A Variety of Stitching

I have been spending a lot of time clipping threads from the back of my daughter's quilt. I will then give it a good ironing, especially all of the seams on the back to make sure they are going in the correct directions and laying flat. Sadly, the long arm quilter that I used to use has closed her business. I have info on two other local long arm quilters though, so I will be looking into contacting them this coming week. One is a few minutes from me and the other is over an hour away. 

I have been sewing the snowball blocks for the first of two I-Spy quilts. I actually finished sewing all 120 blocks this past week. Now I have to trim the seams and press open the corners. 

I am glad that this quilt is coming together so quickly. 

I finished Pumpkin House into a small pillow. I was trying to determine what I could use as trim when I found this rope floss in my stash. I know these are part of the items that I inherited from my aunt when she passed. I figured I could braid a few colors of this floss.

I had the fabric that I used for the back of the pillow in my stash.

Now this pillow is ready for display.

I am working on finishing A Crow's Pick also. The backing fabric was one I recently received from a friend's mom who is reducing her stash. It was a brand new fat quarter that matched the colors of this piece perfectly.

I have some odd "yarn" in a variety of colors that I am also going to braid to put around the edge of this pillow.

I will work to finish this pillow on Sunday.

I have started quilting the whole cloth piece that I have. It is 16.5" square. I think it will make a nice pillow for our bed. I am using tatting thread that I inherited from that same aunt to quilt this with. I have almost completed quilting the first motif.

I have kitted up the 1990 Prairie Schooler Santa to start working on also.

I like all the animals in this one. 

Hubby and I enjoyed a great dinner out at a new restaurant for us called Grasso's on Wednesday evening. We've been looking for a restaurant that has piano music and this one was recommended on a Facebook forum that I follow. The food was delicious and the music was enjoyable.

Friday morning I got my Covid/flu vaccines. I drank a lot of water and took it easy Friday. I always have a reaction to the Covid vaccine. This time was somewhat less of a reaction than I have had in the past. Just some chills at bedtime with some body aches. By midmorning on Saturday I was feeling much better.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

September Stitch Along Update 2

Three weeks have passed since the first stitch along update of this month. This is how Three Boats looked at the beginning of the month. 

This is where I have gotten to now. The sky is finished and I am stitching the ocean.

 Perhaps I will be able to finish this page by the next update. It ends just below the next set of green gridding.

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

And Sew It Ends

There is a major happy dance going on at my house. I have finished the flimsy of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern)!

 Most of the seams lined up perfectly. I fixed those that bothered me and left a few as is. They are only noticeably off if you look real hard. I must say that I am so proud of this quilt. It is by far the most difficult quilt that I have ever assembled. It is only my 4th queen-sized quilt. 

I am waiting for the backing fabric that I ordered to be delivered and then I will contact the long-arm quilter that I have used in the past. I hope she is still in business. It has been quite a while since I had a quilt that needed machine quilting. I am thinking of having it quilted with an overall pantogram as the log cabin pattern is the star of the show. 

I have made progress on A Crow's Pick. It is almost finished. 

I don't have the buttons that are supposed to be added and quite frankly I don't see the point of them as they are just triangles. I think I may stitch a bat or a smaller crow in the upper right corner. I am thinking on that. I may just leave it and add a bow there when I make this into a small pillow.

Now I will get to work on stitching the 120 snowball blocks for the first of 2 I-Spy quilts. I still have to fussy cut some more 3.5" squares. 

I was in a baking mood this week and made a Cottage Loaf. This bread was delicious and so easy to make.

The recipe was clipped from a Family Circle magazine in 1989, but I only just made it this week. I have many, many clipped recipes. I think I qualify as a clipped recipe hoarder. I have more recipes clipped than I could ever hope to make in my lifetime even if I tried a new one each day. Never mind the many cookbooks and Taste of Home magazines that I have also. Sigh.....

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

And Sew it Continues

 I am still working on stitching together the 14 rows of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern). I have stitched rows 1-5 together and took the advice of Gail at The Cozy Quilter and decided to stitch the rest of the rows in groups. This group of 4 rows below and another of 5 rows still to be stitched. This past week I stitched together rows 6-9....the center of the quilt.

Oh my, was it a PITA to stitch row 7 to 8. There were so, so many seams to match. There was also a lot of seam ripping and muttering. It took me two days of 2 hour sewing and pinning sessions to get just those two rows together. Not all of the seams are perfect, but most are and the rest are less than 1/16" off, if that much.  Adding row 9 was a breeze yesterday that was accomplished in just one 90 minute session that included pinning, sewing and trimming. Whew!

I have already started the working on the next 5 rows. They should be done this week and then I will stitch the three blocks of rows together. Then it is on to stitching the borders together and add them to the log cabin blocks. I hope to finish this by the end of this month.

