Pleased With Accomplishments!

 Haven't posted for a while, but I'm so pleased with what I've gotten done.

    1.  Finished and have worn Strawberry linen pants and a natural color linen shirt.  I love them!

 

    2.  Figured out a quilt label after trying to design one in EQ, but wasn't happy with it.  I purchased a frog cutting die because I simply thought it was cute.  Well, it is really cute and I will be using it for quilt labels.  Working on that.

    3.  My PieceMakers Calendar Quilt 1994 is on Phoebe although I haven't gotten very far, but have quilted part of the border and the first row.  This quilt is 92" wide on an 8 foot frame.  It's a bit cramped.  I will get back to it very soon.  Also made a cloth hammock for backing, batting and top so they don't drag on the floor while I work.  Love my Phoebe.

 

    4.  Cleared off my sewing table so I could repair a quilt top I made back 1968 when I was 20 years old.  It is out on the line after soaking for a while.  Should be dry soon.  I'm thinking I might hand quilt it.  Haven't really decided.  This top is mentioned in one of my first blogs. I've always loved it.  It doesn't look out of style to me.

 

     5.  As always, I'm trying to organize my studio.  I cleared out a lot of floor space, but my cutting table has stuff on it.

    6.  I took bindings off of two quilts so I could replace the bindings.  Job done!!

    7.  I finished my Blue Jay for my Hummingbird Highway quilt. That make 12 finished with six to go.  

There was a treat that showed up in my gardens this year.  I planted two blue hydrangeas twenty years ago.  This is the first summer they have bloomed!  So beautiful!!

Still counting my blessing!

d

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

    

Not Qulting, but Busy

Today is June 27, 2024.  This blog will be a running commentary on my progress.  I've been frustrated by so many interruptions and an overwhelming feeling that I'm not going to reach my easy goals of quilting old UFOs and refreshing my wardrobe.  I have found if I just keep doing something until I just want to change directions as the day goes on, then start again tomorrow working a little more on what I'm trying to accomplish, a lot gets done.  

 So, I've been sitting with my little Bernette b38.  I love this machine for sewing, which I have been doing for maybe a couple of weeks.  I've almost finished a beige linen shirt; it just has a couple of threads to hide way.  I'm very pleased with this shirt.  It really has been a long time since I've worked on clothing.  There was a time when everything I wore I had made it myself.  I love being at my machine.  I now have a pair of Strawberry red linen pants on the cutting table waiting for me to cut it out.  I hope to be able to wear them to July 4th's picnic.  They look celebratory!

By the way, this was a refurbished machine.  I like buying refurbs;  I've done it often.  If the company is reliable, then its refurbs should be also.  Great money saver!

 

So here is my linen shirt that I'm so pleased with.  I've got my Strawberry linen pants cut out.  Now, I haven't used my serger for a while, so I have to relearn how to use it.  That's tomorrow's project. 

July 2nd:

I've been busy and still have a lot of interruptions, but I'm making progress.  I'm still working on the outside border of the "Home is Where the Heart is Quilt".  That will still take quite a while, but I'm making progress.  I've learned how to make quilt labels in Electric Quilt; that was a big challenge for me, especially after COVID back a few years ago, when my poor mind was not necessarily being challenged.  That's not to say that I can make a label without the book, but I have a good idea how to do it.  Big accomplishment!  Those Strawberry pants I cut out.  I just need to hem them.  Yes, I'm back working on the seger; got that relearned.  My Piecemaker Calendar quilt is still on the frame.  No, I haven't worked on it.  Hopefully, after the 4th of July, I can zero in on quilting it.  That's my challenge, I would say.  It will be tricky, as I have said (I think), because this quilt is too big for the frame.  I think I will simply work on the blocks and do the borders on my sewing machine.  I think that will work.

I think it is time to close this catch-up journal entry, will continue after the 4th.

All that I have put in this journal entry is a part of my counting blessings.  So glad at my age I have so many things I can still do.

As always, counting my blessings,

d

I have been slowed down lately.

