Applique Tuesday

Another block of WIP #17 done. No more prepped ones.  Will need to try to do the next one. Wish me luck.

Some of This, Some of That Week 49

Not quite ready to machine sew. Can only sit 5 minutes with my bad leg not elevated.   The queen size quilt is too cumbersome to shift around for hand quilting, soI went looking for another hand stitching project. Although I have an embroidery WIP somewhere, I went toward hexies.  I've always wanted to make a scrappy hexagon quilt. However, I have a hard time just pulling out scrap pieces and making hexies and starting to put them together.  Just doesn't work for me.  I need more of a plan.  Karen H help!

So went thru my folders of quilts I'd like to make and found one that may work for this interim project.  I'm still going to use scraps but a more planned effort. I may even pull out a fat quarter or two, although I don't consider them scraps.  Here is the center I came up with:

In the destashing stats, I've used 3 1/4 yards for two baby quilts and 0.1 yard in scraps for these hexies above. What is 0.1 yard?  That's 15 inches. So my new YTD total is 93.55 yards  de-stashed. 

I'm linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.  Did you get some done this week?  Link up with Kathy so we can all see. Blessings.

WIPs Be Gone Week 48

In looking for some more hand stitching, found my Anna's Garden, WIP #17.

I started this wall hanging about 3 years ago when I knew hardly anything about applique.  I prepped this block a long time ago and spent this last week hand appliqueing.  I learned I used way too much starch when attaching the pieces to the background. It made it hard to whip stitch in the seam fold. What order does one do the pieces?  Does one start on the edge and go inward so it's easier to hold? They had freezer paper behind most of them. Better to take them out as Kerry does at Simple Bird Applique.  Sometimes the least expected color of thread works best with an applique piece. Those gold needles are great for sliding through the fabric.

Any tips you'd like to pass on?  I'd love to read them. Leave me a comment.  I'm linking to Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Amanda's Finish it up Friday,  and Lyn's BOMs Away because this block is actually done.  Off to take my evening meds.

WIPs Be Gone #16

This is a little mug rug from last year's Oct retreat.  Kind of a fold and sew patchwork.  You end up with a piece that has folds instead of seams showing - kind of easy because one is always sewing around the edge.  I had only the binding to bring back and be done.  What would have taken me 10 minutes on the machine took me five days in between resting and meds for the broken hip.  Little by little....  And look it has a lime scrap.  Could this qualify for working with lime on the RSC 2015?

What are you up to?  Would love to hear. As this is a hand stitched finish, I'll link up to Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching .

In Only a Moment

Have I shown you this bag before?  I really can't remember right now. In only a moment it went from grocery bag to walker bag.  Yes, walker bag. I fell and broke my hip in two places.  I was shaking out a pair of DGS Alan's shoes so we could go on a walk, then turned and tripped on the threshold of our patio doors. Alan was right behind me about two feet and in order not to fall on top of him, I twisted to the right and took the full impact of the fall on my hip.

In only a moment the rest of the year has morphed into pain, surgery, coming home to recouperate.  The good news is that I don't have a cast, and the pain is manageable (because of my allergies to most pain meds or opiates - I"m only taking Extra Strength Tylenol).  I've been home from the hospital for about 18 hours and I'm so tired as if I'd work in the coal mines all day.  So I rest 15 minutes and move 15 minutes. LOL - today it took me 30 minutes to brush my teeth.  Needless to say, I won't be doing much driving or sewing as it was my right hip, and it's cumbersome moving in the sewing room (and I Don't want to fall). Prognosis is 3 months - yikes.  Oh well, what must be must be.  I'm hauling out my 26 year old WIP that I am handquilting and will work on that.  Its time has come.

Before I fell, I pulled out this quilt top I found in a container to be WIP #15. It has lime green sashing for the RSC 2015 challenge. Don't really have any lime green scraps even though I like the color.  I don't know if I will get anything done on it, probably not, but we'll see.  It's at least working with the color.

