WIP Weds, wk #18

A little of this and that going on around here. The May calendar block stitchery with a bird house theme for hand work--usually that means mornings before lunch or during TV viewing time in the evening. LOL, sometimes all day long if I feel like it.

The blocks are those big triple rails that are set on point in the block with a square in a square process. Yesterday I only got one HST sewn on each block so not a lot of progress being made but I'll get busy with those in a bit. (I have fabric in the washer that will need pressed after a little of dryer tumbling) I hope to have the top finished and ready for pinning at our meeting next week. LOL, another for the armoire stack.

This week I seem to be more into "fabric acquisition" than stash busting. I was talking to my mom the other day and mentioned that Norma and I are planning a sewing day next month to try a version of Terry Atkinson's Bridge Creek Blossom. I was looking at possible yardage to pick fabric from but I was convinced that nothing I had on hand served as a good jumping off point. For example, I have a nice piece of paisley but it is basically green and pinks on a tannish background. Really no place to go with it. Pretty but I couldn't envision enough variety in the blocks that would result from my stash.

Also I had decided I wanted to do a donation quilt sized top to test this pattern rather than another full/queen sized bed quilt. I would have raided Mom's stash when I took that fleeting trip through IL a month ago but we just didn't have time. She has made tons of quilts for Wrap Them in Love over the years, made a bunch for the Fellowship of Christian Farmer's Novgorod project and now, QOVs with her local quilt group. Trust me, she has a sizable stash to pull from. People know she does pro bono work and they give her more or give her their scraps. I know this from helping her organize it a bit and move the bins all around on previous trips "home". Mom took pity on me, LOL and sent me some possible choices. That jig saw piece should be perfect with lots of color to play with! Okay, this time I was busting HER stash though the go-with's will come from my brights bin. The turtles and ABC's are cute too--if not used for this project, then for something else down the line. Thanks for coming to my rescue, Mom! Nice package filler, LOL.


Yesterday was girls day out though Beverly was not feeling well and stayed back to hopefully see the MD. We took her quilt up to the long arm quilter for her. At left you will see my purchases. They all have a purpose, not purchased on speculation or "hafta to have it". The green tone on tone is for sashing on the aforementioned triple rail square in a square. The blue tone on tone, white on white and blue print (for backing) are all for my niece/godchild Allison's t-shirt quilt she has asked me to make. The white and aqua ribbon fabric is backing for my Daisy Chain top last seen HERE.

I asked Susan to put my name on her quilting list but I think the one she will be quilting is the t-shirt quilt, not the Daisy Chain. Provided I get the t-shirt quilt done in a month's time, that is the one I will take up. The shirts are already whacked up, the interfacing is purchased but I couldn't get to sewing till I got the sashing and background materials squared away.

Well the dryer is calling my name. Ugh, I hate ironing when it is as hot inside my house as out for the a/c battle starts for another season :-( Happy Cinco de Mayo!

busy, busy round here

I have kept fairly busy since I last posted---a little of this and that. One thing at the top of the list was this little wall hanging for my pal and fellow FAB Cher who had a birthday last week. The pattern, originally purchased as a kit from Keepsake Quilting, is "Don't Go Out of the Lines, Plant the Seeds" from Plain Brown Wrapper. Because it has a gardening theme, I thought it made a good choice for Cher.

The original pattern called for perle cotton stitching and raw edges with maybe the batting sticking out or some such thing. It had jute ties and a stick for a hanger. Now I would like that folk art-y vibe but it just didn't seem quite Cher-like. Nope, I ordered a little split bottom hanger from Ackfeld Wire and put hanging tabs on the back instead. The pigma pen writing and coloring were fun, fun, fun!

