Yesterday was one of those days when I just wasn’t outside very much. I was going to cut the grass in the morning and then it started to rain just as I was getting started. It didn’t rain a lot and not for long but I took it for one of those signals that say just forget it and work on your sewing instead 
What it really was I think is that I was so close to getting these 169 – 4 1/2 inch blocks finished that I just wanted to get them finished – so off and on all day that is what I did -
Row 13, Block 11 - this block was supposed to be pieced with 31 pieces, I just didn't feel like it and I appliqued the diamond shapes on it instead. It is not perfect but who cares!
Really Jane saved some of the easiest blocks for last! This is Row 13 Block 12 and it went together in a flash.
Row 13, Block 13 - again this piece too was shown pieced - in quarters with curved piecing with what would have been 12 pieces with more bulk of seams. Instead I appliqued the cream piece to the red - so much easier and now all the blocks are finished
Now that the blocks are finished I need to sew row 13 to the body of the quilt and then I will show a photo tomorrow of all 13 rows sewed together. I got done with the blocks around 5 PM so I had time to quilt a little in the evening. I was close to the half way point on the Christmas Quilt and got there last night:
If you want to get technical I need to be half way up that center block to be half done with the quilting on this quilt - that gives me two more inches straight across - I'm just saying I am half way done now. I have put in 53 hours of quilting so far - it should not have taken me a half of a year to accomplish this!
In my defense I have gotten done with so many other projects this one just got neglected. I quilted two table toppers, a baby quilt, and a couch size quilt. I made a queen size quilt top, and started another (the Bow Tie), paper pieced several more 6 inch pineapple square blocks, made one Red & Green Applique block, made one more Little Brown Bird block and I finished I’m not sure how many “Insanity Revisited” Dear Jane blocks since the beginning of the year — I guess that explains why the Christmas quilt was neglected I feel that I have forgotten a project or two – I might need to get my list out. EDITED: I forgot to list my Star Crazy BOM – six months done.
The Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” quilt top will now be put aside until the fall and I will work on the triangles for the border then.
Wow slightly over 50 comments already on the give away I am hosting for Teri – keep them coming!! Leave a comment on the post from yesterday. Some people have asked me how this give away came about and who is Teri? Teri is from Alabama and was one of the winners of my last give away. Teri says she is not computer literate enough to have a blog I think a lot of us feel that way. It took me sometime to get it figured out and I have my computer master in the same room with me most of the time and I am still bugging him with questions of how do I do such and such! It comes hard for some of us. I have asked Teri some questions and will try to post a little bio on her this week. I really do not know her real well and we can find out together. We have not met in person – just through e mails as so many of us do.
Sometimes when I have a giveaway I try to thank everyone with a e mail of thanks when I get the message – in this case so many having been coming in at the same time I have not had the chance to do so. Let me say thank you to all of you now for stopping by my blog and visiting. Such nice comments everyone leaves. Good luck to all of you. I am looking at blogs every chance I get to see all the new ones that I have not seen before.
I have a new photo of my Christmas Quilt which is coming along slowly as I am working on so many other projects all the time.
Christmas Baltimore Album in the works
You see this block in the center with the white flowers? When I get to the middle of it I will be half way done with this quilt. Like I say it is moving slowly - I'm not rushing it and in fact have been neglecting it - I have been working on so many other quilts but this is a Christmas quilt I figure I have until the middle of November before I need it - hopefully I will be finished with it before then!
Yes I need to straighten out under the frame once again – somehow things constantly get tossed under the frame – out of the way you know
Before I forget Jackie is having a give away on her blog Canton Village Quilt Works - go on over and see what she has.
I started making “Going in Circles” on December 20th – I finished the top today, this evening actually. It took 12 days of steady work on this top to finish appliqueing the border. I barely worked on any other project wanting to get this top finished.
Here it is folded in quarter size as it is too big to lay out on the floor - Now it will sit aside for most of this year most likely as I finish up other quilts. This quilt is 100 x 100 inches so it will be quilted on my big hand quilting frame and right now there is another quilt on it. I am in no rush - it will wait until I am ready for it. The border is all needle turn applique although I did make the circles using the technique that I showed in early December on the blog and then appliqued in place - which was easy as the ends were already turned under.
