Little Pieces

 For the first in a few weeks, this is not a finishing week for quilts.  It does feel so good to get 2 quilts off to the quilter though.   I just need to get to quilting my smaller tops. 

I am working on my paper pieced borders for all the 9 patches that were made:

In the meantime, I have started a medallion quilt for the spring quilt show.  This is my 1 dollar find at a book sale. 

And an awesome Jen Kingwell pattern. 

So for the piecing I am working on: 

These are 4 1/2 inch blocks with hand appliqued orange peels.

And these are 3 1/2 inch churn dashes. I make 2 at a time with the colors reversed as I use the 8 at a time half square triangle method. 

Funny how little blocks take as much time as big ones. 

It has been a messy week with family and such.  My mother's husband in Canada has regressed so and is frustrated and angry taking it out on everyone especially now that he has moved into a nursing home himself. But he is preventing Mom from moving here to be with us. He is 2 hours away from her , himself leaving her behind. 

And to top it off, we were cat sitting for our daughter's talking cat whom we have had here regularly. And this weekend, she went downhill fast and we had to have her euthanized. She was 15 years old and probably had cancer.  Oh, the tears! 

Fall retreat

 Every October, I get to go to a retreat at a college.  No classes, just living in a dorm with a great big sewing room for the 18 of us. Inspiration galore, jokes and laughing and concentrated sewing time from Thursday to Sunday.  The best!  

I packed way too many projects (Of course). And some took more time than I had anticipated. Yes, it happens. 

But here are the things I was able to complete:  It feels so good to get things done. 

1)  This is the Sewcialites 2 I have been working on for a year.  The blocks were one per week on Fat Quarter Shop from fall to April. My blocks are 9 inches each giving the entire quilt 100 inches square. In other words big! And the missing block is already set in.  These are obviously Christmas colors with lots of different prints. And I will use a scrappy binding after quilting. 

2)  I completed the setting for my gnome blocks which I made last winter in January and February. 

The original patterns were designed as redwork which I made as applique with lots of embroidery purchased from Etsy. Each gnome is 5 by 7 inches to give you and indication of size. 

3)  Lastly, I made 2 trick or treat bags for my grandkids. This was a panel I saw online and had to have.  Each is lined with black fusible interfacing.

Another project is on hiatus as I needed to order more fabric. Frustrating, but it will be SOOO cool when done. 

Other projects I took note of from my friends.:

A Little Pumpkin

During August I had shown the photo of this Halloween quilt to my daughter, a proud cat/ human?  This is her companion and friend through thick and thin.

Anyway, she liked the idea for a door hanger. So I purchased the pattern and created a one block quilt.

At first it was a synch to whip up the patchwork pumpkin with 2 1/2 inch squares.  And then I liked the idea of the framing from the pattern, but altered the size for such small quilt. 

Here is the back that I just quilted with my regular foot after ironing the 3 layers together.  It held quite well. 

And the final product with a striped binding done by machine with the help of " Elmer".

I even got the rod pocket on in the ditch of the frame. 

My daughter, husband and I took a little jaunt to an outdoor art show.  It was a little chilly all of a sudden as the weather dipped to the 50s and it was windy on the hill. But it was a great trip. 

On our way home I saw the most amazing yard displays of  skeletons. 

Holy cow! Rhat is a lot of bikes and skeletons.  Not to mention all the helmets.

Go Pack Go!

Merry Merry Me!

I am so excited I have finished the quilt top for Merry Merry Snowman by Bunny Hill Designs!  YEAH!

This has been a labor of love and a shared goal with a friend. We each combined our fabrics and worked weekly on it starting in January. ( You can see many of my 9  blocks done individually in previous posts. ) 

Each snowman is appliqued in wool and hand stitched including their noses, arms, wordings, etc. While the rest of the details are appliqued with a machine blanket stitch. 

After it is quilted I will add bead eyes and many buttons. 

Today's goal is to piece the back.

