Hexagon and Millefiori Pieced Quilts Helper

My son had asked me to help him find something to help occupy the neighborhood kids that land on his front porch, many from less than stellar home lives. So, he and his pregnant wife (my first grandbaby!) are showing love and kindness to these kids, but they do need some 'toys'. I love thinking outside the box to find uses for things that the maker never imagined it to be used for. For me I like giving children items that help them think and gain knowledge from the play. I think this is what is behind the STEM system that is currently popular with schools. So, when this item ETA hand2mind Pattern Blocks Games for Classroom or Home came up for review I got it. This set is well made, and quilts aside, does have activities and games for the children to play.

What I found is that the pieces of this game include, I believe, all the different shapes to make hexagon paper pieced blocks. If you want to try to design a different styled block you can do that. As there are only 10 each of the shapes, you may want to get a supplemental set of shapes such as Learning Resources Plastic Pattern Blocks (Set of 250 pieces of 6 different shapes). This is where you can find enough shapes if you want to design a Millefiori style quilt top. While you won't have the shapes in the colors that you want to use, being able to figure out a logical structure with premade shapes should make things go smoother. I am dyslexic and seeing those quilts, while beautiful, I'm pretty sure I couldn't put even a small quilt without some help of pre-made ‘templates’.

One of the things that comes with this kit which isn't made to help quilters but are for children are patterns to make of assorted animals and other objects. You can also buy Learning Advantage 8837 Pattern Block Activity Cards (Pack of 20) to help give your youngster ideas. At that point you and your child can design hexagon blocks together and make them into a quilt of different designs. What is better than getting a child into quilting and sewing and using their creative minds plus the bonus of working together on a project with an adult?

My apologies for not being able to have embedded links to each of these sets. Amazon wouldn't generate them for me. I will add them when I am able.

Embroidery Library Christmas Club 2018

Would you believe that Christmas is only about 140 days until Christmas? Hey folks, if you missed your email or have never signed up for, its that times of year to sign up for Embroidery Library's Annual Christmas Club 2018! This is your chance each year to get Christmas designs that are exclusive for the club. After several years have gone by, I see some of them in the designs that you can buy, but it is much nicer to pick them up when free, even if you don't have an embroidery machines yet or contemplating upgrading. I won't be upgrading my embroidery field size with a new machine, but I still download the bigger free designs "just in case". One never knows when you will find a great deal at a yard sale! Just so you know, I get nothing for promoting Embroidery Library, I just find them to be a great company and I have received oodles of free designs and I do this to help pay back what I have received from them.

Quilt Labels Using a Printer and Freezer Paper

We are in an extraordinary age for crafting. We have so many types of supplies that of foremothers never even thought of or hoped to have. Thus most likely WHY many never signed their quilts or documented them in any way except for perhaps embroidering their initials and the year. I suspect many never thought that their quilts would outlive them and they were meant for family use and everyone in the family already knew who made it. As I have read about vintage quilts, it seems the special, guest or gift quilts had the best chance of being documented. Now we have no excuse!

My son and his wife are expecting a baby girl in a few months. Since they live a distance from us, and were up visiting this week, I gave them the baby quilt I had made for them. I actually finished it while they were here. I also ran into an excellent YouTube video on Printing on Fabric using Freezer Paper. I watched it twice before trying the process and then once more to be sure I finished the process quickly. Here is a photo of the finished label:

As this was a baby quilt for my very first grandbaby, I wanted to be sure that all the documentation was there, just in case a few of us are dead before she gets old enough to know us! One of the nice things about doing the label this way was being able to show a motif from the fabric itself on the label.

