LOTS GOING ON INCLUDING TOTAL CUTENESS

This past week I finally finished my granddaughter Suren's vest.  We have a second one ready for button holes, and the tie belt on the back.  Suren is back doing freshman orientation at the hight school where she teachers Advanced Placement and College Prep English.  So our sewing days are limited until the Christmas break.  Not sure that works as we get together and bake for a couple days during that time.  But, hopefully we can get together a couple hours over some weekends.

And yes, I know she looks like one of the students.  But this is her 5th year teaching.

I have been working on quilting my Wisteria Lane wall hanging.  Free motion quilting is not something I do, but I had no choice with this piece.  So with the encouragement of one of my quilting friends I just plowed forward and got busy.  Perfect stitching, well no, but if one steps back even 12 inches they look pretty good.  I have 4 of these blooms done and 10 more to go.  They are the most tedious compared to the leaves and vines.  They are getting easier though.

On a much easier to do project, the final panel of my Flower Pot quilt is started.  About a quarter way done with it.  The appliqués are all prepared, so now just laying down more vines and fusing on more blossoms and leaves.

A dose of total cuteness.  We stopped at our daughter's house on Friday for an introduction to her newest pet additions.  The five little yellow guys are Peking ducks and that little odd ball is a Mallard.    She saw them at the Hay and Feed store and just could not resist taking them home to add to all her chicken, duck, and peacock pets.  She only planned to buy 4, but with just two left she figured why not take all six home.  One of her chicken hens has adopted them as hers, so everyone is happy. 

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NEUTAL CHALLENGE FINISHES AND BORDERS TOO

I finished by Hot August Night guild challenge piece this week.  I am very pleased with myself.  Originally I thought to take it to my local long arm quilter, but decided to go for quilting it myself.  I was able to finish a very simple quilting of it in one afternoon.  The quilt piece was copied from my Alex Anderson neutral quilt project.  However, I doubled the size of the pattern directions.  The challenge was a neutral quilt with one pop of color, thus the bright yellow blossoms.   

 I have been working very hard to finish up the Alex Anderson neutral quilt over this past week.  I have the third border on at last.

I did modify the corners of the pattern.  I had a really tough time with the pattern layout of the vines and blossom placements and finally decided to stop the vines.  I am much happier with this adjustment of the layout over the pattern directions.  

This is the finished corners ending.  I plan to round off the corners on the quilt once I have it quilted.  I think that will make the corners softer and ease up the spacing as well.  

This is our little dog Zoey.  Early mornings the sun comes in from a small window over the fireplace and shines directly on the end of the sofa in our living room.  The perfect place to take her after breakfast sun bath and nap.    

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BACK TO THE HEAT AND THE SEWING ROOM

 It was nice to get away for a few days.  We spent 5 days at an RV park just relaxing and seeing a few local sites.  Of course one was The Quails Nest, a very nice local quilt shop.  Who could resist!

We arrived on Sunday, but first thing Monday decided to check The Quails Nest out.  I ended up picking out this layer cake.  

Just love the large prints.

Plus all the coordinating color prints.  There are 42 ten inch squares.  Now to find a fun pattern to use them in.  Any suggestions?

While shopping on Monday I saw a quilt hanging on the wall done with this pattern.  They were out of the pattern, but it was due to come in on Wednesday.  They called me and we went over again to pick it up. 

After spending some time looking at fabric for that pattern I finally decided to buy the fabric kit made up for it.  I have discovered that often buying the kits is more economical.  If one adds up all the fabric included you find that you could save about one dollar a yard and I have often still had left over fabric when done.  

So I am back home. We are back to the heat with temperatures yesterday at 101, and expect to be warmer today.  Nothing like being at home with the A/C running in my sewing room contemplating a couple new projects.

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SEW, SEW, SEW THEN HEAD FOR THE HILLS

This last week has been crazy.  We are taking a few days this week to  take off with our trailer and head for the hills to get away from the 100 degree heat.  I have been working madly on my 4 different projects and a guild Hot August Night Challenge has sucked me in so now I am trying to get that done as well.  Getting away for a few days might be just the ticket to get some down time from the sewing projects.  

