Craft day

I spent a lot of time crafting with two of my granddaughters today... long distance, of course! They're in Georgia, and I'm in Illinois. 

One of the things we're doing is making beaded pens. I'm not sure what the kids will do with theirs, but I will be passing mine out at school.

Sophia and Kara have decided that they want to learn to sew. I found some inexpensive fabric squares on Amazon and had them shipped to their house. Sophia practiced on the sewing machine today.

Kara worked on hand quilting. I'm so proud of both of them!

Another quilting day

 

We thought there might be more storms today, so I started my day with quilting five more blocks for my next quilt. It did get a little dark for a while, but we never saw any rain. That's okay!

I really wanted to watch The Alamo today. I remember going to the movie theater with my sister on a Saturday afternoon. The deal was that when we got home we had to tell Mom all about it. I often wonder if we did a good job telling about the movie. I was only 8 years old when it came out. I've asked Mom, and she doesn't remember. 

Anyway, it was easier to work on sewing two strips together for Joanne's quilt than to concentrate on tatting. My next step will be to add the final strip to these two. After that, I will join the first four strips with the last three. The end is in sight!

Stormy weather

 

This morning I quilted five more quilt blocks. Each block has a different quilting design, which should make an interesting quilt.

I would have liked to accomplish more today, but we had some fierce storms this afternoon. Our mail lady came in and sat with us in the house for a good half hour until things calmed down. Luckily, we only had a few tree branches come down. Timing for dinner was just right. About 20 minutes after we finished cleaning up, our power went out for two and a half hours. 

Obviously, the power is back on, but now it's almost time to head off to bed. Hopefully, I'll accomplish more tomorrow!

Busy day

 

I accomplished a lot today. First, I finished tatting another bookmark, "Curds & Whey" from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. This was the last of "Harvest Moon" hand-dyed thread from LadyShuttleMaker.

The glue basting dried for more than 24 hours, and the five blocks that I quilted went very smoothly. The only negative is that on the purple color on the left, the glue shows through. Out of all the squares in these blocks, that color is the only one that showed this. Since the glue is supposed to wash out, I think all will be fine.

Late this afternoon, I finished sewing the two sets of strips together. I only have three strips to go. I really like the way this looks!

Tollway Tatters

We had a great Tollway Tatters meeting this morning! We shared our projects, talked about tatting terminology, and even talked about other crafts. 

After lunch, I finished Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's funny, but I never knew of these books when I was a child. I wasn't even aware of them while studying to be a teacher and librarian. My first exposure was with the television series starring Michael Landon.

Recently, Dave and I watched the first season of the new Little House series on Netflix. Yes, I've been inspired to read the books. It will be interesting to see if the television series stays true to the books.

Today's tatting is "Thérèse" from Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks by Robin Perfetti. The thread is size 20 Hakelgarn, hand-dyed "Harvest Moon" from LadyShuttleMaker. I didn't think I had enough thread for another pattern repeat, so it's a bit shorter than I'd like. As it turns out, I really think I could have made it a little longer. Oh, well. Someone will like it!

Glue basting

 

One of the things I have learned about from watching YouTube videos on quilting is glue basting. 

Back when I first started quilting, I only knew about long basting stitches with a needle and thread. That was very time consuming, but it worked well.

Next, I tried pin basting. That was not for me. I felt like my quilt layers bunched up, and all of those safety pins really annoyed me.

When I was working on my Patriotic Pot Holder quilt this past spring, I used basting spray. It worked really well, but everything in my pressing area felt sticky. 

Since I really didn't like the sticky residue, and since I'm quilting 10" square blocks, I decided I didn't need to use anything for my wall hanging. That did not work out as well as I thought it would. Some of my blocks came out a little off kilter. Lesson learned... I need to baste!

I still have some basting spray left, but I just wasn't ready to go back to using it. So, I went back to YouTube.

I found two different videos in which the quilter's used Elmer's washable school glue. The first quilter squeezed on the glue and then spread it with a foam brush. That did not look like fun to me. 

The second quilter just put dots of glue all over her batting, set the fabric square on top, and then heat set the glue with her iron. That seemed like a much more reasonable approach.

I spent about an hour and a half glue basting 42 blocks for my next quilt. One of the videos recommended waiting 24 hours before stitching to make sure the glue is completely dry. Mom and I had other plans for the day, so that's not a problem!

Lots of fun!

 

I had great expectations for the day. First, I wanted to finish sewing the next two sets of strips today. It took longer than I expected, but I did finish by lunchtime.

Next on my list was to finish "Hills and Valleys" from Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks by Robin Perfetti. Again, it took longer than I expected. Still, I have another bookmark for my stash!

I had so much fun making fairy wands the other day that I ordered two more kits. They arrived right before dinner time, and I put them together after we cleaned up. I think they make a cute display, and I have an easy gift if I need one. 

Tomorrow... more fun!