Category: Quilting in South Carolina

Sewing Needle Threaders

I have two types of sewing needles that I use the most often: John James embroidery size 7 or 6 (7 is smaller and more pliant) and Richard Hemming & Sons Milliners Large Eye Milliners size 11. (I also have Tulip embroidery needles, but they are stiffer and less flexible than the John James embroidery needles.)

The embroidery needles have a larger eye, but the size 7 whichI like best is sometimes hard to thread with size 12 cotton thread, much less a Pearl size 8 Thread. The Milliners size 11 are long and so flexible, but the eye, even for the “large eye” version is…TINY. I really struggle to thread it with 50-weight thread when I sew down bindings. Aurifil thread is thinner, so that helps.

Anyway, I went on a hunt recently for needle threaders. For the Milliners, I need help all the time unless I’ve been lucky. For the embroidery needles, just some of the time. (I use the Milliners to sew down binding or with English Paper Piecing.)

So, I have gotten two kinds of these threaders below–AND after reading comments on Amazon (you can learn a lot from comments), I got some Krazy glue and put a drop on the top of all the threaders where the “wire” extensions are embedded and let them dry overnight. I’ll let you know… But, these threaders have actual wire threaders, not plastic, which commenters were saying were sturdier. Again, I’ll let you know.

On the left are Beadnova threaders that will fit the Milliner eye. Or the right are Phinus, which will fit the size 7 embroidery needles I have–and likely the size 6 embroidery needle with thicker threads. The Phinus are bigger and sturdier.

Below, see more threaders I found. On the left is a threader that would work well for thicker threads and needles with bigger eyes. Perhaps for embroidery work? It does not fit into my needles. The little humming bird threader in the middle works for my embroidery needles, but has a tendency to shred the thread. And it is clumsy to use. The Clover 8611 works for the embroidery needle, but I don’t know how it will stand up to wear and it is pricier.

So, I’m hoping the plastic/wire threaders will prove to be a good choice–with the extra help of the Krazy glue.

*One other tip is when you unspool a length of thread you are going to use, insert the top piece of your thread (as it came off the spool) into your needle as that works best with how the thread is twisted on the spool. And cut on an angle to reduce the thickness of the end. AND, when your thread gets “twisty” as you sew, let it unwind by dropping the threaded needle down so it can spin the twists away.

And if you don’t use a threader, hold the piece of thread in your right had and bring your needle eye down over the top–as sometimes magic happens. Sometimes it also helps to moisten (read with spit) the end of the thread.

Good luck!

“Piece of My Heart 1” Quilt Done

What a fun little quilt this one is. And I am enjoying the attempt to empty the two bins of 3.5 inch squares from the Cotton+Steel Ruby Star fabrics I cut up about 4 or 5 years ago. I think those squares breed in the dark of the night though. LOL. They love to come out and play.

I love how the binding and the backing came out on this quilt too. Those sheep! Those red and dark grey yarn balls! I have Vermont friend Betsy Maislen to thank for finding this fabric. It is from Timeless Treasures, “Fabrics of SoHo,” FUN-C 3587. Of course it reminds me of my years in Maine, where I did knit rather a lot.

The “Folk Heart” pantograph is working well too–and seems a good choice. It’s from Beany Girls. The hearts kind of tumble across the quilt.

To recap information on this quilt, the pattern is “Piece of My Heart,” designed by Cynthia Bruns. It can be found at AllPeopleQuilt.com and I saw it in their magazine American Patchwork and Quilting, February 2024, pages 57-62.

This quilt’s “brother” is on the longarm as I write this morning. Yesterday I got all the parts together (backing made, batting cut) and loaded it AND got all the basting done. I’m really happy with that backing fabric from my stash–it has numbers and letters printed on it.

I’ve been spending time cutting and sewing units for Annabelle Wrigley’s pattern “Prickly Pears,” from the 4th season of Tara Faughnan’s The Color Collective. (There were 5 years, and I did 4.) I have one row of 4 finished, and the units for the second row almost done. It has taken…days to get this far. This pattern is difficult in that it is a complicated block and joining the blocks to get seams butted is a challenge. But it is a stunning pattern.

