The Quilt Has Crossed the Pond

Today I received an email from my cousin in England below is what she wrote.  This was nice to receive before going to work.

Wow Mary



The parcel has arrived this morning. Thank you so much. Michael thinks I am a very lucky girl! The book and sea turtle all arrived safely.

I have been walking around the house trying to find the best place to display the quilt. Probable place is on the stair landing. We shall see. Picture will be taken to send to you.

Thank you, thank you.


Much love from your cousin Sue. xxxxx

I think she likes it!!
Now I can unveil the label.

I did the flower design with my machine using the same variegated thread I used for the quilting of the borders. 

Fresh Picked Flowers is Done!

Yes my quilt for my cousin is all finished!!  The label is on, I even sewed it on by hand.  I usually just fuse them on, but this is a special quilt so I designed the label and I sewed it on by hand. 

These pictures aren't the best but I already have the quilt wrapped and packed to be mailed tomorrow.  I am not sure how long it will take to get to England but I am sure I will hear when it arrives.

I love the cute little tags I found to insert between the seam and binding. I found the cute little tags on Saturday when the binding was completed.  I ripped out some of the stitches to insert the tab. It says PS I Love You.  I have covered the label so if my cousin looks at my blog, she won't see it, I mean she should have some little surprise.  I am not a very good secret keeper am I? 

Happy Stitching!

Fresh Picked Flowers

This was a quiet and restful weekend lots of at home time and I accomplished a lot. 

First I basted the quilt.  Of course I had to move my cutting table away from the wall to baste it but it works real well. 

Here is a close up of the quilting.  I quilted all the white triangles with a free motion fuller design on Saturday.

Today I quilted the boarders with a pastel variegated thread and in a free motion loop de loop design.  The binding is on and one and 1/4 edges is sewed down.  I feel so good to have this project to this point.  It was nice to sit and do some hand sewing today!

Isn't my backing fun!  My back seldom match my fronts.

I also sewed three pairs of the Double Irish Chain blocks together.

Happy Stitching!!

Quilting Update

Well I have done some sewing and some more Family History scrapbook pages in the last two weeks. I put the scrapbooking away for a few days. I usually go to quilt camp the weekend after Labor Day but I wasn't able to go this year.  Long story and I am not going there.  So I decided that this Saturday, Sunday & Monday I would get as much sewing down as possible. 

First I need to catch you up what I finished last week. 
I finished appliqueing the scallops down on the fourth border of Fresh Picked Flowers.  It is all nicely pressed.  Now I am thinking of how to quilt it.  I think my idea is to do something in each white area so the flowers and colored areas pop more.  We shall see.  I hope to work on that on Monday.  No picture because it won't look at lot different then what you have seen.



Almost empty box of Yo-Yos

I also tacked down all the small Yo-Yos I had finished and started making more.  I didn't get far, I only made 5 more.  I think I need to put the Yo-Yos away for awhile and work on finishing Fresh Flowers and Kierra's Double Irish Chain quilt.  I have to make more blocks to finish off those large Yo-Yos but I am not making more blocks until these are finished.


Yo-Yo blocks



Yo - Yo Tally:

25 Blocks finished

9 partially done

Saturday I started our daughter's and her husband's new quilt.  She loved the black and red one I made for her when she was 15, She wanted black and red again this time, and the same pattern was fine.  We did add a third color.  I cut a lot of my strips yesterday and started making Block A.  Today I was bored with Block A and started some Block B.  Just to mix things up a bit. 



Double Irish Chain



I placed some blocks up on the design wall to see how they are going to look. The piles of blocks are on the ironing board.  In front are my mock up for making my strip sets.  I think it is going to look very nice. 



More Sewing

During the last week I was able to do some sewing. Work has been very busy and I've worked some extra-long days so I didn't have a lot of energy to do a lot of sewing.

