Design Wall Monday--Catching Up

 Design Wall Monday--See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I disappeared for awhile, due to computer issues mostly.  I have been sewing and have a finish to share. 

Grandson Hunter's quilt is all finished.  He chose all the fabrics and the yellow thread for quilting, as well as most of the machine specialty stitches I quilted it with.  It is very busy but he loves it. I used Hunter Green sashing and the backing is a Hunter Green flannel, very cozy.  His Mama sent me a pic of him eating breakfast wrapped in his quilt the next morning. XOXOX  I'm working on some Halloween placemats now for Hunter and Cove. 

I also got started on a secret swap project for the upcoming Sewtopia retreat my sister and I attend yearly.  This year it is in Nashville, the first weekend in November, not too long away! I had a bunch of blocks made in a guild class a couple of years ago, which I sewed up into a table runner.  It needs a backing, quilting and binding, but I was pleased with the arrows created in this setting. 

I also finished a Lizzie Kate stitchery, Moon Over Blackbird.  

I changed it by moving the moon and stars some, and turning the pineapple into a pumpkin.. I'm working on a Halloween stitch now, from a set of Lori Holt stitch cards.  I love these small projects for a quick embroidery fix. 

These funny blobs will eventually look like the Cat in the pattern sample, complete with tail!

Slow Sunday Stitching-Moon Over Blackbird

 Slow Sunday Stitching—Kathy's Quilts. 

I’m spending pleasant minutes here and there on a free Lizzie Kate Fall stitch—even though Fall seems a far off place with all the heat/humidity lately. Moon Over Blackbird has been fun to work on  

I like these pre-stretched blanks for quick projects. I’ll put another thread length or two into the project before heading to the sewing room. 

I was at the ironing board last weekend while we were waiting on Hurricane Hilary, it was raining pretty well when the Ojai Earthquake hit. We’re not that far from Ojai so it was very scary—lots of aftershocks. We felt the stronger aftershock a couple of days later—at 4 am—I couldn’t get back to sleep so got up and stitched for a bit. That’s enough major nature events this decade!

Surviving Hilary and an Earthquake, and Quilting

SO, we are being deluged by Hurricane Hilary the now Tropical Storm,  a first for California in over 100 years.. After meeting our son and grandsons at the park and watching our daughter in law play soccer this morning (she's playing goalie), it began to rain as we left, and has been raining ever since, pretty steadily. I spent most of the morning thereafter in the sewing room getting a quilt top sandwiched.  I was still in the sewing room when we had a 5.1 earthquake strike Ojai, 20+ miles away.  It was quite a ride during the quake and for many aftershocks thereafter.  Fortunately there was no significant damage to relate. 

I picked up my Fair entries early in the week an gathered up all the ribbons.  There were judge's comments on the back of each tag, and pretty much each one indicated more quilting was recommended.  I suppose I'll have to use that as my guide to win a blue ribbon again at the Fair! I did get awarded 4 second place, a third, and two honorable mentions.  

Quite a pile to bring home.  I'll cash my $7.00 prize check sometime, as the cashier was long closed by the time I went to the Fairgrounds after work.

Grandson Hunter's quilt saw some action on Saturday while hubby Grant was away. I got all the blocks assembled.  

They are quite busy and it seemed wise to suggest a narrow sashing to Hunter's mommy.  He chose a dark green, from my suggestions.  I'll need to purchase that at the fabric store. 

Sunset last night was amazing.  I caught the sliver moon in another pic. 

Fair Entries and a few Pics

I finished all my entries for the Ventura County Fair and took them down to the Fairgrounds on Thursday after work.  Due to the short time-frame between the X-Games and the Fair opening date, there were still a lot of workers trying to get rides set up, long after 5 pm. Many food trailers and other concessions were waiting, too. The Fair opens on August 2nd.

Here's the DMC Floral Bouquet stitch finished in the hoop with wrapped ribbon.  I found the iridescent blue ribbon at Michael's--it matched the blue flosses perfectly.  I added my initials, but then needed to add another floral spray on the lower left for balance. It didn't take too long to stitch and I think it blends well.  After trimming away the excess Aida to about 1-1/2"and using long stitches in the remainder to gather it up, the back was covered with a piece of white wool felt I hand stitched on.  The pink ribbon also bought at Michael's matched well as a hanging loop.  The Strawberries stitch in the prestretched Aida square got felt on the back too, but no additional hanger. 

