Mending Madness for March

Ashley's. Flying Geese and Kites quilt. Because when she was little she wanted to fly!

To pull myself out of the winter rut, I decided to take part in a mending-who-ha {March Mending Madness} on Instagram.  Since posting pix of mended granny panties is not something anyone else should see....I will mend, and post pix, of these quilts, for starters.

Ben's quilt, made from fabrics Grandma Evie bought for him, for me to make, in the 1980's.

Speaking of mending. I found an 'egg' once [?] used for mending socks. Perhaps they were known as 'stockings' in that era? {it's that wooden thing, Ashley}

Anyway. My mom had one, that same Grandma Evie.  I think about it every now and then, not knowing where it ended up.  A few days ago, a neighbor gave me a tin full of misc sewing things. Including this egg. 

The same day the mending-who-ha was "announced." Meant to be.

Appliqueing between the lines.

This is not mending. 

This is stitching, applique stitching, which is different from mending stitching...ha....

I first mentioned this work last August....gah...

It's been a WIP [work-in-progress] since the 1970's. I thought about adding fabric in the larger areas, instead of just doing embroidery over the whole thing. Then this scrap came in the mail in those big boxes of gifted goodies last year.  

Ta da.

Now to pick fabrics for the mending.

Embroidered Newspaper Art

Back in the day, as a teen, I would come across line drawings in the paper, usually in the 'entertainment' section. 

I did this embroidery back then. I really enjoyed stitching on these "work" shirts as they were known then. The label says " Big Mac, 100 % cotton, JC Penney."

I took off this pocket to put on the Mosaic Quilt, in the below picture.

The shirt is too small for me now, so I will turn it into some other item of wearablity.  The new pearl cotton threads are for the coloring in of Pegasus. I don't usually buy threads in color 'themes' or 'palettes'.  

I have 'rainbows' of colors, in the pearls.

I have done a Smokey the Bear, from the newspaper, and other embroideries. 

Would have to dig out 'hard copy' photos.

The Women's March 2017 (WIP)

Struck a visible cord.  

The flow of Pussyhats between buildings, in a bird's eye view.

I knew I would have to put thread to fabric.

While scrounging around in my foot stool, 

looking for something else, of course, I pulled out a "thing" I had stitched together for something else....of course. 

It was perfect!  It was mostly white, for pink threads to show up on.

Assembled from random scraps of mostly textured cloths.

All thin, or sheer, or even holey!

click to enlarge, to see the pink pen dots.

Stitched together, but with angles, like buildings. 

There was even a blue-green-round-ish shape already pinned to it, 

that could represent the planet. I added woven wheel stitches for all 7 continents.  There are 12, buttonhole stitch wheels for the women/girls in my family, starting with my mother.* I also want to add stitches that represent women I know.

It already had the  'curtain rod' channel stitched down, better known as a "hanging sleeve" in the quilt world.

Much counting has gone into this piece, they aren't just random spots. 

First I put in 673 X/+ marks for the marches world wide.  That was a bitch to count out, so I got smart for the 847 more spots I wanted to add for all the cities signed up. With a washable crayola marker, I just spotted away. Now I am covering them with thread. Two side by side stitches, like an = sign. 

[my french knots tend to get sloppy]

673 marches in 847 cities?  I cannot find an answer to that question.

*my mother was forever disgusted that she made far less money than her "boss", and did FAR MORE work than he ever did.

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."

Daily Patch #'s 14,15,16 and a Cat

The 14th was an anniversary, so I did the heart and x's for years.

Can't ♥♥♥ one and not another! I believe that will be part of the DP too. 

It seems. Serendipitous-ly.

The embroidered color words continue too.

So do the Santa activities!  This Santa gives Popsicles!

As you can tell, it's a bit cold here today...

Some days a Grandma just has to have a Wobt!

Daily Patch #'s 9-12

Am finding much pleasure in this daily stitch routine.

Also finding that I need to keep track of it more visually. That is why the X marks the patch. With the first few, I put the wording by/over/around the patch.

And I am only up to 13!  Had to break out a calendar. 

Patch 11 is not actually stitched to the yellow-ish piece below it. That is just for contrast. It's the oddest piece in the whole stack, so I am including it in other days too.

In another basket is this WIP. Embroidery. To introduce color NAMES to my grandgirls. I researched crayon web sites, including one for collectors! That one was fun to browse through.  I thought about Pantone for names, but decided to stay with crayon names, since the girls are still all under 11...for now.

