Friday, May 8, 2015

A Mother's Day Chuckle

This week involved no free-motion quilting, I'm sorry to say. However, things moved along swiftly for the two donation quilts, headed for the Center for Women and Families.


The quilt-as-you-go blocks are joined in rows; all that's left is topstitching the front joining strips (I'm out of matching thread, otherwise that would be done), then squaring and joining rows and, finally, squaring and binding the quilt.

While waiting a day to purchase the thread, another "Lucy project" (for my baby granddaughter) was pulled from the drawer for some further work. (If knitting isn't your thing, just skip the next paragraph and move on to the funny Mother's day card.)
Using all six strands of embroidery floss instead of regular sewing thread. Faster and more secure.
The buttonhole band is being joined to the sweater at the same time the buttons are being sewn on to the button band. It's the only way I could think of to align the buttons and the holes properly, as the bands are, per directions, knitted slightly shorter than the sweater edges (to keep the front edges from stretching with wear), and--big mistake--instead of calculating the percentage of the button-band length to the sweater-front length and sewing it up with a precise stitch count, I eyeballed it. Not good! After that I couldn't just sew the second band (the buttonhole band) to the sweater in the same manner and expect the buttonholes to be spaced exactly like the buttons. So instead I measured the overall button spacing on the button band and marked it with safety pins, sewed the first button on, and then stitched the buttonhole band as far as the first hole, making sure the hole landed directly opposite the button. Then I buttoned it and began the same process for the next button. This should work as long as I don't get cross-eyed in the process...but it's still eyeballing. Lesson learned. Next time I'll do some counting and get out the calculator. Or better yet, come up with a standard percentage for band length vs. sweater-front length. Someone's probably already done that. I should Google it.

Moving on. With Mother's Day on the horizon, I wanted to share one of my cards from last year. This came from my older son and his wife (Lucy's parents) and still cracks me up.





All year long, I've kept that card on my bookshelf. Notice what's sitting in front of it....



...'nuff said. (I think the painted one is a dinosaur.) Actually, the piece on the left was made by him; the one on the right was made by my other son.

Here they are, by the way, our two wonderful, grown-up boys, each pictured holding Lucy: Papa Alex on the left and Uncle Aaron on the right.




















And here's Lucy and her Mama, our awesome daughter-in-law, Shannon.



Happy Mother's day, beautiful lady. Thank you and Alex for your incredible gift, to this family and to the world.

Lucy Maeve, 7 weeks old
Linking up here with some other moms and their quilting blogs:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Whoop Whoop Friday
Lizzie Lenard's Vintage Sewing's Free Motion Mavericks
A Quilting Reader's Garden's WIPs Be Gone

Happy Mother's Day to them and to all who are mothers or who have ever nurtured another human being or animal. We need lots more of you on this planet.

Linda

11 comments:

  1. Hey I've got a clay pot like that, too, only mine is a red color. I love it. I also have a turquoise pinch pot that hangs on the wall and a leaf that is very fragile - all made of clay and glazed. I do use them all, and they didn't waste their time. Lol
    Sweet family you have there, especially Lucy. What a gorgeous smile.
    Hugs

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    1. Thanks, Terri. I LOVE that you are using the artwork your kids gave you. Yes, I have not seen Lucy's smile in person yet, but I will tomorrow night. I can't wait!!!

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  2. Nice post. And Happy Mother's Day to you Linda.

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    1. Thanks, Janis. Happy Mother's Day to you, too! Love you!

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  3. Hello Linda,

    Gorgeous picture of beautiful little Lucy. What a smiler! Lovely pictures of Shannon and the boys too. Aaron has that pre-Raphaelite look about him.

    The donation quilts in the making look fantastic. Sooner or later you will make one that you won't be able to part with, or have you already set aside some fabric for one?

    I'm such a cow. All the stuff my kids made got surreptitiously chucked.

    Knitting - Pour yourself a large drink and prepare to glaze over:-

    Working on the principle that it takes a ratio of four rows to three stitches to make a square, it is easier to knit the button and buttonhole bands at right angles to the front. Take a needle a size smaller than the size you are using for the rib and pick up stitches along the front edge. Pick up the loops on the right side of the knitting made by the first clear row of half V's away from the edge. Pick up a stitch per row, but miss out every fourth row. Using the right size needle for the rib, start knitting the picked up stitches. The first row can either be plain knit (easier to get going) or you can crack straight on with the rib. Spacing the buttonholes is then a question of maths, and you don't have the fuss of sewing on the button and buttonhole bands.

    Love, Muv

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    1. LOL The first donation quilt is the one I kept, because I used 1/4 inch seams and, thank goodness, washed it. Two seams burst. So that one's on my bed, and I'll mend it as needed. The second and third donation quilts, consequently, had 3/8" seams, and these two current ones have 1/2" seams, because frankly, my Singer walking foot likes that spacing a WHOLE lot better when it comes to joining the blocks and the rows in quilt-as-you-go.

      Thank you regarding the photos; I just love them and had to share. Your comment about Aaron having the Pre-Raphaelite look really got my attention! One of his recent, darker photos got some attention from my Pre-Raphaelite contacts on Facebook, because it looks eerily like a Julia Cameron photo.

      Well your kids probably really don't care. Alex didn't either; he was just trying to be a stinker. LOL

      Oh, I did not glaze over at all. I will be picking up stitches from now on (which is instructed by most of the patterns I used before) and using your ratio. That's what I was missing; I've never had a formula for this step. And of course the smaller needle would help...why didn't I think of that??. And it's so funny you mentioned the first row after pickup being easier if you knit it...I only recently discovered this. Thank you so much for explaining!!

      Love,
      Linda

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  4. What a fun post. And what a cute baby...such a beautiful smile.

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  5. I'm not a knitter but wish I was. I do crochet. I LOVE that sweater. Your card made me laugh. AND we have a little clay pot my 65 year old husband made in school for his mom. It's brown and looks like a big turd wrapped round and round! Lucy's smile made my day. She's gorgeous.

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    1. Knitting is AWESOME. Just go to a yarn shop that gives lessons, and you will never regret it. You can knit while watching tv, take it with you on trips to work on in the car or on the plane, and to waiting rooms for doctor appointments. And it's all based on two stitches, the knit and the purl. SO easy. Of course crochet is totally portable, too, so you know what I'm talking about. I do that too, especially for afghans. I got a HUGE laugh out of your husband's clay pot looking like a turd. That's a coil pot, no doubt, and yes, I totally see the analogy!! Lucy's smile...I get to see it in person tomorrow night, and I can't wait. Thanks for dropping in!

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  6. LOL - I have a few of those. My favorite is a hippo my daughter made with clay and also a bird - she is artistic. The boys made hand prints or hangers. Such a darling photo of Lucy. Those charity quilts are great. Happy Mother's Day Linda and to all the mom's in your family. Thanks for linking to WIPs Be Gone.

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    1. That's awesome, Angie. I'd love to see some of your daughter's work. Thanks re Lucy...I can't wait to see her smile in person tomorrow night. The charity quilts are moving along, and are such a fun break from landscape quilts.

      Happy Mother's Day to you and yours!!

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