330/366: Progress

Love this machine.

So do the boys. They have me making trading cards in mitten shapes with their "favorite" stitch. With over 70 stitches, this could mess with my schedule!

This is the half way point of the first Blanquilt, still in pieces.

Sewing, laundry and watching the first snowfall...lovely.

The Wooden Blanquilt

This was my Saturday.  Hoping that the boys would entertain themselves while I created a wedding blanquilt in less than 10 hours.

And they did.  They even said, "Why are you making wood?"

Perfect question.  The wedding invitation looked like tree bark with the bride and groom's wedding date and initials.  I simplified it a bit and was pretty happy with the results.

I finished with enough time to add a velvet bow, shower and get dressed.  Not the most relaxing Saturday, but clearly one of my most productive!

J2S3

 

Weddings.

Sometimes a wedding is for family.

Sometimes it's for a spouse's coworker.

Sometimes it's your neighbors.

And then there is a wedding for a kid.

I met Jill when she was in high school.  She was and still is an amazing person.  I was her youth leader at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Buffalo.  If I correctly recall, she was a Freshman when I started and was able to go on all the trips and events.  The above picture was one of our best trips to New Hampshire for hiking and canoeing.  Driving a 15 passenger van in the curving roads in NH isn't the easiest and I have a poor little squirrel to show for it.  He didn't make it under the tires and I couldn't swerve in time.  The kids wrote a song about it.  But I digress.

I have found that kids with names that are extraordinary seem to do better in society.  It may not happen in high school with all the bullying, but I believe that a kid with an odd or unusual name needs to stick up for themselves more and becomes more assertive and steadfast.  They also can have a bit of humor.  My son, Little Man, was named differently or unusually because I love the name and I want him to be proud of who he is and to stand out.

Jill has a last name like that.  Jill S*****((r-S*************r.  That is a mouth full.  We used to kid with Jill that she needed to marry a S*****t.  Then we would sing the song, Jill S*****r S*************r S****tt her name is my name too, whenever we'd go out, the people all would shout, there goes Jill S**********r S*************r S****tt.

Oh, how I wanted to sing that song all day yesterday.

Jill is assertive and self assured, she has been through tragedy, struggles, joys and now love.  Yesterday, she married Joe S****n.

Guess what people....S******n can easily replace S*****tt!  The song shall go on!

But to my main point about Jill.  She wrote me a note 4 months ago asking if I could come to her wedding.  She wrote that I had influenced her life and been an important part of it.  I was flabbergasted.  Firstly, she hand wrote a note!  Secondly, I was a big part of her life?  I think it's sometimes hard for me to realize the impression I've left on someone.  This was amazing.  She is amazing.

So, back to Jill.  I wanted to make her a quilt with their initial on the front.  Well, as you could guess, initials for Jill are a bit complex.  S would work, yet she is S-S.  I was fairly certain she wouldn't drop one.  I emailed her and told her how honored I was to come to their wedding and what are you doing about your name?  She hinted that she may just add S****n.  Wow.  That's a lot.  She and Joe came up with a little abbreviation for them J2S3.  Joe and Jill, and all the S last names.  Quite clever and totally expected from a doctor.  Did I mention Jill is a Doctor?  Amazing young lady.

So J2S3 was it.  I hoped it wasn't a catchy little diddy that would fade in a couple years.  But even the return label's had J2S3 on them, so I was fairly certain we'd be good.

 
 It was a great wedding and lovely reception.  Coincidentally, the wedding and reception were at the same places that Tom and I celebrated our wedding, 11 years ago.

A beautiful day.

Eleven years ago, and yesterday.

Project In Progress

You may remember this from months ago.

This is my new blanquilt idea.

My mom (and many women I know) has a box of doilies in her hutch that she doesn't quite know what to do with.

They are treasured pieces of family history. Many of which my great grandmother made, perhaps her mother even made some. And perhaps some she picked up at church swap. Either way, they hold memories of past women taking care of their home and decorating it and protecting the handmade furniture from scratches with these doilies.

Although the pieces I have used in this blanquilt aren't memories of my ancestors, they are memories of someone.

I would like to do a series of these where I offer to use a customer's doilies and create a memory for them that isn't packed away in a drawer somewhere.

As always, these are big. I like a big blanquilt.

Cold toes aren't fun.

The Motherload

I've been on eBay lately. I've learned how to limit myself, how to find the listings that aren't seen by most or don't seem as desirable. Misspelling key words is a new tactic that is paying off. Instead of searching for 'doilies', I searched for 'doilys'...ahh, the intricacies of the English language. I spied a lot of 40+ doilies with one photograph. Not much to see, quite a risk. But a risk I was willing to take, for $10 including shipping. There were three 'doilies' that don't fall into vintage, think more 25 cent lace attached to a cheap piece of polyester. That left me with 2 pieces that won't work for my blanquilts, but will work for another project and 39 doilies that I can work with. That was a great risk that paid off.

And why might I need a 40+ piece collection of doilies?

I'm working on a blanquilt...finally figured out a use for those doilies made by relatives stuffed in a box in the bottom drawer of a hutch. This could be good!

Baby Quilt: The Reveal

My friends Judy and Dave are expecting their first bundle of joy. Since we are pretty close, I asked her if there was something that she would like me to make for her baby. She mentioned a heirloom type blanket or quilt that could be passed down from child to child.

Heirloom...no pressure, right?

My first thought was that in order to have an heirloom be an heirloom, it must start with something that carries meaning and history.

