Sewing lesson withe the dog

My granddaughter had her last sewing lesson for the summer.  She has done fantastic with not only the sewing, but also setting up and threading the machine, taking it apart and putting it away, and keeping me very entertained with her stories.  Some of the things she talks about are so much about her generation and beyond anything I could imagine for myself at age 11.

Today, our dog wanted in on the action too.  She got underneath the sewing table and put her head in my granddaughter's lap.  Geesh.  

We had so much fun over the summer, sewing together and telling stories.  She wants to sew some clothes next and we'll have to see how her Middle School schedule will work out for her.  

Any ideas on easy clothes to start with? 

Garden Lady #8 - Part One

I got the inspiration for this garden lady from a picture I found somewhere - perhaps Pinterest, maybe a magazine?  I actually don't remember.  Anyway, there was a green dress and gardening implements, so it was a great candidate for my 8th garden lady.

The watering can didn't seem to go along with the rest of the picture, so I changed it to a glass of iced tea, and switched the iced tea in the lower hand and the garden shears into the upper hand (thanks to Al for this suggestion!).  I also changed the face to one that I found about hats on Pinterest.  Here are the inspiration photos and sketches.

I made patterns with freezer paper for the dress parts.

I picked some material for the skin and hair.

Then started thinking about the background.  I had 2 yards of a mottled gray with red circles that was promising.  Frankly, it was about the only piece of fabric that I had in my stash that was large enough to be the entire background.  It made me think about another season than the rest of my pieces, so it will become a fall themed quilt.  I pulled some reds, oranges and pinks for the fall colors to start the inspiration.  It'll probably change, though.  And, now the iced tea doesn't make sense at all.  Oh well, I love  a challenge.  

I hope it like it so far.

Modernized New York Beauty - Final

This is a continuation of 8 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York Beauty as part of the Mod Squad Challenge.  I took my time quilting this piece and changed thread colors a lot.  Since I quilt on a sit down longarm, I can only quilt until my shoulders hurt.  I suppose it could be possible to not scrunch them up, and I really do try to consciously relax.  However, I find myself with my shoulders in my ears whenever I think about it.  Then, when they're screaming for a break, I have to quit for the day.  I suppose those working on a stand up longarm have back problems, so there you go.  Its a trade-off.   

I faced it and added a hanging sleeve .  I like that it ended up looking wonky, since it was hand drawn.  It's 58-1/2" x 58-1/2".  (Good thing; the challenge allows quilts up to 60" x 60").

I hope you like it!