Design Wall Monday--Labor Day

 Design Wall Monday--see more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

This Labor Day I'm working on the Windham Challenge project for the upcoming Sewtopia sewing retreat my sister and I will attend late this month.  These fabrics are from Denyse Schmidt's new line, Five + Ten. I love her designs. 

I'm making a pillow with this collection.  

I became concerned about all the pieces needed for the pattern I chose (which I wish had been given in a cutting diagram!), so I drew them all on paper and cut them out, to try to make my fabric cutting the most efficient.  I will likely need every bit of the 5 fat quarters for my pillow, since I am not adding any additional Windham fabric.

Tesselating design and applied stuffed balls.  I have had this book for some time, but the original pattern was in an insert from the LA Times, and I have that from the 80s! but never made one. The new book includes modern techniques for cutting and piecing. 

Cross-stitching: A reader of yesterday's post (Hi Debbie!) noted she had never heard of a scissor weight.  I must agree, but this was the pattern cover for the cross stitch I just finished.  I assume the scissor weight keeps your scissors on your lap or surface so they don't slide away.  

One Year Ago: 

Our two older grandsons Cove and Hunter met their new baby boy cousin, Dane, being held there for the first time by Auntie Erica (not the baby's mother).  The boys just started Kindergarten and Second Grade last week!  Time flies.  

Pets: 

A year ago Mini stuffed herself in a project box I had just emptied.  She's lost a lot of weight since then and can fit much more easily now, lol.

Having an Occasional Good Time

This was a rough week, mood wise.  I spent way too much non-work time staring at my phone, as I didn't even desire to piece, which is a true sign of how low I was feeling!  I did do a little bit of hand embroidery, pulling out the well-aged wool applique blocks from the Greenpiece BOM my husband bought me so many years ago.  The bottle of applique glue that had been sitting in the Hoosier cabinet was unusable.  A longer than anticipated search for regular glue turned up another not-young bottle of Elmer's.  It worked well enough to adhere a few small dots. 

I just added the three little (tiny!) khaki details to the watermelon rind.  Somewhere I lost one piece and now think I want two more to make the rind more stripey--there is plenty of wool left.  The watermelon is about 7-8 inches at its widest.  

I glued down the yellow flower in the first block, and will add the layered stem/petal pieces already prepped. Next are even tinier black seeds to cut and add to the apple.  

By Friday I just had to get out of the house, and visited with my Mom and Dad for a couple of hours (with my mask on), then did a little shopping for a replacement rug and some fall decorations.  At Lowe's, Fall, Halloween, and Christmas were colliding, and expensive.  No runner sized rugs were available, so I drove to Big Lots where the same holidays were also crashing into each other. My least favorite unsupervised child activity was also occurring, siblings chasing each other all over the store, bigger boys vs little sister with very noisy sandals.  Sigh.  However, I found my favorite cookies, though I had to kneel on the floor and reach to the back of the bottom shelf to get the one bag of Archway Iced Molasses cookies left.  A suitable hall runner was also found.

Not wanting to go home yet, I took a long drive through town, down to the harbor, turned through the pumpkin and strawberry fields, then on some back streets, up to the foothills and east to the orange and lemon orchards before finally down to our driveway, feeling better. 

We had a great Saturday when this little guy and his parents came for a long visit.

Dane is gaining and growing just as he should at 6 weeks.  

The little family is doing well.  Mama has more time off, which is a good thing, while Dada is back to work.  

Baby smiles are the best!  And his left-cheek dimple echoes Mimi's :)  

After the family headed out, I pulled out the scrap box for choices for Lori of Humble Quilt's quiltalong.  I hadn't decided until then that I would join, given the number of unfinished objects around here!  But it's not a large quilt so I felt I could play too--and I love browns.

Next clue tomorrow, no idea where this is going to end up yet :) 

Design Wall Monday--Labor Day 2020

Happy Labor Day to all!    Design Wall Monday is here again.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

I selected 6 alternate blocks for my Log Cabin Loonies quilt from these modern churn dashes with low volume backgrounds, swapped several years ago through Barb's blog.  I made the dark purple one on the lower left.

Happy to have a cooler day today here in SoCal--it was 100 degrees in our area yesterday, and 88 degrees downstairs in our non-airconditioned house when I was cutting and sewing these sashings.  Unfortunately, due to MATH, the sashing had to be recut as I didn't account for two seam allowances and were too narrow.  My revised plan for the Log Cabin Loonies blocks shown last post is to add an additional row of Log Cabin blocks all the way around and call it done. That will make an 8x11 layout finish at 60x82", a nice sized throw.  I likely will not add any borders but can decide that later.  

