Pemberley Top complete!!

I can't believe it, but I actually have finished my Pemberley Quilt top.!!!  I tried to hang it up to take pictures, but I am really not supposed to be on a ladder since I had that dreadful head concussion last year, so I just spread it out on my guest room bed.  I was delighted to see that it will be big enough for a bedspread and now I know it will reside in this room once I have it quilted.    I am going to hand quilt it, so this might get done in time for my Guild's quilt show in September.

 

I was very anxious about the mitered border for the corners, but they actually turned out pretty nice, and not as difficult as I expected them to be.

And just to prove you can teach this old dog new tricks - I was having a lot of trouble pinning the borders to the top as the pins kept coming lose and falling out when I was sewing.  This has been a problem for years, but was driving me crazy on this quilt.

Getting so aggravated as they really had to be pinned just right for the quilt to stay square.  Then I though, maybe I should stick the pin through the fabric twice. Presto, no more pins falling out or coming loose.

Now some of you may have known to do this your entire sewing career, but for me, it was a new idea.  Why didn't my Momma teach me this when I first started sewing??  Sure would have saved me some aggravation over the last 60 years.  Well, in all honesty, she may have tried - but I always didn't listen closely.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

 

 

 

Gold Chain and beading on Floral Panel

 I am still working on finishing up the quilting on my floral panel. 

I decided to use the gold thread to make a small chain on the inside of the little border.  I did the chain embroidery stitch, but went thru all layers to the back, so it was my "quilting" stitch.  Next time I try this, I will first use a regular quilt stitch, then do the chain stitch just through the top layer of fabric over the quilted stitch.  While the stitch does not look terrible on the back, it definitely is not the way I wanted it look, just a little too loose.  But I do love the effect on the top of the quilt.
I also decided to do some beading on the out-side edge of this small border.  I am enjoying doing this, but it is tedious.

At my quilt club meeting yesterday, one of our members, Linda Dellinger, gave us a lesson on how to make these prairie point Christmas ornaments.  Mine turned out ok, except for the bow at the top which I plan to redo.  It was a fun meeting and I wish I had gotten pictures of all the pretty ornaments the others had made.

This Sunday morning we are having a glorious rain. I sat out on the porch, watched the birds at the feeders, had my morning coffee and read an Emilee Richards book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was surprised to see a dove at our feeders, they usually stay on the ground and get the bird feed the other birds put out on the ground as they dig through the feeders.  But the birds were just sitting on the feeders escaping the rain and enjoying the snacks that were so handy.
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday.  My husband's arthritis is acting up today, and I think that is a direct result of the rain coming in, so we are missing church this morning.

Sunday progress

Today has been a much needed quiet day at my house.   After church, hubby and I went to Sonny's BBQ for lunch, and after getting back home, I took a much needed Sunday afternoon nap for an hour. After all, our Pastor preached this morning on keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest.

I did a little quilting today on my floral panel .  Still working with the gold thread and getting better at doing it.  I have one more short side border to complete and then it will be finished - at least for the quilting.  After I get the binding sewn on, I want to try adding some beads to one side of the narrow border.


I also completed the applique prep work on the two ring flower blocks for the Pemberley quilt.  One good thing about appliqueing something that you EPP, then edges are all nicely turned under, which makes appliqueing them to the background much easier.  I found it best to pin to the background first, then baste in place so that the pins can be removed.  Before I kept having the pins work themselves out while I was appliqueing and the block would even shift a little.

I had already completed two of the blocks without basting after pinning - but I now have the remaining six blocks basted and ready for applique.  Once the applique is completed, I can square up the blocks to the correct size, and then applique two little Dresden pieces to each corner of the block.  With that, the blocks will be finished and I am ready to sew them together to make the final quilt border.  So close to getting this quilt completed

Pemberley - Slow Sunday Stitching

 I am drawing close to having all the blocks completed for the outer border of my Pemberley quilt. Here I have them all on my design wall.  The row on the bottom of the two ring flower blocks have not been appliqued to the background yet.  The background is just a light cream print, so blends right in with the white background of my design wall.  There will be a 2" strip between each block.

Notice the one ring without a center - well that is what I am doing today.  I hope to be able to start prepping these this afternoon for the applique to the background.  I am getting so close to having this quilt top completed!

My plan for today also includes a little hand quilting on my floral panel.  I am doing quilting around the flowers with gold metallic thread.  This is a little tricky, but still easier than I  anticipated it would be when I chose this thread.  I am using the Coats and Clark Metallic embroidery thread.     I have also discovered that stab quilting with a #8 Straw Needle works superbly.  Its a longer, stronger needle than the #7 Sharps I usually use and seems to handle the metallic thread a little better.   

