Slow Sunday Stitching

June Dear Daughter Blocks 

Photocopied the patterns onto heavy freezer paper 

 ironed them onto the reproduction fabrics

 sprayed Best Press on 

before pressing the seam allowance 

to the back

Now the hand stitching fun begins.

Blessings,

Chris

June 2018 OMG

I totally surprised myself with what I had accomplished in quilting last month. I had not set out to do all that but am quite pleased with the results. June is here and that means it is haying time on the farm. I do not drive tractor nearly as much as I used to, but am always on call. I stopped playing computer games 2 months ago and have been turning the computer off more often. However, I still find myself sitting here reading blogs and facebook for hours. So I am endeavoring to slow that down and focus on other more important things.

The RSC colour for June is teal/turquoise and I have pulled no less than 8 Bright Jane blocks that were prepped last year that did not get made. My OMG one-monthly-goal- is to make  8 blocks. They will all be foundation pieced using one of my Singer Featherweights.

In the meantime, I continue to read and write and kiss boo boos and change fewer diapers since both boys are in potty training. Whatever will I do when their Mom finishes school in 2 months?

Blessings,
Chris

End of May 2018 Progress

A Heart a Day for the Month of May

I have been enjoying  hand appliqueing hearts onto these 4 inch squares.
This challenge came from Deb at Happy to be Scrappy
I missed one day but have caught up. Have no idea where this will lead,
but it has been an interesting lesson in slowing down and doing one small thing consistently.
 I decided that if I do it in the morning it is enjoyable, but, if I leave it until night, it becomes something that HAS to be done and is no longer fun. There are still 6 to stitch.
This is one of my new 6 & 6 for 2018 Challenge.

Bright Jane

This one came out to play this spring and the  superscrappy RSC  colour for May has been pink/rose.
 I am using one of my Featherweights. I have been doing foundation piecing on the blocks this past year because I have all the foundation patterns prepared and printed onto Carol Doak's special paper left over from my first Dear Jane quilt that I completed in 2014 but am still machine quilting.
And
I added sashing strips to the right side and bottoms of most of the finished blocks
in preparation to assemble the top some day.
The blocks are 4 1/2 inches. There will be 169.

I had all 60 completed blocks and the bright border flags up on the design wall and asked the little boys to take them down and put them into project boxes. They could not reach the top row even on the 3-step stool. But I have new converts to play with my blocks.
 Jonathan had walked into the quilt room and exclaimed "WOW!" when he saw them. 

David had not noticed but came and gave me hugs and kisses first.

Dear Daughter

My OMG one-monthly-goal for May was to complete the hand applique on 4 blocks and add the sashing and cornerstones. I was ahead since I made several extra donuts and 3 alternate blocks. Next month there will be a couple of flower blocks. I intend to make the easier ones and skip the more intricate if I can. But then there will be 2 bird blocks in November and I am looking forward to making them. These blocks finish at 8 inches and the sashing is 3 inches.

Huguenot Friendship Quilt

After sewing on the Dear Daughter sashing and cornerstones, I changed the thread to red silk and continued machine appliqueing these blocks with a fine straight stitch using the Bernina.
 It is really boring but this is an impulse project and I work on it between other things.
It will get exciting again when I can put the border together after
all the blocks are complete and the center assembled.
These 36 blocks will be 8 inches set on point with alternate white squares and setting triangles
with an applique border.

Antique Wedding Sampler

For some crazy reason, I pulled out the kits I purchased from Homestead Hearth 2-3 years ago and started working on just one block. Then, since I was prepping corner appliques for one, it was easy to prep them for 2 others, so I did. I had photocopied the patterns onto extra heavy freezer paper and cut out the diamonds and triangles for 3 sunflower blocks when I was in Shipshewana in April.
I stitched these together by hand using an English paper piecing technique.
 Still not decided if I like doing this or not.
These blocks are 12 inches. There will be 25 of them set on point.

Morrell

Yes. I did work on 2 more Morrell blocks. And I completed them.

All 105 pieces of the 3 Flying Geese units.
 I still have several more blocks that I had prepped ready to foundation piece
a couple of years ago. There will be 60 ten inch blocks and
a 20 inch center block.
Someday.

90 Day One Big Thing

I completed one course for my Doctorate in Christian Counseling
and submitted it. 

I continued working on another only to discover that,
where I thought I was close to the end, there were still no less than 12 more books to read
and
an entire 12 week study to work my way through.
 Sigh.
Oh well. It will be a good foundation for my dissertation.
Good thing I bought all the books when I first started it 2 years ago.
This course is about bringing healing to broken women.