That's better!  The top will get put together in the next month I hope.  I also spent a lot of time cutting and mixing/matching pieces for Easy Breezy leader-ender blocks.  These are so fun to sew, and triangle free (Bonnie Hunter, Quiltville).

Our son and daughter-in-law brought their 2 week old son to meet his cousins and aunties over the weekend.  

I think they were impressed with how little newborns are! Auntie Erica got first dibs.

The boys' mama, our other daughter Elaine, also got an Auntie cuddle in with Dane.  We'll make another trip up to visit the new family again soon.  Meanwhile, photos and videos give us updates on his growing and changing!

And Baby Makes Three

The long anticipated arrival of our grandson went off without a hitch  yesterday.  Well, the doctor was running late (they always are, I told our son!), so baby's birth was about an hour later than anticipated. 

And he is healthy and whole, though his legs and toes were a bit purple from being folded up by his head for so long; he has a little flat spot where his head was wedged too.  He weighed just under 7 lbs and was about 20 inches long.  Ashley did great during the C-section and our son was thrilled that baby Dane looks so much like him.  The family has been sending us little video updates on a new app we downloaded called MarcoPolo.  It has been fun to interact within our family group and see Dane become accustomed to being outside the womb :)

Here with Mama...

And Daddy :)  He's feeding well and had perfect hearing.  

Eyes open now and then!  Can't tell what color they will be yet, of course. 

This is our son Nick when he was about a week old.  Pretty similar!  Can't wait to meet baby Dane in person.  We went and got our COVID testing today, and will get flu shots in a couple of days.  Meanwhile I still didn't completely finish the cushion covers for Ashley's glider.  Only the closures left to wrangle into submission, which I will get done tomorrow without too much drama, I hope.  

Sliver of moon was visible at sunset. The smoke from county fires has cleared a bit so we can see regular clouds in the southeast.  Coincidentally, Nick was also born in August during a fire :)

Design Wall Monday--August 17, 2020

For Design Wall Monday, see more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

I finally have a finished cushion cover to share.  This has been a difficult project my son volunteered me for--I am really not an upholsterer!  The glider will be rocking our grandson-soon-to-be-born, so of course I am pushing through.

 

This is the simplest piece of the glider, the ottoman cushion.  It is far from perfect but will hopefully hold up with the lining and Velcro closure. The chair seat cushion pieces I cut out and had lined did not cooperate and the interfacing began to come loose.  I took it all off and will use fabric instead to line the looser woven print fabric which frays like a nightmare. The hardest cover is for the chair back, due to wonky pieces I cut not matching when placed right sides together to sew.  I have had to trim quite a bit of the already lined pieces and will have to add a gusset to make up for the change.  Luckily there is enough of the shower curtain fabric to do so.  The gusset will also have to be lined.  Sigh. Luckily I still have three days to get them made.

Other sewing for baby on my list is the pee pee teepee project.  Try saying that three times fast!

Two prototypes there in the back, using scraps from the Dreamweaver quilt.  I first cut the template too large and it resulted in a horseshoe crab shape rather than a teepee.  These are lined with a microfiber cloth.  The one on the right was even more wonky but I overlapped the excess section and that made it stand up straighter.  I started with a 6" circle and interfaced the one on the right.  Hopefully third time will be the charm with the Finding Dory fabrics. I prewashed the fabric to prevent shrinkage.  

Isn't this the cutest octopus?  He was outrageously expensive but so so soft and sweet for baby.  Company is Jellycat and I found it at my local fabric store--they also sell a lot of gift items for home.

 

Other necessary sewing was a curtain for our kitchen's garden window which faces east.  It has been very hot recently and the sun beats in for many hours.  This is a shower curtain redo.  I wish the hooks were shorter, as the rod did not fit through the buttonhole slits for them as I'd hoped, which of course I discovered AFTER cutting the shower curtain and hemming.  I'll try washing it and hoping it shrinks!

Projects and Wins

Projects, I've got many.  The top project since the Cross Reference finish is now the Moda Love quilt for Emma, my friend's daughter.  The top is all sewn together. 

