Fiber and Pulp

Spring Tease

The weather has been glorious the past two days - sunny, low 70's, sweet smelling spring air. Happy sighes! I managed to go outside both days, though not too far. Yesterday I walked out to our mailbox to retrieve the pile of mail - maybe 150 yards from our front door (we have cluster mailboxes in Columbia - about 25 or so houses' boxes on each stand). At some point while I was away, the city came through and installed these yellow grates at each intersection (see photo above) - it struck me pretty forcefully how similar in design this grate is to my modern quilt guild swap quilt. :) I can see how people might work in series - think how interesting my quilt-let might be with the coloring shown above - a doubled arrangement of 'plus' motifs. :)

Today I felt a little bit better so Hugh and I went out for a while. Drove to the post office and to get lunch at a drive through (something very light for me) - then went down to sit by Dockside and eat. There were lots of people out walking, with and without dogs, riding bikes, etc. We even saw two motorcycle police (electric cycles, no noise:) on the paths. First time I've ever seen that - have seen bicycle cops there, but the motorcycles are new. :)

The air smells soooooo good when spring is near. My daffodils have yellow buds on them - if these temperatures hold up, they'll be blooming by early next week I'm sure. :)

I am getting quite stir crazy from being home for so long .... but still not feeling well. I sure hope my doctor knows his diagnosis - my stomach, while no longer rejecting food, still hurts terribly. I get hungry (shaky, headache-y), but when I eat, my stomach hurts for hours afterwards and I am nauseous. :P Very unpleasant. Truly nasty virus.

After we got back, in the early afternoon, I mustered my strength and started tackling the table runner project again. First up was removing the papers from behind each hexie. I am pretty heavy handed with the glue so I had to spray each bit with a little water to help dissolve the glue. Makes a real mess.

I have a very handy pair of little tweezers to use for those tiny corners and bits of the paper that break off (see them in the photo, right in front of my machine, with the green handles). Took me about an hour to remove all the papers - taking care not to rip out the seams I had so carefully sewn, of course. :)

Some time ago when Rose Hahn was still teaching at my shop, we carried a product called Stable Magic (I think) - was a paper-like sheet that you could use for foundations, templates, etc. that dissolves in water. I think I need to invest in something like that if I want to do this kind of glue-basted and sewn by machine EPP again. Less hard work to just leave the 'papers' inside. :)

One thing I will say - the papers that came with this pattern (from Sue Daley in Australia) were different than those I have used before. They were made with coated paper, maybe index card weight, and the water/glue, etc. slides right off. Much stronger than the usual papers. :)

Once all that mess was cleared up, I took a good look at my piece and decided to add edge and corner fabrics to make the shape easier to bind. Here's how that worked out:

When I go back to working on the project (tomorrow I hope), I will piece another backing and sandwich to quilt the piece. I have not decided whether I will use the backing I already pieced and add to it or make another runner with it and create whole new backings. Something to consider.

I sure hope this stomach stuff stops bothering me soon ... makes the nice weather much less pleasant to enjoy. Sigh.

:) Linda

PS I have decided when I will travel for my spring trip to the midwest ... now to get all my ducks in the row.

Slowly, Slowly

Well, today started later than usual for me (slept in until after noon) ... but has been quiet and pleasant for all that. After a light eat and wake up shower, I went back to sewing on my table runner project.

For whatever reason, I got the idea to piece the back of this runner, too, so that it can be 'reversible.' I had one left over patchwork hexagon unit so I used that as a template to cut ten larger hexes of Daiwabo prints to assemble for the back. I'm thinking I will finish the edges with a 'pillowcase' seam, including a batting, and that the runner will be quilted together after the outside edges are clean finished. 

This is a lot more fussy than I usually get with a small project like this (it would be quicker and easier to just make a back and  baste/quilt/bind the runner) ... but it feels 'right' somehow. Darned inanimate objects talking back to their creator! LOL! 

I managed to cut all the large hexes from medium to dark value prints and sew about half together before I ran out of energy this afternoon. We did have some nice sunshine and apparently the temperatures were mild out ... but I just looked at it through the living room window, didn't go out at all. I think it is going to take a while for my energy to perk up again in the wake of this virus. Sigh.

