Slow Stitching Sunday

This week I did not post anything until now because I have not worked in the Quilt Studio. I had a doctors appointment on Friday and it is confirmed that I have compressed disks and possibly bulging disks. I start physical therapy on Tuesday. The doctor also had me increase the amount of Aleve I take to two in the morning and two in the evening. I am feeling a bit better already. Hopefully with the physical therapy this week I can see some improvement.

I have made some progress on my two hand projects because of my down time. I am moving right along with Miss Magnolia. This is my start of her this week.

This is where I am today. She is coming along very nicely.

I have also made progress on my hexie project. Hopefully I will make enough progress on this that I will have it ready soon for the quilting. This project needs a good pressing and trimming of the border. I think I will be adding another border after this one and then it will be ready for quilting.

I have also started a new hand/sewing type project that I have wanted to do for quite some time. I have been wanting to make some pin cushions for a while now and I purchased this instruction kit a while ago and I find this to be a good time to work on them.  I am making all three pies in the instructions.

I have the cherry and blueberry pies started and the apple pie is just in the first stage. I purchased the little dishes at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

I think these are going to turn out very nicely. I also want to make beaded pins for decorative purposes to go with the pin cushions. I am getting quite excited about getting them finished to see what they will look like.

I plan to link up with Kathy's Quilt on her Slow Stitching Sunday today. Click here to see all the wonderful projects that everyone else are making today.

Slow Stitching Sunday

I have had a completion this past week!. Miss Iris is done and looking so happy.

I have begun with Miss Magnolia now. She is going to be a sweet Magnolia.

Here is her drawing.

This is the image I found on the internet. I chose this one because it reminds of the tree we had in our yard in Washington state. Such a beautiful blossom.

Here is my start.

I have some vintage pictures of baby dresses. My Aunt made these for me when I was a baby. She made them with a pattern she made up.  The slips look like they were made from old bed sheets. I am not sure what she made the dresses from but she embroidered tiny flowers on the dresses and crocheted the edges of the dresses and the slips. These were very common in the day.

This is the front of one of the dresses.

This is the sleeve. Notice the crocheted edge.

This is the bottom with embroidery and crochet.

This little slip has crochet on the bottom.

And at the neckline.

This is my old/new hand stitching project. I started a Grandmother's Garden quilt several years ago but it didn't take me long to realize that I did not want to make a full size quilt with these hexies. I will be making a table topper or wall hanging. I have started to hand applique the hexies onto a border fabric so I can finish this old UFO.

On the left is attached.

I have started stitching this part. I will finish attaching the border and then I will make the next decision on how I want to finish this little project.

To see what others are working on at Kathy's Quilts click here.

Not Much Going On

I have not made any progress this week in the quilt studio but I have a couple of things to show.
I have the mystery quilt up on the design wall waiting to put two of the borders on. I have both the borders ready to put on but have not been able to do so. Maybe next week.

Also I still have the sunshine quilt on the machine but have not been able to start quilting on it. Maybe next week.

I have rearranged my shelves in my quilt studio.I wanted to have more of a decorated look rather than a bunch of junk sitting on the shelf looking pretty bad.  I decided to put the little suitcase I showed last week up on the shelf and I put some vintage handmade baby dresses my Aunt Bev made for me when I was a baby. They have some beautiful flowers embroidered on the front of the them. I guess I should show them up close when I post for Slow Stitching Sunday.

I am also going to start on a new/old hand stitching project. I will also show this new/old project on Sunday.

Sorry for the short post but I am truly hoping that I will feel better next week and be able to work like I would really like to work in the Quilt Studio.

Slow Stitching Sunday-Miss Iris

I am feeling real good about the progress I have been making with Miss Iris. I have all of her hair done and she is really starting to look like a beautiful Iris.

This is where I started today.

Here is a little progress.

And now here she is with a full head of hair and her lipstick is on.

To see what fun others are having today go to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday !

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Aqua/Teal (part 2)

I have finishes for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Yeah!

I have completed the 9-patches.

I have completed the string blocks.

I have also completed the Craftsy blocks. I do not like how they turned out! I have some big mistakes.

I measured 2-3 times and I can't figure out how I could have been so far off. I can see a near miss by 1/8 of an inch but this is ridiculous. I am not going to fix the mistakes for two reasons, one I may not use them in the quilt and two, I don't have enough variety in fabrics left of the colors to make new blocks.  So here they are.

I also got the same fabric twice in the center. Yuck!

If you want to see what others are working on that is much better than what I accomplished this week please click here and see the awesome projects that everyone is doing.

