Lots of Handwork….

You should know by now that, if I am posting about a LOT of handwork, it is someone else’s quilt!!

I have mentioned before that my Mom LOVED doing things with her hands. She seldom sat at night without a needle in her hand……….and stuck in the padded armrest….but that is another story!!

One of her favorite crafts was embroidery and she KNEW how to do it.

I thought she was crazy when she started this quilt…..

There are 50 blocks with each state and its bird and flower……

Look at all of these French Knots…..

And of course, her beloved Texas…..

Now the AMAZING thing here is that not only did she make this quilt, but she also went on to make TWO more of them!!!

I love that I have this quilt and when I look at it, I can see her bent over her needle and smiling!!

Movement!!

A few weeks ago I had to pick Michael up at the International Airport in Atlanta.

While I was waiting for him, I noticed this “blob” suspended from the ceiling….

….and marked as “AirportArt”.

Okay…it is somewhat interesting!!

THEN, I looked closer and realized that it was made from a series of chains and was moving in the wind…..

Oh, how I would love to capture that sort of movement in a quilt!!!

Saved by the Chopstick!!

Back in 2011, Michael and I spent 5 weeks in Kunming China, living in a 6th-floor walk-up apartment. If you would like to read about one of our typical days, check this out…..

The $1.45 store……

As this blog post tells, we would often eat lunch at a local cafeteria that catered to the University professors and students.

Naturally, since we couldn’t speak the language, we reverted to the famous “SMILE AND POINT” method!!! After we had our tray filled with unknown foods….

…we would head to our table and pick up our chopsticks. At this point, EVERYONE in the dining room would turn to watch the two white people ATTEMPT to eat. Michael was much better than I was….

…and would almost always manage to get the food to his mouth.

OKAY….story over…..now on to the POINT of this post!!

I have a set of quilt-hanging hooks that I love!! ….

They are called “Hang Ups” and they have a screw clamp on the front and a single hole on the back…..

This hole means that you can hang a quilt on just ONE nail or even a pushpin.

OKAY….that is the introduction…..now I PROMISE that we are getting to the point!!!

I used this hanger to hang a small quilt that did not have a sleeve on it and, as you might have guessed, this is what happened…..

I REALLY didn’t want to make a sleeve but was tired of it falling forward so I got an idea!!!

What if I put two large safety pins on the back…..

….and threaded a Chopstick thru them….

The result was that the quilt now lies perfectly flat…..

THAT is a good use for a chopstick!!!!

Why quit??

Thankful for my quilter!!

Several months ago I wrote about making a quilt called “Tradewinds” from Cozy Quilt Designs.

This is the last post that I wrote about finishing up the top…..

Tradewinds….the big finish!!

Now it was time to quilt it and I decided that I would send it to a Longarm quilter instead of doing it myself. At this stage, I was in a HURRY to get this one finished, and I quickly grabbed a piece of fabric that was big enough…..

and said to myself….

“It’s good enough”!!

I happily handed it off to my friend Sheila of 34 Stitches.

She came back to me a few weeks later and asked if I was SURE that I wanted to use that back? The more I thought about it, I realized that I had settled for what was fast rather than thinking about what was appropriate. I changed the backing!!

I am so thankful that she took the initiative to challenge my decision.

The quilt is MUCH better because of her!!

Do you struggle with settling for what is easy rather than what is best???

How do you override that tendency?