Embroidery Done and some HST blocks

I sat down with a cup of tea by my side and added more embroidery stitches to my project several times this past week.  Yesterday, I finished the last few stitches, and it is done!  As directed, I soaked it in warm water and the pink lines on the fabric magically disappeared. 

I had fun trying out some new stitches and when I find the hoop that came with the kit (I know I put it somewhere safe and now it is MIA), I will hang it in my sewing room.

I bought the kit at QuiltCon a year ago on a whim and will need to do another embroidery project in the future. Next, I will be doing a small counted cross stitch picture.  I have my pattern and threads ready...no stitches done yet.  I will start tomorrow.

The London Modern Guild is doing a mystery BOM using only HST blocks.  I dug through my stash and found these two fabrics.  The seagulls wearing sweaters make me smile!  I made a bunch of HST's yesterday.

This morning, I made the first three blocks.  The first one did not go together as smoothly as I would have liked...

My trusty seam ripper saved the day and I was soon back on track.

Here are the next two blocks.

I am told that these will go together somehow to make an interesting quilt top.   There are lots more blocks to go.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the gang in the morning.

A Finish to Show You and some hand sewing.

I finished this quilt quite a while ago (September) but have not had two quilt holders here when the weather is good for a picture until today. As you can see, almost all of our snow has melted except for the remnants of the piles at the sides of the driveway. This is my 9 patch mystery swap quilt. Christine and I organized this for the London Friendship Quilters' Guild last year. Everyone in the swap made 20 nine patches each month in a pre-determined colour and then Christine and I mixed them up and gave each participant 20 different nine patches back at the next meeting. There were also clues each month to make the rest of the parts for the complete quilt. This quilt has already had a turn on our bed as well as the guest room bed. I change quilts every time I change the sheets so all of the quilts get a turn being used.

My friend Cathy did the quilting. She did a great job as usual!

Today, I am doing some hand stitching on the binding of the quilt I showed a couple of posts ago. Cathy quilted this quilt with music notes. It is a Christmas gift for someone with musical talents.

I continue to work on some other gifts as well. There will be a grand show and tell after Christmas day!

Here is my stash report for this week...

Fabric used in the last week: 1.0 yards
Total fabric used this year: 209.36  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 1.0
Total fabric added this year: 154.66 yards
Net fabric used this year: 54.7 yards

My nieces are here this weekend for some aunt and uncle time. They have had a great time playing I Spy with the baby quilt I was working on last week with my MIL. There has not been any progress on the baby quilt this week.  I need some snow days to get all of my projects done...

My Bags are Packed...I'm ready to go... (almost!)

Tomorrow morning, dark and early, Christine, Carol and I will be leaving for Elk Rapids, MI where we will join several other quilters at Gwen Marston's annual (and final!) Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. I have been flitting about all day, gathering up everything I will need for a week of sewing and relaxing at the retreat.

I cleaned my sewing machine, oiled all the moving parts and changed the needle. I am going to do some hand sewing in the car...I put the binding on my 9 patch mystery quilt this afternoon to test out the machine after its tune-up--all is running smoothly and there are fewer squeaks now! I love hand sewing binding in the car--it keeps me awake and is a good use of my time on the long ride.

I did a bit more applique on my Becky Goldsmith workshop project this week

. I just have the tree to go and this block is done.

Here are some pictures of the lovely quilting on my 9 patch mystery quilt. Cathy at Eagles Wings quilts did a great job!  Thanks, Cathy!

 

 

I will do another stash report when I get home.

Now, I need to get some sleep before my vacation starts!

Some gifts and a quilt back

I used a Moda Bake shop pattern called "Giant Pin Cushion" to inspire this gift for Christine's daughter. She is going into a program at university in fashion design and I suspect this will come in handy! It is filled with plastic beads. I bought this fabric at last week's fabric party.

I also finished off the 5 pillowcases that I started last week.

The second one with the tea cups and tea bags is for me!  I love a hot cup of herbal tea in the cold weather!  The other pillowcases are all gifts for others. I have more people I would like to make pillowcases for so there will be more of these showing up on my blog soon.  They are great stash-busters!

Last night, Christine came over and we both worked on our 9 patch mystery quilts. Christine is still working on putting her blocks together and hopes to have her top together in time for the first London Friendship Quilters' Guild meeting for show and tell. It will be fun to see everyone's mystery quilts. I finally finished off the backing for my quilt so I can take it to Cathy next week for quilting. She promises me it will be done in time for show and tell!

I purchased a wide back for this quilt, thinking that it would be less work since I would not have to piece the back. In the meantime, I decided to add borders to the quilt top and the fabric I had picked for the backing made a great border...resulting in being short on the backing. The lesson from all of this...wait until the quilt top is completely done before purchasing the backing!  The upside--I got to use up the extra fabric and 9 patches leftover from this project... Yet another stash buster!

Here are a few more pictures from our family vacation.  This sewing desk belonged to Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln. We toured their home in Springfield, IL. Of course, I was drawn to this particular piece of furniture!

