Gale's Gallery IV: Quilted Wallhangings Anyone Can Make

As I've said before, I really don't sew...but if you classify it as crafting and durability isn't an issue, I can get by.  It has to be simple though, with impressive results of course!

My first original design was this stained-glass style show Yorkie.  From the collection of Barbara Alexander.

This Yorkie wallhanging was made with the "simple" stained glass technique.  I designed the dog, cut it into parts, then fused it onto black fabric leaving a space between.  Then I stitched the pieces down using decorative stitching where possible.  I added a border, then layered it over batting and a backing fabric. I pinned well and quilted by using black thread and "stitching in the ditch" so you can't see any mistakes LOL!

I added some beads and a bow for some additional accents and texture.  I gave this quilt to my dear friend and Yorkie breeder Barbara Alexander as a Christmas gift.

This one I made for my terrific neighbors Gerald and Diane Graves.   Pattern from Details by Diane.

The Iris wallhanging was from a pattern (ugh--I had to follow directions!)  I took a class at Quilttrends in Columbus, OH because I was determined to actually sew something.  This is my first quilt project that was actually completed.  There are many patterns like this and they are by http://www.detailsbydiane.com/index.php and are also available at quilt stores.

(I have a large quilt that has taken 8 years so far to finish.  I will see if I can snap a photo of the it in progress.  Another wonderful friend, Kim Nelson has been hand-quilting it for me.  It was not an easy task for many reasons!  Bless you Kim!  When I get it back I will have fun adding more embellishments!)  That can be a post for another day...

I decided to make a couple more wallhangings for gifts that year.  What was I thinking???? I barely got the last one done Christmas Eve afternoon.  This year, I didn't make anything!

Here is my wonderful stepmom Betty with her wall hanging.  However, as you can see below, she made a much more awesome hand-quilted full size bedspread for my daughter Audra out of fabric from clothes she had made her over the years.   

So, Audra and I just finished making Betty some squares so she could have a full size quilt without me actually constructing it....that way I know it won't fall apart!  See below.

These are called "Mary's Garden" flowers that will go on blocks.  I cheated and used non-woven fusible web.  Really easy!  This is really bright so it will look great at Betty's Florida winter home.

Behind the kids is a vintage (60s or early 70s) completely hand stitched quilt by my grandmother Louise Williams.  She used to poke her finger every stitch to make sure it went through.  Yikes!  Each butterfly is different and you are only seeing about a 1/3 of it.

Some good resources are at your quilt shop, library or online.  Try Alex Anderson's "Simply Quilts", "Quilt-In-A-Day" with Eleanor Burns, Fon's and Porter's cable shows if you can find them.  They all have written bunches of books also.

Unlike the knitting rules, I don't have many sewing ones (I'd break most of them anyway.)  My seam ripper is my most used tool:(

Da rules:

1.)  Even if you don't want to rip it out, nothing is a mistake if you can make it part of the design.:) 

2.)  Start small (large projects are hard to sew)  Do as I say and not as I do.

3.)  Seriously, don't scrimp on fabric.  You will regret it.  I only use quilt store fabric and thread that is heavier and colorfast.  A clerk at JoAnn's said instead of raising prices, they just order the fabric thinner.  UGH!  You will pay more, but you will have a better project for sure.  I use my 40% coupons on tools. 

4.)  Always buy enough fabric for your project.  I never learn! 

5.)  Fat quarters cost more than a straight 1/4 yard cut, but straight 1/4's are really narrow!

6.)  Actually read your sewing machine manual.  I keep mine with my machine as I always forget stuff.

7.)  Measure twice, cut once.  Unless you are like me and just never do anything requiring exact measurements:)

8.)  Never use your fabric scissors for anything else!  (Never use hair shears for anything else either!)

9.)  Always unlock your rotary blade before you lay it down and make sure there is something (a thick ruler, etc.) between it and your other hand when you are cutting.

