kayray.org

Oops. I disappeared again, huh? I love all the messages you guys send to me! Thank you!

I’ve been having sort of a rough time. I’m so tired. Everything is difficult. Good days are rare.

However, I do have some good days still! And on those good days I make things. I’m still working on my Friesland Blanket, which I started in March of 2017. Here’s a progress photo from last week:

At that point I needed to make six more motifs, and since then I’ve made two so there are only four remaining!

I also finished my beautiful Wildflower Farm Quilt! This one is mine mine mine. I love it so!

Hi guys, it’s August and I’m still alive, yay! :) Thank you all so much for the sweet comments and emails. They cheer me up when I re-read them on bad days.

Let’s see here… what’s new. Last weekend I went to a Featherweight maintenance workshop put on by Dave of https://twiceniceshoppe.com.
Of course I already knew how to oil and grease my machine because I am Research Girl, but I also learned many other things, including how to clean out the bobbin casing and how to install a new belt — both of which were much-needed. My beautiful Featherweight is running smoother than ever! It was fun to be in a room with eleven other Featherweights, from the early 1930s to the mid 1960s. I believe mine was the only inherited Featherweight — all the others had been bought from collectors or thrift stores.

Healthwise, I am much the same. Every activity is exhausting and I spend most of my time in bed, but I can still get up and sew or read to Em on good days! We’re working our way through the Mary Poppins series. I’ll have recordings to share with you sometime soon.

Kirsten showed me a wonderful soothing game called Merge Dragons and I am obsessed. It has entertained me though several Tired Days recently.
http://www.mergedragons.com

Here are the things I’ve made recently:

Three Suki Robes,
two of cotton and one of a silk saree that I bought on etsy for $15! I live in these robes, over tanks and tees in the daytime and over nothing at all at night. I have serious temperature regulation issues and these robes let me adjust my warmth level by tiny increments.

Also made a couple pairs of undies (pattern is Bunte Punkte Panty from Klimpergross) and a couple of comfy tank dresses based on the Kirei Cami pattern. With POCKETS. The blue dress has badgers all over it!

And quilts, of course.

This one is the free “Summer Breeze” pattern, for Susan and Jack. Just finished it and am ready to mail it away. I made it slightly larger than the pattern shows.

I invented a pattern for my nephew John and his partner Kim, owners of a massive succulent and cactus collection. I was inspired by their Instagram photos of their cacti in bloom. :) This one is basted and ready to quilt, but I’m still considering how best to quilt it.

Oh, I also made a little quilted needle book. Pattern is by RetroMama on Etsy

And a couple of shopping bags made of leftover/practice quilt parts :)

Right now I’m piecing a quilt for my brother, so you can look forward to photos of that one next time.

Hi guys, thanks for checking on me. I’m still here :) I’ve had a string of rough days, doctor appointments, and total exhaustion, but I did manage to finish Kathy’s quilt and Dan’s quilt, and start one for Susan.

Here are some pretty pictures:

Kathy’s quilt, based on the Garden Star Quilt tutorial from MSCQ

Dan’s quilt (the blue is not so electric in real life), based on the Grayscale Quilt tutorial from cluckclucksew

And the very beginning of Susan’s, based on the Summer Breeze tutorial from Jordan Fabrics

Hello, I’m still here. Thank you for all the kind comments!!

I had a 14-day migraine that ended about two weeks ago, and then 2-day migraine that ended yesterday. UGH. But in between I was able to make several things, and we celebrated Em’s 6th birthday, for which Henry, Jayla, and Lulu were here! It was amazing to get to see them for a few hours and now I am itching to visit them as soon as the side effects settle down and I am in between nasty medical appointments.

Things I made:

A bias-cut apron and a sewing kit for Em’s birthday. The apron is a pattern I copied from a friend’s apron many long years ago. I had a green one that Em loved to wear until it fell apart from age, so I made her a beautiful new one. I added rick-rack to the edges to make it prettier, and I lined to so that it should last her for years and years. It’s adult-size, with an adjustable neck strap. Sewing kit is an old cookie tin with a drawstring top attached. I filled it with a tape measure, a pincushion, a pair of scissors just for fabric, and six fat quarters of calico so she has some fabric that she can use without asking permission.

