It Doesn't Look Like Much, But I'm Making Progress

Next up in the hoop is the Big Tipsy Basket quilt. I don't think it was really supposed to be next in line, but I'm playing around with the idea of putting this one into the regional quilt show. It's all been sort of up in the air as we have an older friend getting married that particular weekend near Portland, Oregon.  

Big Tipsy Basket

Quilts are supposed to be picked up directly after the end of the quilt show and I've been having trouble lining up someone to collect my 'potential' entries. Still working on that minor detail. There's a still a slim chance that we'll just skip the entire weekend away, as my husbands work has been piling up on him and so many of our weekends are being booked up. So will I? Finish this quilt in time? Yes, no, maybe so. It should quilt up quickly, but on the other hand I'm not one for added pressures in life so we'll see. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the almost mindlessness to the echo stitching and subconsciously pondering many of life's complexities. We think as adults we should have complete and utter control over our lives, but wowsers. Just not the way it usually is!

Getting sandwiched and pinned

It was nice to get the hand quilting finished up on Vintage Flowers though. It feels like I've been working on that one forever! The binding has since been machine stitched into place and it's now just waiting for the hand work time. I don't dread hand stitching the binding like some people, just need to find the opportune moment and be 'in the mood'. Hand stitching binding doesn't take days and weeks to do as I can be pretty fast with plying my needle. I don't know how others manage, but my machine finished binding always looked terribly sloppy and would have to be redone anyway. Why bother wasting that time?

Vintage Lily

Speaking of time. Melon Patch {below} has been co-opting a ton of my time lately. Ughh! So tired of stitching these innocuous looking petals! Out of 20 sets of 4 petals, it's down to just 3 sets left to stitch. The main problem is that it takes approximately an hour from start to finish to stitch one set of petals, so do the math. There are three hours left until this particular phase is completed! And I've told myself, NO more applique projects until getting this part done. No real surprise that anything and everything else gets in the way. I've read books, made apricot jam, drove to Home Depot with my husband, played with my granddaughters, took walks with my daughter, wrote a quilty blog post...

Always more petals to stitch

Too, all the nine-patch blocks for Patchwork Garden quilt have been finished up and now are sewn into the horizontal rows. I'm not sewing those rows together until I stitch as much of the applique possible so...., yeah......*sigh  Not happening until I get going on the previous project. Cuz I mean it! Bummer. This one looks like more fun, right? I've been gathering the potential fabric together for the applique though, so it's not like I've been sitting around twiddling my thumbs here.

Patchwork Garden progress

There's even another 'all applique'  that I've been eyeballing lately too. {not that I'm counting the stacks of fabric marinating on the counter tops at all....} It's a print that I saw online and already contacted the designer to ask permission to try and recreate in fabric. Ahem! Yes. It's been gathering steam behind the scenes so to speak, fabric being gathered and contemplated in great, serious detail. Hhmm... Maybe if I get enough interesting applique projects out ahead of  me then the carrot and stick approach might actually start working?

Diving Into the Hand Quilting

Spring has been hectic around here. Nothing unusual about that. I've been finding great pleasure in opening up my hand quilting bag late in the evenings to stitch on this sweet quilt. Ooh, there is always a big exhale and then instant bliss.

Next up in the hoop

It was started as a response to one of our challenges over at Adhoc. Improv. Quilts. This challenge was 'Playing With Scale'. I started with a {freehand applique} floral centerpiece and made that background with coins or string sets. Then I moved to the border around that and decided to go ahead with the string look, but make these in a chunkier look/style.

Always a little applique

Since I was working with a stack of fabrics that had mostly been languishing in the stash totes for years, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make even more string sets. This time I went skinnier, but longer. This used up a boat load of old fabrics, but as usual, I ended up having to dig even deeper in the totes and come up with some fabrics to help ease the blending.

