Slow Stitching with Frank

Last week, I showed my next hand stitching project--a cross stitch picture based on the Tree of Life stained glass window by Frank Lloyd Wright. 

 

Confession:  I did not get much slow stitching done this past week. I organized my thread and then spent a few days looking for my embroidery hoop so I could do some stitching...I finally found the hoop today and started stitching! My aunt used to do petit point and she always organized her threads this way. I used a hole punch and made 6 holes along the side of the cardboard. I separated the threads by colour and labelled the symbols and colour names by each hole. Is this the way other people do this?  Many years ago when my go-to stitching project was cross stitch, I just copied my aunt's method and have never considered other ways to organize the threads.

 This afternoon, I did some stitching in the gazebo under the supervision of Skye, my dog-nephew, who is visiting for a few days while his family is on vacation. Skye likes to be wherever we are--reminds me of that song, "Me and My Shadow."

We have been going for lots of walks in an attempt to use up some of Skye's boundless energy.  All I can say is that this strategy is not working!  He is always up for a game of ball.

Here is my progress so far.  I hope to work on this some more before the weekend is over.

Houses and Trees Chemo Quilt

 

Late last year, all of the members of the Elgin Piecemakers made house blocks for our monthly charity quilt for a chemo patient at our local hospital.  I brought the blocks home, fully intending to put them together into a top within 4-6 weeks...Life got in the way and I did not get back to this project until this week. There were 16 house blocks in all, inspired by the colours of the jelly bean houses of St. Johns, Nfld.

I decided to set them in rows with trees in between the houses, so it looked like a neighbourhood. 

This is a green bean tree!

Some were appliqued by machine.

Some were pieced.

This one was a bit windswept.

I decided the quilt needed a flag as well.

I tried out different colours of solids for between the rows of houses, but in the end, decided that this blue looked the best.

I will be piecing the back tomorrow night and then it will be ready for quilting. Hopefully, it will be quilted and bound and ready for donation by September. The husband of one of our guild members usually does the quilting. I think this quilt will help to cheer someone up, don't you???

The Tree of Life

Two years ago, I took my husband to Buffalo, New York for the weekend to celebrate his birthday. I made arrangements ahead of time to go on an in-depth tour of this home--Darwin Martin House--which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  We could be described as FLW fan club members and have toured several of the buildings that he designed over the last several years.  The Darwin Martin House is in a state of restoration.  At one time, when the family fell on hard times, part of it was destroyed and some apartments were built on the property and the beautiful stained glass windows were sold to raise money to keep the house in the family. There is a group raising money to have new stained glass windows made and installed at the house.

Fast forward to this past weekend...My husband and I spent a day at the Detroit Institute of the Arts to see the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo exhibit. After seeing their artwork, we wandered around other parts of the DIA.  One of the exhibits was an original stained glass window which was part of the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo at one time!  It is called the "Tree of Life" window.

Here is a picture of the window pattern which I found on the internet:

This week, I was trying to figure out what to do for my next hand stitching project.  Seeing the Tree of Life window in Detroit reminded me of a cross-stitch kit which I purchased two years ago at Darwin Martin House. 

I think I have a new handwork project!  I hope to have some progress to report by next Sunday at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching link up.

Some quilting, some binding and some trees.

Saturday was the monthly meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild...yes, I have joined a third quilt guild!  The LMQG meets 12 times a year, including the summer months.  Christine has joined too.  I worked hard last week to get my vortex quilt quilted in time to bring it for show and tell on Saturday. Nothing like a deadline to make me get something done!  

 

I used yellow thread on top and orange thread in the bobbin and quilted a series of organic wavy lines on this quilt.  The binding was not on it time for the meeting so I put that on tonight when Christine came over for our weekly sewing night.

You can see some of the backing fabric in this picture--all from my stash.  I started to hand sew the binding tonight--watch for the full reveal later this week.

I also made some trees tonight.

These are for a specific UFO which I will show later.  I need to make 15 in total--I am 1/3 of the way there.

My garden is looking great these days...

Echinacea are blooming.

 I love the orange butterfly weed,

 

and the daisies.

 

 

Vortex Flimsy DONE!

I spent most of yesterday running errands, gardening, and doing jobs that needed to be done around the house, so this afternoon was "me time". I spent a few hours putting my quilt vortex blocks together.  There was some trimming and a couple of extra blocks to make but I had the entire top together before supper.  I had wondered if I would need to add borders but now that I am looking at the picture again, I don't think it needs them. It measures 57" by 46" and should be fine as a lap quilt for my family room.

There are a lot of memories in these bits of fabric!  Somehow, they all seem to look good together. My scrap collection does not appear to be depleted at all...

Earlier in the week, I showed a close up picture of a flower in my yard and asked it any of you knew what it was...No one guessed that it was a close up of my climbing hydrangea plant!

Here are a few more pictures that I have taken this weekend...any guesses for these ones???

I will be hunting out some background fabric and batting so I can quilt my vortex quilt this week.  I have a London Modern Quilt Guild meeting next weekend and hope to bring it for show and tell.

Have a great week!

Happy Canada Day! (and more of the vortex!)

 

One of the fabrics I used in my quilt vortex project is very appropriate for today...Canada Day!  We are finally having some sunny weather after several gray and rainy days. There are plans for a  family bbq and fireworks later on today to celebrate this wonderful country that we call home.

 



I spent some time last night sewing and pressing and trimming on my vortex quilt.  I now have several large blocks made from my scraps, which, with borders, should make a nice sized lap quilt. I am quite sure that I have something in my stash for the borders and backing for this quilt... I have used up lots of scraps for this quilt but still have lots more.  I may need to make another one of these quilts sometime to use up some more scraps!

Here are my blocks on the design floor:

 

 

I will have to check in at Crazy Mom's blog today to see what she suggests I do next.  None of the blocks are the same size. I suspect I will be cobbling them together somehow into a quilt top!

 

 

I took this picture last night in my backyard...  Any guesses as to what it is????

 

 



Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian readers!