Showing posts with label quilt projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilt projects. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

WIP and TBR

Spring has come to Michigan! We have nesting birds in the yard, wildflowers have sprouted up, and the herb garden is green and flourishing.
Wild Violets

It has been a busy spring. After my two cataract surgeries, my husband underwent his second knee replacement surgery! I am super busy handling his chores along with my own.

But I am still keeping up with my quilt projects and reading!

I am hand quilting the Little Red Ridinghood quilt.



I am deciding on the borders on the Winter Houses quilt.


And I played making a quilt with some wool birds from the quilter's group free table and am nearly done with the applique. I will do more embellishment after they are sewn down.




I am now reading:

  • LibraryThing win ARC  Make Me A City by Jonathan Carr about the history of Chicago.
  • The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey about George Orwell and the writing of 1984.
  • Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer shares snippets on the quilting life.
  • Jared Diamond's Upheaval. I have read about Finland, Japan, and Chile so far. What is so cool is that when I was a senior in high school my family hosted an exchange student from Finland. I became close to the exchange students from Japan, Chile, and Germany during that year. 
  • Cesare by Jerome Charyn a love story and thriller set during WWII
On my TBR galley shelves:
  • The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar
  • Women from the Copper Country by  Mary Doria Russell
  • We Are All Good People by Susan Rebecca White
  • Out of Darkness Shining Light by Petina Gappah
  • This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
  • The Book of Science and Antiquities by Thomas Kenalley
  • The Vexations by Caitlin Horrocks
On Kindle:

After reading her new book Gold Digger I purchased Rebecca Rosenberg's novel Mrs. Jack London. My review on Gold Digger will appear on my blog soon.

I have Amy Stewart's Miss Kopps Midnight Confessions and Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit on my Kindle which I hope to read soon as the next volume Miss Kopp on the March is being mailed to me via the Kopp Sister's Literary Society.

Another book to come is Archaeology from Space by Sarah Parcak which I won on LibraryThing this month.

Upcoming Book Clubs:
Next month the library book club is reading Wiley Cash's novel The Last Ballad, which I read as an ARC. Wiley will be Skyping with our club!

The Barnes and Nobel book club is reading The Guest Book, which I also read as an ARC.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Pin Pals: 40 Patchwork Pinnies, Poppets, and Pincushions with Pizzazz


 FORTY pincushions to make! What a great scrap buster idea! This could be your next addiction!

When I recently reviewed Antique American Needlework Tools by Dawn Cook Ronningen I was quite struck by the historic sewing objects women made, especially the pincushions. So, I was excited when I saw Carrie Nelson's new book Pin Pals.
In July 2017, Carrie made 49 pincushions in 31 days, inspired to sew every day by Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts. The journey was about play, pleasure, and practice, and not about pressure and perfectionism.
Pincushions don't have to be tomatoes! They can be any shape or size. How about a tetrahedron?

You can use any kind of fabric scraps! Some of the patterns use very tiny pieces.

Carrie closes the stuffed pincushion with 40 weight thread then adds a diagonal "X" cross stitch over the area for extra security.

Aren't these little beach houses adorable? The photo shows the crushed walnut shells used to stuff the pin cushion. Other stuffing options include sand, sawdust, rice, and cotton or poly stuffing.
Most of the patterns are pieced, but there is an adorable daisy fusible applique. 

I have some gift items to make for Christmas, but I can't wait to make my own Pin Pals!

See photos of all 40 pincushions at https://www.shopmartingale.com/pin-pals.html

See more books with Carrie's patterns here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Pin Pals - 40 Patchwork Pinnies, Poppets, and Pincushions with Pizzazz
by Carrie Nelson
$22.99 Print Version + eBook
eBook Only (-$8.00)
ISBN: 9781604689594

Saturday, November 3, 2018

New Stuff, Including Old New Stuff

I just returned from the library sale at my local library. I found some interesting old books.

I picked up Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, which I read a lifetime ago. Pearl Buck's Kinsfolk, a volume with three John O'Hara novels, and an interesting volume by Hendrick Van Loon on Tolerance throughout history.

I once had all of Thomas Mann's books! I think they were all sold when we left Philly for Michigan. We sold $500 of rare and vintage books to a bookshop in Princeton, NJ. That was a lot of money in 1989! We needed to downsize for the move.

Tolerance is illustrated by the author. I thought it would be interesting to read considering today's worldwide tendency toward intolerance.



Van Loon's name sounded familiar. I did a Google search and learned that when our son was young we had picked up the author's multi-volume set The Story of Mankind! It was let go a few years later. Van Loon is an interesting character, apparently lacking in scholarship and with a definite bias.