It's big, and barely fit between my sewing desk and the kitchen cabinets for this shot.  It was a pleasure to sew with big blocks for a change.  In the interest of using up stash, I've chosen some yardage and leftovers to make up the back.  I plan also to construct a Frankenbatt  of the leftover batting in the bin I can barely close. (I stole the name Frankenbatt from another blog--don't remember which, though!)

While disparate prints, I think the colors work with the fabrics on the front well enough.  Strips cut from the fat quarters will make up the binding.  I plan to sew them in color sets for an easier-on-the-eye effect. 

Over the weekend my sister and I went to the Conejo Valley Quilters Guild show and they had some really nice vendors there, including several local quilt shops.  From the booth for A Fabric Shoppe, I chose a bunch of dotty fabrics in soft neutrals for a baby quilt.  

This is for a daughter's best friend who prefers neutrals.  I had the backing fabric in stash and think it will work well with the dots.  My plan is to make only the center of  this quilt with no borders, as a Tummy Time or take-along small quilt.  The pattern is from APQ magazine April 2017.  The designer had signatures from friends and family on her version, which will be a solid in mine.  Should be an easy make!  Baby is due in November, but I believe a baby shower is planned for next month, and I'd like to have it done by then. 

Final project is a challenge.  I don't think I've mentioned yet that my sister and I will be going to Sewtopia in New Orleans in early November.  I signed up for the Michael Miller Challenge and fabrics arrived a few days ago.

Aren't they yummy?  I've no idea yet what I will make. Being still a newbie to the Modern Quilt world, it's a little intimidating, but I'm so looking forward to my first sewing retreat.  Our guild president and her mom will also be there, which will make me feel a little more comfortable. I'll also be participating in the gift swap and need to settle on what small item to make. I've never been to any southern states, and anticipate loads of picture taking. Fingers crossed for no storms!

In the wins department, Jodie of Ric Rac released her latest fabric line, Rock Pool, and I won a giveaway on her blog last month.  She sent a loverly parcel all the way from Australia.  Lucky me!

Jodie is a prolific toy maker and relatively new but fabulous fabric designer and I've followed her blog for many years.  The patterns she sent are adorable.  Love the pins she makes too, some of which are sweary, heehee. Many thanks to Jodie for the great prizes.  I'll enjoy playing with the fabrics and wearing the Maker pin.  

Right-o, off to get dressed and run my errands before work.  Thanks for visiting!

Not a Pinterest Fail

Pinterest fails are famous on the web, but once in a while a trial works out.  I saw these pumpkins made out of canning jar lids on several websites, and remembered the large bag of leftover lids from the mason jars that my daughter and son-in-law gave out as favors at their wedding--four years ago--which I still had in a closet. 

Getting the lids evenly coated took about four coats, but I'm not a very experienced spray paint user.  The pumpkins called for 24 canning jar lids.  After watching a couple of videos, I chose to use large zip ties to hold them into the pumpkin shape. Fortunately, I also had some of those on hand.  The only thing I purchased for the project was the spray paint. 

That worked pretty well and was more secure, I thought, than raffia or yarn. 

I had just enough cinnamon sticks in the cupboard to make two pumpkin stems.  I hot glued the sticks together and into the center, and used the raffia to cover up the glue.  I also cut a couple of circles of scrapbooking stock and hot glued those to the pumpkin bottoms to help keep the sticks in.  Pretty cute, huh?  I gave DD Elaine one and kept the other.  I haven't got any real pumpkins yet, but grandson Cove (20 months) visited the pumpkin patch the other day with his mom and dad. 

He had a good time riding in the cart with the three big family pumpkins and carrying around a warty gourd.  Not pictured is a tiny pumpkin that represents his baby brother arriving in March.  Cove spent the night with Mimi and Papa last night and the better part of today and we had a great time playing, as usual. We look forward to meeting our next grandson in another few months!  This grandparent gig is the best :)

We are Mimi and Papa

Got an early morning call from our daughter Elaine yesterday morning, telling me I wouldn't be going to work that day.  She and husband Chris headed off to the hospital in the early morning after she'd been having contractions for several hours and then her water broke, but it was a long time before the baby was born. It ended up that Elaine felt comfortable just having Chris with her, so I waited for news at home with Grant.  Finally word came just after 7 pm that the baby had been born, healthy and well!  Yay!  The hospital maternity program includes something they call "kangaroo time", wherein the mother and father are alone with the baby for immediate bonding for 90 minutes, before baby is taken to be measured or weighed or allowed visitors.  There were three deliveries in a row last evening, so we didn't get a chance to see the new family until after 9 pm when they were moved finally to another room.

