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?
If it isn’t one project it is another, this past week I have been working on all three projects at once. Last night I was quilting on the big frame and wouldn’t you know it after being so careful to not have two colors next to each other I have these two circles of the same identical fabric right near each other. There were very few duplicates of the circle fabric and I thought I had them scattered about. Oh well, not changing it now!
After all I don’t think with this many pieces it will be noticeable! Just about at the top of the frame is the halfway mark so I am I would say 1/4th of the way with the quilting – lot’s of work left to do.
This is the 10th of the 12 needed Red and Green Applique blocks – I have some of the leafs left to work on (maybe during the super bowl – GO PACKERS!!) when the applique is finished there is some gold embroidery to do on the big flowers in the centers.
And “Geese in the Park” is coming along nicely – the first two rows on the left are finished – I think I will be putting 3 strips together at a time and then decide if I will try machine quilting in sections or if I will end up putting the whole top together and use my hoop for hand quilting.
Right now for quilting either way I am going to follow the zig-zag of the white maybe in three rows – color thread to be decided. The blocks to be decided.
We are getting some rain today and should stay in the 30’s so I don’t think we will get ice. Right now looks like it will turn to snow tonight and tomorrow morning – they are being very careful about Wednesday and not giving totals right now just saying it will be “plowable” what’s with that – just say we are going to get a lot and be done with it!! Why be cute, we have winter this year and we know it and are tired of it already 
and it is only mid February – we almost always get snow at some time in early March the last couple of years and then it is done – hopefully it will be done this month instead.
Baby quilt is done, washed and dried and has that nice crinkly look that I love. It finished off at about 48 inches square. I surprised myself at how fast I got this one done. I started hand piecing it on December 29th I think. It is also hand quilted – I just outlined stitched the pieces and the white sashing. No fancy stuff!
A close up of the multi-colored binding.
The backing:
Laid out flat before I washed it.
Now on to the next project – which is really back to an old project – the Red and Green Applique quilt. I choose a wreath block this time – I plan on doing 3 more wreaths so I will have plenty to mix in with the more – I wouldn’t say folk art blocks, but they have a different look to them then the wreaths – you can see them here.
This one is called a Wild Strawberry Wreath. The stems are all to be embroidered on. When I get done with the needle turn applique then I will take it back to the table and trace out the stems then embroider them on. There are so many ways to applique – those that follow me know that I do needle turn. I draw around each shape with a chalk pencil and that is my turn under line. All pieces are glue basted in place with Roxanne Glue – little dots of glue.
My process of matching up threads – and my thread cabinet which I can not do without now that I am so used to have so many shades to choose from. Here I pull out shades that I think are closely matched. I string a piece of thread over the colors and have a good Ott light above the table – then I pull a piece of thread over the shape and see which color I think is the best match and go from there. Sometimes the color you don’t really think will match is the best to work out. It looks so different when you place a single strand over the fabric.
My cabinet with all the lovely shades!
My hodge podge box of embroidery threads – as you can see from the somewhat small collection I don’t do a lot of embroidery but I have seen so many quilts lately with embroidery in them that I think the next baby quilt will have some embroidery mixed in with the patchwork.
The block as in the book.
So now that the Star Crazy Quilt top is finished and put away and the baby quilt is finished (just needs a label). I will be back to work on the Red & Green and quilting on the Going In Circles quilt. Maybe these two will keep me busy for awhile.
I am still moving slow and imagine I will be for the rest of the week. I have not been on the computer a lot and yesterday I got so many nice comments and e mails from everyone that I have not been able to answer most of them – I’m not even going to try 
. So I just want to say thank you to all of you. Yes I am taking it slow, I am napping a lot, using a heating pad, no lifting of anything heavier than a book. I do have a doctor appointment scheduled for Thursday for a follow up. I hope I will be moving better by then.
The insurance company will be getting the police report sometime today and then they can start whatever procedures they do for letting us know if the car is totaled or fixable. If we need to get something new I hope we can do that next week or the week after. I know I do not feeling like driving this week so it is not a problem. The Honda is the car that I always drive and what we take with us towing when we travel with the motor home so whatever we get has to be able to be towed and within the right weight restrictions.
The day or so before Christmas I had won a $50 gift card from the Fat Quarter Shop, I had placed an order and was amazed to get it yesterday already. Such fast service. Two jelly rolls from the Lily & Will line from Bunny Hill, one in pinks and browns and the other in blues and brown. A yard of this very pretty yellow with cosmos flowers – I would like to do something with it where I will use the whole flowers so they show us nicely – some fussy cutting. The other is a nice polka dot – one yard also.
Underneath the above photo is the next red and green applique block pattern that I was going to start to prepare the other day when the accident happened. It will wait. Here is the photo of the book I found shortly before Christmas that I mentioned I was going to use some of the blocks from for the quilt that I am working on. I really like a lot of the wreath blocks in this book. They will mix and match so well with the other book I am using from Jeana Kimball “Red and Green, An Applique Tradition”.
Back around Thanksgiving I had won a book from Abbey Lane Quilts called Fab Five – truthfully I’m not even sure where I had seen mention of the give away for this book. Some of you have asked how do I find the give aways. I have a lot of blogs on my google reader. When someone updates their blog it shows up on the reader. If someone mentions a give away I go look to see what is being given – if it is something I wouldn’t mind adding to my sewing room I leave a comment – sometimes I am lucky and sometimes not. I don’t know how many I left comments for in the months of November & December – but I was lucky and I won 4 of them. I am waiting for one more prize from a shop and the gift was 12 fat quarters. I will show that one when it arrives. Now why I can’t be as lucky and win a lottery is beyond me – really that is the prize I would love!!
Yes at times I feel like I spend too much time on the computer and not enough time quilting. I am going to try to give myself an adjustment on that this year - I wonder if I will do it. Computers are addictive and quilting blogs are very addictive. You see so many pretty things you just keep on looking at more!
Now I am going to get off of the computer again and go rest
First let me announce the winner of the give away – Sandi at Call Me Crazy – number 14 in the comments has won the give away. Sandi send me your mailing address and I will get the gifts out to you. I have also included pieces of two fabrics that were in my Going In Circles quilt.
Last night I finished the Red and Green Applique block – this is the 7th of the blocks. All those little red circles where a pain to make but they really make the block. This block originally had a different applique for the green pieces but I didn’t like them once I had them cut out and placed on the block so I went back to the book to see what was there and I decided to combine two blocks into one instead. I like this arrangement better. I need to look through the book to find 5 more of this size block to use (16 1/2 inches) then I still need to make the center block. It is coming along nicely. I will put it aside though for at least a couple days while I finish up a couple things. A lot of the blocks left in the book seem to have a lot of these little red circles so I’m sure I will be going through this again soon.
I am not a seamstress by any means and rarely make clothing but my daughter asked me to make a vest for her – I have it started – now I need to get it finished – so I will be trying to work on that for the next couple days and get that out of the way. Also I need to make my Star Crazy BOM October blocks. I have fabric picked out and pressed. The patterns are printed out so I need to get busy with it. Maybe I will organize that completely and take it with me to quilt group Friday.
I cleaned off my table last night and I am trying to get better organized once again. Things tend to get piled up and sloppy when you work on 4 things at once! I need to get my boxes on the shelve under the cutting table organized once again also – maybe in a couple days.
Once I finish the vest and the BOM for October I will soon to be starting work again on the border triangles and cornerstones for the Insanity Revisited Dear Jane quilt that has been put aside since late June – I really need to get back to work on it and finish it. I will be going back and forth on Insanity Revisited and the Red and Green applique while continuing to hand quilt on the big frame.
Three projects in the works will be much better than juggling 4 or 5.
Don’t forget if you have not entered in the give away the drawing is on Wednesday morning with the random number generator – go back a couple days in the blog and post your comment on the right date.
I mentioned late last week that I had gotten some fabric from Jackie at Canton Village Quilts this fabric is for selection for my Red and Green Traditional Applique quilt. I was starting to run out of those colors so I had to buy some more – otherwise I would have waited for the new year and kept my pledge to not buy except for backing, background and experiments (the Connecting Thread fabric 
)
This is what I got:
A Green bundle of Kona Cotton and a Red bundle of the same. (fat quarters) Some of the shades will be used for other projects but there was enough in these to blend in with what I have. This is the Robert Kaufman brand – is it different than what is sold in say Hancocks and Hobby Lobby – I don’t know – what is sold in those other two stores feels kind of stretchy compared to these and it isn’t sold by that name so it must be a little different– maybe the thread count is different – I really like the Robert Kaufman brand.
