Lucy One Year Later

 I have been reading Nina's posts on composition in art work. Now I get a glimpse of why Lucy Boston's Patchwork Of the Crosses so appeals to this left-brain thinking quilter. Lucy is totally and completely symmetrical, balanced and straight - sort of. The initial elongate hexagon shapes had me challenged as I did not then know how to approach putting them together. But putting them together I have been doing for an entire year. And loving every minute of it!

We were home alone Christmas Day 2021 and Chooky challenged me to gather my papers and the book and start. So I did. Nearly every blog post for 2022 made mention of that journey. I have loved it. The same kind of love I had for working on the Cherries Quilt for 6 years. I will get that one quilted some day. 

I will soon be cutting out the next 12 sets of elongated hexies to continue on into the new year. But I told myself that I had to complete the Wedding Quilt first. That hasn't happened yet but progress has. Until we had a family wedding, surprise 60th birthday party, 18 for an impromptu sleepover during the pre-Christmas blizzard and then Christmas Eve dinner for 22 was here instead of at our daughter's since their town was shutdown because of 3-4 feet of snow during the same blizzard and 100 mile and hour winds, and we had most of the family here anyway in their Christmas jammies. It was awesome. And both my Sweetie and I were sick so it was nice that there were other adult people here to make sure no one starved. Power flickered off a few times, but stayed on, even though the washer and dryer almost never slept but the hot tub did get accidentally put on sleep mode so was about 60F when we dressed up in our swim suits to go in. So Christmas Day was rather quiet since there were only 13 of us. Oh, and I had no Wi-Fi in the upstairs quilt room where we had relocated the desktop computer since my nephew and his family from Saskatchewan were occupying the parlour. Actually, the Wi-Fi was rather sketchy the whole time. Cannot imagine why with all those cell phones being engaged all at the same time. I had also taken all the lego creations in progress up to my sewing tables to protect them for the toddlers who were here all week. 

The goal will be to get those sewn together then make more corner squares after fussy cutting out more 2 inch squares for the centers. 

But wait! I ran out of papers!!! So I start sewing units together so I can remove some papers to re-use. I do like how this is coming together. I did meet my Dec OMG goal and then some. 

So my Jan OMG goal will have to be determined. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with:alyciaquilts.  ninamariesayre.off-wall-friday.html

August 2021 OMG Goal

 You've heard the expression "Go big or Go home"? I made a preliminary list of 10 things to consider for my Aug OMG goal. I had not yet decided which of the options to choose. I then figured I would probably try to do all of them. Not necessarily for the OMG goal, but just to do all of them. There is something about writing them all down to give a reality check. Planning 10 goals for the month is daunting. But if those same goals are broken down into 2-3 goals per week like for the To-Do Tuesday, then it might be doable. Hmm . . . food for thought. 

1. 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella - This came to a screeching halt when we made the decision back in  April to postpone our 50th-anniversary celebration until next year.  Actually, it came to a halt when I set aside everything to finish the doctorate. But I completed that 2 months ago! The anniversary is on Aug 7 and we will have a small family get-together. My Slow Sunday Stitching project could be to continue hand appliqueing on one of the Ella blocks. But which one? There are 12 more to go. 

2. Macaron Mystery QAL - Clue #2 will be posted on Thurs. 

3. Summer 2021 QAL - We are on Clue # 8 and I have been working on that this week. 

4. Poppy's Polka Dot Garden - In order to continue on this new start from last month, I want to either choose a new background or chose a new colour palette or both and start again. 

5. Bright Jane - Depending on the RSC color for August, I could resume making the remaining blocks. I had moved away from doing the original blocks a long time ago and have been making other simple two-coloured blocks to add to the ones already made. As it turns out, the colour is aqua and I have all that colour done. 

6. 3030 Quilt - This was a BOM from last year and I got about halfway before starting the Ella BOM. The plan is to take inventory of what is made and what still needs to be made including the incredible center medallion applique and make a plan to continue. 

