Prize ATCs

A few weeks ago, I announced that it was my Blogiversary and I would send a prize to a winner who wrote a comment on the post by August 30. That date has come and gone, and I have decided to send a prize to everyone who commented on that post.  I have emailed all of them to let them know they have won.

Here are the ATCs I created. I chose a beautiful fabric and quilted it on some Krafttex. Then I cut them up to size and individually decorated them, using pictures of quilts and words from a Connecting Threads catalog and a brochure from the LQS. That background fabric was hard to coverup, but I forced myself since the quilts and words were pretty too. I added some embellishments here and there.

Unassuming Quilt

Quilts don't really talk to me, but sometimes describing the conversation helps explain the mood and feel of the quilt.

This quilt has always been unassuming and flexible. It made no demands and was willing to go along with the first thing I suggested.

I made some blocks (mistakes from the On Ringo Lake quilt), and when I decided to put them in the orphan box, there was nothing to compel me to do anything else.  But, as I was taking the blocks upstairs to put them in the orphan blocks box, I spied the sashing fabric that would be adequate for the quilt. There was nothing compelling me to find the perfect fabric to match.

Then I laid the blocks aside, and while I was looking for fabric for some other quilt (or cleaning up the sewing room), I found the other sashing fabric. Same situation for the border fabric.

When I went to get the Droid quilt, this quilt was a stowaway, as it was sharing a hanger. It was more than happy to just wait until I got around to quilting it, but as I was looking for batting for the Droid quilt, the piece I picked up was the right size for this quilt, and the backing fabric was sitting on top of a pile. Again, it was perfectly adequate, and there was nothing compelling me to find a better backing. I am really happy with this fabric as the backing. It adds a fun touch.

The quilting was also easy. There was nothing compelling me to try hard, so I made the leaf shapes.  I did practice feathers in the wide sashing. I was thinking of straight lines for the border, but am glad I decided to make hills instead. I decided to let this quilt keep things easy, and folded the backing to the front. I think the busy fabric keeps a casual look to the quilt.

 

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”
― John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne 

15 Minutes to Stitch

I managed to stitch 15 minutes a day's worth this week on this quilt. I didn't do much stitching the previous week, and since I don't remember for sure, I will go ahead and call it 0. I just wasn't motivated to do much stitching last week.


15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  198 out of 245 sessions
Success rate: 80%

This makes my success rate at 80%. I'm hoping not to go below that, so hopefully I will continue the progress for the rest of the year.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch - Week 35
What I made Monday 
Design Wall Monday 
Main Crush Monday 
Monday Making 
Friday Finishes 
Let's Bee Social

August Favorite Photos

Each month, I take a look at my photos folder and pick out my favorites to show to you. It gives me a reason to take photographs (almost) every day.  This month, there were multitudes of photos to sort through to choose my favorites.

We went to the India Festival.  There is non-stop entertainment at the center stage, and at each side of the stage, there are many booths of food vendors, as well as many stalls that sell clothing, jewelry, artwork, and service vendors offering legal, real estate, and religious services. At one point at the end of our visit, we sat in the back near where the performers were resting. I liked the shot of the performer watching other performers.

At another time, I went to the side of the stage to take photos.  These women were spinning very quickly to show off their balancing skills, and even though the photo is blurry, I just loved the smile this performer had throughout the dance.

The obligatory passion fruit flower picture from my garden. This one is too close to the tomatoes, but I don't have the heart to take out either the tomatoes or the passion fruit, as they are both volunteers.   This year, we had a lot more plants with white flowers.  These bees look different to me from previous years, thicker and more rectangular.

We took a trip to Iowa. The rest of the pictures are from Iowa. That is a really big wine barrel in Amana. Note the barrels in the background too.

This is Lily Lake in Iowa. The photo does not do it justice, but the entire lake is filled with lilies!

This is also Lily Lake. The Mama Goose was watching her teenagers and did not budge from her spot even though her companions told her to watch out for us.  These are her kids she was watching.

We saw lots of people fishing.

Beautiful sunset before the Balloon Glow festival.

I enjoyed the sculptures and beautiful artwork throughout our trip.

I am still taking pictures of flowers and butterflies no matter where I go. This is the fossil gorge, which was quite interesting.

A hot air balloon festival, Balloon Glow.

