Quilting and other Things

Yvonne is hosting a planning party again. Before I look at next year I want to look at this year.   Quilting: 1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area).  Its gotten so messy, I've no desire to go down there and work on my quilting or anything else for that matter.  This is a recurring theme.  I got part of it tidy up but if you looked today it would be hard to tell. 2.  I'm going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.  I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes Canada BOM from Guild 2015/16 no change.   Stainglass Manger - Quilt and bind. Started quilting ABC Applique. Centre done and ready for borders.  Need to look for an appropriate fabric.  One Block Wonder - Quilt and bind done Common Bride top co...

My December goal was to finish the embroidery for my quilt.  I finished the last 10 blocks and outlined the dove.  The lettering for the 4 blocks was also done and the blocks trimmed and assembled.  I auditioned some fabric for the borders but didn't like any of my choices. At some point in the new year, I'll go shopping with the top and find a proper border.  It will need to wait awhile as I slipped on an icy sidewalk and broke my right wrist.  That's going to slow things down for a bit. Linking up with Patty's OMG   I'll wish everyone a happy and healthy 2020 and be back with a future monthly goal as soon as I can.  I hope to only miss January but time will tell.

I had the pleasure of taking Jane Sassaman's Abstracting from Nature workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art workshops this past week with 12 other ladies.  The weather man welcomed us to Greenville with a snow storm that began at noon on Sunday just as I parked my car in the Inn parking lot.  By Tuesday morning about 30 cms of snow had fallen and my car was buried This lump is my car.  By lunch time, the snow removal man had it cleared off and the area around it shoveled. The week started with us picking a flower and looking at its parts and sketching.  From there we did a number of exercises to abstract the shapes and come up with possible design elements.  On Tuesday we started to make shapes for our designs And on Wednesday we started to figure out how to put the different pieces together.  It took all day and some significant help from Jane to get to this.  There were a lot of pictures taken along the way and my 5 flower...

This month the goal is to finish the embroidery on the remaining blocks of the Christmas quilt. Some blocks need very little — just a couple of French knots for eyes and some need a lot. O gets a long ever green branch to hang the ornament from. Linking up with Patty's OMG for De cember

My goal for November for Patty's One Monthly Goal was to finish the applique for T,U,V,XYZ and W would be a bonus.  Today I finished W as well and started doing some of the embroidery needed to complete the blocks.  Somehow there was one more stitching Monday that I expected so more got done.  This is the collection of blocks as of this evening.  Applique is completed.  This afternoon, I started adding the embroidery to the remaining blocks.  I had completed up to J so started with Kris Kringle.  Before After.  Not a lot on this one but I do like the little bits Add the electric cord as chain stitch rather than tiny bias This also got chain stitch rather than tiny bias There are 11 blocks left to add embroidery to.  W doesn't get any but I'm not happy with the contrast between the Dove and the background so I'll probably add a small outline stitch to the dove to help it.  The oldest reference I ...

The fabric had dried so yesterday afternoon, I set the light box and traced the pattern for the Birth Month block.  With the way the pattern is printed, it was easier to work with the block upside down to me so that I didn't have to reach over the legend and notes.   One of the suggestions was to mark the edge that doesnt turn under so that the line would show through.  Unfortunately, the colours were too dark so while the pattern was on the light box, I put the bits onto the pattern and used a white marking pen to the line for the overlap.  Then stacked all the pieces up.   All ready for the next pieces to be pinned into place.   Today at Monday sewing, I focused on the Christmas A-Z blocks.  I finished the applique for V is for Vixen and started on the Zeds in Bed for the XYZ block.  Yesterday I also finished tracing the W for Wreath block so its ready for prepping.   At the rate I'm goin...

Yesterday I went to the guild workshop with Kathy K Wylie .  We each worked on a flower from her Birth Flowers collection.  We each picked which month we wanted to work on.  I'm working on December.  While the instructions are written to start at piece 1 which is on the outer wreath in my case, for the class all focused on the center flower.  My centre will be a red poinsettia I haven't decided if the other four will be yellow or pink or a combination.  Probably two of each. Several years ago I purchased the apliquick tools she uses and recommends but hadn't done much with them.  It was good to watch her use them during the demo then practice on the centre flower.  All the pieces are prepared.  I started to stitch the centre blossom.  In looking at it afterwards I wasn't really happy with the tracing so this morning I spritzed the block and removed the markings.  I'll re-trace and keep on working on this block.  ...

When October ended, this is where the T block was.  I'm not sure if you can see those tiny applique pins through the top layer of the tree.  There are 4 of them and the long needle I use to stitch should be just above.  On the weekend I went to a 3 day silent retreat at Loyal House in Guelph.  (Wonderful experience).  One afternoon, I decided to do a bit of stitching in the lounge.  I sat in one of the big wing chairs near the fireplace.  I counted 4 little pins and started to stitch.  Part way around, I dropped one of the pins, stood up and there it was on the seat cushion.  No Problem.  When I was stitching the top layer of the tree on -- just before the star, I dropped the long needle for stitching.  I stood up and no needle on the seat cushion.  It took what seemed like ages but was probably 15 or 20 minutes to find it and involved crawling on my hands and knees a few times and shaking the seat custhion.  It eventual...

