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...and the crafting I get done in between all the activity of three very busy boys.
A most wonderful Nom - from a little dear pattern
Ravelry and knitting blogs led to craft sewing, led to embroidery, led to modern softies, led to paper crafting, led to.....
I used an Urban Threads design on this super cute t-shirt for my nephew. My husband lucked out and caught that huge drool - perfect for 'Where's me Grog?'!
This is a viking design I made from a picture a friend sent me. Sorry I don't know it's origin, but I thought it was so cool and translated it to an embroidery for Becket's shirt. Of course, he now refuses to wear it (what is up with that?!) So I may try to put some stabilizer on it and use it in a future quilt or pillow for myself.
When it is cold and dreary next winter, I think this is be a fun quilt to warm-up under.
I washed that quilt with the Neptune coin quilt and did have a minor issue. I didn't pre-wash the linen and probably should have. While working with it, the 100% linen was so slippery and tended to unravel. That a led to square-ness issues overall and some edges that were less than 1/4" under the binding seam. This little section pulled out during the wash.
I ended up tucking it against the binding, then machine stitching a tight, narrow zig-zag along that area. You can hardly see the repair on either front or back - it blended into the texture of the linen. Hopefully I have stopped the pulling and fraying.
As a side note, the quilt went from 51x64 before washing to 49x62.5 All linen will be pre-washed going forward.
And just for fun, here are a few whirlygiggle blocks. I'm addicted and will share some more of this picnic quilt next week. We're off to grill and watch Caleb march in the parade.
Have a great weekend!
Yesterday we were out from 8am until 8pm planting and moving stuff. I started counting it up, and stopped at 100 things: perennials, shrubs, grasses, and a few annual pots.
I still have to do the vegetable garden, and add some irrigation.
But first I'll take a break and make some more 2.5" squares for my nine patch blocks before I'm too far behind!
(tossed in 3 yards of Bijoux - on sale, already paying for shipping and all)
Lame, shifty squares. I pin, follow the presser foot, try to rotary cut perfectly - nothing seems to help 100% of the time if I have to match up more than one seam across. But see how nice and smooth those seams are? So I tried a couple of blocks pressing the seams to one side or the other, then nested them.
Ooohh, pretty corner. But look at that huge cliff on top of the orange dots!
That awesome dotty fabric was sent to me by my new internet-friend, Chen. Happy, Fun mail!
I did a few more pressing to the side and all ended up nicely aligned, but lumpy. Sitting back and thinking on which thing would annoy me less, as well as what would show less once quilted.
I decided to go with side pressing - but opening up the final seam, since they are all going to be sashed and not directly joined. As I go along with more experience, I may change my mind, but this seams (couldn't resist the pun) best for now.
And also, thanks for all the nice comments about my finally-hung quilt! I think I may make a few specifically for hanging. They make the wall look so happy.
I also tossed in some cute Heather Ross fish to add to the fun!
I was going to do a block with the solid pink and Mendocino mermaids, but I didn't think the scale was going to work.
I finally hung my first quilt, and I'm so happy with how it looks on the wall. I was motivated to do it one morning, and it was just me and the 3 yr old. I had him take a picture while I held it on the wall so I could decided on placement. That actually worked out really well. I only had to mount the holders to the wall once!
And got some better pictures than I did, I think!
While downloading, I found one of me setting up the pencil shot - not long before he has his own blog!