Phebe - sequins and sheep

Phebe - Week #3

This was a week of trial and error, mostly error on the apples. They measure approximately 5/16" and are definitely the smallest applique I've ever done! Every method I tried resulted in pointy apples, as my husband called them. As you can see, I did eventually figure it out and here's the story.



One very early morning when I couldn't sleep, I searched the internet for ideas on how to make tiny round circles for applique and I came across a blogger who used sequins. Unfortunately, I don't remember which blog this was so I can't give credit to her. In any case, I don't wear sequins so I just kind of filed it away in my memory as something someone else had tried and definitely never thought it might be a possibility.

I tried again to make my 1/4" plastic circle templates work and not very successfully, I will add. After losing several of the templates, I was down on my knees feeling around on the mat under my sewing desk when what do I find? Well yes, a sequin. Since I don't wear sequins, I can only guess it came from my attempt to add them to my daughter's wedding veil. A story best told another time, maybe.

My first thought on finding the sequin was something like, "Toss." But then I remembered that blogger so, why not try to make an apple with the sequin? The templates haven't worked for me so why not?

Actually, I think it was a combination of many things that made the sequin method work! Cutting a very narrow seam allowance, using small basting stitches and being able to press the drawn up bulk into the cup of the sequin all worked together to make acceptable (to me) apples.

The other major accomplishment this week is the flock of sheep. Please tell me they look like sheep. My husband recognized them so I'm somewhat relieved. I'm not so sure the one with the wavy fleece is going to be able to stay. Also, the one in the lower right seems to be sniffing the air. Do sheep do that?

We didn't have sheep on our farm when I was growing up. However, my maternal grandparents kept sheep for a few years and I remember being taken out one very cold morning to see the new lambs. I don't know why this stuck in my memory but when I saw the sheep on this quilt, I was instantly taken back to that time. My grandparents were very dear to me so happy memories! 

Next week - the dreaded inner curves on more flowers and oak leaves. By the way, last week I thought there might be a dozen oak leaves left to make. Ha. I checked the pattern and found a total of 33 still needing to be made!

Life with Phebe, Bonnie & Clyde!

Okay, week 2 with Phebe and boy, is the honeymoon period of making this quilt over!!!

If ever a quilt could mock me, this one did all week. Phebe is a challenge, for sure! I may have it under control again. (Is that snickering I hear coming from the sewing room?) I got it that way by starting completely over on Monday. Yes, you read that right. I wasn't happy with several things and there were some obvious mistakes on my previous start and so instead of picking them out and redoing them, I just started over and reused what I could.

This is what I've been able to accomplish since Monday evening. There are some things I'm not happy about on this one too but they're not bad enough to start over! Because next week could be a busy one for me, I really concentrated on Phebe this week. I'll probably not be able to devote as much time on this quilt from here on out but I may be surprised.

I'm using either needle turn applique or the starch method on the applique work. Which method I use depends on how it turns out. My leaf points are getting better and they're becoming enjoyable to do but this is my second try at those oak leaves, they were not easy to do. In fact, it would be perfectly OK with me if there weren't any more of them on the quilt but I think there are at least 12 more.

People who have read my blog for some time read about Charlie, the orange tabby cat who showed up the night we moved into our house and decided to stay for 13 years. Sadly, we had to have Charlie put down two weeks before Christmas. The house was very quiet but we didn't want to get a new cat right before our trip to Florida to see our son and his family.

In mid-January, we adopted a brother sister kitten pair from a cat rescue group near us. They were very dependent upon each other and we couldn't imagine separating them. We wanted two kittens who could keep each other entertained while they entertained us!

Bonnie is the larger of the two and is like a sensitive child. Is her coloring a Tortie? She's a lap kitty when she trusts you, a little aloof and independent. All business and may be a good mouser when she matures. Doesn't meow, squeaks instead. Has been known to do naughty things but is usually not the instigator.

Here's a very rare photo of Clyde laying still. Doesn't he have an innocent face? He's smaller but is the alpha cat. Eats first, plays first and wants all the attention you can give him. He's a lover boy, your personal assistant and is on the go most of the time. He doesn't understand the word, "No" and if he were a human boy, his school teachers would recommend he be on medication.



We thought they were adjusted to us. A few days after our daughter's wedding, we came home and found they'd started stripping our dining room wallpaper! I don't think they appreciated our house guests - two young families both with a baby under 6 months. In fact, Bonnie was very jealous of the attention being paid to the babies. For now, I'm artfully arranging furniture and plants to hide the wallpaper or lack of it!

I admit I'd been thinking of stripping the wallpaper myself but not till fall or even next year. We're still trying to repaint the living room, entry and hallway one wall at a time so I thought there was plenty of time to consider what to do with the dining room walls. Apparently not. Guess what job got moved up on the "to do" list? I insist that I get time to work on Phebe though!

A Week with Phebe

Here's my progress after one week of working on the center panel of Phebe!

Its definitely been a challenge already. I haven't had much experience with applique but if I had waited until I felt more proficient, I probably would never have begun this quilt.

Points on the leaves and flowers are a particular challenge right now but I think they will get better with experience. By the way, some of the leaves had been stitched down before I stood back to see if they were improving. Yes, they were except I hadn't realized there isn't enough contrast between the stems and leaves. In the back of my mind, I'm already planning to cut new leaves and start over. There are 34 leaves in this part so I'm glad I hadn't stitched them all down already!

Color and fabric selection are the two big frustrations. Those pink flowers may look bright to you but in reality, they're subdued compared to the fabrics I usually use. I'm trying to use softer colors in Phebe because I admire their antique look. I'll probably mix some contemporary fabrics in but I'd like the majority of the fabric to look "old". This is where my problem lies, other than some Jo Morton fabrics I don't have many reproduction fabrics. I've been auditioning fabrics for the blue flowers and red vase all week and not being satisfied. The light teal hill is not an easy fabric to match.

