Quilting

Do we have any Edward Gorey fans out there?  Here in ThimbleannaLand, we love Edward Gorey and his fabulously fun dark side.  (If you’ve ever watched PBS’s Mystery Series, those cute little black and white characters at the beginning of each show are Edward Gorey-esque characters.)

One of my very favorite Edward Gorey books is The Gashlycrumb Tinies.  It’s an illustrated alphabet book that starts out “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs. B is for Basil assaulted by bears. C is for Clara who wasted away.” And so on.  It’s dark, twisted, and hilarious.  I love it!  So, when I found this Alexander Henry fabric called The Ghastlies, I knew I had to have some.

Finny commented on my last post that, in addition to the C-word, I’m not allowed to use the H-word.  Fine.  I won’t say it.  But, I’m starting to think of a little quilt for that dark holiday that will fall right in the middle of fall quilt market.  I have to reward myself with a new project to work on because I finally finished the piecing on my beehive wallhanging.  {WooHoo!}

I had fierce arguments with myself about whether to hand quilt, machine quilt, or quilt with pearl cotton and big toe grabber stitches.  In the end, hand quilting won out and, now that I’m working on the quilting, I’m really happy about that decision.  The quilting is clipping along at a fair little pace — much better than I expected.  Hopefully, I won’t burn out before it is finished.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to catch a little quilting this evening.  The Ghastlies are having a bath, because, as you know I’m a pre-shrinker!

XOXO,
Anna

Hidee Ho Neighbor!  How’s the week going?  I’m super happy that the weekend is almost here — I’ve been really tired this week for some reason.  I haven’t done much but water the flowers after work (it’s been HOT here) and sew a little on my UFO.  It will be a wall hanging for my sun room.  I’m almost done with the handwork and then I can start on the pieced border.  There’s a little bit of silk ribbon embroidery and I’m really enjoying it.  My technique is lacking (it’s my first silk ribbon project) but I love the little bees.

After seeing the picture in my last post, someone asked me about how I make my applique circles.  There are many different ways, but MeMum taught me the plastic template method years ago.  I used to cut my own circles, but it’s not easy to get them even, so I bought this circle template set a few years ago.

First, I cut a piece of fabric just a bit larger than the template.

Sew a running stitch around the outside edge of the fabric circle.

Draw the stitching up tight and finish off with a knot.

Turn the circle over and press long enough to be sure that the fabric creases around the outside edge of the template.

Turn the circle back over and remove the plastic template.  This takes a little wiggling and stretching of the fabric, but it’s not too difficult.  After the template is out, press from the right side again.

Then, sew the circle onto the background in desired location and you’re done!

In other news, remember the rodent wars?  I’m officially admitting defeat.  Even though we caught three little devils, we didn’t catch the perpetrator and a day or two after I posted IT finished off the rest of my lilies.  I didn’t even get to see them bloom.  Bum. Er.  Not only that, something (presumably a chipmunk who is too small to trip the trap mechanism) is sneaking into the trap and enjoying the carrot and peanut butter buffet.  AND, to add insult to injury, the squirrel rodents are back and starting in on my patio chair cushions again.  Not that I could shoot a little rodent, but an Uzi could be my friend!

XOXO,
Anna

When we found out that my Aunt was coming for a visit, we decided to look and see if any quilt shows would be happening in our area during the time she would be here.  Lucky for us, the National Quilting Association was having their annual show this past weekend, so we made the three hour drive.

The quilts were beautiful.  As is the norm these days, there were lots of art quilts.

For you Tolkein fans, this Lord of the Rings quilt took the Masterpiece Quilt award.  It’s a thread painted quilt and most all of the work on the quilt has been done with thread.  The inner panel represents Aragorn’s wedding to Arwen.  (I got that info from the tag — I have no idea what I’m talking about.)

These horses ran along the bottom border of the quilt.

There were plenty of traditional quilts too.

And lots of beautiful applique.

We particularly liked the pieced sashing on this quilt.

It was great to see some beautiful examples of hand quilting.

And there were quite a few quilts that were tiny.

With teeny-weeny pieces.

We had a wonderful time.  And if the quilt show wasn’t enough, between viewing the quilts in the morning and shopping the vendors in the afternoon, we decided to go across the street to get some lunch.  As we exited the convention center, the very first thing to greet our disbelieving eyes, was a woman dressed in black leather up to just below her um….breasticles, and from there up she was, well, naked.  Right behind her were a bunch of dancing, middle-aged overweight men dressed in nothing but black leather g-strings. We’d unwittingly landed smack dab in the middle of a huge Gay Pride Parade. The NQA website said there was to be a parade that day, but they didn’t say what kind.  Too bad those mostly naked people weren’t wrapped in quilts.

When you come to the all the way to the midwest to visit the relatives, we treat you in high style!!!

XOXO,
Anna