Featherstone Quiltworks

Today is more of a Design Pile Monday.  I’m working on my feathers, and I thought place mats would be a good practicing ground.  I’m doing two different sets, and I’m definitely enjoying this loosey-goosey yellow set.

The place mats are kind of a feather sampler; I’m doing a different feather design on each one.  These really go fast, and would make a great shower gift.  Or any kind of gift! (This quilting design is from Suzanne Earley’s More Meandering Magic.)  I’m making at least a dozen, so I see a lot of binding in my future.

We got back from Texas about two weeks ago.  I took some pictures early in the morning on our way out of Oklahoma.  The sun was just rising and there was a lot of ground fog in the low-lying areas.  I especially like this one:

Oklahoma Sunrise

Not bad for 70 miles per hour, and NO, I wasn’t driving!  I did set the camera up for action shots, which helped eliminate blur.

Yesterday I saw my first robin of the Minnesota spring.

First Robin

He was noshing on the recently thawed crab apples out my kitchen window, and between bites he was singing his heart out.  Welcome back, springtime!

–Sue

Oh, my, it’s the end of  the month already???  I’m still working on January’s UFO (through Judy Laquidara’s UFO Challenge — see button on left).  I have the blocks framed and squared up, although I don’t have all the names embroidered on yet.  Here it is on my “design floor”:

Crazy 'Bout Cowgirls

So far, I love it!  Next it will get a narrow border of navy, followed by red prairie points, and then I think it’s a 5″ border of navy (the fabric at the top right of the photo).

Gotta get back to work — right after a trip to Corpus Christi for my errand shopping!

Sue

Being a slacker has its advantages:  since I haven’t posted a DWM post for a while, I actually have some things to show!

I’ve made 15 of these “10-Minute Runners”.  What a find of a pattern (and I’m probably the last quilter on earth to find it!)  These runners are quick (okay, I’m either slow or these should be called “30-Minute Runners”) to make because there’s no batting and no binding.  Free pattern can be found HERE.  Just send her an e-mail requesting the pattern and she will e-mail it to you.  Took about a day for me to receive the pattern.  Her pattern makes the long version.  I made the short ones for my mom and her card-playing friends, and out of the 15, I only have 2 left!  Great hostess gifts.  (I’ve also seen other bloggers offer a copy of this pattern for free, but they do not claim to be the author of the pattern — they are offering someone else’s pattern for free.  Doesn’t seem quite right…)

I was fortunate enough to go on a retreat with Pam and Margaret from our Day Stitchers group (as well as with two other quilters from other quilt groups).  We worked deep into the night, working hard on our projects.  Margaret:

and Pam:

I love the picture of Pam — doesn’t it sum up late-night sewing?

I finished a baby boy’s quilt top, made from Mary’s Quick Strippie pattern (just for an extra gift on the shelf):

Made several of the 10-Minute Runners, and worked on my ongoing kaleidoscope quilt project:

Above is six of the big hexagons with the little filler triangles.  I now have nine hexagons done — six to go!

And for a little project, I’m making a doll quilt.  Our Day Stitchers group is making our 4th annual trek down to the Minneapolis/St Paul NBC affiliate (Kare-11) on Friday to bring baby dolls with hand-made quilts for Toys for Tots.  My little top is made, and I’ve got a piece of pink fleece I’m going to use on the back.

And I’m working on socks.  And a scarf.  And I’m doing an APPLIQUED sampler.  I love-love-love to piece; applique’, not so much.  I’m going to try and change that in the next year by doing a basket sampler.

That’s it from my sewing room.  For a look at other quilters’ work, check out Judy L’s blog on Design Wall Mondays.

–Sue

My biggest accomplishment this week was finishing my handwork box.

I purchased a box at JoAnn Fabrics, bought some ribbon that had white dots, colored the dots gold with a Sharpee marker (gotta love those Sharpees).  The ribbon serves as a handle:

Made seven zippered bags out of vinyl-by-the-yard and upholstery samples:

These are my handwork project bags (knitting, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, a pieced quilt with some applique’).  I can easily see what’s inside of them.  I’m allowing myself six handwork projects and the 7th smaller bag is for tools.  And I’m ready to go anywhere to sew!

I just have to include a bird picture because the birds have consumed a lot of my time lately.  The blue jays are so much fun to watch, mostly because they usually don’t come to eat right outside my window.  Since I’ve been putting some seed in a pie pan, however, we’ve been getting a lot of cardinals and the occasional blue jay.

“When is she going to quit taking my picture so I can eat in peace?”

–Sue

Socks: I made some progress on my socks using Opal Harry Potter yarn (“Harry Potter” just refers to the color).  I am enjoying knitting these — the yarn is so nice, and the self-striping yarn is behaving itself and the two socks will actually look like a pair! You’ve seen them several times before, so I won’t post another pic ’til they’re done.

