February BJP Complete

Shortly after my last post I started beading around the button and the heart beads, just backstitching. I used some tiny iridescent beads around the hearts. They're not delicas; they may be something like a 15. I suspect they are some Mill Hill beads I picked up in my travels and repackaged at home because they are not labeled. I used another clear seed bead to bead over parts of the button to hold it in place. It looks better than I thought it would. Later I went back in and slipped a couple of threads under the bead strands to further secure the button in place per Bobbi and Robin's suggestions.

I had two choices in pink seed beads to use for the background areas. One set were slightly smaller and slightly lighter in color than the other. I used the smaller ones inside the button (per Dot's suggestion) and the darker, larger ones around the outside. Unfortunately I discovered that the larger beads were less uniform in size and shape than I thought they were. So in two respects I think the smaller, lighter color beads might have been the better choice: 1) there isn't as much contrast between the button and the surrounding beads as I would like, and 2) the pink beads overwhelmed the iridescent beads around the hearts. I think my soft cotton batting is playing a role in the matter as well. I suspect if I had used paper or some other stiffer interfacing behind my fabric I might not have placed the beads so closely together that they crowd each other and consequently don't lay as flat as I'd like.

As I worked my way around the lower pair of hearts I became concerned about the concentric circles creating an undesirable effect. I also wanted to extend the beading further south somehow to balance out the design. The cool metal rose bead did the job nicely without distracting too much from the real focal points of the piece.

I was so excited about finishing this that I neglected to change the settings on my sewing machine when I went to mount the beadwork onto the backing. Normally I set it to stitch a rather wide and open blanket stitch around the perimeter. This tight close stitching contributed to some puckering of the exposed fabric and made it harder to pull an embroidery needle through the top to add a hanging loop. (sigh) None of these "errors" I've pointed out are worth taking out or doing over. I'm looking at this as a learning experience, even though this piece has so much meaning to me that I'd really have preferred it to have turned out perfectly. Life is not perfect, why should my handwork be perfect? (If I keep saying that to myself maybe I'll eventually come to believe it!)

Oh, and just so you know, the lady represents my daughter and each heart represents one of her children. The firstborn at the top, the second one just below, and the twins side by side at the bottom. The layout of this design is probably the part I'm the happiest with. All I need now is a title. :- )

Slow Progress

I've had a hard time getting motivated this week. I suspect it's due to the suspense of waiting for the twins to arrive and then monitoring their progress. Now that things seem to be on an even keel for them (they're gaining weight nicely) we can all breathe a sigh of relief. In my case, for several days apparently!

I did get the 4" blocks sewn together into a panel or medallion. Then I framed it up to 18" by adding a one inch strip all the way around. Now I'm playing with the 6" blocks to see how I want to use them around the medallion.

Meh. I'm still not particularly inspired. I'll probably keep making 6" blocks, maybe as leaders and enders, and see how this develops. It's not like there's a deadline for it or anything. But I do have a quilt with a deadline coming up. I have committed to making a birthday quilt for a little girl who is going to be 4 in May. She has requested puppies and/or kitties in her quilt. No problem! All I have to do is decide on the type of quilt I want to make for her. It will be something quick and simple, that much is certain.

A few days ago I pulled fabric and a few beads for my official February Bead Journal Project ornament. Last night I assembled the foundation and played around with ways to arrange the beads I had selected. My goal is to memorialize the big event of my month, the birth of the two new granddaughters. I had tiny pewter heart beads to represent the granddaughters but they seemed lost on the big ole diamond. Then I found a button in my stash that made the whole concept come together: my daughter and all four of her daughters.

I cut the shank off the button so it would lay flatter against the foundation. My challenge now is to figure out how to secure it without obscuring it or making it look clunky. Normally I would just use my gray beading thread to stitch it in place but in this case that would show. I may end up holding it down with a few stitches and then beading over it to cover the threads. The question is what color beads to use. When I was planning this piece in my head I didn't think beyond pink for the background. Guess I'll just have to rummage around in my beads some more and see what feels good!

Back to Quilts?

While we were waiting for the twins to come into the world I played around with my 1930's repro prints. I had a few blocks I'd made many, many years ago that hadn't made it into a quilt yet and I'd been reading Gwen's latest liberated quiltmaking book. So some of the blocks are precision pieced and some are more liberated.

Sharon over at Indigo Threads tried out the liberated windmill blocks and had the same experience I did. Eyeballing the cut that creates the blades of the windmill doesn't automatically make the blocks look wonky. It helps when you make the block big enough to trim it down to another size. Then you can cut the whole block on an angle.


I also had the experience of some of my blades turning out looking rather fat and clunky. More so than Sharon's I think. Oh well. That's what makes them wonky!

I'm planning to sew this batch of blocks together and making it the center medallion for a quilt:

I was originally thinking a toddler size quilt, using up as much of my Depression-era repro prints as possible. One of the gals in our local quilt guild is putting together another box of preemie quilts though, and I could easily turn these blocks into a quilt that size in no time. So we'll see what happens. To be honest, I'm already bored with these fabrics. I don't know why, they're lively enough. They're just not me I guess. Another hazard is that it's a new month and I want to make a new ornament for the Bead Journal Project. I'm in the mood to play with beads more than fabric at the moment. So it may be a little bit before I do more than whip up a preemie quilt or two.

Baby Pictures

Thank you, one and all, for your congratulations and well wishes. I'm a pretty happy grandma!

Here they are, our newest little bundles of joy:

They are swaddled in about 3 blankets each because they are having trouble keeping their body temps up. They have next to no body fat to keep them warm. Other than that they seem to be perfectly healthy and will be released from the hospital as soon as they can maintain acceptable temperatures for 24 hours.

"Baby A," the first one out:

And "Baby B:"

They are most likely fraternal twins, not the identical ones we thought they might be. I see elements of DH's mother in Baby B's face, although not necessarily from this angle.

DH and I had the whole afternoon with DD and the babies yesterday. It was heavenly. Because there were so few other people in and out of the room I was able to hold up pretty well. I feel very tired today but it could have been so much worse! I don't know when I'll get to spend that kind of time with the babies again. DD and family will probably be staying with other family until their check-ups next week. After that they may finally return to their own home. The problem is that most baby gear is scented in a way that is too much for my system to handle and DD's house will be full of it. {sigh}

And now I have an idea what I'm going to do for my official February Bead Journal Project. I'm just not sure how soon I'm going to tackle it. ;- )

They're Here!

My two newest granddaughters have arrived! They were delivered by C-section yesterday afternoon. The first one weighed in at 4 pounds 6 ounces and the second one was 4 pounds 3 ounces. Both are about 17" long. I've seen a few cell phone photos of them but don't have anything I can post yet. I also have not seen them in person yet nor spoken with my DD since before the procedure. I want to call her to see how she's doing but I know she needs what rest she can get and is probably pretty busy inbetween times.

I'm debating about whether or not to risk the trip down to the hospital on my own today. If DH can take a personal day from work we may just go down together tomorrow. We're waiting for a second car seat to be delivered too. If that comes today we can just take it with us tomorrow and save ourselves an extra trip.

My oh my, so exciting!