To Grandmother's House We Go wall hanging

Thought I would share with all of you, the slow progress being made on my hand embroidery from the To Grandmother's House We Go wall hanging.  I started this a while back and I take this with me, as my grab and go project, if I don't have anything else on the go.  It has taken a back seat to many hand projects along the way.  Since I recently finished my required appliqué block for January, and watching my daughter progress on hers, I just had to take this one out for a bit.

This section I am working on, is one of three that require handwork.  The rest of the wall hanging has pieced blocks, which I have completed already.  This is where I started, since the last time I posted about this wall hanging. 

Here is the progress I've made recently.  It's a nice chunk that I've completed.  I can now say that I am a quarter of the way done this section.  Whoohoo!!  That makes me happy.

I'm going to leave this section out for a bit.  I'm going to see if I can spare some time to work on it here and there.  Though my priority will still be, my list of required blocks.  

In the evenings, I like to shut things down in the studio, and head upstairs for some quiet time, to relax and settle down before bed.  I've been doing a fair amount of reading lately, but I could consider doing some of this instead.....maybe.  I do really want to get this one done soon......but then again, I really want to get every one of the quilts on my list done too.....LOL.  So much to do and so little time....  

Take care everyone.

Smith Mountain Morning

I've been sick for the last few days, so haven't been doing any sewing.  Thank goodness for friends who do quilting and allow me to share their progress!  This is one of the ladies from out Saturday sewing group.  We all try to meet up once a month.  Four of us in the group are working on Bonnie Hunter's Smith Mountain Morning quilt.  

This person is doing hers in different shades of blue and coral.  The last time we were all together, she managed to finish sewing all of her remaining blocks.  Hurray!!  What an accomplishment!  I am still working on mine.....and have a long way to go still.....lol.....but I will get there.

She went home that day and sent us a picture of it all laid out on her design wall.  The true colours are the picture above.  Goes to show you how different settings and devices, can affect the quality and colours of the objects.  It looks so pretty.  I love how the two blocks come together and make a secondary design.  It looks like the blocks are on point, but they're not.

The maker was so excited with the progress of her quilt, that she already has the border blocks done and starting to sew them onto her quilt top.  She can't hold herself back.....LOL!!  

One of the other ladies has really made some headway too.  She has almost all of her blocks done.  I am not sure about the third person and how far she has gotten along.  I know I got a text to help explain one of the blocks and construction, but no pictures of what her progress has been.  I'll just have to wait and see when we get together again later this month.  

As for me, mine is going to be King size, so I still have about 70 more blocks to make.  My colourway is dark blue and chocolate brown.  I've done all the brown stars, started on the blue stars and some of the courthouse step variation blocks, that Bonnie calls chimney blocks. These blocks are on my list of required blocks to make weekly.  If I keep up with my list, these will all be done by end of May.

Take care everyone.

Star appliqué block in progress

As I was writing my post yesturday, about finishing the Gathering Flowers appliqué block, I realized that I hadn't share this block with you.  I started this a couple of weeks ago, during the winter break, when I needed to sit with my cup of tea to relax some.  

This is a block from the Welcome to the North Pole quilt.  There are three stars to this appliqué block.  I have one and a half done.  I am looking at maybe tonight, after work and getting all the domestic stuff out of the way, sitting and doing the rest of this small block.  I am not going to stress about it, but I think I should be able to manage it.

You'll have to excuse the clarity of the picture.  These dark blue backgrounds don't turn out well when I take the photo at night.  I don't have any fancy lighting equipment, so it is what it is.  When I finish it, I'll wait until daylight to snap a shot.

Take care everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend.

Saturday sewing

Yesturday, I woke up with the desire to do some sewing and that is exactly what I did.  More and more I try not to pre-plan my leisure days.  I find I get more enjoyment out of it.  Just going with the flow.  I know there are a lot of things to do, but there are really no particular deadlines.  I have the whole year ahead of me to work on reducing my list down to only ten items.  I still have to share my year end progress, but that will be another post.

