Monday, October 28, 2019

QUILTING BIRDS OF A FEATHER

I finished the quilt top of my Birds of a Feather a few weeks ago.  I talked with several friends in my small group and all agreed I would have to quilt it myself.  Let's face it to take this to a quilter would drive them insane along with me and cost me a fortune as well.  If and when I quilt something myself I usually spray baste.  However, in this case I decided to take it to my quilter and have her baste it on her long arm six inches apart in a grid side to side and top to bottom.   
I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what thread to use.  My original idea was 28wt Aurifil.  Well, not all their colors come in the small spools and there will be tons of thread color changes.  So I decided on using Mettler cotton 50wt and ran into the same problem.  At last I just decided to go with the Mettler that I had in my thread stash and use Coats and Clark poly along with it, as they have such a wide range of color choices.  
So the quilting begins.  I am finding since the appliqués fill  their backgrounds so heavily that in many of the blocks I will only have to quilt the leaves and other appliqués and not have to do much outside quilting on the background.  
I am using some pretty heavy stitching in the leaves.  I thought I liked this stitch as it stands out well and has little nubs of texture.  
However, I ran into a bit of a problem with it and ended up picking them out.  I found the stitch on the brown leaf actually showed up better and was easier to control the stitch starts and stops.
This is going to take a while.  I am quilting one block at a time.  I am pretty sure with all the appliqués if I don't I will miss something. 
For those of you that are fans of my daughters chickens.  Here are two of the last ten hatched by mother hen.  Look at that fancy hairdo on the black one.  They are standing in a new coop that my 13 years old grandson made for them.  
Since the population explosion of just 4 chickens to 27 there now is a new chicken yard.  Here are some of the new chicks enjoying a larger yard.  My daughter's husband loves her very much, he hired their contractor to build the new yard.  There was a deal struck though, they no longer free roam. He said 4 chickens pooping on the patio was one thing, but 27 was a way too much.   



Monday, October 21, 2019

SHOPPING SPREES AT PIQF

Once a year in October my guild offers a bus trip to Santa Clara, California for the Pacific International Quilt Festival.  A full day 10am till 6pm of quilts and shopping.  
So many wonderful ideas.  This piece was really lovely.
This close up of a lily pond reminds me that I have a UFO in my closet that needs attention.  I love the thread work on this.  



And wonderful ideas for trees.

Now shopping is a close runner up to a perfect day.  I have ideas for these Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  
Now I know these don't necessarily make one drool over them.  However, these top stitch sewing machine needles by Superior are a must for me, especially for machine appliqué.

And last but not least are some white Batiks for my Dogwood project and my favorite white backgrounds.  I do like white backgrounds but not solids, so these last three finds were a perfect addition to my white fabrics stash. 

Monday, October 14, 2019

VINE AND BERRIES PLUS

Another project that has sat too long in the UFO pile.  Time to get busy with this stuff.  
Lot of appliqué in all sorts of color of rayon thread.  Glad I stocked up when they had it on sale at JoAnn's a while back.
Lots of progress on the Hidden Treasure appliqués.  
 Now only two sides to go.  It has been interesting without the original pattern to figure out a layout of the appliqué pieces, but so far things are going pretty well.
I have added another tree to my hand appliqué project.  
And another house.
I got a bit tired of green trees and decided on a flowering tree.
And as I am feeling much more accomplished with appliqués I have decided to go back to this pattern from a class I took last year.  
Not much of a start.  I found that somewhere along the line I used my white Batiks for another project.  As I am off to Pacific International Quilts Festival next week, I"ll do some shopping there for them and get this pieces going.


Monday, October 7, 2019

PROJECTS AND MORE PROJECTS

I am finding myself with UFO projects all over the place.  But, it does seem that I am making some headway.  It is slow though!
I posted my original blog for this project here.
I have half my Tilda quilt rows now sewn together.  Putting the rows together has not been much fun.  Way to many seams that must join together properly, which has involved re-pressing seams differently than I did the first time.  
 Drummer Boy is coming along nicely.  The project has taken a lot of work to get this for.
I now have 70 blocks of the 100 I will need to start putting the top together.  
 House number two for my hand appliqué project is almost ready, just needs the window.
And the first row of my wall hanging is done and just waiting for rows two and three.  
I did take out a bit of time to purchase this rotating cutting board.  I have both a 12 inch and a 17 inch square rotating cutting boards.  I have pretty much worn a groove into the 17 inch one and the lines and numbers on the 12 inch are nearly worn off.  I find the rotating cutting boards really handy especially for the hand appliqué projects and the Drummer Boy blocks. 
And for all the fans of my daughters' chicken pets.  It seems that there has been a great deal of new members added to the family.  These two chicks were the first of mother hen hatching the rest of the eggs she is sitting on.  She is now the proud mother of 10 baby chicks.