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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.