SURPRISE PACKAGE

Hello to all stopping by for a visit! I received a surprise package at my front door from Colleen. She had e-mailed to tell me to watch my mailbox for a package. I was not home when the mailman came so he left the package at our front door instead of trying to cram it in the mailbox. Thank you mailman! The package was kind of flat and had a box inside. I had no idea what to expect. Inside was this Moda Bake Shop Sampler. I have never seen one before.
Inside are 480 2 1/2" charm squares of different lines of Moda fabrics. My favorite stack is "Garden Party" by Blackbird Designs, "Butterfly Garden" by Kansas Troubles, "Martinique" by 3Sisters, and on and on.
It's like a box of chocolates. You have to stick your finger in the middle to find out what's in the center. Not the best shot of my arm. Trying to hold the camera and take a picture of my hand is not the easiest. I can see some fun in the future playing with these packs of fabrics. Thank you Colleen. We have been buddies right from the start of my first blog post. We both like prim style. I have a feeling that if I loosen the bands on the stacks and start playing, the pieces will never fit back into this box.
I am in the process of working on another three segments of a Christmas quilt. Here are some parts. I need to do the machine stitching on the blocks. I have another applique block to create maybe today and some pieced blocks. I don't know how many more parts there are to go. It is sort of like chapters in a book and I am just doing them as they come.

I made the stars that are the November blocks for Vicksburg which is a free block of the month by Dawn at Linen Closet Quilts. This month we were to make four stars. I don't know exactly how everything will be set in the final piece but I put them on the design wall the best way I could photograph.
I was asked to lay out my blocks for "Land of the Free" for a picture. It is a good thing I did as I find that I am missing a block. One of the blocks is repeated. Guess I should have read the directions. I just made one so I will have to get back into the sewing room and prep another. These are fused and will be machine stitched around the raw edges. Lots of stitching to do. I treated the center block as one big block instead of four small ones. The four blocks end up looking like one big block anyhow.
I finished the cross stitching. This piece will be made into something here very soon. I am trying to figure out the girl in the corner. Is she sitting at an old fashioned school desk? What do you see?
I finished making the Old Glory table runner. This is the back side. I used a Declaration of Independence panel on the back.
And here is the front of the runner. This was quick to make. The flag section is pieced, borders added around it and then the eagle panels added to the ends.
There was a shuttle launch on Monday. I tried to get a picture. We were standing in the screened pool area watching over the tree tops. This was our view. The night or close to sunset launches appear more dramatic but still we had a pretty good view in mid afternoon. There was a rocket launch a couple weeks ago. It was cloudy here so we only had a very short view of the rocket going up.
I am about to head to the sewing room to get more done on on-going projects. Come back soon for another visit.

Karen

CROSS STITCH PROJECTS

I am reporting in. I have not had my digital camera for three days. My husband needed to take it with him when he went out of town. I took some quick photos of what I have been working on. I usually take photos in the morning but have taken these this evening. Not the best light. You will be seeing pictures of the projects in the future, so hopefully they will turn out better.
The first is a cross stitch sampler type piece. This was a free chart from the internet. I have not done counted cross stitch in quite some time and never on linen, so this has been a bit of a challenge. I thought I would never get all those border stitches done and in the correct place. I did parts of them over at least three times. There is still a girl to stitch.
I know Halloween is over but I found this free chart on the internet not long before the event. I want to make a needle case with it. I worked this on Fiddler's cloth. The first time I used that cloth also. When I did cross stitch on a regular basis, I think all I ever used was Aida cloth. That was the most widely available and is easy to see where the needle should go down into and back up. Now my tastes have changed and I am exploring working with other fabric choices. I don't think I will be doing a lot of counted cross stitch. Quilting is still my main focus. I do have some patterns for cross stitch samplers that I am awaiting fabric to be shipped to me. There is a shop not too far from me that sells some flosses and pattern books but their main focus is yarns. There is no longer a shop that sells exclusively for embroidery and cross stitch. At least not that I know of.

I have been attempting to clean up my sewing room this week and evidently did too much bending over as I paid for it dearly with back pain the last two days. I have been trying to sit nicely today and stay away from the sewing room even though it still needs more work.