I’ve already ordered more fabric once (Ruby + Bee solids) and will need more of the background pink, which I’ll order today. And, no, the triangles that circle the center are easy using Tara Faughnan’s method for most foundation piecing projects. She uses plain paper and a bit of glue. AND, her templates can be used over and over with this method and do not have to be torn from the fabric. That’s a big YEAH for me.

The bins of C+S squares are still out, and this scrappy something is happening as a leader/ender project. It is the kind of quilt that just “is what it is.” The best kind for snuggling up in, actually.

Color Catchers

When I washed the finished quilt “Happy,” which had been dragged around for six years while being made, I put in 6 color catcher cloths–even though all the fabrics were washed when they came into the house.

Hmmm….

Enough said, right?

But, maybe I’ll add that I also washed another quilt, I also added color catchers to the wash.

And…hmmmm…

The reds did run a bit.

I’ll always use them for a quilt now…

The “Happy” Quilt is DONE

And I have this tremendous sense of relief as a result, as if a boulder I’ve been carrying has been off-loaded.

“Happy” is the “36-Ring Circus” designed by Joanne Lewis. The pattern and template kit are at the Paper Pieces web site. Enough said with that information: I’m done whining.

I started this English Paper Piecing project in June of 2018. That’s SIX YEARS for heaven’s sake. There are SO MANY tiny pieces, and I spent COUNTLESS hours prepping all the templates. Plus, sewing all the curves was so, so hard. Most had to be done with a flat-back stitch, which is hard to do in an unwieldy big quilt. I used up a whole roll of artist tape along the way to get the curves to stay put properly while I sewed each block together and each row into the quilt.

The block centers are all fussy cut Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society. The rings are solid pastels, and the ring centers and the 4-patches between the rings are all dark solids. The outer border of dark fabrics squares this quilt off nicely.

Plus, this past year I decided to HAND QUILT it using lots of colors–dark colors in the dark fabrics and light colors in the light colors–and I’m actually not sorry about that decision as it has provided many hours in the last six or so months of contemplative stitching, though some of this work was also hard as when I made this quilt I didn’t trim back seams to a short 1/4-inch and that made the hand quilting near seam edges hard enough that I had to wander stitching lines away from them.

BUT, SHE IS DONE and has been washed and dried. Of course I washed her as her parts and her completed size have been dragged around of six years. Now she is no longer called “the quilt from hell.” Now she is called…DONE.

Here’s a close up of a border corner. The curve on the left binding is a camera distortion. The quilt is square.

The back is nicely textured, and I like the warmth of the ruby color.

Most of all, the task I set myself to make a hand-made quilt for each of my 7 grandchildren is now also complete. “Happy” is ALL made by hand except for sewing the binding on one side with my sewing machine–the other side is hand sewn. I always hand sew my bindings on the loose side.

DONE is a very nice word right now. I’m “Happy.”

Two “A Piece of My Heart” Quilt Tops

I finished the second “A Piece of My Heart” quilt top yesterday, and will measure it and organize a backing/binding today maybe.

Here are the two tops–made with the 3 1/2-inch squares of Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics I cut up about 5 years ago. I have lost count of all the quilts made from that fabric stash. It is probably nearing 20, if not a bit more. That might make a fun blog post one of these days.

And:

The neutral top is quilted now–with a heart pantograph that created lovely texture. This top is now trimmed and binding made. Note: Bonnie Hunter some time back said she trims with a SMALL square ruler. I’ve been trying that–using a 9.5 square–and that is really working well–much better than the big 24-inch square and a long ruler. I have much more control.

Aren’t these pretty flowers from my garden?

My two gardenia plants are NOT thriving. Their leaves turn yellow, drop off, and they grow new ones. Research says they need specific nutrients and to try a mixture that uses fish parts. I ordered some–and mixed it up and put it on them. We’ll see. The soil here (whine, whine) is mostly clay–it will take time and amendments to help it.

