CHARMING QUILT CLUB FINISHES

I have two finishes for the month. Boy, did February go by fast! I finished the little "God Bless the Ewe-SA" quilt and the angel banner. My poor table runner did not make it to the finish line. I have put it on the list the last two months and just can't get myself interested in doing what needs to be done on it. I think I should leave it off the list for next month and maybe that will do the trick! Obviously, I had time to finish the project as I worked on other things and got them done.

I know you all have seen my finished projects earlier in the month, but take a quick second peek.

Yesterday was a fun day with the Spring Sewing Party. The commitment to the party seems to spur me into a sewing frenzy and I still feel that way today. I have done a little machine stitching on the tulip quilt I started yesterday and am about to head back to the sewing room. A big thanks to Kelley and Joan for hosting the party.

Karen

Part 2 of the Spring Sewing Party

Hey, it's me again! I have been working diligently on the #2 spring project. It is almost 12:30 pm and, no, I have not taken a nap. If you read the previous post, you know I have been up since about 4:15 am.

Here is the fused applique tulip quilt that I put together this morning. Not the best photo but it is not like the last time you will be seeing the wall hanging. I just quickly pinned the quilt to the design wall and I can see it is pouching out. I will try to get a better picture next go round. The pattern I used is called "Spring Baskets" and is in the book "Quilt the Seasons". The designer is Pat Sloan. I think all the patterns in the book are meant to be fused and buttonhole stitched. The applique parts are all reversed in the book. It could be hand appliqued but you would need to un-reverse the pattern shapes first.
I am a prim/country style quilter so my spring colors may not be as pastel as someone else might prefer. I did not use any one particular line of fabric though there are several pieces from Madeira and Portobello Market.

The sun has not come back out but it is no longer sprinkling. I don't know the temperature.

Well, my half of a cream stick and banana are wearing off. Time for a diet Coke without caffeine. By the way, the saying is that a diet Coke cancels out any bad calories you might have eaten.

I will be making the rounds soon to see how many others are working on their spring sewing projects.

10:07 PM UPDATE

I wonder how many of you are still sewing. I am fading fast, especially since I have been awake for 18 hours. I finished stitching the wool down on the chicks table mat. I have a tiny bit of embroidery to do on it. Then I have to attach the piece to the yellow plaid that it will lay on. Not tonight, though. I look forward to doing some more stitching tomorrow. Hope I sleep better tonight.

Karen

SPRING SEWING PARTY PART 1 - MY HOUSE NEEDS SPRINGIFIED

The Spring Sewing Party time has arrived! I had trouble sleeping last night. Was I excited about sewing today? I don't know what the problem was. I woke about 4:15 AM and could not go back to sleep. My tossing and turning was keeping Mr. Log Cabin awake, so I got up and went into the sewing room. More on that in a few minutes.

Do you think my house needs springified? Now, I doubt you will find "springified" in Webster's Dictionary. It is a term I made up this morning. What I mean is that I still have Christmas trees in the living room. See photo below. I will explain. I gave my daughter all the Christmas ornaments before we moved about 10 years ago. And also the artificial tree. I was going to buy a smaller tree and new ornaments. Well, I could not make up my mind on what kind of ornaments. There are so many themes to choose from. That never happened. And every year, I would think the same thing. I never replaced the tree or ornaments. This past Christmas season, I was determined to have some kind of small tree. I like the prim style trees now and found this set of three on sale at Michael's Crafts for half price. I got the trees out of the box and set up but had no ornaments. I needed small ornaments. There was no time to shop for some before I had my knee surgery, so the trees sat bare and are still in the same spot. Now, I have ordered a pattern for some wool easter ornaments to stitch. I would like to decorate the trees with those. And I need some spring quilts!

I need some nourishment before heading back into the sewing room. Which shall it be. A donut or a banana? Help me decide. Oh, I can't wait on the rest of you to wake up and read this. I may faint from hunger before then. I will just have some of both.
P.S. I only ate half of the cream filled Long John but all of the banana. That makes it a healthy breakfast!

Back to what I was writing about being in the sewing room before 5 AM. I could not start the hand work on the yellow chicks wool mat project as it was in the bedroom along with my thimble and threads. I decided I would study the new quilt book I found at a thrift store yesterday. Paid all of a $1.00 for it and it seems brand new. Studying the book did not take long, so I dragged out my Country Threads patterns & books to look at them. Maybe I would could pick out another spring quilt to work on. Yes, I found one. Still I needed to be quiet so Mr. Log Cabin could sleep. I started flipping through Pat Sloan patterns & books. Another spring quilt jumped out at me. Then I started looking at fabrics in the stash to see what I could come up with. Yes, I have fabric that will work. It is a fused applique project. I can do it! So, I started tracing the pattern pieces onto Heat 'N Bond Lite and selecting the applique fabrics. The backgrounds are sewn together. Then I realized that the pieced border has to be on the quilt also before the vine is fused on the one side. I will be going back into the sewing room to make the pieced border. This is not a large quilt, so it should take long. I will post a photo after I get things situated and the fusing done.

