Clothes and Crafts

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Claiming blog via bloglovin

Am going to get into bloglovin for following blogs to read:

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5197911/?claim=p846remykfn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY!

Thanks to some wriggling from Christine (http://www.quiltmonstercloset.com/) I have a chance today to show you my Dresden's interpretation. Also thanks to Mdm Samm (http://www.sewwequilt.com//) for organizing this hop. There are more people on this hop, and check them out after you are done reading and looking thru my blog. Here is today's list:

January 31^th, 2013

Quilting Prolifically

Patchouli Moon Studio

Shepody Mountain Crafter

Clothes and Crafts
Cathy's Chatter

Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt

I did make something new for this hop, but I wanted to show you these pictures also. They are a couple of wallhangings that I did years ago, (still flimsies) that had Dresdens or grandmother's fans in them too. In a lot of the books that I looked thru, there was not always much of a difference between the two. Sometimes even the Dresden's were shown without the point that I put on my new one for this hop, and so I thought it would be interesting to show you these also.

My purple and green beginner's quilt.

The Grandmother's fan.

Woven interfacing in back to help with turning.

This is a sampler in yellow and accents of blue.

Close up of grandmother's fan.

In regards to this new blog hop, I have to tell you this story: I had a couple of other things on the go, and thought I would have enough time to do this block (It's really easy, right?!) in just a couple of days. Monday rolled around, and I was just finally starting to gather my material. All of this came from my stash, and I haven't even made a dent in it yet.....

Tuesday was supposed to have a couple hours in there to sew. Guess what? With all the stormy, rainy, snowy weather we've been having, one tree couldn't survive it any longer, and it made sure that it took some hydro wires with it..... Not funny!!!!! I was without power for quite a few hours, and after it came back on, I had things to do outside the house. Thus I emailed Christine, and she kindly let me change my date to today.

So Wednesday I spend a lot of time sewing (finally...) Here are some pictures of what I had up till that morning:

Some of the blues I pulled out for this

I really like blues, so I grabbed quite a few out of my stash. I paired it with pale yellow, not too contrasting sometimes, but I wanted the Dresden's to shine. And yes, I got carried away, and will be making a full quilt...

The cutting in progress

I did not have a ruler, and used a paper template from a book

The templates laid out on a strip of fabric.

All the blues: some already cut, others still waiting

I finally figured out that instead of cutting a strip that was 4" wide, and having a lot of waste, I was better off making the strip 5" wide, and reversing one of the templates! SO SMART!!!!!!

My original idea........

Guess what? Ideas don't always work... Here is my sketch of a layout, and a couple more pictures showing what really is happening:

The pencil sketch.

The blocks with the fans abutting.

Close up

GAPS.......:(

My layout will not really work. I will have big gaps inbetween blocks! When I am turning the blocks to make the snaky layout, it doesn't match up if I want to match the blues going in a line...... But I will figure something out in the near future when I will finish making this quilt. Here is another picture of something I thought would work:

Reversing them to make the slight curve.

This is actually bringing a different problem: It will not fit correctly on the yellow 12.5" block...... Some more math will need to be done to work it all out.

So here you have my story for this hop, and the pictures to show I've been busy. Sorry for some bad quality pictures in here, but I had to take them all in the evening. Hope you've enjoyed yourself, learned some, and loved reading my tale. Actually, there is more yet to the story: While happily sewing along, all of a sudden my embroidery machine jams up (Wheel just won't turn anymore), and if not for another machine right next to it, I would not even have been able to finish any of this on Wednesday either....... Something else that I will have to figure out once this hop is over....
But I'm happy to say that blogger let me upload pictures the normal way! Hooray for that!

Happy Hopping, and have fun reading more blogs!

Maria K

Oops....

I have to apologize for anybody coming to my blog today for not finding any dresdens. I was hoping to sew away on my blocks on Tue afternoon, and then take some pictures and publish it for Wed, but around 1 pm the power went out, and didn't come back till almost 3 pm. After which I had to leave the house to take one of my children to an appointment. Thus no sewing got done. I will have some pictures up for tomorrow, so stop by again then, and you will see what I've been working on then. Here is the schedule for today:

January 30^th, 2013

Charlotte H @ “that Other Blog”

Clothes and Crafts

It Seems to be Sew

Merry Gay in Stitches

Water Penny

Granny Good Stuff

Under the Presser Foot

More Stars in Comanche

Sew Me Something Good

The Day Before This Day

Farm Road

Livin' Blue Quilter

I Piece 2 Mary
Kwilty Pleasures
Espritpatch
Nutz4Redwork

Also thanks to Mdm Samm ( http://www.sewwequilt.com/) and Christine (http://www.quiltmonstercloset.com/) for organizing this hop. Hope you saw lots, and got inspired by others!

Happy reading and surfing, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Maria

Monday, January 14, 2013

Worthy words!

Hi,

Thanks for visiting my blog today. It is my turn to give you an idea how I've used the words that really affect me and mean a lot to me. Thanks to Linda ( http://buzzingandbumbling.blogspot.ca) and Mdm Samm ( http://www.sewwequilt.com) for organizing this blog hop. Once you're done reading mine, don't forget to visit all these people who have written about their words today:

Monday, January 14

Gracie Oliver Arts (Jeanie)

Clothes and Crafts (Maria K.)

Cherrys Prairie Primitives (Cherry E.)

Simple Sew (Shirley T.)

Woolie Mammoth (Anna B.)

RocknQuilts (Mary Ann)

Celynn's Sunflower Patch (Celynn)

A Quilting Sheep (Amy)

Sane and Crazy Quilting (Cathy L.)

Quiltsmiles (Jane E.)

Feathered Nest Studio(Jennet)

A couple of years ago, our children Sunday School organizer asked me to make some banners that had the words on them that they were going to study that year. She gave me the list of words, and had already printed them out using different alphabet fonds from the computer. My daughter and I copied them letter for letter onto fabric, ironed fusible web under all the letters, and then ironed them on big wall hangings. I sewed around each letter individually, and ended up trying out all kinds of different stitches throughout the piece.

Sunday School Wallhanging (1)

This first one was done on a piece of material 9 feet (Yes, 3 Meters) by 8 feet. In the beginning I was hesitant to use different colour thread on each word, and matched it quite well with the colour of the word. See the word Uniqueness? We are all unique, and no one is like us. First it was hard fitting all these words on, but eventually it all worked out. The words all had to do with a study per month of virtues of what we should strive to live for. I was really pleased with this one.

Then came the next year, and another set of virtues. And another wallhanging was requested. Here are a few pictures of that one:

Wallhanging # 2 (top)

Wallhanging # 2 (bottom)

The M from determination

This second one was 9 feet by 9 feet. I had to use quite a few long words in order to make this one, and a lot of the words used on the wallhanging needed my resourcefulness! Generosity was spread out to be generous, and gratitude was expressed once this one was done. I again used colour on colour, matching thread and letter colour, except for the word determination. The background is a fairly dark colour, and would I have used purple (the colour for determination) it would not have been visible. Thus I outlined in yellow. This gave me something to think about.

And when the third year came along, this is the result:

Top half of wallhanging # 3

Bottom half of wallhanging # 3

This one I really used my creativitiy. See how the words curve and are all over the place? It was done so deliberately. And I serviced our church by making this one, used individuality to make each word their own, and needed a lot of cooperation from my family in making this one come to pass. I was given the responsibility to make it on time, and I had to use a lot of discipline to finish it. Here are a couple more pictures, showcasing how each word got it's own indidvidual stitch: