Welcome Blanket Start

 Welcome Blanket is a platform for engagement that transforms the abstract concept of immigration into a tangible crowd-sourced artistic action. We ask you to use your head, heart, hands, and histories to craft the country we wish to see. Handcraft makers (knit, sew, quilt, crochet, weave, felt, etc.) are invited to make Welcome Blankets.  (Lifted from their website.)

The Welcome Blanket project started some three or four years ago here in the United States. The idea is to provide cheerful tokens of welcome for the newest immigrants and refugees to a nation that has been built by immigrants and refugees from its' inception. I made and contributed one quilt in the beginning - but don't ask me to look for a picture of it or to remember anything about it at this point. I'd sort of lost track of the project, the way you do over time. Just received an email announcing the extension of the deadline for new submissions: they need to be in Atlanta by 1 March. Parts Department to the rescue! 

I pondered how I might go about creating a 40" square quilt as quickly as possible. Six inch blocks set 6 x 6 plus a 2" border all the way around would do the trick. But what if I began with a 12" block? That would eliminate four blocks and speed the process up a bit. That's where I started. Then I auditioned some of my many Shoo-fly and Hole in the Barn Door blocks.

I decided to change things up for the final round of blocks and went for my liberated log cabins. Hmmm. Let's try something else, a little less busy...

I like this better. And with one exception I had just enough of these rainbow blocks to make it all the way around. I hadn't a clue what I would do with those rainbow liberated log cabins when I was making them. That phase didn't last long either. I'm delighted to be able to put them to this good purpose. 

I will look for something to use for a whole cloth border once I get the top assembled. Fabric for the back will not be a problem, and batting scraps can be pieced together for the innards. James says it won't even take him an hour to get this quilted. He offered to sew down the binding for me too, to spare my hands. We might even make the deadline at this rate! 😊

 

Embellished Tags

My shoulders, arms, and hands are finally feeling better. Not what they once were, but at my age I don't guess I can expect anything to be what it once was. The trick now will be to ease back into my needlework and quilt making activities without going overboard. To that end I have chosen to make a few more textile collages that I can mount on tags. The tags I have were bought several years ago from our local Office Depot. They were labelled as shipping tags. They measure 2.25" wide and are 4.75" high. That gives me about 2" x 4" to play in. I have two to show you. This first one began with a cloth napkin that had a rose bud stitched in one corner. It was awfully neutral so to give it some color  I wrapped the stitches of the rose bud with a silk floss and the leaves with cotton. 

I love to play with charms and beads in my work so I have quite a collection to choose from.

I also had a play with a skinny strip of some mysterious striped fabric, creating a ruffle with some of it and just stitching the rest down flat.

That tag has layers of textiles but they are all secured to the napkin base. This second tag developed in a whole different way.

 I actually started with the scrap of lace and built downwards. I liked the lace over the William Morris repro print that ended up being the bottom layer but it blended in too much. I needed a bit of contrast. That's when the chambray scrap turned up. I decided to do a bit of feather stitching to dress it up a bit, with size 12 perle cottons.

Then I felt the Wm. Morris print needed dressing up too.

The script print, button, and dangling fibers at the top were added at the end to hold everything together. I've used Scotch brand double sided tape in strips to mount the textiles to the tags. I find it interesting that I've been able to embrace raw edges at last. The perfectionist in me would not have allowed that in the past. 😉 

These will be sent to the Disabled Artists Foundation Inc. for an upcoming fund raising auction. I may even get one or two more made before I send anything off! 

Itty-Bitty Scrap Happy Day in January

 Kate (in Australia) and Gun (in Sweden) host Scrap Happy Day on the 15th of each month. It has been my habit to participate with quilt blocks or quilts made out of scraps, with a few exceptions. This month will be an exception. I've been really good, not using my hand and arm that seem to be suffering from carpal tunnel or something, for what feels like forever now. It's actually only been weeks, but possibly as many as six. I have not been a happy bunny. I feel bad for the members of our household; they've had to endure my short temper and nervous energy. 

To help pass the time I've been watching crafters on YouTube with an eye to what I might be able to do when my arm is more fully healed. Not quilts, but small projects. Embroidery, if I can manage it. One thing I've learned about is clusters. Journal makers assemble them from the smallest of their paper scraps and then use them to decorate the pages of the books they make. Some folks combine fabric, lace, and paper. Thought I would give that a try with a few of my smaller scraps. 

I layered a strip of quilter's cotton on top of a chunk of homespun cotton and then layered them onto the remnant corner of a vintage table linen. A few rows of running stitches didn't seem to bother my hand - what a relief! Then I found the slip of polyester and a button I thought would work well to top it all off. I was concerned about giving the button something sturdy to support it.

A scrap of denim from my husband's really old Levi's worked well. I sewed it with the back of the denim facing the front. I'm thinking I want to have the option to have this be visible from both sides in whatever it ends up in. Overall it measures roughly the same size as an ATC (2.5" x 3.5"). I can't even describe how happy it made me to be able to do this little bit of play with fabric and thread. 😊

There are participants in Scrap Happy Day all over the world, and everyone publishes at some point on the 15th in their own time zone. I'm generally one of the last to get a post up. If you haven't been to see what others may have done with their scrap materials (not all play with fabric primarily) now would probably be a good time to do so! 