This all happened Friday the 13th, and no, I don't believe all that stuff.  For all those of you who've commented on my quilt show post  and WIPs Be Gone post, thank you.  I'm sure you understand that for a while my time online will be limited and I won't be able to reply very much ( this post has taken most of a day to do what with my limited energy - lol). Be right back - have to walk a bit or I will stiffen up.  But I'd still like to hear from you.  Though you won't notice, I'll be keeping up with you through Bloglovin' and Facebook.

Take care, happy quilting, and watch where you're stepping.

Blessings,

Angie in SoCal

WIPs Be Gone Week 46!

I checked the calendar and there are 53 weeks in 2015 because of when Jan 1st falls in 2016.  Only seven weeks left! Wow - where did the year go?  I've been finally getting down to quilting again and have actually worked on a WIP.  Here is #14:

This is a quilt nine years in the making. In fact I gave these 9 1/2" square to my then almost 4 year old grandson, William, and told him to lay them out in the order he wanted and he did. He even picked out the plaid to use as sashing.  This quilt was going to be for him.  Well, he's 13 now and not really interested in construction vehicles, so I'm giving it to his brother who turned five on Veteran's Day. The day before  Alan (the brother) came into the sewing room ( I thought he was watching Wild Kratts) and said, "I like this quilt. Can I have it?" So , I know he likes it.  I told him I'd have to check with the lady who wanted it made.  He's getting it Saturday at his party.  I just have to do the binding now, and that shouldn't take too long.  This has a Lightning McQueen and Mater flannel backing and flannel as batting.  I've learned a lot since I made this top so long ago - like it would have been better if I had used sashing blocks in the middle so the plaids wouldn't look so out of alignment, and better still if I had cut the side sashing on the lengthwise grain to match the crosswise cut pieces bordering the blocks.   I meandered around the vehicles

in the large blocks. Since I SITD all seams I then just quilted some FMQ in the border.  With two flannesl it's heavier than other quilts. I don't think the flannels will shift. I did prewash them.

I'm also quilting the baby quilt I showed you last week.  I'm using FMQ on that also.

What are you up to? Would love to see it, whether finished or WIP progress or an old post, or even about what is going on in your life - not necessarily quilty. Share your goodness. Linky below ends Monday, midnight.  I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Up Friday, Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?,  and Lizzie Lenard's FMQ Mavericks with this surely finished tomorrow WIP.

An InLinkz Link-up

A Trunk Show--

Soma of Whims and Fancies is having a virtual trunk show. What a great idea! There are even prizes besides all the wonderful eye candy one can see.  Here are a few of mine:
First Quilt of Valor:

Quilted by another QOV volunteer.

 First Home of the Brave quilt

 Given to Don Beld to pass on to a soldier's family.

 First commission quilt I made. This was a baby quilt requested by my neighbor.

 First Service Star quilt for a family who at the time had three sons in the Service.

 First BOM quilt.  This was a Beth Ferrier mystery quilt. I made it for my daughter's 35th birthday.  It took me two years.

 First pillow cover I made.  Went to my Mom. She has it on her sofa.

 First cancer patient quilt.  I asked for blocks from my Guild for a fellow quilter. Then I took the blocks and made a top and quilted it. This was the first time I made a different border of my chosing.

You can see more trunk shows by going to Soma's link party here:

 Show and Shares are my favorite part of guild membership, and trunk show are my favorite lectures.  At Soma's I get to go see quilt collections any time I like!  Share with us. I'd love to see your quilts.

Not Exactly WIPs Be Gone

Winding down from our trip.  It's taking me longer to get back to normal.  The first day I slept 11 hours - lol.  Then the next day just dragged myself around the house. Yesterday, I started to unpack.
And WIPs? - Hardly stepped into the sewing room.  Finally, last night I did attach the last two borders to a baby quilt.

This block is called Seesaw Block. I enlarged it to 32" from an 8" block and then added 2" borders to get my 36" square for St. Anne's.  I like it but think the block units too big.  Will just have to do some FMQ on it.  I've decided that next year's blocks will have more pieces just so they won't have such large open spaces in them.