Sandwiching and Pinning

I made a conscious decision to try and use up every strip, thus the blocks with multi-color strip sets. Somewhere along the way I grew dissatisfied with the overall look and determined that it also needed the additional piano key borders, those horizontal, chunky pink and black/brown rows. Kaja is the one who helped me to realize that the bottom portion of the quilt would look better with two piano key rows rather than just one. I thank her for that as it really bring the whole quilt together for me.

Playing With Scale

There's definitely a utility style look and feel to this quilt. Kind of a plain Jane, I-used-up-all-the-ugly-fabrics feeling. Which, yeah, means they aren't all exactly ugly. Even after all these years, most of them still appeal. There's just something about florals! But maybe not as much as they did when I first bought them. You know how that goes. I'm loving, simply LOVING adding in the hand quilting stitches to this one. Does that surprise you? It makes me so very happy--almost beyond explaining.I pull this quilt out and my heart does a little happy dance every. single. time.  Something about utility style quilts and a soft color palette apparently combine to bring a lot of peace.

Third layer of petals for Melon Patch pieces

Last weekend we ended up making a quick trip down to Oregon to visit relatives. Kind of a last minute thing as we determined to attend the funeral of our daughter-in-laws grandmother on Monday and it seemed like a good time to visit an ailing uncle etc. at the same time. Such a good time visiting with the family over the holiday! We stayed up late every evening laughing and telling the stories of our life. Somehow it also ended up that we got to help out with our granddaughters at the funeral as our daughter-in-law was singing with her sisters and cousins. That was a sad occasion of course, but holding the baby and taking care of big sister made it kind of sweet too.

I took my hand work {of course} but only ended up sewing 9 out of 80 petals. This is the third layer and after that will be one more. I try not to think about how much sewing this really is, but just take it as it comes. It's the current 'forever' project and has been in the works since February of 2018. Wowsers, it feels like I've been working on it for much, much longer than that....

Organizing the Hand Work Bag

I know it's usually Adhoc. Improv. time of the month, but life has been hectic with a capitol H. We watched our granddaughter for a couple days, there's been family come into town to swoon over the new niece, we have a couple older uncles who are in failing health, a visiting sibling has been needing some hand holding, someone skipped out on their church cleaning duties, and all the other bits and bobs that make life such a fascinating experience to deal with as well.

Off On a Tangent prep

Improv. has been shuttled to the back burner for now. It's just that simple. Tho I did take it out and give the current progress a quick perusal and a promise of more love in the future. It seems that for the time being, I've been grabbing hand work or settling in for some hand quilting 'therapy' time. I've been craving that quiet time. Wrapping it around me and taking deep breaths. And you know what? Slowing down with something, anything! almost always makes for a few peaceful and serene moments, even in the midst of a 'storm'.

Patchwork Triangles border prep

Now my husband tells me that we need to take a quick jaunt down to Oregon to visit some other family member who time seems to be running out. Ahh... the joys of being part of a large family--on both of our parts! So many highs and lows. Instead of the grab and go method I've been making do with in regards to the hand work, I decided today to put off the packing/getting ready to go and better organize my hand work bag. Not sure how many days we'll be gone so we are literally talking about sanity here...

Melon Patch spears getting absolutely nothing done to them...

Right? Okay, don't answer that! For the most part it was just a matter of making sure ALL the parts and pieces were safely tucked into ziploc bags, organized per project and arranged nicely inside the traveling bag. Did I pack the appropriate color of thread? Check! Extra needles? Check! Snips & scissors? Check! Small ziploc for throw-away end pieces of thread? Check! Pin cushion with little applique pins? Check!

Dried Flowers moving right along....

One of my latest 'squirrel's found its way into the bag as well. Such a surprise. I've been calling this one 'Dried Flowers' just because it has such a dull but sweet, washed out sort of look. The circles are all pieces that have been cut out from behind other applique through the years and now I just stacked them up together. Very little trimming as I love the rustic look. My thinking is they will make very nice looking flowers if I can figure out how to add on another something that will have a pieced and/or perhaps even appliqued stem and leaf section. Decisions, decisions....

