Another no sewing day

A hospital emergency for my daughter-in-law's grandmother brought me these treasures today.  I usually do not keep Dylan because he is 18 months and a 5 year old and a 2 and a half  year old with that is just too much for this old lady, albeit a joy.

 Good thing I remembered that one of their favorite foods was hard boiled eggs...LOL

 He is a year younger, but weighs more.  They wear the same size clothes and shoes!

 Thank goodness for summer and water play.

The day before he turns 6, he is enjoying peace and quiet inside while the other two are in the water.

Maybe I will have the energy to sew tomorrow and maybe not.

No quilting all weekend

Harvesting in our garden.

 Exploring with Granddaddy in the creek behind our house.

 Water play in the yard with Grandma since I am too small for the creek adventure.

Reasons not to sew....just wonderful!

Oilcloth case...my first experiment

 After 50 years of sewing, once again, I have learned something new from my daughter, Emily.  http://tworedwellies.blogspot.com/

My first foray into working with the oh, so popular oilcloth!!  This easy, fun and quick project comes from momtastic.com/home-and-living/features/126139-diy-oilcloth-zippered-pencil-case#ixzz1PmCjeQgm

Great Aunt Carl and the Gardenia bush

Visiting Great Aunt Carl in Greenville, Alabama, about 10 years ago, I was given a branch or two from her Gardenia bush.  They had been sitting in her kitchen window in a jar for sometime and so they had roots.  I took them home and planted them in a pot and then into the ground.  With absolute neglect below you see in my yard in Charlotte, North Carolina one of the results of this twig.  At least 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall, it is the largest of our now three beautiful Gardenia bushes.  As I started to root more branches for my friends, I ran into some trouble.  It was not working.  A quick call in to Great Aunt Carl gave me the answer.  The water in cities is not what it used to be. So, she reckoned that I need to use distilled water.

I did and it worked, sharing the love of the generations to family and friends.

  I cut these this morning because the blooming is over.  I took off some lower leaves and here in distilled water in my pink trash can they will sit until the miracle happens.  Then I will share with my friends.

Now, if I have done this post before, please forgive me.  I cannot find it.  And, as my mother says, age is the great equalizer.

One patch scraps by the garden gate

From the one drawer I opened with scraps the other day, I have put together this one patch...it only makes a dent in the contents of the drawer, but it will make someone happy.  I am feeling my mortality with the transition to "semi-retired".  Those words alone are sending me into a quilting frenzy.  It is not the reality, but the words and the realization that comes with those words.

 For myself to know and document, just in case my wonderful mind goes missing, the teddy bear and heart fabrics come from Frankfurt Germany.  I bought them 35 years ago in a department store...

It is a joy to use some of my collection and remember.

One patch love finished

I finished this today after the Father's Day celebration was over.  I still like it..kinda down home.

 Outside of my sewing room window

 This backing is from forever ago.  

 My sister was here today.  She said that we bought this at a mall in east Phoenix before her daughter was born and Alexis is 24...here we go again.  If you keep something long enough, it comes back in style.  Grey is in now, but I do not think fake oriental writing is...

This was a wonderful, relaxing quilt to make...Maybe I will keep it:)

One patch love

As I was about to baste this quilt, I loved the light from my new kitchen ceiling reflecting on this quilt.  It made me realize that you do not have to put a lot of work into a quilt for it to be beautiful and have a heart.

Our friend Ruth, http://ruthsloan.blogspot.com/ sends me on occasion a package with a note, "Happy Fabric Day"!!!!   It is just so much fun.  So these batiks are part of that package.  Then, too, she had given me some of her lovely Japanese fabric from when she was in Japan visiting relatives.  I had them in one area and the idea came to mix them.  I think it is lovely.  Simple and beautiful...I also love this border from dear old Mae's discount fabric in Miami...20 years now defunct!! ha  Joy comes from simple things and great kindness....Thank you Ruth!

Ikea tray

IKEA I love you!  I hope you don't mind if I adjust your ideas to make them my own.