Thrift Store Finds

I rarely find wonderful deals at thrift stores, but one day, I was able to get these cross stitch pieces for under $5 each.  When you think about the price of the pattern/floss/cloth/kits and the amount of time to make these with impeccable workmanship, and the cost of the mat and frames, I feel like I stole these!

One of these has initials (J.G.) and a date (1991), and the other one does not, but I am pretty sure they were made by the same person.

Back when I made cross stitch pieces, I wondered whether people would value the time and energy it took to make them. I suppose that if they are made from a kit, or if someone followed a pattern exactly, there would be other similar work, and would not be considered "artistic." I tried making my own patterns, but that is really hard to do when you can't draw, and gave up completely. I do have some older kits and patterns that need good homes.

Favorite Photographs from July

I haven't been as good about taking daily photographs this year as I have in years past, mostly because my go-to camera is about to break. The cover of the battery is threatening to break in two. But that doesn't mean there weren't plenty of photographs to choose from in deciding my favorites for the month of July. Most of these were taken in Washington D.C. during a sightseeing visit of the National Mall.

Linked to:
Wandering Camera

Death Star

In my last post, I discussed the Droid quilt without explanation.  It is made from a pattern called This Droid is Not for Sale by Hunters Design Studio. It was a free pattern then, but now there is a fee which is donated to charity.

This is a project I made last year - the top is made and I am now working on finishing it up.  See all that open space in the upper right hand corner?  It would be wonderful for a great quilting pattern if I could think of one.

The same week as I discovered the Droid quilt, or maybe it was the same month or quarter, I don't know since I made myself hold off on starting this project as long as I could, I discovered a pattern for a Death Star by Quirky Granola Girl. I thought it would fit perfectly in that vast open space.   It is supposed to be English paper pieced but I just fused the pieces down onto a background fabric. I didn't do as good a job with the shading as I could have, since all of the fabrics had light and dark sections and I didn't want to poke holes throughout all these fabrics. I think it will be okay.

Is it too small? I can make another, bigger one. I was originally picturing it bigger but maybe smaller one looks farther away? The current plan is to turn under the edges so you don't see the background piece.

Here are some layout options. Which one looks more like it is way up in the sky? Which one looks better balanced in the quilt?

Close to head level.

Close to head level closeup.

Torso level.

Above head level.

Above head level closeup.

Here is a current picture of the stitchery I am working on.

Linked to:
Let's Bee Social 
Silly Mama Quilts - Works In Progress 
Nina Marie Sayre - Off the Wall Friday
Needle and Thread Thursday

Stitchery Progress

I've picked up the Droid quilt to finish up before I can start a new project. This involved me my choosing some new fabrics to finish it up.

I thought I should clean up a little bit while I was in there in the Cave of Wonders, and immediately noticed that I had TWO boxes of plaids. Why do I have two boxes? I made a plaid flannel quilt and flannel takes up more room than normal fabric, but still, I hardly ever use plaid in my sewing.  One of those boxes have to go!  So in an effort to clean up one of the boxes, I just have to start the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt, you know, just to clean up the sewing room. I know it is technically not a scrap box, and the boxes were properly sitting on the shelf, but I am sure I will be able to find fabrics in the scrap box to use in this quilt.

Those two projects are now bubbling up to be worked on first, but even before that, the stitchery is still sitting here, while I am lazily watching internet videos resting and regrouping.  As a result, I managed to get at least 15 minutes of sewing done every day. The picture was taken earlier this week. I decided to read the directions for this stitchery.The directions are copyrighted MCMLXXIII, which translates to 1973.  It's practically an antique!

 I see that I did not follow the directions for the dress.  It is supposed to be weaving and couching stitches instead of cross stitches. I wonder if that is why this project was abandoned. The weaving stitches were easier, and the second half of the cross stitches, therefore became the harder way to make this.

Also the directions said to use one strand of yarn, which as you can see, does not work very well. I worried about running out of yarn, but figured that I could make do with something else.  That changed my perspective on this project, and instead of trying to make it perfect, I decided to just enjoy the process and trust that all will work out in the end. This is my rule for the year, but it is amazing how many times I have to relearn it.

With the new and improved attitude, I am more than 80% done on this.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  191 out of 231 sessions
Success rate: 83%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

“Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do.” Jodi Lynn Anderson, Tiger Lily