I am still doing catch up posts. I finally finished a very long term project, Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Crazy quilt. Another top that needs quilting! (Sorry for the poor quality of the photos) The quilt finishes about 80" X 90". Linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.
A couple of close up photos of the individual blocks. Each block finishes at 5" and there are 45 pieces in each block. I had several quilting friends donate scraps for this project which helped with the variety.
Now to the exciting news! Audrey of the famous Quilty Folk blog is having a QAL! You can read the first post about Bramble Blooms HERE. Audrey makes the most amazing quilts and they are all her own designs. I am hoping to learn a lot through this process, especially about improv and design.
Since I haven’t posted in a while I have some catching up to do. I finished both of my versions of Barbara Brackman’s Freedom’s Friends BOM. Here is a LINK to the BOM patterns on her blog.
They are just tops and still need to be quilted. In fact I am getting quite a pile of tops that need to be quilted.
My Blue version.
My Colorful version
This top turned out completely different than I initially planned. I was going to use all the colors of the rainbow in it, but after the first block was completed it went in a completely different direction.
More snow today, we got another 4 1/2". We purchased a snowblower and we will be trying it out soon! It is suppose to continue to snow Monday and Tuesday, so will wait until it has finished to put the snow blower to work.
We had our first real snowfall on Monday, October 2, we got about 4". I would say winter is here for us!
I am going to try to blog again, I keep hoping that they will improve our internet speed. A few years ago they laid a bunch of cables along the roadway right in front of our house, but there has been no improvement. It takes me all day to do a post on our desktop, because it takes so long for things to load. If I post a photo I just get up and go do something else for at least 15 minutes, then it might be up. So today I am trying a Blog app and will see how it goes. One reason I want to start again, is that Audrey at Quilty Folk is going to do a QAL, it sounds so fun and so very generous of her to host it. It would be nice to join others in posting my progress. (Sorry I don’t know how to do a link yet)
When my mother passed away in February of 2012, I inherited some of her sewing items. One item was an applique project she had started for my sister back in the 1960's. My sister had taken it home with her when my mother went into a nursing home and a few years ago she mailed the quilt top to me. The original project was for my sister's twin beds, when she was going to high school. My Mom hadn't finished it when my sister had graduated from college and moved on to a job in California. Then my Mom sewed the two halves of the top together to make a quilt big enough for my sister's new bed.
Now what do I do with it? I am thinking of separating the two halves and make them into two twin size quilts for my youngest son's two daughters. They are now ages 2 and 6. The problem there is I don’t know how washable they will be, might not be suited for young children.
Pattern, templates and etc my Mom used.
Extra fabric, I could make more blocks and enlarge the top.
For Slow Stitching Sunday I will be working on my fifth block for Freedom's Friends BOM. It is called Society Rose. This is a good part of life, my stitching. Linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday HERE
Another good thing, I won a contest!! I never win anything so this was such a surprise! Missouri Star Quilt Company had a naming contest for two new quilting designs. I named this one Bloom and Plume and won a $150 gift certificate!
Another good thing, my quilt is on exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum with the other Hospital Sketches quilts. I won't be able to go to the exhibit so was so thankful they put a short preview up on their web site and I could see mine hanging in the museum. I think this is the highlight of my quilting career! If you go HERE you can see a few more.
Another good thing, we got two logging truck loads of green firewood delivered. It will need to sit and season, but we have firewood for several winters to come. Below is a short video of the first load being unloaded.
He ran out of room so had to put some of the logs on the other side of the drive.
So now for the Bad. First I hurt my left knee. How? I have no idea so have been unable to do many of my normal activities, such as mow the grass, which you might have noticed on the pictures above. I haven't been in to the doctor yet, just trying to rest it, elevate it and ice it.
Now for the next Bad thing. It looks like our insurance is not going to cover the damage to our roof from the snow and ice storm last winter. They will cover the ceiling damage, but not the roof damage. That doesn't do us much good, because it will probably leak next Spring and we will have ceiling damage again, and have to pay our deductible again! So angry and disappointed! And I know there are many people in much more dire circumstances, like the flooding in Kentucky, so we are so lucky in many respects.
But I have my quilting to console me! Thanks for stopping by! Rebecca
I have started hand quilting the border for my Springtime Album quilt. I purchased a ‘half hoop’ from Ebay. I got a really good price. With shipping it came to $31. I had looked at others, one on Amazon for $90 and another on Etsy for $85. I am really happy with it! It is very comfortable to quilt with. I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday as soon as I can.
It had never been used.
I also got all four borders prepped for applique for my Cassandra's Circle top. So if I get tired of hand quilting today I will work on these borders. They are not sewn on to the top yet for easier stitching, but once they are I will fine tune those corner vines. I will probably add more flowers and leaves in the two corners that don't have the plumes.
I also finished my grandson's quilt top. I don't know why I find borders such a pain, but they are on finally. It measures about 78"x 94". A big thank you to Chantal of At the Corner of Scraps and Quilts blog for making me aware of a mistake in the piecing, all taken care of now I hope. You can read her blog HERE. She always has some wonderful scrappiness going on over there!
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Now that that top is done I will move on to the next grandson's quilt. I have been collecting fabric for it and I think I have all I will need now. I just need to wash and press it all. It is made from 2 1/2" strips so I will be able to use my Accuquilt Go cutter. That will certainly speed things up!
I will be making the quilt from this book.
This is the one I have chosen.
I think I have plenty of black on white fabrics and black on black fabrics.
In 2019 Barbara Brackman organized a BOM called Hospital Sketches. The purpose was to commemorate the brave women who left their homes and loved ones to help wounded Civil War soldiers. Each month we had a new applique block and there was a story of another Civil War era hospital and the women who helped care for the soldiers there. One of the most famous women was Louisa May Alcott. There was to be an exhibit of some of the finished quilts at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA in 2020, but because of the pandemic it was put of until 2022. That gave me time to finish my quilt, I still had the borders to do. I had the quilt professionally quilted by a local quilter, Rose Edgren. She did an amazing job! It was the first time I had a quilt quilted by someone else. My quilt was chosen to be part of the exhibit along with 14 others. The exhibit will run from July 20,2022 to October 1, 2022. I am thrilled beyond words to be part of this exhibit!
Rose Edgren a local quilter did the quilting for me. She did an amazing job! This is the first time I have had a quilt professionally quilted.
I will start off with a recent visit by Mama Moose and Baby. She comes up to drink out of our rain barrel. We caught them on our security camera, but I couldn't figure out how to download from there so took a video of the video. So I apologize for the quality.
So not much actual sewing going on here. I have been spending my days painting the exterior of the house. I started last summer and I am back at now. I wanted to start sooner, but had all that firewood to deal with first. So my evenings have been spent prepping (hopefully) all the applique pieces I need for the borders of my Cassandra's Circle quilt. I used Karen K Buckley's Perfect Circles and her Bigger Perfect Leaves this time. The leaves will definitely be quicker to sew this way. I also made a template for the flowers and used it to press the edges of the flowers shapes. I am hoping this will speed up the flower applique too.
All the pieces are prepped, now just to position them on to the next three borders
The template I made for the flower pieces
This is the first border. I just need to sew down all the pieces. Two corners will have the plumes, two will not. The plumes will be "kitty-corner" from each other.
I finished block 4 for the Freedom's Friend's BOM I am doing. You can find out more about it on Barbara Brackman's blog HERE and HERE.
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