Appliqued Scallops

I have started to appliqué the scallops down on the Fresh Picked Flowers quilt. This is the most machine appliqué I have done with my new machine. Of course with any new machine there is a little adjustment time and a little troubleshooting time. On Sunday evening I broken needle and of course the tip fell down into the machine. I took the needle plate off to try and find the tip. I never found it. So I put everything back together again and tried to sew and then my fabric wouldn't move. I repositioned everything and tried again and still no luck my fabric wouldn't move. So I took off the plate again and much to my surprise I found a nest of thread. I was able to remove all the thread and was able to sew without any more difficulty. What a relief!


Even though I have push button stop and go on my new machine I find I am more comfortable doing machine appliqué and using the foot controller. I like to be able to slow down and speed up as needed.

A Quilter needs to know her machine!

If you double click on the pictures you will see an enlarged picture.

 Sometimes when I'm sewing I have an interruption from my very favorite kitty cat companion Rosie. For some reason she likes to get between me and the machine. Here's a picture of her look at me and wanting attention. Of course she got the attention then I pushed her off my lap so I could sew.  This isn't the best picture Rosie because she is right in my face and I could not move the camera back far enough to take a good picture. She is pretty and a sweet cat.

Rosie

Yo-Yo Tally:

Here are all the Yo-Yos I have (22) finished, as of tonight, 3 with tacked on yo-yos and (10) with just centers.  No pictures this week, I will wait until the are all appliqued down.


 

What a Great Weekend!

Maybe great is a bit of a stretch but I sure enjoyed it.  It was nice to have a Saturday with out any obligations or errands to run!  So what did I do, I reorganized my sewing room just a little to make turning on my light over my chair where I do hand sewing easier to turn on.  I removed some extra wires I didn't need any more, an old extension cord and a phone cord.  I clean off some flat surfaces.  I tend to be a piler, so it is nice to see clear space again.  Then I sewed. 

I finally added the last two borders to my Fresh Picked Flowers.

Borders on Fresh Picked Flowers

I really like it now that all the borders are on.  My next step is to machine applique down those scallops.  I still haven't come up with how I am going to quilt it, but I'll leave that for another day. 

Then I pulled out my Farmer's Wife Sampler book and fabric and between Saturday and Sunday I made four blocks.  I haven't worked on this in a while and it really felt good!  I realized as I went to bed that makes my total 77 blocks, so I hit the 75 blocks completed Achiever's List!

I did also tack down Yo-Yos on two blocks!  Not pictured here.

Happy Stitching!

Quilting Update

Here are all the Yo-Yos I have (19) finished, (1) almost finished as of tonight, and (14) with just centers.  When I am up close to the design wall I think when all the blocks are done I'll have to balance the blocks for color but when I see a picture like this I think the colors look just fine.  Well I am sure I won't be able to resist moving some of those blocks around or at least twisting them around.  I need to make more Yo-Yos I am almost out of them, again.

I have also been working on my Fresh Picked Flowers.  I spent a lot of time thinking about those borders.  I had even thought of a pieced border but the design I liked wouldn't fit the size of the quilt. 

I finally have two borders on.  When I saw the sample the scallops were only one thickness of the white fabric, so you could see the border fabric through the white scallops.  I did not like the look of that.  So I decided to make the scallops double thickness.  This then caused a problem with the direction the border will be pressed because of the thickness in the seam. 

The top border has been removed once. I first centered the scallops on the border after it was together I noticed the scallops where off center to the squares. So I centered them to the squares on the bottom border and that looked better. Of course I hate ripping but it had to be done. It looks better now. I am planning on doing a decorative stitch around those scallops.

I still haven't come up with any great ideas for quilting it.  Those are thoughts for another day.

I also had a lot of fun playing in EQ7 this week, drawing blocks and learning how to rotate photos on a quilt layout.  Those basket are now going the right way.  I also scanned in my fabric I have for the setting triangles and borders.  I think it will be lovely when it is finished.

Happy Stitching!

A Little Quilting Update

Yes it is finished!

Last Saturday I did go to Zoe’s trunk to find the binding fabric that I was short on.  I didn't want to use the brown and since I could find what I wanted it all worked.  It was the last fat quarter in the store.  It is a small finish but it is a finish and it feels good.  I have it hanging on the wall by my computer. 

