Secret project

I'm working on a secret project that has turned out to be a massive undertaking. Billions and billions and billions of pieces.

 

 

And since I'm doing the shopping from my fabric stash, that means there's lots of math involved as I work bits and pieces together.

 

 

I sewed and sewed and sewed over the holiday break, and I'm making progress, but there is still a long way to go. I love each little block, and I am getting excited to eventually get to the point where they all get put together.

 

 

 

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Believe

"Believe" has a special meaning for my mother, and so it was a natural to use it as a theme for this year's Christmas stitching.

 

Merry Christmas

 

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Alexander's Christmas Quilt

It's Finished!!!!

I'm not 100% sure a white backing was a wise choice for a teenage boy, but I wanted to clear it out, and I thought the red stitching would be neat on it.

 

I was looking for Christmasy quilting patterns and remembered this wonderful site. I thought the star flower looked like a poinsettia, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

 

 

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Flashback Friday

I had always wanted to have a Flashback Friday feature for posting the projects of yesteryear, but it's hard enough to carve out time to stay current, when would I dig out the old stuff? Motivation arrived in an email from Webshots earlier this month that the site was closing and converting to a paid site, so you had to download your photos prior to December 1st if you wanted them. Fortunately it came with a nifty link that made it simple.

 

I've had lots of fun perusing photos of the beading I used to do and quilts I've given away that I forgot about. So here we arrive at the first installment of Flashback Friday!

Caterpillar Bracelets

I am a bracelet person and I loved, loved making and wearing this bracelet. It has since broken from overuse and the beads have been recycled into various projects by my daughter.

 

I think I made this one for one of my nieces?

 

These are my one-and-only commissioned pieces. A dear friend was getting married and presented these to her flower girls. How time flies! The same friend just had a baby this week, her second darling little girl!

 

 

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Sewing Class

I had the opportunity to attend a special sewing class last night with many of my quilting friends. A teacher was in town for another class and offered to put together kits to make a wool pumpkin pin cushion. Yes, please!

 

So this is me getting over my compulsion to assign a purpose to everything. Such as, I'll only spend time and money making a quilt because it's for a gift. Or, I'm only taking this class because I'm learning a new skill that will improve my technique.

I have one friend in particular that has been unknowingly helping to liberate me. She taught me tatting. I mean, tell me, who NEEDS the product of tatting? Who needs 12 inches handmade lace made of knots and loops that took a week to make? But it's beautiful and you can finally use the hand-dyed thread you made yourself (that has also been languishing without purpose)! This friend is also a master of freehand embroidery. A couple of years ago she was working on.... something - maybe we'd call it a doodle cloth - couching down amazing fibers, attaching metal keys and zipper parts, applying appliqué. It was beautiful! Scrumptious and soft and buttery yellow with bursts of color trailing across the surface. I asked her, "What is that for?" She said, "I don't know."

What she really didn't know was how her answer stopped my brain in its tracks. I was thinking, 'How can you not know?' How can you work on something *without a purpose*? Because if I am not being a mother to my children or entertaining my husband or working at my job or doing something that will benefit others, then what is the *purpose* of that activity?

I have passed up so many opportunities to engage because I would think, 'How many craft items can I frame and hang on a wall anyway?' or 'How many things do I just need to move around to dust?' or 'I already know how to sew and stuff a pillow, why do I need to pay to take that class?'

I'm learning new answers to those questions that include, 'because it's pretty' and 'because it brings me joy.'

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On a quilting spree

I finished quilting "Alexander's Christmas Quilt" (he called dibs) and am working on the binding. I took advantage of the weekend, though, and pinned the next quilt to be quilted, another one by Bonnie Hunter. This one I made using all of her original colors, and I love it.

 

 

I'm not sure when I'll have another block of time to quilt it, but I'm ready! I loved glancing at the hundreds of fabrics in it when I was pinning it, and it'll be fun to see each one as I quilt it.

 

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Quilter's elf

The family was gone this weekend, so I set up my workshop in the dining room and spent the day blissfully quilting. I'm not sure when I started this Christmas quilt. It may be from a combination of classes I took when I was a guild member. I put all the pieces together sometime earlier this year and it's been sitting, waiting for me to get batting.

I quilt my quilts myself, and I pin them by taping the backing to the dining room floor, then layering the batting and top.

 

 

My fantasy is to have a Christmas quilt on every bed in the house someday. We'll see who calls dibs on this one.


 

 

Although I know that this is the busy season for elves, really, I do not need a four-legged one to help me with my quilting.

 

 

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