I've Been Sewing!

After August's sewing lull, and our eight day trip, I have plunged back into regular activities with a vengeance! 

One of the first things I did was make another scrappy 1½"-wide fabric reel to add to my Filmstrip Quilt. This reel is 40 yards, and used-up about a 1½ yards of scraps.   

As I've been working on this, I know that the larger it gets, the longer it takes to add a new strip along a side. 

Making progress with care, I've been pinning each strip to a side. Then cut the strip at the corner.

After piecing, I step to my ironing table to press open each seam alternately using Niagara Spray Starch and a water-mister. My process is making a positive effect as thus far the 43" X 48" quilt top is completely flat. 

I also pieced the last blocks to complete this quilt top we're making among Big Cypress Quilters.

The design is by my Big Cypress friend, Debbie. She suggested using jelly rolls to make it. But since I've never bought a jelly roll, and didn't want to add to my fabric stash, I pieced each block from individually cut scraps. 

My quilt top is 49" X 61", so I pieced a scrappy 54" X 65" back. I'm ready to sandwich them and get the quilting done... hopefully by next Tuesday, as that's when everyone will be sharing their creations. 

I plan to donate mine to Children's Home Society of Florida when we host our annual baby shower for them in November.

I also finished another Cupcake Skirt Doll using Denise's YouTube video. They're friends!

I've found a home for Pink Skirt Girl (a friend's granddaughter), and I will donate Purple Skirt Girl. But before giving away Purple Skirt Girl, I first have to remove the buttons on her "shoes" - no embellishments permitted for where she's going. I'll replace buttons with some satin-stitching, using yarn. 

As for my poor amigurumi teddy, I'm still working through my crocheting issues with him. Though I received excellent guidance from my friend Winnie - how to properly make a magic ring, and place a marker to count stitches - when we were both at Boomer Loomers last Saturday, the problem that remains is my own - tension. 

These are supposed to be teddy's matching legs. Deformity? Darn. I'll be crocheting another leg and hope it's at least similar to one or the other!

Keep on keepin' on. Linda

Away to Georgia and Ohio

Hubs and I returned Wednesday afternoon from an eight-day 53rd anniversary getaway.

We'd seen a program on public television about Northern Georgia and decided to visit.

We first went to the town of Blue Ridge, Georgia. This area is considered the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains.

While there we wandered the small town, got a cupcake from "The Sweet Shoppe of the South" whose owners were Cupcake Wars Champions on Food Network... 

... and took a four-hour excursion on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad.

We opted for seating in an open railcar, and had gorgeous weather.

Traveling at about 15 mph, we spent an hour going out... and an hour returning, enjoying lovely scenery along a river. We can only imagine how stunning the fall colors will be in a few more weeks.  

The train left us for two hours in Copperhill, Tennessee. We walked back and forth several times, from Georgia to Tennessee, as we browsed shops. 

We continued to Ohio where we stayed for several days with my cousin and his wife who are always the consummate hosts, and friends with whom we share laughs, viewpoints, and stories. They taught us to play the card game "Thirteen."

Meeting-up with other cousins. I delighted in the opportunity to play my ukulele. We sang 60s and 70s songs, with cousins occasionally joining in with dancing. 

On our return trip, we again traveled through part of the Appalachian Mountains to Northern Georgia where we stayed in Dahlonega, another charming historical town mentioned in the public television program we'd watched. These Georgia wines came home with us.

Of course, cross-country travel isn't complete without several stops at Buc-ees! 

We came home with Beaver Nuggets, and too-good Praline Pecans and Pecan Pralines. There is a difference!

This Buc-ee's in Richmond, Kentucky was the busiest one I've ever visited, though that's probably expected on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. This one has 120 gas pumps. I read online that each Buc-ee's averages 4,000 visitors a day!

On the Quilt-y Side

I took two more quilts to Ohio for my cousin. That makes a total of five quilts I've given them to use in the dorm rooms where grandchildren stay when they're visiting from California and New York.

