Monday, May 25, 2020

SPRING QUILTS AND A FINISH OR TWO

I took down my winter wall hangings this past week.  Once our weather rolled into the 80's and a few days of 90's those dark winter wall hangings seemed out of place.  This year I have a couple that were finished since last year that I was anxious to display.
This piece was one that took me a good deal of time to finish.  I had it all the way up to the borders and decided to meander them.  I am not a free motion quilter, so that chore demanded a good deal of effort to get it done.  Funny, while I still don't think I did a very good job of it, once a couple feet away it looks pretty good.   
I had this piece quilted by Rachel of Stitch in Color.  She and her family have since moved to the Netherlands.  I really like it and think it screams spring time.  
Vines and Berries is done.  I quilted it by stitching in all the fern stems and some vines in the leaves.  Lots of threads pulled to the back and buried in the batting, but I love the results.  

I also finished up my Sequoia Sampler, well at least I though it was done last Wednesday afternoon.  Then I looked at the bottom border of half square triangles.  Yeah, I sewed them on up side down.  So Wednesday night I picked out the stitches and sewed it Thursday morning back on again properly. 
 Much better, now to get a back made and start quilting it.  
My youngest grandson Ben had a bit of company at pool side.  Colonel Sanders decided to join him relaxing on one of the pool lounges.  

Monday, May 18, 2020

WILLIAM MORRIS A NEW PROJECT

OK, I have finished several UFO's, still have lots left, but I am interested in a new project for a bit of a change.
I ordered some fabric about a week ago.  It is William Morris  themed.  I have always loved the old ornate appliqué pieces and this fabric just grabbed me up and said I had to start a project with it.  
It included some light prints.
I had some background prints as well, I think the middle one is my favorite.
And a couple more prints from my stash.  Not sure about the center one on these prints, but you can never tell until you get into a project what might work.  
So I dug this book out of the closet and I am thinking to start a small wall hanging project.  
I have my quilting buddy all ready to give me a hand.  She has a nice cushy dog bed on the other side of the room, but she often prefers to settle in on one of the unfinished projects.  For some reason this particular item has caught her fancy.
This is my youngest daughter, the one with all the chickens, peacocks and ducks.  Her husband asked her what she would like for Mother's Day.  A flame thrower, go figure!  Weed control out in the country, and her farmer neighbor told her it is much better than spraying weed killer.  She says it works great, and much easier and faster than spraying too.   

Monday, May 11, 2020

APPLIQUES TIMES THREE

This past week has been filled with hours and hours of appliqués on three different projects.  
I spent some time doing the machine appliqué on my Sequoia Sampler project and also adding one of the side appliqués as well.  Unfortunately I needed a couple more Rayon 40wt thread colors to finish some of the blooms.  So I have ordered them online from Sulky and this project is now on hold waiting for their delivery. 


I pulled out my Berry and Vines runner project and began adding the second half of the fused appliqués.  This project had been set aside for a bit.  
Well I got this far and ran out of Steam a Seam, it has been ordered from Amazon and should be here some time this week.   
I must be in an appliqué mood, so I dug around and found this UFO treasure.  Fortunately I had not only save all the prepared fused appliqués, but the thread and bobbins were in the box with it ready to go. 
I have finished adding all the holly leaves, and still have a couple more berries to add.  If I can finish them off now, I could actually get this runner sandwiched, quilted, and bound.  Another old UFO done!!!!
Some of you might remember my daughter's mother duck and her 13 babies.  Well, they have grown up a good deal in these last couple of weeks.  Here they are, all 13 of them, out and about in the afternoon picnicking on the patio lawn.  
   

Monday, May 4, 2020

SEQUOIA SAMPLER REMIX

This week I have worked very diligently getting my Remix piece further along.  I did have to take a full day to make more masks for my son in law's employees.  I am really out of the mood for making them.  This last set has me easily over 40 completed.  So this last day or two I have been able to get busy with my other projects.
The blocks are all done and I have a good start on the appliqués.  It still has 44 half square triangles that will be the border all the way around it.  Plus there will be additional vines, blooms, and leaves in the strips on the upper left and lower right of the center appliqué.
There are still a few additional vines to add, a number of leaves, and it looks like a bloom is missing.  Then lots of hand appliqué to do.  
This past week I finished the quilting on this very old UFO.  I do have a problem; I failed to set aside any fabric for the binding.  I have turned my stash up side down looking for any one of the green or even the grey fabric with no results.  Once the quilting store opens up I guess it will be a search, or I will have to face it instead of binding it.  
The entire top is straight line quilted, but I got silly and did one serpentine stitch down the cross on the largest block.  I just could not help myself.  
Fred my daughter's oldest peacock is in full flerting mood this spring.  He lost all his beautiful tail feathers  in the fall, but has regrown them this spring.
Fred's competition is these three young males, and that lovely single female standing.  She isn't interested in any one of them at all.  My daughter says she is the boss, and spends the whole day lording it over them.