December 2019 OMG Completion

My December one-monthly-goal was to complete the appliqued cherries and embroidered stems on one more border. 
There are now 2 completed borders and only 2 more to go. 
Those will be my January goal.

Blessings,
Chris
linking with: quiltingismorefunthanhousework. wendysquiltsandmore. off-wall-friday.  frombolttobeauty.blogspot.  tgiff. confessionsofafabricaddict. 
midweek-makers. slow-sunday-stitching. oh-scrap.

Twenty for 2020

Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl came up with a linky party for twenty goals for 2020. This is my totally unrealistic left-brain list in no particular order.

1. Stitch for 20 minutes a day 5x a week
2. Morrell 20 more blocks
3. Lose 20 lbs
4. 20 machine quilting goals
5. Write 20 more chapters for Sister
6. Begin hand quilting BTCT
7. Write for 20 minutes a day 3x a week
8. Work on 20 different quilts.  
9. Read 20 books 
10. Turn computer off for 20 minutes a day
11. Spend 20 minutes quiet time with God
12. Complete 20 units on the doctorate
13. Waterfit 20 minutes 2x a week
14. Stretching 20 minutes a day
15. Bike 20 minutes 2x a week
16. Treadmill 20 minutes 2x a week
17. Bright Jane 20 more blocks
18. Publish SMOWJ
19. Publish Sister
20. Write dissertation 

I will probably have to get a bit more organized than I am right now.
Blessings,
Chris
wednesday-wait-loss. cleverchameleon. design-wall-monday.

Cherries Progress

Last week we had a snowed-in-down-day for us here at the farm and I spent part of the day rummaging through my Morrell fabric boxes organizing the next few blocks to be made. I have not worked on it since the Shipshewana retreat in April. Actually, it seems that I only work on it at the retreat. I wanted to have some blocks prepped and ready to pick up when I felt like stitching something other than cherries. But then, I realized I will never complete the BTCT quilt if I keep finding something other than cherries to stitch on. 

Many bloggers are all aflutter about the 2020 Weather Quilts. I like the idea. I also like the 365(6) Day Circles. I even thought about combining the two. You know make a circle each day for the high temperature on a square for the low temperature. Then I realized that I am pretty much circled out right now. So then I considered making melons kind of like on the corners of the 1857 quilt for the 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. But I am still working on the Corn and Beans UFO and I had considered bringing Bright Jane out to play again. And, if I am going to make 20  more Morrell blocks, where will I have time to make 4 bocks a month for Ella Maria Deacon? I also thought it might be fun to take part in one of the many mystery QAL that keep showing up. Then thoughts of hand quilting Beyond the Cherry Trees dance through my head, kind of like a freight train.

I have not started any new quilts in 2019. I held to the commitment. Barely by a thread some days, but I have not started anything new. Instead, I worked on a few old ones. And I wrote. Lots of pages. Still have many hundreds to go. My prayer team suggested I put aside my manuscript until the new year and I have. Interesting how that seriously de-stressed my head and that is probably why I am reading new blogs and finding all kinds of new quilty temptations out there. Sigh.

We will have 17 here for Christmas dinner on Sat. It is supposed to be pot luck and I was told I would not have to do anything. As if I could do nothing. The cleaning lady is coming in an extra day to help move a few things and set up 14 feet of tables in the living room so we can all sit in the same room. My husband's suggestion. I have stacking chairs in the one guest room no one is living in that will need to be brought down and washed up. They have not been used since the last time we hosted my family here 5 years ago. There were 23. I made 2 turkeys that year. This year I am cooking roast beef and ham. I love leftovers. One of my brothers is doing the smashed potatoes. Another brother and his wife are bringing no less than 4 desserts. I like desserts and she makes great pies. A sister is bringing a vegetable something or other. There will be tobogganing if we get more snow and it turns cold. Also, there will be Lego wars in the quilt room. 

The problem with going to bed at 9 pm is that you are wide awake at 4:45 am. So, I put on a load of laundry so I have something clean to wear to church and washed up yesterday's dishes since I went to bed so early without doing them. The little girls are already up and Gay will not be posting the new Ella Maria Deacon QAL blocks for hours yet. I had pie and a cup of green tea for a pre-breakfast snack. Real breakfast will be in a couple of hours. In the meantime, I have ribs in the crockpot for dinner and there is no line up for the shower. Yet.
Blessings, 
Chris
kathy's slow-sunday-stitching. oh-scrap.  wednesday-wait-loss. design-wall-monday. canadian needleandthreadnetwork.  frombolttobeauty.

