Hospital Sketches Flimsy Finished

I finished another of my goals for the 2019 Finish-A-Long.  This was #7 on my Quarter 4 Finish-A-Long list here.    This was from the Barbara Brackman BOM from 2019 called Hospital Sketches.  I  wanted to  redo the bottom middle block, and to figure out a plan for finishing this top.  This was what it looked like at the goal-setting stage.



I did redo the bottom block, and figured out how I wanted to finish the top.  I was thumbing through my Civil War reproduction fabrics, and found a border print that was actually from 2000 Moda Garden Path series called Garden Path by Terry Clothier Thompson/Barbara Brackman, Coral Garden.    I wanted to applique something for the corners and decided on the pineapples.

I love how it came out!  I'm in the midst of organizing my 2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 4 Finishes.  Will have a post out by tomorrow.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Time to check in again for Slow Sunday Stitching, the first of 2020 hosted by Kathy's Quilts.  It was a crazy week, with my brother and sister-in-law stopping by on their way back home to Southern California for one night.  My daughters and grandchildren over to visit before they left, and watching the two youngest on Thursday.  Friday my two older grandsons came over to help me put Christmas decorations away.  IT TOOK ALL DAY LONG!   And I was pooped!  Today I did the last of it, and took the remaining bags upstairs.  I had my grandsons here to do the hard work yesterday thankfully!

Today after I had finished putting my regular stuff out on the shelves and countertops, I happily brought my sewing machine, iron and cutting station back out to the kitchen/dining area.  

Tonight I did finish stitching the pineapples I am going to put on the corners of my Hospital Sketches quilt.  This was the Barbara Brackman applique BOM from 2019.  I put two borders on, and will have the pineapples in the corners.

I've done all 4 corners and have added the third side, but the lighting is too poor to take a picture tonight.  I will add the fourth border and take a better picture later.  

What I will be working on for my Slow Sunday Stitching will be the Ella Maria Duncan blocks, and if I get bored with those, I plan to start stitching one of the Kathy Schmitz blocks from last year which I already have traced out, but is really hard to see.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts.   Pop on over there and see what everyone else has been doing!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Pedal to the Metal

I feel like I have had the pedal to the metal this week literally.  I feel like I have accomplished a lot.  

First up, as I already mentioned, I quilted and bound Crow's Foot, a Cheri Payne quilt from the book Wednesday's Best.  

Next up I loaded up the Scrap Dance Minuet mystery top created by Carole @ From My Carolina Home earlier this year.  My daughter needed a baby quilt for a coworker's baby that was born way prematurely.  I added some Sunbonnet Sues to this and a frog, but am not sure I really like what those added or didn't add.  Too late to take them off though.  I had some Peter Rabbit fabric I backed it with.  

This quilt gave me nothing but problems.  I broke 2 needles, thread, changed needles and thread multiple times, but it was skipping, a lot.   I know I wasn't making 1" stitches while FMQ.  I ended up ripping out 2 full rows which took some time.  But finally I got it quilted and bound and got the label on, and then noticed it was going sideways.  At least it is labeled!  I'm glad to get this one out of here. 

Then I started working on my Ella Maria Duncan Quilt blocks for this month.  This was such a pleasure yesterday after wrestling with the above quilt and having to rip out 2 whole rows.

These are all 8 blocks together so far.  

Then this morning I put together my Hospital Sketches blocks.  This is the Barbara Brackan BOM from Civil War Quilts Blog.  I still need to decide on the border.  I would like a pieced/appliqued border.  But I probably don't have enough to piece the background to I will need to come up with an alternate plan.

That's it for now.  Will be back tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Thanks so much for stopping by!

What I've Been Up To

I've been really busy trying to get projects done before November 13th.  I need to get all my quilting projects done before my brother-in-law arrives from North Carolina on the 14th.  

First off, I'm redoing one of the Hospital Sketches blocks, the Coxcombs and Currants.  I did not like the colors I chose for my original block.  I started taking the original one apart, and then decided it was too much work.   The last one I put 6 berries on each branch.  This time, I am going to put 12 as the pattern shows and I spent 2 days preparing 48 berries.  This is the old version.  I didn't like the brown and the the yellow was too faded out.

This is the new version.  Not such a great picture with the poor lighting in this house.  I like this cheddar a lot better.  

