It's Kind Of Like A Monet....

Last weekend I finally got my courage up and started hand quilting the Granny Square Quilt!  After practicing again and again and again on my little quilt sandwich I made to act as a "Stunt Quilt" I finally realized something......My quilting stitches look fine as long as you're not investigating them up close.  If you step back and look at the big picture it actually looked.....dare I say......GOOD....maybe even REALLY GOOD.  So I dove in and started quilting....

I'm not going to be winning any hand quilting awards in the near future.....but at least my stitches no longer look like I had been sewing in the dark with one hand tied behind my back.  And it totally reminded me of that line from the move "Clueless."  Do you know the one I'm talking about?  Where one of the girls is looking at a girl she doesn't like and says "She's like a Monet.  She looks fine from far away but up close she's a big old mess!"  (And on a slightly related note, my Mom frequently called me Cher for years after that movie came out.  I guess she noted a similarity in our personalities.  But I'm not quite as ditzy as Cher.....at least I hope I'm not).

So anyway.....back to the "Monet" quilt.  Yes....up close you can see that my stitches aren't quite perfectly straight......

And they're not all the exact same length......

And I'm certainly not getting the minimum required 10 stitches per inch (who the heck made up that evil rule anyway?!).

But I've totally fallen in love with hand quilting and I'm happy with the sweet, vintage way it looks and I think that's all that matters.  This isn't about perfection, this is about fun!


And a few people have asked why I'm using Perle Cotton instead of quilting thread.  Well, I dunno!  I just thought it would look cute that way.   And I think I got stuck on the idea after seeing the Granny Square quilt on the Blue Elephant Stitches Blog that started this whole craze.  She finished hers with hand quilting and Perle Cotton and it just seemed like the thing to do.  And now I'm thinking about hand quilting Hooterville too......if I ever get it done.


But now I'm off to make some homemade pizza bianca, watch Tropical Storm Debby (please, please go away soon!) and work on my Monet masterpiece.


Happy Sewing,
Jenny

Work In Progress Wednesday - Well I Never!

So, I decided to take a break from all the hand ties on my Meadowsweet Living Room Quilt last weekend by beginning the hand quilting on my Granny Square Quilt.  I threaded my needle with some nice white perle cotton, grabbed my quilt, settled into my favorite chair and then realized something.......I have NEVER ever hand quilted a quilt before.  Seriously......the quilt shop girl has never done hand quilting before....and I didn't even realize that I didn't know how to do it until I sat down and tried to do it! 

Well...I started hand quilting it anyway, it looked absolutely awful and I tore all the stitches out.  I can't even begin to tell you how bad the stitching looked.  I didn't even take a picture of it because it was so bad and I take pictures of EVERYTHING!  Seriously.....Emma could have done a better job at hand quilting....

Then I thought I'd jump over to the Hooterville Quilt for a change of pace.  It's at the stage where I just need to applique the wool beaks and feet onto the owls using the blanket stitch.  Can you see where this is going yet?  Yup.....I realized I have NEVER ever done wool applique before.

Sooooo.....I've been spending some time practicing hand quilting on a mini "quilt sandwich" I made and I've been practicing my blanket stitch on some scraps of orange wool felt.  And then I just went back to doing the hand ties on the Living Room Quilt.  Oh....and I learned a little something about hand ties this weekend too.  I wish I would have just started by doing hand ties in the corners of each block, removed the safety pins, put the binding on and then continue to add ties after the quilt went into "circulation."  I'm doing TONS of ties and it's taking FOREVER and I'm now considering each row that I finish a huge accomplishment!

So here are my current stats......
Finished Projects:  ZERO!  But I've done 3 of the 8 rows on the Living Room Quilt!
Active WIPs:  4
Back Burner WIPs:  4
Ready To Go:  13
Must Make:  6
New Projects:  Zero
Forgotten/Abandoned Projects:  ???

Fingers crossed that I'll have some fabulous progress to show you next week!



Happy Sewing,
Jenny


P.S.  Thank you so much for all the sweet comments about Cassi Cat.  I'm happy to report that she continues to do GREAT and she celebrated her 18th birthday on June 16!

Work In Progress Wednesday - Maybe Next Week....

Well.....I'm arriving at Work In Progress Wednesday this week with absolutely no progress to tell you about.  Unless stress eating a lot of carbs counts as progress....I've definitely been progressing in that department.  If you read my last post you know I have a VERY valid excuse for not making any progress.  But the good news is that Cassi seems to have made a miraculous recovery and I'm feeling a lot better too!  Whew.....what a relief!

And even though Sammy doesn't seem to mind laying on a quilt covered in safety pins I'm determined to get all those ties done by next weeks WIP Wednesday.  I think she'll really enjoy a new and improved pin free quilt, don't you?!

So here are my current stats......
Finished Projects:  ZERO!
Active WIPs:  4
Back Burner WIPs:  4
Ready To Go:  13
Must Make:  6
New Projects:  Zero
Forgotten/Abandoned Projects:  ???   

I'm off to go kick a dog off of a quilt (well.....I'll actually just bribe her to get off of it with cookies) and get back to doing hand ties!

Happy Sewing,
Jenny 

Down But Not Out

Sooooo.....I meant to do a post last Tuesday about our incredibly fun Memorial Day weekend.....and how we took the dogs for a little boat ride....and how Mr. Sew Fab helped me bake a cake.  And yes, he actually helped....he didn't just supervise or lick the bowl.  And I meant to do a post for Work In Progress Wednesday even though I've made very little progress.  And I meant to do a post on Friday to celebrate Sew Fab's 3rd birthday.  And I meant to do a lot of stuff last week.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans.


My 18 year old cat, Cassi had other plans.  She started getting very sick over Memorial Day weekend.  So on Tuesday I took her to the vet hospital where I used to work.  Yes, I'm also a veterinarian but that's a story for another day.  Anyway, this clinic is 1.5 hours away from where I currently live but it's the only place that I trust with my babies.  And as you've probably already guessed I don't like to "work" on my babies.  I'm too emotionally involved when it comes to my own fur babies!  But it seemed that Cassi was just suffering from some....well....ahem....severe constipation.  But things kept getting worse so I took her back again on Thursday and Friday.  So my entire week was devoted to a sick kitty who had to endure about a million tests and treatments......and she still isn't doing much better.  Yuck!  I won't bore you with the endless medical details but she's probably going to need more tests and possibly surgery.  Double yuck!  And yes, I would have surgery done on an 18 year old cat because she hasn't had any health problems at all up until now and as my favorite professor in vet school always used to say "Age is not a disease!"


And then Saturday morning I woke up with a stabbing pain in my lower left back and abdomen and the knife has stayed in my back for most of the weekend.  Are my long lost "friends" who go by the name kidney stones coming for a visit?  Or perhaps it's just a muscle spasm.  I guess I don't really care what is is....I just want it to go away!  And the cherry on top of my week was when I dropped my iPhone and shattered the screen this morning.  Good thing - the phone still works.  Bad thing - you can slice your finger open on a shattered iPhone screen.


So, the whole point of this post wasn't to have a pity party or to bring anyone down.....I guess I just wanted to vent a little (I'm only human) and apologize to anyone who has placed an order that hasn't been shipped yet or who has sent me an e-mail I haven't responded to yet.  But now it's time to pick myself up, dust myself off and tackle my giant list of to-dos that built up last week!  And feel free to leave a blog comment venting about whatever is driving you nuts in your life right now!  If I get to vent you should get to vent too!

Happy Sewing,
Jenny

P.S.  Obviously the blog giveaway is going to be a little late this month but I'll get it posted.....eventually!