"Never Say Never"...I am Back!!

Hannah came to visit me today for the purpose of reconstructing my blog sight as well as connecting my domain name back with my Etsy Shop and blog. Now simply click on "Little House Home Arts on Etsy" to the right of this blog (or may be in other locations in future blogs) to get to my shop from this sight. We are officially back in business!

Hannah, my oldest daughter and computer guru went back to school for her teacher's license, and over a stretch of time my business began to decline without her computer expertise due to her lack of time.  I have still been sewing straight out, but turned to making quilts instead of pincushions. My quantity of blogs lessened, as reporting on products was not so frequent. I believe I made the comment in one of my previous blogs "that photographing and writing about quilts in process was a little like watching grass grow", never mind that right now the grass is under snow and not growing at all!!

Hannah did get her teaching license and is near completion of her classes for her Masters. She interviewed and got her choice of schools in the area and has been teaching a second grade class at Fair Haven Grade School in Fair Haven, Vermont. We are very proud of  her and her achievements! Positions may or may not be continuous, and we anxiously await spring/summer when she will find out if her position continues or changes. She is thrilled to have had such a great teaching opportunity this year and loves her students and school!

Our first machine-sewn crazy quilt for my dear friend's niece.

Some less than great snaps of the detail work in it.

Again, a snap of how I personalized it to fit her personality.

This last year I made a special crazy quilt for a niece of a good friend. I started making another  pieced quilt for this same good friend, but suddenly she was having difficulty taking care of herself and was placed in a home for those with memory issues. It was a very sad and sobering time for me, who thought my friend would persevere in the same little home she had lived in for years in Denver! Phone conversations are less than adequate now and with a heavy heart, I started to create a new original Aboriginal crazy quilt learning from the first crazy quilt done on a sewing machine. It is both machine pieced and sewed, and mostly machine embellished and I am pulling out all my skills of both hand and machine embroidery, and applique work. My daughter, Hannah and I did the spontaneous patchwork very quickly over several brief sewing get-togethers, while I did machine embroidered wild animal patches for it, and later some appliqued patches of artwork adapted from Aboriginal art pictures off line, and in accordance to my youngest daughter and her boyfriend's interests. It has been loads of fun!

A picture of the first layout of this crazy quilt, to get an
overview of what it will look like.

 I ordered various trims to the blocks and then did machine embroidery along the patched edges. It is now ready to have the  twenty-five nineteen inch blocks sewn together and uniformly hand-embroidered along the seams with a heavy black pearl cotton feather stitch.

A picture to show some of the applique detail work done
 to personalize this quilt! So fun to  design and make!

Trying to match my daughter and her boyfriend's interests.

Machine embroidery used to embellish her crazy quilt!

Special animals as well as Aboriginal style fabric, machine
embroidery and braid used to embellish this crazy quilt.

I added various embroideries of each season that is so striking
about their life here in Vermont.

Of course some winter scenery needed to be embroidered
on it as half of every year in Vermont is spent in winter!

Its backing will take some time yet as I ordered The Gypsy Quilt Pattern by Jen Kingwell to create a unique backing using the left over fabrics,  many of which were Aboriginal designed fabrics we found at the last quilt show. It is a pieced sort of quilt but rather crazy-like and will fit nicely with the front when it is finished, which won't be anytime too soon!! That is alright as more sewing therapy is needed for me. I am glad to be back and hope that my blog will save many from taking time to write me personally to ask what is up with me? Never dull moments here at Little House!!

A little bit more work to do to make this for the backing of
this crazy quilt, done with left over fabrics used on the front,
as well as some personalized photos of my daughter, her
boyfriend and their special cat-child, and a special
dedication block to my daughter from her sister and I!