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May 24th, 2010Happy Mother’s Day
May 10th, 2010Happy Mother’s Day! Okay, I know I’m a day late. But I was having too much fun yesterday to come inside and turn on the computer.
Usually, I don’t make a big deal about Mother’s Day. My kids have always been great about appreciating me every day, so in the past Mother’s Day hasn’t been a big deal to me. But I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel yesterday with having lost my mom less than two months ago. I let my family know I was unsure, and they took it from there.
It started on Friday, really. Chase was off, so I was off too, kind of. I’m never really off, of course, and I don’t want to be. I love the girls and want them to always feel that I’m available. Well, most of the time, anyway. So I took them to the park early as usual. Then after we got home, I set up my folding table and started cutting. I cut all of the pieces of fabric I need for the dogwood quilt background (I’ll use the odd shaped leftovers for the flowers and such) and then cut the fabric for the quilt I am making as a thank you for the woman who took care of Mother during her last years. I planned to cut out a bathrobe for my husband, too, but couldn’t find the pattern.
Saturday Chase worked, but in the morning, so I decided to think of it is just a six hour blip in the middle of my three day weekend. Took the girls to the park again, made lunch and then it was time for them to go to lunch with Mummy and stay with Daddy to do the “make it and take it” project at work. They got home just before Chase did, and I was asked to hide what they made until Sunday, so it could be Chase’s Mother’s Day surprise. I put them on my bathroom window sill and got to enjoy it for 24 hours before it made it’s way to Chase.
Hand print flowers. Aren’t they cute? A lot nicer than I had expected the project to be.
Later in the afternoon, Chase wanted to cut out a skirt, so we got the folding table up again. As long as it was handy, I copied a couple of patterns I needed and worked some more on tracing the dogwood quilt pattern. Then I figured out where the bathrobe pattern was and got most of that pinned. In the evening I ironed the fabric I’d cut out for painting, so I’d be ready to start in the morning. In the process Chase and I figured out an even better way to trace the dogwood quilt pattern. Now I just need to pick up some interfacing and give that a try.
Sunday morning dawned hot, windless and dry. A perfect day to paint, except for the heat part.
I needed a new surface on which to paint, since I was painting much larger pieces than I had done before. Turned out that my husband had a leftover piece of plywood nearly 4 feet square which was perfect. While I was getting that set up in the shade – or as much shade as the leafing gumbo limbo tree can currently muster – Rhiannon was impatiently waiting to come out and paint with me. I decided it made more sense to get her project done first, so that’s what we did.
She said it was to be a shirt for her sister, but I suggested that it was so big that maybe she’d have to wear it first.
I spent the rest of the day painting while Chase and her family went to a picnic. I got all of the green background pieces done, the brown for the stems, the yellow for the centers, some of the green for leaves and the dark pink for the flowers. Then I ran out of fabric – and also needed to blend more paint for the lighter pinks and the leaves. The breeze picked up before I was finished, which made things a little more of a challenge, but it was a wonderful day.
My husband cooked dinner. Ever since I finally broke down and got him a George Foreman grill a couple of months ago, he’s grilled at least twice a week. I should have gotten him the grill a long time ago. 
So that was planned. I told my son, who has been learning to cook more things these last few months, usually making dinner once a week, that his job was to make dessert. He did. Chase got me a new knitting book. But mostly they indulged my need to craft. I spent most of the day painting fabric for the dogwood quilt.
Next I’ll have to heat set the fabric I painted. The entails pressing for five minutes over every area of the fabric. That’s going to keep me busy for a while! Green fabric paint especially, tends to get on my cuticles and under my nails and then takes a couple of days to wear off, so I’ll be remembering my Mother’s Day all week.
I had a wonderful day. How was your Mother’s Day?
Ugly Fabric quilt challenge, part 4
May 7th, 2010
The Ugly Fabric Challenge quilt is due at my June guild meeting, so I need to get back to it and get it finished. I added the borders several weeks ago and have the quilt sandwich made – the layers of backing, batting, and top – and pin basted. All that is left is the quilting, final trimming and then the binding. My goal is to have it done by Memorial Day, so I have plenty of time to finish it up. I may even work on it some this weekend. We’ll see.
