Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

Thanks, Koshergrl. Must've been bleary eyed and gung ho to get back to the sewing room this morning.

Even got an hour of mowing the 5 acres around the orchard with my Kubota! (sit and sew, sit and mow!)

Somewhere, in the stack, there's a square that didn't get scanned. So if all 24 don't show up... Here's a couple plus the fabric with which this quilt will be sashed and possibly, bordered. Today went well in the sewing room, with a stack ready to go and the sashing fabric pressed for cutting.

3 scans, coming up!

 

[koshergrl]

So becki, my plan for this summer....

Quilting project with the kids.

I haven't worked it out in my head yet, but I'm going to use them as slave labor to cut & sew strips and blocks. It will save my back, and be fun for them.

I think we will work on a quilt together, instead of separate quilts; we'll have a better chance of getting it finished.

 

[freedombecki]

Good plan, koshergrl. I am so delighted and hope you show the kids' progress as you go. It could start a wave!

 

[koshergrl]

I think we're going with this: *Easy Log Cabin Quilt Block Pattern - easy for beginner's project

If there are three of us, we each need to make 10 or so blocks...I think we can do that.

 

[freedombecki]

That's a good place to start, koshergrl.

 

[koshergrl]

If I really push them maybe we can squeeze out more than one quilt, lol!

It would be nice for them to each have their own..we'll see what comes of it!

 

[koshergrl]

I'll get my dil and granddaughter and her sister to participate one day a week, I'll bet we can get something done.

 

[Sunshine]

OK, so y'all are contagious. Maybe I'll do a quilt this winter. But not the cross stitch one. I want an expert doing that one. But I have a maple leaf top my mother made and which has been in a drawer since I married. If it isn't dry rotted, I may get some frames and do that one.

Was talking to my brother yesterday and he said I need to go to English's Sewing to get a machine. LOL. That is the one Beckums found and recommended. So, I may drop by there the next time I go out with my girlfriends, which will be next month.

 

[koshergrl]

I'm looking for another machine, so I can put two minions to work at once.

 

[boedicca]

OK, so y'all are contagious. Maybe I'll do a quilt this winter. But not the cross stitch one. I want an expert doing that one. But I have a maple leaf top my mother made and which has been in a drawer since I married. If it isn't dry rotted, I may get some frames and do that one.

Was talking to my brother yesterday and he said I need to go to English's Sewing to get a machine. LOL. That is the one Beckums found and recommended. So, I may drop by there the next time I go out with my girlfriends, which will be next month.

Indeed. I used to sew, quilt, and embroider when I was a girl...I miss that creative project concentration. You all are inspiring me!

I'm thinking of learning how to knit - something that is portable given work schedule.

 

[freedombecki]

OK, so y'all are contagious. Maybe I'll do a quilt this winter. But not the cross stitch one. I want an expert doing that one. But I have a maple leaf top my mother made and which has been in a drawer since I married. If it isn't dry rotted, I may get some frames and do that one.

Was talking to my brother yesterday and he said I need to go to English's Sewing to get a machine. LOL. That is the one Beckums found and recommended. So, I may drop by there the next time I go out with my girlfriends, which will be next month.

Good luck, Sunshine. If you're learning a new machine, it doesn't hurt to purchase a used one first and do all your learning and goofing on that machine. If you like the system, stay with the brand. OTOH, if you get a new Pfaff or Bernina, you're getting the quietest and most obedient machine on the market, dealers are required to offer classes and learning opportunities with trained providers, plus they make it fun. If you see gorgeous quilts hanging around, that's likely a great place that encourage people to be the best they can.

If I were Sunshine, I'd be looking for a machine that has both stitch-by-stitch cross stitches on it as well as software to execute complex patterns that are topically identical to counted cross stitch. That way, when and if arthritis knocks out handwork ability, you are backed up by a smart machine that in 8 hours can do the work of one of us in 8,000 hours. It requires a challenging amount of coursework to learn expert machine cross stitch ins and outs, but there are motivated people in that part of the world who do just that. You may have to cross state lines for how-tos, but it's worth the scouting effort to get trained in that kind of work.

