Sunday, April 27, 2014

Slow Stitching Sunday

I have been a little slow in stitching the last two weeks. I just could not get myself motivated to work on my stitching projects.
I finally have completion on a couple of projects that included slow stitching.

I hand stitched the binding on this quilt I have been working on for over a year. I mean a year of designing, piecing, quilting and binding. This quilt is a very large king size and it took me over 3 hours to hand stitch the binding down.


This quilt is not perfect but it is finished! YEAH!

I have also finished stitching Miss Magnolia. It took me longer to finish the leaves than I had anticipated.


She turned out very good.

I have set up for the next flower but have not started on her. She is Miss Marigold.


This is the image I found online.


This is the transfer image for Miss Marigold.

I know that this flower will take quite some time to do. She reminds me of Miss Chrysanthemum and this flower was very labor intensive. But I will just keep plodding along and enjoy the journey as much as possible. She will be beautiful when she is finished.

I will be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday today. Click here to view all of the many wonderful projects being worked on today.


Friday, April 25, 2014

Catching Up

I have been absent from blogging and can't really say why I didn't write anything last week.
Yes, it was Easter, and yes we had family stuff on Saturday but I just wasn't in the mood to write and take pictures.
I have set a big goal for myself this year to write more than one post a week. I have posted 2-3 times a week since January but I think I must have been feeling a little overwhelmed and couldn't get too excited about writing.
I know it had to do with the fact that I had not made any real progress on different projects I am working on but I can say today that I have made some wonderful progress this past week.

I finished quilting the sunshine quilt and now I have a completion.


This shows the quilt when I was over half way done with the quilting.


This shows the quilt finished and bound.


This quilt is for an old co-worker and she picked the backing for the quilt. I used the same fabric for the binding. I am so glad I have finally finished this quilt.
I had been thinking for a few years that I would make Lynn, my co-worker, a quilt for her retirement. Since I was RIFed and now not working with her for over a year I decided to make this quilt before she retired. She is so excited!

I will give this quilt to her next week.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Slow Stitching Sunday-APR Week 2

A busy week! So even though I made progress I have not finished Miss Magnolia.  I am ok with this. My motto is tomorrow is a new day.

This week looks promising in many ways. I can now stand for more than a few minutes and that means I should be able to do some quilting on the sunshine quilt that has been loaded on my HQ for several weeks. Hope Springs Eternal!


I have one leaf almost done and the other one is outlined already. Shouldn't take too long to finish her.

I am linking up with Kathy today. Go see what other's are working on, there are some amazing projects out there.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Beautiful Colors

I have been a little bit busy in the Quilt Studio this week even though 2 days I couldn't do anything in there.
I have completed all my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so that makes me very happy. I am so glad I have not set up to do too many different blocks to do. This seems just right for a monthly challenge.

First up are the string blocks and they are looking great for the Basket Weave quilt from Bonnie Hunter's free patterns.


The oranges look a little dark here but they are wonderful to look at.

Next up are the 9 patch blocks. Not sure yet what I will be doing with these but I am sure they will turn out just great.


The next blocks are the Craftsy blocks. I have shown them before when they were not quite done.




The hand stitching on these went very quickly.

I have done the 7th block for the Quilt of Valor quilt.


I know....it looks like the last one. I put the squares in randomly so they all look similar but are different. Not sure that makes sense but this is the way I am doing.

I will be linking up with Angela for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Click here if you would like to see what everyone else is doing this week.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Slow Stitching Sunday-APR

I have been very busy this week working on hand stitching projects. I have made some Craftsy blocks this month that required English Paper piecing and I think this is going to help me with the appliqueing class I am taking in June.



This is the first block and she just called it Stripe.


The second one she called a Chance of Hex.


I have also made some progress on Miss Magnolia. I almost have her head and face done. Next week I will get the leaves done very easily.

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

Friday, April 4, 2014

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I am not sure that April showers means snow but that is what we have been getting the last few days.
I do have crocuses. hyacinths and daffodils so we are getting flowers. Spring is here!


These are from my flower bed out front. So nice to have them in the house.

I have done a little bit this week in the way of quilting.  Some piecing on the Quilt of Valor I am making as a leader ender.


I am working on the 7th one now. I will be making 12 of these blocks.

I also decided that I needed to have another leader ender project going. This quilt is not on my list of quilts to make this year but I really need to use up a bunch of 2 1/2 inch squares that are over flowing my bin. So I am going to make Sisters Choice by Bonnie Hunter. I have always thought this would be a beautiful quilt to make. So because I have so many green squares I will be making them for the 9 patches in this quilt.


This is the quilt that Bonnie made.


This is my first block. I think I have enough green 2 1/2 inch squares to make about 3 of these quilts in a twin size. I plan to give them as Quilts of Valor and they don't need to be quite as big as the one Bonnie made. I haven't decided for sure what color the points will be. I will either make them yellow or blue, I will decide when I get closer on the 9 patches being all done. Sometimes with leader enders projects they can work up very quickly.


This is my set up for string blocks. I will make 10. I chose orange because So Scrappy did not give us a color this month. I thought about it and decided it didn't really matter what color just as long as I am using up scraps.


These are the 9 patches I am making.


This is the first one completed.

I will sign up for Rainbow Scrap Quilting if she does a linky this week.
I guess there has been a slip up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I guessed the wrong color for this month. I chose orange and the color is purple so I guess when she pickes orange I will chose purple and get back on track. Click here to see what others are doing today.


I have both Craftsy blocks laid out. I will be counting these two blocks as Rainbow Scrap blocks and also as Slow Stitching Sunday blocks.


Each of these blocks have all different oranges. I still have a bunch of orange fabrics even though I used quite a bit of fabric in the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  I will be hand stitching these down instead of machine sewing them.

Well, this is all for today. I will post again on Sunday.