The Olde Crow Inn

I came across a vintage Bed and Breakfast sign.  It was done in cross stitch.  That is what made me want to do cross stitch again after many, many years of my tools and supplies in a storage trunk.  I raced over to the website and bought the chart.

Chart: Kanikis

I could hardly wait to finish the unfinished piece  I had on the frame so that I could get started on this new piece.  I’m always attracted to vintage advertising and crows.  

This is stitched on 32 count evenweave linen.  A single thread over 2 threads.  Except for Baths and Meals is only over 1 thread.  That part was very hard to see with these old eyes, glasses and magnifiers attached to my glasses.  I hated stitching those but I love how they look with the standard stitching.

Not many thread changes in this chart.  Just enough for a vintage look.

When the stitching was finished, I sewed a frame around it.  I got one of those standing mini quilt frames to display it.

I like that I’ll be able to do more seasonal stitching and change the display as I desire.  

My crows are beginning to gather a murder.

Can you hear them chattering?

Sewing Storage Reduction

Storage reduction continues in my sewing space.

This cute bicycle printed linen was a gift.  As usual, the lack of ideas for what to do with it kept it in storage for a few years.  Time to come out and be something!

I love that fun novelty bicycle ads fabric.  Perfect to pair with the print.  I decided on a project pouch for my cross stitch floss.

I used a strip of selvedge to add interest as a small loop on the side.

The lining represents the many streets and paths I have ridden my bicycle over the years.

I can’t cross stitch on linen without adding those magnifiers to my glasses.  What a pastime life saver they are!

While I’ve been cross stitching, I thought about the pieces I have had stored for 30 years.  These football logos.  My son stitched these when he was 13 or 14 years old.  He’s 44 now.

I did not know what to make with them.  Even now.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for ideas and inspiration for what to make for a grown man.  The best idea was just a pillow.

The stripes made me think of the referees during football games.

The numbers made me think of the game scores.

When my son was a baby, 4months old, I noticed the TV caught his attention whenever football was on.  We didn’t have but 3 channels to watch at the time, so sometimes football would be on.  Not that anyone was a great football fan.  I wondered if he was really watching it.  I set him in his baby carrier in front of the TV and he actually watched the game.  If the channel was changed he lost interest in the TV.  When football was back on his attention was back on the TV.  To this day he is a big fan of football.

I’m shipping this pillow to him this week.  I’ll bet he thinks those cross stitched pieces were long gone somewhere years ago.  I wish I could be there when he tells his grown children he stitched those.  I wonder if they will razz him about cross stitching.  Even famous professional football players are known to have done needlework.  

Hooray for more storage reduction!

Are you happy?

And then one day I decided I wanted to cross stitch again.

But I had a project yet unfinished on the scroll frame.  Another 25 year old unfinished project!  With only this much left to do...how sad is that.

It was going to be framed and hung in my young daughter’s bedroom.  But she isn’t that young anymore and I lost interest in finishing it.  And, it was an area of so many color changes.

I forced myself to finish it before starting a new project.  I knew if I took it off the frame it would never get finished.

The quote is one of my favorites, by Abraham Lincoln.  The design is by Mary Engelbreit.

As I was working on that last bit of stitching I didn’t know what I’d do with it when it was finished.  Then I remembered the antique child’s rocking chair I have from my great aunt.  I don’t know the rocker’s real age but it is definitely well over 150 years old.  The cane seat was worn out and had to be replaced.  But the rest of the chair is in it’s original but not perfect condition.  I decided this stitched piece as a pillow could sit on that rocker.

How happy am I that another languishing project is finished and being enjoyed!

Also while working on that stitching, I found I wanted a pin cushion for all these cross stitch needles I have.  So I stitched a quick cushion top.

I stitched some x’s around the design and fabric frame.  I didn’t get them right, but I figured that out along the way.  They were good enough for this project.  Next time I do that I’m hoping they will look better when done properly.

Ah, much better than needles floating around here and there and everywhere.

Be happy!

Halloween Hauntings

Some Halloween sewing has been happening.

In the stash was a Halloween panel that I bought because I liked “parts” of the designs.  I took a couple of years to get to it.  I don’t always know what I’m going to do with a piece of fabric when I buy it.  Since I’ve been trying to use what I have, it was time for this piece to come out into the light of day.  I have cut it apart and used some of it.

