To Do Tuesday: From Cross Stitch Back To Quilting

Checking in for another "To Do Tuesday" with the crafters who gather over at Quilt Schmilt!

Diverted by Cross Stitch Finishes

So I mentioned on last week's list that I had finished stitching a Valentine's cross stitch project and purchased the finishing supplies.  Well now that project and another cross stitch piece for Thanksgiving are "fully finished" as the cross stitchers say!

"My Heart Is Yours" and "Give Thanks"

So while the good news is that these two are now done (and way early for their respective holidays for a change), the bad news is that meant I didn't work on anything else.  Well, during the day that is.  In the evenings I've continued with my next cross stitch project: the "Year of the Dragon" piece.

Now that the project slate is a little clearer, maybe it will allow me to focus on some quilt projects!

Now Back To Quilting

So first off, I will be finally getting back to the blocks and finishing one of the tops for the two raffle quilts I need to get done by April.

I still have to stitch down the edges of the applique motifs for the blocks already prepared.  I had debated about adding flowers to more of the baskets but looking at the layout, I may try to make a few motifs to go in the half rectangles on some of the row ends instead.  

Since I have to stitch down the motifs for this one, I'll also finish stitching down the motifs for the applique blocks for the second dark quilt as well.  However, putting together that second top will have to wait until this one is done. 

From the UFO list, I was also supposed to work on my Fig Tree BOM project using various lines of their fabrics.  Funny thing though: when I pulled out the fabrics I had purchased on the Shop Hop back in October and looked through them to catalog what lines they were from, I realized I had made a mistake!

Unfortunately, these are not all Fig Tree!

The fabrics on the left are definitely Fig Tree and all but one is from the "Strawberries and Rhubarb" line.  The ones on the right are from another designer entirely:  "30's Playtime" by Chloe's Closet which I believe is a "basics" 30's reproduction line from MODA.  They had all been sitting in the same area in the shop so I guess this means I don't know the Fig Tree "look" as well as I thought, LOL!  Fortunately, I do have a stash of 30's reproductions that these will fit in nicely with anyway.

I did take one of the new Fig Tree prints and put it with two others already in stash to use in the next block.

I already had the deep burgundy print picked out for the trunk of the tree block and I've been using the "Fig Tree Cream" solid on the left as a background in all the blocks, interspersing it with other light prints depending on the block design.  Joanna Figureoa did this with the book's cover quilt which seemed to make the blocks "float" in the layout.  I'm hoping to achieve the same effect with mine.

That's Not to Say New Stuff Doesn't Come In....   

Another reason I got so off track this past week is that the "squirrels" have been coming in hot and heavy!  I have two new things I hope to begin working on, the first of which can be stitched as a leader/ender as I put the raffle quilt top together:

1.  Alycia of the Quilty Girl Alycia blog and who hosts "Finished Or Not Friday" has a new mystery quilt being released.  It starts off with Log Cabin blocks which have been an obsession of mine for the last couple of years.  Alycia's designs these to encourage people to make Quilts of Valor tops which is something I still want to do in my community so I just had to join in.

The strips for the first blocks are already prepped.  Well, the lights came out of the box where I put scraps for making LC blocks so they were already cut to size.  I had to mine the red strips from the stash of fabrics I have leftover from making red and white quilts for the holidays in 2022.  

2.  Pat Sloan's Breakfast Club is one of her current mystery sew alongs.  I've always wanted to make a quilty wall hanging for the kitchen.  When she started it, I liked the first block and saw I had a place to display this one with one caveat:  I'll be making mine a mini!  This will be an applique sampler and since I had really liked the fabric line she was using and found a good deal on it, I scooped it up.

I will also have to pull bits from my stash for some of the food motifs.  This is a "block a week" sew along so I hope I can both space out the work and keep up.  At least for right now, this is another one where I can stitch down the motifs along with the raffle quilt blocks.  

But Wait There's More!

Added to all of that there is also a lot of fun stuff I'm following.  While I was tempted to join in, I think I'll just watch these from the side lines.  Are you checking any of these out?    

Project Quilting - Season 15:  Challenge 1 has already been completed and the winners chosen.  Challenge #2 was just announced yesterday.  Will you be joining in?

Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR):  I've followed this one for a few years now and hope to do it one day.  I even have an orphan block I could have used but it's applique so I wasn't confident about being able to interpret pieced rounds with it.  I know I should have just dove in but with so many other things on my plate I think it's better to just watch and learn again this time.  The first Round has been announced on this one so go check it out if you think you might want to participate!

It sounds like a lot but with some focus it should be doable.  Or is that "famous last words"?!?  In any event, I'll head back over to Quilt Schmilt and see what everyone else is up to this week!

BOMs Away 2020 Week #4: AQS Twilight Flurries

Joining in for another week of "BOMS Away" hosted by Lynette over a What A Hoot! Quilts.  This linkup will help me stay on track on working on a group of BOMs I'd like to get done this year!

This week I introduce the last of the four BOMs I plan to work on this year.  For the last BOM round for this month, I'm embarking on "Twilight Flurries", the 2020 Christmas Countdown Quilt Along hosted by the American Quilter's Society (AQS).

AQS has hosted Christmas samplers as a quilt along since 2015 (and you can see the ones from all the previous years here).  Traditionally they issue the blocks for the year every day in December until all the blocks are released.  I've never been organized enough to even attempt to make one although I did use one of the blocks from the 2018 Black, Red and White set in a mug rug gift (that year the blocks were offered in that colorway and in (just) Red and White).  

However back in December, AQS decided to offer the 2020 set in a different way:  in December 2019, they issued all the blocks daily for both the 2019 and the 2020 quilt along!  This way, this year's blocks can be worked on all year.  Added to the fact that the quilt is designed in a Blue and White color scheme, I just knew I wanted to do it!  You do have to have an AQS membership to access the 'Twilight Flurries" blocks now (and the link to them is on the page for the 2019 QAL) but all the prior years QALs are open to the public.  AQS will open the 2020 blocks to the public in December like they normally do.

One of my plans for this year is to decorate in a Blue and White color scheme for Christmas.  I purchased ornaments in those colors for the tree years ago but as a quilter, I know I want to have some quilty good stuff to also decorate with.  However, I have never gotten around to making anything up in that color scheme (well, finishing something -- there is an old B&W UFO around here somewhere).  I had already planned to make a new Christmas Tree skirt and stashed blue and white fabrics for it.  For the tree skirt, I decided to do a Spiderweb skirt like the one I saw on the Stitched In Color blog.  However, I'll be cutting my fabrics using the Accuquilt Spiderweb die.

I plan to use the same stash to make the AQS quilt.  The AQS quilt has twenty-five blocks so just like with the Christmas Figs BOM, I have to make at least two blocks each month to finish by the end of the year.  I looked through the blocks to see if there were any fairly simple ones to start myself off with.  Block #1 and #8 are now done!

There will be more complex ones as they go along so I will probably try to bunch them into sets that use common unit sizes (especially if those can be die cut), shortcut techniques or specialty rulers.  Fortunately, since I have all the patterns already, I'm not obligated to do them in order so each month I can pick and choose the design or techniques I want to tackle.  I was also able to cut pieces for and make up a few of the Spiderweb quarter-blocks as well.

I am thrilled to finally get to make one of these quilt along quilts!  I would still also like to make the 2015 quilt in the version with the embroidered sashings one day.  With these blocks completed, all the BOM work for January is done.  I hope I can keep the momentum going for the rest of the year!

BOMs Away 2020 Week 2 - #3 (or technically #1B): Christmas Figs

Linking up to Lynette over at What A Hoot Quilts! with the last of my BOM blocks for this week:

The second Month #1 Block for the "Christmas Figs" BOM is done!  It was a bit of a challenge to try to pick an interesting fabric combination.  I  wanted to use three different lights in the inner rounds. These were the only three in the stash I have that I felt came close to working the way I wanted.  Picking coordinates to go with them meant the colors of the block kind of tracked with what was used in the original quilt which used a (darker) green center and a red print in the corners.  Finished it just in time since I have to run out to a community meeting in a little while.  I still need to add narrow sashing strips around it so will add that tomorrow.

Also done were more combo blocks for the "Old Tobacco Road" mystery.  Glad to keep moving along on those too!

