Buhl-Bushong Quilt, Sew Lets QAL

I've had a few finishes the last couple of days.  Trying to keep my projects up to date.

First up, I finished up this month's segment of the Buhl-Bushong quilt, a BOM provided by the  So right now one border is done.   This is from the Virginia Quilt Museum's collection of quilts.  It is being offered as  a BOM download on the museum/s Facebook page.

Next up, since I didn't have any applique prepped, the past couple of days I worked on one of Kathy Schmitz's stitchery from her One Stitch at a Time monthly club.  

Lastly, the Sew Lets QAL by Partners in Design posted the last block in this QAL yesterday.  I got that block done today, and a picture of the last 4 blocks.  I just need to figure out how I am going to set these and the other 9 blocks.

This block is shelves of thimbles, with one missing.

Today the new block for Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches QAL came out, and I have the block prepped to work on tonight.  

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday.  I took DH up to his appointment at Kaiser, and I saw one of my former Kaiser Home Health coworkers sitting outside.  Then I looked further down the sidewalk and I saw quite a few friends standing around outside.  Anyway one of my good friends invited me to breakfast this morning, as they had training again today in the same location.  They work in another location, but they are having training in my town.  I told her I really needed to help DH get going in the mornings, but invited them to breakfast here.  

So we had a nice breakfast this morning with pancakes, eggs, sausage and fruit.  My one friend had started some lap quilts, just simple blocks.  The tops are done.  I told her to bring them with her and I would quilt them for her.  There is one corner that is going to need to be finessed.  She was short on one of the sashings, and then just put another on next.  I told her I would put something in that corner.  I have been retired 2 years now, and these were UFOs before that.  She is not a quilter, just decided she was going to make a lap quilt for her daughter, and then started another one.  So when I get my quilting machine back out, I will put those on first.  

Thanks for stopping by!

August One Monthly Goal

It's time to link up August finishes for the One Monthly Goal on Elm Street Quilts.

I want to be sure and not forget to do it this month like I did last month, when I finished my goal, but with watching the grandchildren and trying to keep up with regular life, I missed the hook up date!

My goal this month, which I stated here, was to finish a crazy quilt piece for my daughter for her 40th birthday which was on the 24th of August.  She requested a wall hanging, with a vintage mermaid in it.  

This was what I started out with, a pieced CQ block.  I should have darkened the mermaid picture some before I printed it on the silk fabric, but I didn't.  

These are pictures of the finished piece.  

Very happy to get this one done.  I'm thinking of doing a whole series of under-the-sea CQ, for a wallhanging for me.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts, One Monthly Goal.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Time for another check-in with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.   I've been trying to catch up on my projects since finishing the mermaid CQ piece.  

First off, I caught up on this month's Sweet Land of Liberty, which I talked about in a previous post.

Today will finish off this month's portion of the Buhl-Bushong Quilt-Along, which is from the Virginia Quilt Museum's collection of quilts.  It is being offered as a BOM download from the museum's Facebook Page.   I just have a flower and stem to do for this one.  I should be able to finish this morning.  

Next up, I need to prepare the applique for 3 more Father Santa blocks.

I plan to work on another Kathy Schmitz stitchery.

I was able to get a better picture of Nutcracker Suite BOM that I just finished outside yesterday.  

I plan to link up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Pop on over, and see what everyone is working on.  

2019 Finish-A-Long, Quarter 3 Goal Accomplished, Bittersweet Week

I completed another goal on the 2019 Finish-A-Long quarter 3.  My list, which is stated here, was to finish the Nutcracker Suite BOM offered by Shabby Fabrics to a flimsy stage.

Last year, around my birthday/anniversary, I found out about this nutcracker BOM, and as I collect nutcrackers, it immediately appealed to me, and I signed up.  The BOM was starting in November of last year.  Around the same time, DH was wondering what I wanted for my BD/anniversary, which are in October/November and I told him about this BOM and he gave me the $$$ to pay for most of the BOM, the backing and thread kit. 

I really want this finished for this Christmas, and have been keeping up pretty much as I receive the packets.  I was able to finish putting it together today.  Now just to figure out how I am going to quilt it!

On another note, I guess 40 year old foam disintegrates.  This is the top of my ironing board.  I kept having pieces of something appear in my sewing room, and today out in my dining room.  I finally realized it was the foam from under the ironing board cover.  I just kept putting new covers on.  But apparently this was under the original one.  the foam was oozing out those little diamond shapes and falling on the floor!  I've cleaned it all up now in preparation for a new cover.  

