So bright, so challenging, so loving

This is a big week of love for me -- Feb. 14 is Valentine's Day; the hubby's birthday is the 17th and our wedding anniversary is the 20th. I am still with my  granddaughter and her parents  but my husband was coming for a four-day visit.

The latest Project Quilting challenge is brightness and I know who is my sunshine. So I played with the idea of sunshine -- a yellow portrait of my husband. But none of my sketches followed my brain's eye. 

I thought about making a card with a mirrored surface so he could see himself. I even found at least five ways to attach shisha mirrors at Needle and Thread http://www.needlenthread.com/videos#stitchesS Alas, no mirrors in the stash I brought with me.

Playing and reading The Seed with my granddaughter led me back to the sunshine idea. The simplicity of the book's illustration inspired me to try a fused collage technique. 

I ended up nixing the sunshine and collaged sky but kept the foreground. I added 7 flowers to help focus the eye and framed the work in some checked fabric I forgot I had.

I learned it's smarter to fuse the fabric, then cut it. First though I cut a foreground from the fusible sheet, released the sticky side and randomly cut green shape. That left tiny gaps of stickiness peeking out. Plus, by fusing to the material and then cutting I could place the fabric to better use its lines. 

I can see myself using this technique again. My fingers were itching to turn the foreground into an English cottage garden with threads and ribbons. But I can see other possibilities -- especially a Michigan autumn scene.

The finished piece is 15 inches by 12 inches. A Bright Day was created near Knoxville, Tennessee. It was finished moments before my husband and I left for a night alone to celebrate the first 34 years of marriage.

You can see what others did for this Project Quilting Challenge at http://persimondreams.blogspot.com/2017/02/brighter-betterchallenge-4-of-project.html  You can even vote for your favourites.

Y

Straight and simple stitching for now

Here's an overview of my year in stitches thus far and today's contribution.

Stitching fascinates grandbaby

Oh my. My stitching has gained a fan. I was working on my stitching when the family noticed how facinated my grandaughter seemed to be. Later, I found putting the hoop in her line of sight would stop her cries. 

Surely, it is the bright colors that command her attention now. I can't wait until she is ready to pick up a needle. Here's my progress on a year of stitches. 

Challenge of texture perfect for new sense of touch

The third challenge of Season Eight of Project Quilting revolved around texture. Although I intended to quilt for texture, I dropped that idea to add texture to an animal panel for my granddaughter's room.

This was the week my grand seemed to become aware of her sense of touch. The two-month-old seemed to touch and then study everything in her path.  That led my daughter to bring out the book called Animals, which includes a different texture on each animal. Amelia and I explored the rabbits' fur, the zebra's rough stripes, and even the slick grass that hid the tiger cub.  

But back to the task on hand. I pulled out muslin and batting and made a 9-inch by  9-inch quilt. Next,  I divided up the space and prepared an area to start quilting by hand. I planned to stitch densely in the first box. But first, I started working on a fun project - a monkey appliqué for a wall hanging. You see, piecing is my love in the adventure of quilts so I postponed my quilting.  

As I worked on the monkey, I scoured the environment for texture. Look at how the placement of stitching added variety to that white towel with a band near one edge breaking up the fabric. See how the stitches and cutting of fabric created the softness of chenille. Look at the tiny stitches that compressed the fur on the baby's rabbit face. That work emphasized the padded threadwork that served as an eye.

Fortunately, I finally woke up to the idea of making the monkey the project. I put together eight layers of fabric with eight rows of stitches. I then cut through seven layers between the rows and fluffed up the cuts. I stitched this piece down over the tan circle that once identified the monkey's belly. I longed for the chennile tool sitting in the tool box up north. I cursed not using a different color base to make the clipping easier.  

I created layers of stitches to build thick rounded eyes.  I added loops of thread to the 

top of the monkey's head. A similar set of loops finished off the monkey's tail that also was padded.

 I  added batting and a backing. The finished work is 8 inches by 11 inches. It was created in Greeneville, TN. It is best viewed and  touched while working your way through five verses of monkeys jumping on the bed. Check out how others tackled texture too.