My sewing room was a bit of a disaster before starting this morning and it has progressed to more stuff out and on the floor. But I am happy!

Mr. Log Cabin has left for his Saturday golf game. The sun came out shining bright for a little while this morning. Now it is overcast and sprinkling a bit. I will be back with you later.

Karen

SPRING SEWING PARTY

Saturday is the Spring Sewing Party hosted by The Charming Guys & Girls Quilt Club. We will be sewing on a spring project. I have chosen to do a wool table mat which will be sewn to a homespun rectangle. I spent this evening prepping the project so that I can jump in and do the hand stitching on Saturday. I have chosen a pattern by Buttermilk Basin. I have had the pattern for almost two years. I saw the wool mat on a blog in the header around Easter time and decided I had to make one for myself. The chicks are cute! Makes me think of the real baby chicks my childhood girlfriend got one Easter. They were dyed pastel colors. Only one lived and grew to be a rooster. The family donated the rooster to the children's zoo when they moved from the suburbs into the city. I will be posting my progress on the mat on Saturday.

Stop back!

Karen

VINTAGE SEWING MACHINE AND A FINISHED PROJECT

Look what an afternoon of thrift store shopping brought. A vintage sewing machine for $19.00 that sews perfectly. It is a "Compac Precision Sewing Machine" from the early 50's. The machine is not full size but is not as small as the Singer Featherweights. The machine itself was manufactured in Japan. The motor was made in the USA. The light works and has its own plug separate from the machine. Both cords are short. There is a receptacle that the two plugs go into and then that plugs into the wall. You have to be sure you get the light and the machine plugs into the correct holes. My husband tried it at the thrift store and plugged the machine into the one meant for the light. The machine started to run on its own. Took a minute to figure out the problem. The cords and belt are in good shape. I tried doing a search on the internet for information on the machine. I can get a reproduction of the instruction book. I found out very little information beyond that. There is one available on E-Bay right now for $79 but it needs a light bulb, and new cords. I used to have several vintage and antique sewing machines but sold or gave away all but the small ones. This is the first machine that has tempted me in a long time. I only bought it because it was $19 and the machine size is smaller. I used to have two Singer Featherweights but sold both of them quite some time ago. I should have kept one of them. The Compac machine threads like the older Singer machines and sews like a Singer.
We also found nineteen good jigsaw puzzles for 79 cents apiece. We have already worked two of them. Something to do when the weather is not the best for being outside.

I finished the angel project. I ended up just going with the five that I had made. Instead of making more, I sewed them into a long banner type quilt. This was one of my finishes for the Charming Guys & Girls Club February projects. That means, you will be seeing a picture of it again at the end of the month along with whatever else I get done.
I am working on more basket stitcheries. Think I should get back to that. Stop back again soon!

Karen

A FINISH AND MORE BASKET BLOCKS

I finished a little wall quilt. When I was working in the sewing room on selecting fabrics and prepping the scene, the snowman fabric seemed to be enough different from the snowy hill. The finished piece seen in different light makes the snowman blend in too much with the hill. I think I will take a gray colored pencil and shade around the edge a bit. If I were to make this again, I would make the cloud more curvy or maybe do two clouds. The pattern is a freebie from Caron Mosey and can be found on Michigan Quilts. The pattern is part of a mystery BOM. It is meant to be a button on quilt for a fabric calendar and is the January quilt. February has a box of popcorn with a Valentine heart and March a Snail's Trail block with a Shamrock. I am not interested in making a fabric calendar but it is a good idea.
Next, I have more basket blocks finished. The block on the top right has two light pieces of fabric in the setting pieces. There are to be more lights scattered around the quilt, but I am thinking I need to replace those two with a piece that is still a light but somewhat darker. I am enjoying stitching these baskets. I took time to prep all the rest of the stitcheries for the quilt.
I am working on finishing a wall banner with the angel stitcheries I did in January. That may get finished today or tomorrow. I am feeling more like spending time in the sewing room than I have for 2 1/2 months. A good feeling!

