CQJP Progress & TAST Stitch

This is the Cabled Chain stitch which you can see on right. I'm using it as a basket handle. Or, you can interpret that motif as an ice cream come, whichever you wish. This is block 6 of my CQJP project, dedicated to my Mom's youngest sister, Peggy Ann, for whom I am named (the "Ann" part). Today, Peggy is the last of the eleven children in my Mom's family still living. Sadly, she does not communicate with the family. But she was a fixture on Wednesdays at the quilting bee/sewing circle/coffee klatch, so she has a block in the quilt.

CQJP and TAST Week Two: Buttonhole stitch

This is a very conventional use of the buttonhole stitch but I promise embellishments are coming. 

What else have I been inspired to do:

A CQ block for a future AAQI donation. I came across an embroidered handkerchief and immediately did this before I got cold feet about using it. 

This is a future AAQI donation, too. The embroidered bird  is one of several Debra gave me awhile back for future AAQI quilts. Using my blanket stitchery skills here! 

While I was walking yesterday I had a couple more ideas that I will share later. I had a thought about how to collect all the TAST stitches and more Alzheimer quilts. I'm keeping file of ideas since this is going to be a busy year and I'm going to have to turn those out fairly easily. 

Blogger seems to be jumping back and forth between new and old blogging. I've heard from others that they were unable to leave comments for the past couple of days. I had that problem on Friday - I hope it's fixed because I love hearing from fellow quilters. This morning, I was getting both the old and new way of posting photos. 

Today is my annual outing with my daughters and sister in law. A couple of weeks after Christmas we pick somewhere to spend the day, have breakfast, and shop. For the past couple of years we've gone to Ikea and Atlantic Station. This time, the girls wanted to do Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza. At those two posh places, I doubt much shopping will get done! Ca-ching, ca-ching! I rarely go to Buckhead any more - that's what happens when you move to the 'burbs: you lose your edge - so this should be fun. I lived for several years in the Peachtree Hills.  

Have fun stitching!

More uses of the fly stitch

I was browsing the photos on the Flickr TAST group and saw this beautiful use of the fly stitch. Fascinating how such a simple, easy embroidery stitch can be used so many different ways - so simple, and so elegant!

Here's what I'm doing with one of the photos for the first cq block. I'm using the fly stitch to couch some ribbon around one of the photos:

I stitched that crocheted edging by machine and I'm adding ribbon to cover the raw seam and the stitching. I couldn't get the needle through the photo and the two layers of fabric in the cq block.  I have a sore thumb resulting from very dry skin which splits right at the corner of my thumb nail - on my right hand of course! This happens every  so often in spite of using hand cream liberally every time I wash my hands. I handle library books all day and they are very dusty. It just saps all the moisture from my hands, plus I feel I need to wash my hands all the time because handling library books is kind of like handling money. So I wind up with very painful dry skin. It's really difficult to push a needle through several layers of fabric because of this. This is only slightly easier but I like framing the photos this way. Those scalloped edges of the crochet also have lots of possibilities. 

CQJP, TAST, and Fog...

I woke up this morning, looked out side, and saw this:

which really doesn't do the depth of the fog justice. But it sort of relates to my state of mind.

I could not get to sleep (both girls were out) until around 2 am. Dogs woke me at 3 am needing to go out. Woke me again at 4:30 am wanting to be fed. DH woke me at 6:30 am when he came home. finally got back to sleep and woke at 8:30 am. So yes, I was a little foggy when I got up.

Here's what amounts to a very basic fly stitch, the first stitch of TAST 2012, on my CQ block.

Of course I envision much more embellishment in the next few weeks. I've laid out some of the photos I printed on Saturday. Do three seem like too many to add? I also think maybe they need a border, or something around them to give them some definition? And to make it easier to stitch them to the block! 

These pictures are of my mother's oldest sister, Emma. The photo in the upper left hand corner is Emma with her husband Walt. Around 1926 the family - meaning my grandfather, his wife and children, even Emma who was married -- went to Florida where they thought they were going to make their fortune in a big building boom. It didn't work out and they headed back home. By them my grandmother was pregnant with her 8th child - she rode back to Atlanta from Miami while pregnant,  can you imagine?  There was a family joke that the reason my uncle Frank was moody and a "black sheep" was because of that trip - he was born shortly after they returned to Atlanta. Emma would have been about 17 or 18 - she married very young. 

And by the way, some of the work being done by the TAST participants is really amazingL such beautiful stitchery! I need to shape up! What I've done is so lame compared to some of the work over there- it inspires me to challenge myself and push myself farther. 

I have a lot of work to do.

December 2011 & January 2012 AAQI

Here are my December 2011 and January 2012 AAQI quilts. Very easy & simple but I imagine I'll be making quite a lot of this type of quilt for them this coming year. The first quilt is December 2011 and the second will be submitted for January.  Debra sent me a number of machine embroideries awhile back and this is one of them (my daughter fell in love it).  I'm trying to get some easy quilts done to submit to AAQI next year.  Once I've done 6 months worth of the Monthly Challenge, I may take the pressure off and drop out of that challenge, just concentrating on my $1,000 pledge. I'm more than halfway there but it may take next year's Houston Festival to reach the goal. There are just so many quilts being submitted at this point, people have a lot of choices. But that's perfectly fine with me. I know they sell tons at Houston and I'm happy to contribute.

Now that I'm ahead of that game, I plan on getting blocks ready for the CQJP 2012  and Take a Stitch Tuesday challenges. I'm joining a great group of quilters/stitchers and I'm excited and looking forward to a year of getting to know them all. Keep up with our progress at the Tuesday Stitchers blog. I'm honored to be part of this group!

Getting up a 4 am is not unusual for me but this morning not only did the dog need to go out but I got up to redo Stella's bandage by myself. Fortunately, she was uncharacteristically calm. I didn't eve have to hold on to her, she just sat there and meowed a few times. She did keep looking at me but it was more of a "Gee, thanks. That thing was nasty" look. Not like the other day:

 I don't know if you can see the eyes but they are totally dilated. When I see eyes like that on a cat I generally move slowly away.....

Take a Stitch Tuesday

I have signed on for the Take A Stitch on Tuesday challenge, hosted by the incomparable Sharon. This is in conjunction with the Crazy Quilt Journal Project.

 And I've been scrounging through stuff I've been holding on to for a long time hoping to use one day. This is why I never throw anything out.

Today I'm getting organized, contrary to what that picture says, because I am committed to seeing this through.

Registration is still open if you want to join the fun and stretch your creative horizons.