Getting ready for Christmas!

 I have been slow to the season. Usually I have a stack of presents already hiding in the closet, but I didn't collect too many thus far this year.  It is easy to buy online, but I miss the selection of looking around a shop for the best ideas. Today, I stopped at a little shop after being at the post office. It was so darn cute. 

I am getting ready to see the grandkids after Christmas; the biggest presents already arrived there.  And we will fly the day after Christmas to see them.  They are in the midst of semester end as well as testing.  The little one made the largest leap in math.  I am oh, so proud. I will miss the program at school but hope to get pictures and maybe a video tomorrow. 

They are preparing to move to New Orleans: a much greater populated area with tons of things to do for them all. So I am excited for their opportunity. We will help organize and pack some when we are down there.

In the meantime, my daughter has come for the week.  She is lucky to be able to work from anywhere. But she has unfortunately caught a bug. We hope to see a blues concert tomorrow. And then to bake Christmas cookies Thursday. I baked and she supervised but only for one batch.

But we did see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy which is a New Orleans style group:  so fun!

My biggest progress has been my Tilda blocks:  I am up to 4 large blocks completed. 

And I keep working on the sashing  for my Blockheads 1: 7 pieces per sash. 

Hope all is well with you and your family!  Enjoy the season.

P.S. Today is my Mom's 93rd birthday ! Here she is with my sister at her holiday family dinner.

2017 Blockheads

 I had the pleasure of another weekend quilt retreat. I debated a lot about which older WIP to take and get moving along. And I decided for my old Blockheads which was the very first Moda quilt along. Here is my post from the first block I completed: Blockheads and this was block 1. Here is Lynn Hagmeier's post of block one:https://my.modafabrics.com/2017/03/blockheads-block-1  The blocks are all of 6 inches big.

As I laid them out, I realized I had 50 blocks because I made all the blocks both the applique ones as well as all the alternates I had pieced. I already had a collection of Kansas Troubles fabrics and that was the color pallet I chose. I had even selected my setting and purchased the fabrics as well as making a set from one width of fabric.  It was good to have extra blocks for balancing out the colors, mostly the background ones. 

While designing the setting and working out all the math, I changed how I wanted to arrange the blocks. And that requires me to make a center focus block and I have already selected the pattern.  It will be a challenge with 1 inch half square blocks everywhere. 

So all weekend I sewed and sewed making a headway on sashing "blocks" and getting 2 smaller sections together. I feel like I hardly made a dent, but I am so pleased to get this UFO off the stack of projects to complete. And it motivates me to complete it! 

Taking part in this quilt along really helped to improve my piecing skills as the 5 designers ( Jan Patek, Lisa Bongean, Lynn Hagmeier, Betsy Chutchian, and Carrie Nelson) posted blocks with tips and tricks all along the way.  And I participated in successive quilt alongs only one of which is completed finished and that is the latest one of which I only made the 9 blocks of part 1. 

I encourage you to try any quilt along whether Blockheads, Fat Quarter's, or Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.  Pat Sloan also has many going on. I am sure there are oodles more. 

Happy Sewing!

New Christmas quilt along

 Each year I have started the free motion quilting from Helen Godden  from Australia.

( emphasize the word START, as all are not finished.)

Here is the link to her introductory version for this year. This is the email image taken by camera. You will not to find it on youtube.

Link to her website to download free pattern for this:

Helen Godden link

Again it is free.  You need to order it from her website and I pdf file will be sent to your email. 

I have done this in previous years. No emails or other information sent for promotions.

The video shows how she traced it.  ( I like the use of the ruler for straight lines.)

I did use a Fine Sharpie Marker.  It bled a little on my fabric at the beginning and end of the lines.

I don't know if it was my fabric choice.

I did choose to paint it using a textile medium and q-tips as the triangles were quite smallish.

(My good paint brushes were given to the grandkids.)

Website with information:

https://canarystreetcrafts.com/how-to-turn-any-acrylic-paint-into-fabric-paint/

I just purchased the fabric medium in a small bottle next to the acrylic paints. 

After all the painting is through

The green was metallic.

Now there are videos for 24 days of Christmas to practice the free motion designs in the spaces, one posted each day. I am already behind as the 9th one has been posted. 

But I hope to catch up this week.

There are several other Christmas designs that are still free, if you are  so interested: a Nutcracker, a poinsettia, a different Christmas tree last year.  The videos are free online still. And you can also get the patterns to trace. 

I so love hearing her voice with the down under accent. Helen Godden is quite talented and has visited the U. S. She also has completed a huge mural about Australia.  She uses Lumiere paints and has other classes online as well. 

Thanksgiving!

 What a wonderful celebration!  I love the celebration for remembering all the wonderful things we are so lucky to have. Being where I am in my life is such a blessing!  We all have ups and downs: me as well. But I truly know how very lucky I am to live in the United States and have a family that pushed education and experiences for us.  

 And this year it was especially wonderful to have family here. My daughter and her beaux came for the entire weekend. We have been truly delighted to spend time together with them.