Now that this top is finished I am ready to get busy quilting. I have a small stack of tops waiting for me to get quilted. Counting this one that I just finished there are 4 quilts to be quilted plus the Christmas Quilt that is on the big frame in progress. I thought I would select the smallest top and get started on that one on my 14 inch hoop. I will be quilting two quilts at the same time and in between working on the 2 applique quilts I have gotten started on this year – 1 block finished on each, I will also continuing working on the BOM Star Crazy and the second Dear Jane quilt which I have barely touched in the last month. Way too many projects in the works!!!
This top is called "Devil's Puzzle" it is a small one for me, most I make are much larger than this. This one measures 38 x 38 inches and will be used for a table topper.
A close up of the backing fabric that I found in my stash. This whole quilt will be made from scraps right down to the batting - I will be basting 3 pieces of batting together tonight to use for this quilt. I will finally have to order some more batting though as I am down to small pieces and way too many pieces to baste together for the next quilts I have waiting in line which are about 50 by 70 inches I think. I would have to baste about 7 or 8 pieces together from here out so I think they will be put aside for small projects once again.
I will need to continue making scrap quilts next year as I have barely made a dent in my scraps and that is after using them in the big scrappy quilt too besides these smaller quilts that I have made this past year. For the most part for the last year I have mainly just bought fabric for the backgrounds and backings.
Now I am off to watch more Olympics and baste that batting together. We were really pleased with the Men’s Figure Skating last night and really I thought they all did a terrific job - Oh and could not believe it got up to 60 degrees today!! and no I do not think spring is on its way early – I just bet we will have another cold spell with the way this winter has been.
I have the worst luck with every cutting/pressing mat I have ever gotten. They all warp! Do the rest of you have this problem and if you don’t what am I doing wrong with mine?
My latest - in the photo you can see how each end curves upward - this is what always happens. This one is a June Taylor 12x18 Quilter's Cut n Press II I do a lot of pressing on it - I rarely use the cutting side. I think I will go back to making my own again. I had one that I made - a piece of plywood, batting and muslin pulled tightly and stapled on the back. It finally got so brown and nasty looking on the muslin from all the starch and pressing that I tossed it. I have tried to straighten it out by placing heavy objects on top of it over night - doesn't work. Any ideas?
More patches ready to sew. I haven't worked on my 4 patches in two or three days.
Progress on the Christmas Quilt -- but far from done.
And the weather here is still freezing cold!! Woke up to 12 degrees this morning and it will continue to be “Arctic” cold for the rest of the week – yuk! Hopefully by Sunday or Monday this will be passing us by – I really don’t mind cold weather that much – but to me than means temperatures more in the 30 – 40 range
I’m surprised more of you do not have comments on the Quilt Show!! Good or Bad it’s ok to post your opinion. Thank you to those that have posted – I like hearing what you have to say.
Who can resist chocolate chip cookies! Be truthful can you eat just one I know I can’t. I’m trying the same recipe I always use this evening except half of the chips are mint. Well be a different taste – but one I am sure I will love. I use the recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chip package. No changes just what is on the package. You can use a variety of chocolate chips – or butterscotch or whatever kind you like. I do add walnuts in mine.
A little work done has been done on the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt but not a lot. I have been working on too many things at once, once again. At least a little more is done but it is a long way from being done.
quilting on the Christmas Baltimore Album
I have the back of the sweater knitted – I might wait to post another photo of it until I am completely finished with it. No photo of it today. The Dutch Treat quilt is coming along nicely. A lot of my time has been spent on quilting it this past week. There are 36 plain blocks in it and 36 reverse applique blocks. Right now I have 19 plain blocks left to quilt and 20 applique blocks left. Just about half way finished!!
The Dutch Treat quilt
the quilting
Do most of you find that you work on more than one project at a time or do you concentrate on one project? I understand working on just one if you do this mainly for a business and have deadlines but if you do it just as your creative outlet do you have a hard time working on one quilt at a time?
I couldn’t believe the weather today – high 50’s! I came out of the fitness center and was so glad I wasn’t in a heavy sweater or sweatshirt – it was long sleeve t-shirt day – the sun was shining, no wind, a really nice day. Of course according to the evening news it will be 20 degrees cooler tomorrow!! Northwest Arkansas is already in the 30’s and here it just went under 50 and it is 6:45 PM right now.
I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes to my mom. It was so nice celebrating 85 years with her. The years fly by don’t they.
Continue reading about Tonight is Chocolate Chip Cookie Night!
