Meredith's 2018 Crafts

This picture accurately represents my face when I use my sewing machine!

This year I have a lap quilt to bind and other quilts to attempt to repair (or shore up anyway). I have a new cross-stitch pattern to start stitching as well, using the Dr Seuss quote "Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks."

LOL. I always have to remind myself to not suck my lips into my mouth (if that makes sense) when I sew. It's a habit I've had most of my life.

My mother's tongue always tipped out the corner of her mouth.

I'm afraid I tend toward slack jawed yokel when concentrating, but the girl's eyes are definitely right. Same mix of annoyance and anxiety.

Hahaha I would hate for someone to take a photo of me while concentrating. Not sure how I look, but I know it's not pretty!!

>5 judylou: - Me too!

>1 mabith: That's hilarious! I have that same bend in the neck but I suspect my facial expression is less intense—most of the time.

I've had a hard time sitting down with anything in the near year, other than my books. Partly I was out of everything but 22 ct Aida and the sewing room is filled with things cleared from my mom's house (she died suddenly last September).

Decided being so out of aida and evenweaves was a strong sign I should go back to working on the large tablecloth embroidery project. I spent ages looking for a vintage tablecloth with the embroidery lines printed on it before I found one I really liked. The size makes it a little hard for me to work on (I need to be mostly reclined most of the time and that's easier with smaller pieces). I finished two of the corner pieces the last time I worked on it, and have started a third now. There's a good bit of design in the middle as well. Here's one of the previously finished corners:



The embroidery floss I'm using is all silk, mostly hand-dyed, and has a good bit of variation in it than shows up in most pictures.

>8 mabith: That's really lovely. I prefer counted cross stitch to embroidery, but that piece looks really nice. I think I remember most of the other embroidery stitches we don't use in cross-stitch, but it's been a long while since I've attempted any.

>8 mabith: Delicately lovely, Meredith. It reminds me of the tablecloths I have of my female predecessors which I have in a plastic bin here. I keep saying I'm going to do something with them.

>8 mabith: That's very pretty, Meredith! And I love the idea of silk floss for it, too.

That's a really pretty design. I used to do pillow cases. (short attention span), but I've never tried silk floss. I'm not even sure it was available around here when I used to embroider.

Ooh, that's really pretty. I'm glad you listened to that little voice telling you to work on this project!

>9 thornton37814: I prefer cross-stitch in some ways, but it is lovely to have a pattern printed on the fabric and not have to glance at a pattern every second!

>10 avaland: That's kind of my idea in stitching this, creating an heirloom type piece. Though obviously I have to make sure some of nieces and nephews are interested in such things...

>11 scaifea: The silk was half accident, but seemed appropriate for this kind of piece.

>12 dudes22: I just love the design. It was a very lucky Etsy find. Silk is wonderful to work with, and seems like it will hold up better than cotton, maybe? Plus it seems like most of the small-scale hand dyers only offer silk.

>13 lauralkeet: Ha, yes, the little voice is always popping up about UFOs. It's been a slow start as a stray cat I've half adopted has wanted to crash on my lap half the day.

Beautiful work. I remember working on something similar with my mother when I was a teenager, but it was never completed. I will have to ask her if she still has it.

I have just inherited my husband's aunts tablecloths to do, but I am firmly and inflexibly fixated on my cross stitch. I feel it is a bit unfair that there is not enough time to do EVERYTHING.

>15 judylou: Always nice to have those projects still kicking around!

>16 captainsflat: I do find uncounted embroidery can be a nice break, since the design is printed right there and you don't have to be looking up and down, up and down, from work to pattern all the time.

Nearly done with the third corner of my tablecloth project pictured in >8 mabith:

And I finished the Dr Seuss quote band sampler.

>18 mabith: The sampler is very pretty, and those are truly words to live by.

>18 mabith: Love it!

>18 mabith: That's lovely, both the sentiment and the execution.

>19 Lyndatrue: >20 thornton37814: >21 rosalita: Thanks!

It's been really hard to get stitching this year. My mom was a big part of my process, and proving I was okay through doing creative work. Seeing her excited about a new idea for a pattern or a finished work was one of the best feelings in my life.

I made this for a friend who learned to knit in the last two years, and is now part-time teaching a knitting class, and will be the main teacher soon! She starting learning with a newborn and a two year old at home, so she's basically a superhero. (She already knew how to crochet and cross-stitch before having kids.)

