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Sunday, October 3, 2010

Quilting Weakness

Fall into Fall Blog Hop Continues. Wecome all you new readers. Good to have you with me.

My weakness is quilting. I love it, I live for it and I can’t live without it. A day doesn’t go by without me stitching away at something. A couple of years ago I even burned the potatoes on Christmas day. The family was busy playing games and I was puttering away in the kitchen. I decided that I had a few minutes while I waited for the spuds to start boiling. So, I snuck into my studio. My studio door is beside the kitchen as my studio is the old formal living and dining rooms of our house. I popped into my room and resumed stitching on my current project. I was sewing away, listening to the ruckus sounds of everyone playing and before I knew it I could smell something hot. A flew back into the kitchen and darned if the potatoes hadn’t boiled dry. I caught them in time that they were usable, but it was a real close call.

I love when I get lost in my work like that. Time flies away and I’m having nothing but fun. And really, is there a better sound than your family having fun and playing together? I’ve learned to be more disciplined now, and don’t allow myself to sneak into the studio while I am cooking. Well, unless the timer is set anyway.
Even over the past few days I’ve found time for a bit of hand-work. We’re building a fence between us and the neighbors. We’ve had a fence on two sides ever since we moved in eight years ago. The final piece of fence had never been built. But, as the neighbors (three different ones) didn’t really care, we didn’t either. Our new neighbors are great, but they have two wee little dogs. They don’t like chasing them to keep them in their yard, and we don’t like the puppy presents they leave behind. As much as we like the dogs, the compromise seemed to be a new fence.

Our fence is much more complicted
than this one. But, I'm too lazy
to haul out the camera. I'll
post pictures when it
is finished.
 This fence is the most complicated fence in the universe. Holes and grooves, pickets, cross stringers, headers, caps, pickets and more. We wanted to match the existing fence, but underestimated how complicated it is. It took a full day to build the first section. We’re faster now and hope to have all but two sections finished today. These sections will require some engineering as we have to go around a transformer and a window box.

Back to the point of this. Hand stitching. I love it! I’ve managed to slip in a few minutes of work each evening after it is too dark to fence. I am working on a hand applique wall hanging. Its about 36 inches square and all Baltimore album style blocks. I’m hand stitching the appliques onto the borders now. It’s slow work, but relaxing. It relaxes me and helps me unwind. I think I might even hand quilt this one.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your favorite type of quilting?
Don't forget that you get one entry for our prize draw for every comment you post.
See my September 30th posting for details on how to enter the draws.

7 comments:

  1. My favourite type of quilting is hand applique.
    I, too, find hand-work relaxing. I find when I'm on the machine, I'm in too much of a rush--and get totally tensed. At the end of the day, my neck is cricked, my back is sore...but with hand applique, it's the opposite. I can daydream...watch TV...talk to hubby.
    :o)
    pippirose59 at gmail dot com

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  2. My favorite type of quilting, is making baby blanket, tied together with yarn.

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  3. Mine is hand aplique. I find it easier to pick up and do a bit each night. Sharonj.

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  4. I love stitching the binding
    At the moment I'm trying to improve my free motion machine quilting
    Gill

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  5. I have burned so many dinners by doing that. I have a few minutes, I think I'll sew. Luckily my husband keeps an eye on me, then on the dinner.

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  6. I am not an experienced "quilter" I am practicing on my machine to do more than just straight lines and I also am trying hand quilting (which I love). I watch t.v. and do handwork and I love getting so much done.

    ReplyDelete

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