Sampler Quilting

 

 

I finished quilting my sampler blocks, got them joined together, and now I'm quilting the sashing between the blocks.  I have 3 done and 37 to go, so that will take a while, but I do want to get it finished.

 

I started this quilt in 1986, and it's been on hold for a long time.  It's all hand pieced and hand quilted.  Believe it or not, I actually have quilts older than that I haven't finished.  One at a time is my new motto.  I still need borders on this, but I'm not sure what kind or if any at this point--we'll see.  It's about 82 inches square now.  I know the names of all the blocks except one.  The first one on the left, on row two from the top is my mystery block.

 

From the top left: Row one: Drunkards path, Storm at sea, Honey bee, and Churn dash.  

Row two: MYSTERY BLOCK, Order number 11, Ohio star, and Star and crescent. 

Row three:  Dresden plate, Turkey tracks, Tulip wheel, and Bear's paw. 

Row four:  Eight point star, Stamp baskets, Grandmother's flower garden, and Double nine patch.



"Thimble, Thimble, Who's Got The Thimble?"

If you're an old person, like me, you may remember that game.  We used to play it as kids--our Mom taught us how, and I think she enjoyed it as much as we did.

 

Well, I have a new purchase.......A Thimble I've been wanting for a while.  I started quilting on my red bag again, and I like how the new thimble works.  It's easier, although it is taking a little time to get used to quilting from a different angle.  It's also faster---yeah! 

 

 

I also finished tea towel #6, and...........

 

tea towel #7 in the tree series.

Two more to go.

 



I'M BACK, Maybe

Well, well, well.  I think my blog is going to let me post----Yeah!!!!  I just grabbed an old pic to see if it might happen.  I hope I can keep doing it.

Apple Core Adventure

My Apple core Table Runner is finished except for the label.  I took 2 days to assemble the backing, layer, baste, machine quilt, and bind this quilt.  I finished the binding last night in bed just before midnight. It's my Americana Table  Runner.  I also have an Apple core Flag I finished earlier this year.  The last of my Apple core projects is a bag---it's ready to quilt, then I can make the bag.

I started this adventure on July 1st last year.

I posted about it here: apple core runner.

It's nice to have another UFO done. I can strike two UFOs off my list for June and now, the fourth of July.  By the way, Happy Fourth.  We have nice family plans for today which include making my MIL's potato salad, and BBQ burgers on my part, and of course fireworks.


I have a Finish!!!!

Checkerberry Bliss is finished---Yea!  I put the binding on today, along with a little weed pulling, exercising at the gym and running errands--(Mailing Jen her present, and picking up my BP meds).

I started this quilt in November of 2010.  One UFO down, and about 10 to go.  I'm not sure which UFO I will work on next.  Maybe my Applecores I started a year ago. 

Here's a slightly distorted view of the quilt on the line.  I should have squatted a little so it wouldn't like it is larger at the top.

This will be nice to snuggle up under with my hubby when we are chilly.  The back side is flannel which will be even warmer.

For some reason the black in the picture looks washed out--it's much darker than that.

I think I will throw it in the washing machine now that the pics have been taken.  Next I need to go fix supper: Grilled chicken, Steamed Broccoli, and Fried Sweet potatoes is the plan.

Sore Fingers

I've been sewing and quilting.  This is the apron I made for our oldest daughter for her birthday.

I need Erin to come over and model it, but the floor will have to do.  Now I need to send it to Jen.

  I finished hand quilting "Checkerberry Bliss", and now it's ready to bind.  It took me a month to quilt it by hand.  When I finished my fingers were so sore that it hurt to fix supper.  I guess I'll have to quit fixing supper--ha-ha!  I don't think hubby would care for that idea at all.

PS.  Erin came over so I put her to modeling.

Quilting The "Bliss"

I'm working on one of my UFO projects--Checkerberry Bliss.  I'm hand quilting it---eeeeeek----that may take a while.  The way I figure it, I'll start quilting the center area, and see how that goes, then when I get to the fancy borders, I may just keep hand quilting, or I may want to machine quilt them.

Right now I'm enjoying the process, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Sooooo........I'm back to bending needles again.  Wa-hoo!

Below is the pic I was going to add to the last post--this one took 2 1/2 minutes to upload, which is better, but still too long.  I'm not sure, but I think they've been messing with Blogger again--I know the image upload window is different, and it's worse.  Sheeeeh!

Anyway this is the other end of my sewing goodie basket--odds and ends.  It doesn't look as organized as I'd like, but that will come.  At least I have most of my gadgets together in one place now.  Needles, chalk markers, quilting gloves, pin cushions, bobbins, etc....I know they're all in there somewhere.

It really is nice to have it altogether in one place now.

I Have A Finish

My flag quilt is finished, and it's not even July---I can't believe it.

It sure didn't take as long as I expected--I think I'm addicted to handwork.  I sure enjoyed it anyway.  Now what?  Maybe I will work on my apple core table runner; it needs to be quilted and bound.



I Call Myself NEEDLEBENDER For A Reason

I've decided to hand quilt this small project.

It's been a while since I've hand quilted, and it won't take long.  I've almost forgotten how.  I had to get a new thimble; I needed one that wouldn't fall off all the time, and it's working a little better than the other one.

