March, April ~ Winter Quilting

 

Good afternoon! It is almost May, late winter has gone by in a bit of a daze here. Should I blame Covid? How long can that be an excuse for hours of aimless scrolling and intermittent cleaning. 

It is not warm here--that big beautiful ocean keeps us cold when everyone else is seeing green grass and pink flowers.

This winter/ March, April---Where to start? I worked on my home sewing commission. Made 8 bed pillowcases while waiting for zippers for the sofa pillows. Joann's is missed! Amazon is great for some things, but not when you need 5 or 6 zippers. They had multicolored bundles of 100! Nope.

What I do is: I make pillowcases with beautiful prints or solid linen, sometimes comforter covers too. Batiks, coastal motifs, tropicals, Barbie and Winnie the Pooh, whatever. Then they are teamed with store-bought basic sheets. These blue shells would look great with white, navy, or grey sheets; the other set was pale seaglass aqua. Blue and white stripes would be crisp and pretty too. Usually we order sheets from Boll and Branch or Company Store.

Rumpled linen looks wonderful too.

I also got this lovely small pack of shibori swatches/ patches, from Cape Cod Shibori on Etsy. Beautiful.

 Because I think the sofas need an accent pillow, maybe a lumbar?--it would be patched, top stitched seams, no quilting. A hard sell maybe, for this client though.

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In between I worked on Whatnots. The central 1" section was just as tedious as I imagined. 

Every seam had to be sewed twice as the needle won't grip the first 1/2" of a patch.

"Leaders and enders'' or a ''sewing pig" don't help, they too succumb to the voracious chomp of the bobbin and feed teeth. I am showing my crappy work because, well, I told you so! It is approx. 9" x 12"

The designer / pattern maker Cheri Payne was renowned for her primitive make do style---but examined closely, her craftsmanship was always perfect and pristine. Can't say the same for me...but ''it will quilt out''. AKA no one except myself and you guys will ever see it.

Next step: Audition the muslin border where the little whatnots go. This muslin border finishes 5" so is wide in proportion to the  center patchwork. The border should be the same as the center's setting/ spacing squares, so the  [undetectable in my case] Xs float. But I don't have enough of the coffee dyed cotton  that Julierose made and sent me, plus my own I made following her tutorial.

So....

Stars. Need to be coffee dyed too.

Batik: best match, not much shows, maybe a yes?

Coffee dyed cotton I made a few weeks ago. Because it is not hot or sunny the dye really didn't take. And it's boring. Your thoughts?

Next: to copy the Wnots and choose fabrics.

That's always fun . I  love my TQC ''shop scraps'', since I don't save actual scraps usually.  And my little all time favorites basket too.

I noted the original colors on each piece, though perhaps mine will be different or brighter?

And some pretty reds for borders. Too soon to decide that but I pulled these out as I was rummaging.

This will be prepped for hand sewing, black whipstitch applique, but not sewed on till summer deck time.

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More hand sewing prep, the binding for Silent Night. Yes, it's back from the quilter! 

I have had a bit of a love/ hate thing with this guy, just wanted it done. Lori C did a lovely job of quilting, she really brings projects to life. I asked for a loose swirl, her choice. Maybe w a star?  And it's lovely, though if I'd had an inking the result would be so cute I might have asked for denser quilting.

It will also get the wool applique snowsuited and sledding children hand app'ed on the left borders.

The binding. I have a traditional red sprig that i also used in the upper small star appliques but then loved the Starry confetti backing. It's the most beautiful soft silky fabric I have used in years, maybe evr, except for soft flannel sheets. And see how it matches Mr Snowman?

And up close look at the pretty quilting too.

I ordered Red w pink [looks orange though] and Pink w red Stars for a mixed, more modern binding style. I'll work on that after the commissioned sofa pillows, ready for easy deck sewing.

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I met my goal for winter sewing, completing Winter Marsh and Silent Night, plus Bramble Berries and Blue Baskets; all off to my quilter Lori C. The big ones are back and so pretty. Blue Baskets and Bramble Berries One have been sent, again w idea of loose spaced stitching. I was so fed up with BB1, it was just so big, such an energy drain. [sorry, Audrey, it's me not your sewalong/ class!]. I have an idea for its finish that will, I think, reanimate it without enlarging, a save. Again an idea long ago from from friend Julierose. These projects should provide me with busy hands all summer, as well as working on Noah's Ark.

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Lori D of Humble Quilts had casually mentioned possibly doing a sewalong for the USA 250 year anniversary [semiquincentennial]. I love the idea but current events make me ambivalent.   And Lori does machine applique, whereas I'd be doing needleturn by hand so always late late late---stressor or  heirloom in progress? I am not sure. Humble Quilts blog  [no details posted yet by Lori]

Those clunky dark corner will be the first thing to go.

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Last night I made matzoball soup! Yum. I'll have leftovers for  day or two. Mo has good days and not so good, and some very bad. He sadly has aged a lot suddenly  due to stress and pain. Ha! I know just how he feels, but we keep trying.

PS my floor is not dirty, that is just how the bleached weathered floor looks after so many years.
 

Everyday is a new day.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

My wonderful quilter Quilters Imagination