Frayed Edges

I’m making slow-but-enjoyable progress on my “Floral Abundance” quilt.  I stitch in the evenings while my sweetie-pie husband, Dave, watches TV.  I usually drink a glass of wine while stitching.

The tree is almost undecorated...boo hoo!

3 down, 3 to go!

Having enjoyed all that hand appliqué, I decided to stitch the blocks together by hand.  It feels great...I don't know when I'll ever use my sewing machine again!

Side note:  I learned something about drinking wine and sewing:

1 glass of wine=nice work!

2 glasses of wine = mistakes abound!

Carried away with stitching!

Notice above: I accidentally stitched both sides of the blocks.  A nice thing about hand stitching is it’s easy to rip out.  So I can continue sipping and stitching!

While stitching these pretty blocks together, threads around the edges start to fray. The frayed edges remind me of a long, long, long time ago when I was a little 8-year-old girl in Brownies.  Mom was our amazing troop leader.  She organized all the other moms to teach a project so we could earn several badges.  Mom’s project for us was a Christmas musical.  We sang “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” with hand motions.  I bet it was cute.

Another project for our little Brownie troop was to “make” napkins and table cloths.  If I remember correctly, we used red checked cotton fabric.  We were each given pre-cut pieces of fabric:  a large square for the tablecloth, and four smaller squares for napkins.  Our job was to pull the threads off the edges for a frayed finish.  I’m pushing 60 years old, and haven’t thought of that project in decades.  But as the edges of my “Floral Abundance” blocks fray a little, I’m transported back to that chubby-cheeked little Judy following her Mommy’s instructions to make a tablecloth and napkins.  Thank you, Mom.  How did I get to be so lucky?

Switching to a new topic, let’s talk about our upcoming Summer issue photo shoot.  This marks the 5-year anniversary of Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  I am super-duper excited to tell you that we will do the photography at the same house where we photographed the projects for our debut Summer 2011 issue!  It’s a beautiful timber frame structure made of logs from a barn that was built in Ohio in the mid 1800’s.  (And, if anyone’s in the market, this house is for sale!)  Click here to see pictures of that first photo shoot way back in February, 2011.

Our debut issue:  Summer 2011...where has the time gone?

There sure is a lot going on right now, with the happy holidays on top of everything else.  You might say we’re all a little frayed around the edges—but in a nice way, like the little table cloth and napkins I made a long time ago.

Loose threads from frayed edges.

I wish you the Happiest New Year ever!

Judy