UPRIGHTS ON BASKET

 I wove in the upright rods on the Bird Feeder basketweaving project today.

ALMOST GOT IT TOGETHER

 I really thought I could get all of the pieces of the Out of Africa sewn together today and I'd be able to call it done.  But this is the part that's the most difficult - trying to get all of the parts together.  The quilt is getting large which compounds the difficulty, too.  It's not easy getting it up on the sewing table and keeping it from wanting to slide off.  

But I only have a seams or two left to do.  And maybe a few tucks.

SEEN ON SUNDAY

 We had some of Darrell's kids and family over for a holiday get-together and meal.

Here are some random things seen.

ANOTHER WALL OF SUNFLOWERS

 Darrell hung the ongoing collection of Sunflower art I've been accumulating for a while now.

STITCHED ENVELOPE JOURNAL DONE

 I stitched the signatures into the cover of the Stitched Envelope Journal this morning.  Then I sewed on some buttons I found in my Grandma's Button Jar for the closure.

It's done.

WILLOW BIRD FEEDER PROJECT

 I purchased a kit with videos to make a Bird Feeder.  It is made by weaving willow rods.  This is my first attempt at basketweaving.  When I received the willow rods in the mail, I put them in the enclosed plastic bag and filled it with water.  They are to soak for at least five days.  I left them for about 7 days because it was so cold outside.

My first attempt at the bottom part was a failure, the rods were not supple enough and broke.  So, I took them out and put the rods back into water to soak longer.  This time I brought them all to the studio and put the bag on the stainless steel counter which made the bag easy to fill with water and left them for a few more days where it was warmer.

Eventually, I got the bottom woven sufficiently.  It's not beautiful, but it will do.

P.S. my hands are very tired.

ENVELOPE JOURNAL

 I started making a handmade book project I found on CreativeBug.  It's called Stitched Envelope Journal.

Made with a Kraftex cover and envelope wrapped signatures, I got the cover stitched today and the signatures made.

I used this 'pricking wheel' to make holes for the stitching around the cover.  

GETTING IT DONE

 I've been making some progress on the Out of Africa quilt.  I'm using several different shades of brown for the 'background' colors that will connect all of the fabric samples together.

That 'orangish' fabrics at the top is a color I'm thinking of using on the fabrics in that upper corner.

STARTED ON IT

 I have finally started sewing the African Sample Fabrics together.  I'm making slow progress.  Almost every seam is a partial seam.  And I went with the brown background. 

I've named this quilt Out of Africa after my favorite movie.

CHOICES CHOICES CHOICES

 I've been working in Procreate to try different backgrounds for the African Fabric Samples quilt.

AND EVEN MORE EDGINGS

 I finished two more edgings on the beaded pages today.

MORE EDGING

 It's raining like crazy here, so no walk this morning and probably not tomorrow either.  So, I'm up in the studio working on the edgings of my Bead Pages.  I only got one done today.  I've been trying to figure out a few things on Procreate so I can play with the colors of possible coping strips on the African Sampler that's on the design wall.  I don't use Procreate enough and I needed some refreshing on how to navigate in it.  But, with help from Darrell, I managed to get done what I wanted so I can audition different background colors.

EDGING THE PAGES

 I got one of the eleven Bead Pages edging stitched on today.

  Then I quit that project and went and straightened up my batting mess.  Too many batting scraps and they were taking up too much space.  I bagged up the smaller ones to be rid of and organized the rest by type - most of them are Dream Cotton natural select.  And I found I have more wool battings than I had thought.

TRYING DIFFERENT LOOKS

 I moved some of the pieces around.  Then moved them around differently.  Then did it again.

This could be an endless exercise.

MIGHT BE INTERESTING

 I chanced washing the little fabric squares of the found African fabrics.  I added a Color Catcher and caught a little red which I thought might happen.  But, there was little to no ravelling of the edges.  

I pressed the wrinkles out and put them up on the wall.

It looks better than I thought it would!  Now I'm thinking about what color to use as the filler.  Maybe different colors for each area?

FINE FEATHERED FRIENDS

 I fused some black wool onto the back of the wool piece I've been working the birds onto.  This will hide the knots from the applique stitches and decorative embroidery on the front.  After it cooled I cut the birds out leaving a quarter inch outline around each.  I decided the legs were wrong on the wren, so I will need to unpick them and re-stitch them before I cut it out.

They all still need to have a blanket stitch stitched around the outside and a ribbon or string attached which to hang them with.

ANTWERP STITCH

 I watched a video so I would understand how to do the Antwerp Stitch correctly then stitched it onto my Exquisite Bead Book pages using the hand dyed perle cotton #3 thread I made in the workshop.  I have eleven pages so far and I need to make another for a cover. 

And I need to add beading to the edges of each page.  But, the project is moving along.