Back to stitching.

Karen

NEW PROJECTS

A week since my last post and I have been busy stitching. I finished this stitchery, added a border, a tiny bit of quilting, binding, and now have a small wall hanging. The pattern for the stitchery is a e-pattern from Chestnut Junction. I found it interesting that it has "Belmont County, Ohio" in the design. My in-laws lived in that county for many years. The designer lives in Ohio near that area. I am not sure if her city is actually in that county but it may be why she chose to incorporate it into the design. I did the stitching all in brown on tea dye muslin. I thought it looked a bit dull, so I chose a brown fabric with a bit of rust color in it and used a rust color binding. The design would have fit an 8"x10" frame but I liked the addition of the fabric border and finished as a small wall quilt.
The next photo is of a paper mache box that I covered with fabric. I followed directions that was found on Blackbird Designs' blog. I lined the inside of the box with paper. The directions said the lid would be a tight fit. Well, it turned out so tight that I have to bend in the box and struggle to get the lid on.

The next photo is a paper mache box I had finished a couple weeks ago. I followed Kaaren's instructions that are in a tutorial on her blog. The lid is too heavy but not because of Kaaren's instructions. My own doing there. I stuffed the pincushion with sand. Normally that would have been fine but not for the box lid. Also, the pincushion did not want to lay down flat close to the edges, so glue shows on the box lid. I want to do another using her instructions and a poly fil for the stuffing. The bird design was from a Jo Morton book.

I know Halloween is over but I forgot to show you this little pillow a friend gave me. It was given to me during the summer and I wanted to wait until October to post the picture. Then I forgot to do it. It is small but has a lot of design on it. I like it very much.
I have been prepping blocks for raw edge stitching for a new quilt. The pattern set is "Land of the Free" by Piece 'O Cake Designs. I have the large center block left to prep. You will be seeing more or this as I progress.
I am also working on a little cross stitch project. I didn't photograph it today but will show it to you soon.

Our weather is still summer-like here. Not as hot as it had been, but still warm.

Enjoy your day and come back for another visit soon.

Karen

WHEW! OCTOBER CHARMING GIRLS PROJECTS DONE

I was beginning to think I would not be able to finish my projects for the month that I had committed to doing. In fact, if I had not gone back earlier this past week to review what I said I would try to finish in October, I would not have finished one of the projects. I had completely forgotten about it. Out of sight, out of mind.

I finished the wool on cotton applique and made it into a pillow. I think the design would make a nice applique quilt. The pattern I used is called "Coxcomb Pillow". It was in the November/December 2005 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. The designer is Julie Larsen of Prairie Star Quilts.
I apologize for the darker pictures of the Great Pumpkin Quilt. I should have used the flash. But you will be seeing more of this quilt in the future. The pattern is by Jeanne Davis of Briar Rose Designs. I could not find a website for the designer. The pattern set is available from several quilt shops.





Next is the quilt I almost forgot about. It is called "Duck, Duck Goose" and is a pattern by Kim Diehl from her Simple Seasons book. I still need to do a final pressing on the quilt. It isn't laying very well in this photo. My pressing station by the sewing machine is small. I have to set up the ironing board to press well and will do that before layering the quilt for machine quilting. I added a row to the main body of the quilt so it would be plenty long enough to cover up with. I purchased the fabrics two years ago. I added in some fabrics from stash. Many of the purchased fabrics were designed by Deb Strain.
Hurray, I finally made the final block for the Christmas quilt! The long block on the left side that has a mitten holding a tree is the only one I needed to make. The quilt had been to that point for several months waiting for that one block. The patterns are by Cheri Saffiote-Payne. I don't see the set on her website. I love this quilt.
I showed "Miss Tessie Twitchett" on a post earlier in October and it is the last project from my goal list.

Now I have to make decisions about what to work on completing in November. Definitely at least one quilt top to be machine quilted. Maybe two. I have plenty to choose from for that. And lots of UFO's that need finishing.

Enjoy your Halloween night. I still need to get candy for the Trick or Treaters!

