There was an old woman who lived in a shoe

And that old woman now has a darling little house complete with a flower garden! Yesterday I showed you the shoe that I wanted to turn into a pincushion. Last night I built the house and the "world" on which it is perched! I laced up the shoe with some pretty pink ribbon and voila! I used variegated floss to stitch the flowers in the garden and flower boxes under the windows.

And here is the house up close and personal! I'm telling you these little pincushions are positively addictive. I started out with Mimi Kirchner's Tiny World Make-Do Pincushion pattern and then added my own touches. It is an amazingly simple pattern and the instructions are clear and very well illustrated. It is perfect for all skill levels, even beginners.

My list of addictions continues to grow. Here are a few of them:

• tiny world pincushions
• collecting teacups, mugs and other vessels for pincushions
• hexagons and diamonds
• nine patches
• half square triangles
• machine quilting
• Czech pottery birds
• hand quilting
• hand embellishing with floss, thread and beads
• lazy punk blocks
• porcupine quill boxes
• collecting fabric (cotton and felt)
• embroidery floss
• food
• thread
• quilts
• wall hangings
• blogs and blogging
• CBC Radio
• weird and wonderful natural things like brain rock and Saturn rock
• tchotchkes of all descriptions
• and much, much more!

I have to run an errand for Mom today so I think I will go for an extra long walk for some fresh air and exercise. If it takes me by the thrift shop and they have more teacups and mugs I might just feed my tiny world addiction! What I should be doing however is working on Lazy Punk and the Block of the Month pattern!

Yesterday I decided I would mark the diamonds on Lazy Punk with a Frixion pen rather than use the dot-to-do method. I spent the afternoon doing just that and then started the quilting. It was much faster and easier for me to do it this way. Hilda  of Every Stitch marked her Carolina Lilly for quilting and it is spectacular so I decided that for some parts of my machine quilting marking is definitely called for. I am much happier with the diamonds now.

And I'm loving the back!

Before I go for my "walk" I thought I would leave you will some pretty fall colours from Mom's garden!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Filling in the spaces of Lazy Punk and yet another tiny world pincushion

The quilting is going slowly on Lazy Punk. Drat! I've come to the conclusion that the quilting of the diamonds will be neater if I draw the quilting lines with my Frixion pen or water soluble marker rather than use the dot-to-dot method.

The diamonds that were dot-to-dot are not perfect but I'm not doing any reverse sewing. Once the entire quilt is quilted the imperfections will be diminished!

There are large areas for quilting where the cornerstones are situated. Need to do some thinking about how to fill them in! I was hoping to have this quilt finished for Wednesday but it is starting to look iffy.

Yesterday evening I was looking at the tiny world pincushion I made as a door prize for the retreat organized by my Guild. I really like the little pincushion and hate the idea of parting with it. So what's a quilter to do?  Make another! It was fast because I had a few houses and trees already made so all I had to do was the "world". This is another mug I found at the thrift shop. It is an old Japan mug and I just love the basket weave pattern. Isn't it unusual?

Here's a close-up of my house! In case you are wondering, I do use these little gems...they are working pincushions!

And here are the two of them together.

Many, many years ago my mom gave me this little tchotchke shoe. I don't know what it was meant to be, maybe a tiny planter, but I think it would be perfect for a tiny world pincushion. And what would I call it? Well that's easy....The Old Woman's House because when I was a little girl Mummsie told me that "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" so this little shoe will be the starting point for a pretty little house. There are holes for shoelaces so I'll have to dig out some ribbon and lace the shoe up. Tonight I'll work on the house while I watch television! Stay tuned for the finished pincushion. It is small so the whole thing should come together quickly.

Time for a cuppa and back to marking Lazy Punk. So until I post again, happy sewing!

Rainy days, another tiny world and quilting the setting triangles

It is a dull rainy day - my favourite kind for quilting! The iridescent glass in the stained glass in the window glows on days like this. It looks like oil on water.

My Guild has a retreat planned for later this month and I was asked to make a tiny world make-do pincushion as a door prize. I finally got it finished last night. I love this little mug and house. Heck, I love each one I make! This is an old Japan mug that I found at the local thrift shop.

I used variegated floss for the pink posies along the path. They are little French knots. The path was made with a small strip of olive stretch velour and I used a variegated brown rayon thread to stitch over it and hold it in place. The green for the lawn was another find at Fabricland. It is a lightweight wool and acrylic blend that is the perfect grass colour and at $3/metre the price was right!

I hope that the person who wins this pincushion likes it as much as I do. If not I would be happy to welcome it back into my tiny world!

I've outlined all of the Lazy Punk appliqués so I will leave the blocks for the time being and move on to the setting triangles. That means it is decision time! How shall I quilt them? I would like something a little more modern because it is what the recipients of this quilt will like.

