April 201 OMG Goal

My OMG goal for April will be to stitch for at least 15 minutes almost every day. I have quite a few Ella blocks already prepped with back basting for needle-turn hand applique. This method goes on in layers as some of the pieces sit on top of others. There will be a few broderie perse blocks. I like doing them once I decide what fabrics to cut out. I prep lots of blocks at a time when I have time to sit with it for a few hours like on Sat mornings when I meet online with a few sisters and quilting friends. 

I am putting most of my other projects on hold for a couple of months as I endeavor to complete the rest of my academic courses. And if I can stay off Facebook and stop reading blogs and playing games, I have a good chance to do just that. But that is not the way I do things usually. 

We are back in lockdown this week, so I won't be able to go to the pool again for a while. It felt good to get some exercise but it did take time and energy. Taxes are getting done on Wed.  

blessings,

Chris

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February 2021 OMG Goal

 I always find it a challenge to settle in on just one OMG goal. What will it be?  

What about Bright Jane? I made 5 pink blocks for RSC to add to the 7 I already had made. 

Feb's color is yellow. My quilt needs 11 blocks for that colour. 

I have been sitting here hovering near the girls doing their school work. Ellyse is so much like me Totally distractable.

Ellyse joined me and Chooky and the girls Monday night on zoom. We cut out a whole lot of green and white pieces for The Curves. It was hard work and I let her do the cranking. 

She had a paper cut on her finger and "had to" change the band-aid every 4 hours (a bit OCD maybe). She was asking if she still needed yet another new bandaid but I said no, the cut was healing up very nicely. Then I reached down into a box on the floor to pull out some papers and what do you know? I came back up with a very big bloody paper cut on the ring finger of my right hand. You know, my-push-the-needle-through-the-applique finger. Ouch. So. she put a bandaid on it. It is healing very nicely. I only changed it once when it fell off washing dishes. 

I continue to do my 15-Minutes of Stitching daily. So far I am 100%. 

This Ella block was a bit daunting. I started with back-basting the yellow centers in each corner. Then I added the red petals on either side. 

 

I forgot to take a picture of only one of the brown curlycues that frame each flower. I am doing these in 4 separate applications. I probably could have done it as one piece, but I wanted to do it the way the original maker switched hers. 

This will be my hand stitching for the next few days. 

There will yet be a cluster of flower petals at the end of each of those brown stems. 

My OMG goal for Feb has to be The Curves.  I must have all 64 units done so I can put together the required 16 blocks and complete the rest of the things by the end of the month. I plan to get Ellyse to help cut out more pieces. 

Blessings,

Chris

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The Storyteller

I did the High5 Quiz online recently and it tells me I am a Storyteller. You think?  That's part of why being a writer is so exciting. I get to tell stories. Here on the blog, I tell stories about quilt blocks I make or the process of making them. I tell stories about my grandchildren. To be challenged to tell a story without words, is, for me, well, a challenge. I could post pictures but always want to be explaining things.

This is as far as I have gotten with the January RSC pinks for Bright Jane. I still have a week so I might get more made. 

The craziest thing here on the new Blogger. All my photos came up in reverse order. No problem. I will just change how I write up my story, even though I have been writing bits and pieces throughout the week. 

This is the back of one block with the back-basting. I used a regular pencil this time. I figure it will be hidden on the back under the appliques. That fabric is white, really. 

When doing the back-basting thing, you stitch the bits in layers. This is the first layer of this block. I stitched down the top part of each petal and cut a tiny notch for the curve but realized it was perfect for transitioning from the stitched part to the flat part that will be under the next petals. You will have to wait until next time to see the progress. 

I made this block a while ago but finally finished the Broderie Perse applique. Devan is claiming this block for her name. I had to convince her to wait until the quilt was done, as she was already looking for a Sharpie. You can read that story here.

Wait until you see what this block will look like. I hope my process works. I like process. That is part of why I like blogging so much of my quilting journey. I can document the process of making the blocks. I make a lot of blocks.  

