Dear Daughter

It's hard to believe I have been home from 

Shipshewana for more than a week. 

How has the time gone by so quickly? 

I guess having little people here almost everyday does that. 

My OMG for April was to complete 8 blocks

and

prepare ALL the sashing and cornerstones 

for Dear Daughter. 

This way I can add them as I complete blocks each month. 

Feeling rather accomplished.

Blessings, 

Chris

Shipshewana Quilt Retreat April 2018

We left my place at 6 in the morning on Tues and arrived a bit before 3 in the afternoon. Since it was too early to check in we went shopping.

I took along 3 Antique Wedding Sampler kits in case I had extra time and wanted to do some hand work. I cut out all the little bits from extra heavy freezer paper and will do these by English Paper Piecing.

The retreat did not start until noon Wed so we went shopping. I bought a few fat quarters.

Wed night and Thurs  morning I sewed sashing strips and corner stones for Dear Daughter. I completed 2 blocks. I had stitched on the alternate block on the left last week when I was getting the oil changed in my car. I always get the oil changed before a road trip. Decided to leave the snow tires on. Good thing. We went shopping.

Thurs we went to see the musical Half Stitched. It is based on the book by Wanda Brunstetter set in Shipshewana with a quilting theme. We got
front row seats because we could. Then we went shopping.

There are so many of the most beautiful wide backs available these days. I only bought 5. Some of them are 115 inches wide. All these in anticipation of completing a few really big quilts.

Fri I worked on some yellow Bright Jane blocks.

Did I mention we went shopping? I bought a few Di Ford-Hall fat quarters and yardage.

Sat I worked on 2 Morrell blocks. I have to replace that one white piece on the end. And we went shopping.

Sunday I did some machine applique on the Huguenot Friendship Quilt using red silk thread. When the thread broke twice, I stopped.

The original Dear Daughter Quilt came out to play so I got to look really, really close at the blocks and sentimental inscriptions. It took my breath away with its simple beauty. I think I will change the green I started to use and find something softer.







I cannot understand why I did not get more sewing done in the 5 whole days we were there.

There was a severe winter (in mid April) storm in Ontario, but we left for home Mon morning and after 8 hours on the road, we arrived at the Farm where I got my car stuck in the snow.

Until next time,
Blessings,
Chris

April 2018 Goals

I belong to several (18) facebook groups. Most of them are quilting groups.

 One of them is for the 1718 Coverlet that was made in 1718 a mere 300 years ago. There is a bit of a stir going on in the UK commemorating this amazing needlework which is the oldest known quilt in existence in the UK. I started mine on a whim 3 years ago after visiting my sister in England just as the pattern book was released. There have been numerous posting on the facebook group of completed and wannabes. I did not add this to my 12 ufos in 2018 but I think I might just do that.
Actually, I was looking for a blog post that had "gold" in it for Val's Tuesday Archives and this popped up.
 I have no intentions of trying to complete the thing this year or next, but I did pull the box out and revisited some of the completed blocks. I count 16. It appears that I took time to organize fabrics and cut out some freezer paper templates for the first 3 rows.

The RSC colour for April is yellow and gold. So, I decided it was time for Bright Jane to come out to play since winter is over. These are the yellow blocks I did not make last year. No idea how many I will make this year. Just in case, I pre-washed some more background and cut lots more strips and squares so I am ready.

 In the meantime, I am packing my bags to go to the Shipshewana Retreat  next week. I have been looking forward to this all winter when I get to play with my quilting friends for a whole week. Well, almost. We leave here early Tues morning and return the following Monday. It is a 7 hour drive each way. I am driving. I will buy chocolate to munch on. I have only 3 project boxes packed and ready to go. There will be 2 others with me and my stuff in my car so I am planning to go light.

1. I will be doing some more foundation piecing for my Morrell. I had all the fabric strips cut and the foundation papers cut and ready to go a few months ago. So I only had to put them in a project box. I have new insights to Broderie Perse applique, both by hand and machine. Some of these blocks will have flowers and birds stitched down with a narrow blanket stitch by machine. 

2. My Bernina is in for servicing before I start the machine applique on the Huguenot Friendship Quilt. I hope it gets back in time.

 I bought this on impulse (no surprise) when I saw an ad pop up on facebook. (I really need to stay away from there.)

This is a pre-fused kit and I have all 36 blocks arranged and pressed onto background squares. I am considering using a simple straight stitch with silk thread to match. I will test it out on some scraps first.

3. I have many strips cut to make up all the sashing and cornerstones for Dear Daughter. This is the newest block of the month from sentimentalstitches. 

This will be my hand stitching project for this month. The April blocks have been released and I have them all prepped and ready to hand applique. None of those in the picture are stitched down yet. 

My one-monthly-goal for April will be to make all the sashing and corner stone units for Dear Daughter AND complete the hand applique on the first 8 blocks. This should be doable since I have quite a few prepped already and will be Slow Sunday Stitching for a few minutes before all the grand children come for a sleepover at the FARM. There is no school on Monday and there will be no me time for the rest of the week.

Blessings,
Chris 

March 2018 OMG Done

I met my March one-monthly-goal. 

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

These next 2 blocks are practically the same 

but made by different quilters.

I wonder who made the first and who copied?

Either way

I am so done with reverse applique rose buds.

At least for now.  

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

It is Easter weekend and the grandchildren 

will be here Sunday and Monday. 

I am making dinner for Monday.

 Crockpot Ham and scalloped potatoes out of a box. 

Simple. 

Blessings,

Chris

Dear Daughter BOM is Launched

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Chris

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Shipshewana Quilt Retreat Next Month

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,

Chris

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Needle Turned Hand Applique and a UFO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessings,
Chris

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