I did so much cooking both prior to their arrival as well as when they were here. We had so much fun enjoying time together.  We even had several drinks to enjoy throughout the weekend. Plus we went to the Milwaukee Symphony while it accompanied The Muppets Christmas Carol.  This Movie is a family tradition usually at Christmas.  My daughter had purchased the tickets for us.  We wandered around downtown Milwaukee visiting the art hotel named Saint Kate and then this "mall" of restaurants which I can't remember the name of.  

So last week was spent getting ready for them, cleaning up the house and cooking.  

And because of that little sewing has been done. :(

But I will show you one more block of my new Tilda quilt and the pattern I am using:

Sending thanks to all of you who read me. I do appreciate it!

Happy Birthday to me!

 My long time quilting buddy and I went for a drive to Cedarburg and our favorite quilt shops. We  bought each other a lunch as presents for both our birthdays.  We have been friends so long. 

So besides the company, we had a great time at Ye Olde Schoolhouse. It has lots of stitchery and wool as well as a great assortment of reproduction fabrics.  Oh, the inspiration! I only bought some yardage to fill in some holes in the stash.  I need to start my half square triangles into something. 

But then we also found the new location for My Material Matters. And I fell for some Tilda fabrics as a gift to myself. The fabrics are made in Norway and they have an awesome feel to them. 

I found a pattern from Coriander Quilts and made my first block:

Christmas sewing started: 

Last year I deocorated 2 stockings for my daughter and her beau.

This year I made 2 little ones for their pets to go along with them.

Knitted stockings from Target , trim and wool embroidery added. 

And for in front of the tv at night, I have a new cross stitch:

It is a Primrose cottage pattern:

My progress so far:

No quilts this year for Christmas and that is ok. 

Birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant:

Finishing little and big

 I have been finishing things: old and new.

1)  So happy to finally get the binding on my navy Chandelier Quilt.  I really love the  colors and design as it sets all of those leftover quarter square triangles. The patchwork is in reproduction fabrics and it is twin sized. 

I sent it to my quilting with a no rush request and she held it for a while.  No big deal.  and then when I got it back, I put it on a back burner especially since I went on retreat and visited the grandkids. 

She elected to quilt with an interesting lightning bolt all over stipple. So appropriate!

2) I finished my cross stitch for fall which I have been doing for the past 6 weeks.  It is a Lori Holt design, but I used her colors from another pattern and kit I have of hers.  My first work on evenweave.  I like the results, and it was a challenge to count. but I am so happy with the result. 

3) I worked on quilting some small projects.  I did a rough straight line quilt around the blocks for a July 4th piece.  In the middle, I knocked off the thread stand and spent an hour searching for it.   So I ended up organizing some projects. And that was an accomplishment.  And then I found the thread stand.  YEAH.

So I then attached a 30 inch square of exchange blocks I whipped together at retreat.  Not a great quilt design, but I just wanted to get it off my pile.  So donation quilt it is.  My muscle memory was pretty good for the large free motion stipple.  My foot however, was inconsistent on speeds changing stitch length as I sewed.   It was good to practice again.

The back was an old Deb Strain flannel, perfectfor the colors AND I had a spool of a light orange. A perfect thread for the quilting. the edge of the binding fabric is sticking out. Good enough.

These were churn dash blocks cut into fourths, which I then reassembled. 

Retreat time!

 Delighted to get away and have some time just to sew and chat with friends.  Our group went to a former church camp location.  We had fewer quilters than usual, but maybe that is good not to have too much noise and such.  I, myself, get a little overwhelmed after a while and need some good old quiet time. 

But all in all, it was great to have someone else cook and clean.  And the best part was sharing ideas and shout outs to things I forgot to pack.  I was so rushed this time. 

So what was I able to accomplish:

First: lots of acorn mug rugs/ candle mats/ door decoration or whatever you want to call it.  I was only able to finish about 16 of them due to lack of planning. I ran out of backing and batting. This group is going to Indiana in gift baskets for my Mom's caregivers. 

Second, I was able to get my Fig Tree pumpkin top together.   It took a while to strip piece in seminole style for the borders in between the rows.  I am glad to have this accomplished. 

Third, I made a donation block for an exchange.  All we had to do was use teal, black and gray.

My friend was the receiver of the drawing.  

And lastly once I got home, I completed my row for the next part of the round robin.  I just made all the quarter square units.  Interesting, the fabric is from an old Wisconsin fabric line from several years ago.

My sewing machine is getting a good work out and has needed to be cleaned twice lately. 

November is here!

 I don't know about your area, but we have had the most beautiful fall colors  this year.  Oh my, especially the oak trees which are normally just boring brown.  It took a long time for the colors to turn as we are in a drought and have not had much rain which is needed to turn them. And the wind we had yesterday whisked all the remaining leaves somewhere else.

Anyway, I have had time to sew as well as to organize a little of my sewing area. (Cleaning creates chaos first, at least for me.) 

