Final Post for 2020!

 It seems appropriate to have a weird ending to a weird year. I couldn't sleep last night. Had to turn the light back on to record all the ideas I suddenly had for the various projects and potential projects on my books. That's happened on occasion before but it's still an unusual event in my life. 😊

I'm not one for specific goals or resolutions, New Year's or otherwise. However, with the influx of more size 12 perle cotton threads for hand embroidery I've been forced to consider some reorganization of my studio space. Last year - or was it even earlier than that?! - I bought two little plastic units with three drawers each in which to store the hand dyed flosses I'd been buying at the time. I stopped delivery of the floss when the drawers became too full to close easily and have just lived with the situation since. 

Now that I'm using the perle cottons more frequently (almost exclusively in fact) they are the threads I want to have closer to hand. As much as I'd love to browse the local home improvement and craft stores to see what's available that's out of the question. I looked around online but ended up at Amazon.com again. I bought a pair of plastic boxes that stack and click together, thinking I would use them for the perle cottons. As it turns out, the boxes are a better size for the skeins of floss and the drawers almost perfect for the balls of perle cotton! 

But only two boxes aren't enough for all the floss I have. So now I'm waiting for another delivery, slowed down by the holiday of course. 

One of the other ideas that came to me late last night had to do with my collection of 6" scrappy Barn Door blocks. I worked out a very basic layout for the sole purpose of decreasing their numbers.

I haven't taken the time to actually count them. I seem to remember there were over 200 the last time I did that but I could easily be wrong. (I just counted them. 264, plus or minus two!) That bin they're in is six inches deep. If I can use many of them up I might be able to repurpose that bin for something else! It's going to be musical storage containers around here for a while.

My very simple plan is to sash the blocks for a straightforward grid layout. I did some math last night to determine how much yardage I might need to float the blocks on a single background fabric. I have rummaged through my biggest pieces of fabric and come up with a paisley that was given to me specifically to be used in donation quilts.

The sashes will only be 1.5" finished so I think this tight print will work. It feels good to be enthusiastic about a quilt project again. Progress may be slow in the beginning but at least I've got something in the works. Needlework has been the focus of my efforts of late with the little 12 Pages book and gifts for the grands. I have no intention of setting needlework aside but I'd like to be able to get back to quilt making too. 😏

And while I have your attention, let me wish you and yours a 2021 that is much happier and healthier than the year we've just concluded!  🎉🎊

Stitch Along in March

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't bring myself to work on the Hobbit caravan since teasing you with it during our last check-in.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I did finish using that strand of yellow to reinforce the outline of what will be the front door of the trailer. But no more, even though I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do. In my defense, we had a new sliding glass door installed this week. I think the fumes from the sealant affected me more than we expected it to. Plus there were recovery times from the  shopping I did for upholstery fabric (see previous post).

While I wasn't able to face the Hobbit travel trailer I did manage to do some other stitching. Specifically, I started a new set of pillowcases and embroidered a bit more on the set I already had in progress. This is the new set:

And here's one of the pair I've had on the go for a couple of months now.

I'm not convinced my treatment of the center of the daisy was the best choice but I'm not about to take it out, at least not yet. I did buttonhole stitch in the centers of the flowers in the newer pillowcase and quite like the way they look. The middle of the daisy is significantly larger however, so I was reluctant to use buttonhole there. I may yet remove the threads I've laid and replace them. The buttonhole stitches on some of the leaves were my own idea too. I enjoy tweaking mass produced designs to make them my own. 😊

I've also spent time and energy looking for a better way to keep my embroidery projects clean and organized. I seem to be perfectly comfortable with storing patchwork blocks in various plastic bags but when it came to the growing number of embroidery projects I found I wanted something more substantial for them. (I'm beginning to think I suffer from Stitcher's ADD more than I ever have the quilter's version!) So far this is what I've come up with:

The tool box in the foreground is not ideal but it's acceptable. I ordered it online with another set of plastic boxes that stack and snap together. They turned out to be too small for my purposes. Currently the tool box holds my various sampler projects. The other two boxes each contain one set of pillowcases in progress. I found those at Office Depot here in town. The pillowcases have to be folded up pretty small to fit but they do fit, and since they will be laundered when they're finished I figure any creases will relax then. They are poly-cotton blends so they shouldn't hang onto creases or wrinkles the way pure cotton would anyway.