The plaid fabric that came with the kit was filched for my last two months Calendar quilt stitcheries. I substituted the little bit of fabric leftover from my Sisterhood of Quilters instead. There are little butterflies amongst the ivy, butterflies being a motif Cher enjoys. I did purchase the darker green dot to complete the project---also from designer Jodi Houghton. I hand quilted around most of the small motifs which wasn't easy with whatever batting I had stuck in there-- just some piece leftover from something and in the sewing room closet is all I know! So Happy Birthday, Cher-- a few days late.

I picked up a "new to me" sewing machine from my friend Lois on Friday. It had belonged to her mom who recently had to be admitted to a nursing home. It is a Singer Stylist 6548 circa 1978 (with cams) but let me tell you, it has a nice stitch. A lot better than my carry around Jem is doing right now----tension issues that I need to look into a little closer. My dad will cut me out a sewing machine table insert as I was able to trace off the table extension around the free-arm (it is missing some legs) but I did put the machine to work.

I whipped up a pile of triple rail blocks for a donation quilt I will be making. My friend Norma does strings as an ongoing sewing project when she doesn't feel like anything taxing, matchy-matchy----I do triple rails or bowties, LOL.

Since the triple rail project will go on point I prepped fabric and cut the side setting, alternate blocks stuff along with new HST's for those donation blocks we received last week. I pulled those blocks and rows apart essentially starting from scratch with most of the same fabric. You see, whoever had made the blocks had used QST's around a large triple rail for an Economy block type thing. You guessed it---big time bias problems on the outside edges of the blocks. Since I had it all apart, I scaled the rails down a bit and the blocks will finish at 10.50. With sashing it will make a nice quilt for the kids.

Other things on the home front that kept me hopping over the weekend:

• finally boxed up that stack of donation quilts so I could get in the closet behind it. Woohoo, two boxes on their way to WTIL as of this morning

• Because I could finally get in the closet easily, I switched out the seasonal clothing and purged two lawn and leaf bags of stuff out of both closets, plus the armoire and the blanket chest while I was at it. I subscribe to the theory that if you bring something into the house, you get rid some thing else. (My husband does not do that though, LOL) In this case it was a few new pair of jeans and a couple t-shirts for two big bags for the thrift store. Delivered that stuff this morning too.

• I put the bunny/Easter decoration stuff away. It's May so it was time. Well, all but the April calendar quilt piece was put up I don't have the May piece stitched yet but I did trace off both it and the May Freckles snowman block. I have just a little bit of calendar stitching done---not much.

• Walking program resumed. I laid off too long. Bad girl! Put some weight back on. My triglycerides are probably back up or still up, more like. I made a pact with the MD to let me get back on track with my walking and then see where the numbers are in 6 months. Still up after I have been exercising and making some dietary changes?? Fine, put me on meds if I have to but give me a chance to do better first. I started slow and am going just a hair over one mile 6 days a week which is an increase over the every other day I had started with. I had to wait till my knees and shins forgave me. Another week like this and I will add another lap every two weeks till I reach 10. My pace is pretty good though I am not out there long enough quite yet---.28 miles in about 6 minutes consistently.

• Went thru all my recipe clippings and printouts and kept only the stuff I have actually made or will make soon. I had enough paper removed to ditch one entire notebook and a pile of mixed paper to take to the recycle center in town. That was my late Friday--early Saturday foolishness, LOL.

I took this pic of Skyler a few days back. This little sunny spot in DJ's room is a new haunt lately as he tracks the sun thru the house. He has not been sunbathing the past three days though as it is has been very overcast, windy, humid as all get out. Rain and storms were in the forecast but nothing came of it most of the weekend. Finally we got some rain after we went to bed last night----just a tad under 3 inches according to our rain gauge.

We needed some rain but TN really got hit! My brother and his family, a dear long time friend and a former secret pal all live in the Nashville and surrounding area so I could not help but wonder how they all fared. 1-24 is the route we travel yearly on the way back up to IL. Hard to imagine a manufactured house floating down that interstate or the prospect of the Titans' football stadium being covered in 2 ft of water. My prayers go out the residents dealing with this massive flooding as well as the oil spill mess down in the Gulf that effects my state as well as LA, MS, FL and TX. What a mess!