And, I did get in at least 15 minutes stitching every day. Sometimes 3-4 hours.

I prepped 6 applique blocks for my 50th Aniversary Quilt aka Ella. One of the other girls in the group tucked in a scene in one of the blocks. I will see if I can find one for this center. Otherwise, there will be more 8 petal flowers inside, inside a square inside a circle with skinny petals in the corners.

I just realized that I am doing a lot of hand stitching these days. Why? Because my hands do not hurt quite as much as they were. Stopping eating so much sugar cannot possibly be the reason.

I was looking at my 50 Goals for 2021. One of them is celebrating our son-in-law's 50th birthday. We had plans and a little boy sleepover and something other than pizza with the cake, but we are in a stay-at-home lockdown this month so will have to wait until another time. You only turn 50 once. We had pizza anyway.

This the other block I completed this week. I was liking the softer colours - the creams and butter and coral and chocolate and aqua. My Sweet husband of nearly 50 years thought it was rather underwhelming. But when I put the egg yolk and cranberry together with a touch of chocolate, that the thing started looking exciting. 

My OMG goal for January was to complete 16 units for the QAL The Curves! I found the fabrics I needed and pulled out the GO cutter and the 7inch Drunkards Path die. Oops. The way the die is designed, I will be wasting a lot of fabric cutting the way I want. 

We shall see. I still have a lot more cutting to do. I did make my OMG goal for January.

 

In the meantime, the little girls decided they wanted to do some quilting. Sigh. I am so lazy sometimes. I have kept putting them off saying it was too cluttered to work here and with them and their school work, it is even more so. But Devan would not let me get away with that. So, they both started a new quilt. Five-inch quilt as you go hexagons. They are learning to use the rotary cutters. But we still have to make a bit more room for them both to work, because they have to do it at the same time. These both are Devan's blocks. Then she decided to make some pillows for her stuffies, but I would not let her use the machine because I have it set up with my sewing, so she pulled out the biggest needle in the pincushion and started stitching by hand. 

Ellyse put her's into a project box. Just like Gramma. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Rainy Saturday @ Farm

Saturday it was raining outside. At least we don't have to shovel rain. The kids were playing inside and actually being rather quiet this time. Who would have thought 5 children could play together all day without too much noise. Maybe I am going deaf. Wait! The new teenager is usually hidden away in her room. She was giving manicures in the morning. I passed this time. She was finished all her school work and bored, so she made me a smoothie. Then at midnight, she started baking a cake in a mug. It was delish!

We used the GO cutter and 2 1/2 inch strip die to cut out a gazillion strips out of construction paper for the kids to make paper chains. They haven't started yet because they were, you know, playing quietly. One wants to use tape. I said no. And I just bought 4 large new rolls. I suggested glue since I have a whole case of it. One suggested staples. Maybe. I just bought a new one so we have about 20,000 staples. Another wrote names on with glitter glue but had to wait for it to dry. And then, she wanted to sew but I encouraged the pirates game. 

I meet with a few friends on Facebook to sew on Saturday mornings. So we met and we sewed. 

I did a bit of hand stitching on an Ella block. Now it's time to do a few skinny stems. But how should I proceed? I could hunt up the bias makers or just do the back basting thing. 

The last skinny stems I did were on this 3030 Block. I cut thin strips on the bias and pinned them in place. Then, I stitched up one side and down the other. Fortunately, most of the stems will be covered up with the rest of the flowers. 

I finally finished hand appliqueing the yellow flower buds. I think the rest of the flowers will be pink. and there will be 4 green leaves. 

This can be my handwork for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

Backbasting

  

I joined Chooky and friends for a marathon stitching day. Well, some of them did marathon all day Saturday. I joined in for a few hours Friday night but all the grandchildren were here and in and out of my room. It was wonderful as well as distracting.

