It's a mish mash of topics today so let's get started with "who's a lucky girl?".
I've now participated in my third Secret Tote Bag Swap organized by Lia's Handmades. I showed you the Noodlehead 241 Tote that I made for my secret partner and it is in the mail so hopefully she'll have it early next week. Yesterday I received the tote bag that was made for me by Kerry at Pennydog Patchwork. I told her I liked earth tones and muddy colours but that I also loved little pops of colour. I think she got it absolutely right! She also included two fat quarters and two spools of thread. So who's the lucky girl? Me of course!
Look at the octagons connected with little squares of turquoise. There are birds in some of the squares (I love birds)!
She liked the bag with a Westminster fabric (I believe it is called Burnt Rose) and it is one of my favourite fabrics from Kaffe.
I've started working on my Mom's Lazy Punk quilt. The first thing I do is stitch in the ditch on either side of every bit of sashing. I'm using Superior Monopoly on top an The Bottom Line in the bobbin.
I like to roll my quilt on the right side so that there is less bulk in the throat of my machine but the quilt on the left is just puddled loosely on the table. I usually have a chair on my left with the back of the chair touching the table. That way none of the quilt is hanging down creating drag. I smooth out the quilt and place my hands on either side of the area I am going to quilt (I needed my right hand to take the picture) and then I stitch in the ditch. I reposition my hands and smooth the quilt every six to eight inches.
Once I've stitched in the ditch I'll stitch around all of the Lazy Punk blocks around the edge and then I'll quilt the setting triangles. Here you can see a setting triangle pinned and ready for quilting.
I drew a line that is 1/2" from the edge. I want to quilt a feather design and don't want it to go into the seam allowance of the binding so I'll keep the quilting north of that line.
And here you can see the first free form feather quilted in the setting triangle.
Once I've quilted all of the setting triangles and the lazy punk blocks around the edges I will bind the quilt. Everything was stabilized with the stitch in the ditch. Once the quilt is bound I can go back and quilt the center. I developed this method because it allows me to reduce some of the bulk that comes from the excess batting and backing. And best of all, when I finish quilting the quilt is done! I don't have to go back and bind it!
My brother has been busy turning some seam rippers on his lathe. He has been using exotic woods, many of which are burls. Here you can see the one he is working on. He has inlaid lapis lazuli in this one which is made of buckeye burl!
Aren't these beautiful?
Here are some close-ups.
He just finished turning a knitting bowl. It is a gift for someone special. Two different woods were used, one for the bowl and one for the base.
An access opening had to be created to join the base to the bowl. He inlaid turquoise to close the access opening!
Yesterday I posted Part 6 (the final part) of my Soupcon QAL. There are a couple of new pictures of quilts at Step 5 that were posted on the Soupcon FLICKR Group so I thought I would share them with you. They are very exciting!
Colleen who is Skootchover created her own design for the border and she used partial stars. I think they were the perfect choice because they mirror the angular nature of the center motif giving the quilt a very cohesive look and feel. The open spaces in the light coloured background are the perfect canvas for some fabulous quilting.
Deb Sew'n'sew who is the Toothfairy Quilter has also created her own border design of partial stars but she added embroidered details that echo the details from the modified hexagon in the center. It is exquisite and I love the fussy cut diamonds in the partial stars.
That's it for me for today. Time to get quilting and working on my next QAL. Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H