There was very little activity at the Home Arts building, sadly. The volunteer who was helping me said that entries were very thin this year--likely due to the online-entry only requirement this year.  I had spent a lot of time choosing categories for my items and the gal helping me was most thankful and didn't make any changes to my selections.  I had to laugh that after spending extra time to add a label to each of the six quilts I put in, she covered over my name on each one with a piece of blue painter's tape!  😆

Although Picasa is no longer available to add photos too, I do still have access to pics I've downloaded to the computer.  Here's a pic of me with our newest grandson, shortly after he came home from the hospital in June.  His quilt is behind him. Bryce has grown very well since then.  He got his father and grandfather's blue eyes, which makes him different from his brother and older cousins' hazel/brown ones! I took care of him at a local pool outing with big brother and Mama last week.  He was very squirmy and didn't want to sleep  :)

I will have to figure out how to reduce the photo file size or will run out of room very quickly and have to pay for storage!  

Design Wall Monday--Catching Up

Design Wall Monday--see more great design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Well, didn't mean to disappear for so many days!  I've been busy working on projects to enter into our County Fair. Only a couple more days before all entries need to be finalized online. 

I got all the quilting done on this large throw made from long-ago leftovers from another quilt. I abandoned something fancy for the purple/green blocks and kept it simple with a crosshatch. 

Our Nieces crocheted some adorable chickens--and stuffed them, embroidered the mouth and eyes, all while traveling from Riverside County in busy summer weekend traffic while their Dad drove.  I named mine Thimble and she is my new sewing room mascot.  I posed her on the doll quilt just quilted. 

I pulled several repro options before settling on the medium green print--the scale felt right.  I'll hand stitch the binding--it is too tiny to try to machine sew.  Another Fair entry project is nearly done. 

I did simple crosshatching every 2 inches for the quilting.  Sunday I made bias binding and had a heck of a time getting the last join done!  About five tries and ripping later, but finally ready to stitch down by machine, most likely. 

The simple lapped backing has recipes.  I'll end up with "okies and ingerbread" by the time the binding is on, haha. 

On my mind is the end of Picasa, which I have used all these years for the blog.  Google lets you make a copy of your album archive and save it to "Takeout", whatever that is!  Our computer is very old and I don't even know I can save the copy there or if I will have to store it somewhere else.  I only have three days left to solve this issue!  Google Photos is not like Picasa and there will be a learning curve.  If anyone has any helpful hints on this issue, I would be most happy to hear them!

Slow Sunday Stitching--Choosing a new project

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see some lovelies on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

Having finished the Lori Holt Stitch Card project last week, I poked around the Hoosier cabinet for a new start. I found two options caught my eye the most.... 

A Blackbird Designs small....no recollection of where I got this but I love the bird and the border.  I have never made a little pillow like this but have seen displays of smalls in old dough bowls that are lovely. 

The other choice is a free pattern I downloaded ages ago. It is from 2018...

I like to color! The giant pineapple and fat blackbird, skinny house and big moon--Lizzie Kate designs are so fun. I'll have to check the floss stash for any missing colors. 

Otherwise, the only handwork I'm going to be doing today is burying a hundred or more threads in the current quilting project....

There will be a lot more to bury after I finish the quilting in the big blocks.  Since this pic the binding was attached--there are a few missed spots to close up that job, too.  Half the day is already gone, I better get moving!

Slow Sunday Stitching--Lori Holt Stitch Card Strawberry Finish

Slow Sunday Stitching--Kathy's Quilts blog.--See more sweet hand- stitching there. I have a finish to share. 

The Lori Holt stitch card project has had more attention and I have finished all the stitching I planned to do.  

I combined motifs from a different stitch card to fill up space on the prestretched Aida blank. I think it turned out sweet. A nice green ribbon around the frame should finish it off. 

These stitch cards are so cute.  I used single strawberries and modified the daisy motif from the top left stitch card.  Next I'd like to stitch the teacup, but likely will swap the cup and zigzag border colors, as I like green more than pink.