Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

freedombecki · Sep 8, 2011

Divine.Wind said:
They'll love the stockings, Becki! Great job.

Thanks, Divine.Wind. I finally remembered to make the Soldier Stockings to include a large enough pocket to fit a cd inside it. I noticed my cds for machine embroidery patterns came in varying sizes, so I took the largest cd jacket and worked with that as a size. Unfortunately, it takes two times on the scanner per sock. Not to worry, it's all for our soldiers' afar to know we are looking out for them at home, where someone cares.

Also, it takes twice as long to make one Soldier Stocking. This stocking was made the other day:

freedombecki · Sep 8, 2011

And this stocking was made this morning before 8 am. It took some time to load the update to my printer today, for some reason. At any rate, it is always fun to make a Soldier Stocking. I am of the Viet Nam generation, where our soldiers in addition to being not quite accepted as soldiers of WWII were, I'm not sure handmade items were on the list of things you sent groups of soldiers.

God bless our dear, dear soldiers this Christmas season. This is my second Soldier Stocking that has a pocket for a CD on it:

freedombecki · Sep 11, 2011

Today, my heart and mind goes out to all who died 10 years ago today, and to our military, whose tasks were to neutralize those with similar intentions against our Homeland which is still the bastion of freedom and human rights that stands against dictators, murderous control freaks, and those who would harm our citizens through hidden agendas, omission of the truth, and hatred of free people. Sometimes prayer takes the form of action. My ministry is in sewing remembrances for better people than myself for their courage, tenacity, and service in ways that threaten their lives to save ours. I dedicate this day of making small amenities for some of them to all of them that have served our nation.

Love,

Freedombecki

9/11/2011

freedombecki · Sep 14, 2011

Oh, goodness. Time to go finish up a little autumn leaf quilt top. Will post more later. It takes a lot of time to complete a medallion into a little quilt top for the shelter. We'll see how it goes. I love USMB. Magic! You can do anything that you desire...

Divine Wind · Sep 14, 2011

freedombecki said:
Sometimes prayer takes the form of action. My ministry is in sewing remembrances for better people than myself for their courage, tenacity, and service in ways that threaten their lives to save ours. I dedicate this day of making small amenities for some of them to all of them that have served our nation.

Love,

Freedombecki

9/11/2011

I doubt there are many better than you, Becki. Some may be bigger, stronger, faster, but not "better". Thanks for the work you do and the sentiments you express.

freedombecki · Sep 14, 2011

Thanks, DW. Kind words always welcome.

freedombecki · Sep 15, 2011

Pure waste of time, don't read,

Today, two more Christmas stockings went into the quilter's closet for our dear soldiers who are trying to keep the peace in that Middle East tender box. *sigh* I just can't let a day pass when I think of them and send up a little prayer. I was there for a class using software to design machine embroideries on my sewing machine, and while I'm versed in one brand we sold in our quilt store for 20 + years, here, I'm working on an entirely new make of machine. The software is so similar to my old software that commands a standard sewing machine tweaked to do machine embroidery do amazing things at the touch of a button or so. The trouble with the new software is, I did all the stuff I'm relearning in the language of the other machine, which is as different in characteristics and placement of icons and commands as the Chinese language, say, is from our own English. The plants in Europe where these two competitors are located probably within 200 miles or less of each other, yet, their software commands are mapped so unlike.

Anyway, I was hoping to learn to use the new machine to make the cd pockets on some of these soldier stockings. I bought a whole entire yard of this cute little gingerbread girl-and-boy fabric, but the only trouble is, when you put it next to some of the exquisite or even modern fabrics, it kind of kills the Hansel-and-Gretel of the fabric as designed. It could be that pale blue snowy ground just clashes with the cranberry red and sparkling gold of the exquisite Hoffman prints I'm making for the stocking bodies. Well, 'scuse my aesthetics, but bleh! It looks bad, and I'll just leave it at that. One or two are okay, and as usual, I put on some saving graces--hand crocheted edges that even a soldier's rough hand might be reluctant to toss in the trash can, at least, I hope he saves it and remembers we over here do not forget our dear, beloved soldiers who spend endless lonely hours patrolling the dark in a strange land filled with terrorists who have been trained to kill them any which way they can. They say it's hardest on those long lonely watches when several days pass. I hope a lot of time passes and that peace sets in, and that no more anger will ever cause another soldier to die. So I pray, and tomorrow when I get up, I'll see if I can connect my machine up and sew a cd pocket for another larger stocking. The big ones I designed are ok, until you quilt them. Then the takeup is such that it seems to reduce the overall size, so I have to make them one more inch wider. One of the things I bought today was some more template plastic, large enough to redesign this time the RIGHT SIZE soldier stocking. Yeah right... By the time I don't have to do any more designing, I will have made 50 wrong ones. Grrr :evil:

Oh, yeah, and as long as I'm on this silly soliliquy, when we got home today, a little package of 5 quilt books from the Goodwill store in wherever, Amazon, USA it came from, I pulled out my 5 treasures, well, almost treasures as one wreaks in cigarette smoke of someone who smoked 99 packs of cigarettes a day since 2003, the copyright date on the offending book. Well, when you buy a book for 61 cents and it says it's in average condition and is a hardback, there's gotta be some kinda rub, and beggars can't be choosers. The info inside the book is amazing, and a little sponge with some rose water to clean off the outside jacket might help a big.

It's called "1000 Great Quilt Blocks" by Maggi McCormick Gorden, and measures 5 by 6 inches and is about an inch and a quarter thick, sporting 512 pages packed with designs I can almost do without much measuring for the most part, since years of quilting tends to put information in your head that stays if you're as addicted to the sport of quilting as I am.

