Angela ~ A Quilt Repair While I Was On Vacation

I went to visit my parents for a month and while I was there I repaired a quilt.

Sorry the image is not very good, it was taken with my phone and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it.  This Drunkard's Path quilt was the last one my Nana made.  Started in the 70's, the top was finished in the 90's and sent to someone else for quilting as Nana could not quilt anymore.

I cut out the pieces that needed replacing - they had holes that looked like a mouse chewed on them.

This is the whole quilt laid out on the floor.  If you look closely you will see some darker pieces in the center area, these were the ones I replaced already when I took this photo.  Thankfully we still had some of the blue fabric so that made it easy.  I still have some of that fabric for just in case.

I did not get a photo of the completed project, we got too busy with other things.  

Here I am over a year later and this post has over 100 views.  Thank you so much to those who have taken their time to look.  Happy quilting!

 

Angela ~ Meet Dottie! My New/Old Sewing Machine

Meet my new sewing machine Dottie. 

She's a 1940 model with a very heavy wood cabinet, which needs a little love on the outside. 

She needs new wires that actually have a covering, yikes! 

But she moves freely when I spin the wheel and has 4 boxes of attachments. 

Best of all I got her for $20 at a yard sale. 

She's not the treadle machine I wanted but she will do what I need her to do after rewiring and a bit more cleaning. Refinishing the cabinet will come later.

Cyra ~ Crochet, Quilt & Art

Hi all, hope you are getting through each day with some creative work.

I have been stitching lots of new things and here are a few of them.

The reversible Autumn quilt below was for one of my sons birthday present in June.

The Front is 30 mystery quilt blocks, and the back is using up all the scraps from the front blocks plus some 'wild card' orphans and pieces that ended up the wrong size for the front, lol.

This was my main 'lock-down' project.

During lockdown I just had to cut my own hair, and I made this beanie to cover up my embarrassment until it grew back again, hahaha. 

A crochet blanket in bargello style.

A lovely rose in my garden was the inspiration for this painting.

Take care, stay safe, keep stitching, keep sane.

Cyra

Angela ~ Completed Repaired Quilt

I finished the quilt repair and here are the final photos.

The replacement fabrics in this photo are the yellow and the pink floral just above Elma's name.

In this photo you can see the quilt is twin sized.  I replaced 14 of the original triangle pieces.  One was not really bad enough but the original maker had matched the fabric on facing squares so I followed that pattern.

I left the original fabric below the appliqued new pieces and tried to match the colorations as best I could.  The backing was in wonderful condition so when I did the quilting on the new pieces I only sewed through the top and the batting, not going all the way through the back.  That way the original quilting is still there and the new pieces are still quilted in the same pattern as the old.  On a few places all I needed to to was to insert a tiny piece of fabric and do a buttonhole stitch around the hole.

The owner was very happy with it!

I Know It's Not Tuesday, too!

I haven't posted here for quite a long time, but I do have some recent finishes to share

 This is a quick knit and is a good use for some of my buttons. It's also the second one I've done and have yarn and buttons to do another one.

I made this poncho for my 6 year old grand daughter who loves all things purple.

This pair of socks finally were completed, and I was pretty happy with the way they matched.

Lately I've been making little toys as well as these two finger puppets. These actually got done in a timely fashion!

Needless to say, I didn't make this!  It was part of a bouquet I got on Mother's Day. Have you ever seen a double tulip before?  I sure hadn't.  Take care you two, and stay well!

Angela ~ Repairing An Antique Quilt

My upstairs neighbor asked if I knew how to fix an old quilt that her grandmother made.  

As you can see, some of the fabrics are in shreds with the cotton batting poking out.

I explained how I repair quilts, I applique over the damaged area, leaving the original fabric for posterity, then requilt following the same stitching.

The polka dot fabric is a piece of the new fabric.  I usually use the wrong side out so that the colors are not so bright that it looks odd.  I can rarely find fabrics in the right tint to match old and faded colors.

I like how the strips between the clover shaped squares have embroidered signatures and quite a few have year dates.  The earliest is this one from 1934 and the others are dated through 1937.

I love quilts like these, true treasures and so worth saving for future generations no matter how bad the condition is.  

I'll post next week when I am finished with the quilting and will try to get a shot of the full quilt, it's a twin size.

Moira - Not Tuesday....but I'm posting....

I know it isn't Tuesday but  figured I'd better post while I remember.

I've only managed to work on a couple of main projects over the last 5 weeks.    The biggest being this commissioned quilt.   Finished it up last night and delivering it to a friend this afternoon.   It is an auction quilt for the Christian school where her daughter is graduating from this year. 

 And there are the more than 250 masks that I've been  making.   These pics are just a few of the ones that I've finished and delivered to customers.  Still have several orders in hand, with more trickling in at this point.

Have what seems like a lot of paying work on hand a present, which is good because that helps supplement my income when I'm not getting paid.

