They Are Plotting Against Me

I mean for me. . . .

no, against me. . . .

well, whichever???

Over the past several months,

I have spent lots of time and energy decluttering.

Part of this process included going through my fabrics.

It a most cruel process having to decide which to keep

and which to be rid of.

The other day, I was in a thrift shop down town and

happened to run into someone and, as it turns out,

we know a few folks in common.

(Small towns, it's more uncommon not to know someone in common.)

We chatted a bit about what we were hunting for.

When I told her I like to just see if there are fabrics

that could be use for stitching, she asked

if I ever used wool.

Well, of course I love wool.

She asked if I could use some pieces so I said sure.

I've had folks offer a piece here and there.

It's usually just that - a piece or two.

She brought me two large garbage bags and a big box.

There were pieces like the picture above and others

that were wool garments that had been washed.

She said she thought she would make a rug one time

but has never gotten around to it.

When I asked her if she wanted any of it back if I didn't think I would use it,

she almost "Noed" before I finished asking.

I have about 3-4 garments left to get the zippers out of,

seams opened up, buttons off, etc.

I've now come to realize, it's hopeless.

I am a fabric-aholic.

I don't think this disease is curable:)

WooHoo!

Until next time,

Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches

*~*~*Where Bloggers Create*~*~*

~Where this blogger creates~

I have always wanted to partake in this event

hosted by the lovely and talented

Karen Valentine at

My Desert Cottage.

I will be sharing just a few aspects of this room

since as of late,

life has been happening to me rather

than the other way around.

Needless to say it's a bit (okay, a lot) disheveled.

One other note is that this is the only white room in the house.

Mr. LB and I share:

he ties flies (for fishing) and I stitch.

So here we go~

A place for do-dads

On the opposite wall is my thread rack (& design wall actually.)

I keep bobbins on one row for the thread that is on the next two rows.

We each have a vintage light globe hanging above our work space.

They hang from a chain that is entwined with ivy.

Isn't color just beautiful?

Drop spindles and an old Singer.

Shorter pieces of lace get wound around a wooden clothes peg,

not a new idea, but an effective one.

And I found this little fella at a yard sale last weekend and

figured he would be a good one to keep me company in here.

This weekend we ladies of the family are heading over to

the Oregon Summer Quilt Expo in Redmond, OR and then to

the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

I will share more on those when I return.

Lastly, Thank You to Karen!

There is so much inspiration and creativity amongst bloggers.

It's always fun to search around and see new ideas.

Until next time,
Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches

~Hold onto Your Hats~

Happy New Year!

There is so much to share, 

but all in due time.

We have a beautiful -8 degree morning

out here in Oregon to kick off 2015.

One exciting thing is my honey got me a new computer for Christmas.

Well, new to me (it's actually a couple years old.)

The only glitcher is it's a Mac

so I have to learn how to operate it.

There are times when computers make me grumble

and others when I think they are just the cat's meow.

One of the meow bits is that

there are so many talented folks out there,

and I love learning.  So, when I ran across

the post that Connie shared, I was thrilled.

You can see it here.

How to make fabric twine.

It's one of those things that makes me think...

Why didn't I think of that.

I love it!

I am rather frugal (no kidding:)

so I save scraps that are too skimpy for anything 'real.'

Here is what I have done so far.

With that, 

I will wish you all glad tidings

and a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.

Until next time,
Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches

Antique LaMoyne Stars

These are soaking as I type this.

I don't even know how many there are.

I purchased them (quite reasonably)

last weekend.

There was a large quilt-top as well

of the same blocks

that I didn't purchase.

Now I'm kicking myself

and trying to get a hold of the folks

to see if they still have it.

Some of them had some

mystery spots so I used

Grandma's spot remover, 

then a wash with orvis,

and now a 'kinda' second soak.

There was a surprise in the bundle.

They all have a 'spotted muslin' background,

except...

It's the same size, 

same size of stitches and so forth.

Makes me wonder if it was a little joke

or if there was a story to go with it.

I will wait and see what I can come up with

as far as getting the quilt top
before I do anything with these.

My suspicion is that they are pre-1900,

but I'm not very good at quilt dating

with the exception of some crazy quilts

(yep the ones with the dates stitched into them:?)

heehee

~Have a wonderful weekend~

Until next time,

Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches

Easy Peasy Gift Idea

I have made these for years.  This set is for my aunt from my mom & somehow I am the one sewing:)  Did you know that the average American uses 7 trees worth of paper napkins each year?  That's just napkins not counting all the other paper 'stuff' we use.  I am not a freak, but I do like to do my part in trying to produce less garbage and do what I can to help the environment.  The shopping bags are a blast, buuuuut something else that is just as much fun is a set of cloth napkins.  I have a set for every holiday as well as a couple of extra sets just because.  I seldom use paper towels or napkins.  It's great, I don't run out & I get to play with fabric.  I will work backwards here to show you how.

