Birds in the Air

I have started putting together a quilt for my niece.  She works at a Wild Bird store and has developed a real interest in birds.  I received a new bird feeder for Christmas, and she and I got to talking about birds.  The bird feeder is supposed to appeal to Chickadees, and she said they were favorite, which was a surprise as they are also my favorite wild bird.  I think they are just the cutest birds with their little top notch,

So I had told Joy that I would make her quilt and I had a Chickadee block I had made in a David Taylor class that I could incorporate into her quilt.  I showed her the block and she loved it. 

So I started using EQ to design a quilt around this block which is approx 14 1/2" square.  In the meantime I came across the beautiful panel of bird pictures.  The selvage says Tracy Lizotte for Elizabeth Studio, Pattern 4309.  It has 12 images, one of which I have already prepped to use in the quilt, but here are the other 11.  They are so realistic, look almost like paintings.

In EQ I decided to use the Birds in the Air block for my quilt and intersperse the bird pictures and my Chicadee block.   Here is the EQ drawing I came up with.

I spent a couple weeks cutting out blue fabric for the blocks, as I really want it to look scrappy. Joy did tell me her favorite color is blue, all shades of blue. My blues can be prints with other colors, as long as the blue is the most prominent.  Also, I wanted true blue - no teals.  I think I accomplished that for the most part.   I started making the blocks, but since there are 10 in the first row, it took me a few weeks to get 9 blocks of different fabrics for the first row, which also includes one of the bird images.  I need 104 Birds in the Air blocks, and so far I have 52 made.  I raided my stash, and got between 2 to 8 blocks cut from each fabric.  I may need a few more, but will see when I get closer to have it done.  I finally put the first row together on my design wall, and must say, I like the way it is looking.

I am paper piecing the blocks using freezer paper....so back to the sewing.

Brimfield and Gentle Gems Completed!

 Yea, for January I have two "completed" projects to show.  

The first I will share is my sweet little Gentle Gems, a Val Laird BOM for 2021.  Her 2022 BOM is a Calendar one that looks really cute, but I have already committed to a different project and better hold off on that one.

The next is my Brimfield block quilt.  This quilt is English Paper Pieced blocks that are hand appliqued to the background.  I hand quilted using big stitch with Bold weight Coats and Clark hand quilting thread.  I decided that rather than make a label, I would just "sign" the quilt the way my mom always did.  She embroidered her name and year the quilt was finished on the back. Sometimes I want to write a little about the history of the quilt, so I do a label - but in this case, I just wanted to sign it.

Now on to another UFO and also getting ready to start a new project.  

January Organization

 At a recent retreat of my club Stitchin' Friends, Linda D challenged us to get organized and is going to get us started by giving us one task to do each month.  Well for January, it was actually two tasks:

1 - Clean out all your pens, pencils, markers, etc and throw away what no longer works.

2 - Clean out the wheels of your chair

Well I have a new chair and the wheels are nice and pretty and clean, so I did not have to do that one, but now the other was quite a challenge.

Here is the before picture: This is a nice tray/box that someone gave me years ago and it sets in a file cabinet drawer beside my sewing table...over the years, I have just dumped so many markers, pens, hi-highters, mechanical pencils and other stuff.  So I took every thing out, decided what I wanted to keep, threw away pens and markers that no longer had ink and put away stuff that did not belong in there.

Before

This is the box after.  I was amazed at the pens and markers that no longer work.  I used containers that sugar free drink packets come in to sort what I had left.  The plastic storage box will hopefully go home with the grandkids - its full of mechanical pencils and pens that I no longer use or want.  I even had room to put my note pads that I can never find when I need them.

AFTER

I did find some stuff in the box that did not belong there and have either throw away or put away where they belong

And there is one mystery - any idea what this is?   I don't know where I got it or what its for, but its just too darn cute to throw away, so it went back in the box:

Gentle Gems - Val Laird

 Last night I completed the blocks for November which were the last two in the Gentle Gems block of the month by Val Laird.  I so enjoyed working on these blocks and will hopefully get them sewed into a wall hanging while at a retreat in a couple of weeks.  Not sure where I will hang it, but I know I will always like looking at the pretty stitcheries.  Below are the pictures of all blocks stacked together, the November blocks and a layout of the blocks that hopefully I have in the order I will use.

Gail Pan - Bring Me Flowers quilt top

 I finished the quilt top for the Gail Pan Block of the Month - Bring Me Flowers.  I added a flange in the border, the first time I have tried this and I do like the look it gives.  I made the flange 3/8" and wish I had just done a 1/4" flange, but its done now.  I hope to do a mixture of machine and hand quilting which I have done on other quilts and liked the look.  The embroidered blocks will be hand quilted and the remainder of the quilt machine quilted.  Can't wait to start on it, but need to finish the quilting on the Brimfield first.

Brimfield - quilting

 I have started quilting my Brimfield quilt.  I have had more trouble deciding on thread choice and pattern for this quilt than any other I have done.  I started out with just regular hand quilting thread (40wt) and the dark green just did not look dark enough on the back of the quilt.  So I ordered Bold (25wt) Coats and Clark hand quilting thread from Sewing Parts on-line.  It is almost impossible to find local sources of C&C thread other than Michaels and they have a very limited selection. This is odd being that the C&C threads are headquarted in Charlotte. I can drive to Charlotte to Joanns and they have it, but once again a limited selection.  Once I had my thread, I then debated on the pattern to use.  It took me quilting three blocks and ripping out the stitches twice to finally get what I am satisfied with.  Now I can really enjoy the process.

These are pictures of the quilting on the front.  The area in the dark green sections are done with Forest Green thread.  I use a white chalk pencil for marking and left it on for the picture just so the quilting would show up better.  The actual EPP blocks are quilted in white bold thread.  I did not like the way the dark green thread looked against these blocks.

And here are a couple pictures of the back side of the quilt.  The white thread does not have a strong contrast against the backing, which is a golden yellow.  In person you can see it better, but in a photo it is hard to see.

To me there is nothing more relaxing than hand quilting and I am thoroughly enjoying quiet times in the morning and afternoon, listening to a book on Audible and doing my quilting.

Spikes and Specks - Katrina Hadjimichael

Here is my finished Spikes and Specks quilt, designed by Katrina Hadjimichael (https://katrinahadjimichael.com.au/ ).   I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt. It will be a gift to my special niece, Cindy, and right in time for her wedding :)  My dear friend, Donna K, quilted it for my on her long arm.   I will give it to Cindy on Thanksgiving Day when she and her future husband will be here.

My sweet niece Cindy with her quilt