I like how the patchwork backing is looking so far. Maybe I'll be able to finish sewing the thing together tomorrow.

Other than that little bit of work, I've not done anything substantial today .... am reading and no even working on my afghan. Couldn't muster the energy to watch tv, even - just being very quiet and trying to rekindle energy. :P

I got a chance to talk to my niece Stephanie this evening. Good to hear her voice. :) Tomorrow is my beloved daughter's birthday so I hope to call her to chat (fingers crossed). Wish those teleport machines on Star Trek were real!

 

:) Linda

Winter Play

At the risk of 'jinxing' my recovery, I think I might actually be getting well from this expletive-deleted virus. I did sleep long and well last night and today my stomach seems to be digesting correctly (so far, so good:). Sigh. I decided that a quiet day at home sewing was just the ticket to complete recovery.

When last I tried to sew anything, I was working on piecing hexagons for a table runner. Today I cut out the pieces and made the last of twelve hexies for the project (see above). I still think of these subtle Daiwabo prints as winter colors - the midAtlantic area where I live definitely looks like this in winter ... soft grays, browns, beiges, charcoals all run together in the landscape.

You might be able to tell if you look closely at the photo (you can click to enbiggen it:) that I have sewn the pieces together with a narrow zigzag stitch. Each piece of fabric is stretched and glue basted over paper pieces, a la English Paper Piecing, then placed side-by-side and sewn together. When I finish the entire top, I will remove the papers and quilt my table runner. 

There are some fine points to keep in mind when making EPP items, no matter whether you sew them by hand or machine, baste them by sewing or gluing. You must be sure that the fabric conforms closely to the paper template or your pieces won't fit together without error ... you must be sure your stitching method (whatever it is) completely pulls the patches together so there are no gaps through which the batting can escape in the finished object. :) I'm happy to say that I've done enough of this by machine now to be completely comfortable with that method (have done way, way more by hand in previous projects ... but the hands tire of the toil:).

After I sat and pieced the last of my patchwork hexies, I joined them together into a top ... here are some oblique photos I took of the top, just for teasers. :)

When I get the papers all removed and the top basted for quilting, I'll take a photo of the entire thing. :)

By the time I finished assembling the top of my runner, I was tired, tired (still not much stamina) ... so I ate dinner while watching my husband play a video game and read for a while. My kitty is feeling enough better that she sleeps in the sunshine in the accustomed place on the back of our sofa, alternating with sitting on my chest and purring. I am so glad she is improving and seems to be eating well at last. Maybe she will gain back a little of the weight she lost.

At once point in the early afternoon I got annoyed with my husband and son. We had run out of 'things to drink' - which, in our house, is indicative of only a few things to eat as well. :) I shoved the two of them out the front door (metaphorically:) to go grocery shopping ... which they did, happily. Now we have plenty of things to eat and drink and I feel more confident about sewing all weekend. :)

As has become my habit, I decided to sit at my computer desk and watch streaming tv this evening while doing hand work. I discovered The Legend of Sleepy Hollow yesterday, so I'm watching my way through that series. For fiber work right now I'm crocheting on the Moorland Afghan project with Attic 24. I am not nearly as good at chrochet as I am at knitting (however good that may be:), but I think this project is coming along ok. I don't think my working stitch tension is as consistent as it should be ... but I'm certainly getting plenty of practice. :) Here's what I have so far:

I don't know if you can tell from the photo but the stitch is supposed to look like waves. The yarn is a very nice quality acrylic and I expect most of the bumpiness to block out in the end. Luckily for my sanity, you only work two rows in each color before changing to another...One thing I do need in any project is working variety. :)

I hope tomorrow will be another quiet sewing day!

:) Linda

Moving Forward

I woke up this morning with a hard pit in my stomach but feeling a bit less spindly. Today was partly sunny but chilly (mid30's).

I managed to find a little bit of sunlight to go outside and take a photo of my gifted Modern Guild swap quilt - resting among the winter-worn pachysandra plants under my favorite Japanese maple tree in our front yard. I am so delighted with this little quilt! The green-with-flowers-and-sunshine print is perfect ... maybe it will give me enough patience to persevere until Spring does indeed arrive. :)

Michele Obermeier made this for me. You can read a tiny bit about her here and here online. 

