angry chicken

quilt evolution 1

This is my 2nd wedding quilt. I need to go back and photograph my first one-gosh it's hard to get in that habit! I'm trying to get all my quilts up here to show how they have changed over time-and how they are the same too. This is machine pieced and quilted-the machine quilting is using my mom's gammel-I am so lucky to have access to one whenever I want because my mom, being an incredible talented quilter, has given her work what it deserves-namely kick-ass studio, complete with a HUGE commercial gammel quilting machine. The quilting pattern is a loose wood grain pattern which I drew in the top of the pieced quilt using a washable marker. I wanted an organic pattern on all these squares-also the couple love wood, and I thought they would like a wood grain pattern.
The solid orange is a color shot from kaffe fassett line, and it was a bit on the thin side-in later quilts I have dyed my own solid colors to get what I want in the right weight. I didn't photograph the back (why?) but there is a really cool olive green pattern on the back-which matches the binding.

detail shot. I didn't wash any of the fabric first, and then washed when it was all together and quilted. I love the puckered look. It's a pretty thin "warm n' natural" batting in there-all cotton.

here is my very first small framed quilt.It's about 8" x 6". Machine pieced and hand quilted and appliqued. I put the whole thing together and just quilted and embellished through all the layers, through the batting and a back-so the back is a total mess, but because it's framed-it doesn't matter. Again, there is another small quilt I need to photograph-the rest you can see on kingpod. this one I did about 5 years ago for a friend who has a very bad dog. I liked it so much I didn't actually give it  away for 2 years-bad, bad friend. The recipient finally asked for it formally, after dropping many hints-so I had to frame it up and send it away. I learned my lesson, I never hang the small quilts on kingpod up around the house, or I can't sell them. They are like family!

What I notice most about these pieces after looking at them now is how dark I was working. Such rich heavy colors, my newer stuff in a lot lighter. More soon on the quilt evolution-which my not be in perfect chronicle order. . .

smallish felt fun

Here's a little felt project I did awhile back. It was fun and quick-I used fusible webby stuff to keep the 2 colors of felt together before stitching, folded it up and blanket stitched all around.

here's the peek-a-boo, look at me lining. 2 things-the felt took forever to lie flat-even after lots of ironing-etc-but now is super flat-and I think next time I will do a faux-button closure. Maybe sew a button on, but have a snap underneath instead of a button hole. Sewing the blanket stitch around that hole was not too fun. I remember a lot of cursing.

thank you hillary!

oh-hooray for the mail and hooray for Hillary!! Thank you!! It was such a good day today-it's sunny here in Portland, and has been in the high 50's all week-feels like spring already. And what a lovely package waiting for me when I got home! creepy thing-in a good way-I just bought dewey howard note-cards (seen here in this lovely array of items) about 10 minutes before opening this. . .

who's in the kitchen?

Dig the hair. Here's Sadie ready to cook first thing in the morning. I made this apron with fabric I had on hand (from the growing stash) I've made several since-the ones I made with a mish-mash of fabrics were cuter, I think, with the  bodice, skirt and sash all different-non matching. Cute and hodge-podge. Bad me, I never took a photo of those and now they are in England with family. Maybe I can get them to take pictures.

I think this style is also good for boys-minus the rick-rack. I want to make it in a mattress ticking for Sadie's boy friends. With maybe a front pocket-sort of like a small BBQ apron for little BBQ kings.

easter is coming

I love Easter. Really love it. And I love eggs, and chickens (obviously) and bunnies, and all the odd things they do together in vintage Easter decor. like what are these chicks up too?

And here is a woodland animal croquet game. These postcards I think I got in Eugene, or Seattle. Here are some reproduction Easter items I've acquired recently. . .

This is important because it's the start of an egg cup collection. I want so badly to collect salt and pepper shakers, but I need a pepper mill-no other pepper will work for me-and I've developed a taste for kosher salt, and the grains won't fit in a small shaker. So, egg cups it is.

He was on sale and is my first cookie jar. I thought it would be fun for the girls to associate this jar with cookie yumminess. Hopefully it will be that and not nightmares from the slight creepiness of this guy.

Deviled egg dish. deviled eggs are very important food to me. I was so happy to find this glass one and not the plain white one you always see.

woodland elf

I'm tryng to document some of my previous projects. Forgive the out of season post. Here is Sadie's halloween costume. The vest came from a neighbor and couldn't have fit the theme more perfect. The hat is made from one of Pete's old sweaters that I felted. I love tulle.

Here's lovely Lily Bell in her hat, which was a b-day gift. Again, another one of Pete's sweaters. This time a flower is over a moth hole. I made a bunch of these for sale right before Christmas, and they will be on kingpod next fall. But probably not all the hats will be made out of sweaters-I got a great deal on wool that I felted this fall just waiting to be made into woodland elf hats. I wonder if a plain one is to good for a boy? I think so.

patsy ann

I was at the fabric store yesterday and vogue patterns were on sale, so I picked up these. They are clothes for a Patsy Ann doll, the 18" one. I fell in love with with vintage look-but I don't have the doll. Always the cart before the horse.  So, now I'm on the hunt for the doll. I think this will be the perfect use of all my vintage repro fabrics I've been saving up. Hopefully the girls will be interested in this type of doll, but who knows.

so cute-but so shiny! sort of freaks me out.

I think that these are  the new re-issued ones. They aren't as shiny as the previous photos. I really like the molded hair as opposed to the rooted hair. I love dolls, but they walk such a fine line between cute and really creepy.

can't have too many booties

These were knitted from Knits for Cherished Baby, by Erica Knight. I bought this book because every pattern is so good! So many knitting books are better from the library, but this one really was worth buying-for my needs anyway. I did need to consult the SNB book for picking up stitches. I'm a newish knitter, and I still need clear diagrams, and the SNB's are the best for me. I noticed in the comments for this book on Amazon that there were some errors/unclear directions. I didn't notice that, but I have only made a few items from it so far.

 

All these other booties were made in a class I took at the Yarn Garden-such a great place.These are felted booties. You knit them big and the felt them in the washing machine. They are so satisfying they make up fast and any lumps or bumps are hidden when they are felted.

hello

After spending way too much time lurking-I've decided to jump in and join the blog world. I need to brain dump, it will help me sleep. So, I'm thinking of this site as part show n' tell, part personal sketchbook, and part dumping ground for all my projects and ideas that aren't really right for kingpod. Here we go-and thanks mom, for reading everyday.