Not much time to sew, but this has been on my mind

I have not had much time to sew lately, due to other time commitments. In between and around the edges of other things that demand my time, I have had quilting on my mind. Specifically improvisational. I did have a few minutes to spend in the studio and produced this purple one. Pretty symmetrical, I want to make another with the same fabrics off center and askew.

Not sure when I will get the time, but here's the symmetrical one for now.

Peace Dove bags

Here are the three peace dove grocery / tote bags all done and ready to go to the fund raiser at my church. The auction was last evening. They are now in the hands of their new owners, hopefully to provide helpful service and a gentle reminder of peace.

My first online fabric purchase

I saw some fabric with numbers on it while up north in February at the Ice House quilt shop. Despite encouragement to do so by my husband, I did not purchase any. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I should have. After all, my daughter in law is a math professor. What was I thinking? I did not have any luck locating this fabric at my local quilt shops or at the ones in Columbus, while we were visiting. So, I ordered 3 yards from fabric.com. I am not sure exactly what I will do with this, but it certainly has potential. Sarah suggested perhaps place mats, that's a start...

In order to get free shipping I found a couple of cute clown prints, and added a yard of each of those.

Included in the package was a sucker, with the words, "Go Sew" on it. A cute surprise, and very good advice. I really prefer to buy locally, but in a pinch this is a nice alternative.

The quilt and blanket chest are delivered

They loved the quilt! Here they are posing under it with their dog Sirius. The dog kinda blends in with the black and white. Perfect.

The reason I made this quilt was so they would have a special blanket to put in the blanket chest that my husband made for them. Here it is, isn't is gorgeous? His original design and wonderful craftsmanship.















I know this piece of furniture will be a cherished part of their home.





I did manage to get in some basic sewing during our visit. I mended 6 shirts for Andrew. A la this work.

We had a great weekend in Columbus, a wonderful visit with my son and his wife. It was warm and spring-like. I saw crocus blooming in their yard. yea!

Peace Doves

I am making three shopping bags to donate to an auction at my church. Last year I made three with peace symbols, so continuing the theme this year I am going with doves.





I used a template from Bella Dia's web site here.


I got to wondering how the dove became a symbol of peace and found this quote:

after world war II pablo picasso, was responsible for
the decisive use of the dove of peace : his lithograph
designed for the international peace congress in paris,
1949, features the white ancestor of a new family of
doves. since then, graphic artists have produced an
endless series of doves of peace in different shapes.

Here is his poster...

The trees with branches

My winter sunrise wall hanging is coming along. The trees now have branches. A lot of free motion sewing here. I like the tree on the right better than the ones on the left. I did those first and I think they have a few too many branches. I did get a little hill distortion between the first two of the trees. But, I figure this gives it dimension.

Next up, I want to quilt the snow section. I have a nice metallic white thread, but it kept breaking in the machine. I am going to try an embroidery needle before going any further.


Here is another picture I want to share. We have a 20 year old cat, she has kidney disease but is hanging in there. She is very thin, so when she curls up to sleep, she really wraps herself tightly to keep warm. Here is how she looked this afternoon. Doesn't she look kinda like a Q or a question mark?

super quick gift

Our two neighbor boys, Parker and Jamison, both had their adenoids removed this week. I thought a nice gift for them would be soft flannel pillow cases. Trucks for Parker and Pirate theme for Jamison. Both boys were pleased with gift, I hope cases gave some comfort as they recovered.

One yard of flannel, wash and dry to shrink and soften it up,
cut the edges to make it straight,
fold right sides together, one seam along the top, one along the side,
turn up the hem 1/2 inch on the edge and iron,
then turn up a 4 inch hem, sew that and you are done.