2016 in Review

I did write a goals list for 2016. I tried to be realistic. That did not work. So maybe its time to get crazy. Maybe not.

My goals for 2016 and how I did.

     1. Publish my book. We got stuck in the second revision round for several months and it is now about to enter the publication queue so any day now.

     2. Complete at least 1 of my big applique quilts, quilt it and bind it. I choose Ben Biggs. I got 5 blocks completed. That's about all.

     3. Quilt my Dear Jane Quilt and bind it with narrow binding on all those scallops. Nada but I am now considering doing big stitch by hand with perle cotton.

     4. Lose the 22 lb I did not last year with  my goal of losing 40. Nope. but did maintain the loss from last year.

     5. Have fun more often. Oh Yess!!

     6. Spend more time with the grand kids. One more grand kid added to the pile so lots more time with them and the boys have moved closer so we see them more often now.

     7. Laugh more. Definitely. But cried some too.

     8. Sing louder. I turn the music up louder so no one can hear me.

     9. Buy less new fabric. I did buy less but still bought some.

   10. Do the 40-bags-in-40-days challenge for Lent. Managed to get to day 20. 

   11. Design a layout for each of the three $10 quilts and complete them. Nope but still thinking about it.

   12. Complete coursework for doctorate. Then the dissertation, but I will need some goals for 2017. I did not file any courses and started 2 more in August. 

 So it appears that I did not attain all of my goals but I did more than I might have without any goals and plans.

I started three quilts and completed three.

1.  The 1857 album sampler on impulse in Jan. I had a lot of fun but got bored with the double pinks and lime greens and will call it finished at 35 or 36 blocks not the whole 64. I substituted several blocks and will add my own date and a name.  

2.  GORF 2 a lime green and purple completed and gifted in May

3.  Started the Simple Simon in October. 

 Completed the Blue Roses that I started 2009.

Finally completed the original GORF in September.

 

Ministry trip to India in October.

 New grand baby boy David. He is beginning to take a few steps this week.

That's enough for now.
Blessings, 
Chris

$10 Quilts

Our local quilt shop, The Quilt Rack in ancaster, has what is called A Ten Dollar Quilt class.
The rules are simple:

• you sign up for a given day and time of the month
• you show up every month on time and sit through a half hour of promo stuff for the shop
• you are given the pattern and fabric to make one 12 inch quilt block
• you get to chose the easy or more difficult pattern and one of the colourways offered

But where does the ten dollars come in?

• to join  - you pay ten dollars
• if you miss a month - you pay ten dollars
• if your block is not complete - you pay ten dollars
• if you are late (arrive after Lucy takes the floor and says welcome) - you pay ten dollars

Get the point?

The fun part of the game is to collect all 12 blocks for the original ten dollars you pay to join. I always looked at my calendar for the whole year and chose a monthly date and time that would work. It was so popular that often there were 30-40 of us in 6 or more classes.

The best I ever did was $20 and the worst was $30. Once I took the completed block in my bag with me to India and planned to stop in at the shop  - on time - on my way home from the airport. I could have done the whole thing for $10 that year, but, alas, I was on day two of food poisoning I got on a very long train ride and flight home from India and reaching home safely was more important at the moment than getting to the class on time. I would have made it, but, you know, nature was calling.



$10 Quilt 2010 in progress

The shop also offered finishing classes the following year and we were not allowed to purchase any of the designated fabrics until after the finishing classes. But I was always on the lookout for fabrics to complete my blocks on many of the road trips I was taking and collected enough extras to complete the things twice over. And mostly on sale because that is more fun.

$10 Quilt 2007 in progress 

In the past few months I have had camera and internet issues and more recently I had the Blue Roses spread out across all the tables as I was quilting it. But not now. Everything is now in place and I can start to look at and plan what to do to complete  some of them. That does not mean I will actually complete the things, but will start to plan.

It was back during the winter of 2008-09 that I sat in the shop right beside a completed Dear Jane quilt and had the opportunity to have a close up look at some of the blocks and this for several months. I could not join the scheduled classes because they were the same days I had school, so I eventually decided to start my own class and I did later that year.

$10 Quilt 2011 in progress

I joined the class for 5 years and decided that I had lots of other things I was working on and I was not finishing the quilts. But it was only one block each month.
  

Finishing fabrics

I realize now, that one of the things holding me back was how to quilt them. Last night I had a machine quilting workshop here with my GORF girls and introduced them to the importance of tension and how to get it right. I am so clever. I need to listen to what I am teaching them and then do it myself.