Karen

SEW 'N SEW SATURDAY

This past Saturday was the monthly meeting of The Sew'n Sews and it was my turn to host. My sister-in-law helped with some of the preparation before she left to return home. And a big thanks for that. We started with Show 'n Tell. Kenyan showed us this finished quilt. She said she had to really work hard to get lines to match up and found it frustrating. Then she went back and checked the shop sample and found that the quilt there did not match up the lines perfectly. All agreed that the lines down her quilt looked very good.
The second quilt has a trick to it that involves squares folded on the diagonal and then pulled back slightly in the center to give a curved appearance. Kenyan machine quilts all her pieces. She did some circular designs in the center of the stars that also added to the illusion.
One of our members showed us how to do the French Roses quilt blocks a while back. This is Jean's quilt.
Jean took quilt blocks that another friend of mine had been working on and got tired of the project. Jean had to finish one block and put everything together. This is her finished result. The quilt is from a Joined at the Hip pattern. I made one of these last year and you can see it here.
And here is another quilt that Jean took parts from my friend's discard UFO and finished it. Jean just needs to do the binding. It made a wonderful quilt.
After showing and discussing the quilts, we moved to the dining room to play Fat Quarter Bingo. We played two regular rounds and then a cover-all.

The ladies then started working on coloring quilt blocks that I had prepared using colored pencils. I showed them the "Faux Applique" book by Helen Stubbings and we discussed the technique. While they colored, myself and Vicky got lunch ready. Vicky's husband made potato salad for us and a big thank you for that. My husband had previously picked up barbecue called Sloppy Woody. It just required reheating. I prepared a squash casserole earlier in the morning. My sister-in-law had baked apple dumplings for us the night before. We reheated them and added a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Mmmmm good! A good time was had by all.

Time for me to get into the sewing room and work on my Great Pumpkin quilt. Have a great day and come back soon for another visit.

Karen

THIS AND THAT PROJECT UPDATES

Time for some project updates. My sister-in-law is visiting from the Atlanta area. We have been working jigsaw puzzles at a frenzied pace of about one a day. I have not been doing much in the sewing line but have gotten a little bit done.

I finally found the "Great Pumpkin Quilt" blocks that I had been searching for. It was in one of the project containers but the very last one I could look in that was in the sewing room closet. I don't know how I missed checking the container previously. Anyhow, found they are. Here is one of them that the stitching is almost complete on. This will be the 8th one finished of the nine regular size blocks. That leaves me with one to go of that size and then the one that stretches the whole width of the quilt. I think I will get the top done yet this month but it won't be quilted for this fall season.
I am trying the Colorque method from the "Faux Applique" book by Helen Stubbings. Here is the block that I practiced on. The technique uses colored pencils and a textile medium for sealing the color. The block needs the embroidery done around each colored area and the stems done. The Sew 'n Sews will be coming here Saturday as it is my turn to host. I have prepared blocks for them to play with using this technique. I find the technique interesting but I am not sure I would want to do a whole big quilt this way.
The last photo is of another block for the Christmas quilt. I have two Christmas quilts in the making. A more prim style by Cheri Saffiote-Payne and this one. I have posted a few parts to this quilt earlier this year. I need to take a picture of all the parts together soon. Have a good ways to go on this quilt yet.
I finished another small project but forgot to photograph it. It will give me something to show you on the next post. I also have made progress on the prim style Christmas quilt which I need to photograph.

That's all for now. Thanks for paying a visit to my blog!

Karen

MISS TESSIE TWITCHETT

Let me introduce you to Miss Tessie Twitchett. She has four dresses with co-ordinating aprons that she is modeling for you. Her collar is the same fabric as her apron. She is patiently awaiting spring, the time when we seem to think more about bunnies and she will get to be on display.
The green border fabric is from the Liberty Garden line of fabric put out by Moda a good while back. I didn't have quite enough left to complete the border using a continuous strip, so I added in a rectangle of the green with cream stars from the same line of fabric. Have to make do sometimes. I tried adding a scrap from the original border fabric. With such a big print, it looked odd, so I like the solution I came up with.
This is the back of the quilt. I used left overs from making the bunnies to piece the stars. And the scraps of the border fabric went in between.

Miss Tessie Twitchett was created from a pattern in "Say It With Flowers" which is a Jan Patek book.

Enjoy your day!

Karen