I have a dear friend, Cheryl, who will be coming to my house for a week or so, recovering from knee replacement surgery.  So sometime today, I need to make a quick grocery run and get her room ready.  I am so blessed to have a husband that accepts my doing this, to have a home that I can welcome her to stay in during this time of need, and to have the good health to take care of her.     I hope you all have a blessed, relaxing Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

Car work table

 My husband and I are on a long road trip to Missouri that takes approx. 15 hours to get to our destination.  We both enjoy road trips and like stopping at antique shops and interesting spots along the way.  I always have some sewing to do - usually EPP for the last few years. 

I used a lap table  to make a "work station" to use on this trip and am really enjoying it.  The plastic containers are held in place by double sided carpet tape.  The little glass jar has a large washer glued in the bottom and there is a magnet glued to the table cup holder.  This way it can be easily taken out do dump the trash.  I covered a piece of cardboard with flannel and used the tape to affix it to the table top.  There is even a light that came with the table.

I am enjoying this worktable. No more dropped pins and scissors in the truck.  I can lay out my pieces and everything is so handy.  When we make stops, I just snap the lids back on the plastic containers, put the lid on the jar and set it in my seat, ready to go when we take off again.

I finished the first block.  This picture is taken in the truck, with the block laid out on the back of the table.  There is a bean bag type back that lets you adjust the angle the table sets on your lap.  So far, I have the EPP done on two blocks and will applique them to the background fabric when I get home.  Today we will be visiting some cousins and I will be completing the third block in the hotel.  Tomorrow we are off to Hamilton, Mo....Missouri Star Company.

Heart Flower Blocks

I have had a nice relaxing Sunday stitching the last of my four Heart Flower blocks.  These will be on the corners of the Pemberley Quilt I have been working on for quite awhile now.  After these four blocks, I have only one more set of border blocks to make and cant wait to get started on them.  My husband and I will be making a trip to Missouri on Friday and I hope to get all my pieces prepped for EPP to take and work on while on the trip. 

Block 4 that I worked on today.  Still have to add the corner little Dresden pieces.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Gold Metallic Thread quilting

 Hand quilting using a gold metallic thread.  So far no major problems - just using shorter thread than I normally cut.  I put a post on Celebrate Hand Quilting facebook page for some advice and getting some good suggestions.  Also was told by several that they have had no problems with washing the quilts quilted with this type of thread. 

I am really enjoying this process, although must admit it is taking me a lot longer to do than with regular hand quilting thread....but just looks so pretty when it sparkles.

This will be  a wall hanging rather than a bed quilt.

Michelle May workshop

My guild sponsored a lecture and workshop with Michelle May of The Raspberry Rabbits quilts.    She is an absolutely delightful, interesting and entertaining speaker.  She will be at the Houston International Quilt Festival if any of you are lucky enough to be going this year.

Her projects are simply amazing and fun.

Our workshop was to make a pincushion and this is the one I made.   I see that little wild thread in the picture, now how did I miss that before??? 

It was fun day at the workshop!

Feathered Star Quilt

 

Just a picture of the finished quilt.  I have shown it in process many times.  Only thing left to do is the label.

Dear Jane

 My Dear Jane quilt is finished! 

This quilt has taken my almost two decades to complete, but from 2006 until 2019 is rested in my hope chest waiting patiently to be completed. 

This is how I finished off the corners, which is a little different from the original Jane Stickle quilt.  I generally finish of scalloped borders with a right angle  - just my preference.  Jane Stickle's quilt continued the scallops to the corner and then put a little knob in the corner.

A view of how I quilted the scallops.  I purchased this green backing fabric in Paducah, Ky many years ago and happy it finally found a quilt to call home.

My signature block.  The original quilt stated "In War Times" as Jane Stickle made it during the Civil War while her husband was away serving in the Union forces.   I decided to call mine "In Turmoil Times" as I feel our country has been in constant turmoil over the last two decades.  I completed my first block on September 10,2001, just one day before that awful day of September 11, 2001.  Since that day, our turmoil has included the search for Bin Laden and then Sadam Husein, terrorism attacks, ISIS,  the school and other place mass shootings, Black Lives Matter movement, Me Too Movement, economic disasters, political fracas, international and at home disasters of hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, fires --- the list just goes on and on.  I guess that has been the way it is has been for many years, but my heart and mind yearn for days of peace. 



Pemberley - Heart Flower Block #1

Yea..finished it.  My favorite block so far. But then, each time I finish one, I think the same thing about the newly finished block.

