Mourning Heart for Hideko

My friend Hideko, with whom I was a fellow moderator of the Crazy Quilting International Yahoo group for several years, lives in Sendai. Needless to say, the devastation and loss incurred by the events of March 11 of this year have caused so much pain and suffering among all our Japanese friends.

Hideko herself began stitching a mourning quilt.  Her center panel depicts the coastline in and around the Miyagi Prefecture with sites of particular note marked (tsunami damage, the nuclear power plant, etc.).  One of our friends, Margreet, got a great idea to send Hideko a Mourning Heart. It was a six-inch heart on an 8” square of black fabric, modestly decorated in the blacks, grays and silver of mourning.  Many ladies have followed suit, and Hideko plans to piece the mourning hearts around her central panel and make a memorial mourning quilt/wall hanging.

This is the mourning heart that I completed this afternoon.

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As I was stitching the silver butterfly charm on, it reminded me of a tip that I would like to share with you. Many times I see charms sewn onto crazy quilts, and the hanging loop is still visible. Charms come either with or without the loop, and are often made both ways to allow for the end user to decide which style best fits their purpose. For example, you would need a hanging loop if you are making earrings.

Before

Crazy quilters and art quilters use the loops (if they are there) to stitch the charm to the block.  But an extraneous loop does not add to the design. What to do? Try attaching your charm with a thread color that matches the background fabric. Just a few extra stitches will wrap the loop and make it virtually disappear.

After

It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s pretty darn good.  Did you notice the missing ring in the original picture of the entire mourning heart?  I bet your eye just passed it by......    :-)

Have a wonderful weekend ...  I am starting mine off early Friday morning by visiting an estate sale here in town.  Methinks I’m about due for a Find.

Hugs,

Some Garden Pictures - Finally!

The last several days have been almost summer-like, with temperatures in the high sixties to the low eighties. On Saturday, we joined the neighborhood vegetable garden group and went over to weed at the large donated plot for an hour. About 12-15 families have joined together to plant just about every type of vegetable you can imagine. Since we have cut back our own garden this year (mulching, changing things around and Bruce’s limited arm use), we will only have a few varieties of tomatoes and peppers. The neighborhood garden is a great opportunity for us to get corn, beans, peas, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc. for just a little labor. I’m sure I will have pictures of this neighborhood garden later in the summer.

When we finished at the neighborhood garden, Bruce and I spent most of the rest of the day in our yard weeding, tilling, mulching, trimming, planting, transplanting, etc. What a great feeling it was to get it done, and our yard is already looking WAY better than it has for a couple years.

So, let me share some pictures with you of our yard from last weekend.

Irises in bloom in front window raised bed 

 

These purple irises are huge!

Looking west; front irises and porch

Another iris in front raised bed

In the ground-level bed under the irises, we have a rose tree, clematis, bleeding hearts, salvia, daylilies, hosta, and Asiatic lilies, plus a couple petunias to give more color since only this clematis and bleeding heart are blooming.  Everything here is about 2-3 weeks behind our usual schedule due to our cool, wet spring.  

I love having so many colorful Mexican Talavera pots in which to plant colorful flowers. We pick up one or two every time we visit our family in southern Arizona, and I line our porch and walkway with them. They are really eye-catching!

As always, you can click to “embiggen” these pictures...

Looking west

Yes, we finally had to turn on our sprinklers (and only once so far!)

Wait ’til you see this rose bush in bloom!

Mr. Frog (or is he a toad?) contemplates as he waits for the lilies to bloom.

On the east side yard our snowball bush is blooming. You can also see another iris and the poppies that are starting to bloom.  (and you can also see my Prius in the carport, oops).

That’s lavender beneath the snowballs...

This was Saturday June 4. As of today (June 6), almost two thirds of these are open.

The front perennial bed to the west of the porch. WE STILL HAVE TULIPS!!

Above: more irises about to open, plus this lovely plant. I can’t remember what it is, but it will be full of heavy, blowsy purple blossoms that will need to be staked and tied discreetly.  :-)  

 More irises at the corner, and wrapping around to the west side yard.  

This side yard needs work and will be a project for me this year. We want to keep that one large (laurel?) bush; it is always a beautiful green and easy to keep shaped once I get to it. But everything beyond it - the forsythia, scraggly butterfly bush and the rest are outta here! I will probably transplant more irises there; they are proliferating beyond belief. I’ve got too many of the white and beige ones (called Champagne) and would rather divide and plant some of my more colorful ones. We’ll probably attend the local Iris Society sale in July and pick up some more unusual rhizomes.

Above: our back garden, tilled and ready for more mulch. Only a few tomatoes and peppers are planted.  Along the back wall we have climbing roses and a lilac bush, plus more.... what else? Irises. Hey! If you live in the area and want some irises, just let me know!!

The apricot tree outside our back bedroom window. We’ll have this tree seriously pruned in the fall. As it is, I can take the screen off the bedroom window and reach a couple dozen apricots that should be ready in about a month...

The grape arbor is filling in quickly. The birds nest has been abandoned (the one egg is still in it). I think I’ll take it down and keep it. In another couple weeks this will be one big leafy green mass that will totally shade the patio on the other side. We have already had a couple meals out there ... heavenly!

For the Birds CQ Block & London Playdate

I finished my work on Cathy L’s “For the Birds” round robin block.  I believe this is the last block of that RR.  Working with all the prints is difficult because if you don’t go BOLD, or just cover things up, your stitching gets swallowed up.  I love the colors on this block, particularly the pinks and greens, so I chose to work with those.