Next up, I spent about 3 days working on the Buhl-Bushong Quilt.  This is from the Virginia Quilt Museum's collection of quilts.  They are offering it as a BOM.  I have 2 completed blocks, and made crowns for 3 more.    I the components all prepped for the 3 more blocks.

These are the completed 2.  After I finish these 3 by hand applique, I'll only have 11 more to do.  I'm not that fond of paper piecing, but I wanted my crowns to have perfect points or as near perfect as I could.   I was going to do 2 blocks of each color combination, but when I went to cut out and paper piece the above ones, I found I had done crowns for 1/2 of a block more.  So I ended up making 3 of that color combination.  Not that it matters, but part of my cheddars I only have small amounts.  And the one I used for the outer ring I used up on this one.

Next up, I am going to start quilting my Crow's Feet top.  This is on my Finish-A-Long list for the 4th quarter.  I have the backing on the frame, and need to get the top pinned on.  I should be able to get this done in a few hours hopefully, if my thread and machine cooperate today.   This is a Cheri Payne pattern .  My crows don't show up too good, so I am going to have to  do some creative stitching to get them to show better.

Sunday when my daughter Kristen was here, she mentioned she had a coworker that had a micro-preemie last month and asked if I had anything I could quilt up for the baby.  The baby is still hospitalized.  Her due date was supposed to be the middle of November I think.

Anyway, I pulled out the Scrap Dance Minuet that Carole @ From My Carolina Home offered as a mystery earlier this year.  I am going to cut out some frogs and Sunbonnet Sues with my Accuquilt dies and get those machine stitched on today, to be ready to quilt hopefully last this week after Crow's Feet is done. 

Guess I'd better get busy!   Thanks for stopping by!

Hand Quilt Along, Slow Sunday Stitching

The past 3 weeks has flown by, and it is time for another Hand Quilt Along report.  I've done lots of hand stitching these past three weeks.

I got 8 of these Buhl-Bushong blocks done.  I have about 56 more to go though.  I did paper piece the crowns, but hand-pieced/appliqued everything else.

I finished this Father Christmas guy.  I am trying to finish 2 more before the end of the month.  The other 2 are relatively simple, don't have the star borders.

I finished the last block of the Hospital Sketches BOM by Barbara Brackman

These are all nine blocks.  I'm going to redo the bottom middle block.  The brown/yellow just doesn't work for me.  The navy blue is fine, it is everything else.  

I finished this penny rug project called All My Stars by Blackbird Designs in a book called Higdon Camp-1928.  This has been a UFO for years, and I put it on my 2019 Finish-A-Long list for quarter 4.  So I can cross that off my list.

Right now I'm working on this crazy quilt piece for a friend.  I have some more stitching in the two blue patches to do.  I think I will be able to finish this by the end of the month for my One Monthly Goal.  

Check out the Hand Quilt Along links below and see what everyone has been doing.

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 will also be linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.   Head on over there and check out what everyone has 

Slow Sunday Stitching, Hospital Sketches,

Time again for the link-up for Slow Sunday Stitching @Kathy's Quilts.   I've had a lot of slow stitching going on again this week. 

I finished up this month's assignment of the Buhl-Bushong Quilt.  Good thing too, we got the next assignment yesterday early because of the holiday.

I finished this month's assignment of the Hospital Sketches BOM by Barbara Brackman @ Civil War Quilts.  This is the next to last block I will  have to decide on a border pretty soon.

Today I will be working on another of Kathy Schmitz's stitcheries.  I plan to put into a wall hanging for one of my daughters for Christmas.  

Today I will also be getting these Father Christmases prepped for applique.  I got the freezer paper templates traced, I need to cut them out and iron them on the fabric I'm going to use.  

I'll be linking up to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.    Hop on over and see what everyone else is doing.  

Thanks for stopping by!  

2019 Finish-A-Long Quarter 3 Finishes, Sew Lets QAL, Hospital Sketches

I've finished a couple of items on my Finish-A-Long list, and wanted to document those, before I forgot them again.

My goals for Quarter 3 are listed here.

1).   My first, and most immediate goal was to finish making my project and post for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop hosted by Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

I'm happy to say I finished my project, which was a Christmas Tree skirt, and I posted about it here.   I have even sent it off to my sister for her BD. She had requested one several years ago.  

I machine embroidered nutcrackers and other motifs and then crazy pieced it and embroidered the seams by hand.