10.) Take a class--that way you might not have to learn everything the hard way. 

11.)  Throw away your thread every few years as it will get brittle and break off in the middle of a strategic spot.  This is hard for me too.  I hate to waste supplies, but it must be sacrificed for the good of your next project!

12.)  You don't need a lot of gadgets, so be careful when shopping to get multi-purpose tools.

13.)  Organize and store your stuff-- I spend more time hunting then crafting as I like things put away.  I also re-buy stuff now and then because I don't see it, then there it is...

14.)  Finish what you start!  No UFO's (unfinished projects)!


Well, I hope this inspires you!  I would love to see your projects!


Quote of the Post:


"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw


Until next time,
Gale

Dog Grooming Made (Somewhat) Easy!

Top: CH. Anderleigh The Patriot (co-bred/owned with Barbara Alexander) and his granddaughter,  Darby Creek's Custom-Made By Sherlyn (co-bred/owned with Sheri Clark.)

Many of you folks (and your dogs) enjoyed watching the Westminster dog show this week.  Maybe it inspired you to try and make your dog look (and feel) a little better.  If calling up a groomer isn't an option right now, here is an article I wrote to help you do-it-yourself.  You don't need a lot of fancy tools and your dog will enjoy the extra attention.  (Once again, sorry about the cut and paste.  The first two blocks should be read as one, then the second two blocks are as one.)  Also, the word "follicle"  should have been "cuticle."

If you have questions, just zap me an email and I will try to answer them.  

One of my readers, Melanie Bowen, has asked me to tell you about her blog to uplift people dealing with cancer, focused mostly on mesothelioma.  Here is her link http://www.mesothelioma.com/blog/.

Until next time,

Gale

Quote of the Post:

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.

~ Danny Kaye

The Bucket List

It's nasty out today, so you might as well sit and daydream!  I would love to hear what is on your lists!  Failure to plan is planning to fail.... 

Gale's Bucket List 

(no particular order)

You'll notice there is no mountain climbing, skydiving, white water rafting, drag racing, bungee jumping or anything else dare- devilish listed.  I don't think the  purpose of a "bucket list" is to actually get you dead quicker!

1.  Win a lottery so I can afford to complete this list.  (Note to self:  buy a ticket!)

2.  See my kids get married and enjoy some grandkids when the right time comes.  Get them both graduated from college.

3.  Mark and I need to start taking vacations! (Though after the recent crash, I am rethinking the Mediterranean cruise!)  I would like to see most of Europe and go to Hawaii.  Maybe drive down at least part of RT. 66!

4.  Mark and I actually retiring someday and just working because we like it.

5.  Rent a cottage/condo/whatever by a large body of water in a warm climate to read, write and work on craft projects while Mark fishes.  Have a boat available.  (Perhaps future grandkids could join us once in awhile???)

6.  Publish at least one book.

7.  Take the family to southern California and show them around where I lived.  Also give them a tour of NYC that's not in snow when I am usually there!

8.  Play an actual song on the piano other than "Chopsticks" and have Taylor show me something to play on my lovely guitar. Get back my full singing voice (for what reason I don't know.) 

9.  Take a watercolor painting, weaving and a stained glass class.  

10.  Mark and I should go to Sturgis once during Bike Week.  (I'll be the one NOT wearing a leather bustier!)


11.  Go to the most famous national parks.


12.  Drive a cool Porsche 911 for a little while.

13.  Finish my darling Japanese Chin's AKC Championship and hopefully a yorkie or two.

14.  Build the great room addition so we can have family and friends over without a crazy seating arrangement, plus at Christmas be able to use all my decorations LOL!


??????  I'm sure there are more, but can't think of them off the top of my head.


My Bucket List is a work in progress and likely won't be completed due to the hole in my money bucket! LOL!  Guess that means I'll always have something to look forward to...


What would your list include????  

