Silly kitty

To bolster my request that these calendar quilt-lets be displayed all together pinned to the same sheet at the quilt show I laid them all out to get a measurement (40 x 60, if anyone is asking, LOL). Before I got the camera out, he had been playing with the bell on the September school house block.

Mind you, he was no where around when I started laying them out on DJ's bedroom floor! He actually left his seat on warm laundry to see what I was doing.

If you are a new reader, all these quilt-lets were my self assigned 2010 "quilt-let of the month" project. Designed by Nancy Halvorsen, featured in her book Calendar Quilts and Stitcheries. It was an evolving project in that I started with applique and then jumped to stitchery instead. I even took a brief detour on the background color for a couple of months, LOL.

Individual pictures would be scattered through out the blog in 2010 but this link will take you to close up shots of the last 5 of them, August through December. See what they look like with out the kitty parked on them, LOL. Yes, of course I was lagging behind, just like I am with the Button Ups this year; it will carry over, for sure. I DO love being able to change out the quilts for the months, holidays or special occasions!

January, HERE

February, HERE

March and April, HERE

May, June, July can be found HERE

OR they are also loaded individually in one of my facebook albums. This public link should take you to it. That might have been easier, in retrospect.
______________________________
Onward and upwards-----

I had the best night's sleep in a while last night! House was cool, the room dark and quiet without the sounds of barking dogs and cars to disturb me. Light quilt pulled up. Wonderful. This does not happen often so I can count last night as a blessing. We were pretty much stuck in the mid 50's all day yesterday and into the night. Today looks like more of the same, overcast and cool though they had predicted low 70's----you got to get rid of that cloud cover first.

I plan on a little more stitchery today on TSP. See how far I get-------and sew it goes.

WIP Weds, wk. 46

I took the last stitches in my Calendar Quilt-lets about 4 this afternoon. If you want to see the individual blocks a little better, go back to THIS post.

I had taken a picture like this of last year's "Be Attitude" blocks so I thought I would spread them out and do the same thing. LOL, Skyler came out from hiding under the quilt on DJ's bed just to plunk himself right in the middle of the action. DJ of course is supervising and said "why did you make these two so small?" pointing to the two appliqued blocks at the top. UHHH because those one I actually followed the directions. Then I got smart, switched to stitcheries and scanned and re-sized them. Originally they would have been a bit smaller than the appliqued ones, if you can believe that!

So, I'm done and thinking about what I want to do for my next seasonal/BOM type thing. At the moment Amy Bradley's Seasoned Quilter and Nancy Halvorsen's In Season are strong contenders. Okay, maybe leaning more to the latter as I pulled some fabrics that would work for the background parts of the winter wall hanging, LOL. The applique pieces look a good deal bigger than the Calendar Quilts so that's good!

Thanks for stopping by-----

Quilt-lets Day 2

What I have so far------pattern source: Nancy Halvorsen's Calendar Quilts & Stitcheries.

October, November blocks

I had reversed the orange-y plaids at first and had to do some un-sewing to get them more to my liking. The navy with stars I used for the first border shows up better in person.

September and December

I borrowed a trick from the designer of Freckles stitcheries. I had started on a set of snowmen blocks last spring---the one that is done is shown HERE . She has you mix one strand of say, a brown with two strands of a light color so it will show against a light background. I did this for the beard and hair and in retrospect. I should have done for the turkey collar (shown above) or followed Nancy's direction for color, LOL. Again, not so hot picture.

August

I pulled the Williams Inn fabric line from last year's Be Attitude blocks for this one as I thought it looked more summery.

Binding pile---just finished the pressing

Paula, The Quilter asked me in comments how I planned to quilt these. I thought that was a good question since many of us do these little embroidered pieces and incorporate them into quilts often with pieced elements. I know I have seen them with an all over cross hatching maybe an inch or 1 1/2 inches across. If my blocks were bigger I would probably do that. Actually that might be the more classic way judging from our quilting ancestors penny squares. I would use it on my Bird Brain Santa blocks when/if I ever get that one done, LOL. Since I am not fond of tight stippling in the first place and hate to free motion, that would not be my first choice but yet, the blocks need something.

