Beyond the Cherry Trees for 17 ufos in 2017

Although I have been working on these blocks off and on this year, I don't think I have blogged about it for my 17 ufos in 2017.  I first learned about it when I discovered Sentimental Stitches and Dear Jane doing the justtakes2 mystery quilt-a-long on Dec 30 2011. The last block had been posted and I wondered what it was all about. I started seeing completed blocks then completed tops then quilted quilts and I fell in love. I finally purchased it on one of Gay's insane sales as a digital download Feb 2014. Printed off all the patterns and started dreaming about it. In April of that year my Sweet Farmer and I went to Bedford Pennsylvania for a cattle auction and I bought the 11 yards of Kona Snow in anticipation of starting it some day. Well that day came in June 2014.

I started this quilt exactly 3 years ago
when I was waiting for the birth of our daughter's first baby.

I packed my project box and flew out to New Brunswick.

Started off in good form by not placing those first corner leaves correctly.

  

So started again in the middle this time.



Took these blocks on a business trip to Lacrosse Wisconsin.

Watched the Mighty Mississippi River rise an inch a day

and flew through thunderstorms in 2 very small planes. 

Finished this one.

Making and stitching on those 1/8th inch red  bias strips was interesting.



I had these 4 blocks done in 2 months.

Stitched a lot of leaves babysitting the girls.
Lots and lots of leaves.



England and Poland Oct 2014

 

This brings me to the grapes. 

Lots of grapes. About 120 give or take in this block.



 Australia April 2015 



What else to do on a 6 hour layover in Hong Kong but stitch.



Oct 2015 Bennington Vermont to see the original Jane Stickle Quilt. 

This block came along.

More grapes and now some vines and leaves.

Lots of bias stems.

More grapes and now some cherries.



India October 2016



Stitched the first 8 leaves in the backseat of the van on our way to

the Shipshewana Quilt Retreat  2016.



Came along on another  business trip to Bedford Pennsylvania



where we bought another 11 yards of Kona Snow for the backing.

I plan to hand quilt this one block at a time

as soon as I complete this block.

Blessings,

Chris

Morrell for 17 ufos in 2017

I started the Sarah Morrell Sampler Nov 2015.

Then I started a new blog  called Quilting Morrell at the Farm
to record my journey.

A few months later I started a facebook group. 

I was off to a great start on a great quilt along

but I forgot to take into account that life happens

and there are lots of tempting things going on in blog land.

I bit off more than I could chew.

This 17 ufos in 2017  challenge

has me revisiting 17 unfinished quilt projects this year 
I could easily pull out 18 different ufos for next year.

I pulled the Morrell boxes out of the cupboard to see what I have done so far.

It looks like I have 12 blocks almost made.

Two of them are simply fabric panels.

There will be lots of broderie perse.

I am doing this by machine.
Not in love with that center block so far.

I drafted up the saw tooth borders for some of the blocks on EQ7.

This way I would not have to cut out a gzillion triangles
and hand piece them.

This is the first block I started.

Looks like I forgot to print out 2 of the foundation strips.

  I took time to choose fabrics for many of the foundation patterns.

I wonder if using all French General fabrics will be a bit boring later on? 

I won't have to worry about that for now since

I will not get the rest of the 60 blocks made this month.

However

I am working on another (Antique Wedding Sampler)

AWS block

because I need to have some handwork.

Blessings,
Chris

Discovering new things about blogger

I have been blogging for nearly 4 years now and loving it. I have been in contact with countless quilters around the world. I have tried to respond to as many of the comments I get on my posts. However, I am a bit slow figuring out some of the options that are available. For instance, I have just discovered how to email no-reply bloggers through my gmail account.
At the top of my gmail homepage are tabs called primary, social and promotions.
Primary is where I get notification of a comment on a blog post from a blogger who I can reply to easily.
Under Promotions is where I get notification from some commercial blogs like elm street and next step,
and recently I fould that under Social, are the no-reply bloggers with their email addresses so I can contact them also.
I am so clever sometimes. But not always. My son gave me my first cell phone last month and I had to get my 9 year old granddaughter to show me how to use it. For the life of me, I cannot swipe the green button to answer a call on the first or 15th try. A bit of practice I suppose.

I have a lot of things to do in the next 2 months before going on a short term mission trip to Rwanda, including team training, fund raising, babysitting and our daughter and her family vacationing here for a couple of weeks. I want to file the 5 doctoral courses I have had on my desk for the past year or so. I want to get a few more pages written for my next book.  And I want to lose at least 40 pounds. But then, I just bought some new clothes so that would be a waste.

My omg-one-monthly-goal will be to complete this radiant star block for Serendipity. I started it about 4 years ago and got stuck so it ended up in a box and I turned my focus on completing my Dear Jane quilt. Which I did complete but not quilted yet.

The RSC colour for June is

I have 6 yellow Bright Jane foundation blocks ready to go since I printed off most of the foundation patterns and there are still a few applique to do so we shall see how the month goes.