Also, we had a couple of blistering hot days so I made myself two light cotton robes using the “Suki Robe” pattern from Helen’s Closet. Her patterns are sooooooo good. I used an alternative neckband, and added lined patch pockets. I only had two yards of the green seersucker and had to get creative, so it has a muslin hem-extender and extra-wide sleeve bands. I LOVE these robes!!

Also I finished Lulu’s quilt in time for them to take it home with them after their little visit! I quilted daisy chains all over it, with a nice loopy border.

AND! During the 14-day migraine I had some mornings when I felt well enough to sew for an hour, so I did some work on Kathy’s quilt. All I need to do now is add the borders, baste, quilt, and bind. :)

I just finished Chloe’s Herringbone quilt and I’m so proud of it. She chose the fabric when she was up here visiting a month or two ago — a lovely set of flannel prints from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I chose a nice creamy herringbone flannel for the background fabric, and an extra-thick cotton batting so it would be heavy and comforting. The borders and binding are some black kona cotton I had hanging around and the backing is 90″ premium muslin as usual. I quilted big free oak leaves all over it, which was both fun and challenging! I’m still not sure how I managed to maneuver that enormous heavy thing through my tiny Featherweight 221. :) The quilting took several days because a) it was so tiring that I could only work for an hour or two at a time and b) I’ve had a mild migraine for 11 days which gets a bit worse in the early afternoon.

Finished quilt is 70″ x 82″

Photos!

I finished Em’s quilt!

She chose this pack of 10″ flannel squares from my stash (“Lil’ Sprouts” from http://missouriquiltco.com), and she decided she wanted big plain squares with a scalloped border. We laid out all the squares on the floor and she arranged them to her taste. She also sewed some of the seams! (Em will be 6 in June). I quilted a big flower in each square and rainbow shapes around the edge. The border is flannel from JoAnn’s. Cotton batting.

Remodulin update: one minor migraine last weekend, several episodes of Hot Face (so uncomfortable, feels like my face will burst into flames), painful knees, nausea, extra fatigue, weird temperature issues — I feel way too hot or way too cold almost all the time. Quite tolerable!

I had an appointment with my pulmonologist up at UCSF on Monday, and he convinced me to try increasing my dose of Remodulin one more time and to have another right heart cath done — they’ll put a catheter in my heart and look around and measure the pressures in there. (I’ve had this done many times and it sounds worse than it is.) He thinks there’s a tiny TINY chance that, with a little more Remodulin in my system, they *might* be able to fix the hole in my heart, which *might* lessen my symptoms somewhat and give me a little more time. Don’t get all excited, it’s a very very very slim chance.

So I cranked my pump up one notch yesterday (to 0.04 mL/hour, which equates to 32 ng/kg/min at my weight) and now I’m waiting for the hideous side effects to set in… I will probably have several weeks of near-constant migraines, full body pain, and intense nausea. If I can’t handle it, I’ll need to drop back to my regular dose. We’ll see. I couldn’t handle it last time we tried this. Anyway if you don’t hear from me here for a while it means I’m lying in a dark room trying not to puke.

In other news, I finished my beautiful Voysey print “Modern T” quilt! and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and it is mine, mine, mine. I drew leaves and vines all over the backing and quilted from the back, which was really fun! I used a different kind of wool batting (Quilters Dream) and I think it is MUCH better than the stuff I got from JoAnn’s. Barely any fibers on the surface of the quilt after washing. I wish I’d used this better batting for Henry’s quilt, but oh well, live and learn. I also finished Suzanne’s little green lap quilt and she loves it :) :) :)

Next up: quilts for Emma Rose, Chloe, Kathy, and Lulu. I think I have enough fabric for all of them, except for the backings. I’m waiting for muslins to go on sale at JoAnn’s…

I was going to do a post with lots of photos showing work-in-progress, but I don’t think I have the stamina for that. So here are four more quilts I’ve finished:

Mom’s Nasturtium quilt (pattern is Disappearing Pinwheel Shoofly). The folded photo’s colors are more true. Machine quilted in random meanders and swirls and things.