Next week it'll be on to the next BOM!

The Kaye England CW Samplers Are Finished!!

I am glad to say that a big project that has been at the very top of my "To Do" list all year is finally done: Over the last two weeks, I finally quilted and bound the two Civil War sampler flimsies I finished up back in August of last year.  It's been hard to get good pictures of them so these will have to do for now and I'll try to get better ones later:

Re-piecing the Past from Kaye England's Craftsy class.

 

 

Civil War Legacy from Kaye England's book.



 

All the blocks were made from the scraps and leftovers from my other Civil War projects.  Through out the time I had worked to bring them to the topper stage, it had been my intention to probably finish them up by doing some simple "all over" stitching like Stippling or Baptist Fans because the layout was so busy.  I wound up sticking with that plan so "Re-piecing" was quilted with the Baptist Fans:

This was another chance to use my Westalee Circle templates (for more information on them, scroll down on this page).  I had also used them last month to start the concentric circle quilting on the "Thea's Puzzle" quilt seen in this post.

I liked using the templates because I was able to quilt the really large 12" fans evenly, without marking and by free motion quilting them.  I have quilted fans before:  on my "Stashbuster" quilt in 2010, I did them free hand and free motion.  They came out okay but it was harder than I thought to try to keep them even and back then I only stitched the widest arc at about 8".   More recently I did them again on one of the mini quilts I finished back in March.  That time I made cardboard templates for each size round with the widest arc 5".  I used a walking foot to stitch around them and had to swap out a different template to make each round, pinning them to the quilt to hold them in place while I stitched.  They were not as rounded as the Westalee fans are because the cardboard template was made based on a quarter circle.

With the Westalee template, I was able to use just the one template for all the rounds.  If I had wanted a different spacing between the rounds I could have swapped out other templates simply by placing them on the same centering pin.  If you want to see the template in action, check out Westalee's video here.  The next project I hope to try to do with them is use them to make the foundation circles for  Lori Kennedy's "Circle Doodle" quilt and use it to test out different decorative threads.

The center of "Legacy" was stitched free hand and free motion in a Stipple pattern and the narrow inner border was stitched with a walking (Accu-feed) foot.  The challenge was what to do for the other borders.  I wanted something simple to complement the simple center quilting but also something that complemented the border print.  I found what I wanted in two books on Amish quilting:

The pattern on the left is from Amish Quilting Patterns For Machine Quilting by Pat Holly and Sue Nickels and the one on the right is from Amish Quilting Patterns by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham.  You can see all the quilting better from the back:

Originally, I was a little concerned about what thread to use since the riot of color in each quilt might make it difficult to pick just one color.  However, I wanted to avoid, if I could, having to make a lot of thread changes.  Fortunately the quilt gods always come through for me!  I read a post back in November by Lori Kennedy who blogs at the "Inbox Jaunt" and is now a regular columnist for "American Quilter", the monthly publication for the American Quilters Society (AQS)  .  I've been following her blog for awhile now as she has been providing coaching on Free Motion Quilting techniques and patterns which she does on a domestic machine.

The post of hers that helped me out this time was one on "Choosing Threads For FMQ".  It was a great post in that it distilled the concepts down to a few simple starting questions to guide your choices.  It was also great because it was the perfect complement to another helpful post that I had read on this topic even earlier.  Wendy Sheppard  blogs over at "Ivory Spring" and is another accomplished quilter who also quilts on a domestic machine.  Her work has been frequently published in books and magazines, she has a FMQ course available through the Annie's catalog website and also has her second book coming out from Landauer Publishing this fall.  On her blog she has an ongoing series of posts called "Thread Talk From My Sewing Machine".  Back in April 2014, she did a post on the topic of achieving "Subtle Contrast" when it came to her quilting.  For this she uses thread colors that contrast enough to show against the backgrounds or piecing but not so much that the quilt stitching overpowers the quilt design.  She also identified which were her favorite Aurifil colors to use to achieve that. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Edited  10/4/15 To Add:  Wendy recently announced that her "Subtle Contrast" concept has been picked up by Aurifil Threads and will be sold as a thread box set!  Check out her post here about it.  I've searched and haven't seen it listed for purchase anywhere yet but hopefully that will happen soon too!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Armed with the wisdom of these two ladies, I have used their advice to help me decide on the threads I wanted to use to quilt all of my CW projects.  I was fortunate to have the perfect color for both of these and was able to use the same top thread for both:  Aurifil's #2324.  Both quilts are backed with Marcus Fabric's Aged Muslin in different colors.  For "Re-piecing" I used the Dark Brown muslin and Connecting Threads Essentials thread in Milk Chocolate.  "Legacy" was backed in the Tan muslin and I used Aurifil's #2000 thread.