Wild challenge lost its oomph

Finished! Barely and not a real beauty but I am finished with Project Quilting Season 8 challenge 2: 7 days to create and finish a Carolina Lily inspired project that has at least one of these three things:

• Three layers stitched
•  patchwork or 
• appliqué

This is my final  interpretation:

Here's another look. You might see a ball of thread inside. I hope to use the lily to help keep the thread for stitching and tatting close by and most importantly off the floor. 

 Don't look too closely as I see a few more threads that need cleaning up.   I did rip this baby apart three times as it went from a hanging flower to a dimensional flower on  a wall hanging and back to a thread holder.  I even considered turning it into a book light shade.

Here's the middle layer -- note the clearance sticker. It clearly did not give me the oomph I wanted in my project. It was hard to cut -- rough on scissors and needle. Perhaps the product was past its due date. Or perhaps that is why I got it on clearance some time ago.

I created in the Flint, Michigan area this week and had high hopes when the challenge was announced. Then, as I as I wrote,  the Carolina Lily said baby to me. Alas, my skills did not match my dreams. But I did push myself and used a new tool. 

I used a bright yellow fabric on one side, a few oranges on the flip side of six petals. I did French knots and seed stitches to mimic the look of the Carolina Lily, a wildflower found in southern states like North Carolina. The finished project is about 5 inches tall.

All of the far more impressive challenge work is linked on the original challenge post.

#pqSeason8

Updated 1/22/17

More (overdue) stitches

Updated 1/22/2017
  
It's catch-up time as shortly after I posted my progress in a Year of Stitches, I got too sick to stitch
.
Was it a bad pizza? Was it the flu? Who knows. I put the bed on the piece because I won't stitch the more appropriate toilet.

Next came three black hearts as I struggled with three deaths. First, my husband came home to say a co-worker had been killed. Then we learned a relative of his died. The final blow was learning that a close friend of my brothers had died.

 I decided to stitch a bare tree next. And then decided to do more with the hearts. I added a traffic construction cone next to one heart for my husband's co-worker.

I added an M for Maurer so I would remember always the heart was for a family member of my husband.

Next to the heart for the "Good One" I put a flower,  small tribute to Jimmy Buffet.  For years, I associated a grownup Jimmy with Jimmy -- he loved to party, have a good time and seemed to enjoy Buffet. 

The younger Jimmy? He was part of my brothers' group that was always hanging around. Always! His death surprised me but I was not surprised that each of my siblings wanted me to know he had died. 

What is amazing is how many in my siblings' childhood neighborhood have remained good friends through the years.

I say their neighborhood even though I lived there too. I  was the eldest, with different interests and responsibilities. One told me recently she saw me as "the big kid who was doing big kid things." Yeah, big kid things like the first with a job, the first with a car and the first to leave to go to college.

Many of them came to my mother's service last fall  even though she had moved away more then 40 years earlier. Many shared "remember when" experiences my poor mother lived through - unknowingly hiding a  runaway, her children using windows as midnight escape hatches to catch up with friends, coming home to find "too sick for school" kids were joined by friends ...  

 Jimmy kept reminding me to think of him as the "good one." He was not the one who borrowed my car. He was not the one who hid in our basement for days. He was not the one .. you get the drift.
  

I thought Jimmy was always at our house in Livonia. But I just learned my youngest brother met him on their first day of kindergarten. I am sure I would have learned more about Jimmy at his service. Alas, this flu thing continued so I missed out again. Sure going to miss that kid -- the one with a very good smile and a life filled with love.

Carolina Lily leading me to baby's room

Imagine a baby's joy while staring up at a mobile of Caroline Lilies. Or should I turn the wildflower - the latest topic for Project Quilting - into bright hot air balloons to float over a granddaughter's chair? 

 How pretty the flowers would look in a variety of orange fabrics! Some flowers could come from translucent sheers, some shiny silks, some heavy cottons. 

How pretty if the flowers were of glass! Could you fuse oranges into 6 petals shaped in the kiln? Or would you need to blow the glass?

