Going to the Shipshewana Retreat See You Next Week

Two of the little girls were here for the weekend and we had a task to do. The little boys were here the week before and all, not some, but all the pieces of 8 different Disney puzzles got dumped out. So three year old Devan and I assembled puzzles while four year old Elly watched Barbie movies on my desktop in the quilt room. Then Devan had to watch Minion movies on the laptop so I pulled out a BTCT block to work on. I put the headphones on Elly and both were happy.

We did finish all the puzzles then put them each into a separate baggie before Devan decided she had to do one of them again. She is good. She knows her Disney princesses and starts with the eyes and face then builds from there. Edges and corners are last. Ava turned nine and had a sleepover and spa party so the little sisters came to the farm. It was fun hearing them talk about their birthdays next year and they both plan to not invite their big sister.

My bags are packed for the Shipshewana Retreat in Indiana. Making a really, really big pot of homemade beef tomato rice soup. Should last my Sweet Farmer for a few days. That and the little boys will be here next week.

Blessings,
Chris

Beyond the Cherry Trees Progress

Last week I  finally and completely finished GORF after I got home from India  
I attached the binding. That was simple. I did it throughout the day when I did my India blog post and uploaded photos for hours it seemed right in the middle of my jet lag recovery. We called the bride and groom and invited them over to pick up their wedding present. I will post pictures when they do. Should be simple. I hope.

I stitched the leaves and wreath on this block in India then did the circles after I got home.

This is another I prepped and took to India and did some more work and preparation last week.

I started this one by drawing the design on the back of the background block. 

The stems are all done by back basting. 

Another block started. I am valiantly trying to complete a couple of courses for school but must have some hand work to turn to. Well, I have done more handwork than school work. 

I had not touched this block since last winter but did get the fruit and some of the leaves done in India. The bowl was stitched on at home. I still have to do a bit of reverse applique on the bottom of the bowl. And the bottom of the bowl is in line with the edge of the block. It really is. I still have most of the grapes to stitch on, a few more leaves and some embroidery on the cherries. 

This block I started 2 years ago but could not decide what colour to do the bowl. I stitched the center of the bowl purple a year ago but am just now adding the light red fringe. The bottom fringe has to be redone so it extends to the edge of the bowl. 

 Another block I did 2 years ago but now have the bowl and the fringe stitched on.

 So this brings my total completed blocks to 11 with a whole bunch in process. I am hoping to complete at least 5 of these this month. In the meantime, I am packing up my project boxes for the Shipshewana Quilt Retreat next week. And I promise that I will only start 1 new quilt. If all goes well, I might even complete it at the retreat. We shall see. I am taking 2 workshops with Linda Collins from Quilts in the Barn in Australia and she will have copies of her new book. I can hardly wait. I will be taking about 15 Dear Jane 2 blocks to work on. They will all be foundation pieced. And I will be taking a few BTCT blocks.

Blessings,
Chris
 

India October 2016

Last week I was in India
It's a long long way from home
But there was internet and wifi
And I could call home by phone

 
To the HIV Hospice
Is a difficult place to go
This woman's little boy
Was born here 7 years go

The women's conference
Started out with treats
Then we gave them pencil crayons
To colour up their sheets

I have been encouraging women
As I try to do  my part

 They have so encouraged me
And God has broken my heart

As I humble myself and pray for them

They also pray for me

Especially since the car rides

 Are all kind of scary

 

The lepers came from far and near
Their rotting flesh to show
We give them rice and lentils
And pray for them before they go

KSK College is for women
To get an education
Where they can earn a Batchelor's degree
And make an impact on the nation

This baby has waited
Six months for a name
I got the privilege to name her Holly
And she will  never be the same

I get to do some preaching
 God's great love to impart
I have to wait for translation
Before sharing from my heart

Overwhelming is what
A shopping trip can be
But every girl needs a dress or two
And at least one new saree

It's always fun to see the kids
At our school for a while
They sing and dance with such passion
And that always makes us smile

The pastor's conference in the church
Was really quite amazing
From the platform at the front
We sat listening and gazing

I'd been stitching at the airport

Stitching on the plane

Stitching in my room at night

And stitching on the train.

My next scheduled trip will be

In the month of November

It will be in the year 2018

A good date to remember

Blessings

Chris

Slow Sttching on Trains and Planes

I prepped a couple of new blocks to take with me to India. I started with the centre wreath using the back basting technique.