She used lovely big stitch quilting to outline each of the chevron/lightning rows - sets it off with syncopated rhythm in my humble. :) I've already given this pretty quilt a place of honor on my small quilt wall at home ... near my front door, so I can enjoy it coming in and going out every day. :)

Michele also sent me a bar of made-in-Boulder chocolate. Looking forward to my stomach being up to consuming that, I can tell you. :) LOL.

In other events today, I went out briefly with my son to the post office (to mail off that charity block I sewed several days ago) but was exhausted when I got home. After sitting quietly and eating a light lunch, I decided to try to finish my Book Nerd block for Monica's quilt-in-a-box. I must say it took me halfway to forever (plodding progress is better than no progress, right?:). I did eventually finish it, though, and I'm pleased with it:

The selvege I used for the spine and the book title goes with that green bubble print. I even managed to get the text print more-or-less lined up correctly with the pages. :) After I finished this block, I flashed on the line from the song American Pie that says 'Did you write the book of love?'. LOL ... my brain on virus overload. 

By the time I managed to finish this block, I had just about enough energy left to choose fabrics for the last six hexagon bits for my table runner in progress but only had enough go to piece one of them. Smile. In my best tradition, at least I'll be able to figure out what to make next when I get back to the machine.

Tonight is one of Skip's two nights out to bowl so I spent the evening very quietly. Rented a movie from iTunes (Arrival). I did not even have the energy to do handwork while I watched it (that's another way for me to tell I'm not well, yet). Now I'm off to bed. Think I will try to keep a low profile tomorrow, too. :P

:) Linda

 

Trampled

I love this rhino by Susan Carlson! (click on the photo to go see her website)

My lovely quilting weekend was totally derailed by the Trampling Rhinocerous Virus - I'm calling it that right now because this is what I imagine being trampled by a rhino would feel like. Bruised, aching and totally without starch. Yuk!

I woke up early on Saturday (crack-of-dawn early), sick, sick, sick. So sick in fact that I had my husband take me to the doctor around 11 a.m. because I thought I was maybe having a gall bladder attack or some such. Never felt such violent cramping before. :P After an exam and tests (no, I did NOT have a flu virus, they checked that), they told me I had the 'virus' that is going around. I've been down for the count ever since. I slept the rest of the day Saturday and almost all of Sunday (yes, real horizontal sleep around the clock with only brief breaks for bathroom and drinking tiny sips of water). 

Pretty much took care of any ability to go to my quilting fun dates. Sigh. Monday I was still really tottery so my sweet husband stayed home to take care of me - took me back to the doctor for more blood tests ... and we rode into Baltimore to take our income tax info to the accountant's office. I slept from 12:30 in the afternoon until 6:30 in the evening ...  got up and Skip took me to Springwater to exchange Quilt-in-a-Box packages with Maria O (who had picked up mine at the Sunday guild meeting I missed) ... and then I went home and right back to bed. :P

Today Skip had to go to work so I got myself up in the late morning, very slowly and tottery, and went to the post office to mail my Modern guild swap quilt off to Australia. Had to go back to fill out paperwork twice, I was so vacant-minded. Sigh. Once I got home from that, I thought I might be able to sew some.

I decided to use my Book Nerd pattern to make a block with the first Box quilt bundle, from Monica. I managed to choose fabrics and create a spine and the front of the book cover:

After that effort, I was so shaky I laid down for the rest of the afternoon. This virus is probably a new incarnation of the nasty cold I've been suffering from ... and if so it is one mean sucker. :P Totally trampled.

I did manage to get some daylight photos of my swap quilt (not 'sunlight' photos as it was a pretty overcast day today and in the mid 30's temperature wise).

I am really pleased with how my little quilt came out. I particularly like the spiral quilting ... will do that again sometime. :) The selveges I used on the back were from the 'background' fabrics I chose for the front. The green print is in honor of the Pantone Color for 2017, 'greenery.' I feel badly that it has taken me so long to mail this off to its new 'mommie' - was four days late posting it - but couldn't be helped, sadly. 

I have received my quilt, too - which I LOVE - but will show photos and talk about that later. Am off to bed again, now. Sigh.

