A Quilter's Path Takes a Detour!

So long since my last post!  Not that I've been idle, but I usually don't post unless I have some quilty pics, and that just didn't happen over the holiday season.  I don't know about you, but I like a blog with lots of pictures.  I just haven't had much ready to show you since before the holidays.

 

I did find this wall decor in a Greek restaurant during a recent visit to San Francisco.  Wonderful hexagons!   Will I ever make a quilt like this?  Not likely!  But aren't they pretty!  If only the service had been as good.

Just because I wasn't whipping out quilts doesn't mean that I wasn't wielding a needle!  Christmas was at our house this year.  A potential disaster was averted after our son forgot to bring his and his wife's Christmas stockings.  Some traditions are not to be denied, especially when it was my daughter-in-law's first Christmas with us!  So on Christmas Eve I was madly stitching away.  Thank goodness for my stash of red felt and glittery gold yarn!  Oops, forgot the loops to hang them.  Oh, well, Santa left the goodies anyway!

And speaking of Santa, look what he brought me!  Cathedral Windows earrings!  Don't you love them?

Santa also brought  a pretty dress for my daughter.  She loved the dress but she didn't like the way the in-seam pockets made the skirt stick out.  Guess who got to pick out the pockets?  (p.s., it was a very well-made dress.  Pocket removal took close to an hour for each!).  No pics (2 black pockets?  I don't think so).

A Blast from the Past!

 

This is a project dear to my heart, yet I just can't get into it.  Some 45 years ago (when I was 2 years old!!!) I designed and made a needlepoint for my parents for their then-new Michigan cabin.  Fast-forward to 3 years ago.  My brother and his wife bought a cabin just down the trail.  I wanted to make them a quilt, of course, but they really wanted the same needlepoint for their cabin.

I found the original design that I'd worked out on graph paper -- stuffed in an old sewing basket with my mother's knitting needles, piles of crewel yarn and a book on how to tat (!).  Needless to say, the "pattern" wasn't in great condition.  I spend a couple of weeks copying it over to fresh graph paper and began the project.

Remnants of the original design: 

Copied over, ready for a fresh start!

But:  times have changed!  I couldn't find the same size canvas that I'd used in 1969, and heaven forbid if I were to use yarn (now it's more like embroidery floss).

Needlepoint isn't something that I enjoy that much anymore, but I'm determined to finish this!  It requires the right conditions (can't do it on an airplane with 3" of elbow space, can't do it with two active grandsons rolling round the room).  Plus, I'd rather be quilting! But there was lots of time sitting and chatting over the holidays, so I picked it up again.  Now I'm  close to halfway through the lettering.

Soon I can sit back and work on the background while watching some mindless TV (which covers most of, IMHO).

UFO-Busting!

And speaking of UFOs -- which this needlepoint project certainly is! -- it seems that the new year brought out some kind of UFO mania in the quilting community.  I'm bombarded every day with emails and blog posts encouraging me to dive in and finish all most some of those unfinished projects.  Even my LQS has issued a challenge:  come have your photo taken with an unfinished quilt, then bring it back when it's done (quilted and bound).  Bring it in by the end of March and get 40% off your purchase; done by June, 30% off.  And so on.  And all finishers will have their photos with their FINISHED quilts posted on the store's Wall of Fame.

I'm in!  My first project is my niece's wedding quilt -- I've made some progress that I'll share with you soon.  And while I doubt I'll get this one done, I've gone back to the Easy Street Mystery Quilt that I started a year ago.  More on that next time...