originally posted on July 12, 2011:
Have I ever told you that I simply adore my pincushion?
Have I ever told you that I simply adore my pincushion?
It's the perfect size, rather rugged, and marvelously cute and cheery, even when bristling with more sharp objects than a porcupine. As you may have guessed, I use it on almost a daily basis. It puts up with a lot from me, and seems as if it will put up with another 40 or so years of projects from me.
I spent most of today sewing on three or four different projects interchangeably. I am never able to work on one project at a time. I have at least 10-15 projects in various stages of production at any given time. It means that it's almost impossible for me to predict when I will finish any given project, but I am constantly making something.
There is nothing so satisfying as finishing up a project that I've been slowly chipping away at for a year or more. The first project I was working on is like that.
The first project is a baby blanket for a darling chubby cheeked baby girl. I started it months before she was born. I was sure I could finish it in time. Hah.
She's almost 1 now.
It was the first major quilt project I embarked upon, not to mention a totally new adventure into the wilds of hand applique.
Well, it was boot-camp for applique, but totally worth it. I love applique, but I don't like putting on intricately shaped objects with a bazillion little ins and outs. The leaves and stems were fun. Simple petals or abstract shapes would be quite fun too. The roses were a complete pain in the patootie.
My sister and I made "english pieced" squares for a border around the whole quilt. It finishes the edges somehow in a way that the quilt really needed.
Last night, I finally basted the "quilt sandwich" together, and am now stitching "in the ditch" around the roses. The negative spaces will be filled with floating quilted leaves and bees with their lazy flight patterns spiraling out behind them.
The next project is a pillow that's sort of a "quilt sampler." The front is all these ridiculous stuffed circular bumps appliqued on. It's rather like very colorful bubble wrap. The back is free-hand quilted images. It's wonderfully random.
I ran into issues figuring out how to make clean seams when dealing with the interior and exterior raw edges at the same time. Now, I think I know enough about sewing construction to move on, and finally finish the sucker. It's going to look so cheery on my bed.
The third project is burp cloths for one of my pregnant lady friends (this year is a positive bumper crop of pregnancies and marriages among my family and acquaintances.) Simple, fun, quirky, easy to wash. I'm making a set of 8.
The forth project is a revamping of a feather-weight cotton button down shirt that I've had for ages. I took off the typical shirt color, leaving it like a mandarin collar. Now I'm sewing some hand crocheted lace that my sister made me in between the two layers of the collar. So it will have a lovely small scalloped trim all around the neck. The next step will be white on white embroidery on the chest area of the front. I'm thinking abstract, crysanthemum based flowers and groupings of french knots. I'll post pics when I'm done.
Enough of the talking. Here's the pics of the projects, plus an embroidered hanky I hope to finish tonight.
Also encluded is some eye candy from the garden.
No comments:
Post a Comment