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

I Should Be Sewing

Lately I haven't felt much like sewing, and the guilt is weighing heavily. I have so many projects on my to-do list, which is tacked to my fabric cabinet and stares at me every day.

I've made myself work on Big Cypress Quilters quilt-along blocks. It's a design meant to be made with a jelly roll or two, but since I've never owned a jelly roll (and don't want to start now), I thought to cut all the pieces individually, from scraps. Thus far, these are the 11 blocks, 12" X 12" (finished) I've piece. I have 9 more cut and ready to piece. 

I've also half-heartedly begun working on my Central Florida MQG "Pick a Decade" Challenge. I started strong with the single "atomic-looking" block, and have futzed on a few occasions with machine appliquéing other 1950s shapes. Inspiration for this project is sorely lacking.

Instead I've continued to round loom knit, making two preemie caps, and another Comfort Doll. 

I've also continued to diamond paint, though I hit a big stop last Friday. When I went to Diamond Painting Club. I was stunned to realize I'd diamond painted the sun, and it was completely PINK! Friends verified I had chosen and used the correct drill colors, according to the key. 

A side-by-side examination of the advertised painting, and my efforts thus far, reveal the difference. The mistakes are on the canvas, and I'm missing all the drill colors of the sun.

As you can see, I'm nearly half-way finished with it!

Why did this happen to me?! It the very first diamond painting kit I ordered! I'm feeling sick about the 20 hours of painting (at least) I may have wasted. Assuredly, I'm not happy about this, and am in communication with the company. I expect a fix or a refund.

Perhaps this is a good reason for me to stick with sewing! Linda

End of July: Yardage Tracking and Books Read

July was a low productivity month. Between two trips to visit family - in Kansas City and Austin, Texas - and being captivated by diamond painting and round loom knitting, fabric output was low. And, there was that fabric buying time at KC Maker Studio in Kansas City. Those purchases are yet to be used, but will definitely be part of current WIPs. 

So, 6 yards of fabric came in; 3.36 yards went out, for a net gain of 2.64 yards. 

Makes that used-up fabric were:

• 8 Posh Penelope blocks
• a rice bag, and
• 17 more hand-pieced Inner City blocks (made while traveling)

Still, I'm consoling myself by looking at the 2025 OUT Yardage total thus far. It's 52.75 yards used since January. Ah, I feel better.

Audiobook listening was also at a slower pace. These are the seven titles I read, six of which I scored (5.0 is the highest rating).

1. 4.5 - Under the Tulip Tree, Michelle Shocklee
2. 4.2 - See Me, Nicholas Sparks
3. 4.1 - Tail of Vengeance, Spencer Quinn (a short story that's .03 in the book series)
4. 4.0 - The Sea Glass Sisters, Lisa Wingate (a short story)
5. 4.0 - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, Erin Litteken
6. 3.9 - Didn't See That Coming, Jesse Sutanto
7. The Helper, Catherine Marshall

I thought Under the Tulip Tree was especially good. It's a good coming-of-age story about a young, aspiring writer, Lorena, whose family experiences the 1929 stock market crash. She determines to find employment to help support her family, but in the process learns more about the hidden side of her family, and how to start making amends.

Nicholas Sparks never disappoints. See Me was another story about people from differing backgrounds finding common ground and love. 

Other titles were short stories, like A Tail of Vengeance, #.03 in the Chet and Bernie series, and The Sea Glass Sisters that I didn't know was a short story that's part of a series.

Or disappointing.

I started the book The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune and didn't want to finish. It's about magical children in an orphanage, and the social worker who visits their house by the sea. It wasn't as "delightful" to me as recommended. 

I didn't score The Helper by Catherine Marshall, but I highly recommend reading it if you want to know more about Holy Spirit and His place in one's heart and life.

I'll mention that I caught the narrator mispronouncing several words. The most disconcerting was when she said "morality" when she should have said "mortality." 

Ms. Marshall wrote The Helper in 1978 and though she uses "current" references to make her points (making the narrative historically interesting), her truths are timeless. She was a woman of great faith!

You may know of Catherine Marshall because her popular Christian work of fiction: Christy, written in 1967. I read it when I was in my 20s, and plan to re-read it. Linda

Away and Back, Again

Once again, I was away for a week, this time to Austin, Texas to visit our son and grandsons.

We watched a little of the grandsons' (ages 11 and 14) scuba diving lessons. When all we could see were their bubbles (ha!), we left. Three of us also did some diamond painting on coasters, and played Rummykub and Mexican Train Dominoes.

Traveling by car, I had lots of "Passenger Queen" time (picked up that term from my Instagram friend Susan @canadianabroad). The trip was the reason I started a rice bag.

From my last blog post, I learned that several of you seemed uncertain about the use for a rice bag. In this case, it's not meant to be filled with rice and microwaved to warm your hands or feet. Rather, this rice bag, called komebukuro, was first used for carrying a rice offering to a shrine or temple. Today its purpose is as a gift bag or to carry personal items.