Henry’s Stacks quilt. Machine quilted along the seam lines, with spirals in the border. After piecing but before before quilting I hand-embroidered the titles of 40 favorite books in random places.

Jayla’s Simple Squares quilt. Machine quilted in swirling feather designs, with big daisies around the border.

Kirsten and Marcos’s Outer Space quilt (traditional Log Cabin pattern). Machine quilted in spirals with pebbles around the border.

All patterns are from the free video tutorials at Missouri Star Quilt Company. Most of the fabrics are from them too. All were pieced and quilted entirely on my beloved Singer Featherweight 221.

I’m basically ok except for this odd depression that manifests as a serious quilting/making OBSESSION. Quilts are all I think about and quilting (and knitting) is all I do… No news on the health front. I had a meeting with a Palliative Care team member to talk about… stuff. You know. End-of-life comfort and that.

Henry’s Stacks quilt is still coming along nicely — I embroider a few more book titles every day — and I’ve started a Disappearing Pinwheel Shoofly quilt for Mom. I chose this pattern and color scheme because it reminds me of the nasturtiums we both love. :)

There’s a video tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rgQd6asPQs

but for the impatient, here’s a quick photo rundown. And I have a couple tips of my own to add.

Take two 10″ squares (or any size, but I wouldn’t go much smaller than 10″), your print and your background, and stitch them together with a 1/4″ seam all the way around the edge. I like to sew straight off the edge, then lift the foot, reposition the fabric, and start the next edge. For me it’s quicker and more accurate than trying to pivot that corner at exactly 1/4″ from the edge. Press, then SLICE that square from corner to corner. Press open the resulting pieces and you have four half-square triangles (quilting terminology for a square made of two triangles). Arrange them in pinwheel formation and sew them together.

Now comes the exciting part, the part where you will ruin a whole block if you’re not paying attention. Guess how I know this… *eyeroll*

(These measurements apply if you started with 10″ squares) Take your nice accurate quilting ruler and measure a line exactly 2 1/8″ from the center seam. I’ve circled the 2 1/8″ marks in this photo. See how they line up just right?

Then SLICE along your ruler. Then lift the ruler CAREFULLY, and CAREFULLY place the 4 1/4″ marks on the line you just cut. Again, I’ve circled them. There will be a little bit of edge to trim off.

Now CAREFULLY rotate your block. I bought an inexpensive rotating cutting mat, but you can also just rotate a smallish mat on your table.

Repeat those cuts on all four sides — 2 1/8″ from the center, then trim the edge at 4 1/4″ from that cut. I say the numbers aloud while lining up the ruler. One time I didn’t, and I cut a different measurement which I won’t say here so as not to throw you off but it was the number between 2 and 4. And that entire block went into the scrap box. *another eyeroll*

And now you have — ta-da — this! And each block is exactly 4 1/4″ square.

Now the magic happens. Take the eight outer squares and rotate each by 1/4 turn to the right.

Hey presto! It’s a flowery-looking thing! (Actually a traditional shoofly block with a little pinwheel in the center)

Stitch together in rows, stitch the rows together, and:

Isn’t that going to be a pretty thing?

HAHAHAHA I just spotted a triangle going the wrong way! I could pick it out but I’ll probably leave it. I’ll just put that block in the corner. No one said quilts had to be perfect and I am a total beginner anyway. :)

Hey all,

Thank you so much for the sweet comments and emails! I’m bad about replying but I’ll get to it one of these days… Just know that your kind and loving words meant a great deal to me.

Here’s my in-progress knitted Friesland blanket. I’ve finished 13 motifs and I have 15 remaining, I think. Yikes, it’s going to be enormous! I grafted together seven of them ages ago, and then I just kept on knitting. I didn’t realize how many I had finished until I counted them up today! I haven’t blocked any since the center 7, so I’ve got a serious pile of blocking to attend to. According to Ravelry, I started this blanket in March of 2017. Double yikes! Time to do some serious knitting.

