The little Houses Wallhanging is finished and is hanging on the wall! She measures 22" square and was a perfect small summer project.
This was a kit from Rachel's of Greenfield. The instructions were very well written and easy to understand.
A view of my hand-quilting on the backside of the wall quilt. I normally don't add a sleeve to the back of my wallhangings, but I did this project.
Last winter I had pieced a Snowflake Zippy-Strippy quilt and gave it to DIL 1. I started another Zippy-Strippy in June and finished her up in July. This quilt is for DIL 2. She likes red so I choose a jelly-roll from the In Stitches collection designed by Robin Kingsley for Maywood Studio.
I changed up the pattern so she would be longer and not as wide. She finishes at 59" x 84"
She was quilted on my sewing machine. I'm getting more accurate following the marked curves. It helps a lot to slow down the stitching speed. I still did straight line quilting in the center. I have a curvy line stitch on my sewing machine and I had intended to elongate the stitch and use that for quilting. Unfortunately, that stitch did not allow me to elongate so I just went with straight stitching.
Do some of these fabrics look familiar? I'm using fabrics from the same collection to applique the Pastor's Attic blocks.
I've prepped the next block in the Pastor's Attic quilt. The thin stems are supposed to be embroidered using 1 strand in the chain stitch. I decided to go with an outline stitch.
I also decided to not use fabric stems for the other stems. The flower stems are a double row of 3 strand chain stitch. The more narrow stems are a single row of 3 strand chain stitch. I'm liking they way they look.
There is a vase at the bottom of this block with an inset center. I was supposed to applique 1/8th" strips on the red fabric then reverse applique the vase on top. I went with outline stitch embroidery.
I do slow stitching every evening, not just on Sundays.
This is the end of the quilt section so you can quit reading if that is all you want to read about.
My garden is doing well. The broccoli plants have been pulled and fed to the heifers. The garlic and the shallots have been pulled and are curing before being stored away. I picked 2/3-rds of a 5 gallon pail of green beans Friday, the freezing process has started. The new potatoes are delicious and cabbage tastes so much better when it comes straight from the garden.
The above photo was taken on Saturday, July 9th. We harvested the wheat the following Monday. The rest of the week was about getting the straw baled. We did it!
In farming there are really just 2 seasons. Winter and preparing for winter.
My flowering sunflowers have started flowering. Wouldn't a whole field of these be beautiful?
The last of the barn swallows have flown away. These 3 little fledglings were brave enough to make the plunge soon after this picture was taken.
I planted a couple dark purple phlox plants around 25 years ago or so. They crossed with some white phlox and have hybridized themselves into these lovely white flowers with a touch of lavender. I'm so enjoying my summer flowers.
My meat chickens are now residing in the chest freezer. These new chicks will grow up to become laying hens. There are two kinds of chicks; the yellow chicks are Golden Comets and the black/brown/beige ones are Auracanas. The Auracanas lay eggs with blue or green shells. The egg inside tastes the same as the brown shelled eggs.
I'm linking up to - Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Em's Scrapbag, Super Mom-No Cape, Love Laugh Quilt, Quilt Story, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, A Quilting Reader's Garden, Crazy Mom Quilts.
I've finished the last 7 Sweet Surrender blocks!
I went with circles for the large flower.
Circles again.
I really like this block, one of my favorites. I used circles for the large flower. You can't see it, but I did use 2 different yellows but the fabrics are similar and don't show a difference.
Fussy cutting was used for the circles in this flower.
The large flower is the last of the EPP flowers I had fussy cut. I'm not pleased with the curly tail, but I am not redoing it.
This EPP block was made before I started Sweet Surrender using 1/2" hexies. I wanted to see if there was much difference between 1/2" and the 5/8" flowers. There was some difference but not a lot. I decided to go ahead and use this hexie flower. I don't like this curly tail either.
The last block! I am thinking of possibly adding some embroidery to the center of the large leaves. I am so glad the curly tail turned out nice on this block, a pleasant way to finish.