I came across a new block of the month starting called "Gifts of Grace". If you are interested in taking a peek, the button is on the side bar. Click on it and it will take you to Val Laird's blog. The first block has a butterfly on it.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of cold weather. We live in a much milder climate that much of the USA but it has still been an unusually cold winter for us. I have discovered that my sewing room is about the warmest room in the house. Imagine that. Of course, that is helped by the iron being turned on, lights on, and the sewing machine running. And maybe all that fabric stash has the walls padded enough that it holds the heat in.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Stay warm! I know that some of you live in the Southern Hemisphere where you are in the midst of summer. Stay cool to those of you.

Karen

BUNNYHILL JANUARY SNOWMAN BLOCK AND MORE

I saved all of the Bunnyhill free block of the month patterns last year and have not made up a single one yet. This year, I decided to make an attempt to work throughout the year on the blocks in the new snowman series. Here is the January block.
I visited a blog in the last couple days that has a school house block quilt shown. I left a comment concerning blocks that the little group I belong to made for one of the members. We did birthday blocks. You could select a theme for the blocks to be done for your birthday month or leave it up to the others to select. Jan is a school teacher. We chose to make her Schoolhouse blocks. I had a pattern for a large block where the building side had different quilt blocks instead of a wall with windows. Each person made a different quilt block on their building side when making the block. A blog reader saw my comment & e-mailed to ask me about the blocks. I no longer have the pattern and can't remember any information about it to assist me in finding anything on the internet. I used Electric Quilt to draw a similar block though not as large. Caroline, the blog reader, lives in Belgium. She has good English skills but I could not communicate to her what I meant by changing the blocks you would put on the building side. I sent her the EQ file but with only one block drawn. I e-mailed her later today telling her I would try to get a couple blocks made up and put photos on my blog. Here they are.
I only had time to make one block, so I made a pinwheel block just to lay over the Shoofly block already inserted into my Schoolhouse block.
I am not going to be making these blocks any time soon. I have another Schoolhouse quilt project I need to be working on. Fabric all purchased and ready to go. The Shoofly and Pinwheel blocks are 4 1/2" finished. The overall block is 12" finished. Caroline, I hope this helps you to understand. You can make any 4 1/2" block and change it with each Schoolhouse block that you make.

Come back again soon!

Karen

A SMALL FINISH

I have a small finish to share with you. And it is one of my projects for finishing this month for The Charming Guys & Girls Quilt Club. This is a small stitchery project called "God Bless the 'Ewe' S A". The pattern is a free one available at Sew Many Prims. The design is by Susan Frace. The pattern has the stitchery made into a pillow but I made mine into a little wall hanging. The piece is embroidered and also colored in with colored pencils. Fun to do. One word of caution, though. I cut my background piece to the size specified and it wasn't big enough to hoop for some of the stitching close to the edges. The directions tell you to trim it to a certain size after stitching. I must have printed my pattern out larger than it was supposed to be as there was no way I could cut it that small. When you print out your pattern, check the design area and check the finished cutting measurements in the directions. You may need to have you background cut larger than it says.
I have embroidered a basket block and added some wool stars. This is the first of a set of basket blocks I will be making. I am using Perle Cotton for the stitching.
It sure is windy here today. We aren't having bad weather like some of the USA is having, though. I know that it is hard to get around in all that snow and ice, so those of you in the affected areas, stay inside and stitch. It is in the 60's here today but is to cool off quite a bit tonight.

Nothing else exciting to report here. I will get back to stitching on another basket block.

Bye!

Karen

CHARMING QUILT CLUB AND A PINCUSHION

It's that time again. Time to select projects to finish during the month of February. I did not finish my angel stitchery project from January, so I am keeping it on the list for this month.
Hopefully, I can finish the table runner. It needs a few more squares and the second basket appliqued on.
I finished the stitching on "God Bless the Ewe SA" but still need to add some crayon color and then make it into a little wall hanging.
I am keeping my projects list small as I still am without much energy. I have started spending a little time at the sewing machine but not each day. Things feel more normal when I sit at the machine doing a bit of stitching. I am ignoring projects in the closet that need finishing. They will be there when I am ready.

I made two simple pincushions. One for myself and one for a gift. I know the cushion is not cutesy nor glamorous. I have been saving selvedge edges for a little while. I selected some that are from two lines of reproduction fabrics. One line is "Rising Sun" from a Smithsonian quilt. The other is from the Sarah Johnson collection at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. I used gray wool for the backing and stuffed them with crushed walnut shells. Those fabric lines were put out several years ago.
I drove for the first time yesterday in about two months. My first driving venture took me to a local quilt shop to look for a quilt book (which I did not find) and to the craft store for some DMC floss. The floss is for the "Sweet Nostalgia" stitcheries. I have been printing the design each month but have done nothing towards getting started on them.

Stop back again soon for another visit.

Karen