About me

I'm an aging former hippie wannabe located in Williamsburg, VA, USA. I welcome you. Together and on our own, we can manage this disease and live long, healthy lives.

The Patsy Quilt, Part 3

Here's the quilt - including the block in the lower right hand corner with Patsy's name embroidered on it. I did encircle the signature with ribbon to reinforce the hand embroidery. It's hanging on the line now, and when it dries, I'll shake it out, package it up, and send it on its way to my grandnephew.  I think I'm as proud of this as any quilt I've made thus far.

 

 

It's done - The Patsy Quilt, Part 2

The quilt for my nephew's baby is done. I took the last hand stitches tonight as I completed attaching the gingham binding. The back is fleece; the front is primarily made of fabric recycled from a quilt my sister, Patsy, my grandnephew's grand mother, had made in 1977. I shared some of the story of the quilt in this blog post.
When Brian, my nephew, married Joanna, there was a single rose on the altar at the church. It was there in honor of his mother, my sister. At the reception, Joanna had placed a photograph of Patsy on the grand piano in the room. She wasn't there in person, but they thought of her and had her at both the wedding and the reception, and it sure meant a lot to my side of the family to see these tokens of remembrance.
My sister is a big part of why I sew. She could make the most elegant things out of the most simple of materials. She could make anything. She embroidered the most beautiful items. For a time, she would take a simple chambray shirt and embroider the yoke en toto, usually adding something to the front pocket. Those shirts were amazing. I had one, but who knows what happened to it. I didn't realize the work of art I owned until it was gone. She could draw simply anything. It was amazing. I wanted to be able to do the things she did. I learned to embroider from books and never came close to the quality of her work, but I was very proud of it. I saw some of her early quilts and knew they were made of things she already had. I started saving every bit of fabric I could to make a quilt someday. I've since made plenty, but they started with a big paper bag in which I collected bits of this and that. She used to joke that she was the "Maxwell Housewife."
Later in her life, she didn't sew much. I always wished she would - she was so good at it!
I'll post a picture of the completed quilt soon. It needs to be washed on the gentle cycle and hung in the sun to dry. I think it's beautiful. I know it's beautiful. It's a work of Patsy's art combined with my desire to give my grandnephew a little something to grow old with. We miss my sister. She was something else.

The Patsy Quilt, Part 3

Here's the quilt - including the block in the lower right hand corner with Patsy's name embroidered on it. I did encircle the signature with ribbon to reinforce the hand embroidery. It's hanging on the line now, and when it dries, I'll shake it out, package it up, and send it on its way to my grandnephew.  I think I'm as proud of this as any quilt I've made thus far.

It's done - The Patsy Quilt, Part 2

The quilt for my nephew's baby is done. I took the last hand stitches tonight as I completed attaching the gingham binding. The back is fleece; the front is primarily made of fabric recycled from a quilt my sister, Patsy, my grandnephew's grand mother, had made in 1977. I shared some of the story of the quilt in this blog post.
When Brian, my nephew, married Joanna, there was a single rose on the altar at the church. It was there in honor of his mother, my sister. At the reception, Joanna had placed a photograph of Patsy on the grand piano in the room. She wasn't there in person, but they thought of her and had her at both the wedding and the reception, and it sure meant a lot to my side of the family to see these tokens of remembrance.
My sister is a big part of why I sew. She could make the most elegant things out of the most simple of materials. She could make anything. She embroidered the most beautiful items. For a time, she would take a simple chambray shirt and embroider the yoke en toto, usually adding something to the front pocket. Those shirts were amazing. I had one, but who knows what happened to it. I didn't realize the work of art I owned until it was gone. She could draw simply anything. It was amazing. I wanted to be able to do the things she did. I learned to embroider from books and never came close to the quality of her work, but I was very proud of it. I saw some of her early quilts and knew they were made of things she already had. I started saving every bit of fabric I could to make a quilt someday. I've since made plenty, but they started with a big paper bag in which I collected bits of this and that. She used to joke that she was the "Maxwell Housewife."
Later in her life, she didn't sew much. I always wished she would - she was so good at it!
I'll post a picture of the completed quilt soon. It needs to be washed on the gentle cycle and hung in the sun to dry. I think it's beautiful. I know it's beautiful. It's a work of Patsy's art combined with my desire to give my grandnephew a little something to grow old with. We miss my sister. She was something else.

