Sew I See!

All that remained to do to finish the quilt top for the Scrap-Happy Herringbone quilt was to pin together and sew one more long seam.  So of course it took me a couple of months (or more?) to get around to doing it.  But hey!  It's done now! Next up is figuring out the backing. A while back, I actually bought some fabric to make a pieced backing for this quilt, only to get home, look at those pretty-pretty fabrics, and think, "No.  You are too good for a quilt back."  ...So now they're in line to become another quilt top, at some point in the future.  The backing will probably be a vintage sheet.  I'm still pondering the options.  (And to be honest, I'm nervous about taking the next step... This will be my first quilt sandwich.) Here are some photos of the newly finished quilt top, stretched out on our bed.  It's not meant to go on the bed, by the way, so it's not nearly big enough for that.  For scale, it's a king size bed. (He...

(This post has been languishing in "draft" mode for months.  I forgot it existed-- but since I don't believe I've addressed these topics in more recent posts, here it is, now.  And because I finally got around to blocking the doily, I can add a few photos, too!) I finished the Vintage Roses doily ! That pattern generates so many loose ends, and I left them all until the end.  I really and truly hate weaving thread ends.  If there are only a few, that's fine, but fiddling with that tiny needle hurts my hands, so I was dreading the tidying up phase of this doily.  Amazingly, though, it turned out to be not so bad, after all.  It still took some time, and I'm glad it's done, but most of the ends were right near very roomy, convenient hiding places, and that makes all the difference in the world. Then it was time for blocking. Some doilies are a breeze to block.  Others are an absolute nightmare.  This one fell somewhere in between, but cl...

There hasn't been much to say about crafting, because I haven't been doing much of it, lately.  (Most of the creative/spare-time energy has gone toward gardening , I guess.  That and reading a few novels/listening to audio versions of short stories.) Not that there's been no crafting.  I sewed Luna a new chew pillow toy.  That took 5 to 10 minutes from start to finish.  I used a couple of scraps of polar fleece fabric to make a tube stuffed with acrylic fiber.  Since the fleece doesn't fray, I left the seam allowances exposed.  This is her third such pillow (though each has been a slightly different shape), and she enjoys playing with them-- fetch, gentle tug-of-war, chewing.  They're not as cute as a stuffed animal toy, but on the other hand, there are no plastic eyes or noses-- and no fascinating, flimsy appendages-- for her to focus in on and try to chew off. - - - - - - I'm also slowly crocheting a new pillow cover .  It will be...