In a nutshell here is how it was done and if you are interested visit the video about it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfzTXlkQr5o&t=4s  .  I set up the design and printing that I wanted on the computer. I used the Comic Sans MS for the lettering just because I liked it, but you can use any of the fonts you may have available on your computer. I printed out a copy of the paper so I could check if the label printed the correct way. My printer was acting up and printing out the label that took more than an 8 x 11 1/2" which was not what I wanted. So I juggled that. As the yellow fabric was the only light colored fabric that I had used in the quilt I decided to use that as the fabric for the label. Iron the fabric on both sides until there are no wrinkles. Then either cut a piece of Freezer Paper I use Reynolds if needed, but it needs to have a waxy coating on the back and can be picked up at grocery stores, Walmart and Amazon. I used C&T Publishing Pre-cut freezer paper to 8 x 11 1/2". I ironed the paper and fabric (it must be at least as large as a piece of copy paper) until it was stuck really well. Let it cool for a few minutes and then ran it through my Samsung Color Laser Printer CLP-365W . Note: If you aren't sure what side will print, I always place and large X on the next page to print, print something on the page and you can see if you need to lay your fabric/freezer paper combo up or down. Lay it in the machine. Adjust it to thick paper. There is apparently a manual feed to the printer but it must be behind the printer and my sewing room is too crowded to turn the printer around to look for it, so I only set the thick paper. It went through with no problem. After that I carefully took the freezer paper off of the fabric and pressed it with a hot iron  then cut it down to size As my quilt had already been quilted, I had to attach fabric to the label then turned it inside out and hand sewed it to the quilt. If you quilt isn't quilted yet, you could sew the label on with a machine if you wish.

The quilt is based off of design I found in a quilting magazine and I will have to find the magazine to give proper credit. My mother had given me all her boxes of quilting fabric when she just couldn't sew anymore. In one of the boxes was a lot of juvenile prints including this frog fabric, big frogs, small frogs and striped with frogs and lots of fabric to match. They came in both blue and the pink. I had originally made up the quilt top along with a matching blue one for Project Linus, but found I was having a horrible time just quilting in the ditch so while the blue one is almost finished with the stitch in the ditch, the pink one I hadn't even started quilting. Even pushing the bulk of a baby quilt around is almost more than my neck and shoulders can tolerate. My wonderful cleaning lady said she would quilt it for me and quilted it by hand in time for me to be able to give it to them when they were up visiting for the 4th of July. So thankful in many ways for Jeanette and the help she given me as I continue to battle arthritis. She knew it was important for me to get this quilt done.

If you need a way to make quilt labels and well as photos printed to fabric with lettering to say who each person is. This process would be wonderful! Every quilter should have freezer paper in their sewing room!

Years ago my hubby, the tall guy on the left, crocheted this baby blanket and hadn't found a bay to give it to. Now that he will become a grandpa, he has found his baby! He did a fantastic job on the blanket and the kids were very happy with the blanket and quilt, plus all the other goodies that grandma had rounded up since Easter when we found out she was expecting.

I forgot to give credit where credit is due. The pink frog quilt is based off a quilt in The Quilter Magazine February/March 2001 by Pam See called What a Hoot. That quilt was a bit bigger than the one I made.

Apron Machine Embroidery Design

Even though I haven't been posting a lot here, I have done some projects. Those with machine embroidered designs from Embroidery Library, I try to turn them in for their showcase. I have had several posted on their Showcase over the years. Today I received another email saying another item has been posted. Click this link to Embroidery Library, click on the inspirations button and then Showcase. Or you can click on this link to see it:  My project is the Peace, Love and Bacon design and my name Gail to identify it.

My oldest son loves bacon and eats it in many ways that would appear to be weird to most of us, so when I saw this design, I knew I had to use it for him! It was easy to embroider onto this apron that I had gotten to review for the Amazon Vine program. So it was a fun easy project to do. And yes, shame on me for not ironing the apron before taking it's photo!

The Fashion Designer by Nancy Moser

Why does it seem that the older we get, the faster time goes or is it just because I have so much I want to do? One of the things that keeps me busy is reading or using products from Amazon in the Vine program and then writing reviews about them. One of the last books I read, was a book that sewers might like to read called The Fashion Designer by Nancy Moser. It is the second in a series with the first book called the Pattern Artist.