Sewing: I’ve had a couple of patterns I’ve been itching to try (speaking of itching, my hives are much better!):  Atkinson Designs “Cash and Carry”, and Lazy Girl Designs “Claire Handbag”.  It’s so much fun working from a precise, well-illustrated pattern, and both of these patterns are great.  The Claire Handbag has lots of pockets inside, as well as tall pockets on the front and back.  You also have the option of adding a Velcro closure to the Claire bag, but since I’m going to use mine for knitting, I didn’t want anything that the yarn would catch on — or anything on which the yarn would catch!:

I used some cute retro-looking fabric from The Sew It Book Collection by Amy Barrickman from Red Rooster (purchased locally at Eagle Creek Quilt Shop.  Not all the fabrics in these bags were from the line.)

The Cash and Carry pattern makes such cute little zippered bags, and it would be easy to modify this to make different sizes.  And don’t be afraid of putting in a zipper.  If you can piece, you can put in a zipper (with these nicely illustrated directions).

I’m having an out-of-town guest next month who’s also a quilter…we may have to make some of these!

–Sue

Is it my imagination or are Mondays getting closer together?  I swear I’m not getting a full week any more.

1. Hot Pads.  Our Wednesday group has been challenged to each put a pair of hot pads in our county fair.  While I don’t love these, they’re almost done; plus they will be buried in an avalanche of really cute ones so it won’t matter.
2. Box Quilt. I did Candice’s crazy-quilt block for our Wednesday group’s first box exchange block of the year (we run 6 months, June thru November).  Click on the “Box Quilts” tab at the top of this site to see what everyone did for June.  I started next month’s block, which I can’t show yet, and hopefully I won’t be doing it the night before like I did last month!!!  (It’s just like high school all over again.)
3. New Bag. Pal Carol and I are getting together Friday to make Lazy Girl Claire handbags.  It’s an adorable pattern that uses 7 fat quarters.  I’m going to pre-cut my pieces so I’ll be down to just sewing time on Friday.                      
4. FWS. Last week I joined the Yahoo! group The Farmer’s Wife Sampler, making blocks from the book by the same name by Laurie Aaron Hird.  It’s a Block of the Week schedule, and I plan to make the BOW plus make one block I missed by starting late.  Eventually I’ll get caught up!  I’m blogging about my progress on “Farmer’s Wife Fridays”, and my cumulative finished blocks will be shown under the “FWS” (Farmer’s Wife Sampler) tab at the top of the site.
5. Cut Scraps Down to Size. I spent a couple of afternoons pressing and cutting scraps down to usable sizes.  I need to do this more often!  I hardly made a dent in my scraps.

And a foot food note.  I’ve been on a healthy eating plan (don’t you hate the word “diet”???) since June 1st.  I’ve been enjoying a lot of strawberries since that time since they’re in season, I love them, and they have practically no calories.  Can you guess where this is going?

After having a nice bowlful of strawberries with my oatmeal Saturday morning, I broke out in hives!  I’ve read that strawberries are a common problem for people who have springtime allergies, specifically a birch tree allergy, and I’m guessing that would be me because something in the spring air really bothers me.  Plus I’ve been spending waaaay more time than usual out in the summer sun (read heat) which helps hives to “blossom”.

I originally went outside to photograph the beautiful wild flowers behind us.  I ended up photographing bugs.  Who knew they could be so endlessly interesting and even beautiful.  A sampling:

Check out what other quilters are up to on JudyL’s Design Wall Monday!

–Sue

Getting kind of late in the day to post this report, but here goes anyway.

Knitting:

I love the yarn that’s going into the scarf.  It’s 100% bamboo, and it feels like silk!  It will be wonderful around the neck.  The socks are still the Opal Harry Potter self-striping yarn.  Loving these too, but I don’t feel too motivated to work with wool when it’s so hot and humid.

Quilting:

I’ve been attacking my monster trash can of scraps and turning them into squares:

I modified my Autumn Garden quilt.  After the MN quilt show, I hung it in our eating area.  This was a challenge quilt, and I was required to use certain fabrics.  The gray pebble fabric was one of them, and it stands out too much for my taste.  Click here for the “before” shot (which photographed much too yellow; the gold below is more accurate) — anyway, just focus on the rock fabric at the base of the bee hive)…

I got out my oil colored pencils and colored the gray rocks to coordinate with the dusty blue-green in the flowers.  A subtle change, maybe, but it is huge to me.  I hated that gray rock fabric!

And I almost forgot to mention that I’ve started on my Farmer’s Wife Sampler quilt — well, barely started, I’m cutting out the first block!

Check on Judy Laquidara site to see what’s happening with other quilters.

–Sue