Quilt Finishes and Works in Progress .....

I have been trying to get some items finished recently, so I can concentrate on what I really want to work on.  It bothers me to have so many projects in progress, and typically I don't like to have more than two or three going, mostly because then you don't see much progress on anything.  So here are a few finally finished !

This is the 2012 Christmas mystery from Country Quilts and Bears - lovely fresh star made of a jelly roll and white Kona cotton - it is quilted in red and green with a Christmas lights pattern (quilting by Marlene Hooten)

This one is another Christmas mystery,several years older - also quilted by Marlene.  Have to add the snowman's eyes !

Another Christmas mystery - bells and poinsettias.  Love this one !  The quilting is great with blue and brown poinsettias, goes well with the background.

 It was hard to keep the quilts draped on the chairs outside - it is a lovely sunny day here but very breezy and everything was slipping down.

This quilt has a sad, sad story.  Made several years ago, pattern was Prairie Flowers by Barbara Brackman.  I handquilted it with a wool batt.  My daughter liked this quilt and "borrowed" it for her apartment.  Meaning well,she washed it and put it in a hot dryer - well, you can guess the rest.  I really didn't know what to do with it, it was totally misshapen and you couldn't lay it flat.   I was ready to throw it away, but I had spent a lot of time appliqueing the blocks and borders,so I decided to try to rescue it.  It took me a week to rip out the quilting, and wash and press the top.  After that, it didn't look bad, so I took it to Marlene to quilt with a cotton batt.  So here it is - restored !

 Still have to put a new binding on it.

 Here are a few more Flower Garden blocks, I have finished 13 now.

 Inspired by a miniature quilt I saw at a quilt show, I drew a simple pattern for an applique basket, and am using a charm pack of French fabrics to make a scrap quilt.  Janet had more of the background and gave me that, so I am thinking of making this as big as I can, not repeating any fabrics.  It will be a true "charm" quilt, so I will be collecting French provence fabrics for some time !  All those so far are Valdrome charms, then I will use Olivades and Souleiado, depending on what I have.

Having got these things done, I really want to get back to my boutis.  I haven't made any progress on it for quite some time.

Retreat at Dayspring

 For the last 10 years, our Guild has spent a weekend at Dayspring in Ellenton as a quilt retreat.

The property belongs to the Episcopal diocese and has a small chapel with Florida roof.

 We have a large well-lit room to sew in, and meals are provded.

The retreat committee this year put on a lovely tea party for us on Saturday night with delicious cakes and fruit.

In the middle of the property there is a lake facing the dining room where you can see the fish jump.

I did quite a lot of piecing on a new quilt, and took my Featherweight to do it on.  I wanted to get more familiar with this old machine and knew there were others present who could help me if I ran into problems - and of course I did !  Nevertheless, the Featherweight is a real pleasure to sew on, makes a lovely straight stitch and is small enough that you can still talk to the people sitting opposite !  Every year I think I will get so much done, and take far too many projects.  It's fun being able to choose what you want to work on !  And also this year I did quite a lot of shopping - one of the shops nearby had a sale, and I was able to buy some more of the Winterthur museum's John Hewson prints.  

Christmas Pleasures

I always find that the things which I enjoy most about Advent and Christmas are small, enjoyable projects, things which as a rule I don't do enough of.  This year, at my favorite quilt store in Clearwater, I participated in the 11th Christmas Mystery.  I have done them all except one (can't remember why not that year), and it has become something I look forward to.  The staff in the store (and you know who you are !) always add that little bit extra to make it all pretty, and we eat and chat and hopefully get our project done. 
I promised Becky I would take photos of my projects, most of which are complete, although some are in the finished top stage and one is a completed top with no applique yet - and so here are a few of the first ones.  One I adapted into a tree skirt and is under our tree as we speak ... will take a photo of that in the next day or two.  Other projects to follow ...

This was the first one .... 6 pieced blocks

Pam's ornament

Roni's tree

 Primitive Gatherings

And finally, a couple of pictures of my poinsettia.  Living in Florida, I decided to plant my two poinsettias in a pot in front of my house last year.  They were average pots of the kind you see everywhere in December.  Well, they were so pretty as plain green plants after Christmas that we left them the whole year; they have turned a glorious red over the last couple of weeks.  I am so thrilled with them !