It has been cooler here this summer than last, but it will get hotter now likely. La Niña (cooler and dryer than her boyfriend El Niño) is shifting into place. Also the water vapor spewed into the atmosphere from a huge underwater volcano (Hunga-Tonga) a few years back is now dissipating. Water vapor is way, way more important to heat retention in the atmosphere than CO2 and is much, much more than CO2.

Anyway, I’ve really been enjoying my walks after 7 pm and can do a mile in short order. We have a frequent “sea breeze” here that is just delightful, and it appears in the evenings frequently.

Bits and Pieces, Sunday, July 30, 2024

The palm trees are “blooming” now. I still find their “flower” fascinating.

I have been so hungry for deviled eggs for days now. And I realized that I would be fine making some with my local eggs (Chucktown Acres) that don’t have corn or soy in their feed, with homemade mayo with a tiny bit of plain mustard that uses white vinegar for the needed acid to make it jell, some finely chopped sweet onion, and, of course, organic olive oil and salt. I wanted these eggs to be plain, so I didn’t add any herbs to my mayo this time.

It didn’t take but a minute–as cooking the eggs is quick and making mayo is even quicker and easier, and now I have some to drizzle over salads and other things in my bowls, like the chicken and potatoes below. I can’t use cayenne pepper to decorate, but my deviled eggs are DELICIOUS. They really hit that hunger spot I had.

Here’s my dinner salad last night. I had made a big bowl of salad with the last of the roasted chicken, so I just took half of it for my supper and added the eggs.

I washed my improv quilt. It has a coral backing that ran when I washed it, so I was nervous about washing this quilt as there are so many light colors on the front. But so many of these fun blocks used glue, so I needed to wash it out. I put 6 color catchers in the wash and crossed my fingers (and toes) as I so love this quilt. She came out beautifully from the dryer, and now is all crinkly and cute.

Right now she is living on a chair in my tv/reading/hand-sewing little room. With different folds, different parts of the quilt show on the chair. Right now it’s the red “wheels” block. (Tara Faughnan is going to do this “block” class again starting in September. If you are interested, go to her web site and sign up for her newsletter.)

So, improv blocks joins “Happy,” where I am working on the final hand quilting of the border. See the big pillow–I found it at Costco the other day so I don’t have to use one of the couch pillows I made to get a hand project up and out of my lap, which is too low for easy hand work. I’ve not had any issues with my neck or shoulders once I adopted this pillow practice a few years back, and as you know, I do a lot of hand work. (The loose orange threads you see are from the longarm basting I did to hold the layers together.)

In line, waiting for its turn, is this recent project which is set up to be a wall hanging and is yet unnamed. You can see the orange machine basting threads, which I will remove as I work.

“Pieces of My Heart” (the neutral) is on the longarm. The colored version with the light heart is growing on the design wall, and I’ve been making parts for the “Prickly Pear” quilt designed by Annabelle Wrigley and using her solid fabrics.

This double heart pantograph is new for me, and I’ll use it on both of these “heart” quilts. I am using a soft grey here as it was better for the backing than a neutral thread. There are enough darker “neutral” blocks here to make the light grey work well.

Enjoy your Sunday!

I Love This Quilt

Last night was the monthly Charleston Modern Quilt Guild meeting. It was a lively event that produced a room full of visiting, laughter, and frequent clapping celebrating various projects being shown.

Jean Craig, president of the Charleston Modern Quilt Guild, and her husband recently hiked a mountain trail whose length is 76 miles.

Home

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia: “The Foothills Trail is a 76-mile (122 km) National Recreation Trail in South and North Carolina, United States, for recreational hiking and backpacking. It extends from Table Rock State Park to Oconee State Park. It passes through the Andrew Pickens Ranger District of the Sumter National Forest, Ellicott Rock Wilderness, Whitewater Falls, and Lake Jocassee.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foothills_Trail

Jean is a quilter, so guess what she came home and made:

That’s Jean on the left, and Rick Sanchez of Rickrack Room (also an amazing quilter who has a longarm business) is helping Jean show her quilt. Near the bottom, Jean depicts the “foothill” mountains they walked.

