A finish....

I have a busy weekend on tap (sadly the weekend will be busy for next weekend too - but not this bad). We camped out as a family last night with the cub scouts. Happy to say Aidan spent all night in the tent... and it got chilly in the high 40's this morning here in Florida. He and Dad have a busy day today with scouts. Emily and I headed home for a nice hot shower (hey, that ground is hard!). We are headed to bowling this morning, then picking up girl scout nut and candy orders. Home to pack the car up for a campout at the Drive in tonight with over 200 girl scouts. It should be a fun night... and I am looking forward to my bed tomorrow night. First... there is a birthday party for a friend of Emily's at a bounce place tomorrow. Kind of crazy the parties they throw for their kids for birthdays.... but she really wants to go.  I'm sure she will crash after that as she was up till 11 watching Incredibles in the church last night.

I'm happy to report  a finish! I finished the hand quilting on this Fireworks quilt last week and finished the binding this week. All set for hanging up on the patriotic holidays here in the states. I think I made the blocks back with the RSC Challenge in one of the first years..... but now it is done!
Linking up with the RSC Challenge this Saturday morning.

Sunday binding....

I finished the hand quilting on my fireworks quilt on Thursday night. Just need to trim it up and make a binding for it today. That will be tonights project.... to make, attach and then start hand stitching it down to the back. I picked up this red dot fabric for the binding after work today.

What will you be hand stitching today? Head on over to the Slow Sunday Stitching linkup and see what projects are slowly being worked.

Sunshine Sunday....

For all my Canadian friends - Happy Thanksgiving. Here in the US is is Columbus Day. For some reason.... my kids have school all this week but are off next Monday and Tuesday. Very strange schedule.

Well, as yesterday did not turn out like I was thinking.... today will be puttering and doing a little bit of this and that. We stopped at our store yesterday on the way to visit my FIL and help pick up his yard after the storm. One of our employees was sick (low blood sugar) so we sent him home and I got to stay and work. Greg and Emily continued on to help Papa and take him out for a mid afternoon meal. They picked me up after and we headed home in the evening. I had promised Emily we would sew.... so I cut some triangles out of her two fabrics and she sewed most of them together. I'll press them later today and trim them to the same size for her to do the next step - design!.

With everyone gone from the house for a bit (Aidan had a Grandma sleepover last night and Greg is taking Emily there now) I think I'll try and clean. Hey, this way it will stay clean until the kids are returned this evening! I also see some weeding in the garden happening. Some sewing with the sewing machine and maybe a nice afternoon movie with some slow stitching. I am on the outer border of my fireworks quilt (yes Mom, the dark is a navy blue).

 I do love stitching this stencil. After 6+ years waiting for me to learn to hand quilt I can see the finish in sight in the next couple of weeks. To whomever mentioned using multiple needles when hand quilting, a big thank you! As you can see I have 4 working with this stencil - one for each line and it does make it move along much quicker.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other slow stitching is happening today.

Design wall Monday....

Yesterday was a much needed me day. The fence got put up around the garden with a little help from hubby. Lets hope the rabbits are not able to dig down that far to get in! I also had some time to relax with some stitching and prep work. I modified my stencil and have two of the rounded parts together in between the diamond. It worked for the size of 2 of the 4 sides. How I am off by one inch on the other two, I do not know but I winged it and drew in a smaller circle on those sides to make it fit. I also had drawn the pattern on the back of some fabric for the 1857 border blocks. I had cut a couple of the purples and got them back basted yesterday too. I just need to trip them up and then can needle turn appliqué them. Sometime you just need to settle in with some slow stitching to relax and prep for another busy week.

First weekend in October...

October already ..... how did that happen? Time to regroup and see what needs some rounding out with my RSC projects. The colors selected for this month are a pretty yellow and orange - a perfect sunrise or sunset.

I have two more dresden plates that need a middle attached and added to the background - Yellow and brown. The black and three blues need their squares added to them so they will end up like these. I have not decided if I will hand quilt these blocks or machine quilt them. Either way... that will be for next year's RSC Challenge each month. I think the middles will get hand stitched on today... and maybe the background square cut and prepped so that is an option for hand stitching to the background as well.

I have all my Row by Row blocks sewn together into rows. Oops, looks like I got a couple too many of the pink/green combo! It soon will be time to start sewing them together into a top. Decisions will need to be made... that is the part that always holds me up. Do I add a solid color in between them all? If so, what color? Do I just sew them row by row together? Did I mention I hate decision making? Oh well, that can be put off until the last row of blocks are released and made this month.

