More crochet wrapped Rocks

This took a bit of extra time to create, because I had not before done dimensional flower motifs in such a small thread and hook.  I am aquiring nice round rocks faster than I can make lacy crochet for them...

and a bit closer, these flower motifs are quite easy once you get the hang of keeping the tension tight -- it took a few tries to get the flowers to look proper considering my tension was way too loose.  I had to take it quite slow, and I am not showing the purple flower one I made first, it is pretty bad, so I didn't add the looped chains to wrap it around the rock...

I am still looking for a yellow varigated crochet thread to wrap around a rock -- I am almost obsessed with yellow varigated thread -- the first place I check out in every 2nd hand shop is the craft corner, looking for the elusive yellow varigated thread!  Soon, I know I will find it soon.

How and Who 2

Picking up a memory from an almost 60 year span is sometimes an adventure in time.  Trying to remember something from early childhood is often a challenge and definately not an exact science -- even when you think you remember something clearly, often you have not.

As things are, I am the eldest sibling in my family and therefore some of the things that happened to me through the years can only be verified by my parents and neither one is on this earth to correct my memory or to validate it.  So I have to rely on what is tucked away in my own brain and hope that it is clear...

When I was seven, I received what I remember as my first store bought Christmas/Birthday present.  Prior to that, my father would make things for myself and my brothers -- he made a wooden pedal car for us, he made wooden tools, a shovel and rake and even a hammer, he made a doll house and each year for at least a half dozen years after, he and my mother would fashion furniture from wood, tin cans cut and manipulated, he even used a set of christmas lights attached on the house to celebrate christmas!

As I was saying though, somewhere about 1959 or 1960 I got for Christmas a toy sewing machine!  I remember it as being turquoise in colour and that it sewed a chainstitch.  Now when I see things move, I have a need to figure out how it does that.  I studied that little hand crank machine in as much detail that a seven year old mind can.  I loved how the needle would go down through the little hole and a metal hook would catch the thread loop then hold it til the next time the needle came down bringing another loop of thread and form a loop that pulled through the first loop.  No bobbin on this little machine, but it sure was a fun thing to not only learn how the machine worked but also to see how it could hold fabric bits together to make something.  I remember my mother showing how to create a pattern to sew pants for my dolls and then soon after to show me how to add a sleeve to a rectangle with two "V's" cut into it and this became a shirt.  Later to make a collar for the shirt.  Those pattern shapes were a huge leap from cutting two holes for the arms to go through on a square piece of fabric.  All of a sudden, I could see how clothing wrapped around people!  Then I learned how to use darts -- my how my Barbie doll dresses fit snug -- Barbie soon had dresses like Marilyn Monroe!

If memory serves me correct my toy machine was somewhat like the one above, though I THINK mine was turquoise in colour.  I went hunting all over the internet for this image and discovered it at an etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/pearl25  for saleand this lady kindly let me use her image.  I have no pictures that I can find in the family photo album of my sewing machine, and even if I did the photo would be black and white and the idea of turquoise would not be provable anyway!

 I do remember I took my machine one time to a friend's house and her mother showed us how to make pot holders with a place to slip your hand in so that both the palm of your hand and the back of the hand would be protected from the heat.  I think my friend had the very same toy sewing machine and we spent alot of time using scraps of fabric to make things. 

I remember also around this time my mother was working on a hexagon quilt, I know that in the quilt some of the hexagons were sewn on my little machine.  My Mother would pin two hex's together and I would slowly stitch along the pencil line she had drawn.  I don't ever remember that quilt being finished tho... I wonder what happened to all those hex pieces?

Were you a lucky girl to have a toy sewing machine that really sewed?  Tell me what you remember!

Peace to Joy Quilt Mystery

I was going to call it Between the Seasons, but that didn't sound right, then I was going to called Between You and Me (my husbands birthday is just a week ago and mine is at Christmas)  But then I thought I would just call it what it can be used for.  From a quiet peaceful fall evening to the joy of christmas time -- my colour choice somehow turns out to be fall colours with a lot of green and red  AND  I do believe the Moda charm pack that I made it from was called Peace and Joy, though I cannot be sure of that because I bought it more than a year ago.

Anyway, this is to Announce that I will be doing another Mystery Quilt on the CANADIAN THANKSGIVING LONG WEEKEND.  That is SATURDAY OCTOBER 9, 10, and 11.

We will do a traditional style of pattern -- it came together for me through an experiment of piecing the squares that are available in a charm pack.

This Mystery will be in TWO main parts and will be suitable for any quilter, even a beginner, though a beginner should be well versed in keeping an accurate 1/4 inch seam when piecing! 

