Here a Stitch - There a Stitch - Everywhere a Stitch

I made the long drive once again to my daughter's last weekend with her and the boys after her week here at school. I had the privilege of babysitting, not once but twice, then the drive back through Toronto to not one but 2 dentist appointments with 2 little boys in tow. She had been in a car accident 2 years ago just before little David was born and has incredible pain in her jaw and face from the whip lash and they are trying to figure out what to do.
Jonathan went in with her for the first 2 hours and David and I found a parking spot across the street and we enjoyed each others company. He played with his tablet, had a snack, a drink, another snack another drink another snack, then some of his brothers drink then read books until Mom showed up, totally surprised that we sat there that whole time, then we went for lunch. I had intended to go for some groceries but he was so good. We did not really need anything but we did miss the eggs for breakfast today. oops.Them Mom took Jonathan and went back for her second appointment and an hour later we headed home to the farm. Little David sat in the car seat for 6 of the 7 hours we were out.

I had been stitching on these 2 BTCT blocks over the weekend trying to get to the wreath part so I could sit and stitch in the car without all that starting and stopping needed for all those wretched  beautiful little buds and leaves. They all go on in layers so I had to plan my approach before back-basting the circles on. I still have to do all the reverse applique on many buds, but that can be done after the wreaths are all stitched on. I had threaded 5 needles and did not have to pull out the scissors.
I still have to stitch on the center of the one below after I fix an oops where the stems and leaves come together on the lower right. Sigh.

I finally finished all the notes for one of my courses and am typing them all out now. Over the years, I have discovered that I prefer to hand write all my notes then type them into the computer and I edit as I go. It is slow but works for me. I got about 5 pages done last night and hope to complete the last few today if the boys both take naps. Yesterday the older one slept but the 2 year old did not.

We are covered in a fresh blanket of snow today but the sun should be out later tomorrow.
Blessings,
Chris

February Quilting Goals

I had a dream last night that I was binding a quilt

!!! . . . by hand . . . !!!

Haven't done that in so many years

I forget how far back. 

My Feb one-monthly-goal-february-goal-setting

plan

is to finally sandwich my first 

Dear Jane Quilt

and get it ready to hand quilt.

The patchworktimes 2018-ufo-challenge

number for Feb is 1 which is Serendipity

but I am working on that one monthly for the RSC.

So my focus will be to sandwich and

machine quilt the 1857 Album Quilt 

which is #2 on the list.

No promises that I will bind it by hand or machine.

This months RSC colour is purple

so Bright Jane might come out to play since

it is Feb and winter is half over. 

I am going away again this weekend 

so have 3 BTCT blocks prepped with more buds

and leaves

and 2 textbooks this time.

Blessings,

Chris

New for 6 & 6 in 2018

I was not planning on starting a new quilt this month.

But the ad popped up late one Wed night on facebook

moments after it had been posted 

and I suddenly became the new owner of 

an 1850s reproduction quilt kit. 

This one is laser cut so no choosing fabrics 

no cutting endless little pieces.

Just peel off the backing

position on the background square

press and

a square is born.

I have 16 of 36 blocks pressed on

for the Huguenot Friendship BOM

from the Triplett Sisters. 

Now the decision as to how to secure these babies. 

Some of the stems are so skinny. 

I am thinking about a straight stitch

 machine applique with silk thread. 

Blessings,

Chris

6and6in2018-january  

DrEAMi

End of January 2018

I know it is not quite the end of the month yet, but I have 2 whole days to myself and I want to get caught up on a few things before the little boys return on Monday morning. We have spent the last 19 days in a row  together. Twice I made the journey home with them for the weekend and will again next week for another 11 days with the two most adorable little boy grand children.
David turned 2 and it was like a switch was flipped and he entered the next stage of his young life. His vocabulary is increasing daily and he uses almost full sentences. I adore his hugs and compassion.
Jonathan, at 3 1/2, has entered the delightful pre-school stage where he uses his words communicating his thoughts and has the most delightful laughs and giggles.
I got this simple foundation pieced 8 flying geese unit made for Serendipity and for my one-monthly-goal.

