Post # 25: Still all talked out. Craft life still nuts...that's a wonderful thing!

Some miscellaneous photos, 

some of my UFO's, 

some finished projects.

Please enjoy your day.

I've already decided to enjoy mine. 

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post # 19: Fido's Ill-Fitting Furry Sweater and a Lumpy Bumpy Quilt

    
Sometimes it's good to be a hoarder. Really. Not the reality TV, over-the-top, jaw-dropping, eye-popping, gross-you-out sort of hoarding, not that kind, oh no! What I refer to instead is the good kind of hoarding, the kind where you have something you know you don't need, can't use, it simply doesn't work, yet for some unknown reason, you do not get rid of it, whatever the thing might happen to be.Then somehow, sometime later, it turns out there was a good reason to keep the item after all...a happy ending of sorts. That's what happened with these two things I made for our dog, Fido, a long time ago.

     When I first started knitting I went online and found this dog sweater pattern because Fido needed a new sweater. I chose this particular pattern because it seemed like the easiest and that was the scale by which I measured which project I should attempt, I was so new to knitting. It is a Lion Brand pattern and you can find it here: http://lionbrand.com/patterns/kff-dogSweater.html
This is the photo they provide, which shows up very nicely. It's a bit easier to see than in my photos with the black-on-black (not to mention my slow-to-improve photography skills). I used the Lion Brand Fun Fur and other Lion Brand yarn recommended in the pattern.

I have been unable to locate a picture of Fido in that darn sweater. It was huge on her. All I can tell you is she looked like a sad, soft, procupine or an overgrown hedgehog. Here's a picture of Fido in another outfit just to remind you of her sweet face. If I come across a pic of her in that sweater later I'll post it. That was one good dog. I surely do miss her.

Now, Fido was a much better model for the camera than Alice, but what do want for nothin' - your money back? It's almost as though she has stage fright, it's funny. I dug the sweater out of Fido's dog box, tried it on Alice, and it fit like it was custom-made for her. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of it. One time about a year ago I actually almost turned it into a purse, but then some life event came along or some other project or distraction, and it got stuck back in the dog box for, hmmmm, let me see, 5 or 6 more years.

 Alice seems to be saying, "Come on, mom, just take the picture already." What the pictures don't show is how excited she gets when I begin to put a sweater or a new collar on her. She really acts like she loves to wear the stuff, but she just isn't very cooperative about posing.

     The flannel "biscuit" quilt that I made especially for Fido was also a dud of a gift for her. I made it in a class and it took a lot of time and effort. It was one of those pain in the a-- type projects that you really like at the time but swear you'll never do another one when it is finished.

      Each little puffed up biscuit is stuffed individually and when it was new it was pretty lumpy and bumpy, much more so than it is now. Fido, who was nicknamed Queen of the Pillows, refused to lay on it, and she would normally lay on anything that had a little bit of cushion to it. I guess it was just a little too lumpy for her missy prissy ways. Kind of like the princess and the pea.

      Over the last ten years it has spent time as a bath mat, a bedside rug, and mostly as a decoration inside a box inside my closet. During my winter fibernation and cleaning out of the cobwebs from my craft supplies and my mind, I came across it and draped it across this ottoman. Alice has adopted it as her morning sunning blanket. Yes, I do believe...sometimes...it's okay to be a hoarder.

Finding peace in creativity,

Meryl

Post #12: Tiny Companion Quilt

 

The e-mail address shown on the quilt is no longer valid.
 

     In Post #5 I presented a Trapunto quilt of a motor home that I created to hang in dear hubby's office at his job. At about the same time I also made a very simple line drawing of him, which I scanned into my computer, and then printed on a transfer sheet. I then ironed this onto cotton fabric and proceeded to quilt and bind it as a miniature quilt. It is only about 2-1/2" wide. On the quilt I included a phrase that he says to his customers all of the time and at the bottom is his old e-mail address.
     I'm sure you may notice that I do not always pay attention to how square and perfect my corners are. I'm usually more focused on the enjoyment of the process and that's just fine with me!
     The 2 little quilts are still hanging in his office today.



This is the line drawing, done the year we got married.
He no longer has the mustache nor the round glasses.

This is the coordinating quilt from Post #5.

