I was watching/listening to a Floss tube while sewing yesterday. It was Jean Farish, and she started talking about the other side of cross stitch, the back side. It seems that there was a “heated” (not really) discussion on a Facebook group recently about fun verses neatness. Some people don’t care what their project back looks like, some are fastidious, and some are very sure that if your back isn’t as neat as your front – well you know. I think it is a matter of craftsmanship, I fall somewhere in the middle of the extremes. I have been hand stitching things for almost 50 years, I can still remember when I was six years old, and my grandmother showed me how to embroider on a hankie. Later, my favorite first grade teacher gave me an embroidery kit, with wool yarns and a metal hoop and a printed design. Crafting took hold and I haven’t stopped. I don’t remember how I started to care about my backs, but I think it evolved with my skills.

There is one particular incident that stands out in my mind though. My first real job, was as an assistant manager in a craft/garden center chain store. I was in charge of the craft section, ordering and merchandising etc. We also had a framing department within the craft part. I would hang out in there, see what was going to be framed, and how it was done. I had a lot of free framing lessons, and learned more about framing than I probably needed to know. Anyway, there was a cross stitch piece that I will never forget, it was a full size monopoly board. All the words, properties, railroads and GO TO JAIL boxes carefully stitched out in all the right colors. It was really a neat piece of work. However, the stitcher didn’t bury any of the black thread ends. They also jumped from lines to words and outlines over the whole back. When the piece was framed, all those threads showed, I felt it was ruined. I remember the framer felt bad about the finished product too, I don’t remember what happened when the stitcher picked it up though.

Long Arm quilting has also helped me to become a better craftsperson too. Those loose bobbin threads or railroaded threads are the bane of my work. I have to check my quilt backs all the time, at least with cross stitching, it happens more slowly, and is a lot more controllable. Miscounting though, that’s another story, lol. A back side area that I need to improve on is ironing my completed tops. I am a bit lazy about that, I have no problems ironing units and blocks, but once that queen size top is together, my ironing mojo is out the door in a flash. Wrestling that big thing around, having it slip off the board, meh, no fun there.

This week I have been working on more rainbow blocks, I have three more to do. I am thinking two pink and one red in the corner. Then I need to make the sashing and cornerstones. I may switch it up a little and use blue, but I have plenty of WoW, and the sashings are very narrow.

I really NEED to work on my Halloween Figs BOM. I sort of forgot about the March blocks, I pulled the package out when I got the shipping notice for the April installment. I thought I better get it done, it was three blocks and 42 flying geese, and one of those blocks was a 12″ square with appliqué. So much for whipping those together. I got the appliqué prepped and one stem done, the small blocks were simple Ohio stars, an hour of sewing there. The 42 geese, well they are going to have to wait until the rainbow is done. April’s package showed up yesterday, it is the 11th month, but glancing through the instructions, there is a lot of putting chunks together, and a lot of filler and border pieces, more geese and nine patches I think. I can’t remember if I have done the pumpkin seed ones yet, there are a bunch of those. That’s my goal for next week, get this BOM into shape and mostly, if not wholly together.

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Be Kind.

This quilt, Evolution, started from the charm pack of Arctic prints by Elizabeth Hartman. I wanted them used and gone. I added some other dusty colored charm squares and didn’t like the mix. I added some more colors and squares and HSTs, eventually removing the Arctic fabrics and finishing the piecing to copy a quilt I had seen on a blog. The Arctic charms are still on my sewing table, but they have multiplied. I was shopping an online sale of end of bolts, when I came across some of the arctic line. I bought them, so now I have more, and still no plan as to what to do with them. By leaving them out, I am hoping inspiration will strike, or as seems to have happened, they’ll get buried in some other stuff for a while.

I have been working on the Rainbow blocks. The yellow ones were made yesterday, I really don’t have much yellow stash. I had to use a solid yellow, even that was a scrap, less than a fat quarter. Green is up for today. In the full (86″x 90″) 72 block size there are 5 green blocks in the fourth diagonal. I am thinking that these will be my longest line, my smaller version will be 25 blocks, 5 x 5, good baby quilt size. I am using a half yard bundle of WoW fabrics I got from the Fat Quarter shop last year. It may have been a sale, or I had something in mind for it, but there was no ‘note to self’ on it, and it works well with this pattern. Must be meant to be.

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A recent email ad from Shabby Fabrics “enticed” me to buy this cute tea towel kit. I want to make it for my mom, for Mothers day. Growing up with my sister, and a single parent, this was an often heard catch phrase. It makes me smile now, although I may have found it exasperating at the time. I understand it much more now that I am a parent. I am hoping to get this small project done by next week to get it in the mail so it will make it in time for the big day.

Progress continues on Strawberry fields too. I got the flower pot done, its the zig-zaggy thing next to the house. I am thinking I need to start the borders, lots of diagonals and counting there. I may start them during a day stitching session, rather than a before bed session. It will be better in the long run, less frogging if you know what I mean.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese today, for Put Your Foot Down #95.

Be Kind.

Last Friday, Bonnie Hunter released, for sale, a new scrap using pattern called Catching Rainbows. I have been waiting to get started on it since she started constructing the blocks a few months ago. Its a pretty simple block, I have made three in a short time. They are like potato chips though, I want to make more, the quilt BH made has 72 blocks. I don’t know it I will want the “whole bag of chips” but these are fun to make now.

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On my virtual design wall, are the four H2H tops I have made so far. The flannel scrap quilt, the blue and yellow, the green blue and yellow one and the pink one. Sorry for the lack of creative names. These all made up pretty quickly, I want to get them quilted this coming week. The pink one used up another batch of scraps, yay!

