Monday, July 13, 2009

A good crafy weekend!

Good morning everyone,

I ate wheat this weekend, so I am moving kind of slow today. My joints are screaming at me. I have all the necessary work done up, so decided to take a break and update my blog. I doubt that I will be very energetic today. I just have to learn to leave wheat products alone.

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was good, but not at all like we had planned. We had lots of outside work planned. We received almost 2 inches of rain early Friday morning. It was still too wet outside to work on Saturday morning and too hot and humid that afternoon. So we thought we could do our work on Sunday. Nope. We woke up to a downpour of another 1 1/2 inches. So it was an inside weekend for us.

We watched movies and just piddled. I, of course, have to have something in my hands to work on while watching tv. I finished the quilting on the Savannah Star. Even got the binding sewed on. Now I just need to handsew it on the back and wash it and it is done. I decided to quilt an 'X' in each square and rectangle. There are lots of squares and rectangles in this quilt, so it is densely quilted.
I made the binding up at the same time as I sandwiched the quilt. I was starting to sweat a little as I was sewing it on last night. Talk about cutting it close. Of course, I think I have used up the leftover green and blue in other projects, but I made it, barely! This is all the binding that was left.
I also did quite a bit of crocheting on the pink baby afghan. I have used a whole skein of yarn and about 1/2 of the second skein, so I am coming right along on it. As you can see, Callie had to inspect what I had laid out on the bed. It is after all her bed. LOL She just lets us use it. I decided to make a wall quilt for my sister-in-law. She has had a really rough year. This is a Thimbleberries pattern called Birds and Blooms. Can you tell that I love Thimbleberries patterns? Here is the middle of it. It will have a bird, flowers, and berries appliqued all the way around this border then a border of half square triangles. I am fairly new to hand applique, so I have been trying different methods to see which one works best for me. This time, I drew the the design on the dull side of freezer paper, cut it out, ironed it onto the wrong side of the fabric, then cut out the fabric being careful to leave a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Then I used a Q-tip to put some starch around the seam allowance. I used my little bitty Clover mini-iron to iron all the seam allowances in. A little warning here. The rod on the mini-iron also gets very hot. Do not stick your index finger on it to get more leverage. It hurts! I had read that you can use Elmers washable school glue to hold applique down till you can stitch it. Since it only cost $1, I got some to try. I am just as clutsy with pins as I am the iron. I always hurt myself, so I decided the glue was worth a try. Here is the first section all prepped. I am really hoping I can take the little points out of the eggs and berries as I hand applique around them. I hope I get better with circles. They are hard. Nothing like square eggs. LOL I will let you know how this method works. I see in my picture that the leaf just barely shows up, so I will have to choose darker greens in the rest of it. So far I have had fun with this project.
Well, I need to get off here. It is time to fix dh something to eat. I hope you all have a good day. Thank you for visiting. Please come again. I am sorry that I haven't responded to everyone's comments, but last week was a busy one for me. I will try to get caught up and do better. Can't promise, though.

5 comments:

~JoAnn~ said...

Winona~ This is my last try, the computer seemed to just take away my comments before I can get them posted...anyway they say the 3rd times the charm~we will see

You have been real busy. I love all the projects especially the afghan, it looks so soft.
Let me know how the applique turns out, I am planning on doing some soon though I have been saying that for over a months now :)

Have a great week.
Blessings,Joann

~Bren~ said...

Elmers glue sticks work great too. I am such a needle turn lover...something about using that needle to turn the fabric. If it is small I thread baste it. Those points will only come out if you clip your curves. Remember....clip every curve (before, during and after the curve) and there will be no points. I clip heavily and always have nice round circles. I just love hand applique. You will be so hooked by the time you are done with this quilt. I love your fabrics. It will look more beautiful than Lynette's!

tiffibug said...

You do such a good job with all your quilts. It makes me smile to come here and see what you are working on.
:D

Crispy said...

Shoot Winona, you don't have to reply all the time. Life does get in the way sometimes :o)

The pointy parts on your eggs can be smoothed out when you start stitching. Just get your needle under the piece and spread out the fold that is causing the point. Also, smooth things out only one stitch at a time....this really helps with curves.

Crispy

Paula said...

The birds and blooms quilt is so pretty, Winona! I love the colors. But heck, I love all your work! LOL
Sounds like a rainy weekend was just what you needed to take it easy. And like Crispy said, don't worry about replys! We still love ya no matter.

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