First I made a couple of Halloween potholders.  I framed them with fabric from my massive (to me) Halloween stash.  Mitered corners are not the funnest to do and I’m not sure it made much difference with this particular striped piece.

This was a small image block that I added side borders to make it postcard size. Quilted just following lines in the image.

Then I took a “section” from one of the images I wasn’t overly fond of to make another postcard.  Again, quilting is just following the image lines.



This is the original panel piece (I had already started cutting it apart).

I have yet to make the crows, the skeleton and the tree into something.  Probably potholders/hot plate mat.

Hooray!...more stash reduction!

This next postcard is a section of a Halloween fabric and a section of paper piecing that I didn’t use for the Chillingsworth Wall hangings.

This Bat postcard is my usual style for fabric postcards, raw edge applique.  He is a Quilt Doodle Designs pattern called Going Batty Mug Mat.  I shrank the pattern to fit a postcard.

This spider I have made before but it has been many years.  This pattern is a Patch Abilities, Inc. called Eeek!  The pattern is a wall hanging of 3 spiders.  The medium spider is just the right size for a postcard.

This is my version of the pattern done several years ago.

It’s time to get my postcards in the mail!  Time flies by so fast.  Now that I am officially retired, dates and what day it is means nothing.  I have to make a point of paying attention to that now.

Happy Haunting!

Fall Postcard Sewing

It’s that fun time of year for sewing!

Fall!

I’ve made a few Fall fabric postcards

This design is a pattern from Bloomin’ Minds called Online Company

I shrank the design to fit a postcard.

This design is a pattern from The Whole Country Caboodle called Scarecrow & Friend

I shrank the design to fit a postcard.

A quilt on Pinterest inspired these next postcards.

I cut bits of scraps and then treated it like a puzzle fitting bits and pieces all over a base fabric.

That was somewhat tedious to do so I tried just cutting strips and weaving them together over the base fabric.  While it turned out similar, I don’t think it looks as creatively fun.

Hmm...maybe these two are more on the Halloween side than just Fall with the purple added in.



My September calendar journal...

Happy Fall!

Treasure Hunt Quilt

Grab a cuppa...this is

The story of the Treasure Hunt Quilt

This is the fabric that stole my heart that I could only find on Etsy (at the time) and I HAD TO HAVE IT.

It was sold as a 27” panel.  I originally intended to make another small quilt with it.  Possibly give it borders to enlarge the panel.  I loved it even more when it arrived!  So I thought to get another piece, sew them together and not add a border.  I went back to Etsy shopping (it was still not available anywhere else that I could find). I found another piece.  The price went up?!  Not fair!  But I HAD TO HAVE IT.  I added a 2 yard piece to my cart that I would use for backing and a striped piece I would use for binding.  And a bunch of other pieces I thought I would like to have in my stash as well.  After all, there was not going to be an in person quilt show this year where I could re-stock up.  Any excuse is a good one, right?

So the second panel arrived and I could finally get started on this quilt.  I am SO excited!  I opened the envelope and the happy dance screeched to a stop.  

The piece I now have is NOT quilting cotton.  It’s more like a canvas fabric.  Very coarse.  Now I knew why the cost was higher.  This has come after my Etsy purchase experience with the Curiosity fabric  with the 2” squares.

Oh yes I did...I went back to Etsy to get yet ANOTHER piece of this Treasure Hunt fabric.  Although I preferred quilting cotton, I decided I would make a quilt out of whichever fabric I would end up with 2 pieces of.  I did try hard to read everything and get quilting cotton.  And again it was yet another price.  Didn’t care anymore.  I crossed my fingers and the quilting gods must have felt sorry for me as I received another quilting cotton piece.  Big sigh of relief here.  This time it was a measured 1 yard piece.  36”. That explains the new price.  I’m scratching my head at Etsy now and hoping not to need to go back again.  At least not for this quilt.

I began to get the two pieces sewn together.  What do you mean they aren’t the same width???  1/4” difference.  This fabric has nice flat selvedges. I had planned to keep them in as part of the quilt.  There went that idea.  Don’t care anymore.  I moved on.  

Now I laid out the quilt top and batting.  All smoothed out and trimmed to size.  I flip it over to lay the backing down.  Guess what!  Same designer, 3” narrower than the top fabric!  Yep.  Figures.  Why would I think they would be the same width.  

