Bertie is in the House!

Before I show you the newest Bertie BOM, I just have to share with you the GORGEOUS cross-stitch piece my talented daughter made for me for Christmas.....

This project took her quite a while to work up - how's that for Slow-Stitching?  I had purchased the pattern (see photo below), fabric and flosses - and then they sat in my studio for ages waiting for me to find time to get to it.  Of course, it never happened.  I mean, when there are a million quilts in the world that I want to make, what's the chances I'm going to work on cross-stitching?  So when Christy - who loves to cross-stitch - had some time on her hands and was looking for a project to do, I passed it off to her and asked her to make it for me.  She started working on it last year, but she hadn't gone very far before it hit her that she could make it fit ME a lot better with a little tweaking.

Original colors.....

Peace, Love, Joy & Life Quilt Sampler
Picture from Cross Country Stitching magazine

Although the original is beautiful, Christy thought it would be even more beautiful in my colors, so she changed out the flosses to make it in Moonglow colors!!!  Black, purples, aquas - YUM!!!

Moonglow by Teresa Raleigh 2013

And then she took the redesign even further!  She designed new and more complicated designs for most of the blocks!!!  Oh my!  This proud mama is SO tickled with this sweet Christmas present :*)  Now I have to decide how I want to finish it.... Wall-hanging?  Pillow?  Needlework box cover?  I'm leaning toward mounting it on canvas as a piece of wall art, so it can hang in the bedroom where Moonglow lives :*)

So, now, on to my own Slow Stitching.....

I received my February kit for the Bertie's Year BOM a few days ago - how cute is this?????

 I am smitten with the sweet, shy - dare I say coquettish? - tilt to her head ♥♥♥

And I suppose in the bird world, these bleeding hearts serve the same purpose as mistletoe in ours?

January Bertie is almost done..... sorry - another night picture with a glare :(

All the hand stitchery is done except for the snowflakes.  I used the sharp tip of my needle to "draw" a line to stitch the center seam on the leaves.  I really like the shiny brightness of the threads - it gives it a little color punch :)

Then I used my favorite marking pencil, the Clover White Marking Pen to mark 1/4" marks on the seams where the white Fly Stitches outline the HST border....

I was having trouble keeping those stitches uniform without marking.  I love the way this pen's marks disappear when you iron the fabric, but with these stitches, the marks don't show anyway :)  This Fly Stitch actually took much longer than I imagined it would.  There was a definite learning curve - I kept making the stitches too fat in the beginning and had to pull them out several times.  And it took a lot of thread too.  And while I'm whining, let me say that I would have called this a chicken or turkey track stitch :)  This doesn't look like any fly I've ever met!

Now all I have left to do is sandwich it and lightly quilt it.  There is no mention of quilting in the instructions, and I'm not sure if that's because it won't need quilting or because they just took it for granted that I would??  At any rate, I've decided the little white snowflakes all over the center will probably be all the quilting that is needed.

The instructions also call for an interesting "false" binding and the envelope backing method.  I'll try to take good pictures and show more about how that is done next week.  Hopefully this little quilt will be hanging on my wall by then :*)

And guess what I just found last week while doing some cleaning in the studio????

Another Dinosaur UFO!!!  

This is a hand-stitch applique project from this 1992 Miniature Quilts magazine below .... you can see their finished project there in the middle.... of course mine is done in jewel-toned batiks ♥

I started it several years ago to practice my needleturn skills after Mary Sorenson came to our Guild.  I love the fact that each flower is made from a circle of hearts ♥  I got 3 flowers done, and apparently something more exciting must have come along and snared my attention - can you imagine that?  LOL!!!  I'm thinking to make some templates and finish it up using the starch method that I have come to prefer.  It would be a GREAT little carry-about handwork project!

Now for those of you who have hung around for all of this, I offer the reward of some 
Stash Enhancement!!!

I picked up these pieces at Little Blessings Quilt Shop in Crossville TN on my way home last week.....

LOVE that sewing fabric!!!   I told my husband I want a sewing machine like that!!!!!
And of course I'm always ready to add blacks, whites & grays to the stash ♥

I had been really good about not stopping at any of my favorite quilt shops on this trip, but I was bone tired and getting sleepy, so I had to stop for a bit.  (You know of course that the way home is about twice as far as the way to somewhere, right?)  And it just so happened that I was near the Little Blessings exit, so.... yes, I swear, all a coincidence my friends!  And that's my story, and I'm sticking to it :*D

And my acquisition of these luscious dots is all the fault of my friend Deb over at A Simple Life Quilts!  

She posted about these Spot On dots by Robert Kaufman on her blog - and she showed pictures!!!  Now how am I supposed to resist that?  I ask you?  Really?  Dots??????  And colorful, fun, happy Dots, at that!!!???  I jumped over to Hancocks of Paducah and pulled a few of these into my shopping basket lickety split!  And I have to confess, I'm glad I did too :*D  These are so beautiful and will enhance many of my projects going forward!  You'll be seeing these again soon my friends ♥

Linking up today at:

Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday 

Patchwork Times

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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