Buzzing around the sewing machine

Today is my twins' 24th birthday. Twenty-four years ago, I gave birth to a very small girl and a tiny boy, and after a few years of health issues, developmental testing and treatment, and on and on too numerous to express in just a few sentences, they've grown into lovely 24-year-old adults. The girl is always easy to gift. She has 1000 things in mind. The boy, not so easy. But! Every time I ask him what he wants for this occasion or that, the response is always the same - "A jar of bees."
Why a jar of bees? I don't really know, but it's just the stock answer!
I picked up some bee fabric a couple years ago, intending to make something bee-like for him and just never got around to it. Today, I was sitting at the sewing machine working on pot holders for an upcoming sale and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the bee fabric. I stopped what I was doing, cut some squares of denim and some strips of the bee fabric and made a pillow top. I cut a simple jar shape out of the bee fabric, neck of the jar from some white, and snipped a piece of double fold black bias tape for the jar top. Two hours later, I have a stuffed "Jar of Bees" pillow!
I attached a note saying, "Dear Tom, Here's something I know you've always wanted - your very own jar of bees. Happy Birthday! Love, Mom." Then, I put the pillow on his laptop, where I know he'll find it.
Breaking it down, the bee fabric cost about $2 a few years ago, the denim is recycled, the white is recycled, and the black bias tape was something I already had. I zig-zagged over all raw edges and used polyfil I already had. So, really, the cost of his pillow was about $2 plus a hefty dose of love. Frugal birthday giving with a heart.
I love to make simple things that may mean something to the recipient. I hope he gets the humor in the pillow and gets a smile on his face. It doesn't cost a lot to make a person happy. So, keep your ears open and listen for little things that those you love want or like. Then get that sewing machine humming and put it together. Recycle something you already have or make it out of alternative fabrics and threads that you can throw together with your imagination.
Frugal sewing definitely doesn't have to be dull and this pillow was as easy as it comes. No pattern. Low cost. Done.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM AND ALLISON!

The bags

I didn't take photos of them, but boy oh boy, did I sew them. I made 66 (I think 66?) bags for a project at Child Development Resources. They were given out this week to parents and in the bags, they put activity notebooks, books, and supplies to make a lot of the activities. It was the comments surrounding the bags that were interesting. But first, how they were made.
I cut pieces of about 18" square, leftover cotton and cotton blends, decorated one side of some of them, and put them right side together, taking seams on three sides, serging the side and bottom seams for strength. Some of them were 18 x 36, so I needed only to fold them and sew the side seams. I then hemmed the top. I made handles out of the same or coordinating fabrics by cutting a 2" strip, folding it and then folding it on itself, cutting them into 10" lengths, and placing them 4" apart in the center of the top of the bag, one on each side. I reinforced the seams and voila, a bag. Simple, right?
I can't tell you how many people were impressed with them. It never dawned on me that people who don't sew would be dazzled by a simple bag. It truly was not hard to make! Those of us who sew don't see the magic that those who do not sew see. The people receiving these bags saw them as something I could sell. I know better; they're simple bags without even a boxed bottom. They saw them as something creative. I know better; they're simple bags without any special design work. I could make them in my sleep. They saw them as something special. I know better; they're just bags.
Or do I know better? Maybe they are something impressive, special, creative and I don't think about that anymore? I do know one thing - I saw them, all the bags - as something more than they were when I was making them. When I was making them, they were just one more thing to make my machine hum and give me a feeling of almost Zen-like proportions.
Maybe there is magic in that needle and thread.