Homespun Flowers

I have everything all neat and tidy in my sewing room again. All the fabric is sorted, folded and put away. I actually had twice that much, but had put some away already. I should have a finished quilt top to show you by Monday.

In the meantime, after spending hours at a sewing machine (for the past ?? days), I decided to take a break from hand quilting in the evening. I am at a place on the pink and brown that is a great stop/start point. Plus, I will be a hand quilting fool once the baskets get into the hoop next week...it needs to be done by Christmas! So, I pulled this top back out.......and spent the evening watching "Fly Me To The Moon" with the family, while doing some hand applique on the border.I put my case of threads right next to me as there are so many colors going into this border.
So far, only 3 flowers done. All the flowers will be plaid with gold centers and there will be many leaves going around that vine. I love this quilt and plan to hang it in my entryway when it is done. It is quite large....83x83. It tells the story of the Underground Railroad. If you look closely at the quilt, you will see a basket block. Yep, that is where I got the pattern for the "Basket Case". I have actually used many patterns from this book over and over again. It is an Eleanor Burns book called "Underground Railroad Sampler".
I wanted to share a new-to-me site called QuilterBlogs.com.
There are wonderful quilting blogs listed there to go through for inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, I will be holding a workshop at my church tomorrow afternoon on the Home Management Binder/Box. Pray for me....I am not a "get-up-in-front-of-people" kind of girl.

Paper Roses

That Marie Osmond song would not stop running through my head yesterday. I spent a good part of my day preparing the paper pieces for my needle turn applique flowers. This book is awesome for any floral/leaf/heart applique templates. The vine is on the sampler and now it is time to add the flowers and leaves. I love needle turn applique, so I look forward to this next and final phase of this top. Zach's school scissors were fine and I got all the flowers cut out in short order.

I have a vision of ALL the flowers being homespuns. All 24 flowers a different homespun plaid. There is the first problem...I don't own 24 different homespuns. I own 10. I pressed a flower on a piece of each homespun I currently own.Second problem...I want to use only the colors in the actual quilt. Most reds will not work because they are so close to the color of the border...see that one in the lower right hand corner? That one will not work. I will be getting some more homespuns this weekend. I pulled out all my applique threads, which are in a horrible state. See that Masterpiece block peeking out?? I WILL finish it and continue with that dream quilt in the near future!In the meantime I got one flower on......another one pinned and started.......and an e-mail sent to Libby, who is the queen of homespuns! I am a bit concerned about the fray factor in working with these. Hopefully she can relieve my worries. I still have not decided on the flower centers. Either yo-yo's, appliqued circles, or antique buttons...what do you think?

Mid morning, today, my sweet little TJ came over. His Daddy stopped by to pick up something and TJ was invited to spend the day here. I have not seen him in forever!! He quickly ran in and dropped his coat at the door!!!The kids were doing school work and TJ asked to do some "homework" too. He picked a page in his pre-school book I keep here for him......worked diligently (look at that tongue!)........and completed a perfect page on the number 5!!What a guy!!!

Well, that is it....anyone with some homespun/applique tips, please feel free to share! Until next time...

Flowers or Fruit?

I finished all the hand applique as planned just before bedtime last night. Now it requires hand embroidery to make what Sweet Hubby declared fruit, into flowers. He has no imagination nor appreciation of folk art. What do you see? Fruit or flowers, it doesn't matter. It looks "fall" to me and I am really liking the outcome. I am going to finish the embroidery and put on the border today. Maybe it will even get marked and basted. If not, then tomorrow for sure, as I want to be hand quilting before the weekend. I pulled out the pink and brown quilt today to show my Aunt Pete and cousin, Sheryl. My cousin is in from Florida to see our Grandma. She brought handmade knitted scarves for all of us! I will take pictures and post them tomorrow. They really are beautiful. Back to the pink and brown...pulling it out and touching it makes me want to quilt on it again so badly. After the swap piece is done, I will set up a schedule for my needlework. Hand applique on the masterpiece block and hand embroidery and machine piecing during daylight hours and hand quilting on the pink and brown in the evening. I have a UFO I want to get pieced before Christmas, so I have something to put in the hoop when the pink and brown is done, and I have a few table runners that need to go from inside my head to actually something that can be put on a table.

Tackle It Tuesday

There are many areas around my house that need some attention. Mt Washmore is still Mt Washmore, though I will refrain from using up a perfectly good Tackle It Tuesday on laundry! I put it on my Commitment to Loveliness yesterday, anyway. Another thing on my Commitment to Loveliness list was to finish up the applique on my 4 Seasons Swap piece. Well things have changed. I now need to get the applique completed TODAY!! I found an incredible hand quilting pattern which doubles the already heavy quilting planned for this piece, but I am so excited about it that I have to try. I say try because it is so much, and the project does have a time limit, plus I am not sure if it will actually work on this piece. The background does not leave a whole lot of space. Anyway, I am over-analyzing and thinking "out loud" here. The point...If I want to attempt this, I have to do it NOW! So while Charlotte is reading out loud to her brother and I, I will be stitching. While Zach is practicing his numbers, I will be stitching. While lunch and dinner are being prepared, I will be stitching. I always love my Tackle It Tuesday's but I will truly enjoy today's!! Here is a sneaky peek at what is done so far.

Golden Birthday

Today was Charlotte's golden birthday. She was 10 on the 10th! Do you remember your golden birthday? I don't, but my older boys do, and they tell me it is pretty important. Well Charlotte got a new bike and had her favorite dinner of tacos. Instead of birthday cake, she asked for cupcakes. My daughter-in-law brought cupcakes with little sprinkles on them. My kids LOVE sugar and in the past 6 months or so, they have been off most sugar and all dyes. Really helps their disposition! Zachary who is almost 6 started eating the bright colored sprinkles as fast as he could, but Charlotte was concerned and asked how we would get them off the cupcake. I was pretty impressed with her. She did eat a red and green cookie at church a while back and she had a headache for 2 days. I guess she remembered that. All in all, she had a pretty good day. Only needed one attitude adjustment. Girls are very different than boys I am finding out. With boys, what you see is what you get, and with girls it takes alot of figuring out. Thank God she was not twins! Here she is riding her new bike. She went from a bike so small she looked like a "dork" (her words) to a bike that is bigger than she is! She does well with it though.

My grandson TJ spent the night last night and was here most of the day. I spent my evening after he went to bed working on my applique blocks for Charlotte's bed quilt. I am not thrilled with the colors as they are very bright and I like more earth tones, but it is what she likes. The applique block is a flower. I basted the petals around freezer paper first. I was not sure I would like this extra step as I usually needle turn, but I have to have perfect placement of the petals and basting is a way to ensure that. It was an extra step but made the actual applique effortless.

Here is the first finished applique block. Only 12 more to go! The pieces are alot bigger than I am use to working with and I am not sure if that is better or worse.

I did some handquilting today and think I will continue that theme tonight. My finger lost its callouse (is that spelled right?) and I need to get it back!