EDITED this morning at 8:00. I am using last nights post as my design wall Monday post as I will be continuing my projects that I talked about here. Go visit Judy at Patchwork Times to see what everyone is working on.
Hand quilting can go slowly – it just depends on how many hours you feel like sitting still or until your fingers go numb 
I spent the last 3 hours or so quilting in the living room watching reruns of NCIS and actually I guess you could say more like listening to and then finally tuning out the last episode and just wanted to get a section finished before I put it away for the night.
Here are some photos of the work so far, I’m not sure how well it is visible in this photo but I am quilting across the middle all the way from end to end.
The photo from the back shows up a little more I think. The back looks wrinkled in the photo but it is mainly just the way I tossed it on the floor. When I put it in the square hoop and tug on it a little the wrinkles disappear. Using cotton batting really helps for hand quilting as the batting really sticks to the fabric. A little tug on the fabric here and there and the wrinkles go away.
A close up of the back.
A close up of the front.
I think I am about a third of the way for the quilting on this quilt. I also got my red circles ready to make into circles tomorrow for the applique block – by that I mean I have the circles all basted ready to pull tight on the heat safe circle and press to have ready to stitch. I have 3 quilt group meetings at the end of the week. Thursday night is the first Thursday night of the month group, Friday morning is a weekly group and Saturday some of us are meeting for a new group meeting at our local Hobby Lobby in the classroom for a work day of anything we want to bring, this will be the first Saturday of the month. I think I will get my applique block ready to stitch on for these groups and I can also bring this quilt shown above with me and my smaller hoop and work on that also. I want to make sure I have something to work on that does not involve bringing my sewing machine with me so I will keep the applique block for later in the week so I will have hand work to do. The less to carry in is what works best for me.
I am up to 15 pineapple blocks now – wow I am on a roll – now will I ever get close to 300 blocks for a queen size? Who knows but I think some people might have been laying down a challenge to me by saying they thought it was doubtful I would last that long I’m thinking this might not be a challenge I want but we will see where it goes this year.
I’m not sure what I am doing tomorrow. It is a good chance of rain tonight so it might be too soggy to work outside tomorrow – we will see. We do need the rain and it will help the plants so if it rains at night all the better. Only problem is that it is humid now and the house is getting a tad too warm. Ceiling fans are on and at least the second day in the month of February that we have windows open!
by Karen on February 26, 2011
in quilts
I have been a little lax on blogging lately and not doing my usual every day post. That might become normal for me as I really spend too much time at the computer and I’m thinking of posting every other day or so instead. Don’t you find you spend too much time on the computer and not enough time outside (if it is warm enough) not enough time exercising and most certainly not enough time quilting!!
I have been busy working on my numerous projects. I have gotten 6 inches by 45 inches of quilting done on the Going In Circles quilt in the last 4 days – that is about 4 hours of quilting time. I normally only reach about 6 inches in on the big quilting frame more than that and it becomes uncomfortable. I need to do about 11 more inches in width to be half way there on this quilt – that will be about 2 more times of rolling it down – about 25 more hours at the very least of quilting to get to that point!
I haven’t worked on the smaller quilt in the living room for a couple days but will try to get back to it soon.
I have set up the sewing machine again and I have gotten 2 more of the pineapple blocks done making it 13 blocks – yippee! I will get something out of this yet. How I set up to work on it – one box of neutral scrap fabrics (white and beige) and one box of color scraps. Normally I set my iron up in the living room so I get more exercise but when working on these little blocks paper piecing I like to press as I go and it takes too much time to walk back and forth and would get nothing done. Each block has 33 pieces in it.
One block from last night and one from this morning before I really needed to run in town to get the grocery shopping done.
I have the green wreath and leaves appliqued down – next is to embroider the cherry stems in place and to gather the red circles for the cherries – yes this one is called a Cherry Wreath – 42 cherries to make – oh joy, that will take a little time.
The circles to prepare
Daffodils are opening up – these are by the front of the house up by the ditch – I haven’t gotten around to cleaning up there, some trash to pick up like usual and broken branches here and there.
I will need to cut a few of these for a vase and have the first of my fresh flowers in the house from the yard for the spring.