Thank you Jackie for such fast service – I sent her a message asking about color and she responded promptly – I placed my order and received it within 3 or 4 days.
I am in the middle of one applique block – this one is taking awhile – it must have about 48 tiny red circles in it!! I get tired of working on them and only make about 10 at a time and then move on to something else. I am using my circle method that I showed in a tutorial some time back. I’ll show a photo when I am done with that one. I will work more on it tonight.
I am nearing the finish line for the Christmas quilt!! Well in hand quilting terms that means maybe one or two more weeks but really the end is very near in sight. I put in a couple hours of hand quilting this weekend and gave the rollers another turn last night then quilted for another hour before saying enough and went to watch tv in the living room and started to applique on the Red/Green quilt. That block is going to be a beauty I think. I really like the flower in the center but I’m not going to show it until I’m done.
Here is what is left to work on the Christmas Quilt:
I would say about another 15 hours of work possibly – a week if my fingers can last otherwise it will be two weeks. We’ll see how it goes as you can tell I’m getting antsy to get it off of the frame.
I have been really good about not starting new projects and really trying to finish a lot that I already started this year – but I am ready to start working on some easy scrap quilts and get some of these scrap boxes emptied out for next year.
For the remaining months of the year I will finish the Star Crazy BOM and be close (possibly) to finishing the Red and Green Traditional Applique quilt – we will see on that – I might get tired of it and put it aside who can tell. Other than that I will get the Bow Tie Quilt finished this year also (the top that is). Remaining projects are the second Dear Jane – Insanity Revisited which I need to make most of the triangles for the border I will be working on that one next year in between other things of course.
The next to go on the large 3 roller frame is the quilt “Going in Circles” (link to photo on that highlighted word) that I made last winter. Next year I will have a pile of quilt tops waiting in line to quilt so I think other then finishing the quilt tops already started I need to think small and just do some couch size or smaller for awhile. The scrap pile should be plenty to work with and will have one more year of trying to not buy much in the line of fabric other than backings and background. I did pretty well with not buying much this year and other than 2 bolts of background neutral fabric, a yard of pink moda marble & one package of 8 fat quarters I do not remember buying much (fabric that is) – but of course I might be blocking my memory somehow – I’m getting forgetful as I age LOL
I just finished one more block. I picked out one of the easiest last week – I wanted easy for a change
Look at this fabric I used for the orange/peachy color:
Occasionally I will use the wrong side of fabric because I like how it looks. A few years ago I got a good sale at Hancocks of Paducah, they had a fabric called Key West Batiks and they were closing out on them. I think I got something like 15 half yard cuts for $15 or something like that, I’m not sure on the price or how much fabric – it was at least 3 years or more ago. Turned out to be a heavier batik than I have normally seen. In this piece this part of it is orangey colors – on the same cut it is also pink, and greens:
Here is the back side of this section, this is what I used in the appliqué project:
The whole bundle of fabric was wonderful and I still have a lot of it left. I find that I have been using the back of the fabric more than the front although I did make a whole quilt using the front side of the fabric. I have been tending to use it a lot for applique now and cutting pieces out here and there were I want a certain mixture of color that these have. It really turned out that I liked the back of the fabric more than the front – this ever happen to any of you?
I have picked out the next block to make – I think I might go through some of this same fabric above and see if I can find spots in it that have more yellow for this one – I bet I have a piece that has some pinkish color in it to for the second large center ring of the flower.
It is 62 this morning and windy – a north wind by the feel of it. It is not a constant wind but nice gusts. I think when I am outside today I might actually have long sleeves on for a change, we are to only get in the low 70’s today. I have had the windows yesterday and last night – it feels nice in the house right now.
I’m taking a week or so off from working on the Bow Tie quilt. I think I have come up with a plan for using my portable design wall. My quilting frame can be tilted to be in a more upright position and I am almost done with the Christmas quilt that is on it. I think I will finish that quilt first then when it is empty tilt the frame so it is in a more upright position (I will take a photo then) and stand the design wall up in front of it and place the Bow Tie blocks on it. It is close to the sewing machine and we all know I do not like to sit for hours sewing. With the design wall in here I can take my time and not have to walk around the design wall in the living room (and neither will Mike) – I will be able to take my time sewing the blocks and then the rows together and it won’t matter if the quilting frame stands empty for a week or two and it will be nice for me to take my time with it.
