Taking a break

 It is that time of year: vacation with the kids.  YEAH! ( Can you just hear Kermit yelling?)  My dear husband and I are going to Missouri to vacation with the grandkids and their parents.  I know it will be hot.....and muggy.... but we will be by a lake and have a pool.  What more could you ask for?

Then we get to bring the grandboys home with us for  2      w h o l e     w e e k s.     So I am planning food and activities and  reading books and FUN.  

They are 8 and 10 years old now.   Getting so big!   We bought used small rackets for them, will set up a tent in the back yard, and swim.  We will go to parks, and zoos, and pools, and lakes.  We will grill and eat ice cream and make fun memories together. 

And I will be tired, but oh, so happy. 

Handwork finished!

 Staying inside to avoid the heat. And enjoying completing little things.   I do love embroidery and cross stitch and other small handwork. 

1) Here is the finished Hawaiian Sashiko. I plan to make it into a pillow with piping on the edge.  I need to find a batik with these colors. I also need to dip it into cool water to erase the blue markings.

I have 2 more kits to make.  Very enjoyable.

2) I made the finishing touches to these cross stitch bowl fillers.  I added some buttons, ribbons and ric rac to them. 

I found that I liked the sparsity of the letters and design and it went much faster than other cross stitching. The alphabet is from Susan Ache's book Summer Memories.  (She now has a Halloween one coming out soon as well.)  Melisa from Pinker n Punkin has several samplers as well.

I don't know where I found the mini. It has been sitting in my basket completed for a year or two. 

I will have to add them to my wool ones. 

2nd Place finish

 Hooray! My triangle quilt ( Ocean Waves) won a 2nd place finish at the Wisconsin State Fair!  YEAH!  And although I went to see the judging; I goofed AGAIN and went on the wrong day.  But I will get to see it at the fair in August! 

So I had better get working on next year's entries. 

Dear Jane block A 12

Paper pieced on newsprint

Back of Block

Finished block  ( 5 inches)

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If you are interested, Susan Gatewood has a EQ version of it for free 

Link to her A blocks

                                                                                                                                                                        I also have added more blocks to my New York Beauty:  

Entering the state fair

 What a tale to tell.  I was so excited to enter my winning quilt in the Wisconsin State Fair.  Paper work; check, quilt flattened; check, quilt in car and delivered; check.  REJECTED:   I don't know what happened to the rod pocket.  Oh no!   Seriously, I don't recall it at all.  I did enter it in our quilt show this spring. It must have been pinned????  But it is no longer there.  Three of us searched around and around the edges.

So I returned home and got my other quilt out from the quilt show that got a blue ribbon.  Both qualified for the same category in this show as the requirements change from show to show. ACCEPTED.  Hooray.   

.   

What a nut I am.  So if they will accept it next year, I will enter it.  Otherwise, there are always quilts in the works. ( And I will SEW a rod pocket on.)

So next week is judging:  we will see how well it does???

On the sewing side: 

I pieced the remaining red white and blue blocks into a square topper. I need some basting spray to finish these.  I have located backing fabrics for both sizes in my stash.

On the needlework side: 

I purchased 2 sashiko kits in Hawaii this spring. And I thought I needed the special thimble which goes on your finger at the edge of your palm, which I then searched videos and etsy for one. But the first block is a preprinted panel with variegated thread to stitch. It is a thicker thread and a larger needle, but the design is going quickly and is very pretty. This is one evenings work.

Red and blues

 It has been a great year thus far for my quilting.  And I really feel good about my accomplishments. (17 finishes: half of them are small ones  and half bed sized)  And the best part is that most of them have been UFOs sitting around. It started out as just binding the quilts as they came back from the long armers, but it expanded to a couple quilts that just have been sitting. 

And following Maggie's blog: Making a Lather, I took her example, and just started finishing up. It felt so good that I have just kept going.  Success begets further success. I have several empty boxes and am still working on some partly started projects. 

Additionally, I almost have as many posts now as the entire year of 2023. That says a lot! 

But I did take a detour, and started a Red, White, and Blue table runner. It is a free one from American Patchwork and Quilting: table runner link. I have had my eye on it and it was pinned so I could find it easily. So onward to the cutting and piecing.

