Davy's Quilt

I'm making this for my grand-nephew who is in his early twenties, and struggling with mental illness. I was advised to not make anything too fancy as "you never know what may happen" to the quilt once he receives it.

This comes entirely from my stash of plaids and stripes, homespuns and shirtings. I finished piecing the interior last night, then got the first two borders cut and sort of arranged. There will be one more border to pull it all together.

I had played around earlier with some different ideas for the four-patches, which ultimately went together side-by-side in the interior that you see above.

     

I thought I could use up the rest of that blue Connecting Threads print, but somehow these arrangements seemed too... I don't know, juvenile or something. Plus, I really wanted to make more of a dent in my stacks of plaids.

Meanwhile, I've been monkeying around with my Farmers Wife blocks, and so far I'm liking this type of an arrangement.

This will surely evolve further. Meanwhile I need to make more blocks. Some of these won't make the cut. Others belong to a different project, but I used them to fill in just to get an idea of the setting. Don't look to see this finished any time soon.


I hope everyone had a nice Easter! We bbq'ed turkey burgers.

love,
Sandy

Doll Quilt Exchange

"Pinwheels for Dolls" by Judy Hanson

Today was a bonanza in terms of the mail.

First, my Amazon package arrived via UPS, bearing a nifty protective case for my new ipad mini, a Conair travel iron, and a new computer mouse (no pix of the mouse, I'm using it as we speak).

All three items were very much needed ASAP, so I was very excited and grateful for prompt delivery.

Then later this afternoon, this came in the mail.

As soon as I saw who it was from, I knew what it was. I follow Judy's blog,  smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com, and got very excited to know that I was the recipient of her quilt in the Civil War Doll Quilt exchange!

Judy wrapped everything up so nice and wrote me a lovely card.
But wait.... what's that still in the package?

A cute little bunny, and a fat quarter!

Later I decided to take a closer look at the "fat quarter" and lo and behold, it wasn't a fat quarter at all, but better yet...

Scraps!!

Tiny ones, all wrapped up in a nice big scrap of beautiful shirting.

How special am I?!?

I absolutely LOVE the doll quilt, am tickled with the bunny, and I can't wait to play around with these scraps! (can you sense another doll quilt coming on? lol!)

Judy, thanks so much for your darling quilt, and all the other goodies. This exchange has been the most fun! And a big thanks goes out to Lori at humblequilt.blogspot.com for organizing the exchange.

love,
Sandy

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

I gave a little talk at my quilt guild tonight, on the topic of hand quilting.

Terry, napping under CW Doll Quilt

It was very impromptu. The guest speaker cancelled at the last minute, so our prez called on three of us, plus herself, to talk.

I talked about why I love hand quilting. How its all about the process, about doing, rather than about getting it done. I showed my Civil War Sampler, which I've been quilting on for the better part of two years.

I explained what a joy it is to create each block, that the visual reward is immediate, and constant. How relaxing it is to just sit and quilt. The Zen of the rocking motion of the needle. How you become intimate with each block, each fabric, and you bond with your quilt.

I also showed my little CW Doll Quilt as an example of how simple quilting can be, yet still be effective.

                         

When someone receives a hand quilted quilt, they can see the love you put into it in every stitch.

I listed the "pros" of hand quilting as opposed to machine quilting. With hand quilting you are much less likely to make a mistake, and is much more forgiving if you do. Ever try to go back and fix errant machine quilting stitches? Yuk.

Hand quilted quilts have a warmer look, and feel. They're soft. They drape beautifully, and are lighter in weight because there is less thread.

I encouraged everyone to try hand quilting. Some people are afraid of it, because they think their stitches are "too big" or otherwise not "good enough". I pointed out that there are all kinds of quilting styles, and stitches do not have to be small, or perfect. Remember even perfection gets criticized, so don't worry about it.

Blue Bird by Carolyn of Gypsy Threads, Doll Quilt by Sandy

So try it.
Make something small.
Hand quilt it.
Do it for you.
Love it!

Love,
Sandy

Do You Retreat?

First, go read Audrey's post about The Habits of Creativity, here. In fact, read her whole series. You'll find the tab at the top of her page. She's nailed so many things, I refer back to it all the time.

Now I'd like to add my own tip for re-igniting your creativity: Go to Quilt Retreats!

Bernie, ready to roll

 First of all, and very important, is you get to "get away" which is huge for many women who juggle jobs, households, kids, etc etc. and find it challenging to find the time to relax and/or sew. Your time is your own here, with nobody breathing down your neck to do anything. But.. getting things done, you will! Because...

2. You acheive Focus and Momentum. Before you know it you've  gotten it done. I always like to bring a variety of things to work on, including some things I've been putting off because I simply don't feel like working on them. In the stimulus of the retreat setting, these projects seem to move forward by themselves. For instance, last weekend I machine quilted two quilts, including the dreaded Chicken Quilt I'd been putting off forever!

chicken quilt

Vet Quilt

3. You get to see what others are doing, including other styles of work,  and are able to study their process. 

4. You get inspiration. The best retreat settings in my opinion have a variety of styles going on, including but not exclusive to my own. I have been inspired to break out of my "box" and try new things. I have also gained new insight into why I love the things I love...