I made this "No-Name" quilt in 2022. It's pieced with solids and linen, quilted with 12 spirals, and was a QuiltCon reject.

 

In the photo below you can see the quilt I just gave them that's on the middle bed. It was made in 2012 for the first Instagram along I participated in - the Great-Granny Along. I've never used the quilt, and it suits the room with it's other two bright quilts.

The quilt at the top is Satisfaction, from a foundation paper piecing along with Amy Friend; the quilt at the bottom is Bonnie Lass, a scrap quilt pattern by Jen Kingwell. 

It does my heart good to see my quilts on beds, being used and loved.

It's good to be home again, digging into to-dos like: 

• writing the Central Florida MQG September newsletter
• dealing with customer service about that problematic "Ocean" diamond painting kit
• finishing a scrappy quilt top along with Big Cypress Quilters
• working on my Filmstrip Quilt
• meeting-up with a friend to get help with my failed attempts at crocheting an amigurumi bear
• having an overdue FaceTime chat with a good friend
• a quilt shop-visiting day with friends
• attending a Central Florida MQG Executive Committee meeting
• testing a clutch bag pattern for a friend
• preparing a mid-September blog giveaway (TAKE NOTE!)
• anticipating/preparing to teach a day-long domestic machine quilting workshop
• laundry
• housework
• exercise 

Does Calgon still do that "take me away" thing? Linda

End of August: Yardage Tracking and Books Read

Boy-o! Is my August fabric trashing report telling, or what? 

Though no fabric came in this month, it's obvious not much fabric went out either! That low. 69 yard of fabric used reflects only that I made sleeves for two quilts that are now in Jacksonville for QuiltFest,  September 18-20.

I've had a real lack of sew-jo, and it's obvious that I spent more of August quilting, round loom knitting, and diamond painting, than I did actually sewing. I didn't even make the eight Posh Penelope blocks I committed to making every month! FAIL! I'll do better in September.

In my August 14 blog post you saw three Comfort Dolls I round loom knitted.

What I also made this month was a 24-peg, round loom knitted Cupcake Skirt Doll. She's quite a bit more time-consuming than a Comfort Doll, but isn't she precious? 

She stands about 9" tall, has hands, button-topped shoes on her feet, lashy eyelashes, and hair in an updo. If you were to peek up her skirt, you'd see she has legs too!

I want to make more!

Sharing progress on my second diamond painting, I've just completed the top section of an ocean sunset with a silhouetted palm on the side. 

This one is painted with square drills. I love working on it.

In case you're wondering about the status of the first "Ocean" diamond painting I started... I'm still waiting for the arrival of a replacement/corrected canvas and drills being shipped to me from China. The last time I checked tracking, it was sitting in a customs facility in Los Angeles. 

Book Recommendations 

With so much time spent machine quilting and diamond painting, I listened to quite a few audiobooks in August - 12 to be exact. 

In score order (with 5.0 being the highest), they are:

• 4.6 - James, Everett Percival
• 4.5 - The Dressmaker, Kate Alcott
• 4.4 - Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy
• 4.4 - What Happened to Nina?, Dervia McTiernan
• 4.3 - The Egg and I (#1), Betty MacDonald
• 4.2 - The Plague and I (#2), Betty MacDonald
• 4.2 - Anybody Can Do Anything (#3), Betty MacDonald
• 4.2 - I'm Not Done With You Yet, Jesse Sutanto
• 4.1 - Onions in the Stew (#4), Betty MacDonald
• 4.1 - Shoes to Fill, Book 2 in the Mount Hope Southern Adventure series, Lynne Gentry
• 3.8 - Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy
• Before You Share Your Faith, Matt Smethurst

Books that encourage and edify Christianity and my faith are all good, so I don't score them.

About James... It's a must-read. The story is about Jim, the black slave who was Huck Finn's friend. The author has pulled that character from Mark Twain's books, and followed his adventures as a runaway slave. It's an interesting and thought-provoking accounting of life along the Mississippi just before the Civil War. 