I have a favor to ask.  I'm looking for Quiltmania Issue #106.  It has a house quilt on the cover.  Does anyone have a copy they are willing to part with?  I'll pay $8.50 for it plus $3.50 for shipping. Please email me if you want to sell it.  I can pay you via PayPal. You'll find my email in my profile.

So, what are you up to?  Linky party below to share some of your eye candy.  I need a boost in that department, although I enjoyed going through all the categories of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Thank you all for your kind comments and praise for my entry.  I was gone so didn't have a chance to reply what with the almost 200 emails I had to wade through when I returned.  I'm linking to Michelle's Let's Make Baby Quilts and others on the sidebar.  Blessings to you all as we start to get ready for the coming Holidays.

An InLinkz Link-up

Some of This, Some of That

I'm back from my trip East to Metuchen, NJ.  What a great time we had.  It was cold (well by my standards - averages of 56-62 most days) and that's cold for me! Our goal was to spend my sister-in-law's birthday with her.  Her four adult kids hosted a great celebratory dinner at an Italian restaurant, Dominics. We were treated to an eight course meal and this beautiful cake:

Those flowers were actually made of icing - they were fabulous and tasted fabulous, too - not sweet and cloying as you sometimes get with that much frosting.  I loved this fabulously decorated chocolate birthday cake.

On the quilty side, I didn't pick up a needle in all the eight days I was gone.  I was going into withdrawls - lol.  I knew better than to take anything because this family group is very talkative and around all the time, so I knew I wouldn't get anything done but talk, eat and sleep. But here's a St. Anne's top I finished just before I left using the RSC 2015 blocks for October.

This will have a brown print as binding - a little unusual for a baby quilt, but I found a darling flannel sorry, no photo) for the back.  I'm linking to some of the linky parties in the sidebar.  Give them a try.  Blessings, friends.

WIPs Be Gone again

What a difference a little sashing makes.  This is WIP # 5.  I'm on vacation so this post will be short and won't have a linky party, but would love to hear from you and hear about your WIP progress or anything else.
Blessings!

Time to vote

Amy's done it again - providing us with a wonderful Blogger's Quilt Festival with hundreds of quilts being shared by You.  And now it's time to vote. Good luck to all!  Here's mine in the small quilt category. Click on the link above to vote for your favorites.

Time for Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Amy's doing it again - providing us with a wonderful online QUILT FESTIVAL with hundreds of quilts being shared by You.  I so look forward to seeing your entries.  Here's mine in the small quilt category:

When I saw Lorna's Elephant Parade's first block, I knew I had to make a baby quilt using it since my God Daughter in Law[who was expecting a baby] is from Thailand, and the elephant is the symbol of the nation.  I got busy finding the right fabrics from my stash. Then I had to wait til I knew if it was going to be a girl or boy before I picked something for the little elephant.  Then I realized that the block made an African elephant

and the Thai elephant is an Asian elephant. Off to do research - the Asian elephant has smaller ears and the female doesn't have tusks.  So I redid the mother elephant block and waited some more. It wasn't til the end of March that we learned there was a good chance it would be a girl. So I remade the baby elephant block.  I put the basic top together.  Now how was I going to incorporate more about Thailand in this quilt?  Here's what I did:

1. There is a lot of vegetation and jungle in Thailand, so I took the 1/2 yard of fabric left from the border, lined the back with fusible interfacing and cut out leaves to extend the motifs into the quilt.

They were ironed on and machine appliqued using invisible thread, a 60/8 needle and Bottom Line thread in the bottom. This took a while.  And Baby Saige arrived while I was doing that step.  Then I decided to quilt a temple into the sky left of the elephant -there are lots of temples in Thailand.  So going back on the NET, found some ruins, made a copy, hung it on a window and traced it onto that golden paper for quilters. 

 I then pinned it in place on the quilt and started outlining it. 

Then I decided to do some letter work and found "welcome" in Thai and did a bit of stencil thread work to write that on the quilt.