Finding peace in creativity,

 

Meryl





 



Post #10: Dogs & Flannel Ragg Quilts

 

     This is the very first Ragg Quilt I ever made. Many years ago I took a mystery quilt class taught by Anthony Jones at the Bernina Sewing Center in Tampa and it was fun and easy to do. Anyone, even people who have no sewing experience can successfully complete a Ragg Quilt. Mystery classes are fun because you are told what supplies to bring to class, but do not know what project you are making until the project reveals itself as you complete it.

     When I took this picture recently, Alice, our miniature pinscher, had taken it over (or should I say under)? Yes, she is under there somewhere. Only three of us live in this house: Alice, dear hubby, and me, and at any given time there are at least three flannel Ragg Quilts on the sofa; yet, for some reason, dear hubby and I cannot always get a hold of them for ourselves. I leave it up to you to figure out why. 

 

     While we were living in Tennessee I made a Ragg Quilt for our friends up there. Now most of the time these quilts have all of the fringe on one side of the quilt, which leaves the back of the quilt smooth, but that makes it difficult to cut the fringe, as you are hand cutting through four layers of flannel all at once. I had seen an epispode of a TV show on PBS, I think it was "Sewing with Nancy", where the pieces were put together overlapping in a different way, and the effect was to have half of the fringe on the front of the quilt and half of it on the back. This made it much easier to cut the fringe, having to cut through only two layers at a time, but I did have to cut through the entire quilt twice, front and back. I really liked the result.

     Here is the completed project: I used different, but similar colors on the front and back, and you can see that both sides have the fringe. The dog that you see in the 2nd photo was Fido, our prior miniature pinscher. As I recall, after many attempts to get her to stay off the quilt and out of the picture, I finally gave up.

 

 

I made a label for the quilt using my embroidery machine: 

 

     My friend Joyce sent me some flannel fabric while I was in Tennessee which included the vegetable fabric and some of the others you see in the quilt below. I added a few more fabrics and voila: another Ragg Quilt. They are the absolute best for lying on the sofa and snuggling under while reading or watching TV. The more they are washed the softer they are and the fuzzier the fringe becomes.
     One day I threw this quilt up on the sofa and it landed pretty neatly. Alice decided to climb under there and since then we always have to have one set up in tent-like fashion for her. If we don't, she has a fit and digs around looking for a way to get under! Here is a video: [iPad users, please note: if the video doesn't show up for you, then please view this on your computer - sorry for any inconvenience, I couldn't get it to come up on my iPad either.]

 

 

Finding peace in creativity,

 

Meryl

Post #6 Additional photos of Joyce's Birthday Bouquet

     I have located some more photos of Joyce's Birthday Bouquet (see Post #2), which show a little more detail, so I thought I would post them here now. Here is the quilt as I was still developing the flowers. Some of the flower centers are stuffed with batting.

These next photos show more detail of the applique and texture of the quilting design:      
     I am one of those people who does not like to pre-wash my quilting fabric before starting on a project. I do this mainly for two reasons:
1) I am lazy and simply don't wish to be bothered with all that extra washing and ironing. I know there are quilters out there who don't agree with that, and that is fine, for anyone can make their own projects any way they wish. I take pride in taking the lazy route sometimes.
2) I really like the stitch definition that shows up when a quilt made from unwashed fabric and batting is then machine washed and sometimes even machine dried after it is completed. The front and back fabric do not necessarily shrink up at the same rate as the batting and it can be quite unpredictable. I like all of the bumpy texture that shows off the quilting design. It lends a lot of character to the quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

Another detail that I like to add to a quilt project is a personalized label. This can be as simple as a signature written with a permanent marker, or something more elaborate, like the one I made on my embroidery machine and then hand-sewed to the back of this quilt:

 

 

I started working on this quilt while living in Tampa in early 2004, but later that year we moved to Tennessee (We only stayed a couple of years...missed Florida too much). Getting a project like this done within 2 years is a huge accomplishment for me, especially when you consider I made an out-of-state move during that time. I'm actually sitting here on the couch with my laptop, and if I look to my right, I can see another quilt, already pieced, layered and pin-basted with batting and backing, waiting to be quilted...and I finished the piecing on that one back in 2003. Procrastinators of the world, take heart...there's really no pressure...just do what seems best...do what makes you happy. There are no rules.

 

 

Peace in creativity,

 

Meryl