I love to read 'feel good' books and this was one of them. I was hoping to be able to read the first book, The PatternArtist in the series, but never had the chance to, but this book was able to stand on its own unlike some books in series. A note to those it will make a difference to, it is written from a Christian perspective.

 

This book takes place in the early 1900's a few years after the Titanic disaster. A former house maid, and other immigrants to the USA are working together to get a business going of making women's clothing for the non-rich women that can't afford custom made clothing. They wanted to be able to have a selection of different styles of dresses in all sizes that they could offer in a store for women. In other words, off the rack clothes that weren’t being offered yet to women. ‘Unruffled’, as they said for women that needed clothes that they could do things in like go to jobs or just running their homes.  It sounds like starting a business back then wasn't any easier than it is now! They needed loans and backers as well as supporters to help get the word out about their fledgling business. And they were all poor as well so had to find a way to keep a roof over their head and their businesses head as well as food on the table. But these women were persistent. If you love fashion, the early 1900's, sewing and good friendships, you might enjoy this book. I did, and it was a change of pace from mystery and thriller fiction books that I normally read.

 

I saw the first book in the series, The Pattern Artist, as well as this one advertised in the sewing magazines that I read, so for me this was a bit of a blurring of the lines between my reading, my business and my hobby. Please remember that this book was not meant to be the great American novel, but entertainment especially focused on sewing and for Christian women or those that don't like books that are too 'raw'. It didn't take long to read, and it provided a bit of escape for a time.

I hope you will take the time to read this book, The Fashion Designer and I hope you enjoy it!

Want to make a Machine Embroidered Christmas card?

Want to make a machine embroidered Christmas card? Starbird stock designs has print out instructions to help you out and currently they even have a free design that you can use! I know I have wondered about what steps to take to make them. Now I know! You can use the above design or buy the design pack or individual designs from the designs. There are designs for anyone to use during this holiday month.

In Memory of Nancy Zieman

I have been interested in sewing since around the 8th grade when I started making my first quilt as well as making garments in home-ec and then moving on to making my own clothes without them being a class assignment. It was only when I saw Nancy Zieman's "Sewing With Nancy" over our PBS that I started to realize there was a right way and a wrong way to sew. The wrong way meant I might have something to wear at the end of the project, but I bet anyone looking could tell I had made the garment. The right way to sew was the way that Nancy showed us. Taking the time to do things carefully and well. I never got to see as many of her shows as I would have liked, but I do have many of her books to refer to. Her show was the first for me to see what an awesome thing a top of the line sewing machine could be (I learned to sew on a straight stitch only Singer). I believe that she sewed on a Viking at that point in time. I wanted a top of the line sewing machine from then on and, happily, I eventually got one. However, I still can't sew as well as she did.

Nancy died today, November 15, 2017, after a long battle with cancer. She will be missed. She was a special woman; one that showed she could handle a career, handle raising a family as well as walk in her faith with God. She is no longer with us, but has left behind a body of work in her taped TV shows and books she has written and the Nancy's Notions business she started. Many women in the US can sew now thanks to her. For those of us with the same faith that she had, it is nice to know that whether alive or dead, her good-bye to viewers at the end of her show is just as true now.

Bye for now......"

Schmetz Sewing Machine Needles Color Code Chart

 

For my sewing friends as a reference to what the different colors stand for in Schmetz needles.

Who is this Model?

Throughout the years, the different pattern companies have used models that eventually went on to be big stars, in modeling and well as TV and the movies. I have a horrible time with attaching names to faces, so asking for some help here. I think this young lady went on to be a very well known model or I maybe am too tired?

Who can name this model? If you like her outfit and want the pattern, it is available at our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts.

Butterick See & Sew 5779 Size 10
 

Embroidery Library Christmas in July Machine Embroidery

I know I am way behind on my posts here as I have been super busy adding listings to my pattern store and trying to get all my Christmas related patterns and craft items listed ASAP. However, Embroidery Library has just announced a Christmas in July sale with some fantastic items to make, including the above angel. Currently through July 25, 2017, she is on sale for $1.39. There are many other Christmas designs as well for $1.39 until that same date. So stop on in and pick out your favorites to get your Christmas sewing going!