Presenting Cove Russell Gereau, born 6:51 pm on 2/26/14, 7 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches long.  It took our daughter three hours of pushing but she did a wonderful job.  So proud of the new mommy!

And the new daddy!  Chris was great at being there for his wife and also giving us updates throughout the day. 

I love this shot where he's got his finger in his mouth as I held him for the first time.

Proud and happy new Mimi and Papa to baby Cove. 

Sewing Curtain Panels, Waiting for a Babe to Come

This twist on the Beatles* song came to me as I worked on the last job for the nursery.  Curtain panels don't require much sewing skill--there is more MATH, fabric ripping, ironing, and pinning than actual sewing.  Things were going fine until the stitching part, when I thought I might have a meltdown.  My sewing machine just had a spa day last week and this morning when I put foot to pedal, I expected nothing but quiet whirring of the newly oiled and tuned motor.  What I got was a terrible rattle in the bobbin case, despite a perfect stitch.  This caused an  immediate flurry of disassembly and trouble-shooting, including an Internet search.  Eventually, after some additional cleaning and reassembly, the rattle went away.  Whew!  

The curtain panels are of this black and white scribble-type cotton print.  The lining pieces are cut from cotton/poly flat sheets I bought at Walmart for $15 each. The nursery gets a lot of light from the huge window the room has, and although there are pleated window shades installed, the lining should help cut down some of the light.

I'm once again turning to this book for expert help.  It gives clear instructions and lots of variety in illustration on a wide range of clothing and home decorating construction.  Though it was published in 1976, most of the content is of the traditional dressmaking type instruction, sure to give a fine finish.  In the rear of the book are some "projects" one may make using the instructional guide.  

Check out this mod bedroom!  My favorite is the vinyl pillows.  Wouldn't those be cozy to curl up with on a hot day?  The light bulb shaped lamp kills me.  

I carried on with the first panel from start to finish, with the goal of having all the kinks worked out before making the second.  There were a few bumps along the way but I'm happy to say the first panel is complete, it is the specified size, and will hang flat!  Still waiting on that grandson--my daughter has been trying to "walk him out" by taking long trips around a nearby park.  Her due date was only Saturday, so he is not really late yet :)

*Did you get the Beatles song reference?  It was a line from I Am the Walrus, beginning with "Sitting on a Cornflake..."

A Quilt's Nursery Home

Our grandson is due in less than a week, and while his quilt doesn't have a label until his name is announced, I took the opportunity of the work holiday to get a few pics of the nursery he'll be spending so much time in.

Here's the quilt over the crib, adding some color to the neutral backdrop.

Some interesting and handcrafted items hang above the crib. 

The yarn-wrapped antlers were a handmade gift, and I stitched the fox embroidery.  They purchased the owl print and the vintage metal hanger was among items I got from a family friend.  The silver keys are echoed in the hanger.

I never showed the finished fox before, since I completed the stitching the morning of Elaine's baby shower but then took it back to put in a new hoop for display.  

In the crib are some soft toys, including a flat Teddy, and a Daddy Doll, made to order to look just like my son-in-law, with his beard and plaid.  I love the fox and bear pillows too.  So cute. 

Scully, the baby's future big brother, ready to stand guard.

Elaine didn't want to be in the picture but agreed to hold up the quilt.  Her legs made it in, tho!

The back is a single fabric, which was requested by the couple, and certainly easier for me, though I love a pieced back too!  

 In the corner Chris hung some spice racks they bought for next to nothing, to use as book racks.  Clever!

A wooden dresser, re-purposed from Elaine & Chris's bedroom, makes a good base for the changing pad and modern diaper holder.  The cool lamp was the result of much hunting for just the right look and color.  The colorful artwork above was another special print they found. Not a great shot of it, tho, sorry!

I brought one additional gift over to the nursery today.  This is a bib that belonged to my husband when he was a baby.  It is an obviously well-used and loved item, maybe hand embroidered for my mother-in-law by a friend or relative.  I found this cool shadowbox at Michael's, covered a piece of foamcore with the same linen I used for the fox embroidery, and simply pinned the bib to the foamcore.  Now, a few closeups:

Kitty and his ball of yarn.

 Ringtail raccoons and plaid bias binding. 

Architextures fabric backing, and quilting detail. 

Quilt texture from the front.  

 

 A baby is coming to this nursery: 

 

 

 Very soon!