Quilting Project

My garment sewing friends are going to be a bit dismayed to hear that I've gone over to the dark side... I'm getting into quilting. And boy have I jumped into the deep end, taking on an epic project. 

The pattern is by Sue Garman, the Friends of Baltimore quilt. It's really convenient to work on this project while on the boat. 

Hand Appliqué blocks for my Baltimore album quilt.

The eagle block is traditionally included in the Baltumore Album quilts. I've completed this block now up to the point of adding embroidery. This photo was taken before the berries were added to the branch and the remaining flowers added to the banner at the top. And before I had a clue as to what I was doing. Notice the wonky gold lozenges on the wings of the Eagle. My appliqué and prep work was not up to my high expectation for standard of work. 

So in February I flew to Norfolk VA where my mom picked me up. Together we attended the Elly Sienkewicz Appliqué Academy in Williamsburg. I took a 4 day class from Evelyn Crovo Hall- she's Fabulous! This is the block from her class- I should say the start of it. I learned so much, and now my work is up where I would like it to be.

Don't exactly know what I will do with that block, but I love it!

So, back to Friends of Baltimore:

Finished appliqué portion of this block. Saving the embroidery work for later.

Needlepointing

I have two Christmas Stockings to make this year. In the past I've spent 5 years making one (Mark's), 8 years making one (Daniels), one year each making Ashlee's and Megan's, and 9 months of intense stitching to get Emma's done in 2011. Last Fall I picked up 2 new canvases, one for Caleb and one for Kiersten. Actually, Daniel and Ashlee went with me and picked out the canvas for Kit.
Needless to say I've spent a good deal of time stitching since then. I'm not certain I'm on track to have both finished by Christmas, and my hand hurts!

Notice the French knots I'm adding to Santa's beard. I love the curly texture and and since I'm using Whisper fiber, when I brush it out it'll be a bit fuzzy. Need to remember to buy a mascara/eyebrow brush from the drugstore. Perfect for brushing up fibers

I just spent an hour writing a post, and lost it in the publish. I'm too discouraged to rewrite it now

Fiberarts Afloat

Good day to anyone out there who may trip over this blog again.
This is an experiment to see if blogging from my iPhone is even possible.

We've been "homeless" 2 1/2 years now, and have been nomads living aboard our boat since May 2010. I can now say that I'm less of a natural nomad than my husband. It's been interesting Nd fun and sometimes very exciting, but I miss my studio, my sewing machines, my fabric, and my stuff.
It is a lifestyle though that we are committed to for a couple more years, so I'd like to blog about creating fiberarts while living aboard. Some of it is all about being flexible and being able to sew and do needlework in other locations, other people spaces, and under less than optimum conditions.
If you'd like to drop by occasionally and follow my exploits I'd be happy to know it.

Lately I've been visiting family back in the Midwest, and have managed to get some sewing done. In Grand Rapids Michigan I set up my 1976 vintage Bernina that I retrieved from my son on the kitchen table and recovered the seat and back cushions and created arm cushions for a rocker in the baby nursery, and stitched up some pillows for the living room chairs.
And I gifted my son and daughter-in-law with a bright fun quilt for my granddaughter due to be born at the end of October.

I found the fabric in a great little quilt store in New Smyrna Beach, FL back in June. We had sailed back from the Bahamas and were working our way north to South Carolina. We got weathered into NSB so I went exploring, and found this store within walking distance to the marina.
When I got to my moms house in South Carolina I cut and pieced the quilt top, then hand basted it to the backing. Then I got to practice my freemotion machine quilting. I have to say it was lots of fun, and I'm quite pleased with the job I did outline quilting the characters in the print panels. This was all done on my Bernina 165. After finishing quilting Istitched on a bias binding and hand stitched the binding over the edge to the backing.
Sigh, it sure felt good to sew something!
I'll be back later to chat about other current and past projects.

A return to blogging

Just thought I'd throw it out there that I intend to return to blogging about life on a boat, and fiberarts while afloat.
There has been quite a bit of knitting, some needlepoint, and little sewing going on since we launched back in May.
We've come almost 2500 nautical miles since we left our home port of Holland, Michigan on Lake Michigan.
And we've had the opportunity to meet in person many of my on-line friends that I've met through blogging, Ravelry, and Stitchers Guild.
It's been an adventure.
Currently we are in a marina in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Later this week we'll head to Biscayne Bay, then on down to Marathon where we intend to pick up a mooring for a month or so.
When in Marathon I intend to get online and begin a new blog on TypePad. Why Typepad? Well, first and foremost I can uplink the blog post to Facebook. Because most of my online interaction has been on my Droid, and using the Facebook social networking site, I'd like a blog that directly links to FB.
And, it just seems that most folks I know who use typepad have far fewer upload problems than those we experience with Blogger. My internet connectivity is too tenuous and too precious to me to be wasting time with Blogger issues.

So....in the next 2 weeks or so look for a link to my new Fiberarts Afloat Blog.
Til then, I'll share a few pics of recent projects completed while at sea.

Caller Herrin Tam
design by Kate Davies
Yarn: Isager Strikk Highland yarn
Needles: size 2.25mm and 2.75mm
start January 2011, finished Feb 2, 2011

update and thanks

First, Yesterday we launched the Boat - FINALLY!! Woo hoo...

I've updated the boat blog here

While living in limbo, I've gotten some knitting done. And some little sewing.

I got pillows and bolsters and a custom fit bedspread made for the master cabin on the boat. Using my Pfaff 130 vintage machine, that we paid Big Bucks to have professionally restored.

I'm going to give the guy who did the restoration one more chance to respond to my queries before publicly reviewing how unhappy with his services I am. I chose the most prominent nationally known "expert" in Pfaff 130's to work on this machine. I'm not impressed! I've struggled to get this machine to perform as even the most basic machine should. Struggled!

On the happier side, I want to report about the most excellent customer service of a tiny little business who makes stitch markers (for knitting and crochet).

Don't hold your breath, but I will get back with their information and the story. I'm changing computers and just realized that the pics and business info is all on the other computer.

Thats it for today.

Happy and jealous of those who had such a great time at PR weekend in Philly. I had been scheduled to attend the Hands On knitting retreat in Chicago that same weekend. The retreat got cancelled on TUESDAY! before the event was scheduled to begin on Thursday. The organizers will be refunding the registration monies - but not for another 90 -120 days. It was an unhappy situation that prompted the cancellation, but the event truly was all organized and could have gone on and happened without the organizers presence. I hope that they learned something in this process. They say they'll be organizing future events. After this though, I wonder what teachers will be willing to participate and who'll be willing to shell out money to attend, Given that they didn't have any provision for what would happen in the event of a personal tragedy?

Cheers to all my stitching friends,

Marji