Keeping busy

I'm posting about a longtime UFO today.  This is my Trailing Vines quilt started many years ago.  A year ago I was working on handquilting it. Sometime around May I switched to working on a different project and this got left folded up and crammed in a basket.  I was worried it might be getting some permanent wrinkles so I pulled it out to lay flat on the floor for a couple of days.

I really like this quilt.  I loved working on the applique.  But, I am not loving handquilting it.  For one thing its huge, its also really, really heavy and to outline the leaves I am constantly turning my hoop.  And then after all that effort - its hardly noticeable...

I'm done the first 6 panels.  Only 7 more to go.

Also I need to quilt the sashings.  I will finish it eventually.

This quilt - Hospital Sketches - has been way more fun to quilt.  I love quilting feathers!  It's lighter, smaller, easier to turn.  I'm hoping to have it finished in a few months and then I will get back to Trailing Vines.  

I whipped up a couple of coasters for a quick gift for Sinterklaas.  I hadn't used fusible web in a very long time but the piece I had still worked.  I drew them myself and I hope my parents use them.

A fun quick project between the long term ones.  

Happy Quilting!!
 

reproductions

One more post before the end of the year - its hard to believe 2019 is almost over.  

When I was in Houston in November I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Leah Zieber.  It was so very interesting!  She had many, many small, vintage and antique doll quilts and crib quilts to show us.  She had 2 items that instantly brought me back this - my Susan McCord Trailing vines quit.

 I'm slowly working away at handquilting it - outlining all the leaves takes lots of time!  I'm working down panel #5 out of 13.  But back to Leah's lecture - take note of the sashing fabric.

 It's exactly the same print as this darling little antique child's dress that Leah brought from her collection.

 And the same on the back of this small doll quilt also in Leah Zieber's collection.

 I was so excited to see the original fabric this reproduction was made from in not only one but 2 items sewn around the 1850's.  The repro is by Margo Krager for Blue hill Fabrics.  I was pretty excited...  It is hard to find someone who understands my excitement - lol

 I've been steadily working on putting together my Hospital Sketches BOM.  I added a border of red and cream hst's.  Triangle paper helped it go quickly.

 Then I am adding an appliqued border.  I'm designing it as I go using shapes from the blocks.  It is in the style of the border of the Buhl Bushong quilt from the Virginia Quilt museum.  (they are having a sewalong but I could NOT start another project)  I saw 2 antique quilts in the exhibits in Houston that also had borders like this.  It's been fun to applique and I'm enjoying revisiting some of the flower shapes and adding birds.

 I made a couple of Canadian themed pincushions to give as gifts.  I tried out my idea in 2 sizes.

Little projects can be so satisfying :0)
Happy Quilting!!

The binding is finally on and my Lily Quilt is finished!  It's been a WISP (work in slow progress) from the very beginning.  I first posted about this quilt Oct 14/2009.  That's slow even for me.

 

 But today as I take a few pictures - I still love it. 

 I especially love the texture of the handquilting. 

 I struggled to choose binding for this quilt.  I wanted a softer look with a creamy beige but my quilty friends as well as the quilt kept telling me it needed blue.  I was happy to find this older blue at the LQS as most of the fabrics in this quilt I used up a long time ago. 

 It's 82 inches square. 

 I finished the hand quilting in 2018 so I think the date is close enough ;0)  This is usually all I do for a label so in years to come maybe someone will think I made it on the occasion of my 18th birthday - lol! 

Of course as soon as I finish something I have to start something new!  Barbara Brackman started a mystery applique BOM called Hospital Sketches on her blog Civil War Quilts.  I was delighted with the first block.

 Block #2 comes out next Wednesday.  I can't wait!

And, slowly I am making progress with handquilting my Trailing Vines quilt.  I am outlining all of the leaves.  There are a lot of leaves in this quilt!  I have finished the first of 13 panels and started on the second.  I will need to think of something to quilt in the narrow sashing. 