The third day Oct 11, will be just for you to finish up the details of the project, the layering, quilting and binding -- probably accomplishable between putting a turkey in the oven and serving it to the family...  as long as someone else sets the table!  Or if you get up real early, you can finish up the project and set your project ON the Table for decor while you eat!

So, if you are considering taking part in this mystery, you will need the following supplies.

Fabric:  1 charm pack -- or cut your own from your stash of fabrics, which means you need to cut at minimum 38  5" squares.  You should have a co ordinating range of fabrics and have at least 8 different fabric designs, a varying amount of light, medium and dark.  Like I said, I did use a Moda Charm Pack and the variety is pretty much exactly right for this project.

             You also need a co ordinating fabric which you will use as "stoppers" and as the binding -- sorry I did not actually measure how much as I was 'testing' the pattern -- but less than a meter, say about 1/2 meter.  And backing.  You will need to piece the backing, unless you cut it longways of your fabric, which means you will need a meter and a half in length, but then you will have half of it left over...  Maybe there is something in your stash that you want to use?  If you don't mind piecing your backing you can get away with about a 1/2 meter plus 6 inchs (about 26 inches by width of fabric)  OR if you buy a meter and a half of one fabric it should be enough for backing, binding and the stopper fabrics needed on the top...

            batting for the project -- I used a good quality poly batting and peiced it from some other left over projects, but much like the backing you will need enough to fit about 20" x 50"
Tools, etc
As with any Modern Quilt you need your sewing machine, thread, bobbins, sewing machine needles, scissors, rotary cutter, acrylic ruler (for this I like a 9 x 9 and a 6 x6) but the old trusty 6 x 24 will work.  and of course the cutting mat.  don't forget you need an iron to press seams.

So, I hope you will be happily looking forward to this project -- use it for yourself as a Autumn to Winter enhancement in your home, or make it and give it at Christmas!  Mark the Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend on your Calender!

How and Who

Lately, I have been thinking about how and who I learned my quilting and crocheting from, not to mention the multitude of other crafts that I occasionally pick up and still enjoy from time to time.

This is a HUGE subject so, it will take a series of posts to explain and perhaps introduce some of the sources where I learned about quilts and making quilts.  Maybe by following along with my path you may say "Hey! I remember that." or perhaps, "Oh, so that's where that idea comes from..."  I'm not doing this series in chronological order, though.  My eclectic brain may alight on one area or another so you never know from post to post where this series may take us.

I  am not going to plan the How and Who posts for any particular day so I hope that you will be able to join me on this personal journey through time and experience.

Since this will be my first post in this series, I would like to talk about one of my earliest and most important influences...  This is not where I learned of quilting, that came from my Mother, and Grandmothers and especially from my Aunt Vera.

Georgia Bonesteel (click on her name to learn more about her) taught me a technique that was indispensible in my early years of quiltmaking.
The first quilting book that I bought was written by this lady.  Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel

The book jacket cover on my copy is long gone, worn out, torn, bent and beaten from careless use, BUT i do still have the book! I used this book for quite a few years, and then my sister wanted to teach herself about quilting too.  So I gave her the book.  She had it for quite a few years and then one day on a visit to her, I saw it in her give away box that she kept by the front door.  I asked for it back and thankfully she gave it back to me!  I am so glad I have it in my Library again. 

 I thought I would check on AMAZON.ca if this book is still available -- IT IS!  Actually, it is available through the site's resellers and some copies are asking upwards of $80 US funds.  Whew!  I am so glad I bought it way back when it was newly published somewhere about 1980.   I loved and still love this book. 

  It opened the door to a way to make quilts without the expense of a big frame in my little Winnipeg house.  First making and quilting the squares with a large oval hoop, and later with the "q-snap" frame.   I made at least 4 full size quilts using this method and even formed a group to work together to make quilts for each of us using this method, 6 or maybe it was eight of us.  We picked names to generate an order and then each of us made a block each month for three months for the person who's turn it was.  It took about 3 years total for all of us to each have a large queensize quilt.  Each one a lovely sampler type of style.  It was a great sharing project!  We each too turns with the book when it came our turn to put our blocks together.  The instructions and techniques in it were easy to understand for each of us.  I know each of us in the group learned some of our basic quilting techniques from Georgia!

If you are looking for a good starting point in quilting, I would certainly recommend Georgia's Book and if you can find she also had a regular quilting show on PBS.  Perhaps there are dvd's available.  She is a wonderfully good teacher...

Working

Today, I got busy working on putting items for sale in my ETSY shop, I actually have been creating a fair amount in the last weeks but have not had a chance to get all items posted.  So today I have listed these little notebooks...