Dried Flowers fabric stacks and possible additions to quilt

Maybe I'll add the leftover basket blocks too? Whatever. The layout is still a ways off!  It's been a deliciously 'quiet' project to stitch on and one I have been soaking up! Something has been niggling in the back of my brain though when I have been working on these blocks. Maybe it's too quiet? Perhaps it might prefer a little spark of color? And so today I caved {just like I did when I bought those berry strudels yesterday} and dug around for some salmon/orange colored fabrics to add one more smaller circle on top. Hhmmm... We might be on to something here!

A little progress with the spiky blocks...

I also finished cutting out the spikes for these primitive looking New York Beauty blocks--all going to be sewn on with applique stitching. When I get the 'spikes' sewn on, then I will free cut some gold arcs to cover up the stitching at the edge of the quarter circle. These cream pieces are all cut-offs from an old project that I just couldn't bear to throw away and I've been making up this current block as I go along. Love the colors but am a little antsy about how they will look when they're done. Might need to trim the spikes to different widths to incorporate a little more imperfection.

Fabric Swatches 'cuz we always need more fabric...

And because I was definitely lollygagging and putting off that getting-ready-to-leave-town business, I went ahead and looked through all my current stacks of fabric resting on the counters or hiding away and marinating in little totes. Ouch! There are 12 stacks of fabric in total!! Wowsers, that's a lot for me. Some have been simmering for almost two years and so really, they need to have decisions made, be moving forward, or be dumped back into the stash totes pronto. No time for that today, but I did get little swatches of need-to-match {or blend} fabric ready for the chance/opportunity of wandering into an out of town quilt store. Wouldn't that be fun? Love, love doing that and my husband is a sweetheart to stop if we ever have a spare moment.

Now I'd better go finish up the laundry and check on the ripe peaches that need to be cut up and frozen before leaving town. I'm pretty sure nobody else will take care of them while we're gone! Thankfully there's not a lot of them as someone {not naming any names}, has been making peach smoothies lately.... Oh my, was I looking forward to a quiet weekend! Oh well. I'm sure we'll get one soon enough whether we plan it or not...

A Little Bit of Hand Work is Better Than None

So last week really wiped me out. I didn't even pick up any sewing until later in the week and then I mostly concentrated on hand sewing or hand quilting. And not very much of that as the hand quilting felt heavy. Yeah. I was pretty run down and feeling sorry for myself.

Pineapple sewing

Started in stitching some of these pineapple blocks which have actually been prepped for a couple weeks. Yep. That happened after I had a little meltdown over the lack of hand stitch ready to go at a moments notice. Wowsers, was I ever glad to have them ready for my couch potato days recovering from the flu. Sometimes you just don't want to get anywhere near a project that takes math, decisions, or intensive rotary cutting. Yikes! My foggy brain would have caused a lot of hurt to any fabric involved!

You probably didn't know it, but I'm been dreaming about making a pineapple quilt for a very long time. I had narrowed in on a foundation pieced log-cabin pattern I drew up, but something stopped me from committing. Then somehow I stumbled on this old quilt book with a classy looking pineapple block and you know how quickly it happens--I absolutely fell in love. The picture was in black and white which tremendously helped in making the decision. So much easier to imagine my fabrics being used when the inspiration pic is in black and white! I tinkered with the pattern a bit so as to fit the size block I wanted, then plunged in. The quilt won't just have pineapple blocks--it's looking more and more like it will share design space with postage stamp style basket blocks. But maybe done in an improv. style?