Happy Quilting!!

Trying to avoid starting something new

Yesterday was an exciting day.  I took my quilt and with a lot of help, long arm basted my Trailing Vines quilt.  It is now ready for handquilting.  I was so excited to get started last evening. I did put a few stitches into it - enough to realize that it is going to take awhile to quilt around all those leaves...  lots of turning of the hoop.  I wonder if Susan McCord quilted hers in a frame - I bet unlike me, she could quilt in more than 2 directions. 

 I'll post a picture of the handquilting progress once there's enough to look like something. 

A New Year must equal a new project - right?  In effort to resist, I went through my bin of ufo's.  This little wallhanging has been waiting for some quilting for a looong time. 

 It was quick to add the brown borders, handquilt the center, machine quilt the hourglass blocks and put on binding.

 All it needs now is a hanging sleeve.  (this finished picture is dim - an overcast day today)

 I did some sewing with my DD#3 - she turns 11 this week.  She wanted to sew some pants for her doll.  I think they turned out really well :0)

I also made 2 blocks for a guild project. 

 A robin

 and a hairy woodpecker.  It felt like a new project for a little while :0)

 I made some hot mats for the kitchen.  They were a really quick project and much needed - my old ones looked terrible.
I also made 2 house blocks for the Paradise Fire project in California.  I used the instructions on Lori's Humble Quilts blog from Diane Knott's book.  They were fun, also a little like a new project.

So I have resisted starting something new so far.  Of course there are plenty of other projects I can work on.  Those ufo bins have loads of potential...



I finished appliquing the final block for my Radical Rose and Reel quilt.  As excited as I am to put all 9 together - I'm anxious about trimming them.  They need to trim down to 24 inches and my largest ruler is 20 1/2 inches.  I will procrastinated about it for a few days.  I found another ufo to work on in the meantime... 

Happy Quilting!!

back to sewing

The kids are back in school and I finally feel like things are back to normal around here.  It was a busy summer - a wonderful summer! 

 I made an appointment for Tuesday to long arm baste my Susan McCord vine quilt for handquilting.  On Monday afternoon I pulled it out and found I had left all the registration line basting in it.  Each of 13 panels has this line of machine basting running up the middle to mark the centre of the panel.  It's not easy to pull out as in many places applique stitches have caught it.  There was no way I wanted to pick this out after it was sandwiched so I had to cancel my appointment and have spent some time this week carefully ripping it out.  I have 3 panels left to go.  I do love having this project out again :0)

 We went camping the last week of August.  It was a cool, rainy week.  We spent only one night at Shunda lake.  I was able to spend a few minutes stitching in my favorite spot next to this old stump. 

 It was in the morning while the mist was rising.  The bald eagles were flying too and I enjoyed watching a young one awkwardly practice a tree top landing. 

 Earlier in August my daughter Kristy and I travelled to El Salvador with Samaritan's Purse to deliver shoebox gifts.  What a wonderful trip it was.  We saw quite a bit of El Salvador and it is a beautiful country.  But the most beautiful were the smiles of the children we met.  I gave the box I brought to this little sweetheart.  How did she know that I would want a picture of her with the pouch I made for her?

After the boxes were all distributed and opened, we had time to play with the children.  Someone had brought along huge bags filled with the long, thin balloons for making balloon animals.  I learned how to make them when I was a teenager and hadn't made any in years.  It was so fun to share the love of Jesus with these children.

So now I'm home from all my summer travels and I've dusted off my sewing machine and pulled on my thick, warm socks.  (there is snow on the ground while I type this)  I spent a couple afternoons putting together the rest of my Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. 

I have a couple borders to add yet.  It's going to be a big quilt!  I'm excited to use the pieced parallelograms in the borders. It was much easier to assemble to top using solid sashing pieces and save the parallelograms for the border.
I hope you are enjoying some fall stitching.  Happy Quilting!!

something I find very interesting!

