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.  

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

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.   

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

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.  

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

   

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. 

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

REMIX, APPLIQUE, AND DRESDENS

I must admit that going into the 7th week of being confined to the home front has begun to have me less and less in the sewing studio.  Is too much of a good thing, not good?  I have had to get a bit creative to get me interested in spending much time there.

I finally pulled out some fabric purchased in New Zealand on a trip there in  February 2018, and added some light prints from my stash.  I purchased a pattern, Sequoia Sampler Remix by Alex Anderson.  Nice little 6" blocks.  It is a bit of fun mixing and matching to add a block or two each day.

The piece is small, only 36 by 42 inches, and in the end will include some appliqué work.

Speaking of appliqué, with all this time on my hands I have finally decided to seriously work on perfecting my turned under edge appliqué prep.  It has always been a struggle for me and since I have so much time on my hands it seemed a good time to master it at last.  

I am using Floriani Stitch N Wash Fusible Water Soluble Tearaway and turning the edges over with glue sticks and using an old 2008 book by Barb Adams & Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs call When the Cold Wind Blows.  Don't hold me to ever getting a quilt done, I'll start with baby steps like maybe one block done.  

On the bright side I finished a long overdue UFO runner this week.  

I quilted the Dresdens with a circular pattern and the background with straight stitching. 

With the spring weather I spotted some pretty purple flowers in the herb planters.  They turned out to be the chives going to seed.  Never the less they are pretty.

As some of you might recall my daughter's duck hatched 13 little ducklings last week.  Well it appears that motherhood seemed a bit hectic this week and she resorted to sending her brood over to the neighbors for a bit of a rest.  She got tired of watching them, so sent them next door to Colonel Sanders to watch for a bit.  They were just small enough to pop through the fence and he is a very good baby sitter.

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

  

CHRISTMAS FINISHES

With lots of time on our hands these days I found that I am doing a really good job in catching up with UFO's long overdue for finishing.

This Christmas runner has been waiting for quilting since mid year 2018.

I actually made two, one for me and one for my youngest daughter. This 4 tree runner I quilted with metallic silver and gold thread.  It is a bit of a pain to work with so the 3 tree runner I just used regular cotton thread.  

I treated myself to an extension table for my Bernina 750.  It is wonderful when quilting items to have all that nice extra flat area.

My daughter went to check on her lady duck to see what was going on with her egg sitting.  She said she was pleased to see one new duckling.  Well at that point she decided it best to move her into a fenced in area for her safety and discovered things were much more interesting than one little one.  

Oh my, 13 of them.  Plus one more egg, however that egg is not a duck egg.  She said she noticed one of her hens wondered in there one day while she was feeding lady duck and laid an egg.  She left it there, not wanting to disturb the nest.  She said if it hatches this coming week, mother duck may be fostering a chicken left by that lazy hen. 

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

MASKS FOR THE GUYS

Like so many of us that are able to sew I have been making face masks for my daughter.  She works in a rehab facility and they ran out of face masks.  The first week I made 10 for her.  Six of them were florals, which she picked up the first day.  She mentioned several of her male workers wished they had some manly ones, the the last four were made from some Star Wars fabric I had stashed away.  

She sent me this picture of them with their new masks.  I have continued to make a few more.  Here in California we have been instructed to now wear masks if we must go out and to limit it to only absolute necessary trips.  So I made a few more for my daughter and ourselves.  

When I made the ones for my daughter she requested a pocket to put a filter in.  

Elastic is no longer available so I ended up using large thick hair bands.  They work really well.  These additional four were made are as much neutral gender fabric I could find in my stash.  

Ginger our Yorkshire Terrior our only pet unlike my daughter with multiples has felt a bit left out of the blog thing lately.  She thinks she is quite the hunter and showed off for a photo of her latest stuffed toy kill.  Our house is littered with her stuffed toys which she races around the house with showing us what a good varmit hunter she is.   

My daughter said her husband was complaining about their TV reception the other day.  She didn't think about it much but one afternoon while out side she discovered the possible reason for the issue.  Time to clip the wings on those peacocks before he rings their necks. 

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

CURB APPLEAL AND A TILDA FINISH

I must say that being stuck in the house has improved the situation with my UFO's over the last couple of weeks.  If one can't get out and about to guild meetings, charity quilt sew ins, and only out to the grocery store when the cupboards are bare you can get a good deal done in the sewing room. 

My Curb Appeal quilt top is well on its way.  I have two more row to go.  It has been sitting around with just the blocks complete for a couple months now.  

I finished the top of my Tilda quilt this past week as well.  This has not been a fun quilt to put the rows together.  With all those seams pressed this way and that getting everything to line up properly has been a chore.  For at least a couple months I only had two more rows to fuss with.  I would pick them up then stash them out of site.  Given all the time stuck in the house with nothing but time on my hands I finally decided I should tackle it.  It is a relief to have it done.  

There was a bright spot this past week.  I receive my monthly box mailing from Quilty Box.  This is such a fun thing to get in the mail each month and now more than ever.  Shopping in our area for other than groceries and truly necessary shopping is discouraged.  Our governor probably doesn't consider the quilt store a necessity.

Along with the 16 fat eights they supplied a great pattern, thread, and a mini rotary cutter.

Plus these great templates and a book full of patterns and instructions for making something with that wonderful fabric.   Now that certainly brightens the day.  

Now I know that a number of you are fans of my daughter's chickens.  These ladies have been very busy.  My daughter is collecting a good dozen eggs and more every day.  Lovely brown, pale green, and some almost pink.  Husband and I along with all her coworkers and neighbors are glad recipients.  She said as long as no one has started slamming the door in her face when she shows up with another carton of eggs all is well.  Spring is in the air now so starting her garden is looking good.  She can then add tomatoes and squash to the deliveries this summer. 

Design Wall Monday

Mid Week Makers

Confessions of a Fabric Addict