I have a couple of other, larger, plastic boxes or totes for bulkier projects and raw materials (blank dish towels and the like). My hand-dyed flosses are currently in a lovely scrapbooking box with a carry handle. It's big enough to hold 12" quilt blocks should I ever decide to move the floss out. I found a way to keep the various transfer patterns all in one place too. I may not be a neat freak but I do like to have things organized! 😉

In case you haven't been around to see what all the other stitchers in this group are working on (I think I'm the last in the world-wide time zones) you can click on their names below and be taken to their blogs. I promise you some great eye candy and maybe even a little inspiration!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina,

Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Mary Margaret,

Heidi, Connie, Jackie, Sunny

Scrap Happy in January

I wasn't sure I would have anything to share for this first Scrap Happy Day of the new year. I've already shown you the first of the string blocks I made for the current block drive for Covered in Love. 

I made another set of four since then:

Do you think there's a noticeable difference in the number of strips and strings I have laying about? Yeah, I didn't think so. 😉 Regular readers know better than that. It seems no matter how many scraps you use, there are still more than you began with somehow.

To make matters worse, when I pruned these blocks to the required size (10.5") there were some trimmings big enough to cut into tiny triangles. I have a ruler called the Scrap Saver from That Patchwork Place that makes it easier to cut half-square triangles from odd pieces of fabric. So of course I had to cut as many 1⅞" triangles as I could from the leftovers. I'm compulsive that way. It would be so much easier to just toss them in the trash but I couldn't do it. I ended up with 101 half-square triangles from the first six string blocks and another 31 from the more recent batch of four blocks.

As you can see, I haven't pressed the most recent triangles yet.

I was happy to find this 4½"  tin in which to store the pressed units until I figure out what to do with them. There are several options swirling about in my head. Whatever they end up in will be a truly scrappy product! To see more scrap projects in the works hop on over to Tall Tales from Chiconia. Kate co-hosts a gathering of scrappy endeavors with Gun every month on the 15th. She has the complete list of participants on her blog. Be careful - you might get inspired to do something with your own scraps!

Small Victories

Between toxins and hormones there hasn't been a lot accomplished here in the Magpie's Nest this past week. However, I may have stumbled across the healing properties of hand embroidery and I have found a new use for a piece of family history.

I've finished up two needlepoint cases that I had in progress. I'll share those in the next SAL post (Feb. 19). I didn't have the energy to cut or piece or even throw blocks on the design wall for a new quilt. I shopped for a new needlework project (online) but of course I have to wait for that to arrive. Then I remembered a set of two pillowcases I picked up on clearance a few years ago. I knew one pillowcase was already completely stitched. I wasn't sure how far along the second one was. It took me a while to remember where I'd stashed them too!

When I finally found them all that remained to be done were half of the yellow flowers and all the pink flowers and French knots. That took me about two days finish, only a couple of hours each day.

I noticed that I felt better overall after each stitching session. Could have been coincidence, but my appetite had been whetted for more needlework. In the bag where I found the pillowcases I also found a flour sack dishtowel from long, long ago. It's a new towel but it had been along time since I ironed on the embroidery design. For whatever reason I'd been intimidated to begin stitching it. Apparently this was the week for that towel.

I was able to use some of the leftover floss from the various needlepoint kits I've been stitching. Score! And it didn't take me nearly as long to stitch this design as I expected. Better than that, every time I picked it up I was feeling crummy but when I put it down I was feeling better.

I'd heard that quilters benefit from their hobby, I guess it works for embroiderers too.

During all this I've come to the conclusion that it might be a good idea to make my embroidery projects more accessible. I've had them in this appropriately labelled tote bag - which seemed like a good idea but disappeared among all the other tote bags I have hanging on the back of the studio door.

"Sew or Die" with skeleton head pins. :-)

So I've decided to re-purpose my mother's pie basket.

I always thought of it as a picnic basket because I've seen modern versions outfitted that way but my mother called it a pie basket. There was an insert that enabled the her to stack at least two pies inside. It was one of the gifts my parents received when they married. I've never been a pie baker - I preferred cookies and cakes and let my sister do the pies - but it will be fun to honor and remember my mother by using her basket in a way that suits my current lifestyle (I don't know what happened to the insert, I don't have it). There should be room enough in it for both embroidery and needlepoint projects, thus consolidating my needlework somewhat. It should be harder to misplace too!

I'm linking up with the other Slow Sunday Stitchers over on Kathy's Quilts.