Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[koshergrl]

Burt's bees natural insect repellent. I swear by it. All my kids (and the dog too) are mosquito magnets, but can't stand regular bug repellent; it burns their skin. I ran across this stuff a few years ago and it works!

We lived in a house where my son's bedroom looked out with a big window right under a huge fir tree....and earwigs were a problem. I remember pulling back the sheet of his bed at bedtime and finding a half dozen earwigs in there. I started spraying him and the bed with burt's bees and those things stayed away completely.

Also works great for mosquitoes, though. Lemon grass oil and eucalyptus and I'm not sure what else.

 

[pbel]

After days of frittering time away, this morning saw 2 horizontal rows joined, with only 3 left to go, including the water, which I'm gonna go cut right now and try to remember what I did on the last one which has already been taken to the Charity Bees closet. I don't know why I get draggy sometimes. A good walk out in the sunshine in my fields oughta do it, except I'll pay for it in bug bites. But maybe I'll see some pretty buttercups when the sun gets a little higher in the sky this beautiful day, following a very rainy one yesterday.

So happy to get going on the pink and blue tall sailing ship quilt again.

Busy Becki...you are a wonder! Where is it possible to view your quilts for sale?

Phil

 

[freedombecki]

pbel, I don't know. I just make tops. Someone else quilts them now. I'm disabled and not able to do quilting on even the small quilts I make. The charity bees do occasionally sell a quilt we make to help pay for scholarships they grant and batting and backing needed to do the work of quilting or using what someone donates. I can't take pictures, either, and I didn't get any pictures back since my friend Judy just kind of isn't around any more when I'm there, which isn't very often due to my health issues. Judy took pictures up until about a year ago. I heard her husband passed on, and I just don't know what happened to her. So all I have is excerpts taken on a little scanner I have that ran out of ink 3 or 4 months ago.

That said, today, I started the 6 blocks of the waves on the pink and blue ship. Is that hitting the wall or what when your project sits around for a few days, or what, while you take 3 naps a day to keep going?

On the next ship quilt, the waves row will be done first. It's confusing because the color changes are not like doing the sails on the ship, which are conventional in log cabin light and dark schemas in which our mothers built quilts called "barn raising" in which lights and darks seem to go around, leaving a dark center and having light and dark alternate around the square diamond shape of the center illusion, or straight rows of lights and darks seeming to run diagonally and named "fields and furrows" by farm women echoing the appearance of their fields of beans or what have you.

Anyway, the waves take concentration. I probably should do waves rows for 3 quilts planned when this one is done. I'm growing a little weary of ships, although I've loved every minute of working on them when to busy to think about it.

Good luck on your paintings, pbel. I've been a little distracted by the sad affairs of the 2013 Boston Marathon. I pray a lot lately.

 

[freedombecki]

Tall Pines Quilt Guild: Tall Pines Quilt Guild Home

The Charity Bees is the giving arm of the guild. There is a contact page, for inquiries on finished Bee quilts, tops, etc., but how the quilts are dispersed is not known to me, unless I make a specific request for which charity the top goes to. I try not to be to preferential. They have a handle on where the quilts are needed the most, and which ones they could earn money to pay for materials to complete the quilts.

 

[freedombecki]

Burt's bees natural insect repellent. I swear by it. All my kids (and the dog too) are mosquito magnets, but can't stand regular bug repellent; it burns their skin. I ran across this stuff a few years ago and it works!

We lived in a house where my son's bedroom looked out with a big window right under a huge fir tree....and earwigs were a problem. I remember pulling back the sheet of his bed at bedtime and finding a half dozen earwigs in there. I started spraying him and the bed with burt's bees and those things stayed away completely.

Also works great for mosquitoes, though. Lemon grass oil and eucalyptus and I'm not sure what else.

If you take a supplement of B1 vitamin (thiamine) I guarantee you that you will not need anything else to repel mosquitoes. They hate you when you take thiamine all summer. I didn't have a single incident of biting last summer nor the summer before. It's like a miracle of God.

 

[Sunshine]

Here, Beckums. I've been meaning to post this for you for a while now. My MIL made it back in the 1960s, so, of course, it has all those 60s colors. I still think it is pretty. I got it after she died. She didn't leave it to me in her Will. I didn't get one of the things she did leave me. Mistake? I dunno. But this is so much prettier, I just kept my mouth shut!

 

[freedombecki]

Thanks, Sunshine. It's a beautiful if not stunning afghan. That stitch is a lot of work and requires total concentration to put it mildly.

 

[freedombecki]

At long last, the Good Ship Lollipop in pink and blue is done. I was going to add another row, but as it is it measures 45x60" which is a perfect crib size. I have material for a 3- or 4-inch border, but that takes it up a level to being sized for an older child. I'm not sure what the girls want, oh, I may use some of that fabric after all. I'll sleep on it first, though. I'm too tired to think right now.

Here are some scans of the water I just couldn't make myself cut into for several days for some reason. I flat out hit the wall. Use your arrow over a thumbnail to read the description.

 

[freedombecki]

And here are some scans of sails and the top border area.

 

[Sunshine]

Thanks, Sunshine. It's a beautiful if not stunning afghan. That stitch is a lot of work and requires total concentration to put it mildly.