And all this because I stopped playing computer games.
 Imagine that. 

Blessings,
Chris

linking to 

lovelaughquilt  main-crush-monday   mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-   needleandthreadnetwork     wips-be-gone  esther aliu's WOW  slow sunday stitching

Hand Work

 My 18 Hearts a Day for the Month of May

Keeping pace pretty good so far 

making one heart a day not making 31 hearts. 

Although, it's killing me to not be making more each day

so

I pulled out some antique Wedding Sampler kits 

 in anticipation of doing some 

English Paper Piecing

I photo copied patterns onto extra heavy freezer paper. 

In my inexperienced creativity,

I turned the freezer paper over

and ironed over the seam allowance

then whipped stitched the seams together. 

It worked fine for the first triangles

but totally fell apart for the second ones. 

Jonathan, who is turning 4 in a couple of weeks,

said he did not like this one 

because it looked scary.

so I changed the center octagon. 

He likes it better now. 

Still lots of applique to do 

but I am going away for the weekend with a bunch of junior highs. 

And 

since it is easy to prep several blocks once I get started,

I prepped 2 more

however

these blocks will all sit on point

so I have to re position this one. 

Good thing I noticed 

since there is another block exactly like this 

without the corner appliques. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking to 

lovelaughquilt  main-crush-monday   mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-   needleandthreadnetwork     wips-be-gone  esther aliu's WOW slow sunday stitching

12 Blocks So Far

Blessings,
Chris

A Heart A Day For The Month of May

Deb over at Happy to be Scrappy is stitching 

a heart a day in the month of May. 

I think I will play along. It has to be easy. 

So I pulled out some pre-cuts and ran them through the GO Baby.

Now I have a nice pile of four inch blocks and hearts.

The goal of this game is to stitch one heart each day

not stitch 31 hearts.

Blessings,

Chris

Planning Plans to Plan for My May Plans

I have been wrestling with what my one monthly goal for May should be. It should be small and doable.

I have all the completed and in-process Dear Daughter blocks with their sashing strips and cornerstones on the small design wall. The top 8 are complete and stitched to the sashing and cornerstones. The lower 5 are in process. Since I started more than the required donuts and 2 alternate blocks, I am ahead of the game for next months blocks which will be released on Tuesday. I am hand appliqueing these. 

Dear Daughter Sampler

I was talking to a writing coach the other day and am instigating a 90-day goal for one "big" thing. You better believe quilting is not on that list of one "big" thing.  My 90-day "big" thing will be to complete the 5 doctoral courses that I have been pretending to work on for the past couple of years. After that, I will set another 90-day "big" thing goal.  It might be to complete the final 4 courses. It might be to finish writing my second book. I have pages and pages of notes in a box. I took them out to look through them one night before I left for the Shipshewana Retreat thinking naively that I could write a few more pages. Did not happen. I was having too much fun shopping and stitching and visiting. 

I have not played any computer games for 28 days in a row. Instead, I have been turning the computer off and doing other things. Even a bit of house work. But not too much. Today I put the 3 completed Dear Jane 2 blocks into a box and then put the Morrell blocks onto the big design wall. They are looking so good. Well, in my opinion. All 19 of them. But, alas, I am procrastinating yet again.  

I also have been tidying project boxes and putting them away in the cavernous quilt cupboard upstairs as well as clearing off my endless tables here in the quilt room. It is almost time to take the many geraniums outside for the summer and open the windows. The sun started shining in here recently and I cannot believe how prolific the cobs have been spinning webs this past winter.

I think I will be removing the dreadful machine quilting stitches from my first Dear Jane quilt and starting over. I found out what I had been doing wrong causing the quilt to drag instead of feed using the walking foot on no less then 2 machines. I am still waiting for the Brother to come home from servicing at the repair shop. It turns out that the feed dogs were not dropping because I was not able to turn the knob one more time to drop them. Something about arthritis and sore hands. 

Which brings me back to wrestling with what my OMG could be for May. It should be small and doable. I guess it is looking me in the face. I will finish 4 more blocks for Dear Daughter. That will give me 2 complete rows. I could sew them all together then couldn't I.  But then, I don't want to over do it. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking to 

lovelaughquilt  main-crush-monday   mid week makers  BOMs Away  let's bee social  needle-and-thread-thursday  can I get a whoop-   needleandthreadnetwork     wips-be-gone  esther aliu's WOW slow sunday stitching