Blessings,
Chris

Slow Stitching

I had been working on  machine quilting the Blue Roses   but found time to do some hand applique on the 1857 blocks. New blocks were released on Fri and I quickly prepped them so I would have some hand work in the days ahead.

 I found my Karen K Buckley perfect circles in the bottom of a box of unused small rulers and gadgets. I will finally use them on the circles for several of the blocks but not today. 

 I have a brand new quilt to start and have a limited timeline. Still deciding on the pattern.

 I am pulling all the fabrics in my extensive stash in the new colours. Hopefully I will not have to purchase any new ones but we shall see.

 I completed these 2. They were kind of fun. I do not especially like the reproduction chrome yellows but did use this yellow Dear Jane 2 for that crown.  Looks like either it has the pox or is covered in bugs. 

Spring is here and so is a brand new snow cover on my growing green grass and crocuses. Well, that gives me more indoor time since I cannot rake pine tree debris from under the snow.

blessings,
Chris

April OMG

And the Blue Roses quilt is finally quilted. I started making the thing in 2009 and was planning to have it completed quickly but I was doing my  masters and had started the Dear Jane quilt, so it ended up in  a project box. A friend's daughter was getting married so I offered it to her as a project and she ended up doing all the machine applique and sewed it all together. She now knows the difference between freezer paper on the back and raw edge. She prefers raw edge. I prefer needle turn hand applique, but this is her quilt to give her daughter. I machine quilted it as a whole and struggled with  tension and sore hands, broken needles and fraying thread. I had to change machines to complete it and am so glad I had the binding done half way with the big Brother machine. I also realized that you have to replace your Machinger gloves after a while.

Blue Roses

For my April OMG I plan to complete the 5 blocks for Ben Biggs that I did not get done last month. The pieces are all sitting up front here now that the tables and machines have been cleared of the big quilt.

Ben Biggs

 Blessings,
Chris

First OMG Challenge

I signed up for the OMG challenge - One Monthly Goal - thinking that it should be a piece of cake to complete these 5 Ben Biggs blocks. How wrong I was. I had too much time and did not get to it until today and have to post a blog about it by tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be sitting in a Canadian Guernsey annual meeting all day just like I was exactly a year ago when I cut out all those 140 buds and leaves out of Florianni wash a way fusible in preparation for the corner buds for  this quilt. Sigh.  To my defense, I baby sat sick little girl grand children a lot, was sick myself, took  8 year old Ava to New Brunswick to spend a week visiting Auntie Melanie and her babies, took a blogging break and had no internet for a week because of the ice storm here last week.

Ben Biggs Corner Buds so far

Also, I was machine quilting the Blue Roses quilt and having a most difficult time. My hands hurt a lot as I was trying to move the bulk around, I broke 3 needles on the Brother yesterday and finally switched to the Bernina and after resetting everything, and unstitching one of the blocks I finally completed the thing. In my mind, I could not get at the OMG because I had this thing spread out all over the tables and wanted to complete it first. Did I mention I do not do deadlines well?  

Quilting the Blue Roses

In reality I was having a too much fun working on the 1857 blocks. I had to prep a few to take with me and I ended up stitching a few extra corner leaves in preparation for the blocks to be released on Friday.The bottom 3 are not complete yet and I have not started 2 of the blocks. Those purple leaves with the hearts look a bit dark but maybe its the pink hearts that are a bit light. I am using left over reproduction fabrics from my Dear Jane journey. I did not realize just how many double pinks I had until I cut out lots of leaves using my GO cutter and custom leaf die. Those leaves are really easy to do this way and it takes about a half hour per block.

1857 Blocks so far

So, all in all, my first OMG was not an epic fail so much as I did not give it enough importance to get it done on time. I will try again next month but you will have to wait until April first to see what it will be.

Blessings,
Chris

Blue Roses

The sun is shining, Spring has arrived and so has the mud. I am taking a blogging break for  a couple of weeks. Going to visit the little boy grand children and I have some deadlines that are looming and I have been ignoring. So need to prep a couple more 1857 blocks and  finish quilting the Blue Roses. I put the binding on by machine. Usually, I stitch the binding to the back of the quilt, turn it over and top stitch it down from the front. I did not realize that I had stitched to the front until I was clipping it over. The mitered corners do turn over neater this way I found.

