Still Embroidering

Working with hand work is a good way to unwind and relax in the evenings. Lately I have been embroidering.

I finished the block with the blue applique. I am so glad I appliqued the little heart. Looks so much better than my fill in embroidery stitches would have.

Using variegated thread makes embroidering so much easier because I never have to change the color of my thread! I used #12 pearl cotton on these blocks.

Then I embroidered these two blocks. Do you see the difference? Click to enlarge them.

The block on the left has been embroidered with the outline stitch. This is my normal stitch, one that I have been using for 50 years. It just comes natural to me.

The block on the right is embroidered with a back stitch. This is the stitch that Gail Pan used for most of the projects in her book. It was very hard for me to have even stitches. You know what this means, practice, practice and more practice.

If I don't feel like embroidering, then I knit dishcloths. This is one I finished this week.

Every time I show a knitted dishcloth, someone asks for the pattern and what kind of yarn I use.

I use Lily brand cotton yarn and here is the pattern. 

I don't know where I found this pattern, I do know it was a free pattern where ever I found it. Seed Stitch Dish Cloth - With a size #4 circular needle cast on 40 stitches. Row 1 & 2 – knit. Row 3 & 4 – Knit 2 *K1 P1 repeat from * across to last 2 stitches k2. Repeat rows 1 – 4 for pattern until measures 9” (same as bottom edge), ending with Rows 1 & 2. Bind off. 

Linking to - Slow Stitching Sunday, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Love Laugh Quilt, Em's Scrapbag,  Super Mom - No Cape, Esther's Wedneaday Wow!, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Show Off Saturday

Embroidery

I decided I need to piece a row of Nearly Insane before I can prep the applique for the Pastor's Attic Quilt. There is room for only 1 project at a time on my cutting/prep table.

While I'm waiting to finish the newest row of NI, I've been working on embroidery I prepped last winter. I always forget how fast embroidery goes. This piece has been finished. It is supposed to go on a bag someday but right now I'm just embroidery, the sewing will happen another day.

I completed these small squares last February when I visited our daughter in Arizona. They'll be used for pincushions or needle books someday.

These pieces also were completed sometime this spring/summer.

And yes, this is the same design as the first embroidery I showed you.

As you can see, I am using variegated thread. Some of these have been embroidered with #12 Perle cotton and some with embroidery thread. I'm liking the Perle cotton better.

The current project is this circle. I back-basted appliqued the fabric to the circle before I started the embroidery. The heart was supposed to have been a fill in embroidery stitch but I decided I would like an appliqued heart better. 

I'm using regular embroidery thread on this block. There is just something about the Perle cotton that I like better, maybe it has more of a sheen to it?

These designs are from patchwork loves embroidery by Gail Pan.

I have another of Gail's books but decided I need to make more of the projects from the first book.

Linking to - Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Love Laugh Quilt, Em's Scrapbag, Design Wall Monday-Small Quilts, BOM's Away, Super Mom - No Cape, Quilter's Monday,  Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Star Dance Blocks

The 4" finished blue Star Dance blocks are finished.

Only 1 block is all the same fabric, the center top block. The blue fabric with the pink center has pink flowers in it and the fabric with the yellow center has some gold. This just adds more variety to the stars in the quilt.

And all the blocks so far. Each month I've made 8 or 9 blocks, except for purples. I showed restraint that month and only made 4. I'll get 4 more made sometime.

Linking to - Fiber Tuesday, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Let's Bee Social, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF!, Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday, Scrap Happy Saturday

Churn Dash Is Finished!

My Churn Dash Quilt is completely finished!! I took it out of the frame Wednesday morning and trimmed off the excess backing and batting that afternoon. Thursday morning I stitched the first part of the binding and in the afternoon the hand sewing started and the finish came on Friday afternoon. 

A side view to show the border. 

Just some more pictures because I'm so excited it's finished.

A view from the back.

This wide back fabric is called "Folio Quilt Backs" by Color Principle for Henry Glass & Co., Pattern #7882. (Information from the selvage) 

My quilt is my version of a churn dash quilt made by my husband's great-grandmother, Fannie Baumgartner Kauffman, Clinton Township, Elkhart County, Indiana, 1867 - 1936. Her quilt also was hand-quilted and is in excellent condition. 

I prepped fabric for the churn dash blocks the first part of November 2016 and sewed them at the Jane Stickle retreat later that month. The quilt center was sewn together in December then I worked on the borders in January. 

The quilting process started February 29th and was finished July 11th; 4 1/2 months. A wool batting was used and it hand stitched so nicely. 

