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!

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!  

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. 

Design Wall Monday--Baby Girl Quilt Finish

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

I meant to link up this morning and ran out of time, then forgot all about it when I came home for lunch, but I have a finish to share. 

Binding now completed. Boy, it seemed to take half the afternoon to go all the way around this small quilt made for my nephew and his wife's first baby--and my brother and his wife's first grandchild.

A wide solid turquoise strip brought it up to size.  I used a leftover light block made from the Meadowbloom jelly roll as a label. 

I'll put the baby's name there, once she arrives and I know what it is! Glad to have this ready to mail, along with some baby clothes.

A Finish and Lost Things

Our next grandson's quilt is ready to go--I got all the quilting done by walking foot, and chose a solid blue from stash for the binding. 

I had a few binding clips loose in my sewing desk, but needed more.  The plastic box of red binding clips was not in its usual desk drawer.  A 20 minute "I just saw them" search then ensued--I looked through every drawer and bin at the messy sewing desk, and then all over the messy cutting table. 

Believe it or not, the binding clips were mere inches from the sewing machine in the photo above...

...under a pile of leader-ender blocks! Mystery solved, I set to hand stitching the binding down. 

The quilt is fairly small, though it seemed to take awhile stitching the binding by hand. 

The binding fabric shade was very close to the solid strip on the backing, a hair of difference.  I love the orange print, there is not much left to put in the scrap box.  As our son and daughter-in-law have not quite settled on his name, I'll make the quilt label after baby arrives. 

In other quilt news, my niece Emma sent a pic of herself wrapped in the Bookshelf quilt.  She was so happy to have it at last :)

There are a lot of tops that need quilting and I'll be constructing backings for them.  Also I poked around the project boxes in the Hoosier cabinet and oh, my, there are a lot of them!  Another "Empty the Hoosier Cabinet" self-challenge should occupy June, for the times when I am not holding our new grandson!

Staycation Sewing--A Finish and A New Start

I'm currently enjoying the second day of a staycation--my doctor boss is out of the office on a real vacation, and I took the opportunity to use saved PTO of my own.  

The long-term project of the bookshelf quilt has reached an end at last!  Yesterday I finally quit dragging my feet on stippling the black background of the bookshelves--and, as one usually finds when avoiding a task, it didn't take very long at all to do!  The quilt has had a bath and lacks only a label to be gifted to my niece, Emma. 

I am happy with the solid black binding and ended up not putting any stitching in the outer quilt borders--I wanted to keep the illusion of a wallpapered backdrop.

Stippling the black background was definitely better than leaving it unquilted--it lets the books and objects stand out more. Finished size is about 5 feet each direction, a nice lap quilt or wall quilt. Most of the ideas for this bookshelf came from the Fabric at Work guidelines I found online.  Pinterest and Instagram also had lots of inspiration input. 

Next task on this staycation is to get a couple of quilts sent out for quilting--and my sewing machine in for a maintenance service!

I've also started a new cross-stitch project. I bought some Stitch Cards at Superbuzzy not long ago; these are Lori Holt designs and are so sweet. 

I had one of these prestretched Aida blanks, so was able to get right to stitching. 

The gingham strawberry is all done now.  I did not have the teal floss color for the border--nor anything that would be close enough, so will just carry on with the leaves, flower and stem until I pick that up. I want to stitch all of these designs!

The new task is to get our next grandson's quilt made--he will be here in a few weeks.  I also have a great-niece due very soon and the rare opportunity to make a girl baby quilt is a nice change!

Design Wall Monday--Scrappy Small Quilts

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

I played with little quilts all weekend! On Saturday my husband was picked up by our son to play golf in Ojai, so I had hours at home to myself.  I started with the the newest mini quilt I showed last time, first choosing a backing fabric from several options. 

A vintage yellow gingham, a small flower red print, and a plaid fat quarter were my top stash options. The HSTs were made from a vintage green print  from stash, and a mini charm pack of Cheeky by Urban Chiks that I probably got at Sewtopia.

It was a close race, but the plaid Denyse Schmidt won out, as it echoed the plaids in the mini. 

After hand stitching closed the stitch-and-turn opening, the faux binding technique  was the next concern--could I quilt around the edge and make my idea of  putting faux binding strips on the backing work? (technique found on the Crafti Staci website, for coasters). 

I was pretty pleased that the stitching mostly stayed where I wanted it, to create the binding look!  A few lines of ditch-stitching down the center and the quilt was finished. 

All done!  

The next mini quilt was also made from leftovers. 

The pinwheels were made from fabrics in the Greenpiece quilt kits from  the Fat Quarter Shop in 2009, I think!  I had saved all the fabric leftovers from the monthly kits and easily cobbled together a backing for the pinwheels.   The Greenpiece quilt top was finally finished in 2021, but still needs  a backing and to be sent out for custom quilting! 

I Know I Just Had That...

I spent two days searching for the I Just Had That item of the week..the APQ magazine with the Make the Connection quilt pattern in it.  I was POSITIVE it was the cover. quilt. I had cut border pieces but wanted to double-check the sewing instructions after completing all the rows. 

Finally I sat down at the computer to look up the issue.  I had to laugh at my misplaced positivity...WRONG!