When I went down to the studio, I bypassed the longarm and the quilting I am doing there, to sit for a bit with my tea and look at my list of Works in Progress.  There were a hand full of things that I kind of felt like I wanted to advance on.  Then I look up from my chair on the side and see my sewing space surrounded by a bunch of projects.  What to do, what to do.....

Instead of just straightening things up and putting it all away, to be forgotten again for a while, I thought to my self, what is the worst of the mess.  What can I do or finish, that would make the biggest impact, while moving forward, instead of packing it away.  

I was seeing red!  Literally, not in the bad sense of the phrase.  The burgundy and sand star quilt was taking over my sewing table, my cutting table and the ironing station.  So.....I had my answer.  I haven't made much more progress on this quilt, I just didn't put it away from the last time I worked on it.  At this point, I had to still cut the majority of the beige fabrics, which is what was occupying the cutting board and ironing station.  

Mess control....I sorted the small burgundy scraps to one side, for when I can use smaller pieces on the string blocks.  I took out a medium paper back with handles and dumped all the larger burgundy strings in there.  That alone made a big difference.  By this time I am feeling better and start evaluating what needs to be cut, so that I can finally put away the beige fabric.

I started by cutting all the star points and put them aside in sets of four for each block.  As I already had some string blocks made for the center of the star points, I decided to take a break and sew the two sets.  Then I moved on to the cutting all the pieces I needed for the hourglass units, and again decided to stitch those ones up too.  Time was moving along quickly, but I was content in what I was doing and taking my time to enjoy the process.

After a very late lunch/tea break, I came back down to the studio and started cutting the last of the beige.  I cut out all the small squares needed for the nine patch units that are in the alternate block.  That as well took me quite a while, as if you remember, I am literally using my scraps, not yardage, so all the cutting takes longer.  It took me a couple of hours alone to cut the 204 square I needed.  It's all done!!

I took another hour to sort them all out with the three beige blocks first into sixty-eight piles, followed by sorting all the burgundy squares.  I needed six of these per pile.  These are all ready now to start sewing the units, but by this time it was time to go make dinner.  That morning, I had decided that I was going to have a movie night.  So this is where these piles are still at this morning.  I will need to sort these piles in groups of four to make seventeen blocks in total.

I did get my movie night.  I enjoyed my day and decided to continue with relaxation.  I put on an old movie that I hadn't watched in a long time and pulled out my handwork.  I am glad to say that during the two hour movie, I was able to finish the last two flowers needed on the Gathering Flowers block.  Whoohoo!!  Another one done!

This was so satisfying.  Working on the burgundy and sand quilt allowed me to get some progress on the blocks and now my cutting table and ironing station are cleared off.  The burgundies are organized and contained.  Plus, I get to check off my required appliqué block for January.  All in all a very successful day!

I haven't decided what I am going to do today, but I am thinking of seeing what I am inspired to do when I get down there, and let things just flow....no stress, no sweat....just enjoying the process.

Take care everyone.

Moving ahead

Yesturday after work, I finally got some sewing time in.  It felt good!  I caught up on my last two pieced required blocks like the two snail's trails blocks.  Just have to trim them and remove the paper. 

And the four Smith Mountain Morning blocks.  This time I chose some blue stars.

But what I am most happy about, is the fact that I went back and pulled out nine of the Omigosh blocks and completed them.  Whoohoo!!

These are nice and easy blocks to put together, especially since the units are already made.  If you look at the chart, you may guess why I wanted to get these done.  I wanted to work on my one Rhododendron Trail blocks and the one Omigosh blocks together.  Like each one being the leader/ender of the other.  I knew though that as there were more Omigosh blocks I'd be left with more of them later.  So, just to motivate me, I decided lets do them!!  It was also nice working with these soft cheerful colours of the 30s/40s fabrics.  According to the chart, I now only have fourteen blocks of each left to do.