Like Janet, who stitched before me, I used a doily in the corner to cover up some of the bright blue print. The dyed lace “greenery in the bottom left served the same purpose.   Isn’t that a great bird print fabric that she used??  I chose to put the upper bird in a nest in a tree (branches are there, but not very visible); the lower two birds are in the “thicket”, LOL. The doily and rick rack/crocheted trim are vintage.  Always have to add something vintage!

It is fun having DH home now.  His next arm surgery is scheduled for June 15, and he will be home on medical leave for a month after that. After that, he will be officially laid off/retired, with a generous severance/retirement package.  So for all intents and purposes, he is home to stay.   Our granddaughter London loves having “Amma and Papa” (grandma and grandpa) watching and playing with her on Tuesdays. Last Tuesday we took her to the little neighborhood park.

London on the swing.  Happy Girl!

Here she is on the slide. We started her on the baby slide, not knowing (until her daddy came to pick her up that evening) that she is a playground veteran!

I match the slide!

It wasn’t long before she wanted to go on the mid-sized slide, and then the big curvy one. She climbed everywhere confidently (although nervous Grammy here was right behind her anyway!)

I match the slide!

When she finally decided that the steps up out of the play area were more interesting than the slides and swings, we let her run around for awhile. She loved gathering the fallen “py-cohs” (pinecones). I thought she learned the word very quickly, but my son said she already knew it and loves to play with them.

She is 21 months old now and I can’t keep up with all her adventures. Yep, I’m a grammy alright - already a step or two behind! (wink, wink)

Purse Contest Winner - 2011 CQI

Woo-Hoo!  This morning they just announced the winners of the 2011 Crazy Quilting International Purse Contest.... and I won!!  (insert Happy Dance here).   There were only five (yep, five) entries submitted, although more than triple that had registered to participate.   And every purse was absolutely unique and lovely.

Purse Front

Front, closer in
 

Front right detail

Web (with Spider!) on lower left front

 

Back side

I don’t know why it never occurred to me before to use fillet lace as a beading foundation.  It was easy-peasy and turned out much better than I anticipated.  It’s a technique I will definitely use again.

Beading detail

 

Lined interior with pocket

Congratulations to Lauri Burgesser, Colleen Anderson, Stacie Bebber and Marilyn Nepper who entered the contest and won varying prizes.  Every entry was lovely, and when they are posted on the CQI blog, I will link to it for you to see them.

In the meantime, I have been madly adding golden-dyed laces to my Etsy Shoppe, so be sure to check them out.  I have days of work ahead of me to photograph and add more, but watch in June for a big explosion of my golden-dyed laces, vintage laces and trims, and vintage linens and goodies.

Hugs,

Memorial Day

I am a little late posting wishes for you to enjoy a nice Memorial Day. The router of our fiber optics provider was having troubles on and off and crashed earlier today.  But we’re back up now and I’d like to share a few vintage images with you.  Did you get a chance to relax and enjoy your family today?

I have more pictures of CQ work to share tomorrow.  

Hugs,

Needle Books & Basic Tutorial

Last week I finished up the needle books that a woman ordered from me as a custom commission.  She saw me stitching (when Bruce had his first outpatient arm surgery earlier this month), saw my needle book and asked me to make three needle books for herself and her two daughters. So, I figured I would just make a fourth once so I could list it in my Etsy.

Well, she came by last week and bought all four! I guess that’s good news, LOL. Here is how these simple needle books finished up.

Finished Needlebooks

She had seen me using a simple needle book with mixed fabrics and a cotton interior.  Therefore,  the ones I made her all had cotton interiors as well.   

The needle pages, however, are wool felt for better moisture wicking properties.

I used to put closures (frogs or ribbon ties) on my needle books, but found that they are unnecessary and are more trouble than they’re worth. Not to mention more work. And if you are making these to sell, it makes them more cost efficient.

BASIC NEEDLE BOOK TUTORIAL

Making a simple needle book is easy and quick.  First, decide the size you would like the book to be, then double it (to allow for a front and back). You also need to decide if you want your finished needle book to be a basic square when folded, or have a portrait or landscape orientation. I have made needle books whose finished size when closed ranges from a square of 3.5” x 3.5” (cut at least 7”x 3.5" plus seam allowances when open) to a portrait-oriented  5” x 7” when closed (cut at least 10” x 7” plus seam allowances when open).  

On a piece of muslin, mark your size and add 1/2 inch all around for seam allowance.  Piece the rectangle and embellish as you desire.  

Cut a piece of coordinating fabric (cotton, moire, or other fairly sturdy fabric) for the interior lining. Also cut to the same size some thin batting. This may be something as thin as another piece of plain cotton, or you could use some felt, thin batting or some interfacing. A lot of loft is not desirable. For my needle books, I used another piece of felt.

Sandwich the embellished outside to the inside lining fabric, right sides together. Place the batting/felt/whatever over one of the wrong sides. Sew all three layers together, leaving an opening for turning. Clip the corners and snip batting down to the seam. Carefully! Turn and stitch opening closed (I use invisible thread). Press.

Insides before pages added

Cut “pages” out of thin wool, wool felt, or even regular felt if that’s what you have.  Use a fabric that won’t ravel when you cut it with pinking shears. Pages should be smaller than the book itself so that they don’t show when the needle book is closed. One piece of felt, when folded, will make two pages, two will make four, etc. The number of pages is your choice.

Open the book, lie the trimmed felt pages flat, and sew down the center. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end to lock your seam.

That’s it - you’re done! This is a great way to use that odd block you may have laying around, or perhaps some piece you have been practicing on. And they make great little gifties for any type of needle worker.

Having said all this about needle books, I am still hoping to one day make myself a full-fledged hussif or chatelaine or CQ’ed needle kit, complete with scissors holder, pin cushion, and storage.  But that is on the back burner for now....

Hugs,