Blue Roses Binding

I love using these wonder clips for this. They do tire my hands though. It takes a bit of pressure to squeeze them open and my arthritic fingers do not like that.  I started the quilting by stitching in the ditch all around those sashing strips. Then I measured the border, marked it and basted all the way around and trimmed it before  putting on the binding. I still have all the free motion quilting to do in the blocks. This will be a simple scribble of hearts and flowers. I often do it in this order so there is less bulk around the outside for shoving into the machine opening. Sometimes I have a deadline for the quilt and quilt until I run out of time, but the binding is already on. This way, I only have to change the presser feet once. I started out using the walking foot. I will now drop the feed dogs, put in the see-through darning foot and go free motion. I am using a WonderFil wt 80 thread for the first time. It is finer than I am used to but it seems strong enough since I have not had any thread breakage so far.

When I get home I have my one monthly goal of completing 5 Ben Biggs to get done. I still have to prep 20 buds and 20 leaves to machine applique in the corners. I have 3 weeks to get that done. I can do this. 
Also, I have to get another wedding quilt going. And No, it will not be  hand appliqued.

Blessings,
Chris

Love Entwinrd: 1790 Marriage Coverlet BOM

I first learned of this amazing coverlet in June 2013 and promptly joined the group and started collecting the free patterns for the next 18 months. I initially thought I would use many of the Morris fabrics that I have but thought they needed some more colours. I bought some bright prints that I saw used for some of the applique and Broderie Perse.  I obsessed about background fabric and bought a few rest-of-the-bolt options. I even considered taking the class when I was in Australia last year. Sigh.

 In the end, I never started the thing because I could not decide what colour to make that center mariner's compass. Now I have made one mariner's compass in my quilting journey, but this one is much more detailed. Speaking of details, quilters around the worked posted their progress and each one was more beautiful then the previous and I was still in a quandary. I could not decide so never actually started it. Instead, I started the CCCQ, Ben Biggs,  1718 Coverlet AWS, Dear Jane 2  BTCT, Morrell and 1857 Album and  GORF. However, I did complete my Dear Jane quilt and CCCQ.

And then it occurred to me that I could start with the next stages and add the center compass later since it is appliqued on. A logical thought I have is completing just one block per month per project. That is about 2 blocks per week. It also occurred to me that if I keep starting more quilts, the likelihood of actually completing them gets dimmer and dimmer. And then in the middle of the night I think about stopping work on ALL quilt projects and take a month to focus on other things, like completing the coursework for my doctorate. Remember that? It is self paced with no deadlines. In a week and a half, I am flying out to visit my daughter and the little boy grand babies and this time I am taking 8 year old Ava with me. I figure that she can entertain Jonathan, I can snuggle David and my daughter can get some rest. Maybe. 

1857 prep

I prepped a few more 1857 blocks and stitched down corner melons. These are going to look great when all 64 blocks are eventually connected. Some of those appliques have to be layered so I have the first 6 on the go. I finally moved a card table into the living room and have been stitching while watching tv with my Sweetie. Actually, I was home alone the other day, sick and bored spitless with no internet so watched some daytime tv sit coms. And finally found where to watch American idol since CTV did not pick it up this year.

1857 blocks in progess

 Another project this week has been machine quilting the Blue Roses quilt. So far, I have been stitching in the ditch around all those blocks using the walking foot. Not my favourite part of machine quilting. I moved two 8 foot tables to make an L and have the Brother machine in a craft table in the  middle so there is a flat surface. The tables support all that weight making it easier to move the quilt around.

Blue Roses

Another challenge I am in the middle of is the 40 Bags in 40 Days of getting rid of stuff. So far I have filled 7 really, really big bags with stuff from the back kitchen; got rid of the bread maker I never used and the juicer; several hundred quilt magazines are going out in this week's recycle bins and many items that have an expired best before date. Several bags of unused clothes and  finally threw out my barn clothes since I have been retired from that for more than 4 years. Whew! That's a lot of stuff. 

So now that I have had my rant, a cup of hot honey lemon and a reality check, I do not think I will start the LE BOM right now after all. Esther's progress on LE will be posted on her blog the first Friday of each month and I already belong to the facebook group so can follow along, again. 

Blessings,
Chris

Sisters Time

Facebook has been all astir about the Sarah  Morrell Quilt by Di Ford since March. The official kick off date is today with the center block. The plan is to do 3 blocks a month. The center is 20 inches and the other 60 blocks finish at 10 inches. This is not for the faint of heart.

