Farmer's Wife - Finished

 I started working on the Farmer's Wife Quilt in July of 2011. That makes this almost a six-year project. Of course, I didn't know it would be when I started. Back then, I was just having a blast piecing little 6" blocks. I set myself a goal: use scrappy fabrics, and try to have something vintage or thrifted or upcycled in every block. I had a lot of little scraps and remnants from sewing projects, and I had a lot of worn/outgrown clothing that could be repurposed, and I had bags and bags of scraps... some my own, some given to me, some purchased at thrift stores or estate sales or quilt stores. It's hard to believe that when I started quilting I had very little in the way of stash. This quilt was the beginning of my realization that I need to be more intentional about acquiring fabric.

Almost exactly five years ago I finished the top, and styled it in a very similar photo-shoot.

Three and a half years ago I started the process of machine-quilting it, with the Megaquilter. I didn't force myself to work on it after the first few rows, and it sat almost entirely neglected for a full three years. This reflects my deep-seated anxiety about machine quilting and inner perfectionism, or something. Also that I was busy and stressed during those three years. But this year, as a kind of New Year's resolution, I began again, and rediscovered how amazing the progress is that you make when you work steadily!

From the back of the fence, this is the very first bit that I quilted. The feathers, Oh the feathers! I think they are lovely... but each individual feather is so very imperfect. Look at the big picture, though. When you put them together and step back just a little bit, I am very happy with the feathers. I did have to take the side and bottom borders off and resew them by hand, before machine quilting the feathers on them. I would have had major puckers and waves otherwise. I'm glad I did that, and the quilt lies flat!

Just because I have the sycamore tree in back and it has the branch that is perfect for quilt pictures, I took another batch of shots there. You can see the plum tree in bloom behind the garage roof.

I love these two blocks that ended up next to each other: "Gentleman's Fancy" with pirate and map fabric, both scraps from boxer shorts sewing projects: and "WCTU" (Women's Christian Temperance Union), with scraps from my WCTU-member grandmother's apron and her scrap bag. I love how the individual blocks have so many different colors, but "that blue" ties them all together. I love how, without really trying to, I incorporated many of the scraps from the Mom memorial quilt project (where I made a quilt for each one of us siblings with her clothing and scrap-bag scraps), so I've infused the quilt with memories of her. And it pays homage to my midwestern upbringing and the many farming ancestors who also passed along their thrift, their skill with their hands, and their love of family.

All that's really left is to make a label and put it on my bed.

Design Wall and Stash Report

Still playing with scraps, this is what's new on the design wall.  I am making these:

using the tutorial for composition book covers here.  As you can probably guess by the tree theme, these are going to be graduation gifts.  And Daniel and Quarta have requested one too.  I have every intention of putting the scraps away and working on a color-coordinated project ... soon.  Just not yet.  This is about all the attention span for patchwork I can muster.

I'm still feeling "do-less" as my grandmother used to say.  There is plenty of stuff I should be doing: grading the quizzes I have to return tomorrow, cooking, shopping - but it's not happening.  Not much quilting done on Orca Bay.  I did unravel 2 sweaters for their yarn content and am adding them to my stash totals.

 Unfortunately it's raining so this first batch (Abercrombie and Fitch worsted gray tweed, 1200 yds) is not getting dry.  Another good reason for not wanting to go out and do anything.

 And the second batch (Norm Thompson, Aran gray tweed with colored flecks, 800 yds) is still soaking because there's no place to hang it.  It's a good thing we don't have a barbecue planned.

Stash Report:

Fabric:

Fabric used this week: About 2 yards for the notebook covers and sachets

Fabric used year to date: 39 yards
Added this week: 0 yards
Added year to date: 17 yards
Net used for 2013: 22 yards

Knitting yarn:

Yarn used this week: 0 yards
Yarn used year to date: 6000 yards.
Yarn added this week: 2000 yards reclaimed wool from thriftstore sweaters
Yarn added year to date: 3300 yards
Net used for 2013: 2700 yards

I was moved by a photo a Facebook friend posted today: her grandmother standing next to the Okinawa inscription at the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C.  Widowed at age 22 with 2 babies to bring up alone, this elderly lady stood, fierce, proud, and independent, the way Americans have to be when their loved ones paid the ultimate price for our freedom.  We have a rare thing going on in America; I hope we can be aware and appreciative of what it costs before it's too late.

Cave Idus Martias!