 I also got some new needles, but I went back to the longer, stronger needle, because I'm quilting in the ditch, and that means I quilt through many layers when I get the the corner seams.

I might give the size 10 needles a try with a different project.  The lady at the quilting store said she has used these size 10 needles on a queen size quilt and is still using the same needle that she started with. 

 I had the size 10 needle bent in about 15 minutes of quilting---hence the name NEEDLEBENDER.  If I weren't quilting in the ditch that might not happen.  I'll give it another try on something else.

The Red, White, And Blue

Another hand pieced apple core project completely pieced.  Now, I need to do some serious quilting.

Seventy apple cores leftover from my table runner project makes up this flag.  Hopefully, I will complete the quilting and binding before July--that would be nice :p

I am going to be lost without handwork, but I don't want to hand quilt it, because this is a dry run on what kind of machine quilting I want to do on my apple core runner.  Maybe, I can make some more Cicada bags by hand--Ha-ha!



Snow and Apple Cores

A cold front moved in last night and brought us a skiff of snow.

My poinsettia is still looking good and cheery--(that's why my hubby bought it back in December).  He wanted more color around here, and now we have color. 

On another note, I'm finished piecing my never-ending-apple-cores,  Yeah!  I just need to join the last two big sections together, which won't take long.

This is a long, and pretty wide table runner.  Next I will iron it, and then baste it to batting and backing to get it ready for quilting on the machine.

I see some cores I would like to move, but they are staying where they are.  Period.  You don't really notice it except in a picture--Why is that?

I have enough pieces left for a flag wall quilt, and something else small--Wow, they are never-ending!

Fall Ball Games

We been watching a lot of ball games lately.  Friday night my nephew had a football game.  He's a Running Back and he carried the ball quite a bit.  The crowd was cheering him with "Great Scott!"---His name is Scott.  He made quite a lot of yards.  I think the score was our 56 to Marshfield's 6.

We've also been staying up late to watch the World Series--"GO CARDS!"  I think it is starting to catch up to me.  I fell asleep yesterday afternoon on the couch, and it took my hubby's banging around to wake me up--That's not like me.

We had a fire last night since there was no game, boy it sure gets dark early now.

I worked on my apple cores until it was too dark to see.  I'm on row 23 now.  Yea!

Patience Is A Virtue

I'm still working on my apple cores, and I'm about to finish row 20.  That means I'm 2/3 done piecing them.  It will be so nice to finish this, and move on to something a little faster.

I'm improving in my hand piecing.  My stitches are a little smaller, and I learned a new finishing knot.  My eyeing the 1/4 inch seams is getting better, and I'm faster at it.  If you want to learn how to do something well you need to just jump into a project that might be a little challenging.  You just improve with practice.  I learned how to enjoy using a thimble when I English Paper Pieced my hexagon quilt.  I think when you do something well you enjoy it more.

At first it was drudgery working on this, and now I'm starting to enjoy it a little more.  I like the stitching; it's the constant pinning that's not so enjoyble because it's so slow. I will still be glad to do a machine stitched project because it will be faster.  Finishes are fun.  Maybe patience is something I'm needing here.



Movin', Movin', Movin'

Keep them doggies movin', Apple cores. 

(I just felt a song comin' on---ya know, the song, Rawhide?) 

Just about halfway there, now.  Fifteen rows are halfway, and then fifteen more rows.

I'm almost done stitching row 14 on---Wahoo!  I'm not really enjoying this project as much as I thought I would, because of the curved piecing, but I will love it when it's time to quilt it.  I think I'm going to quilt it by machine, cause I need it to speed up a little bit...I need a finish.  I'm not sure how I want it quilted yet, maybe a diagonal S-curve across the blocks.

It's been pretty nice the last couple of days--upper 80's for the highs, but I think today it's going back up close to 100 degrees for a few days--Uck! 

I'm glad I don't live in Texas, they've really got it bad.

Oops!

The good news is, I made three more rows of apple cores---Yea!

I've been trying hard to make sure I get the first apple core turned the right direction so the row will line up with the one just finished.  Oops!  I needed row ten to go the other direction, so now I am working on a row to fit in between the two.  The others fit okay, so one row is all I need to fix the problem.  I will just need to renumber the rows

I keep a number pinned to the left side of each row so I will know how to join my rows when I'm ready to do that.  The new row will be row No. 10, then these will be rows No. 11, 12, and 13.

I lay out my new rows so they look pleasing to my eye then gather them up in order with the left apple core on on top, then give them a row number, and pin them together.  Who knew it would be this complicated.  Things are never as simple as you think they will be, but it's really not that hard unless you mess up.  I think maybe I need to draw an arrow on my labels, so I don't do this again.

Craft Day, and Pink flowers

Today is craft day at my sister Alice's house, where I plan to work on this poor forsaken project.  Curves in a hand piece project makes slow work, but I need to get going on it again.

I love pink flowers, can ya tell?

Magic  Lily here--or as my MIL calls them, "Naked Ladies"...

(sorry, fogged lens, and no flash with a flash setting)

Hollyhocks...

Zinnias...

Spider flower, or Cleome...

Gladiolas...

more Hollyhocks...

and a porch full of pink.