Daily Patch Is Done!

I realized, the other day, that I needed to finish this. To use!

[i also want to press out that center fold...that drives me cuckoo at quilt shows, those creases from folding] 

All the tags are attached at the bottom, like fringe. Love it!

I forgot to take a separate photo of the back, to show the satin ribbon I used for the hanging sleeve. It is there. Hand stitched on, of course, as all of the panel is.

For fun, I marked things in the picture.

( )- is for the fan blades in a blurr.

Green O- glass tube for the hanging 'rod', 

was my mom's for whatever reason she had it for.

*- the satin binding is from my neighbor,

 who found it in the 'new' sofa she bought.

X- the 'hooks' holding up the driftwood are actually door knockers we put in upside down. This side a dragonfly, the other a 'trowel'.

Big blue O- a mushroom bead glued to an upholstery 'pin', pushed through the covered foam insulation panel and into the sheet rock. {That is how we 'hung' up 2 of the 'design wall' panels I have in our living room.}

<- b=""> that's my husband. 

This is how the room really looks at the moment.

An unblocked scarf. After blocking I will stitch it into a circle. 

Another rug I am stitching up to use the yarn.

 I mended some knees and pocket areas for my daughter and her girls.

Jeans and leggin's.  Them leggin' knees are tight in small sizes!  After I wrestled it over the free arm on my machine, I realized it would end up a mess doing it that way. So I hand mended those knees. 

Tree lights are out,  to see what works and what doesn't.  

I will be creating a new tree for this year. 

Day 222 of Daily Patch With a Touch of Family

 I worked on the seams some last night.  I didn't do the invisible stitch of Jude's devising, and thought this am I would have to re-do. But I don't think my big running stitch is going to show up that much.

I still have the daily tags, but don't use them daily anymore. they are pinned to the bottom, later to be sewn on. I just keep track of days on the calendar.

That is Woodstock peaking out from behind. 

GG #3 was seen holding it the other day. Ha...waltzing around would be more like it.  Auntie Steph wanted to see Agent 006, so that led to an impromptu family gathering on Sat. 

 Stephanie later apologized for 'hogging' all the baby loves, but I was cool with it. I love that she loves her nieces!

For my next trick.....Actually I guess it really is a trick. 

I was pondering which tin can size to use for a circle for the Circle quilt/cloth,

when I was again struck with a great idea! 

Use a canning jar band. [looked up proper name of the ring thing]

band and fabrics chosen, so far

It would give me an outside size circle...AND an inside one for the 'rings' and the motifs that may go in them. I made a sample up to get an idea of how it will look. I drew the tree on a whim and snipped it out. Might need pressing...

The other plus to using this band is that I can see the fabric should I want to fussy cut it! 

Updates... New, Daily, Casts

My next daily stitch project was moving ahead at a slugs pace. 

Until last night. 

→I knew I wanted to do circles. 

→I also wanted to do circular shapes...

....like I did in the bottom picture. It has closed circles too.

→I have the fabrics, Alpine by Erin Michael

→I have a somewhat modest stash. [in this case-stash=fabrics]

The idea to make some circles have cut-outs just shazammed itself into my head.

Ideas for the ↑ circles....not sure the pine cone cut-out will work like I want it too, but that is ok, I have lots of prints with p.c.'s to make solid circles from. 

So I cut the fat quarters I plan to use for the 'blocks'. 9.5 x 18 inches. 

For now I will stick with the long shape. I also pulled out the 'whites,tans, grays, browns and golds' bucket of stash. 

Then I decided to work on the Daily Patch. I have all 4 panels stitched together.

Now I needed to get the patches along those seams ready for stitching.

I wanted it ready for 'visit hour' should the ladies in the neighborhood come over.

Easier to chat when the stitch project is prepped.

So. 

When our youngest gets married in Sept, her sisters oldest gets to be the bridesmaid! Perfect dress marked down to 16 dollars.

{I taught my children well.}

The promised cast picture. I was the first to sign it~! Lucky Gup.

I signed it with my VJ symbol [am a Capricorn and maiden name started with J]

Avery called me Vicky J for the rest of their stay.

M♥M signed it next. And added a kitty face for little sister siggy.

I showed Ashley the kitty face I made on Precious's Patch, to copy from. 

Very fitting in so many ways.

Unfortunately that  lovely red became mush and had to be changed to a nice blue one...pix another day....after a hot day playing in the pool. Even wrapped in 2 plastic bags.  The cast-putter-on-er said it was just at well, because the decreased swelling in her arm had made the cast too loose.

Daily Patch is Complete

Though not exactly finished yet.

All 4 panels are patched. This is the last panel. #4. 

It has 58 patches. It takes the Daily Patch up to Day 209.