This is an address book.

Just clik on the 'badge" on the left side of my page, to take a closer look at the things I am creating...

Heritage Squares Quilt

About Two Years ago I started this quilt.  It was done as a group swap project, 5 of us made blocks and traded...  The number of blocks we traded actually would make a much larger quilt, queen size where this one is only just barely a double, more like a good size twin.  So after all this time I am going to be teaching a class on this quilt.  Part of the point of the class is to exchange squares of fabric so that each person taking the class will have a very good selection of squares in order to make it a really scrappy quilt.  It will also teach how to calculate those corner and side triangles for an "on point" quilt.

This is a very traditional block pattern but the pattern that my group had found was made to rather odd measurements -- using 7/8 and 3/8 cuts (Why would anyone make things difficult for themselves?)  So being certainly not a math wiz ( I failed grade 11 math, many years ago and had to take it at summer school!) but a person who prefers to make life easier, I recalculated the piecing, making the tiniest squares into 1 1/2 inch pieces and then streamlining the piecing into strip cuts -- and rewrote the pattern for myself and my group...

Each member in our group has taken their finished quilt to quilt guild meeting and gave me the credit for the repatterning work and my guild has asked me to teach it!  I am feeling pretty special to be asked to teach something to someone, and am so very excited about doing it!

Colours of my Neighbourhood

Three times  a week I am out in the early morning delivering our local newspaper.  I had a bright idea a couple of months back.   I need exercise.  I saw an ad in our local paper for carriers so I called up the paper and after some bit of talking I have taken on TWO delivery routes -- takes me about two hours to go through the whole route.  So, instead of paying a gym so that I can walk on a treadmill or use a stairclimber, the newspaper is paying me a whole 7 cents for each paper that I deliver! 

The streets are usually quiet when I am out there -- today, I was just finishing up as the Mom's and Dad's were  starting their walk with the kids over to the school.  It was rainy this morning which actually made for perfect lighting to take pictures of the features in the neighbourhood.

After I saw this picture downloaded onto my computer I thought it looked alot like the Heritage Squares Quilt, do you think?

These Chrysanthymums grace someone's front step -- only thing between the flowers and the building wall was a HUGE spider web, that I walked straight into!   Then the whole rest of the route I was wondering if the manageress of the web was crawling somewhere in my hair!

These are and have been for many many years my favourite flower, Wild Black-eyed Susans (How could one not choose as their favourite, a flower with the same name as yourself?)  or tamed they are called Gloriosa Daisy (I think)   I wish they were in my yard...

And Pearl, just cause.  Today she is at the Vet's,  She is being spayed.  Would you believe she is almost 6 months old?  Her coat as you can see is a wonderful shiny covering.  She is soft and has turned out quite handsome -- at least as pretty as those daisies!  She is sitting on our back deck watching a squirrel up in the trees in the neighbouring yard...

(PS. the vet called to say she is out of surgery and is doing fine -- we will have her home in the morning)

Exploring the Neighbourhood and a bit beyond...

Do you ever go somewhere and not have a particular destination in mind?

The other day, I was lucky enough to go for a ride-along with a friend.  She definately had a purpose and a destination and a particular goal in mind.  I didn't.  Where she went I just followed, not expecting anything or planning or doing...

We went to Hope, BC which is actually about 1hour east of Abbotsford right up against the Rockies - just about where you really start getting into the Mountains.  Remember the early Sylvester Stallone movie "First Blood"?  Well, that movie was filmed in and around Hope.

There is a little park in the centre of town, dedicated to the Japanese Canadians who were moved to internment camps during the 2nd world war.  Very pretty and peaceful.

We drove down a road, where my friend's destination was but on the way was this beautiful old falling down cabin!  Driving down the road I noticed it but did not have time to pull out the camera, so made her stop the car on the return trip up the road to get a few photos...  The cabin is built right up against the rock so that the back wall forms part of the house.  It does appear abandoned as the door was wide open.  I am determined to make this a stop again so I can look closer...  Can't you just see Jed Clampett coming out on that porch to greet you??

Another stop along the road was this bit of fencing across the front of someone's property.  Try to guess how long that stack of old railway ties have been there?  How much longer will they be there?

And this, this holds all the promise of a long and interesting life.  The first shoots of a spruce that someday may be 100 foot tall, in a longer time away than I will be alive.  What might this little sapling see in the next hundred years?

I think this is one of my favourite kinds of journeys.

Perhaps you can fit one into your busy life in the next little while?

