Stories from the Sewing Room

Note: Blogger is displaying my photos without proper alignment. Sorry. I can't figure out how to fix it. 

Here is my second finish of the year. It's the knitted selvedge rug!

    

I thought I was close to being done with it last week. Then I researched common rug sizes and most are a 2:3 ratio. My rug is 22" wide, so that meant it should be around 33" long to be visually pleasing and such. Ratios and proportions are so useful! I used to teach my high school students ways to solve story problems using ratios and proportions.

I made some good progress on Nancy's quilt last week. In case you missed the OMG link up post Sunday, here is its current status. (To read more about it, scroll back one post.)

I thought about quilting and binding the quilt I picked up at the history center yard sale. I want to make a Frankenbatting for it and I haven't done so yet. I also need to press the entire backing. I did find a piece of fabric in my stash that was just big enough to get the binding out of. It doesn't totally match the style, but the colors are close enough that it will be fine. And it will use up basically the entire piece of fabric, so that is a major win. I don't even know where that particular piece came from. It's not something I would normally buy. Quilt and binding fabric pictured below.

I made a hanging sleeve for one of the quilts I entered in the IHQS. I need to stitch it to the quilt back. Quilts are required to have labels as well, so that needs to be done before the Saturday morning drop off. I know, I know, I should always label my quilts. I normally don't. Sue me. 

I have quite a bit of prep work for the two 1/2 day classes I'm taking. I was prepared to spend $80 on a fat quarter bundle, but then shopped my stash instead and came up with this. I only need five inch squares of each color and 10" squares of the center and backgrounds. Stash for the win. Of course I need to press and cut everything by next week.

I also need to quilt three 12" squares and find some other yardage for the second class I'm taking. 

My back is still painful and it's so annoying. I didn't do anything to injure it. Most meds aren't doing anything for it. The only thing that has helped so far is Excedrin Migraine. I don't normally take two pills of that because it makes me really jittery, but it did knock down the pain for four or five hours the other day. I saw that its ingredients are acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine. I bought some straight aspirin and it's working reasonably well without the jittery side effect. I'm trying to tough it out as much as I can. Getting older is so fun. As my mom says, beats the alternative, right? 

In other family news, my daughter came down Thursday night and we promptly had a tornado warning--in February. (We are totally fine. The tornado went through the main/north part of town and lifted before it hit campus. No casualties other than the Humane Society's building and a 5/3 bank's roof.) She does tend to bring the weather. Her last visit brought the giant snow storm and we've had several other times she's visited and we had tornadoes go through. Anyway, she has paid for her new-to-her car, she and my husband went and got it from Michigan, and we've titled and registered it. My son's summer internship is now in jeopardy due to government issues. Pfft. He was really looking forward to it and the mentors were excited too. Fingers crossed, maybe it will work out somehow. I'm so fed up with all the nonsense.

My husband has purchased a radon monitor for my sewing room. It's been throwing elevated readings the last few days. Usually if your reading is 4 pCi/L you need to do something. It was spiking over 4 over the weekend and Monday night to Tuesday it went up to 5. We already have a whole-house radon mitigation system in place, but my sewing room is the farthest point away from it. Radon is a leading cause of lung cancer and I've found that most people don't even know about it. Your local health department can test for you, generally free of charge. Or you can buy a meter and watch it yourself. The American Lung Association offers inexpensive testing options too. You can view a radon map of the US here. 

My son and I found some woodcocks Friday night. Check out these totally awesome pictures I took. 😂 The first one shows a bird sitting in someone's yard. The next one shows two birds flying.

        

Zoomed in so you can see--two black flecks above the moon

We all went out looking Saturday night. My son even set up his tripod and his camera with the paparazzi lens. We got some really good looks at them (except my son, who was somehow facing the wrong direction the entire time). I didn't attempt any photos, but I did get one really glorious look while the setting sun highlighted the bird. My daughter took some video, but didn't share with me. It was sooo cold out. We woke up to a dusting of snow on Sunday morning. 

I'm trying to get some work done. I am moving pretty slowly and trying to give myself some grace on the speed or lack thereof. I quilted three of Jeri's quilts. It's so fun looking at all the individual fabrics. I still need to do the binding on these. 

This tumbler quilt is quilted with Leaves in the Wind.

This one is quilted with Rosemary.

And Gulf Stream was the choice for this one.