7. Ben Biggs - The bin has been retrieved from the back hall where it was tucked away with 22 other bins of projects and fabrics 3 years ago when our son and his girls moved in. These were not accessible so got forgotten. The plan is to resume the prep work on the remaining blocks for machine applique and put them up on the design wall.

8. Jazz II - I bought a new sewing machine back in March and have yet to set it up and start playing with it. I ordered $400 of additional presser feet that did not come with it. No wonder the machine was so inexpensive even on sale. It has 12 inches of throat space and I plan to do machine quilting on it. Eventually. The intent is to set it up and practice machine quilting on something. 

9. Little girls cross-stitch - The girls are learning to cross-stitch. They both picked it up quickly and are stitching words onto bookmarks. 

10. BTCT - clean it up and layer ready for big stitch hand quilting. I have been doing some research (aka reading blogs endlessly) and found this series of posts by Wendy from The Peacock Party on hand quilting. 

I have been settling into my new quilt room. Okay. I have been taking up more and more quilting stuff. The room is looking quite cluttered now. Just the way I tend to make all my rooms. I want to get rid of a lot of my fabric but first want to revisit a few projects and make sure I have everything needed to complete them. In order to do this, I have to pull them out, one by one, and make sure. I do not have bins of neatly organized scraps. What I do have, is many well-organized project boxes containing everything needed to make and complete each quilt. The problem is, I am not completing them. And I did start 3 new ones in July. 

My Aug OMG will be to complete # 3 the Summer QAL Mystery to a flimsy. The Linky Party is Aug 24. I should be able to have a flimsy for then.

Until then blessings, 

Chris

Linking with:

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Skinny Stems

 

I took a few classes with Kathy Dunigan 11 years ago when she lived in Canada. She had come up with a technique for skinny stems and was looking for a catchy name for them. I wonder if she ever came up with one? Anyway, Kathy was teaching a year-long course for a Baltimore sampler that included dimensional applique. 

She used a very narrow silk ribbon for her curvy stems. Folded them in half and glued them onto the background fabric and hand appliqued them down. I always used too much glue and it's hard to stitch through it. That block was the only time I used that technique. It is one of my UFOs. One of these days I will pull it out and finished it. But first I have a few other things to finish. This is where I first started doing needle-turn hand applique. 

I had a few comments about bias stems and I was reminded of Gay Bomer's tutorial applique/teeny-tiny-stems. It is worth checking out. I have several sizes of Clover bias makers and will try the 1/8th inch one first. I used the 1/8th maker for these red stems. It was certainly a challenge but with it.I have found that my bias stems always turn out a bit wider than the maker suggests. Sometimes I pull too fast when I am pulling the strip through. So I pull out an inch or so, pause, let it relax, and push it back in ever so slightly before gently pressing it. Rosemary Makhan taught us to put the cut bias strips in a plastic bag and spritz them with spray starch. This was long before Best Press was invented. I use that now. 

Hope this is helpful.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: midweek-makers, myquiltinfatuation. needleandthreadnetwork.

BTCT Flimsy

My April goal for  Patty's one-monthly-goal was to complete the Beyond the Cherry Trees top and I did way ahead of schedule. I will not begin hand quilting it until later sometime. 

Squaring corners

Marking rounded corner

Rounded Corner

Pinning Stems

Pinning More Stems

Stitching Last Stem

Stitching Last Cherry

Last Stitch

Beyond the Cherry Trees Flimsy 100 X 100 

Whatever will I do for an encore?

Blessings,
Chris
linking with: easter-slow-sunday-stitching.  quiltingismorefunthanhousework. design-wall-monday.
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Quilt-In @ Farm

This Sat April 4 I am hosting a Quilt-In here at the Farm. I have invited all the friends on my Quilting @ Farm facebook group to join me in staying at home and quilting. We will be connecting on facebook chat live and doing our own thing in our own quilt rooms.