And here is the the quilt top. 

I was happy to use up some of my smaller pieces of fabric. Plus I have enough for a 2nd top that will be square. Each block is 6 inches making this 24 by 36.

I also finished my round robin for guild for next month, because I will be with family instead. 

I love, love, love these Robin Picken's fabrics and the splattered background.

And lastly some of my stitching in the evening: 

This is from the Summer Memories book of quilts and cross stitch by Susan Ache.

My first attempt at linen which is a very pale blue not gray as it appears. 

Hope to make it into a pillow for my 4th of July bowl fillers.

Another UFO finish

 Three years ago in the beginning  of 2022, I enjoyed the Stay at Home Round Robin sponsored by Quilting Gail. It is nice to have challenges.  My center was created from wool and bead applique and the colors were from several collections of Coriander Quilts.  I love the warm pastels Corey Yoder has utilized in her quilts. The first row was curves where I appliqued using my own templates with starch. The second was triangles and I put it on point. The third row was friendship stars. I did not add the last 3 rows.

It sat in a pile until this year when I have taken several different sessions for quilting it.  Different methods for quilting included free motion around the wool shapes as well as small stippling in the background of that square. I also used straight line quilting with a walking foot  around the friendship stars, and lastly I used a hera marker to "draw" lines for the triangles.  

A great quilt for trying out new techniques.   Yeah another UFO:  DONE!  It is about 3 feet square!

Chandelier flimsy and more!

 Still working on UFOs. I am excited to finish my navy quarter square chandelier quilt. (I am not great at naming quilts.) I had it almost done at retreat which was posted.  But then I came home and found the missing parts of blocks which were about 15 blocks left on the cutting table. I used 9 of them  to add another row to the bottom and the missing corner . Some deconstructing ensued followed by adding more blocks. Hooray! So happy to get it done.  Twin size 65 by 91  No additional borders will be added. The setting triangles give it space. The larger blocks are 4 identical quarter squares and the smaller ones just a singular one. 

Next up : getting  the 2 flimsies to the quilter. She is such a special friend. And she already has 2 of my other quilts.  NO RUSH!   I like getting it off my plate. Plus I am slow at getting the few finished that I do. I am trying more machine quilting  and like the challenge, but it definitely takes longer. 

And I completed one more block for my Dear Jane quilt. 9 done and many many more to go.

For this block I utilized paper piecing. There is a free site. 

In the evenings I have been cross stitching.  I think I am getting better at counting, although I do take out stitches here and there. 

I love the warming weather as our birds, squirrels, kittens, and deer have returned to entertain us in the back yard.  It sure is nice to open windows and feel the breeze while listening to the croaking of the frogs or the rustling of the leaves. Hello summer!

I love the warming weather as our birds, squirrels, kittens, and deer have returned to entertain us in the back yard.  It sure is nice to open windows and feel the breeze while listening to the croaking of the frogs or the rustling of the leaves. Hello summer!

Bitcoin flimsy and more

 Several days of progress on different projects. It feels good to get things going.

This is my bitcoin flimsy.  Bonnie Hunter released the pattern in 2021 and I really liked the arrangement and the ability to use up the bag of 1 1/2 inch strips I had.   But I didn't want to keep making more and more, and saw a modified arrangement using long strips of a background in between the vertical rows by Nann of With Strings Attached.  It made for a great combination.  I found a nice red small print which accentuated my color combination.  I do like the Thimbleberries and Kansas Troubles.   But I have added some brighteners to increase the contrast. This is a twin sized quilt top, but no destined recipient yet. 

And as a new month comes, so does a new block for my Stash Bee.

This one had lots of 2 inch squares. 

And lastly, I have a few blocks to show for my New York Beauty: They are a fun detour from the other blocks and require different skills with paper piecing and curves. 

Keep on quilting. 

End of the month

I have been laid back after the retreat not really motivated to sew. It was good to be home in my own bead eating my own food. And I was especially glad to have a settled stomach. I still need to be aware of what I eat as pizza set it off yesterday. 

