Been Ages but Look what's happening

What a rough month.  Anything that can go wrong did go wrong!!!

Troubles at work, and troubles finishing my quilts for my first quilt guild entry.  I didn't do just one entry, I did 4!!!  But there was another one that I wanted to finish and that was the Norma quilt which is also called the star quilt.  There were a number of people who completed the quilt and every one of them looked different.  So I'm wondering what mine would look like if I finished it?  Hummm.....

But there were others to do and others to completed.  So here are two of them.....  (this is for you mom  ;)

The first one you've seen already, it's the first block of the month that I finished last year.  It's by Material Girls and I'm sure it's still on their web site.  It's a quilt that's made with two layer cakes and the only thing that I did different was to put a 3 inch border around every block and I used the same material instead of one of the layer cakes.  The results you've seen below:

All pebbled quilted (circular) the size of your nail on your pinky....

Then there was Gro's quilt....  Loving the colors as usual...

But this one is the killer......  This has left a permanent callus on my finger and you'll see why....  Here is one of the things I promised to complete (See my list on this link).

Done......  Well not quite.  But at this point I'm not doing anything because after a while (and it was two weeks solid every night to put all the pieces together then applique two more corners and do the vines all around, and then.....  Jee whiz, it was nuts!!!!  But Done!!!

From this...

To the completion....  Thank goodness!!! Another UFO of a year and a half done!!

But as for the other one, didn't even touch it!!  To learn to do different styles of quilting is crazy!!!  But I'll complete that one and another that I started at Sew Fresh Quilts - Elephant Parade!!! Finally I want to complete my SunFlower Pixelated quilt.  That would be three unfinished quilts in one seciton of time..  TRYING AGAIN!!

Learning to Quilt from Craftsy.

Complete the Sunflower Quilt

Elephant Parade - lots to do.

2015 Finish Along - Going Simple

So far in the 1/2 year that I've joined this group I have failed to complete what I've said I would complete.  I am still over doing it, with 5 BOM's and finishing last year's BOMs (most have their blocks done, it's to complete it and then free style quilt them).  

With this in mind I am making a list of only two things to complete in the next three months.  

This first one will take at least two months but I'm hoping to complete the online class by Leah Day "Free Motion Quilting a Quilt".  I completed the BOM I made by Amy Gibson "Craftsy Block of the Month 2012" and now I want to quilt it.  I loved the block of the month class and really learning in Leah's class as well.  But each video take about an hour and then there is the practice to do before doing the block on your quilt.  So last month  I only got one block down of the quilt, but I did free style stitch in the ditch the entire quilt, and I'm on my way to learning over 14 different styles of free motion quilting. 

Goal two is a quilt that I did do well one, I've got two corners completed, but I need to put it all together.  So here are example of the corner block (please excuse the cat - who doesn't have a cat that hangs around when quilts??? ).  Notice the green in the corner which goes around the quilt and has flowers on it as well.  It's time consuming, and I need to put it away every once in a while because my hand hurts, but that's the job.

I'm trying simple this time and focus!!!  But that's hard for an ADHD adult who needs to focus on three or four things to be a normal person  ;).

In between I'll be doing all the BOM squares that I'm a part of or I'm behind in.  That should keep me busy.

First Quarter - 2015 Finish Along - What I'll do.

I had so much fun the last Finish Along with Andrianne from the On the Windy Side, I want to do it again.  I said I would finish 6 quilts and although I didn't get them done, I sure was busy getting a lot done in the months between.  Really kept me on track Katy, so here we go again.

1)  I found a free Craftsy class that is a BOM online.  Loved it!  Highly recommend it.  Look at the top below.  Turned out great in a lot of psychedelic colors.  It's a lap quilt.  But it's not quilted   I joined another class that shows how to free style quilt each and every block and I have really been working on my free style, so that's my goal.  It will take a lot of time, with 12 different styles on each block.  I figure that will take me at least three months to do.

2)  My Pixelated Quilt. I'm half way there with 2 1/2 inches squares.  It's a sunflower.  Coming along so well, But now I'm thinking of entering it in a quilter's contest, so I really should get going. 

h.

3)  This one is the most important.  It's a wool and flannel quilt that needs to be completed in 3 months because I did enter it in my Guild's Quilting show coming up in June.  And I have to not only finish the corners, but quilts each section.  Here is what it should look like...  As I said got the corners and edges to do, Sounds like just a little work, but it's so much more.  There are even more flowers then what is here.  All is on flannel as you see from some of the blocks included.  This will be the major challenge.

Good luck to me!!

Been hand sewing lately....

I can't seem to get motivated to sew lately.  So when my husband gets tired of me wandering around the condo, being too lazy to get the sewing machine out and sewing, he nags me enough that I grab one of my hand sewing pieces and that's what I'll do.  I finished two of them today.  The Prairie flower has been worked on all August but I was able to finish it today. That was the 11th block and I have one more to do before the corners.  Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel?!!!  

