SANTA IN THE WOODS COMPLETE

Hurray!  A completed quilt.  Back in February, I made the Santa in the Woods quilt top during a Christmas Sew-Along.  I took time Thursday to machine quilt the top and do the binding.  All finished months before the Christmas holiday season arrives.

The pattern I used is by Sandy Gervais and was found in a special edition of Quiltmania.  All the parts for Santa are done in wool.  The rest of the quilt is cotton fabrics.

I also want to share a quilt with you that was made by Wendy of "Snippets of a Quilter" blog.  You can visit her here.  Wendy and I made a trade.  I had admired the nine patch quilt when she posted it on her blog and she had admired a quilt top I showed on my blog about the same time.  We agreed to a trade.  The only thing I did to the nine patch quilt was to add the binding.  The quilt is fresh from the washer & dryer when I took the quick picture.  The pins I used kept coming loose and one side or another falling.  I gave up trying to get a good picture because the quilt was just not going to stay up there.

Today, I am working on an embroidery block.  Maybe some machine quilting later on.  Have a nice day.

Karen

GARDEN SAMPLER

"Garden Sampler" is finished. I prepped the wool on cotton blocks last fall.   I came across them in a bin recently and decided it was time to finish the project. I started doing the hand stitching on the  wool applique pieces last week. The blocks were sewn together yesterday, minimal quilting done, and binding added. I finished up the hand work this morning.

The pattern for "Garden Sampler" is by A Piece of Work.

I also made two wool pincushions.  The bee skep is a repeat of one I made previously.  I showed a friend how to do the wool applique so we were each making one.  It is a good design for a beginner to start on.

Nice to have you stop by for a visit.  Check in again soon.

Karen

WILLING HANDS

A new finish.  "Willing Hands"  is a wool applique on cotton fabric project.  I like the saying that is embroidered for the quilt.  Not exactly true for me as I am not an early to bed, early to rise person but I do have the willing hands to sew.

The pattern I used is by Cheri Saffiote-Payne of "Wednesday's Quilts".  I was able to complete it fairly quickly as I started the project one day last week.  I was in the mood to make something new and to complete it all the way instead of just to top form.  I am also working on some wool on cotton blocks that I prepped last fall and they are moving along pretty quickly also.

Enjoy your evening and take time to do some sewing.  I know I will be.

Karen

PINCUSHION ROUND ROBIN COMPLETE

Finally, my wool crazy round robin piece is complete.

I tried to get a picture without glare and was not successful.  I can see part of myself in the bottom of the picture.  The piece is framed under glass and I think that is the problem.  I thought I had a picture of the piece the way it looked when it came back to me before I did some finishing work but I don't.  The piece started out with just the squirrel on the upper left corner.    No embroidery at that time.  Paulette of Sweet Pea Creations blog added the cat and basket on the lower right corner.  Then Lori of Humble Quilts added the pumpkin and sunflower in the lower left corner.  Finally, Kaaren of The Painted Quilt added the scarecrow in the upper right hand corner.  Each person did some embroidery on their section.  Then back to me for completing the piece.  Finally, I took time to do it.  I added three little leaves to the squirrel area, added some grass, and some embroidered stitches over some wool edges on my section that had not been covered.  Lori framed her piece and I liked that idea.  You can see her framed wool piece here.  The wool base was 8 inches square.  I could not find a frame at the craft store that was that size.  In fact, frames for something square were not to be found there at all.  I finally found the perfect size frame at a thrift store.  I just removed the picture that was in it and popped in the wool piece.  For $1.50, I think it was a bargain.  Now to decide where to hang it.

I found the book "An Enclyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs" by Linda Causee to be most helpful in doing decorative stitches.  That is because it gives a diagram of the stitches and shows needle placement and numbered steps for doing the stitch.  Further back in the book, combinations of stitches are shown.

I have finished doing some wool applique on a wall hanging but it still needs borders.  I will be able to show that to you very soon.  Back to my sewing.

Karen

SPRING BASKET WOOL PROJECT

Today I am sharing with you a small wool applique project that I just finished.  It is a pattern designed by Lynda Hall of Primitives by Lynda.  It was a fairly quick and easy small wall hanging to make.  I am going to put some magnetic strips on the back (as soon as I purchase some) and hang this on the refrigerator.

A while back, I won a give-away on "Amanda's Musings" blog.  I received the package yesterday and the contents were all a surprise as Amanda did not know what she was going to give away.  And a very good surprise it was for me.  An "I Love to Sew" stitchery (and I do), fairy scissors, an Ohio Star mat, postcards from exhibition quilts at the V&A Museum, wildflower seeds, and a commemorative tea towel of William and Catherine's wedding.  I love those fairy scissors.  Thank you, Amanda.

You can see the fairy scissors better here on this web site.  Just scroll down toward the bottom of the page.

Back to my stitching.

Karen

SANTA SALUTE (PART 2 OF THE CHRISTMAS SEW-ALONG)

I completed the "Santa Salute" quilt top. The pattern is by Joined at the Hip.   It is approximately 39 inches wide by 50" long. I have had the pattern on the shelf for quite some time.  Time to do something with it.  

I started cutting the parts late Saturday afternoon.  Lots of cutting measurements.  I kept track of what each piece was by marking lightly in the seam allowance on the back of each one the corresponding alpha letters assigned in the pattern.  It saved me a lot of time by not having to remeasure a piece to make sure I was grabbing the correct one.  I sewed the inside of the quilt Saturday evening.  Easy sewing.  The border was made today.  Now to find time to quilt it and I will have yet another holiday quilt either for my own decorating or a gift for someone else.

I am happy to have used only fabric from stash and have been doing that a lot this year.  Still my stash does not look like it has gone down any.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Karen

CHRISTMAS SEW-ALONG AND BIBLE BLOCK FOUR

First of all, I will share with you a photo of block four of the Bible Quilt.

It took me a while to figure out what the black strip going from top to bottom of the block was.  I finally decided it is the blocking of Adam and Eve from the Garden.  I used Seral paper to transfer the embroidery lines for the words on the block.  Seral paper, if you are not familiar with it, is sort of like carbon paper.  It is a waxy transfer paper and comes in different colors.  It does rub off, so I did the embroidery before the applique.  I don't have any more blocks prepped, so will need to do that before I can proceed further.  My plans are to do block five and then do the rest one block a month.

Today is the Saturday for the Christmas Sew-Along.  I am getting a late start because an old work friend came to visit.  We had a good time.  She sews but is not a quilter.  I prepared the parts for a wool applique pin cushion and showed her how to do that.  She went home with the kit including the crushed walnut shells for stuffing the pincushion.  We had lunch at Mimi's and made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby.

I am cutting the parts for a Santa quilt from a Joined at the Hip pattern called "Santa Salute".  So far, I have parts only that I could show you as I haven't gotten to the sewing part.  And that would not be very interesting.  I can show you a picture of the quilt pattern though.

The pattern is similar to an Uncle Sam quilt I did a while back.  You can see the Uncle Sam quilt here.  A long quilt.  It should be 37" x 50" if I do the border the same as the pattern shows.

To the participants of the Sew-Along, I hope you are having a fun day.  I have visited a few and am going back now to take another look.  Then back to the sewing room.

Karen

BIBLE BLOCK 3 AND COLLECTOR BLOCK 7

 I am back with two more completed applique blocks.  The first is from the "Bible Quilt" and is completed block number three.  I have one more block prepped and then I will need to start selecting fabrics for a few more.

Next is my seventh Collector block.  The last of the heart blocks and of that I am glad.

I like houses on quilts so naturally this is one that I like.  It did not take a lot of time to applique.  Now to decide which block will be the next one.

Thanks for taking a peek!

Karen

COLLECTOR BLOCK #6 AND BIBLE QUILT BLOCK #2

Collector block number six is done.  It is a slight bit different than the pattern for the block.  I think only someone making the quilt themselves would notice the difference.

And block number two of the "Bible Quilt".  All those legs on the animals took some time to do.

Thanks to all of you who gave input on the photo program you use for straightening a picture.  I used Picasa this time to straighten the animal block and it worked well.

Happy Mother's Day!  Enjoy.

Karen

ANOTHER Basket OF SUNFLOWERS TOP AND MORE

Call me crazy.  It's okay.  I have made up another  sunflower basket wall hanging.

 Several months ago, I was flipping through "Crossroads" by Ginger Cookie Company.  I chose two projects from the book and prepped the applique and did all the stitching.  On another run through the book, I realized that there was a sunflower basket pattern that the one pictured used fabric for the border that I have in my stash.  Not knowing what I wanted to do with the fabric, I prepped the wall hanging for the applique.  The crazy part is that I made such a similar basket of sunflowers last year.  Here is a picture of it.

Both are wide wall hangings.  The newest one is even wider than the first.  The patriotic basket of sunflowers is complete.  I don't know what I am going to do with the newest one.  I got an idea of adding pieced blocks below and making it sofa size.  The width of the current piece is 50" wide and 18" long.  I don't know if I have enough border fabric to accomplish that.  I will have to check that and then make a decision.  I just don't feel that I need both.  Maybe a gift.

I made the fifth Collector block.  You can read in my previous post about the pattern information and see the first four blocks.  This particular block is called "Pot of Flowers".

I did have a problem with making the background on this block.  I traced the pattern parts onto freezer paper, ironed that to my selected fabrics, and did the piecing.  I did not come out with a nice square block.  So, I drew my own complete pattern onto freezer paper, made tick marks for matching one part to another, cut the pattern apart and worked from there.  Better success the second time.  I have two more heart blocks to make that will have different applique designs.

The last photo is the first block I have made from Lynda Hall's "A Little Porch Time" book.  Most of the quilt will consist of applique.

A request.  I have three different photo programs on my computer but none of them have the ability to straighten an object in the photo.  I know there is one that does.  I just don't find one on the internet.  A free one would be great.  I would appreciate knowing the name of what photo editing program you use if yours has that ability.  I seem to often have a slightly tilted picture.

Hope you have some time to sew this evening.  Enjoy!

Karen

BIBLE BLOCK #1

I have admired the blocks being done by at least three others of Jan Patek's "Bible Quilt" and have decided to join in.  Here is block number one.  The blocks are 16 inches finished.

A follower asked to see all four of the blocks I have finished from the Collector Series quilt by Jan Patek, so I am posting a picture taken on the design wall.  It is not the setting they belong in, but just taken close together for the picture.

I hope to prepare at least one more block for the quilt today.

Take some time today for yourself and stitch a little whether by machine or by hand.  Enjoy!  I know I will.

Karen