Stitching With Friends

I finally completed this block! Yay me! I listened to eleven hours of lectures this past week and stitched on many of these arrowhead shapes. Glad this one is done. Not doing it again any time soon. Gay has released a few more doozies for us to make. I can hardly wait. 

This is another of the Ella blocks I am hand appliqueing. This one was a piece of cake with only 4 points to turn compared to 108 in the previous block.

These are more blocks I am working on this week. Some back-basting. Some layering. Some unpicking. Some redoing.

Chooky did it again. She hosted a zoom meeting to stitch with friends around the world. I love it. There were 4 of us Canadians this time.  A few Americans. A few Australians. And a Kiwi or 2. 

The new blogger continues to challenge me. I got the comment in my inbox thing fixed. But how do I remove a photo once I upload it? It cannot be that hard to figure out since blogger is telling us they are improving their service. I can do this. 

Blessings, 

Chris

linking with: slow-sunday-stitching.  design-wall monday-   katiemaequilts.  put-your-foot-down-

To-Do Tuesday

I posted a few times on To-Do Tuesday but often forgot or was too busy to take the time. Other times, I only posted a couple of times a month. And yet, I write up to-do lists all the time. Do I follow them? Sometimes. It is more of a brain dump with all the things I think I should be doing rather than what I actually intend to do. So here we go:

1. Listen to the rest of the 8 lectures for my current course and do the test.
2. Hand applique while listening.
3. Change the throat plate on the Bernina so we can do some zig-zag stitching. 
4. Bring the step stool in from the trampoline so I can put Serendipity on the design wall.
5. Take the step stool back out to the trampoline. 
6. Clear out my inbox. 
7. Pre-wash more background fabric for the 3030 Quilt center.
8. Draw the design onto the BACK of the 27-inch center medallion for back basting.
9. Begin to prep a few of the applique shapes. 
10. Make jam. 
11. Make relish.
12. Finish this Ella block. 

That should be enough to remember for one week. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: to-do Tuesday  needleandthreadnetwork.

49 Years

What do you do when your phone lines are out? What do you do when your internet is out? How did we ever live without being connected to the world? They are connecting great-grandma to the internet so had to dig a trench down the lane, across her lawn, and into her house. However, my underground phone line got cut and it took 3 days to get a service guy here to tell us we have to wait for another 24 to 48 hours to get a crew out to dig a new trench to bury a new phone line from the road to my house which is about 1/4 mile long. Now about the internet, it does not have lines but had been out since yesterday. After 3 weeks away, the girls are home but cannot watch their shows. It should have been quiet, but the girls decided to play really noisy, boisterous, loud games in the living room. That until the tears came and they got sent to bed. 

I have been listening to lectures online, doing some hand applique, and working my way through a test. This should be easy, after all, this is the seventh course I am doing this way. But, they forgot to send me the first 2 lectures so it was a bit confusing. Got that all sorted out until no internet. Also, I have been visiting with quilters here and there online. I love doing this! I can wear my pj's and don't have to pack my stuff or drive anywhere. I just stay here in my quilt room and carry on. 

Two friends connected on Facebook and one of my other sisters came over so the three of us got to hang out and talk quilts.  And speaking of quilts, Emily has a completed quilt. She got it back from the longarm quilter the other day and has it on her bed. I joined the FNWF (Friday Night With Friends) here all day Friday. I have been plodding along with this Ella-maria-deacon-quilt block for a while now. There are 32 of those arrowhead pieces. With the back basting of every other one and turning no less than 3 points on each one as I needle-turn hand applique, it is taking me at least 15-20 minutes per piece. Only 14 more to go. Just for fun, we put up the fabric I have for the setting triangles and the sashing strips to see what this is going to look like. I like it. 

The little girls, who got out of bed this early Sunday morning and went out to the barn to feed baby calves and kittens, are in and have discovered that the internet is back on and my Sweetie is in from morning chores so it must be breakfast time. We celebrated 49 years of marriage to each other this week and are planning a party for next year. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: slow-sunday-stitching. party-patchwork-quilts-  

quiltingismorefunthanhousework. design-wall-monday.  wednesday-wait-loss-  midweek-makers-  off-wall-friday.

Quilt Retreat at Home

So what's been happening here at the farm? This is the week I would have gone to Shipshewana for a quilt retreat, but, alas, we are not allowed to leave the country, so, I decided to do my own retreat. I cleared off 2 tables and moved the desktop computer to the other side of the room so I could participate in some online quilt-a-longs. This way, I have so much more table space for working and playing at the same time. I met with some of my friends on Facebook to stitch and chat over the past 3 days.

I joined Chookyblue for an international stitching party. Our host calculated all the timezones and sent us a link to join the party. She opened the zoom meeting at 6 AM Saturday her time in Australia and my time was 4 PM Friday. I joined the party for about 3 hours (after a quick nap) Friday night then after a delightful sleep, rejoined at 6 in the morning for a couple of hours. This was a lot of fun chatting with quilters in other countries.

