Nearly finished

I am nearing the finish line!  I finished the quilting on this new design for my pattern Pie In The Sky.  It uses all of the fabrics for the Quilt MN 2012 fabric line from Windham.  Well, everything except the 2 panel prints.  All of the strips are varying widths and randomly placed, so when it comes time to join the blocks together there is only two spots that need close attention for matching--right where the point of the "V" of the light fabric, and then the center of the "pie".  We have prepared 28 kits for this quilt at Bear Patch and you can reserve one now.  

I'm not quite done with the binding yet, and then will finish up the pattern.  Have you used these little binding clips?

They are a great little product from Clover (also available at Bear Patch) and clip so nicely over the folded edge to hold it in place until I stitch the binding down.  I am noticing in this picture that I have a little more work to do to remove all of my chalk markings that I needed for the quilting.  See the little white line on the woodcut circles?  I wanted to do a spiral around the pies, starting in the center and gradually working my way outward.  

                                   

Well, achieving equal spacing and a smooth progression was not so easy to do by freehand, so I resorted to 1" marks and a little guidance with the chalk pencil to keep me on track.  I didn't need to draw the entire stitching line, just a few segments here and there.  Bob helped me last night as I went over all the blocks with an eraser to remove what hadn't already brushed off, but when I saw this picture it is clear that I need to do it again by the light of the day.  It's one of those little details that isn't visible until I look closely, and then it seems glaringly obvious.  Since I know this will be displayed and closely viewed by a lot of quilters, I feel an obligation to make it look as good as possible.  So back to the eraser!

Here's a little challenge for you--
When I was visiting my parents earlier in July, my sister and I dragged out our grandma's old jewelry boxes.  We had fun looking at the matching sets of costume jewelry that Grandma had worn.  Necklaces, bracelets, brooches and earrings in assorted colors and styles were exactly what the well-dressed lady needed in the 50's and 60's.  I have used a couple of those pins on jackets for just a little touch of bling or whimsy.  They make me feel good just to wear them.

Also found this little gadget in a box, which now is obsolete.  Can you identify what this was used for? My grandpa was Robert Herbert, thus the RH.  You can tell this was well-used by the worn paint.

Well, just in case you didn't grow up using a rotary dial phone, this was used to help dial the numbers.  Especially useful for a fine lady with manicured nails!  I suppose now you could use it like a stylus for your iPad, sort of like a time warp!  Those rotary dial phones are few and far between now, as are any phones that have a cord connecting the receiver to the base.  And what about party lines??  Do you think they still exist?  We always had a party line and had to put up with the inconvenience of wanting to make a call but picking up the receiver to hear the neighbor gabbing.  A long way from the phones of today and the need to have constant connection.  Since Bob and I eliminated our home phone service and now only use cell phones, I do pay attention to keeping it nearby, turned on and charged up, but I am not one to make it a huge priority.  If I don't answer, there's always the option to leave a message, which never existed in those "good old days".  It's an interesting progression to the present day need to stay always connected.  Sometimes it's good to just disconnect, so that is what I am going to do right now!  Good by and disconnect!

A bit absent from my keyboard lately, in the midst of other good things happening.  Little trips here and there, a wedding party, visits from special people, quality time with my Ian, and a little work thrown in for good measure!  I had fallen far behind on my quilting commitments, but now aiming to correct that problem.  Here's one for Debbie for the store, forgetting the name right now but I will update when I find it in my memory bank. 

Fabric is for Quilt MN 2012.

Made good use of the stripe with words and the big flying geese blocks got a little special attention.

Also finished up Irene's Gee's Bend quilt and it was a challenge to me to follow in the style of their quilts.  So I forced myself to put away my rulers and used some guidance from my book about these quilts.  I'm glad that Irene liked the finished quilt when I delivered it yesterday.

I have also made good progress on a couple of new patterns that I am writing, I will share pictures when they are decent!

One of those things keeping me from my fabric was pure fun up on Lake Winnibigoshish.  Here are a couple good catches--

Dan's was just within the legal zone so it was a keeper!

Bob's was in the illegal zone so went back in the water. :(

A storm that skirted around the lake we were on so our fishing was uninterrupted.  Good thing since we needed to catch enough to feed 30+ hungry folks.

dock decor

I have just returned from a weekend away at my friend, Debbie's, lake cabin near Chetek, WI.  We had such a good time and some fun memories.  I like to walk down the path and steps to the lake in the morning when I wake up, just to check on what's happening on the water.  The first morning, this is what greeted me---

Maybe a Northern Water snake?

Kind of stopped me in my tracks!  I ran back to get my camera and zoomed in to get a decent picture without venturing too close.  I have looked at some pictures and think it is a pretty common water snake, but the distinctive markings that would prove it are on the underside of the body.  No way was I going to be looking at the underside of that body!  We never saw him again out in the open, so I am hoping he found some other bit of lakeshore to call home.

