Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wool selection for A Tiskit, A Taskit BOM

I am excited to get going on Anne Sutton's free BOM. I started pulling out some smaller, richly colored and textured pieces in my stash. Wool is so wonderful, it is rich and very tactile. That is one thing I have learned about myself, I LOVE tactile qualities in the material I am working with. Whether it is quilting, knitting, weaving or gardening, or picking out my chickens. It isn't just color and shape their is texture and the feeling on your hand. That is why I LOVE WOOL, I get all that and more. OK I might be off track with the chickens but its true, they have gorgeous colors and textures and can be quite personal. But I was talking about quilting, right?

These wonderful little bundles were a gift from Anne, we were so blessed to have her come teach at our guild retreat a few years ago. She came around and let us pick a bundle of wool. And then she gave me another one. Isn't she just the most generous person, so of course they will be perfect for her BOM. These bundles are packaged so cute that I have never been able open them. I actually took a piece out, cut a shape and then put it back in. LOL... crazy huh... But now I am going to open them and use them as best I can.

See how many pieces and colors are in the bundle, they are going to be a treat to use. Thank You, Thank You Anne. :))

Farmhouse Woolens has wool bundles that are very high quality, rich colors and textured which will work wonderfully for baskets and flowers. And she is having a sale through Saturday. I think this bundle is the Vintage selection. I actually used the top piece for my basket in block #1.

This selection I picked up last week in Eugene at Mindy's. This store is fabulous and I am taking my camera there next time. She has an old post office antique from Portland that is to die for. It is curved and, and the mail slots have different colors of Valdini threads. Like the little ball shown in the picture. OMG I just stood there frozen wanting the whole display at my house. She actually has two, she told me she gets so many comments on it. Yeah! Duh! I mean come on, its fabulous! And my DH had the camera!!! Anyway where was I , Oh the wool, yes this blue wool is so pretty. I am going to use some for bluebirds on my log cabin quilt.
I do like bundles, this colorway also has a textured piece and is sewn together with a button. It is good for more than marketing, it keeps the three pieces together in my stash. Even if I use them I leave them together. So this is the wool I have pulled together, rich and jewel tones. I can see I am going to like this quilt. Next I need my background.
Keeping with the, use what you have theme I have going here, I looked through a lot of printed backgrounds and nothing was jumping out at me. I went to some printed muslin and I like the snowflakes on the half yard piece I found. Not enough for twelve months but I can buy small pieces with different prints through the year. I have a piece with pine tree blocks, hmmm, I wonder if it will work with any of the mystery blocks to come. This is going to be fun!

I have some stitching to do on my stars and then embroidery detail on the snowman, find some buttons. Anne's direction state you may want to wait until after quilting to add the buttons. Thanks Anne, very good point and isn't she nice to mention that. I wonder if she learned that by experience like I always do! I did button-hole stitch around the basket and snowman but the handle and leaves I did a little whip stitch, I call it a primitive stitch! Makes me feel better if they don't look perfect!! My buttonhole stitch on small pieces just looks chunky and I want to like the finished product more than be stuck on which stitch I used!!! I have not done a lot of embroidery and some things like this snowman's nose scare me. What if it looks like Pinocchio for goodness sakes then I have to take it out and that leaves a mark. Ohhh I could stress over these things like taxes. But I'm not, I will mark it lightly and just do it. The directions tell exactly how to do it too, whew, a million thank yous!!

Then I found a picture of Linda, Susie and myself at the SOQS last July. I am ready for summer, but then I am always ready. It is so windy this week that my hat would be in the next county if I wore it now. But thank goodness we don't have floods or a lot of snow either. So just because, I am sharing a warm sunny picture! Speaking of my hat, Casey ate it! Yep, at least I have a picture of it, he got a piece loose and unraveled that rim and chewed the top real good. Argh, I was tempted to sew it back together with a zig-zag stitch!! LOL...... I really liked that hat!!
Happy Sewing, I'm back to work now!
Carrie

15 comments:

Carrie P. said...

Ooohhh! girl, you are making me drool. I love the blue wool too. I am working on the bakste block too. Yours is so cute.

Anne said...

Hi Carrie,
You crack me up! You described our love of wool perfectly. Your block looks darling. I went ahead and added the buttons cuz I didn't read the instructions. LOLOL!

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

Oh that wool is yummy!! I agree 100% with your description of the love of wool!! Your block came out great!

Anonymous said...

That blocked turned out BEAUTIFUL! I love it :o) And those wools are heavenly!

Candace said...

Carrie, you and Anne B. have convinced me I have to do this in wool, too!
Cheers!

Karen said...

It's a good thing I am not there with your wool. They would be soaked with my drool! Why is it that wool does that to some of us? Well, just fabric in general?
Your block is coming together very well. You were Johnny on the spot with this B
OM.

Karen said...

Oh boy you've got some purty wool there sister. I know what you mean about not wanting to cut into it - that's how I feel and sometimes leave fabric and wool in bundles, I know it's crazy and totally understand, LOL. Your block is adorable. I hope to have a show of mine on Monday. Your darling in your hat :)

Hugs - Karen

Kim said...

I'm right there with you. Wool is so gorgeous, no matter the color, it FEELS so good...wet wool is stinky though.

Anne has certainly shared the woolie bug with you and now she has me following her BOM, too. Your block is sweet. I can see all good things to come.

Go ahead and cut up that wool, it needs to blend together with it's friends to make a beautiful quilt, it'll be happier and you can rejoice in your beautiful blending of the wool when the quilts are done!

Red Geranium Cottage said...

Hi Carrie,
Thank you for joining my PIF. I'll email you the details. I've got my three now.
Love your blog.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love wool, too! I will look forward to see the special projects you create each month from Anne's patterns.

Dana

Brenda said...

Oh, how I love wool! I can't even imagine going to a prim store chock full of wool. I think I would have a stroke, LOL!

Wendy said...

I'm crazy about wool and I have the YellowFarmhouse BOM to work on. I did the Bunnyhill block but decided on cotton. Oh how I love your pile of wool.

happy zombie said...

Your basket block is so pretty... and I LOVE your stash of wool too!

Shakerwood said...

When I first saw the Bunny Hill block, all I could think of was cotton. I don't know what I was thinking (with my big stash of wool sitting next to me). You've definitely inspired me to do it in wool. The block (and your stash) looks great.

Mel said...

I want to make my Tiskit BOM out of wool, but never have done a wool project. I'm glad I found you, I'll just follow what you do... hope you post about it every month!