A beautiful day for pin basting a quilt

The sun was just streaming in through the stained glass in the window in my sewing room window (which probably could do with a bit of cleaning). It was a perfect day to pin baste the Lazy Punk quilt top.

And here it is on the table with pinning well underway.

When I pin I give some thought to where I'll place the pins. If you are familiar with how I quilt my large quilts you will know that I stitch in the ditch on all the major seam lines. In this case I will quilt on either side of the sashing in both directions so I am careful to place my pins so that they won't get in the way of that quilting.  I placed a pin in each propeller blade and another in the centre of the block.

After almost three hours the quilt is ready for quilting. I had hoped to get to it today but it is getting late so tomorrow I'll get started. Before I do I'll make the binding so that it will be ready to attach to the quilt when I reach that point.

My pin collection has outgrown its tin so I grabbed another tin that is slightly larger. I got it in Hershey Pennsylvania many years ago. I think it is sweet - I love the old timey advertising.

In the background you can see a poster which is also an old timey piece of advertising. I got that in Penzance Cornwall and I just looking at it, especially in the cold snowy winter months!

I've got a stack of quilts just waiting to be basted which means I'm going to need quit batts. Connecting Threads has a terrific sale on right now - 30% off! I ordered six Hobb's 80/20 batts and the shipping from the US to Canada was only $8! If you need batts now is the time to get them!

Before I go, here are another couple of embroideries from my miniature crazy quilt.

The little white flower is a trillium. It is the Ontario provincial flower.

Cattails made with a bullion stitch.

 

I'm told that cattails are edible in the spring and that they taste a little like asparagus.

 

That's it for today - I'm off to do some quilting! Until I post again, happy sewing!

Procrastination is about to end, sewing treasures and more crazies

I procrastinated all day yesterday and there was neither basting nor quilting. But I wasn't wasting time because I did manage to install a new printer however it took all afternoon. There was lots of frustration and I was close to tears more than once but in the end it was connected and I can now print to my heart's content. When faced with this type of challenge I often recall an old Star Trek episode when Dr. McCoy (aka Bones) was asked by Capt. Kirk to treat a silicon-based alien (it looked like a big heaving rock to me). His response was "Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a bricklayer". When faced with IT problems I often think "I'm a quilter, not an IT specialist"!

Since there is no quilting to show how about a few sewing treasures that I've collected over the years?

 

 

So what are all of these things? The following item was picked up at a garage sale by a friend. He knew it was for sewing but wasn't sure what you do with it. It is a wooden sock darner. You can tell from all the nicks that it has been well used to mend may socks.

 

 

This next little item was found it a shop that sold tchotchkes. It is a little wooden needle case that would have been turned on a lathe.

 

 

The top come off and inside are some pins. Looked at the lovely threaded top and rim! Beautiful work.

  

The third treasure was picked up in the same shop and it is a French ivory button hook. French ivory is celluloid and it is a manmade material that was made to resemble ivory.

 

 The last treasure is a wooden stiletto that my brother turned for me on his lathe. In addition to being functional it is beautiful. It is made of curly maple (also called fiddle back) and it is loaded with beautiful iridescent figuring. It is a handy little tool with loads of uses from feeding points under a sewing machine needle to poking out corners!

 

I'll leave you with two more close-ups of some of my hand embroideries on my miniature crazy quilt. These little blocks are 3" square.

 

A tiny little frog

A pansy and a bumble bee

 

Right - time to get back to Lazy Punk.....let the basting begin!

 

Until I post again, happy sewing! 

Procrastination and craziness

I tested the backing fabric for Lazy Punk and the good news is that it does not have to be prewashed. Yahoo! The backing fabric is cut and ready to be stitched together. Once that is done I'll pin baste and then the quilting will begin. I think the pin basting is my least favourite activity but it is only because my sewing room is small and I have to pack things up and move furniture to be able to open up the table so that I can baste. I want to have the quilt finished by October 9th (YIKES) so I can take it for show and share at my quilt guild before I deliver it. So with the clock ticking what did I decide to do? Clean my computer desk. It is much tidier now!

I don't have any basting to share but I did receive a new book from Sew Sisters. They were having a special sale (29% off) so it was the perfect opportunity to purchase this book! There are lots of lovely decorative stitches in this book and it is very well illustrated. It will be a welcome addition to my collection of embroidery books!

I was thinking about what to test some of the stitches on and I remembered a little crazy quilt I started many years ago so I dug it out. It measures 9" x 12" so it is quite small.

There are lots of seams just screaming to be embellished so I may try out some of the stitches from Sue Spargo's book on this quilt. I've already embroidered a lot of little critters and plants and a few of the seams. Here are a couple of close-ups!

