Hand Pieced QAL, Week 2

I'm again joining Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Kristin at Simple, Handmade, Everyday for the link-up for the Hand Pieced Quilt Along.  

I had fun with this week's block too.  So much so, that having seen someone else's block, I decided mine was too dark and I ended up doing another block in lighter colors, plus I redid last week's block too.  I won't have enough of  the background to finish the project, as I just have a fat quarter. but I will use it as much as I can.  

This was this week's block.

This week's block both copies.

Block #1 redo

Both blocks together.

Not sure I will make 2 versions the whole time, depending on time, but I might.  

Well I'm off to chase a squirrel.  Carla at Creatin in the Sticks  had a Valentine Quilt Block this morning I just have to make!

Nevermind that I have two of my grandsons coming to spend the weekend, starting after school today!

Thanks for stopping by!  Karrin

Wednesday Wait Loss

I'll be linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss @ The Inquiring Quilter.  

Well I have been all sorts of busy this week.  I did finish the top of my project for Dust Off A Book Blog Hop.  So I have been busy this week trying to get control of my scraps, still.  In looking through my sewing room closet and various other places, I apparently saved every single scrap I have ever had.  I found bonus half-square triangles from children's quilts, red, white and blue quilts, etc. So I pulled these baggies out and began sewing the triangles together.  And some of my red, white and blues into block sections.  These both will go to charity quilts of some sort when I get them together.  

I had moved my stuff out to the kitchen and dining room tables, which I am going to have to clean up as we have our grandsons this weekend while their parents go visit granddaughter Kyleigh in Boston starting tomorrow.  

Kitchen table

Dining room table

Some of the blocks I have put together with scraps from other projects.

I did finish this guy too.  He was  #10 on my Finish-A-Long list which I have listed right here.  

Here he is is sewn to the other guy I have done.  The other guy has probably been waiting around for another Father Christmas to join him since 1998 or so!  

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I love comments!  I have to figure out something with my yahoo account.  Apparently if I email someone with Gmail, my email goes into the junk or spam folder with this message:  "unauthenticated email from yahoo.com is not accepted due to domain's DMARC policy. Please contact the administrator of yahoo.com domain if this was a legitimate mail. Please visit https://support.google.com/mail/answer/2451690 to learn about the DMARC initiative. k49sor4400135jaj.0 - gsmtp"  Very frustrating.  

Slow Sunday Stitching

I'm joining Kathy Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I had to laugh at her post mentioning a problem with "startitis", and starting 3 things already this week.  I think I have the same problem.  I have started 2, and am contemplating a third.  

I did join the Hand Pieced Quilt-A-Long I talked about here.  

   

This was my first hand-pieced block.  

My slow stitching this week has mostly consisted of working on my Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop Project hosted by Beaquilter, coming up February 18-22.  I finished the flimsy of my project this morning, so will get to quilting it in next week.  I can't wait to share it on my blog hop day which is February 20th.   I have our 2 grandsons staying with us later this week, along with Ronald their puppy, while their parents go make a surprise visit to granddaughter Kyleigh at college in the Boston area for the weekend.

What I did finish was my Take Me to the Sea stitchery designed by Kathy Schmitz.  Really happy with how it turned out.  

This project was #4 on my 2019 Finish-A-Long list for Quarter 1.  My list of goals is here

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for the Slow Sunday Stitching link-up.  Thanks so much Kathy for this motivation!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Karrin

Hand Pieced QAL, Dust off a Quit Book Blog Hop Coming Soon

I have joined Patty at Elm Street Quilts and Kristin at Simple, Handmade, Everyday for the Hand Pieced Quilt a Long.

