March 2018 OMG Done

I met my March one-monthly-goal. 

It was to complete these 3 Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks.

These next 2 blocks are practically the same 

but made by different quilters.

I wonder who made the first and who copied?

Either way

I am so done with reverse applique rose buds.

At least for now.  

I think I will put these all away for a while. 

It is Easter weekend and the grandchildren 

will be here Sunday and Monday. 

I am making dinner for Monday.

 Crockpot Ham and scalloped potatoes out of a box. 

Simple. 

Blessings,

Chris

Dear Daughter BOM is Launched

I have had mixed feelings about doing this Block (read 4) of the Month from sentimental stitches.
When Gay announced it back in November, I thought "No way." I don't have that kind of time this year. Then I read closer and saw the name "Dunham" on the signature block and had to join in. My husband's middle name is Dunham after his mother's family. She is 89 years old and still drives herself everywhere.  This is a family quilt, albeit from 1850-1852.  I recall my husband's grand parents going to the Dunham Reunion over the years, once in Michigan. I contemplated doing it in ultra modern colours like black and white. And all those donuts would look quite appetizing in Kaffe Fassett colours. This block is Coverlet Collection Mary Koval reproduction from 1820-1850.

Then I thought I could do it the simple way using a fusible and machine appliqueing the raw edges.
After that, I pulled out the bin of reproduction fabrics from the 1830's and 1840's. And I had enough Kona Snow to do it several times. But there is the time word again.

But when Gay posted the first blocks last week and I saw up close the simplicity of some of the blocks, I jumped right in. There will be lots of Broderie Perse bits and pieces through out the quilt.

I have 12 yards of a Sturbridge Village reproduction blue and white floral I decided to use for the sashing. The original has blue and red but do not want another red quilt,  so  I am using more white.
When I started cutting the strips, I goofed. I wanted them a bit smaller than the original. So instead of cutting them 2 inches wide to finish 1 1/2 for a 4 1/2 inch sashing, I cut them 1 1/2 and now the sashing will be 3 inches and I like it.

Call me crazy, but I have prepped more than the 3 donuts for this month. I also bought the extra patterns since there will be at least 11 donuts. I cannot just start one block and finish it. I have all these prepped ready to pick up whenever I want to do some hand work.

Then I went right off the rails and started cutting out lots and lots of bits for the abundance of Broderie Perse applique that prevails in this amazing quilt. Why? Because it was easy and I had a lot of print fabric with the right sized motifs.

And why do I have 2 pair of Dear Jane scissors in the box? They are on a time out. I bought a pair for each of my granddaughters since they have very long thin fingers. Mine are fat and awkward so I prefer to use the larger hole stork scissors. I have several pair in case I have to give them up at airports.  All the grand children were here for a few days this past week since it was March Break  and I could not let the little boys see the girls using them because I have not yet taught them how to use razor sharp little scissors. They saw the girls using the white board markers last time and we know what David did with the red one.

Blessings,
Chris

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Shipshewana Quilt Retreat Next Month

I am  packing my project boxes for the Shipshewana Retreat next month. It begins in just 5 weeks. I can hardly wait. The little boys will be home in their own home for 2 whole weeks and I get to play with my friends. How does one decide what projects to pack into a car and drive 7 hours into the next country 2 states from the border? Five whole days of stitching. I have limited space in my mid sized car with 2 others and their stuff and room for all our shopping.

I have my BTCT box for some hand work. This is the Beyond the Cherry Trees Quilt block of the month that sentimentalstitches  had a few  years ago. I bought the whole digital pattern and started in June 2014. I have 20 blocks complete. Five almost done and 2 not yet started. Then there will be the borders. Four of them. My OMG for this month is to complete these 3, then I will pull out the other 2 that are half done and get them ready to have some hand work for next month.

Dear-daughter-block-of-the-month launches this week. There are over 800 members in the facebook group. I rummaged through my fabric cupboard and came up with a whole bin of reproduction fabrics dated 1830s and 1840s. I am using a Kona Snow background because I have enough and years ago I bought the rest of the bolt of a blue print from one of the Sturbridge Village Blues collections I can use for the sashing.  There are broderie perse options here. Still undecided if I will do hand applique or raw edged machine applique.

I think I will be taking 2 machines. One for applique and one for piecing. I cannot sit at one for hours or days at a time but have to change up what I will be doing. I thought I could take a whole bunch of Bright Jane blocks. But all that foundation piecing takes its toll on my arthritic hands. My best to date total is 7 blocks in a day.

I had initially thought I would take the 150 Canadian Women box and see how many of those 6 inch blocks I could make. Still thinking about this since I only made a few blocks last year after cutting out lots of pieces with my GO cutter. There is no foundation piecing on this one. Have to find the box first.

I have all the machine applique to do on these Huguegnot Friendship Quilt . I am still considering using silk thread and doing a very simple straight stitch. Some doing these laser cut blocks are doing elaborate painting and machine embroidery. This is a "squirrel" quilt to be made quickly.

Not to forget my Morrell Quilt. I have all the saw-tooth blocks prepped with foundation patterns ready to go. I plan to add a few broderie perse appliques from Di Ford-Hall's Bally Hall Birds collection. The colours are perfect.

In the meantime, I have been machine quilting on my Dear Jane quilt this week. Not excited about how the thread tension is behaving. The Brother rebelled and would not drop its feed dogs nor pull all the bulk nicely. So, I switched over to the Bernina.

I bought tickets to see the musical "Half Stitched". It is a quilting themed story set in Shipshewana Amish country. I saw it a couple of years ago in Ohio with a bunch of Guernsey dairy farmers. One of the guys said he was watching me as I watched the show and he said I was having way too much fun. And I was. Really. This time I got us front row seats. Hope that is not too close. They had a whole array of antique quilts decorating the set but we were not allowed to touch any of them. Check it out here. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Needle Turned Hand Applique and a UFO

My goodness!!! Is it March already? How the time flies when we are having fun. It flies when we are busy too. Actually, it just keeps ticking away one second at a time regardless of what we are doing. I was away twice this week and got substantial progress on 3 of my BTCT blocks.

This bud or whatever you want to call it was supposed to be red on top of yellow like in the original. It was a bit challenging to figure out the sequence but I got it and it does look good. But then, the bottom of that one leaf missed getting tucked inside the wreath. That will be easy enough to fix.

More buds with reverse applique. I think that was the easiest part once I got to there. I made a small cut in the middle and stitched that first then did the ones on each side. I think I like the feel of turning the fabric in with the needle in this way better than from the outside.

This block is similar to the one above and simpler. I still have a few buds to add. I took my whole stitching box with me but forgot to check for bits of red or cream fabrics. I had lots of green.

Now, what more can I say about this block. That red marker will never come out. Dear Baby David got it on his shirt that day and his mom could not wash it out. So, there will be a little red bird. Soon. I also noticed a bit of red marker in the bottom left corner. It will depend on how much gets trimmed away when I square up the block.

The patchworktimes - 2018-ufo-challenge  ufo number for March is 8 and that is doable. Shades of Pemberly. I started this one in 2006 at a local quilt shop but it was one of 5 that I started that year and 1 of 4 that are still on my ufo list.

I have to decide pretty quickly if I will add some borders to this or not. Jane and Cassandra Austin had a lot of 70 degree diamonds surrounding theirs. I will think about it only until I have the top complete. It really should have something more. But what?  Stay tuned. I will post about it at the end of the month. And the picture is upsidedown.

Blessings,
Chris

 lovelaughquilt  main-crush-monday   mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-   needleandthreadnetwork   patchworktimes 2018-ufo-challenge   slow sunday stitching wips-be-gone