Banners over the years

I was recently doing a bit of file maintenance on the ole hard drive and didn't realize how many iterations of the blog banner have been done over the years.

I started with these and used them for a while:

Then I went to these:

And this last batch is what I've used for a while. The bottom two have actually been used as headers on my blurb books.

And so I wish you all a Happy Year for 2010!

Dec 26

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. It seems that I took a week-long hiatus from blogland. It wasn't intentional, really. I got involved with just relaxing and it was wonderful!

The very large winter storm that has this country (USA) in it's grip made my little family stay indoors. TheKid surprised us by giving a Blue-Ray disc player and a movie and we spent the afternoon in the company of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etal. We even rearranged the furniture to get maximum effect! So the cold wind howled around the house while we were cozy watching movies.

I really do have quilts in progress

Really. Here is proof.

You are looking at my design wall. The bookcase with all the fiber related books is to the right. The backing for the donation quilt is on the wall and is actually covering the flimsy of the quilt. Of course, the quilt is done so this photo is about one week old. To the left of the backing you can see A Christmas Wish table runner that is pinned on top of the gently folded Iris Garden top.

But there has been a slowdown on quilting as I do a bit of Christmas sewing. Dear Auntie has such a dowager hump that she can not wear off the rack blouses, so I have customized a blouse/shirt pattern to fit her. My SIL and I have combined efforts on a Christmas present this year: she bought the slacks and I am making blouses to coordinate with them. Auntie will get two new outfits for Christmas. It is slickery fabric that I am working with and is slow going so it is pin pin pin and baste baste baste. *sigh*

Donation Quilt (for the Cure - 2010 version)

Recently, I pulled several new, but vintage, Harley Davidson bandannas from the bandanna stash. In the 1980's I made several of these quilts to sell and if you know your audience they sell quite well. There are still enough of these bandannas to make 5 more quilts after this one.

There is an area motorcycle Poker Run that benefits the Susan G. Koman foundation. It has been on hiatus for a couple of years but started up again last year. There is auction after the run and I used to donate one of these quilts. This is next year's quilt.

For the backing, I cut 10.5" squares. Now THIS method uses stash! I just made sure I didn't have like next to like and didn't stress if there was a darker area. This method also generated a lot of scraps for the paintbucket quilts, so there are some of those in my sewing future.

This was tied with some black wool yarn and then stitched in the ditch around the red border. Binding will be more of that black Kona cotton. I like to use wool yarn because when it is washed, the wool felts into little balls that will never, ever come untied. In the past, when I used crochet cotton, I have had some come untied. The quilts were returned to me for repair, so I started to do it this way and have not made a repair since.

But during the fabric pull to make this backing, I was really surprised at the quantity of pastel sweet prints that I found in the stash. A lot. They will make wonderful lights in a scrap quilt, so I can see them being used in the paintbucket quilts too.

Ah, the possibilities!

Crocheting a Shawl

Have you ever visited Tanya over at Taniwa? Back in October she had a post on "Crocheting a Shawl" . It was so lovely, I had to make one. I only did 7 repeats of the central motif and probably should have done 9 to make the shawl longer. I wish there had been enough yarn to make the fringe longer, but I still really like this shawl.

Thank you, Amy

Do you remember this little scarf I knit for Baby J? Well the other day I got these luscious FQ in the mail from his mommy, Amy. Thanks, Amy!

Charity Knitting and Crochet

These are what resulted when I was given a lot of free yarn.

What to do with felted sweaters

You know, the wool sweaters that went into the hot wash and shrank. Make mittens! Here is a stack of ten pairs of mittens waiting to be stitched. And then they will be whisked away to benefit the homeless. Felted woolens make the best mittens: thick, warm and almost waterproof.

The Quilt Index

I just spent a delightful hour in the Quilt Index. Do you know about this site: The Quilt Index? It is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts, MATRIX: Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University and the Michigan State University Museum. O my, O my! What a wonderful website to wander around. Click on the link and go. I clicked on 'Browse' and then 'Time Period' and just had at it. There were 13 pages of pre-1799 quilts alone. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday - Clementines