 

Linda

 

More Hexies

When I got up today, I looked at my calendar and realized that I needed to go to the post office to mail off my modern quilt guild swap piece to the recipient in Australia. So I took a shower, rounded up my son and promised him lunch if he went along (I like the company and had not talked to him for any amount of time for several days:). Of course, when I looked in my email archives for my swapee's address, it wasn't there. Major sighes! Organizational details are _not_ my strength. Sent off an urgent email for that info and went out with Hugh.

We went to our local Ledo's Pizza for lunch - one of our favorite places. The food is good and moderately priced ... and the service is always excellent. I had my favorite gluten free chicken and kale ravioli in tomato sauce. Yum!

I took a video photo of the nifty wind sculpture they have in front of the resturant - I love watching it move when the wind blows. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to put a video here on my blog right now. If I ever do, I'll share the image. :)

It was mid-40's and there was a chillly wind blowing briskly while we were out. Brrr. But there was some sunshine (saving grace:). We had a pleasant outing.

When we got home, I decided to buckle down and do some more sewing. I had completely forgotten that I promised to make a block for a sunshine project with my modern guild ... so I did that first. We are meeting on Sunday so I wanted to be able to hand in the block.

After I finished that block, I went back to working on Daiwabo hexagons. You can see one that I thought to photograph at the top of this post. Once I had made all of the seven I cut out, I laid them out to decide what order to assemble the center of my topper.

Not a very good photo (I took it for my own reference for later) ... but you can see that the middle of this topper will be a traditional 'hexie flower' or 'Seven Sisters' layout. After I looked at this for a while, I decided not to sew it together. I want to make six more hexies for my piece and I will decide where to put which one after I have all thirteen finished.

I am enjoying the work on this piece - glue basting and machine sewing the hexes together is quick and gratifying. :) I look forward to making more of these. After I had spent about three hours sewing in the late afternoon, I took my dinner and sat to watch a film from Netflix (Extraction with Bruce Willis) and crochet on my Moorland afghan. This is a long term project - I don't usually make anything as large as an afghan - and I am enjoying it quite a lot. The stitch pattern is easy to remember and the colors are luscious. :)

Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of the Jinny Beyer club down in Great Falls, VA. Barbara and I plan to drive down as usual. I made a note to myself that I need more fabric glue before I can finish my hexies so will try to remember to get that at a minimum. :) I also need some more Bernina bobbins (gave most of my extras to my daughter with my 1020) but I don't know whether Jinny's shop will have them (I kind of doubt it since she does not sell machines). 

Between the club meeting and the Baltimore Modern Guild's monthly meeting on Sunday afternoon, this is an all-quilting-all-the-time kind of weekend. :) My favorite!

:) Linda

Getting Better

Yesterday and today have felt more like early spring than mid-winter here in eastern Maryland! Temps have been in the high 60's during the day and the sun has actually shone out most of the day. Rare pleasures. :)

I  was feeling better enough yesterday to get up and dress again but had no desire to go out. Skip drove my PT Cruiser to work and left the Dart at home ... but forgot to tell me so. chuckle. He did that so I could take the Dart for its annual emissions checkup and certificate. 'Course, since I didn't know and didn't bother to go out and look in the carport ... it didn't get done.

Was a strange day as I could not settle down and do anything much. I managed to wash dishes and tidy the kitchen and feed the cat ... but otherwise I spent most of the day fidgeting from one task to another and not accomplishing much. Sigh. I did sit in the evening and knit most of another pretty facecloth for Eva ... which I finished tonight. And I rented a movie from iTunes to watch while I knitted.

Last summer Suicide Squad came out while something else was going on ... house packing? I don't remember now. Kevin and I wanted to go see it but never managed. So, I rented it last night to watch (much cheaper than going to the movies here or in Jackson:). I expected to enjoy it ... I generally like action movies and the Marvel comic ones have been among my favorites. SS is a DC Comic production (owned by the same folks, now, but written in very different styles in original). I found it ... odd ... interesting to me in places and puzzling in others. I'm not sure I always understood what was going on. shrug. Did get my cloth mostly knitted, though. :)

Today I actually woke up when my first alarm went off at 9:30 a.m. I treated myself to a lie-in and listened to my audiobook until 10 - I've been working my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld series slowly. Right now I'm enjoying Guards! Guards!. I had read the book years ago but mostly forgotten the story line. Terry's books make me chuckle often and occasionally laugh right out loud ... and I have found that laughter really is the best medicine for what ails me. :)

