I’ve worked on a lot of little and some large projects this past week.  Frolic is still not up to date.  The reveal has been made and I can see where the pieces go.  I will keep sewing on this project for a few minutes each day until it is finished.

In the meantime, I have corrected the 8th commandment

 

 

and pieced the 9th commandment.  One more commandment block to sew and then the instructions to put all the blocks together should arrive.  One block a week is so much easier to finish than the multiple blocks in the Frolic mystery quilt. There will be enough lavender fabric left to make a lot of accents for the bedroom.

I was able to place a small quilt on the Grace frame this week.  Leah Day has excellent You tube videos that tell how to do this.  I’ve learned a lot, but there is so much more to learn.  The quilt is half quilted.  I find that trying to learn new things is not as easy as it seems.  It is sometimes very frustrating.  I am learning how to prevent my mistakes when I quilt the next quilt.  I know that I have to practice a lot, but I do get impatient when it doesn’t look as good as I would like it to be.  In the meantime, Miss Molly will get a new quilt.  Maybe, more than one.  My work should improve with practice.

   

Several more Dear Jane blocks are finished.  I try to have enough finished blocks on hand to quilt or tack the binding when I go to a sit and sew.  This project will keep me busy for a long time.  The next block to make has three circles appliqued on it.  My circles usually come out crooked. I have thought of a way to make a perfect circle.  If it works, I’ll tell about it in a future post.

I decided to finish the bird thread painting.  It will be ready to go to it’s new home as soon as I make a label.  I have another bird thread painting started in my stash of bits and pieces.  I may finish that one in the future and keep it.  The other bird blocks that I brought out to choose from are back in the stash of bits and pieces.

The bird block was made by color copying the picture of the bird onto fabric.  Then I lightly thread painted over the picture.  It’s very relaxing and like coloring inside the lines.

The tub of little fabric pieces is filling up.  Someday soon, I’ll have to take time to cut the fabric into small squares so that I can sew some little blocks as beginners and enders.

There are no meetings or appointments for the next two days.  Hopefully, I can concentrate on one of my projects and finish it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I am caught up on the Ten Commandments bed runner.  Two more Commandments to go.  Each block is so pretty.  There will be enough fabric left over from the bolt that I bought to change the look of my bedroom.  I’m thinking valances, pillow covers, etc.  I do have a beautiful purple silk pillow cover that one of my daughters gave me for Christmas.  It will be a very nice accent to the room.

Commandment #7

Commandment # 8  This was finished, but when I looked at the picture, two of the pieces were set in wrong.  I’ll correct that and show the picture on the next blog.

When the bed runner is finished, I will quilt it on the Grace frame.  A friend from the Guild and her husband came on Monday morning and finished setting it up.  It’s all ready to go.  I will put a quilt package on it this week and start to practice, practice and more practice.  Hopefully, I can quickly finish a lot of my ufos.

The mystery quilt, Frolic, by Bonnie Hunter needs a lot of work.  I’m several weeks behind on this project.  I have downloaded the directions, printed them and saved them to a file.  The completed quilt has been revealed.  I can work on it between doing other things.

    This is all the little pieces that need to be sewn together to make a queen size quilt.

There are a lot of small pieces of fabric that were left over when cutting Frolic.  My intention was to cut them in 1 1/2″ strips and squares. Then I could sew them as beginners and enders and make 3 1/2″ blocks.  It’s amazing how fast the bucket is filling up with scraps.  All my meetings and appointments are finished for this week, so I have two full days of sewing ahead of me.  I may cut some of fabric and get started.

I made a folded fabric hexi.  It was fun.  The first one took an hour.  The second one took ten minutes.  They are really easy to make after the first one.  There is a pin clasp on the back so it can be worn as a pin.

 

I have a project that calls for a bird block.  I enjoy machine embroidery in the hoop and hadn’t done that for a while.  I found a pattern and machine quilted for many hours.  The pattern had a lot of stitches and color changes.  When it was finished, I found that it was a defective embroidery.  The body of the bird was missing and some of the leaves were not there.  It is in the round file. It was a wasted day.

Today, I embroidered a bird that I bought from Embroidery Library.  Their embroideries always sew out beautifully.  It did, but I think that there isn’t enough color  contrast between the bird and the foliage.  I will save it for another project.

 

I have a bin of quilt pieces in the back of a closet.  There are partially made quilts, leftover blocks and lots of things to choose from when I’m looking for something special. I found several bird blocks.

These two blocks are hand embroidered.  I think that my mother made them.

These two cardinals are redwork on the embroidery machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bird block is partially thread painted.  I printed the picture of a bird on fabric and was in the process of thread painting when I put it away.  I need to have turquoise in the border so will thread paint some turquoise thread on the wing.  Thread painting is very relaxing and is something that I like to do.

The blocks are sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for me to make a decision.  I’ll have to decide by tomorrow which one to use in the project .