Applique Projects and Fabric Quality

Energized by spending time with stitching friends yesterday, I went home ready to start on a new applique quilt I saw in the July/August Quiltmania - a new project by Minick and Simpson called Rambling Rose.  I loved the colors and thought this could be a good challenge to make using only fabrics from stash.  This is the first block - I am not entirely happy with all the fabrics, but as I said, it is a challenge to use what I already have (and due to some unforeseen work in my house, I can't get at everything right now !)

 So here it is pinned and ready to go - the blocks are large and the applique pieces simple, so it's a perfect relaxing project for the evening.

Up next are the three blocks I have finished of the Flower Garden quilt.  The next two are pinned - the second one is not entirely cut out yet, so the flower looks bulky, but you get the idea.

Playing with our fabrics old and new yesterday brought up the topic of recent changes in fabric quality.  Since we had boxes of our stash fabrics in front of us, together with new pieces just purchased, we could really see how the quality has changed recently.  Our older fabrics are smooth, sturdy and do not distort;  our new fabrics are thinner and stretchier.  Bearing in mind that fabric has also increased in price, we don't like to see that the fabric is poorer quality as well.  I hope that this subject has been brought up to the manufacturers, because I have heard other stitchers complain of the same problem.  We are starting to wonder how our projects will hold up over time.  I have always only purchased "quilt shop quality" fabrics, believing that this will result in a better quilt for the time I am investing.  For now, I am shopping in my stash, until I see an improvement !

Playing with wool

Yesterday Janet (no blog yet but coming soon !) and I spent some time playing with our new wool block of the week from here
I don't like working with fusible web, it is a personal preference (I know many people love it !), so I was happy to find some new tips in this book:

These ladies suggest washable glue sticks and staples !   Well, it's worth a try I thought, so I got out my little stapler and glue stick, and I have to say - love it !!  The stapler does not leave a mark in the wool, the glue does not stick hard but seems to hold things in place.  Here are the first two blocks:

To be fair to the designer, I changed the flower on the second block drastically, hers was much more complicated.  Another thing about this summer project, is that there is a freebie each week; this summer these are small blocks of wool applique on cotton, here are the first four (not stitched yet, and the last two are glued/stapled, on the others I used fusible web)

I am going to match my thread to the appliques, mostly using DMC and some nice silk floss I have on hand.  I like a lighter look on the embroidery. 
Hope everyone gets some stitching time today !

Tulips

A version of this quilt was patterned in Quiltmania some time ago, a reproduction quilt made by Lucy of an old quilt she had seen.  I adapted it a little, and made it from stash fabrics, except of course for the School Bus Orange (yes, it is really called that !) Kona cotton used for the sashings.  It is really not my color, but I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt, I feel happy when I look at it, and maybe if I call the color cheddar ......  I could learn to love it !  Marlene did a nice job on the quilting, and it  has turned into one of my favorites.

A Start, a Finish, and a Gift !

I picked up my Houses from the quilter this week, and was SO pleased with the design !  It really enhances the quilt.  I have bound it now and so here are some photos - unfortunately it is rainy here today so the light isn't very good:

The quilt pattern is in Edyta Sitar's book, the figs are an addition of my own.

If  I finish something, I can start something else, right ?  Last Sunday I traced the lovely boutis pattern from France Boutis 1st Salon which I attended in May.  It is on the linen gifted by Isabelle, and I ordered linen thread this week.  I will have to redo the basting, I put plain cotton on the back and I don't like it, it is too heavy and not white enough.  A good Swiss batiste is going to be taking its place:

And last but not least ..... my husband was recently in Germany, and much to my surprise, brought home these three absolutely lovely thimbles for me.  They are very old silver, I haven't even cleaned them yet, and the best part of all - all three fit me to sew with !  I love old silver thimbles to work with, they seem soft and comfortable to me, and as Sharon says ... they already know how to sew !

PQ Mystery 2012

Yesterday was the annual mystery quilt day for our Guild, the PQs.  The team planning this did a great job and picked a very good pattern.  When you are choosing your fabrics for a mystery, it's harder than usual because you really don't know what the quilt will look like, and in this case there was no cutting ahead of time, so we didn't even know how small the fabric pieces were going to be !

I chose some FQs in blues and browns from my reproduction fabrics, and I am very pleased how this is coming out.  Anyway, here are a few pics of the day.  I have to say the red and white was absolutely stunning, and my favorite, because I love two color quilts.  Thanks go to Cathy, Lynda, Lynn and Pauline, who organized the day and finished all their fabulous quilts to show us !
Sorry about picture quality, think it's time for a new camera :-)