For patchworktimes 2018-ufo-challenge the nunber was 10 and that was Biblical Blocks 2.

Well. What can I say? 

I pulled it out and put it up on the design wall and made a list of what still needs to be done on it.

 It sat up on the wall for a week, then I put it back in the box and prepped 4 BTCT blocks

 because

I was going to be away for 2 weekends and needed some hand work. 

And since BTCT is on the list, this will be my offering for the challenge this month

so that I will still have 2 complete months to tackle the Biblical Blocks. 

Stitched down the one large yellow flower. 

Added the cream centers on the flowers and a few more leaves. 

The wreath is stitched on the outside and the inside still needs to be done. 

Finished the bowl. 

Will I go back and straighten the bottom? 

Who knows. 

Buds are back-basted in place and

I used the Go cutter to cut a few flowers. 

Again, I used the GO cutter to cut the flowers and centers. 

They will all be askew by the time I am done.

Some of the leaves are under the stems and

some are beside and others on top. 

And I have a new project for 

Meredith's 6 & 6 challenge.

More on this next time. 

Blessings,
Chris
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BTCT Update

After spending the entire month of December working on the hand applique of the 1857 Album Quilt, I have turned my attention to 4 of the final 7 Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks. I was away last weekend and will be again this weekend and need some hand work to take along with me. I did find the rest of that particular green fabric so I made a few more bias stems. There is enough to make a few more for one of the other blocks I have not yet started.

I removed the stem that I had accidentally cut off.

Did some reverse applique in the center 
of two of the scallops on the top of the bowl. 

Sad that the stitches show so well. 
Especially here on my 20 inch computer screen. 

Next, I carefully positioned the bottom of the stem 
inside the top of the scallop. 

I stitched down the stem using matching green thread. 

I am using both cotton and polyester Guterman thread to match since I have so much. 

Then I realized that there were two stems
 that hid inside the scallops. 

The stems and leaves are all stitched in place. 

There will be layered flowers as well as buds still to make. 

And, yes, the bottom of the bowl does not line up 
with the edge of the block. 

And I had tried so hard. 

I have not touched this block for a couple of years. 

I added the large yellow flower for this week. 

This one came with me to see the original
 Jane Stickle quilt in

Bennington, Vermont.  

This block followed me to Rwanda last summer. 

I have added the cream centers to the flowers and back-basted a few more leaves. 

This block will be similar to the one above with a wreath and bow. 

I stayed up last night to back-baste some more leaves. 

So these are the 4 BTCT blocks I am working on this month for my take-along hand work. There seems to be a smudge on the bottom of the last 4 pictures. The little boy grand children were using my camera this morning. And Yes I did find the green radiant star. I was putting away several project boxes to make room here for the ufos I will be working on this year. It was sitting on one of the shelves in the upstairs fabric cupboard just where I left it last summer. 

Blessings,
Chris

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Just Takes 2 Pattern on Sale ! ! !

The infamous   just-takes-2  pattern is on sale right now for $10 if anyone is interested. But you better hurry. It is a digital download. I collected the patterns when they were free in 2012 and chose to make mine in all different Jinny Beyer Pallet fabrics since I had about 100 different ones.

The top half is all sewn together. The bottom half is the blocks I have made so far in no particular order.
I wanted to see what colours to use for the remaining blocks. I took time the other day to go through the patterns once I found the big binder hiding under other books on the storage shelf in the corner of the quilt room. And guess what else I found there? sort of pushed behind?
Yes, the rest of the heat-n-bond lite I had been looking for. I knew I hadn't used it all. For the life of me, I cannot find the 15 inch green radiant star I made back in June. I will keep looking. Never know what else I might find.

Today I am trying to finally finish the Turkey Tracks block I started at a hand piecing workshop with Linda Collins more than a year ago. This is one block. I did not want to start a new quilt then so when I realized the block was going to finish at 9 inches, I decided to make one to add to my Serendipity quilt.