I know my birds in the air blocks needs yellow, black, bright/light green and brown added to the mix. Maybe some Yellow ones will fly out of the sewing room this month?

Then there will be some houses added this month too. I believe I have 37 of them so some bright yellow will need to be added to the neighborhood. I was thinking 48 of them would make a nice setting (6x8)..... but maybe after adding 4-5 yellow the last blocks might have some trees instead? November will be time enough to think on that idea.

Today is Sunday though... so some slow stitching will happen at some point today. I do need to go dig in the garden before it gets too hot. The green beans are up and there was a bunny in the back yard just waiting for them to get a little bigger. Time to get that fence up to keep them out! I also have a quick meeting with a co-leader of girl scouts today to hand off some planning things as she just got a full time job and needs to back off some things. Kids are at Grandma's.... so I see some slow stitching later this afternoon in the nice quiet house.

I need to mark the blue border on this wall hanging for quilting.... so that I can start on it today! So exciting to see the end in sight!

The stencil I was thinking of for the white border was too big. I was too lazy to create one so I just looked around and found a ruler that had a nice curve to it. I used that and a blue marking pencil to draw the curve in the space and was able to stitch that up this week in the evenings. I have two stencils that would work for this last border... I think I will use the one I did in the Hugs and Kisses border... but maybe add a double line on each side? We will see how it looks after I mark it. I can't wait to get this one done so it can go in the dining room wall hanging rotation for the patriotic holidays! Of course... then I can bring out the colorful trip around the world top for hand quilting next!

I also need to pull some fabrics for a few more of my 1857 blocks.... and then change out the ink in the printer and finally print out some more parts for those lemoyne stars. Plenty of choices once I finish getting that prep work done! I need to prep some little purple circles to add a group of grapes to this little basket of fruit. I am changing the original design a bit since I am only using 3 fabrics and it is limiting me on my choice of fruits for the basket.
I did get one of the blocks finished in the car line this week. Progress =)

Linking up with the RSC Challenge and Slow Stitching Sunday as well as Oh Scrap.

Slow Stitching Sunday...

After some time doing some things that need to get done I really hope to have a nice afternoon of relaxing with some slow stitching and pool time. Not at the same time though, hehehe.

I finished that last square of hand quilting last night and need to find and mark the first border for stitching on my fireworks quilt. That is my planned project for hand stitching today.

I also really need to print out more inklingo shapes for my lemoyne stars to work on in the car line this week. Time to load the new ink into the printer so I can get that done.

Head on over and see what others are hand stitching on this lovely Sunday of Slow Stitching.

RSC Rainy Saturday....

I found out this morning that our color for September is reds with a touch of gold! I had guessed correctly when I changed my blog colors yesterday to the deep red color.

After a nice walk this morning before the rain started again I headed out with hubby to run some errands and then home for lunch. Grandma got the kids yesterday afternoon since they had cancelled school due to the hurricane. She will return them sometime later today. We had no damage and just about 3 inches of rain where I live.

My plans for today were to clear out the kids 'play room' that they never use (except yesterday cause I told them I was taking it over this weekend!)... which I will start on at some point this afternoon I think. I am going to make it into my office for working from home and some storage of Greg's business things. Instead... I started moving things off my sewing table (lots of things thrown on there so had to uncover to see where things are!)... and found this little place mat I put together last year at some point. It had a batting cut to size. I grabbed a marbled red/pink/orange for the back, used the walking foot to sew next to the seams and made a binding and put it on. 20 minutes.... why did it take a year to do? These are really easy to make I just cut 2.5 or 2 inch strips to a 13.5 inch length and sew them together until they are about 18.5 inches long. Add a batting and backing, quilt it and then bind. A nice easy placemat for your table. I have one in blue and green already so I just have to add one more and I'll have one for everyone at my table. This one is for Emily... she loves the color red.

 Oh well, I fear that is all my red sewing for the day... other than maybe some hand stitching later tonight on my Fireworks quilt. I think this might be the last block before I can start on the borders for this little wall hanging. I think it is around 30x30 or 40x40.

Linking up with the RSC Challenge. Hope you find something fun to sew on this holiday weekend.

Slow down Sunday...

I finally got a little time in the sewing area yesterday and the sewing machine still works! It has been maybe 3 weeks, poor thing.