Until next time,
Gale


"Quote of the Post":
"I think most folks are as happy as they make their mind up to be." --Abraham Lincoln

Sophie Is Off "Death Row"---For Now!

Well I'm sure you have all been at the edge of your keyboards wondering what happened in the Sophie's Choice experiment.  Wish I had something definitive to tell you, but here is the report...

I took four eggs and blew them out, then syringed dishsoap into them.  You are supposed to tape the holes--oh please, a rounded eggshell with egg and soap on it??? I sorta got the tape to stick and stuck one in each nesting box.  I collected the good eggs and it just happened that both Sophie and Rocks Anne were in the coop.  So, I shut everyone else out for 45 minutes or so to set them up.

Returned only to find that Rocks Ann had laid an egg, but the soap ones were untouched.  Then I got to thinking, maybe Sophie was just cleaning up someone else's mess and was busted on circumstantial evidence.  I let everyone else in and left them alone. 

That evening I found several good eggs and all of the soap ones were fine.  What the heck?  Am I back to thinking a weak egg cracked and or got sat on?  Either way, you don't want hens getting a taste of eggs, so I just left the soap ones there. 

Last night I noticed a good egg and one of the soap ones broken.  OK.  Now what?  I left the others and this morning when I checked Sophie was laying, but there was one more broken soap one and I can't even find the other two.  I did scan everyone to see if somebody was blowing bubbles LOL!  Didn't see any suds spewing out either end, so who knows?  I will likely find them when I muck out the coop this weekend.  (I suspect they smell the soap as it was pretty hard to wash off the ends.)

I just got back from work and I got 5 eggs, but 2 (below) of them had holes on an end, but not broken through the membrane so it wasn't eaten...I have been feeding the latest organic, complete (and expensive Omega 3) diet for laying hens, but am adding more oyster shell.

So the game plan is to make more soap eggs and put a cushy floor in each box and see what happens.  I have plenty of eggs, so right now is a good time to straighten this out!  I will keep you all posted as the mystery unfolds!

Yours in the coop,
Gale

P.S.  I thought it might be nice to add an inspiring  "Quote for the Post" at the bottom of my posts from now on...

"Worry is the darkroom where negatives develop!"  --Author Unknown 
     

Wanted! Dead or Alive!

Mark made the ladies a lovely set of four wooden nesting boxes.  They are neat and tidy and so much nicer than the stacking baskets I was using.  Coincidentally, I started finding broken eggs.  Sometimes a dented end and sometimes the whole thing cracked.  I thought maybe the immature ones were dropping the thinner shelled eggs and they were hitting hard on the wood, then breaking.  But, Mark is a farmer and suspected that wasn't the case...

Well, he was right!  I caught Sophie yolk-beaked destroying eggs in the nesting box.  She had ruined two, then later I found a third.  Unless they are teaming up, she is in big trouble!  I can't have her ruining that many eggs a day.  I was getting ready to call my neighbor to come get her and fry her up (I'm mad, but I could never eat my pets.)  But, Taylor said to give him a chance to look up a solution.  OK.

"Sophie" aka Bad Chicken!

If she lives through this, I am tempted to put a "Scarlet E" on her chest for Egg-eater!

Tomorrow I will place emptied out shells filled with soap in the boxes and see what happens.  Hopefully, she and anyone else tempted will learn a valuable "life" lesson-- Will the solution be a winner or will she be dinner?  It's Sophie's Choice!  LOL  Check back and see what happens!

Till then,

Gale (madder than an old wet hen!)

Gale's Gallery III: Confessions of a "Knit Wit"

I became a "knit-wit" late in life, but I've always been a bit of a nit-wit...  Today instead of telling "yarns,"  I am going to knit and crochet them!

My Grandma Hinkston taught me to crochet when I was in third grade.  I made the classic first project:  a somewhat "wonky" potholder.  I tried to make it square, but it always sprang back to it's original amoeba-looking shape. 