Then Sat morning a few other friends joined me and we stitched and chatted away all morning. 

The finger has healed very nicely and I was prepping a whole bunch of Ella blocks. I traced the patterns onto the back of the fabric square then basted some of the pieces to have lots of hand applique ready to do. 

The little boy grandchildren are homeschooling now and we are getting a new internet provider this weekend. This should give us at least 3-4 times the download speed than what we have had. As I was writing this, the power went out for two seconds. Just enough to turn off everything then turn it back on. All except the computer. Fortunately, the new blogger saves everything immediately when I stop typing. I like that. Word, however, does not. I have to hit the save button. I was working on a course the other day and left my computer on for several days. We had one of those two-second power outs and I lost about 3 pages that had not been saved. But what I don't understand is, all documents are auto-saved when the computer is turned off with open documents. I could not find those pages anywhere, so I had to do them over. Not a big crime. It was only 3 pages and not original stuff as I was outlining not creating.

Blessings,

Chris

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Stitching With Friends

I finally completed this block! Yay me! I listened to eleven hours of lectures this past week and stitched on many of these arrowhead shapes. Glad this one is done. Not doing it again any time soon. Gay has released a few more doozies for us to make. I can hardly wait. 

This is another of the Ella blocks I am hand appliqueing. This one was a piece of cake with only 4 points to turn compared to 108 in the previous block.

These are more blocks I am working on this week. Some back-basting. Some layering. Some unpicking. Some redoing.

Chooky did it again. She hosted a zoom meeting to stitch with friends around the world. I love it. There were 4 of us Canadians this time.  A few Americans. A few Australians. And a Kiwi or 2. 

The new blogger continues to challenge me. I got the comment in my inbox thing fixed. But how do I remove a photo once I upload it? It cannot be that hard to figure out since blogger is telling us they are improving their service. I can do this. 

Blessings, 

Chris

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To-Do Tuesday

I posted a few times on To-Do Tuesday but often forgot or was too busy to take the time. Other times, I only posted a couple of times a month. And yet, I write up to-do lists all the time. Do I follow them? Sometimes. It is more of a brain dump with all the things I think I should be doing rather than what I actually intend to do. So here we go:

1. Listen to the rest of the 8 lectures for my current course and do the test.
2. Hand applique while listening.
3. Change the throat plate on the Bernina so we can do some zig-zag stitching. 
4. Bring the step stool in from the trampoline so I can put Serendipity on the design wall.
5. Take the step stool back out to the trampoline. 
6. Clear out my inbox. 
7. Pre-wash more background fabric for the 3030 Quilt center.
8. Draw the design onto the BACK of the 27-inch center medallion for back basting.
9. Begin to prep a few of the applique shapes. 
10. Make jam. 
11. Make relish.
12. Finish this Ella block. 

That should be enough to remember for one week. 

Blessings,

Chris

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49 Years

What do you do when your phone lines are out? What do you do when your internet is out? How did we ever live without being connected to the world? They are connecting great-grandma to the internet so had to dig a trench down the lane, across her lawn, and into her house. However, my underground phone line got cut and it took 3 days to get a service guy here to tell us we have to wait for another 24 to 48 hours to get a crew out to dig a new trench to bury a new phone line from the road to my house which is about 1/4 mile long. Now about the internet, it does not have lines but had been out since yesterday. After 3 weeks away, the girls are home but cannot watch their shows. It should have been quiet, but the girls decided to play really noisy, boisterous, loud games in the living room. That until the tears came and they got sent to bed. 

I have been listening to lectures online, doing some hand applique, and working my way through a test. This should be easy, after all, this is the seventh course I am doing this way. But, they forgot to send me the first 2 lectures so it was a bit confusing. Got that all sorted out until no internet. Also, I have been visiting with quilters here and there online. I love doing this! I can wear my pj's and don't have to pack my stuff or drive anywhere. I just stay here in my quilt room and carry on. 