And I’ve made a good start on Henry’s “Stacks” quilt. The fabric is the “Wit and Wisdom” jelly roll from missouriquiltco.com. And a plain black roll too. Doesn’t
it look like stacks of nice old hardback books? I’ve got all the strips assembled and joined together in five groups of eight, and now I’m embroidering book titles in random places. Some are books that Henry and I have enjoyed together, and some are my old favorites, so it will act as both a quilt and a list of book suggestions :)

So. I had a pulmonology appointment a couple weeks ago. I’ve been going downhill for the last few months (constantly exhausted, much more short of breath with even the slightest exertion, need more supplementary oxygen) so I expected some bad news, but yikes. Hearing it out loud was rough. Doctor says I have a year left, maybe two if I’m lucky. Let’s split the difference and call it a year and a half. So I’ll probably be dead by the end of 2020. Blah. I was in a horrible black depression for a few days but then I pulled out of it. My therapist, Suzanne, is an angel and a goddess and a true healer.

I decided to spend my time doing exactly what I please, to the greatest extent possible. I’ve had a huge burst of creativity lately. One of my huge regrets (this is gonna sound odd) is that I don’t have much more time to sew on my beloved Singer Featherweight, so I’ve decided to slow down on the sock-knitting and baby-clothes creation, since those things get lost, wear out, and get outgrown, and turn instead to quilt-making. Quilts last virtually forever, are useful and beautiful, and never get lost or outgrown.

I haven’t done much quilting in the past. About sixteen years ago I made a beautiful queen-size hand-quilted Monkey Wrench quilt for Dan, and maybe eight years ago I made a simple tied comforter for Henry, but that’s it for my quilting experience. I enjoyed the actual construction, but did not enjoy not figuring out how much fabric to buy, the cutting of large yardage into small precise pieces, nor the hand-quilting, which is the reason that Henry’s comforter is made of big squares of two alternating fabrics and simply tied instead of quilted.

Well! When I started googling for quilting techniques etc., I discovered the Missouri Star Quilting Company. They sell beautifully coordinated, high-quality quilting fabric which you can buy by the yard but also in pre-cut bundles of a few basic shapes that you can then cut into the smaller shapes you need AND they have hundreds of friendly tutorial videos for inspiration. (And they tell you exactly how much yardage you need!) Their fabric is expensive but “you can’t take it with you”, eh? Thanks for funding my new quilting obsession, Mom :)

I am now well-versed in the language of the “Jelly Roll” (a bundle of 40 strips that are 2.5″ by 42″ in beautifully coordinated prints or solids), the “Layer Cake” which is a stack of forty 10″ squares, and the “Charm Pack” which is a stack of forty-two 5″ squares.

The first quilt I made was for Steve. I drove to JoAnn’s fabric and craft store the morning after my hideous doctor appointment and distracted myself by choosing everything I needed to make his quilt. I made a few big blunders while creating it but it all turned out fine in the end, mostly because I am BAD at planning ahead when crafting (I’m a crafting improv girl) so I ended up with a bunch of extra blocks, counterbalancing the blocks I ruined with my first (failed) attempt at free motion quilting. :) Need more practice! So I switched to straight-line quilting with my even-feed foot and it all went smoothly after that. Photo time:

I cut my fabric into squares. I think they were maybe 7″? I can’t remember. Then I matched each blue square with a creamy-yellow square and sewed them together around all four sides. Then I sliced each square diagonally and pressed the resulting “half square triangles” open. Look at me, with the quilting jargon. Then I sewed these together into “Hourglass” blocks:

Then I sewed four of those together to make big blocks. This block probably has a name but I don’t know what it is. Do you? It’s similar to “Ohio Star” but not quite.