Well, I have just given myself a little cleaning job, so I'll submit this reply, go baptize the book cover, and send up a little prayer for the troops over there watching a bare, darkened landscape near daybreak, possibly. Hope you send up a prayer for them, too, if you made it past the do not read warning to right here! lol!

freedombecki · Sep 15, 2011

Wow. Back from cleaning up the cover, and just cleaning the outside with a dab of Clorox II on the slightly damp white cotton wash towel reduced the dead tobacco smoke smell by about 85%. I'm going to like the book, that's a certainty. It's smalll enough to fit by the machine for inspiration while quilting, too.

The other 4 treasures are called "The Ultimate Book of Quilting Cross Stitch & Needlecraft," 512 pages of quilts and their associated embroidery crafts; "Quick-Method Clasic Blue Quilts" in my fondest color; "Quilter's Complete Guide" by Fons and Porter; and oh, yes, "65 Drunkard's Path Quilt Designs" by Pepper Cory, who spoke at our Quilter's Guild meeting last winter sometime, and whose specialty seems to be forever curved piecing, most people's virulent anathema, since it's hard to follow written instructions even though they say pretty plainly what one needs to do in order to successfully piece a concave piece of fabric 1/4" in to a concurve piece also 1/4" and have nothing left over. :muahaha:

freedombecki · Sep 15, 2011

I miss Alliebaba. Where's a smiley with a big lower lip and a frown when you need one? *sigh* I really loved Alliebaba. Oh, well. :dunno:

freedombecki · Sep 19, 2011

Time to visit the sewing machine. I've been writing toooo mucccchh haiku lately.

freedombecki · Sep 24, 2011

Here's one of the first purple heart quilts I made. It was very complex and not suitable for a group project, which later ensued. I'm pretty sure I sent this one to late Senator Thomas Craig of Wyoming to distribute to a wounded soldier either in Washington or at the VA Hospital in Wyoming. They are not allowed to tell the maker who the recipient is, so I never found out who received it. It took me 3 months to construct and machine quilt it. I really loved this quilt, and hope someone got to enjoy it who did a good job for the people of the United States.

The quilt was likely made sometime between 2003-2007. Sorry, I can't remember when we started and finished the project that eventually sent 36 quilts to our soldiers.

naomibee · Oct 2, 2011

freedombecki said:
Here's one of the first purple heart quilts I made. It was very complex and not suitable for a group project, which later ensued. I'm pretty sure I sent this one to late Senator Thomas Craig of Wyoming to distribute to a wounded soldier either in Washington or at the VA Hospital in Wyoming. They are not allowed to tell the maker who the recipient is, so I never found out who received it. It took me 3 months to construct and machine quilt it. I really loved this quilt, and hope someone got to enjoy it who did a good job for the people of the United States.

The quilt was likely made sometime between 2003-2007. Sorry, I can't remember when we started and finished the project that eventually sent 36 quilts to our soldiers.

thats very nice. :clap2:

editec · Oct 2, 2011

I own a family heirloom quilt.

Made by three generations of woman in my mother's family.

My GGM, GM and my mother's generation all worked on it in a quilting bee when I was a kid.

How I ended up with it I do not know.

I must have stolen it from my sister decades ago.

freedombecki · Oct 2, 2011

editec said:
I own a family heirloom quilt.

Made by three generations of woman in my mother's family.

My GGM, GM and my mother's generation all worked on it in a quilting bee when I was a kid.

How I ended up with it I do not know.

I must have stolen it from my sister decades ago.

Lucky you, ddictec. You're fortunate to own a quilt of several generations, and I hope you're storing it in either a 100% cotton pillowcase or acid-free paper. You're always welcome to post a picture of an heirloom here!

freedombecki · Oct 2, 2011

There was another one-of-a-kind purple heart quilt I made after the first one, but I really got into the design of this one and hopefully made a better quilt. It was constructed a year or two after the first one, and was sent either to Walter Reid Hospital (which was still open at the time) or one of the congresscritters or senators to hand out in Washington or Cheyenne, where Wyoming's VA hospital was (I think) There may have been another one in the state, I just can't remember. I really loved this quilt and used it for a couple of months before sending off to recruit quilters for the Purple Heart Quilters group that met at my quilt store back when. The George Washington-purple heart copy translated into an applique design by me was shared with a friend named Louise, who wanted to use it in her church's group, if memory serves me right. Some of my designs, I just didn't copyright so people wherever they were coule freely use the designs to honor a wounded soldier. I really loved this one more than any of the other 12 purple heart ones I designed for group quiltmaking. By donating the fabric, batting, backing and binding, it was one of the happiest times for me as a quilt shop owner because it gave me time to reflect on all the sacrifices our soldiers have made for spreading freedom and its caring around the globe, not to mention settling representation issues in the Revolutionary War, but also the anti-slave and internal business loyalty issues in the Civil War. The Purple Heart medal (top row, middle block) idea and where to find one was given to me by a veteran on a board I posted on about 7 or 8 years ago. He has one of the sharpest military minds I ever ran across. He may have been in special services, but he was knowledgable on terrorist issues, military hardware, and grew fond of countries his service took him to during his career. You meet some amazing people online. Some of them will bend over backward to give you advice when you are helping one of their brothers who was wounded in battle and ask for help. What wonderful Americans we have online.

freedombecki · Oct 9, 2011

If you are interested in what your state's quilt block is, Quilt Historian Judie Bellingham has created a site that would be of great interest to you: United States, State Quilt Blocks. An also lovely source would be Barbara Brackman's book, "Create Your Family Quilt Using State Blocks and Symbols." Currently out of print, you can still get them reasonably priced for a short time at Amazon.com. The deal about Barbara Brackman's books is they can cost $250. when the economy versions are gone. And there's no guarantee the book will be crisp and brand new after a few years. She's one of the best.