Monday, July 14, 2014

Baby Storms the Bastille..and Arrives Early!

The stork decided that Johan Aro Stuart needed to try out his BSJ and his Horse Baby Quilt sooner than scheduled. He arrived Saturday night, four weeks early.
Even though little Johan is pre-term, he is still a good size, 6 lbs 6 oz and 18" long. Other than some breathing problems associated with being a little "underdone" and requiring medical intervention, he is doing well, as is Mom. We're waiting to find out when he will be released from the hospital before we decide when we can leave for Oregon. His parents named him after his great-great-grandfather, who was a famous Finnish entomologist and teacher. (Google: Johan Emil Aro.)
The week didn't start out so exciting, though, but still interesting enough. Some of my quilting buddies and I are working on a quilt for Habitat for Humanity, for a silent auction. Each block will be a house. Here's mine.
Vintage Stitchers members have agreed to make some blocks. Barbara finished hers already, based on one of the appliqué blocks in Home Sweet Home by Barb Adams and Alma Allen, and brought it to last week's meeting at Ellen's.
Marilyn also made a block, this one with machine-embroidered flowers:
Another quilting group is making sensory quilts for Alzheimer's patients. Marilyn has made two for that effort and brought them to show us:

Julie has been working on this quilt for a family member.

Ellen showed us her Mariner's Compass, which she pieced several years ago during a paper-piecing class using Carol Doak's techniques.

 In knitting news, I finished Johan's BSJ. I edged the front, bottom and neck edges with single crochet worked from the inside. Here it is blocking:

Here's the finished BSJ:

The Baby Horse Quilt for Johan came back from Julie, all quilted:

Here's a closeup of the center block after washing and drying:

Finally, a shot of the baby quilt taken during the daytime, showing the quilting.
Now that we know the baby's birthdate and name, I can make a label. The quilt is based on "Twin Stars" from Pam and Nicky Lintott's book Jelly Roll Quilts.
Sunny and I needed to be reevaluated for Therapy Animals of Utah, and that happened Thursday evening. As usual, Sunny made me look good. We (Sunny and I) are semiretired, which means we'll participate in special events and occasional visitations that don't take so much effort or driving.
Happy Bastille Day, everyone. Have some wine and a baguette!

What's on my needles: Cat Bordhi's "Bavarian Twisted Stitch" socks from her book, Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles and getting back to my Mr. Foster.
What's on my Featherweight: Back to Delectable Pathways, still working on the hand appliqué for the last panel. Several more leaves done.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey, one of the 100 Kingdoms series (Not Elemental Masters, as I reported last week). Now listening to Dean Koontz's The City. Still reading Black Diamond Death by Cheryl Bradshaw from Book Bub on the iBooks app.
What's my app of the week: I have to go back to Craftsy. I just finished the Craftsy class "Sweater Surgery" taught by Carol Feller. There are many ways to alter your knitting after the fact, as well as things you can do to alter a pattern. This was a great class, and I can recommend it to anyone who might want to do alterations at any stage of the knitting process.
What's in my wine glass: Trader Joe's Zinfandel 2012. Tasty and good value.
What's my tip of the week: When sewing binding on by machine, the top layer tends to more forward in relation to the bottom layer. You can avoid much of this by pulling slightly on the binding while sewing, if you have cut your strips across the width of fabric. It will stretch the fabric slightly, so the amount of stretch on the two layers will be closer to the same.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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