Wish You Well October Block

 This morning I completed the October block in the Gail Pan Wish You Well block of the month.  I am happy to be caught up to date, since I started in August and had blocks January thru August to do when I joined.  But in a way, a little sad, as since I started as soon as I finished one block, I had another to work on.  These blocks are so much fun and now I have to wait for November to get the next one.

The tatted bookmark on the block was made by a dear friend, Mary Burn.  I asked her if she minded  if I used it in the quilt and she said that would be fine.  It will always remind me of Mary, Momma and my brother Michael.  All three did a lot of tatting, very beautiful work.

Castle Wall

 Today I worked on an English Paper Pieced block for our out-going guild President.  I wanted to do an EPP block, and guidelines for the block were had to be made with batiks and have an Hawaiian theme.  I picked colors that I thought were Hawaiian look, and embroidered a parrot in the center.  I looked up pictures of parrots to get an idea of the colors to use.  

Wish You Well blocks

I have been working on the Wish You Well block of the month trying to catch up and have completed the first nine blocks. I just joined this BOM by Gail Pan in August, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Since my last post, I have completed the following:

July

August

September

On the September block, there is a embroidery of a pear.  I was kind of curious about that image wondering if there was any significance to a pear, if it was a symbol of something.  I did do a little google search and found that in some cultures it signifies riches, mother and child, affection, comfort and/or peace.  I did post the question on the facebook page for those doing his BOM just to see if there was something more specific in Australia.

I have also been catching up on my work on the Cottage Grove quilt.  Here is what has been completed todate.  I have started working on the corner blocks that make a border around this section.

Wish You Well June block

This evening I completed the June block for the Wish You Well Gail Pan BOM.  This block came to me at just the right time.  I had been to see an oral surgeon to schedule some oral surgery to remove a tooth and bridge and was really feeling kind of glum.  I decided to do some stitching, and there was the block saying "Think Happy Thoughts."  So as I stitched it, that is exactly what I did and I did feel better by the time I finished this sweet little block.

I used the Hungarian Chain Stitch for the bow on the bouquet.  My first attempt at this stitch.

This J monogram came from an old hankie I found at an antique shop and just had to buy it since my last name begins with J.  It is actually embroidered and the little stitches in the roses are amazing.  I put the pink check behind it as the hankie was very fine and guazy.

A good thing to remember in these trying times.

Friday while Zooming with my friend Darlene, I completed Cottage 5 of the Cottage Grove  Quilt. This is the last cottage in the project and an enjoyable one to complete.

 

Temperature Quilt - Beginning of Fall

 It is so hard to believe that Fall is here, although the weather seems to be going from hot summer to cool Fall over night.  I got to add the Fall label to my Seasonal Temperature quilt  just in time, I only had one little summer piece left.

Here is the quilt to date:

Lone Rose Star quilt top DONE!

 Today I have my Lone Rose Star quilt top completed, ironed and taken to a long-arm quilter for basting the quilt sandwich.  I plan to hand quilt this one, but when its a queen size its always nice to have it basted by someone with a long arm machine.  Looking at the picture I can see where I should have interchanged a pink and a yellow Rose Star - but too late now.  Funny how these things always show up in a picture.

I also got a little work done on my Brimfield blocks - Completing Block 11 and 12 - that leaves 8 to go.

One more progress step in the right direction - my Wish You Well block number 5 for May.  I am having so much fun working on these blocks.  I do love this block, I think the embroidery in the bottom left corner is my favorite so far.

Cottage Grove, Cottage 4

 Making progress on my Cottage Grove quilt. My friend, Darlene, is also making one and we zoom on Fridays to keep each other going. We were meeting here at my house, but then she had to go into quarantine as she has her first grandbaby due to arrive next week.  

There are 5 cottages in the quilt and we just completed #4.  The pattern was meant for fusible applique, which I prefer needle turn.  Some of the applique is very small and detailed,so often the case with fusible.  Anyway, this block required a little blue bird on the chimney and a rather small birdhouse.  The houses have lots of pieces and the first two that we made, we machine pieced it all.  More recently I have been drawing the paper piecing foundation pieces in EQ and mine are coming out so much better, precise and way easier to make.  Darlene is enjoying the paper piecing as well.

