Slow Sunday Stitching 2/22/15

I spent the weekend at a friend's house in New Jersey.  Her husband threw her a surprise birthday party and we had a great time celebrating with family, neighbors and friends.   Even better, since I stayed over, we were able to sit and chat for most of Sunday before I had to make the return trip home and during that time I got to finish this:

The stitching for my little Redwork piece depicting Presidents Lincoln and Obama is now done!  The next phase for this project is to add it to this old quilt of mine that is currently on display:

I made this all the way back in 2002 in my first year of quilting.  It was the third quilt I had made and an attempt to make a quilt using the "paper bag method" of scrappy color choice following the "Spontaneity" exercise in Gai Perry's book "Color From the Heart".  I want to place the Redwork in the center of the quilt and maybe embellish around it with trims or something.  We'll see what develops over the course of the week. 

Updated To Add:  To see how it was finished, check out this post!
 
For Slow Sunday Stitching, a finish means I can now turn (back) to working on a Quilt-As-You-Go project started many years ago:

I'm linking up with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts and going to take some time to check out what everyone else was up to yesterday.  Hope to see your project there!

Vintage Cherries Update #2

On the design wall:  Now that the back is done, can a finish be far behind?

Hopefully not since I've still got a lot of things to get done before February ends. Looks like it'll be a race to the finish!

Vintage Cherries Update

Well, at least the top got done! 

 

 Happy Valentine's Day!

A Week of Slow Stitching

Mr. Lincoln is done!

I didn't actually stitch on Sunday this week so didn't link up with Kathy this time (however, if you'd like to see what everyone else did, you can check out the link up here).  I had expected that because of things we had to do on Sunday, I might not get to the stitching that day.  Fortunately, I was able to spend a few days during the last week stitching on days when snowstorms gave me the excuse to stay in.

As a result, the stitching for Mr. Lincoln finished.  So now this little redwork project is 3/4s done.  I have one last motif which will hopefully be either partially or fully revealed on next Sunday's report.  Admittedly this has been fun and I definitely see more embroidery projects in my future!

Also slowly moving along is my "Vintage Cherries For Valentines" quilt. 

I added twelve more blocks but still have fourteen left to make before putting the top together.  At this point, I'm running out of room on the design wall and have started taping blocks above it!  With the embroidery up to date, this project will now have to be the focus for the week if it's to be done by Valentines Day.  As usual, fingers crossed to get that done!

Posting Through the Superbowl #3: Slow Sunday Stitching 2/1/15

Had to stop stitching so I could make this post before midnight.....

Superbowl Final:  New England Patriots 28, Seattle Seahawks 24

I guess the Jimmy Kimmel video was right:  Tom Brady is a God!

...and speaking of patriots....

I may keep stitching for awhile and get a little more done before calling it a night.  Snow is falling again so tomorrow might be another snow day which would be good for more stitching!  Fingers crossed!!  Pop on over to Kathy's to share what you worked on or see what everyone else was stitching on through the game!

Posting Through the Superbowl #2: Getting It Done 2015 - January Recap/February List

So continuing with my Superbowl Day posting and my personal finish challenge for the year, it's time to report in on last month's progress and set the agenda for the coming month.

From the January List:

1.  Get "High Strung Plus 2" to the flimsie stage:  DONE!

2.  Quilt the two Kaye England Civil War lap quilts:  NOT DONE

3.  Quilt the Civil War Minis: NOT DONE

 



4.  Get the first "block" done for a new (personal) BOM:  making up the Warm Hands/Warm Feet ornaments: DONE!

5.  I also want to work on the blocks for another BOM:  continuing the Heart & Home Wool BOM from a few years  ago:  DONE!

6.  This year I also have a number of hand work projects lined up as well a hand quilting UFO that could use a finish.  Hoping to encourage myself to make time for that, I want to try participating in Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching linkys:  DONE!