And what did I work on? This is last week's block from Sentimental Stitches 3030 Quilt. I had to think about the 1/8th inch stems. I ended up cutting a bias strip 3/8th wide and appliqueing it in place. A bit wobbly, but have you ever seem a perfectly straight flower stem? Neither have I. There will be a large applique center medallion but I will not get the pattern until next week. I am really enjoying the novelty of these Thirties prints. 

Last week the little boy grandchildren came over and we slept in the trailer in the front yard. I had to have something to work on out there. I took out a lamp and sweater and sat under the a/c fan for 4  nights. I promised them I would not leave them out there alone. I think the temperatures were hovering around 30C outside. I have those 8 arrowheads to stitch down and them I can back-baste on the final 8. I think I will make them aqua. This block has taken umpteen hours to this point. Looking forward to seeing it completed. 

This is another Ella applique block. I prepped several back in April when I allowed myself to start a new quilt. The first in 2 years. Those dark petals are a purple and I am using a 10-inch layer cake from Betsey Chutian's Susanna Scraps collection. There is lots of variety but not lots of fabric. I am certainly enjoying hand stitching with yet another Moda fabric. I am back basting every other melon. 

I switched the function on the mouse so I now right-click with my middle finger instead of left-clicking with the forefinger. It has been a bit to get used to doing it backward but my right forefinger is so sore and I found this option. 

I started working on a new course for my doctorate. It has lectures online and I was hand appliqueing a 3030 block and turned on a lecture.  I had printed off 11 pages of a test that is required for every course. But 30 minutes into the lecture, I still had not found the answer to any questions so popped in lesson 2 and the same thing, until I heard a word that was written up on about page 9 of the test and realized that for this course the test questions are not listed in order so now I have to spread out the pages and hunt for the answers. I can do this now that I know. 

I did not meet my One Monthly Goal for July. My OMG Goal for August will be to complete the above 3 applique blocks and maybe one or two more 3030 Blocks. Not too challenging a quilting goal as I plan to get some serious writing done this month, specifically this week as I have 6 whole days in a row with no children to interrupt me, or hug me, or ask for booboo kisses or ice cream or popcorn. It may be quiet, but I might even miss the darlings. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: Quilting Patchwork Applique  quilting is more fun than housework   sunday slow stitching

Wendyès Quilts  needleandthreadnetwork.  wednesday-wait-loss-183  midweek-makers-  

myquiltinfatuation.  wendysquiltsandmore.

Very Slow Stitching This Sunday

I have been working on this Ella Maria Deacon block for several weeks now. Not every day. But once in a while. There are 36 of those arrowhead shapes and I calculated that, if it took me 10 minutes to hand applique each one, then it would take me 360 minutes or 6 hours. But I had to first draw the shapes onto the back since I am back basting. That took a few minutes. Say about 30. Then I back basted on the corner bits and every other beige shape. I did all that last month. Last week, I basted on every other dark brown piece and every other light brown piece. Why every other one? To get the points in the right place without interference from the piece beside. I think I will change the light brown to an aqua since there is some aqua in the corner pieces. I am using Susanna Scraps by Betsy Chutian from Moda. I am trying to avoid using reds and green since I have several quilts with those colours in them, 

So the back basting took me about 30 minutes three different times. Are you adding up the numbers? 

However, yesterday I was stitching while visiting quilters on facebook and I got exactly 4 done in about an hour and a half. So, about 20 m minutes each. Needless to say, It will take more than 6 hours to complete this one 9 inch block by hand.

Blessings,

Chris

slow sunday stitching  quilt fabrication needleandthreadnetwork.

3030 Quilt

Gay over at sentimentalstitches is offering yet another amazing weekly quilt-a-long. This one you sign up for and pay $30 for the 30 blocks for 30 weeks. I am all caught up for now. But I understand there is a center medallion to applique coming soon. Maybe even this Friday. I hope it comes next Friday because that would be a very nice birthday present. And, I would not have to get it completed before the end of the month since my OMG this month is to keep up to date with this project. I am loving these colourful blocks. Some are done by foundation piecing. I have yet to remove the papers. Others are pieced the old-fashioned way by machine. And, of course, the hand applique.

3030 Quilt

I reverted back to the legacy blogger to see if comments will show up in my inbox. None of them did last post. And yet, with the new blogger, I did get notification of comments last month. We shall see.

Blessings,
Chris
linking with:  midweek-makers-236.  needleandthreadnetwork. quiltingismorefunthanhousework 
design-wall-monday  myquiltinfatuation.  wednesday-wait-loss-180  fortheloveofgeese.
wendysquiltsandmore.  off-wall-friday.

A Bit of Hand Applique

This is the first applique block for the 3030 Quilt.  

I am continuing to discover things about the new Blogger.

For instance, I enlarged the photo by left-clicking on the photo and hitting the + sign.

Last month I got comments in my Gmail inbox but not this week. 

I wonder what happened?

Linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Now it is finished

blessings.

Chris