The stitchery part of these blocks is about 8 x 10 at most, a few are smaller and then only because I re-sized them on my scanner. They don't really need a whole lot since they are not all going to be joined in a large sized quilt. On the previous blocks I have just done some SID near the stitching with monofilament thread and even then, just on a key element of the block. The pattern calls for a running stitch border near the verse and I will use a #8 perle cotton to do that for a kind of long stitch hand quilting. Each one also has a button to be sewn on and that will tack it as well.

But after reading Paula's post, I see that she posed a question to her readers would you cross over the embroidered thread with your quilting line or try to work around it. I am going to assume that she is going to machine quilt her piece. If you were hand quilting, it is really easy to slip the quilting needle under the embroidered line and keep on quilting. I love to hand quilt but who has time these days? It might be more stopping and starting in machine work if you didn't continue the quilting lines all the way across the piece or do some sort of custom work in each block. Like anything else, you almost have to study each block and let the quilt talk to you, tell you what it needs.

I will be back to pulling fabric and pressing it for the backing followed by some spray basting and then quilting after lunch. Hand finishing for binding and the aforementioned quilting line and button application will follow that. I'm getting closer anyway...............

Thanks for stopping by

WIP Weds, wk 45

That time again--another week has flown by. It is a dark, damp, dreary November day, maybe more typical of what you see at the end of the month. I am thankful for some fun fabrics to play with today!

I took the last stitches in the calendar quilt blocks on Monday. Yesterday I pulled and cut fabrics for the sashing and binding. Fun digging around in the homespun boxes though I pulled some leftover Williams Inn for the August block too. Today I will start piecing as soon as I swap out machines.

Pictured is the little furry sidewalk supervisor. I think he might have been more interested in the camera cord dangling in front of him at that moment. Of course, he WOULD quit pawing and sitting on the blocks when I tried to get him in action!

Seeing as the July block is STILL up on the wall, I am determined to get November and December done and ready to hang. That is this week's goal so I start with them first. Should any of the rest be quilted up as well, even better! Hurray for finishes, right? Hurray for a little stash busting too!

You know where to find me..................

WIP Weds, wk. 44

Time for another addition of WIP Weds.

I am stitching on the October Halverson Calendar quilt block---just a little lettering to go and the rest will become part of my quilting the piece.

Below (or to the right) is what I WAS trying to work on over the weekend, before the cat had its button eyes attached. Pam and I were chatting on IM on Saturday and she asked what I planned on working on that day. Stitchery, I thought but that is obviously not what happened.


Turns out that I had just received the fabric order so I could make a sewing machine cover for the older Singer I had bought from Lois' mother who was moving to a long term care facility. Pam had one on her list as well. Even though it was not what either one of us envisioned sewing that day, we were off and running.

Everything was going well to this point when I took the picture; I just needed to purchase some green buttons for the eyes and raid my buttons stash for some smaller sized black ones to overlay that on my next Wal-mart run.

BUT Monday I struggled with attaching the rounded ends to the larger straight edged front/ back sections to this thing. It is sort of like doing a sleeve cap, I guess---some gathering needed to make it fit. I finally got the lining pieces together without too much pleating but had to rip out the same place 3 times and finally ended up hand stitching that problem spot. Then when I tried to do the nice striped sides to the front/back---disaster hit. Ripping ensued, I cut new sections but the project was not going to get done. Pam, of course, finished her project in record time and offered to bail me out and finish up the top stuff. I think she knows that I will give up on this out of frustration. I mailed it off to her yesterday. I can handle it from there---stuff one inside the other and bind the raw edge. TIA, Pam.

Oh, it was not the problem with the pattern, it was purely me. Pattern source: Cotton Ginny. If you DO click on that link, you will spot the wall hanging that I want to do---looks just like Skyler! Maybe once I get the Pumpkins 4 sale done that will be next but the calendar quilt blocks are first. I really would like to be able to hang the November and December ones at least.


Lastly, look what came in the mail for me from my sister-in-law Jan. She emailed me this weekend to tell me that her local quilt guild in Wilson Co., Tennessee was in charge of the quilt show portion of their recent Oktoberfest event. Apparently there were not a lot of entries so Jan went home and grabbed many of the quilts from home. Turns out Beth's Indiana Puzzle that I made a few years back was one of them and it won a 1st place ribbon. All this booty was the prize I received.