Pairie Floswers #11

 The other one was a cross stitch, Very small, but still nice.

Hand stitched.

Happy that something is getting down.  

Quick post because of the flu....

Couldn't stop yawning at all on Saturday, and kept on turning hot and cold.  I napped around 3:00 for an hour but woke up and was still tired.  We went over to the fringe festival, but was still yawned all the way through it.  Got to see Bruce Cockburn in concert but still, was tired so I left..

So today my husband ordered me to stay home, and behave, no doing nothing.  But I can't just sit and watch TV so I worked every hard to complete one of my applique quilt blocks.  This is #12 of the Prairie Flower Quilt, I skipped #11 because 12 was harder.  So here it is, all done.  The flowers are different purples in wool, and two colours of green for the leaves.  I have a callus on my finger  :)

Notice all the stitching... around the circles then around each petal.   I used tons of thread on this one.  One to go...  then the corners of the quilt.

I'm going to hand quilt this baby....

Another Prairie Flower completed.

The previous one took two months to complete, but this one took approximately two days - one to cut out the pieces and one to sewing the applique on.  That's the fastest I have ever completed one of these blocks.  It's not like there are not a lot of pieces to this block, there were but I had time to sit and work on it, with my husband cooking the barbecue, I just sat and sewed.  

This one is #9 the sunflower - for September.  the centre flower has 11 petals to it, and the other flowers have a number of them as well.  So it wasn't an easy project, it was busy.  Each leaf was two pieces, and I button stitched around each section, right around.  It was lovely to complete.

Finally finished the wool appliqué!

It took me two months to finish this appliqué and when you see it you'll understand why. It's all hand stitched, button stitch, around every single flower. Right from the start I knew I was going to stitch on the beads, and they really add to the appliqué. That means I'll have to do all of the blocks ;)

What do you think?


Full view, the entire block.



Individual flowers... Notice the bead work.



Every flower has 4 - 7 beads. Many of the beads didn't fit on the needle, it was piece work, let me tell you. But well worth it. I feel good.

Transporting your quilting

I seem to always be creating quilts with my sewing machine, piecing, and such, and working less with applique.  But applique is so easy to transport, and continue to work on.  This weekend I've been trying to catch up with all my blocks of a month, and doing quite well (I'm bragging here in case you don't get that ;).  But the applique is still behind.  So on Saturday we went down to Seattle, and the trip is approximately 2.5 to three hours long, depending on the border.  I decided to take my bag of appliques. 

There are three different blocks of the month that I am currently working on and I thought "What a good time to just talk to my husband and sew at the same time".  He was driving, and it's easy to do both in the car.  I don't get car sick, I'm use to concentrating on other things in the car.  The results, two blocks down, and one to go.  It was fun, it kept my ADHD in check, and I felt a sense of accomplishment instead of saying to myself "Great, another two hours of just sitting there".  Keeping my hands busy keeps my mind calm.  

So in the end, I felt I accomplished something, I enjoyed the time immensely talking to my husband, and I kept calm.  What do you think?

My Prairie Flowers BOM (see Quilts to complete tab on top
for info on this quilt).

Free BOM on Crafty.  Really worth it.
Never did hexigons before the lesson.
Not bad right?

I hand sewed the hexi's on this block, wanted to piece where everything went.  I used the glue method to glue the fabric on the hexigons, hand sew them, then watch the fabric when all sewing was done.  I think it worked out quite well.  But next time I'll try the basting method.

I did do some sewing on Friday as well, but with a few mistakes.  Take a look.

Quilter's Guild April's BOM

Colours are really working out well with this quilt. They are vibrant.   The finished masterpiece will really look spectacular. 

Block Lotto April's Block.

 There were three ways to do this quilt.  I chose piecing.

Down the Rabbit Hole - Another one done.

I made a little mistake on this one.  I didn't add the margin when I was cutting this one out so I need to add some white around the edges to that I can make it the right  size.  But still very happy with this.  If you have never seen the BOM for this quilt, please take a look at the final quilt, and visit Jennifer Overstreet's blog at Gable House and Company.  Or visit her patterns at Crafty.   

So I will be done two BOM in May, the Down the Rabbit Hole one and the Material Girls one.  The rest, continue on  :)

What do you do when you're sick in bed, and can't do anything??? You hand sew...

I'm a bit ADHD.  For those of you that don't know what that stands for it's an acronym for Attention

Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  I have trouble sitting still, and can only read books if I read 2 or 3 at a time.  Yes I keep them in order in my head, the problem is I'm always moving and thinking.  I'm the person you hate because the moment I wake up my mind goes very quickly… and doesn't stop.  Wondering if you're ADHD?  Take this test on this link.

Anyways, here I am sick very badly with bronchitis, a lung infection, and too tired to work, and I can't sew, because it tires me out too quickly, so what can I do?  I'm working on hexagons now.  It's hand sewing so I can easily do it.  I'm also catching up on some of my wool work, so it's not that bad.   