First, decide how big you want your napkins.  For my everyday napkins, I make them about 15 inches square.  That makes it easy as far as figuring - you can get three from about 15 inches of fabric.  The width of fabric varies a little so I just measure and divide by three.  Depending upon the fabric, sometimes they are only 14.5 inches square.  That's fine too.  More formal napkins are usually a little larger - maybe 18-20 inches square.  At that measurement, you get 4 out of a yard to yard and a quarter of fabric with a strip left over to put in a table runner - see a bonus either way.

Once you have decided and have your fabric cut into squares, it is time to sew.  I have a rolled-hem foot for my old machine (okay, I hear you - one of my old machines.)  This makes it easy.  I just continue one right after the other then snip them apart and move on to side two.  You do want your finished edge to be at the bottom of your sewing edge as you work.  The unfinished edge is easier to feed into the foot.  When you get to the last side, you have to make a little rolled hem and place it under the foot to get it started - at least for this very small one.  Some of the rolled-hem feet make a little larger hem, and they seem to be a little easier to feed.  If you don't have the presser foot, you can just make a small rolled hem as you would on most sewing projects.  I have made hundreds of these, so I love my foot!  Now that's something you don't hear every day.

I like to frey check the corners when I am finished just for good measure, but that is entirely optional. 

I don't quite have this set finished yet - I'm getting there, but it is really cute fabric so I am enjoying it.  Just think, another excuse reason that is to buy fabric (and help save a tree too.)  Have a beautiful day.

As always, Nimble Fingers and Even Stitches.

The Whole Shabang!

It's probably not proper to begin a post with an apology, but I am anyhow.  One would think by my stage of life that I would have figured out how to take a strait picture, but nope not me.  I am just so good at crooked pictures:)

There is a little something to this quilt that isn't apparent at first glance.  Part of the label reads:

 In this quilt you will find,

Lots of luck of every kind.

13 Hats 13 #13’s 7 Pennies

13 Bats 13 Ghosts 7 # 7’s

13 Cats 13 Spiders 7 Winks

13 Black Pearls 13 Scary Sounds 7 Strands of Jewels

13 Black Blooms 13 Jack-o-lanterns 7 Shooting Stars

13 Brooms 13 Fabrics 7 Horseshoes

13 Full Moons 7 Keys

Okay, so the columns didn't copy and paste just right, but it's all there.  You can find all of those things in this quilt.  If you do the math, that's 218 'things.'

This leeetle guy is my mom's favorite.  She loves that he has his weee leeetle chains to go with him.  She likes the little jack-o-lantern also. I like the black blooms.

For some reason, with each quilt there are things that are just fun and things that are just a challenge.  The spiders in this quilt were a blast for me.  The brooms were my challenge.

Notice the little spider family at the bottom.  You had a bit of a preview of some of these.

You don't want to squish this spider - eeew!  Better just to get the vacuum.

I love these goofy faces.

That would be a broom key not a room key:)

So this has been the object of an hour or two of my time over the past week.  It is heading off to show this afternoon.  Wish me luck.

Until next time,

Nimble fingers & even stitches.

Doodads

Well, hello there.  I am back from the quilt show.  It was very nice, and you are not going to believe this, but I left my camera in the car.  I looked and shopped freely.  I didn't take a single picture all weekend.  The quilts were fabulous of course.  I was surprised to see that there were not a lot of quilts, and there were quite a few vendors - kinda the opposite of Baker where there were lots of quilts and not so many vendors.  That's why it does us good to hit a variety of shows.  Hood River has some Beautiful! historic houses.  I have been in the fun room playing.  I tend to stick pins in my shirt as I am working away, not to remember them until later when they demand attention with their sharp points into my side.  I made one of these for myself and decided they were fun so made a few more to put in the etsy shop.

This is the one for me.  I made one more like it and a few others.  Now I can stick my pins in this.  It clips onto my shirt rather than pins - I love that I can put it down low on my shirt where I usually stick the pins.  It also holds my scissors when I am not using them so acts as a fob. 

I love playing with vintage jewelry.  Oooh, aaaah - pretty.

 I am usually drawn to old fashioned styles - like really old as in Victorian, golden hues with deep rich colors, but who can resist the happy reproduction fabrics.  I will just refer to it as out of my box - any excuse will work really.  I am not to choosy.

 Aaaaand, it can be a name tag as well.  Or it can hold a note with a measurement, name, pattern, scribble, or just any ol' thing that needs holding onto so I don't loose it:)

These are now in my Etsy shop & I am hoping to get a few more made in the next couple days in different styles.  I have a couple more ready to rock and roll.  I am having waaay too much fun.  Hope you enjoy!  Have a marvelous Monday morning.