I decided to embroider the top of the chimney and the little blue bird.  I do love blue birds and I may have to put one on top of the birdhouse too.  I may use my fabric pens to color in the bird and the chimney top - but then again I may not.

The bird house was a real challenge.  First I embroidered the whole house, and it was a disaster, just did not look right.  So then I decided to try applique.  I pressed the edges under and then used Roxanne's glue to hold them in place (house and pole) while I machine straight stitched them.  I could probably have done a better job if I had hand appliqued, but what can I say, I wanted to get 'er done. I had some baby rick rack in white that I colored brown with fabric pens and used that for the roof. 

Its rather primitive looking, but hey, if I tried to build it from wood it would probably look just like this.  I am satisfied with it, actually kind of like it.  Guess I should have removed the random threads before taking the picture.

Wish You Well - April Block

This is my April Block, just finished today.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, I got a late start on this BOM by Gail Pan, signing up in August.  I am loving the process and the pretty embroderies.  Even enjoying the yoyo's, which in Australia they call them Suffolk Puffs.  The pattern calls for appliqued circles, but I am using yoyos.

And here are my first four blocks:

Progress !

 This is an update on the list of on-going projects.  I am finding that knowing I need to report on my project progress kinda keeps me moving along.  So here is my list:

1 - Temperature Quilt - Got this one up-to-date last week, and now behind again :)

2 - Coronaville Quilt - Got this one up-to-date last week, and now behind again :)

3 - Brimfield - I completed the paper piecing of two more blocks, Block 9 and Block 10.  Block 9 is totally complete, but I still need to applique the Block 10 to the background.

4 - Hollyhock Quilt - Completed

5 - I Stitch Club - Wish You Well - Completed three blocks - January (shown in earlier post), February and March

6 - Baby Quilt - Whirligig - Completed

7 - Lone Star - All the Rose Stars are appliqued in place and I have designed a border of diamonds that I am in the process of making and appliqueing to the top.

8- Adeline's Quilt - I did not list this one before as I  forgot about it.  I had taken it to a long arm quilter for quilting.  I now have it back, need to make the binding and get it finished.  This will be my "Big Girl Quilt for my granddaughter, Adeline.

9- Cottage Grove - This is a quilt I started in 2011 along with a good friend of mine, Darlene.  We were each working on our own quilt and had them about 1/2 completed when for reason we set it aside.  We dug it out two weeks ago and are meeting once a week to get it done. We have the appliqued borders and blocks complete. There are 5 cottages in the quilt, we have completed 2 and for the last two weeks worked on number 3.  Cottage 3 is done - on to Number 4 next week :)  (Cottage 3 is my favorite - a Quilter's Cottage quilt shop.)

Momma's Blocks

 Completed this quilt.  The blocks were hand appliqued by my mother sometime before 2009, which is when she passed.  These were leftover blocks from quilts she had made.  I have the Hollyhock quilt, one of my favorites and she gave it to me several years before she died.  She hand appliqued and hand quilted the ones in my quilt, using a quilt as you go method.  The butterfly block was left from a quilt she made for my father based on a pattern given to her by my father's mother. I never knew my grandmother as she died when I was 9 months old.   My daughter now has the butterfly quilt.

This is the label I put on the quilt.  It will be a gift to my brother, Jack.

Wish You Well

I recently started a new Block of the Month by Gail Pan called Wish You Well.  I saw a picture on another blog and could not resist.  I am just now getting started and its been going on since January, so I just finished Block 1 for January.  Its a fun block to make and each block has a little embroidery  which is one of my faborite techniques.

 I must admit that I debated with myself about starting this, as I already have so many on-going projects.  Not just UFO's, as I had many of those as well, but these are projects that I am currently working on each week.   So here is a list of what are the projects I am actively working on:

1. Temperature Quilt (Machine work)- I got caught up on that one Sunday.
2. Coronaville (Machine work) - I was up to date on Saturday.  I need to cut out some more fabric as I have pretty much exhausted all the ones I had precut.  
3. Brimfield (EPP and hand applique) - 8 blocks completed, 12 to go.  I did cut out two more blocks Saturday
4. Hand quilting Hollyhock quilt - I have 7 of the 12 blocks quilted.
5. I Stitch Club - Wish You Well (WYW) (Machine and hand embroidery) - Completed block for January.
6. Baby Quilt - Whirligig (Machine work) - Done, just need to add a label
7. Lone Star (Machine work and EPP) - lone star and Rose Star blocks completed but need to add borders in order to fit EPP'ed Rose Star blocks and applique them down.  This will be the next quilt to go on my hoop

Whirligig

In McCall's Quilting magazine, July/August 2018, I found this quilt called Whirligig, designed and made by Nancy Allen.  I thought it so cute and wanted to make it  for a baby quilt, but the pattern  was for a  76" x 92" quilt.  

