For those of you following the progress on my Traditional Red and Green Applique quilt I have decided on a border.  I had thought to design my own – but I really am not a designer and I wanted something traditional to go with a traditional pattern.  I couldn’t come up with anything.

Four of my blocks are taken from this book  by Marsha D. Radtke – I looked to see if she had a blog and couldn’t find anything other than listings on various pages of her books.  Anyone know if she has one?

And I decided I really like the simple border she made for this quilt that she did– should I say “simplistic” in that it is leaves, stems, flowers and buds – easy cuts and easy for needle turn applique.

Leaves, stems, buds, flowers – I like the layout, I can use all sorts of colors from the blocks I have in the quilt that I have left over plus some new colors thrown in.  I can get started making templates and cutting leaves and flowers ect and then when I get the urge I can start to put them in place and start stitching.

I am loosing interest in only working on two projects at a time already and the year is just started.  I have been working on only two projects for about 2 or 3 weeks now I guess.  The plan yesterday was to quilt on Star Crazy – instead I barely worked on it for more than 30 minutes.

Instead I got the Red and Green Applique quilt out – I blame this on my friend Regina (no blog) – she called me the other day to find out if I had gotten a cold and was skipping out on quilting tonight or was I feeling well and going tonight.  I never did get the cold so I was planning on going quilting.  What to work on though – I have no handy easy to bring along project right now.  Regina thought I needed to get started with the applique on the Red and Green then I could be bringing it along to work on.  I will not have any applique ready for tonight but yesterday I got the Red and Green out and put the border on it!!  Now to figure out what to applique.

Folded in quarters with the border on it.  Yes a nice big wide border, plenty of room for vines and flowers, maybe some tiny circles too – it doesn’t matter how long it takes to make the border – I don’t have time to quilt it right now anyhow!  This makes the quilt about 100 inch square.  Once I glue baste some pieces on it I can bring it to groups and have something to work on.

I have my books out to start getting ideas for a border – one might say most of the rules say to applique your pieces on first then attach your border to your quilt.  Well I don’t follow the rules you should know that by now.  I like to get the border on and then start playing with placement – I kind of just start to scatter things here and there, I don’t want them to all be a perfect match on all sides – I like it looser I guess – more free spirit.  It really isn’t that hard to work on applique on a border when it is attached to the quilt – just fold it right and the border is right there on the ends and easy to work with – I will show a photo later on and you can see what I mean.

My books to get ideas from and yes the stack of pieces for Joseph’s Coat – I need to sit on the floor later today and lay these out and get the next pieces ready for lay out.

This was going to be the next red – but after looking at it for a little while this morning – I think not – there is hardly any color change at all!! They look almost identical!

This one has more change in it – yes I know hard to tell from the photos but on my table you can see the color change – in the first photo if I step back and shut off the light I can’t see the melon shape sitting on it that is how close to the same color they are.

In this this second photo I step away from the table-the light is shut off and I am about 3 or 4 feet from the table and I can still see the melon – that might not be the way the experts make their decisions but it works for me

I will get enough pieces cut out and pinned so that I can bring about 6 to 10 pieces with me to work on this evening – we really talk more than we sew anyhow.  Everyone that has something finished brings show and tell and we are looking and talking and really very little sewing gets done.

I still need to make time to quilt for at least 30 minutes today on Star Crazy so I don’t loose my momentum on it – it will be a challenge – I guess I better get out of this robe and get busy – exercise first even though the place will be busy – I need to get it done and out of the way, I won’t have time later.

I don’t know about you but I tend to be in the house when it is very hot outside.  I love being outside in the summertime, but when the weather hits in the mid-90’s I tend to wilt so I spent a good part of the day sewing and reading. It has been very hot lately for this early in June – unusual to say the least.

I got a large section of the piecing done on the wedding quilt yesterday – I will be glad to start working on the border – I always look forward to the border as it really finishes the quilt.  I like the pieced fall leaves border but I just got to thinking this morning that I remember seeing in one of my books a fall type of quilt with a wandering vine along the edges.  I am going to look for that book – Big Book of Scrap Quilts? — and see what it looked like before I start any pieced blocks – you all know how much I love applique and that might be just what this quilt is calling for.  I’ll let you know tomorrow what I decide.

In the middle length the two blocks at the top and the two short rows on the bottom will be attached to the middle length before I attach to the other rows.  I haven’t gotten around to looking at the wedding photos so I’m not sure what I am doing there.  I do need to cut some fabric there today and treat it with the Bubble Jet 2000 to get it ready to print out.

Today I will work on this next section of blocks on the right side of the design wall.  I need to get the sashing in between the blocks and get the rows attached so that part well be ready.

