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. 

Missing in Action

 Dear quilting friends. 

I feel like time has flown.  But my absence was due to a few reasons. 

First, my spouse and I had a wonderful trip to see our grandboys in Louisiana.  It was absolutely wonderful weather and I wore short sleeves all week.  Such heaven.  But of course the best part was being with those 2 giggly little guys.  I got to hold them in my lap and read books and create projects and share meals.  And I just got to hold and love them.  Oh, that is truly the best. I had missed them so. 

                             

Selfies are not the best way to take pictures.  But I love them just the same. 

                               

We planned this week as the kids were off school.  One day we had a great hike and wading in a stream at the Kisatchie National Forest.  So pretty. Here is my HB, the boys and my daughter in law. 

We had to eat the local food and our favorite dinners were fried catfish and crawfish. Yum!

                         

Here is the Easter hat we designed for school. Jensen and I painted the white hat orange. And then we added all the sports shaped eggs. He even helped string eggs. 

The time passed much too quickly.  And my boys and I had a few tears when it was time to leave. 

But we already have a vacation planned for us all in June. 

Then upon returning, I worked on some projects not requiring my favorite sewing machine which had been in for a "spa" treatment.  

I made more hourglass blocks for the Timeless Tidbits quilt from Temecula Quilt Shop. Lots of half square triangles realigned to make the hourglasses. 

I not have 230 blocks completed, which were made in groups of 10 of the same colors. 

Only 170 more to go before assembling the quilt. 

Here are some of them.

Then I thought I ought to protect the spa treatment to keep up from becoming too dirty. 

I know it really needed a good cleaning and adjusting. 

So I had this pattern from Thimble Blossoms. 

                                         

I used a charm pack and some Thimbleberries fabrics. More half square triangles assembled and joined 

Then I added the remaining strips of fabric, adapted the size for my machine. 

I wanted to quilt in cross hatching.  And as I contemplated it.  I noticed the print already had that design built into it.  Bonus!

I then added the ties and the binding, my first attempt at doing it by machine.  It turned out just great

And voila!  it is done!

Retreat 2.0

One year ago, we were at quilt retreat in Oshkosh. And then the world started spinning rapidly.  We all had to adapt to the quarantines and the runs to the grocery and how to wear a mask. 

Why do I bring this up? Because I was again at the retreat where this  started for me. At the time I was taking a day from school. This year I was tutoring remotely. But being around the smaller group of ladies just brings back the memories. 

So here are some of the wonderful quilts that others worked on:

I loved this combination of colors and patchwork.

And I truly admired this bias edged phenomenon that looks amazing from afar.  This quilter really makes me want to try new techniques and challenge myself every time. 

This is oh, so beautiful made with batiks. The background is what really makes the focus glow.  this is her 2nd work using the same pattern.  Just incredible to look at!  And oh, so many pieces to cut!

Duh, ta da DAH! 

 And the reveal of the new quilt top. 

 The finish!           The Tic Tac Go quilt top!  

The borders are great! AND I love it!   All 89 inches square!  

Disregard the printed carpet as the backdrop please.

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

 I am late to the game. And I hadn't started any colors until this week.  I was going to make the zig zag RSC from 2018.  But I just couldn't stomach the corners anymore.  So I started a new block.  

And I am really happy I did . I was interested in making a curved log cabin and found this link: https://slaneyhandcraft.wordpress.com/2017/11/30/dogwood-quilt-tutorial/  They have really good pictures but call it a dogwood quilt.   The colored strips were cut at 1 1/2 inches and the white strips cut at 1 inch. My individual block is also adapted to finish at 5 and 3/4 inches. I just left the final row off .   I am thinking of modifying the sizes to make smaller and larger ones . Hmmm.

I just made 4 blocks into a circle.   I started with yellow as that was February's color for the RSC quilt for socrappy. This is a teacher who posts a linky party every Saturday , has  a new block to make each month and they color changes month randomly.   

Then I raided my green scraps for March and made this block.

And since I was on a roll, I searched for pink scraps.  Surprisingly, I was able to find enough different pink fabrics to whip up this block as well. Many of them were 30s fabrics already cut into strips. 

I think they turned out swell and am going to make a few extra units for when I assemble them for a big quilt at the end of the year. 

Lastly, I made this shamrock for my tier tray using buttons and a few beads to fill the holes. 

I need to paint the wood square and glue the shamrock onto it. But is was a fun little project.

I have the greatest in house wood guy; he cuts, he sands, and he does so many things for me.  What a guy!

                                    

Borders

 I have finished piecing sections of the border for this quilt: Tic Tac Go:  

These are the blocks laid out.

And here are the sections of piano key borders.   Here are a few:

And here is the rest of the stack of 69 sections. Each key is one inch finished. So there was lots of cutting and sorting of colors in piles to assemble. 

All I need is to finish cutting some background border and all the pieces and parts are ready to assemble.    DONE ! 

The center is 75 inches square when it will be together.  The  piano keys are cut at 6 inches. and the setting border will  be one and a half inches.   Totally the quilt at a whopping 89 inches.  Whew!

Spring flowers

 I have been slowly working on my wool applique for spring.  It has been a goal for for this month to finish the hand stitching and get this block done.  I just love the bright cheery colors and found this really neat design in a book. The on point setting also appealed to me. 

                                    

Other progress was to cut and begin sewing the piano keys border to my scrap quilt: Tic Tac Go.

I posted the layout a few days ago. I am going to assemble in next week on retreat. 

I have at least enough for 2 sides. And looking at the colors in the pictures.  I can see that I need a few more lights in the bunch. 

Tic Tac Go

On a roll to clean out and finish!   I was so excited!  I thought my retreat was this week and had been collecting things for the give away table.   And I had worked so hard to make the 25 squares for my scrap quilt to put together.   Each block has 85  pieces and is 15 inches finished size   Lots of cutting and sewing to make 9 patch and half square units; then I would assemble units to blocks.   I have no idea what the real name as I created mine from a photo  on Pinterest.  

So glad to look at a picture: found two triangles square turned.  Unfortunately, some of the blocks are not quite the same size as others.  We will tackle that problem next week. 

And then the email came:  The retreat is NEXT week.  Oh, my  I was so anxious, I just pushed it earlier in my mind.

So what to do with an extra week.  I got out a UFO to keep working on.  This was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge from 2018.  I was making long rows of color using strips and black and white to tie it together and give it punch. I pulled it out, I cut yellows for February's color. ( I am not a pink girl. ) I took apart the one row assembled incorrectly.  Resewed them.  INCORRECTLY again.  

So I took a break and cleaned my bookshelf  washing all the knick knacks, getting rid of old things. I now want to redo a few pieces in more farmhouse colors. The more you do, the more you find things to do. 

And after deliberations, I have decided to chuck the RSC blocks.  It goes to a give away table or the trash.  I do not care.  One more thing off my list.

So for my goals from January 1st: 

Rainbow Scrap UFO:   Tanked, gone, and out of my life.

Star challenge:  no progress, still hanging in the closet 

Scrap quilt (Tic Tac Go) :  ALL blocks made and ready to assemble

Sleepy fox:  Completed!

Winter mini quilt:   Completed!

New York Beauty: no progress

Daughter's Orange spinner:  Completed!

So lots of successes!