Another finish and piecework

Hooray,  I got the heart quilt back from the quilter.  The quilting pattern is a beautiful swirl with hearts in it done in red.  So pretty.  Can't wait to show you the back and binding. 

Here is the 2nd card I stitched on paper for my sister.

And here are my Rainbow Scrap challenge blocks done in Red.  So pretty and bright. 

Again, my blocks are small and end of at 5 3/4 inches. Red strips cut at 1 1/2 inches  inches and the white at 1 inch.  Because I sew them so randomly,  I have trouble keeping my direction for the log cabin block correct and need to take out several sides before I get the hang of it again. 

 

Big Finish and Mom's Day

 After a whole afternoon's work, I finished the top for my Gooseberry Christmas. 

This was a pattern from Kansas Troubles.  And I followed the coloring according to the pattern, substituting what reds, greens, golds, and backgrounds I had.  I also did not utilize her no piecing method and adapted to actual half square triangles and flying geese. 

Close up of the end and the borders.

Full picture from the middle.   The size is large 78 by 98ish. 

Borders are 2, 3 and 6 inches. 

A different perspective on my design wall, the floor.

Close up for the center piecing with machine applique. 

I am SOOOOOO glad to get it done and off my list. Yeah for another UFO.

I dislike the process of borders and would much rather piece.  And it took many hours to get those last 3 done.  But DONE it is. 

And on another note,  I found this free pattern online by Jessica Marquez for Mother's Day.

This is how the pattern sheet looks

Here is what it looks like after you lay it on the cardstock and punch the holes with a large needle or T pin.The paper is actually a periwinkle blue, my Mother's favorite.

I used all 6 strands of floss and then "stitched" it in a peach, yellow and springy green.

I really like how it turned out.

Off in the mail it went.

Spring and another UFO

 Glorious Spring!  It has indeed arrived.  I love the beautiful spring greens: that lime green shade that bursts on the trees as the buds and leaves just start to grow. I think it holds so much promise and is a long awaited sign of better weather ahead.   

Surprise, surprise!  We even have 70 degree weather. Totally amazing. My spouse and daughter and I headed to Pewaukee to eat at the restaurants by the beach.  But when we arrived, we were literally blown over by the extreme winds. Just walking up the sidewalk took strength.  I have never seen such white caps on that lake.  So instead of having our food blown away, we ate inside.  

And I got another UFO out to work on.  Here is where the piece was left last summer: 

                                  

                                  

And here is where I was able to complete it yesterday.  Now to do some wool applique on the stripe section.  Choosing a design.  Hmmm. 

Hearts and Gooses

 I have been a sewing fiend.    Lots and lots of work done. 

First I have made great project on my Broken Heart quilt.  All the patchwork is put together.  Yeah!!!!!

About 45 inches square.   I am abandoning borders. It can be a wall hanging, baby or toddler quilt. 

I really stewed and stewed on the color arrangement: 

Here are only a couple of them.  They laid on the floor for a couple days and I would switch this or that. And then I took more of the whites out and just decided it was done.  I don't think there is a perfect arrangement for  this with so many colors. 

On to the quilter.  ( Although I could have done it at this size.)

Additionally, I spent lots of hours putting this together.  This is my gooseberry patch quilt started in February if 2018.  These are the components that I have been assembling and putting together over the several years. It is a Kansas Troubles pattern. And although I have fat quarters accumulated for a different quilt, I added a few more specifically for this quilt as I needed more greens and reds. 

                

I finished that last 2 sections of lots of half square triangles, and then stated assembling.  It was pairs of borders one after another.  And fortunately they have all fit. 

Well until the very last black one along the long sides.  At this point it is 64 by 84 inches.

I have 2 more borders to add around the whole thing.  ( It was meticulously ironed yesterday until I scrunched it being frustrated with the math.) 

New finishes, new projects

First of all, this is on the wall in the front hall.     A UFO DONE! 

 And much as I love hexies and piecing them, this is made from yardage of different fabrics. 

The whole piece is comprised of 11 strips of different fabrics WOF.  

Then I trimmed it to a much narrower piece.  The only real piecing I did was to make the leaves and applique them. It all came in a kit from McCall's and included the pattern, fabrics, and the ribbon. 

Next is an ironing board cover. The photos are in reverse order.

Here is the finished board mounted on top of a normal ironing board. ( just set over the existing one)

This is the finished board on top showing the heat resistant fabric on top after completed.

This is the underside of the board.  Notice the raised pieces of wood framing a rectangle. 

The 3/8 inch board was cut 22 by 61 inches total. 

I had purchased the frame many years ago from a fellow quilter whose husband had made her one and then she took orders for others.

Here is a finished corner. You can sort of see the raised framing boards as well as the batting underneath the heat resistant fabric The boards are 2 and 1/4 inches from each side. 

Sorry, I don't have the directions to make it. 

We just had to cover it and did so with 1/4 inch staples. 