Lastly in both cases, I monogrammed the label information onto the backing with my machine, listing the quilt information and all the block names. 

Before Quilting

 

 

After Quilting

 

With these done, in September I have to work on displaying all the quilts made to date.  I also still have to quilt the Chronicles BOM but I'm not sure when I'll get to that since I want to work on trying to finish my DWR next.  However, for the last few days left of this month it will be ornaments, ornaments, ornaments!!

Get It Done! April Recap, May Goals

It's been a busy month -- just not for quilting!  I've been getting involved in my co-op community which has meant a lot of meetings and commitments.  That's added to my participation in the Parent's Association and School Leadership Team of my youngest son's high school.  Probably the most limiting thing of all was the fact that I took my sewing machine in for service:

Turns out it needed a new spring for the thread cutter mechanism.  The good news is that I picked it up yesterday which will be a big help for May!

She's back!

So here's what was planned and what happened in April:

1. UFOs:  Quilting on the Civil War lap quilts.

 NOT DONE since I had no machine this month.

2.  Wool/BOMs: Continue work on the next block for the wool Ornaments. 

 

PARTIALLY DONE:  Everything got cut out but it all still needs to be sewn on.

For the Heart & Home BOM: I will probably just finish up the top details (and leave the quilting for later) because I have a Spring-themed one I'd like to get started on.

TOP DONE but then felt that I really wanted to finish the whole quilt.

STARTED Jan Patek's "Spring Fling" but I didn't get very far! Actually, there will be no wool on this one so I'm taking it out of this category for next month.

3.  Hand Work:  I'll resume the "Slow Sunday Stitching" an finally restart work on my old Quilt-As-You-Go project.  I still would also like to mount the finished Lincoln/Obama Redwork but no promises on that one.

NOT DONE, unfortunately too busy with other things to focus on it.

4. Gift Quilts: Once again, I need, need, need to start work on the baby quilt!!

NOT DONE but I bought a kit that might go towards this and I heard from the grandmother of the baby so I may finally get to work on this now that the machine is back.

5.  New Project/Challenge:  While the machine is in for service, it'll be the perfect time to cut out the two new solids projects and use the leftover stash from them for the FMQ Mystery at Lori's Inbox Jaunt and another solids project I'd like to do for Spring.

 

Amy Butler's "Thea's Puzzle" quilt

 

Kathy Doughty's "Dreamcatcher"

 

PARTIALLY DONE:  The project cutting got done but I still need to set up the sandwiches for the FMQ mystery and decide on what's needed for the other solids project.

 

Not on the list but also done:  As part of the cutting duties, I also finally cut the borders strips for my Double Wedding Ring project. 

 

 

Finishing this UFO is planned for the Fall so I will have to decide when to officially add this back to the "Get It Done!" goals. 

 

So for the May Goals it will be much of the same:

 

 1. UFOs:  Quilting on the Civil War lap quilts (now that the machine is back).

2.  Wool/BOMs: Finish stitching last month's block and work on the next block for the wool Ornaments.  For the Heart & Home BOM: I need to decide whether to proceed with finishing it or leaving this one until the Fall. 
3. Applique:  Would love to work on and finish Spring Fling so I can hang it for the season before it's over.  I'm also still debating on whether I will machine or hand applique this one so this may wind up in the next category instead!  
3.  Hand Work:  I still want to resume "Slow Sunday Stitching" and finally restart work on my old Quilt-As-You-Go project.  I would also still like to mount the finished Lincoln/Obama Redwork but again no promises on that one.
4. Gift Quilts: Once again, I need, need, need, NEED to start work on the baby quilt!
5.  WIP:  Work on Thea's Puzzle, make up quilt sandwiches for the FMQ Mystery at Lori's Inbox Jaunt and plan the Seminole bands for the kitchen curtain project.
6. New Project: Quilts of Valor: I have long wanted to make some QOVs.  My plan is to try to make one each month for May, June and July in commemoration of Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.  Wish me luck!