Hand piecing and I are still not friends. But there is so little left to complete it now that I have located the rest of the little bits. I will replace another 9 inch block but had to see what colours I already used.

Last week I finished up the hand applique on some blocks so pulled out this BTCT block from a long time ago. I was trying to figure out how to get one of the stems to tuck under the top of the bowl and accidentally cut it off when I back basted the bowl on. And I cannot find a long enough piece of that green to make another.

So, I started stitching down the bowl hoping I could figure it out. Nope. I will try to find the same green.
I have used most of the fat quarter in the rest of the blocks.
There will be reverse applique holes in the top of that bowl. The stem end is supposed to hide inside one of those. Wish me luck.

I am going away next weekend and possibly the one after that, so I need need need to have a few more applique blocks prepped. I started on that last night and will try to get a few more prepped today.
I can do the hand stitching while the little boys are around, but not machine work. That is far too interesting for them and I prefer to not draw their attention to the sewing machines. They both like to play with the toy machines. Good thing I have 2.



Blessings,
Chris


I did complete this one tonight and I will not be making another again any time soon. 

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First OMG Goal for 2018

This is a tough one to decide. But first, I want to thank Patty for hosting this one-monthly-goal Linky Party. I won the $25 gift certificate from fatquartershop.  My first goal will be to decide how to spend it. They have sales all the time. Will it be fabric? precuts? thread? a new fabric collection? Decisions decisions.

In the meantime,
Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for January is light blue.  There is no light blue in my Dear Jane 2 quilt and the lightest blue I can find that I have not already used for Serendipity is this Jinny Beyer Pallet colour, so I will only be making one row of eight 3 inch flying geese.

Also,
the 2018-ufo-challenge  number is 10 so I should be working on this Biblical Blocks quilt that I want to complete this year, but there is so much to do on it and I am just finishing day 2 of 5 days of little grandchildren sleepovers. The parents all have to work or be in school and the school kids are still on Christmas holidays.


I had intended to switch this month's pick with the 1857 album and I just might



since I have a flimsy!!!!!

But then,
I just realized that it is the 300th birthday of the 1718 Coverlet that I started 3 years ago.
www.facebook.com/1718coverlet/
Why did I stop? I went to Australia, and a bunch of other places and was away 70 days that year, and started the first blocks of the Antique Wedding Sampler, was working on the Ben Biggs, GORF, BTCT, and trying to finish CCCQ. Oh yes, I was sick at least 5 different times with a  bronchial thing, was applying revisions to my book and had a new grandchild.

And why did I not put it on my ufo list for 2018??? I can still change that. Or will I?

Even though I had 17 in for a turkey dinner yesterday, I still found time to look over some of my ufo challenges for the coming year including putting Serendipity up on the design wall to see what blocks still have to be made and what colours  I have to choose from. I also took a few minutes to put in a few hand applique stitches on 3 BTCT blocks I had prepped back in Nov. Don't get too excited. I did not do much house work ahead of time and they helped set the tables, peel potatoes, brought salads and desserts AND washed up most of the dishes. I put all the bones on to simmer overnight and set them on the snow covered porch to chill at 6:30 this morning when the first of 5 grand children got up and the pot is still there probably frozen solid with the deep winter freeze here the past couple of weeks. 

We are having all our employees (at least 10) and most of our grand kids for our annual Maplehurst Farms staff Christmas party here tomorrow night. We order in pizza and play Pictionary to recall highlights from the past year and it is a lot of fun. There are little Paw Patrol pups, Chinese checker pieces, green tractors and cracker crumbs all over the house but, since all our grand children are somewhat OCD, we can get them to do all the pick up, vacuuming and maybe dusting if I remember to pull out the disposable duster thingies. My grandsons LOVE to vacuum and dust and the little girls are really over the top organizers. I could learn a thing or two from them. I can bribe reward them with pizza. 

So, yes, my OMG for this month will be to get that flying geese strip made for Serendipity. 

Blessings,

Chris

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