This week has been better except for the time change thing. It usually doesn't bother me much gaining an hour, but this year everything seems out of whack. Mostly I just want to get more sleep and my husband keeps dragging me out of the house for one reason or another. I've sewn a few of those tan and blue strips shown in the bottom of that picture above but that's just been boring. So uninspiring. I'll try and show you what I mean the next time there's a post. For now I'm gonna link up with sew-stitch-snap-SHARE#16 and maybe head to bed. Staying up late isn't helping me adjust to the time change. Maybe going to bed earlier than usual will do the trick?

Doing the Things We Love to Do....

Imagine my surprise when I noticed the leaves outside my quilting room door had the same colors as my latest circles! Hmm... I do love fall and all it's gorgeous colors. These circles represent days 27 and 28 for Quilty 365, for a total of four weeks! Yay me! So many people are joining in, being artistic, thoughtful, playful, frugal and/or just plain dedicated. Love it! Quilters really are amazing!

2 more circles for Quilty 365

I'm going back to the smaller needle and regular hand quilting thread for this quilt. At first it was hard to make the transition--that big stitch quilting requires a much larger needle! I started with the very light pink thread, ripped it out, tried every other color in the picture and then went back to the light pink.*sigh  Sometimes it's hard to know what to do. I switched to the soft gold thread for the little half square triangles and finally, finally it's starting to click for me. Some quilts just have to be cajoled and talked into a bit of stitching it seems....

Muddy River in the hoop

I also picked out a fabric for the binding on Big Stars. A bold blue was the obvious choice and I was so grateful to find enough lurking in my stash. It's a Peppered Cotton, so quite a different texture from my usual binding fabric. Now the batting needs cut off and then it's all ready for the hand stitching. If I don't get to it tonight then it will be something to work on later. Always nice to have mindless hand work to plug away with during family holidays.

Initial phase of binding on the Big Stars quilt

People keep saying that this quilt was hand quilted very quickly. Hmm.... Maybe, maybe not. I sandwiched and pinned this quilt on October 8th, put it immediately in the hoop and started stitching. The thing is, I hand quilt for an hour or two {sometimes more} almost every day of the week if time is available to me. Plus I had one day I was sitting with my cousin, helping her out and keeping her company. That was probably a five hour quilting day? The stitching pattern is merely an echo style quilting or something extremely simple and it's big stitching done with Perle cotton, something that really does move along at a faster pace compared to regular hand quilting.

Perhaps someone more dedicated to hand quilting would have doubled the stitching done on this particular quilt, but I'm feeling quite satisfied with the amount done. This is not an heirloom style quilt because I for one can see every flaw in the quilt made from my inexperience with sewing curved seams! Not that I don't appreciate the effort and skill building this quilt allowed me to undergo. I am definitely more accomplished and less frightened of this type of sewing now that I've tackled something this adventuresome! However, I am a huge advocate of putting my time into the things that will most appreciate my very intense and personal labors.

Hand quilting is my thing and yes, I do love the results. But not every quilt needs or will even look better with intensive stitching--not to my eyes or thinking. And really, what else would we base our decision making on? Some people make quilt tops just so they have something to hand stitch amazing patterns and designs on. That's not me. I hand quilt because something needs to anchor the quilt together for future use, I adore the look, appreciate the {mostly emotional} benefits, and well, honestly, it suits my lifestyle and pocketbook. Did I say that I adore the look? If I didn't, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

So glad I have time today to link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching!

A Hand Stitching Post

Sometimes the hand work gets lost in the shuffle. We spend innumerable hours on it, but then hesitate to show off our progress. {It doesn't magically happen overnight people!} This weekend finds me finishing up with not only the petals to my huge Folksy Flower, but also, getting the bias strip stitched down on the wobbly looking center.

Folksy Flower

The whole thing shifted on me more than I care to admit to, but should, in the end, work out just fine. I just had to try the basting method when I was adamantly assured that basting takes care of any wonky shifting issues. Uh huh. Not with with me. Or apparently not with this large of a piece? But then I probably did the basting incorrectly and caused the problems! lol  I measured my flower for those that seem curious and now I've already forgotten. It's either 44 or 48" square? Quite a large piece to work with. I just need to cut out the fabric from behind each petal and then figure out where to go next. There are lots of ideas percolating so it shouldn't be long.

