After the Holidays

The last of the Christmas house guests just left and I am home alone for awhile. Good thing since I have picked up a virus. My husband is taking our daughter and the baby to her in-laws and they will fly home tomorrow. It has been a wonderful 3 weeks of family visiting. The turkey is all gone and so are the cookies. The big box of Lindor chocolates are hidden away to share with the Q@F retreat here at the end of the month.

Although a lot of quilting got done here in my quilt room, not much of it was by me. My sister from Qatar made an entire quilt top out of a jelly roll. My daughter made an entire queen sized super bright quilt with the extras from my Bright Jane and she added the borders onto a top she made several years ago. She will not let me show pictures until after they are given as wedding gifts later this summer. A friend of hers machine quilted her first lap quilt made in the first class I ever taught here at the Farm.

What I can show is progress on Ben Biggs. I am machine appliqueing and am way behind. I do plan to add the 4 corner buds when I finally decide what colour to make them.

Ben Biggs Block # 10

Process

Ben Biggs Block # 9

Grampa feeding Jonathan

Feeling so Blessed,
Chris

Beginning the Cherries

This Beyond the Cherry Trees quilt has approximately 300 cherries and 200 grapes. That's a lot of little circles. I cut out the 43 cherries for this block using one of the GO dies. In the end, I used a dot of basting glue to hold them in place after I adjusted a few. Before I stitched on the bias stems, I made small markings  for placing the leaves and cherries. None of them actually line up with the pattern, but that's okay.
What I find is that when I make the stems using the 1/4" bias tape maker, they are a smidgen wider than 1/4".  Also, when I start stitching on one end, the other end ends up a bit short of the mark. As a result, each of the cherries that sits on top of a stem is out of line with the pattern and the markings I made earlier.

BTCT #20

I took time to prepare some more applique to take along when I babysit.  I moved a few of the cherries to balance a bit better before glue basting. I did practice on a couple to see if I could needle turn a smooth circle. They finish at 3/4". 

BTCT # 20

This is how far I have progressed in the last 3 babysitting nights. The red cherry at the very top left is almost perfectly round. The rest are more naturally roundish. I know that I take very small stitches with my needle turn applique, but with these cherries, I find I am taking twice as many stitches in hopes of making them nice and round. Yet I still get peaks. More practice I suppose. The circles surrounding the LE center compass finish at 3/8th inch.
I am not totally sold on using the dot of glue in the centers. The Quilter's Choice Basting Glue I used spread out as it soaked into the cherries and some to the edges. I had to gently peel back a bit of the fabric before stitching through the hard glue and it did not turn under smoothly. However, to its defense, the cherries did lay smoothly in place instead of wrinkling with the tiny applique pins that I usually use. And it did not prick me.

Blessings,
Chris

New Year's 2015

Often on New Year's Eve I sit back and review the previous year and write a list of goals for the coming year. That list often has a dozen quilts I intend to complete and countless other realistic goals. However, I seldom reference the list and therefore, do not often meet the goals. This year I am approaching it differently. Okay, I have done this before but never shared it. I sat up late the other night and jotted down some things I want to accomplish this month and wrote them on post it notes. When I complete the task I can remove it. If I do not compete it, then I can carry it over to the next month. It is a bit neater than erasing the goal or scratching it out if it is in ink. When I DO complete the task, then I can write that on the calendar. Interestingly enough, I have many daytimers and calendars from years past that chronicle my life activities.

Four of the monthly goals are quilting goals and four are writing goals. Seems balanced. But in actuality, the writing should take a lot more time if I actually start writing.I must keep in mind that the big goal of the year is completing my doctorate.

My daughter and grandson are visiting here for the week and we rummaged through some of my fabric stash to find the "right" fabric for her to make a quick quilt. She is cutting the fabrics right now herself. All her other quilts, I cut and she sewed. I quilted some and she quilted some.

New Year's Blessings,
Chris

2014 - A Year in Review

All the presents have been opened. The dishes washed and put away. The turkey bones have been simmered and awaiting the rest of the soup stuff to be chopped and added. The house guests have all gone over to visit other family and I have time to sit back and reflect on the year that is almost completed. I was reading over my  2014 quilting goals  to see how I did in meeting those goals

On my 2014 wish list of quilts to start with all fabrics ready to go in project boxes:

• JT2 Benjamin Briggs BOM from Dear Jane and Sentimental Stitches beginning Jan 1. I started quickly but have only 1 block complete with the 4 corner buds, several without the buds and several cut out, prepped and sitting awaiting the machine applique.
• Dear Jane 2 in Brights as soon as I complete DJ. I started the DJ2 in brights on white and have about a dozen blocks done. I started a new blog called Quiolting Jane at the Farm . My intention was to make and post 10 blocks per month. Well, I posted some blocks each month. I had 7 quilters who wanted to take the course and 7 of them dropped out so, I cancelled the class. However, I still plan to make the quilt at whatever pace works for me.    
• Bali Wedding Stars from Judy Neimeyer in a king size as soon as I complete DJ. I pulled out the pattern sheets and made a plan but did not get it started. 
• Love Entwined 1790 Marriage Coverlet by Esther Aliu after I complete DJ. I still cannot decide what colours to do the center compass and did not start it. I think I will wait until later in the year or next year after I complete some other projects. There is a certain skill level needed to make this master piece and I do not think I am there yet, but getting closer.
• Di Ford's Antique Wedding Sampler on impulse when I forget what else I have to do after I complete DJ. I kept looking at the progress of some of my blogging friends making this quilt and impulsively signed up for the BOM from Homested Hearth that begins in February. I will receive blocks every other month to save on postage. This will be pricey, but it will have all the fabrics to make the complete top including the background and all the broderie purse.

