Can a person ever have too many pincushions? This is the thought running through my mind as I decided what else to make for my second group of gifts.
Mary’s Pincushion/Wonderclip caddy
You might remember the Pincushion / Wonderclip Holders I made for the guild officers. I really like this pattern and decided to make another one to go with my gift grouping.
It is a useful item and I have a lot of Beanie Baby pellets to work through. It is a quick project, which is an added incentive to include it in the gift grouping.
Mary’s Pincushion/Wonderclip caddy – back
I decided to continue with the selvedge back. It is interesting to look at and I have a surplus of selvedges.
The pattern can be found in Love Patchwork and Quilting, issue 39. It is available digitally in the Apple and Google Play stores.
Last week I made myself a One Hour Basket. I needed something to corral some charm packs and mini-charm packs. I used The Dahlia print from the Classics Collection by Martha Negley (Rowan). This fabric was supposed to be a Schoolhouse tunic, but I didn’t quite have enough, so I will enjoy it this way – at least a bit of it.
I thought the glass brick fabric was a good companion to it.
I was very pleased to get these pre-cuts organized, then I found another stack. I have to stop. I really do. 😉
While plowing through fabric a week or so ago, I found a leftover piece of skeleton fabric with a note on it that said “pillowcase cuff”. Since I was preparing to send the YM a care package I sewed up a new pillowcase for him. I haven’t been making him one a month like I was last year. If I get inspired, I make one.
I used some stripes as the body since I also found them while I was plowing through that same pile of fabric. I figured I had enough stripes for binding and one more black and white length of yardage wouldn’t be missed.
DH asked me why I was sending the YM a Halloween pillowcase in February. Sigh.
Some time ago (last fall??) Mom and I did a circuit of her local quilt shops. I bought some huge dots with the intention of making pillowcases. Finally, last week, I had got some inspiration.
Erin’s Pillowcases
My niece will be getting married in April and her shower was this past weekend. In concert with two of her other aunts, we hosted a shower for our niece. I bought her a gift off her list, but had no suitable gift bags that were large enough in which to wrap it. DH tried out all the non-Christmas gift bags we have and none were large enough. He suggested a pillowcase. What a brilliant man!
Later, while plowing through some fabric, I found the pillowcase fabric I bought with mom. As happens with inspiration, I realized I could use this fabric to make two pillowcases and wrap the gift.
As I have said, the cuff is the pain for me, because I hack into fabrics as soon as they are washed for all the hunting and gathering pieces I need. I found some perfect green for my niece – Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets. It isn’t a perfect match to the green in the dot fabric, but I think it works.
My niece liked them, especially the dots and that makes me happy.
I finished this apron months ago and for some reason could never get myself together to take a photo. I finally gave myself a good talking to and got it done.
Apron Back
It is still in relatively pristine condition because I haven’t used it. I am saving it to enter in the San Mateo County Fair. SIL and I are trying to enter a number of projects so we can beef up the display area. If you are in the area, please enter something!
After not looking at it for months, I wish the colors had been different. I am not big on that beige or the rust. I really like the motifs and am really happy with the fussy cutting I did.
I had a lot of help with this piece. Kelly helped me cut it out about a thousand years ago and Mom helped me with the gathering, which was just about the last thing I needed to do to finish it.
I decided yesterday that I would give this apron to one of my nieces who needs an apron. I told her she wouldn’t get it until after it is exhibited at the Fair.
I received the Hansel and Gretel panel for my birthday, which resolves whether or not I will make it for my niece. I looked at the panel and found that there is a pet, two dolls and a quilt. There is also a skirt and a pillow. Brother and sister will be very cozy together.
I am still not very confident making the skirts. Coral didn’t need one, but Gretel does, so I will get some more practice. I also need some more stuffing. I might try bits of batting. I have a lot of thin strips, which might be appropriate. I am not in the mood to store a giant bag of stuffing. If I knew Moda would come out with new dolls every year, I might change my mind, but for now I will make do. If the batting doesn’t work, I’ll get some stuffing.
I was at Craft Night last night when my SILs showed me a piece by their grandmother (DH’s grandmother also). They had gone through her bag of crochet, which SIL#2 has had since she died. They wanted to make something out of the pieces for our niece who is getting married in April.
We have, or had, a doily that was similar made by my great grandmother (Grama Johnson). I showed my mom and she thinks the cream portion is tatted and the rose and leaves are crocheted. I don’t tat or crochet so I have no idea. I have seen tatting and the outer cream work does look like tatting.
Of course, I did a web search to see what I could find. Lots of Etsy patterns that were not relevant. I did find Picmia, which has lots of flowers. What I would really like to see is an index of patterns by technique.
I thought that Workbasket, an older magazine that I believe is out of print might have been a source of the pattern. I found a pay per view resource. It has a free history of the magazine. This is clearly a labor of love, however I found it a little difficult to navigate. I also found an index of Tatting patterns from Workbasket. I didn’t find the pattern for the piece above.
