Saturday, January 18, 2025

my creative week stitching, knitting, hand embroidery framed with quilting

 

I'm between prompts on SAHRR and PQ, so I sorted and cleaned up the studio (when it's small that's very important to do)  The above image is the hand embroidery I finished a week ago, up on the design wall

the color of the month at the rainbow scrap challenge is pink, (love...! ) 
the pink scrap bin held some tiny triangles which I freely stitched higgeldy piggeldy into the strip on the right
and I sorted through my collection of 2" squares for the rest of the border

for ones in lighter tones of green/pink/blue
for the other three sides. There's a cat in one square! 
so this will be a good start on turning the embroidery into a little art quilt! 
I finished the second kit, the beaded dragonfly, this week and what fun it was! although Bucilla didn't include enough beads... kits often come up short on materials to use
I got this project hooped up ready to play with different color combos and textures of threads
I started another pair of wooly socks for me using the Kroy brand I love. I'm having trouble keeping my toes warm without socks pulling on the toes so I'll just knit the footbed longer. Washing them shrinks them a bit. I LOVE the color mix on these skeins


I'll finish with a quilt I hung up this week for V-day. 
I have made one a year since we married, so have 30 so far and need an idea for this year's quilt. I love the soft pinks on this one, the mix of prints, sheers(the heart) hand dyed leaf  and hand dyed script fabrics. I copied the picaso print and the quote onto fabric through the printer
My sister got married when I was about 7, but before that she had this picaso print hanging on her bedroom wall. It's so romantic. 

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Thursday, January 16, 2025

I Like Thursday # 435

 

another week of likes, thanks for joining me! 

I like having a lot of quilts to change out during different seasons. The sweater quilt stands for January, which luckily has given us several snows that remain covering our lawns like white blankets. 

I like flax and oatmeal on cold days, with some peanut butter mixed in, and a cup of coffee, 



One of the hundred times a day I think of Milo and miss him.... mama's beautiful boy

Who's gonna lick that peanut butter jar clean?  

I loved this book this week, and the reader had the best accents

It is a YA story I think but with so much for adults. Magical in it's way, the way families are odd and loving and funny all mixed together. I give it 5 stars and two thumbs up. It's not too long and so full of life. 

I'm watching escapist TV
Deal or No deal island, Real housewives of NYC, The Way Home on Hallmark (love me some time travel) The new season of Virgin River on Netflix (so much to love here)

I love Plantain chips but accidentally ordered the salt free version. They need salt

I finished the Project Quilting for this week in 3 days learning more about that spare machine along the way, and happy that DH could read the online service manual and fix the feed dogs for me
I started the second embroidery kit a couple nights ago and it's a good way to not think of pain. 

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Saturday, January 11, 2025

creativity this week, hand embroidery and Project Quilting (Mythical creatures)

 

Project Quilting is an online challenge to make a quilt in a week from their prompt. Start to finish. 

I call my piece "Weeki Wachee"

19" X 21" 
I've had an infatuation with mermaids for almost as long as my love of Flamingos

a pin gifted to me from Miss Pat and some nice perle cotton embroidery thread

Pat sent me an embroidered bag with that pin (!!!!!!!) a while ago  and it resonates with my love of flamingos kitch and the 1940's/1950's

I didn't start my mermaid piece til Thursday, dithering over fabric choices. When you work to deadline you don't have a lot of dithering time... so I tried a lot of fabrics on the design wall eventually choosing these from my stash of ocean theme fabric

I have invested a lot of time and money on my collections... Just a few to name" 

cows, Christmas, Adirondak, Betty Boop, dogs, southwest, silks, hand dyes, 1940's, M.E., and others

including ocean themes

the backing for Weeki Wachee
I've made many quilts from this stash from King sized with lots of specialty blocks, to a Mermaid piece 40 X 40 made for a Hoffman challenge, the mermaid sits on a hand dyed turtle and has a stuffed tail with real pearls embedded in it.... 
No time for that kind of design on this challenge 
I also love the designer Laurel Birch and with no time to spare, was happy to see these in my stash
I am sure you could hear me screaming from your house about that older Bernina I'm trying to use right now. It is mechanical but not, NOT simple, and not intuitive and old and needs to visit the old machine's hospital. 
I continue to need to isolate from the public (a vaccine allergy) so once again DH stepped into the breach, looked up the service manual took a screwdriver to the dismantled machine, adjusted the feed dogs that wouldn't work, so I could finish binding this. 
with a sparkly blue fabric. It's quilted with mylar glistening threads, but much sparser than usual. 
so it's "done" but I see myself beading this at some point. 
Weeki Wachee (https://www.floridastateparks.org/WeekiWachee) one of the oldest attractions in Florida, started about 1947, with underwater viewing for the show put on by "mermaids" and gardens to walk around. I went a lot as a child... of course dreaming of being one of the pretty girls in the show. 
I do not like being under water however. 

I finished the small embroidery piece this week
It is by Bucilla and dh got it at Dick Blick for one of my little art gifts
I'd like to turn it into something useful. I recently unearthed some needlepoint and cross stitch I did as a young girl (a class at the Y) not made into anything. This gave me what I wanted, a pattern all the stuff needed, and a way to keep my hands busy while watching TV. Yea!

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Thursday, January 9, 2025

I Like Thursday #434

 


it's Thursday, my list is one because it's a bad pain week. Sorry, but I did have a pic of my Cuddle Duds fleece stretch leggings.... I love these cozy pants (from Macy's) so much I wear them as soon as they are laundered. I also love striped socks made from bamboo. 

I must add a thought or like to my list all week, taking moments of less pain where I can. 