 Wait. What was the plastic stuff we used way back when to make flowers. You shaped wire and then dipped it and waited for it to dry. Look, I found a box from 1972 on ebay, But buying would ignore my "use the stash so you don't need to move it" rule.. 








 Ah, but back to the real world and the current Project Quilting challenge: 7 days to create and FINISH a Carolina Lily inspired project that has at least one of these three things: 

• Three layers stitched or 
•  Patchwork or
•  Appliqué.

Though I really prefer these three suggestions from Kim Lapacek that we make something that:

• makes you happy, 
•  expands your skills, or 
• brings joy to your life

What to do, what to do, what to do.


 Do I make a 3-D Carolina Lily using the stabilizer I have wanted to try? Or combine wire and pieced fabric into a standalone flower? Or finally tackle the fabric bowl on my wish list? Do I make a table runner that features a field of lilies made by fusing bits of oranges? Or do I embroider the flowers? What can I do with fewer then five days left and a very uncooperative body? Do I even own orange fabric? Or orange paint? Or orange dye? An orange doily?

 Back to bed. Dream some more

Cross stitch works for today

Here's my 11th day of stitching -- purple Pearle cotton put into a row of Xs. It's been a bad day.

A stitch a day will fill 2017

In 2017, I am once again committing to a stitch a day. It fits so well with my resolution to use or lose it:

• I can use up more of my flosses, yarns, threads, strings, etc. that I have acquired over the years. 
• I can learn new stitches from the books on my shelves and my computer. 
• I can use the templates I learned to make through Kathy Shaw (I have them in three sizes)
• I can remember to use stitches I've learned through the years. 

My first year I stitched on specific works -- block exchanges for the most part -- and on an experimental fat quarter whenever I was in between projects.

The second year I tried TAST -- Take A Stitch Tuesday. I also started Kathy Shaw's wonderful online  crazy quilting class, which included lots of stitching on one block.

The difference in 2017 is I have found a whole lot of  people who have committed to a Year of Embroidery. You can follow the tags of  #1yearofstitches or @1yearofstitches or #ayearofstitches on the social media of your choice. There are groups on Facebook so stitchers can share their output and encourage each other. 

That's right -- stitchers are supposed to share what they've done every day. Oops.

The only other rule is to stitch everyday. You can do the same stitch daily or a different one. You can do one stitch or as many as you like. 

I really love the finished work, which Hannah Clare Somerville documented on her  Instagram account. It is so different from anything I have done ... especially in my previous challenges to stitch every day.  Plus I like that all the work is in one piece.

So onto the new challenge and the sharing of my stitches. After today, the plan is to share the progress daily.  So the first six stitches:

The first day I pulled out a bit of brown floss from my Stitching-On-The-Go Bag for some stem stitching. Then the second day a piece of red floss became seven French knots. The next day, I pulled black floss out and did some straight stitches in a random pattern.  The fourth day I randomly pulled another piece of black floss and did straight stitches around a French knot. The fifth day I pulled another piece of black floss and did some bullion stitches. The sixth day, I pulled some cream colored floss and did some feather stitches.

I need to add some more thread to the bag as I drew another piece of black floss. I added some buttonhole stitches.

I pulled some peach floss that I recently used on a bear appliqué for my granddaughter's curtains. Again, I went with a stitch I know -- the chain stitch.

Then I pulled a heavier thread and did a running stitch and whipped along the stitches.

On Jan. 10th I pulled some DMC #5 yellow and blue and

added satin stitches in the spaces created by the feather stitches.

That brings us all up to date.

Eight is Great for quilting

 

My project has eight pieces of material, eight embroidery stitches and an "8" turned into a snowman. 

The little wall hanging -- finished 5.5 inches by 12.5 inches -- is part of a bigger series of projects I WILL finish in 2017. The plan is 12 hangings -- 1 for each month of the year.

I started thinking about what to do in Tennessee, where I was spending the month celebrating the birth of my first grandchild, as soon as the theme was announced Jan. 1.  I researched the theme and thought more about possibilities on the nine-hour drive home to Michigan on Tuesday. I think it was in Ohio where I did a rough draft in Notes on my iPhone. 