Nimble Fingers & Happy Needles

Cathedral Window Quilt / Coverlet

Good Morning Everybody,

I have began a project I shouldn't be working on just yet.  I have a challenge quilt due by the end of the month, and I started on my 'Cathedral Window' quilt.  Baaad me - shame on me.  I just couldn't help myself.  Our bedroom is in a sorta pumpkin spice color as well as antiqued bronze, and I am making it for our bed.  This will give you a bit of an idea what it should look like.

The ladies in Baker are making one for next years raffle which inspired me.  I love the hand work.  Nothing like having a needle in hand.  Most Cathedral Window quilts I have seen have either a white or unbleached muslin background fabric (of which it takes 25 yards.)  With such a requirement, it is easy to understand why muslin is so popular for the background.  I chose to use a dark for the background then have the 'windows' be vibrant.  I am using several background fabrics all of which are a very dark brown/black.  They start out as a 9.5 inch square. 

That is actually pretty easy - other than the mass quantity needed.  I am somewhere between half and two-thirds of the way with this step.  I think I need about 10 more yards of background fabrics.  Anybody considering making one of these, be advised: there is A LOT of ironing.  Once all of the 9.5 inch squares cut, I fold them up using an iron to become a four inch square that looks like this.

I have 97 of the 396 needed that are completed to this stage.  (that's 1/4 of the way:)  I am stacking them so I can keep track of how many I have.  I had to have some way of organizing them.  Once I get them all ironed, I will have to stitch the 4 corners together - yesss, on all 396 of them.  Actually, I am looking forward to that stage as it will mean the ironing is finished.  Then I will get to ladder-stitch them together side-by-side to create the real background for the windows.  I will probably do this in sections (as I was advised to do.)  After that (we are so in future tense now) comes the making of the windows.  I need 696 2.5 inch squares for the windows.  I have about 3/4 of what I need for those. 

I am using a variety of different prints for these as well - but all in the same color range.  You notice I am using the 'make a pile' organization method for these:)  I will be putting them in a basket here shortly as I don't want them to fray or scatter etc. while the background pieces are being finished.

Then at last, I will get to make the windows. 

They will look something like this.  The 2.5 inch square is placed in each 'frame' and the edge is folded over to create a scallop shape and stitched in place.  I can hardly wait!  I have also learned that this is actually considered a coverlet because of the fact that it has no batting.  I have a feeling that it will be plenty warm enough considering the fact that there will be 25 yards in background plus the windows over us.

Soooo, now I am off to work on the challenge piece - I really am making headway on it and am enjoying working on it.  The UFO's are calling my name.

Until next time ~ Happy Stitches & Many Smiles.

Serious Problem

Okay, so here's the problem.  I have these things that are needing to be done like laundry, floors, lawn, etc.  You know the kinds of things that I am talking about right?  Weeeell, we went to a couple of quilt shops yesterday, and now in addition to what I am already working on, I have new fabric beckoning me to come play.  How ever does one put her needle down?  I couldn't handle the pressure.  I went and cut some blocks for a cathedral window quilt I am planning on doing - 396 background blocks using 25 yards of fabric - yikes.  The fun part will be post ironing stage when I actually get to sew.  I also got a couple of other pieces just for hoots and giggles - like this one. 

Isn't it wonderful?  And, notice the naughty fella in the background taking a peek.  I just loved it, have no idea what I will do with it, but loved it still.  Here's a little closer shot.

I did go out and mow the lawn and will soon begin laundry, but had to get some fabric time in.  I think between loads, I have a couple stitches to put in place:) So, I was thinking - no laughing, eh go ahead and laugh, because I came up with a few indicators that it's time to set the needle down:

It's time to stop stitching when...

*you can't look out the window and see the children playing in the yard, because the grass is taller than they are.

*your laundry pile it taller than your fabric pile.

*on your phone under emergency contacts, it has the number to your local quilt shoppe.

Heehee

If you can think of more, please leave them in comments so we can all read them.  I love to hear from you.

Many Smiles & Even Stitches 

My "Newest" Singer

  I just have to show you my latest little Singer sewing machine.  I don't know if sewing machines 'find' anybody else, but they just seem to be drawn to me (as opposed to the other way around:) 

My pictures are a little off today - please excuse.

Well, this sweet little gem came to me pretty dirty.  It is the size of a featherweight and in the cabinet.  The handles on the cabinet are not original, but it is in overall good shape.  Rather than the foot pedal or treadle, it has the knee pedal - which I admit, this is the first one I have that way.  In case you didn't know, you can go on the singer website here and follow the prompts to date your machine.  They will even print out a certificate with your name and the serial number of your machine on it.  This one was made in 1910.  Now, I need to do this with a couple others.

I just have to show you a couple of the before shots - you know before the half of container of q-tips and alcohol and soap and water etc.

Yes, I know the hammer is down in the photo - I was working with the tension; the tension plates were stuck shut!  After I cleaned it, the stitches were perfect!  I can't wait to actually make something with it.  If you have a Singer, I would love to know what you are stitching on.