 

Toni selected Music Notes for this one. You can't really see it in the picture, but the quilt is a giant treble clef. She pieced a backing with little strips of vibrant guitar fabric. Can you see it in the picture?

I quilted Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut on Shireen's t-shirt quilt. She's a runner and these are shirts from some of her events. 

This is a group of six placemats that Melissa made and stitched together. She requested Fall Foliage for the design. I like that it mimics the shapes and fabrics. I'm not sure what her plan is for finishing them. 

Until next week--

It's time to share your February progress.

This link up will remain open until February 28 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to get Cupcake Crossing, AKA Nancy's Bonnie and Camille quilt, sewn into a quilt top. Here's how it looked at the beginning of the month:

I can't remember what I was thinking of for the backing. The pattern calls for 3.333 yards of backing. I bought three yards. This fabric is long out of print, so maybe this is all I could find, or I figured I'd just make it work. It's directional, so that makes things a bit more challenging.

I am committed to making a Frankenbatting. My batting scraps are out of control. For real, they are in bins and a laundry basket. The stack is taller than me by quite a bit. In fact, it's taller than the door. Here is my initial layout of batting. I needed a little more, so I switched out the skinny strip for a bigger one.

I made my Frankenbatting, pieced my backing, and opted to load the backing and quilt top sideways. Loading sideways meant that I had enough backing without needing to add additional scrap fabric to the top and bottom. I then rotated the quilt top to be in proper alignment with the directionality of the backing. I was originally planning to quilt with a Baptist Fan-type design, but because things are sideways, I needed to select a non-directional design. I chose Fizz, which I think works well in either direction.

Here is the quilted piece in the correct orientation for the directionality of the fabrics.

I attached the binding to the front of the quilt on Saturday. I'm so close to a full finish! It feels fantastic to have moved this project so far ahead. 

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on February 28. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room February One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

Things continue to be wacky around here. Last week I left you with my daughter's car dying. She had a 2010 Prius and its battery gave out. It's still drivable on the engine and still getting over 40 mpg; it just sends out warning notices while driving. My son has been driving to school with it (yay for me not having to make the school run) and my husband was on the hunt for a newer Prius in her price range. After a few false starts he found one in my hometown via Facebook Marketplace. My in-laws went to look at it and put down a deposit until we can get up there this weekend. We've also sold her current car. So that's mostly sorted. 

Meanwhile, my son got a last-minute invitation (like due within 36 hours of receipt) to apply to a scholars program in the school he'll be attending next year. It involved writing yet another essay. He didn't want to do it, but I reminded him that one of my guild mates who used to work in the scholarship department told him that like 75% of people don't bother to apply for any scholarships because of the essays. It was painful, but he got it done and submitted before the deadline. The interview he had last week will be an unknown until at least April. I think that leaves us with one or two smaller, one-time scholarship applications to fill out. Hopefully we'll have a quiet month or so before everything starts picking up again.

I did not get my trip to Goose Pond to bird watch and see cranes and pelicans last weekend (no surprise there). I did manage to throw out my back by doing who knows what. Sitting can be painful, but walking helps and lying flat helps. I did get a bit of sewing done. My OMG for the month is to finish Nancy's Cupcake Crossing quilt. I have the center done. I have to piece the borders and then attach them.

I realized while sewing together the last row that one of these things was not like the others. 🤦🏻‍♀️ At least it was a pretty easy fix. 

I'm taking two half-day classes at IHQS and I have quite a bit of prep work for both of them. I also need to make a hanging sleeve and attach it to one of my entries, plus do all the paperwork for those. I have a week and a half to get the hanging sleeve and paperwork done and two weeks to get the prep for the class done. 

I've still been making progress on my selvedge rug. I'd estimate it to be 2/3 - 3/4 done right now. It's pretty hard on my hands. I can go for up to an hour before I have to stop. I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving back to regular yarn. This one isn't ending up to be as pretty as the first one I did back in 2020. BUT I love making something useful out of what most people would consider trash.

Here are last week's quilts. The first two belong to Stephanie. I quilted Lacey Loops on this one.

And Knit 1, Purl 2 on this one. I think you will be able to see this one at IHQS.

I got the binding onto Hannah's quilt and got both hers and Ben's shipped back.

I quilted Ansley Park 2 on Melissa's quilt. It doesn't show in this picture, but all the edges of the quilt were in the honeycomb shape.