Guess that's it for now---time to heat up our lunch. Where had the morning gone?

finished to flimsy

This isn't the best picture in the world but I know better than to hold up the reluctant quilt holder too long. My 12 days of redwork top is completed as of yesterday afternoon when I finished the outer border. I will bind it in the same red as the interior of the quilt. I am thinking about doing some hand quilting in the outer border so it will need to be marked before we pin it. I am reasonably sure I have some heart templates that will work.

The whole project including the backing fabric uses fabric I had on hand. Woohoo for stash busting! I may pass the leftover backing stuff onto my mom for QOV strips just to get it moved along. Moved elsewhere works too, doesn't it? LOL.

The quilt group met today and the quilt shown on the right was turned in. Linda C made it some time back and I quilted it for her--this one and one like it but bigger.

I had some deadline handwork going while the girls pinned. Jane had a sweet snuggle up top Lois has been a busy girl and had several scrappy tops on hand. Apparently both Linda C and Marilyn have been stocking her up, LOL.

Marilyn also "gifted" Lois with a box of blocks that can be used for donation with a little modification or combined with other abandoned blocks I have on hand. Yeah, it came home with me. That is more my area than Lois' I don't mind taking things apart to re-purpose them for the kids. One project has a ton of pieces cut for more blocks along with its templates. I doubt I will make any more as there looks to be enough for our purposes but I didn't toss anything just in case.

We went out to a local cafe for sandwiches and made plans to run up to Boaz next week. Jane offered to drive and Lois is always up for a field trip. Beverly has a quilt to take to Susan, our long arm friend. Me, I am looking for blue fabric for my niece/godchild's t-shirt quilt. I had ordered something we had hoped would work online. Unfortunately it is leaning more towards purple than the almost royal shade of blue it appeared to be--it is called "blueberry". I can use the stuff on another project down the line but I am hoping I will have better luck finding what I need on our little expedition. Of course, lunch at Mill Street Deli will be on tap too.

Once home I made DJ's birthday cake. He didn't express any preference for what kind he wanted what I asked telling me "whatever you want to fix". I started naming off a few things to narrow the field down a bit---banana cake with caramel icing, it is! He will pick the lunch spot for tomorrow and we'll keep things low key. I think he would just as soon forget it but I won't let that happen!

Hope you have had a good day! Thanks for stopping by.

where I am headed

Remember all those Alex Anderson hearts I was stitching up earlier this year? Well, this weekend Norma and I are going to turn them into a top. Hopefully they will be quilted and ready to hang for Valentine's Day next year. Set a day and just sew, was our plan.

Alex used a triple rail sashing and nine patch blocks in the cornerstone area which just looked too "heavy" to me. I drew up several ideas of what I could use in EQ and shared it with Norma. She picked a different setting block but that's okay. I gave her plenty of options, LOL. I sorta like the pale, pale pink for the background as shown in the drawing but didn't have that on hand. White on white, it is.

Now if I can just get the weather to cooperate so I can keep the sewing machine and computer on for IM powered up. Much of the state is under a watch or warning of some sort today. I hear thunder cracking in the distance but our county is one that is under a tornado watch advisory. This is Talladega NASCAR race weekend too so you know that there is the equivalent of a small city outside and camping in the area. Hope for the best here.

Anyway, I am sewing---and enjoying it!

another block

#8 of 12 Feeding the Birds Santa from Bird Brain Designs---just finished, pressed and photographed. Much of this block was completed as I traveled back to IL this past weekend. Some bad patches along I-57 and to a certain extent 1-24 led to some less than stellar stitching but I kept plugging, LOL.

You see, my dad turned 80 earlier in the week. All but 4 of the family/extended family were back "home" for surprise celebration on Saturday afternoon. I left here on Friday so I could share a ride up with my family who live in TN. (DJ stayed home) We left at 6:30 Sat a.m. to ensure we would be there in time to surprise Dad. My sister from Colorado had flown in earlier in the week so he had already been surprised once. To say he was stunned and touched by all this would be an understatement.

