200th Blog Post and a Give Away

I have reached a milestone with 200 blog posts in the almost 2 years since I started blogging. What a journey that has been. I looked through some of my bookshelves and picked out 4 books that have been great reads but it isn't likely that I will ever make any of the projects in them. So I will share. In order to win, please leave a comment telling me which book you would choose if your name is drawn. It would be fun to see names from each of the 6 continents that I see on my stats page and each of the many countries around the world where readers of my blog come from. The draw will take place in 2 weeks.

Bed and Breakfast Quilts by Mimi Dietrich

 

Dutch Treat by Judy Garden

Threads from the 30's by Nancy J Martin

Fancy Applique by Elly Sienliewicz

My 5 week quilting drought has ended as I prepped CCCQ block 27 yesterday. I had to cut out 3 more background blocks since I gave away 2 and messed up one when I first started this block of the month nearly 2 years ago. This block came with some detailed instructions on the order to prepare the little bits. I started with this little tooth comb shaped flower by pinning it along the stem where it will sit under the stem. The teeth finish at about 1 cm. So a bit tricky in stitching them in. I am not able to write beside each picture so just scroll down to see what I did.

The leaves. I traced around them with a frixion pen.

Placed the leaves over the stitched down comb.

I began the applique on the comb to make sure that it fit.

And that is as far as I got. Don't forget to post a comment for a chance to win one of the books above.
I am linking with quilting readers garden and slow stitching Sunday.

It's good to be appliqueing again Blessings,
Chris

199th Blog Post and a Give Away Coming.

Today is my birthday and the count down has begun. Only 731 days until I get my first pension cheque. I can hardly wait. But I guess I will have to be patient because a lot can happen in 24 months.

I have not done any quilting on any of my own projects for 5 weeks now. Ya. I can hardly believe that. I have quilted up 2 for my daughter and am helping a friend make one as a wedding present for her daughter. I will be doing the machine quilting as soon as we complete all the machine applique and assemble the top.

In the meantime, I keep dreaming. I saw this antique President's Wreath at Mary's Shop in Bedford Pennsylvania last year and I think I would like to make my own. It can't be that hard to draft the pattern from a photo. And, I believe there are 9 of these identical wreaths on it. One of these days.

Antique President's Wreath

This is my 199th blog post. I had uploaded the photo a year ago and forgot to write the post, but I am dreaming. I thought I would do a give away with the next post. I haven't decided yet exactly what I will give away. I have hundreds of books and patterns. I could choose a couple of those. I have more than lots of fabric and fabric bundles. Not too eager to part with them, yet.

The little girl grandchildren and their parents are away on vacation for 2 weeks and the house is very, very quiet. I got half a chapter written for my book and went to the market yesterday with my Sweetie. We brought home lots of veggies, fruit and butter tarts. Saw only one field of wheat being combined. We do not grow wheat but do buy lots of wheat straw from a neighbour. I have been teaching a woman's weekly Bible study group so I need to spend time preparing for that. And the house looks pretty good since I have a new cleaning lady that has been coming in every week to clean before the Bible study group meets here at the Farm.

I have registered and booked a room at the Blue Gate Garden Inn in Shipshewana Indiana for the Just Takes 2 Retreat November 11-15 with Brenda Papadakis and Gay Bomers. I am so looking forward to that. I am already  mentally packing and planning which of my Just Takes 2 projects I will take to work on, since I have not completed any of them yet.

But first, I have a huge box of mail and invoices that need attention. They don't open and file themselves. Somehow I forgot to pay the property taxes last month and its time to register more new baby calves.

Blessings,
Chris

A Bit of Long Arm Quilting and Strawberry Picking

I cannot believe that it has been a whole 24 days since I did any applique! Yesterday I pulled out a CCCQ block and managed 2 stitches before being distracted.  Last week I rented time on a longarm for 2 days and quilted up 2 quilts my daughter made last winter. And the owner guy at the shop asked if I was willing to sell this one. So, we succeeded in making a "guy" quilt. It is the same brights I am using in my DJ2 and black Kona cotton. Using a computer generated pantogram, I did an all over geometric design in bright variegated King Tut thread. It turns out that one of the turquoise prints has the same design on it. The machine is a robot so I just baby sat it. It took 3 1/2 hours from pinning it on to completion. I had lots of time to think about whether or not I was willing to invest in such a creature. I think not. I have too many other things to do right now. That and it is really hard on the back to do all the pinning.

Most of our family house guests have returned home and these 2 little girls have been here at the Farm for the past 2 weekends. We took them strawberry picking for the first time and had a blast. They picked more than they ate and they did not pick too many green ones. Tomorrow they are coming for another sleepover and there are raspberries to be picked. They are the perfect height for that.

