16 August, 2013

C'mon In...

 ... let me show you a few things that I've been working on, and thinking about, lately. There's never any shortage of projects in various stages of construction in and around the sewing space!  "Scaredy Cat" has come off the rails after machine quilting, Sundance did a great job with the woodgrain on the fence and the swirling, starry night sky. The pumpkins are wool; I will hand finish them with big-stitch quilting. I will hand-couch the thread to add toothy-grins for the cat, moon and pumpkins; plus I plan to add flat, black button overlays to those white, zombie-eye circles, giving them a less possesed appearance and one small round button eye to Mr. Moon! I'm pleased to get this one done up and ready for fall, it's only been two years in the works! This pattern is from Kim Diehl's book: Simple Seasons. This project, however, is a newbie compared to what's on Sundance today. I pieced the quilt below from a McCall's Quilting magazine (mid 1990's) pattern named "American Melting Pot". I added the folk-art border after taking a Sue Nickels' machine applique workshop back in 2005!  I layered it and pin-basted the sandwich, eight years ago, and quilted most of it on my domestic machine. For some reason I stopped working on it, I don't have any idea why; just lost interest I guess.
All Are Precious In His Sight   56" X 68" circa 2005


On Tuesday this week I stopped by to see a friend who just bought a new longarm machine, an APQS George, the sit down variety. I stitched on it for a few minutes and realized, immediately, how very long it's been since I sat and machine quilted! I tried to recall the last quilt I had quilted that way, before Sundance came into my life; this one (I have renamed it, see above) jumped to mind. I came home, dug it out, and loaded it onto Sundance by wrapping it onto the rails, I couldn't load it by the conventional method; 80% of the quilting was already done, all that remains to be quilted is border work! In 2005 I had been quilting a small stipple in the border; yesterday I found just enough of the matching thread to give it a go and see if I could make this work, and look seamless. Lo, and behold, I can! I need more thread and will be moving this one, soon, from the recesses of the stash closet (where all self-respecting UFO's hang out together) to the bedroom hallway; in a special spot I had chosen for it to hang many years ago!
Star Flower block pieces arranged per  QAL at  A Crafty Fox.
You may recall, earlier in the summer that I began collecting low-volume fabrics to make "Chicken Soup" quilts to give to my children for their respective families, a quilt to put away and use on those inevitable stay-home-from-school sick days. As a sick day quilt, I felt, the fabrics chosen would need to be soft and quiet; and so, the fabric hunt began and the collection grew... and grew, and grew! It's time; time to stop collecting and start cutting! Now that I have the fabrics, and they're all so gorgeous, what pattern could I use to incorporate them all, scrappy style? I cut out a few diamonds and placed them on a background.
Sunday Morning strip block from the book: Sunday Morning Quilts.
Tumbler block pieces, randomly arranged as a small test piece.
And, so... my decision? All three! I told you I had collected a LOT of low volume fabrics this summer! I plan to make a Tumbler and a Sunday Morning and let my children draw straws for those. I'll do a Star Flower to keep for myself. These soft, quiet fabrics hold great appeal for yours truly; I believe each one of these is a classic quilt just waiting to be born! Looks like I have my work CUT OUT (or about to be!) for me. Thanks for stopping by today to see what's being finished... and what's being started... life in the sewing space at Chez Goodneedle is all about balance!

Life is Good!

11 comments:

KaHolly said...

Wow! You've been uber busy! Such lovely projects!

Karen said...

The folk art style border you added to the quilt that is on the frame.....I like!

Marie said...

Love all your things of beauty! thanks for sharing. Hugs, Marie

Little Penpen said...

I hope you will post pic's of "All are precious in His sight" when it is done. It looks beautiful on Sundance!!

Janet O. said...

The quilting on Scaredy-Cat is so perfectly suited. Did you use a template for the stars in the sky or are they freehand?
Love the one on the frame--can't wait to see the whole thing!
Those will be very comforting Chicken Soup quilts. What a nice idea.

Nane said...

The combo of machine quilting and the big stitch will be perfect. I wondered how folks would tackle those big wool pieces. And it will look even better in person!

Unknown said...

Goodness. You've been busy;)

Anonymous said...

You are a bundle of energy and always have so much inspiration for us! xo

Anne Heidi said...

I can see you will be busy! I was just looking at the Pumpkin quilt in Kim's book over the weekend, wondering if I had time to make it before October.... I LOVE yours, so maybe I'll just go ahead and start one :-)

Tanya said...

Love the Halloween Kitty quilt!

I bet working on an old quilt like that makes you feel like you've suddenly inherited a NEW quilt! It will be happy to be out of the closet!

LizA. said...

Those low volume quilts really appeal to me too. Hhhm, I believe there's one I started before all the move stuff interrupted it....I wonder what box it was stuffed into?