This month at the library two of my quilts are hanging! My Autumn Leaves is all made by hand: hand pieced, hand applique, hand quilted, and even hand dyed fabrics. The central image was inspired by the sight of orange leaves against a blue sky, an image that stayed in my memory for years. I used bleach on the leaves and also Pigma pen.
Autumn Leaves by Nancy A. Bekofske
This quilt began as my interpreting pictures of doors in a photo book. I used hand dyed fabrics. I set the blocks in fabrics that looked Autumnal, and then I thought of the Thomas Wolfe quote from Look Homeward, Angel: Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. I printed the quote onto fabric and appliqued it to the quilt. I scanned real rocks onto fabric and appliqued them onto the quilt, then added silk leaves.


Speaking of books, I am currently reading Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore, compliments of A. A. Knopf, and Claire Fuller's Bitter Orange.

 Algonquin Books sent me Sugar Run by Mesha Maren.

And from St. Martins Press I was sent An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.



My TBR galley shelves are full! I am reading Big and Bang and Bomb books...
Big Bang by David Bowerman, an epic fictional consideration of the Kennedy assassination
Quilt Big by Jemima Flendt, creating big quilt block quilts
Atom Bomb to Santa Claus by Trevor Homer, a compendium of American inventions

And waiting are...

Once Upon a River, an atmospheric blend of historical fiction and fantasy by Diane Setterfield, author of The Thirteenth Tale which I have read
A Glad Obedience: Why and What we Sing by Walter Brueggemann on hymnody
Queen Victoria by Lucy Worsley
The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and his Times by Jerome Charyn, recommended by Michael Chabon
Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan Brennert (After I read Moloka'i which I have had on Kindle for a while)
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts, whose The Eighty-Dollar Champion I enjoyed although I missed last year's much-touted The Perfect Horse. This book is historical fiction about Mrs. Frank Baum1
The Editor by the author of Lily and the Octopus Steven Rowley
Saving Meghan by D. J. Palmer, a thriller

Quilt projects in process: 

I am still hand quilting my Peter Pan quilt.

I need to add borders to my hexie flower quilt April Showers Bring May Flowers.
I decided to add borders to my quilt using the Thistle line printed animals. I don't like the white blocks along the edges. They need a frame to contain them.

During our recent mini-vacation, I worked on these Little Red Riding Hood Redwork blocks based on an 1918 pattern.
And I am getting ready to sew together the quilt for our son! The 18" blocks are all sewn.

My husband had his Edison Disk Player and Victrolia repaired and can now play his 78 record collection!

And he found my 45 record collection to add to the Seeburg Bandshell jukebox!

Some of the records were given to me as a child by my Aunt Alice (Wimoweh and Ride an Old Paint with the Weavers) and mom (Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White and The Poor People of Paris and Love Letters in the Sand) and others are from my teenage collection  (Color my World by Chicago and Flowers on the Wall by the Statler Brothers) or my husband's (My Sweet Lord by George Harrison and Amazing Grace by Judy Collins). Also, I have Kisses Sweeter than Wine and Scarlet Ribbons and Tom Dooley and Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert and Purple People Eater and The Battle of New Orleans and Snoppy vs the Red Baron.

This will fill up the jukebox. Now I can listen to the jukebox or the 78 records while I work in my quilt room.

Friday, October 19, 2018

A Fabric Challenge!

My weekly quilt group held a fabric challenge. Two of us choose a challenging fabric at a local quilt shop. People had to use the fabric in any kind of project. The variety of projects will amaze you!
Bev O saw rock houses in the design and embroidered faces and doors on the fabric

When our member Joanne proposed the fabric challenge the group was willing to give it a try. Joanne and I went to a local quilt shop to select a fabric. We worked with the shop owner to find a fabric with lots of color and something most would not have chosen. When the group saw the fabric many were perplexed about what to do with it! But as you will see, they figured it out!

Shirley W. made multiple projects including a purse, a candle mat, a rug mug
Shirley W. used every bit of her fabric in these projects!



Lucy L. made a placemat 

Shirley L. made a color wheel


Linda W. made a pillow case

Linda P. made notebook covers

Karen C. made a baby quilt

Joanne B. made an original applique design. Note the use of the doily!

Sue S. made a sewing machine organizer; it goes under the machine and had pockets for tools

Theresa N. made a small quilt

Theresa N. also made a table runner

Verna's table runner

Madeline made a steering wheel cover for her car!

Cheryl's purse

Betty C. saw gumdrops in the fabric and found this Gumdrop quilt pattern

Sharon made a mug rug to match her favorite mug

Jan used the fabric in a Christmas ornament

Lucy made several projects including this fabric pin

Shirley K's wreath shows how the fabric against white becomes light and airy

Shirley K. transformed a Christmas wreath pattern into a spring-like wreath
Ladies saw turtles, houses,or gumdrops in the print; I saw mushrooms. I searched for vintage illustrations of wee folk painting mushrooms for my design.
I made an applique based on the illustration. I used fusible and hand applique, machine quilting, and also used colored pencil.
Quilt by Nancy Bekofske
The ladies look forward to doing this again! What will be next year's fabric challenge?
Almost everyone in the group participated!