Pin It Weekly #310

Welcome to PIW! 
My most recent pins have been additions to the "mixed, media" board.

These pins are from Susan Camata. I didn't translate, but I think we can all figure out what she likes, especially considering that this is one of eight sewing boards.

And these are from Dawn Hunton's "floral applique" board. Talk about inspiring!

Stay safe everyone. Remember, social distance helps to protect you and to avoid you from carrying the CoVid19 home to your loved ones. 

Cotton Quilters' Guild January Meeting

The Cotton Quilters' Guild meets on the first Monday of each month.

Mrs. Mary showed us how she makes these little catch-all boxes.

 Ingrid comes in with beautiful, traditional items every month.

Another stunner by Cleo.

Irma and Mary collect money, take notes, and other official duties. I'll admit, it was enjoyable to sit back and calmly be a member again.

What Is It? A Finish!

Anyone know the name of this applique pattern?

Some time ago, while going through yet more boxes of stuff from my mom's sewing room, I ran across a couple of odd blocks that obviously were her UFOs. This was one of them. I first tossed them into the trash, because really, doesn't it scream ugly 80s? Anyone sill have a blue fabric goose sitting around?

No matter your taste, this will not fit the decor. Sorry. 

But I do have a heart and my heart said, "Momma made this." And the next thing I knew the blocks were in my UFO bin. They languished there for a couple of years. Then I needed some handwork to take along with me while we traveled the Northwest. I decided to pack it, a little afraid it would taint yet another bin. We were almost home before I pulled it out.

Mom's zigzag edges are pretty raw, so
I let my own stitches do whatever they wanted.

Using embroidery thread from last century (much of it also from my mom) I hand-quilted it in big stitches. I decided early on that nothing could make the block worse, so there was a chance of making it better. 

The pinks of the 1980s...
there's no mistaking them!

I finished the stitching and put it aside to trim out and bind when I got home. It got forgotten. The poor, ugly little thing reappeared last week. And while I don't participate in the One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, I did push myself to get this finished. It's time, after all. So I'm going to put it in the next OMG linky party. (Assuming that I catch it in time.) Edited: I did it!

Afraid that the rotary cutter, might take out a few stitches, I trimmed it with scissors, found some red gingham, which matches in color but not in size, for binding. 

So it has a warped corner and there are several stains, but I'll hand wash it and maybe it will go on a wall somewhere. Somehow it's grown on me. See, I said there was a chance of making it better. Finished is always better!

Link Ups!

AHIQ
One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts
My Quilt Infatuation (NTT)

Crazy Mom Quilts (Finish It Up Friday)
Busy Hands Quilts (Finished or Not Friday)

Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!)

Cotton Quilters Guild April Meeting

On Monday, the Cotton Quilters Guild held it's April meeting, with little ole me at the helm. It's Friday so it's been four days, which I tell you so that you'd understand how long I've been a-bed. (I'm reading Henry James' Turn of the Screw, so expect more of that old-fashioned, British nonsense.)

I'll say I have a stomach bug, but it's possible someone in my life is poisoning me by putting something in my Gatorade. It would be believable if I weren't so darned fab. Anyway, I'm only drinking Gatorade because I'm losing fluids much too quickly. Regardless, if necessary, the computer will come with me into the camper bathroom. I am getting this post out. And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

So the meeting--we took care of guild business, then Mrs. Marilyn and Mrs. Priscilla had a hand at presenting how they created these beautiful works. Mrs. Priscilla made the wall-hanging above several years ago, based on a pattern she purchased. The pattern contained the girl, and Mrs. Priscilla added all the extras that are attached to the outer edge. She mentioned that she was going for a 1920s look. I think she nailed it! This piece was made to hang over a guest bed in her home. 

Mrs. Marilyn's rooster is also from a pattern she purchased but is a more recent piece. She used Steam-a-Seam II to make the rooster and attach it to the background. She also used only Kaffe Fassett fabrics and fussy cut them to get the look she wanted. She's a great Kaffe fan. 

I discovered that there are now tools available that I wish I'd had back in my days of applique. "Daddy's Barn" (of five years ago) would have benefited from that Steam-a-Seam, certainly. Let's not forget the Mayeaux Barn. I suppose I'll have to find a bit of that product and play. 

We also shared our first BOM--that I'm hosting. What a great laugh everyone had at my math inability. We were supposed to make 12" log cabin blocks. How hard can that be? Well, much more difficult when the pattern writer says 15" instead of 12. Plus, the pattern writer writes 2½ instead of 2. Oh, it was a mess! Someone found an error and I shot out an email to make the correction. Then someone else found a different error, and I shot out another correction. 

Somehow only two people came to the meeting with 15" blocks! I offered to rip the seams out. It was my mistake after all. Sweet sisters they declined. They said they'll just start over and make the correct size blocks.

