A Few More December Finishes

In addition to the table runner/wall hanging mentioned in the previous post, I finished a few more gifts in December.

My niece was expecting a baby and delivered a little girl in mid-December, a few weeks early.  Thankfully, both mom and baby are doing well, and (also thankfully) I had finished her baby quilt in the nick of time.  

My daughter had helped me pick out fabrics for it when we visited a new-to-me quilt shop in November.  I used a free baby quilt pattern by Amanda at Jedi Craft Girl, which I'd used before for a different baby quilt.  It's a nice one for larger or more elaborate print fabric that would otherwise get lost if you had to cut it into smaller pieces.

I really like the colors in this quilt.  The coral color is a nice alternative to pink.

While we were fabric shopping, my daughter mentioned she needed a new makeup bag, as the zipper pouch I'd made her several years ago was looking rather worn.  She picked out a couple of fat quarters for a new one, so that became one of her Christmas gifts.  She was pretty excited to open it on Christmas Day.

Lastly, as part of my goal to make each of my nieces and nephews a quilt, the Waverly (Storm-at-Sea) quilt was finished and gifted at Christmas to my nephew Brandon.

Local long-arm quilter Sandy did a great job on the quilting.  She gave me several options and I chose one that I thought gave the impression of a rolling sea or splashing waves.

It turned out very nicely.  I finished the binding a week or so before Christmas and that was a wrap!

So that's what's been happening here behind the scenes, sewing wise.  

I had an issue with my computer in November and ended up buying a new one during the after-Thanksgiving sales.  Setting things up and bringing myself back up to speed seemed to take a bit more mental bandwidth than usual.  It had been almost 10 years since my last computer and many things had changed.  I allowed myself a little more grace and time to get things switched over and definitely felt like the proverbial old dog learning new tricks.

(Temporary setup on the dining room table during the switchover)

One thing I'm still working on is learning different photo editing software, since the one I had been using on my old computer hasn't been supported for several years, and I felt like I needed to explore other options.  So far I've downloaded GIMP, but it seems pretty complicated for my needs, so I downloaded FastStone, which seems more user friendly.  I mostly do just simple editing for color and lighting correction, cropping, straightening, resizing, and watermarking.  Yesterday, after watching way too many YouTube videos on both programs, I was finally able to create a watermark in GIMP that I can use in FastStone (yes, I needed both programs to do that one simple thing...ugh). 

What do you use for photo editing, resizing, etc., and do you like it?

~Paulette

Sunday Sundry 6-4-17

It's a gorgeous day in this neck of the woods.  I have mixed feelings about sitting here in front of the screen when it's so nice outside, but here I am, letting my oatmeal and blueberries digest.  There will surely be time enough to soak up some sun later on, until either the rising temps outside or self-made in my own internal furnace (being a certain age) kick in, and I run for the AC.

Hot and cold, hot and cold.  My nights often go like this:  2:45 a.m. - kick blanket off.  2:50 a.m. - sheet off.  3:00 a.m. - sheet on but leg out.  3:05 a.m. - blanket on but arm out.  3:10 a.m. - arm in, blanket pulled up to neck.  3:30 - kick blanket off...and the cycle repeats.  All the while, the house is a steady 71 degrees, so it's just me and what's left of my hormones in a quasi-sonambulistic rodeo of the bedclothes.

Somehow, after a couple go-rounds, I do sleep pretty decently, so it works out, I guess.

* * * * *
What I'm listening to on my daily walk:  The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.

Over the past summer or two, I've read/listened to Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure.  I've yet to read The Mayor of Casterbridge (and others), but they'll have their turn.

These Victorian-era stories with characters set in the English countryside so lushly described by Hardy are the perfect companions on a summer walk.  I download the chapters free from HERE.  The narrator, Tadhg Hynes, is excellent.  I have searched for other books he has narrated and given them a listen as well, including David Copperfield last summer.

* * * * *
On Memorial Day, we celebrated my dad's 85th birthday with a cookout and gathering of about 40 people, family and friends.  He's been pretty cooped up for the past five months recovering from his ankle fracture, so he especially enjoyed the day. 

* * * * *
In the sewing room, I made a back for the bonus HST quilt, which you can see on the design wall here, to the left of the quilt top.  I used what was left of the FQ bundle of solids for it.

Also worked on making a sample of a hobo/hippy bag that my niece has commissioned me to make as a gift for a friend of hers.  She wants a bare tree appliqued on the bag, and I wanted to see how that was going to work.  

I just used some random fabric I had on hand for the bag exterior and interior.  It didn't much matter what that looked like, as I was mainly interested in testing the applique.

I used the Crafted Applique technique, and it turned out great!  I didn't back the exterior bag fabric with interfacing or stabilizer, just starched it, like Lara suggests in her book.  I prepared the green fabric, cut out the tree shape, pressed and stitched it down, then went over the trunk and branches with some additional stitching.  I'm very happy with how it came out and have no qualms about making the actual bag with whatever fabric my niece selects (bag tutorial here).

* * * * *
A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to make her a little zipper pouch for her purse.  She picked the general color scheme and I made this for her, using this tutorial.

We worked a trade.  She got a little clutch, and I got a month's worth of farm fresh, free-range eggs from her chickens.  What a sweet deal!