Thrift Store Score!!!

I have seen projects using these threads for years as well as advertisements to buy Watercolour by Caron threads for embroidery and needlepoint. At their high price, I never thought I would be able to afford one or a couple skeins for a project, especially since I would have had to order them by mail so tack on a shipping cost to the price. I have never seen these for sale anywhere in my area, but then I don't know all the smaller sewing shops in my county. When I saw a great big bag with these plus some other items stuffed into I couldn't believe my eyes, so I just snapped them up! In total, 114 skeins, 49 different colors, although two of the colors with same thread color name, came from two different dye lots and were two different colors. I pulled one of each color for myself, and as soon as I have time will be listing the rest of them for sale, by color.

 

In the big bag were also 30+ of these cards of Ultra-Suede or Super Suede. I had never even heard of them before or recall seeing them advertised, so I'm not really sure how they should be used. They do seem to be rather delicate strands. As they don't particularly trip my trigger, they will all be going up for sale. If any of my readers know what these should be sued for, please comment and let us all know. A source for designs using them would be very appreciated.

 

 

I found these goodies at the beginning of my day of thrift store rounds with Steve, and I got some other terrific items as well. All in all a great day!

Pretty 3-D Machine Embroidered Flowers

Embroidery Library now has some great 3-D flowers that they have just brought out. Each come in two sizes. They are also currently on sale for $1.39 each design. So if this is something you have been looking for, your time has come!

Also time to get their May freebies if you haven't done so already and tomorrow or perhaps later today they should be posting the June freebies. So stop in to Embroidery Library today!

A Stitch In Time Saves Nine!

 I was very much a 'tomboy' growing up. My favorite sport in school was kick ball that helped ruin many hard to find shoes for my big feet as well as ripping out hems from my dresses. I was in school during the era that all girls wore dresses or skirts in elementary school and even physical education and recess were spent wearing dresses. I remember once doing the 600-yard dash wearing an A-line dress and good, what might be called now Sunday shoes. Believe it or not I beat all the girls as well as all but three boys. I wonder how I would have done if I had been wearing sneakers!


Anyhow, in the midst of me ripping out lots of hems, my mother, who made most of my clothes, hemmed my dresses by hand using two threads in the needle, and that is how she taught me to hem. So then comes Home economics in 8th grade. Unlike the dumb stuffed animals my boys had to make, I had to make a dress, including set in sleeves, back zipper, handstitched hem, etc. Well the zipper the teacher made me take out and put it back in several times which is why to this day every though they are easy to do, I shy away from putting zippers into anything. I can't even begin to zip up a back zipper anyhow as my hands don't even begin to touch in the back. When it came to setting in sleeves, on the first garment I made at home, my mom left the house and sink or swim I did it on my own.


The tricky thing for me was dealing with hemming my dresses that I made in class. I consistently put in 2threads and my teacher consistently marked me down for not doing it right. I knew if I only did the one thread hem I would rip it out in no time. So, on that my teacher and I agreed to disagree (More or less I can't remember the grade I got in class). I was one of the few then that came into class knowing anything about cooking and sewing back in 1967. I'm not too surprised that so many kids these days know nothing about cooking or sewing and anything I can do to encourage them, I will.


Well, I didn't stop ripping out hems in 8th grade. I still rip things out, so I have had to find my own solutions minus my teacher. One thing I have had a problem with is straight skirts with slits on the sides. With two artificial knees, I do not do graceful entrances and exits from cars and if I'm not careful, I can and will split those skirts right up the slit to rather risqué height! The skirt shown above really had a nasty tear but thankfully it was just the stitches that popped not the fabric. I don't know what I did when taking the photo, but that skirt is black moleskin so why it looks gray is beyond me. Going to need to ask hubby for some instructions. Anyhow this is what I do when making skirts such as this myself. After sewing the seams, you can put one of those satin stitched tacks that some sewing machines have, or I prefer to use one of the other decorative stitches that are on my machine - and boy to I have a lot now! You could also, embroider a small design at the end of slit as long as there are enough stitches in the design to make splitting the slit difficult.

