A finished & Hexies' Slow Stitching

Yes! Yes! Finally a finished. A small one but a finished nevertheless!

Cascadia, a quilt-along proposed by Lori from Humble Quilts is quilted, bind and all. Wwwelllll not quite!

 It still needs a label which is what I intend to slow stitch today.

It looks funny because the papers are still underneath the hexagons.



And then, some more hexies are waiting to be appliqued.  As I am slow stitching, I will pray for my friends in France and be thankful they are okay.

 (sideways pictures for some unknown reasons)

And then I will take a break with a cup of coffee and hop over to

Slow Sunday Stitches to see what others are working on.
Hope to catch you there.

Until next time ....

;^)

Finish Sunday and some Slow Stitching

I started this quilt in 2011. My sewing machine was not working well (a cheap 1990 Singer that landed in the garbage!) and yet I've kept at it. It resulted in a poor craftmanship if you look closely ... so I won't take close up pictures hihihi!!

This block called Milky Way, along with many other names, has inspired me to name the quilt "Far Away".  The quilt was made during a hard episode in my life.  I had lost my job which I so loved. I got very depressed and my hand quilting do show my state of mind. By calling it Far Away, I ask those feelings to stay far away from me.

It has a border on two sides only as I wanted it longer and not square. (It is sideways on the clothesline.) It finishes at 78 X 86 inches.

Snowflakes, trucks, green frogs and soccer balls, every scrap of flannel I had went in it.

Dinosaures playing baseball, spiderwebs and even Sponge Bob got selected. (To my defence; it's orange fabric!)  :^D

Even the binding fabric got in the game. Brown frogs and a coffe cup too.

Love the scrappy-ness!! It will join the other quilts we have for movie night! I recall when one quilt was enough for the entire family. Now that I am the shortest person in the family, we each need a quilt. Some things change too fast for my liking. Oh well!

Now that the binding is all done on this one (it feels good to cross a project of the UFO list!), what will I be working on today for Slow Sunday Stitching ?
Well, I want to hand quilt Cascadia Doll Quilt which was a quilt-a-long with Lori at Humble Quilts.

 Lori started a new quilt-a-long which I will make so I want to finish Cascadia. I did a little bit of quilting, then stopped. I removed the stitches and the backing I used because the fabric is too thick and is hard to hand quilt.

It's a lovely fabric but not for hand quilting. Now to find something else. There is always the quilt of the century I can play with...

Row 31 is red. The fun continues!



How about you? Playing with scraps? Hand stitching something? Join us at

Cynthia's place "Quilting is More Fun than Housework" for "Oh Scrap" and at

Kathy's place "Kathy's Quilts" to see more beautiful projects in the making.

Until next time .... ;^)

What Have I Done During the Loooonnnggg Weekend?

I did some sandwiches ... lots of sandwiches ... and none for the boys lol.

But first, I did some bloopers! on the same border! What is wrong with me???
Last week, I decided to add a border of 6 inches and I wanted it in two different neutral fabric so 3 inches each, right? Easy, right? Oh Bother!!

Comes the weekend and all I could remember was 3 inches and two neutrals so I did this.

Two borders of 1.5 inches each!!! Thank Goodness I realized my mistake before I sew the LAST border on. Yes, I did the entire quilt except for the last side before I noticed it wasn't wide enough! You think living with an ADHD person is hard? Try being one.  :^{  No fun!
Anywho! I ripped the borders.

It won't go to waste. It's already all in the 9 patch quilt box. :^)
Cut some more fabric at 3 inches and started to add the borders, again.  Then came the outer border of little Broken Dish blocks.

Remember these? Okay so I sew the bottom one on and it's too wide. What? No, no I had made the math and I've checked it and ...  it's wrong. So what now? Make another corner block?  because I have already done this one too small and now it's too big so I can't change it again? Really? I remove the border and by that time Friday was gone and I had to go to bed.

Next morning, I looked at my Friday Night's mess and I decided to remove one pair of Broken Dish instead. Did manage to make a hole in the fabric and had to redo one block. Then sew the border back together and .... Hey! it fits!

