I Think I Can

Although I've committed to finishing my UFOs before starting anything new, I did grant an exception to new embroidery projects.

This is the sixth and latest page, finished last month, for my Juvenile Embroidery Book. 

 

Here it is with the inspiration fabric.

After I finished the block, I found "The Little Engine That Could" for sale at a library, so I bought it.  

I hadn't read this story since I was very young.  I reread it the other day and realized I only remembered 10% of it.   I didn't remember the moral tales in it, other than the importance of persistence and determination.   I don't want to spoil the story for you, in case you want to read it for yourself.  But there's even a section in there on "good things for boys and girls to eat" and it includes oranges, apples, milk, and spinach!

The reason it says "retold by Watty Piper" is because the story has been around in various forms since at least 1906.  Watty Piper is the pen name of Arnold Munk, owner of the publishing firm Platt & Munk.  This book, from Scholastic, is the 60th anniversary edition with the original text and artwork of Platt & Munk's classic version from 1930.

There's been a couple of movie versions.  I tried this one earlier this week and quit it after 1/2 hour.  To turn a 35-page picture book into a 82-minute movie, you have to add a lot to the plot.  It was so different from the book that I had to stop.  I didn't want my nice cozy book feeling getting usurped by false memories implanted from the movie.

Some of the juvenile embroidery blocks feel creepy to me.  I wasn't sure I wanted to sew them.

But on this page, I saw a clown, a bear, and toy soldiers that are all going to make some good kids happy.  They look like they're having fun.  Do I think I can embroider them now?  Yes, I think I can.

Pirate Toad

Look what we saw on our walk yesterday morning...

Isn't it cute?  It's a one-week old American Toad.  With that black patch on its eye, we named it Pirate Toad.   It's the length of your little fingernail.

Adult toads are usually nocturnal, but juveniles run around during the day.  We saw lots of them on the sidewalk, but this was the only pirate one.  Did you know that toads start out as tadpoles?  I didn't.

They eat crickets, worms, ants, spiders, slugs, and lots of other insects.  Pirate Toad wants to eat that bee.



 

Batik Sneak Peek

I've been hard at work finishing up my nine-design-composition batik quilt.  By the time I finish it, I'll come up with a better name.

I put some curves in.  Big mistake.  No going back now.

That large pink/orange/gold area is giving me headaches.  It's really baggy - don't know how I managed to do that!  I need to come up with a solution and it's not going to be pretty. 

At least the colors are all coming together nicely.

Shed a Little Light

Lately I've been frustrated about insufficient light when sewing.  My sewing room isn't a problem - it has plenty of light.  But the area around my sewing machine needle was less than satisfactory.  Last week I decided to do something about it and boy, am I ever happy.

There's lots of lighting solutions, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.   This is my new light and here's why I love it:

• Good design:  The amount of light it emits is great.  And the two flexible arms let you aim the light exactly where you need it.  The light clips to the machine, not the table, so it stays out of the way of the quilts.

• Cool bulbs:  The bulbs are LED (cool to the touch), not halogen (really hot).  Ten years ago I melted the control part of this sewing machine (where the turquoise buttons are) when it came into extended contact with the shade of an elbow lamp that was clipped to the table.  That was really bad.  I can't do that again because they no longer have a machine to cannibalize for parts.

• Portable:  The light is removable so you can put the cover on your sewing machine.  I specifically wanted a light that didn't involve gluing something to my machine.  What if the glued-on light breaks someday, and then you're left with a mess.

• Multi-purpose:  When not clipped to the machine, it can also be used as a  standing lamp (see cover of box below).   

•  Power source:  It's electrical, not battery.  LED lights can run a battery down fast, so I don't have to worry about that.  Plus, the nearly 10' long cord makes it easy to reach an outlet.

Lights off.

Lights on.

The lamp is from B & H.  I'm going to go quilt now.

From the Vault - Hummingbird Quilt

Last week when I showed you some Project Linus quilts, one of them had some bird fabric with a white background.  I mentioned I made an entire quilt out of that fabric, and today we're going to take a look at it.

It's 53" x 64".  I don't remember if it's from a pattern or a magazine, but I do know I made it two years ago.

This is a crop of the back so you can see the focus fabric.  I used several other prints from the same collection.

The main block is a nine patch.  Here you can see one of the coordinating fabrics in the blue rectangles.

This is why I call it Hummingbird Quilt.

Another nine patch.

This is the sashing.  It looks complicated, but it's not.  The blue rectangles and the two-inch squares to the right and left of them are from the nine patch.  The mottled green square is something I pieced to strips of a coordinating stripe.  This green square is where the horizontal and vertical striped fabric meets.  If you go back and look at the whole quilt (first photograph), you can see it pretty clearly.

The outer border is the focus fabric.  Inner blue border was from my stash.  And the pieced border to the left is the inner, inner border, I guess you would call it.

The back.  The bright strip at the top is the sleeve.  The block in the middle is the label.

Very simple, straight line quilting, because I hate to quilt.

Thursday is Purse Day - Hummingbird Purse

I made Hummingbird Purse in 2007.  It's 13" long with the handle, 8" without the handle, and 5" wide.  The inspiration was Laurel Burch's hummingbird fabric.

The top is knit out of eyelash yarn.  I fussy cut a hummingbird after fusing two layers of fabric together.  I satin stitched around the edges, then glued eyelash yarn over it.  I sewed metallic beads on the beak, added one for the eye, then attached the bird to the purse with a few more beads.

The bottom front has lots of dangly bead tassels, with a variety of bead types. 

Some of the same beads made it into the handle.

The back gives you a good view of the knitted top with two horizontal bands of beading.  There's a fabric lining inside the yarn top.  I used that to sew the feathers to the top, one at a time.  That was the hardest part of making the purse.

This is the label that lives inside the purse.