Once I got up and about, fed the kitty and looked out the windows ... I remembered that the car still needed its inspection so I went out for a while. Dropped off some mail, stopped by the bank machine for some cash, and went to the emissions station for testing. Was kind of busy so that took a bit (several cars in front of me) of time. I had thought I'd go grocery shopping but forgot entirely about that chore by the time the car stuff was done and just drove right home. Air head today. :)

I was annoyed with myself for doing no sewing yesterday so I sat down at my machine again once I got home. I still felt dithery (I get this way when I've finished an important or long-term project) so I started by cleaning and oiling my machine. Sure needed it! :)

When I was cleaning off my computer desk yesterday, I found the pretty Daiwabo fabrics I bought at Quilter's Haven while I was in Kansas last November (don't ask me what they were doing upstairs by my computer instead of being downstairs by the sewing machine; I have no idea what I was thinking back then:). The photo at the top of this post shows the store sample my sister and I liked - and I agreed to make one for the tables in the new house. So, I took all those out and put them in a case yesterday and carried them down beside the sewing machine.

Once I got the machine cleaned, oiled and revved up, I opened up the pretty box and dug out the Sue Daley pattern for the project - it came with both die cut papers _and_ acrylic templates so you could make the project with English Paper Piecing methods or more traditional patchwork.

 

Here are all the fabrics I bought, collected together:

There's about two dozen fat quarters of various Daiwabo prints there ... the design uses a dark, medium and light print in each hexie. I decided to do my more recent version of EPP which is glue-basted and sewn together by machine. So much fun! 

Here are the hexies I assembled before I quit sewing:

I photo'd this one before I sewed the block together. :) This one has a softer value contrast than the other two.

These two have central motifs fussy cut from the same fabric but use different surround prints.

My sewing session got interrupted by my husband coming home from work. He wanted to go grocery shopping (and we needed food:) so out we went, me for the second time today. Skip likes shopping at the local warehouse place, BJ's (I think it reminds him of the comissary and PX places he shopped with his Dad as a kid). I find the concrete floors hard to take so I ride a motor chair when we shop there. :) I think we bought some unusual things (I don't usually go along) because I was there ... but it's all good as long as the food gets eaten. :)

Since we got home and put it all away - restocking the larder - I finished assembling the last hexie. The piece as shown in the photo is a more-or-less rectangular runner ... but I texted my sister and learned that she wants to use it interchangably on the table in the kitchen (rectangular works fine there) _and_ in the living room (a nice circular oak table for playing board games and such). I think I will make a modification to the layout in the sample and use a hexie 'flower' shape made of seven hexagons in the middle, flanked by triangles of three hexies each on each end. I _think_ that will yield an almost diamond shaped runner which might work better on both tables. We'll see once I have enough units made to play around with.

Once I finished sewing, I retired upstairs to watch my evening tv and knit. Finished the facecloth and put it to block ... and watched most of Finding Dory on Netflix (yes, I have eclectic tastes:).

Not sure what the weather will be like tomorrow but I'm happy to be well enough to go out! Apparently Skip did not have any trouble with the tire on the Cruiser for the past two days so we've decided it must have a very slow leak. I'll keep an eye on it and try to keep it inflated ... will likely have to get it repaired or buy a new one some time sooner rather than later. 

:) Linda

 

Better Than It Started

Today  has had its ups and its downs ... to say the least. (Not my car but definitely as flat as my tire was - see below.)

I've been down for the count for most of the past week with a really bad, terrible, horrible, rotten, no good cold. Worst I've had in at least twenty years, I think. Yuk!

Because of the evil germs, I passed up both of my quilt guild meetings last week, and my Sew&Tell group on Sunday, and the monthly meeting of Mimi's Grad Class today. I was really feeling sorry for myself when I woke up this morning. Whine, whine. :) 

Luckily, I felt better enough after a long night's sleep to get up and take a shower and actually put clothing on (instead of just another clean nightgown which is what I've worn for a week). I read my email and daily blogs and ate breakfast and was still upright ... and the sun was shining .... so I decided to go out for a short errand to my local quilt shop. It was about 2 p.m. when I went stumbling out, feeling a bit tottery still but determined to at least move around for a while. My poor old PT Cruiser had been sitting in our carport for almost two weeks without moving. Sadly, I forgot to do the usual walk-around check-it-out that I generally do before turning the key.

