Quilting and other Things

While the Bringing Home the Tree wall hanging did get some thread painting but not without a lot of effort.  I ran into a lot of problems the first night I tried -- the thread broke almost every time I took a stitch -- or at least it felt that way.  After an hour I went upstairs and read.  The next night I looked up which way round the spools of thread should go -- cross wound on the vertical pin and stacked on the horizontal.  That seemed to make things go much better.  Some thread conditioner also helped on the rayon spool.  On Saturday morning I continued to do some more thread painting but it started to feel more like a chore than something I was enjoying.  So I finished the tree I was working on and switched to something else The something else was Bonnie Hunters Celtic Solstice Mystery .  I'm still working on part 1 & 2.  The link will take you to see the progress others have been making with this mystery.  On Satu...

This weekend was suppose to be do a few errands then start thread painting the Christmas Club quilt, Bringing Home the Tree.  The final reveal is on the 21st and this is as far as I've gotten with the top -- no change since October. I did the couple of errands I needed to do Saturday morning and spent the rest of the weekend on many things except the thread painting. On Wednesday I rented a long arm machine and quilted my first two quilts on it.  One is a guild community outreach quilt and the other has been lurking in the stash for many years.  It will probably go to the guild's outreach program as well.  Before going out on Saturday morning, I got the binding stitched on and just need to do the hand stitching.  They both use the same pattern.  It was a fun afternoon.  I think in the New Year I'll have try again with some other quilts that are lined up waiting for me to quilt them.  I also cut out more red and white half square tr...

Nana's Farm by Patchwork Pumpkin was the 2009 $10 quilt and has been in a bag waiting for borders for 4 years. Finally got borders added and a binding prepared. Another one ready for Saturday's $10 Quilt Reunion. The other day I also got the other three rows added to the guild BOM and attached part 3 to the first two parts. That's ready for next week I have centres traced to add to the trilliums on Moms quilt and one of her quilts wants borders. I'm not sure everything will be done by Saturday. It looks like I have 24 waiting to be quilted.  I knew there were lots waiting (the shelf is kind of full) but I didn't know there were THAT many.

I spent most of Saturday work on  Road to Llano. The top wasn't wrong sizes it was just in need of a really good pressing.  Whew.  While cutting out the borders in the afternoon, I also got the binding made.  Feels nice to have a top to add to the to be quilted pile.  Sure takes a lot longer when you have to do your pressing :) I prepared a few extra half square triangles as part of stitching the top together. In the afternoon, I took a short break and went for a walk.  It was sunny when I was getting ready to go out.  Before I was half way through there was little snow flurries. There were lots of ducks on the creek and several black and gray squirrels.  Then this handsome fellow.  He left a few moments later.  Guess there were no good pickings in that area.

Yesterday I took a vacation day and went to Elaine's sit and sew.  Its wonderful to have someone do the pressing for you.  Thanks Elaine!  I took the guild block of the month which she designed and stitched together 100 2.5 inch squares.  It should have been 130 but I didn't have enough variety of half square triangles so I left the last three rows off.  I'll make more squares and add the rows. I also got most of the pieced border for Road to Llano stitched together.  I though I had all but 4 blocks with me but I seemed to be missing some so I'll have to re-count.  There are spare pieces on the sewing table if I need to make a few more.  The 3.5 in squares were made so Elaine "only" need to press joining the blocks. I thought that would be enough to keep me busy from 9:30 - 4pm but with someone pressing I did much better.  It was a good thing I threw the centre of Road to Llano into the bag just in case cause I did get started at ...

Over the last month I was suppose to thread paint a quilt top for the Christmas club group and add some borders to $10 quilts for a reunion at the end of November. I also wanted to finish a quilt top in time for the November guild meeting the first Thursday of month. Instead, no thread painting, no borders and the top is still in pieces on the design wall although I did manage to stitch some of the border blocks on Sunday. the love entwined centre is still paused half way through step 2 waiting for me to prepare more appliqué shapes. I've spent the last month and a half distracted by a knitting project. It's a shawl called Art Deco by Nadita Swing. The pattern is from Raverly. Since this photo was taken last week I've completed two more repeats and started a 3rd. I did think about leaving the knitting bag at my sisters on Saturday but figured it would just mean an extra trip across the city this week which doesn't fit into the schedule.

Thursday evening I finished adding borders to another of the $10 quilts -- Spring from 2004.  Now Nana`s Farm needs borders and then everything is up to quilting except the few that are actually quilted.  Nothing like a reunion at the end of November to get me moving on the todo's. I finally brought the applique pins downstairs so I should get going on Love Entwined again.  The crown is cut out I just need to pin it in place so I can start stitching. Yesterday Karen & I went over to Waterloo to see the Waterloo Quilt Guild Show.  It was an excellent show.  A very talented group of quilters.  The big disappointment is no sharing photos without permission of the member and the guild so those photos will stay on my computer. Afterwards we drove to Crosshill to the Waterloo Cornmaze where we spent a couple of hours trying to find our way through the maze. We made a start and didn`t seem to be getting anywhere so Karen took my camera and went bac...

I finished appliqueing the borders while I was on holidays for All Things Christmas. I didn't get the top together in time for guild this month cause I had a nap that afternoon instead. Seemed more important at the time. The top is now done and the binding is made. There are a number of buttons and bows and other embellishments to add once its quilted. This years $10 quilt is Bringing Home the Tree. I spent yesterday cutting out the rest of the shapes and they are now finger pressed in place. I've used the iron on the house, the barn, the bridge and the horse/waggon but not on the top itself so its still easy to lift things up and move them around. Next is thread painting and stitching things down. That will take a little while. I did get the freezer paper templates traced for the next part of Love Entwined but haven't picked fabrics yet. Also found new fabrics for Road to Llano and have re-made the parts that need re-making. I'm almost ready to start...

For Love Entwined this week, I've been working on the tiny circles. I used the sandpaper and circle template to prepare the circles for needle turning. I traced them one size larger than I wanted so when turning under the line, they'd end up the correct size. At first I thought those circles were going to be hard but in the end they were quick to stitch down. Yesterday I got the background prepared and the centre stitched on. Now I'm debating about the colours for the crown that surrounds the centre and its flowers.   The centre and inner borders were added to the Christmas quilt. I'll putter away at the applique for the outer border. One thing I learned about with this BOM was even if you are not going to stitch right away, you should probably check the material supplied when you get home. A couple of pieces were cut incorrectly -- one wasn't a huge problem but another was cut at the finished size instead of with seam allowance.

In July Karen & I got a membership at the zoo.  Among other things over the course of the summer it allows us to go in at 8 am to see the Pandas.  The zoo itself doesn't open until 9.  Last Saturday I was awake early so decided to head over to the zoo to see the Pandas.  I was there a few minutes before 8 and there was a family of 4 waiting to go in but other than that the place was empty. I didn't spend a lot of time reading the information panels in the exhibit building before the pandas but the family must have lingered there because I was able to spend about 5 minutes alone with the female panda watching her enjoy her bamboo and listen to the train go past.  This is Er Shu.  When the other family came out, I went around to where Da Mao, the male panda lives and had about 5 minutes alone admiring him. I think the black disk holds some treats for him.  The sign mentioned apples.  Some things they have to work to find.  La...