I found materials on Friday. Somewhere along the line I simplified the design -- a two-layer snowman made of squares, not circles. Then I realized I was doing a traditional square-in-square block so I chased a few tutorials for hints.  I sewed on Saturday and embroidered on Sunday and posted by deadline.

You can see all of our results and vote:

I am moving on to those other challenges. Thanks for reading. 

Crazy Quilting: Batik under the sea

Another block done and on its way to the next crazy quilter as part of a Round Robin: Batiks.

The request was to use white as much as possible. I also decided to use a clamshell as my repeating motif -- see stitching as well as sequins.

I used different sizes of pearls to make one seam.

I used yellow flower sequins with a clear bead to balance some of the colours in the block. The busy batik print left little room for embellishment. I tried to echo the fabric design. 

I used glitter ribbon and floss to make a fish. The clam-shaped sequin were held in place with a pearl.

Crazy Quilting: Snowing inside and out

The snow is piling up outside and on this month's crazy quilting block. 

The block came to me as part of a round robin. I chose this block that had Minnie Mouse with a stash of snowballs. 

Who has a snowball fight by themselves? I added the snow woman with her own stash of snowballs. She started as a scrap of printed material that I covered with floss. I made a tiny pom pom for her hat. 

I tried drawing the two together by adding tulle stitched in place with chain stitches. 

I filled the other blocks woth a variety of snowflakes. Some started as flower trim I snipped apart and then embroidered on. There are snowflakes made of sequins, of beads and from floss. 

I added a layer of tulle to several patches to add some of the sparkle often seen with snow. 

Almost every seam has some embroidery. I also added rickrack and beads to one block. 

The package of blocks is on its way to the next quilter. 

"Late to your own funeral" comes true

My mother struggled her whole life to be on time. She laughed about being late to her own funeral. Last week she was. 

Family and friends were gathered at a Catholic church in Visalia, Ca., waiting for a funeral Mass to begin. A photo collage showing highlights of her life was next to some flowers that surrounded the spot where her ashes would be. It was empty 10 minutes after the scheduled start. 

Her ashes were still back at the funeral home. My sister says the funeral home was to deliver. No problem as my brother-in-law dashed out to pick them. At least that is what family thought until later that night when the truth came out. 

Here, let my brother tell the rest:

"Let the truth be told! Ah my Mother, first she was late for her own funeral. Church full of people, four priests, three deacons, three ushers.

Beautiful service and what a surprise when they announced everyone was welcome for dinner afterwards, as the restaurant had setting for thirty. No problem, invite the Lord too, He can turn water into wine and bread into loafs. Fantastic dinner for all. 

Back at sister's  was the biggest surprise of all: Mom never was at the church, box was empty, mom still at funeral home. End of story, mom missed her own funeral. Hope she was watching!"

Burial will be in Michigan. I personally will check that her ashes are in the box. 

Family pose at the dinner:

Mother left her way -- in her sleep

Patricia A. Davis, 81, died Dec. 17, 2015, the way she always wanted -- in her sleep. Nearby, the daughter who had spent the most time with her recently, had just finished the rosary while sacred music played.

My mother was a religious woman, a Catholic by birth and always a good Samaritan. She once stopped to help a bleeding man on the sidewalk while her five children watched from the car.

The pet lover was a gardener, happy with flowers, especially

roses.

She grew up wanting to be a mother and married Donald G. Chick right out of high school. 

Five children survived; their marriage did not. She became a single working mom in a time when that was rare. She did it well.

It was dislike at first for her new boss and plant manager at National Can. That changed and she married Glenn C. Davis in July 1976. She was now the mother of 7.

The Detroit, Michigan, native who lived in Livonia for years began moving -- New Jersey, Ohio (twice, same house even), Maryland, Pennsylvania, and finally Calif. -- as Glenn accepted new assignments. 

In California, she opened Postal Plus, which quickly became a gift shop instead of just a mail service.

Her last move was to a place she never wanted to be - a nursing home. But a fall Dec. 26, 2014, and then strokes meant she needed the care. 