So, tomorrow I'm taking a road trip to Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, Missouri. This quilt shop has, in the past, had a better selection of reproduction fabrics than any of the 5 quliting shops in the Wichita area. In my next post I'll let you if I was successful in my fabric search or not!

Have a very happy Easter!  

New Beginnings

 Steven and Micaela King

married March 16, 2013

Remember the blue jars I baked? This is what they became - part of the table centerpieces at the wedding. Our daughter wanted a rustic garden theme at the reception and I hope we were able to create that with the moss, rock, wood slice, flowering branches, etc. This is not the church activity center where the reception took place. This is my dining room (the uncluttered half). Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the wedding and am trusting the photographer got some good shots!

This is a wedding wish card that guests filled out for the new couple. Made those with the help of one of my daughter's friends. They set on the tables at the reception and guests hung their cards on two tree branches we'd painted with blue glitter. This was definitely a DIY kind of wedding.

After the wedding, my husband and I were emotionally and physically tired but are now mostly recovered and have everything returned to the rental places. I'm trying to sort and condense down wedding stuff into boxes which will go somewhere in the basement.

Speaking of new beginnings ... ! 



I didn't need a new quilting project but after spending 3 months immersed in wedding details and no quilting since early December, I WANTED a new project! Can you guess what I'm making?

Details coming soon (if I don't get too embarrassed about the quality of my work)! This is definitely going to be a stretch of my quilting abilities.

What's baking?

Want to peek in the oven to see what I'm baking?

Its a fresh dozen of jars???

These are spaghetti sauce jars we're trying to make look like old blue canning jars. Do you know how many people it takes to eat 31 jars of spaghetti sauce? I finally resorted to giving church members a jar of spaghetti sauce if they promised to bring back the empty jar. Most people were very puzzled but then they already know I think differently than they do!

The jars will be used as part of the table decorations for the wedding. Individually, they aren't as blue as in the picture.

Basically, you stain the clean jars with glass paint, allow them to dry for 48 hours and then bake for 30 minutes to set the paint. They turned out a little streaky but I'm hoping with the lights turned down a little lower, most people won't notice. So, today I'm baking jars and then will be packing them together with the other table decorations. I'll share a picture of the finished product after the wedding.

Thank you to everyone who sent me a comment welcoming me back to blogland! I promise to do better about responding after the wedding.

Hello Quilting World ...

... I sure have missed you!

Last November I would have had no idea that a stressful Christmas season would give way to a self-imposed exile from the quilting world. For nearly two months, I didn't even check out the blogs I usually read.

Life happened and it seemed to happen over and over again. Perhaps I'll share a little about the past few months in a future blog post but for now, here are a few projects I've been working on.

 My daughter is getting married in less than 2 weeks. Things are crazy around here and the wedding supplies are starting to make my house resemble a warehouse!

This is a moss covered initial "K" which is the first letter of her new name. Those are pink rhinestones, not sure what happened to the one which seems to be green?!? I think I have had my fill of working with moss. Give me good old cotton quilting fabric any day!



I also made this moss covered basket for the wedding bubbles. Notice the moss caught in the tulle. I've given up trying to keep the moss pieces from attaching themselves to anything and everything. If my daughter is smart, this basket and the "K" will go straight to the trash after the wedding. Who wants to vacuum up pieces of moss every day?

Here's something else I made for the reception - a collage of the bride's parents' and grandparents' wedding photos. I also made one of the groom's family and another of the wedding couple's engagement photos. Yes, thats my husband and I in the upper right corner. Perhaps I'll share the entire photo display later. The blue is actually leftover bridesmaid dress fabric and the frames all came from Goodwill. None of them match but a coat of cream colored and a coat of fine glitter paint ties them together. 

 This topiary is destined for the Hors d'oeuvres table.



These are the crepe paper roses which decorated the church at my parents' wedding in 1948. My mom saved them all these years and when we cleaned out her farmhouse, they came home with me. We hope to use the best ones to decorate an arbor in the reception area.

Much more going on here to tell you about, most of it wedding related.

 I'll be back soon, hopefully working on a quilting project!

Some Childhood Hanky Panky!

Long ago (a year and a half ago at least!) I mentioned my hankies on this blog and promised someone to write a blog post about them at some point. Here it finally is!

Before the days of Kleenex and disposable facial tissues, these were my childhood hankies. I'm sure they didn't mean much to me while I was growing up and when Kleenex came along, I probably tucked them away in the back of a dresser drawer. We found them again when we went through my mom's farmhouse.

Here is Minnie Mouse baking a pie with the help of Jiminy Cricket while Donald and Pluto look on.

 Donald Duck in his sailboat while Huey, Dewey and Louie try to pull it in.

I'm wondering if there was a Mickey Mouse hankie that has gone missing. Does anyone know?

 Here's the Saggy Baggy Elephant. Doesn't look like this hankie was used too much as the colors are brighter than on the others! The stains are on the fold lines on most of the hankies but they have had some wear.

 Little Bo Peep with her sheep. I wondered who hemmed it!

 Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

This Little Pig Went to Market ...

 I don't think there are any nursery rhymes connected with the hankie above and below but if you recognize them, please let me know. I do have a few more than this.

I'm not sure what to do with my hankies. I'd like to make them into a wallhanging so I can display them occasionally but don't know what design or color scheme to use. They will all need a lightweight interfacing to keep them stable because all of them are very thin. Any ideas on what to do with them?

And one more thing ...

Thank you very much, Barb, for the box of selvages! It made my day yesterday and I'm looking forward to sorting through the selvages today!

Until next time, Mayleen