Similarly, The Dressmaker is a must-read because of its interesting, fictional and factual recounting of the April 14, 1912 sinking of theTitanic, and the public outcry and Senate investigative hearings the week afterward. I know that a person with the same last name as ours was on Margaret Brown's (the Unsinkable Molly) lifeboat, and since Mrs. Brown was character in this story, I followed it with even more interest. The book had me looking up facts about it on Wikipedia. 

What Happened to Nina? What can I say but that this book totally captured my attention from the opening narration. I felt a kinship with a mother's anxiety, and sympathy for her desire to get even. 

Wild Dark Shore is a windswept story that takes place on an island off the coast of Australia. The author makes her perspective on global warming quite clear, but if you look beyond that, the story itself is beautiful, and an intriguing mystery.

Did you know The Egg and I was a 1947 movie? It included two of the book's characters - Ma and Pa Kettle. Do those names ring a bell? I enjoyed the book enough that I wanted to read all of Betty MacDonald's titles. She writes with an ironic sense of humor, often using personification to describe animals and nature.

The Plague and I takes an indepth look into Betty's experiences in an asylum for people with tuberculosis. I had no idea! 

Anybody Can Do Anything is about Betty's life finding and trying work that takes various form, during the Depression. Her sister keeps telling Betty she's capable of doing anything - shorthand, typing, bookkeeping. It's sort of a fake-it-'til-you-make-it book. 

Onions in the Stew is about Betty's life with her two daughters (by her first marriage) and second husband Don when they moved to and lived on Vashon Island in Puget Sound, Washington. I found it interesting because in this story she writes about life in the 1950s while living in a place of natural beauty and abundance.

Shoes to Fill... this is a pleasant series about a small-town Baptist church, and the interactions of its elders, congregants, and strangers. 

Migrations is a story about the drastic reduction and extinction of all creatures/animals on the earth, as a woman examines and comes to grips with her need to live near the seas.

I hope you are attracted to a few of these titles. Linda

New Project - Filmstrip Quilt

At our May Central Florida MQG quilt retreat, I saw my friend Cindy working on a charming scrap quilt. I haven't forgotten it. She recently posted a picture of it on her Instagram feed @cbubblesandsews, telling me she got the idea to make it after seeing it on the guest bed at her friend Janice's house.

Don't we love how quilters inspire each another? 

Here's Cindy's picture. From her own scraps, she pieced a 1½" wide jelly roll, then pieced strips. Cindy shared that the trick to its visual success is making sure each print doesn't change at the corner, rather the print wraps around the corner. This layout helps lose the log cabin look - exactly what I like about it! 

So, I selected one of my canvas scrap bins full of brights, cut 1½" wide strips, and pieced them end to end using a 2.0 stitch length to ensure the piecing doesn't pull apart. 

I'm piecing with my new favorite thread - Scanfil. It's fine but strong - a 50-weight, two-ply organic thread that I like a lot. 

I pressed open seams, and rolled it up. I have 35" yards here which comes to about 1.4 yards of fabric. 

I started with a 5½"-long piece, and began piecing prints in a clockwise direction. As I go, I'm using Magic Quilting and Crafting Fabric Fresh to stabilize the fabric because I think this sort of piecing could go wonky pretty quickly. 

I press open seams as I go.

It didn't take long to make this approximately 10" X 16" rectangle. It will be fun to keep going! 

As I've been thinking about this design, and what to call it - it doesn't have a name that I can find - I'm thinking this a Filmstrip Quilt. Google tells me that old movies were once formatted in 35mm-wide strips (1.377"). These strips are 38.1mm. Close enough, wouldn't you agree?

If you've known me for even a short amount of time, you know I like to make big, useable-sized quilts, so I'll be going for a while on this one. I'll be sure to track how far this jelly roll reel (Get it? Like a film reel?) of 35 yards of fabric goes.