My 2014 goals included completing at least 1 quilt. I completed the Civil War Dear Jane Quilt  but it is not yet quilted. I plan to do this sometime this winter. It will be a simple over all design and I have the threads sitting here ready to go.

Quilt starts include Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt and Beyond The Cherry Trees from Sentimental Stitches and Dear Jane and a new Dear Jane in Brights.

I counted up all the trips I made and have been away from home for 70 days. Keeping in mind that I usually prepare and take along several hand applique blocks and at least 2 textbooks, I got a lot of work done way from home. I visited my daughter three times. I visited my sister in England. Visited my aunt and met a 91 year old aunt for the first time in Poland. And I got to the American Quilt Society QuiltWeek in Grand Rapids. Nice.

Held  my first GORF weekend retreat. I did not finish mine after all. I had too much time. And my quilting machine has been in for repairs ever since I got home Nov 6. That's a long time. 

I filed 1 course for my DCC. I am working on 2 others but have not progressed much in the past few weeks. I got a new desk top computer with a very very large screen this week but have not yet plugged it in.

The greatest event of the year was the birth of our grandson. After 16 years of doctors telling my daughter that she was not able to conceive and after a high risk pregnancy mostly on bed rest, she gave birth to a very healthy beautiful baby boy in June. Praise God for His goodness.

Blessings,
Chris

I Won the Bag

Gay at sentimental stitches  offered this bag as a draw prize after being at the big Houston Quilt Festival this fall. I won and love it. I discovered her website Dec 30, 2012 and joined in the fun as they started the just takes 2 red and white sampler quilt BOM 2 days later with no less than 6 blocks. It was a response to the Red and White Quilt show in New York a few years ago.

I decided to make mine from fabric in my cupboard and used many different Jinny Beyer Pallet colours on a plain white background. I still have a few blocks to go. Some of them are patterns I had never seen before and techniques that were new to me. When completed there will be 100 blocks in varying sizes.

Serendipity

I might put this on my 2015 goals list. Or I might pull it out, lay it on the bed, gloat about it a bit them fold it up and put it back it its box for another year. After all, there will be lots of time after I complete the biggest goal for the year and that is completing my doctorate.

Blessings,
Chris

CCCQ Update

I completed this block babysitting the other night. It is one of several that I had stitched on in Poland in October. I really must learn how to center pictures so they do not look so distorted.

CCCQ #23

The house guest will begin to arrive in 2 days. It's going to be a lot of fun . . . and probably noise . . .

Blessings,
Chris

Ben Biggs Catch-up Marathon

When I started the Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt in January, I told myself that it should be quick and easy to do one block a month by machine applique. I was wrong. I had all the reds and greens from the CCCQ quilt and enough background fabric in my cupboard to start immediately and I had a whole roll of Floriani wash-away fuseable web to use for the shapes and not have to remove like you do with freezer paper. Maybe because I thought it would be quick and easy, I did not get to it as fast as I could have. Or did I? According to my calendar, I was away 5 times this year at the beginning of the month when the blocks were released and I just downloaded the patterns and saved them to print off later. That backfired on me when I could not find the files for 2 of the blocks and frantically tried to find them. They did show up accidentally when I copied the link and, then I found the patterns I had printed off in a note book.

Because I am using several different reds and greens, I laid out the blocks I did have done on a table in order and then started picking colours for the rest. I did not want the same colours together. Have I ever mentioned that choosing colours is not one of my better skills?

I had traced and cut out all the pattern pieces last week and this week I ironed them onto the wrong side of the fabrics and cut out the shapes leaving a small seam allowance. I have not yet glued these under. I will do that another day. All the blocks have been neatly stacked and returned to their project box for another day.

Ben Biggs Block # 10

The sun sure was shining brightly through the geraniums on the window, casting deep shadows on the light table. Did you know that too much light in the top does not allow the light under the table to shine through? I did not know that before. I do now.

Ben Biggs Block # 12

I thought I had counted all the pieces needed carefully. I missed 2 flowers here since I was layering 4 sheets of the wash-away stuff and then I could not find a piece to cut out the rest. That`s one of the problems when you start tidying up and putting things in their rightful place.

Ben Biggs Block # 11

 The sun eventually moved on and the light under the table started to shine through.

Ben Biggs Block # 9

I bought a  glass topped table last year to use as a light table.  I was planning to start  the Love Entwined 1790`s Marriage Coverlet last year, but so far have downloaded all 18 of the free patterns and obsessed about what colours to make the center compass. After reading all the posts about the process from many different quilters around the world, I realize that my applique skills needed a lot of learning and fine tuning. So, Ben Bigg`s is  my tutor for machine applique using the wash-away iron on fuseable stuff. LE is so detailed and finicky that I do not want to mess up. CCCQ and BTCT have been my tutors for needle turned hand applique. And now I have discovered a new approach to freezer paper applique. I love reading the quilt blogs that have come my way this past year.

Blessings,
Chris