Angela ~ A Few More Buildings for the Train Layout

I made some more buildings for the train layout, this time a portion of a town backed up to what will be the side of a mountain.

Just ignore all the cardboard stuff, everything is still in the planning stage as far as topography.

The base is a piece of cardboard and I covered it with felt and used some craft paint to vary the color.

Here's another angle.  I used some old track that I cut apart and glued down for the wood sidewalks, and painted it gray for weathering.  The detail on these paper buildings is great.

I did do a little kit bashing to make it work for what I wanted and I add cereal box pasteboard to the insides for stability as these are printed on cardstock.

I will be adding some real rocks and weedy bushes at some point, it will make it look more real.  And we definitely need to start adding some model people.  For scale, the large buildings are 1.5" x 3.5".  The printed paper is much easier on my eyes that scratch built buildings.

And if anyone is looking for N scale or Z scale models, here is the link to the Etsy store: CustomZScales

Angela ~ A New Station Office for the Train Layout

I ordered some pre-printed buildings for the man's train layout.  I really like how they go together and the printing on the cardstock is excellent.

He opted to use this 1st one I built as a station office and put it next to the 2 story warehouse I built from scratch.

The warehouse looks huge next to the little office but the top of the train fits just under the roof when it goes by.

That's his new engine, still has some of the packing in place - the white stuff.

And the caboose!

Angela ~ Upcycled Tote

I've been doing a lot of reading the past few weeks with some small clothing repairs thrown in, all hand sewing as I have no machine at this time.  Then I came up with this project....

This started out as a an old Trader Joe's bag that someone was going to throw out.  It was still sturdy but looked really tacky with the printing on the outside peeling off.

I had a bag of scraps someone was getting rid of so I cut 5" squares and made strips of 6 squares.  I covered the handles and started sewing the strips to the bag in a diagonal line.  Then I covered the bottom and used 1 row to line the inside top.

I also added a pocket inside with leftover squares.

A very sturdy tote bag to carry stuff for our Thursday craft nights, whenever they resume.

Hello from Bellevue, Washington!

Gosh, it's been ages since I've posted, but everything is fine here. Thanks to Covid-19 we are getting lots done in our yard and doing lots of walking on our neighborhood hills. Without our daily routine of volunteering and other activities that are now cancelled, we are finding it hard to know what day it is!  Anyhow, since I posted last, I've done some knitting, too. You can see the projects on my blog , but here are my latest finishes which are now residing with our grand kids.

Hope you all had a nice Easter despite the craziness and that you're all staying well!

Moira - Update

There has been a lot going on in my life lately, and I've needed something mindless in the way of sewing.   In straightening up my messes around the house while looking for something I found a sandwich baggie of small pieces of Fairy Frost that had been cut off while I was making blocks for a design contest 4 years ago and I found some triangle papers for paper-piecing from Missouri Star Quilt Shop in the same tote.   The true blues and purples are the only colors left to work with.

 The same cream FF fabric has been used as the common fabric in the triangles and will be used as the background in whatever I finally do with these.

Pinks, turquoise, green, and browns were finished first.

Reds, oranges, and peaches were by far the biggest part of the scraps except for the cream.

I've been playing around with possible layouts for these, and think I've decided.....but other things have taken priority at the present time.

The triangles unfinished are only 4.25 inches on a side so whatever I do won't end  up real big.

 And what has momentarily taken over my life at present is the making of masks.....two basic styles.   Using lots of stash for them which is good and the income from them is helpful since work is back to not paying us again......over 20 have been made and delivered so far, and I have almost 50 more in process.

Cyra ~ Catching up with UFO's

Hi all, long time no see, lol. 

With all this spare time on my hands (in lockdown) I have managed to spend nearly every day in my sewing/craft room.

Here are a few things that I've been working on.

Quilt top for a local charity fundraiser.

Table Runner number 1

Table Runner number 2.

And Three blocks (so far) for a Mystery Quiltalong that my quilt group is doing online.

Hope everyone is keeping well and keeping busy too.

Happy stitching

Cyra

Angela ~ Miniatures for the Train Layout

I've made a couple of items for the man's N scale train layout.

This one is a warehouse for offloading items.  Made with cereal box cardboard and covered in cardstock that is colored with prismacolors, the photo is not great, it is drawn with a tiny brick grid.  The double doors show one partially opened on this side, the other side they are closed.  The roof is cereal box too but just painted with silver & brown acrylic craft paint.  The shape of the roof is like some buildings here in CO, made so the snow falls off easily.

This is an old time passenger car.  The basic shape the man cut out of styrofoam.  I refined it by sanding with a nail file and added the top window portion they used back then.  Painted with silver acrylic and detailed with black sharpie.  The sides are cardstock cut to fit and colored with prismacolors.  He added the wheels.  It sits next to a 3 story hotel that used to be in this town - the RR actually ran beside it in order to let passengers board and unboard.  As you can see he's trying out things for landscaping.