Smart machines today extend your life of sewing when and if you want them to. Top of the line machines may also be placed on frames to do quilting, but again, be sure your dealer is available to set up your quilt frame and has both regular and computer classes in embroidery and in quilting. Also tops-of-line quilting and embroidery machines have "go" buttons, so you don't have to hug your foot to the foot pedal any more. If you have these on your list, however, expect to pay what you'd pay for a new car. What they do is stellar, and I can't even describe how much fascination and fun it is to watch the design you just programmed into your computer spit it out in gorgeous stitches onto a piece of prepared linen. There are even ways to embroider satin roses onto voile if you're willing to travel to classes of dealers that specialize in French hand sewing, needlework bargello, counted cross stitch, and even silk roses and Brazillian work. What top of the line machines do is endless including detailed quilt stitches.

If you just want to put two pieces of fabric together, though, Walmart sells basic Brother and Singer machines that you can buy a 1/4" stitch foot for unless it includes quilt feet or sells them nearby. The Brother 9500 has 200 stitches, a simple alphabet, and 3 memories, as I recollect from buying one for sewing on when my machine was out for repairs. Top of the lines take extra time, and I'd sewn 60 quilts on it already when it needed servicing, not to mention household mending. The brother sewed 30 quilts before it needed a service, but I only paid $199 for it and had a 3-month blast, because it had a lot of spoiler features on it I was already accustomed to by having several tops of line machines.

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, yes, and I finished another quilt top last night. I will take scans later. I'm so totally pleased with the last one--sunny, rainbows, and blue sky were the borders.

 

[Sunshine]

OK, so y'all are contagious. Maybe I'll do a quilt this winter. But not the cross stitch one. I want an expert doing that one. But I have a maple leaf top my mother made and which has been in a drawer since I married. If it isn't dry rotted, I may get some frames and do that one.

Was talking to my brother yesterday and he said I need to go to English's Sewing to get a machine. LOL. That is the one Beckums found and recommended. So, I may drop by there the next time I go out with my girlfriends, which will be next month.

Good luck, Sunshine. If you're learning a new machine, it doesn't hurt to purchase a used one first and do all your learning and goofing on that machine. If you like the system, stay with the brand. OTOH, if you get a new Pfaff or Bernina, you're getting the quietest and most obedient machine on the market, dealers are required to offer classes and learning opportunities with trained providers, plus they make it fun. If you see gorgeous quilts hanging around, that's likely a great place that encourage people to be the best they can.

If I were Sunshine, I'd be looking for a machine that has both stitch-by-stitch cross stitches on it as well as software to execute complex patterns that are topically identical to counted cross stitch. That way, when and if arthritis knocks out handwork ability, you are backed up by a smart machine that in 8 hours can do the work of one of us in 8,000 hours. It requires a challenging amount of coursework to learn expert machine cross stitch ins and outs, but there are motivated people in that part of the world who do just that. You may have to cross state lines for how-tos, but it's worth the scouting effort to get trained in that kind of work.

Smart machines today extend your life of sewing when and if you want them to. Top of the line machines may also be placed on frames to do quilting, but again, be sure your dealer is available to set up your quilt frame and has both regular and computer classes in embroidery and in quilting. Also tops-of-line quilting and embroidery machines have "go" buttons, so you don't have to hug your foot to the foot pedal any more. If you have these on your list, however, expect to pay what you'd pay for a new car. What they do is stellar, and I can't even describe how much fascination and fun it is to watch the design you just programmed into your computer spit it out in gorgeous stitches onto a piece of prepared linen. There are even ways to embroider satin roses onto voile if you're willing to travel to classes of dealers that specialize in French hand sewing, needlework bargello, counted cross stitch, and even silk roses and Brazillian work. What top of the line machines do is endless including detailed quilt stitches.

If you just want to put two pieces of fabric together, though, Walmart sells basic Brother and Singer machines that you can buy a 1/4" stitch foot for unless it includes quilt feet or sells them nearby. The Brother 9500 has 200 stitches, a simple alphabet, and 3 memories, as I recollect from buying one for sewing on when my machine was out for repairs. Top of the lines take extra time, and I'd sewn 60 quilts on it already when it needed servicing, not to mention household mending. The brother sewed 30 quilts before it needed a service, but I only paid $199 for it and had a 3-month blast, because it had a lot of spoiler features on it I was already accustomed to by having several tops of line machines.