On this skirt that I made several years ago, I missed a trick when doing this and you can see that there is about 1/4" of seam that could split at any moment and the seam is already shredding (the things a camera can see that you don't notice at the time!). Now what I do is sew the decorative stitch starting 1/2 -1" above the end of the slit and when you are at the end, if you have the ability, while it is still stitching press the lock stitch button and at the end stitch the machine will stop and lock the threads - and with my new machine the Janome Skyline S9, it will trim the threads the the presser foot will lift. Love it!

As I was photographing this skirt anyhow, I thought I would bare all and show you the mess I made while sewing a decorative line of stitches along the bottom of the skirt. If you look closely, you will see some of the stitches are spaced properly and others got all jammed up. I couldn't figure out what was happening until I realize that the skirt, as it was feeding through the machine (my 7700 at the time), was bumping into the wall behind the machine and not feeding smoothly. If you find you have stitches that are looking less than perfect, double check that nothing is hindering the flow of the fabric, and that you are stitching at a consistent speed as well.

Catch Up Time

 

 

 

 

The last few weeks have been busy and I haven't been able to post much. Hoping that will change since I now have the taxes finished! Yeah for me :) . In February for our anniversary, my hubby allowed me to swap out my Janome 7700 for the new Janome Skyline S9 which is both a sewing and embroidery machine. I still have my 300e, as I haven't had time to put it up for sale yet.

Did I really need a new sewing machine? No, of course not. However as this arthritis takes more and more out of me and makes common things painful, I found when test sewing on the Skyline that it has features that cause it to be a very good machine for those with disabilities. One of my favorite features so far, is the button in the front of the machine to press to lift the presser foot, although you can still reach around to the back to lift or depress the lever for the presser foot. You can also use the knee lifter as well. Since the outer sides of my knees are numb from my knee replacements and those knee lifters take me immediately back to 8th grade home ec I tend to push it when I want to go faster which doesn't work out so well! LOL. When I was doing some 'trying out the machine' sewing the other day, I lost track of the time and an hour had passed! For the past several years 20-30 minutes at a crack was about the best I could do sitting at the machine.

Over the years whenever I traded in a machine for a newer model, the learning curve wasn't much of a curve. I was up and running in minutes. This machine is going to take some time to learn all the great new features. I've read through the manual several times and have tried some of the new things that I now have access to, like 9 mm wide stitches - yahoo! I am planning on having an exclusive page in this blog for hints and tips and problems as the Skyline and I get aquainted. One thing I am needing to go visit Super Stitch about is threading the needle. I've seen it work and it is easy, but I think I am just tall enough that I can't see the whole threading path at the needle junction and am missing something.

My hubby had to help me get the design transferred right for my first embroidery project, but then it was terrific. No jump threads to trim, When the design is finished the presser foot raises and the thread is cut cleanly. I was doing a set of 6 placemats with the Inky Heart G8912 from Embroidery Library . After the first one finished and I went to do the next one, I was all set up and ready to go. I couldn't do them all at the same time, so almost a week later when I went to do some more, the first thing that popped up was the same design all ready to go. Check them out! I did use iron-on tear away Solvy on the backs of the placemats. I'm not sure if I really needed to, but I wnted to make sure these would turn out well since eventually they will be given as a gift or used for charitable purposes.

The placemats I used were from Amazon and they are called  DII100% Cotton, Ribbed 13x 19" Everyday Basic Placemat Set of 6, PrintedHearts . I got them through the Amazon vine program. I have gotten quite a few 'blanks' this year and for my review, I like to show them embroidered and 'fancied' up. I have a whole stack of things now to embroider that I don't have to make before or after the embroidering. Embroidery Library has come out with some really gorgeous designs lately that I have wanted to try, so looking forward to the next project. I used Robinson Anton cotton thread (Foxy Read) until the spool ran out and then I fortunately found a substitute thread of an unknown brand that was close enough you can't really see the difference in colors. I always use Schmetz needles with my machines with no trouble - just need to remember to change them as needed, usually after about 8 hours of sewing or less than that if a giving them extra hard use like embroidery or quilting.