Hopefully I will do better next month.

Some Finishes

This week has been productive. I have finishes! Yeah!
First off as you read last week, I have finished my Batik Windows quilt.

I am so glad to have this quilt finished!

While I was outside in the yard taking pictures of this quilt I snapped some pics of the tulips and daffodils coming up. They will soon be full of color just like this quilt.

Notice I didn't show a real close up of the quilting on the back. I have fixed the worse spots on the back but I still am not too happy.

The promise of color to come!

As you can see the grass is rather drab but in a week I will have it aerated and then things will start to look up.

Not a real good pic of the quilting but I wanted to show the light quilting I did in the batik squares.
The white sashing has very dense bubbles/pebbling and the black has very small half feathers.

I am very happy with my progress this past week.

Slow Sunday Stitching-Miss Iris

I have been doing a little on Miss Iris this week. I usually work on hand stitching on Wednesdays and Sundays. This last Wednesday I was so busy I did not get a chance to sit down with her. It seems that life just rushes some weeks and I feel like time is flying by.

I am still enjoying the time I do spend on my embroidery and will keep trying to Slow Down!

I do have a near completion on the Batik quilt I have been working on since last fall.

The hand stitching went very well. I just need to label this quilt and I can count it as a completion for 2014. Yeah!

I have enjoyed linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and browsing all of the links to what others are working on. So for you to enjoy looking at these blogs please click here.http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2014/03/slow-sunday-stitching-stencils-frixion.html

Rainbow Scrap Challenge-Aqua/Teal

I have started on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March which is Aqua/Teal. I have a few of these fabrics in my stash and I will be able to make all the blocks I need to but just barely.
These fabrics tend to just stay in my stash and not get used too much. I don't know why I don't use them but it seems like they haven't played very well with my other fabrics so they just sit.

I am a scrap piecer and these fabrics should get equal time but do not.

This is my strings for the string blocks and also for the Craftsy blocks. I have started sewing on the strings blocks but I don't really have anything to show on them so no pics.
I have also got the foundations ready for the Craftsy blocks but I have not started sewing on them yet so no pics of those either.

I have all my 2 inch squares ready and I have sewn two blocks of these. So a little progress is being made.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge today. Click here to see what others are doing.

There are a Few Different Things Going on

I have had a few things going on in the Quilt Studio and other areas.
I have finally finished the Batik Window quilt. I was so stressed with this quilt mostly because of the tension issues I was having. So I am not showing the back side of this quilt.

The blue strips laid out on top are for the binding. I need to sew the strips, trim, press and then sew it on the quilt. All but done! I will show more pictures once I have completed everything.

I made a repair on a charity quilt. No pics.

I have loaded the Sunshine quilt and everything is ready for quilting. This quilt is so big I only have a few inches on each side to spare. I will start this quilt very soon and it shouldn't take too long to quilt because I am using a very simple pantagram that I have used many times. I will show my progress on this next week.

I also have a couple of pictures that are not quilt related. The first picture is of a suitcase that my Mom says is a purse. I remember it being used for other things.

Anyone remember these from the 1960s. I thought Mom had used it for cosmetics or as a travel case. It looks like she put in new contact paper on the inside several years ago. I scrubbed it up inside and out. I also used WD40 on the latch. It looks like brand new.....well almost.

When she gave it to me yesterday all it had in it was some art paint brushes, very long Q-tips and some needles and pins. I think it will look great in my sewing room holding some old stuff.

The next two pictures are of my Grandfather's coin purse.

I remember Grandpa using this and I always thought it was so cool. It is made of leather with metal hinges and a snap closure. Everything still works just fine but is just very worn from much use.

There is an arrowhead mounted on a hard background. I can't tell if the arrowhead is real. Probably not. There is also a tie clip in there. Not sure why these things were in there but they were Grandpa's.

Well, I will sign off for now.

Sunday Slow Stitching- Hibiscus Finished & Iris Started

I have completed Miss Hibiscus and I am very pleased with the way she looks.

I have gotten Miss Iris set up to begin.

This is the drawing of Miss Iris.

This is the image I found online. I had to purchase new purple embroidery floss just for this flower. The purples I have were not very close to the purple in the picture or in my mind. I had a hard time at the store selecting the purple floss. There are not very many different purples to choose from. It is very important that I do Miss Iris the best that I possibly can because the iris is my husbands favorite flower. He is watching to see how she is coming along.

This is where I am in the process right now.

I will be linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching today. To see what others are working on please click here.