My second Dear Jane - Insanity Revisited now has 8 rows finished. I need to sew the 8th row onto the 7 rows already put together. Not sure if I will be working on that over the next couple days or not. Dear Daughter #2 and family+ large dog Max arrive in an hour or so and will be here until Friday. Our little house will be bursting at it’s seams.
Block 13, Row 8, Insanity Revisited - those white specks are just thread clippings that I hadn't noticed - somehow I constantly have thread clippings sticking to the furniture, me, husband, all over the house - why is that
Here is some of the quilting on the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt. I decided to use a tone on tone yellow King Tut thread for the quilting on the red sashing. I think it sets it off well, the red thread would have just disappeared in it. I have 10 hours or so of quilting in on this quilt already and have barely made a dent in it. Good thing I really didn't plan on having it done for the Christmas season this year no way no how would it get done!!
I think I will get my Moda Box of Sampler squares tomorrow or the next. I’m looking forward to seeing them! And then of course I will need to figure out how to use them – what design ect. I love charm quilts and this will make one perfectly. I will post a photo when they arrive so you can all see what they look like! (Have you all noticed the price of fabric going up over the last two years! I know it is still more inexpensive here in the states then over seas. I wouldn’t even want to think of paying what you all pay in other countries)
I have gotten 2 sides of the scallops on “Insanity” finished – give me about 2 or 3 more days and I just might be finished with it. I have barely touched any other project other than the Christmas quilt which I have worked on quilting a little. Even though it will be sad in a way to have finished this quilt it will be a relief also!!
It continues to be so nice outside – a little cooler today but still very nice. I sat outside for awhile this morning watching Mike work a little outside before he left for work. I skipped working on the flowers this morning but I was clearing up some of the building supplies. Tomorrow maybe back to a little work on the flower beds or the fall clutter of leaves on the ground! So many leaves. I should take the camera with me tomorrow when I run into town to get my hair cut. I should go take some photos of what is left of the fall color. We do still have some trees with color. We do not have a lot of them left in our yard though.
Last week Jackie at Canton Village had a give away and one of her prizes was the newest of the Moda Bake Shop Sampler boxes of 2010 fabrics . I believe there are 500 2 1/2 inch blocks in the box. I decided right then and there if I didn’t win I would order the box as soon as it became available! Well I didn’t win 
– but I placed my order today! Included in the box are some ideas for charm quilts and the history of them. Yes I know when will I make another quilt – I will – now that I am almost done with my first Dear Jane things will start moving I hope! I have made several charm quilts one of them was a postage stamp quilt (1 1/2 inch squares) – boy was that fun trying to make sure I didn’t use a fabric twice and that was from scraps – going through hundreds of pieces from my own stash and other peoples as well. I also have a star quilt that is charm – I collected that fabric from a world wide exchange and have fabric from all over the world in it. And last but not least of course the Dear Jane quilt that I am working on the binding for. Making quilts while not repeating a fabric twice can be fun – but trying!
I did get started quilting on the Christmas Baltimore Album last night and worked on it this morning as well. Here are some photos of the beginnings of the quilting. Right now I am quilting around the applique and then on the grid lines. It is possible that I will quilt on some of the applique as there are large sections. I might do a little outline stitch between the petals or something like that. It is always a little harder to do the quilting on top of the applique but sometimes you need to because of the size of it.
I don't know how good the stitches will show up in the photo's as I am not washing out the blue marks until I am done with the quilt. If I get any of it wet it will spread out into the other areas and "erase" my other marks.
some of the greenery
these photo's are all from the very bottom of the quilt on the border
I have two sides of the binding sewn down on “Insanity” and I plan on working on it more this evening while I am watching tv – I believe CSI is on tonight and this quilt will be my tv companion for the evening. It is a little hard of course going through all of those layers including the double fold bias binding so I am having to resort to a thimble. I don’t usually use one all that much but for cases like this I use my open nail thimble. I ordered mine from Connecting Threads – if you click on the link you see the one I mean.
A lot of my readers are also readers of Mary of Quilting in Oz, Mary has COPD and needs to carry her oxygen around with her all the time. Mary went and got the swine flu and was in the hospital for several days, she is at home now trying to get better – lets all send her a big group hug to get better. Mary we are all thinking of you and hope you get well soon!
I know there are other quilters getting the flu also I am hoping everyone recovers soon!
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!