One of the flower beds I have been working in – a lot of leaves to pick through still to get it cleaned out. I was going to start mulching but the lawn mower wouldn’t start so Mike will need to fiddle with it to get it going for me – maybe I can work on that tomorrow if it doesn’t rain – hopefully the rain predicted will wait until late in the day.
I have found that I will be able to get accustomed to white tea – I haven’t tried the green tea much but the white has such a delicate taste to it that I think it will do! I do add a little sweetener to it and I think I will like a flavor to it – right now I am occasionally putting a couple tablespoons or so of cranberry juice in it when is seeping and I like the mild flavor. I will look for some flavored varieties and see how it goes. I am pretty much down to one cup of coffee in the morning and that is it – well I do slip up now and then and have a cup in the late morning or early afternoon but no more than two cups for sure!!
by Karen on February 24, 2011
in quilts
well this year prove to be another lucky year for me for being a give away winner? Deb Strain from Inside the Studio let me know last night that I won a jelly roll!! My favorite kind of win 
This is a new blog and Deb is a designer of fabric. Here is a photo of the jelly roll I won. It is called Fresh Flowers.you can find it here at the Fat Quarter Shop if you think it is something you would be interested in. You can probably find it elsewhere but that is one place I know for sure.
We spent today in Little Rock. I had a check up this morning – all is well. We went shopping – I can’t stand clothes shopping anymore and buy most of my clothes only when I need them and also on line – Instead of doing that kind of shopping we actually went through several grocery stores that we don’t have here looking for new stuff got some teas to try out. We did go to Target to wander around and later to Penney’s to pick up Melanie for her break time. We went across the street to Chili’s to eat and give her her birthday present. Just as we were getting ready to leave there the skies opened up and the rain came down horribly fast. Mike went and got the car and brought it to the door for us. As we were crossing back over to J.C. Penney’s the sirens started to go off – we had the radio on and the weather men are spectacular now with letting people know where the tornado’s are – this one was on the east side of town and moving east – not in the area we were so we dropped her at the door and left town (if it was in the area we were we would have parked the car and ran in the store with her). Within a couple minutes the rain was less and we headed for home. It took longer than normal as there had been several accidents ahead of us and the normally 1 hour and 15 minute trip home turned into 1 hour and 50 minutes! but home now and time to relax.
Quilt group meets in the morning I’m glad I have an applique block ready to bring with me.
What does a quilter do on a cloudy, chilly day – why quilt of course – what else? I decided early on today that it was not going to be a working outside day for me – I need at least a little warmth and when it is barely up to 50 I get chilly.
I started the day prepping another applique block – the last 16 1/2 inch block! I would have to go back in the blog to figure out when I started this quilt, I really am not sure. I have all the pieces cut out and the green all glue basted in place. It is ready for me to take to Friday morning quilting. I won’t be home for a good part of tomorrow so I was thinking ahead. (I was curious I just checked I started the first red and green block at the end of January 2010 – 13 months I have been working on it)
Tomorrow is a run to Little Rock. I have my regular check up for my medical condition (routine for me been doing it for years) lunch out, shopping. Then Mike and I are meeting our older daughter Melanie – it is her 38th birthday today (when the heck did that happen I thought she was still about 24 
). She is working but available for a late afternoon lunch/supper? I’m not sure what you would call it at 4 PM.
The 12th applique block. I will need to do all of those little circles – I showed how I do them in this tutorial awhile back. I will start to work on them this coming weekend probably.
This afternoon I have spent 3 hours – with some breaks – quilting on the “Going In Circles” quilt. All of those thin lines on the border will look better when you see the overall quilt when it is done. The lines will be following the path of the vine, shown in sections it doesn’t really do justice.
And the quilting continued onto the squares and circles.
I love all these little circles. I know I could have done a complete grid pattern on these sections of the quilt – but you know I just didn’t feel like it. It would have made for so much more quilting and I am putting enough in it as I am. If I don’t like the look I can always add more quilting later – bet I don’t though
Yesterday I finished the 11th of the 12 blocks needed for my Traditional Red and Green Applique quilt.