Still making progress on Fresh Picked Flowers for my cousin.  Pressing all those seams is a pain.  I am still thinking about how I want to do the borders.  I might do something different then the suggestion in the pattern, but I haven't played in EQ7 to work out the dimensions.  

Speaking of EQ7 I started working on my handouts for a Beyond the Basics class for the fall.  I am starting early because I have a lot to decide on what to teach.    See here is my first slide, I am reusing some of the slides from when I had a Beyond the Basics of EQ5.  To see more you have to come take the class.

I also spent some time making more Yo-Yos.  I had a bunch made and I want to make a lot more.  I am going to need a lot, I am not counting how many I will need, that would be too discouraging.

What I had made before June

Here are what I made during the last two weeks. Well 15 more is better then none.

I am trying to find different colors to add to my collection so I raided my reds and yellows and cut a bunch of squares, all ready to make more Yo-Yos.

Happy Stitching Everyone and thanks for stopping by!

 

Side Tracked Quilter

Sometimes I am a little AADD, Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.  That translates to sometimes I jump from project to project.  The last project I had started was for my cousin in England, and I did work on it but it was the thing I worked on this week. 



Jelly Stars

 I started a small project/kit that I had purchased at the quilt show in March.  I don't know why I got the bug to finish it but I did get the bug and all I have left to do is the binding.  The other small quilt that was in this same kits was the small flag quilt I made earlier this year.  You can see it on the small flag link.

The patterns are from The Bread & Butter Society.  The sponsoring quilt shop is Zoe's Trunk.

I did change the pattern a little and I made one fabric substitution.  I didn't like the brown they had for the patch block so I changed it to something I had and I liked better.  I wanted my small border to be a little wider, 1 inch instead of a 1/2".  The fabrics that was the small border was also to be the binding, so I don't have enough for the binding.  The brown I used for the patch blocks I will use for the binding.  I like how it turned out.  I just wanted a little something to quilt on my new machine.  I quilted in the ditch and straight stitching in the brown patches.  I did a design from my machine in the large outer border. 

Kierra's Double Irish Chain

The other project I started was for my daughter Kierra.  I wanted to put a couple of the blocks together to make sure she liked the fabrics she had picked out before I purchased the rest of the fabric.  Kierra knows what she likes and it is very different than from what I like, so I wanted to make sure she liked it.  She does like it!  This is very similar to the quilt I made her when she was 15.  Then it was a solid black & solid red double Irish Chain.  She has made progress and I have some texture and a third color.  I even found a picture of it stretched on a frame to baste.



1997 Quilt



The first two or three years that I quilted I scrapbooked a quilt journal.  I don't have time for that anymore.  I use my blog as a journal of my quilts.  I was able to order the fabric on line since three of my favorite shops here in the valley did not have the two I need.  The black came today but the red is on back order and should ship about the 15th of the month. 



Fresh Picked Flowers

 And finally I did work on my special project.  I have the rows together and next I will do the other seams.

I did a lot of sewing last week.  It was fun, hopefully I will do more this week.  




 

A Special Project

I have been wanting to make a quilt for my cousin in England who has been so helpful with my my mother's family line. We meet last May by email and she is a delightful person.  I have been tossing around the idea of a quilt for her for about 6 months.  First I thought I would make her something Southwest but decided that probably wouldn't be her style.  So I finally asked what she would like.  She told me she likes flowers but would cherish anything I made.  That made me feel good.  I remembered I had this simple little pattern and a kit with flowers.  I am thinking this is a perfect match!

I started laying out the charm squares, I was suppose to use on the charms included and kind of put lights with the medium shades.  I didn't think there was enough contrast, I like contrast.  On the border there was some white fabric to make a scalloped shape on the border, so I decided to use white in my blocks.  The results are above.  I do like it,  I used three different white backgrounds. I think it is going to be darling when it is finished. 

I am calling this quilt Fresh Picked Flowers.  I don't think she reads my quilting blog a lot, so I hope I am safe posting this here.  It's not a total surprise, she knows I am making her something.