Flimsy!

 

Step One: August 2015, Betty, Kathy and I decided to make The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt designed by Laurie Aaron Hird.  This is a quilt of 111 six-inch blocks.  We divided up the 111 blocks.  I had to make three blocks of my assigned 37 blocks.  As they were made, I gave Betty and Kathy a block and kept one for myself.  They did the same.  Each quilt has the same blocks.

 

We did not have any special directions for material colors or patterns, just use what you have.  We gave ourselves one year to make all the blocks.  We succeeded!

 

Step two: put the blocks together.  I am pleased and so excited to say that my blocks became a flimsy today, just one hour ago!!!

The blocks are put together with setting triangles, cornerstones and sashing strips.  My colors; grey and cream.  I started the cornerstones and sashing strips at one corner and worked to the middle.  Then started at the opposite corner and worked to the middle again.  Then I put the two halves together. 

 

Yesterday I put on the two side border strips and took them off last night.  I was not happy with how I had sewed them on.  One side strip was put back on last night and the other this morning.

This afternoon, I put the top and bottom strips on.  I am so excited!

Betty and Kathy's quilts are in the cornerstone and sashing strip phase.  As soon as they are flimsy's, I will show you how they look.

 

Now I wait for the batting to come in.  I am using a wool batting and the backing material has also been ordered.  I have an idea on how it will be quilted.  I want to make sure the blocks are the important visual, not the quilting.

You all have a great day.  Mine has been wonderful! 

Motif #8

 

My next Motif from A Tatter's Workbook is #72 found on page 35.  I followed the pattern as written and it is a bit squished together.  My picots might be a bit smaller than A. Tatter used or I am a tighter tatter.  Who knows, I was not able to make it look like hers.

 

 

I repeated the pattern with a decreased number of ds on the rings making them smaller.  As I was tatting it, eight repeats was going to make it wavy so I stopped at seven.  You can see the vsp picot that I purposely skipped.

 

Here is my third attempt.  I increased the number of ds on the center ring, increased the number of ds on the chain with the little rings, and made only seven repeats.  This one I like.  Will have to figure out how to make it with eight repeats and not have it wavy.

 

 

When I am making picots, I always use a picot guide.  It is how I began to tat and I have no problem with holding it.  The vsp (very small picot) were made using the 1/8" size, the others were made using the 1/4" size which is my usual 'go to' picot size.

Have a grand day. 

Motifs #5, 6, 7

It is February 16th and I already have seven Motifs made and posted!  (Better than 2016.)

 

Here is Motif #5.  This is pattern #60 found on page 31 of A Tatters Workbook.  I enjoyed making this motif.  The pattern starts at one of the rings but I chose to start at a chain leading to a ring.  This is made from Lizbeth #664-Bright Turquoise.

 

 

 

I have seen this angel on other sites and went looking for the pattern.  This is Leens Tatted Angel.  She is made in two parts: the first is the body and wings and the second is the skirt.  Once again, I cannot follow written directions.  I have an extra picot in the middle of the upper row of the skirt.  This lead to an extra ring in the lower row of the skirt.  Someday I will pay better attention and not rush ahead.  This thread is Lizbeth #152-Christmas Green Mix.



 

 

 

Here is my 2017 TIAS, the Crinoline lady.  She is made from Lizbeth #170-Pineapple Parfait.  This is my first completed TIAS and this was on my list of completions for 2017.  I have now crossed off two completions.

 

 

 

Have a grand day with threads!

 

 

HOME Runner

My Most Handsome volunteers with Habitat.  The home buyer that he has been working with for the last five years received her house on Saturday (after many hours of home equity work).  It was a wonderful occasion for her and her family.  Habitat does more than restore houses, it makes HOMES.  I wish her and her family many years of happiness.

I made this table runner for her.  The pattern is from My Runners Keep Going by Disa Designs.  The use of the black, white and greys are her colors.  It is, to me, a more modern color way for a runner.  I liked the materials together when I picked them out but was getting worried as I was making it.  I finished it ..................... I liked it. 

I machine quilted it with a simple crosshatch and did a buttonhole stitch around the heart edges and the letters.

It was begun with cutting the fabrics on February 2nd and finished with hand sewing the binding on February 10th. 

Every time I complete a project, my sewing room has to get cleaned and everything put back into its place.  I am not always the neatest when working.  Yesterday afternoon was spent cleaning, no football - sigh.  A shout out for my New England Patriots that won the Super Bowl!!!

