Adventures in fiber

This is the finished top.   I decided to redo the last owl upright as too many didn’t like that he was falling.   It is 36 x 40″.   The owls sit on a background that was cut 6 x 6.5″   I cut 6″ width of fabric twice = 1/3 yard.  Then I used width of fabric 6.5″ wide for each side and 3.5″ for the length between the columns.  There is a 3.5″ piece sewn on top of the column and then again on the bottom of each owl.  I With 42″ fabric, it worked out that  I could cut 3.25″ from each side and put it on the bottom of two of the owls and by cutting the 3.25″ off the middle two columns and sewing it together to place under the center column of owls, then using 4 widths of 2.25″ for the binding, it took 1.25 yards for the front and binding.   Another yard will do the backing, unless you are doing it on a quilting machine, in which case it will take a bit more.   The owls, etc are cut from scraps.  There are about 86 leaves, and are for the most part cut the same as the wing.   I used the width of 2 and the length of 1.8 zig zag on my machine.

Then I received a bit of a happy surprise this afternoon.   Mary and her daughter, Tiffany (Tristan’s mom) came over to show him off.  He’s a bit unhappy as he had just seen the doctor.   He looks all boy to me.

Today, I cut and applied a lot of leaves on this little quilt.   I am using 2 wide and 1.8 length on the machine   I’m liking the way it is turning out, even if I am designing it as I go.  And yes, the last one is falling out of the tree.  I have two rows of appliqued leaves to go and then sew the quilt together.

 While I wasn’t looking the machine decided to wrap thread around the wheel which ends up inside.   This is why I have contracts on my machines.  It takes  care of things I do inadvertently.  So tomorrow, the machine goes to the repair shop, which is why I need a back up machine.

Does purchasing this in 2005 mean that it’s vintage?    It’s a fairly small project and time to get it out of the sewing room.   I can only assume that the blocks that were supposed to be on the pockets became part of a quilt, so I will have to come up with a couple blocks for the pockets.  I did get everything cut out and the front pieces and the back pieces sewed together.

Then I put batting on the back and drew some lines 2″ apart and sewed on them for the quilting.    So now I need to make blocks, put them on, and start the inside pockets

For the first half of this year, I’ll have fewer hours for handcrafts since I am taking treatments for 2 months to hopefully avoid knee surgery and then in April will have the cataract surgery.  That will be gardening time, and I am so hoping to be able have a garden.    Please be patient, even so. I will try to get some fun and informative things done to tell you about.

IMPORTANT:   For those of you who are over 65, check with your insurance to see if you can get a Silver Sneakers card.  If you can, many gyms will honor them and you can use the gym at no cost.   If you want training or classes, they are less expensive as well.