I have also been adding stitching to "A Crow's Pick". The pumpkin is done and so is the crow except for his beak and legs. 

I am using DMC floss instead of the charted Weeks Dye Works so the colors are not showing as much contrast in the photo. Next I will stitch the diamonds for the border. This is mostly my nighttime TV watching project. 

I have yet to add another craft project though I really want something else to work on. Preferably something with yarn. Of course I do have the large cross-stitch Three Boats on a Tropical Beach that I continue to add stitches to each day. 

The weather is back to feeling somewhat summer-like this week. Our pool has been closed, but my butterfly bush decided that it wanted to bloom again.

It is so pretty, but it is hidden behind our above ground pool. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Make yourself a cup of coffee or tean and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

And Sew it Begins

I have finished assembling each of the 14 rows of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern). Now begins the arduous task of matching 13 seams for each row added. I have connected 3 rows so far....maybe one or two more by the time this post is published. 

Thankfully the seams are nesting together nicely.

I have added more stitches to Crow's Pick and started a new color.

I worked on this in the car last weekend as we traveled to my daughter's home in Boston. My granddaughter turned 2 this week and her party was last weekend. 

My how the time has flown. 

The following day my mother-in-law celebrated her 91st birthday. We brought dinner and a cake to her house to celebrate.

I am trying to decide on another craft to start or a WIP to pick up. I would like to get my hands working with some yarn again, but I don't know what I want to make. I am just not interested in finishing the sweater that I started many moons ago for myself. I think I want to try a different pattern and yarn. My local yarn shop is closed for a couple of weeks so I will just have to wait a bit. 

I have been reading a bunch. I recently finished "The Sugar Queen" by Sarah Addison Allen, "One True Loves" by Taylor Jenkins Reid and "Summer at Tiffany" by Marjorie Hart. I liked all of these very much. I am currently reading "A Single Thread" by Tracy Chevalier. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

September Stitch Along Update 1

Three weeks have passed and we are just starting September. It is hard to believe that 2/3 of the year has already passed. I have been steadily working on Artecy's "Three Boats on a Tropical Beach". This is where I was at our last update. 

There have been lots of large swaths of one color stitching so I have made a whole lot of progress. Here is where I am now.

 This page is stitching up fairly quickly.

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Quilt Show

Hubby was kind enough to accompany me to The 2024 Eastern Long Island Quilt Guild Exhibit at the Hallockville Museum Farm last Sunday. I bribed him with lunch out that we never had. He was a good sport and drove the hour there and back.

The Exhibit was in the small main barn building. There were many pretty quilts. This one was my favorite: Fabulous - BOM pattern by Charisma Horton made by Nancy Walker.

This is a temperature quilt: 2022 Temperature Quilt made in 2023, hand appliqued by Kathleen Lake.

I loved the colorful fabrics used in this quilt: "The Tropics" pineapple quilt made by Joy Regula.

Hubby was fascinated by the quilting on this one: "Tabby Road Catnip" design by Tula Pink, made by Lynn Fulshire.

The beautiful fabrics of this quilt don't show as well in this photo. This is "Out of My Comfort Box" made by Joanne Yacko. 

I was fascinated by the fact that this quilter was able to make the blocks look like they were paper cutout snowflakes. It is called "First Snow" made by Donna Daley.

This was the most amusing quilt called: "BIG F'N TEX". It is a collage quilt made by Carol O'Connor. 

"Fairies in My Garden was appliqued with silk thread by Liz Doyle.

It was quite interesting to see so many different styles. There was a quilty yard sale on the grass outside of the building. I picked up a leather thimble, a little bit of fabric for my I-Spy quilts and a kit. There were no vendors at this exhibit. 

As for missing out on lunch, well I thought it would be a bigger exhibit than it was as I have been to this guild's quilt shows in the past, but we only spent about an hour at the show and the sale. When we were done, it was barely noon and neither of us were hungry enough for a restaurant lunch, so Hubby just drove us home after we stopped at a nearby farmstand.  

I hope you enjoyed this little visit.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Another finish near the end of August

August is nearing its end and so is Summer. Hubby goes back to teaching the day after Labor Day. The days have been getting cooler here especially overnight and the water in our pool is almost too cold for my preferences. I have always believed that I loved all the seasons equally, but I realized this year that Summer is my least favorite. I don't like being out in the hot sun, yet I like a really warm pool. It doesn't help that I seem to have developed an allergy either to the sun or sunscreen that causes my arms and legs to itch awfully at the end of each day. Trying to figure it out with my dermatologist. Ah well, the cooler weather will be here soon. 

I finished stitching the 2005 Prairie Schooler Santa!

Looking at the photo, I am not real happy with how the running stitch border looks. It is almost invisible. The instructions said to use one strand of floss, but I think it needed two. I may have to go back and fix that. Next, I have to look in my stash for backing fabric and see if I have any appropriate trims to make a small pillow. 