One of the main reasons I joined this quilt a long was in memory of my dear mother-in-law who was a prolific quilter.  She used templates for her patterns, her points did not always meet, but  her quilts were always filled with lots of love.  I first met her in 1972 and she made us many quilts over the years, I even have some polyester quilts that she made.  My mother once asked her to make her  a quilt out of scraps I had leftover when I made my mother, sister and myself clothes while I was in high school.  My mother even had a pattern picked out, one with extensive trapunto in it.  My mother-in-law Ada was firm and said she would make the quilt, but she would give it to John and Karrin.  Too big for me to get a good picture inside.  It is called Star of the Bluegrass, and she made it in 1973.  She could usually hand-piece and hand-quilt a quilt in a month, but this one took longer with all the trapunto.

This next one she made for our spare bedroom, which is still where it resides.  She made this one in 1991.  

This is my first piece for the Hand-Pieced Quilt Along.  I'd like to thank Patty and Kristin for this quilt along.  I think of my mother-in-law every day, but especially working on this.

Around 1992 or so my DFIL developed Alzheimer's and I figured we would not be getting anymore quilts unless I got busy, so I started quilting around that time with my first finish I have documented in 1994.  

 I'm still working on my project for the Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Bea @ Beaquilter

coming February 18-22.   The majority of my project is hand appliqued.  I'm doing to redoing the large unit a second time.  I should have that finished the next couple of days and I can assemble the top.  My project is 62 x 81, but I might enlarge it a bit to fit John's hospital bed.  

Meanwhile, I am still drying out his room from the last storm damage, and water leaking up through the foundation.  The room is a sunken living room, and that is why it has a problem and not the rest of the house.  Our daughter Katie, who has had extensive water pipe breakages in their house has an industrial type air mover that she brought over.  So I have been slowly moving that around the room, especially under area where he sits got the most damage.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Hand Quilt Along

It seems that these last three weeks have raced by.  Sadly today I don't have much I can share.  I'm participating in the upcoming Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Bea at BeaQuilter February 18-22.  My day is Wednesday the 20th.  I have been working daily piecing the parts of my quilt that are pieced, and hand appliquing and embroidering the details.  

We had tons of rain earlier this week, and I discovered that part of the gutters in the back were unhooked from the back, pouring water over the sides and dumping it right by the house.  The part of the house that has a sunken living room, where my disabled husband spends his days and nights.  We have had trouble with this room before, because of cracks in the foundation, of water seeping up from the foundation.  We have replaced the carpet once about 8-9 years ago.  But anyway, a portion of my week was spent cleaning out the gutter downspouts, and screwing the gutter back up where it was loose.  Hopefully we won't have this problem anymore this year.  But the room is starting to smell moldy.  The carpet is damp and I have towels all over the place.  These repair issues are things DH used to do.  I spent quite a bit of time looking for the socket that fit the screws on the gutters.  

Anyway, the book I chose for the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop is something I wanted to make since it came out in 1996.  I have had flannels set aside for this quilt for years.  I'm making it for DH,and it involves quite a bit of applique.  In the book, the applique pieces needed to be enlarged 203%, much to much for my printer.  So several weeks ago I went up to the Fedex Copy Center and asked for help and the guy in the section where you copy it yourself helped me.  I came home and proceeded to applique 4/6 of these blocks with what he gave me.  I kept wondering why there was so much background left in the main unit, which I had appliqued and embroidered.  Then I was preparing the 5th block and I saw the size of the unit in the book and realized there was no way what he did for me was 203%.  So that one I did myself on my printer and taped the pieces together.  But the large unit, I took back up to Fedex and spoke with a guy who has been there for years, ever since my daughter worked there when she was in college.  He copied that piece on a large scale copier and did not charge me since I made 2 trips!  

I found I do not have any large enough pieces of that background to put the new unit on, and no other backgrounds that would fit it with the original color scheme I had, so I picked off all the applique and embroidery which probably took about 3 hours.  DH said just put the new one over the old one, but I am appliquing flannel on a flannel background, and it would just poof up too much.  

So right now, that is what I am working on as handwork this week.  I should be finished with the flimsy in this project in a few days and I should have plenty of time to quilt it before the blog hop.  