Two friends connected on Facebook and one of my other sisters came over so the three of us got to hang out and talk quilts.  And speaking of quilts, Emily has a completed quilt. She got it back from the longarm quilter the other day and has it on her bed. I joined the FNWF (Friday Night With Friends) here all day Friday. I have been plodding along with this Ella-maria-deacon-quilt block for a while now. There are 32 of those arrowhead pieces. With the back basting of every other one and turning no less than 3 points on each one as I needle-turn hand applique, it is taking me at least 15-20 minutes per piece. Only 14 more to go. Just for fun, we put up the fabric I have for the setting triangles and the sashing strips to see what this is going to look like. I like it. 

The little girls, who got out of bed this early Sunday morning and went out to the barn to feed baby calves and kittens, are in and have discovered that the internet is back on and my Sweetie is in from morning chores so it must be breakfast time. We celebrated 49 years of marriage to each other this week and are planning a party for next year. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Quilt Retreat at Home

So what's been happening here at the farm? This is the week I would have gone to Shipshewana for a quilt retreat, but, alas, we are not allowed to leave the country, so, I decided to do my own retreat. I cleared off 2 tables and moved the desktop computer to the other side of the room so I could participate in some online quilt-a-longs. This way, I have so much more table space for working and playing at the same time. I met with some of my friends on Facebook to stitch and chat over the past 3 days.

I joined Chookyblue for an international stitching party. Our host calculated all the timezones and sent us a link to join the party. She opened the zoom meeting at 6 AM Saturday her time in Australia and my time was 4 PM Friday. I joined the party for about 3 hours (after a quick nap) Friday night then after a delightful sleep, rejoined at 6 in the morning for a couple of hours. This was a lot of fun chatting with quilters in other countries.

And what did I work on? This is last week's block from Sentimental Stitches 3030 Quilt. I had to think about the 1/8th inch stems. I ended up cutting a bias strip 3/8th wide and appliqueing it in place. A bit wobbly, but have you ever seem a perfectly straight flower stem? Neither have I. There will be a large applique center medallion but I will not get the pattern until next week. I am really enjoying the novelty of these Thirties prints. 

Last week the little boy grandchildren came over and we slept in the trailer in the front yard. I had to have something to work on out there. I took out a lamp and sweater and sat under the a/c fan for 4  nights. I promised them I would not leave them out there alone. I think the temperatures were hovering around 30C outside. I have those 8 arrowheads to stitch down and them I can back-baste on the final 8. I think I will make them aqua. This block has taken umpteen hours to this point. Looking forward to seeing it completed. 

This is another Ella applique block. I prepped several back in April when I allowed myself to start a new quilt. The first in 2 years. Those dark petals are a purple and I am using a 10-inch layer cake from Betsey Chutian's Susanna Scraps collection. There is lots of variety but not lots of fabric. I am certainly enjoying hand stitching with yet another Moda fabric. I am back basting every other melon. 

I switched the function on the mouse so I now right-click with my middle finger instead of left-clicking with the forefinger. It has been a bit to get used to doing it backward but my right forefinger is so sore and I found this option. 

I started working on a new course for my doctorate. It has lectures online and I was hand appliqueing a 3030 block and turned on a lecture.  I had printed off 11 pages of a test that is required for every course. But 30 minutes into the lecture, I still had not found the answer to any questions so popped in lesson 2 and the same thing, until I heard a word that was written up on about page 9 of the test and realized that for this course the test questions are not listed in order so now I have to spread out the pages and hunt for the answers. I can do this now that I know. 

