Take It Further -February-Blowin' in the Wind

Despite having an extra day, I wasn't able to complete my TIF til today. I orginally had thought I would do something with old board games but while cleaning up my sewing room, I came across a picture of my Nana from the sixties. Here she is dressed for church and what is she standing next to???... a clothesline. This started my wheels turning. I remember well her old wringer washing machine and hanging clothes at her house. As a kid (and being the oldest), I also hung my share of clothes. We didn't get a dryer til I was in junior high. I actually looked at my sketchbook and there were three sketches about laundry and song titles. I may continue with the series later in the spring.

Anyway, I call this "Blowin' in the Wind", a nod to Bob Dylan and laundry and a simpler time.

In addition, in my quest towards being "greener" in my life and my quilting, I have recycled some materials. I made the clouds from a used dryer sheet. (I save them to use as foundations for string blocks.) The sheets and the laundry in the basket are made from a handiwipe (rinsed and dried) and the basket is cut from an old summer purse.

Sharon B's challenge is really helping me to take my quilting further. Now what to do about March??!?

January recap and TIF challenge for February

Well, February is here which means winter is in full swing. Bah! Anywho, I'll keep my mind off of the weather by quilting. Before heading into February, I thought I would recap my doings in January and see if I am actually keeping with my resolutions.



January -


1. Completed the TIF challenge with my lilies and fabric vase

2. Made my Fairy Postcards ( by the skin of my teeth, LOL)

3. Worked on two UFOs (homespun lap quilt and Thangles blocks) almost to the point of completion

4. Read one book and I'm 3/4 of the way through another

5. Have really tried to use only items in my stash before buying new stuff. It's amazing (and scary at the same time YIKES!) what I have pulled out of that closet.

I have done quilty stuff on my blog at least once a week, I've definitely tried new things with the felted flowers and the fabric vase. The only thing I think I've missed is Keeping Christmas all through the Year. Just didn't have the time! So for February, I will try to get to a Christmas project.

There now my housekeeping is done~

Now, as part of the TIF challenge, we are supposed to track our progress on our blog. For February, the color scheme did nothing for me but the concept theme is interesting.

What do you remember?

Sharon B. talked about things that she remembered as a child that are either obsolete or have changed dramatically. I started pondering this and thought about how we played as children of the 60's and 7o's. I thought about playing jumprope (double-dutch and chinese jumprope) and hopscotch, and dodge ball. Then I thought about the great board games we had. I remember every Christmas there was one game that you just had to have, like Hands Down, Go to the Head of the Class, Mousetrap, Ants in the Pants, Sorry, Trouble, Don't break the Ice, and of course Twister! Kids "now a days" don't know how to play board games, everything is video or TV oriented. It's kind of sad :( Anyway, I think that my piece will be a quilt about the size of a board game which reflects those games. I'm still twirling it around in my head but images are forming.

Take it Further Challenge- January- Revealed

Well, here is my TIF challenge completed one whole week early!! Yahoo! I really enjoyed this and want to share some of my thought process. The lilies I showed you last week and those were pretty easy to make. The vase was my own design. I had originally thought about using Lutrador for the base with wool roving but found the roving to be too flat looking. Then I realized that I could use any type of fabric I wanted. As a quilter, I tend to think cottons or wool. This is done with shatung ( I think I'm spelling that right) spray basted over the lutrador. It was still not as sturdy as I wanted so I added a layer of fusible fleece to it. I then started free motion quilting it with all the threads I had in the January color theme. I actually used a decorative stitch from my machine but lowered the feed dogs and just went up and down over and over and over. I added the purple edging on the top and bottom and then I had to figure out how to make the cylinder and add a bottom. This is a close up of the stitching. The color in my photo is a little off as it looks silver here but the fabric is really that minty green color from the challenge.

Since I knew that water was never going in it, I used a circular piece of rug canvas for the bottom and hand stitched it in place. I added my floral marbles to hold the lilies in place. I am really happy with it and it is in it's new home, my guest bath.

I am headed out of town to our annual quilt retreat in Rhode Island with 14 other gals from my guild early tomorrow morning. I have lots of unfinished projects packed and hope to get at least 4 of them completed this weekend. Most of them are adding borders. In addition, I packed lots of strips and scraps to work on Heartstring blocks. Won't be back til late Sunday so everyone have a terrific weekend.