Shifting Gears

 When I was learning to drive,

many decades ago,

I loved practicing shifting gears in my family's 

red standard pickup truck.

It was fun to drive.

That is until you got stopped

at the traffic light in the center of town, 

especially if you were coming up the hill 

on Center Street, you know,

just up from the bowling alley.

Foot on the brake,

foot on the clutch,

and a foot on the gas.

Wait...

that means three feet.

That's when my mom would come to my rescue.

She would slide over on the front seat

and add a foot to help out.  

We would laugh and
hope no one was right behind us.

So I learned way back when
that shifting gears

can be exciting and that's

exactly what I've been doing this summer.

Summer is full of color and

bright light so I've

been working on my Dresden Plate 

inspired by Kathy Doughty

and her book

Material Obsession,

Modern Quilts with Traditional Roots.

Everything has been cut out and sewn

for a couple of months.

 Now it was time to get back to it.

Using Roxanne's Basting Glue

 each ring was positioned on the background and

then lightly glued.
The seam allowance on the center circles were
painted with starch and pressed over using
a freezer paper template.

The applique has been easy
with all of the seam allowances
folded under.

I did have to figure out

 what thread to use because of all the different fabric petals.
I didn't want to keep changing thread colors.

So I finally decided to use

a light gray, Superior Thread,

Bottom Line.
The thread is so fine that it
basically melts into the weave of the fabric and
becomes invisible.

 I used a red Aurifil
which is nice and thin too, for the centers.

A few more sections to stitch together,
 a few more red circles to applique,
and I'll be ready to shift gears again.

Until Next Time-

In the Beginning

This week at my Quilt Therapy meeting

the show and tell was all about 

"In the Beginning".

What was our first quilt and 

it's story.

I'm afraid I don't have my first quilt anymore.

It found it's way to quilt heaven a couple of years ago.

 1974

I called it Hit or Miss.

2" x 3" rectangles sewn together

and tied with yarn and a red sheet for the backing plus

double batting because quilts were suppose to be fluffy!

So for the meeting I brought my second quilt.

I was an expert by 1975,

or so I thought.

I had discovered applique.

1975

33" x 48"

Hand Appliqued and Hand Quilted.

A pattern in this book was my inspiration.

It was a small gridded pattern that you 

needed to draw to the size you wanted.

Can you tell which fabrics are cottons

and which fabrics are polyesters?

Why, the polys are the ones as bright as the day

I stitched them.

This is a turkey if you are having trouble.

The cottons have faded, the solid polys are bright,

the DMC floss for the buttonhole stitching 

is still the same color and, if

I could show you a close up of my applique stitches,

you would see them as clear as day.

Mostly because the thread

 is the same original matching bright color...

polyester thread.

But that's all part of the learning curve especially,

when there were no classes,

 no internet,

no good instruction books,

 no quilt guilds,

no quilting buddies,

no quilt shops, 

just a black and white photo.

 a kangaroo

This alligator had some bleeding issues.

 I'm not sure if it was the fabric or the DMC floss.

I don't remember washing this quilt, so I'm

not sure if some color has just wicked out.

I did quilt the heck out of it.

My first hand quilting, 

a half inch grid in the background

 and a zigzag pattern in the border and sashing. 

The good news is that the quality of our cottons 

have improved over the past 40 years.

The grey goods are better

and the dyes are a lot more permanent.

This quilt has never been in direct sunlight, yet

here's what's happened over time.

I used the same fabric on both the front and

the back of this quilt.

Incredible, huh!

Look how the fading has even crept 

around into the edges of the backing.

I guess no matter when we're

 bitten by the quilting bug, our first

few quilts can tell quite a story.

It's just part of our history.

Until Next Time-

Shhhh, It's Quiet Time

 I finished just in the nick of time!

We're having a birthday party on Saturday and

someone is turning three.

 And I've made something special.

Of course, I have two super hero grandsons as well,

so that meant sewing X3!

I've been sewing snaps, button, zippers,

working with Velcro,  eyelets, 

buckle closures, cutting and fusing felt,...

Shhhhhh! I've been making

Quiet Books.

I had been collecting ideas from Pinterest

for awhile.  

There are a few websites that have free patterns.

Here's one:

http://www.imagineourlife.com

This barn

complete with finger puppets,

or this mailbox 

are popular pages that have patterns available,

but very limited directions.

But most of the pages were ideas I saw

and then I designed and figured it out myself.

