Gentle Gems - Val Laird BOM

 This morning I finished the April blocks in the Val Laird Gentle Gems Block of the Month.

April Blocks

January thru April

Now to wait "patiently" for May!

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Have completed the first row of my Grandmother's Flower Garden (GFG).  I had made a quilt top years ago with just the little flower centers  and not in the traditional GFG pattern.  I never finished it as it just was not what I really wanted.  So I gave the top to a friend as she loved it and would finish it, and I started a traditional GFG quilt.  I have been making quilts with more complex EPP designs and pieces, and am loving working with hexagons again and EPP a traditional quilt.

The blocks below the first row are just pinned to give me an idea of how it will go together.  This is not the arrangement they will be in the final quilt.  When my mother made her quilt, she used the diamond connector pieces so I wanted to make one as she did.

 

Quilt Shelf

I ordered a shelf for my quilts as I was beginning to run out of closet space.  Finally found one at Wayfair.  My wonderful brother put it together for me.  I also moved my quilt ladder to the same room and put antique quilts made my husband's Grandmothers, Great Aunt and one by his mother. I love having them displayed together and I know he probably enjoys seeing them all together too.  His great aunt made the postage stamp quilt top on the bottom rung.  His mom gave it to me to mend as it had set of so long that the threads were starting to come apart. I sewed all the rows back together and my mother hand quilted it for me.  Then I put the binding on.  In one place the fabrics had deteriorated so bad I could not mend them, so I made an embroidered quilt label for that space.

  

Bee Pillow

I found this embroidery pattern by Gail Pan and offered free on a facebook page called Love and Hugs from Australia.  I joined the group as I do admire the Australian designers.  This pattern was perfect for a friend of mine facing heart surgery next month.  She loves all things "Bees" and I have always heard it helps to have a pillow to hug when you have had heart surgery.  I did modify the embroidery a little, maybe too cutesy.  It had the sayings " Bee Brave, Bee Strong,  Bee Together."  I wanted to let her know she had friends and family that love her and will be praying for her.  

Wish You Well - Starting the Hand Quilting

I have been looking at my Wish You Well Quilt (Gail Pan BOM) for several weeks now trying to decide how to hand quilt it.  Finally, I decided to just do quilting on a block by block basis and each unit in the block inspire what needs to be quilted.  This is turning out to be more fun than I realized.  I guess it is kinda of like doing custom quilting when you machine quilt.   The following are just a few pictures of different areas I have quilted.  So far I have 2 of 12 blocks completed.

I am getting some ideas from these books:  (I have quite a few others to look through, but these are a good start.)

Gentle Gems - March Blocks

 This morning I finished the March blocks for the Gentle Gems Block of the Month by Val Laird.  I am enjoying this BOM as Val uses lots of different embroidery stitches in her designs.  In this one, the outline of the Beehive is a Palestrina stitch and the flowers are Bullion stitches. She refers to one of my favorite sites, NeedlenThread for guide on how to do the stitches.

Bobbin Lace

 I asked and received a beginner's bobbin lace kit for Christmas.  I have been interested in this craft for quite a few years and was excited to learn.  I know no one that makes bobbin lace, but I have been watching YouTubes and also purchased a Beginner's Guide to Bobbin Lace by Gilian Dye and Adrienne Thunder.   I have not gotten very far in the book, but have learned some basics.

My work so far is very much the work of a beginner, but someday I hope to have become more proficient in making this lace which I have always considered works of art.

So, I am going to show some of my beginner works just so hopefully I can look back someday and see improvement.  

These are the bobbins that were in my kit.  They were not marked in anyway, so I purchased some 1/8" color tape to mark pairs.  The patterns I have been starting with have you work with pairs of bobbins that stay together throughout the project and I was getting them so confused....so I marked them and now I can keep it straight much easier..

One of the first projects in the book was this little bookworm book mark. this was my third attempt.  Still far from neat or even close to perfect - but I learned a lot in making it.  I need to go back and try again just to see if I have improved any.

This morning I started another bookmark (actually my second attempt of this pattern,)  

I found the progress going so much better than the first one I tried (I will spare you how that one looked)

Here is is finished.  I actually did pretty good although I seem to have dropped a stitch somehow on the left side.  I did not master how to finish it off.  