Here’s the back:

I think she said that the quilt is a gift for her husband, who said this event was a “level 2” event. Jean explained that a level 1 event is clearly fun things like parties. A level 2 event is something that you know while doing it that you’ll like it all a lot more when you are done. I love that!

I spent part of yesterday afternoon ironing the backing pieces for the neutral “Pieces of My Heart” quilt top AND matching up the print. I’ve had this cute fabric in my stash for a long time (thank you Betsy Maislen for showing me this fabric).

I bet you have to look hard to see where I matched the print:

And today is another day to fill with fun Level 1 events! One of such events will be putting this backing and its top and batting on the longarm.

**Here’s a link to the method I use to match backing prints:

Match a Print Seamlessly On Your Quilt Back

Bits and Pieces, June 25, 2024

Hello readers,

Where does the time fly to? It’s almost July.

We got rain last night–and a lot of thunder and lightening, so I have not had to use my new little water sprinklers yet. The rain gauge had 1 inch of water in it this morning. Yeah!

I’ve been sewing steadily in the afternoons, and I make myself quit at 7 pm to walk. Yesterday was very humid, but a nice breeze developed in the early evening so the walking wasn’t too bad. It was hot yesterday, but it is summer. We got spoiled with our coolish weather these past weeks.

Here’s the design wall right now:

Yes, using the colored 3 1/2-inch squares of Cotton+Steel (original designers)/Ruby Star Society and making the star from neutrals is working out nicely. The neutral version with the red heart is ready for the longarm, with batting cut and backing panels cut, but the panels need to be lined up and joined–not to mention ironed.

Annabelle Wrigley’s “Prickly Pear” block from season 4 of The Color Collective, made with her fabrics, is a challenging block. Those two blocks (16 inches each finished) will repeat to make 4 across and 4 rows or 64 inches square. There are so many creative ways to organize how to lay out these blocks, but I’m going just plain.

The bright blue triangles on the background are creatively organized as well, which is bending my mind as when the spatial genes were passed out, I didn’t get any. Right now the most frustrating part is how to press each block. I ordered more fabric yesterday as I was lacking enough fabric for the curved triangle pieces and the field fabric to make the whole quilt. And I added a bit more of the blue just in case.

I had a visitor on the porch the other day: an Anole lizard, which is very common here. I’ve always loved this little lizard.

This creature can be tamed if captured apparently. I tried once as a young mother with children, but that anole didn’t like being captured. This lizard is also an insect eating machine, so I’ll happily leave him/her in the wild. This one can also change its colors from shades of brown to green. How fun is that? It isn’t camouflage though, just a mood thing.

Here’s a really fun link to more info about this cute lizard, with good pics that illustrate much about it. The pic of how a male blows out the bright orange pouch under its throat is especially interesting. I have seen one do that.

9 Things You May Not Know About The Cute Carolina Anole That Lives In South Carolina

I passed this tree on a recent walk and did not recognize what it was. It was tall, with beautiful foliage. The closest I could come with on my phone app was that it was a water hickory, which is in the walnut family of trees. The other guess was a pecan, but I know those trees and this wasn’t one I’m pretty sure. Also it was in the wetland on the side of my path.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/carya-aquatica/

We were treated to a rainbow a few days back, but didn’t really get any rain from all the swirling clouds. Just a sprinkle for a bit.

The ditch is the intermittent stream that runs from the nearby wetland; it runs through our property. The mail kiosk is on the left of this picture.

OK folks, it’s time to get about the day. I dug out the big Lantana on the side of the house that wanted to be a tree yesterday and am replanting with two cone flowers (echinacea) and a yellow daisy (rudbeckia) I lucked into at Home Depot yesterday. (I did check with a local nursery before buying at Home Depot.) The roots from the Lantana had already reached a long way in all directions!!

Bits and Pieces on a Wednesday

The leader/ender quilt is done, and it’s very cute. The pattern is “Pieces of My Heart,” and it is on the “all people quilt” web site. This lap size quilt will be 54 by 63.

