New Clue, and relearning old skills

I spent most of my quilting time in the past week relearning how to handquilt.  Life has gotten in the way of handquilting for many years.  My first quilt was one I made for my then boyfriend/now husband during the great American quilting revival of 1976. I bought Beth Gutcheon's Perfect Patchwork Primer and dove right in. My dad made me a frame that I could prop up across my desk and a chair, and I mostly stab stitched. Big toe catching stitches. Dad actually helped me stitch a bit. He was the youngest of three boys, and remembers playing under the quilting frame as a very young child while his mom, and probably his grandmom quilted. 

I think my next handquilting effort was a rather lumpy, ugly crib sized quilt for my second son.  

I will photograph both of these humble quilts eventually and post them here. 

The last time I went to a quilt show in Hershey (can't remember how long ago that was), I took a handquilting class with Deidre McElroy. We used her mom's book, That Perfect Stitch, and I finished the class piece a few years ago. It was a little whole cloth smiling cat.  I will try to get a good picture of that, too.

 

Anyway, here are two photos of my handquilting from this week. The crosshatching is on a half inch grid, so I guess I am doing ok.  I really stabbed my left index finger to a pulp for the first few hours though. Had to use liquid skin on it for a few days.  

As a note, I just can't wait until I have used up all the old white on white in my stash.  Makes handquilting so much more challenging. 

Since it's Friday, Clue 3 of Allietare posted this morning.   I had a lot going on today, so I only cut and made a few blocks.  I've got quite a mixed bag of golden toned fabrics, I think it's good variety.

As an Italian American, I have to smile at the metallic gold on gold prints I have. Reminds me of wallpaper in my mom's foyer, her gold sculptured wall to wall carpeting, and the gold trim or gold upholstery on many pieces of furniture in her house.

We are having very odd weather here for December.  Very warm and foggy in the morning.  I've been afraid of slipping on the wet leaves on our usual walking trail, so yesterday I took a shorter walk at dusk with my husband, after he did the full route in the morning. The trails had dried up, and we watched the woods quiet down, saw the owls leave their nests to begin the evening hunt and heard them calling to each other.  This morning, it was so dark and foggy that I found it difficult to keep my balance as we did the first part of our route on the neighborhood streets.  I had a case of vertigo last year, and sometimes, the feeling creeps back up on me. 

Tomorrow I am driving over to my mom's to help with a few things, so no sewing time. Sunday I am meeting friends to exchange gifts and share an early dinner. After that, it should be a fairly quiet time til Advent. Have to finish the tree, send a few more cards, and do the food related work for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I thoroughly ruined an attempt at making Ricotta cookies today, I think I will stick with the basics and make a batch of toll house for the family and they will be happy.