Besides working on this quilt yesterday I managed to finish getting the last of the red sashing around the Red & Green Quilt.  Today – I want to get the final border cut from the background fabric for that quilt – I need four pieces about 15 wide – I need to take a final measurement and figure that out for sure before I cut.  I put the red sashing on by hand and the background color will go on by hand also – that will give me something to work on when sitting in front of the tv and for Friday morning group.  I am still trying to decide on a border for that quilt.  I had thought I had it selected but now I am waffling – I like the border I had selected but I am think of a more free wandering vine with flowers and leaves here and there – the one I selected needs to be more precise and I’m not precise!

The final red sashing – I didn’t have space for a complete photo with the signature blocks on the design wall – so here is a quarter of it.

And – wow I was busy yesterday – here is a photo of the Going In Circles quilt – I’m close to finishing up one end of the quilt before I give it another crank down – a little progress is better than none – I just can’t seem to get myself to sit still and quilt for long periods of time so this last section has taken over a week to get to this point – almost to the border on this section.  Next time I give it a crank down the whole end of the border will be in sight.

Edited Monday morning:  This post is also serving as my design wall Monday as I’m sure I will be working on these projects all week!  Run over to Judy at Patchwork Times to see what everyone is working on this week.

I think I have been busy since I got up this morning.  It was a very warm day also – summer is off to a hot start.  I got several plants dug up from one area and transplanted and watered to another area.  Weeds pulled, flowers cut to put in a vase on the table.  Then it was on to quilting.

I got started on the machine quilting for the patchwork – straight lines I am about 1/4 of the way done!! I am going down the middle of the blocks both horizontal and vertical.  Then I will see what it looks like and see if it needs more.  Here it is all spread out on the tables. (I guess I still need to come up with a name for this one)

When I wasn’t working on that quilt or reading I was also hand piecing the sashing in place for the Red & Green Quilt.  Also I have been pondering what kind of border to put on this quilt.  I will have to look through the books some more and see what the end result will be.  I would like this quilt to be bed size – when I finish the sashing it will be about 70 x70 so it will need 15 inch wide borders at least.  Possibly a little less than that and have more of the red as a trim all the way around the quilt as well.

What is done so far:

Tomorrow will be a busy day – family day – a big get together.  One of my many nephews and his wife are moving from Birmingham, Alabama to Phoenix, Arizona.  They left Alabama first thing this morning and will be somewhere in Arkansas tonight and then a slight detour to NW Arkansas for a family visit before they get back on I-40 for Arizona.  We will be up there with everyone else to see them.  My nephew (Chris) grew up on the east coast and has spent very little time in Arkansas and really doesn’t know this part of the family really well and his wife has never met us.   Another nephew (John) eloped to Las Vegas last weekend and he and his bride will be at the family gathering as well – she hasn’t met all of us either (well some but not all) –- this should be fun!!  I’m taking my camera – well post on Tuesday.

I have my patchwork quilt all spray basted together and ready to work on sometime this week so it is off of the design wall finally.  Thank you to everyone who gave me their helpful hints on how to machine quilt – I will need it here it is ready to go.

Now at the same time I was working on this quilt I was also working on the big center square for the Red and Green applique – I finished it.  Now the blocks are all up on my design wall so I could decide placement – I need to square all the blocks up, check measurements ect before I cut the red fabric for the sashing.

The red batik for the sashing – washed several times!

The hydrangeas opening up for lovely color.

Lilies and Roses, the yucca flowers are finished already over in this area and I didn’t get a photo of them all in bloom – that happened when I was in Wisconsin and then stormy weather blew them all off.

Flower baskets

Ferns

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.  I haven’t heard back from my winner of the giveaway and it is a holiday weekend here – she might be away from home and no computer available.  If I do not hear from her by say Wednesday I will get another winner drawn.

I was busy yesterday working on both the patchwork and the red and green applique.  Today the work continues on both quilts in between my regular Monday things – like cleaning the house and fitting in time to exercise.  Check out Judy at Patchwork Times to see what everyone is working on.

The Patchwork right now is 44 inches x 56 inches and growing – I have a lot of pieces left to use so this is no longer looking like a baby quilt but I think it is growing to a couch size quilt and might end up being closer to 60 by 70 inches or there about.

Pieces left to use still:

The little “caps” are now on the pineapples:

I lost track of how many circles I needed to cut and I think I have a 110 cut but I think I “only” need 104 – I have to re-count before I start to make them.