My initial, a little blue bird and carrots

 

A mushroom, grapes and hollyhocks

 

Enough procrastination - time to get to work on Lazy Punk. Well, maybe I will procrastinate just a little longer. There's a new printer that has been waiting to be hooked up for over a week now so maybe I should take care of that before I get to Lazy Punk!

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Alex's quilt restarted, embroideries and what's in the garden today

What are you doing in my neck of the woods?

 

 

I'm heading over to Karen H's place to check out some more of her Mom's embroideries!

 I thought I would entertain you with a few more pictures of Anne H's (Mom) embroideries.

 

Cornflowers

Blue butterfly

 

Chickadee

Ruby throated hummingbird

Wild rose

Jumping jacks

 

Yesterday I spent the day repinning the quilt for my friend's son Alex. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of my progress.

 

 

Several weeks back I had pin basted it and was well into the quilting when I realized I had a problem - there were folds on the back. And why was this? Well I decided to ignore my own sage advice to stitch in the ditch and I just dived into the quilting of circles. I removed pins as I went and smoothed out the quilt top. I should have known - this doesn't work. I spent a week removing all of the quilting and that was a pain. So I spent yesterday pin basting the quilt and then stitched in the ditch with smoke monofilament. This morning I started quilting and the front and back are lovely, flat and smooth. So another lesson has been learned....follow my own good advice! 



I've had some comments and emails about how I finish the binding where it joins and I am so pleased that you found it helpful. I set it up as a tutorial under the  "Tips and Tutorial" tab at the top of this page. This is a method I came up with myself - I wanted a fast easy way to join the binding but still have a proper finish. One inch of hand sewing and you have a perfect join!

Finally some pictures of what is blooming in the garden this morning!

Anemones

Lily of the valley

Orange species tulip

Laburnum tree

Giant false Solomon seal

Until I post again, happy sewing!

Two Block of the Month Patterns and More Delightful Embroideries by Anne H!

I had an email from a read my April 7 post and she liked my quilt "Jack". I had mentioned that I have a Block of the Month pattern for a simple block that was inspired by the same painting and that if there was any interest I would be happy to post the pattern.  So Janet, your request is my command. It is now posted it in Block of the Month (see April 2012). Please note it is not a pattern for this quilt but rather a simple block that was inspired by the same painting that inspired this quilt.

Jack, 2013

I’ve also published a new block pattern that was inspired by a painting by Cornelius Krieghoff, a painter who is known for his paintings of frontier life in Quebec, Canada. Go to Block of the Month and see May 2013 for the pattern. I saw a quilt that made me think of the painting. It is by Kathie Holland and you can see it here. I checked Kathie’s blog but the quilt was posted in 2009 and it doesn’t appear that her blog goes back that far.

It is a long weekend so I want to get out and have some fun! I'll leave you with a few more close-ups of Anne H (my Mom) embroideries! These are all original designs based on her flower garden. At almost 93 she is still an avid gardener. I find it interesting that she does such pretty, little (3" x 4"), old-fashioned embroideries and also the lively and colourful African quilts and wall hangings!

Bleeding hearts

Goldenrod and one lonely snail

Coral bells

Pink shooting stars (they will be blooming soon)

Until I post again, happy sewing!

More work on Barbara's Quilt and Some More of Mom's Embroideries!

It is the Victoria Day Weekend in Canada. It is a celebration of the birthday (May 24) of the longest reigning English monarch, Queen Victoria. I understand it isn’t celebrated in England. In Canada it is affectionately called "the May two four weekend". There will be fireworks galore. For me it means three days of uninterrupted sewing and quilting. My goal is to finish the quilting on Barbara’s quilt!

The melon wedges in the sashing were completed yesterday. I like my way of quilting a big quilt on my domestic machine because it allows me to move around and work on different sections. Everything was anchored with stitch in the ditch and then I decided to quilt the sashing.

 

Now that the sashing is done it is on to the blocks. I spent several hours doodling last night and this is what I came up with. It is a melon shaped feathered wreath. I will fill the centre with small stippling. This is the corner block so I will also quilt Barbara's name in it.

 

I think it complements the blocks and the feather border that I quilted around the block.

Here you can see a block with the centre stippled.

 

The direction of the melon wreaths will be alternated, one pointing to the right and the next to the left so when the top is quilted it will be something of a cross hatch.

 

Once the blocks are quilted I’ll finish the border with feather swags, or at least that is what I am thinking at this point. Again I did lots of doodling to come up with ideas.

Well I've a lot of quilting to do so I'll leave you with a few more close-ups of Mom’s embroideries; they measure 3" by 4" so they are small and very cute. The entire quilt will be shown after the quilting is done and the quilt is bound.

 

Hollyhocks

 

Old fashioned little grey bird

 

Pansies

 

Dragonfly

 

Butterflies

Until I post again, happy sewing!