Sara selected Splat for her quilt.

And Tina wanted Spring Thing. I used pink thread that blended with her inner border for the top and a more orangey-pink thread on the back.

I quilted Freehand Hearts and Loops (computerized despite the name) on Amber's quilt. I kind of wish I would have sized this one a bit smaller, but I think it's okay. It's a baby quilt.

That's quite a bit of work considering how chaotic life has felt lately.

In other news, I noticed my daffodils are starting to come up. I'm surprised anything survived in this soil after the porch repair.

And I spotted a Baltimore Oriole nest way, way up in the tulip poplar just beyond my property. I haven't seen an oriole nest since I was a kid. This first picture is one my son took. Besides the nest, you can clearly see that the blossoms are close to opening. Spring is coming!

This oddly artsy photo is one I took using his camera because he wasn't at home when I first  saw the nest. I didn't know that he had the camera set to take photos in black and white and I don't know why is has a ring around it. It kind of looks fake. 😆

I've seen a few yellow-rumped warblers and, though I couldn't see it, I heard a sand hill crane flying over yesterday. We have robins year-round. They are starting to be on the ground more. I think the squirrels were having a rough winter because they've stripped the bark right off several tree limbs in the woods.  

It's funny to think that in just a month or so, it will be time to start working in the vegetable garden.

I'll be back Sunday with the OMG finish link up.

Linking with Quiltery and Alycia Quilts.

I am making progress on Nancy's Cupcake Crossing quilt! I have two of the inner rows sewn.

As you can see, I have one more row of blocks to sew. After that, there is an inner border and a pieced outer border. And that's it! While Nancy had purchased the finishing kit for the top, it didn't come with backing. I found fabric from the same line and purchased that last year, so I'm ready to go on quilting.

I've also started knitting a selvedge rug. I've been cruising right along, but I find knitting selvedge yarn to be pretty hard on the hands. The further along I go, the harder it gets because it is pretty heavy. Last time I made one of these, back in 2020, I cast on 38 stitches. This time I cast on 30 since I felt like I ended up with a pretty big rug last time. I gifted that original one to my mother in law and I noticed that the rug has really stretched out/grown over time. Of course I have no idea how she uses/cares for it, so I'm not sure why it stretched so much. But I thought I'd try a bit smaller anyway.

I've continued to be very busy with work. Here's what I've done since last week.

I made and attached the binding to the front of Haley's quilt. It doesn't show much in the picture, but she had me make the binding from three different fabrics.

Janice's quilt, quilted with Winterfest. We used Glide Ocean for the thread and it looks so good with her background fabric.

Brenda's quilt, quilted with Hidden Valley. This quilting design did not agree with my software. It is highly unlikely that I will stitch out this design again. This took forever. Remember when I said I would have all of Saturday to myself? Yeah, this is what I was (still) working on. It can be really hard to admit defeat with a design, especially one you've paid for. This one was a freebie, but it still doesn't feel good when you can't make it look how you want.

Jae's quilt, quilted with Daisy Bounce. It's hard to see, but I used a light purple thread on the top and neutral on the back.

Hannah's quilt, quilted with Denali. I need to fully bind this quilt. Some of these fabrics are shimmery and it's so pretty.

Ben's quilt (his first!), quilted with Dunes. I fully bound this quilt. Can you see the hammerhead sharks in the upper right of the picture? He paper pieced those. Also, I brought in a photo of this quilt to one of my software programs. It has an alt-text auto feature that I can't figure out how to turn off. It identified those sharks as birds. 🤔 AI is stupid (and really bad for the environment).

Then yesterday, we finally had some really nice weather. I decided I'd go for a walk before lunch and then get back to work. I stepped out the door and saw a bald eagle flying behind my neighbors' house. It landed in the remaining tree line around the corner. I took a few pictures with my phone and then got caught by a neighbor for a lengthy chat. Sorry for the blur; I was zoomed all the way in with my phone. This is the second time I've seen an eagle in our neighborhood in 13+ years. 

I made a small amount of progress on my UFOs during January, but did not complete anything.

Linking with Ms. P's PHD Program

In January I finished sewing the last 10 "Cupcake Crossing Unit" blocks needed to complete Nancy's project. Nancy was a fellow guild member who passed last year. Many of us took home her fabrics and/or kits to complete. This project is Cupcake Crossing from the Sew Sampler box. The date on the pattern says 2018. The project is now ready to start assembling into a top. This is item #8 on my list.