I had granddaughter Kyleigh to lunch yesterday.  She headed back to college in Weston, Mass this morning.  Her and her dad are driving cross-country so she will have her car this year.   I knew if I offered a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) she would come!  Will be missing her till we next see her.  I provided her with a goodie bag of snacks, home-made granola, sunflower seeds and pistachios, and dried mango.  

And if that wasn't enough excitement for the week, my baby, Katie turned 40 today.  Her and her family are currently in Disneyland.  We had our BD dinner for Katie and Kyleigh on Monday night.  

Guess that is all for now.  I'm having an ultrasound of my abdomen tonight at 10 p.m  so I couldn't eat or drink after 2 p.m.  I don't usually snack, but because I can't eat until after the procedure, of course I am hungry!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Land of Liberty. Sew Lets QAL, 2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 2 Winner

 

I was notified several days ago by Marci, at Marci Girl Designs, one of the 2019 Finish-A-Long hosts that I was the winner of a $50 gift certificate for Quarter 2.  This was so exciting, and I very much appreciate receiving this, and thank Fat Quarter Shop for their generosity!  I'm still deciding what I am going to get.  I have basically been working from my old stash that dates probably before 2008.  I have purchased very little since, and have been trying to use what I have.   I did receive a gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop several months ago, so that was one of my few new fabric purchases.  

A couple of finishes the past several days.  First, I made the next to last block for the Sew Lets Quilt-A-Long which I am following on Facebook at Partners in Design.  This block was a rotary cutter and mat.      I've been wanting to use this fabric in this sewing-related quilt-along.  One more block on August 27th, and I am not sure how yet I am going to use these.

Next up was this month's portion of Sweet Land of Liberty, a Cheri Payne pattern, that Lori at Humble Quilts is guiding us in.  She did a quilt-a-long last year, and there was enough interest that she is doing it again on Facebook this year.

So these are the blocks we were supposed to do this month.   Nancy Messier @ Joy for Grace kindly shared her tree shape for my people block.  

I'm really happy with how it is coming out.  I have always loved this quilt and glad to have the opportunity of finally putting it together.

Next up on my agenda is to start putting together my Nutcracker Suite BOM.  I have all the months, just need to start putting it together.  It is one of my goals for 2019 Finish-A-Long quarter 3 to have this as a flimsy.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching

It's time again for the Hand Quilt Along 3 week progress report, and Slow Sunday Stitching check-in at Kathy's Quilts.  Most of my free time this past two weeks has been taken up with the BD gift my daughter Katie requested.  She requested a crazy quilted wall hanging with a vintage mermaid.  I found a vintage print with 3 mermaids in it, and I also had a hand-dyed mermaid by my friend Nicki Lee of Raviolee Dreams on  Etsy.  I used a bunch of her under the sea laces for this project.


On the 3 mermaids I tried to highlight them with stitches.  The bottom one I gave her a lace tail and some pearls.  On the lace mermaid I used the lace piece as a guide to stitch her hair and bead and stitch her tail.

I started assembling the piece, and added a border of silk, and then decided it needed some stitching too.

And I added a hanging sleeve for the back.

Last night I was able to get back to my Sweet Land of Liberty applique.  My guy still needs his pants stitched down, and his feet are hanging off. I shortrened his pants but they are still hanging off.  There is wording that still needs to be stitched and I don't know how that is going to fit in.

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, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen and Kathi


I'll also be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Be sure and check out what everyone has been doing at Kathy's Quilts and the links above.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

What I've Been Up To, Squirrel Strikes Again

Another week has flown by.   I've been busily working on daughter Katie's BD request, a crazy quilted wall hanging with a vintage mermaid in it. I'm almost finished with it, some finishing stitches and I will assemble it tomorrow, and share it on  Sunday for Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

I have done the piecing on this month's assignment of Sweet Land of Liberty, which is being coordinated by Lori, of Humble Quilts on Quilts by Cheri Friendship Group on Facebook.

I got the economy blocks done, and the heart, still need to applique the people and tree  The tree shape was thanks to Nancy Messier at Joy for Grace.  I was having a hard time finding a primitive tree that was not a stick tree or Christmas tree and she kindly shared her drawing.  I hope to get that appliqued tonight after I finish stitching the border on the CQ mermaid.

I got the snails trail blocks done.  I have more than was needed, as the pattern I had made 2.  

I had 2 blocks that were way to wonky anyway.  

I pulled out some 2.5 inch neutral squares for my project in the My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop hosted by Carla at Creatin In The Sticks coming up September 9-13.

This is where the squirrel led me astray.  It was a good thing though.  After I had finished beading the mermaid piece, I went to put them away, and it was bugging me they were in several locations, some of them not even accessible.