 

 

 

7.  I'm also overdue for making up a baby quilt gift so that needs to get done too.  Have stash, need a plan!  NOT DONE

 

 

So here's what I hope to work on for February:

 

1.  UFOs:  Once again, I will try to get to the Quilting on the Civil War lap and mini quilts, this time hopefully with finishes.

2.  Wool/BOMs:  I'll continue to work on the next blocks for the two wool BOMS, finish the Valentine's Table Topper and start on a new one:  another topper that will be a kitchen wall hanging

3.  Hand Work:  I'll continue or finish the "Slow Sunday Stitching" Redwork.  If I finish it, I will restart an old Quilt-As-You-Go project.

 

 

4.  Holiday Quilts:  I'll finish the blocks, top and quilting on "Vintage Cherries".

 

 

5.  Gift Quilts: I need, need, need to start work on the baby quilt (its now long overdue!!!)

 

 I'm off to do some Slow Sunday Stitching and Downton Abbey!

 

P.S. Superbowl Update:  3rd Quarter, Seattle Seahawks ahead of the Patriots 24 -14 

Posting Through the Superbowl #1: Woolen Doings

I don't usually watch the Superbowl unless my team (the NY Giants) are playing and they didn't even come close this year!  Compounding things, my DH and I usually do our monthly warehouse club shopping at the end or beginning of the month.  We had a performance to go to yesterday so today was the day to get it done.  We expected a glut of people at the stores but I guess most people had prepared for their parties early because the stores were relatively empty.  So now that the shopping is done and all the groceries have been put away, I can relax, blog and quilt!  Oh, and watch Downton Abbey!!

There will be three posts today: some on my doings during the past week, my "Get It Done" challenge recap and (hopefully) a report on the Slow Sunday Stitching I hope to work on once the first two posts are done.

Having finally gotten a new Christmas quilt to the flimsie stage (see "High Strung +2" posted here), I had also put on the project list for this year a couple of wool ornament kits that I want to do as a personal block-of-the-month project:

Since this was the last week of the month I needed to get started! So here's block 1:

I'm machine stitching these with Perle Cotton #12 having learned from Rosie McCready DeLeon's website that #12 Perle is similar to working with two strands of embroidery floss.  For me the advantage of using Perle is getting to do that by machine.  This is helpful since I've already got another hand work embroidery project going for Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching (and that will be a separate post today). 

Also on the wool and Block of the Month list is getting back to my Heart & Home BOM.  I had started the blocks back in March 2012 to participate in Sinta Borland's "BOM Rehab" challenge (her blog is Pink Pincushion).  The kits had been purchased that year from Primitive Gatherings so have been percolating since then which is why I want to get it back underway and hopefully finished this year.  I pulled out the stash of kits and the next block (#8 of 12) is this one.

The wool appliques are stitched onto backgrounds of Japanese Taupe fabrics using wool thread.  I had been able to stash a bunch of Aurifil Lana wool back when I started this.  When I pulled out the kits, I found that I actually also needed to finish the detail stitching on the last block so was pleased to also get that done.

 

With the first two projects needing so much stitching done, I was only able to get the last of the wool projects started.  When I finished my "High Strung +2" quilt top, I got started on a new project: "Vintage Cherries For Valentines" based on design from the same book.  Here's the original design from the book:

and mine so far...

When I saw the quilt in the book the color palette reminded me of chocolate candy and Valentine's Day.  That in turn reminded me that last year had I bought a wool table topper pattern on Ebay. I loved the opportunity to do another wool project and welcomed the opportunity to work it in with the other projects I've got going. 

As you can see, I only got as far as tracing out the templates onto freezer paper and starting to pull some stash for it.  I have high hopes to get both the "Cherries" quilt and this little table topper completed by Valentines Day or shortly after.  I have (yet) another wool project I've long wanted to get up on the dock and hopefully once this last one is finished, I will be able to start on that one.  Nothing like working with wool in the winter!

P.S.  As I publish this, it looks like it's the second quarter and the score is tied for the game. Ok, I may not be watching but I am interested in what's going on!