It's March and that means New Free Embroidery Designs!

Embroidery Library has always given out some great free designs each month, and so since it is March they have posted two new designs. They are free for only the month so don't forget to get them.

The first design which is my favorite is this filigree butterfly design. Isn't it gorgeous? It comes in four different sizes which you can download all of them.

The next one is this Shamrock. I don't go in much for Shamrocks, etc. in March, but if you do, this is a lovely one. It comes in two sizes. So these two designs give you 6 actual free designs. I have a huge collection of embroidery designs from saving all the ones I have gotten from Embroidery Library over the years, and I recommend downloading them even if you don't have machine embroidery capabilities yet but think you might in the future.

If you didn't get February's free designs, they are still posted so you might be able to get them yet today. I only had a chance to glance at the email that I got from Embroidery Library today (it is my day to go get my IV so I don't have much time) but it looks like they have some beautiful new designs, including some lovely cutwork.

Jewish Holiday Machine Embroidery Designs

When I see new machine embroidery holiday designs that come out, I have noted for years that there is a bit of a lack, actually for some holidays a BIG lack, for those other than of the Christian faith, or those of no faith that celebrate the traditional US holidays anyhow. Embroidery Library, that anyone reading this blog know that I love, has some great new, quick sew out Christmas Doodle designs. If we can get past the name Christmas for a moment, there are several designs that are perfect for Hanukkah designs as well as some designs that have nothing to do with Christmas but just winter in itself such as snowflakes, ice skates and hot chocolate.

There are more designs than those pictured that you can get. Right this weekend, they are on sale for $1.25 for each design and they come in four different sizes. You can also see the large selection of Chanukkah embroidery designs here.  We hope that bringing these designs to your attention will help you in your celebration this year and many more to come.

Keeping Busy!

I have been doing so many things, that I tend to neglect this blog, but following the library sale and the acquisition of lots of new crafting books and magazines, I had to go through them all and then after several forays into Erie which had me stopping at the Salvation Army and Goodwill I ended up with even more items to look through and process. In my office, I am surrounded by sewing patterns, craft kits, Christmas fabric project panels and other assorted items. I go as fast as I can, but I also had a lousy month physically and got behind. Some of my great deals was a very large 4-5 yard chunk of a turquoise fabric as well as more batik or hand dyed fabric chunks. I found Fabric in all sorts of colors and designs that I would normally never touch.

 

 

I have found that buying leftover quilting fabric at places like thrift stores, I get a lot of fabric that I would have never bought at full price. The photos above, are just a small amount of fabric I have found at thrift stores! That was just one trip! Some of those fabrics have already made their way into my current quilt project! One fabric in particular is that mustardy brownish color that reminds me of what breast feed babies produce. Yet when cut up into smaller pieces I found it went very well with another print. When I have time I will be taking some photos of these quilt blocks as they are part of the article or book that I am slowly trying to write on color and quilting. This will be from a different perspective with not a color wheel included!

 

 

 

 

Many of the pieces in this quilt that I am working on come from my pre-cut pieces stash, or the pre-cuts that I make as I go along. One of the things that has really been helping me square up these 8 1/2" unfinished blocks was a Get Squared 8 1/2" ruler than you can see in the photos of the squares. As I make many of my blocks, for many different projects, I thought the 8 1/2" size would be perfect to have and it is immensely helpful. Because of the many lines on it, it is much easier to get the block as centered as possibly. It will also come in handy when I start in on my project of machine embroidering the center square of a block and then trimming it and adding pieces around it, the embroidery won't be off kilter. The Get Squared ruler comes in different sizes so you can get whichever sizes you need most. I also make heavy use of my 8 1/2" square rotary ruler that I bought at Joanne Fabrics. I have gobs of rulers that I have bought or been given over time, but some I just consistently go back to.