Pemberley - Heart Flower Blocks

Today for my Slow Sunday Stitching I decided to work on the Heart Flower Blocks for the Pemberley quilt.  My husband surprised me yesterday with a new "toy" to use in my quilting and I was anxious to give it a try.  I had been saying for awhile now that I wanted a clapper, he finally asked what I was talking about and I showed him a picture in Nancy's Notions.   Well, he ordered it and it arrived yesterday.  Such a nice surprise, and today I wanted to give it a try.

My first step in the Heart flower block was to prep the pieces for applique.  These are the pieces for one block  and there are four of them in the quilt, one for each corner. 

For applique in this pattern, Katrina Hadjimichael (designer) recommentds English Basted Method.  This was new to me, but I have been English Paper Piecing for years now and decided I would try out this method on these border blocks.  I traced and cut my paper patterns Friday  and cut the fabrics yesterday.  Today I basted fabrics to the papers for the gold Heart Flower block and pressed them flat using my clapper.  I must say, it does a great job.  If you are not familiar with a clapper, you simple place it over a pressed seam or edge right after you take the iron off.  The board somehow helps set the seams flat. I use a hand quilting weight thread in a contrasting color to baste fabric to the paper...makes it so much easier to see the threads when I pull them out.

If you notice the straight edges on the gold hearts, this is where you join the hearts. I used English paper piecing and joined the hearts before I removed the papers.

I always make a small tack stitch along the side to be stitched to ensure the points line up correctly prior to whip stitching the two edges together.  You cant see the tack stitches I made because the thread color closely matches the fabric, so I placed pins where each tack stitch is, just so you can tell what I do.  I generally place them about every inch or so across the seam. 

I use Coats and Clark dual duty 50wt thread for English Paper Piecing as I find it to be the strongest.  Here are the four hearts, English Paper Pieced  together.  At this point, I remove the papers, once again press the seams flat and pin the hearts to the background for applique.

Once I have the gold heart pinned in place, I have to place the leaf in place.  It much be appliqued first as the gold heart will overlap the leaf.  I line the leaf us with the joining seam, and had measured on the pattern that the leaf should extend beyond the heart  2 1/2 inches.  I pin it in place and then tuck in under the gold heart.  When appliqueing the leaf, I pin the gold fabric out of the way and use a running stitch to secure the leaf to the background which lies behind the gold fabric.
 So here is how far I got today on this flower block.  I may finish more tonight, but needed a break  for now.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will finish this block.

Getting quilts done

The last couple months I seem to be energized to finish up some projects.  I did complete the Hunter Star for my Son-in-law, a string quilt for my son and best of all my Dear Jane Quilt  - picture to follow in a later post.

This morning I finished piecing the backing for my grandson's Big Boy quilt - his name is Titus.  His mom suggested a quilt with cars and trucks as that is his favorite thing.  Well, I really did not want to make a little kid's quilt, although he is just 4 years old, but also wanted him to love his quilt.  So I found this fabric and panel and used it to make the quilt back.  Tomater is his favorite character in the CARS Movies.

 

The front of the quilt is made using the LOTUS ruler.  I tried to use all the colors in the back of the quilt.  Wonder which one he will lay on his bed as the top side?  HAHA - I think that is a no brainer. 

I also got the blue Feathered Star quilted and sewed on the binding.  Have to share this very rare occurrence.  I made the binding many months ago, when I first started working on this quilt.  When I sewed it on the quilt, I was getting a little nervous as I approached the last corner, knowing I had to go midway down the last side.  Binding was getting short, I thought dagnabit, I am going to have to add a little more.  But it was exactly the right length - I was stunned, when I went to join the beginning to the end, I had an exact 2 1/4" overlap, just the amount I needed.  



Here's the quilt laying on my dining room table.  I spritzed it with water to make sure I had all the blue quilting markings out and left it there to dry ( just slightly damp).  Now to get it hemmed, but until then, I love going into my dining room and seeing it there.  It is such a soft cozy quilt as I hand quilted it in big stitch.  I will start hemming it this afternoon :)

Slow Sunday Stitching - Pemberley

Here it is Sunday again, they seem to roll around in a blink of an eye.  Comes with retirement I guess, as the weekends seemed to take forever to get here when I worked , and then went by so fast.

Today I will be completing the applique on my fourth Dresden Plate for the Pemberley quilt.  Its all pinned and ready to go.   I took this picture and realized I have a couple of the leaves off center, not to mention three missing.  I took this to a First Friday sew-in that my guild sponsors each month and pinned it all together there - hmmmm guess I better go find those missing leaf pieces.

 

These are the three I have completed so far:

A picture from the pattern - just a reminder of what the quilt looks like.  The dresdens go in the center of the borders on each side.