Pickup Block #19, and the Final Applique Block!

this week's pieced block is called

and for the final applique block, Oak Leaves and Daisies

Time to get Serious about these Blocks!

I will be back in Saskatoon next week for about 10 days.  I know there's going to be a lot to do there, and I had planned to finish all the block designs and patterns for the Saturday Surprise Sampler to take home with me.  Of course I have put this off, and now it is only a few days left before I go.  So now I need to get serious and do them!
I did make up the blocks for the last two applique ones...(Sneak peek!)

(sorry for the abysmal lighting of this photo, my sewing room is very shaded!)

 But I still need to do the patterns for them.
This morning I want to start on the pieced blocks---
but it is hard to focus when I have 7 or 8 mugs to decorate!

I Hope you all have a great Easter Weekend!

P.s. There is a new Coupon!  see below!

Pickup block #15, and the 8th Applique block

This is today's block for the Saturday Surprise Sampler!  It is called Temple Court, and it is one of my favorites-- although I seem to have a Lot of Favorites!!

There is also a new applique block that is ready today!

Sunday Morning Reflections

Aren't weekend mornings the best time to think about all sorts of things?  things that happened over the past week, what you might want to accomplish over the next few days, gaze out the window and see what show nature is putting on today...

 My orchid is blooming like mad right now, and it even has a double bloom- like an egg with a double yolk.

I sewed a bit on my bonnet girls quilt yesterday, and pieced the center quite simply:

 I decided to use only 12 of the blocks, and so I have 3 leftover,

they are pretty too, and could be nice sewn into another project, but I'd rather stop at just making one project with these blocks.  If anyone else would like to have them, either to sew something, or just to study the way the applique was done, just leave a comment below, and send me your snail mail address in an email and I'll pass them along. 
The applique is done quite nicely, you can see some pencil outlines on the white background to show where to place the pieces, as well as on some of the lighter fabrics, I suppose to show where to turn under the cloth to sew it in place.  Sort of like a match-up puzzle.

I started a new knitting project,  (well, actually two of them)
It is going to be a cardigan for me.

 It will be a tweedy dark blue.  This picture shows how far I got with the first ball of yarn.  It is on 4.5mm needles and it is a simple stockinette stitch-- that's about as easy as you can get!
This is a photo of the goal:

from the book, "Knitting at Home, 60 Classics from Ella Rae Designs", by Leanne Prouse

 It is going to be quite a big project for me, and so I am not going to take any chances in it shrinking later, so I am using a Superwash wool!

 You can see that at the moment, the live oak trees are shedding their old leaves.  Every day Richard blows off the deck, and every day more leaves drift down, pushed off the tree by the new leaves,

 And this morning, there were several cardinals darting around,
I tried to get a photo of them but I was quite far away, and I don't have a zoom lens on my camera, so I apologize for the blurriness,
Cardinals are quite new to me, since they don't travel as far north as Saskatoon.  I had only seen them in books before, and I think they are really pretty birds.

I hope you are having a great weekend too, and storing up lots of energy for the week ahead!

Putting new patterns to use

 I started to machine quilt on my bright quilt that features applique patterns designed by Sue Spargo.  (I suppose I should figure out a shorter way to refer to this quilt. )

 When I was thinking about how to quilt it, it occurred to me that it might be a really good opportunity to try out some of the free motion patterns that I just learned.

 The quilt has several areas that are large enough to do a different pattern in each spot, such as the vertical rectangles that have the dresden plates appliqued over them.
Here are some of the samples, and then where I was able to do them on the quilt:

 I discovered that with this one you have to be careful in those spots where the rounded ends meet each other so that you don't get little pushed together build-ups of fabric.

 pebbles and ripples:  I need to do this one again, with more ripples like in the sample.  It was one of my favorite sample patterns!

In the light pink barbell shaped area I put the arches pattern, although it is a bit hard to see,

 And in these areas,  I had a lot of fun...

 On the blue dotted area I did diagonal wavy lines using the dots as a guide,

  on the green dotted fabric, I put the fern leaf,

 and the light green pattern has the moon paisley design

I am learning a lot with this project, and it is actually quite a lot of fun to fill in different areas with different machine quilting patterns,

 I'm just using a variegated pink and orange 50wt thread, so the patterns aren't really too noticeable unless you really are looking closely at the quilt.  It is pretty densely quilted though, so it will be interesting to see how it looks after washing...
I'm linking up to the TN and TN website today, so thank you in advance if you have come here from that site!!
http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Pickup Block #13, and the 7th Applique block

Block 13, Lucky Star

The 7th Applique Block, Three Butterflies

the Felting Continues, plus my Art to Heart quilt

 Alongside the crocheting I was doing, I also keep a knitting project going.  I have been making a tote bag using 6mm needles and two strands of Cascade220 in this striped pattern.  I had started it from a book I have,

  



But when I started it the first time, It had said to cast on 150 stitches. I did this, as you can see above, and I knit about 5 inches before ripping it out.  When I took the needles out, the circumference was about 60 inches!! So, I took it down to 80 stitches and started again.
 This time, things went a bit more quickly.

unfelted

felted

 

 

I washed it up and was quite pleased with the end result!  It measured about 14 inches wide and 19 inches tall when it was unfelted, and now it is still about the same width, but it is quite a bit shorter. 
What I particularly like is the way that the handles curled over to make a nice rounded piece to hold onto.