The honored quilt can be seen HERE. Pattern source: Marsha McCloskey's Quick Classic Quilts. Doesn't it look pretty on my bed? I should make another, LOL using some of the leftovers I still have. Oh, and Jan told me that one my mother had made for my brother won a 2nd place ribbon plus another she had taken was also recognized with a ribbon.

There are 15 fat quarters of fabric, most of it patriotic though that teal one will work for the wagon of that aforementioned "Pumpkins 4 sale". The little zipper case full of fats is apparently from the Eleanor Burns as it says "Eleanor Burns made a stripper out of me" on it. Then there is a barn pattern, heart yo-yo maker, quilt journal and ruler holder. That kitty on a sewing machine you see is a music box! And I don't know if you can read Jan's note on the envelope or not but it was supposed to be a gift certificate for $25.00 from a Nashville area quilt shop. Jan swapped it out but it has to be spent on something quilt related.

This is my first 1st place ribbon! I have 4- 2nd place ribbons and 5- 3rd place that I have received over the years but never a first. Oh, one I entered was so honored but it was a gift to me from a quilt list that I used to moderate and I sent that on to the lady who assembled and quilted it. Much like what my sister-in-law did for me. I guess I do know a little about sewing/piecing even though that machine cover made me feel like I didn't, LOL.

No problems spending the money on something quilt related either. DJ and I are going to make the Boaz run tomorrow to pick up my Daisy chain quilt, Lois' quilt for her daughter and possibly one of Aline's if it is done. I have enough cash set aside for most of the anticipated costs but this will offset the remaining amount I will owe. Talk about good timing!

I had planned on making the trip today, either with my friend Marilyn or with DJ if she couldn't go but the weather was still unstable. We had lot of tornado warnings, watches and severe thunderstorms yesterday. Sometime after 6 this morning the sirens sounded again. Tornado warning for our county. Lots of periods of heavy rain but we need rain--whole state has been under a no burn order for a month or so now because of the drought conditions we are under. While it was okay off and on in our country this morning, who knew what might pop up driving two counties away? Thursday's forecast is much better so why risk it?

Guess that's it for now-----thanks for stopping by!

3 finishes

Yeah, they are small but they are done, LOL. I am caught up on the calendar blocks till August hits anyway.

Source: Nancy Halvorsen's Calendar Quilts and Stitcheries




May block

















June block














Bet you can't guess, LOL----July block

WIP Weds

My stitching was put on hold for a few days while I re-organized the contents of 20 various sized notebooks---some of which are pictured to the left. All this started because I was talking to Norma about getting my redwork stuff all in the same notebook. By Monday evening the cutting/pressing table was loaded with piles of patterns and printouts in sheet protectors grouped by category and held with a ring binder till I could file it all back. At that point had 4 more to go through. Fortunately the last two were already broken down and better organized and I was done by yesterday afternoon.

Then I got busy updating the embroidery floss document and winding the newest acquisitions for the next project. Norma and I have decided to do the Snowman Year block of the month stitchery from Freckles Collection. Norma was lucky enough to see this one "in the flesh" so to speak when the BC, CA Designer Dougal Walker visited her guild and did a trunk show for them. See this post for a much better picture. We plan on starting with the April Easter themed block so I had purchased things for that particular block but not the whole project. Looks like I am only short 4 colors---woohoo! Mark the backing fabric and I will be ready to roll.

Here is my WIP then---March calendar quilt block from Nancy Halvorsen. If you hadn't noticed, I changed gears from the appliqued version to stitchery version as it is hard to machine applique around itty bitty pieces and the fusible makes it too stiff to buttonhole stitch by hand. I still don't have my sewing mojo back either.

I just finished the lettering, then pressed and trimmed the block. It needs some bordering pieces but I don't know with what just yet. As you can see it is missing some details as well. It calls for a tulip shaped button and embroidery floss ties to the kite string so that will act like a tack would. There is also a running stitched border around the motif that you might be able to faintly see in pencil. That should work like a utility stitch with perle cotton, I think. At this point it measure 9 x 10.5 so it will need some anchoring but will that be enough? I knew that I wanted the stitchery image to be larger than shown in the book so after I scanned it, I printed it off about page sized. I'll do the same with the next months block as well. This month is going by so fast!

So is this day----it is just about time to fix supper.