I took the Angela Walters Craftsy class Dot-to-Dot quilting. While I have a couple of books on the topic I do like to see "live" demonstrations of how it is done. Simply put rather than marking lines on your quilt top you mark dots and they are your targets, your start and stop points. They are what you aim for when quilting. For smaller spaces the dot system is fine but for larger spaces I think I will be more comfortable drawing my long lines. But who knows, with practice I will likely reach the point where all I'll need is dots but I'm not there yet!

I use my walking foot to stitch the straight lines. They aren't perfect but then who or what is (certainly not me)? I place my hands on either side of the area to be quilted and make sure that the quilt is smooth and flat. I relax, breathe and start stitching on the line. When I approach the  point where my hands can no long hold the fabric flat and smooth I stop making sure that the needle is in the down position. I do not move my hands until the machine has come to a complete stop and I remove my foot from the gas pedal. I reposition my hands once again making sure that the fabric is smooth and flat. I apply pressure to the fabric to make sure that it is held firmly in position so that when I start sewing it will not jump. I relax, breathe and apply even pressure to the gas pedal and start moving the fabric stitching on the blue line. Once all of the straight lines were stitched I filled in the spaces with no marking required.

And here is a close-up of the quilting. As I say, not perfect but I'm okay with it! And I guarantee you this: the last setting triangle I quilt will be much better than this one - that's what happens with practice!

Yesterday Kath asked about the fabric I used to make Red Maple. Aside from the brown and red inner border the quilt was made with one fabric. It is in the outside border and then the blocks were constructed with the One Block Wonder method from the same fabric.

This is the fabric.

And this is the entire quilt.

 

Craftsy has launched its first ever blogger award. You can read about it here.  There are lots of different categories so be sure to nominate your favourite blogs!

 

Time to get back to Lazy Punk (or maybe a cuppa first) so until I post again, happy sewing! 

Autumn colours and quilting Lazy Punk

I love this time of year - the colours are glorious. The sumac is now changing colour and it is spectacular!

 The leaves seem to glow. They remind me of one of my quilts, Red Maple.

This week's theme is for the Quilting Gallery Show and Tell is Fall's Glory. I entered my quilt that was made with the One Block Wonder method. I had intended to keep Red Maple for myself but when I showed it to a friend he asked if he could have it and promptly folded it up and tucked it under his arm. What could I say but "yes". He is appreciative of anything handmade and I know that the quilt will be well cared for and loved. I know where he lives to I can go visit it any time I like! You can see all of the Fall's Glory quilts here. I entered my quilt just to show it to others and I've had a chance to win in the past so if you would like to vote please consider voting for other quilts. There are some stunners!

Yesterday I took the day off to visit a quilting friend who is recovering from knee surgery. That meant not much sewing got done. Bummer. But I was glad to see how well my friend is doing and I hope she'll be back in the saddle very soon!

The quilting of Lazy Punk is started and once I complete a few chores I can go really make some headway on it. I started by rolling up the right side of the quilt almost to the centre so that I could stitch in the ditch on either side of the sashing. Once that was stitched I could unroll a little more of the quilt and stitch in the ditch on the next sashing. I don't bother rolling the quilt on the left side for two reasons. I have a large table so I can spread it out and more importantly it is easier to manoeuvre the quilt if the portion to the left is flat. I then rolled up the left side and repeated the process. The quilt was rotated 180 degrees so I could stitch in the ditch on the remaining sashings.

They are all stitched in the ditch and the pins that were in the sashing are removed. This reduces the weight of the quilt which makes it easier to manipulate. I love the look of a quilt piled up like this!

The next step is to stitch all around each of the appliqués and again the pins will be removed. It is starting to flatten out. As I add more quilting the puffiness will disappear.

Once again I am struggling with how I'll fill in the empty spaces that are just gagging for some quilting. I'm using my blue water soluble marker to experiment with designs. This is one of them. I like this one because it will require virtually no marking at all and that is right up my alley....lazy alley! As always I'll keep you posted on my progress and what I finally decide to do!

I mentioned the glorious colours so I thought I would leave you with a couple of pictures of the slender sunflowers which are blooming like crazy!

And when I looked down I saw one lonely dandelion gone to seed. I think they are very pretty, especially hen the seeds take flight with their little silky white parachutes!

I even put a few dandelion fluffs in my quilt There's a Snail in Grandma's Flower Garden!

Right, time to do chores and then sew. So until I post again, happy sewing!

A beautiful day for pin basting a quilt

The sun was just streaming in through the stained glass in the window in my sewing room window (which probably could do with a bit of cleaning). It was a perfect day to pin baste the Lazy Punk quilt top.

And here it is on the table with pinning well underway.