Despite the commotion and craziness of the mix-up, I loved seeing what everyone had as a beginning to our row quilt. A simple log cabin block is a chameleon with just a few changes in color. 

We have about eight members who are going to try to figure out what a la Mary means. That's the term they say when they talk about some wild, crazy, modern quilt idea. It's French for like Mary or Mary's way. They mean it as a compliment sometimes and as a kooky, who-knows kind of way at other times. I take it as a compliment regardless of the real context. I'm cool like that. 

And we ended with a couple of show and shares, but I got so involved with something else, that I took only one picture of Mrs. Mary C. who made lots of table toppers for her daughters. She said it's a fast, easy project that uses up some of her favorite fabrics and she gets to share them with the people she loves. How wonderful is that?

Stormy's Anchor ~~ Finish!

Shower Invitation

A coworker is expecting a baby girl in late November. They plan to name her Stormy Rae and her nursery is donned in nautical colors with lots of whales and anchors. Mom is a big fan of anchors.


The baby shower is in a week, so my plans to make a pink quilt with a big navy anchor were demanding my attention. Luckily I had put together a pink tumbler quilt over the summer that still had not been quilted, so it was an easy matter of appliqueing the anchor on and finishing up the quilt. 

Bedding

Wait, who has a huge anchor applique just sitting around? Well, not me, so I actually started by drawing half of an anchor on the newsprint that I keep especially for these kinds of projects. I decided on the size (based on the size of the quilt), folded the paper in half and drew the right half of the anchor starting from the fold and working out. 



Then it was a matter of cutting out the paper pattern so that when I opened it up, voila! a full pattern perfectly matched. I didn't have a big enough piece of navy (that I liked for the anchor) so I chose to cut it in pieces and matching them up as I pressed it to the quilt. Easy method and I was ready for the sewing in no time at all.

My idea was to introduce a bit pink into the room but still coordinate with the nursery. I'm quite pleased with the little quilt. Check out how well it coordinates with the invitation that another friend created – hot pink, polka dots, lime green – are all in both pieces. That's just sheer luck because we were working at the same time and, surprisingly, didn't get to talk about the shower plans. Sometimes great minds do think alike!

To quilt it I used pebbles in the solid pink tumblers and straight line quilting in the prints. Of course I echoed once around the anchor to help it stand out but it's a bit stiff, so I'm hoping that when the quilt gets washed the anchor will soften some.

Finally, I used up some of the last of my pink calicoes for a pieces backing. I'm hoping that these calicoes, which are very soft after washing, will be smooth and comfy for the baby's sensitive skin.

	Quilt Stats
Name:	Stormy’s Anchor
Size:	50” x 50”
Fabrics:	Scrap fabrics – variety of pink prints and Kona light pink solid for top, pink calico for backing
Binding:	Kona light pink
Pattern:	tumbler
Quilting:	Free Motion Quilting – pebbles, straight lines
Completed:	Sept 2016

 Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts

My Quilt Infatuation

TGIFF is at Celtic Thistle Stitches 
Em's Scrap Bag 
Fort Worth Fabric Studio 
A Quilting Reader's Garden

Wow, I somehow managed to make it to quite a few linky parties...and I'm having a blast!

Save Your Shirt!

I am a mess. A really, really messy person. The kind of messy person who wears stains on the front of her favorite shirt. Make that every shirt.  The kind of messy person who kills multiple trees every year in paper towels.

Meet Exhibit A.  [photo enhanced to show stain] 

Most of my shirts look like this within a couple of wearings. I've tried several ways to camouflage the stains: sweaters (too hot), scarves (too heavy on my neck), brooch (on a tee shirt--no), nothing. Really nothing works. It's hopeless. Until now.

It's quite simple and I should have gotten off my lazy end much sooner.  Here it is:

Cute, cute. Easy peasy and lemon squeezy. Cover the mess with applique. The cuter the applique, the better the distraction.

I started with a couple of my Accuquilt Studio dies.

Added a few scraps from a friend. 

A few flowers and a birdie later, the stain is covered and the tee is a little cuter for the change. At least now I can wear it in public!

Did I say all of my shirts have stains? Maybe I exaggerated a little, but the truth is that several do. Since the first one came out so cute, I decided to work on one more. This time I used my own fabric but the same friend (I love you, Leta), who happens to be a great artist and art teacher, made me a set of monogram appliques. I wrote about the shirts that I appliqued for my girls as Christmas gifts a year ago. 

This one, though, is all mine and does a great job of covering the stain that is hiding right under the largest part of the middle M. How convenient is that?

I'm loving the polka dots! The darkest ones are an almost perfect match to the true color of the shirt. Just so happens that this deep blue is one that looks really good with my skin tone. I call it a pasty yellowish off-white. Definitely my face needs some color in my clothing.

Patience Quilters Show

as promised!  Enjoy!

 

From this point on, the quilts were all minis.  Imagine making some of these in about 15 inch quilts.