The calendar for June.

folding in the 'seam allowance' to stitch only the BG flannel

Stitching panel 1 to 2.  I stitched the packing fabric, the flannel,  together, but avoided stitching the patches. I left most of the patches un-stitched in the 'seam allowance' area.

The front, after stitching the BG, or base, flannel.

All 4 panels together.

Some other little things I throw together.

Gus and Birds, not complete

SunBird, not complete

SwimBird, not complete

It's fun to create these little bits. Click to enlarge!  SwimBird, and SunBird, were  free-hand embroidered birds, one on a strip-woven base fabric, the other on a Toile.  I didn't like either, so they went into the bottomless pit. 

But after making ShellBird, attitudes have changed. 

ShellBird now lives in Nova Scotia.

Along with the PBLandscape, named "Tree Line With Bulrushes."

It's Full of Patches

#'s205 to 209

Panel 4 of 4 is FULL.  I managed to get 58 pieces of fabric on it.

Here is the last one....the back side of a B/W print. I used this back side in several of the last spaces, even though I wasn't using repeats on any of the panels, I went ahead and did it with these last 3 spaces. [the fabric has 'newsprint' all over, so the patches are from different spots]

So today is Day 210 of my Daily Patch journey, which I expected to take a year.

 I will get the other 3 panels out to start sewing them together. Then see where it takes me.

Here is Avery, #4 of my 6 pack. In her brand new, bright red cast.  

She let me sign first, but I don't have pix yet.

The breaks are in her growth plates. 4 weeks in the cast and then xray again. 

The 'old break' was last summers. That was the purple cast. 

These flowers, from seed last year, are such a happy spot. They were in a wildflower mix. I am going to make them a better 'fence', which is what the rope is.  In the background you can see my Dan...

He made a simple T to hold up the Mock Orange that is now growing there. 

So you can get down that side of the house.

At least I think it's an MO.  When Dan did some major cutting back last year, this was given a chance to make itself seen. Never even knew it was in among the bushes that are our 'hedgerow'.

197 to 203 Daily Patch

We interrupt this daily patch with a broken bone. Must be summer!

Avery. Same arm as last summer, don't know yet if it's related to that injury.  No cast yet. I feel so bad for her. 

Wildlife! On my daughters screen. A silk moth. She knew I would want a picture. Of course.

The daily thing is getting full. This is panel 4 and this is pretty much it for more places to patch.  I will smoosh in some scraps, on this one and possible on one or more of the other 3 panels. Then it will be time to sew the panels all together!  

So exciting.  

Day 200 was Fathers Day.  The girls surprised their daddios by stopping by and bearing gifts!  PB cookies, his fave, with a few cho. chip for variety. Both homemade, of course.

Mending. My neighbor asked me if I could repair a tear. It needed to look good on both sides, and no crazy Vicky stitching....I could have used a white scrap...

I have never done "invisible" stitching before. Gah.

I was fascinated to learn (re-learn?) that the California Condor has a very colorful head. I had probably only seen BW photos while growing up, in California. We learned about them in school. 

This shot is from the nest cam.

New Threads, Butterflies and Patches 189 to194

New. Hand dyed embroidery threads from Colour Complements.

I was worried. They took an unusual 4+ weeks to get here. I didn't want Lorraine to have to replace my order,  which she would have, because hers is a small business.

Now I just have to remember what I wanted which thread for.  

Shoulda writted it down.

With the sweet williams blooming, YEAH, there have been swallowtails feasting on them. YEAH. Yesterday there were 2, two, different ones.  One larger and lighter yellow, the other a brighter yellow.  Not sure of the names other than swallowtail.  And beautiful!

click to enlarge

Patches 189 to 194

the 2 in one pic....I totally forgot to stitch it down. 

I had picked it out, pinned it down, and got interrupted.

That's my story and I'ma stitchin' to it.

Left side of pic, son Ben at 3. Right side, his newest daughter, 006.

Below our youngest, CollegeGradGirl Stephanie.

Now she is CGGSBrideToBe. 

Think I will just go back to calling her My Steph.

Other Side Of Half Way

Daily Patch starting with June 1, #'s 183 to 188.

The youngest of my middle child and the youngest of her older brother.

Agents 005 and 006. Now that 005 is 4 yo, 

she is getting to do this fun part of child care.

And yes she really does like doing it.

In my garden this week....

My Half Way Day

Day 182 of my Daily Patch.  Half way. Half a year. 

I started my year on Dec. 1, 2016. 

In case you are confused because it isn't the half way date for this year.

I put the 'newsprint' scrap on upside down to mute the 

brightness of the black 'ink'.

[now there's an oxymoron]

I considered turning that corner over so you could read the 'go for it'. 

Naw.

It can still be read as is. Besides it would have stood out, 

that brightness of the black 'ink' and all.

The May calendar page.

The actual half way was 182.5. Half a day of half way.

Onward to June!