Design Wall Monday

Really the design wall looks much the same as in previous photos with two new additions----

• two leftover bowties from the QOV top.  I make a lot of bowties for pro bono quilts so they will just get plugged into the next one.  
• I finished the hand embroidery on Two Blonde Mice's "Bloom" pattern last evening but will need to pull some border fabric today.  I am resisting the impulse to order some Mary Engelbreit fabric to complete it.  I have things in my stash that will work.

I knew that the stitchery would work up fairly quickly for a reward project.  That's part of the reason why I chose it---well, that and I was waiting for some fabric to come my way from my mom and a friend for another project.   Friendship Quilters met on Saturday and the gals I rode with wanted to take the Garden Irish Chain class that was planned for the program.  I did not want to start another new project necessarily so elected to work on "Bloom" instead.  All I had left on Sunday was the pitcher squiggle, the bee and the lettering.   There will be some embellishment type stitching for the bee's flight path, etc and some buttons added for embellishment to the pitcher but those will serve as quilting elements.  (Mine will be a wall hanging, not a pillow.)

I have it up on the wall to audition floral fabrics.  At first I thought a pansy print with a lot of rosy flowers and a purple inner border.  BUT the more I look at it,  the more I think it will work for the May Button Up---image borrowed from Joined at the Hip that will be coming up soon enough on my "list"

Then I pulled out a piece of something that I love but it is oh, so pale in comparison.  The threads are clearer, bold colors.  Back in the container.  Next was either a Debbie Mumm or Thimbleberries but again, pale.  I like it but not for this.  I believe I have come to a decision about a bold piece that was a secret pal gift.  I have a cut into fat of the fabric but the stitchery is small enough that I can work around the missing yardage.  Make it work!

Plans are to cut:  March Button Up, borders for the stitchery, binding for 2 of the recently completed QOV's.  If I cut the stuff for the row quilt already, I sure can't find it!  I know it was going to be close on getting enough out for the sashing between the rows and borders. I doubt I had enough of that print in the first place.   Rosa thought she had some of that same print on hand but I think I am going with something that contrasts anyway.What I have lined up to sew in the near term is "boring" sewing----3 quilt backs, 3 quilts worth of binding once it is cut and borders.  

I was in such a hurry to get out the door on Saturday (over slept) and had NOT loaded the car ahead of time. It did not hit me till I was standing in the meeting place parking lot, about 7 miles from home that I had gone off without the 3 QOV tops and the one Jane had finished binding.  There is a distinct possibility that I am going to quilt one of the 3 tops myself but I need to get some batting first.  I would do the row quilt and think I could handle it.  The other two, not so much.  

The guild has subsidized the project in that they had purchased batting and backing.  The backing is gone but the batting is not.  They would re-pay me for anything I bought for backing, I was told.  The quilting volunteers are covered up and/or burnt out from the volume of quilts for the veteran's home.   The prez had a pile all kitted up in the car from the sew-in and looking for someone to quilt them.  I don't know if she got any takers or not.  The coordinator laughed and told Aline and I to "find a quilter" when we asked what to do with the tops.   I still don't know if she was joking or serious, don't know her well enough.  All I know is that I can't afford to have them professionally done if it came to that.   It could be that they just wait and will not be ready when the facility opens.  They have informal work days on Thursday's so I going to run over and play.  Just haven't told DJ that yet, LOL--- prepare to hear the words "again?"

Somewhere along the line I need to decide what I am going to work on at Bama Belles tomorrow and pack the car.  DJ wanted me to give him a hair cut too but that can wait another day.  I don't sleep well too many night to find the clock switch an easy transition.  By the time I finally got back to sleep and awoke to a kitty wanting his treat bite is was almost 0845.  The morning whizzed by since I got up so late, especially since I am doing laundry now too and had to dry the mop atop my head.  

And sew it goes------hope you are having a good day in whatever you chose to do.

finished to flimsy

QOV #5  76 Bowties in Barn Raising Set

............and after lunch  I am going to work on my embroidery reward project, "Bloom".   I am also going to write a list of what I want to concentrate on next, UFO and otherwise.  Pro bono and otherwise too.

a start

11 more rows to go on this barn raising set.  I should be able to get this done in time for the Saturday Friendship Quilters meeting even if I do have a couple errands to run.

If I were to do one more with the remaining scraps etc,  THIS Scrappy Strips and Bars from Cindy Carter might be one I consider.  Lots of free patterns there, some mystery quilts and such too.  Not that I "do" mysteries necessarily but show me how it turns out and I might be in, LOL.  I am talking about the Patriotic version in the 2nd pic of course.  And if not that one, I like this one for a planned 3 color quilt, borrowing from my friend Pat.  9 patch variation, Mock Trip Around the World

You know where to find me------

78 bow ties

If I counted correctly, I have 78 bow tie blocks done and ready to assemble into the medallion style top.