She measures 94" by 104". I won't be washing her.

I appreciate the supportive comments many of you have made about entering my quilt into the ISQ Blue & White exhibit.

I need detailed information about this exhibit. There is more than a year to come to a decision. She'll be entered in some local quilt shows first and I'll see how she does in those.

What am I going to work on now? After I finished attaching the binding with my sewing machine, I pulled this fabric from the box where it had been languishing for almost 2 years and pressed out wrinkles. This is the background fabric for the Pastor's Attic Quilt. The fabric looks darker in this picture but in the photo below, it looks lighter.

He may have been out of sight for several month, but he was never out of mind. I've decided the way I want the appliqued borders and need to get prepping on them.

I know several of the blogs I link to are about scrappy quilts and Churn Dash is definitely not scrappy but IT IS A FINISH and I want the whole world to know! 

Linking to - Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday, Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Let's Bee Social, My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF!, Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday

Blue 4-Patch Blocks

I've finally completed 28 blue 4-patch blocks for the RSC for July. Here are 9 of the blocks on display.

Some of these fabrics would have worked for the mixed color month but I just threw them in anyway. They just add a little zing to the overall effect.

Now I need to piece the Star Dance blocks.

Linking to - Let's Bee Social, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, TGIFF!, Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday, Scrap Happy Saturday

Still Quilting the Border

Several of you have commented I need to enter my quilt in a quilt exhibit. This spring when my friends and I attended the Chicago Quilt Show, I saw information about IQS having a blue & white exhibit in 2019. I forgot about this exhibit until you guys commented. I tried to track down the information and this is what I finally found - 

Sarah’s Revival in Blue by Gail SmithSapphire Celebration:
Celebrating 45 Years

Get ready to make a blue and white quilt for the 45th anniversary of the International Quilt Festival in 2019.

• Entries may be Traditional, Modern
or Art.

• Entries must have been made between 1974 and 2019.

• The minimum size is 50” x 50”

• You may enter up to five quilts.

• The quilts will be kept for three years from August 2019 to  August 2022.

Information on opening and closing dates will be forthcoming right
here soon!

They are going to keep the quilts for this exhibit 3 years! I don't know if I can let my quilts go for that long. I'll have to really think about this. And who knows if my quilts will even be accepted?

Over the last several weeks, I've been asked several times about what I used to mark my quilt. Here is a link to a post I wrote in March where I explained my marking tools.

Now, onto this week's quilting progress.

I had hoped to get the white border completely quilted last week, but that didn't happen but most of the row is quilted.

A close up view of the quilting.

There is just this section of white to quilt yet. I should be able to get that easily finished this week. Then I'll roll and start on the outside blue border. 

We harvested the wheat field Friday evening before the rains hit us on Saturday. If the weather cooperates this week, I'll be busy with baling the straw. If the weather doesn't cooperate, I'll get going with quilting and try to get this quilt finished.

I don't think I've ever shown you what the

quilt looks like when I'm not quilting. Years ago, my mother gave me some quilt backing fabrics. I used some of them but this one I never did. Somehow this became the quilt cover. I have it folded and it is perfect to cover the quilt in the frame. 

When I want to quilt, I just throw it to the back and quilt.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Design Wall Monday, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday,  Fiber Tuesday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Blue Squares Quilt

A year ago I had ordered a set of 10" squares of Winter Rhapsody from Connecting Threads. There were 16 squares in the package. I also order 1 yard of Sparkles to be used for the border. I didn't know what I was going to do with the fabrics but something always comes along.

Last winter I was looking through a Missouri Star Quilt magazine and saw the picture of their Round Peg, Square Hole kit. I'm always attracted to blue quilts, so I tore the picture out of the magazine. The picture was on a page entitled Modern Quilts! Me? . . a modern quilter?

My quilt is based on the picture in the magazine and my version finishes at 58". It was really sunny out so the colors look slightly washed out but they're not.

The blue circle fabric wasn't part of the 10" squares. I used a piece of the blue fusions that I used in my Dear Jane and the churn dash quilt.

The backing is pieced and the flange border is ready to go. I just have to decide how I want to quilt her with my limited machine quilting expertise, straight lines, wavy lines or spiral?

This quilt and the yellow Circle of Squares will be pin basted sometime and hopefully they'll be quilted this summer.

Linking to - Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday, Fiber Tuesday,  Sew, Stitch, Snap SHOW, Sew Fresh Quilts, Esther's Wednesday Wow!, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Crazy Mom Quilts, Show Off Saturday