Putting the Quilt Layers Together

I know I have talked about this before, but then I read someone elses blog about how much they hate crawling around on the floor to baste the layers of a quilt together.  I do have to admit, that getting the batting and the backing to line up straight with no bumps or scrunches with my quilt top has always been the part of quiltmaking that I don't get real enthusiastic for...

But, I have my method...

The first thing I do is tack (yes tack!) the quilt top up on my design wall, so that the wrong side is facing out.

This particular quilt is about 72 inchs long by 60 inches wide.  So because it is longer than I am tall, I put this one up so it is sideways. A smaller quilt I might do length wise.  A larger quilt means moving some furniture.

Next, without pulling out the tacks I sort of hook the batting onto the tacks, in this case the batting is a thin poly so I snip a tiny hole to slip the tack through.

Now, as you can see, the batting hangs down and covers the whole top, so I know, I am not going to have a corner or edge that is a bit short -- though if you look closely, the quilt top is not completely covered in that bottom left corner -- easily fixed in next photo...

When you pull the batting out of its plastic bag, it is always somewhat scrunched up and wrinkledy and those wrinkles, if left could cause problems later, so I take my iron and fill it with water.  I turn on the steam and without actually touching the batting hold the iron, with the thing steaming like crazy near to the quilt at a slight angle.  If you hold it so the bottom is sideways, it won't seam, but at this bit of a dippy angle, the batting receives enough steam that the wrinkles relax.  Works for cotton batting or the 80/20 type batting just as well...   I think that I just might invest in one of those clothing steamers -- I'm thinking on it.

Now then, once the batting has been completely smoothed and is hanging straight, I PIN the backing onto the quilt top and batting -- no snipping holes to keep it in place.  I only pin up at the top edge. No need yet to pin baste the whole thing (unless you plan to quilt from the back, then you can skip the next step.)

So, once I have good ole safety pins all along the top edge.  I pull out the tacks from the wall, being careful not to drop the whole thing (though, I have without too much extra trouble.) and turn the three layers so that the quilt top is now facing outwards -- this is where a slightly taller husband or teenage son comes in very handy.  They hold it while you retack that top edge back onto the wall.  Just use enough tacks to keep it straight and not pulled in any one area.  Smooth out the layers and start to pin or thread baste from near the top.  Work your way down and across, by putting your arm underneath.  Because you are letting gravity do the straightening for you, it is not a big headache having to smooth and re-smooth things. 

Once you have safety pins placed every 4 inches or so all over the quilt, you can take it down and start quilting it.

I have been using this method for quite some time now (10 years at least) and very rarely do I have a fold over or a 'bump' show up on the back -- usually that will happen if there is something wrong with the piecing on the front!

Now, this particular quilt should have been done quite a while ago.  I am teaching a class on how to do the top in October and I meant to have it ready to "advertise" the class, so now I HAVE to have it done by next Tuesday to show it so that someone, anyone will sign up for the class by mid October.  It is almost like I sabotage myself!   So, now that it is layered,  I need to find the time to get it quilted... and very soon!

Note -- Yes, this does create alot of pin holes in your wall, so think ahead before you use my method.  My particular reasoning is that at some later day, I can buy some polyfilla and fill those holes and paint the whole room.  You have to polyfilla holes anyway before you paint so does it matter if there are a hundred holes or 10?  Up to you to decide...

First Day of School and Easy Peasy Tote Bag

In my life, the first day of school, means nothing more than to remember to slow down to 30kmh in a school zone...  It is more than 10 years since I rejoiced that my sons would be heading back for school and I could do other things (mind you with a troublesome teenager with learning challenges, keeping him in class was at times a trial)  I guess this year I am noticing the back to school thing because if I don't time things right in my job, I could find myself amongst a herd of little ones on their way to or coming home from school. 

And today is RAIN --  Does that make a difference to those eager young ones?  I don't think so, today many will get a ride to school and barely notice that the streets and sidewalks are wet.

My back yard deck becomes quite treacherous, especially the wooden part, the green agae grows quite abundently by the end of our rainy season -- we have a set of rubber mats that soon will be put ontop of the wood, so if need be, a walk down to the end of the yard is safe, even in the wettest weather.

Yesterday, late, I came across a very simple recycle idea.  It took me only a few minutes to accomplish.  Making a tote - mostly for groceries (we never seem to have quite enough grocery totes) from a "no longer in use" t-shirt.