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you're heading." --- Lao Tzu

 

 BTW, Coming Up Soon!!!  

 

Amy Ellis' Blogger'S Quilt Festival -- Read More About It HERE!!

 

  

A New Post for the Tuesday Archives

Val over at Val's Quilting Studio hosts a weekly Tuesday Archive Linky Party.

She announces that week's two themes and people can link up an old post about projects they have done for one or both themes.  Quilters can also link up a new post for a "pre-blogging" project about the themes.  I've linked up a few old posts posts in the past month but this week's subject was one that I had a project for but didn't have a detailed post for.  So now I will!

This week's themes are "Chevron and Christmas Quilts".  I haven't made a chevron quilt yet but I have made a Christmas quilt.  Actually, I have made two but the second one was more of a quilt made from Christmas-style fabrics and can be seen here.  The one I want to highlight today is one made pre-blogging.  It was mentioned briefly as part of an early post but no real details were provided there.  Since it may be a while before I make another Christmas quilt, I figured I'd shake this one out and give it an airing!

 My Christmas quilt is "A Christmas Wish For A Happy Holiday" made in 2008:

I apologize for the not so hot picture, it's rainy today and this quilt has been folded up since after Xmas 2012 because the only place I can display it was occupied this past Christmas.  This project was a free Block Of the Month offered by Debbie Mumm -- one of the early icons of the quilt industry -- on her website that year and is still available in her Free Pattern Archives here.    

As quilters we are often drawn to the concept of the BOM.  It always seems so simple:  you get a pattern and possibly fabrics to make one block each month and then at the end of the year you have a quilt.   I say it "seems" simple because even from the beginning, I've yet to do a BOM this way!  This was the first Block of the Month I ever did.  Debbie put out the patterns each month and I dutifully picked them up and saved them on my computer, swearing I would make them each month.  But I wound up not even starting this project until October!  So instead of making a block a month, I had to make two blocks a week in order to have them ready when the last (the big center) block and quilt assembly instructions came out at the beginning of December and had to hope I would be able to keep up the steady work on the quilt so I could display it for the holidays.

Despite that it was fun.  The best part was that I was able to make all the blocks from the stash I had at the time and I took all the color cues from Debbie's pattern.  In fact the border fabric was one of the first prints I bought when I started quilting in 2002.  I only had three fat quarters of it (all they had on display at the store at the time) and was lucky that it was almost enough to make the border and binding for this quilt (although I had to piece another fabric into the binding to complete it).  One of the block fabrics used was even from my old clothing sewing days!

I admit it's not too heavily quilted, just stitched in the ditch around the blocks.  Back then I was still pretty nervous about quilting my projects even though I had set out from the beginning to be a machine quilter.  I was so nervous that I didn't finish up the quilting of it until Christmas Eve!  But there is another reason it's not too heavily quilted and that would be the back label:

This label is centered in the back under the center block.  I've always liked the idea of including a "fun" label in every project if I can.  I had collected Christmas quilt ideas for a long time before I saw Debbie's BOM project.  One of them was this pieced picture from the December 1997 (#298) issue of Quilter's Newsletter magazine.  It's called "Partridge & Pears" and was designed by Deborah Moffett-Hall.  It was designed to be a stand alone wall hanging to finish at 29" x 18-1/2" using squares that finish to 1-1/2".  I liked it but not having anywhere to display a quilt that size,  I thought it could instead make a cute label for the BOM quilt (which finishes at 47" square) if I made it smaller.  So I made my squares to finish at 1" so the pieced portion wound up at an unfnished 14-1/4 x 7-1/2" before adding the lower label area and the border around it.  And yes I did hang it up for Christmas Day that year!

I did go back in 2009 and add some more stitching in the borders using a very light gold metallic thread.  A little more confident in my free-motion skills at that point, I stitched a holly and berries motif in the corners and the quilt title in the top and bottom borders.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of that but know that it's there!  I still want to "fill quilt" the blocks of  this one day but for now, I like to look at it and remember the green horn quilter I was back then!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to go back and check out the other Archive links over at Val's!