A little a day makes the projects go away :)

 Well, each day sewing some makes the projects get closer to finishing. And that does a body good.  I feel like I am accomplishing something and it motivates me to keep on going. 

Sew:  

1) A Christmas Sewcialtes 2 I have now got all the setting blocks made.  I needed to make a quick run to a fabric store for more of the same colors. 

All of these are 9 inch blocks:  16 each of the half square triangles. 8 of the red quarter square triangles. and 16 of the green ones. 

I hope to get the background squares and rectangles done as well as begin the piecing. 

2) New project:  Blockheads 5.  

I am making the blocks in batiks and started out with some I already had, but added a few more teals and lights to mix from a trip in August to one of my favorite stores in Appleton, WI: Going to Pieces.

These are 12 inch blocks and this one is paper pieced. ( Needs a good pressing)

Here are all that have been completed thus far. 

3) Finished the feather free motion quilting on my mini trees.  I even have the binding ready.  Now just to cross hatch the in between blocks. 

Fourth of July finish

 It feels good to be sewing again.  I have been working on several projects trying to get things in gear. 

So first I am so happy to have finished the quilting on my Go Sparkly Fourth.  I finished the binding in front of television over a couple nights. And although it was not done for this year, it will be ready for next year. This was an old free pattern from a Fort Worth shop. More pictures in previous posts.  

I kept whittling away at all the 9 patches required for my BEAUTY.  I have my center completed! Way too many 9 patches to count.  It did make a dent in my background stash, but there are still many, many scraps leftover.  Anyone for a small bag of 1 1/2 inch squares?  Free to a good home.

Next step 28 paper pieced flying geese units. Oh, and the square in a square corners.  Need to find a good red border fabric. 

Fall is looking to be beautiful. Although I do agree with another blogger that the dry summer has initiated some brown early leaves. And we are now getting much needed rain. Good sewing weather!

Travelings

 I have been here and gone again and again over the past 2 months. 

First I went on a quilt shop hop to Hamilton, MO, for the Missouri Star Quilt Company visiting, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and back home to Wisconsin.  Lots of fun.

Then my spouse and I went up north on two different trips for seeing Lake Michigan in Door County and then Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands. Nature fills my cup with delights while hiking and sharing time with my loved one.

Back home and then an early morning  phone call to see Mom in the Kawartha Lakes in Canada. Fortunately, she turned around and is doing much better; she is 91 and a respiratory virus is going around. And we came back home again.

On to quilting news. 

For my Crabapple Hill quilt, I realized my backing fabric was not sufficient in size. So I enjoyed playing around with my leftover half square triangles and fabric to extend  it to the right size. And I then sent it off to my long arm quilter. So glad to get it off my plate. 

I am still slowly making progress on my 9 patch scrap quilt. I am in the process of assembling the 6th row.  Woot woot!

I had a baby quilt that was due in May for my niece in Virginia. And due to all the confusion of the summer, I finally started and completed it. A woodland animal quilt was requested with a slate blue focus for the room. Back in April I found a panel with many animals and used that in between an Irish chain blocks.  It turned out very nice.  I will say, I was not very successful with Dream Cotton batting.  I am not used to such a thin one. But the design process was fun.  It looks like flannel fabric, but is a printed series of tweed looking fabrics. 

The red seems to be ok, but the greens are more a light one and a forest green. 

Below is the front and back of the finished quilt. 

Looking for some quick projects, I am also trying to complete some projects on my pile. I had started to quilt my Fourth of July wall hanging last summer. So I finished the quilting using a walking foot around the star blocks and the flying geese. And then the binding.  Hooray for another quilt off the pile. 

To add to my creativity and enjoy a new colorway, I started the new Blockheads 5. Again on the use what you have, I pulled some blues and teal batiks and added a few to the mix. I intend to complete the 9 blocks for the short group which is due to finish my Christmas. So using up some fabric while starting a block of the week. I little old and something new. 

This is the first version:

Then I switched the arrangement for this version.