Oh yes I did...I went back to Etsy (still the only availability of these Marcia Derse fabrics) to get more.  You guessed it, no more of the Birch available.  I had to choose something else to extend the backing.  I chose The Opposite.  No further surprises.  The fabric gods obviously knew there would be another incident and bestowed favor on me.

If I couldn’t use the selvedge on the front, there was nothing in my way for using it on the back.

But now that there would only be 3” of the new fabric, I had to try to get it straight on the back.  I don’t know any easy secrets to accomplishing that.  I put the time into it and I was successful in this regard.  Small happy dance.  

Finally time to start quilting.  I decided for a grunge fabric that I would do grunge quilting.  It’s probably really called improv quilting or something like that.  I just followed shapes and lines and not precisely.  That was the hard part.  Giving up control.  

After doing a width of that, I knew this was going to take awhile.  I did a block section at a time each day for a few days.  It got to where it wasn’t fun.  Make a few stitches, stop, turn the fabric, stuff it through the machine opening, make a few stitches and that was how it went over and over.  I had to force myself to stay at it until it was done or this quilt would never get done.  Ever.  After 3 days of quilting whenever possible, the quilting was finally finished.  

Now the binding.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it.  I had nothing better and still didn’t want this piece to end up in my stash.  So I forced myself to use it anyway.  Didn’t care anymore.

When I went to trim the quilt, I couldn’t bring myself to cut off the selvedges.  Even though on one side they didn’t line up.  (that 1/4” width difference). And I thought the other side would maybe be too narrow.  Guess what...yep, didn’t care anymore.  As I was sewing on the binding I really didn’t like it and the blank white sections of the selvedge were going to look really odd.  As I continued I started thinking what I could fill the white space with later on...fancy stitches?, ribbon?, cording?  Either way I could worry about that later.

This quilt is one and done!  63” x 42.5”

As I was hand stitching the binding, I decided the ugly stripe worked well afterall.  And the blank white spaces along with the text of the selvedges is now my favorite part of the quilt.  Who could have guessed!

I absolutely unconditionally LOVE this quilt!

I’m quite pleased that I powered through all the “I don’t care anymore”s and ended up with great features in this quilt that might never have been.  This is my favorite quilt ever.  It will never see the inside of a storage tote.

Sometimes there’s something bigger at the end of a lot of frustration and incidents that we think aren’t happy moments.  Everything that happened in the making of this quilt is now well worth it.  Had they not happened I wouldn’t have  this quilt exactly the way it is now.  All those incidents added fantastic features and character to this quilt.  It truly has been a Treasure Hunt and I found the Treasure!

Art History and Curiosity Quilt

What a struggle to make this small quilt.

It began when I saw a fabric on Pinterest that I just loved and really wanted.  It is called Treasure Hunt.  Finding it was the problem.  It only showed up available in Etsy.  My problem with Etsy is that I’ve never used it much and was not well versed in using and buying from it.

Treasure Hunt is a grunge fabric.  I do have a love for grunge.  Not real life grunge so much but definitely in art.  Marcia Derse has wonderful grunge fabric designs.

Treasure Hunt is being quilted and will take me awhile to finish it.  So this post is about a little Art History and Curiosity quilt.  (Those are the fabric names)

After making this little whimsical quilt , I wanted to make another.  The size is so perfect for a single person to just grab and go sit on it in the park or the yard or at any event where seating is the ground.

Marcia Derse fabrics are obviously extremely popular and are out of stock everywhere.  I could only find them available on Etsy.  Even there most are sold out.  I bought half yards of each of these pieces to put them together.

The ruler shown with the Curiosity piece on Etsy showed the color squares measuring less than 1” in size.  In reality when the fabric arrived, the color squares measure about 2” each!  That was a shock.  I didn’t know there was a link to click on to get the sellers description of the fabrics...where the seller states the blocks are 2”.  Etsy has been an expensive experience for me.  

Now I needed to make them work.  I was NOT going to buy another piece of fabric from Etsy with the shipping costs.  Plus, the seller does not cut the fabric between panels or following a graph design.  Add to that, the end of a bolt is where fabric is usually wound wonky anyway.  So I lost more of the Curiosity fabric than I was happy about just to straighten it.  

I won’t even go into the struggles I had with a simple grid quilting that was not simple in any measure of the term.  I used a piece of grunge fabric from my stash for the binding (because I did not want to add fuel to the fire with buying another piece on Etsy). This quilt measures 40” x 41”

But I won the fight and it’s done!  It is not fabric stashed in a drawer.