The Singer seemed to be having a little problem with the stitching though that probably was "me induced".   I need to read the manual and just play with tension settings but I didn't have the time or inclination to do that today.  I also want to explore the cams that came with it so that might be  good time to put it through its paces.

I brought the Jem in from the car.  At least I knew for a fact that it would not mind the 4 to 6 layers of fabrics.  I spent the better part of the day yesterday pinning the blocks so I could just chain to my hearts content today.  Now I'm off to start the assembling process.

Hopefully this will be a top by day's end Friday----6 inch blocks 10 x 15.  The hard part is already done.

WIP Tuesday

 The primary focus of my day will be joining the center seam on a pile of 76 bowties for the QOV top.  I was further along with this project than I thought I was---woohoo there!  76 is sort of a symbolic number for a patriotic US quilt, don't you think?

I'll work thru the pile and see how far I get.  These are just a more lumpy 4 patch at this point.  I switched machines though.  The Brother, pampered princess that it is, balks at sewing thru too many layers.  The Viking tends to sew a little tight so un-sewing is not easy.  If you are going to sew, you have to be prepared to rip.  Long ago lesson from my mom, there.   I probably did the bulk of the sewing on the Jem.  I could use it but I pulled out the Singer that I got from Lois' mom's estate instead.  It has a nice stitch and we'll see how it behaves over those folded in knots.

I got a bit done on "Bloom" yesterday.   I left it out to do a bit more here and there.  I am already to the leaves with the three flowers done.  Handwork, machine work----a good mix.   Good reward project too!

And while I am sewing, I'll be thinking about the March Button Up.  Sheila, a friend and reader, offered me some basket weave fabric that will be perfect for this!  (THX again, Sheila)  I am itching to sew this one up but I have a feeling that I better reserve it for a reward project for completing the QOV bowties.  I still need to find the border choices.  I do NOT like all that brown around it.  Brown for dirt for the carrots is one thing but ugh, on the rest!   HMMMMM something to ponder.


And sew it goes-----------

a finish and a reward

A finish to report----finally!  I mentioned the QOV top #3 as being my priority item for the week.  As I stated in my last post, life kinda intervened.

We had two days of rocky weather and trust me, that does not lend itself to piecing when  you have to un-plug.  I blew out on mother board to a power surge and I don't want to replaced another.  At one point on Friday my two computerized machines wound up in the shower.  I figured if I had to be in the bathroom with the hard hat on, then two of my prized possessions were going with me.

I fused down the cut away stars and machine appliqued the down to a 7.5 inch finished squares.  I had the rail strips already cut but didn't really start stitching on this in earnest till Friday and Saturday.  All that I needed to do today is the last border.  I had said that it was amazing that a girl like me that HATES to put on borders would do a quilt that is nothing BUT borders.  5 of them actually.  The picture I put up on FB might actually show the last border a little better but whatever----this thing is done now!  Ready for Show and Tell at Friendship Quilters on Saturday.

I have one more QOV top to piece:  a 3-D bow tie, navy ties on white background with red "knots"  I need 76 of them and the project is one that I started at the fall sew in at guild. (Read about it HERE .)  I will have to pull it out to see just where it stands.  Seems to me that I had some up to the center joining seam but how many?  BUT having said only one more for a total of 5 I was half considering what to do with the cutaways from the pieced rails.  9 patches on point arranged zig zag style maybe?  I naturally over-cut ( almost always do).  There is  fabric leftover from the guild member that gave it to me for the Land of Liberty panel thing.   Maybe.

I need a break from "hafta/deadline" sewing, even if that deadline is self imposed.   The veteran's home is opening in the summer and the tops need to be turned in for quilting.  I need a break from red, white and blue.  I am so ready for a reward project!

And here is what I have in mind.  I prepped this little stitchery from Two Blonde Mice about a month ago.  It has just been waiting for me but I did do a little bit of two of the flowers on Wednesday.  It should work up pretty quickly.  Linda C left this pattern to share when she moved to TN.  Because I was the one who filed the loose pages, etc in the notebooks, I spotted it first, LOL.  It is shown in their graphic, which I borrowed, as a pillow but I want a spring wall hanging instead.  Cute, huh?  I do not own any of the Mary Engelbreit fabric that they used in their sample so will substitute something else that I DO have.  If I have enough of it, I know just which one I will use!

My mom sent some basket fabric and a couple of friends have offered some from their stash as well.  Because of that I am holding off cutting out the March Button Up and whipping it as my reward.  I still would like to do a bias applique thing for the handle and the piece Mom sent would need to be seamed perhaps a little more than I would like.  It won't go to waste though. The May Button Up is a basket as well.

