Slow Sunday Stitching - A Finish!

I have finished the quilting on my all time favorite hand quilting project - Quilter's Blessings! See what happens when your sewing machine is broken?!?! More hand quilting time! 
I really enjoyed quilting the straight line chevrons in the outside borders. I tried the Hera marker and really liked it as a marking tool since there are no marks to worry about removing. But you really do need to have great lighting to quilt on Hera marker lines. I don't know how much longer my eyes will let me use that tool for marking! 





There are so many memories in this quilt and I remember the exact day that I started the embroidery on the first block when I was at quilt retreat in 2008!
There is such a sense of accomplishment creating a project with your own hands. I have been really enjoying the Slow Sunday Stitching posts and the variety in the projects that are posted in the links. Last week we had applique, english paper piecing, quilting, embellishing, and embroidery projects...all by hand! I enjoyed visiting each blog listed and thank you all for linking up.

I hope you will post a photo on your blog of what your hands are creating this week, and link up your post below. Every link will be entered into the draw for this harvest charm pack of fruits and vegetables, and a cute little pair of scissors for your hand stitching. 
Happy Stitching!

Slow Sunday Stitching - August

The summer is half over, and I haven't finished nearly half of the projects I had hoped to this summer. Not just stitching projects, but gardening, canning, cleaning, oh yah...and there was supposed to be some time for relaxing in there. I took my daughter and niece blueberry picking, and we put a few bags into the freezer, but most of the berries were immediately eaten! I definitely will go to the berry patch again this week and hope to get some blueberry jam made.
All leisure time this week was spent watching the olympics, during which I enjoyed a lot of hand quilting. I have been focused on finishing my Capricorn Quilts "Quilter's Blessings" which I started in 2008 and am making great progress this month.  "Much Sewing" is one of my favorite blocks in this quilt, and it is now quilted!
While I have been quilting and watching olympic accomplishments, I have been thinking about an inspiring blogpost I read by Kathy Doughty at Material Obsession. She wrote: "The choices we make become our body of work. They shape us into the quilter that we are."  To that I would add, that our life choices shape us into the person we want to be. I want to be a calm, gentle, loving, positive, focused, creative person, so I need to make choices accordingly. And quilting is such a huge part of how I try to accomplish that. 
That is one of my reasons for creating this Sunday hand stitching link up...to encourage myself to slow down, to spend some time each week stitching, to relax and breathe deeply, and to connect with others in the blogland community of like mind.
A big thank you to those who linked up and shared your hand stitching projects in June and July. Carla was the winner of the draw for the previous linky prize.  Link up your blogpost about hand stitching and get your name in the draw for the next giveaway. 
What stitching choices have you made this week to reach your goals?? 

Father's Day

I have been hand quilting a few stitches each day on my "Quilter's Blessings". I started the hand embroidery for this quilt in February 2008, and more than 4 years later, I am finally quilting it. Some things take time!
I am thinking about starting a Sunday link up for blog posts about hand work. I rarely see posts about hand quilting in my blogland travels and would like to corral them in one place for easy access. Do busy bloggers have time for hand quilting? Do you think there would be enough interest to start something like that?  
There will not be any time today for quilting. It's Father's Day! But there will be lots of time for stitching and repairing the sometimes fragile threads that hold families and lives together. 
I have been blessed to have a wonderful Dad, who in spite of a terrible start to his life, managed to become a man of great integrity and wisdom. He has been a pillar of strength and love for all of his children and grandchildren. 
He could be the "poster child" for living a life of love. He has been a loving husband for over 50 years, a kind and supportive father to four children, and an absolutely adored Papa to 10 grandchildren.  When my daughter describes him she says he "shoots love out of his eyes". And he does! I am looking forward to spending today with my Father and am thankful to have had so many years with him.

One Life

Yesterday I packed up some of my quilts and went to visit the quilt guild in Vittoria. I met some women who read my blog and it's always a surprise to me that my quilting adventures are followed by anyone except my family! 
Thanks for reading, and for your encouragement :)


We enjoyed a fabulous potluck lunch, and just look at this amazing dessert table! 
Everything was delicious - well, I didn't try everything, but what I did eat was amazing!