RSC Browns

I made 18 units with browns and beiges and creams. I only got the white, cream and beige mixed up twice. I turned on an extra lamp and was more careful after that.  I have really enjoyed working on these blocks. The blocks finish at 8 inches.

When the girls came home from school on Monday, I had Devan arrange all the blocks on the wall. There are a lot of dark colours in there. There are still reds and greens and oranges to do.  I started with the pinks and yellows back in Aug and there are a few more of those colours in the box.

It is not mindless sewing as there are a lot of triangles, but there is a rhythm once I got into it.

Sixty two down and thirty-eight more to go. Maybe.

Blessings,
Chris

linking with so scrappy

December 2019 OMG Goal

My December one-monthly-goal will be to complete one more border with the appliqued cherries and the embroidered stems. I realized that the 4 borders are the equivalence of 10 blocks. Maybe that is why it has been taking me longer than I had anticipated.

Who knows, maybe I could get all 3 done. 
Blessings, 
Chris


linking with: slow-sunday-stitching. one-monthly-goal.  quiltingismorefunthanhousework.  design-wall-monday.  whatahootquilts.  wednesday-wait-loss.  myquiltinfatuation.  off-wall-friday.  peacock-party.  confessionsofafabricaddict.  frombolttobeauty.

November 2019 OMG Completion

I did meet my November one-monthly goal of embroidering the stems onto one BTCT border. It took about 2 hours while visiting my daughter one day as I sat at the dining room table in the warmth of the sun as it lit up my workspace and reflected off the newly fallen snow on the deck outside. 

I had forgotten how much I enjoy hand embroidery. Now to do this 3 more times. 
Blessings,
Chris
linking to: one-monthly-goal-november-finish. oh-scrap,
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Strawberry Season is Finally Done

In the spring our son invested a lot of time and resources in planting 500 strawberry plants. There are at least 5 varieties. One of them is called Day Neutral, not to be confused with everbearing. We had a hot wet summer and keeping the plants from getting washed away from the sandy slope behind our old farmhouse was the goal. Pulling weeds and grass was a challenge also.

These berries were picked last week, Nov 5 just before our first snowfall of the season.

Blessings,
Chris

November 2019 OMG Goal

November's one-monthly-goal. will be to complete the embroidery on one of the borders for BTCT. It will be a nice change from stitching circles.

Bottom border. I left extra fabric and bias stem to join to the sides. I will add a few more leaves after the corners are all connected. 

I took one border to England with me a few weeks ago and happily stitched away in my sister's conservatory - a lovely sunroom. I enjoyed watching the weather change from fog to rain to sun to rain to sun then more rain. I have dreamed of having one on the back of my old farmhouse for years and years. Maybe one day. But in the meantime, it is November and the leaves are falling off the trees and the rest of the airconditioning units must come out of the windows. This year we had 5 going. No wonder our hydro bill was up from last year.

The oil got changed in my car and the snow tires will go on soon. I actually bought new socks and wore them the other day. Last week I had the little boys here for 4 whole days. They had a 4 day weekend from school so to the farm they wanted to come. Grampa had 2 large dump trucks of dirt deposited in the yard so the boys each had their own mountain to climb and excavate. One was a volcano I was told. And they asked to put blocks on the design wall. How could I say no?

Dear Jane 2 and Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. I did get the brown and beigey squares cut out with the GO cutter.

November is also NaNoWriMo month. National Novel Writing Month. I anticipate completing my first draft this month. I have so far resisted starting on the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt, even though I read about it, write about it, dream about it, talk about it and drool over the picture of it. I have a project box filled with Jane Austin reproduction fabrics and 10 yards of a yummy tone on tone creamy fabric I found in the cupboard. I brought home some fabric from England that will be perfect for a bit of Broderie Perse applique. I really like doing that. But I will control myself and wait until January. It might be 12:01 am, but it will be next year.