Hope that you have enjoyed a nice spring day wherever you live---------

WIP Weds

Today finds me working on two different things---sashing some string blocks that our dear friend Theramae was working on at the time of her passing for a donation quilt. The other, putting a few more hand quilting stitches in my FAB friendship block quilt. The donation quilt only has one row completely done and the sashing bit added to the remaining blocks---not much to see, in other words. I have posted progress on the other before but hand quilting takes time--two and half borders are done at this point so I am getting there.

What I am posting instead are two recent finishes I promised in my last post. I hung Sisterhood of Quilters in my "above the bed gallery" yesterday and the February calendar quilt just in times for Valentine's Day.

Other than that there is not a whole lot happening. Day to day stuff. I made a crack at making deep dish Chicago pizza but was not too enamored with the crust so table that recipe. I plan to try my hand at Swedish Limpa Rye tomorrow. Rest of the time it was the old tried and true stuff and things I know DJ likes.

The weather remains cold though it doesn't seem to bother the yellow crocuses. Sun is shining, a little wind blowing but in the 20's. I do not remember our having such a cold winter as this one the whole 12 years that we have been here for sustained cold spells to say nothing of snowfalls. It will warm up a bit by week's end but will it bring rainfall along with it? Maybe March will act more seasonably. The bookmobile librarian was telling us today that the last big legendary snowfall they had back in 93 (12 inches fell overnight, lots of people without power for days and days) happened in mid March so who knows? LOL

Hope you have a good day in whatever you chose to do--------

Weds. check-in

Well, so far today---nothing creative happening but a few more hand quilting stitches put in the border of my FAB friendship quilt.

I just got back from about a 100 mile round trip to take my Strip Twist top, last seen HERE , to the long arm quilter. Does that count, LOL? The weather forecast at week's end may be a little iffy so I thought today would be the best day for such a trip. It will be about a month or so before she get to it judging by the length of her list and her best estimation but that is perfectly fine. Maybe by pickup time I can share a ride back up as several other quilting buddies names were either right before mine or right after. I chatted with Susan for a bit, found some embroidery floss I needed at her shop, got a reuben sandwich (yum!) at Mill Street Deli and then drove on home.

My Sunday project was to put the binding on my Belles challenge quilt, last shown HERE . I had quilted it and one other donation quilt last week as planned. As it turns out I was able to use the leftover binding from it on the little calendar quilt block as well. I like to put plaid, gingham or stripe fabric on the bias so that worked out well for both quilts. Earlier in the day I had finished up the embroidered bits called for in the quilt. I also traced off THIS cute cat stitchery from Bronwyn Hayes of Red Brolly fame---part of a CATALICIOUS quilt, free BOM. I have a good bit of the cat stitched and a good bit done on the Freckles "Quilts yes!" I linked to in a prior post.

I had posted about the FAB reveal Monday evening. Today I lifted Cher's graphic from her post today since I forgot to take a pic of the finished project before I mailed it off to her. Silly girl!

Anyway.........the light tone on tone was the challenge fabric. The multi colored piece I picked up at the Fabric Depot in Portland at the FAB retreat to possibly use for the challenge provided it fit into my pattern choice. The remaining pieces are from the Twilight Frost collection from Connecting Thread---the sage colored one is called "Falling Snow", the stripe "Snow Tracks" and the dark piece "Blizzard" so I felt it fit a challenge name of "Baby's It's Cold Outside" I had initially planned on doing something way different than this involving circles and applique and such. Well that was one of several ideas I had but just as I was about to start I found out I had made a fabric ordering error. I was running out of time and made a wintery Convergence instead. But since I had ordered more for that other plan, I still have yardage to use. Not that circle thing but possible a scaled down version of THIS pattern from Connecting Threads. I have odd sized cuts and a charm pack, not fats, so that is why I am thinking scaled down. I could also finish my OWN version of convergence one of these days, instead of just hanging it off the bookcase till the end of time, LOL.

The stitcheries and handquilting are ongoing things so what is next on the list? We pinned my Sisterhood of Quilters top yesterday at the quilt meeting so I can quilt that at any time. It wouldn't take long and the "right" machine is out. I am due a "reward" piece but had not quite decided which one though Susan provided a nudge today.

