Stitches in Time

This morning, I spent some time working on the last of the four little hand-stitching projects I made up for my morning stitching pleasure. I'm very nearly finished with this one for Lisa's quilt:

Except for the books and the words at the top and bottom, it's all stitched up. Since you know I can't be without hand stitching to work on, I headed into the sewing room to make up Block #2 for the Hocuspocusville quilt. Fortunately, I didn't need the sewing machine because I found this freeloader napping on my sewing chair.

Excuse me? Did you say, "Your chair"? Clearly, this is my chair because I am currently occupying it. But give me a minute to consider the questionable merits of your dubious claim. In the meantime, I have some serious purrsonal hygiene matters to take care of.

[Lick, lick, lick, snort, lick, purr, mmm, lick...] 

Yes, I've considered your claim and find it to be completely unfounded. Now...[yawn]...please allow me to get back to my nap.

This is what I deal with on a daily basis. Anyway...the Hocuspocusville block. The next one is "Hester's U-Pick".

Even with a few days' head start, this one should keep me busy the entire time we're in Moab. I like taking these one-color stitcheries when we're traveling. It keeps things simple, although I am using orange for the pumpkins in these bocks.

While I was putting things away, which meant turning off and covering up my light box, it occurred to me that you might enjoy seeing this little quilt I use to protect surface of the light box. This is a little doll quilt my grandmother made for me. It's all made up of little one-inch squares of vintage prints. 

There is no batting...just the top and bottom layer. It's all hand pieced and tied. If you look carefully, you can see her little hand stitches.

There is no binding, just her hand-stitching at the edges.

Here's how it looks from the back.

My maternal grandmother was the quilter in my family. She had only two grandchildren: my brother and me, and she cherished both of us. There are a number of doll quilts in my cedar chest, and I imagine she often thought of me when considering how to use her scraps. Given the number she left behind, I believe most of them went into doll quilts for me.

My mother was a wonderful seamstress, but she never did any quilting that I am aware of. My mother taught me to sew, but my grandmother was the inspiration for me learning to quilt. She passed away on New Year's Day in 1973, and I didn't learn to quilt until July of 2008. Still, it was always on the list of things I wanted to learn to do. There is another one of her little doll quilts hanging on the wall of my sewing room. This one is made from a combination of wools, cottons, and other fabrics...silk, maybe. 

Here's the back. It reminds me of the sort of fabric a gentleman's vest might have been made from...or the lining of a jacket.

Anyway...these are precious pieces, and I'm glad I still have them to hold close even though she's been gone for more than four decades. It's a good reason for being a quilter, don't you think? Our quilts will no doubt outlive us, and hopefully, bring warmth to those we leave behind.

Around noon yesterday, I managed to get a start quilting the Vintage Tin quilt. I like quilting these embroidered blocks. The quilting sort of fills in the gaps of the story the embroidery begins to tell. There's still more to do on this one, but I've given the garage some siding, some texture to the trees, some clouds in the sky, and some rumples in the dirt. I still want to do some more siding on the right side of the garage and add more texture in the trees. Also, I like to give a little bit of outline to the main structures. In this case, the garage and the cars. Then I'll outline the whole block. It looks better on the back when the blocks are defined, I think.

I'll pick up there today, but I have some housework to do first. We're coming down the home stretch of getting ready for our trip to Moab, and there's still plenty to do. Most of the food is finished, but I still want to make a few little non-cooked items. Also, I'm trying a new soup recipe today. It takes several hours to make, and so I'll get an early start on dinner this afternoon.

It's a good Saturday agenda, and it's time to get going on it.