A Little Shopping Therapy

Yesterday my copy of Civil War Remembered arrived in the mail--another winner from the Country Threads ladies! I think the cover quilt is my favorite, but there are lots more yummy patterns inside. You can scroll back through the Chicken Scratch blog and see most of the quilts displayed in Mary's home HERE

I couldn't resist these fat quarter bundles from Hancock's of Paducah.
Twelve FQ's  for 16.99? Yes!
 I bought three---plus a little yardage....

I scored this five yard piece of Lakeside Gatherings from Craftsy during one of their weekend sales. I figured it would make a nice backing for a future project.

A few days later, it dawned on my that I could use it as the background for the Naturally Nautical boat pattern that I was hoping to make sometime this year. And I finally remembered that I had purchased a fat eighth bundle of Lakeside Gatherings during an earlier shopping opportunity.

It's all coming together.
 The little grey cells are still working--just very  slowly...


I live on a lake, so obviously I NEED to have a boat quilt!

 
Linking with Connie at Freemotion by the River HERE

Say It Ain't So!

 I am so sad that next season of Downton Abbey will be the last--waaahh....

At least we have Mr. Selfridge to entertain us for a while.

 All this week I have been seeing stripes in my sleep! 

There are a lot of these patriotic designs and I am working hard to make them all a bit different from each other, but I am running out of ideas! 

Coat of Arms
wool stripes

Flag and Stars
couched yarn stripes

Americana Housepearl cotton back-stitch stripes

House with Flag
cotton floss chain stitch stripes

Eagle wool floss chain stitch stripes

Flag Daycotton floss double stem stitch  stripes

Colonial Flag
cotton rick rack stripes

Uncle Sam's Hat
felt rick rack stripes

Yes, there are even more designs in need of stripes,
but I see light at the end of the tunnel!

 I'll be stitching on these during Mr. Selfridge tonight.

Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

Mrs. Billings--sort of.....

A while back, a group of quilters pooled their resources and purchased the pattern and templates to make the Mrs. Billings Coverlet. Every six months, the packet was to be passed to the next person on the list. That all worked out nicely until the packet came to me. Yes! I was a big failure. Luckily the quilter I was supposed to hand things off to was very gracious and allowed me another six months. Well, those six months are up in four weeks--yikes!

This is what my Mrs. Billings coverlet looked like the last time I wrote about her:

Unfortunately, this is still how she is looking.
Yeesh.

I have spent the last week cutting out the rest of her--borders 5 through 15.
She will measure 94" square, so you can imagine how much cutting was involved...

...especially when you see the size of the templates!
One thing that made is go a bit more quickly was figuring out a strip size for each shape. 

The other was this tape. It's soooo much easier to cut against these tiny templates when they don't slip! You may be able to see it across the templates to the left of the roll. It's clear, textured on the non-sticky side, and easy to peel off. I've put it on all my rulers too.  

FYI: I purchased my Curad tape at Walmart. My friend Kathe tells me that Walgreens carries a version  that appears to be the same made by Nexcare

I only cut four small pieces of the tape for this marathon cutting session and transferred them to each template as needed--you can probably tell that these two pieces were well used. Also, the tape leaves no residue, so when I pass these on to the next quilter, she will be none the wiser. Unless she reads this. I'm sure she is chomping at the bit to get starting on Mrs. Billings!

 Okay--I know she's not, but it's still time to pass on the packet!

Oddly, even after all that cutting, my basket is still pretty full. Hopefully when I start making the hexagons that will be appliqued onto Mrs. Billings in Borders 9 and 15 that basket will look a lot less stuffed!

Linking with 

Needle & Thread Thursday HERE
and WIP's Be Gone HERE

 

Weekend Stitching

I have a finish--two actually!!

Buttermilk Basin Mystery Block 3
I forgot to mention that the flower I used is just the shamrock with an extra leaf in place of the stem.

Austen Family Album has been finished for a few days,
 but it took a while to pry my quilt holder away from tree-felling so I could get a picture outside. 

I cross-hatched the setting triangles and used an egg&dart design in the sashing.
The piano key border is bead-boarded.
All the quilting was done with Aurifil 50wt cotton # 2021

I don't know why, but out of all 36 blocks, this one is my favorite!

