Bon Voyage 2021

 I'm trying to tie up loose ends in my quilting projects and plans to get a good start on the new year.

I want to finish up some more UFOs before I start something new but the temptation is so great 

I finally decided to get out my Roseville quilt top (2010-2018).

This isn't the final layout for the blocks but you get the idea.  I put it away over 3 yrs. ago thinking I would come back and do borders.

I got out the background fabric, measured it and the quilt itself and began calculating how much I need, what size border to cut, and since I didn't want to do the border from the pattern I needed to come up with a plan.

After heming and hawing (I don't now if I spelled that correctlly) and getting distracted over and over and coming upstairs for something and going downstairs without it. . . numerous times.

I came to the conclusion that this quilt doesn't need a border.  I will quilt it and bind it and be happy.

On to the next UFO from 2006.  It is a Round Robin from my quilt group.  I have 11 blocks made from 11 different ladies and now I need to figure out what it's going to become.

The colors aren't  true in the photo.  I think my green cutting matt is clashing with that celery green and making everything look dull.

It will be fun to come up with something unplanned and it will be great to get another UFO off the list.

Joyous New Year,

Robin

Between storms

 The snow is melting because of the rain that is preceding our next winter storm.

But, my grandchildren took time to make some snowmen as they marched out to their cars to go home from our Christmas Eve brunch this morning.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday and if you're alone, I hope you'll reach out because I'm sure I'll be online tomorrow too.

Robin

Orphan Quilt Day 3

 Yeah, I think I'm in over my head.

Pretty this is not.  But, it used up a lot of extras from the orphan box.  I cut down the extra pinwheels from the quilt below.

I used the large sections of 2 1/2" squares leftover from this quilt 

And I just couldn't pass up using those outrageous friendship star blocks that I inherited from my mother-in-law's passing.  They are from the 70's and I'm sure there is polyester in them.

It's 60" square.  I have an idea for a much narrower border but I think that might be it.  My leftover blocks just don't play well together.  

Never say never,                                                                                                                                     Robin

PS  I just saw a mistake (how can you tell - you ask?).  It on the very bottom row where there is a single dark square.  There should be two side by side.  

Orphan Quilt day 2

 I thought this would be a breeze.  After all, the blocks are already made, right?

I spent most of the day yesterday just eliminating the blocks that definitely didn't go with the others.

Like I took out the blocks that had antique gold in them.  And the ones that were brown.  They didn't seem to go with the pinks, yellows, and purples.

I used two applique blocks that I made in 2004 or something.  I bought all the patterns from a cute little shop in Fallbrook CA.  But, after making two, I lost interest and then years later I put the fabrics back in the stash and gave all 12 patterns away.  The big stars are from a Jan Patek quilt (Country Paths I think).  The colors weren't right for the rest of the quilt.  The tree and house are from Sleigh Bells by Jan Patek.  The little girls are from a CW (Barbara Brackman) quilt I made that needs another border.  And the flying geese are just a nice leftover.

I lucked out by having the sprig print from the tree and the green homespun from the house still in my stash so I could repeat them in a strip under the flying geese.

The thing of it is. . . it feels like it shouldn't have taken me so long to figure this out.  But, again, it's not what looks good together.  It's what doesn't look good together so there's a lot of auditioning.

It measures 36 1/2 square so things are divisible by 2 or 4 or 6 or 9 or 12.  This is the perfect size as I work on the next border.

The thing about Orphan Quilts is, that they are very busy.  There is no way to get around that.

Robin

No guilt quilting day

 This is what I'm looking at.  We got 8 1/2" of snow last night.  More is expected tonight.

My grandkids were excited for a "Snow Day" until the schools all went to remote learning.

But, for me, it's a no guilt quilting day.  The only problem is I'm in-between projects.  To bad I'm not doing Bonnie's mystery because this would be a good day to hunker down and sew.

I think I'll get my orphan blocks out and arrange them.  It might be orphan day.

Robin

This is going to be a way bigger project than I thought.  Whew!!!

Love Letters, Sweet Land of Liberty, SNOW

I finished the machine applique on the Love Letters quilt by Barb Adams.  I am normally a hand appliquer but I thought this method would be faster.  And it was. . .  

