Snowy weekend! Still sewing...and dreaming...

Last week I made small quilts using natural linen lattice and background.....I love the zakka look!

 

I am hand quilting this lovely pink and taupe quilt with pink perle cotton, and sashiko needles. As much as I love pink, this is one of my favorite!

It is too cold in the sewing studio this morning, so I have set up one of my machines on the breakfast table. This is a 3/4 size Kenmore 1040 which is a little workhorse! And cute too!

 

 

Some natural light from the snowy world outside will add to the joy of working here! This is what I will be making, a crib quilt from a charm pack, plus more 5" squares from my stash.

Of course, I may add borders if I need to enlarge the quilt top!

I am really trying to get lots of my sewing and quilting projects well underway. It is discouraging to see the fabrics and patterns stacked in their bins. So much more fun to see them come into "being"!

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I have always made things! And I come by this trait from my mother. She is gone now, but she left this quilt top which she pieced from a Kansas City Star pattern in the 1940's. She was in college and probably pieced it in the summers at home. It is no small undertaking, lots of small pieces, using purchased lavender and gold cotton along with family scraps.

I have now taken it to be quilted. Then perhaps it can be a wedding gift for her namesake great granddaughter...when that day comes?

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For a while in the late 1970's, I was learning to weave. I took tapestry classes from a wonderful teacher...... we had a shop in Little Rock with many fibers and yarns to chose from.

I still have this wall hanging from those days, and am delighted that my daughter now wants it to hang in her newly painted dining room!

And to think, I almost donated it to a thrift store in my decluttering!

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A couple of knitting projects I would like to do....this sweater!....and this one...madelinetosh "Creature Comforts Cardi", pattern available on Ravelry.

A show I have enjoyed watching....it can be streamed onto the iPad ...

Of course it makes me want to bake instead of sew, paint, knit ......makes me very hungry indeed, LOL!

 

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A book I have on reserve at our library....so there is no end to what can make life enjoyable!

[not to mention a granddaughter's first track meet, and a grandson's first soccer practice!]

 

 

Now to post this and get back to making things!

 

Projects for cold winter days!

 

An ice storm just south of us hit the area where my brother farms. This photo of an old iron bridge near his home was on the local news. It is so beautiful, but not too much fun! The ice breaks the power lines, and homes are then hard to heat! Fortunately, they have a cast iron wood burning stove!

I stay "in" a lot when the temperature is below freezing outside. I turn on the heat in the sewing room and spend time working on piecing blocks!

Here is one which I am working on now...called "Dutch Breeze". Very scrappy and easy!

It is from a McCall's Scrappy Quilts magazine.

More Dutch Breeze blocks today! This magazine has the pattern for the "Haiku Charm" quilt which I made last week, with my Japanese indigos!

And it has a pattern using Japanese taupes which I also plan to make!

This will be another easy, fun small quilt!

When I make the Dutch Breeze blocks, I end up with even smaller little scraps, pieced in threes! So I make some irregular little 9 patches....these will be in a quilt with lots of natural linen...a little Zakka* quilt, or maybe 2! For the small quilt auction which will be at the quilt show!

* Zakka, the art of finding savvy in the mundane.

As the quilt show approaches, ( in April) I have been sewing hanging sleeves and labels on the ones which I will hang in the show. Here they are!

 

 

 

 

 

Handwork lifts depression....so I have decided to keep making quilts!

I found this inspiring blog post (recommended by our Quilt Guild president in her newsletter)....which reminded me that I am seldom despondent or hopeless, or stressed when I am planning and making quilts!

So yesterday I took four blocks made last year and made them into this quilt top. Today I pieced the batting and the backing. I may machine quilt this one, because .....

...I am already hand quilting on this nice little pastel quilt.....surely for a grandchild one day.....We have 5 grandchildren already and there may be more to come.

Meanwhile, other family members received these quilts this week. The top one, called Bento Box, used family scraps from our childhood + more. It went to my sister, Elaine. The scrappy string pieced star quilt went to my cousin, Judy.

Making quilts is a lifeline for me, finding homes for them is usually not hard!

Working today on this small flag wall hanging .....and LOVING my new Sew Easy cutter ruler!

 

Handwork lifts depression....so I have decided to keep making quilts!

I found this inspiring blog post (recommended by our Quilt Guild president in her newsletter)....which reminded me that I am seldom despondent or hopeless, or stressed when I am planning and making quilts!

So yesterday I took four blocks made last year and made them into this quilt top. Today I pieced the batting and the backing. I may machine quilt this one, because .....

...I am already hand quilting on this nice little pastel quilt.....surely for a grandchild one day.....We have 5 grandchildren already and there may be more to come.

Meanwhile, other family members received these quilts this week. The top one, called Bento Box, used family scraps from our childhood + more. It went to my sister, Elaine. The scrappy string pieced star quilt went to my cousin, Judy.

Making quilts is a lifeline for me, finding homes for them is usually not hard!

Working today on this small flag wall hanging .....and LOVING my new Sew Easy cutter ruler!