The two books that I am using for this quilt are these two. I had started with the book on the right but after doing 8 of the blocks I had run out of blocks that I really liked a lot so moved on to the book on the left for the last 4 blocks. The big center square will be the one on the cover of the book on the right.
My 11th block:
The 11 blocks that I have now – as you can see I am running out of space and I guess when I get the 12th block finished I will get my big design wall out and put them all on there for a photo.
I will be putting either red or green sashing in between the blocks when I get to the point of sewing them all together. I am not sure on a border. I have patterns for two different borders and I will continue to look and see what I like – if any.
Yesterday I also got out my pineapple blocks. These are 6 1/2 inch blocks. I started working on them over a year ago and only get them out now and then to play with them it seems. It is a way to use up scraps but it is using very little indeed! I made 2 yesterday giving me a total of 11 – I figured out if I want to use these for a queen size quilt I need to make about 280 of them at least!! Hmmm – I wonder if that will ever happen!
Back to cooler weather today only in the 30’s right now but they say 60 by afternoon – we will see, I think outside work will wait until afternoon for me.
Are you a coffee drinker? A tea drinker? I never used to drink coffee and in fact I didn’t start drinking coffee until about 5 years ago and have steadily increased my intake – now it is to the point of 3 or 4 cups a day – I do believe my upset stomach lately though is saying – enough already, go back to none. I just might switch to green tea or white tea instead, I have heard they have the least amount of caffeine and of course are better for you. Which do you drink and do you know which kind of tea is best for you?
Design Wall Monday – head on over to Judy at Patchwork Times and see what everyone is working on.
My design wall Monday is my 11th Red and Green Applique block. The 11th out of the 12 this size needed.
I changed this block. I was going to do the “ruching” for the big flowers – but – I tried – I didn’t conquer 
the technique and decided to not ruin this block by attempting it any longer!! LOL I picked the one flower off that I was trying to do as this quilt is intended to be used which means it will be washed. If I had continued to try the ruching method I feel that when washing this quilt these flowers would eventually start to fray as I couldn’t get all the raw edges to stay under. This method will be something to practice on in the future. Instead I decided to just do regular applique flowers and will put some French Knots in the centers for added dimension.
The block – several of the large flowers still need to be appliqued in place, they are just glue basted now. I wanted to get started on the embroidery in this block. I have two large flowers to finish and then the embroidery in the centers of the large flowers.
For the embroidery I am using 3 different colors – 2 strands of yellow and 1 strand each of two different reds. I twist the threads together and put them on the needle for a variegated thread. It works for the look I wanted.
This weekend I worked on all three of the quilts in progress. Going In Circles is moving slowly but quilting is being done. The quilt on the hoop – Geese in the Park got a little bit of quilting done on it this weekend but not much.
I spent a bit of time outside this weekend working on cleaning up flower beds. I am not great about doing the work in the fall – mulching up all the fall leaves, trimming dead leaves off of the plants ect. and tend to do that more in the very early spring. I think the problem is that in the fall I am tired of gardens after a long summer and ready to hibernate for the winter 
then by late winter I am so ready for spring that I need to have something to do outside before it is time to plant so that is when I like to clean out the flower beds. Only problem of course is that I have not being exercising regularly during the winter then I am over doing it and my muscle scream at me like they are doing now!
Because of how thick and long some of these plants are I pretty much just have to get in there on my hands and knees and start pulling dead leaves out that have gotten tangled up in the plants. I raked all of the leaves out of the area so that when I run it over with the lawnmower they won’t all blow right back onto the plants. I am not going to attach the mulch bag onto the mower but just chop these leaves up in tiny pieces and leave them on the yard.
all of this came out of the area shown above. I do believe I have 4 more beds to do – all are large! why do I make all these beds? because we have a horrible yard – I mainly just do raised beds – our soil is horrible – very rocky.
Very dark day – looks like we might get rain today.
Hydrangea leaves are beginning to open.
Now it is time for me to get off of the computer and get back to the laundry and whatever work needs to be done today!