But, it was not nearly as satisfying and it got a bit monotonous by the 3rd block.  I would wake up at night with the rhythm of stitch forward- stitch left-stitch right- repeat, going on and on in my brain.

But, it turned out to be a lovely quilt top and I look forward to hand quilting it later this year.  I'm tempted to do a border on the top and bottom that would make it longer for the bed, it is 84" X 84" square.  That being said, I don't have any more of the solid background fabric.  I don't remember what color it is.  It might be Kona Bone but it is definitely not Kona Snow or White.

I realized I never show my finished Sweet Land of Liberty quilt, pattern by Cheri Payne.  It was fun to hand quilt.

This is the back of the quilt.  I had these two panels from long ago by Sandy Gervais and since they had a patriotic theme, I used them for the backing along with some leftover twill-like fabric from the backing of another quilt.

I mostly quilted in the ditch and around the designs but once in a while I felt like doing more hand quilting .

I followed the design of the background to do quilting on this angel.

I just added some echo curves for this angel.

And I quilted a star in this blue field that needed a little embellishment.

I layered my Cheddarback (that I am calling The Children's Hour) quilt top weeks ago and now that Love Letters is done I can start hand quilting it.  This picture is dark because I took it downstairs on a snowy day but you can see some of the hand quilting.  

AND, speaking of snow, we finally got our first snowfall of the season.  I know it doesn't look like much but in our drought ridden state it is absolutely delightful.  We only go 2" here in the valleys but the mountains got over a foot of powder.  The skiers are all so excited.  I don't ski but love love love the snow. 

 

                                                               I am so grateful!!!

My sister-in-law is a shopper.  She bought this forlorn Santa at a Christmas clearance sale a few years ago.  He's missing the center "HO" in his banner.  She mailed it to me saying she thought I would know what to do with it.  Ha! Ha!

I'm thinking about redressing it in a pieced coat.  I was thinking rows of tiny flying geese but after seeing Barbara Brackman's latest post on cat mummies. . . I'm wondering about tiny log cabins.

I don't really know what I'm going to do with it but I'll take pictures if any re-decorating happens to go on. 

This year my husband is down with a back injury.  It makes carrying big boxes of Christmas decorations impossible.  So I decided I would just decorate my little 3 ft. tree that I could carry by myself.

All of the decorations are jewel-like in colors of teal, chartreuse, magenta, and purple.

 It's so unlike my usual tree of Hallmark, Country, and Homemade ornaments and garlands.  It's a pretty little tree but I miss my usual one.  Sometimes we have to make new memories, don't we?

Robin

Check out the other blogs on Slow Sunday Stitching

 

Warm Chamomile tea with honey feels so good going down a sore throat.  I figured honey has antiseptic qualities so it might help me keep from turning this cold into a sinus infection.   I'd show you my satisfied face but bed-hair is best kept from everyone - ha!

Robin

End of November

Still working on "Love Letter's".  I sew on it every day (except Sunday).  I sew until my back aches or the muscle on the back of my thigh complains.  This is usually about an hour.  These aging bodies sure complain a lot - ha!

I have seven blocks completely machine appliqued.  I tried to do the harder ones first so the easy ones would be left at the end.  I was wrong. This coxcomb block is going to be a bear going around all those curves.

I was at Canadian needle nana's blog last week (a delightful blog) and she had a link or I clicked on one of the blogs she follows.  Anyway, I came across some Red & White quilts that were so great.  I still want to make a Red & White quilt someday.  A few of the quilts were from the book  'Patches of Blue' by Edyta Sitar.  This book is all about blue and white quilts but the ones that were made in red and white instead were really what interested me.  I ordered the book from Amazon.

Well, I searched through my history and found those quilts on Gladiquits (another great blog).  Click on her name for a quick quilt show.  Gladi's quilt is the crib quilt - so nice.

You probably remember seeing this quilt online a few years ago.  The book came out in 2017.

 I want to make this quilt in red and white and put in more trees.

I also want to add this branch at the top of the houses.

If I wasn't toward the end of the current quilt I'm working on I'd start right away.  But, I determined to finish "Love Letters" before I start anything else.

