Crochet 'Cup Cozy Doily Maker' Award

Like many things, Crochet has 'Come and Gone' over the years.  It's origin is vague with many theories and discoveries of ancient crochet examples and references in writings from Switzerland to South America. 

Crochet was properly introduced to Needleworkers during the 19th Century with the industrialization of 'Machine Spun Cotton Thread'.  Thank-you Eli Whitney! 

I personally have my high school Homemaking I teacher, Mrs. Browning, to thank for learning crochet.  It was another of those 'BackInThe Sixties' thingies that every young girl should know in order to make coffee table doilies and spider web bedspreads...the essential and ultimate stamp to being inducted into the realm of a 'Master Hooker'.

By the time I got to Homemaking IV, my 'Hope Chest' held a collection of what Mrs. Browning finally gave up and gave me the best 'Cup Cozy Doily Maker' award.  Needless to say, I did not invest in the 100 Balls of 100 percent cotton thread it took to make a bedspread. 

The final blow to my lack of 'Crochet Curriculum Mastery' was knowing my fellow 'Hookers' had outdone me with their Hope Chests overflowing with crochet doilies, tablecloths and bedspreads...the 1960's Susie Homemaker's Guide to Hooking a Husband.  My only consolation was my Hope Chest full of 'Aprons'...I could SEW and COOK. 

I never did make a crocheted bedspread or master the art of 'Coffee Table Doilies'. However, I am a 'Master Doily Collector' as well as crocheted lace and crochet books.   Never one to give up on learning a 'Needlework' skill, I gave Mrs. Browning's lessons a second chance and made these....

 Thanks Mrs. Browning for the 'Cup Cozy Doily Maker' Award.  Your 'Positive Reinforcement'

made all the difference in a

Lifetime of Crochet Enjoyment for this Susie Homemaker.

Linking To:

Jenny Matlocks Alphabe-Thursday's Letter C

BASTING BackInTheDay and TODAY

Basting seemed an appropriate topic for this Alphabe Thanksgiving Thursday...afterall, many of you are BASTING BIRDS today. Not much has changed in Bird Basting since, well, colonial days...except Butterball Self-Basting Birds. Otherwise, it's squirt the bird with the Basting Thingy and hope that keeps it juicy.

You may have guessed I don't have a lot of experience with Bird Basting...clue being 'Basting Thingy'....which I have, but have only used for sucking drippings from the Self-Basting Butterball or Bob's Beer Bottle in the Birds Butt-Basting.

On the other hand, I have years of the other kind of BASTING.  That'd be Quilt Basting, Bob!  In fact, I'm pretty sure I inherited the Basting DNA from my Grandmother Minnie who 'Needle and Thread' basted many quilts BackInTheDay.  Bless her heart, she would be proud that her Back Breaking Basting Trait was passed on even though it skipped a generation...my Mother is a Bird Baster not a Quilt Baster.  She knows very well how to squirt the Basting Thingy.

Needle and Thread Basting is still practiced today by many quilters who hand quilt in frames and hoops and also by those who machine quilt.

 Click on the U-Tube Player for an excellent video on Thread Basting by Cathy Izzo.  Can you just imagine Minnie's reaction to learning Needle and Thread Basting via U-Tube? 

Butterball Turkeys/Engineers are not the only innovators in the world of basting.  Not that their engineers are turkeys or that their turkeys are innovators or....well, anyway...the Quilt World innovators have stepped up to the plate...so to speak...on BASTING.

Quilt Basting has come into the Twenty-first Century not only with U-Tube HowTo Videos, but with tools, supplies and aids to help the handquilter and machine quilter to achieve the best possible results in record basting time.  There is the 'Safety Pin' method, the 'Spray Baste' method, and the 'Steam A Seam' method.

Well known 'Quilt Innovator', Nancy Leman demonstrates these three techniques. 

Thank-you Nancy!

Basting is a very important 'B' word in the 'Quilt World,
 but it is not by any means the only one.

There are at least 20 more 'B' words I could have chosen and several of them

 have dual applications like Basting...ie....Squirting and Stitching.

Here are a few quilting 'B' words....you can fill in the dual applications.

~Birthing...Method of sewing the quilt batting and backing to the outside edges...right sides together...then turning the whole thing inside out as if it were a pillow case. 

~BOM...Block of the Month. 

~Bubble Jet Set...A liquid product which makes ink color fast on fabric. For use in your jet printer in making labels.

~Burn Test...A test using a flame on fabric to identify Fibers.  That'd be FIRE, Bob!

~Bare Feet...A device for finding pins dropped on bare floors and carpet.

 

~Baste...Long stitches used to hold the top, batting and backing of a quilt together while the quilting is being done and removed when the quilt is completed. 

Pic of my Basted Bird!

Linking To:
 Jenny Matlocks Alphabe~Thursday Letter B

Now...Go Baste your Bird and have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

ABC's of A NeedleWorker

AGES...seems like Ages since I participated in Alphabe-Thursday, but in actuality it was in 2011.  As I browsed through those posts, I noticed I was all over the place with the topics for each letter.  As an OOPerson...over organized...being all over the place is unlike me, but it worked out okay in 2011 and I made it all the way through without missing a single Thursday!

This Go-Round of 2013 Alphabe~Thursday, I will be true to my OOPersonality and establish a theme...

The ABC's of A Needleworker

You will know it's me by the 'Embroidered Letter Block'...which is not necessarily a depiction of that letter's topic.  For instance, today's topic is APPLIQUE not ApplePie.

 

APPLIQUE...In its broadest sense, is a smaller ornament or device applied to another surface.  In sewing, applique refers to a needlework technique in which patterns or scenes are created by the attachment of smaller pieces of fabric to a larger piece of contrasting colour or texture.  It is used extensively in quilting.  'Sunbonnet Sue is an example of a traditional American quilt block constructed with both patchwork and applique.  (reference...Wikipedia)

As you might have quessed, I am a QUILTER.  The Appliqued Sunbonnet Sue is one of the blocks in a quilt done with a group of quilters on the Internet back in 1996...and Yep, that was AGES ago when I was new to the internet, and so was Quilting.  Today Quilting on the WorldWideWeb is Big Business, a Social Media Super Show and a U-Tube Sensation where you can learn all the Applications of Applique in about as many Languages.  For example:  HERE is Needle Turn Applique.  HERE is Machine Applique.

You also may have guessed that I'm from Texas....just thought I'd mention that while you admire the Hand Stitched 'Button Hole Stitch' Applique on the Mockingbird Block from my Texas My Texas Quilt.  I have to say that Applique is not my favorite technique in quilting, but it is one of the best  ways to portray a pictorial scene.  I personally enjoy the handwork when time permits....which for me on some applique projects is in short spurts over a long time....like years. 

 

Kind of like my Alphabe~Thursday participation...here is my All Over the Place 2011 Letter A,

A's In Arthmetic and Agave

Linking To:

Jenny's Alphabe~Thursday #8

Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday