Climbing Jacob's Ladder, the Center

The center of the Jacob's Ladder quilt is completed and measures 72.5" by 97". 

The applique border has been started but applique is handwork. Handwork progress is posted on Slow Stitching Sundays.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

Quilting Blue Stars

The bottom white border is finished and ready to be rolled. I had added batting into the corner flower circles, bad idea. They quilted hard. The circles in the center of the smaller flowers are stitched in the ditch so they didn't present a problem. I might remove the stitching but then if no one really looks closely at the stitches, they will probably be ok.

These pictures are in order from the left corner toward the center. Of course, since I'm right handed, I quilt toward the left.

The border is marked with a light blue marker. After washing the blue won't be as intense but you should still be able to see the blue stitching.

The pattern for Stars Around the Garden can be located here.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Scrappy Sprouts

Two more blocks were made for my scrappy sprouts project. Sometimes I add a green stem and sometimes I use the color of the month as the stem.

Sprouts is a carryover project from 2020. Will it be completed in 2021? Maybe, maybe not.

The pattern for scrappy sprouts is here.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

Climbing Jacob's Ladder, the Sections

The block sections have all been pieced for Climbing Jacob's Ladder wedding quilt. Four sections make one block. My quilt is larger than the pattern. Each section is 12.5" so the block is 24" finished. The blocks will be set 3 by 4 blocks which should make the center 72" by 96" if I've done my math correctly. I'm not a perfect sewist so my center probably won't be that exact size but it will be close enough.

I've arranged sections on the floor but haven't sewn them into blocks. This isn't the final arrangement but I wanted to see how the quilt was looking and thought perhaps you would too. I didn't have room to lay out all the sections. It's going to be impossible not have the same fabrics touch each other but I can live with that.

This is supposed to be a neutral quilt but I don't know if it really is. Here is a link to the pattern.

Linking to Whoop Whoop Party, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, UFO Busting

Frosted Trees

Today's post is not about quilting but about weather and the trees.

On New Year's day we received freezing rain. The temperature was cold enough the rain dripped/froze on the trees making little icicles 2" - 3" in length. The trees were very pretty but the roads were extremely hazardous and there were power outages in our area. Our electric stayed on.

Trees with ice. I should have take a close up of the icicles but I didn't.

Sunday morning, the 3rd, it started to snow, a heavy wet crunchy snow. Crunchy snow means when you walk in it, it crunches. The trees got a frosting of snow over the ice, now they're really pretty! But a wet heavy snow means even more weight on those tree branches which means more power outages. Again we kept our power. 

These are the black walnut trees along the west fence row of the south heifer pasture. I often see squirrels running along the branches and jumping from tree to tree. They didn't do any of that New Year's weekend.

The east side of the pasture along the driveway. The cattle aren't outside in the pastures during the winter.

Can you figure out what this picture is? It's a close up of my clothesline. The ice/snow layer is an inch thick and it's wound around the line!

This is another picture of the same heifer pasture, those trees are on the south edge, along the road. In the winter this is the sledding hill. The grandsons went sledding later but I didn't get pictures.

I planted this tree 35 plus years ago when it was only 6" tall. 

This is looking south down our driveway. I'm standing in the curve of the drive.

I'm still standing in the curve of the drive but looking west towards the house.

That branch leaning over on the fence isn't broken. By evening the temperature rose, the snow/ice on the trees melted and that tree stood back up.

Frosted trees don't happen all the time, I'm glad I could share the pictures with you. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday

The White Border

 When I left you last Sunday, I had completed the 3" blue border. I rolled and started quilting the white border which is  9" wide.

The blue border had a nice quilting design but the white border is special with the feathers. Feathers just add elegance to a quilt. This stencil is #SCO-183-7.5 and was purchased from the Stencil Co. 

The white border has been quilted to a little more than the center of the quilt. I've stitched in the ditch around the applique with white YLI quilting thread. For the cable/feathers I'm using a variegated dark blue 12 weight Sulky thread.

Someone asked last Sunday what my quilting frame is, it's a Grace hand quilting frame which takes up a lot less space than my old sticks and stands frame.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Circle of Squares

The circle of squares block take so much more background fabric then it does colored fabric so I didn't use much pink from the 2.5" strip box.

I made two blocks, a lighter pink and darker pink.

The blocks finish at 12". Here is a link to the pattern.

I am linking to a post from the Crafty Quilter. In this post she gives links to free quilt block and applique designs. We all love free patterns! I'm sure there are some wonderful patterns that would be perfect for a RSC quilt in case you are at loss for an idea.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.