That's the end of the quilty stuff.    I went outside about an hour ago.  I was struck by the vivid blue of the sky.  It makes even this crowded corner of our yard look nice.  It was a balmy 46 degrees outside.

One of the things I love about this time of year is the tree skeletons.  They can be so artistic.  So, here are a few in my yard.

Peach tree

Cutleaf Weeping Birch

Lilac

Trio of unknown trees

Autumn Splendor Maple

Grapevine

 Have a great day.  I caught a 'no fun' cold and sore throat over Thanksgiving so I'm homebound.

Robin

News from Bonar Bridge

Hawaiian print quilt top is my daughter's project

Here is a look at "Quilting Central" down in my basement.  Finishing up UFOs is kind of like having a job.  There's a task to be completed so each day I go downstairs and put my time in.  Love Letters on the design wall is progressing slowly but each day I get more done.  I've completely finished machine appliqueing the center wreath and now I'm working on the Oak Leaf block from the empty space on the wall.

I'm still hand quilting the Plaidish quilt.  It is "big stitch" quilting so it's going fast.  I should be finished in about 3 days or less if I'm diligent.

I decided to pick out a backing for my "Cheddarback quilt".  I had originally decided on using a big blue floral that is purposely faded looking.  When I got it out there was 9 yds. in the piece and this quilt only needed 4 yds. so I looked for something else.  I found this early Fons & Porter piece.  It is marked on both selvages but it only says Fons & Porter by Bernartex with 2 colors.  I think it looks great with the quilt top and am anxious to begin.

As you can see in the top picture this quilt is layered on the floor.  I ran out of pins for the pin basting (there is still a bunch in the Plaidish quilt).  I don't know whether to unpin the border now or buy new pins or leave the quilt sandwich on the floor until I finish quilting the other quilt.

I remembered the Cheddarback quilt begin quite large but it is only 68" X 75" or something like that.  I suppose I could have put a border on it but I wanted it to be more like the original.  It is sure a fun quilt to look at.  I think I'm going to enjoy quilting each individual block, like visiting an old friend.

 This is a picture of my 'Spring Cheer' daffodil that blooms both spring and fall.  It has quite a heady fragrance and show no sign of wilting anytime soon.

My husband ruptured another disc a month ago and has been flat in bed during that time.  The insurance company won't pay for the MRI unless you go through 6 wks. of physical therapy.  He's been in this situation before and is gladly jumping through the hoops so he can further the process toward surgery.  He had his MRI Wednesday and is waiting for the results.

So I am staying close to home and filling my hours with my quilting.  And I'm his chauffeur as well.

He's the kind of guy who always has a project going and he's an avid gardener.  The garden was cleaned out and prepared for fall by my daughter, her kids, and me last Saturday.  I didn't know I had it in me!

Robin

It appears I can be talked into anything

This could be considered a squirrel project but since it's my granddaughter's and not mine - I'm not counting it as such.  I was planning on beginning the machine applique for my "Love Letters" quilt top when I suggested to my granddaughter that we do a Halloween decoration together.

I bought the small Kitty Corn panel and a few pieces of fabric from the line, thinking we would make a wall hanging.  

Silly me, it tuned out not to be a little afternoon craft project.  

No, she came over with a plan to make a whole quilt.

These are the fabrics from the Kitty Corn line that I bought to go with the panel - the orange check, the green dot, and the mauvey candy corn print.  I picked out some pieces from my stash and she and her mother went shopping for something with a light background and came home with four more fabrics and a backing.

It seemed that this franken-batting was appropriate for a Halloween quilt.

So I trimmed down the panel to a 23" square and then added the black border so it measured 24 1/2".  I cut out 6 1/2" squares from all our fabrics and then we began sewing.

 I finished it up today and here it is layered and ready to pin baste.  the piece of fabric that surprised me is the peach colored one.  It is from my stash and it really adds a sparkle to the quilt.

My granddaughter wanted me to hand quilt it and with everything else that is going on I told her that I couldn't complete it by Halloween so she has settle for "Blind Tying".  Not my first choice but I haven't been in control of this project from the beginning.😁

But, we're making memories right?

Robin