I like that the label is nailed down with quilting.

These wool hexagons are waiting to earn their stripes.
Hopefully that will happen this weekend!

Linking up with A Quilting Reader's Garden and Slow Sunday Stitching
and A Lovely Year of Finishes

Hump Day Results

On Wednesday, I made a some progress on my March sew along/ mystery projects. I'm glad to have these out of the way!

The first 3 rows of the 1718 coverlet are sewn together--yay! 

Part five of the Thimblecreek Mystery is complete--32 flying geese.

And block three of the Buttermilk Basin mystery is set up and ready to stitch. 

I subbed a flower for the shamrock. The crown on the bee skep was optional, (Queen Bee!) but I thought it was funny, so I added one to mine too.

Linking up to: 

Needle and Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation 

Weekend Update

I've been working on my 1718 Coverlet blocks for March--there are a lot more than last month!

These are the February and March blocks-- I just need to sew them together in rows. 

My Austen Family Album top is on the quilting machine--it may be finished by early next week--fingers crossed!
I tried something I've never done before--attached the label before quilting.
It was a lot easier sewing it to the backing by machine!
I hope I remember to do this again.

I am slowing getting the applique finished on these 1718 Coverlet blocks--even a little reverse applique in the centers--fun!
They will go on either end of the three rows shown in the first photo above. Those blocks finish at 4.5" and these two large applique blocks will finish at 13.5". Interesting measurements!

 Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching  HERE
and WIP's Be Gone HERE

Thursday Already?

Somehow this week went by in a flash and I am feeling bad that I haven't been able to accomplish a few things that I had hoped to have done.

I did clue four of the Thimblecreek Mystery right away--20 snowballs.

These came in the mail yesterday which reminded me that I haven't shared how lucky I've been recently!
I won this bundle of stencils on Lori's blog Humble Quilts.
They are courtesy of The Stencil Company--I can't wait to use the fan stencil!

You know I love Marcus Aged Muslin and Aged Canvas!
Now the muslin comes in colors and they are beautiful.
I won a sample book from the Marcus blog, Marcus Mentions--it's huge!

The fabric samples are double folded (9.5"x 14"), so they are very usable for piecing.
 For now I will leave them in the book until I decide what colors I am going to have to own. Of course, I want some of all of the colors, but those greens in particular are calling my name! 

I won this adorable little package from Anne of Bunny Hill Designs.
It wasn't a drawing--she just randomly chose names from blog comments one day as a surprise and I was one of the lucky ones!

The little box includes some spools of Aurifil, a mini charm of Anne's newest Christmas line of fabrics; Mistletoe Lane, and a pattern--sweet! 

One of the Aurifil threads included is a 12 weight cotton-it comes on a red spool. You can see how it compares to my 50 weight Aurifil above--much heavier. I've been using it to embroider on some of my wool pieces and love it! It's very nice to use--so soft and no threads to separate!

Hopefully, today I will stop procrastinating and get my Austen Family Album loaded onto the quilting machine.
 But it is going to be awfully nice outside......we'll see....

Stitching Society Update

I haven't neglected my wool hexagons!

I had taken photos on a pretty gloomy day last week and they were awful. 

Today, I think there is almost too much sun, but here goes:

I finished the last of the veggies:
The Artichoke

Now I am into the quilt block grouping:
Cactus Basket 

Shoo Fly

Six Pointed Star

Pride of the Prairie

Variable Star

I jumped ahead to the last group of patterns--the patriotic designs.

Five Pointed Star

If you are interested, you can find information about the Stitching Society Hexagons HERE

I don't have too many more to go!

I have so many people tell me they would like to try wool applique, but don't want to invest in expensive wool. My advice is to buy scrap bags!
There are lots of places on line that sell their scraps--just Google wool scrap bags.
These are a few that I found this morning:
In the Patch Designs

Etsy Shops (be sure you are finding 100% wool--wool felt is nice (and more affordable), but I tend to stick with wool.

Erica's
Also, another good source is a vendor at a quilt show. I found some awesome scrap bag bargains from One Wing Wool at a show last year. Even the tiniest scraps of wool are useful since you don't need a seam allowance to turn under!
Linking with Scraptastic Tuesday
and Sew Cute Tuesday