Doing the Quilter's Happy Dance

Since nobody needs to see pictures of me doing that dance, I will start this post with a photo of my Stonefields quilt as it is on the design wall right now. Sorry, it is not a great photo but at least you get the idea. I have finished all the flying else needed for the border and have 88 of the 121 blocks completed. Still hoping to finish this top this year.

But back to my dancing with glee. You may remember that we have had to move a few times over the last few years and during that time I also had back surgery for a spinal fusion. As a result I have not been able to use my longarm machine for about 3 years. I had only had the machine for just over a year before it had to be disassembled and packed up and then right after it was set back up in the last house I found out I needed immediate surgery and then we had to move again. Well finally, with my new studio space complete, DH set the machine and frame up again. This past week I finally had the courage to relearn how to load it and operate sewing machine and after much research and troubleshooting things are running well. Yippee, and dare I say it is running better than ever. So in just a few days I have finished a few things and am so excited to think I can finally start making a dent in all the tops I have accumulated. I decided to just start with some easy all over designs so I could focus on machine adjustments. Here is an easy top that I had made awhile ago. My little grandson loves all the vehicles and was happy to see this one go on his big boy bed.

Here is a charity quilt ready to take for someone else in my sewing group to bind. This floral is another of the designs that I find easy to do. I do not often do pantographs as I enjoy "drawing" the pattern freehand.

And finally another quick quilt either for my granddaughter or charity. My DIL has asked for a small quilt to be donated to a silent auction so this will go to that unless she decides to keep it - then I am happy to make something else for the donation. So much easier now that I know I can get the quilting done!

 

 

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Di Ford Mystery, Part 6 begins

For the last several months I have been enjoying my Di Ford Mystery, Mountmellick, quilt top displayed over my fireplace. Although I would much prefer to hang a finished top, sometimes seeing the unfinished one eventually spurs me on to a finish as is the case with this one.

If you are familiar with this quilt, which was last year's mystery quilt in Quiltmania magazine, you know that part 6 has lots of EPP to do before the border can be assembled. Just over a week ago I decided to tackle the EPP only to discover that I did not have the correct paper pieces for the 36 stars. So instead I began with the corners and ordered the "jewel" pieces from Paper Pieces. Here are the finished corners.

And once the papers arrived I began making stars. I decided to do a little fussy cutting with these stars and am pretty pleased with how they are looking.

Once the stars are made they need to be appliqued to the background. I like to remove the papers before appliquing so I give the star a quick spray with Best Press, iron on both sides and then remove the papers. A tiny dab of Roxanne's Glue Baste and they are glued in place on the background square. While I do sometimes use a glue stick to baste my EPP I find that it is easier to thread baste these tiny pieces in the corners only. By not basting throughout the paper and punching a hole in the papers before using they are easy to pop out.

I like to finger press the diagonal lines on the square to help with placement for these. By making sure that the tip points are going in the direction of my stitching (I am left handed) these are easy to appliqué in place. I do trim the tips as I come to them so there won't be so much extra fabric to tuck under.

And here is the quilt on the design wall with some of the finished stars in place. I am waiting til all the stars are complete before cutting all the setting triangles as I am still deciding on fabrics for those. And on the right is the border I am planning to use. I wish I had used a darker teal fabric for the center swags but I love the border enough to make it work.

I did finish piecing my Red and White quilt, a little late for the July 4th and Canada Day holiday but hopefully it will be quilted before Christmas.

Finally another little Stonefields sunflower block. I couldn't resist making one more!

 

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Progress

This week I finished a few more blocks for my Stonefields quilt. The Bracelet block.

This cute little flower block.

And a little hand pieced Sunflower block. I am machine piecing the rest of the blocks but figured I had a better shot with those points if I hand pieced this one. It was a bit of a challenge but I am considering making another as It is just so cute!

I also finished prepping My Poisies in the Valley. A few fabric changes were made along the way but I am pretty pleased with this layout and mostly I am pleased that I was able to clean up the table of fabrics that I had pulled for this project.

And finally, I prepped one more of the blocks from My Enchanted Garden. I am really hoping to finish prepping the rest of those blocks this week.

