Thanks to Vesta

According to Wikipedia, "Cross-stitch is the oldest form of embroidery," and from the little I read around the web about it, that could very well be true. It was certainly the very first stitching I ever did, thanks to this woman.

That is my maternal grandma, Vesta. It's her I thank for initiating my love of sewing, back when she moved into our family home when I was a preteen, and brought along her black Singer machine. But it was Grandma who also took me shopping years prior while I was visiting on vacation, and bought me my first stamped cross-stitch fabric, and let me choose purple variegated floss. She taught me how to cross-stitch, and I created a "dresser cloth" as we called them back then, and it graced my bedroom dresser for many years after.

I can't say that I had that embroidery on my mind when I first saw Pile O'Fabric's Cross Stitch Quilt Block tutorial earlier this year. But cross-stitch obviously had a soft spot in my heart, so I started making some blocks, thinking it would be a good way to use up a bunch of my scraps. I made my blocks larger than the tutorial, using Kona Ash 5" charm squares as my block backgrounds, cutting my scrap strips 1 1/2"x7". 

 

After I had created a few stacks of blocks, my childhood stitchery came to mind, and from then on I had the beginnings of a quilt plan.

With the size of my blocks, turns out I really couldn't recreate much of my original cross-stitch design, but I made enough to make me very happy.

I was very random with arranging block colors, but hopefully you can tell that I made the circular "flower" in the stitchery above. For backing, thankfully I had nothing large enough in my stash to make a single-fabric backing, and that forced me to get creative. After making just a few super-sized (15") cross-stitch blocks, I happened to attend a lecture by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of 15-Minutes of Play fame. Fresh from that, I was inspired to start sewing through my scrap bin, making 8" improv blocks, just sewing and sewing until it seemed like "enough." Quilting is a diagonal wavy-stitch cross-hatch, which I questioned for a while, but after the wash-and-dry crinkle test, actually is quite perfect.

I was brave, and used the scrappy binding I'd made of strips from at least 8 other quilts. Crazy but fun.

The quilt measures 60" square, and no, the scrap bin is not empty, but I feel pretty pleased with using as many as I did for this two-sided quilt. And if my grandma was still around, I'm thinking she'd be pleased too.

This project was on my 2014 Q4 FAL list!
Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Scraptastic Tuesday.

Scraptastic

One of the projects I was anxious to work on at retreat was my cross-stitch blocks, and happily, I finished all that I needed for the quilt pattern I had drafted up.

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough background fabric to finish the top, but once home, I divided the pattern into a grid of nine 20" "big blocks" and at least started on what I could.

I'm going pretty random with the color placement of the crosses, so hopefully that works out ok. But considering the crosses came straight from my scrap bin, it seems fair enough.

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday at she can quilt and mrs sew & sow.

W.i.P. Wednesday

The last time I popped in for W.i.P. Wednesday, I was heading on retreat, and had more than a reasonable number of projects on my to do list. Three of those projects are now happily posted in the 2014 Quilts tab above - yay for that! Currently, here's what else I've got going . . .

Postage Stamp quilt - I did manage to finish cutting over 1200-2 1/2" squares, basically cutting up my stash.

I'm using the tutorial by Louise/I'm Feelin' Crafty, and adhering my squares to featherweight interfacing before sewing the blocks together. The top block shown below has its seams all sewn; the others have the squares pressed to the interfacing and are ready to be sewn. I was gung ho on getting on these the other night, and then managed to distract myself on other projects. oops.


Cross-Stitch Blocks - Here's another scrap project - cross-stitch blocks using the tutorial by Alyssa/Pile O'Fabric. I'm using Kona Ash charm squares as my base. I've got at least 50 x-pieces cut out, but for the pattern I have in mind, I'll need over 100 total, so I've got a ways to go. Haven't touched this one in weeks. I'd really like to finish the scrappy Postage Stamp quilt and then move on to this one.


I'm calling this one a w.i.p. even though I am still expecting a few blocks from my Mid-Century Modern Bee. These are Rolling Diamonds blocks from the tutorial by knottygnome crafts. I'm really liking these blocks!

I'm pattern-testing for Leanne/shecanquilt - her soon-to-be released "Canvas" based on her Colour Study quilts. I've really enjoyed this process, and am putting the finishing touches on my sample, so will be showing that off soon!


So that's what's actually in the works! And of course there's plenty more project ideas rolling around in my head . . . So it goes!

Linking up with W.i.P. Wednesday.