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.  

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!

Sewing with Kyleigh, I'm a Winner!

I've had several posts to write recently, but haven't had time to write them.  I keep thinking I will do it after the grandchildren go home on Mondays and Thursdays, but I am too tired.  So I have a flurry of posts this weekend.

The Friday before last, had a great time sewing with granddaughter #1.  Her 19th birthday is coming up, and she has been interested in sewing for several years, has tried to borrow her mother's sewing machine.  Her mother always says "Talk to Grandma".  We have had a difficult time scheduling time together this summer as Kyleigh has been a nanny to 2 girls, takes them to their swim lessons, plus swims herself to keep in practice for when she heads back to college. 

I decided for her birthday this year to give her my old Singer Touch and Sew, but wanted to make sure she knew how to use it, and make a simple pattern.  She finally had an evening off and we were able to spend some time together.  

Kyleigh has always been my special girl, is an artist,loves doing crafty things and I think she will be whiz at sewing.  

She did pretty good at staying at 5/8 inch seam.   We decided to have her make a simple bag.  She went through my stash, and finally ended up with a print I used as a border on her mother's quilt I made when she was 16!

Earlier this week, I decided she needed a sewing bag to put her things in, and I made this using Jenny of Elefantz's tutorial.  I'm going to fill this up with some notions, and give it to her on her actual BD

I never know where I am supposed to look on a selfie, so I look dumb.  But here is a pic of us together.  

Also this week, I found out I was a winner of the pattern of this Hexagon Table Topper from Joy @Days Filled with Joy  I think I am going to try to whip one of these out the next couple of days.  I have a friend I used to work with whose birthday is coming up.  Thanks so much Joy, you made my week!

My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop, Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop

There are a couple of blog hops I am going to be involved in the next several months.  The first up is My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop September 9-13th hosted by Carla of Creatin In the Sticks.  







Next up is the Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop October 7th to 11th hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt.   My day on this one is the 11th.  

One Monthly Goal

I just was able to sit down and do some blog posts and realized I am too late to post I made my July One Monthly Goal, which was to make the Christmas Tree Skirt.  With my grandchildren being here 2 days a week, and other things that required my attention, I never got a chance to link up.

My One Monthly Goal for August is to make/complete a crazy quilt piece for my daughter Katie for her BD on the 24th.  She has requested that it have a vintage mermaid in it, and that it be a crazy quilt wall hanging.  

This is my piece I will be working on.  

I will be linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal

July 350 Blocks Report

I'm reporting in for the July 350 Blocks report, being kept track of by Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts.

I didn't do quite so much this month, as I was busy making the tree skirt for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop,    There was embroidery on every panel.

So my count is as follows:

8 blocks - Nutcracker Tree Skirt

2  blocks -Sew Lets QAL designed by Partners in Design.  

1 block:  God Bless America Stitchery.  I still need to assemble this into a pillow.

1 Block- Hospital Sketches, BOM by Barbara Brackman

1 Block-Buhl-Bushong BOM 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. 

13 Blocks- Sweet Land of Liberty

2- Blocks  Kathy Schmitz Stitcheries

So I have a total of 28 blocks for July.