I squared them up and laid them out on the floor to make sure it would look nice:

I sewed the big nameless blocks together into long strips (not pictured) then layered those strips with batting (doubled unbleached cotton batting, only the best natural fibres for my loved ones) and backing (which was a flat sheet that I never use), then machine-quilted them along all the straight lines…

…stitched the fronts of the long strips together, then flipped the quilt over and sewed the back together by hand…

…then added a “double binding” (Jenny’s tutorial was the best), which is sewn around once by machine, wrapped around the edge to the back, and finished by hand. I enjoyed this part especially much! I’d call it ladder stitch or slip stitch, but googling those terms gives you a crazy assortment of different stitches. Here’s the Correct Method:
https://joyoushome.com/how-to-slip-stitch-quilt-binding-the-right-way/

And, finished! Not pictured: I wrote a care label on white muslin with a fine-point archival waterfast pen and stitched it by hand to the back. It has my signature on it so Steve can take it to the Antiques Roadshow someday when I am remembered as a beloved, world-famous audiobook narrator and show it off :)

It took 15 days of pretty intense work and it REALLY distracted me. I bet this post distracted you a little too, huh? :)

oxoxoxoxox

Here’s what I did last weekend:

Pattern: Blackwood Cardigan from HelensCloset.ca (Size 10)

Fabric: Plum-colored cotton/bamboo/spandex fleece from Mood Fabrics
(Christmas gift!)

It took a lot of courage to cut into the fabric. It’s by far the most luxurious fabric I’ve ever worked with — thick, drapey, and crazy-soft; it’s softer than a kitten, seriously. I made a practice cardigan first, just to be safe. (Yellow, see previous post)

Here are the pieces cut out

Here are pockets pinned in place with temporary tissue paper backing for stability

And a pocket sewn. I did all the top-stitching on the Featherweight; even though it isn’t zig-zag it’s fine because those areas aren’t under stress. The fabric was so much loftier than I’m used to that I slid off the pocket edge a few times. Oops. But no one will ever notice :)

And, finished!

It’s a simple, straight-forward, well-designed pattern. The instructions are clear, as is usual with Helen’s patterns, and it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that it took longer to cut the fabric than to sew it together! The design includes extra-long sleeves that bunch up adorably or can be pulled over the hands for warmth, but because my arms are extra-long the sleeves on my yellow practice cardigan weren’t long enough to suit me. I added about 3/4″ inch of length to the sleeve and an inch to the cuff (which is doubled so it’s actually only 1/2 inch longer).

All seams sewn on the serger; all topstitching sewn on the Featherweight (straight-stitch).

It’s a perfect replacement for my ancient worn-out Target cardigans. The fit is excellent and the fabric is cozy and quite warm; it blocks the wind better than I was expecting. I’ve worn it every day since I made it :) Extremely proud of myself.

As promised!

My Grandpa bought this Singer Featherweight sewing machine for my Grandma in 1951. I know the exact year because it has a special Centennial badge on it, as described in this post:
https://singer-featherweight.com/blogs/schoolhouse/centennial-1851-1951

This photo shows the original instruction booklet and all the accessories:

The funny-looking thing is a buttonhole attachment. This machine only sews a straight lockstitch, forwards and backwards — no zig-zag or other fancy modern stitches. The buttonhole attachment actually moves the fabric back-and-forth under the needle while sewing. Amazing. You can see it in action in the first video here:
https://singer-featherweight.com/collections/attachments/products/buttonholer-attachment-vintage-singer.

At some point over the last SEVENTY YEARS, Grandma lost one of the buttonhole cams and the TINY black screw that holds the feed-cover in place, but the wonderful singer-featherweight.com sold me vintage replacements for these parts for just a few dollars! From them I also bought motor lubricant (specially formulated for this machine), a pretty little matching seam guide, which you can see attached to the machine in the first photo, and a thread guide for modern cone thread.

I have set my big modern Pfaff aside and am attempting to do all my sewing with just my serger and the Featherweight. It’s sort of challenging because I sew with knits a lot, which usually require a zig-zag stitch; however, with the serger for stretchy seams I’ve been managing ok. In the 70s Grandma bought a little zig-zag attachment for the Featherweight. It doesn’t work perfectly, but I think it might be good enough for the occasional hem. I need to experiment a bit more.