I've made a new quilting friend, who unlike me can drive for more than ten minutes, so we went to a gallery I used to frequent about an hour and a half away (The Dairy Barn). They host Quilt National and have other quilt shows as well. This time they had two shows, one looking at quilts from the 1970s to 2000s and the other looking at quilts from the 2010s. We had fun predicting years on the first show! The 2010s show makes up the first three rows of pictures here. If you click on any you can see a larger image.

It was so lovely to have quilt talk. I missed the last Quilt National, as my mom had just died. This trip was melancholy in many ways, but always nice to see beautiful quilts.

>23 mabith: It was so lovely to have quilt talk.
This made me smile. I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm happy for you!

It sometimes feels silly, since I'm not a quilter (yet!), but it's always been a big part of my life.

>23 mabith: Thanks for posting those. There are some interesting and deceptively simple quilts there to consider!

We felt like there were too many where the quilting didn't complement the design enough, but their shows are always great.

Interesting quilts! I would have got dates all wrong, I think the some works on the first three rows look more dated than some of the others. But I am not a quilter, what do I know. Love the triple threat!

>28 captainsflat: Thanks! I'm so behind in life that I only just sent my friend the Triple Threat piece.

Still struggling so much with life in general and grief for my mom. I've done almost no crafting. I started this a while back but have barely worked on it. It's a terrible piece for me right now because I hate stitching large expanses of single colors.

More book related work. Here are the actual book spines I used to make the pattern:


And here's the pattern part (colors not remotely set, many just used for contrast since there's kind of gold on gold with the Swiss Family Robinson and too many greens).


I've finished the Black Beauty spine and maybe 1/3 of the green background for The Secret Garden.

>30 mabith: I'm so sad to hear of your continuing sorrow. It seems like some deaths are just hard to get over. Losing your mother always seems hard.

That book spine embroidery project looks like it will be beautiful, when it is, at long last, finished. I don't think I'd have the patience to do it, myself.

You'll be in my thoughts this evening.

XXOO

>30 mabith: I am sorry to hear of your loss. When I read about old books I think of my mother and how much she loved to read.
How interesting about the book covers.
Leona

>30 mabith: Those are beautiful! What a great idea! I'm glad you are back, if only in a limited manner.

The heartache of grief will get better. She's still there, just within you now. I prefer to have conversations with my mother while making pie dough. XX

Thank you all. I'm not expecting to be remote at ease with it any time in the near future. It was an extremely sudden and unexpected death, and my mother was still young. She was truly my best friend, the person I spent most of my time with, and because I can't work a regular job I don't have that much to distract me.

This issue was/is harder just because I didn't expect it to be an issue at all (vs expected aspects of grief). I write my mom a lot of letters, and I have a good therapist helping. I designed a very small pattern and did get it stitched (therapist expectations helped a lot). I think for now I have to accept that this is no longer a happy, joyful hobby, but still one that I absolutely need (due to my chronic pain I have limited options).



The quote is from an interview with Townes Van Zandt, one of my and my mom's favorite musicians.

That's lovely. A nice tribute to your mom, also. Love the colors. And we do love having you around.

>34 mabith: I love that quote - perfect.

Sending you gentle hugs and thinking of you.

I like that quote a lot, and the sampler is very pretty. We're here for you -- stop in any time.

Thanks, ladies, I appreciate it. I've managed two more grief-related pieces.



Above is a Leonard Cohen quote ("You know how nights like this begin, any way you turn is going to hurt.")



Separation, a poem (in full) by W.S. Merwin.

Both pieces are lovely, Meredith. I was wondering how you have been holding up. It's always a bit tougher around the holidays.

>39 avaland: Thanks, Lois. December was achingly difficult. Did a lot of reading at least, if not much crafting.

>40 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

I hope you are going to create a 2019 thread, Meredith!

>42 avaland: Yes, what Lois said!

Yes, I'll definitely be creating a thread. :)

I'm having a slow start getting back all the new threads, and already three reviews behind! Not that it's a terrible problem to have...

>44 mabith: You are such a voracious reader, I don't know how you keep up with all your reviews. I have trouble keeping up with mind and often find myself 4 or 5 behind and I read far less than you.

Looking forward to your 2019 projects!