Life goes on

This is how the log cabin came out. I have to add a binding to the edge. Let me tell you, I'm done with this quilt-as-you-go. It seems like it would be so easy, but it turns out to be a real struggle to get the blocks joined together. And call the quilt police--I have wrinkles all over the place! The advantages were that it was fun to make. That counts for a lot. And I love making wonky things that use up all sorts of scraps.

My mind is buzzing with ideas for my next couple of projects. I guess it's a good thing that I don't belong to a quilt guild that would give out assignments! I don't think that would work for me. One thing though, is that I love being associated with a charity group, and can make all sorts of things to donate. I'm making crochet and knitted hats for them lately. And I see another quilt for them in my crystal ball.

I want to thank all the people who post comments on my blog, and who send me emails about the blog. Let me say, that I really appreciate your encouragement! I don't talk about my personal life much here on my blog. Just want to say that my quilting and needlework and your encouragement help through the rough patches.

Crochet baby jacket. Free pattern at http://www.redheart.com/FreePatterns/tabid/118/Default.aspx

Home Sweet Home wall hanging

I finished it. The wall hanging is hand quilted. I never did learn how to quilt in a hoop. I guess that you can tell. I think that I will have to get more of those stick-um up hooks for the hallway. I still have the two bathroom doors left with no wall hangings on them. The thing about quilting a wall hanging as opposed to a bed quilt is that it will not be subjected to the same wear. So then I can use thin fabric on the backing. And that facilitates the hand sewing.

Home, sweet home

I was watching a comedy movie the other day. When I watch a movie, I always look at the set decoration and the composition of the scenes. Anyhow, in this particular scene, there was a large fireplace. And they had a great big wooden plaque over it with "home sweet home" painted on it. And guess what? Here's my latest wall hanging. One of the things about working the liberated way (thanks Gwen Marston) is that I've gotten away from my old habit of planning out my quilting on graph paper and from making notes. It was all in my head (what there was of it.) I made the letters and the two houses. Then, I cleared off the dining room table. And I was running around from the sewing machine to the table to lay out the sewing and to decide what to do next. I was just grabbing through my stash to find the fabric as I went along. And then I remembered that piece of "God bless our home" fabric. I got it at a yard sale and I had dumped it into a laundry hamper where I keep bits and pieces. I realized that this fabric would be perfect for the wall hanging. Luckily, I found that I had more than enough of it left. From this I learn never to disdain hokey fabric, because tomorrow I might need it!

Wordless Wednesday, Jacaranda

Guess the word

Here are the letters I'm working on. Can you guess the word? Hint: it's going to be another wonky wall hanging, and there are a couple of liberated blocks with it.

I'm back to making letters again. It took me a long time to make this "S". I had a couple of false starts. I wanted it to be a smaller size than what I've been working on. This word that I want to make has 5 letters, plus a couple of liberated quilt squares are needed, so this project will take me some time. I'm not telling what it is yet. It's a gleam in my eye, as they say. Speaking of time, I'm joining the log cabin squares together, and although I'm doing the joining by machine--as opposed to hand hemming, I find the job to be a bit tedious. It's something that should only take a few days, but is going to take me a while, I guess.

Here it is, my hand embroidered and hand quilted wall hanging. I'm so glad that I dug this embroidery out of my "orphan blocks" box. Now I can hang it on the wall. I made a cross stitch picture with the words of the Ten Commandments once. It took me ages to finish it. I have that hanging on my bedroom wall. I ought to publish it here someday. Meanwhile, although I've been a bit side-tracked lately, I did manage to cut out a big bunch of strips for putting those log cabin blocks together. And I handed in the finished granny square afghan (pictured here recently) to the Nifty Knitters group. It will be sent to the organization that helps homeless people to get off the street and into housing. The ladies who helped me with crocheting the afghan were pleased with the finished result. Because of the way the blocks were crocheted together instead of just being sewn, the discrepancies in the sizes of the various blocks were mitigated.

I hope that you had as nice a Mother's Day as I did. My son-in-law cooked the dinner! That was fun. And he had gone to a great deal of trouble to repair a broken necklace of mine. I took a little scrap of paper and drew a lay-out for the wonky log cabin quilt. I hope to get it sewn together this week. My hand quilting on that embroidered wall hanging is also proceeding quite nicely. I don't like to sound like a commercial or anything, but I love the new hand quilting thread from Coats (well I don't know how long it's been around, but new to me, anyhow.) What's next? In my crystal ball I see a donation quilt and maybe another free-pieced lettering thing in my future? And now that I'm feeling a bit better, it wouldn't hurt if I tidied up a bit around here. At least to pick up bags of quilt batting from the floor, for a start. Yesterday, I managed to get a photo or two of a hummingbird visiting that flower I posted last Wednesday. So I hope to be able to post another photo of the same plant, plus the bird. That bird was fast! So beautiful.

Log Cabin quilt rolls along

Under the theory that a quilt is done when you say so, I plan to make a couple more blocks and call it quits. This is fun so far. And I'm really using up some very old scraps. As a matter of fact, on the block on top of the right hand pile, I see a little bit from a quilt that I made in the 1960's. Then I want to get this all put together. I'm making a bit of headway on the hand quilting that I mentioned in my last post. Happy Mother's Day.

Afghan and embroidered wall hanging

Thanks so much to all who wrote with get well wishes. I'm on the mend now, but I'll have to take it easy this weekend, for sure. I'm still putting ice packs on my back!

I've got two photos to post today. And each has a story. The granny square afghan is for a donation to SPINOC, an organization that helps the homeless, and tries to get them into homes. Two other ladies in my Nifty Knitters group made some of the squares. The yarn was all donated to us. I crocheted the squares together, and did the outer edge while I was flat on my back, nursing the sciatica. The doctor told me to rest by lying down, not sitting, and to put on ice packs for ten minutes at a time.

Now for the embroidered picture of Moses. Talk about orphan blocks and UFO's! I embroidered this picture about 25 years ago (not a misprint.) I also made one of Daniel in the Lion's Den and one of Elijah the Prophet--and those are still in the box with my orphan blocks. Anyhow, after 25 years, I decided that I wanted to make a little quilted wall hanging out of this picture. I had bought the embroidery transfer patterns and made those pictures ever so long ago. But I had only hemmed the edges so that they wouldn't ravel. Anyway today, May 7, 2009, I took out the picture, trimmed the edges and sewed on a border. I think that since I already took this long, I may as well spend some time and hand quilt.

Wednesday

USA Wall Hanging

I'm feeling a bit better from my bad back. And I finished this wall hanging today! The letters are free-piecing. I decorated the wall hanging with a few white buttons sewn on in a rather haphazard manner. Luckily I had bought this patriotic fabric as a fat quarter last month. It fit right in.

I miss my quilting. While I'm recuperating, I've been trying to hand quilt my USA wall hanging while I'm lying down. It's a struggle. I dropped my needle and had to use my magnet-on-a-stick to find it. I miss surfing around to see my favorite blogs, too. I'm improving, but not all better yet. I plan to stay resting all weekend, and see where that gets me.