Here are the quilters waiting patiently for the trunk show  to start, while I goofed around with my camera. I couldn't fit them all in one shot, but here are most of creative quilters from the Simcoe area that attended the meeting .
During the business part of the meeting I did a little hand quilting on one of my longer term quilting projects. I started embroidering these blocks in March 2008 and sewed them into a quilt top in June last year. I was hoping to finish up this quilt a long time ago, but the idea that it wanted to be hand quilted would not go away, and eventually I gave in!

I finally have the quilt basted, and decided to "big stitch" the red chains with perle cotton, and do some hand quilting with white quilting thread in and around the blocks. I'm not going to mark anything, and I'm just going to quilt it in the same manner as I drive the car...start out in the general direction I want to go, and figure it out as I go along, using my intuition and common sense to guide me. 


I saw this on Lori's blog, and just loved it! 


Yesterday I was doing everything I ever wanted to do, and today will be more of the same!

Design Wall Monday #23

I'm back to my regular routine after an exciting quilting adventure last week. It's Monday, so that means a design wall posting on my blog. Prior to my Vermont trip I was working on my Capricorn Quilts BOM (from 2008!) blocks, and I am happy to announce that the blocks are finally sewn into a quilt top!!!  I auditioned possibilities on this blog post last month, and finally decided on this option. 

It's a difficult quilt to photograph with all the white, and looks much prettier in person than on the computer screen. I like this layout because it finishes the red chains out to the edge of the quilt, and I also like that  this design gives me some white triangles in which to feature some quilting designs. And speaking of quilting, this is another quilt that is enticing me to do some hand quilting...I'm hoping that idea passes!

Hop over to Patchwork Times and see what other quilters are working on this week.

Design Wall Monday #18

This is what is on my design wall today and I am so happy that these blocks are sewn together!  I have been working on this project since March 2008 but most of the blocks have been sitting in a box waiting for some attention.


To read more about this project, click here.






I sewed the red scrappy alternate blocks in February, and hand embroidered this last 6" block in April.

Now I am pondering what to do about the borders....do you have any ideas to pass along?!?

Hop on over to Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Scrappy Saturday - Red

This is the last Saturday for the red rainbow scrap challenge.  For January's blue challenge, I managed to find a UFO featuring the colour of the month and made great progress on it...to see my January's blue project click here. This month I tackled a redwork UFO - hand stitched blocks from 2008. You can read more about this project in my UFO confessional - click here.

Last Saturday I went through my red scraps and cut out pieces for the alternate blocks.  I had way more red scraps than needed and am now contemplating a scrappy border to use up those leftovers. Here are the blocks on the design wall. Notice the hole where the last stitched block should be? I'm still working on that one!

Just for fun, you can click on these links to see some of the other creative settings used for these adorable stitchery blocks:

Capricorn Quilts

Auntie's Quaint Quilts

Katja's Quilts

Quilts and Siggies (being hand quilted!)

Kitty Cat Creations

Michelle's Quilts (scroll down to see this project)

Happy in Quilting

It was my goal to get this top sewn together by the end of February, but that won't happen.  My red project might have to extend into March. Wonder what the March colour will be?

Hop over to Angela's blog to see what other red projects are seeing some progress this week - click here.

Scrappy Saturday - UFO Confessional

I read Elly's post about working on her "Quilters' Blessings" redwork block and wondered about my own project. I went in search of my blocks and found them!
There is always a reason why a project becomes a UFO and part of the process to end the parade of projects into my overflowing UFO closets is to take an inventory...and to be ruthless about it.
Last year I did an UFO inventory and decided to put 3 UFO tops up for adoption. They were quilt tops that I knew I just did not want to work on anymore (to read more about that click here).
This year when I made my 2011 UFO (unfinished objects) Wish List, I took several projects off the list that needed some ongoing work and would not be finished in a reasonable amount of time. They went on my new W.I.P. (Works In Progress) Wish List.
This project is one of my favorites from that list...Quilter's Blessings was a Block Of the Month from Capricorn Quilts in 2008.