Rule One: I quickly learned that one has to keep the tension consistant and to be careful not to miss a hole in the chain.

My second project was an odd colored gold baby blanket that I gave as a present to my sister.  Not too bad for a third grader, but there were other lessons to be learned the hard way (in fact I still haven't learned it, though I know better.) 

Rule Two: Always buy enough yarn in the same dyelot to easily complete your project.  To this day I haven't done that.  I try to be fiscally conscientious with my crafting supplies and this more often then not comes back to haunt me.  I can't count the times I've had to go get more just to finish off a couple rows.  I've also even dyed yarn trying to match mis-matched dyelots with only moderate success always having to dye the whole project.  The color doesn't always soak in the same!

I was probably 40 before I finally got up the courage to knit.  I thought it was too hard.  I guess I found two needles intimidating.  My dear friend Barb taught me how to knit a dish cloth in one evening while we were at a dog show out of town.  There are really only two stitches, knit (also called stockinette) and purl.  It's the sequence that makes the design.  It's actually easier now for me to knit because you can see the stitches more clearly than crochet.  This really helps when you are using dark yarn as it's hard to see.

Here is an early project using self-striping Noro yarn.  There is a matching hat somewhere!  I have used this yarn a lot.  It comes in many colors at yarn shops.  I think it's a silk/wool blend.

I always seem to wind up in hot water (not good with wool!) when I start a hobby with a project that is over my head.  In this case, a sweater Barb's daughter Janet had just started but didn't want.  It was going ok with the rib knitting and all, but I later discovered I was knitting backward.  (Yep, only I could do that!)  So I made it part of the design.  That would have been fine had that been all.  But, along with having to get more yarn (wrong dyelot of the offwhite), when I went to attach the sleeves I realized there was no armpit room and only a stick figure could wear it.  Well, I dyed it turqoise and that came out alright and I thought maybe I could find someone skinny enough to be able to use it.  I never have.

Whenever a friend has a baby, I try to knit it a blanket.  Other than that, I had moved on to other crafts.  But I got the "itchy fingers" around Christmas and found a nice grey wool yarn in my stash that matched Mark's dress coat.  So, I knitted him a keyhole scarf.  Of course I liked "using up" my stash, until it became clear I was going to run out.  I had to buy another skein, the price had gone up dramatically and now I have a partial skein in my stash.  Pretty much back to square one...the story of my crafting life!

This is the keyhole scarf I knitted for Mark.  Knit as long as you like, then cast off 1/3 of the middle stitches.  Cast them back on in the next row.  This is Lamb's Pride wool from a yarn shop.

My niece Abby asked me to teach her to crochet Christmas Day.  I quickly went over the basics and she said she would practice, then come back.  Well she came back a few weeks later with an awesome scarf/neckwrap of her own design!  Very impressive and I am a proud Aunt!

This is Audra (Abby didn't want to pose) wearing a crocheted scarf that was Abby's first project and an original creation!  Great job!

Rule Three:  I don't want to seem snobby, but I am a bit of a purist when it comes to materials.  Whenever possible, I think it's best to use natural ones, even if it's a bit more expensive.  I can't remember who said this, but one TV crafter said, "If I am going to spend hours of my life creating something, why wouldn't I use the best materials available?"  I love the feel of real wool, silk and cotton as well as some of the exotics that I rarely use or can afford in large supplies.  Also, those materials breathe and polyester, etc. (aka plastic) doesn't and if heated will melt and burn into a puddle.  That's just my two cents...

These purses were all experiments.  Upper left is double-stranded knit, then felted in the washing machine.  (Always a risky process.)  Upper right is another Noro yarn project knit horizontally, then folded for verticle stripes.  The bottom is double-stranded knit with two colors, then machine felted.

Here is a collection of quickly knitted gifts.  Please see the Gale's Gallery featuring these for instructions.

If you haven't knitted, I hope you'll give it a try!

Until next time,
Gale