When I pin I give some thought to where I'll place the pins. If you are familiar with how I quilt my large quilts you will know that I stitch in the ditch on all the major seam lines. In this case I will quilt on either side of the sashing in both directions so I am careful to place my pins so that they won't get in the way of that quilting.  I placed a pin in each propeller blade and another in the centre of the block.

After almost three hours the quilt is ready for quilting. I had hoped to get to it today but it is getting late so tomorrow I'll get started. Before I do I'll make the binding so that it will be ready to attach to the quilt when I reach that point.

My pin collection has outgrown its tin so I grabbed another tin that is slightly larger. I got it in Hershey Pennsylvania many years ago. I think it is sweet - I love the old timey advertising.

In the background you can see a poster which is also an old timey piece of advertising. I got that in Penzance Cornwall and I just looking at it, especially in the cold snowy winter months!

I've got a stack of quilts just waiting to be basted which means I'm going to need quit batts. Connecting Threads has a terrific sale on right now - 30% off! I ordered six Hobb's 80/20 batts and the shipping from the US to Canada was only $8! If you need batts now is the time to get them!

Before I go, here are another couple of embroideries from my miniature crazy quilt.

The little white flower is a trillium. It is the Ontario provincial flower.

Cattails made with a bullion stitch.

 

I'm told that cattails are edible in the spring and that they taste a little like asparagus.

 

That's it for today - I'm off to do some quilting! Until I post again, happy sewing!

Procrastination is about to end, sewing treasures and more crazies

I procrastinated all day yesterday and there was neither basting nor quilting. But I wasn't wasting time because I did manage to install a new printer however it took all afternoon. There was lots of frustration and I was close to tears more than once but in the end it was connected and I can now print to my heart's content. When faced with this type of challenge I often recall an old Star Trek episode when Dr. McCoy (aka Bones) was asked by Capt. Kirk to treat a silicon-based alien (it looked like a big heaving rock to me). His response was "Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a bricklayer". When faced with IT problems I often think "I'm a quilter, not an IT specialist"!

Since there is no quilting to show how about a few sewing treasures that I've collected over the years?

 

 

So what are all of these things? The following item was picked up at a garage sale by a friend. He knew it was for sewing but wasn't sure what you do with it. It is a wooden sock darner. You can tell from all the nicks that it has been well used to mend may socks.

 

 

This next little item was found it a shop that sold tchotchkes. It is a little wooden needle case that would have been turned on a lathe.

 

 

The top come off and inside are some pins. Looked at the lovely threaded top and rim! Beautiful work.

  

The third treasure was picked up in the same shop and it is a French ivory button hook. French ivory is celluloid and it is a manmade material that was made to resemble ivory.

 

 The last treasure is a wooden stiletto that my brother turned for me on his lathe. In addition to being functional it is beautiful. It is made of curly maple (also called fiddle back) and it is loaded with beautiful iridescent figuring. It is a handy little tool with loads of uses from feeding points under a sewing machine needle to poking out corners!

 

I'll leave you with two more close-ups of some of my hand embroideries on my miniature crazy quilt. These little blocks are 3" square.

 

A tiny little frog

A pansy and a bumble bee

 

Right - time to get back to Lazy Punk.....let the basting begin!

 

Until I post again, happy sewing! 

Procrastination and craziness

I tested the backing fabric for Lazy Punk and the good news is that it does not have to be prewashed. Yahoo! The backing fabric is cut and ready to be stitched together. Once that is done I'll pin baste and then the quilting will begin. I think the pin basting is my least favourite activity but it is only because my sewing room is small and I have to pack things up and move furniture to be able to open up the table so that I can baste. I want to have the quilt finished by October 9th (YIKES) so I can take it for show and share at my quilt guild before I deliver it. So with the clock ticking what did I decide to do? Clean my computer desk. It is much tidier now!

I don't have any basting to share but I did receive a new book from Sew Sisters. They were having a special sale (29% off) so it was the perfect opportunity to purchase this book! There are lots of lovely decorative stitches in this book and it is very well illustrated. It will be a welcome addition to my collection of embroidery books!

I was thinking about what to test some of the stitches on and I remembered a little crazy quilt I started many years ago so I dug it out. It measures 9" x 12" so it is quite small.

There are lots of seams just screaming to be embellished so I may try out some of the stitches from Sue Spargo's book on this quilt. I've already embroidered a lot of little critters and plants and a few of the seams. Here are a couple of close-ups!

My initial, a little blue bird and carrots

 

A mushroom, grapes and hollyhocks

 

Enough procrastination - time to get to work on Lazy Punk. Well, maybe I will procrastinate just a little longer. There's a new printer that has been waiting to be hooked up for over a week now so maybe I should take care of that before I get to Lazy Punk!

Until I post again, happy sewing!