Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[Sunshine]

Thank you for caring enough to ask. No, I have not. I usually sleep very well, except my twice-a-year-or-so insomnia. But switching to graveyard is a major spanner to normal sleep patterns.

Yes the switch is rough. I used to do two graveyard shifts every other week, moonlighting. My blood pressure was off the chart. The folks I know who consistently do graveyard and cope well with it do it just like they had moved to the China. They do EVERYTHING they can around that schedule and only occasionally break that rule.

I did graveyard for eight years. Several times my mom called and asked if I wanted to do lunch. Most times, I burst into tears. The last time I snapped "SURE! And I'll call you Tuesday at 2:00 a.m. and see if you want to go to Perkins!"

That's about how it goes. Nobody gets that their noon is your midnight.

 

[freedombecki]

Well, this is my version of a far better quilt. I just hope it is as quieting to someone with dry eye syndrome as the Log Cabin quilt someone made of blue jeans. Mine is just composed of quilt cottons, in contrast, and may seem lighter since I favored royal blues, which I collected for months this and last year to do such quilts. Unfortunately, I tended to invest in light blues that were blue with white or ecru grounds, and that is not as comforting as the all-light blues.

I recently bought a two-yard swath of light blue, which I've not used until last night, so here's what I have to show for the 48 centers and 8 squares done to rows 9 of 13 so far (which isn't much and does not show my usual mockup, which screws up the counting process in my fibrofog case! )

Here are two scans and a brick top I found a bit of online that looks like a very restful sight for the sore eyes:

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:



It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

 

[freedombecki]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:



It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:



It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center.

 

[freedombecki]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:



It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center.

Now that you mention it, it is a muted mauve pink. Funny how perception can make you see something that may not exactly be there as you think! I actually use that thesis to make something appear it's a different color than it actually is. You're likely more sophisticated in your use of color than you know, Sunshine. Good job!

 

[Sunshine]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:

It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center. Here it is. I think this is a pattern someone gave me. Maybe one of the nurses at Vanderbilt. I don't recall it being in either one of my Celtic cross stitch books. It wasn't such a ball buster. Generally those knots are not easy to work out. I started one that was quite complex and realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was wrong. I should have done something to just work around my mistake, but I am pretty sure in a fit of frustration, I threw it away. I may try it again one day. To top it off, the one I was doing last night had a mistake in he pattern. Fortunately, it was a symmetrical design so all I had to do was flip the pattern 180 degrees and it was OK.



I rarely use the size Aida cloth called for and I just thought this one would have more punch if I did it on really large Aida. But I don't recall what the size actually is. It is framed in an 8 x 10 frame. A square would be better, but when I did this one, I was in law school and teaching and wasn't inclined to scour the internet for things. Just found a red frame and brought it home from K Mart or some such.

 

[freedombecki]

Could it be 11 count Aida? That's usually about the biggest one I saw when ordering Aida fabric for those who do counted cross stitch on the machine which is a 3mm cross stitch on a Pfaff. 14 Count Aida has 14 squares to the inch and works well with a 2mm machine cross stitch. On a Pfaff, with the walking foot engaged, if you start in the corner of an Aida square, exactly, you can go for 6 or 8 squares quite accurately on account of its versatile multi-directional feed that is computer coordinated with upper and lower feed system. If you're working on 11-to-the-inch Aida cloth, using the 3mm cross stitch, you get the same precision. Every few stitches, you just need to make sure you're still in the corner. On my old Pfaff, if you hit "finish pattern" button, it would stop on the last stitch, and you could hand flywheel the needle to the corner, turning the wheel over the top toward yourself in keeping with the machine's correct timing.

I took a couple of classes on counted cross stitch at Dealer's Convention because I was so fascinated with machine cross stitch. When they brought in a floral card that cross stitched some truly beautiful florals in no time flat, I fell in love with machine cross stitch. And if you use a fine linen, you don't even have to worry about getting the cross stitch into the hole. You just pick a card you like the looks of, and it's all over except for changing the color you want to do. I had cross charts on DNC with everything we sold so I could use my precious DMC Article 237 # 50 thread on the Pfaff Machine Cross stitches. The computer card had pictures with 150,000 stitches on them. It took 8 hours sometimes, but that's a far cry from a month or so of doing the same thing by hand. OK, I'm a crafty person.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, here I am yakkety yakking when I have to finish this beautiful blue quilt, and have to cut about 30 pieces of darks to do rows 12 and 13, after I finish 48 rows 10 and 11, that is! I'm 200 pieces away from completion, plus whatever the border takes.

