A finish and a bit of weaving...

I mentioned in my last post that I was very close to finishing a project a started years ago. Well...here it is!

It is One Nation by ByGone Stitches. The flag stripes are the 50 states in the order they joined the Union. It's a big one and now has a home on one of our walls. I purchased this chart because I was in a shop that had it framed and waiting for a customer to pick up. I actually walked right by the chart on display, mostly because the photo on the front was pretty dull looking. Hopefully my photo shows it off a little better!

I needed to finish this because I had scheduled a four week beginning weaving class with the Weavers Guild of Minnesota. That class is now complete and I can show you what I accomplished.

This is my first piece. It was completed on a rigid heddle loom I borrowed. The loom had issues (as did the weaver!) and the piece is a little wonky. I decided to not correct my mistakes but to leave them in.

I have a large Beka loom I purchased from a friend a couple of years ago, but wanted to do my next project on something a little smaller. Sooo... I purchased a 15 inch Cricket loom from The Woolery along with an extra heddle.

I found a book at the library that is full of patterns just for the rigid heddle loom and decided upon a log cabin pattern. Instead of using the same two colors in both the warp and weft, I chose two different combinations of dark and light to give it a more subtle look. So far I think it is going well and isn't as wonky looking as my first attempt.

The biggest issue I've had so far is knowing how much yarn/thread I will need to wind on my shuttles. I found this handy calculator online at Weavolution. If you fill in the blanks it will tell you how much you need for both warp and weft and is mostly math free for those who dislike using a calculator. The only calculation you may need to do is to figure out the yards per pound of the yarn/thread you are using, and that is a pretty easy calculation.

Will I become a master weaver? Probably not, but I do enjoy the process and have a few other projects in mind. So far I've used only a 3/2 perle cotton, but plan to explore other, finer thread options.

Next time...the other class I took at the Weavers Guild with a friend.

EGA Projects

Some of you may remember that I am working on the Master Craftsman for Counted Thread, which is an EGA program. There are Master Craftsman programs for a  variety of techniques. They have recently posted the requirements for Step One of each program. Click on this link to learn more.

I finished Step One awhile ago and had put Step Two, Assisi, on the back burner. Well, I finally completed it and it has been evaluated and returned to me. I passed, so my next step will be Blackwork. It may take me awhile to finish that one as well!

I started with a photo a took of the Sanibel lighthouse a couple of years ago.

With a bit of artistic license I came up with this design done in the Assisi style.

I also completed two Group Correspondence Courses through EGA. More information can be found at this link.

The first was a course that was retiring and I wanted to take it before it was no longer available. It is an Italian drawn thread piece called Angelina. It has been sitting folded up for a few months so is pretty crinkly.

The second is a Teneriffe piece I just finished. I've been keeping it in a plastic CD case so it is still in pretty decent shape!

Next week is our Heartland Region Seminar. I will start two new projects while there. We'll see how long it takes until I finish those!

Valentine Freebies!

I was online looking for something completely different and found a few free Valentine projects you may enjoy. If you are speedy, you may have them finished by Saturday!

The first one is a quick to stitch quilted heart from Nancy Zieman. You can check out Nancy's blog here.

It is a paper pieced pattern and Nancy provides a quick tutorial on the technique.

Next up is from one of my favorite blogs...Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread. If you haven't already checked it out, be sure to go there and sign up for her email.  The Love embroidery can be found here.

And, one more embroidery piece. This set of paisley hearts should be quick to stitch and looks really nice in overdyed floss.

The last three patterns are for cross stitch pieces. As a policy I do not post photos of actual charts so you will need to follow the links to see what they are!

First is a darling Quaker Heart from Tempting Tangles. The link will take you to the Wichelt website, but for more on Deb's designs please check out her Tempting Tangles website. 

There is another small Quaker style valentine on the Embroiderbee blog. She offers a number of other free patterns as well.

Last, but not least, is a lovely valentine from Stitching the Night Away, another blog well worth your time!

New Year...Big Project Finished!

The last couple of months were quite hectic at our home. We had a slight issue when our new gas fireplace started a fire in the exterior wall of our new home. Everyone is fine and the restoration process continues at a snail's pace.

Fortunately I had finished, and delivered, a big project I had been working on for my brother and his wife to give to their first grandchild. They had saved their daughter's baby clothes with the plan to make a quilt when she had her first child. I was able to participate in the gift by creating a scrap quilt from that clothing.

If you have a similar project in mind this may be helpful to you.

I started with the bag of baby and toddler clothes.

Baby clothes are made from a variety of fabrics, many of them stretchy and of varying weights. They also are small, so between the many seams and baby stains, the usable pieces are limited. I decided the perfect answer to finding a quilt pattern that would work was to search my scrap quilt books. I found a basic pattern that I liked and then modified it to fit what I wanted for the end product.

I decided to use a pattern that incorporated a variety of blocks. All were cut to a 6.5 inch size with a quarter inch seam allowance. For the super stretchy fabrics I made a foundation base of a plain white cotton and marked the strip lines. This allowed me to cut those stretchy pieces...

...and then pin them down and sew them without a lot of movement.

There were some awfully cute parts to some of the clothes that I decided could not be cut apart or left out, so I made some blocks that were either a full 6.5 inch cut of fabric, or as in this example, I cut out the bibbed part and then stitched it onto a piece of white cotton.

One additional block I used was to cut a heart shaped piece of fabric, center it on a 6.5 inch piece of white cotton and machine applique the heart. You can see those blocks in this photo. I used the same white cotton for the triangle setting blocks.

I really wanted to include hand quilting, but you can imagine what it would be like to hand quilt through the fabrics found in baby clothes! So, I compromised and machine quilted in the ditch between all of the blocks.

Then, I hand quilted in the borders and in the triangle setting blocks.

There were several t-shirts that I wanted to include but they were too large for the 6.5 inch blocks, so I incorporated them into the backing. You will see that I made sure to position them where there would be machine quilting. Hand quilting through t-shirt fabric would have been difficult! You will see in the lower right hand corner the quilt label. Always remember to include one on any quilt you make.

And here is the finished product!

My brother and his wife saved the clothing for their other two children as well, so I look forward to those future projects!