OAK LEAVES AND TURKEY FEATHERS

I am still jumping from one project to another and not finishing anything.  I am going to try to rein myself in.  I am looking through some project bins and bagging up at least two and giving them away.  I have lost interest in them as they are not really what I am into right now.  The applique quilt in progress shown below is one of the projects stored in a bin that was waiting for attention.  I still like it very much and did some work on it over the weekend.

I had the center and turkey feathers stitched down plus the stems for the flowers.  I can see in the picture that the one feather is not situated quite as it should be but it is staying.  After all, it is prim style.  My hold up came with the petals on the flowers.  I got part of the petals for one flower stitched and was having trouble getting them to be spaced correctly.  I was seriously thinking of changing to a one piece flower.  I put the project away to give myself some time to think about what to do.  That turned into a long bit of thinking time.  This weekend, I finished the petals for one flower and started the second.  Again, I was tempted to change the flower style.  Yesterday evening, I just started stitching and made myself continue to completion.  As I was almost done, I thought of a method I could have used to make my spacing problem go away but it was too late by then.  Now the block needs triangles in a dark brown added to put the block on point.  Big oak leaves will go on those triangles.  A pieced border is next.  Then another applique border but I am contemplating leaving that off.  The wall hanging would be large enough without that border.  And there are four more of those flowers on the border.  I could leave them off with no problem.  But I don't think I want that large of a quilt.

The pattern I am using is from "Country Paths" by Jan Patek.  There are two more quilts in the book that pique my interest.  Well, maybe all three that are in the book besides the one I am working on.  Smack my hands and get me back on track!

I had a chance to meet Lori of "Humble Quilts" fame this past Saturday.  Lori is on a cruise as a helper for Bonnie Hunter.  The ship leaves from a port about twenty miles from my house.  Too good of a chance to meet her in person to let that pass by.  We spent an hour together and it was very enjoyable.  I knew I would like her.  Our style quilting is so similar.  I became a follower of her blog almost from the time she started it and we have had a lot of contact via computer.  She is just like I thought she would be.  I can imagine her and Bonnie are having a very fun time on the cruise.

I discovered free designs on a blog this morning for applique blocks that use hexagons in interesting ways.  The blog is named "Patchwork Aguilera' INES" and is written in Portuguese.  I have Google Translation but even if you don't use a translation program, it is worth a look.  Go here.  Scroll down and look on the right side for the free block of the week section.  There are twenty blocks.

Nothing else newsworthy at the moment.  Have a good day and come back soon.

Karen

A GIFT AND PROJECTS IN THE WORKS

I received a surprise gift from Mary at Quilt Hollow.  A mini Chinese Coin quilt.  I have admired this style mini quilt on some various blogs including Mary's.  It was delightful to find one in my mailbox.  My kind of colors and a welcome addition to my quilt collection.  A big thank you to Mary.

I have had difficulty getting back into the stitching and quilt making mode since returning from vacation.  If you read my previous post, you will remember my eye problem that I had to deal with on our trip.  Not much fun.  After arriving home, about all I did was look at blogs, quilt sites, look at E-Bay antique quilts, playing games on the computer.  I finally burned out on that and settled down to stitching.  I worked on projects I took on our trip but was not able to stitch on because of my eye.

The first two are identical.  These are smaller size pieces meant for pillows but I plan on making them into wall hangings.  One for me and one for a gift.  The pattern used is by Sandy Gervais of Pieces From My Heart.    The pattern "December".  I think there is a different pattern for each month of the year.  This is wool on cotton style applique with some embroidery.  I like the little Nativity on the angel's dress.  The angel's head looks a bit like a creature from outer space.  Prim style for sure!

Next I completed the stitching on "In God We Trust".  The pattern is by Shawn Williams of Threads That Bind.  Her website appears to be closed but you can find her patterns on several websites though I can't find this particular one.

The piece is shown in a barn red wood frame on the pattern picture.  I am planning on adding a red fabric border and doing minimal quilting.  Easier to store when I am done displaying.  It can be a year round piece but I think It is good for August/September when the kids head back to school.  The fabric part of the design is fused and stitched with embroidery floss in a prim type stitch.  The pattern says the piece measures eight by twnety inches.

I finally spent some time in the sewing room yesterday evening and a bit this morning.  I am cutting out basket block parts.  I will share that with you later.  Have a great day and stop back for a visit again soon!

Karen

ANTIQUE SAMPLERS AND VACATION WOES

We returned late this afternoon from an 18 day vacation.  More on the woes of our trip shortly.  First I want to share some pictures of two antique samplers owned by our "nearest and dearest" friends that we spent the first week of vacation with.