I also started making a throw pillow for a friend this weekend. The center block was one that got left out of a previous quilting attempt and was begging to be used.

Starting a pillow

I added a youngish, sweet fabric and then went more 'modern' with the rest. It seemed fitting for a gal in her early 20's who is independent, but still very sweet and girly.

A finish!

The back of the pillow was fun to put together and I'm hoping the cowboy fabric (on the right) will be a personal touch for someone who loves her horses etc. This will go into my end of the year 'revealing' gift bag, part of a year-long gift exchange some of us ladies do in our church. So glad to get the bottom of the pillow hand stitched together and all ready to go!

Interesting back...

I've also been busy stitching down the circles for my Lil' Red Riding Hood blocks. First the quarter circles onto the larger light colored circles and then, stitching those onto the light green background squares. I am absolutely loving working with these calm, pretty fabrics. It makes me wonder why I ever avoid these sorts of colors as being too boring? There is something to be said for sewing together relaxing/calming fabrics once in awhile and of course taking the time {by hand stitching} to actually enjoy working with them!

Lil' Red Riding Hood applique...

Also, I received this little package of Quilters Dream Batting from the Fabric N Quilts Scrap Quilt Challenge 5. Thanks to the sponsors for all the fun giveaway prizes! I am itching to try this poly bat out as I've never used it before.

Something new to try!

My Old Fashioned Strings quilt was one of the many winners in the Scrap Quilt Challenge, something that was kind of a sweet little thrill. How fun to enter a quilt made from little bits of leftover scraps and then actually win a very usable prize! I'm wondering how it will do with hand quilting or if I should save it for a machine quilting project. Does anyone have experience with this type of bat?

Once again I'm linking up with Kathys Slow Sunday Stitching. Love her thoughtful post today!

Making Time For Hand Work

Sometimes I feel like nothing is ever really getting done around here. All I do is piddle. First on one project and then, on another. Mostly that feeling persists because my life gets very chaotic, but really, trying to keep up with all the demands on my time {by husband, kids, other assorted family members and yes, tending to the maintenance of life} tends to kill my superwoman efficiency powers.

Big Stars

There was a window of opportunity to sandwich and pin a couple quilts the other day. {I'm doing it in pairs these days.} Of course I had to rush to piece together the backs because I don't plan ahead for these things. By the time the quilt backing was taped to the floor, I was a hot, sweaty mess and it was dark outside. Lovely lighting don't you think? It really doesn't do justice to these quilts that were lucky enough to make it to the top of the queue.

Muddy Creek

This Big Stars quilt has been nagging at me for a very long time. I have definitely shied away from this one. So proud of it when I finished, but now a little less than thrilled with the quilt top. Sometimes I experience a great deal of trepidation in my own ability to stitch something that could make a quilt shine--bring it to it's fullest potential. That can make me like my quilt top a little less than it probably deserves. Such defeating thoughts and I actually allow them to cause a bit of paralysis. Grrr....  I'm not making heirloom quilts, nor do I feel that we have to. Quilting is whatever we choose to make it and serves a very individual purpose in all our lives.

So in the hoop it goes so I can start stitching what makes sense to me. I don't need complicated. Right now I don't even have the brain power to worry about the 'best' stitching pattern. Mostly I just need something in the hoop to quiet my mind and relax my body. The end.

In the hoop

In the little bits and pieces of time I gather throughout the day, there is also applique. It never feels very important as I'm doing the actual stitching, but it definitely adds up to something huge to me. Having applique in my quilts gives a little more to love about what I make. Because I connect with it. It feels right and true for me. But if I stop and really think about it, there is never time in my life for that. Never. And that can be overwhelming. So I just get everything prepped and then I fit it into my life however and where-ever I can.

