Sew Far Sew Good

Hi Everyone!  I have been busy with lots of sewing and working on quilt patterns.  I have to admit I'm slow in many things, including sewing and writing for that matter.  I'm also still a part of the Round Robin at our Valley MQG.  It's been lots of fun to see other guild members add their touches and ideas onto the piece. I can't wait to see my piece, still have 3 more months to go.  

I also repaired a boat cover for one of my dear friends.  The cover was torn at several places where the anchoring straps are because of the wind.  Before I became a quilter, I was a re-upholsterer.  I did all kind of projects, such as cushions, chairs, sofas, couches and even car seats!  Of all the projects, the car seats are the most challenging because there are many connected curve pieces.  And when the covers are done, they have to fit like gloves onto the seats.  So sorry that I couldn't find pictures of the car seats that I did on my computer .  I didn't have a digital camera back then.   I think I've shared a picture of a sofa that I did for my friend before, but for those who haven't seen it, you can see it here.  Doing upholstery jobs taught me precision sewing and patience.  For everything, I owe it all to Mr. Jackson at our local occupational school where I took auto-upholstery classes when my younger child started school twenty some years ago.  He would make us redo the pieces over and over again until they were perfect.  I still remember redoing a part of one particular car seat cover five times!!

In May, at our Valley MQG, we had another challenge.  It was a song from the Led Zeppelin called 'Stairway to Heaven'.  We were to take anything from the lyrics and make a quilt project with it.  I decided to use a part of the lyrics from the song about glitter and gold.  After all the quilting and facing were done, I hand sewed the golden beads on with gold thread by Sulky that I have had for many years but never used it on any project.  The big beads have real gold foil inside.  They are pretty cool. 

This is my piece.

This song reminds me that we can't buy our way to heaven.   I believe that everything in this life is for us to learn and while doing that, we are supposed to help and serve one another along the way.  

You can go to this Valley MQG webpage to see the lyrics.  It's been so much fun doing the challenges this year.  My husband dusted off his Led Zeppelin CD collection and we listened to them all.  My ears are still ringing from Robert Plant's high pitch voice.  It's amazing that his voice worked so well with the music.  Many wonderful old memories flooded back to me as we were listening to these old rock classics.  I remember my brother would play his guitar and we would sing old classics from The Carpenters, Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, and many, many more.  When I was young, I didn't speak English so I didn't really know the meaning of some of these songs.  All I knew at the time was that they sounded good.  Now that I speak English and I have my husband to ask what things mean.  I have somewhat better understanding of things.  In the other part of the world we admire the Western culture without knowing or understanding the true meaning of it.  I believe that Arts have no boundaries!!  I never knew a lot of these artists before I came here either, I just liked their songs and music.   I also watched Jimmy Page's interview on Youtube and I realized how committed he is to his art.  That's why he is so good with his guitars.  It is quite an inspiration to me.

For June our challenge is to incorporate a selvage or selvages into a quilted project.  I have to come up with something before next Monday!!

Have a great day!!

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Playing catch up

I've been busy sewing and doing other things that I neglected to blog.  On top of being a slow writer, it's hard for me to decide what to write.  I have a lot to share and that would make the blog really long, so I'll share one thing per blog.  Here we go.....

Last time I mentioned the challenge that we had at our Valley MQG which is circle.  I had done some curve piecing on the coffee filter paper and one thing led to another and this is what I have done.
 

I laid some grey fabric and quilted it with walking foot as I go along.  I decided to do raw edge applique but I didn't use any adhesive on the fabric.  I used Aurifil threads; grey #2606 and #5004 to quilt on the rock area, the same #5004 on the black sky, white #2024 for the stars and beige #8339 on the moon.

This is the end result of the quilt.  I named this quilt "Midnight Moon".  It's measured at 22x23.5 inches.  There are a few firsts in this quilt.  This is my first art quilt, my first raw edge applique and it's the first time that I used facing to finish the quilt instead of normal binding.

I learned a lot from working on this quilt and had fun in the process.  I'll be doing more of this style of quilts in the future, I'm sure.

I want to dedicate this "Midnight Moon" quilt to my Thai college friend Piya Srisutham who passed away on June 6, 2017 from hemorrhagic stroke.  I had similar experience last year which you can read about it here.  His sudden and tragic death sent shock waves through our little group.  He was loved by many friends and colleagues.  He was kind, generous and thoughtful of others.  When I was in Thailand in 2015 visiting my mother in the hospital, he and his family came to visit us in the hospital.  He hardly knew my mom, but he came anyway.  He was so tired from working that he often dosed off while we were talking, but still, he came to visit me and my mom.

He loved his family very much and talked about them often.  He was very proud of his son who is studying in a University right now.  He will be greatly missed by many.  Rest in peace, my friend.  May God watch over you till we meet again.  Your good deeds will be forever remembered.

Embrace life and tell your family you love them everyday!!