PART ONE OF SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY

I finally finished putting together the first section of Sweet Land of Liberty by Cherie Saffiote. The blocks have been done but not the sashing strips. I was determined to get it done today. Just want to let the group know that I am working on it.

This morning I put the blocks I have completed for the Winter Quilt onto the design wall. Just wanted to see what I need to do. I have some blocks to fill in with yet, some sashings, and a bit of embroidery to do. I may make a change to one of the blocks. Have to think about it a little more.

I also wanted to post two pictures of a quilt top I put together recently. It is a pattern from a book by Cherie Ralston. The name of the book is "Stars All Around Us". The name of the pattern is called "Harvest Sun" I did not use Cherie's pattern directions for the star blocks, though. I like to use the striplate piecing method for the spikes. The fabric for the center circle is a Jo Morton fabric. I purchased the fabric a while back with no idea of what I would use it for. It ended up in this quilt. Instead of an appliqued border, I used a large star print also by Jo Morton. I did not get a photo of the cornerstone blocks on the border. I pieced smaller versions of the sun blocks as the pattern shows. For the center fabric of the smaller stars, I fussy cut and centered a big star from the border print. Makes it really like an appliqued star. I really like this quilt top!

Have a good day!

Karen

POPPY LADIES PIECING DONE

It's a sunny day in central coastal Florida but not all that warm. Still it beats shoveling snow and driving on ice!

I finished piecing the Poppy Ladies quilt top. I'm posting the picture of the quilt top for my friend Jeanne. I am glad to have all those triangles pieced and over with! The cheddar really sets off the red poppy blocks. You can see the blocks before the addition of the cheddar in my last post. Quite a difference, I think. I had eight blocks done on Tuesday. I got up early on Wednesday and pieced the final four and then all the triangles for the outer border. Had it together in the early afternoon. Have to get it layered for the quilting. I am using a tumbling block print from the Rocky Mountain reproduction fabric line for the backing.
I want to show you a favorite quilt of mine. It was pieced quite some time ago. I used a pattern from the book called "Classic Quilts" and it is by Tricia Lund & Judy Pollard. It is called "Country Roses". Most of my quilts are darker than this but I do like blue and white together. Several reproduction fabrics were used. The points were paper pieced.
My friend Karen brought me a chicken teapot when she came to visit. I have a collection of chickens and they are all around the house. This one is quite cute. I am especially fond of the black with white polka dots and have three other chickens that have the same coloring. I have to rotate my chickens as I have so many now. I haven't bought nearly as many as have been given to me.
I also collect glass. My favorite color in glass is the cobalt blue. Here is a picture of more chickens and these are glass. I will post pictures of chickens every now and then. I also like to eat chicken. My favorite chicken is from Barberton, Ohio. Barberton is the chicken restaurant of the world....or used to be. It is hard to explain why I like Barberton chicken so well. It is a taste that I have never experienced with fried chicken prepared anywhere else. It certainly isn't very healthy for you but good. Every time we visit our friends in Ohio, we head to Barberton for chicken at least once and usually twice.

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

THE STORY OF THE SHEETS

A great weekend has come and gone. The visit with my friend Karen went much too fast. We did manage to do some stitching. The basket blocks to the left are some of what we worked on. I had the baskets made but they needed hand stitching on the handles. We did a bunch. The second night, we fused a different basket pattern to backgrounds. She took them home to button hole stitch. I use the blocks for charity baby quilts.

I want to share a cute story about the sheets. The week before our guests arrived, I asked my husband if we needed to check the sheets on the guest bed. Couldn't remember if we had changed them after our last company. He said he was sure we had done that. Well, Karen's husband was very tired and he went to bed early. When Karen went in, she pulled back the blankets and found no sheets or pillow cases. She roused her husband but he just rolled over and went back to sleep. So she got in and went to sleep too. The next morning she told me how comfortable the bed was. She said, "Just imagine how much more comfortable it would have been with sheets". A lesson learned. It is definitely ready for the next guests now.
I am posting a picture of the blocks I worked on this morning. It is a patten called "Poppy Ladies" which is a Civil War Legacies pattern. The blocks will be set with cheddar fabric which really shows off the red poppies. My friend Jeanne and I share reproduction fabrics. This time, she did all the cutting. I just noticed that I sewed one together wrong. The designer wrote really good and precise instructions. Too bad I didn't follow them. Can you guess which one is wrong?

