Welsh Beauty

Before I left for Utah, I rolled Welsh Beauty, I can actually see the ticking I pinned the flimsy to at the very top of the quilt!

Here are pictures of my quilting from right to left.

There are several sections of cross hatching with the bottoms of the flowers quilted. I'm only showing you one section.

In the next picture, I'm standing at the top of the quilt, opposite of the side I quilt on. Ticking is attached to the rod and I pin the quilt flimsy to the ticking. As I roll more, the ticking will lengthen. I'll show you more next time I post about Welsh Beauty.

This is so exciting, just 9" more to quilt! I'm not sure if this will be 2 or 3 swaths across, it just depends on the mood I'm in. I have a tendency to try to teach in too far but then my stitches aren't as small as I like them.

Here is a link to my first post about Welsh Beauty and here is a link to a picture of an unquilted Welsh Beauty on the Stencil Company page. This will give you an idea of the area left to quilt compared with the rest of the quilt.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

A New Hotpad

I don't normally make small projects but while in Utah I decided to try a different project, a hot pad!

Deanna had a couple hot pad books and I selected this pattern. Isn't it cute?

The pattern is from the book Potholders for All Seasons.

The only problem with this hot pad is it's too cute to use!

Since I've been home, I purchased some insulate and hope to make more potholders.

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

Quilt Garden

I took updated pictures of the Wakarusa quilt garden on September 7. I would have assumed they would have sprinklers set up to water the flowers but it doesn't look like the flowers got water when they needed it.

Some of the flowers they used this year didn't last the whole season and some went to seed. They normally remove all the vegetation the end of September. I often think the flowers would look nice into October but not this year!

Here are links to the quilt garden in July  and August.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss

Hearts & Wreaths

I found time to applique the center hearts on the last two blocks for Hearts & Wreaths during our August trip to Pennsylvania. The leaves will happen sometime this autumn.

It's frustrating to me that the background yellow never photographs nicely. In these pictures the color looks beige!

The hearts in these two blocks use similar blues but I think they'll work nicely with the other blocks.

As usual, here is a link to my first post about Hearts & Wreaths. That post will give you background information about Hearts & Wreaths and also show you the true color of the yellow!

And here is a link to all of my Hearts & Wreaths posts.

I wrote this post and a few others before I left for Utah in September. I'm home again and playing catch up on everything! In a few weeks I'll give you a review of the changes in the farmer and my lives.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitchin Stuff, Oh Scrap, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Welsh Beauty

 Another row of hand quilting across Welsh Beauty is done. For this post, I took pictures of all the cross hatching. Here are the pictures from the right edge to the left edge.

This happened as I was quilting, I used all the variegated blue thread on this spool, all 300 yards! Adding those 300 yards to the previous used 400 yards of YLI thread is 700 yards. I've added 100 more yards of YLI thread so the total yards of thread used to date is 800. This quilt just might be the quilt that breaks the 1000 yard mark! 

The quilt that I've hand quilted with the most yards of thread so far is the Pastor's Attic quilt which finished with 885 yards of thread.

One more row across the quilt and I'll start quilting the swags on the top of the quilt!

I was asked last week if I always keep track of the number of yards of thread I use. When I quilted for pay, I always kept track of my thread yardage because I charged by the number of yards of thread. 

Some quilters charge by the number of hours they put into the quilt but all quilters quilt at a different speed. All the hand quilters in my area who quilt for hire are paid by the yardage.

I don't always keep track of the number of yards of thread in a quilt but I do if I know there is going to be a high number of yards. I'm just curious that way.

Last Sunday I had several requests from commenters that they would like to see my hand quilting frame. My frame is a Grace hand quilting frame with 4 rods. I posted about the frame in my November 7, 2021 post. Each rod has a cloth leader which I pin each element of the quilt sandwich. I had been quilting for several months when I took the pictures for the November 7 post so I was unable to show you the cloth leaders. I'll try to remember to do that when I'm at the top of the quilt.

I'm taking another blogging break until sometime in October when I'll share with you what all has been happening this summer.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday

Churn Dash Diva

For the past several months I've been participating in Chooky Blue's Churn Dash SAL. I'm pleased to say my flimsy is finished!

I thought I had the blocks arranged so like fabrics wouldn't be next to each other but I see that didn't happen!

Here is a close up of the lovely pink border fabric and the dark brown sashing.

I decided to use civil war fabrics because I have a well filled tub of them. Originally I was going to use a variety of colors but decided to continue with the pink/brown combination when I saw how lovely they were looking.

An on point setting was used with 2" finished dark brown sashing in between the blocks. The pink cornerstone fabric I've had for years and there is still enough left for another project.

After the brown border was attached, the quilt started talking to me. She said she wanted the outside pink striped fabric to be mitered. Okay, I can do that. If you look closely, you can see part of the mitered corner in the picture below.

Then she started telling me how she wanted to be quilted, hand quilting of course with a outside feather border that has a scalloped edge! The churn dash blocks are supposed to be quilted in an overall design.

I asked how about long arm quilting with an overall Baptist Fan design? That suggestion was promptly refused.

So, that's the plan, hand quilting, outside feather border with a scalloped border. She did agree to waiting a year while I quilt another quilt that has been waiting longer, age before beauty you know. Of course I do need to finish hand quilting Welsh Beauty first.

This is why I've name this quilt, Churn Dash Diva. I've had other quilts talk to me before but never this demanding.

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

Welsh Beauty

Another row of hand quilting across Welsh Beauty has been accomplished.

Here is my quilting from the right side toward the left side.

The corner motif reaches into the quilt. It's nice to quilt something besides crosshatching.

There is 3 - 4 sections of crosshatching until we reach the left side motif.

This is part of the corner motif.

Left edge.

As you can see, I have a puckering problem on the left side. Hopefully I've got it pinned well enough the puckers will quilt out. I don't know why this is happening but I'll be done soon so it shouldn't be too big of a problem.

This is what I'll be quilting next on the right side, a lot of the corner motif.

If you look at the top of this crosshatching, you'll see flowers that belong to the border. There are at least 2 passes of quilting before I reach those flowers. Those weird marks on the quilt are impressions from the pin heads. By the time that section is rolled down and ready to be quilted, they will have disappeared.

In my last post about Welsh Beauty, I told you I'm cutting 10 yards of thread in 1 yard pieces to keep track of how many yards of thread I'm using. This is my high tech method.

I just use this old yardstick to measure. I hold the end of the thread with my right hand then most the spool of thread to the left. When I'm at the left edge of the yardstick, I cut the thread and do it again, counting as I measure.

I then place the yardstick on top of the thread to keep it in place and keep the thread straight. It doesn't tangle doing it this way. The striped fabric is the cloth I keep on the quilt when I'm not quilting. The stick lays on the back of the quilt, I don't take the whole cloth off when I quilt.

That yardstick brings back a lot of memories! They closed so many years ago and it's been at least 20 years since 219 was our area code.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday