got a new sewing table last Saturday at the Salvation Army Store. I am not even sure it is really a sewing table, but it has an adjustable shelf in the front that fits my Brother sewing machine perfectly.  It even holds the flat top sewing platform that came with the machine. Now I just need to get one of those Teflon sheets to lay over the sewing area and I am good to go, Leah Day style.

(Did I mention that the price tag said 25 dollars, but they were having a 30 percent off sale?  Oh yeah!  I had just decided which cheapish sewing table I was going to purchase for about 140 dollars this week.  Yes, I am feeling rich!)

Just now I raised up the platform to make it even with the tabletop and am using it with my laptop to write this post.

I am feeling better about Sushi today. Thanks for the kind comments.

Gale

RIP Sushi Wong

My oldest animal companion Sushi passed on to the next world today.  He was about 19 years old and lived a long, happy life.

Lately his quality of life suffered as he got more senile and was not able to take care of his hygiene. He also was mostly blind and had a hard time getting around the house. It was hard to make the decision to let him go, but I could not stand to see him suffer.

Like most of my pets, Sushi had both official and unofficial names. His official name was Sushi Wong. For fun, I sometimes called him Hairy Belafonte. He was beautiful and sweet.

I like to think that he has gone on to a pain free existence in a realm where there are plenty of sunshine puddles and mice to chase. Thank you, Sushi, for many years of companionship. I won't forget.

Gale 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Gale

For the Birds!

I put these together this evening after seeing some on Etsy.  Mine contain wool scraps from felted sweaters, persian wool yarns, mohair yarns, wool roving in assorted colors and strips of natural cotton batting. 

The container is a suet cake holder with a chain for hanging.  Some others I have seen online use mesh bags, but I think the metal holder provides easier access for the birds.

It is recommended that these are hung near a source for mud.  I have just the puddle, but you could make your own mud puddle using a dish pan, dirt and a small amount of water. You do not want to create a breeding area for mosquitos.

The birds use the mud for mortar when building their nests.  Last year, I witnessed a bird in my yard taking small bits of straw or sticks and dipping them in the mud puddle before flying with them to the nest he or she was building.

I am looking forward to seeing birds in my neighborhood as they visit the box and select materials for the nests they will make soon.  I am also looking forward to seeing if I can spy  any of the brightly colored bits of fiber in nests around my yard. 

These are all spoken for (Mom, Glory, Me and Stacey), but I am considering making more for sale. Leave a comment here or send me an email.

Gale

Wool Star Blocks

I started these hand appliqued blocks the other night. I was inspired by this wallhanging and this one called Starry. 

I went through my wool stash and pulled some red, white and blue felted wool.  Some of the red wool comes from a blazer and some of the white wool comes from a skirt. all the rest is from felted sweaters. 

I cut a 5 inch square from foam board (it is what I had on hand) and used it as a guide for cutting the red and blue squares. Some are not exactly 5 inches to allow for purposeful wonkiness.

The stars are hand cut using the freezer paper method. I drew a 4 inch star using Autoshapes in Microsoft word and printed it out.

The I traced the star many times on the matte side of the freezer paper making sure that I placed the stars close together so as to not waste wool. I used my iron on the wool setting to stick the paper to the back of the wool. After letting it cool, I cut out the stars. 

There is still enough plastic left on the freezer paper to use to cut out some more stars. I have plans to make some more stars in red and blue.

Using my Sulky Blendable 12 wt. thread in the patriotic colorway, I blanket stitched around each star. Each block has a button in the center.  The Sulky thread was really easy to use for blanket stitching by hand. 

These are like potato chips!  It is impossible to make just one or two or even a just a dozen.

Waiting breathlessly for Spring Break to come! Just one more day.

Gale  

Updating Etsy Store with Wool Scraps

The pile of wool was threatening to take over the spare room, so I decided to make some scrap bags to list for sale on Etsy.  There are so many things a person can make with felted wool. I have a flickr set devoted to things I have made with wool--check it out!  

I have divided it up into 8 scrap bags. Each gallon bag is stuffed full of wool that has been felted by me here at home. These will be listed soon. See my Etsy button on the side of the blog for a link to the store.

The rest of the day will be devoted to laundry and cooking a ham I picked up at the grocery store last night.  Hope your weekend was a good one!

Gale

Flickr Favorites

Here are some photos from Flickr I would like to share with you.  All of them are my favorites for different reasons. Many of them provide inspiration in my efforts to create.

This flag made by Morna Crites-Moore sewn with wool is something I want to make using fabrics from my own stash. I love the button details that embellish this penny rug.

Morna has many other wonderful creations which she shares on Flickr and her web site. This penny rug is on my to-do list, as well.

The quilting on this bricks quilt made by Kate of KateQwiltz is so cool. I am using a similar quilting pattern on the bricks quilt I am making using Momo's Oddysea fabric line.

I love the colors in this quilt as well as the simple pattern.  It was shared by Jodi of Pleasant Home. I am pretty sure I can make this slightly wonky.

Is this not the prettiest collection of canning jars ever?  I love the way the light makes these glow.  This is by Amy at A Common Place Life. She has an interesting blog and some lovely photos.

I did some sewing today and watched the heartwarming movie, The Blind Side. No pictures of my own to post, though. Maybe tomorrow!

Gale

Compaq Covered

Here is the finished laptop sleeve for the Compaq laptop.  I added an outside pocket to the design for storage of little things like flashdrives. This turned out slightly looser than I expected. I am thinking of shrinking it in the wash for a tighter fit.