I'm putting this project away until fall, October or November. I need to copy the foundation paper piecing papers. I'm tired of this project for now and I'll be refreshed by fall.
I basted this little wallhanging for hand quilting. I plan to quilt all the stitch in the ditch stitching. When that is completed, I'll mark the detail quilting. It is fun to be quilting again, a nice change from the applique.
Linking up to - Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, A Quilted Passion, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, My Quilt Infatuation, Let's Bee Social, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts
April is speeding along. The first of the month was cold and snowy; now we're enjoying sunshine, warmer temperatures and green grass.
The spring Jane Stickle quilt retreat has come and gone. It's always wonderful to see the many out of state friends and I've met new friends this spring too. There are so many beautiful projects; it's hard not to start new ones. People have joined in on-line BOM's. There are the 365 Day blocks, Pat Sloan's Splendid Sampler, the 1857 quilt from Sentimental Stitches, Circa 2016 from the Temecula Quilt Co. and many, many more. I checked these out after I arrived back home, but common sense prevailed and I haven't started any of them, not at the beginning of my busy season. I'll just keep on working at my 'old' projects.
So what did I work on at retreat? The first project was this Houses wall kit designed by Rachel's of Greenfield. The directions were very well written and the quilt sewed together easily. Now I need to get her hand-quilted and hanging on the wall. She finishes at 20" by 20".
People keep having babies so I keep making crib quilts. I pieced 2 dotted pinwheel crib quilts using the Pineapple Press pattern What Goes Around Comes Around. They both measure 40" by 46" and I plan to quilt them on my sewing machine, I just need to find the time. The pinwheels are not pieced, the dotted fabric is folded diagonally and then sewn to the yellow background square. The pinwheel is 3D and left open. Many people asked me if I was going to quilt them closed when I quilted the quilt and I said no, I like them the way they are. Maybe there is some obvious problem that they saw that I'm not seeing. Of course it will get caught on stuff if the child drags it around but I never allowed my children to drag around their quilts.
I did hand applique too. I appliqued several Sweet Surrender blocks at the retreat and then finished the rest when I was home.
I have completed all of the 18 applique blocks required for the original quilt which finishes at 69" by 65".
I don't want a wall quilt so I will applique more blocks and make a full size quilt. I drafted a rough diagram of what my finished quilt will be and I need at least 12 more blocks (I think it is 12, I'm too lazy to go check). I'll get them prepped and work on them this spring. After the additional blocks are appliqued, I'll put the project away until winter.
I didn't accomplish as many sewing projects as I often do, but the weather was so lovely, who could stay inside and sew all the time?
After I came home I made a list of quilting projects to work on this spring/summer. Some of them are fairly simple such as sewing bindings. Some are more involved. Here are a few of what I'll be working on.
Until more Sweet Surrender blocks are prepped, I'm working on block 7 of the Pastor's Attic Quilt.
Working on two applique projects has worked well for me. I normally have only one hand project going at a time.
At last fall's retreat I had pieced the blocks for a Summer Lake Log Cabin quilt from Judy Martin's Log Cabin Quilt Book. The fabrics are from a kit I bought years ago at Lolly's Fabrics in Shipshewana. It is time to get this quilt top sewn together.
The very center (snail) blocks have been sewn together. The rest of the center section is ready to be pieced together. The blocks and border have also been pieced.
Progress is being made on hand quilting the Fussy-cut Star wall hanging. Since I've rolled the last time, I can see the last side border slowly making her way to the top.
As you can see, there will be plenty happening around here. I'll fit it in here and there in between my outside work. I enjoy being outside after a long, dreary, sunless winter.
Thanks for visiting my blog. I'm linking to: Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Quilting is More Fun than Housework,
Love Laugh Quilt, Patchwork Times, Quilt Story, Esther's Wednesday WOW!, My Quilt Infatuation, A Quilting Reader's Garden, Crazy Mom Quilts, Let's Book It
