First of all I finally got the stencil today for my Baltimore Bliss quilt. I ordered it ages ago like November 20th I think. I hadn’t received it and the company I ordered from said it I didn’t get it by today to let them know and they would send another. I got it today! It looks great and will fill in those 16 1/2 blocks really well and the half square-triangles too.
feathered circle. I had intended to start the Baltimore Bliss quilting but I had to wait for the stencil so I started the Dutch Treat instead. That is ok, it will give me time to find a nice varigated thread to use to show off the quilting. I don't have a color I want to use on it right now.
I know this is my second post today (I really spend too much time on the computer and need to get busy quilting this evening!) I thought I would share some of Christmas decorations – I would love to see how y’all decorate too so if you have posted photos let me know so I can look. Here are a couple, I’ll do more tomorrow.
Feathered star Christmas table topper made several years ago. I put it on my new table and it looks really great there.
My 3 kings - I got these on sale from my daughter when she was selling "Southern Living At Home" items. These kings are about 14 inches tall. I love them, they look old and rustic but aren't!
Russian Nesting Dolls. I got these on a cruise to Alaska about 6 years ago? They are made in Russia and they were the prettiest ones I found at a reasonable price in Sitka, Alaska. Sitka if you don't know has a deep history of Russia culture as Russian fur traders lived there in the 1800's. These nesting dolls have wood burning on them which looks really nice. They have such a religious theme to them that they are perfect for Christmas although I leave them out out throughout the year - just in a different location.
Ok I got the Baltimore Bliss stitched on point today (by machine 
) it was pretty easy to do considering the size of the quilt – it is finished at 45 x 65 I believe.
I didn't quite get the quilt laid out flat and took the picture and didn't realize I would need to take the photo over again when my battery ran out! Why do these camera batteries always seem to run out so quickly - that is this camera does anyhow. One day I am going to get a new camera, I wouldn't mind something smaller that takes even better photos. There are so many to choose from now. I will post another photo another day. I will see how much batting I have left and baste some more together to get rid of more of these pieces. This quilt I will go ahead and use my hoop for and can quilt in the living room while watching tv. The Christmas quilt will be on the frame for awhile so I might just as well work on two at once in the quilting stage.
Last night while watching tv I got this block finished for the "Insanity Revisited" quilt. This is the name I have given my second Dear Jane quilt. I have 7 rows sewed together and I am piecing the 8th row right now. This is block 9 from the 8th row. This is also block 100 out of the 169 blocks needed so it is moving smoothly along.
I was lucky and managed to get my H1N1 flu shot today. I called the medical clinic to see if it was in yet and they said they got some of the serum yesterday and to get down right away and get my shot before it went to someone else I scurried right on down and got it before they ran out. I am in one of the high risk groups so I was glad to get it although my arm is a little sore tonight.
It has been sweater weather lately – I like wearing sweaters and sweatshirts so it feels nice to me. I am baking muffins tonight and I know the house won’t heat up much – instead the oven heats the house just enough that the heat isn’t coming on. I am making two different kinds – well one batter, but two different ways. One half of it has raisins and walnuts in it and the other half is walnuts and chocolate chips. It is an oatmeal batter. It sure smells good, I have a feeling these breakfast muffins are going to be for snack time also!
I finished my 6th Baltimore Bliss blocks that I got from the Fat Cat Pattern site. That is all of them that I am making for this child size quilt. I really had fun with these blocks they were fairly simple to make and I needed that after all the difficult work on some of the quilts that I have made this past couple years. There are six more blocks in this series of BOM blocks. I will continue to collect them and make another child size quilt from the next set and use a different color scheme for it.
The 6th block in this series. I had only used this blueish (I'm not sure if that is a word but it is for me) color fabric in one block so I had to make sure to use it in this one so it would all balance out right. I redesigned this block. I didn't care for the flowers as it was designed - it would have had two colors layered on each petal and nothing in the center of them, I preferred to do them this way. Also the leafs next to the flowers were a bit bigger and I thought they took up too much room so I made them smaller.
So now I need to decide what the lay out will be - set on point like this? Not with the carpet of course but with more of the same background fabric and then a border around the outside. It would need a bit of quilting on the center two blocks and then on the half square triangles - maybe a feather wreath in the plain blocks and half the wreath on the triangles. In other words a lot of quilting. Of course I am leaning more towards this layout as it is more work
Or set like this with sashing and borders around the whole thing. This lay out would be the easier of the two as far as quilting it would go although on the border and sashing I would probably put a braid like design on it which would be a bit of quilting. Any fabric used in these blocks is down to very little left over so whatever the sashing would be might not be from these colors - one of the reasons I am leaning towards the set on point version - I have plenty of the background fabric as I got quite a few yards of it - it is such an easy color to work with so I got a bit of it.