FOUND FABRICS

 When I was looking around for something else, I came across a bunch of African fabric sample pieces.  What a treasure.  What shall I do with them?

ANOTHER BEAD PAGE

 I've finished another bead page.  This will be the last one like this.  Soon I need to start on the edgings.

STORAGE FOR THREAD

 I've had storage boxes for my Aurifil thread for years now.  But I was stacking the boxes on top of each other and it was a pain to pull out the one I wanted and to put it back in it place afterward.  Then I saw that Darrell had made himself a a cabinet for his little storage boxes and offered to make one for my aurifil boxes.

And here it is:

It is very nice!  But, I have more than just Aurifil thread.  I have a lot of Wonderfil, too.  And, since there is room in the boxes I've decided to incorporate them all together.  I think I'll sort them by color using the Joen Wolfrom color cards.  And I have space for 24 boxes, which coincides with Joen's number of color categories.  However, I will need a separate box for neutrals.

This will be so nice!

BEADING PAGES

 I'm making progress on my beading pages.  And I think I'm getting a little better at the whole process of beaded embroidery.

MORE BEAD PAGES

 I finished two more bead pages.

JINNY'S QUILT IS DONE

I sewed the newly made binding onto the back, then pressed it to the side and top-stitched it down on the front.  This quilt is done.  I've been calling it Jinny's Beach Blanket.  Terri Nussbaum who came up with this quilt design called them "Beach Blanket Bingo".  I think this quilt deserves a better name.  But, I can't think of anything.  But, the fabrics I used that have the border prints on them are a Jinny Beyer fabric.  

So it's Jinny's quilt, it is 55" by 72".     

It is finish #18 for the year. 

SNOW GLOBE ORNAMENT

 I made a Snow Globe ornament for the granddaughter Victoria.  She has been collecting them since she was young - real ones, not felt ornaments.

I got this pattern from whatacurlylife.com along with some more Christmas themed ornament patterns.

I gave it to her today when we went to her and her mother's place for Thanksgiving dinner. And a good dinner it was.

QUILTED THIS ONE

 This is one of the unfinished quilt tops I found yesterday in my container of UFOs.  It's a 'Beach Blanket'.  When I found it, it was missing the two short side borders.  But, the fabrics for them were with it, along with a big length of a go-with fabric for the backing.

I got them sewn on, then made the backing yesterday.

Today I loaded it all onto the longarm and set up a pantograph and got busy watching Erik work.

He finished it despite the ruffly border (without any pleats) and it's  off the machine.

COUNTING UFOS

 I've done really well this year finishing UFO projects.  I've finished all 12 of the ones for the Quilting Mayhem UFO Challenge.  So, today I thought I'd see how many I have left in the UFO containers hiding under the longarm.

I found 13 more quilt tops that need backing and to be quilted.

Here's one of them.  It's a Christmas quilt started in December of 1994.  It's a round robin - each border pieced by a different person, I provided the some of the fabrics to keep it consistent and made the Feathered Star in the middle to start it.  Everyone did such an exceptional job of adding to it. 

I'm a bit intimidated about doing the quilting for this one - all those open areas deserve something special.

BEADED CHRISTMAS TREE

 I started making this beaded Christmas Tree today.  There's a lot of counting and paying attention to what I'm doing.  I think the pattern calls for 17 layers.  I made it to the 7th today.

GNOMES

 I saw one of these in a local yarn shop and stole the idea.  I made these guys today.  The tall one is abuot 5" high.

SNOWMEN DONE

 I made the binding and sewed it onto the Snowmen quilt today.  It's done.

This is finish number 17 for the year!

FINISHED QUILTING SNOWMEN

 I was a bit hesitant to start up the longarm; was it going to work after crashing?  I had to give it a try eventually and find out!  But, I was happy to see that everything seemed to be okay.  I changed the needle and finished the last little bit of the program to finish the Snowmen quilt.  It quilted out just beautifully.  The Snowmen quilt is quilted.

This quilting design is perfect for this quilt.

SNOWMEN QUILT QUILTING

 I loaded the Snowmen quilt onto the longarm this morning and set up a pantograph that has swirls and snowflakes.  Everything was going just great.  The panto was stitching out beautifully until we got to the last row when things started to go awry.

First, there was two thread breaks for no apparent reason.  Then *crash*  the machine made a horrible noise and stopped with a alarming icon saying the machine was jammed.  The needle had come down onto the plastic cup of the #74 foot and was jammed there.  Using the hand wheel I was able to lift the needle up, but the foot's cup was broken (of course it was, it's a poorly designed plastic cup and this is actually the second one I've had that has broke- at $150 each). I gave up for the day and shut it down.

I don't understand what happened.  How could the needle move enough to not go down in the stitch hole, but move over and strike the cup?

Hopefully, the needle bar isn't bent or something.