Here are a few of my recent sewing projects. Sorry for crappy selfies — I no longer have Henry at my beck-and-call for photographer duty :)

Practice Blackwood Cardigan (before I cut into the luscious plum-colored cotton/bamboo/lycra fleece that Steve gave me)

My third pair of Avery Leggings. This adorable striped cotton/lycra is from The Fabric Fairy:

Underlovelies, sewn without a zig-zag! I stretched the hell out of the elastic while sewing it on with a straight stitch. Worked great! Pattern is from Klimpergross. I’ve sewn about 6 pairs so far and I love them. Elli sent me the fabric, and she also gave me all three Klimper books over the past few years. Wonderful Elli. <3

This suit for Lulu is made of two layers of cotton flannel. So thick and warm! Pattern is based on Babyanzug from Kinderleicht. The matching cap is Ohrenklappenmütze by Schnabelina.

This little flannel jumper for Lulu has extra-long straps with extra snaps for growing room. Pattern is based on the Mikey Strampelhose.

Ok! How’s THAT for a real blog post? With photos, even! :)

The Fair is almost here!

Last week I dropped off my entries for the Home and Hobby show. The shawl is a Jared Flood pattern: Girasole, which I knit once before in blue worsted to make a sofa-blanket for my mom, but the flowered hat is my own design. Fingers crossed for a blue ribbon!

We finished decorating our tree yesterday! Isn’t it great? Every ornament has a history. Lots are handmade: mostly by me (I make more every year), but there are some very special ones made by beloved relatives. There are a few ornaments that go back to my very first memories of Christmas and many that were gifts from special people. I love my Christmas ornaments :)

On the table you can see my little paper Christmas Village! See this old blog post to read its story and find the files to print your own:
http://kayray.org/2011/12/07/dec-7-2011-a-christmas-miracle-revisited/
(I printed mine at 50% because I wanted a tiny village.)

And here’s our Nativity Scene. Strong Bad and his pals attend every year!

Also, now that I’m finally feeling better, I’ve been working on Dan’s gloves. He now lives in a place that gets actual winter and I don’t want his hands to be cold. I bought conductive thread for the fingertips so he SHOULD be able to use his iPhone without taking off his gloves.

Sick again. Bad cough, congested, phlegmy. I won’t be able to do any recording for a while, I’m afraid. I don’t have a sore throat, though, so that’s something to be thankful for.

Here are some photos of things that I’ve been making:

Crocheted snowflakes. I’m going to sell them on Etsy once I get some good photos.

Two pairs of little socks for Emma Rose:
http://ravel.me/kayray/hls

http://ravel.me/kayray/rbs

Well, I guess I’ll have some more juice and close my eyes for a while.

Finished! I did a good job matching up the stripes, eh? That’s not so easy with a multicolored yarn.

All details on my Ravelry page (no log-in required):
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kayray/little-prince-socks

To avoid that little gap, hole, or loose stitch at the top of the heel flap when picking up the gusset stitches:

http://wisehilda.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-picking-up-gusset-stitches-avoiding.html

WOW. Why did I never think of this? In case that link breaks — all you do is, while picking up stitches along the edge of the heel flap, pick up one more along the same column after you reach the top (bottom?) of the heel flap. On the other side of the heel flap, just start picking up stitches one stitch below the corner where the flap meets the leg, in the same column that becomes the edge of the heel flap. (It takes a lot of words to describe this trick, but just try it; it’s as simple as can be.)

Presto. No gap, no hole, no need to twist anything.

More details about these socks on Ravelry: http://ravel.me/kayray/lps

Look, no gaps, no holes:

I’ve just updated my “Kayray Reads to You” page to include The Grey King, Bagthorpes Abroad, The Sweet Smell of Christmas, and The Adventures of Little Bear. As always, if you like these stories please buy copies of the actual books.

http://kayray.org/kayray-reads/

I’m almost finished recording the third Melendy family book — Then There Were Five. Just one more chapter to go, so check back soon! I might even finish this afternoon.

Also yesterday I knitted a cunning little iPhone pouch to hang around my neck when I wear stupid pocketless girl-pants. :)

Aran iPhone Pouch

Now that Kirsten has had her baby shower, I can show off some of the things I made for my baby niece! Links go to each item’s Ravelry page in case you want more details.

Tiny green booties

Adorable little bonnet (modeled by a large orange)

Entrelac beret

Striped cardigan

Black and white blanket