Monday, March 25, 2024

Delaford and Once upon a Christmas Time

 Been splitting my time between Delaford and Once Upon a Christmas Time, enjoying doing both.

On the Delaford I have made progress on the Bird and Flower border blocks.  I keep these on my design wall as I just love looking at them.


Completed Block 2 on the Once Upon a Christmas Time.  These are fun and whimsical blocks.  Block 3 should be coming out next week :)





Thursday, March 21, 2024

Once Upon a Christmas - Gail Pan BOM

 Well, another new project.  Over Christmas I wished I had Christmas theme quilt I could hang up during the holidays.  I usually just hang up a redwork embroidery that is not really Christmas-y but looks nice with my holiday decorations.  I do have one Christmas quilt, but have several places I like to change out the quilts for season in my house.  And lo and behold, Gail Pan came out with her 2024 block of the month and it is Once Upon a Christmas, and was exactly what I was looking for.  This one is only 6 months and will give time to complete the project for Christmas. Each block contains applique and embroidery and machine piecing - Love it!

Here is my first block:


I have the stitchery completed for the second block, just need to get started on the background blocks.  I am using touches of green and gold along with the red, simply cause I can :)   Gail's quilt is all  in red and very scrappy.   I do like scrappy quilts!!!


Monday, February 12, 2024

Kira Quilt - Sunshine

 I recently took a workshop at SewEndipitous taught by Diane Quirk for the Kira Quilt.  This is a quilt designed by GE Designs


I love the pattern, but I saw sunshines rather than the colorful blocks used in the picture.  So I chose to do my in Yellow and White with a Sunflower border.  This is my EQ version of the quilt. 


I finished the quilt and am now in the process of Big Stitch hand quilting it.   I love the look of the sunflower stencil I am using in the center of each block but have not decided yet how to quilt the space between the sunshines.  I am using Size 8 DMC perle cotton to stab quilt, yellow on the white centers and white on the yellow centers.  I do love to big stitch - and this block just seem perfect for that type of quilting. 









Thursday, February 8, 2024

Denali National Park Star - Carol Doak Pattern

 Sometimes I just have to step away from handwork and do some machine sewing.  I recently purchased the Carol Doak book 60 Fabulous Paper-Pieced Star which includes patterns for 10 National Parks.  This is a nice break for me, and I plan to do a star every month.

Below is my picture of the Denali National Park Star.  This national park is located in Alaska and I decided to use the Alaskan flag colors to make the star.   The park covers 6,000,000 acres of wild lands and has North America's highest peak at 20, 310 feet.

I have two grand children interested in working as park rangers, so hoping one of them does end up with that career and I can give them this quilt.

72 pieces


Delaford Progress

 This morning I was able to sew on the border of Octagonal EPP pieces.  This has been so much fun picking out the fabrics and riotous colors, but hopefully they will all blend together in the final quilt.  Next up is a border of flowers and birds.  I actually purchased this quilt pattern because I loved the center applique that I am getting ready to start.  I think this is one of Katrina Hadjimichael's prettiest patterns. 


I also have completed the Owl and Hare Hollow quilt top.....now to decide how to quilt it.  I don't plan to hand quilt this one, and may just to a 1 1/2" cross hatch, but then I have also considered getting a long arm quilter to do a simple edge to edge.  I don't want anything too fussy or fancible since the quilt is already very busy.




Sunday, January 21, 2024

Red & White 9-Patch Round-up

 

I actually made this quilt in 2002, but not sure I ever posted a picture of it on my blog.  This was a block exchange I did with some friends in Texas where we swapped Red and White 9 patches.  I did all the embroidery myself just picking a wide variety of patterns.  The nutcracker was done by my dear friend Donna Kassan, who is an avid collector of Nutcrackers.








Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Dear Jane Quilt - Hand quilting done!

 This morning I took the last hand quilting stitch on my Dear Jane quilt.  Its a bitter sweet  moment when you take that last stitch, as Jane and I have spent a lot of quiet contemplative hours together in the early hours of the day when all is quiet.  An empty hoop.....


Full Circle and back at the corner block I started with....the last stitch.

This quilt was one of the most difficult I have hand quilting, just because there are so many pieces in each pieced block. Some of the small 4 1/2" blocks had 40 - 50 pieces!  This particular corner has 78 pieces Pushing and pulling a needle through all the layers of fabric and batting can even be painful and draw blood. Using a thimble in stab quilting just never worked of me.  My "friend" became the little demitasse spoon that I covered in masking tape and used to push the needle down to the back and then from the underside, push it back to the top.  Nothing fancy, but oh so greatly appreciated.

And now she waits until I get the time to put a binding on her raw edges.  A scalloped edge can be a challenge when the scallops are this small, but then every step of this quilt was a challenge.