The binding will be this Riley Blake stripe. And I found a great video of how to match up the strips on bias binding. It is super easy. And one doesn’t need glue. Here’s the link:

The 3 1/2 inch squares are all from my bins of cut-up Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star fabrics. I have two bins–one neutrals and one colors. The neutral bin is still half full, LOL. I think it is breeding in the dark of night. So I guess this project of using up this fabric is still ongoing.

Hmmm… I’m wondering how this little quilt would look made with colored squares and a low-volume heart. So that’s the new leader/ender project.

I’ve now finished–for the moment–the sewing project Cathy Beemer has been teaching us at our monthly Sit and Sew for the Charleston Modern Quilt Group.

I say “for the moment” as I would like to make a 60 by 60 quilt using this fun and creative method–especially now that I’ve more or less finished with the learning curve to make it.

To remind you what a bigger quilt would look like, here’s Cathy’s quilt, hot off the longarm and not yet bound. Cathy has taken many classes with Maria Shell, and you can see that influence here. (I love Maria Shell’s work.)

I installed a hanging sleeve as I’m seeing a wall hanging here. I sew my hanging sleeves with my binding. And I bound (bias, of course) with aqua, which is working well I think. I used a “request” lighter batting as I’m now going to hand quilt using the big stitch method and 12-weight cotton thread. I learned recently that one can install binding and sew it down with hand quilting, which is nice as one wouldn’t now have batting fluff everywhere. I basted the quilt sandwich on the longarm with easy-to-see and easy-to-clip loose orange thread.

I used a backing piece I had in my stash that has some of the same colors as the front.

Note that I do not sew down the label or the hanging strip until after I have finished quilting in those areas of the quilt.

No rain yesterday, so I watered early evening last night. And I got frustrated enough with my available water sprinklers and how they don’t work well in small yard areas that I spent some time this morning ordering two that should work better.

And, here’s a fun supper salad made with a leftover beef pattie and cooked potatoes, among other goodies, like fresh dill.

LOL, I see I left a sticker on the red pepper. That’s another rant–the glue on the sticker is super strong and takes pepper with it when one tried to get it off.

Daily, I set up my supper when I’m organizing my noon dinner.

Have a great day!

An Adventure, With Scissors and Knives

Last week, I met Ken Woodley, owner of Steel on Stone Sharpening, after making an appointment with him and letting Waze take me to his shop in a little town west of me, off of highway 26.

I rounded up ALL my scissors, which badly needed sharpening–and I took three knives along as well–the two little paring knives and the treasured Japanese knife a former Virginia neighbor (a WWII war bride) ordered for me from Japan.

Here’s Ken, methodically working through the pile of scissors and knives. He especially liked my kitchen scissors–as I do. I use them all the time, but it was getting hard to spatchcock a whole chicken as they were so dull. And my sewing scissors…oh my! They so needed attention.

I even took my cheap paper scissors to Ken–and he didn’t fuss at all.

Ken came to South Carolina from the Boston area, and he knew Maine well. So we had a delightful conversation about Maine.

Here are all my sharpened scissors and knives–now back home.

In Maine, someone who sharpens tools is called a “grinder.” Here, Ken told me, he is called a “cutler,” though he said the term “sharpener” is used more often.

Ken has all kinds of equipment to handle whatever comes to him. And he is so patient and thorough. He even sharpened my little snips and the small scissors I use with hand sewing (green handles)

Ken also travels to local farmers’ markets and quilt shows, and I got his card from the spring Cobblestone Quilters show about which I blogged.

The drive from Mt. Pleasant to Ken, up in North Charleston, wasn’t bad at all. It only took me about 30 minutes.

I’m sure I’ll visit Ken again in about a year, and I’m so happy to have found him. So are my scissors and the three knives I took to him.

*I’m not sure how I missed almost a week on the blog. I’ve been sewing, yes. And watering grass and outside flowers as it has been very dry and it is warmer now. It took me forever to figure out how to control the spike sprinkler that can do a full circle, but…she persevered. Our houses are close together and my yard is very small, which is fine, but watering does have to stay on my grass as neighbors are also watering. Plus, we pay for water/sewer here.