Wool quilt blocks

 Its been baby steps with progress on the wools.  I washed and ironed all my Christmas table linens and wound several balls of yarn. Those little jobs are out of the way now so.......sew......  I have yardage and yardage of some of these fabrics  which will never be made into garments.  What was I thinking when I bought at least 4 yards of the black wool?!!  I need it for this quilt.  I cut the waist band off a skirt yesterday to make it easier to rip apart and wrapped the waist around my middle oooh there was an eight inch gap with me in the  middle.    That was 3 children and as many decades ago.  I would look anorexic if I were that thin now.  Such is life.  The skirt had pockets in the side seams and I sewed twill tape in the seam so they would lay flat and not bag with wear.  The skirt was cut on the bias and I remember sewing partial seams at the waist then let it hang for 24 hours before sewing the rest of the seam so that the hem wouldn't be scalloped  at the seams.  The little details that made the garment.   --Ann--

Wool

 I pulled a couple boxes of wool fabrics from my closet last week.  Oh the memories that were in those boxes.  I sewed garments in my teens and twenties.  Wool was my fabric of choice in the 70's and 80's because South Dakota has long cold winters and wool keeps you warm and is stylish.  I miss those days.  These were outfits I made my last year in 4-H.  I made a short wool skirt the same as the trousers.  I liked the trousers and I liked the skirt but I never wore the jacket much.  I made it into jackets for Donald Duck dolls when my boys were small.  Some years ago, after children, when I realized I would never fit in these clothes again I tore some up to make a flying geese quilt.  My flock of geese was never large enough for a quilt so I made a couple vests and had fun wearing them a few years ago and the wools went back in the box.



 
Jacket from a green Irish wool my mother bought for me in 1977.  My Irish grandfather always told me how classy it looked on me.

 This is the year I'm going to make all those fabulous garments into quilts so I can enjoy the fabrics once again.  I have to think that way because deconstructing has been very difficult.  I go to my sewing room with the intention of cutting strips but rather than desecrate something I so lovingly made I find other things to do like tidy up, the sewing room was not meant to be tidy!

 

 Hubby and me the first year we were married.  Me in a Pendleton tweed. I remember I was just short of enough fabric for the slacks and vest so I cut a yoke for the vest, I had the width but not enough length for the vest.  Him in cotton and wranglers.   Me on the right with my Great Aunt Elsie from Ireland in 1982 she knit me a sweater back in the 60's when she came for a visit I loved that sweater and wore it to school a couple times a week.  I could wear it with my red skirt or my blue skirt or gray tweed skirt or my navy slacks or my other navy slacks.  It was like wearing a hug from Great Aunt Elsie.  memories --Ann--

Out of the Cupboard

Scrappy Stars and hand appliqué   I made this quilt the late 1990's  it was a little project I started early in the summer with the intention of hand appliquéing one star a day.   That was a very manageable goal, I didn't do one every day but I did get them all sewn by the time kids were back in school and I mastered appliquéing peaks and valleys.  The stars, backgrounds and some of the sashing is from Merryvale packets that the local quilt guild was selling because at the time we did not have a quilt shop in the area.  I used a lot of scraps in the borders and around each star.  The sashing fabric is still a favorite of mine and I wish I had bought 6 yards of it instead of three.  It was such a great fabric to tie all the scraps together.  The continuity of it gives the eye a place to rest after viewing the variety of fabrics because no two stars or backgrounds are the same.  I free motion quilted on my domestic machine.  Pulling this out of the cupboard is like seeing an old friend.  --Ann--

knitting

Its been a while since I did a knitting post even though I knit almost every day.  I finished a sweater for my brother, he made some frames for me so I knit him a sweater.  The flash washed the color out as the yarn is much more navy than medium blue.  I tried to get it done for Christmas but between him traveling for work and me having a cold he didn't try it on until Christmas Day.  It was done in time for his birthday.  Socks are on the needles for son with a February birthday and I finished some slippers for my uncle.  He bought  this yarn on a trip to Patagonia, its undyed hand spun.  I knit from both ends of the ball and the yarn was thinner at one end than the other so when I compared the soles one was smaller so I weighed them and one was 10 grams lighter than the other so I knit a couple more rounds on that sole before I did the upper part.  The stitch count isn't the same but they look to be the same size.  I knit them simultaniously because I was afraid of running out of yarn.  They are done and in the mail.  We enjoy a couple warm days here as in temps in the 30's then the snow melts and puddles and freezes making walking treacherous.  I always look for the path of most resistance when I walk in the winter.  The forecast is for more snow then cold.  After a trip to the grocery store I'll be ready to hunker down for more of my favorite activities.  Knit a little, read a little, quilt a little or a lot.  Hope you are staying warm.  --Ann--

How do you sew blocks together?

How do you sew quilt blocks together?  A long time ago when I took my first quilting class the way to sew blocks together was to sew them all in rows and keep adding rows until all the blocks were connected by a thread. Then sew the horizontal rows, handling all 63 blocks for each seam.  It was  like dealing with 6 clotheslines full of clothes with all the gaps between the horizontal rows. It worked but the gaps would get caught on the corner of the table or the arm or the chair.  Very cumbersome.  Now I sew 2 or 3 rows of blocks together vertically then horizontally for this quilt it was 3  sections of 21 quilt blocks.  It was so much easier sewing a section of 21 to 21 to 21 so I wasn't handling all 63 blocks until the last seam. Look at that there is sunlight coming in the window!! but its still close to 0 outside.   --Ann--

quilt blocks

 January is always catch up month, finishing projects and putting away the Christmas decorations.  If I had my way the tree would be redecorated with snowmen and then hearts and I wouldn't take it down until the end of February.  I like the lights when the winter gets long and bleak.  It took me all week to take things down and arrange the puzzle of boxes in the storage closet.   The Santas on the fireplace ledge were replaced with the snowmen.  There were a few days last week when the temps were in the mid to upper 30's so I left my mess and went for a walk, fresh air that didn't hurt my face.  Then its back to real winter with cold, fresh snow and temps below 0 again and wind.  Its a great day to sew.  I finished sewing the courthouse step blocks now to trim.
Hope you are staying warm and dry.
--Ann--
Linking to Em's Scrapbag

Design Wall

It was nice to start the new year with a clean design wall and clear surfaces in the sewing room but the basket with this fabric was still sitting there so I cut the leftover 3 inch strips into tri rec stars most are miss matched then I had to cut a few more 3 inch strips for background pieces which are also mostly miss matched.  Its been a tedious job because I am bored with the fabrics and colors. Its time to take down the Christmas tree and put away the decorations.  I need to make sewing the courthouse steps a reward for putting things away but I'm not excited about the project anymore.  I want to work on some other color palette but I know if I put it away it will end up in the dead project box.  The reward will be starting something new when this is sewn together.  Like practicing the piano when I was a kid just get it done so I can do something else.  We still have snow here but yesterday was above freezing as in 34 degrees F.  That was a treat I even went for a walk with my snow boots because some people just don't shovel their sidewalks very well and it was slushy in the street.  A couple more days of warm temps then back to the deep freeze here on the prairie.  --Ann--  linking to Em's Scrapbag