quilting detour

every so often the cross-stitch tote under my bed whispers to me in the wee hours to open it up and choose a project. for some time, i've wanted to do a vintage sampler AND i wanted a christmas stocking done in cross stitch. i found this pattern in a magazine eons ago and have kept it close by. i started it a while ago, did a bit and put it away. this past week or so i've spent a lot of time working on it, though the progress thus far is deceiving. i'm not expert, not like my daughter, but i love the result and best of all, it won't have to be framed. it's going to be my christmas stocking THIS year, God willing, and that'll be another needlework wish satisfied. ***** though we did get a bit of snow end of last week, it's mostly gone but winter just won't let go. one of these days it will probably be 80 or so and spring will be gone, even though we haven't had any yet of which to speak.

A is for....

not adulterer but, in my case, applique. took a break from quilting the lone star and appliqued this cute little piece based on my daughter's school days artwork. also, it helps in fine tuning my needleturn skills getting ready for the big kahuna, aka the hawaiian quilt. not too bad if i do say so myself, but more precise skills are needed so i will continue practicing until i've got it down pat!

still here....

haven't fallen off the face of terra firma yet, so thought i would just post that fact since there's nothing else to tell really. we are still waiting for the bona fide spring to arrive instead of the teaser weather we've been having of late. it's almost here but just not quite....

lone star update

here's a current photo of the lone star wallhanging and a closeup of one of the triangles already quilted. i've one more triangle and 3 of the corner squares to quilt with this arc design and then i can bind it. you can see the green solid i chose for the binding. i actually had to go out and buy it because i didn't have a piece large enough for the entire binding in my stash. it pulls out the green fabric in the star itself. green is not my favorite color but i felt there was enough blue/pink shades without choosing either of those for the binding. i'm a bit disappointed as it didn't come out as well as the first one i made but it was a lot of work, pieced by hand and now quilted by hand. not perfect but then who/what is? i can live with it without a lot of guilt and only a smidgen of regret. i do this for fun is why.....

yeeccchhh!

why? it SNOWED today! after 60-degree weather last week, this is one of the last things we wanted to see. "they" say we might get up to 5 inches overnight, but the good part of snow in late march is it's soon gone, as this will be by wednesday, again "they" say. even if they are wrong, it won't be by much. ***** and what have i been doing? well, quilting on the lone star. i am now quilting the corner squares and triangles, having finished every one of the individual diamonds. i got the binding fabric over the weekend; no, i didn't have any in my stash to match. i've also been on a job interview today, done the usual weekend stuff like laundry, read the sunday paper and do some miscellaneous sewing on other UFOs. the unemployed life is hardly exciting, i'm afraid.

afterthought

today is the first time i've heard the seagulls squawking in the morning. that has to be a sure sign of spring. the sun is out again today after a rainy wednesday and it's going to be quite warm for march, about 50 or so. i can take that for sure...

the sewing table

this is my sewing table. it belonged to my late ex-mother-in-law, Maude. Most likely it really belonged to her mother before that, Lila, as she was the quilter in the family. I don't think Maude ever sewed. When Maude died, my ex-father-in-law, Joe, sold it to me. He said he couldn't give it away, but i could buy it for $5, a pittance. i understood his reasoning because i knew him pretty well. it was my blue antique period so of course, it got "antiqued" (dumb) and the drawer pulls got changed (dumber). anyway, because it's old, the top drawer front broke off and the drawer itself was in shaky condition. i bought some wood glue and glued the daylights out of it and it pretty much held, except for the drawer front. i finally took it to be repaired and a whole new drawer had to be made for the old front.....and here it is. back in "normal" shape again. don't mind the fan, no place else to store it...and the right shoe? i usually sew without one. if i could afford it, the table would be refinished and new "old" pulls reattached but no funds for that. no green today but then i'm not irish either.

this and that

this is one of the "ends" i finished yesterday, the block started in the curved paper piecing class. it may be just an orphan block or used in something in the future, time will tell. ***** more progress on quilting the lone star, so it's coming along fairly quickly and may indeed be a march finish. **** today's the day to make irish soda bread. we aren't irish (i don't think) but we have corned beef and cabbage AND irish bread anyway. our heritage is English, some Native American and not sure what else.

remember?

if you are of a "certain age," then your mornings--like mine--often started with this little tune....takes me back to a galaxy far, far away...well, not THAT far away!

UFO in progress

here's the red/cream north wind UFO i've been working on this week. every so often i pull out the shoebox and sew together a stack of units and some squares. these are 5" unfinished because I misread the new ruler directions and cut the strips 1/2" too small. won't do THAT again! i'm nearly at the point i have to cut more HSTs and extra triangles to assemble the middle portion of the square itself. today i'm probably going to finish up some odds and ends and maybe hand quilt for a change. i've 4 small UFO projects that need quilting and could be knocked off my list if they were done. ***** the sun is streaming through my window here at 7:45 so it's going to be a sunny day. plenty of natural light flooding my sewing space....always a good thing!