Friday, June 22, 2012

Granny's Tool Shed

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been a very busy bee.  The most important news for me is that my collaborator and I have finished the copy-edit checks on our manuscript, and the copyeditor has already cleaned it up and resubmitted to the press.  Typesetting is next!

It has been four years from proposal to typesetting; this is not a terribly long time in the world of academe (my first book -- single-authored, a monograph -- took ten years from concept to publication, ugh), but it still feels great to have arrived at this point.  It's pretty exciting to see it here and here. Yay!

In the context of my sewing life I do have other progress to report.  I have had to resist the temptation to share progress shots of a quilt I made for (another) one of Frida's Montessori teachers -- because a couple of them have been known to peek at this blog:)  Kelly's last day at the school is today, and her quilt is now ready.

Using another design from Kim Brackett's Scrapbasket Senstations -- this one is called "Tool Shed" -- I pulled a range of lavender, purple, blue, aqua, and pink prints from my stash. I was aiming for something pretty girly, more like Granny's tool shed.

Kelly's quilt


I pieced with Aurifil 50 wt on Dot, my 1947 Singer Featherweight, after giving her a thorough cleaning and oiling.  Dot may have been clean and tidy, but you can see that my work space was not.  Sewing is messy, at least for me!

messy messy


a handful of "tool shed" blocks


Granny's tool shed, in progress


The background and sashing fabric is an unidentified natural solid from my stash...I think it's Kona Bone. My favourite detail has to be the deep blue narrow border, which is Tula Pink's Parisville "French Lace."  I just love that shade of blue, also used in a couple of the tool shed blocks.

Granny's tool shed


I straight-line quilted...well straight-ish, anyway.


Tool shed, detail


I chose Kona Sky for the back and Lecien Petit Fleurs lilac pin dots for the binding. I used all the lilac pin dots I had for the binding, which says something about our family's feelings for Kelly!


Granny's Tool Shed, finis!


Granny's Tool Shed, back


Granny's Tool Shed, pre-gifting...Ramone will miss this one


Thank you for everything, Miss Kelly, and bonne chance!

7 comments:

Ariane said...

Gorgeous!! I love the way it turned out!!!!

LizA. said...

Yay for you! Love this quilt. What a lovely gift. No sewing here, just a lot of painting and home improvement.......

Prof. S (the enchanted bobbin) said...

Thank you, Ariane! Kelly seemed to like it...and I gave her the scraps too, since she is quite a crafty gal herself.

Prof. S (the enchanted bobbin) said...

Thanks so much Liz. I always appreciate your comments!

Kim Brackett said...

Congratulations on finishing your manuscript and your quilt. You've been busy! I love the happy fabrics you used in your quilt. And the quilting looks really cool!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

What a fabulous quilt - I'm sure it will be treasured for years to come!

Chelsea said...

This is such a cool block, and I love how the quilting gave it a really 30s kind of look. What did you use for the batting? I'm always looking for batt recs and I love the way this one looks so thin and antique.