Another Quick Finish

Three mornings this week I volunteered at Project Transformation in Memphis.

We listened to elementary and middle schoolers read. 

I had Flat Chuck in my bag and took a photo of the book Aiden was reading to me.

Then Aiden agreed to have his photo taken.

Hope he has fun reading to his next volunteer.

I cut out this jacket earlier in the week.

It only took a couple of hours to finish it this afternoon.

I bought the fabric at the quilt show in Paducah.

My oldest grandson had a promotion celebration on Wednesday.

I wish I could have been there to see the program.

Thankful for photos of the events I miss.

He is a smart, kind, creative boy who gives wonderful, crushing hugs.

Can't wait to spend time with him in August.

I finished my block for our group's charity quilt.

Now we have to sew the six big blocks together.

The first National Park quilt has basic quilting done

and it has been trimmed.

I am taking a break from working on these quilts while I make some outfits

for Ava and Kenton.

My mini history quilt is also in the rotation. It has to be finished by August 22.

A workshop that I thought would add a feature to the mini quilt has been canceled.

Back to the drawing board.

I started going to physical therapy for my knee this week, too.

Wow! So glad I'm getting this help.

I can already feel the difference.

Happy sewing.

 

Rescue Dog

This doesn't look like a dog but once upon a time it was a cute corduroy pup.

The stuffing had disintegrated and I thought I could easily fix this childhood treasure.

I'm not sure what my mom used for stuffing but all that was left was dust.

Even the little tail had gritty brown dust inside.

I started emptying the toy in my sewing room.

Oops! Brown dust every where.

I turned the dog inside out to undo the tail.

I decided the only way to get rid of the embedded dust was soaking the fabric in cold water.

After swishing it around several times and running fresh water through it, 

I squeezed the excess water out and put it on the screened porch to dry.

I used pearl cotton #5 to embroider a nose and eyes.

The original eyes were glued on pieces of yellow corduroy.

There wasn't a nose/mouth as far as I can remember.

I outlined the eyes with brown pearl cotton and stitched a brown iris on each eye.

After I embroidered a nose and eyes, I stuffed little doggie with polyfil.

Next, sewing the tummy opening.

As I stitched I realized how fragile the corduroy was.

I used a variegated brown thread to close the tummy.

To make the closing almost invisible I used a ladder stitch.

Next time I will pull the stitches tight after a stitch or two.

Pulling this many stitches was not the best way to close the opening.

So cute!

His ears just naturally stand out.

He reminds me of a favorite picture book from my childhood 

about a little puppy who was invisible, Nothing At All by Wanda Gag.

I may have the pattern for this little stuffed dog in mom's pattern collection.

When I have a chance I will look for it.

Little doggie has a home with my baby photos and bronzed shoes.

Very pleased with this refurbished little stuffie.

Planning to get back to National Parks quilts next.

Happy sewing.

 

Sewing frenzy

Sue Spargo has a sew along going in celebration of 20 years in business.

I printed all the prompts with intentions to make the flowers one day.

Then she announced a wonderful prize for one lucky person who completes the sew along.

I'm in a sewing frenzy to meet the deadline.

Above is the first flower I tried.

Then there were two.

My wool pieces were too small, so I added pieces.

More flowers.

All the possible threads and needles were found.

My version of a sunflower.

Below is the finish.

I have 8 more flowers to make, then all the stems and leaves.

Will I finish in time? 

We will see.

There was a little pause to make this with Ava, our granddaughter.

Blooming now in our tiny yard.

The daylily above is from my mom's yard.

The one below is from Dixon Botanic Garden's plant sale.

See you next time.

Happy sewing!

 

Progress on quilt tops

Three of the four National Parks quilt tops have borders.

Below is the dark green with tan dot border.

This one has sage green with tossed badges for the border.

Below is the first try layout with blocks of batik.

I wasn't happy with the look so I ripped seams and took out the batik.

The new layout has less batik with small posters inserted.

It wasn't too difficult to resew the blocks.

I sewed in the same order as the original layout -

side with middle poster, then sides of the column, last side to the border.

I think the final top will have light sage green with tossed words for the border.

I have enough of the dark green dot but I want to use as much of the theme fabric as possible.

Grandson David had a big week.

He turned seven!

And participated in a violin recital.

Wish I could have been there in person.

Thankful for photos, videos, and FaceTime.

Happy Sewing!

 

Making National Parks Posters into Quilts

First a Paducah photo retry-

I took a lecture class on thread painting at the quilt show.

I took notes and photos of a couple of examples.

When/if I try thread painting, I will post photos.

Below is a sample of using fabric as the pattern for thread painting.

This week I have been working on quilt tops using National Park Poster fabric and the batik fat quarters I recently won. The first top will be for my younger brother. He has visited much of the US. On family vacations as kids we camped in National Parks-most of the ones on these posters.

Trying out borders.

I used this green as the border on the first top.

A finished top - but- I think I'm going to change the large batik blocks in the center column.

Another border try-out.

This green dotty fabric was in my stash.

I think it looks good with the posters.

I have bought three flannels for backing.

I want to be sure these are snuggly lap quilts.

Another border try-out.

There will be four lap quilts made from these National Parks Posters.

Look for updates next time.

 

Paducah Quilt Show

Friday I attended my first international quilt show.

A church near me took a group to the AQS Paducah show.

We went to the show and ended the trip with a visit to Hancocks.

A few things from the show.

I took two lecture classes and still had time to walk around the exhibits and vendor sections.

 I'm having problems accessing the photos I took of quilts I liked for this post.

I'm writing this bus trip story so I can remember it.

The two travelers who sat in the bus in the seats in front of me were friends.

They called each other at the beginning of the trip when one had gone to the wrong

place to meet the bus. We waited while friend #2 found us and boarded the bus.

When it was time to leave the quilt show and travel to Hancocks, friend #2 was in her seat on the phone to her friend. I could hear her adamantly telling her friend that she was on the right bus. She insisted that she saw the people that she recognized and she had gotten on the right bus. Her friend was just as certain that she was on the right bus and did not see friend #2.

I looked around the bus and spied friend #1 a few rows behind me. I tapped on friend #2 and pointed.

Still on the phone friend #2 told friend #1 to turn around.

They laughed and laughed at themselves, relieved that they were both on the right bus.

It was a fun trip. I am glad I went to my first international quilt show.

 

Charity blocks and small projects

This week was focused on small project finishes.

Grandson David chose some fabric while he was here.

The plan was to make a project bag but we ran out of time.

He did have fun quilting the fabric on the sewing machine.

This is the finished bag.

I will mail it to him if he wants it or it can stay here for his future projects.

Memphis Modern Quilt Guild asked all members to make blocks for two charity quilts.

I think the quilts will go to tornado/flood victims.

The string block below has my 1" strips with a solid supplied by the guild. 

The blocks below had to have bright green alternating with white-low contrast strips.

The color in the photo isn't true and 'bright' is a subjective term to me.

It will be interesting to see how these quilts look when finished.

My recent Missouri Star box included 'Flat Chuck' with a request to take photos with him.

Ava helped me get this pic when I took her to her horseback riding lesson with Miss Julie.

This week I made some more sleep masks for my favorite yoga instructor.

Her daughter-in-law asked for some. A great way to sew up some scraps.

Next Friday I am taking my first trip to the quilt show in Paducah.

I will be shopping for items to include on my collage quilt.

I have signed up for two lectures.

I will share next time.

Happy sewing!