Now please visit these fine folks to see what they liked this week

 the knitty quilter


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Saturday, January 4, 2025

creativity over the holidays SAHRR center block start, scrap and pink love

 

The online challenge Stay at Home Round Robin ( at  https://quiltinggail.com/ )  starts soon with a parade of our center (starting) blocks. I could have found an orphan block to start with but who wants to open that can of worms and see all the UFO's? 

I love Mary Englebreit, get her calendar yearly, and have a stash of her fabrics
I had browsed through my applique books, liked one by Piece O'cake but eventually chose one from the book here. The pattern was VERY small so I enlarged it. My thought is to hand embroider the center with many stitches and build out from that using each row prompt of blocks made often with the stash of prints. 
I apporached it like a paper collage, tacking down the motifs with glue or a bit of fusible web. The background fabric is light blue with teacups in white. 
I think I'll start with the house outline in black  or a strand of black and one of red, buttonhole stitch. 
I locked down the house with machine stitches, so far

and some french knots in Metallic gold thread (Superior brand) by hand in flower pistils



I tend to keep a cart open at Dick Blick art supplies, adding items for fun. DH bought me all the items in my cart for Christmas, whee! In there was an embroidery kit so I'd have an easy way to hand stitch when I am in so much pain I can do nothing else. 

Stitching takes me out of my self and pain sometimes. I hope this will eventually pass but not sure. 

Sometimes just surviving becomes your life


I punched holes in the picture card, and am looping the threads by color with a slip knot. It starts with the bird outline, 3 strands of black. Why don't kits give you a needle threader? 

My friend Kathleen (link to her blog ) sent me a gift box of her scraps and it was Christmas all over again! Like a stocking of little items I sifted through the scraps by color to wash ( I ALWAYS wash fabrics before using and pressing, as I'm SO allergic to chemicals used to process them)
put small pieces in mesh bags to wash

then, enjoy all the prints. She also sent a ball and pretty card)  I'm an addict with scraps, keeping really small ones. These were gorgeous and enormous mostly... regular stash worthy but I am going to put them in my scraps stash since that will encourage me to use them. I'm just so excited to have an influx of material!!! just a small example of the pinks she sent...

Kathleen has no idea how much she raised my spirit and boosted my creativity with these. 


I wonder what I could gift her with to spread the love? 

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Thursday, January 2, 2025

On and on it goes... I Like Thursday # 433 food art and kindness


on the first day of the year we eat some traditional good luck foods. Above are the home made hamburger buns, just perfect for any sandwich. Not hard to make, and the dough feels so soft in your palms as you form them. That warm soft not sticky dough is one of my favorite sensations. 

recipe here  https://www.jennycancook.com/tag/best-hamburger-buns-recipe/

we made baked crispy cod and made my own tartar sauce, mayo, sweet relish, grated onion, lemon juice, hint of tobasco

For NYDay we always have fresh collard greens  wash well, pull veins out, roll leaves and cross cut (julliane style) cover with water, some onions, butter s and pepper, simmer til soft. Add some pepper vinegar when serving. 



My father loved the soup left when they are cooked, calling it pot liquor, I love it too. DH didn't grow up with these but he also loves them. 

Black eyed peas are a must, citrus salad (sectioned grapefruit and oranges, coconut, banana, pineapple and cherries) 

I made a salad dressing from this cookbook this week, Maple vinegrette. Found the cookbook in a restaurant in VT. Also made chocolate syrup this week, very simple cocoa, milk, sugar, vanilla) 




We had these stuffed chicken breasts which are an easy fancy meat for dinner. 



DH found these caramels on McCreas website and they have no corn syrup. Deeeee licious


DH watched the video on how to dismantle and clean/oil the Bernina 930 machine. He did this for me to get me started using this gift from a wonderful friend (Marianne) in Annapolis. She no longer able to sew and gave me this just before we moved to Colorado.... now that my Bernina's motherboard broke again, I look forward to learning to use this  one. 


I got to zoom with Joy this week and chat with Diane P. on the phone. We took a walk around the 'hood one evening and ran into a nice man who we haven't seen in donkey years. He had a compact loafy white English bulldog.... but we suspected she was not the original one Milo knew. Nope, he said when their dogs die, they get another quickly, lots of love to give he said. 
She was quietly sizing me up, wary of my mask probably, and when I made the Aweeeee sound you do at babies and pups, she ran to the fence and nearly squeezed her muzzle through, little pink tongue and squished black nose.... 

I have thought about them many times the last day

No real prompt but I read one asking if you believed New Year's Day was the start of things, if it wiped the slate clean and was like a do over. 
No, no I know it's the next day in time, the continuation of your life. I wondered can we call the first day of the new month a clean slate too? 
I also think of things I want to do but less like a goal than a possible chance to learn or change or achieve something. 
If I had a wish it would be to be relieved of the burden of chronic pain and disability that interferes with creativity and sleep. 

We finished the Canadian tv show Murdoch Mysteries available season, and finished Emily in Paris current season, so good. Now looking for another show to watch together

"looking to the future"

I was relieved on New Year's Eve that Milo wouldn't be disturbed by the stupid fireworks of our neighbors. Why is being really loud so appealing to them? Milo HATED fireworks, I'm not a fan of ones shot off in close housing during a fire watch. 

I wrote a NYear's post You might have missed... Click here or read on

I ordered this desk calendar so excited to find one by my new favorite artist but.... note the year...
DH asked casually why I wanted a diary from last year... Ooops! I'll love the insides and pics!

Please visit these folks to see what they liked this week and join us this year by letting me know in comments that you wrote a list of likes . 

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