In my web travels, I found some interesting sites. Needlenthread has online resources that include historic needlework sites, coloring pages and vintage pattern sites. The resources appear mostly to be about embroidery.
This is the sort of reference project into which, as a librarian, I could sink my teeth. Too bad nobody pays me for this.
Let me know if you have seen such a thing. I have a couple of vintage books I can look at and will do that later.
Coral is ready to be sent off to my little niece for Christmas. I showed her at guild on Saturday. I even have the perfect box.
This all came about because I finally decided that Coral the Mermaid is finished. What the means is that I am not going to make her skirt. The skirt directions are too complicated. She can share Red’s skirt.
I visited the Granary last week and found a new panel in this series: Hansel and Gretel. I didn’t buy it, but I was sorely tempted. It would be fun to keep sending the girly these dolls periodically. I’ll have to think about it.
I do wish Moda would come out with panels of clothes for the various dolls. It would be fun to give them a new wardrobe periodically, though such a project might be more than I am willing to tackle.
However! The napkins for Thanksgiving are done! As I mentioned last time, one got eaten so I went and bought another pack. The dusky purple was an inspired choice. All of the motifs turned out really well on that background.
Leaf Embroidery on Purple
Tree Embroidery on Purple
Turkey Embroidery on Purple
Even the Pennsylvania Dutch style turkeys is appealing.
I think my last update about this project was in August. A lot has happened and I think we are nearing the end.
SIL and her machine have been working hard. She has to recolor all of the designs so use just 6 colors. Sometimes that is really hard and she has to make compromises. Still she has done a great job and I can’t wait to have the napkins out at Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Napkins, mid October 2016
My job has been to wash and press all of the embroidered napkins. I have had no bleeding or fading of the designs. I have used a lot of Flatter and Mary Ellen’s Best Press!
The embroidery machine had a hissy fit and ate one of the yellow napkins. While there were probably enough napkins for everyone, we decided to get one more packet (World Market Buffet napkins). I bought a dusty purple and these came out SUPER well. I am very pleased with them.
I really like all of the napkins. Not only are they pretty and festive, but they are also large enough to keep laps clean.
Now that Red is finished, I can focus on Coral the Mermaid. I have been working on her in bits and pieces, but focusing on finishing Red. One finished is better than none finished.
Coral is sewn, but not yet turned and stuffed. I decided I would reinforce the sections of stitching where I have to clip as I had some almost seam failures after stuffing Red.
Coral’s quilt just needs to be quilted to be completed. I suppose I could tie it with some embroidery floss. I haven’t that and it might be a good excuse to learn how to do it.
Coral’s Fin
Mom put elastic into the fin for me. I thought that would be better than having ties. Less frustrating for little fingers.
Recently we started having Craft Night again.I am not sure when we stopped, but I know that I was able to finish my Sampler because I took it to Craft Night. Life became too busy with little kids around.
This time the attendees consist of my two SILs and me. Almost all of our kids are out of the house. One left Tuesday for college, three are out on their own with jobs, families, etc and my YM is back at school and out of my hair until Thanksgiving. (I say that in a loving way) We alternate houses and mostly do crafts rather than quilting, though all of my projects are quilt related — or fabric related, I guess.
Craft Night Selfie
The other week the SILs made cushions for SIL #3’s couch. SIL #2 has a lot of fabric so they used fabric she had on hand. SIL #2 had all of the supplies on hand including pillow forms and by the end of the night SIL #3, who did the work, had two new cushions.
I have been able to cut up Triangle Technique pieces, finish Red, work on Under the Sea and do other handwork. It is sometimes a crush to get there, but I am getting a lot done and having fun catching up with the SILs.
Little Red Riding Hood is finished! She went from a panel to a finished doll in not very long.
Craft Night Work
Red and Wolf
I did need some help. Mom helped with the gathering of the skirt, SIL #3 gave me some stuffing and SIL #2 offered various types of advice and some ribbon for her necklace. Group effort.
Red detailRed pieces
I am pretty pleased with how the whole group came out and I can’t wait to send it off and see what happens.
The good thing about machine embroidery is that it can happen while the maker is piecing since the machine works independently. Still, SIL is making crazy good progress. After a few napkins last week, she gave me a bunch this week.
Pumpkin motif for napkins
This group of motifs is fun. The pie and the corn, along with the pumpkin, which you saw last week, are two of my favorites. I took a close up of the pumpkin, so you could see what a nice design it is.
SIL is embroidering napkins for the napkin project at a furious pace. I need to get busy on the tablerunners. September will be here before we know it and October and November will be hard on its heels.
SIL has finished some more napkins.
Two motifs included in this most recent batch came out very well. I really like the tree and I, especially, like the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Napkin
I think they are coming out very well and I will be happy to put them on my table at Thanksgiving.
