Slow Sunday Stitching--Some Embroidery, some sewing

Slow Sunday Stitching--see more beautiful projects on Kathy's Quilts blog. I have not touched the Cat cross-stitch project all week.  I'm not sure what I worked on but the sewing room is still messy :)  The only handwork was stitching on a label to the Summer Breeze quilt that is going to a friend of our daughter's, who has cancer. 

Stephanie got married since I saw her last a few years ago, so I had to ask our daughter what her new last name was.  Turned out she didn't change it so I added the K. What do you think of my label?  I used the same Valentine's day cardboard decoration as a template for  the label as I did for quilting some of the blocks.  

I couldn't resist playing with the binding cutoff triangles made from this sweet 30's green print. I trimmed them to 2".  A mini charm pack with 30's colors has been hanging around the sewing room for a long time. 

They played well together. 

I have a long piece of leftover binding to cut more triangles from.  These 16 won't make a very big doll quilt for a future granddaughter, if we ever have one :)

Pladish2 Play

There has been some sewing going on--I did get the binding on the quilt of the moment,  Summer Breeze in 30's prints, but no pics yet. I could not resist sewing up at least one block for the Plaidish2 quilt, from all the colorful scraps I cut up over the weekend. Free pattern and tutorial on Kitchen Table Quilting.  

This is the A block.  That;s a lot of pieces but it I chain pieced to keep the rows straight. 

I pressed the rows as I usually do for a quilt top, odd rows to the left, even rows to the right.  Very scrappy block and it makes me happy to see all the pieces cut from the scrap drawers.  

Of course there was feline quality control by Mini.  She is still spending a lot of time lying on this paper mailer on the sewing room floor, so funny!

Mini disappears when this grandson comes over once a week when Papa picks him up from school.  Hunter was having a good time coloring a Paw Patrol character.  He also beat his grandparents in a game of Trouble; he would close his eyes and say what number he wanted to roll of the dice and darned if he didn't get it nine times out of ten!  

We've had a lot of windy days but not too severe.  It keeps the fog away and we have pretty deep blue skies. 

 Lots of jet trails too!  We hope more rain will come our way.  California is still very dry and our aquifers are low from the past years of drought.  Friday is nearly here! Looking forward to the weekend.

Design Wall Monday--Another Scrap Basket quilt and a Squirrel

Design Wall Monday is here again.  The month is flying by! See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

In my last post I mentioned another Scrap Basket quilt from designer Kim Brackett. I set aside a long-hoarded jelly roll and background fabric for this quilt at least a year ago, but have wanted to make the cover quilt, Hourglass, for much longer than that--I love it!

The jelly roll is Recess by American Jane (so very old it is out of print!).  I separated out the mini dot fabrics and light strips and will use the prints posed closest to the book for the blocks, with a white solid for background  The binding will be the measuring tape fabric; I'll supplement with mini dot fabrics if there is not enough  of that yardage.  There is a lot of cutting in my future.  

While rooting around in my Hoosier cabinet that houses all the project boxes, etc, I also found an unlabeled box which turned out to have pieces I cut months ago for a Plaidish 2 quilt.  That triggered a landslide of cutting from the overflowing scrap drawers.  I loved the  original Plaidish quilt I made and recently gifted to my niece in Arizona (free pattern and tutorial on Kitchen Table Quilting)

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours thinning the precut scrap and loose scrap drawers.  The pattern is a large throw but since the designer assembles it by blocks, you can make fewer blocks if you like.  The binding job on the Summer Breeze quilt got pushed to another day for this scrap box detour!  I've put away the Plaidish2 parts but will get them out to play again soon.  

Slow Sunday Stitching--and Other Progress

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more great handwork happening on Kathy's Quilts Blog in her weekly linkup. 

The DMC Cat Kit stitch is nearing the end. 

I added the dark crosses in the body and tail, the eyelashes, and started on all the white.  The kit calls for 3 strands for this color so it is slower going.  I'd say I am about halfway through all the white.  The last step is to add surface embroidery to the design for more detail.  Such a fun stitch.  

The quilt of the moment got thread tails dealt with and the binding made. I found two more pinwheel blocks that were missing a section of ditch stitching, so took care of that.  Then I hand trimmed the excess batting and backing away.  I plan to apply the binding to the back and machine stitch it down on the front.  So happy this top I completed in May 2020 will have a new home soon. Pattern is Summer Breeze from the Scrap Basket Surprises book by Kim Brackett.

Tomorrow for Design Wall Monday I will show the next Kim Brackett quilt that has been waiting a turn to be made!

Design Wall Monday--Summer Breeze

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

A lot of arm exercise these past couple of days while machine quilting the Summer Breeze quilt.  Pattern in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprises book.  All of her designs are based on 2.5" wide strips.

I stitched the seamlines between blocks and borders with the walking foot, then started quilting around the pinwheel blocks. I am so appreciative of the automatic presser foot lift on my Husqvarna machine when I have to make so many turns and stop/starts.

I could not figure out a way to continuously quilt all the seam lines in the pinwheel blocks, so did it differently in just about every one!  There are a lot of thread tails to deal with.  In the striped blocks, I decided to quilt a heart.  I did not have a quilting template but searched in my Valentine's decorations and found a perfect carboard one. It even matched the quilt's colors :)

I used a water-erasable pen to trace the heart.  After stitching around the first couple of hearts, I decided to add another line of stitching inside the heart to even out the quilting density.