I want the fancy one for my daughter to inherit. I may have told you that when she was out of work before and after they baby was born, she started sewing. An ex BF had bought her a machine which she had never used, so she got it out and made several things. I don't think she's really had time to do any sewing since she went back to work, but she mentioned wanting to learn to use patterns. I told her I could help her......only a little there. She looked at me like I had three heads and said, 'it's just a blueprint.' LOL. She is a designer, draftsman, and construction manager. LOL. Who knew sewing was so much like building.

 

[Sunshine]

Hey Beckums. I'm down to my 4th to last block with the edging thing. I should have it finished soon. When I went to Atlanta I got an audio book that ran longer than the trip, so I have been listening and stitching some. I had put it down for a while, so I could get a few other things done around here. But it will be FINISHED soon. Maybe when I take this book back I'll get another. THEN I can stat the Christmas table cloth.

 

[freedombecki]

Hey Beckums. I'm down to my 4th to last block with the edging thing. I should have it finished soon. When I went to Atlanta I got an audio book that ran longer than the trip, so I have been listening and stitching some. I had put it down for a while, so I could get a few other things done around here. But it will be FINISHED soon. Maybe when I take this book back I'll get another. THEN I can stat the Christmas table cloth.

Sunshine, I'm so happy to hear you've been listening while working. Don't forget, if that is your favorite modus operandi, I have able to find a video for almost every single technique I needed a refresher on, except the teachers are younger. My teachers from the 50s to the 80s were old school, which made new school all the more meaningful with their time-saving tips and design school color savvy, which is somehow, just catching up to me, but it's fun to hear someone else's voice saying things I have found to be tried-and-true.

I sewed a little this morning, plus mowed the orchard until a scissor-tailed flycatcher came out to let me know he or she might have a next in an area next to where I was mowing. I appreciate the warning. I love the scissor tails, and want their next generation to be a prosperous one. I think they may lay their eggs in the grasses that include a lot of sunshine every day and may depend on being left alone to bring into the world chicklets of that feathered tribe of friends who eat mosquitos, gnats, and annoying flies. I'm just honored they still visit our pastures when for four years no stock other than wild deer nibbling my poor little orchard trees to death have been the only visitors, except for armadillos and skunks. The birds probably have a few predatory problems with possums and raccoons, not to mention wild domestic cats that people dumped out in the country years ago and have become bird predators rather than to be taken in by humans they no longer trust. And I'm here to tell you, though I was one of the fastest women on the track once, with fibromyalgia, I can't catch those wiley little varmints. Fortunately, a tribe of coyotes and wild dogs visit every few weeks to keep varmint populations down. I hope they have enough smarts to leave alone the lovely and fastidious scissor-tailed flycatchers who only want their nests untouched by people on two-ton tractor mowers that Kubotas can be.

I am so thrilled your daughter views garment construction as "just a blueprint." If she ever got into quilting, I think she might consider landscape painting with the sewing machine. Both machines I mentioned have a propensity and good enough motors to withstand the harshest, hardest 12-hour-a-day running for weeks on end with no problem in the hands of someone who respects machinery and is willing to read the ins and outs of its care which basically boils down to my little panacea that I typed up and glued to the front desk. It said "She who has a clean machine usually has one that works!" That is with the understanding that right after brushing out the bobbin area, the machine is oiled if oil comes with the machine. If no oil comes with the machine, read the instruction manual to see if your unit is a self-oiling type machine that has a warrantee of at least 20 years, which means for 20 years you won't have to oil it ever.

I have to "spread" before repping Sunshine again.

 

[freedombecki]

I'm now going to add photos of completed, on-point windmills. I did not use sets between sashes, because of working so hard to insure that all the squares measured exactly 8 inches all 4 ways, and that all the sashes were consistently cut 2.5 inches and were cut according to warps going north and south and wefts going east and west. I had no choice but to cut the stripe going with the weft, so the warp border shows a little natural gathering, but in the end with a decent batting, which I feel I might have to provide, it will even out.

Scans 25, 26, and 27, credit corner and sashes:

 

[freedombecki]

Corner scans 28, 29, and 30:

Quilt #38 (or 39?) is Done!

 

[Sunshine]

Hey Beckums. I'm down to my 4th to last block with the edging thing. I should have it finished soon. When I went to Atlanta I got an audio book that ran longer than the trip, so I have been listening and stitching some. I had put it down for a while, so I could get a few other things done around here. But it will be FINISHED soon. Maybe when I take this book back I'll get another. THEN I can stat the Christmas table cloth.

