The wedding weekend

It was a wonderful weekend.  I could not have captured it more delightfully than my daughter, Casey.  If you would like to see why I haven't had a lot of time to blog or stitch recently, jump over to

www.thekidcollective.com 

for the weekend update

And click here as well. 

for a look at her new favorite old quilt.

I suspect that she will have more to show in the coming days.  I know that she took tons of photos, so I am anxiously awaiting what she might have for us.  Casey is an interior designer working in Portland, OR.  She also works a full/time part/time job her with partners at 

Tanner Goods 

creating lovely items. Their flagship shop just opened, 

and guess who designed the interior as well as designed 

and built a creative chandelier for lighting this new shop?  

Needless to say, Mom and Dad are very proud of her many accomplishments.

And I would like to shamelessly suggest to anyone in her area in need of an interior designer, you couldn't find anyone more talented than my daughter. 

My new/old coffee table

Last summer my cousin's husband, Joe, ran across a mother load of old factory carts sitting out in a lot in our hometown.  They were all in pretty bad shape, but he was able to purchase a couple at a great price.  After showing me his deals, I immediately ran over to this lot to pick one up for myself.  Alas, the owner decided that he didn't want to part with any more of his carts for the price that my cousin paid.  He had raised the price 5 fold.  Feeling quite disappointed, I just couldn't dig that deep into my pocket for something that I would have to completely restore, I returned home with no cart.

 A few days later, I went out my back door to find this cart.
Joe to the rescue!
The picture doesn't do the paint color justice.
It wasn't blue, it was florescent blue.

Despite my protests that he should not feel obliged to share his luck with me, he insisted.
The cart sat in our garage collecting assorted piles of stuff for several months. A couple of weeks ago, I  decided it was about time to talk our friend, Phillip, into sandblasting the metal parts for me.  He and my husband, Steve, took the whole thing apart and sandblasted it, put it back together and Steve sprayed the metal parts with a sealer.  I sanded and varnished the wood.  And the family room is now graced with my new/old favorite piece of furniture.  I can't take the credit for the idea of using this old cart for a coffee table, but if you click right here, you will see the very pricey inspiration.  Needless to say, my version ended up costing  . . . .  well let's just say, if you move the decimal point over to the left 2 digits, you will get the idea.

Thanks Joe, Phillip and Steve.
I am thrilled with my new coffee table.

If I could put time in a bottle . .

At last, I have been able to find a few hours to work on Ms. Lantana.  You might notice a distinctive line in this photo.  That is because I have sewn the top left section, but the lower section is only partially sewn together.  It seems that I am having a bit of an issue with my drawing/pattern for the full bloom in the section on the right.  When I made my original pattern, it was, if you might recall, quite a bit smaller than the finished piece.  Thus, as I began to cut my fabric from the enlarged pattern, I also began some redrawing. Note to self:  I must learn to perfect the pattern before embarking on a piece of this complexity. It seems that this has resulted in quite a bit of confusion for me.  I seem to enjoy torturing myself by making things more difficult than they should be.  But then, as I always say, I do love a good challenge.  Or is it a case of putting the donkey behind the cart?  Sigmund would have a field day with me, huh?
Oh, and there is another reason that I had not been paying attention to Ms. Lantana.  I was in a panic.  It seems that I was running very low on my hand dyed orange, yellow and green fabrics.  That resulted in having to clean up the space in my garage and reassemble my dyeing studio.  Now that I have my freshly dyed fabrics to work into the mix, I am back with a vengeance, for a day or two at least.

OH! to be able to spend 12 uninterrupted hours a day, 6 days a week in my studio.
C'est la vie.  

moving along

more on my log cabin with posies

At the requests of a few nice folks, I am going to post a few more pictures and details of Ms. Posy.  

Someone asked if I would show some close ups of the flowers.  It just so happens that I have a couple of
in progress pictures from my design wall.

I began by making log cabin flowers.

These began with an approximately 1 1/4 inch hexagon center snipped with scissors and no pattern.  I sewed 1 to 1/ 1/2 inch strips of fabric around the hexagon.  These posies ended up as hexagons, heptagons, and octagons approximately 4 to 6 1/2 inches in size.

For these particular posies, I began by freely cutting ,with my scissors, a hexagon approximately 2 inches x 1 1/4 inches.  More or less.  Because with no rulers or patterns each hexagon will be slightly different in size and shape.   I then cut various sized wedges ranging in size from 4 inches to 1 inch.  Again, more or less.    Choosing 2 to 5 wedges, I sewed them together, to have "petals" to the approximate size of one of the sides of the hexagon center.   Then I was able to stitch them onto one side of the hexagon of corresponding size.
 I continued this process until I was happy with the design/shape of the posy.  