I did not meet my One Monthly Goal for July. My OMG Goal for August will be to complete the above 3 applique blocks and maybe one or two more 3030 Blocks. Not too challenging a quilting goal as I plan to get some serious writing done this month, specifically this week as I have 6 whole days in a row with no children to interrupt me, or hug me, or ask for booboo kisses or ice cream or popcorn. It may be quiet, but I might even miss the darlings. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Slow Sunday Stitching

The little boys had been sick with a really bad virus for the past two weeks. They went to the doctor on Thurs and were told they could be with people again. Their first comment was. "Gramma can come and visit now!" since Gramma stayed away so to not bring any of the virus home to share with the little girls. Gramma had to wait for her car to be brought home from getting the snow tires off and new brakes on. Then she quickly grabbed a few stitching things and a change of clothes and drove the 2 1/2 hours in the dark to surprise them all. The little boys found her in the guest room Sat morning. And lovely hugs and snuggles and more hugs. It's been a whole month after all.



I got a few bits back basted on BTCT block #24 and started stitching the green thing that will be behind the flower. I did not have any red in my kit to prep the buds so will do it later. But for now, I have a bit of hand work for  Slow Sunday Stitching.

Blessings,
Chris

OMG May 2019

A year ago I was challenged to set a 90 Day One Big Thing goal. My first one was to survive baby sitting the little boy grand children 4 days a week. They are both potty trained now so no more diapers. I set goals all the time and do not always meet them. I have come to realize that my goal setting is more dreaming than actual planning. But I do get lots done. Just not the things on my list.
I have little girl grand children living here at the Farm half time since last September. I like it. I get to see them a lot. Because they are all school age, I do not have to hover over them all the time. Just be near by. After all, their Dad lives here too and they are his kids. He does pretty good. He packs their lunches, gets them on the bus on time and does their laundry. He also makes their breakfast and supper the nights they are here. I cannot complain. I do the dishes. My choice. And, I have a cleaning lady. I love her.

But I have a degree to complete. And a book to write. I have progressed on both this past month. Now to keep on keeping on. My OMG is quilting related most months. My 90 Day One Big Thing is not. Last fall my big thing was to complete the Dear Daughter Quilt. And I did. This spring the Big Thing has been to write my book.Surviving Menopause: One Woman's Journey. SMOWJ for short.
I have 8500 words written. I am aiming for 40,000. So one fifth of the way there. My 90 Days is up on May 22. Then I will reevaluate and set a new 90 Day One Big Thing goal. It will not be quilting related.

So what will my May one-monthly-goal be? I started to put away some of the stuff left over from a quilt finish and found lots to distract me. Shiny New Object Syndrome they call it. But I must keep writing. And not so much about quilting. And I must keep reading. Still, not so much about quilting. I had a blast at the retreat and said it was my one last quilting hurrah until I finished the writing. But I have been home for 2 weeks now and I really like the hand applique. I had done almost none of it in the past 4 months until I was completing the BTCT blocks. How I love that quilt. Completing it is not on any of my ufo lists for this year. I stitched while listening to lectures on line the past few days. I guess that is my answer. Prep all the little bits for the next BTCT block so I can stitch to my hearts content this month.

This is what it looks like so far. I dare not press out those wrinkles because the pattern is drawn on the back with a Frixion pen and it would disappear. I do this so I can back baste. That background is a Kona Snow.

The goal is not to complete the stitching, but that would be nice and could happen. Just prep all the applique bits. The fabric box is still sitting on the table here so I better get busy.

Blessings,

Chris

Time For Slow Stitching

Most days I am in a hurry to complete something.

 Anything. 

But that seldom happens except in my head. 

Today I am continuing work on my BTCT appliqued blocks. 

Yesterday I prepped a few more leaves using my new favourite back-basting technique. 

Why do I work on 3 or 4 blocks at a time? 

I usually take them along with me when I travel or visit my daughter for a few days. 

I prep similar elements like stems one time leaves another. 

These blocks all have many layers and it has been 

challenging to get them figured out in order. 

However,

 I did miss the instruction about the red flower with the yellow under it and made it green. 

I am not going to change it.

 I still have quite a few of these reverse applique buds to do. 

There are a lot of reverse applique buds on these 2 blocks. 