Sadly, that move meant no more Red Hat Society or mahjong with the local ladies.

It meant change for the stylish woman, who loved shoes and scarves as well as bargains. A request for her lipstick always meant she felt better now. 

She shocked many when she went on a pilgrimage to rural, rocky Medjugorje in Bosnia. She believed six Catholics had seen the Virgin Mary.

She often was a positive woman, which meant one was never lost but on an adventure. She would up the appeal of hot dogs once with a picnic in the snow.

Now she's on the grandest adventure of all. You can probably hear her whistling if that's allowed in the penny-ante poker games in heaven. 

She was proceeded in death by her parents Jack and Irene Lawson, her brother, a sister and both husbands.

Survivors include sister: Marian Soditch; children: Sherry L. Davis, Lisa M. Davis, Mary Ann Chick Whiteside, Donald Chick, Patricia Call, David Chick and John Chick; 8 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. 

Isn't that charming? #pq6

The final challenge of 2015 was to use a charm pack in your project. So my final piece is a charm bracelet 

I'll tell you more in a bit. But first a nap. 

The finished prioject:

Those squares start as two circles. Here's a look at the other side:

I will add links to how tos later

A new day for the birds

The birds announce a new day as I rush to make the deadline for the latest weeklong Project QUILTING challenge.

My entry is titled A New Day: Chirp, Chirp, Chirp. It acnowedges the birds that start the days with songs. The "prairie points" remind me of the points children draw as part of a radiating sun.

This time I made the quilt in Visalia, California, a mere 2,370 miles from my quilting tools and fabric stash. The location change is part of my new days as my mother and I continue to switch roles. 

Still the possibilities began forming quickly as I used her napping to sneak a peek at the theme of the latest weeklong challenge: Sunrise, Sunset. 

My mother once sewed a lot so surely I could borrow her tools and fabric to supplement my quart-size plastic bag of fabric scraps, 2 hanks of embroidery floss, airline-allowed scissors and needles.  

If not, I could shop while she napped. 

Well, I could have shopped before a fever and more would knock me out for days. 

Still I knew what the project could be -- a coaster for her pitcher of ice water that sits on her bedside table at the skilled nursing care facility. 

Her housing change is what brings me to California.  My mom fell Dec. 26, knocking herself out, breaking her right femur and getting a blood clot in her head. While at the hospital, she had a stroke that originally left her unable to swallow, speak clearly or move her right side. She had a rod inserted in her leg. 

Before all that it looks like sewing was  eliminated in this household. Still I did find a wornout towell to use for batting and backing. It also would help soak up the water left by the pitcher's condensation. 

And I had that quart bag of fabric scraps that I was using for a 10-minutes of needlework daily resolution. Did I mention the fabrics were mostly oranges and pinks, with a touch of purple and aqua?

I learned I missed my rulers -- a paper bag didnt give me straight lines. I learned that you should look up prairie points before making them incorrectly as a quart bag doesnt leave much room for do-overs if you cut the wrong size. 

I learned these extra challenges can  a good thing. 

Here's the link to the challenge and entries: http://www.persimondreams.blogspot.ca/2015/01/sunrisesunset-challenge-2project.html?m=1

Personal "Project Quilting Challenge" up next

This season's Project Quilting challenges has ended for most. But not for me. The "paperwork" is not done.

In this case, I need to unasemble everything I gathered for the one project I completed. 

It is pure delight to create in an organized world. I found orange beads in the box labeled orange beads, orange floss in the box labeled oranges and ...

What? You thought I would find orange fabric in an orange fabric bin. Life should be so easy. Then again we all need dreams. 

Yes I dream of the day when my fabric is labeled. Right now, I have some fabric in bins and baskets. Some is even sorted. Some is even labeled.

But the unlabeled containers are in the new craft room, the old craft room, and the basement. They are scattered like my thoughts often are. 

The sorting is on my ToDo List. 

Parade of prayer flags done

Raise the flag and shout "Amen." Yes, my brothers and sisters, my family and friends, I finished this quilt project in 7 days and met the deadline for the Project Quilting Triangle Challenge.

