Slow Sunday Stitching and Take 21

First and foremost ...

TA-DAH !!!

"Take 21" is officially a quilt!! This is my DS1 's quilt for his 21st birthday ... which was last September. At least he's getting it before his 22nd birthday lol! 

 91 X 73 inches - machine pieced and 

hand quilted with leaves all over and two lizards ... for fun!

Here is the famous backing that needed some "last minute readjustment". You can see the "add-in" in this picture. 

About this backing, now that I am looking at it, the label I made for it a long time ago doesn't look very "comfortable" on it. It looks kind of out of place. I don't like it. It's too white on white. 

Since there is some of the binding fabric left, I'm thinking maybe I could make some hexies and circle the flower ? Yes ? Or add some green leaves ?

The top left fabric is exactly the same green as the dots in the backing. The fabric on the right is the one used in the quilt and the center fabric is just a touch less aggressive than the one on the right. (It doesn't bite your eyes out if you know what I mean.) Okay! What to do ? I will ponder over it as I'm getting diner's ready. 

Regardless of my decision, this will be my slow stitching project this evening, embroidering the names and attaching the label (that may have some more hexies added to it) to the quilt. That sounds like a perfect evening to me. 

I am linking with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Join us and see all the lovely needlework projects people are working on. 

Until next time ... 

;^)

Binding's on

Look who is at the binding stage ... FINALLY !!!

Yes, it is Take 21!

Since I only have 2-3 inches done so far and there is 324 inches of binding, I have quite a lovely evening (or two, or three!) of slow stitching ahead of me. :D Hope you get to sew today too.


I am joining A Quilter's Reader's Garden for WIPs Be Gone.
I will join Julie K Quilts for Binding Blitz when the linking party is open.

Until next time ....

;^)

Slow Sunday Backward Stitching

I just want to cry.  I know I've said 2015 would be a year of "firsts" but I didn't mean that kind. It's not my day even though it is Woman's Day !!

I have finished row 8 on Take 21 and it is time to do some major fixing as there's only two more rows to quilt.

I have discovered a BIG mistake when I finished row 7 and rolled the quilt lower on the frame. At that time, my heart sank and I wanted to cry.  I still do. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong with this quilt. :(
Look!

Do you see what is wrong here? How about in the picture below?

If you said no batting and backing behind the quilt in the first picture, you are right. If you think there's way too much backing and batting in the second picture, you are right again.  I have rolled my quilt wrong. It is NOT the first quilt I set up on this frame and yet it's the first time I do it wrong. I did worst than a debutante would have! I am so discouraged right now. Why didn't I see my mistake when I started to quilt it? Because I was in a hurry! I thought I could quilt it before his birthday and had to hurry!! Look where I am now! So depressed.

I unpinned the top part of the quilt and laid it on the floor. Carpet, quilt, batting, backing = wrong order. The backing should extend beyond the quilt, not the other way around.

Don't know if you can see the pencil line on the batting in an effort to cut it straight so I could add to it. It wasn't an easy task as everything is kind of warp by the pinning to the frame.

Tried to piece the batting but my back wanted nothing to do with this idea of working bent over while sitting on the floor...





... and I have such a loooooooooooong way to go still.  What am I going to do?? I didn't want to remove the entire quilt from the frame as I don't think I would be able to pin it back. Since the layers are quilted together, pinning them back on could be quite a task because of the weight. Then I thought "How can I pin the batting to the frame when it is pieced so close to the edge? Won't it come undone when I roll it taut?" See, in this kind of quilting frame, the layers are not basted together. I didn't want to put the batting to the test. So I had no other choices but to remove it completely from the frame.

Then, I sat at the sewing machine, tried to zigzag the batting together.

Then back on the floor to cut the backing straight. I was lucky enough to still have the left over of this backing. (It's the perfect backing for this quilt as the print has the same colours.)

I still had the original piece I had cut off. It was in the flannel scrap box, waiting to be cut into 2.5 inches for the next Crumb quilt. Thank goodness I didn't had time to do that. Then the phone rang. I thought "I don't want to talk to anyone right now. I want to finish this." My son came down the stairs, handed me the phone. I shook my head. He said "she wants to see the house."  Again, I just wanted to cry. I looked around me at the mess. My entire house is a mess because of the new job and the lack of energy in the evening I basically did nothing this past week. Oh! Her timing is so wrong !! And she wanted to come by THIS afternoon! NO! I can't. For the FIRST time in the two years the house is for sale, I said no! Anyway, back to the quilt.

I pinned the monster to the leftover flannel backing. By that time, my back was really angry at me and it was letting me know every which way it could.