Completed Vintage Red blocks

Like with these latest projects. I have slowly, steadily, persistently, tenaciously stitched until I have all of the Vintage Red blocks completed and now all my basket handles are done too. This is the only way to ever move forward with these sorts of projects because when you're stitching a bit here and stitching a bit there, the time never 'counts'. In fact it feels rather pitiful if you look at it that way and your progress always seems quite pathetic. It's best to change our thinking. Think of this kind of stitching as filling lost time or even taking advantage of little moments.

All the Summers End basket handles are done!

Stitch when there is opportunity and then put it away when someone or something pulls you away once again. Be willing to stop mid-block. No resentment, no irritation at being pulled away because we're not counting the time. We're making use of opportunity until the day comes when 'ta da!' our blocks {or pieces} are ready for the next phase. And it always comes, no matter how difficult the project or how tedious the process. No matter how simple, repetitive and/or silly it seems. And who cares if it takes an entire week to finish one block? Every stitch counts, not the time because that kind of time can't be recovered anyway.*wink

Slow Stitching Sunday

Still working on the Pickle Dish/Wedding Ring quilt! I stitched the background squares in until I had the quilt top altogether. Whew! Pretty unbelievable to see it all in one big piece like this!

Getting the quilt top together

Then I added the long border strips, pinning like a crazy woman until everything seemed to lay flat and exactly where it was supposed to be. Fingers crossed that I really did get it 'straight'. I had to check out my handiwork after the first border was stitched into place. Okay. Looking good!

Finally getting the side part stitched on...

Then I worked on the other side. It took me about an hour and a half just to do the (applique) stitching on each side. Not counting the time for pinning! That might have took longer, but who's counting?

And now 2 sides stitched on. Love that progress!

So..., Now I'm ready to put the background triangles in place at the top and bottom of the quilt--four in all. This quilt is going together so very slowly, I sometimes wonder what in the world I was thinking to even start it. Then I see it laying over my lap while I'm stitching away and I know. I totally get it. This quilt is one of those 'I wish I could make that quilt' statements I used to make ALL OF THE TIME. Now I'm doing it. I'm actually sewing one of those wonderful quilts together! Just gotta shake my head at the thrill of it all.

Linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching because I somehow managed to squeeze in a post on a Sunday instead of just doing the stitching part....

Hand Work and House Cleaning

I finally broke down this weekend and took my sewing machine into the shop to be serviced. It keeps having these random spasmodic fits and the tension just gets completely out of control. Last time it took me almost half an hour to get it smoothed out to where I could start sewing again. Okay, time to do something about this before something gets ruined.

Hand Quilting on Plain Jane

I admit that the servicing of my machine gets put off because the repair shop is over an hour away. A bit problematic to drop off and then arrange a return pick up. Each trip usually requires planning on my part to make it efficient (coincide with kids/husband schedule & needs) plus you know I'm going to have to take advantage of eating out if I'm making that trip! Anyway, I've been hand quilting until my finger is very sore, piddling away on my applique blocks and trying very hard not to start cutting something else out.

A completed applique block for Muddy Creek quilt

 It's a losing battle though. Those bookmarks are not a good sign....

Too many ideas

Today, to avoid the quilting room and temptation, I actually scrubbed my bathroom shower. Yeah. It's called desperation. lol  Almost all of my friends have switched over to natural and/or make-your-own cleaners and I have been dragging my feet. There's just something about the smell of bleach etc. that says 'really clean' to me. Obviously I quilt way too much to have an immaculate house and our major hard water problem has been giving me fits for years. Unless you keep up on it, there is going to be build-up. It's not pretty but I can usually ignore it unless I have company.*wink So today, I took a friends advice and mixed together equal parts Ultra Dawn and white vinegar to spray on the shower walls. Hmm... I think it's going to work. (If I do it more than once a month.) But do I really want to be known for the house that smells like vinegar? This stuff is very potent--definitely food for thought.

