Playing with Lines and Stitches 3

I finished my third lines and stitches piece. For this one I just used the pillowcase method to finish it instead of adding binding. It occurs to me that I should be telling you how big these are. This one is approximately 7" by 8". My first lines and stitches piece is a tad smaller than this one and the second one is approximately 8" by 9". So these are all small pieces. All of the fabrics used in this piece came from the box suit wool I was gifted in 2007. The brown piece was probably intended to be lining fabric. It looks like linen - very open weave - but feels like it might have some silk in it because it feels silky. The other two are wools.

This is finals week for me so I am very busy with that. But worse is the fact that my regular schedule is now gone. I am very schedule oriented and it always takes me a couple of weeks to adjust and find my new schedule every time the semester ends or school ends for my son. In addition, my son has a birthday coming up on the 27th and multiple end-of-year activities at school. So I feel like I'm being pulled in multiple directions. I may not post as often or have time to work on things worth posting about as often for a couple weeks.

I am again working on the Cub Scout quilt I'm making for Parker. I hope to have it finished for his birthday, but I'm cutting it close. Tomorrow I will post photos of my progress on that project. The center is done. I've finally decided what I want to do for the border. Now I just have to do it. So I'd better go get on that. I've got about an hour left before Parker gets home from school.

Zucchini Wrapped Pork

I made this recipe for dinner last night. My family loved it. You know a new recipe is going to be good when ... the smoke alarm goes off while cooking. LOL! For some reason, this rule is usually true at my house. The recipe is from the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Zucchini Wrapped Pork. I used my own homemade pesto and didn't have either of the "optional" items. They must have used a longer zucchini than I had because my slices weren't long enough to wrap all the way around the pork pieces. I just laid them over the top and tucked the edges underneath. It was fine. I am definitely adding this recipe to my rotation. I'll just have to make sure I only fix it when it is warm enough to open the kitchen window so the smoke alarm doesn't go off again!

Playing with Lines and Stitches 3, in progress

Somebody stop me! I just keep getting more ideas for these little "lines and stitches" pieces. I've been really busy with work this week, but have managed to find a little time to work on this.

I'm planning to applique some of the woven fabric over the top of the stitched wool when I finish the stitching. I have not yet decided exactly where or how I will applique some of this fabric, but it will go onto the stitched background in some way.

I have also started a sampler of stitches. As I have been working on these pieces I keep getting more stitching ideas. Drawing them just doesn't capture the essence of the stitches for me, so I've begun a sampler piece. I cut a 6" by length of my wool piece and am just stitching up samples as they occur to me. The 6" width is wide enough for me to get the idea of how the stitch looks, but short enough that it doesn't take very long to do the stitching. Here's what I've got so far.

Playing with Lines and Stitches 2

I finished up my second "playing with lines and stitches" piece recently. I liked the pinkish red binding better than the charcoal, so I changed the binding on the first piece.

I did not have enough of this pinkish red fabric to bind both pieces, but my LQS had some pomegranate Kona solid that is pretty close. Click here to see it with the charcoal binding.

On a personal note, today is a special day. Parker came home from school and said, "Mom, do you notice anything different about me?"

He lost a tooth at school today. This is only the third tooth he has lost and he'll be 8 in a few weeks. Many of his friends have already lost all of their baby teeth. He feels a bit self-conscience that he hasn't lost many teeth yet. So this is a big deal at our house. I'm trying to decide if we should go out to eat tonight to celebrate or if I should just fix what I have planned for dinner. I've already got the tooth fairy pillowcase on his bed.

Last Science Saturday for a while

Saturday was the last Science Saturday for a while. It was just a "play day." There was no planned activity but they had several things out for the kids to play with. The marble run is always fun. There was also a microscope with slides to look at, robots to play with and program, remote control cars, a spinning stool, magnets and they got out the rocket launcher and took the kids outside for a while. However, Parker's favorite was a remote control helicopter. The director of Science Saturday said, "well, he can try it, but nobody has been able to actually fly the thing."

Parker didn't have any trouble. He got it to take off from the table and was landing it on the yellow landing zone.

He even got it to fly up to the ceiling.

He was so proud to be able to do something that the grown-ups couldn't do.

Wonky Rail Fence Blocks

I tried another block style in "wonky piecing." I'm specifically using the same fabrics and fabric style from my scraps so that all these blocks can go together into one quilt. I made these rail fence blocks 5" so that when I sew four together the block will measure 9.5", the same as my wonky log cabin blocks. It is hard to see in these small blocks with small strips, but I also did some curved piecing. I'm just trying out the technique and it worked pretty well.

Pokemon Paper Quilt

I mentioned to my son that since he is going to be 8 soon, he would get to go to my "sewing school" this summer and make a quilt, if he wants to. He took that to mean he could start on quilt right then. Mind you, we are having this conversation just as I am closing up my sewing room for the day to go make dinner. I remind him that he is not 8 yet and I'm going to make dinner, so he decides to make a paper quilt instead. I liked this a lot better before he wrote "pokemon" all over it. He is in a Pokemon phase right now, in case you couldn't tell. I told him I may have to steal his background idea and use it in a fabric quilt. I'll leave off all the Pokemon stuff in mine.