You see, she had her version of Amy Bradley's Seasoned Quilter hanging at the shop---the birthday cake had been hanging but she didn't have the hearts done for February yet. Cute, way cute! Well, being an Amy Bradley fan I have that set of patterns on hand and really, really want to do them one of these days but I have had the Quilt Diva stuff longer. In fact, the fabric for the base of it is all kitted up while the Seasoned quilter is not PLUS it is on my 10n10 list. I mentioned that I should probably think about investing in a mega roll of steam a seam 2 when I was ready to do both of these projects. Susan handed me a couple yards of Pellon fusible to use and gave me orders to show some progress on the quilt, LOL---either of them. I guess to prove it, I should have it done and bring it with me when I pick up my Strip Twist.

Did you hear that boredom can be bad for your health? That is the theory put forth in to this blurb I spotted this morning on my home page. Well, no way I am getting bored! I could do something different in the crafty department every day!

Hope you have a wonderful day in whatever you chose to do---------

a week of this and that

It would seem that this past week, creatively, was a bit of "this and that" or that I couldn't stay focused. I like having a variety of things to work on but the downside of that is that it takes longer to finish anything. The upside, I keeps me from getting bogged down and feeling like I have to keep plugging when I really just want to do something else for a few days.

For two days I hand quilted on the FAB friendship quilt. At this point the short top border and the long right side are done--well, almost done. I am about to turn the corner onto the bottom border.

I also started another stitchery project. Hanging head only because it is NOT on my 10n10 list. But this is will be an ongoing project so I am allowing it. I am SOOOO open to the power of suggestion and as usual "blame" Norma for it. She was telling me about their recent guild program with a trunk show from the designer of the Freckles Collection patterns. Norma had bought a couple of patterns and shared a link to the ones she had gotten. I in turn shared the link for one I had on hand---shown HERE. Cute, huh? Entirely true too, LOL.

Actually I had almost started on it earlier this year but hadn't checked the floss inventory to see what I needed to get. I have it all written up on a spreadsheet but then had to dig around in some cross stitch projects and two thread boxes to find it, LOL. By Thursday I had done that so was making a floss run to Hobby Lobby. Thankfully, they still carry DMC floss because our closest spot for crafting supplies (Walmart) no longer carries ANY floss--not even JP Coats, Anchor instead--- no floss period. Sheesh! I wound the floss on bobbins, entered the numbers on the inventory sheet, marked the muslin and put in a few stitches. Because there is a fair amount of running stitch on it, I decided to back this with a light weight batting. Do the running stitch like a long quilting stitch---see how that goes.

I think when I left off posting last week I was about to work on the block you see to the right---the appliqued January block from Nancy Halvorsen's book Calendar Quilts and Stitcheries (link in previous post) What fun to dig around in the fabric boxes to make my version--stash quilting! The fabric base, obviously is done as is the fusing and buttonhole applique stitching. I still need to embroider the verse and do a running stitch with floss on this as well as sew on some colored buttons on the snowman and add some beads for snow. I pulled the fabrics for the February block as well and will get to to work on it in a couple of days.

I will say that I was a bit confused on this project. The designs are all printed in reverse due to the fusible part but the lettering is not. I finally figured out where to put the verse but where I messed up was NOT shifting the pattern over for the tree placement. MY tree looks like it is growing out of the snowman's head rather than between it and the log cabin. Naturally I had marked this with pigma pen, not a pencil, where maybe the mark would erase or lighten. A little like working the crossword puzzle in ink and now I can't undo it?? Lesson learned! IIWII


Yesterday I was back to binding---ugh-- something I cannot show you (gift--might be spotted here). Only one long side to go. Close to another finish and to mailing it out.

I hadn't posted a picture of Skyler lately so here he is. Just before I took this he had been hiding UNDER the quilt. By the time I got the camera he decided the top of it worked just as well for napping purposes. (Mom, recognize the quilt?)

So looking forward---I still hope to get to the two donation quilts I have in my stack this week. The plan is to save the handwork, quilting or stitchery, for a few hours in the evening--or not, VBG.

At some point I need to run my Strip Twist quilt up to the long arm quilter as well but that is dependent on the weather. Lately the forecast at week's end has not been very pleasant and not the good driving conditions for making that 110 mile approximate, round trip. I thought a friend who is free on Fridays might want to go with me or I would have made the run earlier in the week.

Binding awaits------