In the meantime, though, I’ve done several projects for guild service projects. I have three more place mats made for our ongoing project of place mats for Meals on Wheels. This time I string pieced them using strips of fabric leftover from other projects. I always think string pieced blocks look horrible
in process, but once they are trimmed up, I think they turn out very well.
Yes, this is a different one from the one in progress. Sharp eyes!
Then I made four pillowcases for the Million Pillowcase Challenge. Our guild will be donating our pillowcases to the cancer unit at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. I found some other fabric this afternoon while looking for something else that would make nice pillowcases and they really a quick to do, so I may get a few more done next week.
Today I also cut the fabric for the background panels for my sister’s dogwood quilt. The fabric paint arrived and I’m planning to spend Mother’s Day painting fabric. Tomorrow my guys need to cut a piece of plywood for me to use while I’m painting. I bought the batting and vinyl last week, so I should be set. Of course, this is my first time for painting large pieces of fabric, so I’m sure there will be some things I haven’t figured out already, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.
I also cut out the blocks for the quilt I’m making for Lynda, the woman who cared for my mom. I wanted to cut out a bathrobe for my husband but can’t find the pattern. Oops! I need that done by the end of May, too. Wish I’d discovered the missing pattern the week patterns were on sale. Oh well.
What are your plans for Mother’s Day?
Young artists at work
May 2nd, 2010Young artists at work.
Sometimes the best thing to do is step back and stay out of the way.
Knitting Projects while I was Gone
April 30th, 2010With all the driving we did from the end of February through late March, I did manage to complete a number of knitting projects, which I haven’t shown you here.
The first thing I made was a hat for my husband; after all, there was still snow on the ground in Pennsylvania. I actually made this hat twice. I got it done the first time on the first day of driving, but it wasn’t quite what he wanted. So, using his travel coffee mug in lieu of my nostepinne, I wound the yarn back into a center pull ball and started again. He wanted the hat a bit tighter and several inches longer so he could roll up a double cuff. Here is the final version.
My next project was the knit-a-long string-a-long bag I wrote about here.
After that I made a lap robe for my quilt guild’s charity project; we’ll be adopting a nursing home for Christmas. I know, it seems strange to knit a project for quilt guild; I’ll be making at least one quilted lap robe in the coming months to redeem myself.
Here’s a close up of the pattern details:
Then I made two more hats. Rhi had lost the hat her mom made last fall during our trip to Maine. So I had promised a replacement. But I couldn’t find the modification for the child’s sized hat for the pattern I wanted to use. So first I knit the pattern in the adult size, which I’ll donate to charity in the fall, and then I made Rhi’s hat a little smaller and shorter. I had about three more rows to finish when we pulled into the driveway the last time. Pretty good timing, I’d say.
and Rhi in her hat
Since we’ve been home I’m working hard at finishing an old UFO (unfinished object). I’d started an afghan when Chase got married. Can that really be almost eight years ago? They wanted it big, made up of squares, each of the squares a different cable pattern. But after a while they ran out of ideas and the project sat in my closet until this spring when I decided it needed to be finished. They decided to go with a smaller version, so I only had another square or two to finish up. Now I’m adding borders to the squares to make them all fit together better and highlight the patterns and beginning to attach the squares together. One of these days I’ll get the photos taken, but maybe not until it’s all done. May? June? Sometime soon, anyway.
And then, of course, there are my quilts. Do you get the idea that crafting is what helps me maintain my sanity? What do you do when life gets overwhelming and you need to find a break?
Quilt for My Sister
April 27th, 2010Pam, if you want this to be a surprise, then don’t read this post and the others to follow with this title. I’m happy for you to know about this and it’s not going to be finished anytime soon, but the choice is up to you.
My sister and I spent about a week together during March, mostly going through Mother’s things. One comment she made after I showed her a bit from a quilt I’m planning for her next, as yet unexpected, grandchild, was something like “do I have to have a baby to get a quilt?” Of course not, Sister dear. I’ve been thinking about a quilt for you for several years. But I knew it had to be the right one. I have a pattern for a wall hanging with teacups that I’d been considering. And you may get that one later. But, finally, I know the quilt I’m going to make for you.