Blessings,
Chris

Green Bright Jane Blocks for May

In spite of all my great intentions,

I got only 4 green Bright Jane blocks made this month.

 But it is only Sunday

so I still have three days to make more.

Maybe

 

But I also had hoped to get at least this one completed for Serendipity.

 Oh well

there is always next month.

 

But wait!

I am going to Africa in 66 days

so lots of training and babysitting grand children

and family vacationing here.

 

Blessings,

Chris 

OMG May Completion

Antique Wedding Sampler by Di Ford in process.

I appliqued the big leaves 2 years ago when I started collecting

 the BOM from Homestead Hearth.

This will be a very expensive project.

However,

 



 

I realize that the bits of fabric included in each month's kits

has enough of most of them to make a second quilt.

If  had cut the big leaves differently,

I would have had enough for 2.

Do I want to make 2?

 



 

Block 5 is complete.

It will be set on point eventually. 

 



 

There are only 24 more blocks to make. 

Blessings,
Chris

linking with: omg-one-monthly-goal 
quilters monday linkup.       needle and thread network  
  http://estheraliu.blogspot.ca/     17-ufosin-2017.

needle and thread Thursday     confessions of a fabric addict

let's bee social     sunday slow stitching 

 midweek-makers      moving it forward mondays

 

Going on a Lion Hunt

Did I mention that I am home for a bit? I lied. I have been away for a few days, went away last weekend and then again next week end and again the following weekend for team training.
Team training you ask? Yes. Team training. What for?

Well, I am going to Africa this summer. Yup. Africa . . . Rwanda specifically.
I have already decided which BTCT block I will be prepping to take along. It's no secret that I have been on many short term mission trips and specifically to India where I love to go to encourage women. I was invited to join this team going from two different churches. There will be ten of us. I will not be the oldest on the team.

Did you know that there are 100 babies born each day in this part of Rwanda? It is a small land locked country in central East Africa. There was a dreadful genocide that happened there in 1994, the same year my daughter turned 16 on  a summer mission trip to Ghana. That was also in Africa.

The purpose of this trip will be to build relationships. We will be modelling how to do a Vacation Bible School program. This should be interesting. I get terrified by other peoples little kids. Not my own. I love spending time with my little girl and little boy grandchildren. After all, I have known each of them since they were still wet at birth.

In a small country where nearly a million people killed each other, many children were left without parents to raise them and give them an example of how to do things. These children have grown up and are having children of their own. My specific role will be to model the unique perspective of a loving grandparent.

We will be going on a one day safari to one of the wildlife preserves. I plan to stay in the vehicle for that day. Well, so will everyone else. Those are the rules. I have been doing research about Rwanda and Africa in general. I love how I can see over the edge of Victoria Falls (well maybe not love) from Google Earth on my big screen desktop  computer. But that is not in Rwanda. Nor is the source of the Nile River. And Lake Victoria is almost twice the size of Rwanda. Really.

The count down is on. We leave in 70 days.

Blessings,
Chris

Serendipity: Another 17 ufos in 2017

Now that I am home for bit, I am trying to get to the local pool to do some waterfit exercises.  I can do all the jumping, jogging and giggling I want with salt water up to my armpits. I usually choose a spot near the wall closest to the exit. I leave a bit early to get under one of the showers before the crowd exits. There are 3 showers and usually about 40 women. What can I say . . . I don't like crowds and with my back, I have trouble standing in line waiting my turn.  And 30 minutes usually leaves me feeling like jelly.

Anyway, as I started to say, I stand near the wall closest to the instructor, the crowd behind me, I have a perfect view of the tiling surrounding the pool. It is 2 shades of brown and cream coloured, one inch tiles set totally random. It gives me ideas. The tiles in the shower are mostly white with 2 shades of medium green, 2 shades of medium blues and 2 shades of medium purples. The colours are rather sparse at the top, near the ceiling but have a few more as they go towards the floor. In the passage leading to the change room, the tiles are totally random in blues and greens and purples and cream. Did I say totally random? Each time I am doing my jogging or jumping jacks, I stare at the wall. It is really inspiring. I have thought about taking this idea to use as a border for my Serendipity Quilt.

It is the justtakes2 quilt that I discovered Dec 30, 2011, just 2 days before the first on line QAL I ever joined. I haven't completed it yet. I was using it as a reward each week as I completed assignments for the masters degree I was working on at the time.

 I graduated that spring and got stuck on a couple of tough blocks.

 I have ideas like using one of my GO dies that cuts 1 1/2 inch strips  to cut many coloured and white strips and sew them together randomly for the borders. I figure I would need at least 3-4000, maybe more, maybe a lot less.

I am making each of the 100 blocks in different Jinny Beyer pallet colours.

I will keep going to waterfit and I will probably keep thinking about borders that have totally random one inch squares.

Blessings,
Chris

linking with:
quilters monday linkup.
needle and thread network . 
 http://estheraliu.blogspot.ca/ . 

17-ufosin-2017.

needle and thread Thursday.

confessions of a fabric addict.

let's bee social.

sunday slow stitching

 midweek-makers.

moving it forward mondays.