I used this free pattern, offered by a 4-H executive on the Utah State University website, but my rice bag isn't soft-side. Instead, I added structure.

First, I sandwiched flannel between the pieced top and back. Second, the patches I added are not raw-edge stitched in the Boro style, but rather have turned under edges as with Kawandi.

All my choices compounded to make the piece a little challenging to hand-stitch because of the thickness.

I used size 12 Wonderfil Spagetti thread to hand quilt 43 times - about ¼" apart - along the 24½" length of the piece.

Darn it, I forgot to take a thimble along with me! A soft rubber thimble would have eased how difficult it was to pull the needle through all the layers.

Anyway, I got the quilting task completed going to and coming from Texas. When I returned home last Tuesday afternoon, it sewed together quickly. The pattern's written instructions for assembly are adequate. Photos help.

In case you're interested, when I finished quilting it, I used Deco-Bond 809 to back the exterior piece. That added more stiffness, I also fused a square of Timtex to the bottom piece. Turning it inside took a bit of wrestling, but I'm pleased that it stands up like a box.

My friend Peggy gave me the rope and empty wood spool for finishing. Thanks Peggy!

Now that I've been home for a few days, I'm back into activities and making. This week I knitted another round loom cap.

I tried a different design following YouTube to make the Raindrop Stitch. I'm pretty proud of myself for strategically adding the gray color stripes. If I hadn't added gray, I wouldn't have had enough red yarn to make the whole cap. Happily, I used every bit of the red yarn. No leftovers!

I'm promising myself I'll return to quiltmaking this week (my Pick-a-Decade Challenge quilt won't make itself!) though diamond painting continues to call me. I'm about one-third done with my 20" X 20" ocean scene. The sea water is sparkly beautiful.

Between the trip to Kansas City in early July, and the trip to Austin last week, I'm now well-stocked-on two of my favorite things: popcorn and coffee.

Hy-Vee (Midwest grocery store) popcorn is the best when it comes to kernels to pop yourself... which I always do. In fact, it was "dinner" for me last night! You can see I'm impartial when it comes to white or yellow corn. Ten bags should last a little more than a year.

As for coffee, I really like the flavors H.E.B. (Texas grocery store) sells, and the fact that most of their specialty flavors - with names like Texas Pecan, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio - are available in regular and decaf. I like to mix my own half-and-half regular/decaf combo to make individual cups. Nine bags should keep me for a few months.

When we go to/from Austin, we stop at all the Bucee's (four stops this trip!) and stay two nights in a motel. Coming home, we decided to treat ourselves to a balcony room at the Hampton Inn on Mobile Bay, in Daphne, Alabama.

We faced west, and though it was hot (like 94℉), we got to see a beautiful sunset.

The highway going across the bay is I-10, and that's downtown Mobile in the background.

Linda

Starting Something New

Not that I go off on tangents or anything... 😄 but, I've begun a new handwork project. 

I'm giving a Big Stitch Quilting and More program to members of Jacksonville (Florida) MQG in August, so I thought to have another sample handwork piece to share.

Seems I'm always late to the game though - a late adopter. This is the start of my first Japanese Rice Bag.

Recently, during a South Florida MQG bi-monthly, online Sip 'n Sew, after I inquired as to everyone's favorite rice bag pattern, we had a chat about them. Most modern versions of a rice bag will likely not be used for transporting rice. 

After much Googling of patterns, I satisfied by frugal Germanic background with the perfect FREE Japanese Rice Bag pattern. It's a pattern and a PDF download on the Utah State University website, offered by a 4-H Educator. Happy, happy!

I went through all my linen fabrics, and pieced them according to the pattern. What I've done differently is use a piece of flannel (prewashed) as batting, on top of a solid cotton. I want the bag to be sturdy, and stand up on its own.

Then, I went through scraps to choose coordinating colors. I've turned the edges under and pinned the pieces in place. I'll use three colors of 12-weight Wonderfil Spagetti perle cotton.

I plan to quilt this Boro-style. Even though scraps for Boro are traditionally raw-edged, for durability (machine washing) I turned under the edges, in more of a Kawandi style. I've made a small start.

In between sewing, I'm happily diamond painting. My ocean scene is coming along nicely. The top part is almost done. The shiny part you're seeing at the bottom are pieces of white release paper that protect the sticky, unpainted part of the canvas. While you're working, you really don't want your forearm glommed to the design!  

This is the remaining top corner that needs to be filled with diamond drills.

In this close-up you can see the painted and unpainted parts. 

My first, 6" X 6" diamond painting, is ready to hang. It's painted with painted round drills (versus squares). I glued it to a 6" X 6" canvas and wrapped it with cording. 

I'm enjoying diamond painting very much. It goes especially well with audiobooks! Linda