I did manage to get my July BOM Garden Party Down Under blocks done.  So glad last month that I finished the 4 pieced blocks that were part of June, July, August, and September instructions.  So I only had the vase and blooms to accomplish this month. 

The Hot August Nights guild challenge was to make a neutral piece with just one Pop of Color in it.  I took the pattern from my Alex Anderson neutral quilt and double the size of the pieces.  I have the quilt top done at 36 by 36 inches. I have the first pop of color blossom on and have the second one prepared to fuse on.    Have to really get going on this as it has to be completely finished with quilting and binding by August 9th.  

Our oldest daughter's English Mastiff puppy.  Talked with her this week, Loki is now 100 pounds and obviously loves riding in the truck.

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FLOWER POT PROGRESS

I took a quick break from quilting the Wisteria Lane to work on my Flower Pot quilt this past week.  Plus I have July's BOM Garden Party Down Under block to work on to stay up to date.     

This past week I finished up the second center block.  Yes I have made some adjustment to the pattern design.  Those four corner blocks are supposed to be stars and the center piece should have had a star in it as well.  Plus the thread vines should have been bias vines.  Well, I got the center fused and appliquéd down and then realized I had forgot to tuck the vines under it first.  Mistake, NO, a design change.  

As you can see from the pattern below I made a few changes to this block as well.  

And the first long left side block all completed.  So this week I have been busy preparing the long right side block appliqués and bias vines.

I have decided that the long right side block will complete this quilt for me.  I do plan to do the 2 inch blocks border. around the four blocks.  It will complete at 62" wide by 44" long.  The pattern quilt is just too large for my wall in the dining room.  Additionally I will be out of background fabric, and also pretty low on Kaffe Fassett fabrics as well, and think that for me it is a perfect reason to finish it at that point.

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QUILTING THE WISTERIA LANE

 Wisteria Lane is a project I have been working on for years.  It has had many starts and stops for the last 7 years.  Once the project was actually completed all it needed was quilting.  Now there is where things got really iffy for me.

This was the beginning of my journey with this piece.  I posted this on my blog in July 2015.

By January 2019 I had only gotten to the point of sewing down the edges of the brick mortar and the branch vines.

In June of 2020 I actually began to get wisteria blossoms on.

I picked up the pace and by August 2020 I had leaves and about half the appliqués on.  

I worked now and again and this was my progress in December 2021.

And by January this year I had finally finished the appliqués.

Now the issue was this has to be quilted.  That means every single one of those leaves, blossoms and some of the vines under the blossoms need to be individually quilted.  Free Motion is not my friend, I just don't get it.  I belong to Chat and Sew, a quilt group that meets monthly and asked for advice.  I was encouraged by one of the ladies.  She said if I can do machine appliqué, as nicely as she believes I do, that I can quilt this piece and to get busy before I loose my nerve and never finish it.  Long arm service was out of the question, these ladies were not going to let me get away with that. 

First things first, thread.  Between a trip into my thread stash and a quick trip to JoAnn's There is not an awful lot of thread colors required.  

I started from the top and began with the leaves.  They seemed the easiest to start.  I am using my Bernina 750 with a stitch length of 1.75.  Things are going well.  I pull the top thread ends to the back and bury them in the batting.  I used a very thin 80/20 batting, and a cotton backing.  The appliqués and red background are batiks.  

Nest step the vines and branches.  So far so good.  However, I did find I had to reduce my tension and lower my stitch length to 1.60.

There was a bit of a learning curve, as I proceeded onto smaller appliqués.  

At this point the only way forward was to tackle the blossoms.  Oh yes, I can do this.  It is going to take a while, but at this point there is no looking back.  I am dedicating to at least each day, if I am able to get into the sewing room, and work a bit on this.

With success on the lavender blossoms I am on to the blue ones.  I will be using two colored threads on this one.  At this point it is just to continue down the piece and eventually get all the appliqués done and then work on the red background.  