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith,Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

Thanks for stopping by!   Karrin

Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop Coming Soon

I'm excited to be a part of this upcoming Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop hosted by Bea at BeaQuilter.  The hop is about find an old quilt book in your personal library and have always wanted to make, but never tried before.  When I heard about the hop, I knew exactly what I was going to make.  I even  had fabrics set aside for it, for a long time. My book dates back to 1996, and I probably purchased it as soon as it was released.   I've been working hard on my project.  I'm going to go tackle a piece that I have made twice.  This book uses templates.   If I can't get it to work this time, I'm going to put something else in that place!  The dates for the event are February 18-22.    My day is February 20th.  Can't wait to show my project!

Monday Feb 18^th

Turid at densyendehimmel

Pamela at Pamelaquilts

Joan at Moosestashquilting

Anne at seems like a plan

Susan at Desertsky Quilting

Selina at Selinaquilts

Kathleen at Kathleenmcmusing

Tuesday Feb 19^th

Cindy Stitchin at home

Jennifer at curlicuecreations

Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns

Kathy at Kathysquilts

Shasta at high road quilter

Wednesday Feb 20^th

Sharon at Vrooman’s quilts

Suzy at Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Nancy at patchworkbreeze

Brenda at songbirddesigns

Karrin at karrinscrazyworld

Denise at craftraditions

Thursday Feb 21^st

Anita at Domestic Felicity

Leanne at Devoted Quilter

Jennifer at Dizzyquilter

Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks

Lee Anne at Podunk Pretties

Andree at quiltinglearningcombo

Lyndsey at Sew Many Yarns

Friday Feb 22^nd

Bea at Beaquilter

Barbara at Bejweledquilts

Laura at slice of pi quilts

Sherry Powered By Quilting

Pat at Life in the Scrapatch

Carol at Just let me quilt

Kathy at Kathy's Kwilts and More

Marian at seams to be sew

Good Fortune Mystery Finish

Since the reveal of the Bonnie Hunter's Good Fortune Mystery last week, I have been working hard to get it together.  I decided when I was about halfway through putting this together to donate the top to the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project, being coordinated by Carole at From My Carolina Home.  

When this hurricane was first developing, I was back in Boston taking granddaughter Kyleigh to college.  My brother-in-law Roger was here helping care for my husband while I was gone. By the time I got back home 5 days later, Roger was anxious to get back home to North Carolina before they cancelled flights.  It took the airlines 2 days before they decided to allow it, without him paying more.  Roger got home before the hurricane hit land, and decided to stay in place instead of evacuating.  He was without power 4 days I think.  I was worried about him the entire time.  

So I decided to donate it to the Carolina Hurricane Project.  I sent it off to the longarmer in North Carolina this morning who has graciously offered to quilt it.  

I had a great time with my first Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  I decided to put plain fabric in for the third border as the strip pieced units I made were fragile, mainly because I forgot to shorten my stitch, and when I started pulling my paper out, they started coming apart.   I didn't want to start over as I have other projects I need to get done this month.  Also I have decided I need a remedial course in counting, as I was missing some units!

My quilt is made probably 80% of Civil War reproduction fabrics.  The oranges were what I did not have a lot of in that line.  The sun finally came out yesterday so I could take some pictures.

I'll be linking up to the Mystery Monday Link-up at Quiltville.  Thanks so much again Bonnie for such a beautiful quilt!

2019 Finish-A-Long, Quarter 1 Goals

The 2019 Finish-A-Long is about ready to start.  You can go to Marci Girl Designs and see a list of the global hosts.  I really appreciate this Finish-A-Long to keep me on track!  Thanks so much to the 2019 Finish-A-Long hosts!

My goals for this first quarter of 2019 are as follows:

1)  First two Nutcracker months.  I just started getting this BOM, and would like to get the first two months made.  This consists of making all the large star blocks, and making all the chain blocks.

2)  Embroider ast three Redwork Nursery Rhyme Blocks.  It's impossible to take a picture of these, and I no longer have the patterns. I have Simple Simon, Yankee Doodle, and Little Bo Peep left.

3).  Applique Flourishes BOM #10 block.  