Muddy Creek Applique

Anyone else Christmas shopping this weekend? hehe I'm hoping to finish up although I definitely don't have the detailed lists yet that normally help me survive all the chaos.

Muddy Creek

Last night we went to our local school Christmas concert where all of my kids (minus the college kid of course) are in junior high, high school and jazz bands. Two of them are also in the jr/high school choir. Although longish, it was a great concert. Love hearing Bidi Bom and Holiday Special pieces especially. During the intermission there was a huge cookie sale where they sell cookies by the pound to raise money for the band/choir program. My youngest daughter and I baked oatmeal and ranger cookies for about two hours before the concert so we could do our part to contribute. Not. My. Favorite. Thing. To. Do. But it was fun anyway. lol

Still stitching on Muddy Creek occasionally. I ran out of the proper color thread and just improvised. So far the lighter color isn't showing much anyway so I may just continue. Well, unless I just happen to wander into a quilting store during my Christmas shoppings this weekend! Honestly, the inner leaves are giving me fits. They look weird and awkward. I already threw out several that I had planned to use because the fabric was too busy and I can't figure out how to add new ones in. The problem seems to be the lack of space between my stems? Will come back to this later, 'cuz it's not exactly pressing, but thought it would be interesting to check it out up on the wall.

Prep, Prep, Prep

So much prep just to get started sometimes! I have been wanting to make another subdued looking applique centerpiece and the fabric I got from Ellen was the perfect spark to get going.

Muddy Creek prep

I love the purpley browns especially--so very wonderful to me. I drew up a basic plan to figure out how many leaves I need etc. and then cut rotary cut rectangles. I cut the leaves out (freehand) from those rectangles, skipping the tracing step completely! Love that, but now I need to go back and trim up my leaves because some of them aren't the exact shape I want--working on auto-pilot will do that to you!

Cutting the leaves

I still can't believe I cut the linen out of the backs of my Happy Flowers. Talk about working on auto-pilot. It took me a little while to get all the fray check on the edges of the linen, but I do think it's going to work out better in the long run. As you can see, I also zigzagged the edges of the block, so it's official now. I don't like the extra steps, the extra thinking things through, being careful etc. Mixing linen and quilting is not my thing, no matter how pretty and supple this fabric feels to me!

Adding fray check to the linen

I've also started cutting out Dresden wedges for my Flying Geese and Flowers quilt. The Dresden block is so timeless, it almost seems crazy to use it in this particular quilt! Oh well, I'm hoping to make them out of this stack of scrappy pinks and that way they will look kinda fun and give the quilt a little extra 'pop' of color too. My red, white and blue quilt has definitely morphed into something a little different!

Cutting out my Dresden wedges

I do love making things as scrappy as possible, adding in the maximum amount of different fabrics I think a quilt will allow. It really gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to dig to the bottom of my totes, find fabric that has never played well, and then give it a good place in one of my quilts. Scrappy quilting just seems to lend itself well to disguising older, less exciting fabrics if you're willing to make the effort. And I am, because it's just that charming mix of old and new that I love the most about quilts!

The Forever Project is Moving Into the Next Phase

This will have to be a quick post 'cuz it's Sunday and there's a lot going on around here. I thought I had finished sewing all my bow-tie blocks together and then....

hand pieced bow-ties

well... I obviously don't know how to count. Five blocks short, can you believe that? (The short row is cut off in the picture.) I went ahead and laid them out on the floor to see what they looked like all together. Hmm... That was an experience. It literally took me two hours to make something look good decent. Sometimes I wonder if I even know what I'm doing? The last 5 blocks will have to wait for when I get closer to the last row because I just want to move on. For now, I'm going to be learning how to piece these things together into proper looking rows. Wish me luck! Once again, it's time to link up to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday!