 

I am enjoying working on this quilt and it is paring down some pre-cut scraps that have been hanging around for a very long time. Time for some new scraps to take their place.

 

 

Just a reminder that if you still need patterns and supplies for your holiday sewing to check out my store: Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts.

Christmas Gift Sewing #1 - Sweatshirts

With Christmas and other Holidays coming quick it is always nice to find some ideas and instructions for projects to make and give. Embroidery Library has produced a great digital Lookbook on embroidering on sweatshirts and ways to decorate them. You can see it here.

I Love Library Book Sales!

I live in a lovely town 'where everyone knows your name', or at least they recognize your face. As someone that is on a low income, my town has two places that I especially love to go to. One of them being our thrift store where I have found many terrific deals. I've picked up spare pieces of silverware that even if they don't 'go' with my silverware, they coordinate. My set of silverware is an Oneida brand, and buying replacement pieces is expensive, so finding more Oneida spoons, forks and knives in great patterns for 10 cents a piece is a huge deal. And yes, I meant 10 cents a piece! Anyone that has tried buying replacements from Oneida knows that they are costly. I buy clothing there both for me and my husband. After seeing a neat apron project using men’s shirts at Embroidery Library, I found some shirts in plaids that I liked, I bought them and hope to have those posted here soon. I find books and magazines at reasonable prices as well. My biggest thing at the thrift store is all the crafting supplies I have found. At this point I can do just about any needlework project from the supplies found at that store and I have mentioned some of those deals before.

The second place that I love to go is my library. I have spent a great deal of my life in libraries as either a patron or as an aide. From 8^th grade through college and then while in nursing school, I worked part time in all my school libraries. With the arthritis, I have in my hands, reading books is getting more and more uncomfortable for me, so unless it is truly a favorite author, I use my Kindle to read regular books on. However, when our twice a year Friends of the Library (FOL) Book Sale takes place, unless I am dying from pain, I’m there. If I can bring Steve to help so much the better. Some years I don’t find much of great interest and then other times I feel like I have struck a gold mine. This was one of those years. I found stacks of knitting, embroidery, quilting books and magazines in like new condition. Even though it wasn’t bag day ($1 a bagful of books) I bought all that I could find.

Because of the subject matter and the condition of the books I figured such a donation was due to one of two things. The crafter had either had to enter a nursing home or had died. While looking through the books I found the receipt for when she bought them and then looked her name up. She had died the year before. I hope that she would be happy to know that her donation made many excellent books available to someone like me that doesn’t have the funds to pay full price for those books and magazines. I have had the opportunity to buy a woman's crafting refernce libraries prior to this and I remember these women that I didn't even know fondly, knowing we would have found plenty to talk about.

I’ve spent a happy week going through the books/magazines. Some of the knitting magazines made me wish I could knit but I must be stern with myself and not take up any more hobbies, although I thoroughly enjoyed reading them, especially the Downton Abby Knitting magazines as well as a Harry Potter knitting magazine. Those I put up for sale at competitive prices on Amazon, as selling on line is part of how we literally pay the bills. I have been trying to learn more about embroidery and so to find some excellent books. One book I had bought to resell years ago and averaged a sale price of $70 per books (the price has come way down now). That, by the way, is MORE than I spent on all the books I got last week. Not only did I get that book, I got 3 others in the same series. I found books on stump work. I found old sewing and quilting books that included a lot of history of quilting and sewing over the centuries. Many of the quilting magazines had quilt patterns that would be suitable for Project Linus quilts or a quilt that would use a particular fabric stash that I have.

You never know when something is going to drop into your lap and solve a problem for you. I have seen a photo of a scrap quilt that had been on the front cover of BHG Patchwork & Quilting. I’ve never run across the actual issue or pattern, but I did find a good enough photo of it that I scanned and made it large enough to see which types of blocks I needed. Without knowing for sure what size the original blocks were, from what I could tell an 8” finished block would do the trick. That is until I got to one block that had a 9-patch section in the middle of where a 4” finished piece would go. And then I had to get out the calculator and try to figure out what size I needed to cut these squares of strips for quick piecing. Then I was looking at one of ‘new’ magazines and what did I find but a 9-patch that went where a 4” finished piece would go. My math hadn’t been far off, but it was enough that it would have never looked right. So, with that puzzle answered for me, I have continued piecing the quilt.