Di Ford's Morrell Pattern

The pattern is now available at sentimental stitches. I have been drooling over this quilt ever since I saw Carole's post two years ago and ordered the pattern from Threadbear in Australia. It arrived in Feb 2014 and I proceeded to find fabrics to make it, someday. Because choosing fabrics is not my strength, I got 2 fat quarter bundles of French General from Craftsy for 40% off back in November and a few plaids from Threadbear on my Australia trip. And I bought the rest of the bolt from Pinegrove Quits in  Buffalo a year ago. You get the picture. I have been preparing for this for a while now. Can I resist the temptation to jump right in and start it? But when is the "official:" start of a new quilt?  Is it when I start cutting fabric or putting in the first stitch? I even located some Winterthur reproduction panels for the broderie perse. Today, as I was catching up on blog reading, I scrolled down through 4 years of Sue Garman posts to find her insights on her twirly balls technique, since that is the same pattern in the center block. Why should I hand piece a gzillion triangles when I can applique them?

Fabric for the Morell

In the meantime, it is the first of the month and that means the next free Ben Biggs BOM block. I downloaded it, saved it, printed it off and taped the 4 sheets together to prepare the layout.  But it did not seem to fit right. So I measured it. Now I cannot imagine how I could have made a mistake in printing it off. After all,  I am on my 4th printer since I started this in Jan 2014. Sigh. I went back through all the patterns I have printed off so far. All 19 of them. I only have about 10 machine applique down and only one with the corner buds because I could not decide what colour to make them. Thankfully. It appears that some of the patterns have been printed  "fit" and some "actual". This may not seem to be too big a deal. Except that had I stitched down all the corner buds to date, many would have been off set and that would have bothered me very  much. So, most of my patterns have been printed off to make 15 inch blocks instead of the 16 inches that I had hoped to make.

Ben Biggs # 19

I went back and re-printed the two that were too big. Then, I traced and cut out the shapes from the wash-away fuseable that I am using and put everything back into the box. After all, I am trying to only focus on completing the Criswell Quilt. I have not done any stitching for the past ten days since it has been family time here at the Farm. My three sisters and I went on an overnight shopping trip to Buffalo NY. We visited several quilt shops, shared a hotel room and did not kill each other. Actually, it was a lot of fun. And, I found a few fat quarters of Shot Cotton stripes for the 1718 Coverlet that released the next bunch of blocks. I have 16 done so far. Also, two months of Antique Wedding Sampler blocks were in my mailbox when we got home. 

Sisters

We ended up at The Quilting Bee in Fonthill where I had attended a lecture/demo by none other than Judi Madsen of green fairy quilts last week. I do not own a long arm quilting machine but thought I could learn some skills anyway. Back in Feb I had  booked a long arm for next week at a local quilt shop for two different days to machine quilt up two wedding quilts my daughter made last winter. This machine is a robot and will do a simple edge-to-edge design and I just have to babysit it, but that is okay for now.

Me and Judi Madsen

Now that I have turned the page on a very messy calendar to the new month of July, I see that I have lots to look forward to, so any quilting aspirations will have to wait until another month. My son and his family are moving next week so I will have the three little girl grandchildren here for the next two weekends and I am leading a small  ministry group for women here at the Farm on Tues nights in July. I have a meeting with my editor tomorrow to begin the first official edit of my book and I will be machine quilting the Bed of Blue Roses in sections. Good thing that most of the family house guests have returned home. The rain has finally ended and the sun is supposed to shine for 2 whole weeks.

Wonderful Family Blessings,
Chris

Machine Applique Experience

I attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Guernsey Breeders yesterday and had to have some hand work to work on. So, I finally cut out the 100 plus corner buds and leaves for the Ben Biggs BOM. Good thing I took along 2 different pair of scissors.  I  used the larger pair to cut out the buds with their smooth lines. I used the smaller ones to cut the fussy leaves. I noticed more than a few pair of farmer's eyes watching my hands. Too bad I did not bring along several extra pairs of scissors and ask for help. I had a dent in my right thumb by the time I was done.

Corner buds fuseable

A year ago, I photocopies several pages of buds and leaves onto wash-away fuseable. I had planned to blitz this step and get ahead on the corner buds. I stacked 4 sheets together and pinned some and stapled others. There are 4 corner buds in each block for a total of 100. And, there are more in the border, about 40 and now I see that a couple of the blocks have this same motif in them. I hope I have enough prepped.

master copy

I decide to do this BOM by machine applique using the wash-away fuseable. I initially thought I could do a raw edge machine applique, but the first block was a disaster so started over and am doing a turned under edge. Needless to say, this is taking some a lot more time than I had planned on. I could not make up my mind just what colour to do those buds. Will they all be the same colour? Will they be scrappy? I do not do scrappy very well. I like order and symmetry which is why I like sampler quilts so much. There will be buds since, in my mind, this is what makes the Ben Biggs wedding quilt so special.
 

prepping the leaves

This week I finally got block # 11 prepped and ready for machine applique. I had initially used a different red with a blue print floral print but this is one of only 2 blocks that has yellow so I changed it.