This is the center panel of a dogwood applique quilt that my grandmother made. My parents had it on their bed for years. When Mother moved to skilled nursing – and they were doing her laundry – we debated about the quilt. Would it survive rougher treatment? But having familiar things around her was important, so we labeled the quilt and let it go.
Over the years I watch it deteriorate. First the darkest pink fabric was lost. Okay, that I was sure I could replace and restore the quilt. Then some of the quilting pulled out. I could fix that, too. But as the years went by, more and more of the fabric simply wore out.
You can see in this picture how the edge of the quilt is gone along with a bit of the binding and batting. There is a rip in the background fabric. You can also see the outline of some of the missing dark pink petals.
The sad truth is that this quilt is too worn out to restore. I hope to mend enough of the edge panels to make a small wall hanging for each of the five grandchildren eventually, but the quilt as a whole is finished.
But, the dogwood quilt is going to live on, because I’m going to make one for my sister. Maybe I’ll ultimately make two so I have one as well. We’ll see.
It won’t be an exact duplicate for a lot of reasons. The original quilt is appliqued on a single, unseamed, piece of light green fabric. I can’t find anything like that anymore. Besides I can’t resist making Pam’s quilt my own as well. But I will make it pretty close to the original. You will get to watch it happen, slowly though it will be, as I update my progress on the blog.
The first thing I’m doing is tracing the pattern.
To my surprise, very few of the petal shapes are alike, so I will be tracing each bit. Some of the areas I can cover with an 8.5 x 11 piece of onion skin. The rest will be more of a challenge. I think I’ll see if some plain white tissue paper is thin enough to use for the larger parts of the pattern.
One of the ways this quilt will be mine is that I will paint the fabric for all of it. I will have to piece the background, but I will still be painting larger segments than I have done before. That will take some planning as the padded poster board I use for painting fat quarters is not nearly large enough for what I need. But while I’m figuring that out – and waiting for my fabric paint order to arrive – I’ve been doing some dilution tests to get the colors as close as possible.
The greens are getting close here, but the pinks need more work. I think I need to wait for the white to come and start with true red instead of the fushia I had on hand.
With the hand painted fabric, instead of the background being a completely uniform shade, there will be some color variation. That’s another way I’ll leave my mark on this version of the quilt. I love tone on tone fabrics and generally stay away from simple solid colors.
I’m hoping to get enough of the background fabric painted and some of the petal fabrics done so that I can start the applique within a month. Applique, embroidery and then hand quilting. This will be an ongoing project for a number of months for sure, possibly years. But, Pam, I finally know the quilt I need to make for you. It’s coming. Just don’t hold your breath.
Earth Day – One Small Change wrap up
April 21st, 2010With Earth Day looming, it is time for me to do my One Small Change Challenge wrap up.
On at least one level, I’d say it was a success. Both girls help me pick up trash at the park almost every time we go. I’m having a hard time convincing them that the small pebbles and bark from the mulch doesn’t need to go in the trash, just to be relocated from the playground to where it really belongs, so I think they have the idea on that one. I get frustrated sometimes that at 20 months and 3 1/2 they just aren’t quite developmentally ready to understand how running water is wasteful as is asking for more food then they can eat. The latter didn’t bother me nearly so much when we had a dog. But they are hearing the message anyway and they’ll catch on eventually.
I enjoyed the challenge of learning more about what goes into so called “green” choices and reading what others are doing. I did much better at meeting the challenge goals in the first months; losing my mom has taken the steam out of a lot of things at the moment, but I know that is only temporary.
I was struck as I read other participants’ posts how much of what are today’s “green” ideas are really just the way people lived not that many years ago. So many things folks have recently discovered are the way my family has always lived. It used to be called “frugal;” now it is “green.” Things like growing your own food and preserving it, using a clothesline, distinguishing between wants and needs, not wasting precious resources. The fact that this way of living is still in our collective memories makes me optimistic that it is a sustainable change. Whether it is frugal or green it is the right thing to do. It is stewardship at its best.