I’m not sure how some people function without books in their lives to help provide inspiration and knowledge. I know I couldn’t get along without them! I’m so happy that I could go to this sale, help support my library, help support myself, gain a lot of inspiration and knowledge about the things I’m very interested in.

What has been your Needlework Story?

Seeing some posts in the Janome Digest that I belong to, posts about their sewing journey to this point made me curious about when others started needlework, what kind did they do, how did they learn, what is their favorite thing to do. So this is my story, what is yours?

My mom had an old Singer and made most of my sister, mine and my mother’s clothes when I was young. She also embroidered at times and I took that up. I hand embroidered two sets of pillowcases for my ‘hope chest’. My friend at school taught me to knit and after making two potholders, that was enough for me. I also learned to crochet granny squares and finished making enough of them to make an afghan around the time my oldest was born and my ex’s grandmother sewed them all together for me. As they had been made over many years, the gauge had changed and so were all different sizes. I also crocheted a doily using that little green covered book I think it is called Teach yourself to knit and crochet. At most points in my life my local library had very few books on needlecrafts of any type and my mom only knew the basics of sewing and I didn’t have grandmother’s or aunts to teach me. One grandmother’s hobby seemed to be having babies along with making bread. She had I think 14 kids and would make 30 loaves of bread at a crack. I do think I inherited her bread making gene!

I was learning to sew garments at home before I started home ec. I knew more about cooking during that class than the teacher taught as I grew up helping to can and cook. I hated sewing in home ec. And it made me hate installing zippers and hand hemming the rest of my life. I don’t think that was how it was supposed to work. But since eighth grade (age 12-13) I have been making many of my own clothes over the years, but not so much anymore as the clothes I made won’t wear out and the thrift store has had things in my size at a good price.

 

 

I was highly influenced by Little House on the Prairie books which I think I lost track of how many times I read all of them after 20 times each for the series. And since you can’t be a clone of Laura and Mary without taking up a needle of some sort, I decided to make a quilt! I’m appalled at what I did to make that quilt. I started it in 1968 prior to the Bicentennial and all the quilting books and fabric that came out at that point). I knew nothing of templates and so cut a square out, laid it on another piece of fabric and cut another square out and so on! Incidentally I was using fabric from my mother’s ‘rag’ bag of leftover sewing bits. So this quilt had squares of upholstery fabric, and lightweight crepe. Lots of cotton/poly blends as 100% cotton was hard to come by. I finished the top right before I left for college. My mom bought me backing fabric and batting and I tied the quilt using red string that I could barely get through the quilt sandwich. However, I was as proud as punch when it was finished. A bright happy quilt that I took with me to college. It lasted about 10 years before it fell completely apart. I ran into some old squares one day and I finally knew many of the things I had done wrong. Those ‘squares’ differed in size by up to an inch! I sewed them together with whatever stitch length my mom had last set the machine, so many of the squares where basted together! I still have a few cherished pieces from that quilt that I insert when possible into very special quilts.

 

 

When Log Cabin Quilt in a Day came out, I started making log cabin quilts and then branched out from there. After 50 quilts, I stopped counting! Most were given as gifts or to Project Linus. I also still do garment sewing, Made window covers for several of the rooms in the house, through pillows as well. I do some hand embroidery and want to get more into that as my hands can handle holding the hoop. My favorite thing is reading about sewing, quilting, embroidery, etc. We are so blessed at this point in time to have so much reference material for any type of sewing we want to do. I still remember not being able to find anything to teach me how to quilt. I got to take a quilting cruise with Doreen Speckman using a sign on bonus that I got years ago in 1990 and that was the only in person teaching I’ve ever really had.

 

 

 

So what is your story?