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LOTS OF PROGRESS AND ADDING ANOTHER

This past week has been really productive.  Granddaughter, Suren and I have her first vest almost finished.  Now just to practice a couple of  button holes.  She managed on Friday to get the other three cut out along with their backs and pinned ready to start sewing the shoulder seams.  My June BOM Garden Party Down Under is finished.  So lots of time to get busy and accomplish some more on my other two projects.

June's BOM Garden Party Down Under blocks are done.  Very pleased to have finished this one off so quickly.  The best part of getting so much completed is I have been able to work on some other projects that I have going all at the same time.   

I was able to finish up the first really large panel, 18 by 42 of my Flower Pot project.  These appliqués are so much fun, and yes they are huge.  

I have a good start now on the top center block.  Lots of work left to do on these blocks, but the fabric is just so fun to work with.  

I still have the small circle appliqués to do on the right upper curved appliqué and the lower left then plan to sew on the 2 inch strips on all four sides of it.  

I got the first of the final borders on to the left side of the neutral quilt.  The right side is started then the top and bottom borders.  I have to wait to get the final four corner blossoms on when all are sewn on.  It seems to be coming together nicely.  

And yes I have ordered the kit for another project.  Our youngest daughter, the one with all the chickens, ducks, and of course those peacocks.  When I saw this kit at Intrepid Thread I just knew it was the perfect birthday gift for her 50th in January.  Plenty of time to get it done too!

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NEW ADVENTUES

This past week I embarked on a new adventure with my granddaughter.  This spring she asked if I would assist her in making a couple of vests.  We had planned to get together while she was off on spring break but that didn't happen.  Now that she is off for the summer we set up a day to work on her project.

This is the vest she wanted to duplicate.  I figured we would buy a pattern, but she says this fits really well and she likes the style.  Well, that means we have to try to make a pattern off this vest.

It took a good part of the morning, but we managed it.  I ended up using freezer paper, ironed it on to the vest parts, traced around it then added a half inch seam allowance.  

Well here it is thus far.  It fits perfectly.  There were problems, oh yes, but we muddle through and have learned a great deal in the process.  We will meet up again next week and finish it off.

Now there is a good reason for writing this all down and making some construction changes too.  She would like 3 more made.  Only thing at this point that really worries me is making button holes.  I have a really nice Bernina 750 with a great button hole maker.  I have never used it.  The fact is I have not made any clothing of any type in 25 years.  This truly is an adventure.

The good part is that we dug out my mother in laws old button tin.  I inherited it when she passed away 19 years ago.  They were a wealth of wonderful buttons.  

For you fans of my oldest daughter's English Mastiff hounds.  Liza the 3 year old and the new pup Loki.  This photo came with Loki's weigh in this week.  All 78.8 pounds of him he is a little over 7 months old now.  Liza weighs about 125 pounds, so Loki is going to be a big boy.  I gathered from the picture they are waiting for a treat.    

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JUNE GARDEN PARTY & NEUTRAL BLOSSOMS COMPLETE

 This week I have had a bit of time to work on just my Alex Anderson Neutral quilt project.  I am glad to be done with the first round of appliquéd blossoms.  Unfortunately the outside border has tons more to do, but at least I get a bit of a break this coming week from them.  

I have the top and bottom first border on as well and will get the sides on too before stashing it away for the next week or so.  Now it is off to working on the Garden Party Down Under June BOM instructions. 

June has one pieced block and one appliquéd vase, vines, and leaves block.  One look at this pieced block with all those points that had to be lined up and not cut off made be think I was not going to do it.  Not only that, but there is not just one of these pieced blocks that has to be done, but four of them one this month and one each over the next three months.  So I have decided to make a change.  Instructions tell us to make it our own and that is what I plan to do.

I got the first one done, and given that my decision was made figured I might as well just get all four done and be a bit ahead.  I am pleased with the results.  I plan to finish the next two as well, then tackle the appliquéd block later this week.  

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