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

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.

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

Moira: Coming Up for Air

A few of the things I've been working on lately.

This UFO quilt is now quilted and will eventually be going with three others to a family who lost everything in a wild fire.  this will most likely be bound in the black.

Backing fabric of the quilt.

Wildfire quilt #2 and backing.  Most likely will bind in black altho I do have more of the border fabric.

Thrifted little candle holder that I added a pincushion too.

And these Christmas stockings were a commission that was finished and mailed off.

And this years row by row quilt was finished and turned in for a win.

Not a great picture, but I forgot to take one after I got the binding on it.  Oops.....

Coming next are a whole mess of commissions which is good because I'm not getting paid at work these days and haven't for 3 checks now

Moira - lots of finishes

Lots of work has gone into my snail quilt and the top for it is together and just waiting on me to make up my mind on what I want for the border.  Options are a scrappy string-pieced border with a solid binding, or just pull a single fabric for the border and use a scrappy binding.........not sure which way I want to go.

The final 12" of length was added -- Right side shown in top pic, left side in bottom pic.

The one large snail  didn't use on the front I plan to applique to the extra wide muslin I got for the backing.  I'll use the block as my quilt label.

 Finished turning all of the print washcloths into bibs. 

Got the ribbon or lace trim on the final 16 plain washcloths that I have for bibs.

And I went row-by-row hopping for patterns on the north side of the Dallas metroplex.  Have 7 patterns now, but only 6 of them will end up in the final quilt.   Plan to do one more day of hopping to get the final 2 patterns I need for my planned layout.  Have already put two of the rows together.......so I've got a good start on getting the quilt finished quickly.  

Angela ~ Progress on the Quilting

The quilting redo is progressing nicely.  The cool weather has helped as this gets pretty toasty in my lap.  I've been working on the edges as far as I can comfortably reach without a frame.

It's probably hard to see where my stitching is in some areas because the grooves from grandma's machine stitching remain.  Hopefully they will come out when the quilt is washed.  

My stitching is not precise and is fairly large, definitely not a high quality job.  But I am doing this for practical reasons, not as a show piece.  I truly admire those ladies that quilt with tiny precise stitches.  Sadly I can't see well enough for that and would not have the patience for it anyway.  

Grandma's hand stitching was similar to mine so I am happy with it.

I am almost done with the outside edges of quilting and as the weather gets hot I will use the quilting frame.  That may be slower as my back doesn't like bending over it.  Oh the joys of getting older.

Angela ~ Quilt Repair Update - Hand Quilting Has Begun

The repair of the quilt - removing of damaged fabrics and replacing with new pieces - is complete.

I took this photo outside so you could see the whole thing.  The dark blue of the one star kind of sticks out but its in good condition so it stays.  I replaced all fabric in the 2 stars on the upper right.  Some of the pink backgrounds needed replacing and I found a fabric that matches almost exactly to the color of the original.

This shows a couple of blocks where I replaced the fabric, new pink for the star in the upper left, all new fabric for the star in the lower left, new yellow floral for the star in the lower right (it was a vintage pillowcase I picked up for 50 cents. 

Grandma had made the center star with all one plaid fabric, not sure why, but probably that is what she had.  The centers of the stars did not line up well for Grandma or me, so I added a blue & pink print in a hexagon shape to cover the centers and that will also tie it in with the binding as I am going to replace it with this same pink & blue floral.

I've started the hand quilting, taking out the machine stitching as I go.  The center green star is done and some of the pink background.  I'm quilting closer together as cotton batting was used and it is starting to ball up in places since Grandma didn't machine quilt it close together.

Angela ~ More Progress On The Quilt Repair

I'm making good progress on the repair of the quilt.  I work on it most evenings.

On this star I replaced a solid medium blue that was worn thin with this tiny blue flowered print.

The same worn blue was replaced with this pale aqua and I think it is much prettier this way.

This star got a complete makeover.  The fabric for all pieces was a gray blue with a white design and the fabric was quite heavy.  These 2 fabrics with purple flow much better with the other stars and purple IS my favorite color.  LOL.

