I finished up “The Ancients” dragon quilt top this week. It’s a kit by In the Beginning fabrics, I think it is a Jason Yenter design. Simple enough, no triangles, only mitered corners in the borders. I got the backing together, mounted on the frame, just waiting for the black batting to come.

I finished stitching the last, of twenty, Dresden plate block yesterday. I had been waiting on more fabric for it, as I ran out of Bella Eggshell. I am now waiting on the three border fabric I ordered from connecting threads. They had a sale on a line of fabric called General Store 3, which is mostly calicos and 30’s prints. I got 4 ½ yards at about 6.00 a yard, I splurged and got a Halloween themed layer cake too.

I am thinking of joining a Sew-a -Long at Ivory Spring using a pattern from the magazine Quilters World. It’s called A Pumpkin a Day by Wendy Sheppard, I may just be able to finally use up all the Halloween Figs scraps. It starts on August 3rd, and the PDF magazine can be purchased at Annies Crafts. The magazine also has the pattern for Jo Kramers Frolic Leftovers quilt. Frolic was a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt from a few years ago. There were quite a few extra units made, because of the half blocks used and the color ways. I have them in a bin all ready to go for this quilt. I would like to get that quilt started this summer too.

I have made some progress on the Forever and Ever cross stitch piece. The Cardinals are done and the little house. I’d like to finish this in the next twenty days, as it is for a birthday present. I got a frame for it, I think its doable. I miss stitching on the Pilgrim though, I see it everyday, and I want to work on it.

In other news, the mother ship has landed in my back yard. Ugh, it needed to happen, as our septic tank is almost 60 years old. I am so glad I am not the one who has to dig the hole. Because of where we are, and how my back yard is made, it has to be hand dug. Four guys and their shovels, got halfway through yesterday. They’ll be back to finish on Monday.

Off to sew.

Be kind.

There is a lot of deconstruction going on around here. My bedroom is half way done, my yard is a blank slate and this quilt is in pieces. Once I got all the parts apart, I could wash the backing and really see what I had to work with. The dark green blades of the plates were bleeders, they had to go. Then the backing of each block was stained and dyed by those bleeds, I ended up removing all the plates from their backings. As I did so I felt a bit sad that I was taking apart this quilt. The plates are sewn together with a machine, with very tiny stitches. The center yellow leaves are hand appliquéd then the plates on top of them. I think two different people worked on the hand stitching, as there are differences in the stitches and sewing techniques. One is a bit more refined and steady, while the other seemed to be in a hurry. There are also repairs that were made, again by another person. The thread is in better shape than the fabrics, I have to be careful when I pick them apart. I wash them in a bucket of soapy water, and they are brighter after, I guess 50 years of dust and skin oil adds up. I will iron them and replace the blades that need it, there are 20 per fan. Some of the yellow leaves have holes and thin spots, I found some vintage calico to use in its place. I am waiting for a few yards of 200 count muslin to arrive, then I’ll sew the plates on 16″ blocks. Once I get them all together, we’ll decide on a border fabric. I am leaning towards green, but blue or pink might work too. I’m not sure about what the client likes, so we’ll see.

I finished the twin size Cat quilt and sent it out to the buyer, I hope she likes it. She also bought the larger full size one I made last year. They match in colors and pattern, but the twin is the “Hey diddle diddle” line and the full is the “Catkin” line. This buyer also sent me a quilt kit to make for her, its an In The Beginning pattern called “Dragons the Ancients”. I hope this quilt pattern works, I have done some from them in the past, and they needed a little tweaking.

I have a few quilts of my own I wanted to start this summer. I got a kit for a Jacqueline de Jonge quilt called Enchanted Stars. Its paper pieced and very colorful. I also got all the fabrics to do a Swordfish quilt from Judy Niemeyer, as I also have the pattern for it. Two monster paper foundation quilts, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

I am posting this without photos, as it has been six days since I wrote it. The photos will come another day 🙂

Be Kind.

I spent most of the first day of summer sewing blocks for the commission quilt. It was a hot day here, so staying in was a good idea. Work on my house and yard are continuing at a good rate. My yard is a vast expanse of dirt and my bedroom now has windows and a door. I am having 12 tons of base rock delivered today, can you say dust? I am so glad that I am not the one who has to move it all.

Back to the quilting. I need to make 4 more blocks today, I think I can do that.

Four days later…

I have a finished quilt top. I ended up adding another row of blocks to make it truly twin sized. When I cut the borders, I realized that the fabric print was eight inches wide, not eight and a half. Damn, the corner blocks were already made at that point, they are 8 ½”. Striped spacer to the rescue! I really like the pop of color that it adds to the border of this top. The final size is 86″ x 56″ , its for a twin bed.

Other than the quilt top, I haven’t done much sewing on anything else. I need to get some more quilting done on the Mrs. Miller quilt. If I can get the quilting of the HSTs done then I can do the bottom borders. Then I’ll take it off the frame, stitch the Commissioned quilt, and re-mount the Miller quilt turned so I can do the side borders. Thats my plan for this weekend.

With all the quilt making going on I haven’t been stitching much on my Cardinal cross stitch piece. I really want to have it done by August, for a birthday present.

Yesterday I went to a fun sort of thrift shop. Its called Fab-Mo and it is a place to find fabrics and all kinds of things for making fabric art, clothes, quilts, and collages. I spent 30.00 and got a bunch of “needed” things. I had seen in their newsletter that they had gotten in a lot of heavy duty canvas, it was about 50 inches wide and at 3.00 a yard, I splurged and got two yards. I also got some nice webbing, a few notions, a large piece of fabric suitable for a backing, a few vintage calico fat quarters, AND a stamped cross stitch piece that was mounted on a small sized scroll frame. I was so excited by the $3.00 price tag that I didn’t look at the embroidery until I got it home. I’m not sure I’ll be finishing that one anytime soon. Before I left the shop, I asked about donations, and they do take them, then I started cleaning out my sewing room in my mind. Maybe later this summer, I am imagining a great clean-out of bins and books and patterns. I have often thought of selling things, but, after all the time and effort needed to photograph, post, sell and send an item, it really doesn’t end up profitable. For instance, I have upholstery fabric that I’ll never use, that would be one empty bin.

Be Kind.

I think I have been busy I have much progress to show for the time, but not many words. I have been working on my BOMs, Reunion and Ribbon runs through it. I’m happy to report that I am caught up. For reunion I finished the 16 “different” blocks, they are different colors and same pattern. They have 117 pieces each, finish at 12 inches and take about 3 hours to cut, sew and put together. I was looking forward to starting the secondary blocks, all same colors and pattern, because I thought they would be easier. Alas, no. They have the same number of pieces, the difference being that they have a modified nine patch in place of the double flying geese. The centers are a bit bigger too, I was surprised when I counted that they had the same numbers.

The Pilgrim is making progress, I have been steadily working on it most evenings. Thankfully more stitching than ripping. I don’t have a side project, although that may change soon. I get a little bored stitching one color, so I have been doing smaller cross stitch pieces along with this large one. I have this Cardinal one kitted up, but I am not sure about the linen I have here for it. It is actually a woven hemp, that has been hand dyed. Its a 32 count, and the resulting stitchery would be too large for the frame I have for it. I ordered a few pieces of 36 count linen last week, I may change it out when that shipment gets here.