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I put my Evolution quilt on the frame yesterday, and started quilting it with a feather/bubble type panto. I am using Microquilter, in a dark gray, that blends with the colors on the top. Was having a bit of trouble with the thread breaking in the first row, like eight times (eye-roll). It seemed to calm down a bit for the second row. Might be because its a new spool of thread and it jumps off the spool a little erratically. I might try a little sew-ers aid today, might be a bit of static too. That’s what makes long arm quilting so much fun, tracking down and fixing troubles to get the quilt quilted.

Progress is being made on the Strawberry Fields stitchery. It’s still in the new and fun phase, but it will be a faster finish, as it is a bit smaller than Pet All the Dogs.

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Linking up with Judy at Small quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.

Be Kind.

I finished another baby sized top for Hands 2 Help yesterday. I have a bunch of fabric left over form two quilts I have made, the first was a blueprint kit called Summer Sampler (middle), the second was I pattern I made up(left), to use the scraps from the sampler. I ended up buying more of the hydrangea prints, because they were on clearance sale, and I figured I could use them for backings and use up the scraps. The H2H quilt used up a bit, I still have enough left for another small quilt though. Carol, at From My Carolina Home, is making a quilt with the same fabrics. She started a tutorial that uses her pattern for a quilt called To the Nines. Maybe I have enough to make one of hers too.

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I would like to make another of the chained quilt with these fabrics, I bought this cute print at PIQF 2019, and thought it would make a cute baby quilt. The print would look good in the main blocks, I thought I would use some of the greens and blues from this jelly roll and some browns. I want to get a backing made for the Evolution quilt today, get that quilted. I need to check on its finished size and if I can use the reddish Essex linen I bought for the Hampton Court quilt on it. Or look through the stash and see what’s available.

Big news in cross stitch land! I finished Pet All the Dogs. I started it in February 2021 and finished April 12th. Would like to get it framed, I’m thinking of an antique carved dark wood frame with a dark green mat. It’s an odd sized piece, 9″ x 15″, so I may have to let a professional custom frame it.

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Strawberry Fields was started too. I made a major error that I need to record here, so I don’t do it again. It all turned out okay, but it may not if I were to repeat it in the future. I had measured the linen piece before mounting it on the stretcher bars, according to the pattern size with three inches of extra for framing/mounting. As I started the design, I found the center and stitched using a waste thread up it. I counted the spaces, and made a stitch every ten squares. When I got to 140 squares, I made a horizontal row of stitches across at the 70 square mark, the center of the design. I started in the center, with the house. As I stitched, I began to notice that it seemed low on the fabric, yeah, like low enough that I might not have enough extra fabric. It was a tense few moments of counting and fearing I would have to rip out the roof. Then it dawned on me, I was stitching over two threads, and I had only counted one hole per stitch. UGH. But it worked out that I would have two inches of fabric at the bottom before the design started. Phew. Lesson learned, find center before mounting fabrics on bars and count threads not spaces for accurate placement.

Be Kind.

The other day I started ironing the binding scraps form the bin that I had been using to store them. I was thinking about how this bin came about, but I couldn’t remember consciously creating a bin for extra binding pieces. Then I thought, why did I over make the binding lengths? I wasn’t measuring the quilt perimeter, just eyeballing it and cutting lots of strips. I have gotten more frugal, I carefully measure and make enough binding now. Could it be that fabric was less expensive, or was I just a bit lazy, and didn’t want to measure? As I ironed and thought, I found that I really didn’t have enough variety for the log cabin quilt I had in mind. It wasn’t really a log cabin block either, it had morphed into a pineapple cabin, as that is the ruler I have. I thought I had a regular log cabin ruler from Creative Grids, but I couldn’t find it, and may have been thinking of this pineapple one instead. I checked through the other bin of string scraps and they weren’t wide enough. The pineapple ruler need strips at least 1 5/8 wide, so that wouldn’t work. Time for a new plan, I finished ironing all the strips anyway and at the bottom of the bin was a pile of flannel squares and rectangles. These are from a baby quilt I made a while ago, a long while, because the baby just graduated high school. These scraps had to get used or chucked, they were way past their fresh by date, lol. I had a bunch of purple 3 ½” squares and a few piles of 3 ½” by 2 1/4″ rectangles, and a half yard of creamy white striped flannel. This is what I came up, amazes me how it shrinks, although it did turn out too narrow, so I made it more square. I’m not sure I like the blue, but the white balances it a bit. My first Hands 2 Help quilt top has arrived. I have just enough flannel for a backing and the binding is already cut.

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I started quilting the “girly quilt” with giant roses, there are five across and nine rows, it stitches out pretty fast too. I want to get this one done and out the door. Because it is the only thing I “have” to finish. I really need to get the pile of tops I have, quilted, I feel behind in that category. I am playing around (in my head) with moving my long arm into the downstairs den in my house. The room has become an un-used spot, just a sofa, TV and fish tank. As much as I like the LA where it is now, I feel a bit isolated, and when we have company, I have to clean-up and put everything away. If I move it, I’d still have to keep the area neat, probably neater, but I would be nearer to my DH (hmm) and the main areas of my house. Then I start thinking about the logistics, taking it apart and reassembling it, at least two days work. The robotics weren’t easy to put together when I got them, not looking forward to that part. I would need help getting the poles and pieces in the new area too. Yeah, its probably going to stay where it is for a bit longer.

I am so close to finishing PATD, I finished all the little dogs in the lower border last night. I need to add the eyes to them, two half stitches in black and white. I may just do black, the holes in the linen are just too small, and I don’t really think its a detail worthy of the effort.

Linking up with Sara at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for the first H2H link up. There is also a tutorial from Carol at My Carolina Home for a Star pillow, perhaps you know a star who needs recognition?

Be Kind.