All Prepped, Ready To Sew

The flowers are back basted and the various berries and circle flowers are all ready for next section of Auntie Green's Garden.

The next Benjamen Biggs block is a paper cut block, one of my favorite album blocks to stitch. I sat right down and traced out the block and have it all prepped.

Here is another Patchwork Of The Crosses all cut out and ready to be glued onto the paper pieces and stitched.
But,

Spring has FINALLY arrived in Nebraska, my neighbor's cherry tree is all blooms. I have a new buggy wheel I picked up at an antique shop this winter to plant a new clemantis to grow on.

My other neighbor has a blooming crabapple tree.

And my deck flower pots are crying for geraniums and petunias and all the other goodies at the garden store. The day is warming up and I don't think much sewing is going to happen. But soon I will be in a lawn chair enjoying this glorious spring weekend probably with one of the above projects in hand.
Happy Spring,
Cheri

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March Doings

I seem to be caught up on my block of the month projects...well somewhat caught up. Auntie Green's Garden is growing,

I have the second border sewn on and the next section of appliqué finished in the right upper hand corner. The colors are so soft and subtle, but very pretty fabrics on close up.

Benjamin Biggs block three is finished,

this month took me longer than I expected for what appears to be a simple block. I am sticking with the 16 inch blocks so far. I have been waffling about starting over and making making them smaller, but in the end decided to go with an alternate petal corner design that Gay showed on Sentimental Stitches. The petals go over the block seams so the blocks maybe can be trimmed down an inch or so but that decision will wait until more blocks are completed.

I also have two more Lucy Boston's Patchwork Of The Crosses blocks prepped and ready to stitch together.

This project is where the "somewhat caught up" comes in,

I am much better at cutting up my fabric and glueing on the paper pieces than actually stitching them together.

Happy Spring and Happy Stitchin all,

Cheri

 

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Itty Bitty Bias

This morning I have been making more double fold bias for the latest Benjamin Biggs block. I posted about this bias a couple posts ago when making large 5/8 inch bias for another appliqué project and it worked so well I thought I would try it for the tiny 1/8 inch bias needed for the cherry stems. There are three sizes of finished bias from 1/8 to 1/4 inch in this block, my bias strips measured 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch before double folding.

I usually stitch the bias stems last in an appliqué block but all of the leaves and cherries lie on top of the stem ends in this block so I am going to stitch down all of the stems next.

 

Happy stitching,

Cheri

 

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Valentines Day

With all the beautiful heart appliqué patterns available I was surprised this morning when the only one I could find on one of my quilts was this one. It is on the first hand appliqué quilt I completed and I believe it was called Country Album. It was a block of the month by Robert Callahan several years ago in McCalls quilting magazine.

I have a new Patchwork of the Crosses ready but I am on hold stitching it, I ran out of thread- how can a quilter let that happen? English paper piecing must be very popular in Omaha because I could not find any dark colors of Bottom Line thread in the local shops and had to order it online.

I am almost finished with my next Benjamen Biggs block but I am thinking of taking the corner rose buds out. They give the quilt a 'busy' look to me and do not really form a secondary design. Gay showed a picture on sentimentalstitches.net of the quilt with a simpler petal design on the block intersections. I am also having second thoughts about the block size and even the yellow, just not contrasty enough. So stay tuned, I really like this block of the month but I may just restart the whole thing.

In looking at the photos on my Ipad for this post I saw some recent family pictures that just say LOVE to me,. Here are some of the valentines in my life, starting with me meeting my new grandson Eli last summer.

And big brother and the loving way he handles his new little brother.

My son coming home from a three month work trip and my grandson so happy to see him.

A few weeks ago my daughter had a long lunch break from work and our house is much closer to her work than her own. She still likes to cuddle under one of the quilts and Jasper the dog loves when she comes over.

And finally my best friend, love of my life, husband of almost 42 years, who is willing to stop at any quilt shop, and get involved in anything I try, like making sushi.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you,

 

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Stitching & Snow

Like most if the rest of the country, Omaha is covered in snow and we have had some bitterly cold days. I can you scrub pants and 8 below zero do not go together. But, in the evenings and on my days off from working at the hospital, I have been getting much accomplished on my current projects. I just finished the first wreath of leaves on the center of Auntie Green's Garden.