Yeah, it's the only afghan, or anything that even resembles knit or crochet, she ever made. It wasn't really knit or crochet per se. I don't know what it is. It was done in strips. All the stitches were on the needle like knit, but the needle had a hook on the end like crocket. It is VERY heavy as the each stitch is kind of square and has a lot of yarn in it. Not at all like traditional knit or crochet. My husbands father was in the hospital after a coronary and she would sit and work on it. It used to drive him nuts. He would say, 'well, stitch, stitch, stitch.' She would have to put it down when he was awake.

 

[freedombecki]

Sunshine, she used the sturdiest crochet stitch known--what my generation of crocheters call the Afghan stitch, which is made with a long size g crochet hook (average) that has an end that stops stitches from slipping off like a knitting needle, except it has the crochet hook rather than the sliding tip of a knitting needle. It's arduous work and reminds me of ponte di roma, a sturdy type of knit material that is thick enough for suiting due to its property of being a special double knit, made popular in the 70s in finer clothing stores.

The afghan stitch (also called Tunisian work recently) is very square, with a finished stitch that is the same width and height, and is ideal for doing counted cross stitch because it has a definite 4 corner areas easily plied open with a tapestry needle and doubled sport weight yarn that is ideal for covering 4- or 5-to the inch squares. This is small enough to do beautiful work as is on your true Afghan coverlet.

Tunisian work credits: Sunday Snapshot: Tunisian Crochet Colorwork | The Zen of Making

 

[freedombecki]

The Good and Tall Ship Lollipop now measures approximately 54x70, give or take an inch.

The outer border was attached and finished about an hour ago, and here are some shots:

 

[freedombecki]

Having a pleasant day in the sewing room, cleaning off some scraps from the cutting table that was 20" high. I have a crazy-strip group started last week, and today I got the few strips until a piece about 30x42" has formed. A small dint has been made in the 40x20" stack.

 

[Sunshine]

Sunshine, she used the sturdiest crochet stitch known--what my generation of crocheters call the Afghan stitch, which is made with a long size g crochet hook (average) that has an end that stops stitches from slipping off like a knitting needle, except it has the crochet hook rather than the sliding tip of a knitting needle. It's arduous work and reminds me of ponte di roma, a sturdy type of knit material that is thick enough for suiting due to its property of being a special double knit, made popular in the 70s in finer clothing stores.

The afghan stitch (also called Tunisian work recently) is very square, with a finished stitch that is the same width and height, and is ideal for doing counted cross stitch because it has a definite 4 corner areas easily plied open with a tapestry needle and doubled sport weight yarn that is ideal for covering 4- or 5-to the inch squares. This is small enough to do beautiful work as is on your true Afghan coverlet.

Tunisian work credits: Sunday Snapshot: Tunisian Crochet Colorwork | The Zen of Making

Yep, that's it. Just exactly as I described. I should have known you would know what this afghan was all about. I don't have any idea how much yarn she used, but it is SO heavy. Maybe I will weigh it just out of curiosity.

 

[freedombecki]

Afghan stitch work is extremely tedious. I did 6 inches once, thought it was going to kill me. I really hated doing it. It makes what I do in crochet seem apple-pie easy. I also hated doing macramé.

Your MIL had patience and endurance to do all that afghan stitchery plus a bit of pluck since it had to be finished before going back and cross stitching over all that work a complex counted work. I'm glad you have it and that such a treasure is being well taken care of.

 

[Sunshine]

Afghan stitch work is extremely tedious. I did 6 inches once, thought it was going to kill me. I really hated doing it. It makes what I do in crochet seem apple-pie easy. I also hated doing macramé.

Your MIL had patience and endurance to do all that afghan stitchery plus a bit of pluck since it had to be finished before going back and cross stitching over all that work a complex counted work. I'm glad you have it and that such a treasure is being well taken care of.

Yeah, me too. No one else in the family would have cared for it. They would alreayd have it dirty and stretched.

 

[freedombecki]

Last night saw the completion of a scrap quilt from leftover strips, scraps, and twosies piling up on the cutting table by the sewing machine. A dent was made in the 40x20x12" pile that has accumulated in the last few weeks of sewing quilts for one reason or another. The goal is to find ground zero for the purpose of replacing the cutting mat, which is so full of long lines cut out of it, it's nearly useless at this time, and it is needed every single day quilts are made, measured, and worked on.

The question is, will the surface of the present tattered mat ever bee seen again? Keep in mind, the strip is not permanently off the table until it is used up in a charity bees quilt top.



Yeah. Kidding aside, here are a few scans in the next 3 or 4 posts of this morning's completion:

 

[freedombecki]

Three more scans:

 

[freedombecki]

And the final three scans. The quilt is approximately 48 x 68".

This completed quilt top is number 31 this year of our Lord, 2013.

 

[koshergrl]

Last night saw the completion of a scrap quilt from leftover strips, scraps, and twosies piling up on the cutting table by the sewing machine. A dent was made in the 40x20x12" pile that has accumulated in the last few weeks of sewing quilts for one reason or another. The goal is to find ground zero for the purpose of replacing the cutting mat, which is so full of long lines cut out of it, it's nearly useless at this time, and it is needed every single day quilts are made, measured, and worked on.

The question is, will the surface of the present tattered mat ever bee seen again? Keep in mind, the strip is not permanently off the table until it is used up in a charity bees quilt top.



Yeah. Kidding aside, here are a few scans in the next 3 or 4 posts of this morning's completion:

What sort/brand mat do you use?

I didn't have much choice when I got mine, and I don't like it much. It's useable...but I just don't like it.