#7 on my list was to quilt the frog baby quilt, and I also finished and gifted that.  The baby boy has been born 2 weeks early, and joins his 4 brothers!   I used my Accuquilt to cut out thee blocks and the frogs.  

For the Sew Lets QAL, by Partners in Design, I have made 2 blocks I have not posted about here before.  This one was simple.

This one was a little more problematic.  It is supposed to be a bunch of bolts of fabric.  My background was too light and you can't see the top of the bolt.  Plus, the instructions said to use a scant 1/4" and mine was too scant, and the block ended up 13" instead of 12.5.  So that top strip of yellow that was 12.5 I could get on and have it puckered.  I was going to take it off and redo it.  But decided to start over

My bolt tops still don't show too well in a picture, but they look better in person.

For Hospital Sketches, the BOM by Barbara Brackman @Civil War Quilts, this month's block was called Tennessee Rose.  

Lastly, for this post, I stitched out a couple of motifs on my embroidery machine and attached them to sweatshirts for my brother and SIL whose birthdays are August and end of July.   The lighthouse is Brodie Island Lighthouse in North Carolina.  The mermaid is a Laurel Burch.  I found both of these at Embroidery Online.  Kyleigh  has expressed an interest in a mermaid too, so am going to try to get one stitched out for her BD too.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching, Hospital Sketches, Sweet Annie

It's time again for the Slow Sunday Stitching link-up at Kathy's Quilts.  This week, all I have done is slow stitching. 

This quarter on 2019 Finish-A-Along I did myself in again by having my list heavy on hand projects.  And also on One Monthly Goal.  I said I would get three of these Father Christmas blocks done, and I was able to get that done.by working all day and all evening on this one.  That little puppet thing was giving me a little trouble but I'm going to leave it the way it is.

Wednesday the new block for Hospital Sketches, the BOM by Barbara Brackman came out and I was able to get this done.  I love how it came out.  It is called Mountain Laurel.

The last project I am trying to finish up this month is another old, old UFO,probably from a class I had in 1997.  It came out of this primitive book.

This is their version.  It is called Sweet Annie.  In my box with this UFO were 2 pieced backgrounds, 2 Annie's, and that was it.  What I also loved about this project was the stenciled fabric border.  

This is my version.  I am still working on the embroidery on the crazy patched pieces.  As I am also a crazy quilter, it is hard doing my stitches primitive-like.  I sort of attached her to the background with sloppy blanket stitch, by I have been getting more regular as I go along.  

I knew I had a primitive sort of lace stencil somewhere but I could not find it.  I spent 2 days looking for it in my sewing room and craft room/office.  My craft room really needs a thorough cleaning.  I hate to admit, but I can't open the closet door because things have fallen.  I have a whole stack of stuff I plan to sell on Etsy, quilting books, stitchery books, and they have been sitting on the counter at least 7 months now. 

In searching I found this piece of paper lace, I thought maybe I could use this as a stencil but it just curls up when it gets wet.

All of a sudden last night I had a thought pop into my head that maybe my stencils were in the hall closet and I found it.  I knew I had it, because I had stenciled a cabinet with the upper part before.

So I should be able to stencil the border pieces of fabric and have them dry  while I am finishing the slow stitching on Annie.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Pop on over and see what everyone is doing.  It is one of my favorite weekly activities!

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I've been doing a lot of slow stitching this week.  I've been working on this month's block for Hospital Sketches, Barbara Brackman's applique QAL.   I was able to get this far last night.  Should be able to finish it up tonight.  
  

I pulled out this UFO to finish up.  This was from the Blessings Quilt Series by Jennifer Lokey and Karen Roosien.   It came in 4 different books.  Each section could be a quilt in itself, or put all four together.  I was working on this with an on-line quilt group back in 1999.  This was as far as I got at the time. 

Right now I am working on the section that goes on the left side of this that incorporates these three pieces in with some pieced blocks.

I was having a difficult time yesterday with the black and white instructions I have getting the pieces right.  These are all stitched to the wrong fabric.  

I have the instructions for sections 3 and 4, so have ordered the book for section 2.

The other thing I finished this week was the nursery rhyme Yankee Doodle block which I am sending to my sister-in-law to complete.  She is a teacher, and school ends next week and maybe have more time to put the quilt together.  But I'm finished on my end.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.   I'm heading over there to see what everyone else has been up to this week.

Thanks for stopping by!