What all are you doing for your design wall Monday?
by Karen on February 19, 2011
in quilts
Yesterday several of my readers asked me why I don’t use my big 3 roller quilting frame for all of my quilts. I guess like a lot of machine quilters who have numerous sewing machines they use for quilting I have numerous frames for quilting 
My big frame I think most of you have seen photos of. It has 3 rollers, it is about 12 feet long because of the size I only have one place in my house for it. It takes up a good portion of the sewing room. But because of the size of it the only way to really quilt at it is with a secretary chair or a straight back chair. I don’t know about the rest of you but sometimes I like to just kick back and be in the big easy chair or the couch with my feet up. Quilting on the big frame I can’t do that. So I put my big quilt on the big frame because it makes the most sense to do so. But I get bored easily so a quilt on the big frame is usually there for 8 months or so. I only sit at it for about 45 minutes before I have to take a break. Sometimes I will quilt at it off and on all day and put in 2 to 3 hours of quilting, but I can’t sit for more than that every day. A big quilt like this (100 x 100) with as much quilting as I am putting in to it takes me about 150 to 200 hours of quilting. Some days I only put in 30 minutes at it and sometimes I take 2 or 3 days break while I am working on something else or taking a break completely from quilting. I don’t work at it every day so you can see why it is usually on my frame for 8 months or longer. I think the fastest I got one off of this frame was about 3 months and it was a couch size quilt. I don’t know about you but I have a pile of tops waiting to be quilted.
The big frame. I could hook clamp on lights to the top of the frame on the over head bar but I don’t really care for them so I use this standing lamp instead and just move it as I go down the line of quilting. My chair also – on wheels goes with me. Because of the 3 rollers it is ideal for large quilts because I don’t need to baste.
My Grace stand/square hoop is good for couch size quilts and smaller quilts. Yes you do need to baste them. But when I get tired of being in the sewing room sitting in my secretary chair and want to put my feet up I move to the living room and put the big tv on and get comfy with a smaller hoop. Earlier today I had the stand in the dining area and was sitting on one of the tall stools – just move the stand to a higher position and it works out at that height too. Lower it and I can sit at the couch or the easy chair. I general do not quilt many couch size quilts using this hoop or my smaller one once the weather gets warm as having all that quilt draping over me can get hot. But one thing about it is you can actually put a fan on the floor aimed right at you and all the air goes right to you
My 14 inch circle hoop is good for doing baby quilts on and wall hangings. Normally they are not so so hot to work with in the summer and I kind of roll them up so they aren’t draped over me. I tend to take this one off of the lap stand when I go to quilt groups and just bring the hoop with me so some of you that have seen this hoop might not recognize it.
Sometimes I am quilting at one frame for awhile and then move to a different quilt and work on that one for awhile too. Right now I am trying really hard not to start a new project but to work on quilting on the two quilts at the same time instead. I am also working on the Red and Green Applique quilt instead of starting another new top – which I really want to do but I am trying to control myself.
I must get caught up on some of this quilting!! I have 3 quilt tops waiting in line to be quilted and each one of them will take me about 8 months to quilt. Unless I actually sat at the quilting frame for 6 hours a day 7 days a week to get them done faster and worked on only one top at a time – now that doesn’t sound like fun to me and would start to feel like work instead 
so I think I will continue to do as I am right now – and maybe if I really feel like I will never get caught up I will finally have to resort to having someone machine quilt a top or two – which I might do someday just to get caught up!! I know several good machine quilters for the job so that won’t be a problem.
by Karen on February 18, 2011
in quilts
I told you all I was getting a smaller square hoop to go with my Grace Stand. The 24 inch hoop was just too big – awkward to use and hard to even get to the middle of the quilt with that size hoop.
Here is the new 18 inch square hoop on the stand.
Here I am holding the 24 inch square by it so you can see the difference which actually was much more than I thought it would be. I had to get my tape measure out to see about this. I don’t know why they say the big one was 24 inches because when I measure it is 22 1/2 inches across the inner area and on the one I bought today which is supposed to be 18 inches measures 16 1/2 inches.
The medium size hoop with the quilt in it. This gives me plenty of working space and easier to manage but I will be needed to move the quilt more frequently. Until I get used to it it will seem to be a lot smaller but I’m sure I will love it quickly.