I am in that slightly fey, slightly frenzied state that Latin teachers get into on the Ides of March when they have grade reports due and a Latin Olympika to help coordinate and multiple small people to escort to various special events.  But I'm getting lots of things finished or almost finished.  Earlier this week I finished the socks on size 0 needles; last night I finished the rug on size 15 needles with a crocheted edge.  So, project Zero to Fifteen is done and I will have to figure out what to knit next.

It lies pretty flat!  It used up a lot of yarn!  It is super cushy and absorbent, which is a good thing in a bathmat!  Find it on Ravelry here.

I also just finished quilting Easy Street, unpinned it, and trimmed the edges, but after wrestling with it did not have any extra energy to take a photo.  Next stop: binding!  The wedding is next Saturday.

Oh yes, I made pie yesterday - grape - in honor of Pi day.  And then because we have Quarta's friend Minuet over for supper tonight I made another one today - blueberry.  I guess the theme is "purple toga pies."

Rummaging

It had been awhile since I had a good rummage.  Sometimes the primal need strikes, and I betake myself to the Goodwill Outlet where they sell the things that didn't sell at all the other Goodwill stores in bins, by the pound.  I have been reading Bonnie K. Hunter's books, Scraps and Shirttails I and II, in which she describes reclaiming shirts, cutting them up for their fabric, and turning the fabric into scrappy quilts.  It's not like I haven't made many quilts this way before, but last year, I put myself on a fabric and fiber diet and didn't buy much of anything.  So I was way overdue.

I bought 12.9 pounds, at $1.39 per.  That worked out to $19.44.  There were 19 100% cotton shirts, a pair of Levis for Secundus, a t-shirt for Tertia, a tweedy sweater to unravel for the yarn, and an oven mitt.  Steve and Secundus each claimed two, to actually wear.  I'm wearing a 5th one.  The above are the ones that will definitely be cut up for fabric.  Below are the ones that I'll let Daniel see if he wants first.

Here is the oven mitt... it's not just any oven mitt, it's a hand-appliqued souvenir oven mitt from someone's trip to someplace in Latin America.  You just never know what you're going to find when you rummage in the bins.  Isn't it pretty?

Some of the tags from the Goodwill stores were still on a few of the shirts.  If they had sold for asking price, just those 5 shirts would have sold for $43.  But I think the regular Goodwill stores overprice their shirts.  Karma works out in the by-the-pound bins, though.  Have I mentioned the time I found an Alice Starmore sweater?  Or the souvenir Irish Aran?  Or the semi-vintage, unfinished quilt top?  Yes, it sometimes does the soul good to rummage and come away with bags of useful and pretty raw materials and clothing FOR LESS THAN $20.00!  It was worth the aching shoulders and close encounters with lingering unpleasant smells.

I may need to rewatch this video on How to "De-Bone" a Shirt before tackling all those shirts.

Meanwhile, I made some more crumbs blocks:

I have almost enough to start seaming up the top.

Yarn-Along: Zero to Fifteen; and WIP Wednesday

Welcome to all my new followers!  Since the Liebster Award came along, I have noticed the number of followers has more than doubled (from 4 to 11, that would be almost tripled!) and I really appreciate each one of you.  Thank you for your patience with my ramblings and woolgatherings!

The big quilting news since last week, of course, is finishing the Easy Street top.  I am hoping to piece a backing and get that on the frame soon. 

Once again I am venturing into crumb-land.  This will be the signature quilt for the 2013 Cedar Tree auction, and I was so happy with how last year's turned out that I'm using basically the same formula.  You can find basic instructions for the crumbs technique at Jo's Country Junction, but it's pretty much just free-form patchwork with very little advance planning and no strict rules about fabric matching.  I'm trying to make as many tree blocks as possible -- some are double height, but most blocks will be 6" finished, with plenty of dark green to tie the whole thing together.  But in addition I have lots of leftover scraps, orphan blocks and dead-end blocks that will find their home in the top.  And if one of the tree trunks has a bit of a lean, and some of the fabric is from old sheets or curtains, or there is the bottom half of an orange T-Rex wandering through the forest, that suits my aesthetic just fine.  Most of these blocks were made in the last few days... I have acres of scraps to sort through and about 90 more blocks to make before I quit.  It will be messy in my sewing area for awhile yet.