Here's the inventory:
-there were 16 block patterns released and I stitched 11 of the patterns and ran out of my base fabric. Then it went on top of a big pile of projects I was working on, and gradually worked it's way to the UFO closet, while I thought about what to do about the fabric problem. 11 blocks is a hard number to work with in a quilt layout.



Now for the ruthless questions...
A) Do I still like it and want to work with it?
             Yes...I still really like it and want to make it into a finished quilt.
B) Will I realistically finish stitching the remaining 5 blocks?
             Likely not, because I have several other hand stitching projects on the go. But I could easily finish 1 more block to make an even 12 blocks to work with.
C) What are my next steps?
             Step 1: Pick a similar piece of white background fabric and trace 1 more block to stitch.
             Step 2: Figure out how to set the blocks together.
In deciding what size to make some setting blocks, I realized that my stitched blocks are all different sizes. That was a shock! Could it be that my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders due to all the night shifts I worked this week?!? In the 3 years I have been working on this project, I never realized that my printed out patterns and finished blocks are varied sizes. At this point, the project was in again in danger of drifting toward the UFO closet!
But not this time! I will forge ahead and trim all the blocks to the largest size and then make the alternate blocks that same size. On the right is a yellowed out photo showing the size variance.
I got out my red scraps and figured out an alternate block, which was inspired by Diane's quilt - click here to see it. I am going to make a smaller version of her alternate block. I cut up some blocks and strips and now have everything organized to make this one of the projects that I will take to retreat.
Did I mention that I am going on a quilting retreat?!?!
I am too tired to think about retreat at this moment (did I mention I worked too many night shifts this week?!?) but after a quick nap, I'm sure I'll be very excited to get all my projects packed up. Last year I took 11 projects to work on, and 5 of them did not even get touched!
If the WiFi is working at the retreat centre, I will make daily reports this week...stay tuned!

Happy Easter

It is a beautiful, sunny Easter here and the Easter bunny has delivered her chocolate treats. A new Lindt store opened up near us and provided wonderful goodies for the Easter baskets. The children are in a sugar coma, and now the Easter bunny has some time to do some blogging and stitching! That worked out well for her!
Don't you just love a long weekend full of relaxing moments for sewing!?!
I finished up another block from Capricorn Quilts BOM (from last year). I think I still have 4 or 5 more blocks to stitch if I want to make the whole set and if I can find my patterns! I am planning to attend an old fashioned quilting bee on Tuesday and was thinking about that while I was stitching this block. I'm sure my hand quilting stitches will leave a lot to be desired by the experienced quilters, however they have agreed to let me join in for the morning.
Happy Easter! I am hopping off the computer to do more sewing!

Golden Heart Family

I have been to visit my brother this week. He has been very sick again, and because of his health conditions, he really suffers from the cold and flu viruses that are passed around in the cold weather (you can read about him here). I haven't done much quilting this week, but while he was sleeping, I finished another Capricorn Quilts block of the month. Yes, it's from last year's BOM series! I still have a couple more to stitch and then I have to decide on a setting for my blocks.
Bea is offering a new BOM series for 2009 called "Once Upon a Time" and the first block called 'Rapunzel' is posted. You will be amazed to hear that I am not starting this new project...because I am finishing the one from last year first!

Block of the Month stress

I am about 90 % back to my "normal" self this week. Here is a photo I took of our Christmas tree...I love it because it represents how I have been feeling! Just like me, the settings were too slow!
I am still dragging myself through the evenings and going to bed early instead of quilting at night. I just think I need the extra rest, but I sure do miss the quilting. I am trying not to get uptight about the decrease in productivity, especially at this time of year when Mrs. Clause should be in overdrive!
Two of my quilting projects that bug me the most are my Block of the Month (BOM) projects. I like to be caught up and feel stressed about unstarted blocks. The first one is my "Be Attitudes" quilt. I have only fully completed the first 2 blocks, and have the 3rd one appliqued and am ready to sew in the thread ends. And here is the pile of unopened block packages...ugh! Okay take a deep breath and repeat after me...don't worry, there is no deadline, except in your own mind, so just change your expectations! I am a hard taskmaster!

