Hello! How are you?
My computer failed me last week and consequently, it spent it's Thanksgiving in the hands of an Apple Genius, who must have been just that because its now working perfectly again. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? (Or, if you're outside the US, did you at the very least have a nice meal last Thursday?) I actually got a lot of work done by not having the distraction of my computer, but I am still very happy to have it back and working again.
One of the things I had planned to tell you about was the class I took at the lovely Assemble shop with Dottie Angel herself, Tif. For 2 Sunday afternoons in a row a few of us gathered together and with the help of Tif found our "inner granny" to make lappity lap blankets. What a completely charming sewing companion Tif is. I went into this class explaining that the LAST thing the wise craft house needed, THE last thing, was another quilt, blanket, or coverlet. (We are quite covered, quilted, and coverlet'ed, as you can imagine.) Quilts of any kind take so much time to make that the thought of one just sitting around, unused, makes me sad. So, if I were to make a lappity lap blanket with Tif, I had to have a recipient in mind or I would not be inspired to make one. But who would that be, whom would I have in the back of my mind as I was designing this little gem?
And then, I realized that the recipent had been sitting right there in front of me all along.
Gracie is always looking for a warm place to rest, and our laps are never available as much as she'd like them to be. Quilts are usually folded away during the day, so why not make her one that could be all hers, for her to use as she pleases?
I had found my muse.
And, in case she can in fact read (which would not surprise me)-
Under Tif's creative direction, we added all sorts of lacy, vintage doily-type things (Tif's technical term for this is twiddly bits.) There are all sorts of little loopy, lacy things for Gracie to play with and me to admire. There is a pesky squirrel applique, just waiting to be caught (because all the ones on the other side of the sliding glass doors alway get away) and he's even got a twiddly bit of catnip for her.
I had several vintage type fabrics on hand that I'd planned to use for the blanket top, but the week after the first class I had an exceptionally good day of thifting (so. much. good. stuff!) I found the perfect sheets, some bark cloth, and several sweet fabrics that I ended up using for the final version of the blanket. For some reason once I'd made the quilt top I didn't like, it became much easier to see what I wanted in my mind. I really enjoyed learning Tif's process of building the top of the blanket, using all sorts of machine and hand stitching, as well as applique and embroidery. Its really a process about knowing when to stop or when to add more. I loved playing with neon stitching on bits of doily and think I may actually do some of that again in a future project.
Here it is, not quite finished but almost there (the heart is still in process and I have to resew on that stray diamond of doily on the bottom right).
But really, the true test of how successful this project was is what the recipient thinks of it.
Success!
So much fun! Tif, I will see you soon!