I was working on this block last weekend before all the grand children came over and little David found the red marker and was drawing beautiful pictures on the floor and rolls of masking tape that Devan had been using to make decorations. 

Grampa discovered him helping me with this block.

 If it does not wash out, I could add a bird or something to this spot. A red one.

My OMG for March will be to complete these 3 blocks. 

That is doable. 

Linking with slow sunday stitching.

Blessings,
Chris
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End of January 2018

I know it is not quite the end of the month yet, but I have 2 whole days to myself and I want to get caught up on a few things before the little boys return on Monday morning. We have spent the last 19 days in a row  together. Twice I made the journey home with them for the weekend and will again next week for another 11 days with the two most adorable little boy grand children.
David turned 2 and it was like a switch was flipped and he entered the next stage of his young life. His vocabulary is increasing daily and he uses almost full sentences. I adore his hugs and compassion.
Jonathan, at 3 1/2, has entered the delightful pre-school stage where he uses his words communicating his thoughts and has the most delightful laughs and giggles.
I got this simple foundation pieced 8 flying geese unit made for Serendipity and for my one-monthly-goal.

For patchworktimes 2018-ufo-challenge the nunber was 10 and that was Biblical Blocks 2.

Well. What can I say? 

I pulled it out and put it up on the design wall and made a list of what still needs to be done on it.

 It sat up on the wall for a week, then I put it back in the box and prepped 4 BTCT blocks

 because

I was going to be away for 2 weekends and needed some hand work. 

And since BTCT is on the list, this will be my offering for the challenge this month

so that I will still have 2 complete months to tackle the Biblical Blocks. 

Stitched down the one large yellow flower. 

Added the cream centers on the flowers and a few more leaves. 

The wreath is stitched on the outside and the inside still needs to be done. 

Finished the bowl. 

Will I go back and straighten the bottom? 

Who knows. 

Buds are back-basted in place and

I used the Go cutter to cut a few flowers. 

Again, I used the GO cutter to cut the flowers and centers. 

They will all be askew by the time I am done.

Some of the leaves are under the stems and

some are beside and others on top. 

And I have a new project for 

Meredith's 6 & 6 challenge.

More on this next time. 

Blessings,
Chris
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BTCT Update

After spending the entire month of December working on the hand applique of the 1857 Album Quilt, I have turned my attention to 4 of the final 7 Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks. I was away last weekend and will be again this weekend and need some hand work to take along with me. I did find the rest of that particular green fabric so I made a few more bias stems. There is enough to make a few more for one of the other blocks I have not yet started.

I removed the stem that I had accidentally cut off.

Did some reverse applique in the center 
of two of the scallops on the top of the bowl. 

Sad that the stitches show so well. 
Especially here on my 20 inch computer screen. 

Next, I carefully positioned the bottom of the stem 
inside the top of the scallop. 

I stitched down the stem using matching green thread. 

I am using both cotton and polyester Guterman thread to match since I have so much. 

Then I realized that there were two stems
 that hid inside the scallops. 

The stems and leaves are all stitched in place. 

There will be layered flowers as well as buds still to make. 

And, yes, the bottom of the bowl does not line up 
with the edge of the block. 

And I had tried so hard. 

I have not touched this block for a couple of years. 

I added the large yellow flower for this week. 

This one came with me to see the original
 Jane Stickle quilt in

Bennington, Vermont.  

This block followed me to Rwanda last summer. 

I have added the cream centers to the flowers and back-basted a few more leaves. 

This block will be similar to the one above with a wreath and bow. 

I stayed up last night to back-baste some more leaves. 

So these are the 4 BTCT blocks I am working on this month for my take-along hand work. There seems to be a smudge on the bottom of the last 4 pictures. The little boy grand children were using my camera this morning. And Yes I did find the green radiant star. I was putting away several project boxes to make room here for the ufos I will be working on this year. It was sitting on one of the shelves in the upstairs fabric cupboard just where I left it last summer. 

Blessings,
Chris

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