I finally had time to read over the 11 page evaluation of my manuscript and they have asked for 2 more chapters. So that will be my task over the next 2 weeks.

Summer 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

Two More CCCQ Complete . . . well maybe

I was visiting my pregnant daughter in New Brunswick last week and completed this block.  Besides snuggling and enjoying my grandson who turned one 2 weeks ago, I also did some work on one of the others. One of those red paper cut designs.

CCCQ # 30

 I sat at a Guernsey cattle auction in Big Prairie Ohio for over 6 hours yesterday and got most of this block stitched up. Today I finished up the last flower and put it up on the design wall to photograph and then I saw that it was not balanced. So I pulled up the pattern and found that I had forgotten to print off all 4 quadrants and so missed the bottom of the stem and a leaf to the left of the bottom. Sigh. But as far as I am concerned, this block is now complete.

CCCQ # 18

This leaves exactly 5 more blocks. Two red paper cuts are partly stitched and 3 with green leaves that I have to cut new background squares. Then I have about 3 blocks that need some work to complete them. Can you tell I am getting antsy to finish the thing? All other projects are on hold until it is finished. That and all 6 of my siblings will be here this week for family time. My sister from England arrived late last night one hour before my husband and I got home from Ohio. Another sister arrives from Qatar on Tuesday and the third one lives 10 minutes away. All 3 of them are now quilting and we are going on an over night sisters shopping trip to Buffalo New York later this week. . . the same day that a brother is flying in from Saskatchewan for a Blue Jays game and more family time.
And did I mention that I am going to a couple of lecture demos with Judi Madsen this week? And why would I sign up for anything this busy week when I am finally home? Well, because it is Judi Madsen from green fairy quilts  and I got the last available spot for the Wed classes at a quilt shop 45 minutes away from here. That's why.

Summertime Blessings,
Chris

CCCQ Update

 I have not been very busy with these CCCQ blocks lately and yet I am determined to complete them this summer. Maybe even this month. Maybe. I will have lots of time to work on these 3 blocks over the next 2 weeks while I am away visiting our daughter and the miracle grandson who turns 1 year old today. I will also be attending the American Guernsey Association annual convention in Walnut Creek Ohio with my Sweet Farmer. Four days away together. It should be a nice drive in our new 2013 Avenger with working a/c and a great sound system with lots of bass.

CCCQ # 30

 The one above is almost done.  The babysitting we have been doing lately is here at the farm and I do not get much of anything done with all or some of the girls here. At least not in the quilt room.
I started that ragged edge on the one below and have a few points where there should be curves. Will I redo that? Maybe.  I will wait until I get all the way around the outside then decide.

CCCQ #33

 The next one does not have much done in it yet. These are the last of the red paper-cut patterns. I still have 4 blocks with green leaves and other interesting elements.

CCCQ # 32

Happy First Birthday Blessings for my Grandson
Gramma Chris

Ready . . . Set . . . Sew

The final CCCQ block pattern was posted today. I started it less than 2 years ago as a block of the month. It is here that I really came to know how to do needle turn hand applique and love it. I am determined to complete this quilt this summer so all other projects are in hold. I still have 3 other blocks that I have not yet started but soon.

This block appears to be the most challenging of the entire 33 blocks offered. I looked at it for . . . oh . .  . at least a whole minute before deciding that I was not going to trace it onto freezer paper, cut out all those little squiggly edges, circles and jelly beans and then trace it onto the fabric before starting the stitching.

CCCQ Block # the last one

I love how our husbands come alongside our quilting addiction passions and offer helpful suggestions. Like the  man sized trouble light. One of my Q@F friends has been coming in lately to work on an applique project and the light under the glass table was not bright enough, so her husband sent his light and it works wonderfully. Too bad she has to take it home one day. I had to elevate it in order to see the pattern lines clearly.

I set the pattern on the light table and then put the red fabric on top. However, I could not see the lines to trace. So, I flipped the pattern onto the back of the red fabric and then taped them together so I could move it without slipping.

I put it back on the light table and now could see the pattern lines.

So I traced them directly onto the right side of the fabric using a light blue .07 Frixion pen. That's the colour that shows up best on these reproduction reds. I use a white chalk pencil in the greens.

Now I can begin packing my bag to visit my daughter and grandson next week. He turns 1 year old on Sunday. He did not just start walking 2 weeks ago. He started running. He has already discovered soccer. One of Daddy's favourite sports.
And, today I submitted the "Denine"  manuscript to the publishers.
Excited Blessings,
Chris