MS Success + People + Prayer + Pills
Click to see whole pocket hanging

Plus I solved two problems with this project and I can say I participated in the Multiple Sclerosis  Awareness Month, which is in March. Even better, the quilters helped me kick my writer's block.

My wall hanging pocket is called MS Success = People + Prayer + Pills. It's a reminder to me that if I want to be successful in living with MS I need these three things in my life. I have what is now called the relapse-remitting version of this disease that affects the central nervous system. The unpredictable disease disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body. What it means is I don't know when my vision, my gait, my thinking, my ..... well, you get the drift ..... will change. Trust me, quilting and beading is a challenge when you can't feel the needle.

The color orange is another tie-in with multiple sclerosis as that is the color for the disease. I  considered calling the effort  Orange You Glad You Don't Have MS. But this quilt - gasp!!! - is for me so the title doesn't work. There are blessings with and because of MS and I tried to reflect that in the prayer flags. 

I need the flags inside-- I just survived 48 days at home --  so I created my own blue sky with family ties. My husband bought the box of "quilting materials" at a family estate sale. I'm sure my aunt never intended this material to be in a quilt but it worked for my pill pockets.

The perky orange ribbons came from an unexpected gift on a good friend's 60th birthday. The flip flops, which remind me of Footprints and the times God does the walking for us, came from an event at the University of Michigan-Flint which gave me many unexpected friends and a husband.

The finished project is 25 inches wide and 9 inches deep.There is quilting, piecing, beading and embellishing. It was made in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

The Triangle Challenge was the sixth and final Project Quilting challenge of the fifth season. The theme was announced on a Sunday and each of us has 7 days to finish and post a project that meets the requirements. 

I wrote about my efforts twice:

• Failing but making progress is success
• Let's piece the good times now

You can see what others did and participate in the voting if you are interested.  (Mine is #27, click on the heart of 4 projects you like )

The indoor prayer flags (will) hide seven bags of pills in plain sight. (OK, in the pocket but behind the prayer flags.) This means I can move the pills off the dresser, which is good because I don't like them as decor. Even better, I'm hoping this system will help me get the pills inside me seven days a week. First, I can keep the pills in the bag until I'm next to the water necessary to swallow the pile. Second, on the days when my body only allows sleeping my husband should know if I still need the pills.

At first, I thought I'd hide each day's pills in individual flags. But the preliminary figuring and sketches nixed that fairly quickly. That led to a variety of sizes. Here are a few photos and reasons why I did what I did.

This is my favorite flag. First, there's the frog which reminds me to Forever Rely on God. The frog also reminds me of my brothers who once collected a bucket of frogs  to hide in the bossy big sister's sewing machine, bed, and closet. They capped the adventure by getting the frogs to fit under the door of what I thought was safety in a locked room. Ha ha. Guess who bought me the first frogs to remind that I am human. 

The bride and groom is for my husband who reminds me we're not a pair, we are a threesome with MS a constant companion.

With MS, you spend a lot of time spinning your wheels. These beads are to help me remember to take time to appreciate now, to enjoy the tiny differences of moments and to wait for time to smooth away the rough edges.




A bracelet from the 2008 Girl Scout convention encourages courage. Some days I need that to face daylight. The carrots are quilted and that's embroidery floss greens on top. You are what you eat, which implies you should eat. Let's see if this flag can help me do that more - eat right and well, just eat.




The rainbow fabric reminds me of MS as the symptoms gradually come and go, sometimes bright and sometimes pale. The 2008 Girl Scout pin seemed to fit here as do the sun and star charms.




I call this my myelin  fabric. It reminds me of my nerves, with the scars that sending the messages from the brain to my body parts on wild rides. My late grandmother gave me the beads from a broken necklace.




The rick rack came from my grandmother's stash. I'm not sure where I got the broach but it reminds me that Mary Angel can do things still.



My mini-myelin fabric now looks better with more beads from my stash.

The Project Quilting Challenge season is over for now. I'm hoping to keep on sewing, quilting and writing.