I am still working, but I don't seem to have everything I need in order to move forward.  I want to make some summer shirts for my granddaughter's soft ball game.   The shirts will either be for keeping the sun off of me or keeping me a little warmer during evening games.  I have been purchasing linen for a while and now it is time to make the shirts.  So, I'm waiting for some interfacing for the collars, and cuffs.  That is slowing me down.  I also got caught up in a button collection, all red buttons, trying to organize them.  Long job,

Meanwhile, back to quilting, I've got a large quilt on a smallish frame. My frame is 8 feet and my quilt is 84", that's seven feet, leaving 6" on each side of the frame. For this project I needed backing and batting.  The top is almost 30 years old.  I'm excited about it; its a Piecemakers Calendar Quilt 1994, hand pieced in 1995 and a couple following years. I've started working on it and it is going to take time, but I will get it finished. I will post it as soon as I'm done.

This isn't an exciting post, but I am still working and moving forward.

Enjoying all my Blessings,

d

A Gift to Linda and One to Evelyn Grace

I'm waiting around for a roll of batting.  I put the backing on the frame and then realized that I didn't have the batting I thought I had.  I will be quilting a Piecemakers Calendar Quilt from 1994.  I totally hand pieced this top (84" x 84:).  It took me roughly 5 years to finish it.  That was an extremely busy time for me, so five years was actually good time to complete it. 

I've been spent the time this week on hand piecing my Hummingbird Highway quilt.  It is coming along although it seems to be very slow, but what's my hurry.  Well, I do have a lot of fabric and a ton of ideas I'd love to complete.  

This week was also the week I gave away SunBonnet Sue.  My sister in the Lord, Linda, was the recipient.  We had such a great afternoon of fellowship over that quilt.  It was great to learn a little more about her. 

 This is Linda and SunBonnet Sue!  I hope it will bring much pleasure and enjoyment to her.

Thank you, Linda for your service and your hospitality. 

So I'm hoping my batting will be in by Monday so that I can get the Calendar quilt on the frame and start working on it.  I'm so looking forward to getting it done.  I have four more that I want to quilted up so I can piece some quilts that are already cut.  This should be a productive summer. If my DH doesn't keep coming up with plans to do other things.  Well, I suppose that will be a good use of time as well.

By the way, I remembered who the recipient was for the little birdhouse quilt mystery.  It was Evelyn Grace, a very tiny preemie baby.  Her parents brought her name to the church asking us to pray for her and so we did.  I think it has been roughly a year since and she is doing just fine, growing healthy.

Still counting my blessings,

d

 

Qult #3 Mill Girls and a Mystery??? (2024)

This quilt has a history.  The fabrics come from Massachusetts Mill in Lowell MA.  I purchased them in the late 1980s.  They were the leftover pieces from summer cotton shifts and aprons.  Shifts were light summer dresses for wearing around the house when it was hot.  At that time, I bought three paper grocery bags of scraps after these dresses were cut out.  The mill sold them for $3 a bag.  This was the third bag that I purchased.  The bag contained pieces that looked like pockets, I think they were actually scraps from the armholes.  At that time it was very difficult to purchase good fabric.  Although there was a good quilt shop not too far away, it was small with only a small amount of fabrics to choose from.  For me, to have a grocery bag of scraps was wonderful!!

The only "famous" quilter I knew was Georgia Bonesteel and I purchased a book or two to dream over.  I loved the old fashion quilts.  So, even thought I only had Georgia, I had the 30s style quilts in mind.  I loved Dresden plate quilts.  They just spoke to me of a different time, as did this particular bag of scraps.  I found the pattern for this particular book, that I loved to sit and look through.  I still have it and I still sit and look through it once in a while.

copyright 1984 or 1985 I think.  It's close.

I found the template, traced it on cardboard, and cut out a large pile of these wedges with scissors.  I machined them into plates, then hand appliqued each one to a background.  I made it to twenty, but I was beginning to run out of the colors I wanted in this quilt, so I never got to 25; I wish I had.

I completed the top with the borders and put it away.  Although I had a quilting frame my son had made in High School shop, I really didn't have the time to hand quilt like that. Those years turned into very busy ones for me.  In 2017, I purchased Phoebe, my priceless helper, a real gem.  After practicing on muslin pieces, I put this quilt on the frame.  It is the first quilt I every did on Phoebe.  There are some pics from back in 2018.  I was so proud of this quilt!  I took it off the frame and put it in a pile. Problem?  I had no idea how to bind it.  A year ago I thought I had figured out a way, but I just don't have the sewing machine skills to sew around all those curses in the border.  They were small and tight.

So having just finished SueBonnet Sue, I took this one out to see what I could do.  I hand stitched the border on, then hand stitched the back side to complete it.  It took forever and my hands were exhausted from the project, but it is done!!