Central Florida MQG QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge

I was free to start the new project because I finished quilting my portion of the quilt being made by Central Florida MQG for the QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge.

Our members really stepped up, in a timely manner, to work on their assigned parts. The top is 64" X 80". I pieced a backing, got it sandwiched, and quilted the center sections, leaving the four outside borders for another domestic machine quilter-friend, Karen, who has it now. I even added some big stitch hand quilting around each of the two flamingos. 

Since I quilted lots of starts and stops and had thread tails all over the place, I had some fun with thread-burying.

I took the quilt to last Saturday's Central Florida MQG Sew-In, along with a package of Sench needles (The Needle Lady) - my favorite side-threading needles for easily picking up thread tails to slide between the top and backing.

I invited everyone to knot and bury threads! I tracked our time, and it took an hour for four of us (changing places to include different people) to complete the task.

So, I saved myself four hours of thread-burying, and helped others learn how to do it! What's that old proverb... 

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. 

😀 Linda

Good Stuff, On the Fly

I've been busy with commitments away from home. I spent about four hours Saturday with kids in the Sumter County 4-H Club. Nine of their 11 members were in attendance. The kids, ages 8 to 14 years, had a chance to trying sewing with a serger, to edge-stitch a section of a Christmas stocking. They're piecing them piecing on their sewing machines to donate to Operation Shoebox. 

Sunday afternoon found me in Jacksonville, Florida, giving a Big Stitch Quilting and More program to members of the Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild - JAX MQG. They had 78 quilters in attendance!

I presented my lecture, followed by a trunk show. 

I shared many items I've hand quilted with size 8 and size 12 perle cotton. 

From Kawandi... 

...to Kantha (pronounced Kahn-tah)... (Ha! "Oh my!" How about that facial expression?! What could I have been saying?!)

... to big stitch quilting. This selvedge quilt is a free pattern here on my blog. 

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing big stitch (and more!) with everyone, and appreciate all the generous compliments and thank-yous I received afterward. I'd love to return to your guild!

JAX MQG members are preparing for their upcoming annual JAX QuiltFest put on by their members, and members of six other Jacksonville area guilds. I will have two quilts in the Modern category: Party Time! (improv pieced), and Turnabout (paint chip challenge quilt that's mostly big stitch hand quilted).

Below is the opportunity quilt being offered to raise monies for the Alzheimer's Association. The quilt is called Tiger, Tiger - improv at its best. Don't ya love it? 

After the excitement of being with JAX MQGers, I've jumped back into activities at home. A priority is helping our Central Florida MQG make bylaw amendments according to MQG requirements. After a meeting to determine where changes are needed, I'm preparing revisions for review by our Executive Committee, and then membership. Tedious stuff to work on, but necessary. 

Registrations open Wednesday for QuiltCon! It's in Raleigh, NC next February, and classes will sell out fast. I'm still debating about one workshop - Wild Stitches with Nichole Vogelsinger - and will be registering for a few lectures. 

I want to share a new thing I bought for my little Janome Derby sewing machine. Because the machine doesn't have a built-in light, I am now using a Vivilux rechargeable LED light.

It adheres to the end of the machine, and can be removed from Velcro for recharging.

I took my Derby to Big Cypress Quilters on Tuesday - after all, the machine fits in a shoulder bag and weighs less than five pounds! - to piece blocks for a charity quilt, and the light works beautifully to illuminate piecing.

At home I've been quilting whenever I get the chance, working on our Central Florida MQG QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge Quilt - QCCOCQ. (Is that a title, or what?!)

I've been walking foot and free motion quilting and it's coming along nicely.

All of us working on the quilt have been tracking the number of hours we do our parts, so that info can be added to the quilt description when it's donated to a local church for a fundraiser. I spent three hours piecing the back and pin-basting, and thus far have about ten hours in quilting. Good info to include with the quilt to hopefully impress upon bidders how much time was invested in making this 64" X 80" quilt.

Still on the go, I'm aiming to complete my portion of the quilting by Saturday to then pass along the quilt to my friend Karen for quilting the four outside borders.

