Saturday, June 20, 2015

snow pact


not snowpack...

nope ... snow pact:

snow
snō
noun
  1. 1.
    atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes or lying on the ground as a white layer.
    "we were trudging through deep snow"
  2. 2.
    something that resembles snow in color or texture, in particular.

  3. combined with:

pact
pakt
noun
  1. a formal agreement between individuals or parties.

a couple of years ago, Auntia and i made a pact to work on Snow Days (a Crabapple Hill pattern for an embroidered quilt of a small, rural community that is celebrating a snow day) together ... we collected fat quarters and embroidery floss and sparkly thread and more fat quarters and yardage and more embroidery floss and more sparkly thread and more fat quarters and more yardage till we decided that we really oughta start the actual doing ... we agreed to embroider one block each month till we were finished ... neither of us had done much embroidery with sparkly thread and had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...
i got this far:
my house and barn - the same one that is in Awesome, but from the back
the covered bridge to Auntia's house
before i put it down and started working on anything else because i hated working with the sparkly thread - it shredded and knotted and tangled and shredded some more every time i tried to use it ... after two or three months, i decided to give it another go... 
Auntia's house
and got that far - right before i was gonna need to start in on that sparkly thread again - and realized that i was never never ever gonna work on it with any joy if i kept using that stupid sparkly thread ... so i ordered more fabric waaay too much, as it turned out, which led to yet another embroidered quilt project that is still hanging out in the to do's cuz paper-pieced snowflakes are not all that fun and started over ... i caught back up with Auntia who is STILL using sparkly thread in a different color scheme and embroidered my little heart out for the past year ... and then it was time to trim the stitcheries and add some piecing to the sides...
 trimming embroidered blocks to size is not for the faint of heart, lemmetellya
and piece the center blocks...
is this all gonna come together?!?
yes ... yes, it is!!!
then trace and stitch more embroidery ... and then put it all together...
don't you love it when a plan comes together?!?
pretty doggone cool, innit?!?
here are some closeups of the embroidered blocks...
 little bunny and little birdie
my house and barn ... it's a very, very, very fine house 
 mmhmmm ... the dragon lady DOES live here
 the covered bridge ... which leads to Auntia's house
 Auntia's house
and her barn ... which shelters Tug
Tug ... a true ranger's horse
 yes ... Auntia DOES run with wolves
 snowmen under construction ... look out for snowballs
 LuLu's house and barn
 
 she and Auntia are my sunshine ... and i am their moon
 the general store ... it has EVERYTHING you could possibly need on a snowy day
including Moon Pies
God's house
with free wireless access
school?!? nope - no time for learning the three R's today
land of the free
  run little doggie!!!
 sledding down the hillside...
 ...is worth hauling the sled back up to do it again
 and another house and barn for family and friends
Superman AND Wonder Woman ... with room for Willy the Whale
the creek bed
whew!!!
i bordered it all with lilac hydrangea petals from LakeHouse Dry Goods and it is ready to send off for quilting ... and now i get to watch Auntia keep on keepin' on with that nasty sparkly thread cuz she is Not A Quitter like me, lemmetellya...


If we did all the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
Thomas Edison

6 comments:

  1. Well......I love it, even if it doesn't have sparkly thread! Have you ever tried couching? That would work for the sparkles, you lay the sparkly thread over the stitching lines and take little stitches with something more easily workable, to hold it down. No having to thread sparkly stuff, no having to wrestle it up and down through the fabric.

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  2. OMG! This is priceless. All the time and work you put into it. It is awesome! Of course, it's in my favorite colors too!

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  3. You are the ROCKSTAR of my blog reading!!! What a gorgeous top! Your fabric choices were worth the wait. Complete with Moon Pies (have you tried nuking them for 15 seconds? I told my lovely stepmom that she was indeed wicked for introducing me to that delicacy.) And guests get to stay under whales, WW and SM? I would even brave the white stuff for a visit to those houses! Fun, fun, fun and worth the wait. I hope Auntia will let you share hers when she's done. (I won't hold my breath.) It will be fun to see the sparkles.

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  4. Very, very pretty! I've admired these patterns but have never tackled one. I'm not much on embroidery. Just a little here and there. You, however are now the queen of embroidery!

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  5. OH. MY. GOSHS!!! THAT'S FANTASTIC!!! I think this is my very favorite of your quilts yet! What a beautiful job -- ALLLLL that work!!! Congratulations -- It's GORGEOUS!!!!

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  6. First of all let me say this is amazingly gorgeous! Second of all I hate sparkly thread too. The only way I will use it is to mix it one to one with regular thread. Lastly, where is Fatty McFatty in this tapestry? Also where is your BFF, Pam's house? Hmmmm, did you ever think about us???

    Well, I suppose it is pretty doggone adorable, but seriously, you should have at least put Liz's house closer to yours, smh BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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