A Few Minutes Here and There

This has been a very busy week and I don't really feel like I have spent much time quilting but I have managed a few minutes here and there on different projects. The above quilt is on the long arm, it was made by members in my local quilt guild and will be donated to the local hospice home.

Another few minutes spent on prep work on applique blocks.
Some pieces auditioned and fused on my next Roseville album block,


and after two tries at needleturn on that little kitty (specifically his difficult ears) on block 19 of CWBQ I am crying "Uncle". I fused on a wool kitty-no edges to turn under- and some ultrasuede feet on the rooster and chicken so I can soon continue on with the rest of the block.


The only part of quilting I really do not care for is making labels. Tomorrow I am going to a wedding and giving the couple a quilt, I have put off a personal label until this evening but have just finished sewing on the label.

So not much time spent on any one project but a little bit of progress on several different things.

Have a good weekend all and happy stitching,
Cheri

Under Duress

I went shopping for two things today, this wonderful pile of Kaffe Fassett fabrics for Roseville Album and the pattern and fabric for scrub pants. I DETEST garment sewing! My local guild's fall retreat is coming up and my small group wants to wear matching lounge/pajama bottoms. Maybe duress is too strong of a word, I have not exactly been threatened and I doubt they would kick me out of the the group if I didn't participate. I hate being a party poop, but I hate sewing clothing also.

I do not even make the cute tote bags everybody is doing because the straps are to much like garment sewing for me. When I purchased my sewing machine a few years ago I sat quietly thru the section on buttonholing and zippers in my new owners class - I could solemnly promise the instructor this Bernina would never make a buttonhole.

So this is my assignment for the next week or two...sew the pants. The fabric is kind of cute, the retreat is the week before Halloween so the fabric reflects the upcoming holiday. And seriously, when did patterns become $16.95 - Good Grief!

Until next time,

Cheri

Sunday Afternoon Sewing

I have managed to get a couple hours work on Roseville Album. I am working on prepping the top border with the house. My sewing room becomes a complete wreck when I assemble a Roseville block, light box and fusible material, pencils, scissors (no matter how many scissors and pencils are laying around I can never lay my hands on one) on side of the sewing room, fabric all over the other side, and ironing board and cutting table covered with block parts. I ended up removing the blue kitty and replacing him with the orange stripe. Added a couple trees and animals and that is probably enough for a bit while I machine applique what I have done so far on this block. I have a little zip lock baggie started with little scraps for the numerous circles on the quilt. I think I am going to work on the larger appliques on the quilt first and then use the left overs for the smaller leaves, circles, etc.

It is now Sunday afternoon and I have been working a little on the long arm machine quilting a couple of donation quilts for the local hospice care center. My sweet daughter, Beth, is keeping me company working on her crochet baby hats at the cutting tables while I quilt.

A good Sunday afternoon to you all...

Cheri

A Finish and A Start

I have started the Roseville Album quilt. I have gone back and forth with myself about hand or machine applique and finally machine applique has won out on this one. I have such good momentum with the Civil War Bride, which I work on most evenings, I really did not want to start another hand applique project when I can really see the end in sight for the Bride. I do not have as much day time sewing available but I wanted to start on this quilt, I think it will be so nice to work on these bright colors with fall and winter coming. I machine applique with a small blanket stitch and I already have all the threads I need to match the Kaffe Fassett fabrics used in the Roseville album-mostly King Tut variegated thread. I started right in the middle of the quilt with the fruit compote, it is kind of fun to make blue pears.

My finish is the Hawaiian quilt for my son and daughter-in-law, YEA!!! It is a little hard to see the pattern in this photo, the center is fish swimming in a circle with lots of sea coral. The border has more coral, fish, snails, and those cute little crabs right on the corners. I machine quilted it on the Handiquilter and it worked pretty well, I am a newer long arm quilter, it is a little difficult to quilt in the ditch around applique, but the echo quilting went well. I made wider echoes - 1 inch - and did the top and bottom and then one turn on the quilt frame for the two sides.

I am on to prepping block two for the Roseville album, my sewing room was a wreck when I did the first block with fabric cut up like swiss cheese and piles laid out everywhere. I am going to the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year and signed up for a lunch lecture with Kaffe Fassett, can't wait to listen to him. I also signed up for a long arm machine quilting class on borders with Pam Clark and that pretty much did my quilt budget for this time - I have to save some money for the vendors : )

(Thomas and Kaori - I will deliver the Hawaiian quilt when I am in Houston- can't wait to see you guys - Love Mom)

Happy Stitching All...