It’s the second week in January.  I still haven’t changed the wall hanging on the wall over the sofa.  I do have it out and ready to go.  Maybe, tomorrow. The little January wall hanging is up on the wall.

I’ve been following several blogs.  The latest item for conversation is to make the same small block every day.  After a few months there will be enough blocks to make a quilt. It would be a simple, yet scrappy quilt.  Several blocks have been running through my mind.  I have decided on a small churn dash.  Now, I have to decide what theme to use.  Will it be batiques, one color, traditional, or will I use a large package of 5″ squares that I bought last summer. I’ve also decided to make five blocks a week and use the other two days to border each block.  When I start, there will be pictures of my progress.  Nothing says that I have to start on January 1st.  I can start any day when I get organized.

The Ten Commandments bed runner is up to date.

Fifth Commandment

 

 

 

Sixth commandment

 

 

I brought out the flower applique and have been working on that wall hanging in the evening.  The oldest UFO has been retired again for a while.  The more I quilt on that piece, the more I find to quilt.  The quilting has to be equal on the whole quilt and I started with a lot of quilting.  Hand quilting takes a long time, but it is worth it. Miss Molly likes it when I hand quilt.  She checks out the part that is on the floor while I’m quilting.  I have to remember to pull most of it up so that I can move it as I quilt.

I am very far behind on the Frolic Mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter.  I have a lot of scraps in the right colors, but they are small scraps.  I need larger scraps to make sets of four in the same colors. One clue states that the turquois should be lighter than the blues.  Most of my turquois is medium to dark.  I checked the local fabric store but didn’t find what I wanted.  Then I went on line to several sites.  My order was received more than a week ago, but hasn’t been processed or mailed.  Hopefully, it will come soon and I can catch up.  In the meantime, I have other projects to work on.

I did sew a few of the Dear Jane blocks.  I was out of hand work on those blocks.  I like to work on them when I go to the  Community Center.  I’ll be all set for a while.

Most of the samples are made for the Guild demonstration.  I have one more to make.  That shouldn’t take long.  It’s just a matter of getting to it.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

 

 

 

Happy new year.  It has been a very busy two weeks with Christmas parties and family get togethers.  It is wonderful to connect with family no matter what time of year.  Miss Molly’s good friend Rufus came for a visit also.  She enjoys visiting with him and discussing their very important jobs.

I did squeeze in  a little time for sewing.  The green and white quilt top is finished. My goal is to have it finished so that it can go on the wall over the sofa in March.  I had made several four patches before I looked for a pattern.  The four patch pieces were cut at 1 1/4″ square.  Four units were sewn together to make the block.  While checking for inspiration for my demo in January, I came across a pattern from a class that I had with Sue Rabin and Ann Gallo.  It was perfect.  After the wall hanging was pieced, I realized that it was too small for the space.  Using the leftover green fabric, I added more borders and cut them at an angle on the two bottom corners.   The size is correct now.  I had made more four patches than I needed so decided to piece the backing with them.  By the time it is finished, I may, possibly, have my quilt frame ready to use.  It is one of my priorities this year.

I’m behind on Bonnie Hunter’s Frolic quilt.  At this point, I’ve skipped part four.  It calls for turquois fabric that is lighter than the blue that goes with it.  It calls for sets of four pair of half square triangles and four pairs of quarter square triangles cut from the same fabrics.  Since I have small scraps in that color, there is not enough yardage to cut what I need.  I’ve ordered some new fabric and will make part  4 when it comes.  So much for  using up the scraps that I have.

Part five is finished.  It called for lots of half square triangles that are sewn the same as part three.  The color is raspberry and neutrals.  This time,  I decided to make the half square triangles in the accordion method.  They worked up quickly and are trimmed and ready for the next step.

Step six will be here tomorrow or the next day.  Maybe, I will have much more time to sew and can catch up.

The fourth commandment block is finished.  I’m pleased with the colors on these blocks.  It will make a very nice bed runner.  The Fifth Commandment block pattern came last week.  It calls for two duplicate 10″ blocks. The pattern says that these blocks are more difficult to size correctly.  The 10″ block is divided by 6 units, so the cutting is tricky.  The sewing has to be very accurate in order for it to come out the correct size.  Fortunately, I do know how to divide a block by unusual amounts of pieces.  I will do this on copy paper and paper piece each section.   Then the block will be accurate when finished.

The deadline is fast approaching to have my demo instructions completed.  I have decided what I’m going to talk about.  It will be called Tricks of the Trade and will consist of four subjects.  Now, I have to make demo pieces and write the instructions.  One of the subjects will be how to make six equal sections in a 10″ block.  When I have finished writing the instructions, I’ll post it to the blog.

There is so much that I want to complete in 2020.  January will be my organization month.  Then, I can just have fun.

Have a great day and happy quilting.