Back to sewing

I am glad to be back to my machine; ( not that I didn't like getting a lot of embroidery finished).

But it is good to catch up on some in-progress challenges.

First here are today's and last week's Blockheads.  I really do learn a lot from their tutorials and seeing the backs of the blocks to notice how they press the seam allowances. 

Block 19:

On this one,I think the piecing turned out great; but am pondering whether I like the value placement.  Block 20:

Then I have 4 more Rainbow Scrap Challenges for July completed in the color blue.

Lastly I have started a table runner for celebrating birthdays. It is from a book and I bought a kit a year and a half ago. 

Back from vacation

My how time flies when you are away! I spent a week in Canada with my Mom and her spouse. It was great to be away. And the best part was spending time with her.  The weather was rainy and  cloudy most of the week. But I got to eat great meals both at home and out at restaurants.

Here are some pictures:
Of the Lock at Young's Point




Of Fred, the blue heron who my husband saw almost every day


Of the gorgeous Northern Pines by the lakes:


I could spend a copious amount of time just gazing at these:





 And I spent hours embroidering my Crabapple Hill panel. I was able to finish a lot; but there is so much more to do.

Slow stitching the trees

A trip to visit my Mom again in Canada. That gives me hours in the car to stitch while my husband drives and relaxing evenings with family to spend on stitchery. And lots of time spent carefully with needle and thread slowly expands the areas completed.

This is the 2nd panel of 3 of Crabapple Hill's "Over the river and through the woods".

Doing the Dresden Spin

Dresdens: a fun block.  This went together well with the templates from the pattern by Edyta Sitar.  It is an oldie. She has a more modern looking one; check out her blog.

But I have had these dresdens made and appliqued to large squares. The layout had even been planned, cut out, and partially assembled. I believe I started this at least 7 or so years ago, but think it is longer... maybe 10 years. Piecing the dresdens was fun; my goal was to use as many different fabrics as possible, all Thimbleberries. 

My delay was what to do with the points as they were not tacked down on the sides. I just decided to  machine applique them with YLI's monofilament.  I am not thrilled with the effect, but I am thinking done is better than perfect. Here is the completed top.  Off to the quilter tomorrow.  I would like some designs in the large triangles, maybe feathers?  

Yes! !!! Another UFO out of the way, and flimsy together. 

Secondly, here is the latest Blockheads block.  Nice 6 and a half inch block.

Have you ever had a day where things just don't go together as well? Yesterday, I had that day.  I remade a friendship star.  Easy peasy.  Maybe to assemble.  Just make sure your layout is right.  It took 2 more tries for me., and then the same thing happened with this block. But it is done, too.

Here are all 18, so far.  For 17, I made the piecework version by Lisa Bongean. I liked the flags, but just didn't want to applique it. 

Odds and ends

It's a new month!         Happy Canada Day late for those up north, a little late. 

Happy 4th of July for the Yanks!

I made my Stash Bee blocks:  They are string blocks using muslin foundation.  The hard part was selecting the strings. I sorted my scrap bags. I really don't have a lot of strings and was unsure what colorways to choose. But they are done.

Then I started my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blue blocks.  I know; one of them looks more gray than blue. But it is a good start. 

But mostly I am glad to post this start on the 2nd panel of " Over the River and Through the Woods by Crabapple Hill .  Yeah! The first one is done. But this one has a whole lot more lines to follow. 

It has been a year since I cut the panels and traced them, followed by hand basting them together.

Oh, and here are my dear daughter and husband from our day Sunday. We did trivia at a bar which was fun, and then walked the lakefront of Milwaukee.

I love the water and the reflections of light. It was kind of a cloud-ish day. 

And I loved this flower that looks like little white spiders in clumps. So delicate and beautiful!

Winding up June

It has been an odd month for June.  The weather has definitely been atypical.  The only warm/hot part is when I was traveling to Canada.  Last night we again had rain and really loud lightning. Even the tornado siren went off for high winds. And it has been cool all week: I find I need fuzzy socks  to keep my feet warm and even a sweater during the day.

I had the joy of being with my grandsons this morning while Mama went to the doctor for a check up.
They were cuddly and fun. There is nothing like hearing them giggle or say," I really love you, Nonny!" I feel so very lucky to be a part of their lives.

I had finally gone in to see the doctor last week for a sinus infection that wasn't horrible, but wouldn't go away for 3 weeks. The cure is worse than the infection. I am on amoxicillin with augmentin; it gives me stomach issues and a headache by the afternoon.  Oh, well 3 more days.

But instead of sewing yesterday I cut out lots:  Both my latest Blockheads are cut out and ready to assemble.

Done:



Then I cut out 2 colors of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge getting ready for the rest of the year. Two yet to cut, but are pulled and ready in a pile ( And I need a few more blues and browns.)

I felt lucky to find the missing red pinwheel for my Dresden quilt; even located a brown piece.  All that is needed are background triangles and 1 more brown.  Not bad for an old project.


And I found this with it.  Bonus! It is pieced and in rows.

Spring flimsy and more

So excited:  this is in the flimsy stage.  Hooray.  I need to adjust a few seams at the edges of the piano key borders. But I really like how it added to the quilt. It looks like tans, but is really yellows and peaches.  I ordered the backing so it is all I can do for now.

I had fun with the piano keys and didn't realize how many colors I had.  I could go 18 keys without repeating.  That doesn't include some of the layer cake squares.  Here are the corners ( another pinterest find.)

 

Next up:  Dresden Beauty;  This is an old UFO.,. at least 10 years. It began with the Dresden pattern from Edyta Sitar. I had purchased it at Rosemont's quilt show and even got her templates which made it easy. 

 The stars were put together at one retreat and a few more nights. Then the setting was a quandary but wanting to go with the scrappy theme. 

I carefully appliqued each star to a background square:

 

And it has sat.. waiting for the finish.  Notice I am missing a few squares.  Ugh..  will keep searching. But I finally decided to invisible machine applique the points of the center star points. 

Now I will finish the quilt and send it off to be quilted. I want something more than an overall design, but am not comfortable experimenting on this one. 

It feels good to get things done.