Before sewing there was lots of prep work. More shapes got printed out using Inklingo for my lemoyne stars. I should be set for a couple weeks!

Then I finally traced 3 of 4 appliqué blocks for the August 1857 quilt. How is it the end of the month already and I have not done any yet?

Then I  started measuring the Grandmothers Choice blocks from a few years ago. Some were way off - like barely 8 inches when they should be 8.5! A little cutting of sashing and cornerstones (112 and 64!) and then.... some sewing to fix those really small ones. They got some of the sashing added to make them to size. I was too lazy to lay them out again (and no room in the sewing area to do that) so... I pulled up the last photo of them on my phone and used that to put the blocks into stacks per row. Hopefully I will have some time this week to sew a little bit since it is all prepped.

Around 5 I shut off the machine and grabbed some dinner then settled in with some hand work while I watched the end of my Harry Potter movie from last Saturday, before Emily was returned from Grandma's. I got one block completed and then finished another one..... Two more blocks to go then borders.

I'm sure I will get a few more stitches in on this today.


I also finished off this knitted dish cloth in the car line on Friday. It really is a very pretty lavender purple.

What are you stitching today? Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see some inspirational projects in the works. Also a very late link up with the RSC Challenge on the last weekend of light purple and grey.

Slow stitching Sunday...

Each week Kathy reminds us to slow down, breathe and relax with some slow stitching. I admit, during my breaks from the hot weather outside while weeding and dragging trimmings to the truck (2 loads and that is just the front!), I took some breaks and pulled out some hand quilting.
I thought I had my 5 chain blocks completed, until I took this photo. Notice the issue?

I have gone back and added another rectangle  to 3 of those 5 blocks and should have the other 2 completed today. Then it will be onto the stars.

What will you be slow stitching today? Head on over and see what is being stitched around the world today at Kathy's Quilts.

A rainy Sunday....

Perfect for being inside and relaxing with some slow stitching. I made great progress on my UFO this week. It is now a set of 8 and two sets of 4. I am using the Quilt as you go method from this tutorial. It is great.. I just changed the back sashing strip to 2 inches rather than the 1.5. It was a wee bit too small to hand stitch down with the smaller strip. The other thing I learned... the next time I will make sure all my blocks are trimmed to the same size! It was iffy with them being all hand quilted and coming up a little small when I made the blocks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this. My hope is to get the bottom 2 sections together this morning and then join them all. Ideally.... I'd add the binding today too but we will see how the day goes.... Grandma returned the kids yesterday after a 2 night sleepover. The house was so nice and quiet. I'm sure it will be a board game and movie day.

This was from a quilt along at Jo's Country Junction back in 2012 using Lori Smith patterns. They are all 12 inch blocks done with Kansas Troubles fabric.

I just have a bow to add to this 1857 appliqué block before I start on the next one. Oh, those two dresden need to be hand stitched to their backgrounds as well. The stem and flower in the middle were stitched up last night.

Then...there is the newest hand quilting project. I pulled out this other UFO and started hand quilting it this week. I have 2.5 blocks done of the 9.  I'm doing the 5 connector ones first and then will do the stars. Thinking a little gentle curve in the white border. No clue on the blue border but there is plenty of time to think on that.

Plenty of choices. Head on over and see what other things are being slow stitched today at Kathy's Quilts.

Mid week...

I'm happy to say I finished the binding on the Floating Cubes quilt on Sunday morning. So nice to get a finish.

Grandma decided to take the kids Monday for a sleepover and returned them after a late afternoon movie last night. That gave me a chance to spend a few hours deep cleaning the house Monday after working in the morning. Remind me to get a smaller house the next time! The main rooms are all cleaned - just need to work on bedrooms next then tackle the sewing room. Not touching the play room...... Yesterday morning was a little weeding out front to find the flowers again before it got too hot. Then working.... then a quick meeting to pick up some girl scout things for an information booth I am running on Saturday. That turned into a nice chat and lasted way longer than I was planning... but was a nice time.

While cleaning..... I found my favorite quilting hoop! Who knew it was small enough to fit in the hope chest with the other quilts? I found it when I changed out the quilt hanging in the dining room. Apples are now hanging... as the kids go back to school soon.

While searching in the sewing room I found my Fireworks quilt.... that has been waiting on hand quilting for a few years now. I put a few stitches in last night..... and will probably pull them out again like the first batch I had put in a while ago. Just need to figure out how I want to quilt it. Decisions, decisions...... Any ideas? I was thinking a line through the blue chains. Outline the 'stars'.... then?