I really like the two blocks in the middle the best for some reason. Not sure why. I should have used the light green fabric a little more but I ran out as I almost did with the plaid. The hazards of using up scraps! All of the colors except the background fabric was pulled from my scraps. I am really trying to be good and use a lot of them up.
I now have 3 sides of the binding sewed down on “Insanity.” I hope to finish the binding within the next two days and then I will start to do the final quilting that I decided to do on the scallops. I’m not sure how long the quilting will take but it shouldn’t take a real long time. I still believe that I will be done by Thanksgiving.
I got a little quilting done on the Christmas quilt this morning but I have not done much on that quilt. I need to get out my box of patterns that I have printed out for the Baltimore Bliss quilt and pick out the next block. I had been moving a long really well on those blocks until I took the Dear Jane off of the frame – boy did that slow everything down!
This weekend I started digging up one flower bed – didn’t get a lot accomplished due to the neck issues but it is getting better so I got a little bit of yard work done. I have one area that has gotten so thick with black-eyed Susan’s that I want to dig them up, divide them and start planting in numerous areas of the yard. I got some dug up and they are so thick, I have no idea how many I transplanted. Hopefully a lot of them will make it through the winter and flower in the summer. I usually have good luck with this type of plant.
We have had a really nice November so far – temperatures are above normal in the low 70’s mainly, sun and clouds – but so nice compared to October which was so wet and drab. Oh well, better get back to this sewing on the binding!
I really do not think I will get my Christmas quilt quilted for this season – it is November already! I’m not even going to try because I do not sit at my quilting frame for hours and hours a day. Especially with my neck issues. This quilt will most likely take close to 75 to 100 hours to quilt – I am not fast – but steady! It will decorate the room while I am working on it this year and it will be out next holiday!
Batting and backing ready to go last night.
The quilting lines are in place and I got the top on the frame earlier today. Don't look at the mess under my frame
A close up
The supplies. The thread is King Tut variegated. I plan on using the red thread for most of it and possibly the yellow thread on the red sashing just because. I will try it out on a short piece, stand back and see if I like it and if I don't I will pick it out and use just the red. These are all the supplies I will need. I use Roxanne Between Needles size 11, my little scissors, thread, a needle threader if needed, a little rubber needle grabber and my paddle thimble.
Last night and this morning I continued to work on the Dear Jane “Insanity” binding and it is coming along nicely, I have about 1 1/3 sides stitched (the back still needs to be hand stitched of course – first to the top).
It was so nice outside that I had to put the quilting aside after lunch and go outside for a bit to accomplish cleaning off the porch – I had tossed all of the painting supplies on the porch after I got done with the kitchen and was slow to put things back in the workshop! Just about all has been put away. I will have to wait until after Thanksgiving to paint the bathroom and wait for my neck to heal before I tackle more painting. All week we have continued to have sunshine and mild temperatures – it looks like – if the beginning of November is an example anyhow – that we will have a nice month!! We need it.
I will take photo’s now and then of the Christmas Quilt and what it looks like as I get busy with it and post now and then. I do want to start one more of the Baltimore Bliss blocks but I want to get the binding done on Dear Jane first so it will sit for a week or so before I decide what pattern to do next. Whichever one I choose it will be the last to go into this first quilt using these blocks. It will be little girl sized! I have no idea how I will put it together, but I think the blocks will be set on point and sashing in between – but I do not know what fabric to use I will need to look through things.
I have been working on so many things once again – a little here a little there. Clearing some things up and coming to an end on some projects.
Now I know a lot of you will think I am totally nuts but I decided to do the binding on my Dear Jane “Insanity” by hand. That’s right by hand. The whole quilt was done by hand so why not the binding also and truth to be told I do not get along with my sewing machine all that well and I have already taken out the stitch work of the binding for about a 12 inch section 3 times as I was not satisfied with the way I was doing it. My neck and shoulder muscles were tensing up and I thought to heck with this – much more comfy to sit on the couch – feet up – tv on and start stitching. ( I use to do binding by hand all the time as for awhile I didn’t have a sewing machine that was working and it all got done by hand). Just working a little bit on it last night and again this morning and I have about 20 inches of the binding sewed done on the top side already, this photo was taken last night after I had just started it. I’ll be done before you know it! After all why rush I’ve already been working on it for almost 5 years – it’s kind of hard to stop working on it. I guess I don’t want to say good-bye to it and I’m stretching out the work as long as possible.