So simple.  Just lay out the t-shirt on the table, even as if you were going to fold it nicely and put in your drawer.  Fold it in half long ways, so that the sleeves match up.  Get your scissors and cut along the arm seam so that you are completely cutting off the sleeves, both together.  Next start at centre front just a bit below the neckline and cut a curve up to the shoulder.  Unfold and turn inside out, sew a seam across the bottom of the tshirt and turn it right side out again.  There, thats it, you now have a bag with two straps for carrying.  No need to trim the raw edge, t-shirt fabric rarely unravels...

even easier would be a sleeveless top, simply sew the bottom closed!  How many potential t-shirt bags do you have fermenting in the back of your closet?  Would the other kids laugh if I took one of these to school???

Oh and here is a link to a pretty detailed video of how to do a t-shirt bag...

I didn't draw lines or use bowls for templates, I just "eyed" each cut, but you can do it the LONG way if you like...

T-shirt Tote Video

I was gonna write a post today....

But, I never quite got to it...

Grannies

Not a bunch of old ladies!  Granny Squares are crocheted squares that is a very traditional pattern for using those left over bits of yarn that a real grannie would have left from knitting sweaters for the grandchildren... 

I do not have grandchildren so I don't knit sweaters, so I get to make granny squares from new yarn, or more often from yarn that I pick up at a fraction of the price from thrift stores.  Of course, the way a crafter's brain works means that there probably are never enough colours for a granny square afghan, but we try, don't we?

So all through the summer, I have been working on making a multi colour traditional style granny square afghan.  The little middles seem endless, and there really is no point in counting them because there just doesn't seem to quite enough when it finally comes to putting the squares together, suffice to say, at a minimum I would suggest at least a shoebox full, then count and see if you have at least 100, 120 is better though -- which would make a nice size 10 x 12 squares...

Then you get to the second round where the combinations of colours becomes at times quite a difficult decision.  You don't want too many pink and blue, unless of course that is exactly what you do what.  Maybe it is!   With that second round of colour come the problem of hiding your ends.  I know that alot of us, simply dislike dealing with those ends, but hey! if you hid them after each round, you won't have to be weaving in 500 straggly bits when you have all those squares done and should be saying that the masterpiece is complete.

Isn't it amazing how the variety of colours just always seem to go together? No matter what your choice of colours are, in the long run -- the more, the merrier!

For very many years, I have making these granny square afghans and even though I knew of a method that you could use to join the finished squares as you went along, or as you got enough of the three round squares done that you could join them so that there are not two alike side by side.  I did not know how to do that join as you go method.  My sister had the system down pat, a long time ago, but she is not particularly inclined to teach her secrets, so after hoping she would show me, I finally decided there must be somewhere to learn it on my own...

Here is a close up of the join as you go.  I really like this system because it does not create that 'sewn' line between each square.  It might seem a bit awkward when you first try it but it will not long before you are flying along and joining those squares with very few scraggly bits (which you will weave in as you go, RIGHT?)

Now instead of me making this post longer than you want to sit and read it for, here are a few links that will explain this system very very well...

To learn how to do the join as you go - 2 parts to this so watch both sections...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83uNDB7OuAg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuITIgH12DQ&feature=channel

I thought I would add a couple of more links to You Tube videos, in case you have always wanted to make your own granny square afghan (do you remember the one that lay across the back of your gramma's couch?)

So check out these, IN Order.  This lady does her demo slowly enough that just about anyone should be able to pick up the method, even if you have not done a crochet square before...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEPy9hQRcVM

and here is another video that shows you how to change colour for each round AND at the same time weave in your ends -- you will barely notice that you are weaving in the ends!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtRMnMqRdjc&feature=related

 this is the second part of the above video (the guy, yes guy! who demos this accidently, I suspect, cut off the first video, but it continues exactly where the previous one abruptly stops...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRo0xeaIrSo&feature=channel

If you go to these links, you will also find many other videos, some of them similar or showing a slightly different method of joining -- there are at least three different ways to join granny squares, so really choose what would suit you best.  After many years of doing it one by one tho, and with ends to weave in, I am LOVING the join as you go method in the first two links above... don't forget the list of videos  on the right side of your page -- oh and if you find one that is interesting, bookmark it for a time until you perfect the method!

It never ceases to amaze me how many things there are to learn, whether on the internet or in your library or even just by listening to your friends.  Strive to learn something new everyday.  The more you learn about things, the more you want to learn!  I am hoping that this little lecture (though I hope it doesn't sound like your third grade teacher trying to hammer the "times table" into your brain) will lead you to a new way of doing or at least trying things or open your mind to a new place to look for things to learn -- not just crochet.  Got a question?  Ask your computer!!

I am hoping to show the finished, or almost finished granny square afghan in the next couple of weeks -- certainly before the snow flies up here in the great north west.  I actually have two granny square afghans on the go, this multi-colour scrappy one and another where the whole square is one colour, but the joining will be a contrast...