Piddling Away at all the Prep Work

If I had to decide what to write based on what I thought people would mostly likely want to read about, I'd be a dead duck.  I just piddle away at way too many projects, playing with my oldish fabrics and thinking it's a way cool hobby. Look at this basket handle fabric for instance.

Choosing a background and the handle fabric for my Scrap Basket.

It's hideous.  Really.  I pulled it out of the totes on a whim thinking that maybe I could better understand what my basket handle needed to look like if I tried using fabric instead of flat looking paper for the auditioning process.  The reason I chose this fabric particularly? It was one I've almost thrown away so many times I've lost count.  I mean, look at it! It's an early 90's calico that never should have made it's way home with me.  So if I waste a big chunk of it just playing the what if game, who cares?  Nothing to lose.

Playing with some applique ideas....

Except wow.  I'm so impressed with what it does here! How exactly does this happen? I am super thrilled at finding the perfect basket handle and it was a complete and total accident. Needless to say, I did not take that tack with the flowers.  I refuse to validate that mistake by duplicating it in any way.*wink

And a little bias for stems.

So much prep work before the fun begins.  I found a green fabric that seemed to work well for bias stems.  I don't usually do anything fancy for bias.  Easy peasy is my motto: Cut lengths on the 45. Sew long ends together. Fold in half and sew as close to the edge as you can get away with (I move my needle over to the right a couple clicks.) Next I fuss with the bias until the seam is directly in the middle but on the bottom side of where I want to iron.  Finally I iron it all perfectly flat.  The end.  Like I said, it's nothing fancy, but it does the job and I don't have to try to force an metal bias bar anywhere it doesn't really want to go. hehe

Necessary prep work for the hand pieced Bow-tie blocks.

I'm also slowly chipping away at some more prep work for the hand pieced bow-tie blocks.  It's not difficult, but it all needs to be properly done and put into my handwork bag for random piecing moments.

My least favorite part.

My oldest son is coming home from college this weekend for his four month internship and I want some hand work ready for the trip over to the airport in Spokane. We haven't seen him since January so I'm sure we'll leave extra early in all our excitement!

Slow Stitching Through the Week and a Little on Sunday

I still have a wretched cough, but it doesn't stop me from doing some hand work when and if I want.  I'm still plugging away at my Vintage Reproduction quilt several evenings a week.  Progress seems very slow, but even one frame an evening eventually adds up.

Quilting round & round the Vintage Reproduction quilt.

I never know exactly how it will be quilted before I actually get to the section in question.  It's not uncommon at all for me to be making the decision right as I'm sticking the needle into that particular part of the quilt.  'Okay, lets see if this works!'.  Borders that aren't pieced are my special nemesis.  My brain seems to freeze in agony at making a decision about what to do with those.

Detail of the hand quilting.

The hand piecing on the bow-tie blocks has been a bit confusing at times.  Some days I seem to have it all figured out and just breeze through them.  At other times, I end up with puckered corners and terrible looking y-seams.  Does it really just come down to what kind of mood I'm in?  I thought hand piecing was supposed to take care of the funky moods with all the needle in, needle out repetition?  Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching post today made me smile with the reminder to just enjoy every stitch.  lol

And a few more hand pieced bow-ties.

Mostly, I AM enjoying working on them.  Really.  The fabric in particular has been a good choice for that I think.  Very fun to jump from one print to a completely different one and see how they look against the teal background.  Well, Moda wants to call it Mermaid something or other, but over 20 years ago when I got married, it was called 'teal' and I thought it was the best color ever.*wink

Our lovely dandelion patch.... 

On a completely different note, my daughter decided to take some pictures of our ratty looking yard from an shameful interesting perspective.  Last year we had a sprinkler problem and the yard got terribly neglected.  Enough so that the dandelions got a stronghold on our lawn--obviously.  If we didn't live on a dead end road, our neighbors would probably snub us for making them look bad!  Oh well.  Maybe after the kids are raised and life slows down, we'll have more time to dedicate to the yard....