cool stitched stuff

Before I post more photos of more cars (yep, another car show this weekend), I thought I'd post some really cool needlework. Mostly not by me. This is my sister-in-law, wearing a sweater she knit over a lacy top she knit (her show-n-tell is mostly wearable) holding a sashiko pillow by our niece. three at once.This is a runner my sister made. I adore the bright colors.Here are a couple of close ups.My sister also made this cute veggie tales quilt.
On Friday night I made this mari. Step one for a temari ball. The center is shredded paper from my office shredder. In a knee-high nylon with a run. It's bigger than I intended but I made some choices I'll make differently next time. I began with black wool, then some thinner navy wool yarn. That was fine. I topped it with random thread--mostly in peaches and greens. Very pretty on the blue wool but, hmmm, when I went to wrap the white top layer, I began to see the error of my choices. I ended up using two spools of white thread for the top layer, just to cover up all of those dark colors. I've learned.

Now I need to decide what to do with my big fat mari. I spent some time browsing in my book thinking about what I like and why I like it.

Busy, busy

It always seems that when I'm busiest, I pick up a new project to do. This half doll and pattern were in the pile of things I tried to sell at June's guild sale and August's House of Stitches sale-- they didn't sell. Then I bought all that lovely perle cotton. And then I found a piece of linen in my stash that went with the colors of the doll.
And found I had a lovely little box to keep it all in. And away I went. Part of my problem had been that I didn't like the verse, so I charted a new one.
Each year Deep River County Park shares a pattern for a quilt square and then collects completed squares for a quilt they make. This year it's a bumble bee quilt square. Here are my fabrics, all washed, pressed and ready to be marked and cut out. I got the pieces cut out later on and they're in a baggie with a spool of thread, waiting for me to have some time and energy. If you want to make this square, below is the submission form for Deep River County Park in Indiana.The pattern page below should measure 8-1/2 x 11. If you go to print from here and it's not the correct size, e-mail me and I'll send you the .jpg directly.I also spent a lot of time working to get ready for upcoming shows. Last Saturday I went to the "Quilts from Grandma's Clothesline" show by Pieces 'n Patches quilt guild in Steger, IL. (I never made it down to the Renegade Crafts Fair.) The quilt show was lovely and in one of their shops I found a white Clover marking pen. It's amazing. You can see above the lovely fine white line it made as I traced acorns to teach needlework (backstitch) at our upcoming show.It's startling because the line starts our nearly clear and then gets whiter as it dries. The instructions say it comes out when washed or ironed. It's fine enough, though, that it's easily covered in stitching. I made the darker tracings with a fine brown Sharpie.I also began prepping materials for a class I'll teach at the Great Lakes Regional meeting on Oct. 2d. I cut more (endless) needlebook covers and wool-felt inserts.

Today (September 18) is our 34th Wedding Anniversary. We don't have plans now but do have tickets to see B.B. King in January at the Paramount in Aurora. I am sooo excited.

And my next post will be my 500th post! I'm trying to think of something fun to do to celebrate. If you have any ideas, let me know. Right now I'm blank (so there might be a lag before the next post while I wrack my brain!) . I sure do talk a lot.

Shopping

Last Thursday's day out was primarily about clearing things up and finishing old projects but...we did go shopping. I bought the Japanese Quilting Magazine (above) in the spring and keep thumbing through it. I just love the designs in it. I'd settled on the purse design below.This is the project I want to make. I decided that while I like it a lot. what I liked most was the textures and not so much the beige color scheme. So while we were at Tammy Tadd's on Thursday, I looked for texture first and then color. All of the little dots around the motifs are French knots, for even more texture.

This is what I came up with. It's much brighter in the photo than it seemed to me in the store. Hmmm. The larger piece in the back will be the main body of the purse. I haven't sorted out the rest yet. I did get the pattern enlarged and I copied the instructions to send to my niece hoping she can provide guidance.

Actually, the sewing looks pretty straight forward and I'm not too worried. I'll just need to think it through--things like doing the zipper in the top and do I want to add a solid base, feet, interfacing, etc. It's now on hold until after Christmas.