♪♫Happy dance♫♪  

Did the other borders on the other side and yes, I remember to remove one pair of BD block BEFORE sewing it to the quilt. Oh, I am getting SOOOO smart lol. Before the afternoon was over, it was happily dancing in the wind.

Sue Garman's vintage block quilt is a flimsy!!  HOORAY! 

Yes I did find a better name for it but I'll keep it secret until it is all quilted. 

Look at all the lovely borders !! :D   It does look good in the sunshine ... or am I just happy to see sunshine? 

Anyway, like I said, I did sandwiches. 

Pinned the beast down. Oh! my knees are so sore today but I am so glad to see it done. 

And look who is sandwiched on the quilting frame! My Ohio Star quilt. No, Take 21 is not completely quilted yet, but since I had to remove it from the frame and couldn't stand seeing the frame empty any longer, I rolled this one onto it. You may notice that I have only 2.5 inches of batting at the bottom of the quilt and not 12 inches !! :-} Oh, I'm getting SOOOO smart! Seeing this one up might encourage me to finish Take 21. I have one and half row to quilt. 

Then I sandwiched this little bed rug I've done during Summer of 2013. I used up all the reds, pinks and purples from a jelly roll I had bought a while back. I added a few of my purples and reds. And now it is finally time to sandwich it. 

Or is it sandwiched? Do I really want to leave it like that without a border?

If I add a border to it, I'll have to change the backing because that's all I have of that fleece and it just fits so perfectly and it's red to boot. Okay, let me think about this one a little longer. 

But this one is sandwiched for sure.

It is Cascadia Doll Quilt from Lori at Humble Quilts who so graciously gave us the instructions in a fun Mystery Quilt-a-long. This one is coming with me on my retreat next month, in case I want to do a little hand sewing in the evening or what have you. Because I'm not gonna let go of such a good habit, of sewing before going to bed, just because I'm at a retreat right?  Just checking, lol. I chose a toile in very light gray for the backing of Cascadia. I love this piece of fabric and I don't have a lot but I don't mind cutting into it for this little quilt. :-)

So those are the sandwiches I did over the weekend. This week, when I have a little bit of sewing time, I will do this ...

And I hope you will too.

Until next time ...

;^)

Linking to Confession of a Fabric Addict for a "Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?"

Design Wall Monday

Monday again? So soon? Oh my, I haven't accomplished much last week but I'll show you anyway.

(Bad picture, I know. It's already so dark at this time of day. Sorry!)
I've managed to put together some more 9 patch! Yeah!  In the green tub, there is now a total of

140 blocks

Only 600 to go lol! 

My little Cascadia doll quilt, hosted by Lori from Humble Quilts is still waiting for its turn on the quilting frame. I would like to quilt this one by hand.  Click on the link to see the original inspiration and more versions of this beautiful little quilt. Thanks again Lori for hosting this charming little Quilt A Long project. :D

And the antique block quilt ... well ... it looks exactly the same as last week. :(

BUT, on the bright side, I did finish attaching the green diamonds onto the Quilt of the Century. Yeah! Row 25 is done.

That's it. Two more days of work and then some time off.  :^)  I plan on repainting the kitchen this year. \:^o  I hope the boys will help with the cleaning part; all FOUR of them.  >:^ ,     LOL!

Have yourself some merry time, stay safe and warm, and may peace come to you wrapped in fabric!!

Linking up with Lori for a Cascadia Doll Quilt show and tell and with Judy at Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

Until next time ... sssSSSMiLE!!

;^)

Monday Design Wall

What's on my design wall tonight? Or maybe I should say what's NOT on my design wall tonight?

Cascadia Doll Quilt Mystery as hosted by Lori from Humble Quilt that's what!

As I was working on this little darling, I found myself wishing it was a little bit longer. Since there was a need to add some fabric at the end of the section with diagonal little squares, I thought why not frame that little section. So out came the fabric and the party began.  :)   (I had a dozen fabric but only showing you the top 5)

brown

 first red

green

 (Don't know why the border fabric, on the right of the picture, looks pinkish here. It is brown.)

blue

In the end, the second red won by 1/2 inch! 