I made progress on the Linda Hahn Beach Bumz class project that I started at IHQS last March. I completed all the "spire" pieces during January--that's the blue and white spiky blocks. I'm confused on how to piece the remaining four blocks, so it's stalled out. This is item #23 on my list. 

I also completed all remaining clues for the Magnificent Mystery during January. The assembly instructions should come out tomorrow. This is project #1 on my list.

I made a lot of progress on my knitted blanket, finishing January with just 11 rows left to knit. I easily finished those last few rows this month, so it is a finish for February. This is item #25 on my list and my first finish of the year. It's around 42" x 54". It probably could use some blocking, but I also probably won't do that. I used Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick and it's quite warm. I ended up with at least 1/2 skein left. I'm wondering about knitting a hat with it. It's been years since I last knit a hat (and those were baby hats).

Now that I've completed my knitting project, I need to decide on a different hand-stitching project. I have several cross stitch and an embroidery project, but I didn't put those on my PHD list. I could start the selvedge rug. 

I considered working on many of the things on my list, but did not actually do anything other than what's listed above. Truly, that was quite a bit of progress. But I always wish I did more. I should have a full day to myself this weekend. Will I spend it sewing? 

I've worked on a few quilts since last week. I ran into a snag--our house was really dry due to the furnace running a lot with the low 20s highs we'd been experiencing. My longarm manufacturer suggests a room humidity of 40% - 45% for machines with robotics to avoid issues with static buildup, thread, etc. My room and my house were at 28%. We bought a room humidifier for my sewing room. I haven't been able to get it above 40%, but it's a lot closer to the ideal range than it was. 

Anyway, here's what I worked on:

Kathy's quilt, quilted with Sugar and Spice.

Jae's quilt, quilted with Opal.

Haley's quilt, quilted with Moons and Stars. I am making her binding with three different fabrics she provided. The thread is pink.

Marsali's quilt, quilted with Textures. 

Toni's quilt, quilted with Pansies. This one has vintage handkerchiefs appliquéd to blocks. 

I thought these little birds were charming.

In other news, I wanted to take a moment to promote my cousin-by-marriage's pottery shop. Gavi is one of the finest human beings I know and she sells her creations in her Etsy shop, Pots Imperfect. We bought these mugs. She has bowls, little cake stands, and mugs right now. 

I've noticed we have a lot of deer tracks throughout our yard. These are all made by animals. 

They have been bedding down in our yard too. I've noticed spots under the deck stairs, this spot right next to my garage service door

and these spots in the front yard. 

We seem to have quite a herd roaming the neighborhood this year.

Friday we went down to the spillway/tailwater to look at birds. My son and husband had been there earlier in the week so that my son could complete his film photography homework. This time he took his personal digital camera with what I call his paparazzi lens. It was still really frigid outside, so we didn't stay outdoors long. We moved around to the other side of the tailwater where there is a park with a road that runs close to the creek and observed from the car. My son opened the car window and stuck his lens out. It was so peaceful. I really needed that. We saw loads of great blue herons, a juvenile bald eagle, and lots of hooded mergansers. It was fun to watch the ducks dive, come up with a fish, and then eat said fish. 

The following pictures were all taken with my phone.

heron, ducks

heron

eagle

so peaceful

duck on left between branches is eating

I finished reading Prince Harry's Spare. At the beginning of the book I felt like he was a lost little boy, desperately in need of counseling and more attention from his family. By the end, it was clear that he is totally besotted by his wife. He seems to do a lot of drugs and a lot of drinking. I'm not sure he's found his purpose yet other than as a husband and father. I guess I just feel pity for him.

I'm trying to decide what physical book to read next--I am constantly reading e-books, mostly those I'm able to get for free, and most often fiction. Anyway, I'm considering 1984 (I'm an English minor and somehow have never read this) that my son recommended, Coates' Between the World and Me, or Broom's The Yellow House. Those last two are in consideration simply because they were at the top of the stack of books I bought at the food pantry's used book sale. They are both National Book Award winners. 

Well, this has gotten much lengthier than I planned. I even deleted some. So, until next week, take care.

Linking with Quiltery, My Quilt Infatuation, and Alycia Quilts.