Pantone's color for 2017 is "Greenery". I have no G's among the G's, except for being Grand, that they are. For now.  Perhaps the 6th grand will have a G name??

Grandchild Number Six Is A....

*!*  GIRL  *!*

The parents, our son and DIL are a bit disappointed, they really wanted a boy. 

But....she has all her toes and all her fingers.  I have a picture from the first sonogram, but let's face it, those all look pretty much the same. 

For humans at least.

Of course this makes it easy to add another child to the Storybook Quilt.

I also need to fix the blurry words, where I wrote the book titles and the ink ran. 

So I did them up in thread...to be added soon.

That's why I remember I need to add another child, because this has been hanging around my chair for a few weeks.

{I made 2 of them, actually.  The second one is here.}

I am also doing a lot of satin stitch around a tower. You know the one, in Paris?

On a pillowcase/cover for a GD. I LOVE doing this stitch!

From the giant squash plant growing in the backyard's compost heap. 

Acorn Squash? The kids are going to carve and/or decorate them since we don't dare eat them. [they are growing over the septic field.]

So this watercolor idea comes from Debra @ Artisun.

She is an art teacher and she had her kids dab [her word was "Blob"] the color on, then draw what they "saw" in the shapes.

My youngest GD helped me do this one on top.  I see many figures in the paint, I just haven't outlined them yet.  But I did get this far.

Need I explain this one?

Didn't think so.

Still Working On...

We interrupt this post with an update...Grandbun #6 is in the oven!

I got the call just before the other sides Dad could post it live on FB.

The wallie for my son and his bride.  Doing the satin stitch over the yarn for the tree was a joy....though I soon realized that I was running out of the color I was using. DMC 921 purchased back in the 1970's for a needlepunch project. I found some others really close though, in my stash of threads. I didn't want to buy new, I wanted to use the old for the story it told me.

and the back of course

If you enlarge the picture, you will see the colors differences in the tree.

Another part of the story is the strawberries. I found no roses in my fabric stash. Seriously. None. So what to do? Well, strawberries are red. I had 3 different prints with strawberries!  The snipped pieces are for the 'rose petals' the girls, Megan and Lily, scattered as they walked down the grassy green aisle. These 2 girls are our oldest Grands.  Oh, make that FOUR fabrics with strawberries...the cake was the perfect thing for the base of the tree! The shape, the formality, the strawberries.  

This be Lily, as I worked on her "basket." I did a blanket stitch around the strawberries, then did needle weaving on the base of them, to give the "look" of a basket.  Not the greatest example, but I had fun with it!

shadows cast by the raised tree trunks

My Megan, as I call her. My first ever granddaughter. She wears glasses now, so of course I had to add them! This was the best fitting animal I could find in my stash, hard to explain why, but that's My Meggie.

I think her glasses are purple? So why didn't I use purple. Good question.

The wallie is now ready for 'quilting', yeah!

And from the garden, our first jack'o'lantern. It fell off the vine.

The pirate, Avery, grandgirl is doing fine in her cast, figured out, one handed, how to wiggle her bottom onto the swing we have for them. She loves to swing!

Her older sister had just been telling me how "Avery taught her how", as she pumped her legs to get going. Not to be out done, the youngest set her mind to it and got herself on the swing with no help.

What a swingin' day it was!

Fur-Felts

Fur-Felt Plankton 

Or Galaxy 

Fur-Felt Bird

As I was working on this second one, Dan mentioned it looking fish-ish...or bird-ish....

I flew with it!

These are made from the bits of fur the dogs shed. Small coils of felt-ish fur. 

Most of the family thinks they are gross.  I see them as possibilities.  Dan sees them as his wife enjoying herself. And encourages her! I am stitching them to small "sample fabrics" from Dharma Trading I do believe, and backed by off-white blanket fleece. It is nice to hold. 

As it really looks on  my pin board.

A new....wait for it....PIN BOARD!!  

Dan had cut this piece about a year ago, for another area that I decided not to use it in. 

A couple of days ago, bitta met bing and with a piece of canvas...wa-la.

Beachy theme.  This started as an Embroidery stitch test thing.  

I had to go back to 2008 to find it!

This one is Chair With A View.  

The chair part was a quilt block I had designed. The rest of it came together when i first started following Jude Hill.