I have a pet peeve about my seed beads getting mixed up.  Some of those containers you can get for beads, with all those little compartments, that are adjustable allow beads to slip under the barrier, and then they get mixed up.  So a number of years ago, I bought a new container, that had a compartment on top, and on the bottom you could swing the top open and put your other beads in containers down there.

The trouble with this was that when you swung it open, the seed beads started falling out where the hinge was.  To combat that I put a piece of Glad Wrap across so they wouldn't fall out when I got in the bottom space.  I also tended not to look in the top because I was going to have to peel the Glad Wrap off and the beads were stuck to it, and if you brushed them off, they would start falling in the wrong compartment.  

The squirrel got me thinking of a side table DH made a number of years ago to to beside my chair in the sitting room.  2 drawers were filled with CQ papers, and the third was filled with some other stuff.  

So I spent two days reorganizing my beads , and picking all the ones out of that container that has the Glad Wrap on it, and into another container I had upstairs in storage. I'm really happpy with the result!

The other thing the squirrel got me to do today was to get a start on straightening up my office.  I had set a huge pile of patterns/books, etc aside to sell on Etsy.   I've been slowly adding things to  my shop here.  I hope to get a button on my blog soon.  .

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Slow Sunday Stitching

These weeks have been flying by, and I don't know where this one went, other than I had 3 appointments this week, which took up part of my days.  I also watched the grandchildren 2 days before they headed back to school.  

It's time to check in again at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Part of my week has been spent in applique prep work.  I still need to trace around my freezer paper, but I have it ironed on my fabric.  


First up is this month's assignment for Sweet Land of Liberty.  I have everything cut out, and have been slowing working on stitching the pieced blocks.  I have the applique block prepped and ready to trace around the pieces.  Lori from Humble Quilts had a quilt-a-long last year on her blog, and is giving us the assignments/hints on the Quilts by Cheri Friendship Group on Facebook.

I've also prepped the pieces for this month's assignment of the Buhl--Bushong Quilt, which is from the Virginia Quilt Museum's collection of quilts.  It is being offered as a BOM download from the museum's Facebook Page. 

I still need to trace around them, but they are all ironed on the fabric.

My main focus this week has been daughter #2's BD gift.  She said she wanted me to do a crazy quilt piece with a vintage mermaid.  I found this one free vintage image with 3 mermaids, but it was sort of faded out, so I have spent the weekend enhancing the image a bit.  I had an assortment pack of various silk, organza pieces that were pre-treated, and can be run through the printer, which I purchased from Dharma Trading Company.    I noticed I am almost out, and need to reorder.  I usually use these sheets when I am working on CQ

After I finished off working on the mermaid section, I started embellishing with laces and stitches.  My friend Nicki Lee does gorgeous hand-dying of laces and motifs, and I have an assortment of her goodies.  Her shop is here.

Two days this week, I spent embroidering out the little poem. which I actually copied off a stencil I had, onto some teal fabric, using some variegated thread.  The trouble with that was that when it got to the light end of the variegated thread, you couldn't read the words.  

So I decided to print it off instead onto the last piece of pre-treated fabric from Dharma, which happened to be an organza.   

The poem reads:  "Through the rhythm of the waves, you can hear the Mermaids softly chanting their sea songs, gently whispering each to each Poems of the Sea"

Anyway this piece is what I will be working on this week, trying to finish it up.  My daughter's BD is the 24th, but they will be going to Disneyland.  Granddaughter Kyleigh's BD is the 17th so we wanted to have a family dinner.  We are waiting for Kyleigh to get back from a trip to Cabo with her BFF and her family to set the date for the dinner.  She gets back tonight.   

But I have a feeling the dinner is going to be this week, and I will need to get this piece done, and clean up my stuff so we can have some tables to eat off of!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Be sure  and stop by and see what everyone else is doing!

Slow Sunday Stitching

These summer weeks are flying by!  Time to report in again for Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  

This past week, I have had a lot of slow stitching going on around here.  I finished this Kathy Schmitz design.

Then I started another one and finished it last night. 

I stitched out one of Jenny of Elefantz's patterns and made it into a sewing bag for granddaughter Kyleigh using Jenny's tutorial here.

I also stitched the Hospital Sketches BOM by Barbara Brackman at Civil War Quilts

Today, and probably for the next week or so I will be working on this crazy quilted block, working on the embellishment and hand stitching.  My daughter Katie's BD is at the end of the month, and she requested this as her gift.  She requested a vintage mermaid and I printed that onto fabric. So now the fun part begins.

I'll be linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Head on over and see what everyone else is doing.  It is one of my favorite Sunday activities.