I wanted to place the baby's name also, but there just wasn't room. Above is just part of it.  It didn't show up very well, but Waen spotted it right away.  With all the rain Thailand gets in a year, straight lines in the borders seemed just right. More quilting - quilted the mother elephant and surrounding sky using FMQ and a bit of ruler work on her ear.

I was happy with my adapted version of Lorna's elephant quilt. It measured 37" square. And I was only three months late getting it to baby Saige. In case you want to vote for it in the Viewer's Choice competition, you can find it here for nominating now or voting next week.

Have you entered a quilt?  I hope so - off to see your creation there.  Thanks again, Amy, for bringing the show to us!

WIPs Be Gone Week 43 and a Winner

Our winner of last week's giveaway is Quiltsmiles who lives in NY.  Congrats.  I'll send you your papers as soon as I hear from you.

The Duarte family is now the Portland, OR family - they got there yesterday early afternoon after a two and a half day journey north.  Here they are the night before they headed out - the four right of center (ps - Lily is standing on a block so she wouldn't look so small):

I miss them already! It will be  a long while before I get use to this.  Now I have two adult children far away.

After roaming the house feeling lost for two days, today I finally got my quilting urge back and began working on a WIP.  WIP #5 to be exact.

I can see right away I'm going to have to get myself a bigger design wall - here is just some parts of the center and it's already bigger than my puny DW.  I started this WIP in 2011. The pattern is from Fons and Porter published in 2003.  It has 12 blocks - mine has only 4 as I have no place for such a large quilt. Those blocks are 14" finished.  My plan was to try different applique methods with each block and see how I liked them.  I can tell you that I like needle turn applique best, but I'm too slow at it. My next favorite method is Esther Aliu's one.  She has a great tutorial on her blog.  Give it a look see.

Okay, what are you up to?  Whatever it is I'd love to see it.  Linky below and it ends next Wednesday, midnight.  I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar and also Amanda's as I did finish machine appliqueing the fourth Jubilee block yesterday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Some of This, Some of That Week 43

Coming off the wall - again I just assembled the blocks.

 This VA lap quilt has gone to another guild member to be quilted.  And back on my design wall:

made a few more brown/pink chunkies and added a center. Now to come up with an outer border.

Linking to parties on sidebar.  Visit them for inspiration.  Oh,  and I've used another 1/2 yd so my new YTD total is 90.70 yards  de-stashed.  Bye for now - have to go catch up on all that was on hold while I saw off my son and family to Oregon.  They should be in Portland today - end of travels for now. Yeah.

RSC Challenge - Brown Update

First, the giveaway for 100 hexagon papers (3/4") is still on.  Just go to my 10/15 post.

Second, I use about 1/4 yard for my three chunky churndash blocks I made and the four I cut.

Here's what they look like - at least the ones I've sewn:

They're not quite as dark as they appear.  I needed more light when I took this photo.  Also that's not how they will be laid.  They are 6 1/2" square.

Third, I used 1 3/4 yard to make a baby quilt.  Another B3 quilt for a preemie. So my new YTD total is 90.20 yards  de-stashed.  In this one I used the Milky Way block.

See how wrinkled it looks.  It isn't pleatted or anything.  After much experimentation I think it was I used two different threads and the machine didn't like it. I did lighten the pressure foot tension, but it didn't seem to make a bit of difference.  If you have any ideas to share about this problem, please let me know.

I sewed little bears in the full blocks as the background fabric was bears.

Bye for now - have a housefull of family to interact with.

WIPs Be Gone Week 42

I'm machine quilting the last block for my Jubilee Wall Hanging (WIP #5).

I've left it on the machine so whenever I have a minute or two, I sit right down and do a bit more.

Also completed hand stitching the leaves to my flowers in my Hexie Garden (WIP#3)

Now with those done, I can move on to machine appliqueing them to their backgrounds - all 36 of them. Again this was a project I left on the dining table to attack whenever I had a few minutes.  It will be a busy weekend, so I don't know how much else I'll get done.

