Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

I loved doing counted cross-stitch on a blank foundation. It was mesmerizing seeing the picture emerge as if by magic, stitch by stitch. I

I totally agree.

Here is a photo of one linen counted cross-stitch that nearly sent me around the bend in 1985. (Those curly things on the large alphabet letters .... shudder!  Note that there is no "J" in the alphabet.)  I found the kit with linen, floss and instructions in an advertisement in a needlework magazine and had to buy it because it had my DH's name in the design. This pattern claimed to be a copy of a sampler in a museum in Vermont or New Hampshire or some east coast state and while it was not the style of our home I had to buy it because of that name in the middle of the top row of the design.  I substituted "1985" for the original date that was in the design and put my initials next to the date. 

I just checked my needlework notebook for notes on this project:  I worked on it from December, 1984 until April, 1985 and commented that I thought I would never get it done.  The kit included pink floss and I substituted rust.  (HAH!! Those large letters and small building would have been pink but I have always disliked pink so I did a switcheroo.)  This was the first project I made using my new magnifying lamp.  (I was 43 years old and ready for bifocals.)

Judy, I really like your orange/red coneflower!  Those are neat things to be making!  Lol, I need something like that in my hot yard in the August!   

I bouht Terial Magic to stiffen fabric so the fabric could be used with my Scan-n-cut .

But for t-shirt quilts instead of using a lightweight stabilizer?? Hmmm.  The thought that first popped into my mind was that the stabilizer also allows you to sew and quilt the t-shirts without needing a ballpoint needle. 

Now, I do have ballpoint needles for my home machine but don't for my longarm. Off the top of my head, I don't even know if there are ballpoint needles for long arms. 

Wouldn't a regular needle (in the longarm) tend to tend to promote the knit t-shirts to run because the knit had been pierced/split?

That video was interesting!   I may have to think about that next time I need stabilizer!  This fall I may have a couple of T-shirt quilts to make from my nephews shirts - my sis needs some comfort hugs!  She misses him so....

Love it!  The Red-Headed Judy is my favorite flower!

Beautiful work and fabrics!  I admire those of you who have the patience for such tiny, precise work.

So, on Wednesday our guild had a charity sew day and they warned us that they were bringing strips to be made into tops!

i took this bundle of 2” x about 15” strips and sewed them into blocks.  Then cut them into rectangles and framed half of them with yellow 1 1/2” strips that were there.  I cut a few black strips and framed the other half.

i got the blocks made at Sew day.  Came home and put the blocks together!  Fun quilt for some boy!

I have about the same same amount of similar strips in red and orange prints.  Another may need to be made in some pattern....lhummmmm.

Excellent work with random strips, Ellen.  Amazing how you can make something cool and appealing out of scraps.

Here's one example of "recycling" with clay. I had made some mod cane circles and put them on a tall drinking glass to use as a pencil holder.  Got bored with that after a year so I peeled them off of the drinking glass and put them in a baggie and stored them as "baked cane slices". 

Now they are baked on a smooth rock and sort of look like a pine cone gone wrong or an empty turtle shell or a deserted alien space ship or a .... you name it, please.  I have peeled it off the rock and will eventually put it on a stake and stick in a flower pot.

hum...I dunno if the quilting she showed on the T-shirt quilt in the video was on a domestic or not...might have to comment on the YouTube video and ask..

and thanks for the reminder about the ball point needle for knits...

do you know if the needles on a serger are ball point or not? I know a lot of people use them to sew on knits....(I have one that I have barely used...sigh)