The cleaning lady is here doing her magic on the dirt that accumulated since her last visit. On her last visit, we had a new toilet installed. How nice to be able to flush with only one flick of the wrist.

I will be back at the end of the month to share how much embroidery gets done.
Blessings,
Chris

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork. one-monthly-goal-november. peacock-party. off the wall Friday.  confessionsofafabricaddict. tgiff.  needle-and-thread-thursday.  frombolttobeauty.
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Learning to Knit

Almost 12-year-old Ava won 3 door prizes at the Sunday Slow Stitching Retreat a few week. Two of the prizes included yarn as well as her goodie bag. I found a pair of knitting needles among the stuff when I was looking for the red thread to continue needle turn appliqueing red circles on Beyond The Cherry Trees borders. It was in a box of scraps from my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. Now how did it get in there? But I digress.

The other night I told Ava I was going to teach her to knit. The first thing was to roll a ball of purple yarn. She whined and complained but did it. It is more like a pear or pomegranate than a ball but she did it. Next, I showed her how to cast on. I was her age when I learned to do that with 2 needles. I had to remember how since I have not knitted anything in some 20 years, and that when I was teaching 10 year olds how to knit.

She shrieked, "I don't know how to do that!!" Well of course not. That is what I was going to teach her to do. After a few tries, she got it. Then she was eager to learn to do the first stitches. I told her it was bedtime and she would have to wait until Friday for her next lesson. "Can I take it to school to work on?"

"No. But, if you want to practice, you can do that with a pencil and some string." So she got some string and a pencil. I think we have a convert.

I won one door prize and 6 year old Devan claimed it as well as what was left in my goodie bag that I had not traded with Ava. There was a pretty purple and green charm pack. I have ideas. But I had a plane to catch on Sat and was out of the country visiting a sister. I took one BTCT border to stitch on cherries. There will be at least 167 by the time I finish all 4 borders so only about 110 to go.

When all is said and done, I said more than I did. I did not complete my OMG for October. I did get one border filled with appliqued cherries but not the second one. That will have to be next month's goal. But for now, I need to keep writing.

Blessings,
Chrislinking up with: needleandthreadnetwork 

First Annual Slow Sunday Stitching Retreat

What a wonderful day to get together and stitch slowly. 

Really slowly since we were having so much fun. 

Ava joined me and what a great day it was for her.

 First of all, she got to spend the day with Gramma. 

Then she learned how to embroider. 

Well, the backstitch so far. 

After that, she won not one, not two
but three door prizes. 

Guess she is going to learn how to knit. 

Good thing I found a pair of knitting needles 

when I was looking for the missing red thread.

About 28 quilters and knitters and embroiderers came out 

to a lovely retreat center just outside the city of Guelph

 about 45 minutes from our place. 

Can hardly wait until we do it again next year. 

Blessings,
Chris
linking with: slow-sunday-stitching. myquiltinfatuation.  needleandthreadnetwork.
 emsscrapbag. peacock-party. finished or not friday  off-wall-friday.

Throwback Thursday

This is a quilt I made for my daughter when she was about 8. The center is a very faded Care Bear Cousins panel. That pink poly-cotton will never fade or shrink. It is tied. She used this one for years as a take-along and on the couch. One of her cats persisted in sucking on one of the ties. Silly cat.

When she was about 13 I found a quilt shop that was selling out and I bought some fabric for half price. She chose the colours. We were told that if we turned some of the fabrics over, we would get yet another colour. Who knew. I cut out all those squares and hand-pieced them. It is also tied and has a flannel backing. Many of the squares are falling apart and I have patched it.





Blessings,
Chris

Oct 2019 OMG Goal

October's one-monthly-goal will be to complete all the hand applique on at least 2 borders of BTCT. This will mean doing only about 3 cherries a day. I have started to do them freehand since most of the other 300 circles were done that way. It appears that I cut some of the circles too big. So I made those smaller. 

Then, I realized that many others were too big also, to freehand stitch. If I was using the perfect circles it would not matter. I will be away for half the month and I think this border at 10 x 100 inches is a bit bulky to stuff in my carry on bag for my flight to England to visit one of my sisters. 

And, I won the $25 gift coupon from Fat Quarter Shop for completing my goal last month. Wonder what I will buy this time? Thank you, Patty!
Blessings,
Chris
Linking with: needleandthreadnetwork. myquiltinfatuation.