So I drew it in EQ so that I could get the smaller size templates, but I could not get the pinwheel border to come out right....so I adjusted the pattern to use the sizes I wanted.  Here is the design I came up with and will measure 45" Square.

I have completed all the blocks, sashing and the first row.  

While working on a quilt, often I will also be deciding how I want to quilt it.  This will be a baby quilt for one of the mothers-to-be at my church, and generally I machine quilt with a simple pattern hoping it will be much used, washed and loved.  This first row just seemed like a celebration to me, so I decided to quilt vertical rows using different colors of thread to match the colors in the quilt - like streamers. I found the colors in my machine quilting thread stash - Can't wait to try out the quilting.  Might make wavy lines, maybe just keep it simple and straight.  First got to finish the quilt top :)

Brimfield as of July 25

I recently started working on Brimfield blocks along with 4 other friends.  We are each doing something a little different, and gather once a week on Zoom to chat about our progress and basically visit.  Its one of the highlights of my week. 

Here are the blocks I have made so far.  I am using a mixture of Granny Chic and Farm Girl Vintage fabrics.  They do make me happy as I think of Granny and her Granddaughter living happily on a farm, with no Coronaville, protests, election campaign ads, economic woes ...going on.  Represents to me a simple, happier time.

Glorious Nine-Patch and Temperature Quilt

Today I got my Seasonal Temperature Quilt  caught up.  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the days seem to go by.  I thought I had just updated it 3 days ago, but I was ten days behind.  I call it seasonal as I started with the first day of Winter on Dec 21.  Winter months are silver/grey, Spring is green and summer is yellow. The large white areas name the season. the White small strips in the winter months indicate when the low temp was 25 degrees or less - only six days in Winter dropped below 26 degrees.   

This is a partial row that I have started, beginning July 20.  Notice the first strip on the left - I call this my fire fabric, and it us used whenever the high temperature is 95 degrees or higher.  Only one day this summer so far that has happened, and then it was exactly 95 degrees.  I use Weather.com to get the highs and lows and it sure does not agree with my car.  I had to take my husband to the doctor on July 20 and had to sit in the car to wait for him. They would not let me come in to go with him - not even to the waiting area.  So I found a shade tree to park under and I had brought my book to read, rolled the windows down and made it ok.  My car temp read 97 degrees when we left the house.  Once he was done and we were on our way home, the car temp display ran got up to 103 decrees and stayed around 99 - 100 all the way home.  Once back near the house it was back at 97.  According to Weather .com, our high for the day was the 95 degrees.

This is my most recent baby quilt for my church ladies expecting babies.  This will go to a mom who already had two cute boys, but is expecting her first girl.  I thought she deserved something pretty and sweet and I always love scalloped borders on baby quilts for girls.

I did a simple cross hatch quilting with variegated thread.Did a little pattern just for interest.  The backing is a soft pink and the floral binding is the same used in the quilt top. 

Coronaville Quilt Top completed

This is my Coronaville Quit top with 120 houses.  I arranged the blocks in a topsy-turvy block surrounding a cross I embroidered on the center square.

I am not done with the houses yet, just the quilt top.  I plan to keep making houses until we can go out without wearing a mask or practice social distancing.  South Carolina is in worse shape now than it was back in March and April....so I guess I have a lot more houses to make.

I will put the blocks I make from this point on the back of the quilt.  Not knowing how much longer I will be making houses, I decided to make the backing houses smaller so that I can get more on the back.

I hope and pray by January we will have a vaccine and can get back  to some kind of normal lives.  My quilt club's retreat is the third weekend in January and I sure want to go!