And the 2nd project is the Capricorn BOM. I just finished this block, which is block #9 for me. That's pretty good, eh?!? I don't even know how many more blocks I have to stitch...I think there are 14 blocks altogether because some months had a bonus block.
The photo is a little bit yellow, and my little sheep are somewhat defective, but hey, I'm only working at 90% capacity here!!!
What about you quilters out there in blogland...have you finished your BOM's from 2008???
Are you signing up for any new BOM's next year?

Capricorn Block #8

I spent a lovely afternoon at Triangle Sewing today and enjoyed visiting with the quilters who dropped in. I also used the time to do some stitching (what else is there?!?!) and finished block #8 of the Capricorn Quilts BOM. I have put a photo of each block on the right hand side of my blog if you want to take a peek at all of them so far. Or you can check out Bea's blog and see many other photos of the same design. And drop in on this blog to see a really creative variation from a stitcher who doesn't drink tea!
I think I missed out on a "bonus" block during the summer, but don't have enough of the white background fabric to do more than 12 blocks, so I am deciding if I will mix in a second white/background fabric. Oh these crazy things we quilters do to ourselves!!!
And here is a photo of my very fancy "light box" where I trace all my hand embroidery patterns onto fabric...the back door of my studio! Works for me!

Other Creative Pursuits

Unfortunately I haven't done much quilting lately. I look forward to my kids going back to school next week and getting more time in my schedule for quilting.

During the Olympics I did do some stitching and finished my 7th Capricorn Quilts block and am now only 2 blocks behind. If the coverage wasn't so interesting, I'm sure I would have accomplished a lot more!

I did work on some creative culinary projects. I made peach jam with the leftover peaches from the market. It didn't turn out as good as my blueberry rhubarb jam, which my friend Judy calls "Blubarb" jam! This jam was a lot runnier...but does taste good.

I also made a blueberry coffee cake from Tanya's blog. It did not look anything like her cake, since I put almonds on the top (a favorite with my family) but it sure tasted yummy and was eaten up in no time. My family is always so thankful for anything I cook and I wish that I enjoyed it more and would do more of it. But I'd rather be quilting...or holding a baby!

And speaking of babies, a friend and I took a quick road trip to Michigan to see our friend's new baby. I talked about this miracle baby in this post about the baby quilt I made her. And here is baby Laura sleeping so peacefully and I must tell you, as an unbiased honourary Auntie, that she is perfect and absolutely gorgeous!

Here is a picture of me and Laura taken at about 11:30 pm in dark "please go to sleep" lighting, after a 6 hour drive! So I'm not looking real perky, but it reminds me of the hours I spent cuddling and singing...hey, maybe that's why she wasn't sleeping?!?!?!

Squishies

In the summer I like to do hand work, especially at the kids' sports practises and games. It's just too hot most days to sit at the machine and piece or quilt. I just finished stitching this block, which is the June block from Capricorn Quilts. I am really enjoying this project - quick and easy (and free!)blocks each month and I have been able to keep up fairly well. I have posted my finished blocks on the right hand side of my blog, just for fun. I almost have July's block done, plus there is a bonus block for the month which I haven't started yet.
I was thinking back to the days when I was involved in lots of swaps and often had a mailbox full of squishies.
What is a squishy, you ask?!?! It's an envelope in your mailbox that is filled with fabric or blocks or something quilty!
I don't sign up for fabric or block exchanges anymore because a) I am too busy doing other things and b) I have piles of unused blocks because I am too busy! I participated in hourglass and 9 patch block swaps for a long time in the mid 90's. As I was stitching this mailbox block and thinking about my participation in swaps, I started wondering where my old squishies were. I went in search of them down in the UFO dungeon. They are keeping well, and when they are aged to perfection I will make a quilt!

One Seam Short of a Quilt!

It seems lately I am one seam short of a quilt! My lawn is a mess and my garden is a disaster. No carrots or cucumbers at all. The beans are finally starting to come along and the tomatoes are my saving grace! My flowers are anemic looking...ugh! I'm not giving up on it, but it certainly is not a stellar crop this year! Let's just blame it on the weather!