Well, I was kinda right-- there was no  picture of the Make the Connection Quilt, but it WAS mentioned on the right lower corner of the cover:) 

The border instructions were standard, as I'd thought, adding the sides first and then the top and bottom strips.  

Backing options resulted in a fairly recently acquired yardage--less than a year old. 

It's a Ruby Star Society print I picked up in Simi Valley at Quilty Pleasures quilt shop.  Love that cheddar.  I sewed up some more strip sets to lengthen the leftover blue solid strip bring the backing to size. The top and back are now hanging in the closet with the other completed tops.  The Make the Connection quilt was a fun detour.

Go Four It Quilt Top Finish

Go Four It progress! Some quality time in the sewing room has resulted in a finished top.  First there was a lot of MATH to see if the yardage I wanted to use for the border was big enough. 

Kansas Troubles fabric--I do love Moda fabrics. There was a lot of measuring and figuring and refiguring but the fabric was big enough to cut the border size I wanted, 5" wide.  I cut the strips  lengthwise so there was a lot of time with the cutting mat on the floor, as the cutting table was covered with the Bookshelf quilt pieces--I'll show progress on that project tomorrow.

Although I didn't plan this, the border fabrics from stash are very traditional in color.  I think that complements the center--they are "everything" blocks: pastels, batiks, prints, solids, traditional and modern. All the four patch blocks were assembled over several years as leader-enders, from 1.5" squares with 2.5" squares cut diagonally to put them on point.

I did have to seam together the borders strips for length, but I am not too fussed about that.  So glad this is a finished quilt top.  Stash fabrics will be assembled for the backing, and I will send this out for quilting. 

Catching Up, Squirrels, and Sewing

The sewing room was broken down for multiple days after we had the window installation.  I didn't want to completely reassemble the room before our monthly cleaners came.  I'll show something pretty first!  The DMC cat kit stitch is finished.  I used some washi tape I had on hand to wrap the hoop.  The stitchery needs a bath and press before I install and finish it in the hoop. The surface embroidery in white was pretty fussy to do, but sure looks cute; love the whiskers and smile too.

Here's the room before reassembly. It did not take too long to fix up.

The groaning fat quarter drawers were reinserted once the dresser was in place.  The newly operable window is open,  yay. During the reassembly of the cutting table items and things in Hoosier cabinet there were a couple of squirrels released...

There was a baggie of some green 3.5" tumblers that had been hanging around for far too long.  I quickly scrounged up some more green scraps to cut enough to make some placemats.  I'll square off the sides with a border to make the placemat wide enough.   The late night pic is making these prints look a lot grayer than they are. 

I also found this kitted up block my sister probably gave me out of a raffle basket she won and would never make herself! 

Whoever donated it had included a handy cutting diagram with the instructions, which is very much appreciated! I'll enjoy playing with these pieces. 

Some B blocks for the Plaidish2 quilt got assembled  as leader-enders while sewing the tumblers. There is lots to do on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma.  She was in town recently and we conferred over details.  That's the project box occupying the cutting table in these pics :)

Slow Sunday Stitching--Still Working on the Cat

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more needle and thread projects on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

I've put in only a few stitches on the Cat cross-stitch this week--most of them when the grandsons went to bed when we babysat so their parents could go to a local comedy show.  I had forgotten to put the date on my phone calendar and when Elaine texted us "Are you almost here?", we were finishing up soup and quesadillas for dinner!  They made it to the show, though definitely exceeded the speed limit to get there :)

More White stitches added to the cat's face, around the little flowers in his chin and cheek.  I should be able to complete all the white in another session, and then add the applied embroidery the pattern calls for. 

Next I plan to play with a long, long completed set of cacti--25 years maybe more?  The Southwest decorating schemes were popular when we bought our house 30+ years ago. 

I need to get back to the Bookshelf Quilt I started for my niece, Emma, and I think these would look great framed and sitting on a shelf. Emma did grow up in Arizona!  

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 :)

Slow Sunday Stitching--A Finish and a Start

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more lovely items being hand worked on Kathy's blog. 

I have a finish and a start--I think I'll start with the cross-stitch first. I'm stitching a scissor weight on linen to accompany the Pomegranate and Poinsettia pincushion stitch. Both of these are on the same piece of linen.  It is SMALL, 32 count; in retrospect, working on this at night wasn't the best choice. :)

The pinkeep will be petite.  However, after completing the whole border after this pic, I found that I had made it too small by two stitches in each direction, and the center design would not fit.  I directly moved over on this big piece of linen and began again. 

This small stitch should quickly be completed and then I'll construct the pinkeep and scissor weight. I started this UFO at least 6 years ago.  Sheesh.

The other slow stitching was a binding finish.  I made a quilt from 6" reproduction print swap blocks (Fun with Barb blog) and used single-fold binding.  It has been waiting weeks to be turned back and finished but at last is done.

The wind made the quilt dance a little; it is not actually that shape! 

Stash fabrics for the binding and borders.  

...as well as the backing.  This has been in stash a long time and I love the colors. 

Isn't the pumpkin print sweet? The binding looks bowed here, for some reason, but is not.  

The quilt is about 22x32.  This patch of weeds is about the only green thing in what used to be a lawn in the backyard!  Currently in SoCal we are in excessive drought and conserving water.  Hoping for some rain and ending the worst of the fire season relatively unscathed in our county!