Lynn Carson Harris

The Sampler

My grandmother had quite a collection of fancy hand towels hanging in her bathroom.  She taught me how to make these Swedish Weaving towels when I was little -  some of my very first needle work projects.

When D was in elementary school I taught him how to make them. He made a few for teachers and other special people. My grandmother was so thrilled that he had learned how to do this that on one visit to her house she gave him this:

I wonder why I had never seen this sampler before. 

I love how she stitched just enough to show the pattern and that the patterns just run into each other.

Finding treasures like this makes sewing room clean up and rearranging all the more fun.

Out With the Old - In With the New

I bought myself a new sewing machine this week! The sewing room is in disarray as I try to figure out how it will all be arranged. I am thrilled to have a sewing cabinet that the machine will fit down in. I have never had the sewing machine bed to be level with the table. I'll share more about the machine later, after it is set up and presentable. I can tell you that it has lots of space to the right of the needle which is great for machine quilting.

 

In the mean time we are busy with window repairs, bathroom installation, and issues with our well.

Never a dull moment.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Nothing is always."

The Girl Who Loved the Wind, Jane Yolen, 1972.

More Color Play

I returned from the grocery store today to find this on my living room floor.

B and D have been refining the design since the photo. I am curious to see how it will end up.

Meanwhile, I am working on a new quilt and finishing up a pair of socks.

Color Play

P was thrilled to help me lay out the 361 blocks in the butterfly quilt. We had to move the furniture in the living room to have space to lay it all out.
We were pleased with the layout but others in the family want to try a color or value placement to the blocks. We picked up all the blocks and have them sorted by light on dark, dark on light, and same value. We all got headaches from squinting our eyes at the blocks to see which way they read. 

Does anyone have a ten foot design wall I can borrow?

Back to School!?

P is SO very excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. We went to Kindergarten Round-Up a couple of weeks ago and now the talk is all kindergarten all the time around here. Preschool is over and she is revved up. At Kindergarten Round-Up one of the teachers showed a backpack and demonstrated what would need to go into a student's pack. She pulled out a lunch box, homework folder, a library book, a "book-in-a-bag", a pair of snow pants, and a pair of shoes. P was amazed. She started asking me right away about her backpack. The well trained seamstress that she is came right into the sewing room to choose fabrics to make one!

We used this pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates. P chose the fabrics, trims, and even decided on the quilting patterns.

I reinforced the bottom gusset and the straps with denim cut from an old pair of jeans.

We made the small size and had to shorten the straps a bit to fit her.

I like the finished look on the inside. I  just hope we can fit all of the required items in there.
P loves her new pack and even wore it when helping with the field fire.
This could be a very long summer.

A Great Day for a Fire

Sunday was a great day for our annual field fire.

Each year we burn a portion of our prairie areas. The fire helps to discourage the plants we don't want and encourages the native plants we do want growing there.

I enjoy being outside and watching the flames. If everything goes as planned that is all that we have to do. The fire puts itself out when it gets to the mowed grass that is next to the prairie.

 

The flares when the fire hits a thick patch of dry grass can be exciting.

 

It was a great afternoon. The fire behaved just as planned.

 

I like that the annual fire is something that the whole family enjoys. It is a relaxing work day and we come in smelling of smoke. It has become a spring tradition of sorts. Maybe we have an unusual definition of family fun.

What unexpected things does your family like to do together?

Thoughtful Sunday

"That morning I walked to school looking down at all the different colored pieces of cloth in my coat. All the stories the Quilting Mothers had told me about the rags and who they belonged to, I knew by heart. I had ended up choosing the most worn pieces for my coat because the best stories went with them."

The Rag Coat, Lauren Mills, 1991.

(This is an excellent book. I have read this book aloud many times at home and at the elementary school and still can not read it aloud without crying.)

Gratitude

I am grateful that I live in a town that is filled with talented and inspirational people.

Spring Butterflies

P has been helping me make these butterfly blocks for my latest quilt. First she helped with stacking the background fabrics for each block. She counted the bundles of four and had fun making the star pattern with the blocks turned on each other.

Her favorite part is matching up the scraps to go with each background. She auditions several colors with each fabric before deciding. I have to say she is really good at that part.
It is fun to sit and work at my sewing machine while she is helping  on the other side of the table. I also enjoy how much faster the process is with a helper.

 

I am eager to get all the blocks finished and see what they look like together.

I don't currently have a design wall to put these on (I always just arrange the blocks on the floor) but I think I may have to fashion something to arrange this quilt. I want to have it up and play with it for a while before I sew it.

Well, it is a soggy, rainy, thundery sort of day so I expect we will do a bit of sewing today.

I hope you have fun things planned for your day.