I am the queen for Stash Bee this month and so I needed to make directions and samples for my 1/4 log cabin. Photo contains 3 sample blocks each with different sized logs, but all in red, white, and blue.

I had another delightful visit with my Mom and Sister in Indianapolis. 

She is doing so well for being almost 93 and in an a memory care unit for 5 years.

Here is my dear husband leading a drum circle for the unit she lives on: 

I can never get him to be still so photos are interesting.

       

Sewing again!

 I have completed 30  blocks of 16 patches.  The fall colors look great.  I am on a stand still waiting for my mojo to resize the acorn pattern.  The printer would not cooperate. 

The goal was to have all 16 squares be different fabrics.  And of course, my photo shows one with a duplicate.  

Additionally, I have been working on a version of a log cabin having just 1/4 of it  at a 14 inch size to share the pattern with friends.  I am working with red, white and blue colors for a summer picnic quilt. 

The free pattern is Ventanas by Timeless Treasures,  but I started playing around with the numbers. 

Good news, though, I found a bag of red, white and blue reproduction fat quarters. Woo Hoo!

And while watching my television, I have been stitching away at my cross stitch.  It is coming along nicely.  Although yesterday, I had to tear our rows and made many mistakes.  I guess it was just not my day. 

I like using the even weave cross stitch fabric.  But my old eyes have a hard time counting sometimes. Or, I end up crossing the stitches the wrong way. Mistakes happen, as in life  Ugh.  

Off to see Mom this weekend. Our drive will be pretty. 

Back home again

 My spouse and I took a trip back to Louisiana to see the grandkids and their parents.  The weather, of course, was 20 degrees warmer than we are used to in Wisconsin being in the 80s. 

We love their fall weather enjoying the falling leaves and decorations while being so wonderfully warm. Now I get why businesses sell short sleeved shirts for fall; up here we add sweaters and flannels for layers. 

It was great to share time with the kids as well as their dad, whom we miss so much.  Boys are not ones who like to chat. Even the littles are not great on the phone and will just frankly say they are done.  (aka  I am not as interesting as their computer games.) 

We had a great time.  My son is a goood cook and has a great grill. We spent wonderful time outdoors. Kayaking was the highlight for the old guys, my husband and son.  Hiking was the highlight for the little boys.  The oldest just absolutely loves observing all the plants and finding them along the way. 

This is at the Cane River in Natchitoches.

This is at Kisatchie National Forest.

The boys and I

And it was so warm, they played with the sprinkler and water balloons. 

Family is everything. 

The only stitching I did was cross stitch on the plane. 

But after I got home I started some new projects.

I am making patchwork acorns for a basket for each care giver for my Mom. 

26 blocks 16 patches 1 and 1/2 inches each.

This is pattern a friend and I are going to complete together. I even purchased some backgrounds I was going for some wovens but in tans which suits my house. 

             

All for now.  This month I still have more traveling to go.

Quilt for Daughter in Law

 I am glad to share a finish with you!  I had purchased the kit and pattern after seeing it in a store in Missouri.  I had shown  the photo to my daughter in law knowing she would probably like it.  This is Hello Boo fabric line by Lella Boutique. The pattern had a dark and light version.  I chose the black which has spider webs in the design.  I think the borders are what make it, especially the black and white stripe. I have made that my binding as well.  It was easy to assemble and I liked the colors together as I worked on them, not usual combinations for my taste.

Close ups of a couple of the panel blocks

The back is a minky kind of fabric and the quilting is a swirly design with spider webs and spiders hanging periodically. My long armer helped asI needed it to be done, so that I can take it down south when I visit my grandkids. 

So I am working on hand stitching the binding down. 

Cross stitch and Pumpkins

 In the evenings, I enjoy handwork like bindings or applique. And lately, I have found some small designs to cross stitch.

I have pushed myself to finish up these little ones last week: 

Both of these are from Pinker n Punkin. She has such cute seasonal designs. But these befuddled me. I worked on evenweave with 2 strands on 2 squares.  But I really NEED a higher power of readers although I already use 3. 5s and a bright light beside me. 

And this last one, I experimented with painting the canvas with acrylic paints added with Textile Medium, 2 to 1 ratio is suggested online. To highlight and brighten it and give it a mottled look, I added additional yellow paint to give a mottled look. I like how it turned out. 

It was easier to stitch and I used 2 strands over 2 squares. It went fast. 

I don't remember where I located this pattern. 

Lastly, I have been quilting: I have a Fig Tree pattern that has both an orange and white pumpkin version. I chose the grayish brown background I already had and a layer cake of Fig Tree's fabric from last year. I am altering it to make it fit a space on my wall. 

This is the lay out.  All that is needed is sashing and pieced horizontal borders between the rows.

Over the weekend I took a trip to Indianapolis to visit my sister and Mom. 

Diane had found my mother's wedding album from 1952. We looked at the black and white photos with her. Mom's memory of the event wasn't very clear. We were fortunate to have a newspaper article detailing the people including attendants and grandmothers as well as details of the apparel and flowers. 

Not bad for a 92 year old lady with Alzheimer's