January's banner

As a final flourish to a year-long project, it ended right on schedule. I finished this before my regular departure time, and was very happy to have it on her banner on the first day of this new year.

line 1: (Brl = Braille) / line 2: Lit- / line 3: (er)acy / line 4: Mon(th)

Eve of the Eve of the New Year

I finished the backing yesterday, so woke today determined to get everything pin basted before heading out to visit Mom this afternoon. And I succeeded (with time for a shower, to boot)!

In the past, I've pinned the outer edges very closely--end-to-end closely--but this time I dropped that step. It'll be interesting to see if that's a time advantage or detriment in the long run.

1st Week of Winter

When Christmas is over, the general mindset seems to be that Winter should be nearly over too. But here we are, in the first week of Winter and the last week of the calendar year 2023.

Today I sold the Singer 329 Fashion Mate to a sweet young lady who was very excited to have her.

That just leaves the Atlas listed on Craigslist. I'm going to keep working through my vintage machines in 2024, but giving myself only one month each in 2023 turned out to be unreasonably limiting. Next up will be my Featherweight and its hinky plug. I hope that's all that's wrong with it! If I remember correctly, the bakelite had crumbled enough that the internal wires in the plug head had touched and caused quite a commotion when I plugged it in. Once I pull her out, I'll see how good my memory of that event really is!

December banner

Got the last stitch in my mother's walker banner before 2:30 this afternoon.

Oh Christmas POUT, Oh Christmas POUT...

The chorus had its tech rehearsal last night (for our December 2nd show) and we're sorted for all the Christmas gigs in the next 3 to 4 weeks, so I feel as though I'm on the countdown toward finishing the holiday season. As a result, I was quite relaxed during my day "off" today. That's the funny reality about performers/performing: by the 2nd week in December, we're done! It takes two more weeks for the rest of the world to catch up with the fact that Christmas is "over".

After accomplishing the two tasks I had promised myself I'd do (clean the litter boxes, catch up on Mom's finances/bills), for my reward I spent most of the afternoon planning Mom's December banner. It didn't take long to go from an idea of four 4" blocks and a series of 2" blocks as borders, to the idea of three 5" blocks with snowflake fabric (for the first day of Winter) separating and bordering them.

Fabric pull:

Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah

November banner

I just put in the final stitches, then sat down for lunch and blogging.

A variety of regular threads and quilting threads was used to make the labels. Not overly thrilled with the gold sections of the variegated "November" thread, but I'll take that as a lesson and move on. (The 'month of...' is a Thoreau quote.)

Right around the corner

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November.

All the rest have thirty-one,

except for February which hath twenty-eight,

except in Leap Year when it hath twenty-nine....

 

Yeah, that little ditty devolves rapidly after the 3rd line. You can find many versions of the last two lines should you tiptoe through the interwebs.

All this is a lame intro to the fact that I put thread to fabric today to get Mom's November banner underway.

October banner

The last stitch went in this afternoon and it's ready to go to my mom tomorrow.

I "pigma'd" the stems of the apples. There was a LOT of pen work on this one!

Progress

Just a quick progress report to give my eyes somewhere else to focus for a bit. All the paper-pieced blocks are finished. Last night I traced all the titles onto their respective fabrics, and this is what I've accomplished so far this morning while a cool fall breeze (finally!) wafts through the house.

It had been my intent to pen The 57 Bus on the 'wrong' side of the gray fabric, but when I saw how the pen skipped over the white markings, I realized that would help create the rough chalk texture of the original book jacket.  

Back to Lawn Boy now.

To-Do-sday: October Banner

I'm behind on getting my mom's October banner done. Quelle suprise! I've been collecting ideas for the last couple/three weeks and by this past weekend I had a plan.

Sixteen inches across is my goal for each banner. Driving to "Apple Country" every year was a family tradition when I was a kid, so a paper-pieced block of apples in a bushel basket will be included. National Book Month seems a great way to subtly poke the political bear by depicting a library shelf of banned books (with a 2" pumpkin as a bookend as a nod to Hallowe'en).

Chillin'

It's not often that Mom notices or cares what's on TV. Today she was quite interested so we chilled on the couch and watched Bob Ross. With her background in painting, I knew she'd enjoy his shows if she'd only notice them.

What's wrong with this picture?

The bus windows were fussy cut from a fabric printed with mirrors

Hint: it's not the lack of wheels going 'round and 'round.

Finishes

 My first finish this month: the August walker banner.

A closer (and clearer) look:

What appears to be small 4-patches is really fabric printed with small square designs.

July start

I got the July banner on my mother's walker yesterday.

The "S MMER" letters were embroidered--I just didn't feel like paper piecing them. The U watermelon slice was paper pieced, using a Sharpie to create the seeds.

June so far

Before the sudden departure on the 5th for a road trip to Florida, I did manage to get quite a bit of sewing accomplished, starting with my mother's June walker banner.

Your eyes don't deceive--the strand of 'pearls' is shorter on the side that faces her. I managed to inadvertently crush some of the spheres that I'd meant to use, so one length ended up shorter than the other. The female residents had received these 'pearls' as part of a Mothers' Day gifty last month, which inspired the left block for June.

Back in business

April finished with a flurry of activity. First up: get Rosaleen up and running again. The belt I ordered looked suspicious in the package . . .

. . . but it was labelled for her model . . .

. . . so I  suspended disbelief and told myself that it was probably easier for product storage if the belts are forced into rectangular shapes by the packaging.

April prep

March ended with a flurry of projects. As soon as I got home from my 4-day trip away, I put my head down and concentrated on Mom's April banner. I'd heard her reading the March banner to herself several times a day, so I added words to April's as well.

Two Finishes

These have been done for at least a week, but I haven't had a chance to get with my tall hairy-legger to take the quilt photos until today. The blocks were a Quiltville Leader-Ender Challenge from 2019, Shoo, Fly, Shoo!

106" x 84"

The back is an Ikea duvet cover I found in GoodWill many years ago, lengthened with inserts of mixier-match rectangle blocks. As planned, the binding is the last of the blue fabric used in the sashing and 4-patch posts.

Not ready for March

Like most people, February ended way too soon to suit me. I don't know why we can't borrow a day or two from other months. January can afford to be a day shorter, and March would never miss a day here or there. Too bad those decisions aren't mine to make.

Because of various factors eating up this month, I've decided to forgo the vintage machine swap out and resume it again in April. I'm already happier!

For the past several weeks I've been quilting the Shoo-Fly Leader-Ender project from 2019. I chose a clam-shell pantograph that came with the New Home quilting frame I bought way back when. Because the Glad Press'n Seal is twice as wide as the pantograph strip, I doubled up the pattern so I could trace everything in one go. The paper was long enough that I could loop it around the table and secure everything with binder clips.

Sorry Phil: February = Hearts!

I set to work first thing this month getting February's walker banner underway, with the hopes I'd have it done before today (spoiler: I did). Other than President's Day and Groundhog's Day, there aren't many events competing for the iconic 'February Means: ' position, so I threw myself wholeheartedly into ... hearts. Foundation paper pieced hearts.