September 2019 OMG Completion

My September one-monthly-goal 

was to sew together these 16 purple blocks.

Purple was the RSC colour for September. 

There are many ways to put these together.

Wonder what the colour will be for October?

Blessings,

Chris

linking to: show-me-something-purple.

Ella BOM

I have decided to use some of the Jane Austin Collections from a few years back for this new block of the month from sentimental stitches. Let's assume that some of the women making blocks were grandmothers and had some older scraps in their cupboards from, say, the 1820s or thereabouts.

I cannot bring myself to spend the next 2 years hand stitching away on a black background. 

Nope. Not going to happen.

And please, can anyone tell me where the leftover Kona Snow blocks are from 1857 and Dear Daughter? For the life of me, I cannot find them anywhere. Guess that's what happens when you complete a project and put away the leftovers.
Blessings,
Chris

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt-A-Long

There is a new BOM from sentimental stitches called The Ella Maria Deacon Quilt. It is a most amazing album quilt with no less than 85 blocks set on point with fussy cut sashing originally made in 1842, the year my house was built. Most of the blocks are appliqued and the rest pieced. This one will not be a freebie. The first month block sets will be $2.50 US then the usual $5 after they are retired into the online store.

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt

The original colours are stunning to say the least. So why am I having difficulty choosing colours? Goodness knows, I have enough reproduction prints and solids in my cupboard and stash. But I have already made several reproduction quilts in the past few years using these same colours. I thought it would be a nice change up to pick a different colour scheme. Hence the hesitation. I have no lack of fabric. Maybe the problem is that I have too much and too many choices. And I have recently learned a new psychological term called Decision_fatigue.

I considered using one of the many fat quarter fabric collections I have. But which one?  I think almost 12 year old Ava will be making this one with me. I will offer her a choice of colours. Maybe she will go with Kaffe fabrics and a black background. Now, won't that be spectacular?
Blessings,
Chris
linking with: whatahootquilts. moving-it-forward. monday-making. needleandthreadnetwork.  myquiltinfatuation.

Options

I thought this pattern was Corn and Beans

but it does look like Ocean Waves. 

The blocks so far are just randomly placed. 

I will let the little girls play with placement after I get a few more colours made.

And the 6 year old added her option.

Blessings,

Chris

linking to: off the wall Friday
myquiltinfatuation.

Throwback Thursday Quilts made before blogging

I started blogging Sept 4, 2013. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing and how to do it. It took me longer to figure out how to stop being a no-reply blogger so I could interact with my readers. After a while, I found some linky parties and started dialogues with many quilters around the world. What a wonderful journey that has been. One of them is Sandra at  mmmquilts who hosts Throwback Thursday Quilts made before blogging.

This is one of my earlier quilts that I actually completed and gifted. One girl that was working for us milking cows and doing a hundred other things, was going off to college so we decided to make her a quilt. So, for her birthday in May, I gave her a bag of fabrics and a picture of a Wagon Wheel quilt I saw in a magazine. Earlier, I had asked her what her favourite colour was. She paused, lowered her head, a bit bashful, for her, and said burnt orange. No problem. I had some yardage and a whole wack of orange and golds and browns.

It took me a few months and many stitches removed and redone. I had machine quilted it in that (in my opinion) horrible monofilament thread that kept stretching and breaking and nesting. On the back is a panel with folded hands and the Lord's Prayer.  It is all half-square triangles and squares.
She dragged it back and forth to college and home every weekend for 2 years.

Blessings,
Chris
tgiff.  frombolttobeauty.

2019 Quilters Meet and Greet

Hi. My name is Chris, and I Quilt at the Farm.  Actually, I do pretty much everything at the farm since I live on a dairy farm. I have been blogging about my life on the farm and family, travel and quilting since Sept 4, 2013, so tomorrow is my bloggerversary. I have been invited to take part in victoriana quilt designs  2019-online-quilters-meet-greet..

What can I say? I quilt. A lot. Almost every day. I love reproduction quilts and applique. Especially needle-turn hand applique because that is where I am in my happy place. I do machine applique also if I want to complete something fast. And write. I have published a book called Denine: One mother's journey with a profoundly handicapped child. You can read more about it on my website here.  I am in the process of writing 2 more books. I will be taking part in a virtual writing retreat this weekend after I judge canning at a local fair.

