Monthly Archives: March 2010

A Week of Baby Quilts

I love babies. I love holding them in the middle of the night and in the middle of the day. I love happy babies and screaming babies. Some people are baby people and some are not. My husband-is not a baby person.He doesn’t even like holding babies unless they are content and sleeping. Luckily, I did like babies and never minded that I did the majority of our kids care.

I ,also, love making baby quilts-small and achievable sweet things. March is the month our guild donates baby quilts to one of the local hospitals for their neo-natal unit. So this week, I will see how many I can make.
They become another addictive thing to make.

I think I need to make something for a little boy next. I have plenty in my stash of commercial fabrics to pick something other than flowers!

   Here in MI we don’t see much sun in the winter months. But I read yesterday that this is the longest stretch of sunny days we have had in a year. The sun looks so great shining in the windows. No wonder we are all smiling again.

   Off to see one of my favorite babies this morning.

Happy Sewing, my friends.

A Walk in the Woods

I am enjoying seeing the patches of grass that are starting to peek through the melting snow. The sunshine, brighter blue skies and longer days definitely made my weekend! I was at a soccer tournament this weekend and realized I better stock up my bag that I bring for the long car rides with some hand stitching. The soccer season is just beginning.

When I visit Vermont, one of my favorite things to do is to take a walk in our neighbors woods. It is actually cross country ski trails but you can walk for miles and always find your way back home. I especially like to go right after the snow has fallen.

The texture of the trees and snow always intrigues me.

Peaceful….I just don’t know what I would do if I ran into a large animal…

So after being inspired by the greens and blues of this walk, I created this piece.

A Winter Walk in the Woods- 36×32

I haven’t done the binding yet. I must dye the deep navy blue again and am waiting for some pfd fabric I ordered. Maybe I will put a visible binding on it. What do you think? I heavily quilted it with the lines being less than 1/4 inch. And I quilted each block separately which added some time to it. Heavy quilting also added some wave so I wet blocked it. It did help. I think I need to flat bind it because it is not a perfect square!

I like this piece because it captured what I wanted to represent visually from my walk. I know from an art perspective it isn’t a great composition but I do like it. And I will take that today.

Now I must move on to spring colors. Happy sewing, my friends.

Sources of Inspiration and Scavenger Hunting

I have been putting in lots of hours of machine quilting hoping to have a piece ready for a quilt show deadline. But in my quest to make it better than my usual machine quilting, I missed the deadline. I am ok with that-for now. I will save this piece for my quilt guild show. I am also trying to do a little closer spacing than I would normally do. Just working on those 2010 goals I set for myself. My eyes are tired and I know after this week I need a new pair of glasses.

After a long afternoon of driving and car problems yesterday, I just needed a little more than usual of filling up the inspiration tank. So, in case you might need a little more, here’s to some wonderful bloggers and artists.

1. Be*mused– She has been blogging for 5 years! I am in awe of that. My current goal is just to make it to post 100. There are some nice pictures of the Tokyo Quilt Show here. What a treat it would be to go there. A dream actually.

2.Scoutie Girl-This is a huge resource for anything handmade featuring new designers.

3.dottie angel– just too much fun and I love the puppy post. Go back a few days to see how cute he is. How creative is this. The banner is what I would like to perfect!

4.-Subversive stitch Lots of good info

5. Sharon Schamber’s network– click on free stuff within her network and if you are new to this you will learn soem good stuff. I also appreciate her basting method and might try it next time. Great tutorial on how to make your own ironing surface.

Ok now go have some fun and be inspired. If I finish my piece this weekend, I owe you a post!

Happy sewing, my friends!

Missing the Olympics

I really missed watching the Olympics last night. I would sit down with the kids and just do a little hand sewing each night. Just loved snuggling on the couch with the two kids and it was amazing how we all scattered so quickly last night finding other things to do. Have to think of something else.

I have been trying to play catch up to my online class I have been taking with Melanie Testa at Joggles. We are making a small book which is filled with different techniques and stitches. Time-consuming but she is a great teacher and has plenty of notes to explain things. I need to figure out how to post these on their forum.

Different from what I have been doing but fun to play.

This was a piece of fabric I had stamped last month. Glad to use it for something fun like this.

I also purchased this amazing resource that Robin Ferrier from Simply Robin suggested recently. (She’s published this month in Art Quilting Studio magazine. Don’t forget to get your copy!) I, too, have been thinking of trying dyeing with natural products. But the processing with mordants seemed not worth the hassle. This book, EcoColour by Indie Flint does a great job of explaining natural dyes and is an great resource. I was so inspired that I rolled up a bit of onion skins, silk and sprayed it with vinegar and put it away in a bag for a month. I know, that’s a long time.

Then, I froze some flowers-only had a bunch of light colored tulip leaves- squeezed them into warm water and placed them in another vinegar solution. (Daffodils are toxic-good list of toxic plants, too.) I didn’t used cotton but silk. I chopped up a silk scarf blank that was put away.

I’ll see what happens. I am sure, just as in using Procion Dyes, there is going to be a huge learning curve. I am all over the place this month , aren’t I? Sure did cure the winter blahs though. Now I have so many ideas in my little head that I can’t stop!