As I was sewing, it didn't occur to me that by adding these frames, I was not only making a longer but also a much squarer quilt. It's okay! I love it! I needed it longer because I want to give it to Victoria as a cover for her cabinet.  I am sure it will perfect once I hand quilt it. You see, Victoria is an antique Singer sewing machine from 1923.  I am sure she has sewn such fabric before so it would be a nice little quilt for her, don't you think? 

Victoria 

Thank you so much Lori for this little mystery quilt. I had fun and I love how it ends.  The antique quilt from which came this inspiration is so adorable. See it here. I just might make another one with fabric from the 1930's ! 

The rest of my design wall hasn't change much. I made 4 little 9 patch and one antique block. Yes, I know, a few stitches is better than no stitches!  I'll try to do better next week  ;^) 

Until then why not check out Patchwork Times to see more inspirations from other people's walls or floors. I know I will :D

Enjoy some stitching!

Design Wall Monday ...

... and I DO have one! A real Design Wall and not just a Design Floor. Yeah! Thanks to DH and a white bed sheet.

Some of these blocks were photographed with my son's iphone on a previous post and didn't make very good pics, so let's start anew.

With this one.

It is called Attic Window and I picked it up from the Quilter's cache site a long time ago. As you can see, I have to re-size the trapezoid pieces and also change one of the beige. I am not in love with this low contrast.  It is a flannel quilt that will have to wait a little longer to get done.

These were also photographed (badly) with the phone and some were added since then.

I got the block from Sue Garman's blog last year. (You have to scroll almost to the bottom of the page to see the quilt.)  I think it is soooo lovely.  Anyone knows the name of this block?  I keep calling it Sue Garman' antique block. Not sure she would appreciate that?!! Sorry Sue.

I started to put some 1.5 inch squares together to make some 9 patch blocks.

Yes, I do have a plan for these.  :c)

I also gave the string blocks a trial run. I like do these too.  (There's a story behind these which I will tell in another post.)

After making two, I realize that I don't have a lot of long strings. I'll have to remedy that. The star block is called Canada Star. I had no idea Canada had a star. I've learned it on Civic War Quilts blog a while back, so I made one  and ... well, not sure ... yet!

I started to play with this block (which actually was the first one of the lot) and I have abandoned it for Sue Garman's antique blocks. They are much more fun to do.   :c)

It's a Jewel Box block which I have been saving remnants of fabric for because it's been on my to-do list since the beginning of my affair with quilts. Unfortunately, another quilt took the lead. Isn't it always the case?

I am also boning shirts and I have learned something on Pinterest. You can make little pockets/bags with the cuffs of men's shirts to store little treasures, jewelry, medications.

It keeps my USB keys together and so much easier to find when I look for it. It is sooo simple to do. Have to make more of these. Love it.

And then Lori from Humble Quilts surprised us with a Cascadia  quiltalong MYSTERY doll quilt! Who can resist?  I caved!  :^D  Here is part 1.

Onto another note;

** The sewing room re-organizing is not completed but it is SOOOO much better. The shelves screwed to the walls were removed to de-clutter the house when we first put it up for sale. Since then, my stash was stuffed into bins. It is such a chore to pick fabric from bins. This weekend, while getting the house ready for winter, I decided to remove the books from the book unit and put THEM in the bins. I finally got my fabric in plain view! YES Ma'm!! It is so much easier.

Like I've said I am NOT done. I will refold these so it looks better... eventually!  Some bins will have to stay because this is all the space I have ... for the moment. DH has added another shelf at the bottom since this photo was taken.

** Didn't touch the Dresden plates blocks.

** No, the chair is not finished either.

** and I've got the flu. (Thank God for Tylenol!!) I'll be making soup (again) for diner ... maybe some pumpkin soup? Sounds good to me!

Linking to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.

Hope you have a better day than I do and some sewing time too.

Until next time...



;^)