Finally Some Finishes!

At the end of December I wrote a very detailed post about the challenges I have planned for 2022. Guess which project I started working on first? None of them!

Cathy from Sane, Crazy Crumby Quilting often mentions how she focuses on a project a month at a time. That's what I decided to do.

I pieced several crib quilts in 2021 and decided I was going to spend January machine quilting them. Machine quilting is not my favorite quilting activity but if they're quilted, I'll have some finishes to show you. Also the sense of accomplishment would feel pretty good too.

The first crib quilted was the orange 9 patch quilt. My sewing machine has a curvy stitch setting which I can elongate. I stitched al the seams with the curvy stitch. The binding fabric has been hanging around the sewing room for years. It was perfect for the binding which was machine stitched on both sides.

After quilting the finished measurement is 42" by 49".

All my posts this week will be about the crib quilts. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Stitch Sew & Show,  Needle & Thread Thursday , Free Motion Mavericks

Binding

A large part of my hand sewing last week was finishing the binding on blue split 9 patch.  I don't always finish the binding by hand sewing but I did for this quilt.

I had purchased this stripe to use as binding for another project but then changed my mind. I thought it was perfect for this scrappy quilt.

The binding strips were cut at 3" so there would be a 1/2" of stripe on each side of the edge.

I posted more information about the quilt on Friday's post.

I won't be keeping this quilt for myself, it's a present for a May wedding.

I appreciate all the concern and suggestions about my cracked fingers last Sunday. I've tried various products over the years. Superglue is the only product that stops the cracks from getting larger and actually makes them heal faster.

I have dry skin which is manageable most of the time. But when we have an arctic front come through, we need to turn on the gas heater to supplement our furnace. Our home really is dry then and the dry air just makes cracks in my fingers.

They're healed now and quilting has started again.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Blue Split 9 Patch Finish

Before I left for Phoenix in December, I pulled blue split 9 patch from the closet and corrected the blocks turned the wrong direction. 

Several people mentioned they couldn't see the mistake. Click on the link above. The light fabrics are supposed to zig zag in a somewhat rectangular path. If you look at the top, the path shoots out to the sides instead of staying inside on the path. Compare that picture to the finished quilt below.

I added a plain blue border. I had thought about piecing a border but this quilt is busy enough, the simple border gave my eyes a place to rest.

I dropped the quilt off to be long arm quilted before I left and it was finished by the time I returned home. It's so nice to have a finish the first month of the new year, I haven't had a complete finish since August 2021!

I ordered a simple overall stippling design. 

A view of the back side of the quilt. That dark spot is some dampness from the snow on the porch.

Here's a close up of the stippling on the backside. 

A view of the quilt on our bed.

My quilt roll is looking pretty good!

The quilt was quilted by Three Sisters Fabrics in New Paris, Ind and measures 91.5" by 102" after quilting.

I wrote several posts about blue split 9 patch: first post, another post , the final post before quilting was the post above. 

The split 9 patch block was Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender project which started in 2013. I did make a change to the block, instead of 3 HST's, I used a square in the center. I think the center square adds more interest to the design.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

Hearts & Wreaths

I've completed another applique block for Hearts & Wreaths!

I work on these blocks in groups of four. I embroider all the circles then hand applique the hearts. The leaves applique pretty fast which makes for a relaxing evening of handwork.

I haven't done any hand quilting since my post a week ago. We're finally having true winter here in northern Indiana, not a lot of snow but the low temperatures are in single digits at night with wind chill factor below zero.

People might not understand wind chill factor but everyone from northern states certainly does. Here is a link explaining wind chill of you're interested.

You  might wonder what wind chill has to do with me not quilting. As soon as it gets that cold out, I get cracks in my fingers, cracks in fingers mean no hand quilting. I've super glued the cracks, hopefully they'll clear up soon and I can hand quilt again.

Here is an informative link to my first post about Hearts & Wreaths.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Indian Hatchet

I sewed cut off triangles onto 2.5" white squares at the Jane Stickel retreat in November then trimmed them to size after I returned home from the retreat.

I took the squares along to Phoenix and pieced 16 blocks.

Now I have 46 blocks, I need 34 more.

Here is a link to the first post about these blocks. This is going to be a very colorful quilt! There were a lot of blue triangles in this bunch but I sew a lot of blue quilts.

I have plenty more triangles to sew onto the squares. This has become my leader/ender project for now.

The last time I posted about this project, several people commented they sew triangles together, trim them to size and use them in another quilt. That is too much work for me. This quilt is as improv as I get.

Linking to Stitch Sew & Show, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Patchwork & Quilts,  Oh Scrap

Phoenix Vacation!

I had a wonderful time in Phoenix and thought I'd share a few photos with you. I could have taken so many more pictures but I restrained myself.

One evening we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens, the paths were edged with luminaries. They were so pretty! I didn't think to get a picture of the path edged with them. They didn't use paper sacks, they were in these plastic containers.

There was a glass sculpture display by renowned artist Dale Chihuly, these glass sculptures are displayed all over the world.

They also had a display inside a building. There were informational photos showing the artist blowing the glass and creating these sculptures.

This was my favorite of all of them, these red points just glowed! We went back to the garden later in the week but during the daytime, the sculptures are definitely at their finest  during dark.

I'm always intrigued by the sidewalks. This sidewalk is older than I am! You never see sidewalks this age in any of the northern states due to moisture, freezing and heaving. 

I wore sandals every day, of course the first thing we did was to get pedicures.

The Bougainvillea was in full bloom, aren't these flowers beautiful? I don't know if these bushes are available in any other colors, I have only ever seen them in red.

I tried to go for a long walk every day. Usually I walked down 3rd Avenue then walked along the canal. The houses along the canal have privacy fences, most of the fences have been painted. This parrot and butterfly were my favorites of all the paintings.

I didn't see the usual conifer Christmas trees on displays in public venues. They normally had a tree made of poinsettias. They were very elegant!

This is how they decorated the desert trees at the Botanical Garden. Blogger decided this picture needed to go at the end of my post even the photo was taken at the same time as the other pictures from the garden.

The Sunday I was in Phoenix, we attended a Christmas program at Paradise Valley United Methodist Church.  Later in the week we attended a Christmas Eve Service, there is a lot of talent in this church.

We also enjoyed a presentation of A Christmas Carol at a playhouse in Gilbert.

My two weeks in Arizona were fun, enjoyable and warm!

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Stitch Sew & Show, Needle & Thread Thursday 

Welsh Beauty

I had quilted more than half of a swath across Welsh Beauty before I left for Phoenix.

First I quilted the center just because I could. Each roll of the quilt shows more and more of the center design.

Then I quilted the right side.

After returning home, the left side was quilted.

It was nice to have a two week break from quilting, but now I'm back at the hand quilting again!

This is a queen sized quilt with lots of quilting. The sides of the  crosshatching squares are 3/4". As I said in Friday's post, I'm hoping to be halfway finished with the quilting by May.

Here is a link to my first post about Welsh Beauty.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away