A package came in the mail - I was very excited to open it and see the fabric inside.  Windham fabrics has a new line out called Vine Inspired By Susan McCord and I just had to order some to see it in person.  Having spent years appliqueing this quilt - one panel at a time - I was very interested to see their cheater cloth of the same design.

 So here it is - laid across my finished top.  (the cheater cloth is on the right)  It is a bigger scale than Quiltsalott Janet's pattern and bigger also than the original I believe but I haven't seen the original for myself.  Janet found out about this line and had emailed me about it in the summer. 

 It has 4 panels across the width of the fabric.  It's so flat, smooth and light compared to my top.  For a few seconds I toyed with the idea of using it as backing.  It would make my quilt reversible - LOL!  Perhaps not...

 My vine

 Printed panel vine

 Of course I had to have a few other prints from the line :0)

And handquilting continues on my Bird of Paradise quilt.  I am really enjoying it!  The 1/2 inch parallel line background fill is going faster than I thought it would.  I shouldn't be surprised though - what's not to like about handquilting??

Happy Quilting!!

Done, done, done

Susan McCord was a pretty amazing quilt designer!  Janet Treen made a fantastic pattern!  And I had hours and hours of fun appliqueing leaves to make this quilt.  I'm a bit sad to be done but I know I will enjoy each leaf again when I handquilt this top.  

 

It's a large top - difficult to photograph inside - so I waited for a nice day to take some outside shots.  (quilt holder #2 is a cutie pie - DS really had to reach to hold it up off the ground  :0)

I'm excited at all the possibilities for my next applique project.  I know I want to start another big project. This top was 4 years in the making and that's just fine.  I enjoy the process :0)  

 

Happy Quilting!!

applique

With my Trailing vines panels finished up I was in need of a quick-to-prep applique project for a weekend away.  We were visiting family so I knew there would be time to sew.  

 I prepped this block from the Renee Plains book "A Bird in hand".  Fast and fun to prep there are 9 blocks just like this in this pattern.  I should have prepped more as stitching this down went fast too.  I am undecided if I will make 8 more.

This afternoon I finally had time to add the last panel onto my Susan McCord Trailing Vines quilt.  It was a nice surprise to find I had the top and bottom borders cut out and ready to sew on. 

I am very excited to have this top complete!  Started back in Nov 2011 these panels have travelled so many different places with me.   I want to take some nice pictures of it so I will show more soon.  I plan to quilt it by hand.  Will I be able to wait until my current handquilting project is finished before starting?? 

summertime progress



Wow, has the summer ever flown by!  Regular routine should resume next week when the kids go back to school and I think everyone is ready.

I made another block for this quilt today and I looked back at a previous post to see what I had called this project - Summertime.  I like it.  30 or so more blocks to make and many more fabrics to pull out and use :0)

 Earlier in the week I traced and pieced the final batch of leaves for the last branch on the 13th panel for my Trailing Vines quilt.  I kind of felt sad about it.  I have loved working on this project so very much. 

I'm about halfway up the branch now - I aim to have the top completely finished sometime next week. 
Happy Stitching!!

getting really close

It's been nearly 2 weeks since I took the last stitch in panel #12 of my Susan McCord Trailing Vines quilt.  May and June are such busy months!  I took the nearly finished top outside today for some pictures.

Out by the garden - not too much blooming yet.

 I like it with a little sunshine dancing across it. 

 I've started on panel #13 - the last panel.  Hopefully by the end of the summer this will be a finished top!

 We went camping on the weekend.  Our annual June trip to Shunda lake.  I sat and sewed in my favorite spot.  It was beautiful weather for some outdoor sewing by a mountain lake :0)  I worked on a side border for my Bird of Paradise quilt.

My 2 older daughters and I hiked around the lake again this year.  We were rewarded with these beauties on the very far side of the lake.  These wild orchids are so exquisite :0)

Happy quilting!!