I finished stitching the 1792 reproduction sampler by 10 year old Freelove Hazard. I love how she added her numbers (some of them, there is no 5) at the end of random lines of the verse or even down by her name. In true Freelove form I omitted the letter "D" on the first line, I just totally skipped it and did not realize it until I was several lines further. The letter "J" is also missing but that letter was not included in the alphabet samplers of that time. Freelove was stitched with DMC flosses on a white 25 count linen that I tea dyed to give an aged look.

I have my next Benjamin Biggs block all prepped and read to start stitching. I am going to save it for a quilt retreat in a couple weekends.

I have also committed to Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses. This is my 2nd block, again, prepped and ready to start putting together.

I have seen this bit of advise before but it always tickles me when I read it.

Happy Stitching All

Cheri-whose hair is a wreck, is in slippers, no makeup, and letting her husband make dinner...I am stitching : )

 

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Auntie Green's Center Completed

I have been experimenting with making bias this morning. The next step on Auntie Green's Garden is a large leaf wreath around this basket of flowers. There is a lot of chunky 5/8 inch bias stem in this quilt that will need to be pieced together. In my experience seams do not go through my Clover bias makers neatly. I remember reading about Jeanne Sullivan's technique of double fold bias making in her book Simply Successful Appliqué (a great appliqué reference book) and thought I would do a test.

She brushes liquid sizing down the center of the bias and folds in half and irons.

So far so good. I trimmed the seam dog ears, brushed the sizing on my next fold and pressed in half again, making sure I folded over the raw edges.

Yea, smooth over the seam, I think this will work. I might draw some permanent pen lines on my well stained ironing mat and have some guidelines for the correct width of the stem since I am going to be making so much of it for this quilt.

I also finished my first block in the Benjamin Biggs wedding quilt.

It is a freezing cold morning in Omaha, 5 degrees below zero. I am going to retreat to the sewing room with lots of coffee and start making bias.

Happy Stitching All,

Cheri

 

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A New Beginning and a New Beginning

Happy New Year!

I am starting my new year with two new appliqué projects. The first is Auntie Green's Garden, pattern by Irene Blanck.

This is my first block of the month that I have purchased the fabric from a store (homestead hearth.com). It is quite fun getting the fabric packet in the mail. Each fabric is labeled and cut into small blocks just perfect for an appliquér who back bastes. Other than the challenge of wrangling this huge pattern (the center section is about 50 X50 inches) and my fabric around to get it traced onto the back of my background fabric

I was stitching in a very short time.

My second new project is the Benjamen Biggs wedding quilt.

The patterns for this 1848 red and green album quilt are a free block of the month over the next two years by Gay from sentimentalstitches.net and Brenda from dearjane.com. This is their third year doing free block of the months under their Just Takes Two (see the button on the sidebar) BOM. The patterns are available for one month and after that available for purchase. There is lots of interesting reading about the history of the Benjamin Biggs family and each block, so even if you do not applique pop over and read about this wonderful quilt.

I love red and green quilts but I am playing around with doing this one in greens and yellows. It is a large quilt, 100 X 100 inches and this would fit nicely on my king size bed eventually, and green and yellow would match my existing decor in my bedroom. So far, I have just been pulling fabrics, there is a little touch of blue in the center block of this quilt, doesn't this blue paisley fit in nicely with these?

Over the last month I have been keeping up with my two cross stitch samplers. The peacocks are finished on And They Sinned and I am onto the next band.

 

And little Freelove Hazard is getting closer and closer to completion.

I have bonded with this little girl, I love the way she added her numbers, sort of - there is no number 5 - at the end of different alphabet rows. And in true Freelove fashion I omitted the letter D in the first row by accident, but I am just going to leave it. (The letter J was not included in the old sampler alphabets, so that omission is supposed to be there.)

I am going to have to make myself put down the hand appliqué and spend some time on the samplers in the coming months, but variety is the spice of life, and definitely of quilters and stitchers.

 

Happy Stitctching All,

Cheri

 

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