4)  Finish embroidery on Take Me to the Sea, a design by Kathy Schmitz, and make into a pillow.

This is where I am at right now.    I liked the one I did for granddaughter Kyleigh, I needed to make one myself.

5)  Make another section of Sweet Land of Liberty.  Lori at Humble Quilts is going to have another Quilt-Along on this quilt soon.  Mine looks like this so far.

6)  Make project for Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop @Beaquilter.  My project involves a book from 1996, I apparently bought it about 4 years after I started quilting.  It is a flannel project, and I have been saving blue flannel for years for this quilt.  I have always intended to make it for DH, as the theme is right up his alley.  I intend to get this project to at least a flimsy.

These are some of the fabrics used, and below is the strip that is giving me fits.  This book uses templates and I am not sure they are accurate.  I have made this piece twice and they are both 1 inch too long. The background piece it attaches to is correctly cut.  DH told me just to take 1/2 inch off each side, but that would cut the points off.  Going to see if I can redraw it.  

7)  Project for Quilt Qwazy Queens Blog Hop at Seams to be Sew in March.   I have an idea of finishing up one of my many crazy quilt UFOs for this.  It involves baskets.  A number of years ago, I was in swaps at Crazy Quilt International and we would decide on a theme for a round robin, make 6 blocks, and pass them around to 5 other people who would embellish them.  I am going to finish my block, and get this together into at least a flimsy.  These blocks are made out of wool and embroidered.  

8.  Cherry Quilt to Flimsy.  In assessing my studio closet, I found these cherry blocks, and cherry fabric set aside.  My goal is to get these to flimsy stage and I plan to donate to charity.   I have about 16 blocks made up.  

9.  Good Fortune Mystery to Flimsy.  This is the Quiltville Mystery for this year,  This is where it is right now.  

10.  Applique 1 Father Christmas block.  This is the one I have prepped and ready to stitch.

11.  All Things Bright and Beautiful UFO.  Finish to flimsy.  I came across this in the closet too.  I think I am 12 done.   I just need to find the instructions for the rest of the pieced blocks.  A group of us on Yahoo Groups at one time were working on this.  I know I have the instructions somewhere. It would have been nice if it was in the same bag the fabric I set aside for this was in too!

I will be linking up with Marci Girl Designs for the 2019 Finish-A-Long goal setting.

What I've Been Up To, 2019 Assesment

Recently Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts had a 3 day challenge, cleaning off your main surface work area, cleaning up a pile of stuff, and the third challenge was to perform a project assessment, noting your UFOs, etc.  I thank Shelly for motivating me to take a hard look at what I have.  I weeded out some projects I will never do, I don't know why I even got them.  I have a stack of stuff in my office to put up for sale, quilt kits, books and several BOMs.

I spent several days performing this assessment.  I tossed everything out of the top of my sewing room closet.  The top shelf, to the ceiling is about 3 feet tall.  I can stuff a lot of stuff up there.  Plus there is another area about 1.5 feet wide x 4 feet tall.  

I also have an antique dresser that is 40 inches long, has 2 drawers in it that are 13 inches deep and 15 inches wide.  I can stuff a lot of stuff in there too.   

These are the results of my assessment:

I have           

27 UFOs         Items I have already started. 

44 Quilt kits.   Most of these I have assembled myself at the time I bought a book and liked quilts in    it, collected the fabric and bagged it up.

28 BOMs         Not started

21 Crazy quilt UFOs   A lot of these were block swaps on Crazy Quilt International,  plus a Crazy      Quilt Journal Project

14 Wool Projects    Not started

3 Quilt tops            Need Quilted.

What I have been up to this week is working on the Good Fortune Mystery by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.  

Not a great picture,but it has been dreary and rainy and the lighting in this room is not great unless the sun is shining. Today I plan to work on the orange alternate blocks.

I'm going to be in 2 upcoming blog hops, Dust off a Quilt Book Blog Hop by Beaquilter the endof February and Quilt Qwazy Queens hosted by Marian at Seams to be Sew in March.