I had so much fun with these, I wanted to experiment with a few more types as well as leaves

  Here is a collage of several as they look in the completed quilt.  All stitched down with free motion zig zag style, raw edges, a bit ravely once washed.

Someone else asked about sizes of the log cabins in the border.
I took my cue from the background in it's original state

 Realizing that I have very loosely interpreted the traditional log cabin block, I can only say I made them in sizes ranging from  7" x  6 " to   9" x 12 ".
 These were then trimmed to fit the finished width of the border which is
6 inches wide .

Again, it was fantastic fun.  I can't say which parts of this quilt I had more fun playing with.  I can say, in readdressing this process, I am inspired to make another spontaneous, unstructured,
flying by the seat of my pants, no holds barred, sunshine day.

And it just so happens that I have a background all pieced up and waiting in the wings for splashes of color.

Have a weekend full of sun and fun, y'all.

my cinco by hand

At the tender age of 62 years +11 months, I have decided it is high time to learn a bit about hand quilting.  I have tried in the past, but never stuck with my attempts long enough to actually get the feel for it.  It seems I just did not have the required patience to practice, practice, practice.   After a few minutes of quilting, I would become frustrated because my stitches weren't blue ribbon perfect, and became a quitter. Not a quilter.  What was I thinking? 

 

 

This is a quilt I finished a few years ago, when I was using other people's patterns.  It is Cinco de Mayo, by Karen Stone and I just loved all those happy colors and fabrics.  I did change the arrangement and made mine into a bed size quilt, as in 110" x 110".  I got it all ready to machine quilt by stitching in the ditch.  YIKES.  I do hate stitching in the ditch by machine.  And that was precisely what I felt this quilt was calling for.  So I dragged it out from under Juki, spread it out on a table in my sunroom  was inspired to take needle in hand.

Yes, yes, I know, you are all saying that I have now officially lost my mind.  But you know, the mood was just right.  It is something I can sit down and relax with (or learn to relax with) and my awkward and uneven stitiches don't show up (too much) among all those  fabrics and tiny paper piecing.  I am actually becoming hooked on this process.  What is the saying about teaching old dogs new tricks?  Dog gone it!  I am not going to be an old dog yet.

Check back in with me around 2016.

for Mallory Kate

Quilt label (front)

Mallory Kate (front)

Mallory Kate (back)

machine quilting closeup

quilt care label

  Mallory's mom chose the fabrics to coordinate with the nursery decor and asked for a simple quilt that could grow with her into her "big girl" bed.  I made it into a twin size so that Mallory will enjoy using it for years to come.  She is a month old now and is a beautiful, sweet baby. I hope I am still around to see her carry it off to college. 

Navy Airman

My nephew just graduated from Great Lakes Navy boot camp this weekend.  He will be an asset to the Navy and to all around him.  He is a very intelligent, responsible young man and will be a leader in his field very soon, of that I am certain.  

Carter W. Hancock second from right with his new mates

I cannot express how proud I am of my sister's youngest son and I know that she is proud of him as she looks down on him from above.  

Carter and his lovely friend, Sarah



my cinco by hand

At the tender age of 62 years +11 months, I have decided it is high time to learn a bit about hand quilting.  I have tried in the past, but never stuck with my attempts long enough to actually get the feel for it.  It seems I just did not have the required patience to practice, practice, practice.   After a few minutes of quilting, I would become frustrated because my stitches weren't blue ribbon perfect,  I became a quitter. Not a quilter.  What was I thinking? 

 

This is a quilt I finished a few years ago, when I was using other people's patterns.  It is Cinco de Mayo, by Karen Stone and I just loved all those happy colors and fabrics.  I did change the arrangement and made mine into a bed size quilt, as in 110" x 110".  I got it all ready to machine quilt by stitching in the ditch.  YIKES.  I do hate stitching in the ditch by machine.  And that was precisely what I felt this quilt was calling for.  So I dragged it out from under Juki, spread it out on a table in my sunroom was inspired to take needle in hand.

Yes, yes, I know, you are all saying that I have now officially lost my mind.  But you know, the mood was just right.  It is something I can sit down and relax with (or learn to relax with) and my awkward and uneven stitiches don't show up (too much) among all those  fabrics and tiny paper piecing.  I am actually becoming hooked on this process.  What is the saying about teaching old dogs new tricks?  Dog gone it!  I am not going to be an old dog yet.