I am taking tomorrow "off" and concentrating on straightening up the house.  With having the windows open recently, I need to dust and definitely vacuum up the strings from the week's sewing.  I get busy and things just get stacked and I can't stand the clutter for long.  Then stitchery for sure!

_____________
Dishwasher saga update.  We thought they were coming Thursday to install the final dishwasher.  Remember we had gotten #2 a Frigidaire that was scratched and dented so it was not going to stay.  They called to say that the one at the store with our name on it looked like a forklift had backed into it.  They were going to get one from the Gadsden store but it would have to wait till Friday morning.  Okay, Friday comes.  They install it seemingly without a hitch.  Come Friday night about 830, I head out to the kitchen in my sock feet.  Socks get damp but I thought maybe DJ just dripped some water on the rug.  Few minutes later with my bare feet I realized that the rug in front of the dishwasher is soaked with water.  He shut off the water supply as well as the power while I fetched some towels to mop up the water and the phone.  Water was dripping off the supply line.  Loose connection or did they break the line?  Something had made me write down the plumbing contractors number off his van earlier in the day.  He came out yesterday morning and his helper had not gotten it tightened up enough or some such thing.  Seems to be fine now.  I pray that is the last of it---a journey of a month's duration.  Not all their fault.  DJ asked for an exchange after all.

We did have tornado warnings up on the north end of the county on Friday.  The weather dude was calling out our immediate area but there was no touchdown.  Present on radar but aloft, thankfully.  Some in the county were without power but that is minor compared to April 27th stuff.   Other parts of the country did not fare so well.  My heart goes out to the people in north Alabama who were just getting re-built from last April and are wiped out again.  The folks in Indiana and Kentucky, with loss of life.  E4's, I read.  It is just sad. It is going to be a long tornado season at this rate.

Our camellia seemed to rebound from the cold nights we had but tonight is another close to freezing night.  One of the azaleas is beginning to bloom and you can see hints of what is coming on the lilac bush.  The bradford pears are out in their full popcorn white and so lovely.  I get to enjoy my neighbor's pink dogwood from afar.  We tried three different times to have a dogwood only to lose them all.  DJ also pointed out that the yellow pollen stuff is starting to come around-----could live without that but it is part and parcel of a southern spring.

THX for stopping by------------

better late than never?

Last week was a pretty busy week---some sewing, some home matters, this and that.  You know,  life intervenes?  Bama Belles met on Tuesday and I just never got around to posting the pictures I had taken. I'll do that now

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This is the center section of a Block of the Month quilt that they are doing at the Lick Skillet Guild.  (Lick Skillet is what Oxford, Alabama used to be called)   Our little group shares several members with that Monday evening guild.  Brenda is hiding behind this.

...........................and this is one of the blocks that will go around it.

Beverly was working on the binding for a young grand baby.  At first I thought it was one of two she had made for twin daughters of friends of the family, a commissioned work but she said that those had been delivered for the mama to take to the quilter.  Beverly arranged the colors in "Snuggle Up" fashion but sashed around them.  Very pretty.

Rosa was working on her hand quilting.  She is left handed so it was a little hard for me to show her how I do it unless we sat across the table from each other.

Bev was also working on binding for this 12 Days of Christmas from a dog's perspective wall hanging.  She had the cutest dog holiday themed fabric on the back of it too.  I don't know how well you can see the section with the dog days of Christmas but it is pretty funny.

Here is what was keeping Teresa and I busy.  The pattern is "Desert Mirage" from Fons and Porter's Quick Quilts From The Heart.   Those strips finish at 1 inch wide and this is Teresa's first quilt.  She has been working on it for about 1 1/2 years so that is one girl who is beyond ready for a reward project!!   We had to trim the long strips down as she had not done that when assembling the quilt and it needed to be squared up.   She and her husband love the SW colors and themes so it will be a pretty quilt for their bed.  I do not show the whole quilt,  of course.  We were still squaring it up in this shot.  She also had a small personal project that we pinned before we left.

This is a whole cloth quilt that Jane had quilted for the kids

Same with this one.  Her mom had pieced the top from fabric samples.

Lastly, my disappearing 4 patch----all quilted.  Jane had done the binding for me.

I just somehow missed showing what Marilyn was working on but she had some handwork going as well.   Brenda was cutting strips for another project that I cannot wait to see.  Garden Rails, I believe she called it, 5 Rails in florals.  In between we pinned two of my donation tops from last year.  More to add to the top of the armoire at this point, LOL.

We also had a potluck lunch rather than run out for fast food, etc.  Good time with good friends.