Baby blocks for Dotta's - the next generation

I'm behind, but that's ok. Rick's son Luke and his wife Nancy had little Clancy in early summer. He will get a quilt made from these blocks.

Then Rick's son Nick and wife Zetta will have a girl this fall, and she will get the quilt coming from these blocks.This one may end up pretty large. I may need to pick and choose from the blocks to keep it the right size, but how to decide what doesn't go in the quilt?!?

Time to think about travel again!

I'm letting work occupy my attention these days. I haven't had a reason to travel for work since end of March. I've enjoyed the time but it has't been reflected in me finishing sewing projects. Now I'm in the throes of working on logistics to return at the end of August for a follow up day long workshop in Uganda. 

Just so I get my priorities straight though, July will see me on a quilt guild retreat and then a week away on a family vacation. That should set me right for a quick trip to Haiti and then Uganda.

June About to End

Catch up with Viet Nam-fabric finds

While I don't have the Abidjan fabric to show yet, I do have these delicious pieces I purchased last October when in Viet Nam. There are about 8 meters of fabric and they cost me about $25. They are a bit shinier that a real quilter's cotton, kind of a sateen finish. I could see the blue and rose pieces contributing to an 8 piece star Stack and Whack style. Or maybe cut into curved pieces repeated in a central medallion? The vendor offered to make them into a dress/garment for me, and I didn't even try to make her understand they were destined to be cut into smaller pieces and put back together. Once I find the heart to cut them up!

What?!? January is already gone?!?

What a way to start the New Year. I've had little contact with my sewing machine, and almost no time being creative with fabric. January saw me preparing for a work trip to Cote d'Ivoire in Africa, and all my time spent at home was binge watching programs I normally don't get to see when the regular schedule of T.V. shows occupies my evenings.

The only thing I have to show for my quilting passion will be the fabric I purchased from a vendor in a market in Abidjan. No photos of those yet . I do have photos of the market though. There was fresh, live poultry, some butchered meat, but the best are the places selling the fabrics everyone uses in their garments. It took a bit of searching but I eventually found some appropriate for quilting. Don't know if I have the heart to cut into them, and I'll show them off in a future post.

 Near the entrance, where you can have your livestock purchase butchered.

 Turkeys!

 Yes, he is bringing in chickens!

 More chickens.

 Colorful fabrics for garments.

 Looking down one of the market aisles.

 More fabric!

A seamstress ready to turn purchases into a garment, or make repairs as needed.

Holiday stockings: Done!

I started making the Bucilla kitted felt stockings for nephews long ago. They are gaudy, sparkly, and designed to please the child in us. Fast forward 20 years and some of those nephews are starting their own family and it felt right to offer to make them for their babies.

The green one is for Ava D. I love the busy-ness of this one, but did not like that there was no banner area at the top for her name. Since the felt has preprinted placement lines, I did not have the option of modifying the design. Instead I did as the pattern instructed and put her name (thankfully short) on the back of the larger gingerbread man hanging from the top

The blue one is for Weston D. and this one presented other problems. I have always chosen stockings with a Santa theme. He has to be there. I also choose stockings that are 18" long, but this one was only 15". My only other option available in the stores around town. This pattern also wanted the name to be written on a felt version of a gift tag. No way 'Weston' would fit if I wanted to do it in a shiny gold cording, and it wasn't near cute enough.

My solution was to add the extension above the stocking (thankfully a friend gifted me lots of felt this year and the white was a good match.) Once I added more beaded sequins around and the name, I was happy.

The only other change I started with these is to add a felt layer to line the front of the stocking. I didn't like the stitching that showed on the inside, and saw that as a potential place for stitches to catch and be broken over the years.

I also need to mention that both of these were done in record time for me. I had not thought about doing them until just before Thanksgiving. So I dropped everything (quilting, holiday decorations, talking to Tom...) and dug into the projects. I'll have one to do for the 2015 holiday, that I know of so far, and I'll see if I can find the kit in the next week or so to have a jump start.

Next on the list is to pick up Mom's quilt today from a longarm quilter. I'll have 2 days to get 400+" on that project if I am to gift it back to Mom on Sunday.

UFO for Future Inspiration

Another set of blocks, or really pieces of blocks, is left over from a Hunter's Star workshop. I was disappointed because I wanted the class to show me a faster technique to sew the trapezoids to the triangles, or at least a more foolproof way, so I wouldn't have to think about getting the seam allowances right. Alas, no, the class presented a better way to accurately cut the pieces, but my chain piecing did not give me the accuracy I needed. No time to resew, but all the pieces done wrong were unsewn.

It was also a class that begged for having everything on a design wall-and I didn't have one large enough at the class venue. So I satisfied my goals of cutting the fabrics, and there the project has sat for almost 4 years. My last visit to the cut fabrics had this result.

Ok, I am not wild about all that gold. I thought I'd post this to remind me to pull the project out next month and play with it a bit. The blue, cream and black print are all cat fabrics. Maybe I revisit my cat fabric stash to see if there is now a fourth dominant color of cat fabrics that should go into the quilt. I think what bothers me is the lack of business in the gold. Or perhaps imagine some very decorative and contrasting quilting in the gold space.... cats? mice?

Anyway, the photo reminds me I have some posting to do to celebrate the basement remodel we did earlier this winter-those bare light bulbs and rafters are a thing of the past.