It does not look too shabby. I did some stitching on trains, some on planes and some in my hotel room. Tonight I am working on  the 17 circles at home.

BTCT Blcok # 10

 I had the cherries and some of the grapes done here a very long time ago. I stitched on the fruit and leaves on the train but silly me, I had not threaded enough needles and put the spool of thread in my checked bag. So I prepped the next layer of stems today. Still not sure what fabric or colour that bowl will be and still a few grapes to stitch. I think I will switch to the Karen K Buckley Perfect Circles.

BTCT Block  # 21

Stitching on a 15 hour train ride in India.

 I started with the yellow buds and the leaves. However, the humidity dulled the markings on the back so I was not able to see them to continue the back basting of the next layer of leaves.

BTCT Block # 9

More on India next time.
Blessings,
Chris

Quick Update

Its been five weeks since I last posted. Hard to imagine so much time has passed. Here is what has been going on:

• I did not complete GORF after all. It is still in the machine awaiting more bobbin thread and a half a day to finish it. Have to get it done before we see the bride and groom next week.
• My nice digital camera jammed earlier in the week and I cannot blame any of the grandkids since I was using it taking a picture of the boys at the airport. The lens will not close and this is the same issue with the one I bought in England last winter. Must find a camera shop that does repairs. I cannot take more pictures of quilt progress.
• There has been very little quilt progress. I took eleven 1857 blocks with me to the East Coast and worked on several.
• I was In New Brunswick for two weeks. First at a nice cottage on the ocean where the mosquitoes eat small children for breakfast and the waves on the water never stop. Then a week at another cottage on the lake where the water is so still it reflects the trees and clouds.
• Visited Prince Edward island for a day trip and got to tour Green Gables, the home of Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of all the Anne of Green Gables books. I took pictures of all the quilts inside. They are in my camera.
• Looked after  little boys while Mom and Dad packed up their house in NB and moved to Ontario. Jonathan transitioned into a big boy bed and David started to crawl or rather crab walk. I have pictures but they are in the camera.
• We passed little David back and forth across the aisle on the flight to  Toronto and the flight attendant finally told us to stop that since we were soon to land. Jonathan had unbuckled his seat belt and Mom had to use two hands to get him in his seat and buckle him up and David did not want Gramma holding him this time. If you recall, he slept the entire two hour flight back in July.
• I took three textbooks with me and read them all. I spent three days reading the third one and hand wrote an eight page report only to realize I had the wrong book. Sigh.
• Took Jonathan on special adventures for three days while Mom and Dad moved into the new house and tried to set up all their stuff. The new house is almost twice the size of the parsonage they were in. It has a two car garage. Interesting that everyone on the street parks their mini vans in the drive way since the garage doors are not wide enough to park inside. Yesterday our adventures included visiting the local quilt shop, the Apple Seed in Lindsay; a walk in the park where we saw ducks and fish; ate ice cream; forty five minutes in Canadian Tire waiting for the young customer service guy to assemble the shiny red tricycle; the drug store to pick up a new soother and a quick visit to my college roommate's home to pick up an apple pie to take home to my Sweet Husband. Of course he asked for another chocolate chip cookie with all his manners turned on. My grandson not my husband. He was at home farming.
• I did the two hour drive from Lindsay to the Toronto airport late last night to pick up a friend at midnight, then the hour drive home and missed my own exit off the expressway. Sigh. Then next exit is 15 km further. Then could not get to sleep.
• Got the itinerary for my ministry trip to India in just three weeks. We will be doing a Vacation Bible School for one of the children's homes and then a two day conference with the former prostitutes. This is exciting since we met with many of these women on my last trip, so we can see how they are progressing. Then we will be attending a pastor's conference where the women will be sitting beside their husbands for the first time ever in a culture that has no value or status for their women.
• I will be hosting a Quilting at the Farm day Oct 1 to encourage the girls as they work on some of their projects.
• My book has been stuck in the second revision round now for more than two months and tomorrow I will proof it one more time and correct a couple of errors I found. How does one write the number 25? twentyfive, twenty five or twenty-five? I found all of these. Numbers less than 100 are written out in words. Higher numbers use numerals. I am getting so educated.