Hand sewing the binding - I have decided to add a little more quilting also and will put an outline stitch on the scallops
Last night I got the backing for the Christmas quilt sewed together (with the sewing machine ) and also got some batting basted together (by machine also). I didn't have a big enough piece so put together some large bits and pieces and came up with a size big enough. Do any of you baste pieces of your batting together to use up as much of the left overs as possible?
Drawing the quilting design on the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt. I now have the backing and the batting loaded on to the 3 roller so that is out of the way - now I hope to get all the design drawn on the quilt top tonight and tomorrow and get it on the frame as well.
In between other projects I pick up the knitting and do a row here and there and it continues to grow. I'm not sure now much longer it will be but I think I will use up the second ball of yarn that I have and I'm about half way done with that one.
The 5th Baltimore Bliss block finished. I think I started this one about 2 weeks ago or so. I have been working on this in between other things as well. A stitch here and there and before you know it you have another block complete.
Row 8 of "Insanity Revisited" Block # 8 in that row. A little out of focus.
I’m not sure – maybe I have Attention Deficit Disorder — LOL, I can’t seem to work on just one thing – at least I always finish my projects, but if I get bored with one I pick up something else. Idle hands and all that – I just have to stay busy – if I’m not working on my projects I am reading or keeping my house straight. I just can’t seem to sit and do nothing and I have always picked up something to work on when I have nothing else to do.
Now it is time to relax – I just got back from the fitness center and got in my cardio I can’t do weights right now because of my neck issues. I am going to heat up the moist heat packs that I have and lay down with the heat on my neck and upper back for about 30 minutes or so. I took a muscle relaxer about 30 minutes ago and it is making me sleepy. Back to work on the projects this evening — see this is what happens when I’m by myself so much in the evening!
I have the binding for the “Insanity” quilt cut, pressed in half and rolled up but have not started to put it on the quilt. With my neck the way it was this weekend still a bit stiff I didn’t want to deal with trying to get it all pushed and pulled through the sewing machine. I might work on it off and on over the next couple days though and try to make headway on it.
I had been looking at my Baltimore Bliss blocks and I wasn’t pleased with the 4th one that I did –
this one! I don't like the inner wreath - when I laid all of the blocks out that I have done so far it just stood out as "not the same" if you know what I mean. I did not like it.
So last night after having thought about it last week and discussing it with another person who loves applique (Crispy) I agreed that the inner wreath is what was wrong with it. So I picked out the stitches, made some plaid hearts and here is what it looks like now.
Better I think and it goes with the other blocks much better.
I am working on the 5th Baltimore Bliss block and will be done with it today or tomorrow most likely. As you can see I am trying to finish up a few things while I am waiting for my neck to feel better.
Another project to get ready is the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt. I have the backing fabric washed and pressed, now it needs to be sewed together as it wasn’t the extra wide fabric.
The backing fabric
I will be glad to get this quilt on the frame so it is out of the way – right now without a quilt on the quilting frame I have things draped over the top of it while it is waiting for me to work on it.
Busy day today with both Physical Therapy and a dental cleaning appointment back to back. Really need to clean the house a little too and then back to some sewing. The sun is out again today – how nice – 3rd day in a row!
Is coming along nicely. Thank goodness – I’m getting tired of working on it. I still have all of my bottom cabinets to go through and organize and clean out. I made good progress though this morning before I quit for the day to run into town and go get some other kind of exercise – i.e. treadmill, stair stepper ect
I didn't have any good before photos but this is what it looks like now in the kitchen. The paint still doesn't show up quite in the right color - it is more of a medium beige than the white it appears. I use to have a lot of small appliances on the counter top and I rearranged that so that I have lot's of space for cooking. It was just too crowded with the appliances on it. I like having this space available now.
the other side of the room. I have a wide galley kitchen I guess you could say - it is very long but only about 8 feet wide, with cabinets and appliances on both walls so that leaves about 50 inches of space for a walkway. The items on this wall - the wood rack holding the spoons ect was made by my father for their house years ago and I inherited it. He also carved and painted the plaque above it.
this is on the far end of the kitchen and is a pantry/laundry room with stack-able washer/dryer. I have never gotten around to staining the bottom cabinet to match - and totally forgot about it until I saw this picture - I guess that is one more thing I should fix!
I don’t know if it is my camera or the lightening in the kitchen that makes it so the paint job doesn’t show up to the true color – but that is ok – the main thing is that it is clean!! I still might sometime in the future paint at least one wall a darker color – but not before the holidays for sure. I will put another photo of our dining area on when it arrives. They did say it might be two weeks.
"Insanity Revisited" block 7 row 8 this quilt is starting to show some progress once again.
More triangles on "Insanity" almost done! just a few more to do and then the corner.