This runner is not on my list of Completion for 2017.  The projects on my list are much larger and will take more time.  I am still working on them.  Will document them as they reach certain completion stages.  I do need to make smaller things to see them begin and end rather quickly.  I am really liking the word Completion.

Enjoy your day!  We have another 12 inches of snow from yesterday.  The wind today is blowing it around.  The driveway has been cleaned out twice so far.

 

Motif #3, #4

 

Working with a plan for this years 25 Motif Challenge is working well.  This motif is #58 found on page 30 of A Tatter's Workbook, price is listed as $0.25 a piece in the 1920s.  I began it and then cut it off as I did not start properly.  If you look at the ring on the right, where it sits next to the center ring, you can see where I did not join the first picot of the center ring to last picot of right ring.  I did it properly on the left side.  Reading a written pattern is not as easy for me as looking at a drawing.  I think that I should draw them out first and then begin to tat.



 

Here is the motif done properly.  I don't usually knot my threads, but I broke my pull through thread when hiding the last thread.  So, I just knotted it and made it a loop.  I figure this is a sampling project for me.   Maybe these pieces will be the beginning of my tatting workbook.

 

This next motif does not have a number or a price.  I figure that it was put into the book at a  later date.  It is found on page 30 and just goes by the name Medallion.  She had done this as two rounds, the center ring and then the outside edge.  I tried it with leaving the center ring with a split ring and using a lock join to make a space to be a picot.  That is where the hanging loop is found.  That mock picot (or whatever it is called) keeps squishing in where you cannot see it, but it is there.  I enjoyed the outside edge which is a chain and these tiny little rings on the chain.  This piece is tiny which made it a bit fiddly.  I want to do it again with maybe more ds in the chain to make it 'less tight' and maybe the picots will behave.

Have a wonderful tatting weekend.

Motif #2

 

In tatting for the 25 Motif Challenge in 2016, I would have to think hard which motif to do and where to find them.  I have realized that I need to tat or work with a plan.  I woke up the other night and thought, how about doing the motifs from A Tatter's Workbook.  It is one of my favorite books to look at and such a piece of herstory. 

 

 

 

This is Sample #56 found on page 29.  I did it in one piece, I used the two ends of the ring to climb up with a split ring.  (Not in her directions.  Thank goodness for the tatters who came after her and made it easier to tat without breaks.) 

 

 

In her book she wrote that the price was $0.50 per yd., but I think that it was per motif.  I used an inflation calculator to find out what that equaled in todays dollar.  The 1925 price of $0.50 equals the 2017 price of $6.90.  It took me one hour and twelve minutes to make this motif.  (I did it twice as I did not pay attention to the time the first time.)

 

Now, to watch the Patriots.  Have a good evening tatting! 

Finish #1

 

I am a person who doesn't always finish projects in a timely manner.  My word for 2017 is completion. 

 

I have seen several different completion challenges for 2017 on different Blogs.  They almost all are focused on one skill, craft.  I am not a one skill person.  I love working with fibers in many different forms.  There was one challenge that had the goal of completing 17 of anything in 2017. 

 

Kathy, Betty and I have decided to look at ALL of our UFOs and WIPs and committed to completion of 17 of anything in 2017.  We have all taken inventory.  Me, I have three Embroidery, four Tatting, ten Quilting, and three Knitting projects that have not been completed.  (I am still looking for more. That cannot be all there is.)

 

Those found projects have been listed as to type and where they are in their completion stage.  Now I keep a written record of what I am working on, when I am working on it, how much time I spend working on it and where it is towards completion.  I have committed to not beginning any large project until two of not completed projects are off my list. 

 

Here is my first big finish.  This is the QOV Remembrance (Quilt of Valor) that I began the summer of 2015.  I made two of them at the same time.  They were kits from Connecting Threads and I was just getting back into quilting.  It was a joy to make them.  I had completed piecing the tops in 2015.  They were both in the flimsy stage and I was looking for a longarmer to machine quilt them.  That did not happen, so I machine quilted them myself.  I used the embroidery machine quilting program Edge-to-Edge by Amelie Scott Designs.  Here is the first finished quilt, completed January 19, 2017.

It took 77 repeats of the quilting star pattern to machine quilt this quilt.

 

The backing is flannel.  I love to back a quilt with flannel, so soft and warm.  The batting is 100% cotton.

 

This quilt is going to a local veteran as a Thank You for his service to our country.

 

May you all have a nice day.  Completion is the word.