I've been working on my Dust off a Quilt Book project.  This is a project I have wanted to make, since almost I started quilting.  I'm making it for DH,who has to sleep in a hospital bed in the living room due to mobility issues.  Right now I can't show my project, but I can show one portion that is giving me fits.  This book uses templates for the pieced elements.   A large part of the quilt is applique, so that is no problem for me.  

It needs to fit at the bottom of one of the background applique blocks I am doing.  I was very careful, in trying to keep the points.  It is 1" too big.  I made it a second time, it is 1 inch too big.  DH told me just to cut 1/2 inch off either side.  But that would cut off the points.  I wanted to use that brown star fabric in the middle one.  And I have about consumed it.  I can't use it a third time I don't think.

One funny thing happened.  This one background I had this much left

I realized I needed 2 more triangles, and four 1 inch squares.  I cut the squares out of the long one.  

Then sewed my remnants together and cut out the triangles.  Hopefully I won't come across anything else!

Well that is it for now.  I've got my 2019 Finish-A-Long List ready for another post.  

Thanks for stopping by!

2018 Finish-A-Long, Q4

I have really enjoyed participating in the 2018 Finish-A-Long this year.  There are a whole group of hosts, but  I usually hook up at Marci Girl Designs.  

Back in October, I listed my goals for the last quarter of 2018 here.

I did pretty well this time, I figure about 80%.

1)  Angel quilt by Cheri Payne.  Finish for my daughter for Christmas. Done.  Where I started was here.  

I did get it quilted and gifted for Christmas.  The front

And back

2.  Crow quilt to flimsy.   This is another Cheri Payne pattern.  This one was pretty much done, I just had some berries and my initials to applique on.  DONE

3.  Doll Clothes for Klara's BD doll by October 29th.  DONE.  

I made her baby PJ's, a hooded sweatshirt, pants and T-shirt, a pair of leggings and T-shirt.  most were recycled fabric from Klara's old leggings and T-shirts.

4.  Redwork embroidery of 3 Nursery Rhyme blocks for my SIL.  DONE.  She is going to put these together in a quilt for her first granddaughter.  They went through here on the way to Oregon for Christmas and just left after staying several days.  I was able to give her these three blocks finished.  Only have 3 more!

Old King Cole

There Was a Man and He Had Naught

There was a man and he had naught,
And robbers came to rob him;
He crept up to the chimney top,
And then they thought they had him.
But he got down on the other side,
And then they could not find him;
He ran fourteen miles in fifteen days,
And never looked behind him.

This was not one I was familiar with..

Ding Dong Bell

5.  Owl Redwork Table Runner for daughter.  DONE.  This was my own design, and I used leftover fabric from the 12 Days of Christmas In July blog hop table runner I did here

6.  Great Pumpkin BOM quilt to flimsy stage.  DONE..

7.  Assemble Christmas panels for daughters for Christmas.    NOT DONE.  I had gotten these on clearance at Hobby Lobby,probably about 9 years ago.  Never had a chance to work on them.  

8.  Do 2 more panels of Sweet Land of Liberty.  NOT DONE.  Lori at Humble Quilts is going to run another sew-along this year.  I decided to wait until that starts up.  I have been working on it with Susan at DesertSky Quilting and Edi who hasn't started hers yet,  This is what mine still looks like.

9.  Assemble my long-finished redwork ornaments.  DONE.  I made 3 sets at least 10 years ago.  I gifted them to my daughters, but mine have not been completed. I did finish them in time for Christmas and I was finally able to put them on the tree.  

10.  Get ,my Fall Into a QAL blocks into a flimsy by November 13th.  DONE.  This was a quilt-a-long hosted by Partners in Design.  I designed the center block.  

So that was it.  I completed 8 out of 10 of my goals this past quarter.  I'd like to thank the 2018 Finish-A-Long hosts, and I will be linking up at Marci Girl Designs.

Thanks so much for stopping by!   Karrin.