Of course, all this excess work deserved a cherry on top, right? So the light in my sewing machine gave up on me. Got myself a lamp and sew on. Then the backing sifted and I was sewing only one layer. Arrgghh! Ripped, pinned some more and sew on. It was hard to move all this bulky fabric around and I had to make sure that the flimsy underneath didn't get caught on the drawers or the corner of the desk or worst, under the needle !

As I was ironing the seam open, I realized another important thing. I should have basted the quilt before doing all this. As I sew the backing and while ironing it. all the weight of the quilt was pulling on my tiny little hand quilting. Oh my!! I tried to keep the entire quilt on the ironing board. Then, I went back on the floor and flattened it out.

Then the cavalry of good friends finally showed up and started to hold the quilt down. I feel so much better now. It took me three hours. Now I go and have some lunch. It's 1:30!

There is something so sad about an empty quilting frame. I have to find another quilt for it to hold in its long arms.

I marked a few blocks and set it up in the little plastic frame.  Tonight, this is how I will be slow stitching Take 21 because I really DO DESERVE a loooooooooong session of slow stitching.  Mind you, I'll be sitting on a straight chair! :D

Hope your day was better than mine :)

Until next time...

;^)  as crying never fixed anything anyway!

Linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Sewing Time

For the viewers visiting my blog via Grow Your Blog 2015, you might want to read this post. Be sure to say "Hi" in order to participate in the giveaway. 




Yes, I did find some time to sew. A little bit every morning before heading off to work. YEAH!!

This is "Take 21" made for my oldest son. It was finished to the flimsy stage last summer. It has been on the quilting frame since then.  Ouch! I wish I could work faster but I do have to "obey" the signs my back sends me otherwise I pay a dear price, if you know what I mean!!  So I hand quilt it just a little bit at a time. I've showed you pictures of it in the frame before but it is hard to tell where I'm at because of the pattern. But this week, you can really see my progress. I have started at the bottom of the quilt and this is where I am now.

Can you see my needle in there? I'm heading towards the misaligned blocks lol. Oh well! There's one in every quilt, I guess. My goal is to finish row 7 today and that's one and half block to go. I won't bind this quilt any time soon but if YOU did bind a quilt in January, you might want to see Julie's blog and participate in the new Binding Blitz and win some prizes.  Or just pop over and check out what others have been up to. Seeing others' finishes is so encouraging! It gives me the spur to finish something too.

Another quilt that is far from being done is Quilt of the Century. I did finished two diamonds this week that I would like to attached to the quilt today. Laundry is no quite finished, have to make spaghetti sauce, some creme of carrot soup, and the boys asked for more Gingerbread Cookies this morning. It is so time-consuming but how can I say no? Beside ginger and molasses are good for the immune system so I'll make a double batch.  Maybe it'll last longer than the last one, hopefully!! Oh yes, and finish answering all those emails I've got through Grow Your Blog blog hop. What a fun adventure this is. As usual, I probably have too much on my to-do list for only one day but I'll make the most of it. For now, I am taking a few minutes to hop over to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and look at all the wonderful projects slowing being made.

Hope you enjoy what you have to do today too ... whatever that may be!

Until next time ... ;^)

Slow Down Sunday

Yeah! I've made it! That was quite a busy week with lots of things going on at home and at work. Yesterday I had errands to do and the cleaning and worked on my design wall.  Today the plan is to do some baking, take some pictures of the quilt progress and to take  Kathy's advice to slow down for some slow stitching. So I will work on Take 21.

Since I took these pictures, I was able to work on it on some mornings before work this past week,so I am further along.

My goal is to finish block 8 of the 5th row today. That is the last block of the row. Then I will move the quilt down and start on row 6 hopefully tomorrow.

Since the quilt has 10 rows, half of it will be done. Yeah again! It is not realistic to think he can have this quilt this year so I gave up on that idea awhile back and I feel so much better now. Less stress! He's okay with waiting a little longer to get it. I mean it's not like he has none on his bed at the moment, ha! ha! he has three! He is definitively not cold!

Enjoy your Sunday and hope you find yourself with a needle in hand. See ya at Kathy's place for Slow Sunday Stitching.

;^)

Stitching on Sunday

I am not very productive lately ... in the sewing room that is. I do a lot of things but none of the quilty kind.  I have done 0 little 9 patch ;(  I have done 0 antique block :(  I have done the quilting on 8 blocks on Take 21 quilt! :D   I try to get up early in the morning and sneak in a 15 minutes sewing before heading to work :)  Maybe 15 minutes isn't much but it was productive for me this week!

