A Few Fun Projects - and More on the Horizon

We took Sara and the grandpuppy Link home on Wednesday - what a nice visit it was!

One of our main goals was to get Sara reacquainted with her sewing machine, gifted to her by a sweet friend during her last visit.  She had decided to leave the machine at my house until she was at a place in her life where she could devote more time to sewing.  Although she is finishing up her senior year and plans to start college courses in a few months, she is excited about doing some small projects at home this summer, so we've sent the machine and some basic tools home with her.

As promised, while she was here we each made a cuter-than-cute Shark Pencil Case which I told you about in this earlier post.  This is a design by Patchwork Posse which can be found as a free download on Craftsy.  I got to play with a lot saved-up crumbs for this project....

Sara's case is done in her beloved vintage-inspired pastels....

..... while mine is done in a fun mix of grays - one even has quilting text!

This was a fun project, so much so that I was seriously entertaining thoughts of making one out of each color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge next year - right up until time to add the zipper - UGH!!!  The designer says this can be a bit "fiddly" - riiiiiiight!  I even had to call in the Snoopervisor for help on this one!

Unfortunately, he wasn't much help.  He's decided zippers are not his thing!

In fact, he was plumb tuckered out by the time we got that sucker in there
and declared an emergency nap break =^..^=

  

It was nerve-wracking to tell the truth, and I had to do quite a bit of hand-stitching to close in the ends properly.  But they are well worth the effort I have to say. These turned out so darn cute and Sara was delighted with her accomplishment.  She did all of the sewing on her shark herself except for the zipper.  I put that in for her - I didn't want the poor child traumatized at this early stage of her sewing career :*)

And here's mine before the button eyes were added ....

I even used "scraps" for the buttons - these are buttons I've saved from recycled men's shirts!

No quilting was done on the Blooming 9 Patch while Sara was here, so I didn't meet my Guild UFO Challenge for June.  We were just too busy, and I had a couple of non-quilty things going on that needed a lot of my time and energy.  But Rocky volunteered for some overtime hours in the Studio to stand guard over the quilt until I can get back to it ....

One reason I ran out of time is because we celebrated the 80th birthday of my dear friend, Joanne!

Yes, she's 80 and still fabulous!!!

And she runs rings around me!  This is the Joanne who often shares her long-arm machine with me.  She had two parties, one given by her daughter for all of her many friends at church, book club, women's groups, as well as a few of her quilting friends.  The second was a small surprise party at the home of one of our Mountain Quiltfest ladies, Susie.  I made the cake for this party and put a lot of love and time into planning and executing it, especially since it had been ages since I had decorated a cake and I wanted it to be perfect!

Joanne loves birds and birdhouses, especially cardinals, so naturally I had to put a couple of those in the birdhouses.  You can just barely see the white picket fence behind them if you look closely.  I let out a deep whoosh of relief once that was done ... I was definitely reminded of why I no longer decorate cakes LOL!!!

I did manage to finish my latest See-N-Go Project bag.  This is the back of the bag featuring a Kaffe Fassett Corsage print ....

And the front with a vinyl see-thru window - I just LOVE Kaffe's purple and pink dot fabric lining showing through - so bright and cheerful :*)

This is a pattern I designed for Jacquelynne Steves for her Summer 2014 Summer E-magazine.  Some of you told me the links I shared in my last post for this pattern no longer work, so she gave me new links for you to get this pattern from her......

Please sign up for my free newsletter and emagazine here http://jacquelynnesteves.com/my-emagazine/

and when you sign up you will get a welcome email with a link to the archives page with ALL of the previous issues. The bag project was in the Summer 2014 issue.

You also can read the online magazine issue without signing up for my newsletter herehttps://issuu.com/jacquelynnesteves/docs/the_art_of_home_summer2014

If you have further questions, please email me at comments@jacquelynnesteves.com

I highly recommend that you sign up for Jacquelynne's FREE e-magazine - it's always full of fun projects, inspirational ideas, and even a few delicious recipes!

A teensy bit of hand stitching has been worked in here and there when I can.  I always enjoy linking up with Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Sunday Stitching linky party - today she talks about multi-tasking and the value of slowing down.  It's a great post - be sure to go over and check it out!

