Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Scrap Pieces

 



How are you doing?

I've been buzzing around but finished a few tablerunners.  Mostly I was inspired by something I forgot to write about before.  This:


I laughed like crazy when I saw this!  But it did make me go upstairs and pull out a drawer of Christmas fabric to see what scraps I had.  Turned out I had quite a lot of 2.5 inch blocks and a few 4 inch blocks.


I had made table runners for my mom, Kathy, and my friend Nancy last summer so I put together one for each of them and one I'll keep.


What have you been sewing?

Have a safe and happy day!


Tuesday, November 19, 2024

A Treasured Catalog

 


I have a Grandma Dexter/Virginia Snow catalog in my collection.  One of the things that has struck me about some of these booklets is how they were treasured.  I suspect this catalog had fallen apart somehow but the resilient woman who owned it rethreaded the booklet.


Actually you can see it even better on the back:


I do believe that we sometimes take it for granted how lucky we are quilting or sewing in this age.  Yes, fabric is expensive but look at all the inventions and technology that makes our work easier!


My note on this piece said this publication happened after 1927 when Dexter Mills was purchased by Collingbourne Mills.  The same company that had produced the "Virginia Snow Studios" products. 





I often wondered if women kept these booklets to not order quilt patterns but to draft their own using the images in the catalogs.




I do enjoy looking at the patterns and sometimes have a difficult time picking my favorite in the catalog.

Wishing you a safe and happy day!



















Monday, November 18, 2024

Squirrel

 


Greetings!  

Life around here can be hectic.  I only have a few hours in the early morning to get things done before I have to leave and check on family members.  When I finally return home, I have run out of energy.  No biggee, at least I can handle all of it.

Early 20th century embroidery of a squirrel

I spent the weekend purging my office and cleaning the sewing room.  I honestly haven't been able to work much in the office since the pandemic hit. It became the dumping ground and things there were soon forgotten.😕

But I enjoyed working up there (still not done by the way).  

When Kathy (my sister aunt) and I were young, we never minded "cleaning our room."  In fact, we actually enjoyed the task.  I don't remember anyone ever having to tell us to clean our room.  

We were the only girls and unlike our brothers, we had our own room.  It was our domain to do with whatever we wanted.  So we cleaned and reorganized often.  We often moved furniture here and there and changed decor (usually seasonally).

Whenever I clean my office or sewing room, I get that same satisfied feeling.  I am telling you this because the more I watch other quilters "tackle" their sewing room, I am struck by how much they dread doing it.  Some are just overwhelmed.  A few women complained about squirrels--a modern term that implies getting distracted and I believe originated from the movie, "Up".

Do you have any of these problems when you are cleaning or reorganizing your sewing space?

Speaking of squirrels...

I grew up hearing my grandfather say "if you want to get the squirrels out of your yard, throw peanuts out there.  They will grab the peanuts and then go to another location to hide and guard them."😆

Towels I made for my neighbors during the pandemic.  They became very attached to the squirrels in the neighborhood when a few squirrel babies were abandoned.


Wishing you a safe and happy day!



Friday, November 15, 2024

An Unexpeted Flower Friday



Surprise!  This post is late because I accidently posted on my other website--3poodlesand a nana.  So here we are better late than never!

It's an unexpected Flower Friday!

Robin shared an unusual blossom...a daffodil that surprised Robin and is called "Good Cheer".  Robin also said it has a wonderful fragrance!


Robin also saw a tiny violet peaking out!  What a nice find!


Impatiens are the most tender annuals here in Pennsylvania.  I had a volunteer on my patio and just didn't have the heart to pluck it.  Amazingly, despite frosts and 20 degree weather on Wednesday, this flower has endured!


So on that note, I wish you a safe and happy weekend!


Thursday, November 14, 2024

Lucky Photobombs

 


It's Thursday and Mr. Lucky had an interesting few days last weekend.

My niece doesn't come up often so it's always wonderful to see her and my great-niece Remi.

This past weekend was a lot of fun and Maggie took a lot of photos.  But two of them inadvertently included Lucky and I found them amusing.  I think the kids call this photobombing!

Remi is 2 years old and so is Lucky and even though he met Remi last spring, he wasn't quite sure what to make of the fuss.


"Hey that little one has a lot of cool toys and my Mom won't let me play with them.  But I want them...."

The photo below really surprised me.  


"I like to be held too!"

Dogs and kids, I love em!

PS--We have some photos for Flower Friday so if you have anything to share, email them to me!

Have a safe and happy day!






Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Frayed

 

 

How is your week going?

We actually got a little rain (ok, very little) Sunday night so we are hoping that the drought eases!

I did some stashbusting over the weekend in the hopes of reducing my Christmas scraps.  There were just too many little pieces and I was hoping to move my Christmas fabrics to a smaller drawer (didn't happen by the way).


Today I'm wondering if you all could give me some insights on solid fabrics.  I like to keep solid black, white, and navy fabrics in my stash.  I used up most of the navy over the weekend but was dismayed at the amount of fraying that occurred.  


So here is what I want to know...when you use a solid fabric what company do you choose?

It seems to be a problem with most of my Kona solids these days. I'm just tired of wasting money on fabric that doesn't hold up.  If I had worked on a quilt, I would have not used the navy at all.  Little projects were okay for the fabric as the items don't get much wear.  I've always bought Kona because my LQS carried it with a huge variety of colors but I won't be buying it anymore.

So I'm almost done with the navy solids.  I used Fray Check, I used a fresh blade in my rotary cutter and it didn't help.  

The thing is--we shouldn't HAVE to do these kinds of things to our fabric when we spend good money already buying them.

I went to my local fabric store on Monday and bought some crackle black fabric because I was out of black.

Research indicated that Art Gallery Solids have a tight weave and I already love their fabrics.  So I ordered some navy
I'll report on what I find.  

So if you have any insights, I would love to hear them!

Have a safe and happy day! 









Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Tuesday's This and That: November 10, 2024

 


How are you doing today?

The weather here has been really strange.  Last week it was so hot the air conditioner kicked on two days.  Then it was so cold that I had to put on long underwear.  My neighbor is worried about the bees in her hives getting confused.


Speaking of bees--I found this free pattern for bees here.  I might have to make something for our neighborhood apiarist.

Another interesting article is this article about bees and elephants.  It's a very interesting!

***

We all know how therapeutic quilting can be.  We've seen articles about incarcerated women who learned quilting and the positive impact it had on them.

But coming soon is a documentary about incarcerated men learning quilting.  The men make the quilts for children in foster care and it looks like it will be an interesting documentary.  

Details about when it will be available, etc. can be found here.

***

Wishing you a safe and happy day!