Sunshine, I'm so happy to hear you've been listening while working. Don't forget, if that is your favorite modus operandi, I have able to find a video for almost every single technique I needed a refresher on, except the teachers are younger. My teachers from the 50s to the 80s were old school, which made new school all the more meaningful with their time-saving tips and design school color savvy, which is somehow, just catching up to me, but it's fun to hear someone else's voice saying things I have found to be tried-and-true.

I sewed a little this morning, plus mowed the orchard until a scissor-tailed flycatcher came out to let me know he or she might have a next in an area next to where I was mowing. I appreciate the warning. I love the scissor tails, and want their next generation to be a prosperous one. I think they may lay their eggs in the grasses that include a lot of sunshine every day and may depend on being left alone to bring into the world chicklets of that feathered tribe of friends who eat mosquitos, gnats, and annoying flies. I'm just honored they still visit our pastures when for four years no stock other than wild deer nibbling my poor little orchard trees to death have been the only visitors, except for armadillos and skunks. The birds probably have a few predatory problems with possums and raccoons, not to mention wild domestic cats that people dumped out in the country years ago and have become bird predators rather than to be taken in by humans they no longer trust. And I'm here to tell you, though I was one of the fastest women on the track once, with fibromyalgia, I can't catch those wiley little varmints. Fortunately, a tribe of coyotes and wild dogs visit every few weeks to keep varmint populations down. I hope they have enough smarts to leave alone the lovely and fastidious scissor-tailed flycatchers who only want their nests untouched by people on two-ton tractor mowers that Kubotas can be.

I am so thrilled your daughter views garment construction as "just a blueprint." If she ever got into quilting, I think she might consider landscape painting with the sewing machine. Both machines I mentioned have a propensity and good enough motors to withstand the harshest, hardest 12-hour-a-day running for weeks on end with no problem in the hands of someone who respects machinery and is willing to read the ins and outs of its care which basically boils down to my little panacea that I typed up and glued to the front desk. It said "She who has a clean machine usually has one that works!" That is with the understanding that right after brushing out the bobbin area, the machine is oiled if oil comes with the machine. If no oil comes with the machine, read the instruction manual to see if your unit is a self-oiling type machine that has a warrantee of at least 20 years, which means for 20 years you won't have to oil it ever.

I have to "spread" before repping Sunshine again.

I do hope that one day she will be able to be creative in her sewing. She has to work now, but after she got her master's hubby went back to school to study computers. So, she may be able to quit at some point in the future.

 

[freedombecki]

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of bumping into the Tall Pines Guild and other friends CutUps at the local quilt shop, and showing them 9 of the 10 quilts I made in the last couple of months. They're so sweet, and one of the girls said that the group was organizing to make quilts for the Oklahoma City Tornado victims, and I let them know a couple of the quilts were oversized and intended for children up to the age of about 14 (70" in length) I probably should extend that to 75-80" and let it go at that.

In the afternoon, I found a lot of red and light log cabin squares completed to the third to the last row, finished a bunch, and now have a 36-block quilt that is approximately 42" square. another row top and bottom would make it 56", and one more top and bottom, and it would be 70" long. With two borders measuring 4", it would be 50x80". That might be a good size to shoot for. I will need 24 more squares, and only have 12 done. So just by making another dozen, the quilt would be rather nice. We'll see how the day goes.

They have been requested to make 5 or 6 ice cream cone quilts for the children in the second grade who were totally traumatized by the situation in which they lost half a dozen classmates and were threatened themselves with drowning or building materials falling everywhere. Some were injured, all were shocked by knowing their dead classmates weren't coming back. So today, I'm getting out my kite quilt caboodle, when the red quilt is done. Sometimes I wish I were two people and could make more quilts faster. We'll see what I can come up with in a pinch, tomorrow, if I make good progress today.

So sorry if I'm not around much, I have a field to remow, because lately, the grass is just growing like crazy. It from all appearances is going to be another gorgeous day here. I thrive when the mercury hits 80 - 100 and have taken my medicine that controls swelling.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day, and can turn it into a masterpiece.

Best regards,

becki

 

[Sunshine]

Good morning Beckums~!