I started on the quilt restoration project. I carefully took the whole quilt apart, it was like an archeological project, it took me a few days. This quilt was made in the 70’s, with all the skills of that time. Some machine stitching lots of hand stitching, scissor cut fabrics, and templates were involved. For example the quilt was finished envelope style, after it was hand quilted in the center, the edges were turned in and invisibly hand stitched together. This is a large quilt, almost a queen size, I guess its akin to hand stitching binding, bleh. The borders were machine stitched on and the stitched in the ditch by machine. It seems to me that maybe the sewist did a sort of quilt as you go method. I must mention the batting, it was polyester, a decent grade of it too, but, for some reason, the quilter used two different bats, one was slightly thinner than the other, so it was folded in half and doubled. This made half the quilt heavier on one side, I was happy to get that out and separated. The backing fabric seems to be a poly blend muslin type. It is pieced, but not too much. There seem to be some seams that are industrial machine sewn. I am wondering if the fabric may have been curtain lining at one time. I washed it in my front loader, but it still looked dingy. I am soaking it in dish washer detergent and water now, it seems to be getting cleaner. The problem with quilts that have been used, is that they pick up skin oils, grime and dust and “stuff” that becomes one with the fibers. Rhonda Dort has an excellent tutorial about cleaning vintage linens at her blog Rhonda Dort . I would like to use this backing to replace some of the backing on the Dresden blocks. The dark green blades bled when this quilt was laundered and left ugly yellow stains. I am going to remove the green blades and repair and replace the blades that need it. Then I’ll resew the blades to the new/old backing. I am hoping that I can also wash these blocks once they are repaired, so they can be made into a new quilt. I am thinking of adding some sashing, and different borders. The lady to whom this belongs to, didn’t like the original brown, red and yellow borders, I am thinking a softer pallet may be better. Plus, the originals are faded on one half from the sun.

I have another commission for a twin size quilt too. Last year I made this quilt (above), Cats in the Stars, to use up my Julie Paschkis fabric stash, this client would like a similar one in a twin size for her son. As is the case with OOP fabric, finding it is tough. She has been scouring the internet here and in Canada, for pieces of the Catkin line and complimentary lines. She sends them directly to me, so I get these happy little packages of pretty fabric. I am awaiting the delivery of some solids and black fabric to start the scrappy stars, plus I do have the matching center cat panel left over. Hoping to get this one done quickly, and off to its new bed.

I have purchased a bunch of fabric too. I bought all the batiks to make the Swordfish quilt from Judy Neyermeyer. There is a clearance/retirement sale still running at Batiks Plus, when I got mine it was 30% off, now it is 40%. I also bought a fabric kit to make the Enchanting Stars Pattern from Jacqueline de Jonge. It was on sale too, and I have the pattern already, so why not? So I have two monster sized quilts to make this summer, as well as finishing the two BOMs.

On top of that, we are replacing all the windows in our bedroom and redoing the landscaping in our back yard. Yup, going to be busy around here.

Be Kind.

I have a bunch of finishes I accomplished in the past two-ish weeks. I am procrastinating though, by making and finishing things I am putting off starting a big commissioned project. The quilt is a Dresden plate that was made in the 70’s. Its got some shattered fabrics, a poly batting, hand quilting and machine quilting, and a bit of wonky-ness. I have talked with the customer and come up with a plan for it, even wrote it down, so I wouldn’t forget. I just don’t want to start it yet. The customer is in no hurry either, but I am at the point I want to get it done and out of my sewing room.

Things finished this month

• Summer cross stitch – framed
• Christmas Figs bound and finished
• Four small quilts quilted and bound
• Estrella quilted
• Two pillow shams quilted and made
• Table runner made
• Sold four quilts (yay!)

I have another quilt on the frame, the Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern, called Posh Snowball. I’m using a Panto called Mr. Marbles, its coming together nicely.

I have been steadily stitching on the Pilgrims Progress, although I did start another small piece. I friend and I have a tradition of saying “Rabbit Rabbit” upon waking up on the first morning of a new month. We kid each other about it, and often forget, but when we do remember, its a lucky month. This piece is a gift, not only is it a rabbit piece, but its part of a monthly series by Ink Circle. This one is for June, my friends birth month.

I finally got my 4 month seven blocks together for the Reunion quilt BOM. There was a mix up in the cutting room and everyone got the wrong fabric, purple instead of pink. It was number 6 instead of number 9, I can only imagine how organized one must have to be when cutting these kits. I have to check and recheck the colors before I cut my pieces. Funny thing is that the other BOM I am doing, A Ribbon Runs Through, had a similar problem, but they just forgot to add a strip of a blue printed fabric. I had a little of it left from a previous month, but not enough for the block. They are sending it with next months kit.

Off to sew.

Be Kind.