I want to share photos of two of my finished quilts. The appliqued basket is from "Women of Grace & Charm" by Barb Adams and Alma Allen. I intended to make the whole quilt but loved the big basket so much, I decided it didn't need any thing else. It is hand quilted. The second quilt is a Sunflower block quilt. I love making the sunflower blocks. I use Deb Wagner's striplate piecing method to construct them.

I don't have any more blocks ready to post from the winter quilt. I didn't work on it over the weekend. Hopefully, I will have time later today.

Have a great day!

Karen

SNOWBOUND WINTER QUILT

Hello to all! I attempted to post these pictures yesterday but I must have not completed something in the process. The post never showed up on my blog. One of these days, I will have learned all the ins and outs.

The first picture is a quilt I made a good while back that is from the Snowbound book by Gerry Kimmel-Carr, Linda Brannock, and Jan Patek. KC Quilts had posted a picture of the book on her Blog. It made me think that it was time to get the quilt out and display it in the living room. After all, it is January! This is as close to winter activities as I will get living in Florida. Well, we did have a few snowflakes earlier in the month during the cold snap. It was called "ocean effect snow flurries" or something similar to that. I never saw a flake but my husband did and that was early in the day. Not a common sight here. I used a ring of fusible around the outer edge of the pieces and black button hole stitching done by hand. Using a ring of fusible instead of fusing the whole piece gives the applique a soft feel.

Next is a photo of the bottom section of the Christmas quilt I have been working on. I am very tempted to remove the little squares along the side of the Santa block but would have to undo the appliqued tree and his arm to do it. I think it is a bit too busy in that area. I have already stitched the arm twice and really don't want to again. Guess I will think about it a while.

The next two photos are of more blocks that I have done for the quilt. It is moving along at a good pace.

I am watching videos while stitching. I am about to finish the series "1940 House" which was shown on PBS. It is about a family who volunteer to live for a period of time like people did during war times in England. Not something I would have wanted to go through. I recently watched "1900 House" and have "Manor House" coming soon.

Our company from Houston should arrive later today. I have a little cleaning and grocery shopping to do before they get here. No sewing today! I am really looking forward to having a visit with my friend. She is a snowman collector and I have the cutest bowl and dessert plates to give her. Of course, they have snowmen on them.

I need to get busy on my day.

Karen

FOUR SEEMS TO BE THE MAGIC NUMBER

It is a cloudy and cool day in central coastal Florida. It is about 60 degrees. I know that is not cool to some of you. Especially those who might have had to shovel snow today. It is supposed to warm back up to 70 tomorrow. Typical Florida January weather. We are getting a new furnace and air conditioning unit on Thursday. The furnace has decided it doesn't want to work too hard. It is taking some manual manipulation to get it going.

Picasa will only let me import four photos. I have more to show you but they will have to wait for another day. I didn't spend as much time on importing the photos today. I also have written down what I did, so I will remember. That is, if I don't lose the paper I wrote it on!

The first two photos are of blocks from the Christmas quilt I am working on. The crow will get a button eye after the quilting is done. I added a wing to the pattern. No changes were made in the Santa block. The applique is going well. I think I can put the bottom section together this week. I don't know why I focused on the bottom section. I am trying to get the harder blocks out of the way.