Once I gave myself permission to start making blocks for the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt, I was hesitant to actually get started. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush of the anticipation of wanting to start it that kept me wanting to start it. Maybe it's the wanting to complete my doctorate that has slowed me down. I have submitted 2 courses so far this year and 3 others on the go.

I have foundation patterns printed off and background fabrics chosen. After looking long and hard at the wonderful tone on tone cream fabric I was considering for the background, I think I might now use a variety of creamy prints and solids. I had to reprint the foundation patterns because I had printed them off at fit instead of actual. It is the difference between making the block the right size and being too small

This week I pre-washed some fabrics. I just like how they feel for hand applique. I had not intended to use turkey red or poison green or chrome yellow. There are a lot of those colours in the original. Instead, I plan to use softer reproduction colours. That stripe on top is for the sashing strips. I will use the lighter stripe and not the darker brown. I might add cornerstones.

Then I prepped several blocks so I could back baste the fabrics on ready to hand applique later.
This will be my project for Sat so I can sit at the computer desk all day and still be productive.

I told my friends to remember to comb their hair and that we can see everything behind them when on camera. PJs are totally appropriate. Well, appropriate ones are. We begin promptly at 9 am, assuming I get out of bed by then and comb my hair.

Blessings,
Chris

Linking with: needleandthreadnetwork.  off-wall-friday  frombolttobeauty. wendysquiltsandmore.

April 2020 OMG Goal

is to turn all this into a flimsy.

Now to reconcile all the corners. 
Each one will be unique.

Bottom Right Corner

Top Right Corner

Top Left Corner

Bottom Left Corner

Blessings,

Chris

Linking with: OMG,  wednesday-wait-loss, myquiltinfatuation. midweek-makers.
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Last of the Aqua Blocks

These are the last 7 teal/turquoise/aqua blocks

for my Bright Jane Sampler

bringing the total to 20. 

I have started making other simpler blocks 

instead of the complex ones in the original Quilt. 

I can do this. It is my quilt. 

Besides, I have already made every single one of those

169 blocks and 52 triangles and 4 corner kites

that Jane Stickle made.

That one on the far right still needs some appliqued circles.

I ordered some new circle gadgets. 

About 500 BTCT circles too late

but we will give it a try. 

And I accidentally made 2 of that star on the left.

One in aqua and one in green. 

I think I might just make a few more accidentally in every colour.

I wonder what the colour will be for April? 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: superscrappy. needleandthreadnetwork.

March 2020 OMG Completion

My March goal for OMG was to complete the applique birds on these BTCT blocks. I know. It was such a simple goal but I have discovered that the hand applique that I have loved so much over the years is now hurting my fingers too much so I have been doing machine work instead.

Blessings,
Chris 

Linking with: elmstreetquilts.

Guess What I Am Doing?

Until next time,
Chris

linking up with: slow-sunday-stitching.

March 2020 OMG Goal

My March one-monthly-goal will be to hand applique those 4 little birds onto these 
Beyond the Chery Trees blocks. 
So close to the finish!

And why is my goal so tiny??
Because I have been writing!!
I submitted a course this week that I started back in 2014. 

I am halfway through another course I started in 2015. I took the textbook to Australia with me. 

I was given the syllabi for 2 more. Finally! I will be done with ethics and skills and get to move into mental health. As I was perusing one of the books, I remembered that I might be a tad bit ADHD and that explains a lot of things. You can read about my confessions here.
Blessings,
Chris

linking to: slow-sunday-stitching. quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

February 2020 OMG Goals

I am hard-pressed to decide just what to do for my February one-monthly-goal.

I got my Bright Jane orange blocks and patterns organized last week when the colour was revealed early. I like that. I have several tiny blocks made so far. I am trying to rationalize myself into choosing a goal. Some months I have made it super simple to get it done. Other times I have made it super challenging. Sometimes it is very specific - complete 8 blocks. Other times is is vague - move this one forward. I like specific but vague works too.