My husband was the handyman of the job.  I just followed a video on Youtube to know how to apply the batting. My job was to help stretch and hold the batting and fabric prior to his staples. 

We used 3 layers as it was fairly thin and then heat the resistant fabric.   

Two steps: First the batting was stapled down around the whole edge and I folded  hospital corners.

 Then we did the same thing with the silver fabric  only mitering the corners a little more.

The batting was a twin size and the fabric was 2 yards, trimmed at the end. 

Here is a better picture of the board standing on end. 

New Project: Stitched from the Heart

This is a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop having 2 sizes 12 by 12 or 35 by 35.

There is also a video tutorial where 8 gradations of pink and white fabric was used with triangle on a roll paper. 

There is also a free cross stitch pattern to go with it. 

I am making this as my donation quilt for Hands2 Help on Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

But I am donating this for Healing Hearts which is an organization my husband volunteers for which has 2 seasons of 13 week meetings with kids and their families who have deceased or incarcerated members. This is for their fundraiser in 3 weeks. 

Here is a photo of part of the pattern with the layout. Sorry, my printer streaked. 

These are the colors I am using.  I did a rainbow heart quilt last year as well and it made 150 Dollars. Wow!

Here is the start of the half square trianges.

And I love how all the trimmed sections made such a colorful pile. 

And here is the layout so far.  As I only used squares not the 2 blocks together on the triangle paper, I came up short.  So I have a 2nd pack to start on. 

Then I ordered more charm packs for the borders as I have increased by blocks to 4 inches ( from the 1 or 3 inch ones in the pattern).  I plan to make it lap size. 

 

Getting things done!

 

😊

It has been a somewhat productive week.  I hate that the weather turned cold again and we even had an incredible snowstorm. It accumulated for a couple inches and melted all in the span of a couple hours.  So weird and slushy and wet!

But I did finish this cross stitch.  I just need their eyes and nose a whole 3 crosses per Peep. 

Then to mount it on a wood block for my tier tray.

Then I attacked the UFO project to get it done.  I cut the width down to make it more suitable for a wall.

I did applique the leaves by machine and felt pretty good about that.

Then I spent a couple hours quilting it. I found a lovely pink gingham to back it and have the binding attached as well in the same fabric. I was careful to free motion the outline of the hexie design for each flower and  all the way up and down the stems and leaves in one pass. Then just some horizontal lines. Yeah for my walking foot. Super slick! And tonight I will hand sew the binding. 

Lastly I saw some of these vinyl project bags for cross stitch on Fat Quarter Shop.  There are several tutorials on Youtube.  This is the one I used :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI8xqwexL8Q

It is a Riley Blake one and was well done. 

I made mine a little smaller only 10 by 12.   I did quilt the layers myself. 

This is really a nice lime green. Sorry for photo issues. 

The polka dots created a great line for following to quilt again using my walking foot. 

This is the back once it is done.  The binding was sewn to the back, wrapped to the front and then machine stitched.  For this  I did not want to sew through the vinyl by hand.  It was a little tricky to machine sew and having the tissue paper that it came with between the vinyl and feed dogs on the machine was essential. 

But I really loved how it turned out and look forward to using it. 

I might even make some for our guilds boutique then we have our sale this summer. 

A little of this and that

 On the needlework front, I have been working on this cross stitch for a few weeks as in starting it before Easter. Originally it was a much bigger piece with a Peeps quote on it; however, the painted canvas with acrylic and fabric medium proved difficult to stitch on as a larger piece.   I love the color. But I reassessed, and then made it much smaller using only 3 peeps.  It is about 3 by 4 inches.  And I should not have used 3 strands of floss. But hindsight is hindsight and I will not start it a 3rd time. It will be done very far in advance for next year. It will still make a great addition to my tiered tray. 

And as I enjoy all your favorite projects on the various blogs I browse over the week,  I am following Maggie Fellow's advice  on Making a Lather to get out a WIP to finish.   I made this small wall quilt top last year. It was an easy top with 11 various fabrics stitched from selvage to selvage.  It was a McCalls kit with preprinted  and coordinating fabrics.  I love the hexie print and tried making some solid color smaller ones for additional flowers and abandoned that.  So now I am just going to add some bright leaves and quilt it. Perhaps I will add to the picket fence with a vine and small flowers?  Waiting for inspiration to peek its head. 

Here are 20 bright green leaves using Lori Holt's method of using an interfacing product, sewing on the lines, slitting the back and turning it right side out.  In my photo you can see the tool I used for poking the edges.  It's purpose was more for paper crafting.  But it worked out well.  There are 2 tones of lime green. 

Lastly,  I put together my pieces for my rounded log cabin blocks.  This is for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge which color is blue for April.  I selected only light and medium shades, saving darks for later. I made 8 blocks total.  One was missing for the photo. 

Four of them were sewn into a circle. The leftovers will either become another one or be used as half circles or settings around the circles: to be decided at layout time.   Each small block is 5 and 3/4 inches at this point. 

It is so nice to have my machine to work on again.