Starting something new...eg mess and overwhelmed

I am looking to start something new..eg.start to finish something old???.so I took out one...yes one...drawer.  And, in it, this packrat found stacks of 30's four patches, a bag of silk scraps, a bag of batik squares, squares left over from my blue snowball..O'Quilts: Moonlit Path.and the red white and blue vintage block from the last post.  It is almost midnight so goodnight:)

Vintage patch, red white and blue

I got this vintage piece a few years ago at an antique store.  Last year I appliqued it to this piece of red in anticipation of making it the center medallion of a quilt...hmmmm

Hourglass cuddle done

My friends have told me to get sewing....so I did.  This quilt was finished during the news tonight.  The key to this quick finish is the wiggle stitch...the fastest way in the world to quilt a cuddle quilt and of course self binding.  On my cool and awesome Janome 6600, I set the dial to number 9 which is the zigzag stitch with the dots, I think it is for knits.  And then I set the width to 3.5 and the length to 3.2 and wiggle away..I know that the stitch is prettier on my Bernina 1230, but the Janome one is fine for this.

The reason for finishing these up today....I had no more basting pins!!  I had 5 quilts basted for our annual trip.  Now, I only have 3 but I have more pins:)  Every year my husband and I go to the mountains for a few days while he plays in the national tennis tournaments.  He plays tennis, I take my sewing machine and quilt and swim and go to the quilt stores.  At night we reconvene for dinner.  We usually stay three days because he usually wins his games.  No arthritis for my man...lucky him.  

July cuddle quilt and comment problem solved!!!

 July cuddle quilt is finished and......

A big thanks to Wanda at Exuberant color for fixing my comment problem!! http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com/2011/06/comment-problem-on-blogger.html

Washing vinyl picture

I took this picture of the dog from the dog food bag that I had enclosed in vinyl and put it in the sink with sudsy water.  I pushed it up and down like washing out clothes, rinsed it and put it on a dish towel.

 Nothing happened.  Doggie survived!  And, I did this twice and water did not get in.

Now, I think that this experiment has great potential for using pictures of grandchildren, poems, children's art work, adult artwork, etc etc etc.  Experiment is a success!

Bag with vinyl patch done!

DONE! Aren't you glad...sick of it???

 Below is the back.

 Airing out in the breeze!! :)

So now I have taken things I had already and made something new.  My husband and I were counting years and at our age, I am not sure that is so good.  I have had this picture for 44 years.  What possesses me to keep things so long???  Time has just gone.

P.S.  I just saw this post...and it is perfect use of vinyl!!http://sew4home.com/projects/fabric-art-a-accents/903-summer-travels-luggage-tag

Vinyl experiment number 4

I added a piece of fabric to the top just like I did for the top of the patch.

 Decided that the back needed a strip so I pinned it and zigzagged it on.

 For the straps, I cut 2 1/2 inch strips of yellow and sewed them together to make a long strip

 Found some iron on batting or interfacing scraps and cut them 1", fixed them to the middle

 folded the yellow over the interfacing and zigzagged

 cut the other edge with scallop cutter and folded that and zigzagged again.

 Pinned the entire yellow strap on the screen and sewed it on with a plain stitch using walking foot

Vinyl experiment 3

I put this on the bench to show the process.  I have sewn the entire red pocket on with another row of variegated thread zigzag.  I chose to only have a small vinyl pocket because I didn't know how strong the screen was going to be.

 This picture shows a portent of the next step as it will be folded into a bag.

MISTAKE.....The screen stinks.after being in the garage for 5 years. ..I should have washed it out in sudsy water, but didn't think of it because I was hot to sew this bag.  It is too late now because I am not ready to see if the bag can be washed.  I will just air it out on a windy day.

Vinyl experiment continued

With this experiment, I am staying "green"..eg..using what I have on hand.  While during the last post, I 

enclosed the picture in the vinyl using my Teflon foot, this next step uses a regular zigzag foot with no problem.  I found in a box, this red screen piece that I had purchased awhile ago at a local quilt store, http://www.quiltpatchfabrics.com/  I cut the screen the size I wanted and zigzagged the vinyl onto the red using invisible or clear thread the same as I did when making the initial pocket.  I am holding the vinyl secure with clips so as not to damage it with holes from pins.

  

  

This picture shows some paint brushes in the pocket, just to show that it is now a stable pocket.

Into the garage I went to find the roll of screening kept from our screened in porch that we built 5 years ago.  I cut it here using the lines on the cutting board and the regular rotary cutter.

I am preparing the picture by covering the top and bottom with an edging.  I had picked out a regular fabric until I realized that batiks did not fray thus would be more suitable.

I used this scallop blade from Michaels (with 50% off coupon of course) to make the edges of the folded batik strip and zigzagged it on with a variegated thread.

Cucumbers

Oh, no....I had no idea that two cucumber plants would do this...I thought maybe one a week..????