My 3-D braided tree is almost completely stitched down in my Blue Collection center....

And I am finally getting back to playing a little with my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks.  This is the latest one in progress ....

Even with the best of intentions, I didn't find time to join in on these great QAL's, although I fully intend to make a start this coming week.....

   

I really, really want to do both of these.  I love starting something new and fresh, don't you?  I plan to keep both of these pretty simple so they don't end up on my UFO list for next year LOL!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with the following fun parties:
(links will show up when the party starts :*)
Slow Sunday Stitching
Tuesday Linky Party
Scraptastic Tuesday
Oh Scrap!
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Let's Book It

Quilting the Peacock!

My UFO to be completed for MCQG Guild this past month was #9 - which was to quilt my Peacock Braids quilt.

I shared it's start HERE on the blog in 2012 - January of 2012!!!

Yep, 3-1/2 years ago!

The fabric is Timeless Treasures Plume CM8662, and of course I fell in love with it - what's not to love???

In fact, I love it so much I've made several other projects from the same fabric =^..^=

Stitchery Keeper

See-N-Go Project Bag

One of the reasons this quilting project has been on the shelf for so long is that I was afraid to quilt it.  It's not too terribly large - about 36"x45" - a good size for my Janome 6600P with the large throat.  But I knew it deserved some special quilting, and I really didn't feel confident enough to go for it.  This year, I decided to put it on my UFO list so I wouldn't have any more excuses!

After sandwiching - never fun! - I trimmed as much as I could off the edges and then turned and pinned the backing over the front to keep some of the wool batting fuzz out of my sensitive nose as well as off of that black fabric.  It was impossible to keep the black free of fuzz of course, but I think this helped at least :*)

Then I started picking some yummy thread candidates for making this quilt as beautiful as I could make it ...

I love the look of King Tut thread on the top of a quilt, so using the black in that for the background was the first easy choice.  Then I chose this gorgeous aqua metallic thread on the left for the peacock feathers, and the deep, intriguing green variegated thread on the right for the leaves ....

I love how the aqua metallic makes those feathers sparkle! ....

After painstakingly quilting the peacock ....

...... I outlined all the other flowers and leaves on the quilt, and then I began to fill in the black background areas with my simplified, totally novice version of McTavishing...

As this was my first attempt at this filler stitch, I have to say I was pretty pleased with how well it turned out!  It's nice to know that I will get better at it as I practice :*)

For the borders, I really had to give some thought to how I wanted to quilt them.  Because the inside was so densely quilted, the borders needed lots of quilting as well so it would keep its shape.  But my main objective was to keep that braid look clean and sharp.  I didn't want a lot of thread moving around in there to muddy up the design.  So I drew out some options on graph paper ...

Isn't it amazing how much we can learn from drawing out a design first?  I was pretty sure I would go with feathers in there at first.  Peacocks=feathers, right?  And I planned to use a thread that would disappear as much as possible, just leaving the texture.  But after looking at my drawing, I decided the beaded rows were a perfect counterbalance to all the flowery/feathery stuff going on in the center.

They were fairly easy to do too.  I've stitched pebbles before, so that wasn't too frightening.  My main concern was in keeping the rows even and the same width.  These tools came to my rescue ....

I have no idea where I got the 1/4" plastic stick, but it was perfect for marking both sides of the beading row.  And I use the Clover White Marking Pen everywhere I can - it makes very minimal lines and irons out beautifully when I'm done!

I just love how the beaded rows look in the finished borders!  I stitched in the ditches as well to give each braid a nice finished definition.

The quilt is now pinned down on the guest-room floor, being blocked in preparation for binding.

I don't usually have to block my quilts, but this one had pretty wacky, wavy borders when the quilting was done. That often happens when doing a dense quilting project on a domestic machine......

I'm hoping it will be ready to bind later tonight.  I'm excited to have this favorite quilt all done and ready to enjoy!!!

In the meantime, I'm going to be joining Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching this afternoon.  Kathy is relaxing with her Pumpkin Seeds applique, making orange ones for the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I stitched together this Patchwork of the Cross block this past week ....

... and I hope to finish up the last of the hand stitching on Block #1 of my Folk Art Album today while watching the PGA Playoffs with My Guy.