I haven't decided what I am doing today just yet.  I think I'll play it by ear and see what I am inspired to do.  I know I'd like to work on the two appliqué blocks on my list and I'd also like to move along on the quilting of the Tiny Town wall hanging, plus..., plus..., plus...!!  LOL!  So many things I'd like to work on and only so many hours in the day.....

Take care everyone.  Enjoy your weekend.

Quilting my Tiny Town appliqué quilt

I've decided not to wait until it is all done, to share this quilt with you all.  There are going to be a bunch of close up pictures of the blocks on this quilt, so I will need to break it up into two separate posts.  Here is a refresher on what quilt I am quilting.  This is Tiny Town.  It is all appliqué.

Just know that this is only the first pass.  What I am doing first is securing the layers by quilting the edges and the blocks all in the ditch.   Then before advancing, I am quilting the backgrounds.  I will be going back to do a second pass, to quilt the actual appliqué pieces and the borders on my way back up.

This is one of the beginning blocks.  This one I didn't quite get the shadows right, to show off the quilting, but you will see a corner of this block in the next picture, for a closer look.  You can also enlarge the picture to get a better look at how I stitched it.  

I am trying to come up with quilting motifs that use the fabric's designs to direct where and what the quilting will be.  In the above block, I followed the lines and did a boxed zig zag in the background, with the two side strip's lines to follow the stripes.  In the block below, I used the dots, or should I say the space between the dots to make a cross hatch, without having to mark my lines.  There are nine dots per full block.  Then for the second half of the block, I just did a squiggly line between the squiggly motif of the fabric. 

For this next block, I decided to also use the dots to direct where I was going to quilt.  These dots are further apart, so it looks like I've made rows.  I picked a centre point and quilted lines in a chevron from all four sides, meeting but not touching at the centre point.  Though the house in the block hides the path a bit.  I thought it looked cute, and different from what I've done so far.

As you can see, each of these backgrounds are different and they are each quilted differently.  I have more different backgrounds and they are all spread out across the quilt.  I plan on using the same quilting design for each of the blocks with the same background.  This way it will be equally distributed across the quilt.

I've already completed three "rows", though they are not technically "rows".  Blocks are assembled in sections and some sections are higher or lower then others.  I have approximately two more "rows" to do, to finish the ditch and background quilting.

I am liking how it is turning out so far and I am actually having fun doing it.  I just have to do it in blocks of time, as it's a bit more intense quilting.  Most of these lines are only 1/2" apart.  That's why it is taking sooooo long!

Take care everyone.

Just touching base

I can't believe it is already the end of the day Wednesday!  Where did the time go.  Monday was a running around evening after work, taking care of household stuff.  Tuesday my daughter was here so I spent some time with her, as we made dinner and such, and today we are now Wednesday.  Already!!

Sometimes, try as you might, but nothing gets done.  This week is shaping up to be one of them.  On Sunday evening, before heading up, to reading a book I got for Christmas, I did manager to get my required block for the Rhododendron quilt, plus an extra one and the Omigosh quilt block, plus and extra one.  These are up to date and I'm hoping to get them done a bit sooner.

Saturday and Sunday I was doing some custom quilting on my large wall hanging.  The appliqué one that I started back in Jan/2015.  It was a BOM so I finished the top on Nov 22/2015, called Finished my Tiny Town quilt top, if you want to read more about it.  I'll share more progress on the quilting with you when I have it done.  Likely won't get to it again until the weekend.

Just giving you a heads up.  My posts may be shorter or more sporadic for a bit.  I am trying to get into the rhythm of things, as my work load increases, things at home are needing a bit more attention, and I find I need a bit more down time.  Balance.....remember?  I am trying to figure it all out.  Plus, I don't want to bore you all with the same few "required" blocks.

I'll try to vary it up some, but stuff like custom quilting, takes a lot of time, so while I am doing that, there's not much I can share on the blog.

Take care everyone.