Ben Biggs #11

Also, I got started on the Bed of Blue Roses. I quickly considered all the UFOs in my quilt cupboard, so neatly organized in labeled boxes and decided that I would complete this one for a wedding later this summer. Did I just write the word "summer"? Spring has finally arrived with warmer weather and rain and purple crocuses.

Lancaster Rose

As I was sorting through the box,  found that I had 4 blocks already glued under. I still have to adjust some of the elements. I am using 4 blues and 4 greens on a very crisp tone in tone white background with a nap. I can be ingenious with my impulsiveness. It will be interesting how I do the final block arrangement with this in mind.
 

Democrat Rose

The pattern is Rosemary Makhan's Rose Sampler Supreme. The first time I saw this pattern was at a quilt show more than 21 years ago. I bought it while it was still in the full layout on newsprint sheets before it was published in book form. This has made it more convenient for lay out. I started one in pinks. The plan was to do each block in different pinks and greens. Did I say I don't do scrappy very well? I was just learning how to do machine applique. Why oh why, did instructors back then insist that the "proper" way to do machine applique was with monofilament thread on top and lingerie thread in the bobbin?? That is one of the things that has slowed me down. It just was not working in my Bernina machine. 
 

Tudor Rose

I had started this quilt 6 years ago thinking I could easily do a block a day and get it done in 20 days plus the double swag border. Huh. I decided to blitz the preparations and made clear over-lays for each of the blocks. Don't really like doing applique that way now that I have given it a try. I cut out all the freezer paper shapes and ironed them onto the back of the fabric AND cut out all the fabric shapes. The memory of this reminds me why I invested in the GO applique dies.
Anyway, school and life got in the way and I started Dear Jane and now fast forward 6 years and here I am.

Wild Rose

It looks like I even tried some fussy cutting thinking it might almost look like broderie perse. I have learned a lot in the past few years. I still have to place those small leaves correctly. I am now considering what stitches I will use. I have some Bottom Line thread in light and dark blue. 

Indiana Rose

So this is what I am thinking about my applique experience. I started doing applique with freezer paper on the back with edges glues under. I stitched it by hand, pushing the needle through with a thimble. This did not make my arthritic hands happy. Machine applique was complicated the way I was taught. I learned needle turned hand applique a few years ago in a Baltimore class with Kathy Dunigan, but did not progress very far on that project.  I will revisit it when life slows down a bit. It is when I started the CCCQ and made the switch to needle turn, that I have finally got it. What I love about the BTCT quilt is that the placement of the leaves and flowers is so relaxed and forgiving. The Rose Sampler blocks above are all set in perfectly and symmetrically and all the flowers and leaves have to be exactly the same all around. I am so glad I have learned to relax. And I cannot believe how much applique I have accomplished in the past 18 months.

Easter Blessings,
Chris

Bed of Blue Roses

A few years ago I impulsively bought a half yard fabric bundle at a quilt show. Not surprising for me. I thought Rosemarie Makhan's Rose Sampler Supreme would look lovely in the blues and greens. The plan was to make a block a day for 20 days and get the thing done quickly. The story of my life. I ended up putting it in a box, went to India, then started Dear Jane. Fast forward 5 years and DJ is complete but this was still in the box. I mentally went through some of the UFOs that are neatly stored in my quilt cupboard and considered one that I was willing to complete and part with as a wedding quilt. This one is the winner.

Bed of Blue Roses

I had cut out all the background blocks and borders, then traced and cut all the freezer paper flower and leaf shapes. This is long before I bought the GO dies to do just that exact same task. I have most of the fabric shapes cut out and a few are turned under and ready to place. I had traced overlays for each of the 20 blocks. Everything that is needed to complete it is in the box, including threads and the already cut swags for the border.

I have had my face into red and green applique for the past 18 months, so this will be a refreshing change of scenery. My goal is to have all the applique pieces prepped and laid out on the background blocks before I leave for Australia. If I get at the machine applique before then, it will be a bonus. It will be quilted by machine in sections. And absolutely NO cross hatching. The deal here is, that I do not have to do any thinking, or planning. All that is done and I just have fun working on it. Or so I tell myself.

I am almost finished the final edit on my book before submitting in to the publisher and I am a few short hours away from submitting a course. My physio therapy homework this week is to stand up straight and breathe at the same time. This is no small task considering that my diaphragm has been cramped up for so long. I have lost 18 lbs so nearly half way to my 2015 goal of weight loss. Spring is here and I can do almost anything.

Rosy Blessings,
Chris