 I have to say,

it was a study

in sequencing, figuring out what 

needed to be done first and so on,

 so that the pieces are completed with

a professional look.

 

For example, on this color and shape recognition page,

the Velcro was sewn to the back of the piece first and

then the layers sewn together with the cording inserted in between. 

That way no construction sewing could be seen.

  Although the

pieces were fused, I knew that alone

wouldn't stand up to lots of handling.

So that meant free motion sewing around every piece

to assure they would stay.

This is an idea I saw and would love to credit

the person who designed it, but couldn't track that down.

This is for the kid's Italian heritage.

This block took quite a bit of  planning. 

The pieces needed to fused and sewn in place, but still needed to

keep the center open to allow the spaghetti to

be pulled through the eyelets.

Some pages required some

extra pieces to add to the fun.

Finger Puppets in sleeping bags.

Most of the pages try to teach some skill.

(Guess that's the x-teacher in me.)

Concentration ( Memory Game)

It's done with magnets and washers

and I included pockets to store the pieces.

Tic Tac Toe (Strategy)

Using premade felt animals found at JoAnn's.

Counting

Number Recognition.

 Of course, I had to add some pages with buttons.

That always requires some practice.

During this process my machine refused to make buttonholes.

That required a trip to the repair shop

to get my buttonholer recalibrated.

A few different pages for my youngest grandson.

 

Big jumbo snaps

I couldn't find a construction plan I liked so

 I opted to use pellon fleece and bright fabric for the pages.

 

After two pages were completed

they were sewn together around the outer edges

to make a single page.

Each page has 3 eyelets and 

the whole book is held together with 3" book rings.

There's also stiff interfacing in the covers to 

give it some stability.

I added handles and a

closure strap.

The letters on the cover come off

so everyone can practice spelling their name!

Well, my Nana project is done.

Now it's time for the kiddos to

have some quiet time and play.

Nana needs some quiet time too.

After she picks up the mess in the sewing room.

 Until Next time-

3 Cheers

 Despite the fact that fireworks 

and firecrackers were pretty much

finished last weekend,

I continue to look at the month of July

as the Red, White and Blue month.

That way I don't feel bad

finishing up this cute free embroidery pattern

from Crabapple Hill.

 I had taken the pattern and enlarged it,

did some coloring with crayons,

heat set the color, 

and finished up with the embroidery.

It became the perfect size for a 

small holiday pillow.

 (11" x 17")

 I decided it needed the rickrack to

frame the piece and, of course,

so many things look better with rickrack.

Don't you agree?

It was nice to have a smallish project to work on.

Something to pick up and work on and

relax with.

 We've had a rainy week 

here in colorful Colorado,

lots of welcomed rain and moisture.

And it's found me inside

busily sewing on a project that

I can show you next week.

 Let's just say, it's the kind of 

thing only a Nana would do

for her sweet grandkiddos.

Not necessarily smallish or relaxing.

 Until Next Time-

Softly Tootin' My Own Horn and Some Other Things

 My mom always told me

never to "toot your own horn".

It was bragging and, besides,

others would see your good work and take notice.

But today

I'm breaking that rule, but 

  I hope I'm not tooting too loudly.

I have completely finished

 

 Dutch Chintz Medallion

2014- 2015

63" x 63"

It's taken a year and a half,

6 installments of Quiltmania magazine,

a fabulous design by Di Ford,

and perseverance.

It was fabulous to work with the Dutch Chintz

 from DEN HAAN & WAGENMAKERS

I had never done Broderie Perse applique before

or English Paper pieced hexagons.

The design brought forth new challenges and skills.

I didn't like how these football shapes didn't touch.

So I added some tiny circles to connect

them altogether.

And mitering borders

is always a challenge for me.

Then there was the decision on how to quilt it.

I combined both machine quilting in the ditch and

 hand quilting the open areas.

Today it's done

 and the label sewn on.

Tah Tah Dah!

*****

Winners:

Last Saturday Running Man drew three names

to win the three fabric baskets I had made 

in conjunction with my birthday celebration 

and my year of fun.

Here are the winners:

Basket #1 - Cathy of Quilting on Main Street

Basket #2 - Sandy L.  

( I still need to hear back from you, Sandy.)

Basket #3 - Julie of JulieKQuilts

Thanks  to everyone who took the time to 

leave a sweet comment.  I appreciate all of you.

***

The Fourth of July holiday is 

just around the corner here in the States.

Have a wonderful celebration.

Until Next Time-