Hope everybody has a wonderful day! Will somebody please rep Bloodrock for me? I ran out of reps last night, and he was on my list to thank. Oh, gosh, and there's Mr. H. who I haven't seen lately. hmmmm. Gotta keep our guys who love quilts enough to say "hi hello" now and then rewarded, you know.

 

[Sunshine]

Could it be 11 count Aida? That's usually about the biggest one I saw when ordering Aida fabric for those who do counted cross stitch on the machine which is a 3mm cross stitch on a Pfaff. 14 Count Aida has 14 squares to the inch and works well with a 2mm machine cross stitch. On a Pfaff, with the walking foot engaged, if you start in the corner of an Aida square, exactly, you can go for 6 or 8 squares quite accurately on account of its versatile multi-directional feed that is computer coordinated with upper and lower feed system. If you're working on 11-to-the-inch Aida cloth, using the 3mm cross stitch, you get the same precision. Every few stitches, you just need to make sure you're still in the corner. On my old Pfaff, if you hit "finish pattern" button, it would stop on the last stitch, and you could hand flywheel the needle to the corner, turning the wheel over the top toward yourself in keeping with the machine's correct timing.

I took a couple of classes on counted cross stitch at Dealer's Convention because I was so fascinated with machine cross stitch. When they brought in a floral card that cross stitched some truly beautiful florals in no time flat, I fell in love with machine cross stitch. And if you use a fine linen, you don't even have to worry about getting the cross stitch into the hole. You just pick a card you like the looks of, and it's all over except for changing the color you want to do. I had cross charts on DNC with everything we sold so I could use my precious DMC Article 237 # 50 thread on the Pfaff Machine Cross stitches. The computer card had pictures with 150,000 stitches on them. It took 8 hours sometimes, but that's a far cry from a month or so of doing the same thing by hand. OK, I'm a crafty person.

Not sure. I'll get a ruler and measure in a bit.

 

[Sunshine]

Beckums,

That piece of Aida only has 6 squares to the inch. Not sure what store I got it from, but I know it was in Nashville. There were a couple I used to shop at, one in Harding Place Mall and one in the Hillwood community.

 

[Sunshine]

Oh, here I am yakkety yakking when I have to finish this beautiful blue quilt, and have to cut about 30 pieces of darks to do rows 12 and 13, after I finish 48 rows 10 and 11, that is! I'm 200 pieces away from completion, plus whatever the border takes.

Hope everybody has a wonderful day! Will somebody please rep Bloodrock for me? I ran out of reps last night, and he was on my list to thank. Oh, gosh, and there's Mr. H. who I haven't seen lately. hmmmm. Gotta keep our guys who love quilts enough to say "hi hello" now and then rewarded, you know.

I covered him for you.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally got some blocks done on the My Blue Heaven quilt.

 

[freedombecki]

And some more...

 

[freedombecki]

And finally, the last three that are completely ready to sew into their respective sunshine and shadows blocks.

 

[freedombecki]

About half of the blocks were finished this morning and were put into sunshine and shadow blocks of blue. I'm going to show 3 of them as 1a and 1b, 2a and 2b, and 3a and 3b. They will be turned, not expertly, but as best as I could do. If I can find it will put the original quilt. Hers has an impact I just can't match, but I love this one, too. I noticed she altered her sunshine and shadow blocks by having darks with the outside next to blocks with lights on the outside and decided that since it was so easy on the eye, (imho) I'd do likewise.

The third scan shows the picture cropped to show alternated blocks of sunshine and shadows.

Hope everybody has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend.

Milkweed Quilts at Etsy

 

[freedombecki]

Here's block 2 with a and b sides showing. I'm going to also place her lovely quilt as I found it online, same link as the one above, Milkweed Quilts at Etsy.