2013 Year In Review Part 1 -- Recent Finishes

Once again I didn't expect to be this long from the blog but things have been both busy and stagnant since my last post in November.  But I wanted to close out the year by taking a moment to look back on what has happened and what I can expect for the New Year.

Getting Back To the Teaser

In the last post I had teased  this.....

Click on the picture to what the squares say up close! 

....and thought I 'd get back soon for a detailed post.  This STILL isn't THAT post but here's a look at the whole project:

I've used that white shoe cubby in my quilt space for years to store my fat quarters.  When we moved in 2011 and I set up my studio in our dining room, I felt that the box (which hangs over my cutting table) would need something to make it a little more interesting.  

Early in 2012 I saw this dresser when Monique Reynolds of the Monique's Stitches/Sew Fun By Monique blog did a guest post on Allison Rosen's Within A Quarter Inch blog.  I loved it and it reminded me of a project I had wanted to do for my old quilt space:  make curtains alternating selvedge string squares with panel blocks I had purchased from Block Party Studios (Note: the link is to their latest panel "What Quilters Really Think V" although my project used panels from versions II, III & IV).   

I was a little disappointed when we moved since the curtains wouldn't work for the dining room but when I saw Monique's dresser I realized I could retrofit the idea to my storage box.  The result is what you see here.  I leave it open on a day to day basis (I love to see my FQ's!) but can close the front down when the dining room space has to do its normal duties.  

I have two other projects planned for my quilt space which I hope to get to in 2014.  When they're done I hope to do a "my quilt studio" posting.  This year was a very special one for my little quilting space but I'll say more about that in that future post.

Another UFO Down

For the last two years my goal has been to clear out UFOs and WIPs.  Unfortuately, I've found myself bottled up lately when with the year rushing to a close, I realized that there was still a (too) LONG list of things I had wanted to have done before the year ended.  With Thanksgiving and Christmas and a spate of volunteering at my DS2's school I was pretty sure I wouldn't get to all of it.   But wanting to get at least something knocked off the list, I had gone back to working on another old UFO and managed to get it done at the start of December.

This is called the "Sage Sampler".  None of the fabrics are actually sage colored --- it's named after the color of the frame I put it in.  The blocks finish at 3" and was an attempt to work from a limited pallette of scrap fabrics.  Started way back in 2004, I had six of the blocks done and made the green Fleur De Lis applique in 2010 after I took a Hand Applique course.  Wanting to take as few old UFOs into the New Year as possible, I pushed to finish this one.  And now after all these years it is finally hanging in my bedroom as originally intended.  Hopefully for 2014 I can finish the three other quilt projects I have planned for that room as well as finally work on the wood I bought to make some quilt display ladders.

The Magi Were Better Gifters

Another thing I wanted to finish up were some projects for a friend of mine.  My friend attended her first quilt show with me earlier this year (although she is not a quilter).  It was the New Jersey Quilt Fest and will be coming up again in March 2014.  While there we went to a lecture by Kaffe Fassette and all the quilts from his last book "Shots & Stripes" were on display (and for a great review of the book see this post at the Quilt Inspiration blog).   My friend had particularly loved his "Girder" quilt.  At the time, I got the idea to make her a mug rug "snapshot" of it as a remembrance of attending the show.  Here it (finally) is (finished size  6-3/4" X 5-1/2):

The mug on the back  is a quarter size version of the "Big Mugs" block from the Dec '/Jan '14 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine and can be picked up from their website here.  Unfortunately, I still owe my friend two other gifts, a cat panel print that she purchased at the show that I am now feverishly trying to finish quilting up for Christmas for New Year's before her next birthday in February!  The other is a jewelry pouch I started years ago for her that is complete except for embellishment (I want to try some beading and couching) and binding (in more of those shot cottons!).  As I said, she'll definitely have it for her birthday at the latest (and hopefully THAT won't be famous last words!)

Well that's it for the recent finishes, Part 2 of this post will review the finishes from the beginning of the year and the additional things I hope to accomplish in 2014!  Stay tuned!