Sewing and quitting smoking

I quit smoking on November 18, the Great American Smokeout. While preparing to quit, I decided to make a quilt by hand. I've made them by hand before; in fact, I've made a Grandmother's Flower Garden three times - once for my daughter when she was two and once for my nephew's daughter. This one was made of denim and strawberry fabrics, and the blocks were outlined in red zig-zag stitching to make it extra strong. I also made one doll sized in Halloween fabrics. I use it for a seasonal decoration.

Now, I'm doing another one. It's my quit smoking quilt. The hexagons are 1.5" (as are the ones in my nephew's daughter's quilt) and each one is a different fabric to give it a truly scrappy look. I collected a 4" square from every fabric I have that is suitable (cotton or cotton blend). I also printed out hexagon graph paper to use for the English Piecing method which I use when constructing anything with hexagons. Sunshine Creations blog has a great tutorial on English Piecing to which you will be led if you click on the link! Mine is not quite as tidy, but the method is essentially the same. It's a great way to make small pieces into a larger project.

The good news for me is that I'm not smoking. I've spent a lot of time cutting paper hexagons (NOT with my good scissors) and fabric squares, and trimming the fabric before basting it onto the paper. (Google will lead you to tons of tutorials about Grandmother's Flower Garden designs, probably the most popular of the hexagon quilts.) Hand quilts like these or Cathedral Window are a great way to do a little here and a little there and make it last for a while.

Smoking is a nasty habit. It will be nice to have a beautiful reminder of what one can do instead of smoking. I believe this quilt will be a keeper.

TKR and not about sewing

I ran across a blog while I was researching rehab for total knee replacement, which I am slated for on December 14. Add that to the mayhem of quitting smoking, which I did on November 18 (The Great American Smokeout) and you have my life in a nutshell of late.

In the blog, there was the best animated gif I've ever seen; it defines me recently.

Oddly mesmerizing, I'd say.

As I prepare for the total knee replacement, not only have I quit smoking, I'm getting my house in order,  moving furniture to the "other" room and preparing for delivery of recliner furniture in my living room. I am thinking that I will be downstairs for a good part of the time, at least in the beginning.

The consensus on partial resolution of my research is that the operation is a piece of cake, the hospitalization is a breeze, but the rehab is a bitch. Good drugs at first weaned down to eh. And then they expect you to bend again! Lily have even said it hurts like hell, but if she can do it, so can I. Folks who have gone through it say it's worth it. That's what counts for me, that it's worth it.

And so we prepare. I will have a hand sewing project to do, I've ordered some paperback books, I have a television at the ready, and I can take my laptop outside if need be.

In the meantime, I tap my fingers.

Halloween!

It's Halloween again! I stopped by Sewing Mama's forum to check out costumes that folks are making for their kids and it took me a bit down memory lane. I was taken back to the days of sewing bones on a black sweat suit to make a skeleton costume, stitching apples on a green sweatshirt to make an apple tree costume, covering boxes and other accessories with fabric to sew a very complicated Darth Vader costume, making a leopard costume with hat and tail that doubled as pajamas over the next year, and so many more. We still have, though don't go through as often, a Halloween box in the attic that we'd get down mid-October for the kids to dig through. There are lab coats, cowboy hats, old costumes from years gone by, and a variety of dress up items for Halloween and other times. We had witches, hippies, cats, ghosts, vampires, and all ilk of creepy creatures in our house at one time or another. Fond memories indeed.

Halloween can almost always be addressed with what you have on hand. There's no need to go rent a fancy costume or spend hundreds on one with exactly all the right trimmings. Someone who can sew (or even use fabric glue!) can make a costume for Halloween or other times with old clothes, sheets, and who knows what else you have in your fabric stash. Be creative and work with your kids on something unique. Yeah, you might end up buying a hat or something to go with the suit, but your children will have fun dressing up before the holiday and after, and if you think ahead, you too can take out the Halloween box a while ahead of time and let them go a little nuts.

In most parts of the country, it gets cold shortly after Halloween and we have other holidays on our minds. Let Halloween be the end of the season and the welcoming back indoors that it always seems to be. Have fun. Go crazy. Laugh and smile. And by all means, treats, no tricks please.

September is National Sewing Month

Welcome to National Sewing Month. There's a contest afoot. It's not being run by us, but hey, we just might look into it. Click the picture to go to the site. 

Every month is sewing month for me. How about you?

How to sew and a free beginning sewing book on line.