 Back side of Mill Girls

 

 

I almost always take a picture of the back while it is on the line.  I've done it for years.  I love the way the light comes through and shows off the front.  Makes me think Id like to do one in pastels.  This is the pattern I have repeated the most and I've purchased a 1930s hand tied one that I will be quilting up soon, plus I have a yellow and blue one to quilt as well.

 

 

Mill Girls front

 

I've washed the quilt and hung it out to dry.  I'll run it through the dryer quickly later.  I will be keeping it on the end rail of my bed until summer.  It will be my summer blanket.  I couldn't be happier with this quilt.  It has such an old look to it.  There are tons of problems with this quilt, but I don't care, I love it anyway!

Mystery???

I was looking though my photos yesterday when I came across this quilt.  I was stunned to see it because I had simply forgotten I had finished it.  Here's the mystery, I have no idea what I did with it,  I don't know if it is in my possession or did I give it away?  I don't even know where to look for it.  

Just a fun little quilt!

Counting my blessing!

d

Second Quilt This Year - Happy!

 I'm finally back to quilting, that is, literally.  I'm not back to piecing yet, I have some quilt tops that have been hanging around for years.  My project this year is to get them finished.  I have one on my table that I quilted on Phoebe in early 2018.  It was the first quilt that I quilted on my new Q'nique system.  So, today, it is sitting on my cutting table waiting for me to finish trimming and putting on the binding.  My commitment is to finish off all quilt tops before I start a new quilt.  So, glad to be back after COVID and the distractions of the past couple of years,  

That said, this is the second quilt I've quilted this year.

SunBonnet Sue

This is a quilt that I didn't start; I only finished it up.  My mother hand appliqued all the Sues maybe in the early 2000s.  The fabrics, I think, come from the '90s.  We had beautiful florals and flower sack reproductions.  I think this is done with those.  My mother picked up quilting long after I did.  She actually loved hooking wool rugs.  She started that in 1952 or 1053, long ago.  She enjoyed hand work and as she aged, she picked up quilting,  She generally hand quilted.  Somewhere along the line, these were given to me.  I did find some little 2 1/2" squares in a quilt shop in Rumney, NH in the mid 2000s and went though my stash for other fabrics I could add to what I bought.  The top was completed at that time, but got put in a pile as hand quilting was beginning to hurt my hands.  

This was a totally complete top when I pulled it out of the tops pile and thought this is the next one to be done.  I finished it on April 25, 2024.  It will be given away to a friend as I have so many of the things she has done and I have plenty of my own quilts.  I hope Linda enjoys this.

 

Love my Phoebe!!

This is my new Q Zone frame.  My husband added the idler bar below the take up roller.  Absolutely love it!  It saves so much time and especially energy.  Also, this is the border to SunBonnet Sue.

 

This is how I chose to do the corners,  Basically, piano keys is my favorite border.

Boy, I came so close to not having enough backing for this quilt.  I added about 9" in order to be able to attach the backing to the leader.  I wasn't sure I had enough to be able to complete the quilt before the seam.  Some days things just work out well!!  Smile.

I want to give some credit to Kathy Schmitz of KathySchmitz.com.  She is known for her embroidery.  I fell in love with this pattern when I first saw it.   Sorry it is so dark, but it is not in a good place for photography.  I have it hanging on the canopy top rail, no canopy.  I lined it with white cotton so that it won't suffer sun damage. 

Birch Lane Table Runner  -  KathySchmitz.com

Work by dtang, Fall 2023

This is iron on, but hand embroidered.  I used my scraps to make it.  The background is linen toweling.  This was designed to be a table runner, but I wanted to hang it instead.  She did not quilt hers, but I wanted that quilted feeling and had a wonderful time doing it.  It was fun to make it my own and I encourage you to do the same thing.  Enjoy!

 Still counting my blessings!

d 

    

 

Progress on Dear Jane!

 I simply want to post my progress on Dear Jane.  I seem to be taking a break as Phoebe and new frame are working.  I am almost ready to post another picture of a completed quilt.  Will do soon. This is about Dear Jane.  I'm almost half way through.

I expect to get back to this soon. I will be alternating between this and my H. Highway birds. It's all hand work.  I'm also working on a sweater.  It all slows down each project, but that's okay.  It will get done.

Counting my blessing!

d