 I've picked a winner and Random.org says it is:  Cloud 9
     "Nice job on your block, love the colors. Would love to win a Piece O'Cake Designs book as I've been wanting to do one of their projects. "

  Thank you so much to those who participated and left comments.  I wish I had time to respond to all of you but alas life is too hectic right now.  I so enjoyed all the eye candy.  You all have such fabulous projects.

Were you able to spend some time doing a bit of quilty this past week?  Would love to see it or anything else that is keeping you busy.  Linky below.  This week I'll giveaway one hundred 3/4" hexagon papers for any of you who would like to try this soothing hand sewing or add to a project you are working on.  Some have asked that the deadline be extended.  So as of now - they'll end on Wednesday, midnight.  Good luck!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to the various parties on my sidebar. Do check them out.

WIPs Be Gone #5 in Week 41 Plus Giveaway

I finished machine appliqueing another block of my Fons & Porter Jubilee Quilt.  This is my Lady Vase with Attitude. It is WIP #5.  One more block to do, and I can start assembling.  I used invisible thread to machine sew it.  I'm making a smaller version - a wall hanging - than the original. Don't know when I'll get to the next block as I have four such busy days coming up.

And because of all this busyness - here's a giveaway for you.  There are two ways to win.  One is to link up with the linky party for this week.  Show me your wip progress or anything you'd like to share, new or old.  I'll be checking once in a while to enjoy your link ups. That will probably be all I'll have time to do.  Linky ends Thursday, midnight.  You can link up three times and they'll all count.  Or you can leave a comment for one entry.  I'll draw a winner to announce at the next WIPs Be Gone post. Here's the book I'm giving away:

Brand new -it's a duplicate I found in a box.  I guess I really like it as I bought it twice. It has some really wonderful quilts in it. Good luck!

An InLinkz Link-up

I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it up Friday and Sarah's Can I get a whoop whoop? More eye candy there.

Some of This, Some of That Week 41

No slow stitching this week - way too busy.  Did use 1/2 yard of brown and pink scraps for the RSC 2015 challenge. My new YTD total is 88.20 yards  de-stashed.

Coming off my design wall is a top I put together.  I didn't make the blocks. I just assembled the top.  

I couldn't believe how many times I had to take the rows apart.  I put three flags upside down, so off those rows came. Then that put too much white near the eagle and I had to take two more row apart to move a couple of blocks.  But now it is finished.  It will go to another guild member to quilt it and then back to me for binding.  This is a VA lap quilt that we give to the local Vet hospital. They must measure between 36x45 and 36 and 48".  These are 12" blocks.  The Friendship Quilters put the blocks together.  Didn't they do a great job?

That's it for me.  Too much life stuff for much else quilty.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have a bit more to post.  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away as this block assembly is now done.

RSC 2015 Challenge Brown

Just playing with my scraps - don't know where this is going, but I'm using the brown in my scrap pile and decided on pink to go with it as shown on Angela's photo.  I'm linking to SoScrappy RSC 2015 challenge. Are you playing with brown?

Some of This, Some of That Week 40

Can you believe it? Twelve weeks to 2016?

Here's what I've been busy with:

came off design wall, is now a top, and making room for the one below

Two baby quilts - one for Neonatal Unit and one for St. Anne's .  The second one will have another row - maybe scraps from the three fabrics. It's flannel and I'll be putting it together QAYG.  Won't use batting as for CA, two flannels should make a cozy quilt.  Top one will have batting.  These are a block I've blown up to be 30" and 36" respectively.  All the above made from St. Anne's fabric. Therefore I can't count toward destashing.  But I did use three yards for the back of the raffle quilt from my stash. My new  YTD total id 87.70 yards  de-stashed.  I have 12 weeks to use a little over 12 yards to meet my 100 yards out goal.

I am working on leaves for my baskets but don't have photos of those.

DS has sold his house and needs to move in the next two weeks so I'll be very busy with that and probably not much on the blog.  Prayers would be appreciated.  Bye for now!