We did some sewing, I was working on a new quilt that will be written as a pattern soon.  I enjoy writing up a few patterns, but have no intention of making it a career.  But something happened recently that involves my pattern, Hocus Pocus, that I designed and wrote back in 2009.  

Hocus Pocus

Much to my surprise, I found that this quilt is shown on the Timeless Treasures website.  It is a digital rendition using their batik fabrics, and really looks nice!  I guess it's a good form of advertisement for me, but very unexpected.  I'll be communicating with them to see if they like any more of my patterns!

puppy love, etc.

Here is an update on what's been happening around here lately--

I have been spending a bit of my time in my sewing room developing ideas for new patterns and projects that make use of the 2012 Quilt MN fabrics.  We have bolts of the fabric at the shop which can't be sold until August 3, but I am using them now to come up with some good ideas for our customers.  Here's a sneak peak at some of it:

4 large printed panels will have 4 border choices

the 'words' fabric makes a great decorative border

When not in the sewing room, I have continued to work on the photo wedding quilt that I shared in my last post.  I guess scotty dogs play an important role in the lives of this couple, so Tiffany designed a custom pantogram for me to use.  This is a continuous line drawing on paper that fits two border areas.  I was a little skeptical of how successful these would be, they are more detailed and smaller scale than other pantos I have worked with.  It can be hard to capture the detail when converting from paper to fabric.

But I gave it a shot, and looked how nice they look all stitched up!  The only change I had to make was in the little boy dog's collar, which was drawn as a bowtie to complement the little girl's collar of beads.  The bowtie came out looking pretty much like the beads, so I converted it to just a straight collar.  Much more manly.  Looks like puppy love to me!

But the sewing and quilting comes to a halt when it's time for family--

We had the pleasure of a weekend at my parents' house in Iowa, and Brita, Ben and Ian made the trip, too.  It was his first big journey and 2 nights away from home.  Ian did a good job of entertaining his great grandparents with his little smiles and baby noises.  He is 3 months old now, and I love watching him develop new talents all the time!

He also visited several of the other side of the family when we attended a wedding party for nephew Andy and his bride, Kira.  It was a fun event held out on the farm where Bob grew up, and 5 of his siblings were there, too.  Many thanks to Larry and Denise for putting it all together!

fabric photos that work

I finally have some plantings in the cement pots I made at retreat in April.  I made a stop at Bachman's, a well-known local garden center, to find the appropriate plants.  Little teeny ones for the 4-holer, and a beautiful textured larger one for the other pot.  I like the looks of these.  I have one more pot to use and I want to put a hen & chicks plant in there.

I started working yesterday on an interesting quilt for a customer.  Tiffany Boeson designed and constructed this as a wedding gift.  She incorporated several beautiful large photos in B&W and sepia tones, and had them printed on fabric by Spoonflower.  This company will take your original artwork, prints, photos, etc., and create your own personal fabric.  The quality and texture of these pictures is excellent, feels just like regular fabric.  And if you notice that yellow ruler in the picture, it is 12" long, so you can see that this works on a large scale, too.  So far, I have been carefully outlining all of the pictures and applique work that she has done, next will be the scotty dogs in the borders!

oh deer!

Yesterday I woke up, wandered to the kitchen to start the coffee, not really awake yet.  Until I glanced out the window and discovered that I was being watched!  

I know there are deer wandering around but this is the first time that I have seen one bedded down on our lawn!  He/she slowly got up, continued to stare at me, then ambled off into the bushes and trees.  I wonder what was going through that head?

I've been cooking up some new sewing projects and patterns for the new Quilt MN fabric.  Nothing far enough along for pictures, but I'll get some of the work-in-progress soon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share something else that I learned in the finishing stages of this scarf.  I started to do the usual standard bind off, but wasn't happy with the look of it.  I think it was due to the fact that every other stitch was a slipped stitch and made a funny little loopy edge instead of the nice smooth edge that I wanted.  So, I consulted my favorite local knitting guru, Thora Lee.  She is the best knitter I know, so I wasn't at all surprised when she referred me to Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off technique.  Although it took more time, it turned out fine.  And then I had all the loose ends to deal with, and decided to turn it into a braided fringe.  Finally, all done!

Mini Mania

If you are curious about the size of this, you might like to know that I cast on roughly 300 stitches, used size 6 needles and sock weight yarn.  It measures a little over 1 yard long, not including fringe.  I quit at 4 1/2" and barely made a dent in the yarn remnants!

One more thing to share--I caught a portion of the CBS Sunday Morning show (one of my favorite shows) and saw a very interesting segment about the Royal School of Needlework.  That place takes hand embroidery to a whole different level!