Marking & Quilting

I am still here, just keeping on , keeping on. Quilting, Quilting, Quilting. I have all of the appliqués and sashing quilted on Ladies of the Sea, so now I start the background fill.



I have also been helping a young coworker, with absolutely no sewing experience, make a quilt out of her little girls baby clothes. Thank goodness for the 1/4 inch foot on the sewing machine. It is progressing nicely and she is determined to do the whole thing, piecing, quilting, and binding. You go Tish!



The sampler is also getting closer and closer and I am enjoying the change up in hand work.

So, I am hoping to have a couple completions in May.

Happy Spring all. I actually saw my first dandelion yesterday, there is hope the winter that does not seem to want to end will.

Cheri


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Mostly Cross Stitching

I am taking my time machine quilting Ladies of the Sea so I don't really have any different pictures of the progress there. Because that quilt is currently at the sewing machine I have only been prepping Sally Post blocks but not actually appliquéing them, so no new pictures there...

But, I have been doing a lot of stitching on my reproduction sampler from the Scarlet Letter blog stitch along.



I am stitching this on linen which continues to be a challenge, my mind just takes in all the holes not the counting over two threads. I think it would also be a little easier if the threads were even size but on this homespun linen some are thick and some are thin.


None the less I am keeping at it and it is daily growing into a beautiful piece. The linen count is 25 threads per inch and I am using silk embroidery floss, soie d'alger, that has a wonderful sheen to it.



Happy stitching all and have a good weekend.
Cheri

PS - Look at the little surprise these yellow tulips had when they opened. Red stripes, and no they are not from my yard they are from Walmart : )

"Pear" adise

It's done!  This was the quilt I was working on a couple weeks ago at my quilt retreat and ran out of fabric for the small inner border.  The original fabric was going to be a smaller print black and white that looked like a solid black from a distance.  I could not get any more of that fabric so I substituted the white I used for the background for that inner border and I like it a lot better than the original fabric.  This quilt is a pattern by pixiegirlquilts.com called "pear" adise.

 It is for my daughter who has wanted a quilt with Kaffe Fassett fabrics, she choose this bright red  (another Kaffe) for the back.  I took it to one of my local quilt shops and had them quilt it on the long arm.  Yea, finished!

I also have 5 more blocks for the Sally Post Floral Sampler ready to machine applique and then I will be caught up on her blocks again. 

Here in Nebraska the snow has finally melted and we are to reach 60 degrees today, spring is coming,
may you all have a blessed Easter.
Cheri

"Our Lord has written the promise of the Resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring"
                                                                                           -Martin Luther

Time To Start Quilting

The machine is all cleaned, oiled, and has a new needle.


Tables set up at the side and practice quilt sandwiches made.
It is time to start quilting Ladies of the Sea (pattern by Sue Garman). Walking foot work first, then stitch in the ditch around the appliqués.


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Quilt Group Retreat

I have gone from quilting and stitching at the beach to quilting and stitching at the local state park on a retreat with my small quilt group.
We did a group project of making portable ironing mats that fold up and carry your hot iron home from class or retreat.





I have had this cute countryside fabric with windmills on it for over 15 years and it FINALLY got used. The finished totes looked so cute side by side.


I also worked on some pear appliqué blocks made with Kaffee Fassett fabric called "pear" adise (pattern by pixiegirlquilts.com).





They were turning out pretty cute and have black and white fabric for sash and borders, but, there was not enough fabric for the inner border in the kit I bought.


Arrrgh, don't you just hate when that happens! I bought the kit from a shop when I was traveling last fall so it is not even a local shop. I have written them to see if they have more fabric....I only need 2 one inch X WOF to finish this, otherwise I need to remove the 2 inner borders I have done and find a new fabric locally.
So "pear" adise went back in the tote and I finished the weekend working on my Scarlet Letter sampler.


I have really gotten a good start on this sampler and cross stitching on linen is starting to become more natural, I need to remember count threads not holes.


The members of my small quilt group were interested in the sampler and Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year blog, a couple gals even thought they had Scarlet Letter reproduction sampler charts somewhere in their sewing rooms and were going to go home and look for them.
Well after 3 weeks traveling and getting lots of stitching done I have returned home and gone back to the work at the hospital (I am an ultrasound technologist). I truly love my job and patients and have not once ever dreaded or not wanted to get up and go to work, but as I turn 60 this year I know I am really going to be good at retirement in a couple years.

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri

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Quilting At The Beach

We have been staying at a beach house, actually called a fish camp locally, on the Galveston intercostal waterway.



When we rent a house like this we like to invite family to join us. The first part of our stay was with my brother and sister in law.



The guys fished and the gals brought our sewing machines and had a little quilt retreat.



There have been lots of herons and other interesting birds on this bay side of the island. This is not a great picture but we have nightly pelicans that swim just on the edge of the pier lights checking out the fish that come to the lights.




I have been working on getting some appliquéd blocks sashed and put together. I am two thirds done with Sally Post, I just love the bright colors in this one.



The second quilt I am working on is the red and green appliqué blocks.




I have all the blocks put together and now am starting a few hundred half square triangles.



I decided to put a dogtooth border around the center appliqué blocks, but I am going to piece them not do appliqué. Then I plan to put a 7 inch white border, which I will quilt with a feather border and finally one more border of half square triangles.

Today I am going to pack up the sewing machine. Our son's family is coming and this second weekend at the beach will be spent playing with my four year old grandson and keeping a close eye on him with all this water around.




I also brought my reproduction sampler from Scarlet Letter and have gotten a good start on it. Stitching on linen is a new challenge for me, but I am happy to say I have put in more stitches correctly then ones I have had to "frog" - a new term for me in the cross stitch world (rip it, rip it).

Happy stitching from a girl who is very glad she has missed snowstorm Q,
Cheri

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18 grapes

I was working on my last border of Ladies of the Sea (pattern by Sue Garman) this weekend . I was down to the last 18 grapes and noticed that crinkly look to my thread that you see at the end of the spool.

Oh no, this close and I did not want have to order more thread to finish these last few grapes.  But, I made it!  The top is finished!

 I have  been working on her a lonnnnng time, about 3 1/2 years, but then I have to give myself credit for all the time she had to sit while I was doing the long arm quilting business.

A little review about her.  The patterns were originally put out by Sue Garman as a block of the month in 2007 and 2008. Each ship is surrounded by a wreath with flowers from the area of each ship's origin.

I bought the patterns as a set in 2009 when they were made available to buy the whole set at once.  The background fabric is a Kona Cotton and all of the applique is with left over Hoffman Bali Batiks in my stash.  I machine appliqued  this quilt using King Tut variegated threads in a small blanket stitch.

There is a lot of hand embroidered detail but I did each ship's rigging with a 12 weight black thread and the straight stitch (straight being the key word where the riggings were concerned) on my sewing machine.  I brought all the starting and ending threads to the back of the quilt and tied them off, threaded the tails in a needle and ran them under a few stitches before clipping, whew, that is probably the part that took 3 years.  

I am so pleased with how she has turned out so far.  I thought briefly about hand quilting her, but I have another hand project I want to start and it makes me a little crazy to have to many projects going on at once.  Today I have raised up my cutting tables on PVC pipe and got the quilt layered and the pinning has started, I will machine quilt her.

I am off to the real sea, for a couple weeks away from the winter weather.  I have still not figured out how to blog from my Ipad so I will be back next month. I am taking my sewing machine and a couple smaller projects with me to the beach house where we will be staying.  I intend to set up in front of a main window and watch my DH fishing, watch the ocean, take lots of walks along the shore, and sew.

Happy Stitching All,
Cheri