These are a few of the quilts I have been working on in the past few years. Most of them are quilted by machine. Some are patiently awaiting their turn. 

GORF 1 - Go Real Fast

Chester County Criswell Quilt
needle turn hand applique

GORF 2 - Go Real Fast

Simple Simon 

$10 Sampler 

Crazy Patch

Original Later Cake 

1857 Album Quilt
needle turn hand applique

Dear Daughter
needle turn hand applique

Double Irish Chain

Civil War Dear Jane

Beyond the Cherry Trees.
needle turn hand applique

Besides quilting and writing, I travel. You can read about some of my mission adventures here and here and here. I often take along some hand applique blocks because I can get a lot of work done one stitch at a time.

There is a grand prize draw. For more information check out this link victorianaquiltdesigns.

Blessings, 

Chris
needleandthreadnetwork.

Sept 2019 OMG Goal

The RSC colour for September is purple!!

This is what I have found already cut and sewn together of the 8 purple fabrics so this should be an easy goal for OMG this month.

And this is how 2 of the blocks will go together. I like that most of the prep work is already done. I can just enjoy sewing them all together. After this, I will have to cut squares and sew half-square triangles together but that is not too difficult.



Blessings,
Chris

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To-Do Tuesday

I write to-do lists all the time. I don't always do everything on the list. This past week I was taking part in a Writing Week Challenge with christianbookacademy.com.  I managed to move forward in my writing enough that I plan to keep the momentum going. My list for this week includes:

1. Plan-It Day to organize my week
2. Complete ESTC lecture outlines
3. Write for 3 hours three times
4. Complete stitching leaves onto fourth BTCT border.
5. Fill 4 donate boxes and donate them. 

That should keep me busy. 

Blessings,

Chris

BTCT Borders

I kept my hands busy this summer stitching on the 4 borders for Beyond the Cherry Trees. 

With no quilting deadlines looming, I just stitched away enjoying every moment.

First thing was to tape all the pattern pieces together. 

There are 9 pages for each of the 4 borders. 

I had cut the border strips way back at the beginning to

make sure I had enough fabric for all 4 of them. 

Next was to cut enough bias strips for the wavy vines. 

Then run them all through the bias maker. 

I had decided to make them 1/2 inch wide. 

I sort of over estimated how much I would need and made almost double. 

I could use the leftovers to do a single bias binding. 

While all the pattern pieces were on the 8 foot table,

I positioned then glue basted the stems. 

Good thing that each of the borders has a different curve. 

I used Roxanne's basting glue. 

Then Devan helped lay out the "pepperonis" to see how they would look.

I left extra fabric and the selvage on this bottom border 

so I would have something to pin to the quilting boards. 

The cherries are several sizes.

I am still not decided if I will just freehand them or use the Perfect Circles. 

It was so fun to stitch up the vines. No turning under the edges or removing pins. 

Just stitch until I needed to re-thread the needle. 

Next was to pin the leaves in position. 

I did this for all 4 borders.

I had cut out 2 sizes of leaves with the GO Baby

and the custom leaf dies I had made up just for such a project. 

I set a pace of 4 leaves per day to get them all done by the end of Aug. 

I left some extra bias vine at each of the ends 

so I will have something to join onto the other borders at the corners.   

I wanted to see how many more circles I still needed to cut out

so I put the borders up on the big design wall.

 First one

Then two.

 Then three. 

That is when I realized that I had put the bottom row on backwards. 

I will see how it all looks when they are all complete. 

It's a case of connecting the corners to eachother.

Devan put all the pepperonis on the borders on the wall. 

The boys had way too much fun taking the cherries off the wall 

then putting them back up again. 

It was fun hearing their conversation. 

I commented to 5 year old Jonathan that he was tall enough to reach

higher than his 6 year old cousin did when she put them up. 

So, little 3 year old David smiles and says, "I'm short enough to reach the floor."

I cut 70 more circles using the GO Baby of a lighter French General red. Then I took everything off the wall. It was time for the little girls to work on their I-Spy quilts.

Blessings, 

Chris

Linking with:
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