I didn't do much, checked out all the BOM's that I'm in, slept,  cut material for 1/2 hour on one of them, slept, hand sewed the hexagons, then guess what?  Yes, slept.  Went to the doctor (had this cold/bronchitis for more then 3 weeks now) and got the great news of the lung infection.  Got the medication, then came home and (yup, you guessed it again) slept.  You would think that being sick you would take a fun day for sewing…. NOT!!!

Girls Day out...

Today I joined 4 other ladies to just work on crafts, to talk and share how life is going.  It was quiet, enjoyable with friends that don't need to continuously yack, yet we could talk about anything under the sun.  Being so ADHD I brought about 4 things with me but really, didn't do a lot of crafting, although I did enjoy myself tremendously, and did relax, the key to all this quilting and crafting.  So I know, it was a great time of just being happy.  Isn't that way a girls day out is, a sharing of happy thoughts, and happy times.  

So what did I work on?  The next Prairie Flower quilt block, and my Ladder Hooking hot pad that I started on Saturday, with a course I took at Wineberries. I'm half way though.  It was traditionally developed in England during the 1900's to make wool rugs but now you use fabric.  It has a large needle with a hook at one end that you use to hook the fabric through the netting.  It's a little hard to explain but this is the book we got with patterns to make rugs and pot warmers, which is what they recommend to start with to get use to the process, and I understand why.  You need to make an even top, and that does take practise.  After the first pot warmer, I'm looking at making a rug, nothing like starting small right?  ;)  Look below and that is what you use for the enter process.  In the end you have that pot warmer that you see there.  Mine is just as colourful as this one.  Really, I enjoyed it.  I signed myself up and a friend for her birthday gift.  She loves doing quilts, and this was her gift for her birthday.  Something new to try.

I also want to share is what I did yesterday.  I didn't take any pictures last night because it was too dark.  I've been working on a new BOM called Globe Trotting.  It's here at this link, and really, this one is a little more difficult. I was working on another BOM with Pat Sloan, and both are great but this one is my first mystery quilt so you don't know what the quilt will look like until it's completely done.  I'm using some great material that I got from WineBerries in Surrey, BC, some Kauffman material that is absolutely stunning.  Here's what I got so far.  The pictures don't do the quilt justice.  You can't see the gold thread, how shiny it is in person.  But it's in green, purple and tan, and the patterns do justice to what's happening.

March's block

Feb.'s block.

One section of the center block, still working on it.

As I said, this one is challenging, and full of piece work so I'm loving it.  Can't wait for the end.  When done, I promise to get a good picture of the quilt so you can see the colours....

Another thing I did yesterday (I only sewed for about 3 hours) is a quilt learning experience that I found on Crafty when I joined online from my IPad.   It's like a BOM, but the course is already completed in 2013.  Every month there are two new blocks, so I can work ahead in this one to get the work done.  I found some material that's batik, with the wildest colours.  But the pattern is modern, and some I have never seen ever, so this will work out well for me.  Below are the three blocks I did yesterday.  As you can see from my list of things I want to accomplish this year, the Crafty was one that I wanted to complete as soon as possible. 

January

Now don't judge, because although the colours are a little wild, they'll look great with a white stash along each one, and maybe stars in between, but I definitely need to have some space between each one.  I'm also looking at practising my freehand on this one.  There is a course to join for that on Crafty, but I have already joined a Free Style quilt group, and I'm learning a lot (Building Blocks Quilt Along) with their videos and the emails every two weeks.  I'm happy with my process there.  

Another reason I like this crafty class is that I can do the blocks when ever I want.  There is a number of different styles for this course, and many are new for me, so that will keep me entertained.  

One for August

I'm still sick with this darn cold, and at the end of the girls day out I started to cough too much, and my fever came back, so tomorrow, I'll take it easy, stay home and catch up on my blocks of the month.  The question is, will I every catch up????  ;)

Continuing on with Prairie Flowers - a year old Block of the Month.

Can you tell that I'm not working this week?  That I'm on Spring Vacation?

I started this quilt close to two years ago on my birthday.  I used my mother's birthday money to get going on this block of the month, and I've been working on and off with it ever since.  But it's on my list of quilts to complete this year and I'm bound and determine to get it done.  So another one done, and I do enjoy the hand stitching.  It's on flannel but the  applique is button stitched on wool.

That's six done and six to go.  You won't believe the finished edging.  There's baskets in each corner using HST's, and applique vines all around it.  I don't even want to think about it for now, it's a huge job in the end.  So here are some of the completed squares, of course Lynxy needs to check it out.

Four here....

Two more here.  Need to add beads to the sunflower one.

Started another one now, block 8 - Wild Morning Glory.  Love the fact that these are easy to transport and tomorrow I'm on a ferry to Vancouver Island, and I'll be taking it with me to work on.  I find it very relaxing.