Hand Quilting & Applique

Hand quilting Spring Fever was a priority this week. The sashing between the 2nd and 3rd row was completed along with the bottom halves of row 3 blocks.

I've rolled and I'm ready to start on the top part of the row 3 blocks. If you look at the top of the quilt, you can see I've rolled far enough that the top of the quilt is showing, real progress!

I need to applique two more flowers on one of the borders for the Pastor's Attic Quilt,then that part is completed. It won't take long to applique the circles on the center of them. 

In my last post I showed pictures of the results of the crazy weather we've had the last several weeks. This picture is one I took from upstairs looking down at the pasture. The flooding is easier to see.

March in northern Indiana is snow one day then warm temperatures and rain the next. 

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Esther's Wednesday WOW!

Star Dance, the Applique Border

In 2017, I participated in the RSC color of the month by piecing Star Dance blocks. In November 2017, I sewed the blocks together to make the center of the quilt.

Two weeks ago I sewed the borders onto the center body, a good project to do on a very snowy day. I had originally planned to machine applique the borders at my guild retreat the first weekend in March. Well, I looked at the pattern and decided I really would like the borders better if I hand applique instead of machine applique. So, no applique to show today.

Once I'm finished with the Pastor's Attic borders, then Star Dance will be the next applique project. My list of unfinished projects to be sewn into flimsies is going very slowly.

Glenda mentioned that I hadn't published pictures of snow this winter so I took some before the 10" we received in two days melted.

The snowed piled on the steps up to our porch so that's where I took the picture of Star Dance.

We live on top of a hill. I walked to the curve in our drive and took some pictures of fields.

This first picture is look northeast, across the pasture. The line of trees shows the edge of the creek that separates our farm from our neighbors.

The faint brown line going through the field is fencing which divides the pasture from cropland.

Now we are looking southeast, across the pasture, crossing the road and into a different neighbor's field. Again the line of trees is the edge of the creek. 

If you enlarge this picture really large, you can see their beef cattle in the background. The snowpile by the edge of the driveway is 4" high where my husband has pushed it with the skid loader.

All our cattle have names. 

This is Emily wondering when they'll be able to graze again in the pasture.

And Missie is enjoying the warmth from the sunshine.

The day after I took the above pictures, the temperature rose above freezing, then we had fog. 

I'm standing on the porch looking southeast into the cow pasture.

Now I'm looking straight south at our son's home. You can see it faintly behind the one evergreen tree.

That evening it rained and the fog dissipated but since the ground is still frozen we have water standing.

Just this week the temperature rose to 60 degrees and we had several days of rain. The snow melted but the ground was still frozen so . . . flooding. This first picture is looking northeast across the pasture into the cropland, same as the very top picture. The creek has overflowed 

Looking southeast toward the road.

I'm looking forward to green grass, warm temperatures, going barefoot and of course, fresh tomatoes!

Linking to  A Quilting Reader's Garden,  Show Off Saturday, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap, Love Laugh Quilt, Show & Tell With Bambi, BOM's Away, Em's Scrapbag

Sweet Surrender, More Progress

I let the blocks lay for a few days then decided, it's time to get Sweet Surrender sewn together. Here she is!

I'm pleased with the way she has turned out. There are some applique blocks I don't like very well but I'm not changing them now!

Originally I hadn't planned to use the red triangles. All the Sweet Surrender quilts I've seen used red triangles, I wanted to be different but no other color would work. Red it is.

My border is going to be different from the pattern. I'm tossing around a few ideas and I think I'm going to like what I've got planned. 

The border may take several weeks to get started. The guild's quilt retreat is next week and I'm prepping for other projects.

Linking to Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Jo's Junction, Sew Stitch Snap SHOW, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday.

Pastor's Attic Quilt, Still Appliqueing!

The second border for the Pastor's Attic quilt is finished and I've attached the two borders to the center body. I'm very pleased with the way the border looks.

I've started working on the next two borders. 

I haven't been hand quilting my quilt since my last post about Spring Fever. The hand quilters from my guild have been working hard at finishing up the quilt for this year's Michiana (Michigan/Indiana) Mennonite Relief Sale. The sale isn't until September but we want this quilt finished so we can work on our own projects.

The quilt stitched hard and my fingers got so sore. By the time they didn't hurt anymore, it was time to go quilt again.

Saturdays were all day quilting. Yesterday we finished the quilt! Happy Dance!! I finally remembered to take my camera along so I could take pictures.

The quilt is queen sized and has 800 yards of quilting thread. Rhoda and Kathy, who pieced this quilt, put 2 patterns together and came up with this design. I don't remember the name.

It needs binding and other tweaking but my contribution is finished. Now I can quilt again on Spring Fever.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away

Sweet Surrender Progress

 The pieced triangles for Sweet Surrender are all pieced and trimmed! The applique blocks have also been trimmed along with the half triangles. Now I just need to start sewing the bias edges.

I started appliqueing the blocks two years ago in January 2016 and finished them in June 2016. I don't know why I procrastinated on piecing the triangles for so long but, now they're finished! 

I get comments and emails asking where they can get the Sweet Surrender pattern. The only place I know to purchase the pattern is Material Obsession in Australia but Nanette has a Sweet Surrender pattern that she has listed for sale on her last post. Contact her about the price. Update - Nanette's Sweet Surrender pattern has been sold but still has other patterns available.

The flowers are not made with regular hexagons, they're made with a Hexden shape. I got my EPP papers from Paper Pieces.

Linking to Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Jo's Junction, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday

Pastor's Attic Quilt, First Border Finished

The first border for the Pastor's Attic Quilt is finished. When the other side is completed, I'll sew them onto the center body. I'm very pleased with the way it looks.

I haven't been hand quilting Spring Fever much the last ten days or so. The hand quilters in my guild have really been working hard to finish the quilting on the guild's contribution to this fall's Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale. 

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Jo's Junction, Let's Bee Social

Bricks & Stepping Stones

I've been working hard on some of my long time unfinished projects but sometimes you just have to start something new. I have several new projects in the plans for this year. One of the new quilts I'm starting is Bricks & Stepping Stones, a free pattern from the Quiltville site.

I looked through all of Bonnie's free patterns and decided this was the easiest pattern on the list. I'm trying to use up older fabrics. In 2017 I pulled all the odds and ends of black fabrics, cut them into strips and stripped pieced them into 4 squares. See the cream fabric used with the black? That fabric is from mom's stash, she died 11 years ago. Who knows how long she had it. It is time to get some of these older fabrics used!

Whoops, wait a minute! Ok, I'm back. I just noticed I had sewn the 4-patches onto the rectangles incorrectly. This is the correct version.

I don't know how fast this quilt will come along. Hopefully I will have made a dent in the stash by the end of the year. And if you were wondering, this is one of the quilts on my list of 10.

I've been sewing the 4-patches onto rectangles as I sewed Sweet Surrender triangles. This is what I've sewn so far.

I've cut a lot of older fabrics with the intentions of sewing an autumn comforter. The browns are sewn and I've started started sewing the 4-patches onto this stack.

I'll sew the rectangles together when this pile is reduced and see how many blocks I have.

Linking to Oh Scrap!, Show & Tell Monday With Bambi, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, BOM's Away, Quilter's Monday, Jo's Country Junction, Sew Fresh Quilts, Sew Stitch Snap Share, My Quilt Infatuation, Finished Or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF!, Finish It Up Friday, Show Off Saturday