Crystal's Garden

Nothing going on in my life right now that I care to spill to the world, so I'll share one of my finished quilts. (Huge number of quilts in progress, but finishes are few and far between).

This is a wallhanging I made for a friend after she moved from Oregon to Las Vegas, where she has a stone yard. I made a flower garden for her.

I love the way this turned out, and I had a hard time letting it go! I think I'll have to make one for myself...someday.

Indian Feathers Update

When I started this project a year ago, I had hoped to have it finished by around July. Sure missed that goal! But at least I have finished hand-piecing all the little diamonds. Whew!

Since I got this idea from a picture of an antique quilt, I'm having to draft the patterns myself and my first attempt at a pattern for the plain wedge corner pieces was a bust. The whole project is currently wadded up in a big ball, out of sight and usually out of mind. I'm just about ready to bring it out, take a deep breath, and have another go at the wedges.

Where it all started....

My mom was quite a prolific seamstress. When I was very young, she made most of her clothes, and many of mine. We had several matching dresses. When I was in Kindergarten, it seemed like I woke up to a newly finished dress just about every morning. I was fascinated with her sewing machine, a green and white Singer Touch & Sew. A little later, she got one of the Golden Touch & Sews, quite the machine back then. I still have it but all the cams and accessories got lost in its last move, and I haven't even tried to see if it still works. I just like having it around. The amount of sewing done on that machine is amazing. And it never grumbled about what it was asked to do, even stitching on heavy, multi-layered horse blankets.

I got a Singer "Little Touch & Sew" sewing machine for my 6th birthday. Here it is. It's tiny--only 10 inches long. It still works, although I'm missing the bobbin shuttle.

And here is the first item I sewed, made with my little machine. This is also very small, the perfect size for a 6 year old. The sides and hem are all turned under nicely, with straight stitches. (I was actually impressed, when I found this again not long ago). And, as you can see from the stains, I did use it to help with the baking! (My guess, is that was from chocolate chip cookies)

After making my apron, I moved to using the big machine and started making my clothes within a short time. I'm sure I was making very wearable blouses by the time I was 8 and made almost all my clothes through High School.

In college I studied Fashion Design. My favorite classes were pattern drafting and the haute couture construction techniques. I did custom work for many years, but stopped sewing garments entirely about 12 years ago, until recently when I re-made a suit for my neighbor.

I have stacks of really nice fabrics to make some new clothes for myself--some wonderful linens, soft rayons, and many others. But all my garment sewing supplies are buried in so many different places in my house, I'd have to hunt and gather them all together. What a chore. It's really a shame though, to have all my fabrics and patterns just sitting around, so I should make it a priority.

My first quilt...

I have no news, and no finishes on the near horizon, so I guess it's time to dig in the dusty archives.

My first quilt. The name of this quilt is WOLUFO (World's Oldest Living UFO)

I started this in about 1982. It was cut using tissue patterns and scissors, and I don't think there's a single triangle the same size. I only got as far as cutting the pieces, then stuffed it all into a shoebox for about 23 years. Colors had changed in my house, so the colors in this were really hideous! And at that time I was much more "into" making clothes, than quilts.

So....fast forward to just a few years ago, when I decided I was going to really start quilting. I found that old, battered box, pulled out the pieces, and put the blocks together. Then I was faced with the challenge of finding fabrics for the sashings, borders, and plain blocks that would look OK with those 1980's calicos. I had no idea what I was doing when I went to cut the sashings, so I just winged it. I spent a ton of money for some cream, green, and gold. Cut, made some mistakes, bought more fabric, re-cut, and finally had a finished top.

I wanted to learn how to handquilt, so I figured that since everything else about this quilt was goofy and beginner-ish, that it was the perfect place to practice. I handquilted all the pieced blocks, outlining each piece, and the cream blocks are quilted with a very intricate "knot garden" type of design. I sent to a long-arm quilter who finished the sashings and borders.

Technically, this quilt is very bad. As a perfectionist, I'm shocked that I'm not terribly bothered by the all the "bad". But I love the way it looks, and I love it for all the learning that came from it. Now that I know what I'm doing, and how to cut the pieces in uniform size, I'd love to make this design again.

Now all these colors are "in" again. Go figure.

A Finished Top...Woohoo!....

I'm a very slow and easily distracted quilter. Or maybe it's just that I like to take the scenic route! Yes, that's it!

I started this top five years ago and had no plans for it to end up so big, but it kind of had a mind of its own. I've worked on it, put it away, pulled it out again, set it aside, and finally decided to ignore all my other machine-stitched projects, and push through to finish it. So I did, at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Yippee! Not sure if I'll have it quilted, or handquilt it myself. So, for now, it'll go onto my "pondering" pile.

Now to continue with my Indian Feathers (see March 20 post), and my next "get it done" machine-pieced project, a partially-assembled queensize-plus top in pink and brown 19th century prints. This next one I definitely will be hand-quilting, and would love to have it finished and in use this year.

A peek:

Three projects...

Three of the projects I'm currently working on are hand-pieced, using 19th century reproduction prints.

The priority project is my Indian Feathers. I need 36 of these "feather" triangles. I've just finished the 26th one. Yeah! Down to the final 10 countdown! The blocks will be finished with unbleached muslin, sashings and borders will be a dark brown wavy "bark-like" print. I'm also going to add some beading--most likely using carved bone, or shells. I'm so excited about this one!
Next is Tumbling Blocks. Another project I have a hard time putting down! Plans are for this to be a very generous queensize, when it's done. Here are the blocks I have made so far....



And when I need a little break from the other two, I sneak in a few stitches on my Martha Washington's Flower Garden, which I'm English Paper Piecing. I was always intimidated by that technique, but WOW how much fun it is! And so easy! Another one that will end up a generous queensize.

These will all be hand-quilted so, between these three and a couple more machine-pieced queensize tops I have almost assembled (which will also be hand-quilted), these will keep me busy for a couple years.

Trust me, I have plenty of other projects--I love that term "WISPS" (Works in slow progress)--waiting for some attention, too. If unfinished projects give us a reason to keep going, I'm set to live to at least 147.

New dishcloth...

I felt like being creative and productive tonight, but didn't feel like doing any quilty stuff. So I brought out my cotton yarn and made a new dishcloth. I've made several over the years, but have kept only one for myself, it's about 15 years old and looking pretty ratty. I just love using these, especially after they've been used and washed a few times.

I used to crochet almost every evening--before I took up quilting--but I haven't done any in several years. It felt great to make this, and I'll be making several more. I have stacks and stacks of "regular" dishcloths, but there's just something about these crocheted ones that is irresistible.

**And now, after having written about this and looking at the title, I'm getting quite a giggle from the thought that something as mundane and ordinary as a new dishcloth is exciting enough to share with the world! hehehe. Then again, what got me even thinking about making one, is having seen so many people sharing homemade socks, so I guess I'm hanging out with the right crowd! :-)