Kate, Gun, Eva, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule,
Gwen, Bekki, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Bear,
Carol, Preeti, Edith, Debbierose

Slow Stitching

 There are all sorts of new community projects popping up with the start of a new year. I'm talking about online communities like YouTube and Facebook. I've never been one for New Year's resolutions but I do enjoy suggestions for new creative endeavors. It's being very hard this year to be laid up and unable to play along, at least not yet. I wasn't able to finish the #52tagshannemade project by the end of last year either. Hopefully when things improve for me physically I'll still be interested in completing my set of ATC's for that project. In the meantime I thought I would share some small pieces of slow stitching I did late last year that I don't think I've shown here.

My understanding of "slow stitch" is that it's meant to be a meditative endeavor with needle and thread. Some people doodle with a pen or pencil for mindless relaxation. I think of this as doodling with thread. And I do find it very soothing. I'm missing it terribly at the moment. 

This strip is a piece of muslin over scrap batting. It's about 2.5" high and 10" long. At first it was difficult for me to stitch without a specific purpose or end product in mind for the work. Gradually it became a place to practice or play with embroidery stitches. There's chain stitch, lots of feather stitching, blanket stitches, some fly stitches, French and Colonial knots, and just plain straight stitches. I'm not sure this is actually done yet. There's a blank space on the left I could fill in. Or I may not. 

This square was done on a mottled yellow cotton, again over a scrap of batting. I really like the texture that the stitches over batting create. This one and the others I'll show you are all about four inches square. Basically the same stitches throughout.

Same yellow ground on this one. Can you tell I like feather stitching? And variegated thread!

I used tiny scraps to create the foundation for the one above and below.

It's this sort of work I want to get back to more than quilt making at the moment. I did try to do some machine piecing after the onset of this current affliction but it didn't go well. Maybe after a bit more time I can ease back into my textile projects. 🤞

Christmas Cheer

 In our part of the world Christmas Day is most often gray and wet. We actually had a white Christmas this year! It began about mid-morning on Christmas Day...

One little rosebud on my Queen of Sweden bush.

 But kept falling the rest of the day and overnight.

It got even deeper after this photo was taken. We're seeing some of the lowest temperatures I remember ever experiencing up here too. It was all of seven degrees Fahrenheit when I got up this morning. Thank goodness our power has not failed! The sun is out now, and while the snow looks heavy and wet I doubt it will be melting away soon. The real problem is the ice underneath the snow. One branch of that rosebush has been frozen to the porch railing. We had to work to get the patio door open at all to let the dog out this morning too. 

We're hoping the roads will be made safe for travel by mid week so our daughter and her family can drive over for our delayed gift exchange. We haven't spent any real time with those grandgirls in two years, for obvious reasons. Our son and daughter-in-law in Arizona set up a Zoom call so we could see the newest granddaughter in action. That was delightful. 

The gifts I received this year were diverse and thoughtful. I was very impressed that my good friend and my sisters-in-law all thought to provide me with safe bar soaps. I'd run into difficulties finding my favorite brand and variety of bath soap in the fall. C~ made a friend through Ravelry who makes soaps specifically for people with MCS. She ordered three bars and a bag of "coffee grounds" for me. The two darker bars have coffee grounds in them (I'm not sure why or what benefit they may offer) and the bag contains shards or off-cuts from when the bars are made. It will be fun to try them out. 😊

The box with the snowman on the lid was chock full of little bars of my favorite soap.

There was also a little box of pins with cute little bird toppers that didn't make it into the photo shoot. The stack of books was very welcome as I'd run out of things to read. Having a lightweight paperback in my hands may keep me from trying to sew again too soon. Brand new paperbacks seem to be safe for me - so far, knock on wood. I sure miss being able to check books out of the library though. That's the best way to discover new authors and genres to read in my experience. And far less expensive! 

The poinsettia plant was a late arrival from my husband. He's been suffering from insomnia and overlooked it when he was rounding up the gifts for under the tree. The poinsettia represents a professional flower arrangement to be delivered each month for the coming year. Woohoo! That really lifts my spirits. 

Oh, and how could I forget?! James felted up a couple of toadstools for a friend of his, then went on to make this for me!

 I wish I could capture the texture better for you. There's real dimension to the log on which the mushrooms are "growing." The leaves surrounding the picture were leftovers from an Oberon costume he'd made some years ago.

He did a very neat job of the back of the piece too. Better than I'd done with an embroidery I left framed in the hoop I used to stitch it!

As we approached Christmas I thought my arms were improving and had hope of being able to pick up a needle again soon. I don't know if the holiday activities have aggravated things or what, but I'm having more pain again which is very discouraging. I'm desperately hoping I won't have to have surgery for a multitude of reasons. Crossed fingers, positive thoughts, prayers on my behalf are all encouraged and welcomed. 😁