One more try and maybe I will get it right.

Bring Me Flowers - Gail Pan BOM

 Completed Row 1 this morning.  Enjoying the Block of the Month by Gail Pan.  My favorite so far is the whimisical bird.

Lone Rose Star - Completed!

 This past week I finished the hand quilting and binding on my Lone Rose Star quilt.  The binding was a challenge for me as I decided to use some of the left over strips from the Lone Star.  There were so many seams that I could not get the mitered corners to look nice.  They were like big wads of fabric!  Lucky for me the binding is bias, so I took it all off, then curved the corners and sewed it back on.  I think it did pretty well with the curve in the corners.

The Lone Star is machine pieced following instructions on On-Point TV with Nancy.  She is a great teacher and has tons of YouTube videos.  The Rose Stars are English Paper Pieced and then hand appliqued to the quilt top.  The quilt is hand quilted.

I guess you could call this my own design, at least the layout  of the quilt, although it is basically a traditional Lone Star with the addition of the Rose Stars.  

Gentle Gems - February Blocks

 This morning I completed the February blocks.  The butterfly was a real challenge for me.

Gentle Gems - Val Laird BOM

 I have started a block of the month with Val Laird called Gentle Gems.  I just got started this month and today I finished the January blocks.  Each is a hexagon that has embroidery and applique, and is a quilt as you go.  The project will be a small wall hanging, and I fell in love with the sweet pattern and decided to sign up.  These are my two January blocks.

Happy Birthday, Adeline

Today, my granddaughter, Adeline, turns 5 years old.  I made her a big girl quilt, and she blessed me so much by saying "Its the most beautiful quilt in the world!" when she opened it up.  She is such a sweet caring little girl and I am so fortunate to have her as my granddaughter.  (I have 7 grandsons and 6 granddaughters :)  )

Coronaville

Happy Valentine's Day and in my case Vaccination Day.  Today I got my second vaccination shot at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Drive-thru.  It was handled so efficiently, makes me proud to be in the Carolinas.  35 minutes passed from the time we pulled into the Speedway parking lot  until we got the shot, waited 15 minutes and left. They had at least 21 "shot areas" and I know that because we went to #20 bay and there was at least one more beside us.  It was amazing when we went to the "wait" area to see if we had any reaction, the vast number of cars there....that could not have been there more than 15-20 minutes.  It was just incredible how they moved everyone through the bays to get their shots and on to the waiting area.

I had said I would make my last house block on the day I got shot #2 - so today I thankfully came home and made the block with a Valentine's Day theme.

I made a total of 338 houses, 120 of them go on the front of the quilt.  That leaves 218 houses for the back.  They are smaller than the ones on the front and hopefully I can fit them all on the back.

                                       

I was debating on how to arrange them and decided to do it snail trail style  I have to use a filler strip on most of the rows to get it come out right.  I started working on it tonight, but I think I need a break and maybe can finish it tomorrow.  The houses don't line up so great, but then what has this world been over the last year, other than totally "un-orderly.".

Lone Rose Star Quilting Update

 I have completed quilting all the Lone Star, Rose Stars and border diamond blocks and have started on the background.  Some difficult choosing what to do, but am satisfied with a simple straight line that follows the direction of the diamonds in the Lone Star.  I have completed a corner and one side and took pictures this morning in a darkened room so my quilting would show up better in the pictures.    I have a little puffiness to deal with that I am able to keep from pleating with the hand quilting, but trying my best to overcome this problem. I would have been surprised if this had not been a problem with the piecing of the lone star and the the applique of the Rose Stars......just one more non-perfect hand made quilt touch  (well that's my story and I am sticking with it).

I Spy Success!

 Today I had some of the grandkids at the house.  I spread the I-Spy quilt out on the floor for them to play with and I am happy to report they loved it.  They played I Spy for an hour, then they took a cookie break and watched some tv shows, some still laying on the quilt. After the shows, they wanted to play some more.  I think they pretty much had all the blocks memorized, so I made them all turn around with closed eyes, and I turned the quilt around.  So it was like they had to learn all over again where the blocks were.  I am so glad I made this quilt, I never dreamed they would have this much fun with it.