"Take 21" blocks not yet assembled 

Today, I have to bake some more (everything I bake keeps disappearing around here!) cookies, a banana bread and something for the office people. I will like to finish block 5 of the fifth row today and start block 6 this evening while watching something on the tube.

I wish you all more sewing time in your busy days and some time too to check out what others are working on via Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday.  I'll be there!

Enjoy!

Slow Sunday Stitching

It is getting late in the day but I decided to post anyway because I wanted to be part of Slow Sunday Stitching where everyone is making such beautiful hand stitched projects.  Looking at them gave me the jitters to do something too. :D
Not much to show as I am still working on "Take 21" for my DS#1 and all the blocks are the same.

Tiny little stitches make a beautiful quilt for my sweet boy.
I plan to enjoy the relaxing rhythm of hand stitching tonight and finish block 4-5. Monday and all its worries will come soon enough.

Linking with Kathy's.

Until next time.
;^)

Fun, Fun Sun Day!

I had a lot of fun today. I hand washed 49 fat quarters. Yes I did write 49. No typo! I met with a girlfriend of mine yesterday.  We haven't seen each other in ... oh boy 10 - 12 years? Sounds about right. Anyway, we spend the day together and since we are both fabric addict, she showed me the LQS in her town. I was floored. Amazing!!  Just to give you an idea, here in Ottawa, fat quarters go for $4.50 - $4.99.  Yesterday I paid $1.00 at her LQS! That's it. I almost left with the entire baskets. And such beautiful fabric too. Have a look.

(Sorry I took the pictures before I wash them.  The camera decided not to download the pictures.  After many trials, I took a break from cursing at the darn thing and started to wash the FQs.)

Of course, I bought some fabric by the meter too.

This beautiful pumpkin fabric will be the backing of my fall table runner.  I did have a fabric for it but I much prefer this new one. :D

Then I got some flannel FQs. Oooh only a few of these.  And one panel which I forgot to get a picture.  I also bought a few patterns, buttons and threads. 

It was so nice seeing her again.  We so talked and talked and talked and talked. It was like we had seen each other a month ago. We picked up right where we had left. Amazing friendship. Oh I so cherish her. And her generous heart. She gave me so much from her stash. Oh my! I'm so blessed. My cup is overflowing with gratitude.  She lives a hour and a half from me so I can't go every weekend but I will go back before Christmas hopefully.

Now I am completely pooped out. All the fabric is washed and most of it has been ironed. Regular laundry and house cleaning are done too. Tonight, I feel my age. lol

So I will sit and add a few miles of thread on "Take 21" while thinking about all the things we two girls talked about and what I forgot to tell her.  It will finish my wonderful weekend so beautifully. Oh and why not? Let's add a glass of wine to the picture. :D

I am joining Kathy for a Slow Sunday Stitching.  Hope you too have enjoyed this weekend and found a few minutes to play with some fabric.  ;^)

Enjoy! 

WOW on vacation

WOW (WIP on Wednesday) with Esther!

I am on vacation for three days !!! YEAH!!! I love my job but ... it is demanding and sometimes, just sometimes, I feel my age!!  But I can forget all about that and just enjoy the next three days.  Of course, I've made a list of chores so long it will take me 6 days to finish it all but I will do what I can and ... take more vacation to finish it off LOL!

Today, on this GOOOORRRRGEOUS sunny Wednesday, I am working playing with fabric since

six o'clock this morning! Love the early morning hours when only the birds are singing, no cars, no children, no dogs barking... just the sun and the birds... and a mug full of coffee of course!!
Anywho! I decided to quilt Take 21 with leaves and a few geckos. The quilt reminds me of ancient Inca's temples in South America so I thought it needed some leaves and lizards.

I know you can't see it very well on this picture but believe me I did start to work quilt it. I will take pictures from the back once it is done to show the quilting. That light blue fabric is so busy I loose the pattern in it and I am having trouble finding a pencil that writes on that red fabric. It seems to be protected from any kind of marks! Looks like that journey will be slow and somewhat annoying. No pain, no gain! I have two needles threaded at the ready.  Always two needles. Anyone else prepares needles in advance like that?

Garnishing my floor is a crumb quilt made with flannels.  I have three to make like this and I have only 120 blocks done.  So another 120 blocks to go. When the two quilting needles are empty, I sew at the machine for a little bit just to move around because otherwise, I just quilt and quilt and cramp up!

Of course, there is also a LOT of unrelated to quilt or fabric tasks to do ... (but I will spare you that boring blah, blah. I will have that conversation with son #2 who is at home today also! Yeah! a helper! ) Instead, I will encourage you to check out Esther's blog and see what others are up to. Have fun.

Until next time ... SMiLE ... it lifts the spirit.