Thank you, Suzy at Hip Mountain Mama, for conceiving the challenge and welcoming all who joined it.
Spring in South Florida
April 8th, 2010I know many of you are enjoying springtime where you live. Here in south Florida “spring” is a fairly short season. After our “cooler and wetter” than average winter, we’ve had several lovely weeks, but the heat and humidity of summer are beginning to make themselves felt. Night time temperatures are still dropping more than the 8 -10 degrees that we get in real summer and the daytime highs, now in the lower to mid 80s aren’t lasting very long, so the house is still cooling off enough at night to avoid the air conditioner. But our bedroom, on the west side of the house, is heating up and I’m using fans to pull in the cooler evening air in order to make sleeping comfortable.
Thanks to that “cooler and wetter” winter, lawns are still green and the brush fire danger has yet to arrive. Maybe we’ll be lucky this year and miss the brown, parched grass and fire risk.
The biggest clue at our house that this is spring is the lavish layer of live oak pollen that coats everything. I love our big old live oak tree. It shades about three quarters of our house – unfortunately, from the east side – and is my favorite bit of landscaping. I have yet to take a photo that does my tree justice, but here is a peek.
And here is the pollen on our roof. It’s really a shingle, not a thatched, roof.
The pollen is so thick that even our gravel driveway feels soft underfoot. These are the gifts of the pollen. I’m choosing to ignore the scratchy throats and sneezes it also brings.
I miss the flowering bulbs and dogwood trees, but we do have a few of the usual signs of spring.
Every year I find some empty bird’s eggs, but I never manage to find the nest.
What are your favorite parts of spring?
Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge, part 3
April 3rd, 2010I guess it’s time to update you on my ugly fabric quilt challenge. I left you with some design ideas done with paper to get me started. I actually have most of the block finished now. I just haven’t been home long enough to blog about it.
Right now, the block looks like this:
Please excuse the wrinkles. I must admit that I have a pile of projects I’m working on and as things get buried, they get wrinkled. It will be pressed again before I add the next step.
I picked up the orange from the ugly fabric and used a batik in my stash to make the petals of the flowers. The next step will be to add a border. I have a light teal small print fabric I like which also matches a color in the ugly fabric to use for the border. My daughter told me the teal fabric was perfect for the ugly fabric quilt because she thinks it’s ugly fabric, too. Oh, well.
Once I have the border on, I’ll layer it and start the quilting, which will be a simple echo quilting design and won’t take long. I’m hoping to get to that in the next week or so, just as soon as I finish our taxes.
I’ve run into several guild members in the fabric shop and asked them if they were working on the challenge quilt. So far I’ve only found one other person who is. It will be interesting to see just how many of the mini quilts are made this year; the past couple of years there have been around 15 challenge quilts made. Since 2011 will be our local quilt show and auctioning off mini quilts is a biggest fund raiser, I figure I’ll have one ready for the auction with this challenge quilt and not have to actually live with this quilt. It isn’t really my taste. But I’m hoping it ends up funky enough to appeal to someone. Seems like a plan to me.
March update/April One Small Change
April 1st, 2010March was a difficult month. Between the 27th of February and 21st of March we were home for all of five days. My dear husband drove five thousand miles in two round trips to Pennsylvania, first so I could spend some time with my mom after she was moved to hospice care and then to return for her memorial service and sorting through her room with my sister.
My March One Small Change was to explore repurposing and avoid buying new as much as possible. I have read some of Amanda Blake Soule’s Handmade Home – but didn’t get to finish it as planned – and read her blog full of repurposing projects regularly. I rescued several pairs of jeans from the trash 
with the plan to cut them into strips to crochet into snuggles for the animal shelter, but didn’t get any further on that project, either. I never had the chance to visit the thrift shops – although we donated a number of items to the one in Pennsylvania after sorting through Mother’s clothes.
I did complete the “String a-long Knit a-long” string bag from Mousy Browns’ House blog.
The bag is a little too stretchy to take heavy items, or at least that’s been my first impression. At the moment it is in the veggie bin in my frig holding the loose onions I bought at the grocery store today.
So my April challenge will be to continue with my March challenge and see what progress I can really make now that I am home.
MyMummyKnits