My goal for October was to finish the applique for blocks P, R and S.  I've completed those three and started in on T for Tree.  There is embroidery to complete on all these blocks later on but I want to finish the applique first.   My sister suggested using one of the left over yo-yos from the Christmas Heartlights quilt for Rudolph's nose.  Seemed like a good plan so one of the extras is now has a home.   R is for Rudolph S is for Stocking the blocks so far T is for Tree (in Progress) Linking up with Patty's One Monthly Goal

In January 2011 , I started working of Christmas Heart Lights by Susie M. Robbins as a $10 quilt class out at Hobby Horse.  The top did get finished that year in time for the reveal as far as I remember -- There aren't many postings about the quilt that year.  In September I took the top to Whirls n Swirls and quilted it.  This time I did it free motion from the front of the machine as I wanted to control the quilting which the usual pantographs wouldn't allow me to do.    I quilted five pointed stars in the background and looping lines (to mimic a string of lights) over the tree.  I was pleased with how it turned out.   When I got home and trimmed the quilt, I opened the storage box to get the binding and yo-yos that I needed to finish it.  No binding and no yo-yos.  What I did find was the pattern, some leftover blocks and some fabric that I could use for binding.  I've looked through the sewing room but haven't...

A different quilt for my goal this month.  The Common Bride top is completed and I'm still considering how to quilt it.  I found the pictures from the Hamilton show in 2014 and have looked at how that group of ladies each quilted their's and am still debating hand vs machine and what designs.  I'll let that bubble for a bit longer. This month its back to Christmas "A-Z" which has also been underway for a long time (sometime pre 2012  according to this post).  Blocks A - J are completed except the lettering in A and D and trimming them.  Blocks K to Q need embroidery and P is still in progress.  My goal for October is to complete the applique for P, R and S.  I have the other two blocks traced and the letters are done.  R is Rudolph and S is a stocking.  Both should be easier than P which is plum pudding.  The embroidery will wait until the remaining blocks are done and I'll do all the lettering at once.  Not many blocks ha...

After 5 years of working off and on, I completed my Common Bride quilt top yesterday.  I finally started at a Sit 'n Sew at Elaine's back when she was doing fund raising for bike rides and would press and rip for us during the day.  That was the end of November 2014.  When I search the blog for Common Bride, I see reference to wanting to start it for two years before that.   Here's the completed top and a look at the final border that was my goal for this month.  I'd wanted to atleast get the the borders completed.  They went together very easily at a Sit 'n Sew last week and over the weekend I was able to add 3 of them to the top.  Yesterday morning at a Monday Sewing group, I made the corner blocks then added the 4th border and the 4 corners.  There may have been a small happy dance after I put the top down to show it to the ladies. These are the little sections that needed to be joined to make the borders.  O...

These little checker boards now have a white quarter square triangle at one end and a coloured quarter triangle at the other.  I've started to sew them into pairs and then need to assemble them into borders.  In September I'd like to get the borders pieced and added to the centre.  There are 4 corner squares that will then need to be completed.  Ideally by the end of September my quilt top (below) will be completed but I'll be happy to have the borders and corners ready to add. Linking up with Patty's OMG

My goal this month was to finish appliqueing the other 16 triangles required for my Common Bride quilt.  When the first 8 were finished, I added them to the 4 from last month and put them up on the design wall.   When the last eight were finished, I added the corners to the design wall. Last week Elaine had a sit and sew day at her house so I took the quilt with me to add the triangles to the centre.   My star blocks turned out slightly small so I knew I'd need to add a small strip to make the triangles fit.  So first I pieced the three triangles for each side border.  They all turned out to be 51 1/4 inches -- I was thrilled with the consistency.  I spent some time making sure I cut the strips correctly and then added the triangles.  They all fit beautifully.  The corner triangle pairs also turned out consistent and fit very nicely. I'm thrilled with how this top is progressing.  One last border t...

In Nov 2013 , I finished a quilt top called Road to Llano.  Its a pattern designed by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times .  The poor thing has sat on a shelf waiting for backing and a trip to the long arm quilters ever since.  Finally last month, I took it to Whirls and Swirls and quilted it.  I have an appointment to go quilt another top next week so today got busy and finished stitching down the binding.  I did the label and sleeve yesterday and had started the binding.  I was at a stitching group today so there were conversations to help the stitching along.  The triangles for common bride are coming well and I'm on track to get them all appliqued this month.  I'm down to 5 of 20 left.