I also finished the front of another Christmas ornament.

I have cut out the felt backing and need to embroider the personalization. Then all that is needed is an easy assembly.

Of course, since the Santa was finished, I had to start something new. 

This is "A Crow's Pick" from the Sept/Oct 2011 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. I wanted to add another small pillow to my Fall decor as I have seen many other bloggers do recently. 

I am making progress on my daughter's quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline). This is the middle two blocks of the 9th row that I finished stitching yesterday. 

I am pretty pleased with how well the seams match. Not all of the seams that need to match are perfect, but that is just the way they will have to stay. The seams are not so far off that they ruin the look. I have had to swap some blocks as I go in order to find diamonds that are close enough in width. All the diamonds should be 7/8", but I am finding that some are 1" wide. 

A big thank you to Gail at The Cozy Quilter. She sent some 3.5 inch cotton blocks to me to supplement my I-spy quilt blocks. 

Aren't they wonderful? I can't wait to include them in the quilts. I have put them aside right now as I want to concentrate on finishing my daughter's quilt. Once it is done, it will be full steam ahead with these quilts. 

I am joinging Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A busy crafting week

I have gotten a good start on assembling my daughter's Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern). I have the first four rows assembled and I have started to work on row 5. I have yet to sew any of the rows to each other. I am trying to be as precise as possible so that all of those vertical seams match up which means that each block needs to finish to 6 1/8" from side to side. I have had to do a little bit of seam ripping, but mostly they blocks are going together fairly well. 

I have almost finished stitching the white on the Prairie Schooler Santa. I just have to finish the coat trim and then there is a little bit of back-stitching. 

I think I will then try to make this and Pumpkin house into small pillows.

 I can now say that the gingerbread ornament is completed. I personalized the back and then sewed it to the front while stuffing and adding the floss hanger. 

I baked again this week. I had a yellow squash from my MIL's neighbor. We do not eat this usually so I looked for a baking recipe and found Lemon Yellow Squash Bread. 

Oh my is this delicious. It rivals the Lemon Coconut bread that is a favorite of mine. I won't go out of my way to buy yellow squash, but at least I have a way to use it if I get more gifted to me. 

Hubby and I drove to the east end of Long Island on Tuesday to enjoy the beautiful weather and go to one of our favorite vineyards. Marcari. We shared a bottle of wine and a charcuterie board and just sat and looked at the vineyard.

We also drove down to the beach last weekend and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. This is looking east 

and then looking west. The colors of the sky were beautiful.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

August Stitch Along

Three weeks have passed and it is again time for a stitch along update. The last time I posted a photo of Three Boats it looked like this: 

I had hoped to finish the page I was working on by the end of July, but a short vacation for Hubby and me as well as watching the Olympics meant that I wasn't working on it. Then I figured I would at least finish the page by this post, but my daughter and her family came for a 5 day visit the first few days of August and well, the Olympics are still going on. This is how Three Boats looks now. 

I have put in a some stitches this week and I am almost done with that page. The bright peach/orange color that I recently stitched goes on to the next page. Rather than have a hard line, I have been stitching into that next page. There are a few scattered stitches still in this page #2, but they will soon be filled in and I will be on to page #8. There are 6 pages across and 4 down. I am working in columns, so I almost have 5 pages completed. 

 This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

The decision has been made!

Apparently my daughter and her husband had decided a while ago which quilt layout they liked, but forgot to tell me. I asked her when they visited last week/weekend and she told me they chose this one:

 I laid out all of the blocks again on Friday in the appropriate setting and then picked them up from left to right and clipped together the fourteen blocks of each of the fourteen rows.

 The borders will be sewn together separately.

As I waited for my daughter's decision, I decided to finish cutting out all of the 1 1/4" square corner blocks to make the snowball blocks. Then I decided that I should spend the time to mark the white diagonal sewing line on each square so that I could just pick them up and go.

 I have managed to make 22 snowball blocks of the 120 that I need. These will be put aside for a bit while I sew the Log Cabin blocks together. Or I may work on both alternately if one of them frustrates me.

While watching the Olympics, I have almost finished the cross stitching my Prairie Schooler Santa. 

I haven't done any more with the gingerbread ornament. I will work on that this coming week. 

I got the baking bug this week. Mostly due to the fact that my mother-in-law got a bag of produce from her neighbor and sent most of it to us. I had to figure out how to use one very large zucchini. From that one zucchini I got a dozen Zucchini Bread Muffins from Sally's Baking Addiction ...

and one bread from my 1985 Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book. 

Both are delicious. I sliced the bread and froze most of it for future snacking. 

There were also a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes that were going bad. We must have gotten over two pints and we don't eat that much of them. I decided to make Cherry Tomato Focaccia Bread using them. 

This was very tasty also, but it was a little too thin for my taste. I may try it again with a slightly smaller baking pan.

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!