Design Wall Monday 1-30-12

Have been busy but mostly with projects that are already in process.

First, Home Tweet Home has been quilted and I finished the binding. It is covered with a layer of tulle to help protect the fusible applique. I will begin embellishing it this week during the evenings - embellishing will includes lots of beads on the birds and bird houses and flowers, plus some embroidery thread will be added as nesting material that is falling out of the bird houses.

I'm also continuing to work on the Keep The Heart Truth Growing wall hanging. Have added read beads that outline each side of the off-white "stream" that goes through this piece and outline stitched around each applique piece. The quilt sandwich is made and I've decided to hand quilt this piece - will outline stitch around the pieces and also quilt hearts on the background.

The 2 blocks for February for the http://www.craftsy.com/ free block of the month tutorial were released Saturday, and I made/finished the two blocks Saturday. So, 4 blocks down, 16 more to go.

And I started knitting another pair of sox.

Next week I'll take a photo of the crayon batik dyeing project - not a success - not at all.

Please stop by Patchwork Times today for Design Wall Monday.

Keep The Heart Truth Growing wall hanging website

There was so much traffic on my blog yesterday about this wall hanging, I decided to do a  posting specifically giving the website address for the Janome Keep The Heart Truth Growing wall hanging. I can't wait to see if others decide to do the project and how they interpret it. I followed the directions pretty closely but I can see so many possibilities with this pattern.

Design Wall Monday 1-23-12

Please visit Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

On my design wall is the free project from Janome, Keep The Heart Growing. It has been so much fun to do - what's left to do is the quilting and embellishing, and binding. Shouldn't take too much longer. This pattern is available free from the Janome website, or you can Google "Keep The Heart Growing wall hanging". Everything left to do on this piece is hand work so that should keep me busy in the evenings this week.

I also finished a pair of sox. Yay! Can never have too many pairs of handmade sox. There's nothing like 'em.

Design Wall Monday 1-16-12

Judy at Patchwork Times hosts Design Wall Monday every week - it's a great source of inspiration and education.

Not an especially productive week. Lori, Ruth and I (the Needle Nite group) are meeting tonight to do a crayon batik dyeing project. I've never done it before so it's something new and fun to try. I spent this week transferring my design onto muslin (the original of this came from a 2011 kitchen calendar, "Love To Cook" by Karen H Good), and gathering other supplies - crayons, black fabric ink, brushes, newspapers, iron, ironing board. Am looking forward to it and hopefully will have something fun to show for the next Design Wall Monday. Maybe I will have it quilted, bound, and embellished!

Have been a bit under the weather with a nasty cold so other than preparing for the crayon batik dyeing project, the only other thing I managed to do was make new potholders for my kitchen. I like quilting the potholders with a simple horizontal, vertical, and diagonal design because that causes them to fold nicely in your hands.

There is a heart applique wall hanging project I want to tackle but it will have to wait until 1) I'm feeling better, and 2) I have a chance to get by Office Depot and enlarge the pattern. The project is the Janome Keep The Heart Growing wallhanging designed by Jane Spolar. It's available for free on the Janome website. Maybe I'll have that on my Design Wall for next week.

Oh yeah! Almost forgot. I started another pair of sox this week. This is my version of 2-at-a-time: 2 sets of dp needles - knit the cuff of one sock, knit the cuff of the other, knit the leg of one, knit the leg of the other, and so on. They get finished pretty much at the same time. I've ordered a pair of 9-inch size 2 and size 5 circular needles and have found a pattern for knitting sox in the round on these short circular needles. I'll give it a whirl and then report ...

Design Wall Monday 1-9-12

Please visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

This is the completed quiltop for the Patchwork Times January UFO Challenge - "Rebecca". It is a crazy quilt that is comprised of unused blocks from a quilt my mother and I made together, plus some coordinating fabrics from my stash. It is 48" x 56". After noodling it around for quite a while, I have decided to have the machine quilter (Lilly Lucier 252-244-1988) quilt this using the same pattern (a rose design) that is used in my mother's quilt. It still needs to be embellished with embroidery, lace, ribbon, beads, and buttons.

Craftsy.com is hosting a FREE Block of the Month for 2012. Each month they send a link for a video about the two blocks for that month, plus any templates/instructions. If you participate all year then you will have completed 20 blocks that will be assembled into a lap quilt, including quilting and binding.

I have chosen to do the blocks in these red, white and black fabrics. These are the first two blocks.  Love them. I found the red and the black fabrics at Cotton Fields. I think this project would also be beautiful done in a single aqua fabric and a white tone-on-tone.

This is the beginning of my challenge piece - the theme is A Walk Through My Garden. My "garden" is actually a backyard that backs up to a creek. So, I've completed the background, have chosen fabrics for the trees and leaves, and bought a strand of tiny LED lights that I hope to figure out how to incorporate into the piece to represent fireflies. Still working on that one ...

Design Wall Monday 1-2-12

Take a peek at the first Design Wall Monday of 2012 at Patchwork Times.

Doesn't look like much, does it? Let me explain what you're seeing ... several years ago my mother wanted to make a pink/green quilt for her bed. At 80-something, she needs a bit of help with projects like this so we decided to make it together. Long story short, many of the pieces she put together didn't make it into the quilt for one reason or another. I saved all those pieces. Assembling them into a victorian-looking crazy quilt that will one day go to one of her great-grand-daughters is my UFO #5 which is the UFO we are to be working on for Judy's UFO 2012 Challenge. This will be a lap quilt. So in the photo are the many not-used pieces from the original quilt. Also in the photo is some lace and ribbon that will make its way onto the piece. Not photographed are the beads and embroidery floss that will add to the very feminine victorian look for this quilt. This is a bit of an emotional project for me.

Also in the very beginning stages of development is a challenge piece for the local Art-rageous Quilters group. The theme is "A Walk Through My Garden". These are the fabrics I'd like to incorporate in my piece, somehow, along with some beads. The piece is small - 12 x 30. I've been noodling around some ideas and slowly it's becoming more settled in my mind - today I may try to sketch it out.

I'm also knitting a cap for my son. So, lots of things in progress. 2012 is off to a good start.