Blessings,
Chris

Ongoing Saga of GORF

After ten days of little girl grand children, sleepovers and surprise treats of ice cream, tractor driving and rain,  GORF is back on the docket. So, lets get started:

• Clip on the long sashing strips
• Make sure they are long enough 
• Change the presser foot back to the one with the seam guide
• Remember to put it in needle down position
• Find reading glasses b/c the computer glasses aren't strong enough
• Put on music 
• Fan in hall to draw the cool air from the kitchen air conditioner
• Fresh stash of chocolate
• Put away the Morrell blocks off the design wall to show my Sweetie what that beige circle thingy is
• Glass of water
• Clear work space of Ava's crafts 
•  Turn on iron - no steam

Okay. No children today and I feel the cool air on my feet now. I can do this.

I have to remember that I have completed a Dear Jane quilt top so I am no stranger to 1/2 inch sashing strips. Except that these have ended up being almost 3/4 inch wide.

Sashing strips sewn onto one half.  Now to measure then against the other half. Looks pretty good, but what you cannot see is that I have tweaked them a bit to line up with the other intersections as I pinned them to the design wall. Dear Jane also taught me to be more relaxed with errors. But these intersections glare at  me! Why did I decide to do this the first time with red and off white???

•  Make sure I have the correct sides together
• Line up those ends first

•  Line up the intersection

•  Check to make sure they really line up

•  Off just a tad
•  Do it again

Not enough clips to go the whole length, so stopped just past the middle.
So even though I had worked so hard to line them up,  when I got there, it had all shifted ever so slightly. Looks bad here.

 But looks good here. All my sashing strips were cut on the straight of grain to avoid stretching. But the back strip stretched ever so slightly when I got there. Got to be relaxed. There is such a small margin for error. After all, this is the center intersection in red and white. Would Jane Stickle care?

 I care, so out comes the seam ripper. I bought a couple of new ones recently and they were as dull as high school math class, so found one of the old sharp ones.

 A million loose threads later, they are straight now ready to be top stitched

• Change presser foot back to regular 1/4 inch foot

 But what is this??? A ripple!!

 Out it comes.

• Pause for more chocolate

Until this . . .

To be continued   . . .

Blessings,
Chris

Product vs Process

I have always loved process. Now a completed product is a wonderful thing, but I love to see how things are put together and use my words to explain it to others. I love figuring out the pattern and can spend far more time thinking about and planning a project then actually doing it. I originally started my first GORF quilt with the dream of making a Baltimore style quilt in a weekend. Well, I was wrong. First of all, this quilt is more in keeping with the Red and Green style of quilts of the 1850 than Baltimore quilts. Second, creativity cannot be forced.  If I am just copying patterns, it is easy to make up blocks quicky. But I had to make the first ones first. Not that most of my blocks are that original, but I had to make them. I had to choose colours and fiddle with placement. I thought the top border should be an original using left over flowers and leaves. hardest thing ever for me.  

Then they had to be stitched in place. So, with my first GORF (GO Real Fast) quilt, I got a bit ahead of myself. As I was connecting the machine quilted blocks together, I realized that I had missed machine appliqueing some of the pieces. Turns out that with using matching thread, I could not see which ones were done and which ones got missed so I pulled out a big magnifying glass. And marked the 8 leaves I  missed.

And the 4 flowers. These then had to be appliqued through all the layers using a straight stitch.

Now this gives me an idea for future GORF quilts. I had not enjoyed the process of machine quilting all those cross hatch lines and around all those leaves and flowers. Maybe I could quilt the blocks first, then fuse on the designs and machine applique and machine quilt at the same time. 

My task this week is to get all the blocks connected together. I googled this and found several tutorials online. None of them had the same measurements but most had the same process.As it turns out, I chose the measurement that was almost 1/4 inch too big. Guess I should have made a sample block first before cutting out all the red fabric I had. And I cut some of the print strips a half inch too short.

 I use these wonder clips for attaching bindings and now these connecting strips. It is much easier and neater than trying to pin through all those layers and there are too many layers to try to do with out.

Now, I started quilting 40 years ago. I started sewing at age 12. I have several sewing machines. And countless presser feet. But I did not know until recently that there are quarter inch feet with a seam guide!!!!
So I paid the $69 plus tax plus 2 trips to the Oakville Sewing Center to purchase one and I absolutely LOVE it!. I sewed on those strips through the quilted blocks very very nicely. Who knew? These things are now standard gadgets that come with new modern machines, but I had bought mine a few years back.

 I had to switch feet to do the top stitching. Good thing that is simple with my Bernina since I had to do this several times.

 Now to get back to work and complete the task. I still have to quilt the borders. I have not yet figured out how to do the ends of the swags but will see how they line up when the center is all put together. Stay tuned.

Blessings,
Chris