 And on the sewing front, lest you think that I have forgotten my quilting--
Yesterday I worked on the border for my Sampler with blocks and applique:

 I had finished all the buttonhole stitching around the appliques, but realize that some of my birds have no legs. :-(

 I decided to do quite a simple border.  I had sewn a whole bunch of the squares, because I thought I would put on 2 rows of them in a little running four-patches border.  When I put them next to the quilt they were a bit too heavy, so I dropped it back to one row.

 I got it basted as well, so hopefully I'll get to some quilting on it today!

 Have a great day!

A Great Saturday

Today we had a really good outing!  It was a craft sale at the Savannah Convention Center, which had about 250 vendors.
Each of us got a gift to ourselves!

 Richard now has a psaltery that is sort of like some kind of dulcimer, which you play with a bow.  It is chromatic, with the "white keys" on one side of the triangle and the "black keys" on the other side.The couple that produces and sells them were really nice, and they did a little mini-concert. She played the psaltery with him accompanying her on guitar.  It sounded great, just what you would expect from Appalachian style music.

Later, we came across Marian, who is the folk artist from Oneonta Alabama who has a lot to say and a lot to paint.  I really love her stuff, even more so since I got my little painting home.  This is her aunt.  If you want to see more of her stuff, (And You Do!) these are links:
  her etsy shop is here
 and her blog is here

On the way home, we stopped in at an Antique Store and found a dining room table!

We've been using a little oak table in the dining room, but the one we got today is really pretty, with a parquet top and wavy edges.  I think it will go with the chairs I got some time ago.  It should get delivered this week!
And after all that excitement, I continued on with my applique blocks:

 It is a "puzzle set".  That means that I spread the pieced blocks out on my design wall, and then made an arbitrary perimeter with masking tape -- the center measures 47" x 60"

 By some pretty fancy calculations, I was able to figure out what size of pieces I would need to piece in to make the background.  It was quite neat how 3 of the blocks turned out to be the exact same size!! I love how math works!

 Then I planned what to put on each block.  I have a book that I've often pored over, dreaming of sometime making a quilt with their designs.  It is by Blackbird Designs, called Birds of a Feather:

 I simplified the designs quite a bit, and had to change some configurations of elements to make them fit the block shapes, but I am pretty happy about how it's progressing.

 Now comes the sewing part--- going around the shapes with buttonhole stitch.  Well that might take a little time, but I might do it in stages.  While I do that, I'll have time to mull over what to do for borders...
Thanks for visiting and listening to what I did today! I hope you are having a good weekend too,
(and I must tell you that I also found an opportunity for a piece of coconut cream pie)

Applique!!

 This morning I just started in on my applique like a crazy person,

 I have only 7 blocks from the Art to Heart Saturday Surprise blocks from last year, since I also made this pieced quilt using some of the blocks:

At the Show and Tell in September I fell in love with this quilt by Kathy.  Yes, I know that we've used this setting before, but not with those skinny little frames around each block!  Yay Kathy.  I loved the effect of them floating in that light colored background.

So, that's what sparked my plan for my quilt-- I've put a little frame around each of the blocks, and I'll use a lot of white background, on which I will applique a lot of birds and leaves.  (Fusible!)
Definitely fusible, because just yesterday I finished the needle-turn applique on this project:

 Big, isn't it!  Not just the photo....
Actually, the dresden plate blocks are mostly pieced, but I did hand-stitch them to the background.  I love that I was able to use a lot of my Westminster prints that I had collected over the past few years, as well as a lot of American Jane fabrics which I love!

 These blocks with the arcs are pieced:

 However, these blocks were all hand applique:

 The designs are by Sue Spargo, ( yes, we do still have some of her books at the store!)

 Her quilts are usually a melange of cottons, wools, applique, beads and embroidery that make them really rich texturally.  I don't plan to add any wool to this one, but I am contemplating some embroidery.  We'll see.  Right now I have set it aside in order to work on the other project. 

 Whatever you choose to work on this weekend, I hope you have fun with it too!

Store News:
this is sort of an afterthought, and directed at those of you who like to know what's arriving and happening at the shop--
We got in a collection called Aviary, by Nancy Gere for Windham.  There are 14 fabrics in grey, white and black,  you can see them all here,

Plus, we have a new quilt kit! Val sewed it from a pattern called Sweet Pea,

but in beautiful soft greys, yellow and ivory,

These are some from a new collection called Taza, and I brought a whole bunch of them with me to Savannah to play with, because I just love them.  Not sure yet what to do with them though.
(Oh yes, we got in about 12 more colors of Kona Cotton, so don't forget to print off the coupon (below) and use it before Friday to get 25% off of them)
Again, have a great stitchy weekend!