Cheri

Aunt Gracie Room

Long ago, when I first started quilting, my quilts were made from muslin and calicoes (my mom and grandma used muslin and clothing scraps and feed sacks). Aunt Grace reproduction fabrics are a favorite of mine and to this day a muslin and small scale calico just says "Quilt" to me. I have made a lot of quilts using 30s reproduction fabrics and decided to turn my guest bedroom into an Aunt Gracie room and display those quilts. So this is a little quilt show for you and a few of the Aunt Gracie quilts from the past few years.The quilt on the bed is one of my few hand quilted ones, I am more of a machine quilter. It is from the book Favorite Scrap Quilts, I am an appliquer at heart and used an applique techinique to make the drunkards path blocks for this quilt.

I do not remember the name and designer of this quilt, the embroidered blocks are herbs.

The baby quilt is a bow tie block and the name of the quilt is Buttons and Bows. I had traced circles on the white corners of the bowtie blocks and then stipple quilted the negative space and it ended up looking like buttons. This quilt won a blue ribbon in my local guild show.

I used the treadle from an old singer sewing machine cabinet for the TV stand in this bedroom.

My son made the jelly cabinet with the tin punched Ohio Star pattern inserts in a high school wood making class, it fits right in this quilty guest bedroom.

One more wall and one more Aunt Grace quilt, this is a hand applique and again I do not remember the pattern designer.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri

Baltimore on the Prairie

I was able to attend a one day class at this years Baltimore on the Prairie conference. This was my first year attending and it is just a wonderful applique conference, I am so lucky it is so close my home. The conference is held at Mahoney State Park half way between Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska on the Platte River. It is a beautiful setting, the hummingbirds were very active outside the dining room windows and very appropriately the bird feeder was visited by a Baltimore Oriole.

I have lived in Nebraska for 25 years and this is the first one I have seen here.

I took a class on template free applique. This is another term for back basting, which is the method of applique I prefer. I am mostly self taught so this class appealed to me. It was taught by the wonderful Jan Carlson.

She is from Maryland and in 1993 she and three of her friends started the Baltimore Applique Society. She is a wonderful teacher, I learned so much in that one day class. We laughed a lot, made friends with applique lovers from all over the country, and heard great stories of when Jan first got to see the original Baltimore Albums quilts in museums and got to make patterns from those quilts for fund raising opportunities for preservation of the quilts.

Our class project was this cute little red and green applique quilt. I brought background fabric from the Civil War Bride and intend to use my class block for a label on that quilt.

Those are 1/4 inch berries - YIKES! The one day classes are the first day of the conference, the rest of the conference is three days with an instructor. There were five teachers at this years conference and they all had beautiful Baltimore Album blocks, I would have loved to take any of the classes but time did not allow this year. Baltimore on the Prairie is definitely on my calender for next year.
The instructors for next years conference and pictures of their blocks will be posted on the website Sunday evening at the conclusion of this years conference. http://baltimoreontheprairie.tresajones.com/

Happy Stitching all....

Cheri

Quilt Repeat

Can you make the same quilt over? I don't mean small table runners or even baby quilts - I have done 5 or 6 bug jar quilts - I mean bed size, applique, time consuming quilts. I really can not, once I make a large quilt I am finished with the pattern, I don't like to do it again. I just finished quilting Cathy's lovely applique quilt (sorry I can not remember the name of this pattern) and it is the second time around. I quilted the first one for her a couple years ago and her daughter-in-law loves this quilt so she made another one for her for Christmas. It is all hand appliqued with blanket stitch using embroidery floss. I think they are both beautiful and I am impressed she did it again. Cathy brought the first quilt over so I could quilt it somewhat the same. It was certainly my pleasure to quilt them both (machine quilting I can do over and over).

Before starting Cathy's quilt I got a good start on the Hawaiian applique. It is on the long arm, I am doing all the quilt in the ditch around the applique and the echo quilting in the center white sections. Once I have the whole quilt stabilized with the outline quilting all finished I am going to do the echo quilting on the top and bottom, then turn the quilt on the frame and do the two sides. It will be a lot of starts and stops on the echo quilting, but that is the only way I can think to complete it.

I am also working on block five of the Civil War Bride, I machine quilt during the day on my day's off from work and applique at night while watching TV or chatting with my DH. This is a long weekend in the United States, Monday is a holiday - Labor Day. Enjoy you weekend.

Happy Stitching all...

Cheri