June UFO Done!

I had to get one of my UFO's quilted before the end of June. 

So far this year, I've managed to get at least one moldy oldie finished up and I hate to mess up a good thing! 

Daisy Days: pattern and fabric by Lynette Jensen/Thimbleberries.
Surprisingly, even though this was pieced ages ago and I'm not a big Thimbleberries fan these days, I still really like this one. I wish I could style it like the quilts in Lynette's beautiful books--too bad the gale force winds today wouldn't cooperate.

The back is also a Thimbleberries fabric from a different design line.
It was on sale and the colors were perfect!
The cross hatching I used in the setting triangles went pretty fast, but when it came to the outer border, it seemed to take ages--I also needed to do some fancy fudging to meet up at the beginning--whew. The daisy "bouquet" blocks (oooh--fussy cutting!) are quilted with a loose feather wreath.

I had to wash the quilt as soon as I got the binding on this morning. It was loaded with Miracle Chalk from marking all the cross hatching. I had also used  Crayola washable markers to mark the feathers and was terrified the marker wouldn't come out. I was desperate for something I could see, so I took a chance and used a purple one. I know--crazy! I sprayed those areas with Shout and washed it on a delicate cycle: purple marker gone--yay!! The quilt is so cozy and crinkly now--perfect for a cool summer evening.

I have to fess up--I finished the binding by machine. To do that, I attached the binding on the back and brought it around to the front. On my Bernina, I use my #20 foot (because it has a groove on the bottom). The blanket stitch I use on my 440 is #45 reversed. I set the stitch length at 3.5 and the width at 3.6 and move my needle all the way to the left. Then I can ride the inner left edge of the foot right along the folded edge of the binding. I use a stylus as I sew. The thread is King Tut--a variegated blue/green.

I sewed my corners by hand about an inch and a half in either direction before I did the machine sewing. I like my corners to be neat and it's pretty tricky to get a nice one while trying to wrangle the quilt under the machine. I sew the little fold closed by hand also.

I admit the back isn't so beautiful, but for a quilt that will be dragged around and used, I can live with that!

I told myself at the end of  May that I would start quilting something at the beginning of June so I would NOT be stressing out at the end of the month wondering if I could get a UFO done in time, but---here I am on the 29th day of a 30 day month---best laid plans and all that--haha!

Stitch Society Hexagons

I still have one design left to finish up from the Stitch Society packet handed out in May, but thought I would show off what I've completed so far.

The Easter Basket

Daffodils

Bird Nest

Rabbit with Lavender

Calf

Mother Goose

Our project for June is the Stitch Book, so it made sense to use one of the sampler designs to show off some of the stitches that go into the book. The beading around the edges is easy to stitch using a locking blanket stitch.

There will be lots more pages of stitches that will go into the book.
I'm not sure why Mr. Moosebay had a package of colorful binder rings, but I'm sure he won't miss a couple of them!

Now to finish up that last design from May and start in on the June packet!

Jane Austen Family Album blocks

It's been a while since I posted my progress on my Jane Austen blocks.

Well, I have to confess that I just got caught up and didn't have any to show until this weekend.

Block 10: Good Fortune for Edward Austen Knight

Block 11: Friendship Square for Catherine Knatchbull Knight

Block 12: Waves of the Sea for Francis Austen

It feels good to be back on track!

Stitch Therapy for June

For those following the schedule, this months blocks are on pages 12 and 13 of the Simply Red book.

Love the hands!
Those skinny fingers were a bit of a bear to applique though--raveling!

If you have trouble with raveling, try a thin bead of Fray Check along the cut edge of your wool applique. I wish I would have been aware of this tip when I did my block!

Mary's green Simply Red top.
It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but this is a very pretty soft green. 

Sandi is working on a Blackbird Designs quilt--so pretty

Brenda's blue Simply Red almost ready for the flying geese! 

Linda brought this beautiful quilt for show and tell.

Also part of the June schedule is to complete the seven B blocks on page 5.

Happy Sewing!

Weekend Report

Well, another week with almost no sewing! I spent most of my time (when it wasn't raining) puttering in the garden and cleaning. I also had a lot of other things going on like meeting with the Realtor selling my mother's house,a quilt guild meeting, a temporary crown installed, and I even worked a half day at Colorz for Quilts.

Amanda Jean Nyberg from Crazy Mom Quilts was our guest speaker at this month's guild meeting. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera, but you can visit her blog to see some of her fun and colorful quilts. She has coauthored a great book, Sunday Morning Quilts filled with scrappy, happy designs. She was an excellent speaker and lots of fun!

I wasn't sure if I would get to the Minnesota Quilt Show after having dental work on Thursday, but on Friday, my tooth was feeling great and I decided to make a quick run to the show in St. Cloud.

I took lots of pictures, mostly of quilting designs that I won't share, but these were a few of my favorites. This one had tons of thread-work.

A close-up of the quilting--sorry it's a bit blurred.

This was amazing and life sized!

I had to take a photo of my friend Carolina's sea turtle!

This was so charming--three dimensional too.

I'm so sad that this was such a bad photo.
Anyway, it's my very favorite quilt in the show.
 I've been looking at this quilt in my old books, thinking I should try to reproduce it some day and someone else beat me to it! 

It was done with wool applique--love the spiderweb quilting too.

Another 3-D quilt--so cute.

Yes, the blue bonnets are made from zippers!

And so were the sunflowers--fun!

Can you tell from the size of the ribbon how amazingly tiny this one is?

The applique quilts are my favorites--I was really drawn to the colors in this one.

Oh my gosh--a mini Dear Jane--adorable!!

This was a beautiful version of the Civil War Bride quilt. 

This entire aisle (both sides) was filled with red and white quilts made by two sisters.
They were inspired by the red and white show in NYC a few years ago.

Just a few of the amazing red and white quilts.

I've shown Val's quilt before it was quilted--here it is in the show!

If you squint, you can probably figure out who this is!
(pixilated Lincoln)

Stitching Along

Whoohoo! One of my favorite online quilt shops is back! The Old Country Store has reopened with new owners.

Thursday was the June meeting of Stitch Society, so now I have a pile of new hexie patterns and  a new project. These are a few more of last months designs that I managed to finish before the class.

The Butterfly

The Easter Egg
Most of the patterns for last month were Easter/Spring themed.

Baby Chicks

Baby Ducky

Baby Bluebird

Bunny

Church

Teresa (our fearless leader),  had a trunk load of wooly projects to show us and I couldn't resist picking up some fun patterns, wool (for pumpkins), and a couple fat quarters of Kim Diehl fabric too.

New booty!

Autumn Reflection by Lily Anna Stitches

Garden Walk by Lily Anna Stitches

  I bought the patterns for these two table mats--so gorgeous in person with beautiful stitching--I couldn't stop myself!