I asked Judy and Dave's sisters to send me something from each of their families that could be added to the quilt. I got a little blue knit outfit that Dave wore as a baby; a scarf worn by Dave's mother; a doily from Judy's mother; and a tatted doily made by Judy's grandmother. Four things that held meaning. A great start to an heirloom.

To add the love of Judy and Dave, I added a block with their hometowns. A tree for making roots and an owl because owls are cool. Some blocks with simple stitch textures added to the dimension of the blanquilt.

As you know I'm quite the procrastinator - this time I had a good reason - but nonetheless, I didn't have a box or bag to put this in and stopped at our grocery store at 11:30 pm. Wow...$6 for a bag? So, I made one. I know, I know...bags are easy, though. And fairly quick.

This was a fun project that I really enjoyed and learned a couple things from, too.

To Judy and Dave...I hope you make many memories with this blanquilt as you wrap your children and your love with it.

Blogtoberfest

Although I missed day one, I'll post twice today to make up for it. A bunch of bloggers are challenging themselves to blog every day in October and I think I will try as well. The shop has been oh so slow and a tad depressing, maybe this will get my engines revving.

The well dressed gentleman above has been added to the shop. Taking pictures of this gem is very difficult. Tom tried to help, but those photo's didn't make the cut. I tried indoors, I tried outdoors, I tried holding it myself and photographing. I think I need to enlist a friend with steady arms and not so manly hands to help me out.

This bird is a Weaver bird, specifically a Speke's Weaver. They are fine looking birds, but the most exciting part of them is the nests that they weave and knot. It is truly amazing. I had a great video to share with you from YouTube.com, but can no longer find it. What I did find was this frame to frame video of a nest in progress. Another video available is a patronizing man in the sing songy voice telling me that the bird 'weeeaaavvveees'. A little too irritating to suggest it, but if you want to see the nest from first knot, try this video at your own risk.

I had started this blanquilt at the time I did the Hearts Blanquilt, but left it sitting for some time. I kept running out of material, then the colors didn't match (which turns out okay - and I actually like how they are placed), then I just didn't know how to finish it off. I thought about circles and trees and flowers and owls. But they all seemed too cliche to me. In a twist of irony, when I went to list the blanquilt, there was a treasury of cute little owls on the front page...ugh. So, I found the weaver bird and fell in love with him and his adorable little homes.

The price is high because it took a lot of energy, planning, measuring (not with a tape measure, but lengths of my hands), cutting, ripping out and starting over and the embroidery took quite some time.

And the real reason, I am not sure I can give it up. Maybe when I tire of it, I could drop the price, but right now, I need to touch it and look at it and be amazed how embroidery can really be used to paint a picture and to make an ordinary blanket a blanquilt.

Etsy Challenge

Dear Friends,

At noon today, my blanquilt will be entered into a fun little challenge on this new Etsy Challenge Blog. I am told it will be in the needlework section, so please, take a couple minutes and vote for me!

We had a good weekend (well, not really, trying to be positive). I did get a couple purses made, now they just need some jewels to spice them up. I am going to try to sew a zipper into a felted purse. Depending on the results, this could be WeaverGirlGuz's first giveaway. I mean, if it is free, you can handle a little miss-stitching, right? I need to practice somewhere! I found some of my first felting tries from last fall and cut them up, maybe I can use them for some other little things.

Sunday morning, I went to Antique World's Flea Market with my Dad. It was shocking to see how few tables were out. There were threats of rain all day and thunderstorms in the afternoon,(we got out the backyard pool and were splashing in the sun at 2 pm)so maybe that is the main reason. Any way, having a little "non-buyers remorse". There was an adorable tricycle with big air filled wheels that I think the boys would have loved. It was reasonable, but I thought Tom would be mad that there was one other item we needed to store over the winter so that we could get the cars into the garage. I should have got it and stored it at a friends house in the winter. Still thinking about it...maybe it will be there next weekend. I did find a couple old wooden puzzles for the boys and a couple pins/jewels for some purses. Would have been great if there were more tables. I hope this isn't the beginning of the end of antique/flea markets.

Ending this post with words from the boys.

Big Boy's words: "Mom, every time I look at you, you are making another purse. Why don't you just stop and take a break?"

Little Man's words: "Mom, play with your yarn."

I Made It and It Made It!

That's mine, left column, second from the bottom. What you are seeing is the screen shot taken around 9 am on July 5th, when my blanquilt was on the FRONT PAGE of Etsy.com. Here is a link to the blanquilt. I am astounded at the amount of views I have received.

But there is one problem.

Not one sale.

I know, I know, a lot of people saw it and made it a favorite, but even a little sale would have been nice, right?

Where Am I?

This is June.
Those are my feet (yes, the ones with the beginnings of a summer sandal tan line).
That, is hail.

We were warned, but I didn't imagine they would be THIS big. Our weather this past week was quite crazy, cold, rainy, thunderstorms with a bit of sun and hail mixed in.

It was loud, and bouncy. I have some video footage that I will attempt to post, but it was taken in large format, so it might not upload. In the video you can see the hail balls bouncing a good 2-3 feet after first impact.

Update on my fingers and head...fingers just finished the wedding gift and almost done with Heart Blanquilt (I just made that up - like it?). I also have two Sam' inspired blankcapes (I'm catching on) that need to be finalized - which is what my head is up to. Trying to figure out where Velcro or snaps or secret pockets should go.

This week is going to get crazy. My Sam is turning 5 on Thursday. Wow. Five. It was only yesterday...