 

[Bloodrock44]

OK, Beckums, here is the knot I'm going to fill in on my trip:

It is fairly small, not sure if it will keep me busy the entire flight. It is actually on white, I took it without a flash, so it looks dark, but it isn't.

And here is one I want to do. Maybe for a longer trip. Like Hawaii? And AFTER the tablecloth is finished. Sorry for the bad photography on both. When I get it done I will take a better pic.

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center. Here it is. I think this is a pattern someone gave me. Maybe one of the nurses at Vanderbilt. I don't recall it being in either one of my Celtic cross stitch books. It wasn't such a ball buster. Generally those knots are not easy to work out. I started one that was quite complex and realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was wrong. I should have done something to just work around my mistake, but I am pretty sure in a fit of frustration, I threw it away. I may try it again one day. To top it off, the one I was doing last night had a mistake in he pattern. Fortunately, it was a symmetrical design so all I had to do was flip the pattern 180 degrees and it was OK.



I rarely use the size Aida cloth called for and I just thought this one would have more punch if I did it on really large Aida. But I don't recall what the size actually is. It is framed in an 8 x 10 frame. A square would be better, but when I did this one, I was in law school and teaching and wasn't inclined to scour the internet for things. Just found a red frame and brought it home from K Mart or some such.

@freedombecki Now this one is absolutely beautiful. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how you get the design in though. Can you explain a little how you do it? Do you sew it yourself?

 

[freedombecki]

Block 3 a and b sides (finished 6 blocks this morning, and have to add the last side on the 24 blocks that will do the next 6 blocks which measure about 14 inches when in the quilt.

Oh, and I may just pick out another pretty quilt if I can find one this easy on the eyes. Or just whatever, really.

Well, I found many worthy examples but I love mosaic quilts lately for some reason... I made one this past year that was a lot of work!

The quilt is by Fransson dot com.

 

[freedombecki]

I think that's absolutely beautiful, Sunshine. I love red and gold together. It sounds like you're leaving soon. Gonna miss you around here.

Actually that's a mauvie pink. It just looks gold because of my bad photography. But you have given me the idea to do one in red and gold. I did one that is a red square and a green square interlaced in Celtic fashion with a gold cross in the center. Here it is. I think this is a pattern someone gave me. Maybe one of the nurses at Vanderbilt. I don't recall it being in either one of my Celtic cross stitch books. It wasn't such a ball buster. Generally those knots are not easy to work out. I started one that was quite complex and realized about 3/4 of the way through that it was wrong. I should have done something to just work around my mistake, but I am pretty sure in a fit of frustration, I threw it away. I may try it again one day. To top it off, the one I was doing last night had a mistake in he pattern. Fortunately, it was a symmetrical design so all I had to do was flip the pattern 180 degrees and it was OK.



I rarely use the size Aida cloth called for and I just thought this one would have more punch if I did it on really large Aida. But I don't recall what the size actually is. It is framed in an 8 x 10 frame. A square would be better, but when I did this one, I was in law school and teaching and wasn't inclined to scour the internet for things. Just found a red frame and brought it home from K Mart or some such.

@freedombecki Now this one is absolutely beautiful. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how you get the design in though. Can you explain a little how you do it? Do you sew it yourself?

Those pictures were posted by Sunshine who does amazing Celtic embroidery in counted cross work, and sometimes she designs them all by herself. I almost fainted for happy last year when she posted several of her works. Sunshine is also working on a white on red tablecloth, and just completed a green one at or around her time of retirement. Seems like it was after. My memory is not perfect, but I love her cross stitch. I hope koshergrls comes back soon. She not only does counted work, her hand embroidered pillowcases are second to none, although she claims her unique color combos aren't. I'm here to tell you if you look back a few dozen pages, you will see how accomplished Sunshine is and how accomplished koshergrl is, each in their own specialty. Koshergrl also posts soft sculptured birds she has made in a thread she started in Arts and Crafts a few months back. She does all this and raises children, too. Girls who do counted work have a lot in common with quilters, and one of my specialties when I'm not doing charity quilts is doing postage stamp quilts, which are my love and heart's desire.

Thanks everyone for kind wishes and prayers. I'm feeling a lot better today than yesterday!