...and see the possibilities in everything else.

5. You get to bounce your ideas around everyone else, and get their feedback, which is indispensable when you're laboring over a border, or what setting might work. 

Not to mention the camaraderie, getting to know new people, and spending quality time with the ones you already know.

So I ask again, do you retreat? What do you like the best about going to retreats? What do you get out of it? Did I mention you don't have to cook? I'd love to hear your experiences, good bad or otherwise!

Now a sneak preview to a project I worked on, but won't show in its completion until after it gets to its new home.

love,
Sandy

Old Iron, New Iron

Today I am sad to report the demise of my beloved iron.

Not dead, but very very sick. Which makes me sad.

I love my little iron. Its just your cheap-o basic iron, smallish and light. Nothing fancy. I think I paid around $20 for it something like 20 years ago. But there's something about this iron that you cannot find in a new iron these days.

See that? An on/off switch. I have searched high and low, and cannot find an iron at any price that has an on/off switch. What's up with that?

You see, when I'm sewing, I turn my iron on only when I'm actually ironing, then turn it off when I step away or go back to the machine. The iron stays hot for a fairly long time, and heats up fast when I turn it on again, so no big deal waiting for heat. I save a huge amount of electricity this way. Plus whenever the red light is on, you know the iron is ON.

A couple years ago the red light started flickering, and I had to jiggle the cord to get it to stay on. It was shorting out, and kept getting worse. So I took it apart and rewired it, the best I could. It worked fine for awhile, but the fix didn't last. I went at it again, and had it working again for a while, but suddenly the other day it started smelling really really BAD... like "burning electricity" if you know what I mean. It was so bad you could smell it all over the house. Not good. At that point I resigned myself to the fact that that was all I was gonna get out of my poor little iron.

The next day I drove down to Big Lots and bought a new one.



Another cheap-o $20 Black and Decker. ( I'm not convinced the expensive irons are any better than the cheap ones, btw. Did I mention the one that just died lasted 20 years?) Anyhow, here's how the new one looks next to the old one:



Its still pretty light, but see how much bigger it is? The sole plate is about the same size, but everything else is bigger. This will take some getting used to. I did test out the iron and one thing I like better about the new one is the steam. It steams straight down only - as opposed to out the front and sides - so I'm much less likely to scald my fingers while pressing.

Meanwhile, I think I figured out a way to approximate the missing on/off switch...

 

I'll keep it plugged in to an electrical strip installed on my ironing board, so the on/off switch is still within my reach. I have yet to really try this out, so I'll have to report back later.

This sad story serves to make one realize how important certain tools are to us, especially when they're "outmoded" or otherwise irreplaceable. I had actually started looking for a new iron when my old one first started shorting out. I would have gladly bought a new one at the time, if I could have found one I really liked. Now I'm settling for one that's .. just ok, and its arguably the best I can hope for.

I wonder what tools you all might have that are irreplaceable? Certain scissors, or maybe its your old vintage sewing machine? What do you have in your sewing arsenal (or otherwise, cooking maybe) that you cannot live without?

love,
Sandy

ps if anyone has a Black and Decker 400 series iron with an on/off switch that you want to get rid of, let me know! :-)

Playing again... and another Doll Quilt

It was one of those nights... not tired, couldn't make myself go to bed... started playing in the sewing room.

I remembered a bunch of waste triangles I had left over from some star blocks I'd recently made.  I took a handful of them and laid them out, totally random but with a directional flow. I liked it, so started sewing them together. They were not uniform, so when it came to sewing the rows together the seams did not match. 

I thought that the mismatched seams and the dull colors made it look kind of old and primitive.  I added some borders, then freehand quilted it with tan thread. The quilting literally disappeared! If you look really really close, you might see a few of the stitches.

Meanwhile, I made a little tutorial on how to install a butted binding on a doll quilt, which you will find here.

love,

Sandy

Butted Binding on a Doll Quilt

On a small quilt, I want the binding to be a thinner than what I'd put on a full size quilt, so I measure it differently, and fold it differently.

I cut my strips 1 1/2" wide for a 1/2" finished binding.

Cut two strips the length of the quilt. Stitch one strip onto each side of the quilt, 5/16" from the edge.  I like to machine stitch my binding onto the back, then fold it over to the front and hand stitch.

Next turn the quilt over, fold binding to edge of the quilt and finger press.

Fold over edge of quilt and pin, then hand stitch down.

 

Trim ends flush with quilt. The ends are raw, but will be covered by the top and bottom bindings.

Sorry about the glare.

Now measure the strips for the top and bottom, about 2" longer than the width of the quilt. Fold the ends in and press. You can adjust these later.

Follow steps as you did for the sides...

Fold, turn to front and pin, adjusting the butt end if necessary. Hand stitch down, and you're done!

ps  Mine's a little "primative" ... you are welcome to make yours perfect.


love,
Sandy