My brother and his family who live about 15 miles away from my folks had us all over for supper. The whole mob scene, LOL. Jen arranged for a professional photographer to come and take pics of the group and various family groups too. I didn't take my camera---someone will have pics to share with the group.

By Sunday some of the group had to work but most of us went to church (took up most of two pews, LOL). Then off to a Chinese buffet for lunch that Mom and Dad like-----back in the car again for another 7 hours and another night in TN before heading home Monday.


Since returning home, the usual home tasks have intervened. Laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, etc. The pollen is getting to me a bit unfortunately but I figure it could be a lot worse. Some suffer way more than I do with allergy symptoms.

The azalea bushes are out though half of this bush looked almost dead a couple weeks ago. As you can see it is loaded with blooms now though.

Ah, spring---the good and the bad. What's a scratchy nose and throat and a whopping headache when you see pretty things like this?

The long arm quilter called to say that my Strip Twist quilt is finished and ready for pick up. I'll run up to Boaz tomorrow to get it. Some binding ahead of me, I would say. But for now, I think I will pull out the April Freckles snowman stitchery (shown in the previous post) and get it finished up. Back to a multiple colored floss project, LOL.

WIP Wednesday

Another edition of WIP Wednesday---the week are whizzing on by, it seems.

My friend Judy dropped off the queen sized raffle she made for donation that she had asked me to bind for her. I made and applied the binding on Saturday and started stitching. By Monday evening I was done. Back out came the stitchery---April snowman block from Freckles. I am making some progress. I cannot say that I am fond of doing satin stitch nor do I particularly like my results. I will modify some of the remaining eggs to something more textural---like the long-short split stitch I used on the carrot nose. Other than that, I am having fun with this, LOL, which IS the point, after all.

Since I am really not doing too much sewing output these days, I thought you might want to see some of the spring flowers and shrubs around here. Here is a bloom on my husband's pampered lilac bush. I don't think I have ever seen it as loaded with blooms as it is this year and it smells heavenly!

On the way out to the backyard to take this, I noticed that the azalea bushes are starting to come around too. Just a hint of that glorious dark pink/red at this point so I'll wait on those. What I think are lupines are up and my hosta planted near Pippi's gravesite is coming back up.


I couldn't resist taking a picture of the neighbor's dogwood tree while I was out. Driving around you see lots of out there but this is the closest to the house. DJ and I have tried 3 times to grow our own tree with little success. I guess we'll just admire theirs. Ronnie had said that this one came from Mt. Cheeha years ago so I imagine it is the more wild, native and hardy variety.

Yellow pollen is everywhere. I am told it is predominantly from the pine trees. Those with allergies must be miserable but it is all part of spring. We had a couple of days in the 80's--record breaking highs reported in BHM the last two days. Rain is due in tomorrow, they say. So far it is a bit cooler today, thank goodness, with a pleasant breeze blowing. No doubt some of that yellow is coming in the house. I figure that is why there are dust cloths.



Hope that you are having a good day and thanks for stopping by--------

finishes

I was able to get borders and binding finished up on the two stitcheries I shared in my last post. In the interest of time I used the same stuff on both of them rather than rooting thru a box of homespun, etc to find stuff similar to that shown by the designer. I had the March block done just in time to display it on the 31st and the April binding, just took the last stitches in it a few minutes ago.





My friend Judy has asked me to help her out with the binding on queen sized quilt she is donating for a local fund raising effort. It is gorgeous and the long arm quilter did a fabulous job. I'll get going on my efforts for it tomorrow. Judy scalloped off the two lower corners so I'll need to make miles of bias binding. Think I'll start stitching on the April Freckles snowman block and enjoy a gorgeous spring day.

Happy Easter to all---------