 

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Busy Prepping

Last week I realized that I had several opportunities to sit and stitch coming up but nothing was prepped. I get in a bit of a panic if I have no handwork ready to go so I spent some serious time getting things ready to go. First, I needed something to take to my Woolie group. I have been working along on a Sue Spargo BOM but I just wasn't in the mood to work on it so pulled out the book "My Enchanted Garden" by Gretchen Gibbons. The patterns in the book are to be enlarged by 200% but when I started to make the enlarged copies I realized that I didn't want to make something that big. I am really enjoying working smaller these days and decided to try and make the blocks just the size as printed. I am so happy I did. This is my first block finished.

And I have prepped 2 more blocks. I am using a mix of wool, cotton, silk and even ultra suede on linen. These are just so fun to do and at such a small size can be finished quickly.

My appliqué group has decided to work on a fun appliqué project. We are taking a Blackbird Designs pattern and reducing it to 1/2 size and several of us are making the same quilt. Thos is the pattern "Poisies in the Valley" from their book "In Full Bloom" which is now out of print. It will be fun to see how everyone interprets the same pattern. I had a few ideas of the direction I wanted to go but ended up doing version of my usual color palette as I think this will look nice in my livingroom. Next time I really need to do something different! Here are a few blocks prepped.

And a few more added to the mix. I even have a few stitched. You might notice that I have changed the arcs in one of the blocks in the photo below. This is why I love using my design wall, I can quickly see when something isn't working for me. The random fabrics on the wall are those I have chosen for the arcs in the last 4 blocks. Stupidly, I was not originally putting these on the wall as they were to be arranged in the quilt so I now must work to make sure I get the color balanced better.

I have also stitched a few more of the Stonefields blocks.

So right now I have a full design wall and my new studio is a mess with three separate piles of fabrics pulled to prep three projects. I think I need to get back to work so I can get this mess cleaned up!

 

 

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A Stonefields Update

It has been awhile since I have had the chance to work on my Stonefields quilt, my other current long term project. I had to pack up all the fabric to move into the new studio space and promptly got distracted by other things - as usual. But this week I knew I needed lots of appliqué prepped for some stitching days away from home so I pulled all the fabric out and prepped 9 blocks for appliqué. They aren't all stitched yet but I have several ready to share.

First up is this sweet Owl and Pussycat block. This is one of the blocks that originally drew me into this quilt. Such fun.

Then these 3 circle blocks. I would love to do a whole quilt with these, hmm I feel a distraction coming on.

And another simple flower.

Yesterday I tried to catch up with some of the pieced blocks. There are no rotary cutting instructions for these as the designer hand pieced them, so I need to work out my own cutting and piecing instructions as I go. Usually that goes pretty smoothly but this in this set I made a mistake, lots of ripping out before I got things right!

These Ohio star blocks were much simpler. I love the little "H" for Heather.

This was another block that went together pretty well. I am not fond of doing square in a square blocks so I am always happy if it turns out ok.

I also finished up the 176 flying geese blocks needed for the border of the quilt. I made a few extras in case I need them for color balance.

My quilt guild's quilt show is this coming week. I am looking forward to seeing some wonderful quilts as there is such a huge amout of talent in the guild. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures to share with you soon.

 

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Home again

I am home again after a week away, MIL is on the mend and things are getting back to a normal routine. That means a little time in the sewing room, well after the normal chores were completed. Since my last post was made while out of town and I had not taken a photo, I was unable to show this sweet birdie pincushion that my SIL made for me. Isn't it cute? I love it! Thanks so much Sherry, I have found the perfect spot for it and I will see it daily. A fun reminder of our time together.

I finished the stitching on my bee hive pillow, adding some little daisies in the green circles. Now I just need to turn it into a pillow perfect for the new lower level sitting area.

A few more Stonefields blocks were stitched on my trip. Hopefully I will get some time today to prep a few more.

It was delightful to have a few minutes in the sewing room making these little pinwheel blocks for the Quiltmaker bitty block quilt along. These blocks finish at 4". I look forward to using up some tiny scraps each month and so far have kept up with this QAL. It should be a fun little quilt when finished.

