Hand Quilting and Hockey!!!

So the winter olympics wrapped up today with a fabulous game USA against Canada for the Gold. Silver is nothing to sneeze at but the intensity is always so much more when it comes to a team winning the gold. I think that if any team had to beat us, it should have been Canada hockey is a religion to them.

The awesome Sidney Crosby won the day with the sudden death score after America's Ryan Miller who should have won MVP if there was one for the Olympics. USA tied the game after it looked like it was all over. It was a great game and you know I'm a soccer fan, Premier League but this hockey could make me want to add another time in my day to do hand work...smile

A quilter rarely just sits and watching TV is a perfect time to get some applique work done. These petals and leaves are for my pink and brown quilt. This is another zone of quilting in my house hand work is perfect for TV time.

Hand Quilting-something you don't see every day

Yes, our lives have become so hurried the relaxing rythm of hand quilting might have gotten lost along the way. Well, this isn't the best way to establish a rythm while quilting because I have to jump around a lot from windows to walls but, I still like it.

I'm using invisible Gutterman thread. If you choose to use this thread, be sure to have large eyed needles and very good lighting.

One of the best take along projects...

Can you guess what this is a picture of?


Only one of the best take along projects a quilter can do.








This is my assortment of Aunt Martha's. This is an embroidery pattern company that's been around for over 70 years. These patterns are usually inexpensive, but, I've seen, I suppose what are the original year printing for 20 to 30 dollars, you can buy them elsewhere for under a dollar, depending on the pattern you choose.

I learned to embroider using these patterns when I was a little girl. A feisty widow woman, named Mrs. Park, taught me how to embroider. She never remarried and always said "there are far worse things than being lonely." She liked sharing her love of quilting and embroidery with whomever would listen, so much so, I think my mom dreaded another trip with a visitor to her home, when she felt she had to bring out all the quilts she'd made and lovingly share where each piece of material was from whose dress. I guess that really was my beginning of my love of quilting, because, I was not board by it all.

Mrs. Park showed me how to iron them onto my tea towels. I would make a trip to the dime store, as they were called, before the main streets and down towns of small town America disappeared. The Dime Store held all the little items like sewing notions and kitchen gadgets and small toys, it was a treat to go in there. Once I purchased my embroidery thread at the dime store, I used to sit around my house in my mini skirt and white vinyl go go boots like Nancy Sinatra, doing embroidery. My mom used to laugh at me, all of 8 or 9 years old, trying to look like Nancy Sinatra or somebody like that, embroidering. Hey, I was nothing if not stylish for the 1970's...smile...

Anyway, I like cows. I think I'll start this one on some white cotton fabric. I do like to add an interfacing to the back of the piece for a nice lay of the stitches. I know I have a bunch of cow themed blocks in my special closet. Most quilter's have one, you know a secret place that hides fabric and most of our quilty things that I know won't go bad on the shelf and that someday will become wonderful finished projects.

I doubt if Nancy Sinatra likes cows...or embroidery...

I'm having to come up with a take along project, because we are on our way to take my youngest, Chelsea, to New York City, USA. She is studying to be geologist and is starting an internship at the American Museum of Natural History, to study a somewhat famous meteorite, the Allende.

Well you know, I think it's exciting, but, my DH is beside himself, a bit, with worry...too much Law and Order on TV. I think we've given her a healthy dose of fear-stay inside after dark; don't talk to strangers; and for heaven's sake DON'T LOOK THEM IN THE EYE!...did I forget to mention she's 19? We might have gone overboard...smile...

But, you know, she's going to be there for 8 weeks! Oh well, it'll be a good opportunity for us to visit NYC a couple of times, hopefully. I'm looking forward to it and so is she, it's my DH that can't understand why women like NYC so much. I think I'd like to live there for 6 months, just to see all the museums, then that's probably enough, back to my Old Kentucky Home...smile.

I have a suggestion for a day trip in Louisville, Kentucky. Get your bicycles to or walk the Riverwalk. My DH and I started at the waterfront, at the turquoise parking lot and rode a 16 mile round trip on the bike trail that is both wide and shaded in most places. It follows the Ohio River. Then we loaded the bikes back up and went to El Mundos on Frankfort Avenue.

Happy quilting and biking!

Project Complete...

Evey once in a while, I'm so taken with a pattern or design, I abandon what I'm working on and jump immediately into a new project. Necessity was also a reason to jump here, because, I needed a new purse!

Quilter/sewer that I am, I got excited by this pattern in the Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It's rich with ideas and patterns in a style that's both whimsical and country-just beautiful...smile..

If you want a challenge, try this hexagon constructed purse.

I used Pellon Craft weight fusible interfacing on both sides of the front, back and lining. I like using this product when I embroidery, because you don't have to stretch the fabric and you get no puckers when after you are done.

Birds and Embroidery...smile...

It's amazing how bird seed manufacturers target specific types of birds and delivers said birds. After purchasing mega quantities of bird seed from Costco and setting it out on my deck, we've been visited by a whole host of birds and critters.

Until the Lord of the Backyard is heard in the distance-that's what I call the hawk and his/her family that is supported by our small valley at the bottom of the hill. RUNAWAY!....RUNAWAY!






Here's my progress on my purse:

Planet Earth Video and Handwork

Has everyone been watching the Planet Earth program on TV? The one Oprah loves? It is TV at it's best-except for the abundance of commercials. Never have I seen more nature and Volvos all at the same time...GEEESHHHH! Let us enjoy the program with only a few commercials and the products will be appreciated so much more!

Great TV means you have to have a great handwork project. Here's progress on mine. I've flipped one of the hexagons over to show the fusible interfacing on the back, which helps avoid the puckering you sometimes get when doing an embroidery project.
Embroidery Tip: If you're like me and you have more than a few projects going at once, get a separate container to hold your pattern, material, scissors, etc. It makes for easy transporting from handwork areas and organization.

Hand work Projects

Alongside quilting, I enjoy working on an embroidery project. The one I am currently working on is an embroidered purse from a magazine pattern. The construction uses embroidered hexagons and I've adhered craft weight fusible interfacing to the back of the Osnaburg fabric.

This pattern calls for linen and I've chosen to us a type of material, Osnaburg, which is an inexpensive substitute for linen. This material has a very loose weave. Fusible interfacing will also help hold the fibers tighter so your stitches lay nice and flat without stretching the fabric.

Embroidery Tip: I use Pellon Craft weight fusible interfacing on the back of my embroidery. If you are transferring a design onto fabric, the interfacing makes it easier to draw on. Using a stabilizer also allows you to forgo the use of a hoop and makes the stitches lay flat, without stretching the material. All you crazy quilter's out there might like to try this product. Besides not stretching your silks or satins, crazy quilting fabrics are generally very fragile fabrics and over time, wear out before others. The use of this fusible stabilizer my help hold the fabric together over a longer period of time.