The first sampler was made by an eleven year old girl by the name of Elizabeth Elvira Wolcott in 1836.  She lived in Tallmadge, Ohio which is where I was born so this interests me very much.  The girl died in 1845.  It is nicely cross stitched.  "Eliza" is stitched in a darker blue than the rest of her name, age, and location so only the first part of her name shows well in the pictures.  Some age spots appear.  I was allowed to borrow the sampler to chart it for future stitching when I find time.  There is a note attached by John's mother showing some family geneology of  Elizabeth.

The back of the next framed sampler also has a typed note by John's mother with family information.  This sampler is much more simple and was done by a nine year old child.  The sampler is 201 years old.

Now to vacation woes.  The afternoon before we were to leave, I noticed floaters in my right eye.  I have never experienced them before and decided that after vacation, I would see an eye doctor.  That evening, in dim light, I was seeing flashes which was a weird feeling.  The next morning, the car was packed and we were about ready to leave.  I had already turned off the computer but turned it back on to read about floaters while waiting for my husband to do one last thing.  I read that floaters are mostly age related but if you also are seeing flashes, you should see an eye professional.  The article said that even waiting a few days could lead to blindness from a detached retina.  I decided that I should make a phone call and see if I could get into an eye doctor.  I found out that I needed a retina specialist and the one recommended was on vacation.  The appointment person told me that they could get me in to see another doctor but neglected to tell me it was an optometrist and not a specialist.  The optometrist checked my eyes thoroughly and said it was not an emergency but that I did need to see a retina doctor.  I could not get into one until late the next afternoon.  I found a listing for a specialist about 40 miles away from the cabin we had rented in the Smokey Mountains and was able to get an appointment for two days later so we took off.  When I went for that appointment, I found out that I had a tear in the retina and needed a laser treatment  right away.  I also had to have a freezing technique done because of the blood in the retina area.  Then I found out that I was allowed to do nothing but watch television and rest.  No reading, no needlework, no traveling around sightseeing.....just nothing.  I was to  avoid bending over, lifting, and no sudden movement of the head.  The doctor said that it would take about two weeks for the retina to seal.  He would have me come in after one week and see if it was safe to return home to Florida at that time and said that we should not continue  on our planned trip.  It was hard to just do nothing.  I watched a lot of HGTV and visited with our friends that vacation with us when they were not out shopping and sightseeing.  They spent a lot of time with me that they would normally be out doing things and I so appreciated that.  I did go out to eat locally but was not allowed to read the menus.  And I cheated and spent a few minutes in a quilt shop and an antique shop.  Then back to the eye doctor.  The car was loaded and we planned to return to Florida after the exam.  The doctor was pleased with the laser and freezing results and said he knew my vacation could not have been much fun.  He decided that we could go on to Ohio to visit family before returning home.  Oh what a joy it was to hear that.  I still had to be careful but did get to do a few things.  Now I have an appointment with a specialist here locally on Monday.  I hope I can get back to doing all my normal activities.

I had taken three different projects on the trip intending to do some handwork.  When I would get bored with one, I would pull out a different project.  Not one stitch was taken.  I am still looking through a spider web type floater in my eye.  The doctor says it will be a long time before that gets better and that it will not ever completely go away.  I hope the web does not impair my stitching abilities.

The cabin where we stay in the mountains is located close to a house decorated with gingerbread man type decor on the outside.  The frontal view of the cabin did not turn out but I did get one of the side of the house.  I know there are a couple quilting bloggers that love gingerbread man type things.

We also saw this motorcycle with a cute car luggage type thing being pulled behind it.

The doctor's office I visited while on vacation had five antique quilts hanging.  I took one picture while waiting to have a recheck of the eye and intended to photograph the rest before leaving the building.  I was so elated to get to continue the vacation that I forgot to take pictures of the other four.  The only one I really regret not getting a photo of was the applique quilt.

I will be visiting blogs in the next couple days to catch up on what I have missed.  I still have some e-mails to reply to from some comments left while we were away from home and will do that soon.  I noticed that there are some words in my post in blue and underlined.  I don't know how that happened and I have not been able to edit them to look the same as the rest of the post.  Oh well.  You get the idea.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Karen

MARSHA'S SNOWBOUND QUILT

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while are familiar with my "Snowbound" quilt.  I will refresh your mind with a picture.

I used a section of the quilt as my header picture during the winter and got many requests for information on the pattern.  I was able to alert some of the inquiries to a couple used copies of the book on Amazon.  Those were snapped up right away.  I found a website where you can order the book new and now there are a couple used books on Amazon again.  Anyhow, one of the inquiries was made by Marsha.  She just recently sent me a picture of her quilt.  I forgot to ask permission to use her photograph on my blog so I will just send you for a visit.  Her blog name is "Grandma's Quilts" and can be found here.  It looks like she has been blogging for about 1 1/2 years.  Stop by and say hi and take a peek at her version of the quilt.  She made a couple additions to the pattern to make it more her own.

Bye for now.
Karen