Finally I took a picture of the shopping results of my trip. Since the drive is 9 hours to my inlaws, we often stop at a quilt shop to break up the drive. And there are some nice quilt shops near their home so I was able to go to a couple during breaks from our hospital visits. Looks like I was feeling a bit down as I certainly was not buying many happy colors on this trip. But lots neutrals that are lacking in my stash, mostly a grey/taupe color that I have started adding to my projects and want to try out as a background for appliqué. Looks like I have a great selection now!

 

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Woolie fun

In my last post I mentioned that my SIL was coming for a visit and some quilty fun. Well the time has come and gone and I hope she had as much fun as I did. Sadly I forgot to take a photo of all our projects or purchases but I did manage to get a couple before she left. My SIL loves bees so one of the projects was this little wool appliqué candle at by Bareroots. (I think that is the designer, the pattern is not near me right now.)

We each selected the wool colors to suit our homes so mine is the one with the aqua background and hers is navy.

Once that was done we each decided to prep a larger pillow project adapted from a Bee quilt pattern that she brought with her. It was so fun to put our own spin on our work and I love how they turned out.

My bee pillow top is almost all stitched and as you can see I have also stitched some butterfly blocks for the Stonefields quilt. Sadly on the last day of My SIL's visit we discovered that our MIL needed a sudden surgery so I am now out of town dealing with some of those issues. Thank goodness for hand stitching to help during difficult times!

 

 

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Cherry Theives finished!

Yesterday, after getting the machine I use for free motion quilting back from servicing, I finally tackled the quilting on my Cherry Theives tablerunner. This beautiful design is by Ester Aliu and the quilting on her version is lovely. I was really inspired to try something new that would highlight the appliqué and since this is a small project I figured I should just go for it. I have long admired McTavishing and decided to add some feathers as I really need practice with feathers.

As you can see I am using the Halo recommended by Sharon Schamber. It really helps keep control while doing the smaller fill designs like this and I much prefer using it to the cumbersome quilting gloves. The quilting really took much less time than I expected, about 4 hours in total.

I am pleased with the final result though my edges are really wavy. I guess my background quilting is too dense for the outside border. Lesson learned for the next time. And there will be a next time, the quilting pattern was pretty easy and fun and I love how it looks.

I have also been making the little flying geese for my Stonefields quilt. Here are about 1/2 of them finished.

 

 

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Stonefields Part 5

This week I have had some fun working on my Stonefields quilt. I really do enjoy working on this quilt and have been pacing myself. This is one quilt that I want to savor so I fit it in as a reward between other projects. Once I finished the appliqué work on the Rachel Meyer squirrel block with all those tedious strawberries these Stonefields blocks felt like a treat.

Here is the wreath block that will end up in the center of the quilt. I am a little nervous that the light flowers won't show up so I will be keeping an eye on that as I continue.

Since there are no directions in the pattern for machine piecing, these blocks were a little tricky. I ended up piecing the center with just the square, 4 rectangles and the triangles which I then squared up to size before adding the outside triangles. Certainly they could be easily hand pieced but I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out a way to make this work using rotary cut pieces.

These Dahlia blocks were really fun. I love using all these floral and paisley fabrics together and I love searching for the perfect center circle fabric.

Again I decided to machine piece these blocks. Lots of fun selecting fabric combinations. The pink frame around the roses is made from fabric that is at least 20 years old. Lots of practice making mitered corners on these blocks!

This Lollipop block was super fast and easy. I noticed that the quilt need some touches of darker fabrics so I added darker green leaves and those dark teal stripes.

One of the hardest parts of this quilt, for me, is trying to make sure that I am maintaining a good balance of colors and light and dark shades. For this reason I try to have all the finished blocks on the design wall in front of me as I prep each block. That is the main reason that the center star of this wreath is beige color, I feel like I need to add a bit more of the neutrals in upcoming blocks. But I also like how fussy cutting these diamonds makes a secondary design.

Lots of the hexagon rosettes are finished too, I think I have half of them ready!

And speaking of half, here are about half of the Stonefields blocks up on the design wall.

Until next time, happy stitching.

 

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