For the Yarn-Along, I give you Zero to Fifteen.  Last year was the year of shawls; this year I'm working on knitting up some socks.  I'm chugging along on Steve's Zauberball socks on size 0's.  I am increasing for the gussets -- I decided to use Wendy Knit's basic instructions for toe-up gusset socks, which I've used in the past with good results.  But for a break from the teeny tiny stitches (and also to clean the sewing room just a bit) I dragged out this bathmat rug that's been hibernating for awhile, on size 15 needles.  I'm stranding 6-7 strands of reclaimed cotton yarn from thrift store sweaters.  The socks are about 9 stitches per inch; the rug is about 2 stitches per inch.  I get a bit of vertigo switching back and forth.  And the book is my recent purchase, Scraps and Shirttails II.  Lots of dream quilts in there!

Darn Those Jeans! - my first tutorial

Here's my first ever photo tutorial!  If you have a sewing machine with a darning foot, also used for Free Motion machine quilting, it's a quick process and can add years of life to a beat-up pair of jeans.  Last week when Primigenitus was off looking at colleges with Steve I went through his clothes and found this pair that had a belt loop pulled free from the waist.

There was also a nice L-shaped tear on the upper leg -- not the knee where they usually wear out.

For this method the set-up of the sewing machine is important.  You need a darning foot or free-motion foot that is compatible with a zig-zag stitch, and you need to have a free-arm if your pants legs are going to fit under the needle.  The darning foot for my machine was a $20 purchase about 15 years ago ... best $20 I ever spent.  Even though I don't use it much for machine quilting anymore, it has helped me finish many quilts in the past, and this technique has saved probably hundreds of dollars in blue jeans... my menfolk are tough on their clothes!  Along with the darning foot, you will need to drop the feed dogs so that you control the movement of the fabric under the foot instead of it being fed through in one direction by the machine.  And you can't see it, but my machine requires you to set the pressure on the presser foot to the "darning" setting, which is the lowest possible.  This means the fabric will not be pressed tightly to the throat plate while you are working, but has lots of freedom for you to move it around.

I like the 3-step zig-zag stitch for this technique.  Set the widest stitch width.  Stitch length doesn't matter because you will be controlling that yourself.  Just be sure that your free-motion quilt is wide enough to accommodate it!

You will need a patch to back the hole and serve as a foundation fabric.  It should be about 1/2" larger on all sides than the hole.  It doesn't matter if it's not the same shape: you'll trim any excess away afterwards.  I usually use denim scraps, but couldn't find any since I cleaned out my sewing room so this is a scrap from an old chambray shirt or jumper.  I used two pins to hold it in place from the front:

I tackled the smaller hole at the waist first.  It can be a little tricky to maneuver the bulky set-up under the presser foot:

Once you get it flat, and make sure the pins are holding the patch in place on the back, lower the presser foot.  It will seem like it's the same up or down, but your machine won't work if it's up!  Bring the bobbin thread up and take a few stitches that take bites from both the patch and the edge of the hole.  The motion of the 3-step zig-zag will be left-right, but your own hands will control forwards and backwards motion.  Once you get used to this motion, you can pick up the speed.  Just be sure you remember where the pins are and remove them once you have enough stitching in place to hold the patch in place!  I used a light blue polyester thread this time: cotton thread would be fine too.  I keep going with the stitching until the entire surface of the former hole is covered with stitching.  It's like creating a new fabric over that spot.

The blue thread blends in nicely with the denim fabric.  Once the belt loop is sewn back down you'll hardly be able to notice.

This is how it looks on the back after I trimmed away the excess fabric from the patch.

True confessions: I broke two needles, both when sewing down that bulky belt loop.  You do need to be careful not to tug the jeans in any direction too quickly, especially when sewing over a bulky area.  I took a break and gave my machine a good clean-out, which it needed.

And I eventually got the thing sewn down.  It looks almost as good as new!

Then it was time to pin and sew the second hole.  I trimmed off some of the loose threads that were sticking out from the hole and would just have gotten in the way.  Since this one was on the actual leg, it was a lot more challenging to tug into position over the free-arm.

I find it difficult to take pictures of my hands while they're sewing.  This is a still shot.  The technique is the same: back and forth and up and down until all the edges of the hole are attached to the backing patch, and then all over until a new, firm fabric is created.

And here it is finished on the outside.

And on the inside... oops, the patch got folded over.  No worries: the stitching will hold it tight through many washes and the edges will fray and soften after they're trimmed.

Here it is trimmed.

And all done!  I wonder if Primigenitus has noticed that his jeans are fixed yet.  I think these are the only pair without paint spatters on them from last summer.

If you use this tutorial I hope it helps extend the life of your blue jeans and saves you some money.  And I'd love to hear back from you if you do.  Thanks for stopping by!