Check back in with me around 2016.

for Mallory Kate

Quilt label (front)

Mallory Kate (front)

Mallory Kate (back)

machine quilting closeup

quilt care label

  Mallory's mom chose the fabrics to coordinate with the nursery decor and asked for a simple quilt that could grow with her into her "big girl" bed.  I made it into a twin size so that Mallory will enjoy using it for years to come.  She is a month old now and is a beautiful, sweet baby. 

A Southern Bridal Shower

After the storm, life is returning to normal for many of us.  My niece, Sarah Beth, will be married in June.  To celebrate the upcoming event, I hosted, along with my cousin, Lora, a bridal shower at my home.  We decided on a very traditional, southern style, girlie party with all the fixings. Mom and I polished up the silver and washed the crystal.   I washed and ironed the linens.  Lora and I made made yummy finger foods and champagne punch.  I trimmed the blooms and leaves from the southern magnolias and dogwoods for decorations.  It was so much fun to do something special and girlie pretty.  It was a such a sunny, happy day.

 

Lots of lovely ladies dropped in bearing gifts for the bride to be.

the bride and her grandmother

And of course quilts were involved. The bride and groom were happy to finally get their hands on this quilt that I had custom made for them.

  I do think it was a huge success.   And now we are all looking forward to the wedding.

And while I wait, I guess I will fill part of the time getting back into my studio and getting my hands on some fabric.

a long and winding road

Just when you think that you can take a deep breath, things are all under control and you will have time to spend doing the things that you enjoy, it all comes crashing down.  I, personally, have good news to report for most of my family and friends.  But there are so many not so lucky.   I have found pieces of homes and family possessions scattered over my yard and neighborhood from the horrific storms of April 27, 2011.

 My son's yard in the Chattanooga area. 
He was one of the lucky ones.

 my favorite quilt shop 

Sew Bee It

Ringgold, Georgia
not so lucky

You can view more pictures of destruction in this area
by clicking here if you are inclined

My great friend, Martha Steele, has been helping in salvaging as much as possible and was able to recover many of the quilts hanging in the shop, including one of mine. Many of the ladies, along with Martha,who are employed by the shop owner, Gloria Black, have dug in and begun helping her to recover whatever is possible in the shop.  They are also pitching in to assist the rest of their town, which was almost totally destroyed.

I know that quilts are not a priority in this time of crisis.  However, it is just a small indication of how all of the surrounding areas in southeast Tennessee, northwest Georgia as well as Alabama, Mississippi, and other parts of the south have joined together to help one another and begin the long process of restoring, healing, and recovering. 

Please keep everyone in your heart.  It will be a long road ahead.

just so you know

For the past week I have been in a coma of sorts.  Don't be alarmed, not a medical coma, but a technical coma.  First my computer got a virus and crashed.  Bought a new PC, got it up and going within a week.  Yippee, back in the high life again. Or so I thought.  Next it seems that the new computer was already having major problems.  Back and forth to the shop where I had made my purchase.  Not the computer's problem, it seems.  It is issues with AT&T  in my neck of the woods.  Next my telephone and Internet goes totally out of commission for 168 hours, give or take an hour or two.  The solution was quite simple, however, AT&T just seemed to keep putting me on their back burner day after day and almost put me over the edge of sanity.  I knew I was spending far too much time on the Internet.  But I didn't realize how addicted I had become to my PC and the WWW.  Or how much I depended on the www for all sorts of things.   Maybe now, for the time being, or until it rains again in southeast Tennessee, I am reconnected.  Whew!   Enough of that rant.

Now it seems that since I couldn't constantly hop over to my PC and check on what is going on in the world, I did spend much more time working on pieces in my studio.  I actually got lots accomplished.   I even cooked a few nice dinners, and got out and exercised a bit.  I am feeling so much better today.  I have been able to check in on my friends to see what I have missed.  Y'all have all been really busy out there.  Wow, have I got a lot of catching up to do.

Let me show y'all a bit of what I've been up to since I've been on my high tech hiatus.  Remember my last post about my lantana?  I have made several creative decisions, gotten several hundred more pieces cut, and some sections sewn together.  

This is one fabric choice for the background that I ruled out. Although the picture makes it look a bit better, the deep blue and purple was far too overpowering in real life.

I took my background clue from one of the names that lantana is also known by, "sand verbena."  I made some design changes, since I choose less busy fabrics for the background.  That meant much more piecing, but why not make it more complicated somewhere along the way, as is, far too often, my modus operandi. 

 And here is where I am today.  About 500 pieces (or more) (who's counting) later.

Got several more things accomplished, which I will show and tell at a later time.  If I don't loose my connection, yet again.