A close up of the size:

My Give Away continues all week – I have over 40 comments – I wonder how high I can get that number.  Please leave your comment for the give away here

After just one or two days of thinking about it I have gotten started on the big center block for the Red and Green Quilt.  It really will not take all that long to do it, it is not a complicated design.  By that I do not mean a week of work but more like a month at least.  I have the center flower appliqued in place and I am working on the first round of leaves around that.

I cut around each of the layers of the flower from the back so that I can easily do a little quilting in the center flower – if I don’t do a little quilting in the flower the whole center of the quilt when quilted will have a poof in the center and I don’t want that to happen.

It is harder to work on such a large center block though, the fabric will be getting so wrinkled I will have to periodically as I add more of the applique press the fabric to make sure there aren’t any major wrinkles behind the pieces.  This is a 35 inch block and will be trimmed down to about 33 inches if all works out right!

I have also gotten started – barely – on a design for the pink and brown Lily and Will jelly roll.  I mentioned a free stitching pattern that Cinderberry Stitches has on her blog (a couple days ago you can find it by going back in the blog a couple days).   I am going to use that pattern to incorporate some embroidery blocks into the baby quilt.  Right now I have cut 10 inch blocks of ivory Kona Cotton and will do the embroidery on those.  Cut them down to size when finished to put in with the patchwork.  I don’t have a whole design in mind at this time as I will be making it up as I go I think.

Using a light box I have lightly traced in pencil the design.  The design has 5 fairies in a center block.  Instead of doing it that way I have cut each fairy out of the design and they will be on individual blocks. The pencil drawing is light so you can’t see it well I know.

I bought this small light box years ago and I have gotten so much use out of it.  I will be making about 5 or 6 blocks I think.  Repeating fairies as I go.  There are five fairies so if I stick with 5 blocks it will be of course one of each if more than start repeating.

On the page that I got the pattern from she has them embroidery (by hand) using bright colors, I am doing a totally different color scheme by sticking with threads that go more with the colors of the jelly roll. There are only 3 different embroidery stitches used in this pattern and I can do them all so that really helps!  I haven’t done a lot of embroidery in recent years but I used to do a lot so it is coming back to me quickly – plus I have a little book that shows how to do all the stitches so that helps too

Yesterday I swore I had to get back into exercising.  I used to exercise on a very regular basis.  Something happened along the way starting back during the holiday season and I just fell off of the exercise wagon!! I bet a lot of you are like that too.  You start out good, going really well for years then just quit!!  For me it was the holidays, crappy weather ect and just didn’t feel like it.  I said I would get back to exercise after the first of the year but then I had that car accident after Christmas and was not in the right shape to exercise for a month – then just pure laziness and winter weather happened in February and I didn’t feel like going out in it and here it is the middle of March.  I went to the fitness center yesterday will go back today and then next week – I swear I will go at least 3 days a week with the intention of getting back to going Monday through Friday either at the center or taking a walk outside and using my light weights at home.  At my age (58) if you don’t use it you loose it I can tell I am not as strong as I used to be, I tire more quickly and my muscles are weaker – I must get back to it. Anybody else out there ready to get started exercising again!

Yesterday I mentioned how hard those metal folding chairs are that so many of us have to sit in at our quilt groups and how very uncomfortable they can get for a lot of us.  I did some searches and chatted with a few people on some quilting message boards and here is one site that has a pattern for one if anyone is interested.

http://www.clotilde.com/detail.html?prod_id=9289

I can’t say I like the flap in the front hanging down and think that would get in the way of the legs.  The whole thing fold ups as a tote bag for carrying.

I think I am going to look for a good thick square cushion that would fit a chair like this and I mean a good one – and then possible make this or just cover the cushion with some pretty fabric and maybe put a tie on both ends to tie it to the chair so it won’t move out of place – actually a thick cushion that they sell in stores for your kitchen chairs would probably work out just as well and put it in a tote bag and save you the trouble of making one!!

And here is the 12th of the 12 needed at 16 1/2 inches for my traditional Red and Green Applique!! Finished it today after sitting around watching/listening to the old movie “Independence Day” from about 1996 I think or there about.  It stars Will Smith and Jeff Goldblume (sp?).  This one is a Cherry Wreath.

I am not sure if I will start the big center block right away – it is 32 x 32 inches.  It was hard to print out the design from the book as the book is of course about 8 x 11 inches so I had to end up taping numerous sheets of paper together as it came out of the printer.  I think I will get it out on the table this week and maybe start tracing over it so it will be neater to work with then decide if I am getting right on it or not.  I kind of think after working on it so much the last couple months that I might take a month or so off and start on one of those jelly rolls.  But we will see – I will decide this week.  I might end up doing both!

It was another chilly day today and I did not do anything outside – maybe tomorrow it will be nicer.

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!

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