My quilting for the past year has been focused on working on my Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks and borders as well as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with the Corn and Beans ufo. I am still writing my book. Very slowly but working on it. And, I am trying to complete my doctorate. I submitted one course last month and have another almost done. Some of my non-quilting goals will be to complete and submit three courses.

My February OMG will be to make "a whole bunch" of orange blocks either for Bright Jane and/or the Corn and Beans. Now is that vaguely specific enough? Or is it specifically vague? Either way, it will be orange blocks. And there are 5 Saturdays. I have been sewing and not writing on Saturdays.
Blessings,
Chris
quiltingismorefunthanhousework. needleandthreadnetwork. design-wall-monday-  midweek-makers.
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Decisions Decisions

Since completing the rest of the Beyond the Cherry Trees borders, I have been trying to decide what my Feb OMG will be. Will I assemble all 25 blocks and add the borders for a flimsy?
I can't do that yet. After it is assembled, I still have to finish the corners with a few more cherries and leaves. But before I can do any of that, I want to add a few more birds. At least 4. Oh, and I wanted to write where I was when I was stitching on the blocks. Five continents, three provinces, and countless states.

And, I also want to add the date and maybe my initials. I told 6-year od Devan that I wanted to put the date 2020 on to the red bowl with the fruit in it. She suggested the big green bowl.

 When I asked why she said the red bowl block already has a lot in it and the green bowl did not. She had added extra grapes on it a couple of years ago.


Then there is the case of hand quilting. Do I want to assemble the completed thing and hand quilt it that way? It turns out that way back on Christmas Day I trimmed all 25 blocks to 16 1/2 inches ready to assemble them. Then I realized that the finished blocks are supposed to be 16 1/2 inches making the center 3 inches shorter. The borders would have to be shortened to fit. I left on extra bias vine to blend the corners and did not stitch quite to the end of the pattern. Speaking of pattern, I dropped all the pattern pieces into the recycle bin back in December when I put the final cherries in place. Oops. I will have to figure out the corners from a picture of the original. I like doing that sort of thing. Then it was suggested that I hand quilt each block individually and assemble them later. I have researched the Potholder Method.

I think it is fun now to post a few pictures with borders showing. You will have to wait until later to see what I end up doing. In the meantime, I submitted another course and have writing to do. My goal of 2000 words today is a tad short with 2000 still to go.

Blessings,
Chris
frombolttobeauty. off-wall-friday.

January 2020 OMG Completion

My Jan one-monthly-goal was to complete the final 2 borders for

 Beyond the Cherry Trees. 

And I did. 

The next step is to stitch on a couple more birds. 

I will add the little red bird onto 

David's oops block. 

The red mark on the lower-left corner got trimmed off.

I will be stitching that tomorrow for slow-sunday-stitching.

So excited!

Blessings, 

Chris 

Soon But Not Yet

So after obsessing for the past 5 months about starting the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt and purchasing the patterns each month and preparing background fabric and sorting through countless reproduction fabrics as well as printing off foundation patterns and applique placement sheets, I have decided to not get too far ahead of myself. I am still embroidering stems onto cherry borders and want to complete this first. Also, I have been making small green blocks for my Bright Jane quilt. I am not making all the original Dear Jane blocks again, but I am making some simpler basic blocks as well as some of the Tiny Tuesday blocks from Soscrappy's 2019 RSC sampler blocks. I am having fun again. These are my green blocks for RSC this month.

Wonder what the colour will be for Feb? It's Orange!
Blessings,
Chris
quiltingismorefunthanhousework.  wednesday-wait-loss-156

January 2020 OMG Goal

January's one-monthly-goal  will be to complete the last 2 borders for Beyond the Cherry Trees.

Blessings,
Chris
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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. 
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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
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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

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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