Wishing everyone a lovely Labor Day weekend!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

I'm also linking up with Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday, Freemotion by the River for Tuesday Linky Party, and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Slow Stitching Sunday - POTC Update

I've been playing with my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks again lately - and remembering how much fun these little English paper-pieced blocks can be!!!!

This is my current favorite ....

I just love the blast of light on the outside of this block with that strange yellow fabric!  It was a last minute substitution because the fabric I was originally using didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  My friends and I all agreed that this gorgeous plaid with all the same colors in it was the perfect fabric to frame the center....

I even fussy cut those darn stripes!!!  But as I was stitching down the first couple pieces, I just knew something wasn't sitting well with me - it just didn't give me that thrill of being "right" that I expected.  I put it up on the design wall and stepped back - and was totally underwhelmed.  Yeh, it was okay, but it was BLAH!  That's is always a deal breaker for me.

So I went back to the stash and just started pulling anything that might work...

To my total surprise, this icky yellow was the surprise winner - it just simply began to glow behind those fabrics!  I suppose the moral of this story is, never feel that you are so far along in a project that you can't back up and make changes if it's not working for you!

Here is another block completed.  I love the hot pop of these colors! I'm a little concerned with the lack of contrast, but it's staying as it is because I'm not unhappy enough to tear it apart and try to make changes :)

I have two more in process right now and then I'll have to go digging in the stash for more blocks - YUM!!!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, while watching golf to see if Tiger can play his way into the Playoffs this year.  NFL season starts soon, and I can't wait for Sundays with My Guy and lots of stitching and football - woohoo!!!!

Also linking up with Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts and Tuesday Linky Party @ Freemotion by the River

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Slow Stitching Sunday .... and Football!!!

Today will find me joining my friends at Kathy's Quilts doing some Slow Stitching and watching the NFL Playoffs with My Guy.  I can think of few better ways to spend a lovely Sunday!  Well, maybe if the Panthers were still in the running and playing today it might could be better *wink*  But as I've learned the hard way, you can't have everything - where would you put it all????

I've got everything ready to work on stitching together the pieces for the first round of my New Hexagon - Millefiori Rosette #1 ...

Kathy challenged us to include a picture of our hand in the photo actually hand-stitching on our projects.  Here is mine of my stitching together the center hexagon - notice my nail polish growing out - Ugh!!!

There are only about a million pieces in this first Rosette .....

But I have to say, this is GREAT fun!!!  What could be more exciting than digging deep in the stash to find just the perfect fabric to enhance these amazing designs?  You can see the web address of Katja's Quilt Shoppe on the Paper Pieces package or go HERE if you are interested in looking up this Quilt-Along to see what it's all about.  There's also a wonderful Facebook page HERE, chock full of eye candy where everyone is sharing their progress - such wonderful Rosettes!  I really need to get caught up because Rosette #2 is released on February 1!

For those who may have missed it in my earlier post, below is a picture of Katja's actual Rosettes that she is making for the original quilt .... aren't they simply GORGEOUS???

While in the hotel in the evenings in Asheville, I managed to stitch a tiny bit on a few of my Patchwork of the Crosses, which I'm also doing by the EPP method ....

I am determined to not ignore these lovely blocks while working on Millefiori :)  There are quite a few pieces already cut and ready to stitch - which as I have said before is the only way any of my projects tend to progress.

I also shared in THIS POST that the ClearStamp Quilting Template really helped with that preparation.  This stamp is made of a clear flexible rubber material, which makes it so easy to work with and allows me to see exactly where my motifs will end up on my finished POTC pieces :)

I've had quite a few requests about how to find these stamps.  They were designed by Marita, owner of  The Quilters Path, and can be purchased from her. Click HERE to go to the website and get her phone and email info.  I'm sure she will be happy to get those out to you right away :)  And don't forget to order the ink too - it's the perfect color and lasts forever!  (Yes, I forgot to get the ink when I bought the stamps - *conks self on forehead* - duh!!!!)

pattykf - I could not respond to your comment by email because you show up as a No Reply blogger, so I hope you are reading this post today :)

So that's my Sunday in a nutshell.  What's on your agenda today?  Hope it's something relaxing and totally enjoyable!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Also linking up with:
HeLP for Hexie-aholics!