Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! E. Bunny has made his rounds to our neighbourhood so now there's nothing left to do but eat all those little eggs that seem to pop up out of nowhere. Darn!

We have an inside joke about an Easter miracle in our family and this year it was me returning to the sewing machine. It seems like ages since I sat down to it, but Anne brought a quilt that she has started for a friend so the two of us disappeared into the sewing room for several hours yesterday.

She has made this pattern for herself and had remnants to work with so she decided to give it a second try. We had worked on it together a few weeks ago and made good progress and after yesterday's session made even more. Here it is laid out on the floor - it think she calls it Stained Glass.












There are just over 2 rows left to do so she has left it with me to work on for a bit while she shifts her attention to a few baby quilts that she's been working on. We'll be adding one or two borders, likely a wide gold border and then one or two narrower ones. How fun for me to have just 'started' a project and be this far along!...M

A Few More

We skipped town last week to spend some time in the sun (and pray that these snowbanks of ours would disappear some day soon) so I took a bit of handwork with me, but I was so intent on enjoying the sun that not much got done. A bit, but not much.

I toyed with taking the large diamond that I was putting the outer blue border on but didn't want to mangle it in my packing so it stayed home and I took the makings for new small diamonds instead. It sort of melds into the tablecloth here but it's almost half finished.

There are now three new little diamonds to add to the pile of finished blocks.

It's still so much fun to see the effect of different fabric combinations...
















it's almost addictive....M

Going Green

I decided that if I paid a little attention to my Fly Away Home quilt I could finish assembling the last of the geese and start sewing the strips together. I had been making lots of red geese and not really counting where I was so I turned my attention to the greens, just in time for St Patrick's Day.

I tweaked the instructions for how to assemble the geese a little bit. Rather than marking the centre line I started using my Magic Wand and marked the stitching lines on either side of the centre and it work much better, giving me much more consistently sized and shaped geese.

Not all of my geese are exact but they are close enough; I'll know better for the next time that I make a batch of geese.

In an effort to make certain that I get a good distribution of prints throughout I've started assembling them in units of 6 or 8 geese and then will work those into longer rows.

So I think that all of my geese are made now - I may need a few more if I make the quilt a little longer than the instructions call for but I'm going with what I've got for now.

They are all laid out and ready to be put together...M

Slow and Steady

It's been pretty busy lately so there hasn't been much stitching going on, but I have made some progress with my little hexagons (need to find a name for this quilt).

After a little bit of doing I've got the first four diamond blocks sewn together and have started working my way around the outside border with a soft blue/green. It took a bit of figuring to determine the best way to attach them but I think I have a system now that works nicely.

And there are 4 more blocks together. A couple of them need to be pressed but this gives you a good idea of the colours that have been incorporated so far. Totally pleasant hand work, and I can't tell you how much I love the scale.

They are small, but I think the work that Grit does is even smaller...check out her original design, La Passion! It's a free pattern and the first four parts can be found at the bottom of her blog; the 5th part is coming the middle of March...M

Heading for the Border

All of my 'pumpkin' segments are now complete so it's time to start sewing them all together and adding the borders.

I want to use the black all the way around but don't have quite enough, and the shop is all out and needing to restock it, so it may take a bit of time.














I toyed with incorporating the greens & blues into the borders but I'm liking the effect of the black - it reinforces the midnight feel - so I'll wait until they bring some more in.














In the meantime, I'm enjoying all the variations within the pumpkins....M

I've Been Doing It All Wrong

 

Recently I came across intriguing sewing advice from a 1949 Singer sewing manual and it's just too good not to share. See if you recognize yourself.

'Prepare yourself mentally for sewing. Think about what you are going to do...never approach sewing with a sigh or lacksidaisically. Good results are difficult when indifference predominates.













Never try to sew with a sink full of dirty dishes or beds unmade. When there are urgent housekeeping chores, do these first so that your mind is free to enjoy sewing.














When you sew, make yourself as attractive as possible. Put on a clean dress. Keep a little bag of French chalk near your sewing machine to dust your fingers at intervals.














Have your hair in order, powder and lipstick put on. If you are constantly fearful that a visitor will drop in or your husband will come home, and you will not look neatly put together, you will not enjoy your sewing.'













Drat! I'm all out of French chalk... I wonder if the fact that I sew on a Pfaff and not a Singer machine matters?...M