The next two photos are of an angel quilt I did quite some time ago. I have two pie safe type cabinets in the living room in which I store & display quilts. I have been in an "angel mood" so I have three angel quilts on display. The quilt block used is the "Tennessee Waltz" along with a "Snowball" block. It was a mystery quilt my quilt guild did. When I got it sewn, I decided it was a bit boring. The Snowball block left empty space that was perfect for the angel to be added. The angel has dimensional red hair added. I am sorry that I cannot remember where I found the pattern for the angel. Adding the hair and facial features was my idea.

I am trying to clean up the sewing room some as we have company coming this weekend. I don't think it will get too organzied but walking in there right now can be dangerous! Too many projects out at one time. I can no longer stand to cut out quilt pieces because of back pain and a knee replacement. I work on a small table by my sewing machine. When I start a quilt project, I go around the room and pull fabric selections from all the cubicles and then lay them on the floor beside my work table. They can get pretty messy before I am done. I think my way of working would drive most people nuts but it works for me.

The company coming is my friend Karen, her husband, and grand-child. They will only be here two nights, so Karen and I cannot get into too much trouble. We like to go to thrift shops, quilt stores, antique malls, etc. but there will not be time. That will make our husbands happy. I usually plan a sewing project for us but there won't be time this trip. I do have a handwork project we can stitch on while we catch up on life.

Saturday is my day to get together with quilting friends for a morning of stitching and then out to lunch. Karen was part of the group until she moved to Houston. She is really looking forward to being in town on the Saturday group day get-together. There are about 9 or 10 of us in the group. We love sharing friendship and quilting. We have had so many fun activities. We meet once a month. The members are scattered around central Florida. I live farther away than most of the members. I guess the farthest I drive for a get-together is about 90 miles. It is well worth the drive! There is usually lots of show'n'tell. It varies as to whether we have a planned activity or if we bring stitching to work on. I will be showing you photos of the group later on and some of the actitivies.

Until next time......hve a great day!

PICTURES AT LAST

Picasa and I have been having a battle today. It is just that I am not familiar with the process. I hope I have an easier time in the future. It just was not recognizing my Kodak software.

I want to go ahead and post pictures so that I can feel like my time in front of the computer has generated something today. Thus the second post.

These are additional blocks that I have made to go in the Christmas/winter quilt. The pear block jumped out at me when I first saw the pattern. I think it is self explanatory.

Next is the log house block. Not why would Log Cabin Quilter so like this block? The tree branches were paper pieced only because the pattern for each flying geese unit is not symmetrical. The house is pieced. The window, door, moon, and tree branch are appliqued.
I really like the angel block. I used paper piecing and applique to make it. Does the angel need eyes, nose & mouth?














I hope my next session of posting pictures goes faster!

Karen

PICTURE THIS

I am spending a lot of time attempting to get pictures into my Blog. With some guidance from my friend, Carol who is also has a Blog, I hope I can get this done. Pictures are what make reading a blog much more interesting.

The first picture is one of the blocks from the Christmas quilt pattern by Cherie Saffiote-Payne. I am debating with myself if the floral print for the angel is really good or not. I cut out four different angels to audition them. This is what I finally settled on though I saved the other three in case I decide to make a change.
The second photo is one of the placemats I made before Christmas. I made 16 of them. Four for myself and then three sets for friends as a gift. The first four were done over a period of time. Then I decided they would make great gifts and I went on a sewing frenzy to make the other 12. The pattern for the placemats is by Linda Brannock. Those little logs are cut from 9/16" inch to 11/16". I had a problem keeping the strip sets from curving. I know to reverse the stitching every other strip but even this did not help. Since they are meant to have a primitive look, I just squared the edges best as I could. The background and the sashings are close in value & color so they look good regardless. I thought I would never make another after doing the 16 placemats but guess what! I am back to making the blocks. Now I want to do a quilt. I have 4 strip sets made but have not done the actual block itself. The strip sets seem to be doing better this time. I did notice a difference in how well things lay by the different fabrics being used. Some of the thinner plaids are a bit stretchy. Right now I am using my Pfaff for sewing them. It has a built in walking foot. Maybe that makes a difference.

Time to get sewing.

Karen