I have a couple more stars to repair and then I will be hunting for a match to the pink, as close as I can find.  Not all of it needs to be replaced, but a few pieces do as you can tell by the holes in this piece.  

When I get it all repaired I will hand quilt the whole thing.  Grandma's original machine stitching will come out as most of it is coming undone anyway as you can see above.

Angela ~ Repairing an Old Quilt

I use an old quilt every day in the winter, one of the last my paternal grandmother made.

It is made of pieces of her old dresses in a star pattern, mostly pink & blue with a green plaid star in the center.  It was one of the last ones she made and was completely done by machine.

This is the end I always grab so I know it is oriented correctly - it's twin size.  The pink fabric is very thin and there are some holes in it so it needs some repair.

I need to use what I have already as I have 2 totes full of fabric pieces.  There's not a lot in pink but I thought this light brown with pink roses looked nice.

Grandma used a cotton batting that has not shifted or balled up much but the fabric pieces are large and the quilting is not very close together.  First I cut out the pink pieces leaving the seams cut to 1/4" wide or slightly less.

Then I cut new fabric pieces and appliqued them in place.  A fade out type fabric marker was used to mark out the quilting lines and I hand quilted the areas.  I think when I finish the repairs I will hand quilt the whole thing because her machine quilting lines are coming undone and it really needs to have closer stitching lines.

Since the pink is used for the binding, it really needs to be replaced too.

This project will be a slow, ongoing one.  I can work a little here and there with no stress to hurry & get it done since spring seems to be almost here.

I have another of her quilts that I had to repair some years back, here's a link to the post on that one.  I learned from that project to cut away the old fabric as the extra layers made it very heavy.

Moira - Progress.......

Ack...started to write this post this morning, and then got distracted.  oops..........

Lots of sewing going on this weekend, some stuff that I can't show at this point.   But one thing that I did manage to get finished were the setting blocks for the quilting bears.....two of which are shown here.   Took 4 different tries to end up with blocks that I liked with the bears, ended up iwht 8 new orphan blocks as a result...lol.......

Hopefully more to post next week.

Moira - slow progress

I worked on a number of projects over the past week but not a lot of pics to show for it.

Got the sample block for my quilter bears BOM designed and made.  Pattern is now off to Susan for proof-reading.   It'll be released the middle of September.   Fabric has been purchased for the setting blocks to put these together into a wall-hanging making those and then writing the pattern for the setting are next for this project.

And I finished the credit card case finally for this passport holder.  Took me a while to find an easy pattern.    I still want to tweak it and may try to design my own........  One more CC case to make and then I'll have two to list for sale.

Three commissioned wallets need to be started, along with more to sell.

Cyra ~ busy, busy, busy stitching

The grey and green background that I made while on that lovely stitching retreat a couple of weeks ago, has turned into a quilted tote-style bag.

A Splat on one side, and a Swirl on the other.

  

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This fun fiberart small quilt is now hanging in the towns meeting room along with about 18 similarly size 'self-portrait' quilts, haha. 

And I use the words 'self-portrait' very loosely.

(this is nothing like me really, lol)

The mini-me has a scrap strip fabric dress embellished with free-motion scrolls, a crochet bag with embroidered flowers, and she has a needle-felted head, hair AND boobs, and she wears metal wire glasses and two thread friendship bracelets. 

Her sandals (flip-flops or jandals) are made with a tiny buttonhole stitch in black thread.

The other mini-me's are all on a similar background with the same binding, and they are all connected together with fabric tabs in the same colour as the binding. 

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I have finished a quilted chair back cover, or antimacassar, for the old-rocker in the lounge.

It's the Snowball block.

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My old teapot cozy bit the dust (it was only about 12 years old lol) so I made a new one.

Love the kiwi fruit fabric for the kitchen.

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And my final show for this week is a couple of 'containers'.

Basically made as thread-catchers, but can be used for a number of different things as well.

I need one of these next to my sewing machine because I'm always losing the seam-ripper or little scissors or the feet for the machine or the bobbins or.............

These nice containers will hold everything I need right there.

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So you can see I have been sewing up a storm since the retreat. 

It was a great way to get me back on track.

All for now.

Happy Stitching

Cyra