By the time I had driven to the main road, the car was making strange noises. It was driving steady and there was no wheel wobble or bumping, so drove to the local gas station about 3/4 of a mile away from my house. When I stopped by their air pump and got out to look, the car's right front tire was flat, flat, flat. I guess it had a slow leak? The very kind attendant brought out a jack, heaved it up and put air back in my tire and told me to be really careful and not drive far ... and to check the tire again tomorrow morning. The only good thing about that episode (besides the really nice mechanics that work there:) was that I got to stand in the sun beside the garage door and soak up some rays while he worked.

So, carefully, quietly, I drove to Springwater Designs which is maybe a mile from the gas station, maybe. I signed up to participate in a new 'bee' with the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild that starts in February. It's called Quilt in a Box - you put specified amounts of fabric and a stitched up 12" block into your box to begin with - with as many or as few ideas/restrictions you want for your project - and each month the boxes get exchanged. You make at least one block for each box that you get using the fabrics/ideas in that box. :) The project will run for 10 months.

That beautiful puple fabric with the butterflies from the Sleeping Porch collection I bought last week (?) has been eating into my brain. I thought I'd use it for my focus fabric and went looking for a nice background to go with (I like scrappy so don't have a whole yard of the same fabric to work as a background for my box). The minute I walked into the shop (thankfully very quiet with only one other customer and the sales staff) the first shelf I looked at had the entire collection of the new Saturday Morning assorment designed by Basic Gray for Moda. I flipped on the spot - love the stuff! Don't know why but at this moment my heart is beating really hard for puple and green - especially these purples and greens. :)

I dithered over buying the amounts specified in the directions for what to include in your Quilt Box ... but I liked _all_ of the prints (which almost never happens to me:) ... so I gave in and bought the entire fat quarter collection. Another thing I almost never do (especially now that I'm paying full retail for my fabrics:). I guess I'm going to make a bed quilt with this project in the end. Grin.

Barbara (who was working in the shop) showed me the sample she had made up for that framed clutch purse I bought in the dark background people print above (oh, sorry, it's covered by the Fat Quarter shop logo - thanks to them for the use of their photo:). Anyway, I might use two fat quarters from this collection to make my clutch before I trade my Box.

I went it to the shop with an actual list - needed some fusible interfacing, a chalk pencil, and a few yards of fabric for my Box. Found the other things, too -- as well as a pattern I was admiring the last time I was there called Book Nerd.

By the time I finished shopping, I was pretty tired and very hungry (had not eaten anything, yet). So I drove past a fast food place and got a light lunch ... and then took it down to Dockside to sit by Lake Elkhorn in the sunshine and eat.

Just to the right of the end of the dock you can see in this photo is a grassy area with benches and a picnic table (under tall trees). I sat at the table and at lunch, basking in the sunlight, and watched folks walking their dogs, kids, riding bikes ... everyone was clearly enjoying the nicer-than-usual-lately weather (at about 60 degrees:). Very restful!

I did have another errand I wanted to do but was way, way too tired to do any more so I drove carefully home and settled in for a quiet rest of day. Whew! This cold has really hit me hard and worn down my stamina. Yuk.

I heard from my niece Amy that she got the package I sent her so now I can share the small zipper purse I made for her from the scrap found in a friend's give away pile. I thought of her instantly:

zipper side

image side

My niece is very fond of fairies and especially Tinkerbell. :)

I also got to talk to my daughter via FaceTime. She's also been down with an awful cold, poor woman. Ear infections, sinus pains, the whole nine yards. Might even be the same germs that got us. Double yuk. Her sweet husband made her something warm and comforting to eat so we didn't talk for long. Her birthday is coming up a the end of this month so, as usual, I'm over-creating stuff for her right now. :)

My knitting output has definitely been on hold this past week as I've been too out of things to even count properly (not kidding there - caught myself counting one, two, three, five once). Anyway, when I decided to watch a movie, my fingers were twitchy (another sign that I'm getting better), so I dug out some nice bamboo-cotton yarn I have a single ball of and knitted Eva a facecloth while I watched. I took a photo after I put it to block (didn't take long to make - it's only about twice as long and as wide as my palm):

It feels soft and sort of nubbly (from the slubs in the yarn) so I think it will work nicely for a face cloth. We'll see how she likes it. I have other projects underway for her, too ... including two new books that I hope she doesn't own yet. :) Will report on those later.