My plaid fabric arrived today that I had ordered for my “Baltimore Bliss” quilt – I must say it was totally different than the photo was on the site I ordered it from! That has not happened to me before for ordering fabric on line. Even though it is different than what I wanted I am still pleased with it. It is very nice fabric and a nice color. I had already been thinking of making two quilts with the 12 blocks that go with the BOM and that is what I will do. I have enough of the old plaid to do the first 6 blocks and then I will use the new plaid in the other 6 blocks. This will give me two good size little girl quilts as I plan to put the blocks on point with plain blocks in between for some good areas for hand quilting. I believe it was the last Baltimore Bliss block I am not pleased with. After laying the blocks all out it just really stands out as different – not different good – I am going to pick out a little of the applique and see if I have enough of the old plaid or other colors to stick in it and still have some plaid left for one more block. I used a lighter blue green in it and I’m not pleased with that color. Live and learn!
Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is having a give away of quilt fabric. I’m not sure where I heard about it but I have put that site on my google reader to see what all they have for awhile. Go on over and see what they have to give away – you will be pleased.
I finished the Baltimore Bliss 4th block. I need to look at the patterns and see which one I’m doing next. I don’t actually have them in order any more from when I printed them out. I think there are 2 or 3 more patterns to come out still. I intend to make all 12 blocks but right now I’m not sure if they will all go in one quilt top or two. I’m thinking of maybe using 6 and put on point with sashing between for 2 different quilts.
Baltimore Bliss block #4 out of the 12 that with the quilt pattern.
Would anyone happen to have this plaid fabric I have been using in these blocks or know where I can purchase it on line? I have a little left and wanted to use it in most of the 12 blocks but might not be able to at this rate. I only have a little left. If anyone has some they are willing to part with we can make a trade of some sort? I believe I got it when I purchased some “Timeless Treasure” fabric by 3 Sisters several years ago, I don’t know if it was the same designer that did this one. I looked on line and can’t find it anywhere.
I will leave the next block though for a day or two and get back to work on “Insanity” my Dear Jane quilt tonight. Only a little more than half a row left to quilt! I should have a photo tomorrow of the progress.
I have taken the day off from painting like I said I was going to. I will continue that tomorrow or the next I’m taking a wait and see approach! I was outside today off and on – it was so nice outside. I dug up more bulbs that needed separating. There was of course more than I thought there was and now need to figure out where to put them! I will probably try to do that this weekend.
The knitting on the scarf is coming along nicely – I have had to unravel a couple rows now and then and then reload onto the knitting needles as I will occasionally find I have dropped a stitch. Over all though it is is growing!!
The blue wool scarf
Thanks to all about your nice comments on my health. Overall I do great most of the time, I tend to overdo at times with physical activity and then pay for it!! I think a lot of us with health issues (and increasing age ) do that – we like to think we are superwoman and then we get a reminder from aches and pains that we aren’t LOL
It did not rain today – so far that is, maybe tonight from the way I hear it. The sun struggled so hard to come out today and it managed to break through the cloudy sky for a minute or two – just long enough for me to get the sun glasses out of my purse – and then it disappeared! It did get up to 63 today though and without it raining I decided to take a much needed walk outside – not inside a building going round in circles. The forecast does say that starting by the weekend we will have about 5 sunny days in a row – I will believe it when I see it – but we are due. We need to some sun to dry up all this water that is sitting around. I have no idea if we will be able to do any work outside again this weekend unless some of this water dries up! I haven’t even ventured to certain parts of the yard where I can still see standing water!! I’m afraid I would sink to the top of my shoes at least!
Last night I got done quilting row 13 on my Dear Jane “Insanity“ that leaves only one border left to quilt. I am about to wear a hole in one of my fingers though so I think I will not quilt tonight and take a break and start fresh on it Thursday evening perhaps.
Row 13 blocks 13 & 12
row 13 border triangles
my scarf is growing! It really is coming along nicely. I think I have this knit stitch down really well.
I got one more Dear Jane block pieced for my "Insanity Revisited" quilt. Now that I am getting back into it I am making progress. I will get another block prepped tonight. This is block 4 on row 8 (H)
Mike has been working a lot of evenings lately so I have the entire evenings to myself – that is one reason for moving along pretty well on all of these projects. Tonight I need to look over the fabric left over from the Christmas Baltimore Album and see what I have for the backing fabric. I might have to order something for it and if that is the case I want to do that soon. The Dear Jane quilt should not be on the frame for much more than a week to 10 days and it will be done! I can hardly imagine being done with it. It has been a part of my life for almost 5 years!!
This morning before working on anything else I got the 4th Baltimore Bliss block prepped and ready to go other than making 8 circles – 4 of two different sizes. Once that is done and glue basted in place I can start stitching it.
Continue reading about Sunglasses – for a moment or two anyway!