 

Badly lit shot, but I just used the walking foot as my guide and didn't mark.  I'd say that's about 5/8" inside the first line of stitching.  As I moved up the rows from bottom to top, I discovered I had missed some of the ditch stitching of the rows and had to finish that up!  No harm done, and the layers didn't shift despite having no basting pins or basting spray.

The quilting is all finished.  I love all these repro 30's prints but the kittens in the blue dishes are the most adorable. 

The binding will get made and attached soon!  I'm thinking about what I want to put on the label, too.

Slow Sunday Stitching--a bit late!

Thought  I had made a blogpost for Slow Sunday Stitching, but obviously only thought about it! Joining up to Kathy's Quilts blog.   

Here is a bad nighttime pic of the DMC Cat stitchery.  I have completed just about all of the colored stitching.  There are some details to add to the toes, tail and sweater before stitching the white sections of the pattern, and overlying embroidery designs.  I plan to cover the hoop with Washi tape for the finishing.

I'm already thinking about the next slow stitching project!  There are plenty of choices in the two boxes of embroidery supplies...VBG.

Happy Stitching!

While the Quilt Rests

 After the Christmas break, returning to work was hard!  I haven't spent any time in the sewing room since last weekend, but was productive then.  The backing for the 30's prints quilt arrived.  It is so sweet and pretty. The line is Aunt Ella's Butterflies, as you can read :)

I tore the yardage in half and sewed it back together about 1" in from the selvedge edge, then trimmed off the bound selvedge. Were you taught the same way?

Layers were immediately assembled and smoothed. Does that step always take longer than you think, too?  Then I folded the quilt package loosely to rest and left it on the floor.  Knowing Mini, my cat, claims anything on the floor as HERS, I had to add some obstacles to keep her off it.

She wasn't in the room when I grabbed all these things from around the sewing room but I found her there minutes later.

...and it worked!  She was very close, but not ON the quilt. :)

Unfortunately, no quilting happened during the workweek.  I'll get to it tomorrow morning, unfolding the package and re-smoothing the layers before I start quilting with the walking foot.  I'll start with ditch stitching and see how much more than that the quilt needs.  I should be able to finish the quilting in a day and then make and attach the binding on Sunday.  I'd like to get this to my daughter next week, to give to her friend when she gets out of the cancer rehab facility.

Scrappy Play Finishes

There hasn't been much machine time, but I finished up the bindings on all the scrappy play quilts.  I tried as much as possible to use leftover binding or pull from the precut strip drawers.  The cheddar print is a favorite scrap. I think I bought this fabric at the Temecula Quilt Co shop over 10 years ago!  It is a Jo Morton print.

Little tablemats/large coasters, I'd call them. 

Mini the cat wanted to be in the photo with the mini quilts. 

Sans Mini, I noticed somehow I managed to center the tumbling blocks quilt backing pretty well without trying.  Always a good thing!

I chose leftover backing fabric cutoffs for the longer tablerunner as the colors matched well with the backing and the front. Pardon my new slippers making an appearance!

I like Tea Time print colors with the green blocks.  Always a good thing to use up some of the saved backing cutoffs. 

I've been using this mini as a large coaster for quite a while.  I made this years ago.  I just love the teapot print. 

Puzzle piece quilting was really fun to do on such a small quilt.  Now that these littles are all finished, I'll be making the quilt sandwich for the '30's print quilt destined for my daughter's friend with cancer.  The backing has arrived from the Fat Quarter Shop and I have a package of batting on hand.  I'll ponder quilting designs as I get the layers ready.  

Design Wall Monday--Ongoing Scrappy Play

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

I continued to play in the leftover blocks and scrap drawers, with a few forays into the fat quarter dresser--where I was lucky to find the matching scraps to the blue fabric--even a perfect sized strip of 2.5" for the binding on the hourglass blocks mini.  I sewed it on right away. 

Some other bindings were also machine applied and stitched down on the mini quilts. 

 

I decided to hand stitch down the last mini in this pic.  

Quilt backings were all from scraps/stash. So fun!

Another mini quilt jumped out of the leftovers box. It has been hanging around a long time. 

Simple walking foot quilting and a couple of lines marked with the Hera tool. 

Stash piece of fabric for the binding.  I'll hand stitch this one down too. 

I started the backing for the green blocks runner shown yesterday, grabbing leftovers on the cutting table first, lol. 

A couple more pieces from the fat quarter drawer fleshed out the lengths necessary and I sewed them together. 

So pretty and scrappy.  Walking foot quilting immediately ensued. 

There was a lot of stopping and starting but that went just fine. 

I like the way the straight line quilting looks on the back, too.  I'll get a binding together for this one shortly.  What a fun few playdays on my long holiday break.  

Slow Sunday Stitching--First of 2022

It is odd to type 2022!  Glad to see the butt of 2021 as we slammed the door on it :)

I got a little stitching done to complete all the light green on the DMC Cat stitchery.  See more stitchers' work on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

I love to stitch under a quilt with my feline supervisor providing company. There is a lot of white to stitch when I have completed the cat's feet and some color details in different spots.  There is also embroidery to add after the cross-stitching is complete.  Still enjoying this very much.  I'm going to use washi tape to cover the hoop for the finish. 

We missed our New Year's Eve beach sunset this year, and yesterday I was too exhausted after spending all day taking down all the tree, house, and mantel decorations to make it to the harbor--plus Grant was involved in his football games.  Maybe today!  It will be a great finish to the holiday season. 

There was more play with mini quilts as well, which I will share for Design Wall Monday tomorrow.