REDO and mini show

 Have you ever finished a quilt top only to dislike something about it?  Well, here is my story on that note.

For years I have worked on the Over the River pattern by Meg Hawkey of Crabapple Hill. My husband was the one who admired it in a quilt shop on a vacation and so I bought it. 

It took years to finish the detailed embroidery started in 2016 and completed in 2019.  And then it sat.  I had all the materials together as I had selected some beautiful fall batiks to compliment the sepia colored stitching. 

I took it on retreat and finished the top!  Hooray!

But I did not like the blocks in the middle as the red print was what I had originally selected, but the outside flying geese did not have that many reds to pick it up.  So I frogged the blocks in the middle, leaving the green blocks. 

And last night I saw a batik out of the corner of my eye in my storage room that looked perfect. 

I recut and resewed the blocks putting the top back together!  

My hubby and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair yesterday.  I have been going ever since I moved her decades ago. Such memories and such traditions for us.  Here is me in front of a new mural of all the things state fair from animals and cheese and foods.

We love the Kids from Wisconsin, a great musical group chosen yearly from all over the state. There are probably 40 kids between the musicians in the band as well as the singers and dancers.  As always, they have a great combination of numbers with costume changes and different songs featuring the talents of the individuals. 

And one of my favorite parts is the quilts.  I did not enter the competition this year, but saw many friends' quilts displayed.  Here are a few of them. The first place winners in each category are always hung from the ceiling available to see but out of reach of hands. The rest are placed in cases with a variety of other crafts. such wonders!

Merry Merry July

 So now that the kids are gone, I have returned to quilting.  It is nice to be creative and start to finish up some things. 

Besides working on many 9 patches, I pulled out my Merry, Merry Snowman by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill. I started this in January with a friend.  She would do the block first and then I would do it the next week. She was able to put her top together, but I got stuck with all the things going on. 

I had taken it on retreat in May and had things bundled up according to blocks.  The pieced backgrounds were completed, but I didn't have all the fabrics/wool I needed for the applique. And that is the state I found them in. 

So one at a time, I selected the missing pieces, chose fabrics and attached them.  The snowmen are all made of wool and then blanket stitched around the edges by hand.  There are many embroidery details for each block as well such as lettering, arms, carrot noses and such.  But I do use the machine to attach the fused fabrics. Button eyes will be attached after quilting. 

And here are the blocks  6, 7, 8, and 9.  

Hooray for me!

Update

 My dear daughter in law is doing better.  Her kidney has somehow started filtering and doing its job. The doctors judge this by a creatinine level. And it decreased which is good. She will not need a 2nd kidney and she has decided not to proceed for a 2nd pancreas.  She has lived with diabetes since she was 14 and does not want to attempt another surgery after the complications and days of sitting in the hospital. She misses the boys so much. We send lots of photos. 

As for the boys we are now at 50 days being together.  Wisconsin weather is lovely as compared with Louisiana.  They have gone swimming in all kinds of lakes and pools becoming so comfortable in the water with their goggles. We have visited lots of playgrounds as well, which they love. Additionally we have been to zoos. a planetarium, parks for trails to walk, indoor climbing, and more. I have them read almost every day which has boosted the second grader's confidence. And lots of homemade treats and eating outside.  We love being with them and I get lots of hugs. 

And no, the flight plans did not go as planned. I just returned from driving to the tail of Missouri and back in 2 days for returning those precious boys to their dad who drove them back to their home in Louisiana. I miss them already. 

A wonderful picture to treasure

Only picture with just me and my boys. 

Carousel at Vilas Park in Madison, WI

So back to quilting. I have tried to squeeze in some piecing here and there on my 9 patch wonder. I have the 5th row attached and the blocks for row 6 made. 

I am also hoping to get my Merry Merry Snowmen blocks finished this week. 

Now to make lists and return to the many projects in various stages needing to be finished. Well that and all the neglected parts of the house to clean.