Anyway, my daughter had come home to be near humans. Without having work and now that her semester is over, she was getting a little bored on her own. We are always grateful to have our kids here. But it does change things a little for us. Her cat is here as well and we will cat sit this weekend.  She does cook good food. 

In the evenings I have been able to finish up bindings on my 2 flag wall hangings. And I have been doing counted cross stitch on perforated paper.

Today, I finally set up the sewing machine and did some stitching on blocks:

A)   10 more blocks to add to the chandelier  design are going to be added to make it a little longer. ( I had 15 extra centers anyway.) I did unsew the setting triangles.

B)   I am sewing up the New York Beauty Blocks I started at retreat. They are a nice challenge. This is another old UFO and all the paper pieced borders were completed. I have a box of collected fabrics and patterns ready to go. I think I need 36 total blocks. 3 DONE and 1 cut out!

We have had 2 tornado sirens this weekend. Watching the Doppler Radar is kind of scary knowing others are in harms way. We are fortunate. 

Another retreat

 I had the delightful opportunity to go on another quilting retreat.  This one is in rural Wisconsin southwest of Madison, our capitol. I love this one where you can see the sunset over the fields and farms. And the weather was warm, which I had not quite anticipated.  And the air conditioner was turned on when only in the 70s.  Oh well.

But the food, the comradery, the shared ideas, and the hours of quilting.  So great to get things moving on projects. We had trivia and campfire songs, and lots of fun together. And I forgot the good food, although my stomach was revolting at the time.

Anyway, here are some of their projects:

This was an exchange project. Many of the knick knacks are personal and titles on books , family photos, etc. Very cool! Love the arched center.

A found set of blocks from a free table 

Fat cat designs of a Southern Gentlemen from last fall.

Things I worked on:

Quilted my small flag quilt to send to Mom for her door. 

It was a free pattern from Buttermilk Basin without the applique, a UFO from the past.

The binding was handsewn once I got home.

Another flag banner which had been left as a top last year.

Also hand sewn binding at home.

This is Bonnie Hunter's Bitcoin pattern with large strips of color in between.  

It was a UFO from 2021:     link for the  bitcoin start

I ran out of the pieced parts and will had 2 more strips: 

one pieced and one solid making a twin quilt.

These blocks were comprised of the hourglass blocks leftover from another wall hanging. 

Blocks were made over a year ago.

I left the back of odd blocks at home. 

So it will end up longer. 

Machine quilting

 I really like to send my quilts out for others to do the wonderful quilting. And that is my go to for the larger quilts. Quilting by check book, so they say.   And I prefer my hand work to be applique or cross stitch or embroidery. So no hand quilting here, although I have tried it and like it. 

But several smaller tops have been waiting for my to finish by machine.  And I was even supposed to enter one in the recent guild show that had been started. I can do straight line stitch in the ditch, I even have a great stipple that I can do large or small. A set of quilting templates have been sitting unused.   Excuses, excuses. 

So I got the guild show one out and have been working on it several evenings. 

So here are a few progress photos:  free motion tiny stippling around the wool applique.

I                                                     like how that turned out. 

Straight line quilting in the blocks with a walking foot.

I just wish I had a BSR to keep the stitches an even length. 

Progress so far.  And I have a couple plans in place for a few of the other areas.

This is my stay at home round robin from a couple years ago. 

Sunday, we had the coolest rain while it was sunny.  And I got a short little video. But it would not transfer to my computer. 

But here is the double rainbow in the other direction.  

God is good!

Round the blocks!

 I am so excited to get my basic 8 blocks completed!   I had to, of course, make extra single blocks to frame the larger circles.  But that it ok; I have lots of strips cut to the 1 1/2 inch size.  

2  different angles.

So now I realized it is already 100 inches long and that does not include any sashing which I plan to add in black.  That is just too long for a twin bed. That makes it is easy to decide on  9 blocks and make it more squarish of a 3 by 3 setting. And then add the borders all around the 4 sides. 

Making a light blue centered block for the 9th block...

This will go on a back burner until my fall retreat where I will collaborate with a creative friend. Or I may just let it marinate as I decide what to do for borders.  I have a couple ideas. but having a friend  who has good ideas and helps try them out is awesome.   She even helps work on the math. I do enjoy working with her.