Tomorrow I'll probably stay home and do a bit of light housework and some sewing. I'm grateful that today ended better than it started. :)

:) Linda

Sleepy

Today I woke up when my alarm went off at 9:30 in the morning. Major surprise to me. :) I got up with a sore chest and sneezes ... no doubt another round of this nasty cold. Sigh. As the day has progressed, it has improved, though, so I'm thinking that taking it easy at home is a good thing. :P

After breakfast and email reading, I went down to my sewing area and started in on binding my swap quilt. At first I had thought I might use a facing instead, but I decided that the piece needed the color framing of a more usual binding. I chose to piece the binding from strips of the bright prints I used in the 'plus' parts of the top, as  you can maybe see from the quick photo I took above to share on Instagram. Making the binding must have been too mentally demanding for my cold-soaked brain 'cause I made several mistakes in the piecing.

How hard, you might wonder, is it to sew a bunch of 6" long strips together end-to-end with diagonal seaming? Apparently harder than you'd think as I had to unsew several of the joins (gotta remember which is the right side of your binding as you construct the thing). Sigh. Eventually I made enough of the stuff to encircle the quilt. Then I remembered that there needed to be some kind of hanging sleeve or mounting method on the back. I always do that part before the binding is attached to strengthen the hanger's structure.

For this small a quilt (only 24" square, remember), I chose big triangles on each corner at the top and a wide-ish strip in the center. A dowel or lath strip can be used to hang the quilt, whatever the recipient has to hand and likes to use. :) So, I made pieces using the ombre green fabric leftover from piecing the backing. _Then_ I attached the binding to the quilt.

I have developed a method of sewing the binding on the back and turning it toward the front where I sew the fold down with decorative stitching and coordinating colors of thread. My hands have long since gotten too fragile to sew bindings down and this method saves a lot of pain. I think the stitching adds a bit of interest to the outer edge of the quilt, too. :)

After about two hours of working, the hanging stuff was attached and the binding finished. DONE! :) Well, I have to label the quilt still, but it is finished.

I'll take a proper photo of the piece when I can get somewhere outside that will let me display the entire quilt. :)

Other than finish my swap quilt, I managed to make three small birthday gifts for my Sew&Tell friends this evening while watching tv. Luckily I don't have to sneeze too often as every one makes my back spasm. Physical ills are soooooo boring. :)

I hope the sun shines tomorrow - I am getting pretty weary of gray skies.

:) Linda

Circles

Today has been fairly quiet. I woke up before my alarm went off - not sure why as there was no sunshine or obvious noises. Shrug. After I ate breakfast, I went on with my sewing for the Modern swap.

I had cut out twelve hand-dyed purple circles last night. I needed sixteen for the plan so I hunted up another purple wool print for the last four and made them. Using a handy-dandy fabric glue stick, I stuck all the circles in place at the centers of background four patch units on the quilted swap piece. Then, using a very pretty varigated purple perle cotton, I appliqued all those circles through the quilt with a running stitch to make a grid of purple circles on the back. 

If you look in the photo above, you can see two of the sewn down purple circles in place on the design (and bits of others). Do you watch tv while you stitch? I like to watch nature documentaries while I sew as I find them peaceful and not too distracting from my sewing. :) Today I watched three episodes of a BBC production about Africa with Sir David Attenborough narrating. Such a wonderful voice.:)

I was thinking as I stitched the circles down that I definitely do not save hand stitching for Sundays - I do 'slow stitching' almost every day. My fun. :)

Other than that sewing, I've not done much else today. I'm still creeping around carefully with a twingy back, though it is improving. When I woke up this morning I had a scratchy throat ... by evening, it has grown into a sore chest, hoarse voice and nagging cough. Secondary infection, maybe? Grrr.

Tomorrow morning is my day time guild's meeting time ... hope I can get there!

:) Linda