 

Nice sewing basket!

 

I kept my eyes open for quilts as well. This one was on display at the Old State Capital Building in Springfield. During the civil war, the women made quilts for soldiers and to raffle off to raise money to purchase items for soldiers fighting in the war.

 

I will do another post soon about a display of civil war quilts at the Illinois State Museum.

 

 

Until next time...

Progress

Progress was made on a few projects this past week. Sometimes, it feels like it takes me an eternity to get from start to finish on a quilting project (and other projects around the house too!). I seem to have lots of things on my list which I would like to accomplish but time and energy run out before the item is crossed off the list. I will just have to keep plugging along and hopefully, finish a few projects along the way.

I finished adding the borders to my 9 patch mystery this weekend. I just have to piece the back now so that I can get it to the quilter's house this week.

She assures me that she will have it done before our guild meeting in September. I think the borders finish it off quite nicely, don't you?

Christine, Carol and I got together this afternoon to work on our collaborative project. Between holidays, family commitments and working, it takes a bit of juggling for all three of us to be free to work on this quilt at the same time!  Today, great progress was made with the addition of a floating leaf border...

The good news...we have a plan to finish off this project with the addition of some flying geese and a final border of the flower fabric. We all have some geese to make before our next meeting to complete this quilt top.

I did some had stitching today on the binding for my swoon quilt. I am hoping to finish it off in the next day or two so that I can show it at a gathering of quilting friends later this week. Only 1 1/2 more sides to go!

Now is the time to fess up to how much fabric came home with me from Quiltology in Chicago....

It is all washed now and most of it is ironed and ready to use in future quilts and a new pillowcase for me.

Fabric used in the last week: 2.85 yards
Total fabric used this year: 114.35  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last 3 weeks: 12.0 yards
Total fabric added this year: 107.16 yards
Net fabric used this year: 7.19 yards

This will look better after I get that backing pieced this week!  Maybe, I will even get my pillowcase made too...

I will finish off this post with a couple of pictures from my vacation. While in Springfield, we walked down a street that had recently been streetscaped with planters, new sidewalks and pillars with sayings of famous people.  This one caught my quilter's eye...

 

Happy Sewing!

Back from Vacation...

I was here last week with my husband and my daughter. This pic was taken from the 94th floor of the Hancock Building in downtown Chicago.

It was a long way up but the views were amazing!

We did a few architectural tours by bus, by boat and by train on the "L". My favourite building was designed by a woman...it is called Aqua, for obvious reasons!

Tonight, Cathy and Karen came over for some sewing. It was the first time I have even looked at my machine since I got home on the weekend.

Cathy worked on putting her blocks together for her Lazy Sunday mystery quilt.  She got 1/4 of the top put together.

Karen worked on a thimble table runner:

I worked on attaching borders to my 9 patch mystery. Cathy will be quilting it before our September London Friendship Quilters Guild Meeting.

I purchased a wide back before I decided to add the borders so I may have to do some inserts into the back to make it big enough. I have lots of fabric in my stash so I should be able to do this without having to purchase any more fabric...

I will do my next stash report on the weekend...I did some shopping in Chicago at Quiltology... a very dangerous store for someone who is trying to reduce her stash! (Especially when everything was on sale!)

This bricks and mortar shop will be closing soon and going online only.

Lots of fun quilts on display and wonderful bright and happy fabrics!

Puttering....

I made another slab for Alberta this past weekend. I have been working on sorting my strips and scraps into zip-loc bags by colour so it was easy to just grab a couple of bags (red strings and red 2 1/2" strips) and start sewing!  Several friend are making or have made slabs so I have a collection of them on my design wall...

I will be getting some more blocks this week--some in the mail and some at a sewing day this weekend. It would be nice to have enough to make a quilt top to send out west. Let me know if you are going to be making some slabs for this quilt!

I made a pillowcase for a friend for her birthday. She and I used to drink a lot of tea together when we lived in the same city. I will be putting this in the mail for her this week.

My BIL and SIL painted my nieces' room this past week and their new pillows are on their beds.  Yes...that is Hedwig on the bed with the pillows.

Here is the other one...

The girls are quite excited to have a "new room"!

I put the binding on my "Sewing Baskets" quilt that I made at BIQR last fall. I am in the midst of doing the hand sewing part...I am about half way around and will show a picture of the completed quilt soon.

You are also getting a bit of a sneak peak at the quilting in this picture...

I also finished sewing the 9 patch mystery flimsy together. I am trying to decide if I want to add a border or not...I like there to be lots of quilt hanging down the side of the bed when it is made. I have a wide-back purchased for this quilt already.

The darker green hosta in this picture is called "Quilting Bee"!  I can see it when I sit in my gazebo.

Here is my stash report:

Fabric used in the last week: 1.75 yards
Total fabric used this year: 108.75  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 0 yards
Total fabric added this year: 93.73 yards
Net fabric used this year: 15.02 yards

I was even in a fabric store this past week and resisted the temptation to buy more fabric!