Well, I think Emily forgot I said we could do the pool first thing this morning so I'll log into work for my 5 hours and then we'll do pool time this afternoon.

Slow Stitch Sunday 2014

Today I've picked up an oldie but a goodie. The fireworks quilt has come out to play again and this year he will get finished. There, I've said it. I had it out the other day and while I was looking at this block and trying to figure out what other quilting to put in there (while Miss Emily was trying to get under it since it is 'comfy' - a 40x40 quilt in a hoop, mind you!) I saw my tervis water glass. Yes, inspiration does strike in the most strange ways. Those white blocks will be hand quilted circles in there. I just drew around it with a pencil and hopefully it will erase or wash out ok. I'll be smart and use the quilt marking pencils for the next one. That should help me get through the five blocks like this. Then it will be back to square one for the other four - but I think I have some notes written down somewhere on ideas for those blocks. Multiple color thread and fireworks seem to ring a bell.

Head on over to Kathy's Quilts and see what other lovely projects are being worked on. I do have to thank her - since she was my inspiration to try hand quilting and hand work and I have been so lucky to love it. It is so nice to use that 'wasted' time and create some beautiful things.

Slow Stitching on Fathers Day.....

We had a nice day at home as a family today. Dad got to sleep in until almost 8AM (that is very late with two little kids in the house), of course I'm sure he kept hearing the 'can we wake up Daddy yet, it's light outside' every 5 minutes or so from 6:30 AM on!
My FIL was able to come over late morning and got to see the video of Aidan's graduation from pre-school and then we had a BBQ for lunch. While the kids napped (one napped and one had quiet time) I got to sew on my sewing machine and now have matchstick pairs all set for my Bricks and Cornerstone quilt. The pattern is found here over at Quiltville.com. I think it will get a black or cream small border around and then a blue/black mottled bigger border to finish it off.

I hope to get this one into rows later tonight after some time in the pool with the kids.
Once they are in bed, I get to do some slow stitching on my fireworks wall hanging. I finally started it this week and so far so good. I've got it in a hoop but am still resisting using a thimble.

Head on over to Kathy Quilts and see what other hand work is being worked on today.

Saturday in Blue....

This weekend I will relax with a little bit of hand work when I am not working a sale at the store.
This my ongoing orange peels...... which I guess will be blueberry peels this month.
These are the prepped peels so far and a shot of all my hand appliqued peels for the year. The bottom part of the picture is the Kaleidoscope quilt which is sewn into rows. One month and I need that one done and shipped.

Another project is to baste the Fireworks quilt for hand quilting. I think I will just do some straight stitching through the chains and then something with curves on the outside borders. I want a little chain in the white border. The outer border will be decided on later but I have a few ideas running around in my head. Do you use a special thread for basting your quilts? I had a bit of thread left on a spool that was causing my machine to have fits so I am using that end for basting this.

Head on over to SoScrappy and see what other blue projects are being worked on.

All 12 VQF blocks done.....

I decided to just finish that one without getting the replacement fabric. I decided I can live with it. Heck..... it will be something to look for in the quilt... find the boo boo!

I also did another one Sunday while everyone napped.... after I mowed the lawn. I haven't mowed the lawn for about 4 years I think.... but G lifted Miss Em when we got back from the play ground so she could hit the garage door button to close it and did something to his back.
Here are the final 3 blocks. I just called Maplewood Quilts in Northfield, VT and she has the finishing kit but is waiting for more of the background fabric to arrive. She has my name and cell number so hopefully I can pick that up sometime next week. I haven't been to her actual shop, but I did get some pretty FQ's from her a few years ago at our guild quilt show. I am looking forward to checking out her shop.. without the kids in tow!




I bought a batting for hand quilting for the patriotic 'fireworks' quilt. Someone commented asking if I meant it to look like fireworks going off..... I was unable to go to their blog to leave a comment or e-mail so the answer is - nope... I never noticed that until you pointed it out! Thanks... now I have a name for the quilt. Just need to get it basted for hand quilting. That will be my project for a trip we will be taking next month.

While making the VQF blocks I was able to make these 9 patches from my stash of scraps. I'm trying to figure out what other 'colors' I need to grab so there is a good variety.. I have some purples cut and ready for sewing so will lay it out again when the others are sewn.... I think I have 6 more ready to go.


I'll also start something NEW...... next week as time allows. More about that later...
Have a great week everyone..