Ad I am one seam short of the OC quilt top. I have been working away on it and trying to get the hundreds of seams to match up. I'm so glad I pressed all the star block seams toward the centres and all the orange block seams toward the outside of the blocks. They are matching up fairly well. I have the one long diagonal seam to sew to finish the top. It is bigger than anything I have made for a long time. I feel like Alice in Wonderland where everything is out of proportion - here's me who prefers mini quilts, trying to piece this huge orange quilt!!

To de-stress I have been working on my Capricorn Quilts BOM for May - yes, May! It is finally finished. I have June's traced and have the weekend to finish it before the July block is posted. No problem since I don't need to spend as much time in my mostly dead garden!

More hours in the day...

I often have people ask me "do you sleep?" Yes, but not as much as I would like to! I tend to be very focused about how I use my quilting minutes. I try to fit in time to quilt or stitch as much as possible every day, and I try not to "waste" this resource of time. I re-learned this in Myrna Giesbrecht's Self Expression's class at Quilt University. A lot can be accomplished in short blocks of time. Like the Block of the Month at Capricorn Quilts blog. When the pattern comes out at the beginning of the month, I print it out and trace it onto my background fabric. Then it sits and waits until I have a few minutes to pick it up. This weekend was the perfect time to stitch, since I wanted to watch the Masters Golf Tournament. During commercials or boring parts, I was able to stitch the whole block while I watched Tiger struggle for second place.
I almost forgot about my blogiversary giveaway! I printed out the comments on friday night and let my son pick the winner...and the winner is....Grace at GraceBeading! Congratulations! Send me your address and I'll send you a little bit of spring cheer!

Capricorn BOM

The April BOM pattern has been posted by Bea at Capricorn Quilts, so I hurried to finish up the March block. I am enjoying the varigated threads. You can see my first two blocks here.
This is a fun project that is great for stitching when my family has movie night. If I have to watch one more Bruce Willis movie....!

Hand work & OWOH Update

Never a dull moment around here! After finally getting my Mother-in-law admitted to a long term care facility, she has contracted Influenza A and is quite sick. She is in quarantine so we cannot visit but I am so thankful that she in under the care of nurses and not living alone in her home.

This weekend we have had a huge pile of more snow. We have shovelled twice already today and it is ready for a third attempt. Who's tired of snow??? See Mare's comic here!

Since we are snowed in, I have been doing some hand beading and you can see my finished January piece here. And I have finished the February block of the Capricorn BOM. The March block has been posted, and I am ready to trace the pattern and get stitching!
One World - One Heart Update:

In February I participated in the One World One Heart event. It was great fun visiting all the participants' blogs and entering to win their gift drawings. I had 4 giveaways that I sent to the winners of my draws - they are probably still travelling to Toni in North Carolina, Michele in South Carolina, Pat in New York, and Michelle in New Zealand. Hope the packages make it through all this snow and arrive safely! You can read more about my giveaways and the winners here.

And amazingly I won 5 draws!! I received a painting from Judie in Florida which you can see here. And I received two journals - one from Becky in New York (see it here - scroll down to Feb. 7th...I got the flower one!!) and one from Susan in New Jersey (see this one here). I get the message...better keep on with the journalling! And I received a package of goodies including a necklace and earrings from Diana in Ohio (see it on her blog here). And lastly Tamy is sending me some stationery! I am a lucky duck!

Retreat Report #4 -Hand Stitching

Whenever I go on a quilt retreat I like to take a variety of projects because I never know what I will feel like working on. I usually like to take one project to machine quilt, some paper piecing , some machine piecing, and some hand work to relax with.

I had seen some fellow bloggers posting photos of their Capricorn Quilts Block of the Month. You can see Jeanne's here and Connie's here. Bea of Capricorn Quilts is posting a new hand stitching pattern each month...and it's free! I had printed out the patterns for January and February and had purchased some DMC varigated floss so I was all ready to go. I used the Roxanne's Quilter's Choice pencils that Meredith gave me and they worked great to trace the pattern. I really enjoyed using the varigated floss and was able to finish January's block, while listening to all the good discussions going on into the wee hours of the morning! I got a good start on February's block, which is good because the March pattern is already posted and I better get going!