what I've been working on

There has been precious little time for working on any big projects lately, but a few little things have been accomplished.  Not complaining, just explaining.  With my parents and son visiting and making sure I see little Ian every couple of days, my machines have been kind of quiet. 

I found a free pattern for a cathedral window pincushion from Poorhouse Quilt Designs.  I have never made a cathedral window block but decided to find out how to do it.  I did a little checking about the block itself, and it seems to be originally from around 1930-1950 from what I can tell.  It is unusual in that it is actually about 3 layers of fabric with folds that create even more bulk at intersections.  Believe me when I tell you that the button is not only decorative, but serves to hide those untidy corners!  I thought the block was only done by hand, but this is completely machine stitched, except for closing up the filling hole. 

 I made this from a bunch of blue and white random 5" squares.  It makes a pretty large pincushion.  I filled it with 3 things (because only 1 would just be too simple!):  cotton stuffing, poly stuffing and crushed walnut shells.  I made a small muslin pouch for the walnut shells, I have had some 'migration' of dust from the shells in other pincushions and thought enclosing them in another layer of fabric would cut down on that.  If you are not familiar with the walnut shells, you can locate them in some large pet stores where they are sold as bedding for among other creatures, lizards.  I like to use them because they add a certain weight or heft to the pincushion that I like.  This project was one of those things that was totally not on my list of things to do, but intrigued me so much that I had to give it a try.


Sometime in the not-so-distant past, I put together this simple small quilt that will be a shop sample.  The pattern is Painted Moon from Villa Rosa Designs.  The fabric is from the Honoka collection by Anna Griffin.  I did simple quilting and just finished putting on the binding this morning.  Check one more off the list!

I recently taught a little intro to wool applique at the shop and this is the sample I was working on for demonstrating the process.  I am nearing completion, just have 2 more little vines to stitch and then attach the backing.  For sure it will be ready for pumpkin season!  This is a pattern and kit from Bareroots, available at Bear Patch.

And because I always have to have a knitting project (or 2 or 3) underway, I have been working on a scarf for myself.  It is made from a yarn that Dan bought for me when he was in Alaska--what a good son he is!  It is made from muskox hair, merino wool and mulberry silk.  Sounds and feels luxurious!  The pattern for the scarf came from a calendar of 365 Knitting Stitches a Year published by Martingale.

It is chock full of good ideas.  This one is called Arrowhead Lace.  You can see some of my index tabs that mark other stitch patterns that caught my interest and could go to some good use in the future.

And now to get back to work----!  Not really work when you love what you do!  Dan is winging westward and his bike was packed up and shipped yesterday so they will be reunited soon out in CA.  Ian (and Brita and Ben) is coming for a sleepover tomorrow so I better get this place sterilized!  And, of course, make sure his Easter basket is ready!

keeping busy

Hoping that keeping myself busy will keep my mind off the fact that our little grandson seems to be dragging his feet in making an appearance!  No real significant worries or problems, just impatience.  We seem to have probably missed the chance for a Leap Year birthday, which has pros and cons.

So I have added a few more blocks to my growing collection of hexagons--

 I try to keep a few pieces prepped ahead and bagged up so I can take them along in case I have some time to sneak in some stitches, say, for example, in a hospital waiting room!  I pick colors and fabrics, cut out the needed pieces and glue baste the fabric to the paper templates.

Also made a little quilt for the store from some nice batik fabrics, it is called Lover's Lane by Villa Rosa Designs.

I have put together a quilt top called Jelly Jive by Pieced Tree, it is made from a jelly roll pack called California Girl by Moda.  I am waiting for the bolts of this fabric to come into the store for the backing and binding.  It is a very nice soft color combo.

And little quilt top came home to me after being displayed at the store for quite awhile, I had sort of forgotten how much I really like it.  It is a pattern that I wrote and called Story Territory, with the intent of interacting with a youngster and using all of the interesting fabrics to trigger story-telling and games. Even alphabet games and counting games.  I had a lot of fun picking all of the prints that I thought would engage a child's mind.

Does it look like fun to you?

working on....

 No big news here, at least not the kind of announcement that I am waiting to make regarding the arrival of my grandson!  As you can see in this picture, Brita is nearing her delivery date!  We were at the Timberwolves game with B and B this night.

about 36 weeks

The picture below shows a new-ish project that I have been working on.  It is made from felted wool sweaters that I have been collecting from a local used clothing store.  I finally have enough of a coordinated theme to put together a decent sized lap quilt or couch quilt.  This has been kind of fun.

chopped up felted wool sweaters

I washed them twice on hot water/cold rinse and dried in a hot dryer.  You never can tell for sure how they will turn out, but 5 of the 6 that I worked with shrank up nicely.  They have to be 100% wool, but even if the tag says that, there is no guarantee that they will shrink down like I want them to be.  Not sure what to do with the other one, probably put it with my stuff to go to the donation center!  They will be able to collect twice from that one!  

Anyway, I cut all the sweaters open at the seams, so I had flat fronts, backs and sleeves to work with.  I decided to work on a grid of multiples of 3", so I cut chunks that were 15 1/2", 12 1/2", 9 1/2", etc.  Mostly squares, but some strips to fill in as needed.  I ended up drawing it out on graph paper to make everything fit into rows that could be assembled and then joined together.  I wanted to keep this simple, without a backing or binding.  So I just overlapped the edges of the pieces by about 1/4" (not very accurately in some spots!) and top-stitched with a wavy stitch.  I used the walking foot on my machine, it would have been really hard to keep things feeding through evenly without that.  When it all came together, I did one more round of topstitching all around the outside edge and called it good.  I think I want to do more of this as I can find sweaters that are appropriate.  

Up on my design wall--

La France by Villa Rosa

I cannot believe that I have those 2 turquoise blocks at the bottom nearly on top of each other!  I did not even see that until I looked at the picture, and I had been consciously working to keep the colors scattered evenly throughout!   I think the seam ripper has to come out for this one.  This is a pattern that uses 5" pre-cut squares plus 1 yard additional fabric.

I finished a quilt for a customer, all flannels--

Customer's flannel quilt

And started another quilt that I introduced to you before--

Lover's Lane by Villa Rosa

This looks like Easter eggs to me!  I will be able to finish quilting this one tonight since I am home alone and can do whatever I please!  

The 2 Villa Rosa quilts that I have shown here will be displayed at Bear Patch, where the patterns and kits will be available.

I'm thinking that supper will be a bowl of popcorn!