Back to it! Linda

Doin's - Diamond Painting, Knitting, Quilting

For those of you who expressed concern about the problem I encountered with my Ocean diamond painting kit, (see previous blog post) I am happy to say that the problem has been resolved, though not without several emails and some angst. 

Initially, after emailing the company my complaint, with accompanying photos, they emailed a DMC color chart with numbers (diamond drills are colorized according to DMC embroidery colors), and suggested I pick which colors I wanted to fix their mistake on the canvas! I was a little upset by that first because I didn't know how to begin choosing, and second, how could I trust that the colors on my computer monitor were accurate?

After talking through the situation with a diamond-painting friend, I decided I didn't want to try to figure out the correct colors myself. I asked the company to instead make the correction to the canvas and send me the drill colors needed, OR they could give me a refund.

Last Thursday's email read:

"Please rest assured, we are arranging to send you a completely new replacement kit, including a brand new canvas with the correct markings and the properly selected drill colors by our production team."

A tracking number was included in the email. 

Now my Diamond Painting Club friends are placing bets as to whether the new kit will have a corrected canvas. Most believe I will receive the same canvas with the same printing errors. I can only wait until the kit arrives to find out. It's currently in Hangzhou, China.

Knowing that I have more diamond drills coming (whether they are the corrected colors or not), I used square drills from the "old" Ocean kit to make a name tag to wear to Diamond Painting Club. From Etsy I bought pre-glued 20cm x 20cm paper/canvas that's gridded squares. 

The paper/canvas is also available as gridded circles, in case a painter prefers round drills.

I graphed out my name, but randomly used drill colors to fill the background. When finished, I cut out the design and glued the paper to a magnetic-backed plastic name tag.

Another new interest has been amigurumi, a crochet technique for making small dolls. Being somewhat knowledgeable about crochet, I thought, "How hard can it be?" even though the Cuddle Me Bear pattern I bought says "Intermediate."

The picture at left, from shop.amigurumi.today is what the bear is supposed to look like. 

Okay.

I'm in over my head! How can something so utterly adorable be so-o difficult to crochet?!

I keep looking up YouTube videos to learn "how-to." Though I'm finding good information about how to make a magic ring, and how to properly crochet - yarn over versus yarn under - this isn't easy! 

After crocheting, my left thumb aches.

The yarn I purchased through Etsy is Yarn Art Jeans, and recommended by a YouTube "certified crochet instructor." I'm also using the stuffing she recommends: Cluster Stuff by Morning Glory. I bought it at Hobby Lobby  Here are the bear's head and two ears. 

All the parts are tiny! I'm pretty sure I'll have a teddy bear with character! Mis-matched ears, arms and legs... when he's finished in 2026!

I feel much more comfortable round loom knitting, and am enjoying making these Comfort Dolls. They're good for using-up yarn scraps. (Oh my! How can I be talking about YARN scraps too?!)

Next I want to make Cupcake Skirt Dolls. 

Quilting finds with on the Central Florida MQG/QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge Quilt. Our members pitched in to create an original medallion design (per MQG guidelines) to make a quilt using colors from the brights color palette. The quilt top is 64" X 80".

I pin-basted the quilt sandwich.

Then, after talking through quilting design options with my friend Karen who will also be domestic machine quilting it, I starting quilting on my Bernina 770QE. I started with walking foot. Then free motion quilting. I'll be working on this for the next week or more.

Tuesday morning I went power-walking, and intended to turn right at the end of our street. When I saw these two sandhill cranes on the sidewalk in front of me, I decided that turning left was a better option. 

😀

These animals are majestic, and a little intimidating. They were warily watching me as they strode toward me. Best to keep moving away from them, I thought. 

Though we don't have panoramic skyline views, occasionally we get to see some sunset magnificent colors. This Florida sunset showed beautifully, silhouetted through the neighbor's palms. 

I'm reminded of the God's majesty. Linda