I was going through some old notes I had printed off the internet related to sewing. In the folder, I found something I've been looking for! Can you believe it? I often print things to refer to later or to try a project or for ideas to expand upon. The thing I found was this - the URL to the free sewing book online brought to you by Craft and Fabric Links

If you're new to sewing, check it out. I'm often asked how to do this and that, and this instructional manual covers most anything you'd like to know. I still refer to my Reader's Digest and Singer sewing books (my old go-to sources; we all have them, right?), but between our sewing dictionary and this online book, you should be okay. For example, here's the table of contents/chapter list:

• Chapter One: Introduction To Sewing
• Chapter Two: Choosing Your Pattern and Fabric
• Chapter Three: Pattern Instructions
• Chapter Four: Getting Ready To Sew: Lay-out And Cutting
• Chapter Five: Setting Up Your Sewing Machine
• Chapter Six: Now We're Sewing: Terms & Techniques
• Chapter Seven: Pockets
• Chapter Eight: Zippers & Buttonholes
• Chapter Nine: Sleeve Installation
• Chapter Ten: Darts & Pleats
• Chart: Needle / Thread

Looking for someone to teach you to sew? The Home Sewing Association maintains a database of Trained Sewing Educators in your area.

Other options are your fabric stores, local 4-H resource people, church groups, local mentors and friends, and self-teaching by using patterns, the library, and the internet.

And if you have a chance, stop by your local library. In the nonfiction section, sewing books are in the 640 section (domestic arts), specifically the 646 section. Head for the children's department and browse through 646 for truly beginner projects. Don't laugh; that's one of the things I did to learn!

Enjoy sewing. Start small and aim high. There are no real rules, just methods. And even those are adjustable to your own talent and desire.

An incomplete photo album of some things I've made over the years.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dgapperson/ThingsIVeMadeSewingAndOtherArtsyFartsyStuffThroughTheYears #

There are a lot more photos on my hard drive - one of these days, I'll get the pictures up here! Some of these things were created along with a how-to written for the web site du jour for which I was working or owning. Others are things I've made on contract, just for fun, to try something new, for the local community theater, and on and on. The overwhelming thread that seems to bind is that I like to make things out of things that have already been made. Must track back to my former hippie wannabe days!

Binding a quilt - boring or inspiring?

Now there's a question for which I do not have an answer!

I'm completing a quilt my sister started before she died. It's a labor of love and it's at the point where I've had it for about three years now and it's just plain time to get it done. She started by doing individual blocks the size of a bandanna and hand quilted around everything that was on the bandanna (they're all different). Her stitches are small, uniform, and beautiful. Her stitching far outshines mine, but I followed the same pattern of making quilt blocks individually with a bandanna, hand stitching around the designs. Next came the sashing between the blocks, between the rows, and around the edges of the quilt. I did this wrong the first time and put the quilt away, unable to work on it another minute. I finally took it out of its container and used my trusty seam ripper to take off the sashing I had messed up. From there, I made short work of backing, batting, and sashing all edges that needed it. It's still not perfect, but it's done.

Then came the binding. I had cut and pieced 3" strips of the same fabric as the sashing. The method I use is to machine stitch the binding on one side of the quilt and then turn it, pin it, and hand stitch the other side. Unfortunately, I was stumped on the corners. My miters just didn't work out. I improvised. I cut off the point of each corner and rounded it just a bit so that I could go smoothly around rather than fight a miter. After the machine work, I indeed did turn the binding and pinned it to the back for hand stitching. I had a few flaws to cover and the width of 3" was perfect for that. I was able to make it appear as though all edges came together as they were supposed to with the application of the binding.

And now, for the past two weeks, I have been hand sewing the remainder of the binding. I have had short periods of time to sit and sew. Compounded with the fact that my hands just can't take the hand sewing for a length of time, the hand sewing is taking more time than I expected. I stitch and stitch and stitch and my mantra seems to be, "I want to get this derned thing done! NOW!" and then my other mantra sneaks in - "I don't want this to be done; I want to sew forever." I'm winding down a very intense project, filled with emotion, memories, farewells, time, skills, improvisation, frustration, correction of endless mistakes and flaws, and now finally, it's almost done. Amazing.

I probably have a few nights' worth of sewing left to do. I will then snip off errant threads and wipe off any dog hair the quilt has adopted, photograph all that I can, and finally, I'll find a box. It's going to be very difficult to pack it up and send it away. It could be one of the most difficult things I've ever done, giving it away. The truth is, though, it's not mine to give away. It wasn't mine to sew. It was Patsy's and I'm going to have to let it go.

Back to the original question - Binding a quilt - boring or inspiring? I'll let you decide, but do know that most of this was written in my head while I was sewing binding earlier this evening.