A new Thimble - woohoo

 Recently, while spending time in the hospital with my husband after back surgery, I lost one of my prized quilting tools - my silver thimble.  I had purchased it years ago from TJ Lane and just loved using it.  I was heartbroken when I lost it, which may sound silly to some, but those folks out there that have an absolute special tool know what I mean.  Many times in the hospital I had to help my husband turn over or just straighten up his bed, and I am sure it was one of the times I forgot to take it off and it got wrapped up in the bed linens and went out the door with the soiled linens.

That was several months ago, and was so exited when I found out that ThimbleForYou would have a booth at the Ashville, NC quilt show.  Jan Marie Larsen is great person and told me that TJ Lane had been her mentor.  She had a beautiful selection of thimbles to choose from, and I came home with this pretty thimble and acorn thimble holder. 

 

Before getting my new thimble, I had been using my Mother's thimble.  I remember seeing this on her finger many times as she did her quilting, applique and mending.  I was very surprised it fit me, as Momma was much shorter and smaller than me.  I have to wonder how she kept it on her finger as it fit me perfectly.  

I completed the applique on my GFG borders and took my quilt to Martee, a good friend with a long arm machine, to have it basted for hand quilting.  I took it to her on Thursday, with Hurricane Ian supposed to come through here on Friday.  Martee was so sweet and got it basted for me in one day, so I began quilting it on Thursday night, Sept 29 and continued on Friday, Sept 30.  I record the dates just so when people ask me, and they always do, how long it took to quilt I can at least count from when I started it.  I have kept a record once on a quilt - recording the time each time I quilted, but see no need to do that anymore.

This is one completed block. I am quilting the brown ring in a brown hand quilting thread.  The remainder of the block will be quilted in the color of the first ring, in this case blue.

Back side of the quilt - to show you the pattern I am using.  Quilting along the outer edge of each ring.

My hand quilting thread of choice is Coats & Clark or YLI 40wt hand quilting thread as they  both have a glaze on them that makes them glide through the fabric and batting.  Unfortunately, they do not have the variety of colors I need for this quilt, so I am using a 40wt Aurifil cotton thread that has a nice selection of beautiful colors.  I was able to select my colors at Serendipitous Quilt Shop and Lisa, my friend and shop owner, ordered the 40 wt that I needed. 
 

Fortunately I had C&C brown and blue that matched my quilt on hand so was able to start the quilting  now.   My father made this thread holder for me years ago, and I enjoy using it .  It is so special to have things to use that were my Momma's and things Daddy made for me. (that gold is more tan than shows in this picture.)

GFG Progress - Applique basted

This afternoon I finished basting all the applique into place on my GFG quilt.  I am so excited to get started on actually doing the applique and then the hand quilting.  Here are snapshots of the borders I have set up.  

I am recovering from Detached Retina surgery and trying to work with only one good eye.  I have this gas bubble that shows up in my right eye and am wearing a patch.  The gas bubble really distorts my vision so the patch allows me to at least see somewhat better out of my left eye.

Corner of bottom border

Top border center

Top border center - closeup

 

Top border corner

GFG Border design

Finally, after much deliberation and racking my brain, I came up with a border design for my Granny's Flower Garden quilt. I had already decided to make a blue border of hexies and then do some applique on the border. But what to do????? Here is the design I have decided on for the two sides and bottom border. The top border is still under design but very nearly done. So this is the design I came up with - not appliqued down yet.

 

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Days of Delight Calendar

 Woohoo, today I caught up on the BOM Days of Delight Calendar by Val Laird.  I did not get started until June, so I had a lot of catching up to do.  Following are my blocks for June, July and August and some pictures of all the blocks together. This has been a challenging BOM as Val likes to include some more challenging embroidery stitches, and I love it!!!!  One of my stitches I think I "invented" but then it may have been around for awhile and I had just never seen it used.  I call it Bullion Daisy and first you make a Bullion stitch and then surround that stitch with a Daisy Stitch.  I did this on my June month block.

So here is my progress as of Today!

Blume and Grow Quilt Completed!

 This morning I completed the Blume and Grow Quilt and want to just post some pictures of the finished quilt.  This was a joy to make and I enjoyed every step.  I did modify the pattern a little, but not very much.  This is a pattern by Natalie Bird of Birdhouse Patchwork Designs.   I did not use the kit, just bought the pattern.

So here goes......camera roll......................

Blume & Grow and Days of Delight progress

 This has been a few days of progress, even if there is not much to show for it.  I got the Blume & Grow quilt top basted and ready for hand quilting.   One block is marked and ready to go into the hoop.

Progress on Days of Delight by Val Laird continue as I completed the blocks for February and March.  I greatly enjoy working on these sweet little blocks and had to fight the temptation to work on April until after I had the Blume & Grow basted and ready to quilt.

Days of Delight Calendar - Val Laird

 I have started a new project by designer Val Laird entitled Days of Delight Calendar.  Got started late, but I will catch up as I enjoy working on this project.  

This is a picture from Val Laird's blog

I finished up the January BOM blocks this morning.  I am using Liberty Flower Garden Midsummer fabrics, which are so pretty.  Thank you to my dear friend Darlene for introducing these fabrics to me with a charm pack and for sharing from her stash the fabrics I needed for borders and bigger pieces.

I did modify the January block a little to include a snowflake where Val had a butterfly.  Thought the snowflake fit better with our January season (Val is Australian)

The little hexagon blocks will be used to show the day of the month, such as 01,02,03, etc.

Fall/Christmas Table Runner

 I recently made this table runner for my wonderful daughter-in-law, Holli.  Her birthday was in May, but since Fred and I were spending those days in the hospital and rehab, we just got around to celebrating May, June and July birthdays on July 2 - as well as Father's Day.  I had the blocks for the Fall side completed for awhile now, just never got is put together for the runner.  So I decided to make Christmas blocks for the other side of the runner - a two in one table decoration.

I also purchased some candles (the pre-lit ones) that I think look good for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

   

Bring Me Fllowers - Gail Pan Block of the Month

It has been awhile since my last post.  My husband has been in and out of the hospital three times since his surgery on March 29, as well as going to rehab between each hospital stay.  I spend the nights with him in the hospital, but in rehab I am able to come home at night to rest.  For the months April, May and June I think he was actually home only 2 1/2 weeks.   He has gotten an infection from the surgery and is now on IV antibiotics which I give him at home through a picc line.  Hopefully this will be over July 15.

But...........we got a call yesterday that he is possibly going to have to have his gall bladder removed and that will be done soon.  We are waiting on a call from the surgeon.  So here we go again, poor guy, back to the hospital.

I did manage to finish up the Bring Me Flowers quilt for my granddaughter Lorelai and will show you some pictures. The quilting is hard to see as the print is kind of busy, but I am showing a few of the blocks up close so maybe you can see it there.  I hand quilted the quilt center and machine quilted the border.

And here are a couple pictures of my sweet grandaughter with her quilt.  They recently moved to Winston Salem, many tears here from this Granny, and the one in the car seat is on their way back to their new home.