This color palette is not what I would normally choose, but I am pleased at how it turned out. The yellow is so spring-like and a good shot of color after a dreary winter is a good thing.

Just one more week at school before SPRING BREAK!  Lord, just let me hold on til then!

Happy weekend, people!

Gale

New Laptop Case

I stopped at the fabric store on the way home looking for some pre-quilted fabric to make a new laptop case. I was not impressed by the selection so I chose 2 coordinating prints and decided to quilt them myself.

The main print will be the branches and yellow blossoms print. This one I quilted with spiral swirls. This used a lot of thread. I have used 4 bobbins so far on this half yard length and still need to do a little more. (But Survivor came on and I had to stop.)

The lining and flap will be the yellow print with dots in shades of black, gray and white. This is quilted with a stippling pattern. I am loving these yellow, black and gray tones together.

I went ahead and quilted more of these fabrics than I am going to need, just in case. I figure that whatever is left over I can use to make zipper pouches or a handbag.

After Survivor goes off I am back to the sewing machine.

Updated:  I have made a couple laptop sleeves before using this free pattern. Here is the one I made for my Dell Mini. Here is the one I made for my cousin's Mac.

Gale

I Love Techmology!

My sister passed on her old laptop to me which I have worked on for a couple of days cleaning off old files and setting it up with my programs and stuff.  I had to set up my home network (again) and even figured out how to bridge the disconnect between 2 different operating systems in order to make my printer work with both laptops. Since this laptop has a great deal of file storage capacity, I am going to use it with Office 2007 and to load my photos to Flikcr and my blog.  I will also take it to work occasionally to do reports for the admin at my school.

Then yesterday my Dell Mini came back home. It had some newly installed hardware and the original programs installed again.  I needed to set it up again with email, but I have decided against installing Office 2007 again. I think that program is so large that it caused more problems than benefits. So I think that the small computer will be my travel model, used mostly for surfing the Internet, email and Skype (maybe.)

Of course I have the Ipod, which is in all practical senses a tiny, tiny computer.  I stacked the techmology (spelling is intentional) in a pile like turtles basking in the sun. I crack myself up!

On a work related note, my favorite IT tech of all time came to my room today and installed the new cable for the printer, so that now we can print with our thin clients.  It took him all of five minutes to make me very happy!

I hope your techmology is working for you today!

Gale

The First Weekend of Spring

It was a beautiful weekend here. I got a lot done, even though I have a cold that is trying to develop into a sinus infection.  Just a tip for all you readers, when you go to the doctor's office for a checkup, don't touch the magazines (or anything else.) Sanitze like crazy! Or else you might come out of the doctor's office with an unwanted illness.  

Here is one of the finished Easter Egg Wallhangings. This one has blue egg and is trimmed with an Easter border print. It is backed with a scrap of vintage sheeting and bound with the same white as the background.  My aunt saw it just as I was finishing it and expressed her desire that it come live at her house. So be it.

I made these bird nest pins this weekend.  They are inspired by the ones made by Betz White.  I am thinking these might be fun to make in a larger size using larger felt beads. The larger ones would not be for wearing as pins, but rather to decorate a shelf. These are made with felted wool sweaters and wool beads by Handbehg. 

This is my first blog post on my new-to-me computer.

Thanks, little honey, I love it!

Gale  

Scrappy Easter Eggs

To start out I cut a piece of Warm and Natural batting to a comfortable size. By comfortable, I mean two things: small enough to manuever under the sewing machine and narrow enough to be covered using my torn strips.

I went through my fabric stash and pulled out fabrics that looked "Eastery" to me. I ripped off strips of these fabrics and stuffed them into my scrap bag.

Using the batting as a foundation, I strip pieced the scraps in color combinations that pleased me. After making a few different panels of strips, I found a good sized egg pattern using Google images.

I cut out the eggs using my rotary cutter following the outline of the egg pattern. I ended up with quite a few striped eggs.

Then I went through my ribbon and trim stash and pulled out some coordinating colors to use for embellishment.  It was easy to tack these trims down using the sewing machine--the hardest part was changing the thread so many times to match colors.

I tore the background fabric to the size I wanted--to be able to get three eggs in a column and pinned the eggs in place.  Using a zig-zag stitch I appliqued the eggs in place. The layer of batting under them gives them a more sculptural look.

I got a cute striped Easter fabric at Joanne's this weekend. It makes a great border for these panels. I chose to sew one with the vines closest to the center and the other with the jelly beans closest to the center.

To finish these up I will add batting and a backing and do some echo quilting around the shapes of the eggs. Of course, I will add a hanging mechanism and bind it off. I have some cute jelly bean fabric for the binding.

Have a great weekend!  I am predicting mine will be spent feeling sick, as I already have the sniffles and sore throat.  Boo!

Gale

Happy Green Day!

Here is a work in progress. It is the next panel for my ticker tape quilt. The first panel features a medium blue solid for the background and used red and blue scraps. This one is a sea of green.

I prefer to lay out the trimmed scraps and pin them in place before starting to sew them down. I fussy cut some of the scraps to feature the print.  I am amazed by how many shades of green there are here.

After I get a few more of these panels done, I will assemble them into a quilt. This follows the quilt as you go method, so there will be a few seams to cover when I join the panels.

Here is my finished Love Is In the Air Rail Fence quilt.  It shrank a good bit in the dryer, but is still a generous lap sized cover. I will go ahead and use it even though Valentine's Day was some time ago and Easter is coming on quickly!