Pemberley pictures

Pemberley - Finished!

Its finished!! I began this project on Feb.5, 2018 and was so excited to get it started.  A few days later I fell and broke my wrist, and it had to sit for a few months while I recouperated.  Then that same year in November, I fell down a flight of stairs and once again, had to set it aside.  Its a lot of hand piecing and needle turn applique.  I completed the top and started hand quilting on November 16, 2019 thinking it would take a long time to quilt.  Then....the corona virus came on the scene and I had many days at home to get it quilted. Took me 373 hours, 24 minutes to complete the quilt.   Hope you can see the quilting on the back.

I have a bunch of pictures I want to post as my blog is like a quilt diary to me and I print it out at the end of each year or two.  My next post will just be a bunch of pictures.

HQ Day 89 - 88 Coronaville houses

Today is Day 89, but I just finished working on the first 88 days of my Topsy-Turvy Coronaville houses.  I have renamed it to Topsy-Turvy Coronaville.  I am going to put sashing between the "quads" of houses and add a 3" border.  Found what I consider the perfect fabric for the quilt as I believe my poor Coronaville has been covered by storm clouds since this all first started.  Covid 19, Economic disasters, protests marches, riots, looting, and unbelievable talk of unfunding police departments. One brave 38 year old officer was killed in an ambush last week - left behind a wife and small child. The majority of our police are good, brave men and women seeking to keep us all safe...but you are going to find bad people everywhere, even on the police force.     I think it is good thing to review all policing policies, make changes where needed, bring justice to those doing wrong but also wrong to judge all police officers by the bad actions of a few.  I think it is a shameful thing in our country when innocent people are killed by the police, but it is also a shameful thing the number of police officers who are killed in the line of duty. All lives matter!

HQ Day 86 - Memory Quilt

Its Saturday and its Day 86 - so hard to accept this.  I really thought, when I started counting these days, that the 42 blocks I had cut out would be more than enough for my Coronaville.  Now here I am at Day 86 and the number of new cases in SC hit an all time high yesterday!  Inwardly I thought it was getting better, until the outwardly news brought me back to reality.  Hospital cases for SC and NC are up, and from what I heard on the news, its starting to get bad in NY as well.  I may have enough houses when we finally come to Phase III for the front and back of the quilt. :(

This week I have been working on a memory quilt for a sweet friend that I go to church with.  Her mom died in October 2019 and Barbara asked me to make her a quilt from her mother's clothes back in March of this year.  I told her to gather up the clothes she would like me to use, and maybe some jewelry or other things of her mothers she would like me to use.  A few days later, we were all under Stay-at-home orders, and she brought me a big trash bag full of the things she wanted me to use.  She laid them down on my porch while I kept my 6  ft distance and we talked.  That seems like a decade ago now.  I got very busy making face masks and really just did not get started on it until two weeks ago when I started working out a plan.  I finished it today, and hope to give it to her tomorrow.

It measures 54" square, made of 7 1/2" blocks.   All the fabrics are from dressy blouses,  a sweater and some knit type casual shirts.  She included one pair of slacks.

This block was a turtle neck sweater and the turtle neck was a very pretty cable knit while the rest of the sweater was  straight knit.  I was able to get a 6" heart out of the turtle neck.

 I added this necklace that Barbara included, leaving the necklace in tack with the remaining chain behind the heart.  It has a pretty diamond and I believe its a baby ring.  I am not sure the significance of the baby ring but I felt it belonged on the quilt and looked so pretty against the red sweater.

 I thought, someday, someone may want that necklace as a memory of their great grandmother.

I hand embroidered this block with her Mom's name, date of birth and death.  Barbara told me she always called her Mom and I included a little saying "Always in my mind, forever in my heart."
















I had this fabric in my stash and thought it made a good backing for the quilt.

I hope to give it to her tomorrow.

HQ Day 79 - Brimfield Block

Finished my first English Paper Pieced Brimfield block today while sewing on the back porch with my good friend Darlene.  I plan to make 20 of these blocks.  I am thinking a dark green background, but really still pondering over that.

HQDay 78 - Secret Garden Thread Keeper

 My newest project, designed by Katrina Hadjimichael, is a thread keeper.  The front and back are hand embroidered

 I did substitute magnetic snaps instead of the string ties in the pattern.  Unfortunately for me, my spools of Coats and Clark threads are too stubby and round to fit in the pockets.  I can get them in the pockets, but they are tight and difficult to get out.  So fortunately, for Darlene, this will be a gift to her for her Gutermann threads which fit it perfectly.  I did talk, via on-line messaging, with Katrina about how it did not fit my spools, but then I should have realized this would be the case when I was making it.  She suggested making only 4 pocket on each side and that would give room for the stubby spool. 

I am thinking I might just make a second one, with four rows of pockets, more to the size of my spools.  I could have two rows on each side just have to make the holder a little deeper.  I might even do EPP blocks instead of the embroidery. 

Katrina also suggested pulling a thread from each spool through the mesh and that way would not have to take the spool out.  An interesting modification.

Whatever I do, it was a fun project to do and I think I will make another for my applique threads.

HQ Day 72 - Granny's Garden Folder Cover

Today I completed a Granny's Garden Folder Cover, a pattern by Katrina Hadjimichael.  This is one of the patterns she is offering on-line workshops for and I had so much fun making it.  One thing I learned is that notebooks sold in Australia vary in dimensions from those sold in USA.  I would have thought they were the same around the world as I am sure the manufacturers probably export them to other countries.    Katrina helped me understand how to make the adjustments based on my dimensions, and it came out just right.  This will now become my English Paper Piecing project notebook - first up is the Brimfield Quilt .

Each of the flowers is English Paper Pieced then appliqued to the cover front and back. The quilting on the front and back is hand quilted and the spine and flaps are machine quilted.

Front

Back

Inside flap

Spine