Lynn Carson Harris

Miles to Go

I'm in the home stretch. It's quilted and in the final step, the binding. It is a good thing I like hand stitching.

On Aging

Why do people fight the aging process when it can be very beautiful? We try to hide the effects of the passage of time with make up (first to look older and then later to look younger), dye their hair, and have cosmetic surgery. 

We try to hide wrinkles and keep everything looking the same.

Why don't we embrace the aging process? It is inevitable. I have noticed that things usually develop a beautiful patina when allowed to age naturally.

With aging, light is allowed to shine in and light up parts not exposed in youth.

Aging adds interest, depth, and character.

The bumps, bruises, and scars life left on my grandparents made them very interesting people. I hope I can age as gracefully and naturally as them.

On a related note, we recently watched the documentary. "Young @ Heart You're Never too Old to Rock". I highly recommend it.

Thoughtful Sunday

"Youth has nothing to to with birthdays, only with alivedness of spirit, so even if your hair is grey, Daddy, you can still be a boy."

Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster, 1912.

Quilted Strips

I've been quilting on the strippy quilt and it is almost finished.

I am really pleased with the grid quilting on the star strips. And I must say that the dual feed on the new machine makes straight line quilting a dream.

 

All I have left to do is the background quilting around the feathers and maybe some curlicues in the narrow blue strips. I tried a little meandering next to the feathers but I am not thrilled with the results.

Maybe some lines echoing the basic curve of the vine would be better.

I think I let it rest tonight and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.

Knee Socks!

I started a new pair of socks yesterday! These will be my first pair of hand knit knee socks.

These are the Norwegian Stockings in Nancy Bush's Folk Socks: The History & Techniques of Handknitted Footwear. You can see some fabulous finished stockings here  and here.  I'm using some fun yarn from Socks that Rock that I got at the Michigan Fiber Festival five years ago. I love the way they are turning out but I think I'll start over and do the ribbing on smaller needles. I tried them on and the ribbing is looser than the colorwork on the leg. Also, It was hard to keep the floats loose enough on the first two rows of the star pattern. The ribbing pattern tends to pull the stitches closer together and make the floats tighter. The long floats at the bottom of the stars are just right. When I reknit I'll pay attention on those rows and try to get it looser.

I know I said I wouldn't start any new projects until the UFO piles were gone but let's just say that I meant I wouldn't start new SEWING projects. A girls gotta have some handwork handy. I mean, really, I can't sew at the sewing machine while watching a movie with the family. Well, I could but it wouldn't go over well with the rest of the family. I also can't do machine work in the car. So, since I finished my latest socks  (pictures coming later) and also finished the applique on this UFO, which has now moved into the sewing UFO pile, I thought it would be OK to start these which have been on my to do list for years. Also, it is using up stash yarn. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am also stalled trying to decide about the quilting on the stars of my strippy quilt.

 

Once I decide how to quilt these strips I can proceed and get this quilt finished.

Any suggestions?

Beat the Heat

Everyone has their own way of dealing with our recent heat wave. P thinks it is good to wear wool tights when the temperatures are over 90 degrees!?! Doesn't she look cool?

Our not so beautiful ceiling fan in the sewing room becomes a truly beautiful thing.

Water is also refreshing.

The Vines

When machine quilting, I usually don't mark the quilt first. I enjoy coming up with designs that I can draw "free hand" at the machine. I thought this quilt called for something formal like a feathered vine seen on many traditional and Amish quilts. I tried to free hand a feathered vine on practice piece and it just didn't work at this scale. These strips are 9.5 inches wide, a pretty big space to fill evenly without marking.  I, then, drew out a pattern, a "free hand" vine that is the same distance to each side of the strip. The length of the waves are not necessarily equal but the width is the same. I marked the sides and the center line as a guide on the fabric.

I stitched the center with a double line about an eight of an inch apart. After trying and failing at free handing the feathers on the machine on a sample, I marked each feather before sewing on the quilt.

The template for the vine can be placed four different ways by flipping it around. That will give a little bit of variation in the vines while still having them all almost the same.

I am pretty happy with the result. I still have three more strips to do but each one gets a little easier.

I plan to do some filler quilting in the areas around the vine. That should make the feathers visually "pop". The thread I am using is a really pretty brown that matches the fabric beautifully. It matches so well that it is almost impossible to see the lines I have sewn when I need to backtrack. 

I hope you had a great weekend doing something fun.

Thoughtful Sunday

"I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, 1847.

Beach Buckets

I started this little quilt at Beaver Island Quilt Retreat in 2007.

Less than three years from start to finish - not too bad.

In working through my unfinished projects I have noticed that the quilts I start at retreat are the ones that end up not being finished right away.

It is not because I don't want to finish them. It is more that I am so productive at retreat that I start or sometimes even finish three or four quilt tops during the week. I come home energized with ideas that I want to try so I usually keep working on one of those quilts and then move that energy to more new projects.

 

Right now I am empowered to get things finished so I am going with that.

This little quilt was hand quilted with perle cotton thread and is 22.5 inches by 22.5 inches.

 

The finished quilt is in the shop.

I had better keep busy. Retreat time will be here before long and then I'll have even more quilt tops to finish!

Breaking the Rules

I told myself that I wouldn't start any new projects until I had worked my way through some projects in the UFO pile. Well that didn't last long.

P's new baby doll was cold so what is a grandmother to do but make a socks and a hat for the baby.

 

I am OK with my rule breaking for the following reasons:

1. It used up all but about 8 inches of the yarn left from Petunia's Rose Dress. (cleaning up the slow way.)

2. The project was finished in a couple of hours and did not add to the UFO pile.

3. The baby is no longer cold and Petunia is happy with the new items for her doll.

4. The little socks are just too cute not to like.

P still wants more items for the new baby's wardrobe but for now these are enough. She has discovered that the new baby can also wear clothes from her other doll. They are a tiny bit big but they work. 

I also could not believe that in my huge collection of doll clothes sewing patterns I did not have a single one for a 12 inch baby doll. Not a single one. How did that happen?

Now, back to the UFO pile. The next step on this project is drawing a 94 by 9.5 inch feathered vine to quilt in the floral strips of the quilt. I'll try to work on that today.