The big hoop
None of this is really important but I didn’t have anything else to talk about today so that I would mention this 
I suppose but to any of you that are interesting in purchasing this square hoop from the Grace Company you need to know that the square hoops aren’t quite the size stated. There is another one that is the smallest size that they say is 14 inches – I have a feeling it is really 13 1/2 on the outer edges and 12 inches for the working space.
Here is the back of my quilt so far:
A close up of the variegated thread. I just love this kind of thread!
Now I guess break time is over and I need to get back to cleaning up flower beds. The weather continues to be in near 70 and will continue through the weekend – then in the 50’s for a couple days maybe and then back. We will be like this for the next month I bet. Back and forth like a see-saw. Besides the daffodils coming up and having buds on them, I have found lilies and iris’s peeking up out of the ground – ground cover is green and I am getting leaves on the clematis vines. Lovely time of year – except for the bugs!! that is right bugs already – flying insects and what we in the south call “mud dauber’s” – a type of wasp pictured here – they are a pain and we get a lot of them at times – warm weather in the beginning of spring and then again in the fall brings them out hatching like crazy.
I am sure not used to yard work though and I don’t think I will get done with much today before my body says enough – in fact I doubt I will do much more today as my arms are all ready tired!
by Karen on February 17, 2011
in quilts
It has been so nice here in Arkansas since that winter snow storm that we had about 2 weeks now? I have lost track of the days. We have had a whole week in the 60’s to around 70 believe it or not and the night times have been in the 50’s a good part of this week also. We actually are getting pollen alerts out on the weather channel page for us – tree pollen – just moderate right now but for those of us with allergies we know to start buying more kleenex and allergy medications.
I was wandering around the yard and have found daffodil blossoms almost ready to open. Keep in mind these are first early birds of the season – we will have daffodils blooming well into May.
I have a lot of these in various parts of the yard. It is so nice to see spring coming – of course we all know we can have a March snow storm yet!! it happens almost every year so I know it might be just around the corner.
Mike fixed the dishwasher!! And would you believe it cost under $20.00 to do it 
how sweet is that. So much nicer to be able to spend $20 than however much a new machine would have cost. See these two plastic pieces – when Mike took the machine apart – on the bottom of the machine where the water sprays out at – well anyhow you take all that stuff apart (he had help from the internet and took photos along the way so he could put it all back together). Well these two pieces are supposed to be connected – the bolt that holds the two together broke off! You can see on this piece below where all the noise came from – the two pieces were bashing against each other and making all the noise. It was rubbing enough to wear pieces of the plastic off in that spiral area.
The center hole should have a bolt through it. He ordered this new piece which looks exactly like these two pieces but they are connected of course.
Put that piece back in where it belongs – put everything else back where he found it (that is where the photos come in handy) and he turned it on to check to make sure it worked and it did. I don’t think the whole thing took him more than 30 minutes this morning to fix. We were so glad that it worked. Could have bought a new one but if this one will last awhile longer that will be nice.
I wish everything could be fixed so easily – I’m sure if I had called a repair person to come look at it and fix it most likely I would have been charged about $150 for the work and part.
Another cute circle:
And another:
So many pretty pieces of fabric in “Going in Circles” that I would never be able to pick my favorite.
by Karen on February 16, 2011
in quilts
EDITED: just a quick note to let you all know about a giveaway I just heard about – head on over to Dye Candy and see what Chris has to offer.
I am going to attempt to try a method I have never done for applique – ruching – this makes very dense 3 dimensional flowers. I think it will be a pain to do. To ruche you must press bars of fabric then gather each strip and go round and round to make the flower – taking stitches as you go to hold it in place. I have to do 4 of these. I think I need to gather up one more piece to get one flower finished. Any helpful hints out there? I am going to do the other applique pieces first and save these 4 flowers for last so if there are any hints send them along!
This block in progress, the open spaces on the green wreath is where the ruching flowers will go.
I thought this little circle in my Going In Circles quilt looks kind of funny – I only had a 2 1/2 inch block for this so I do not know what a whole piece of the fabric looks like but don’t those look like eyes peaking out – cute. I am quilting on this big quilt for a little bit almost every day but progress is slow.
I am also working on the Geese in the Park quilt but haven’t touched it for 2 days. I’m supposed to get my 18 inch square hoop on Friday so I might wait until then to really get started.
