Another Wooly Sunday

I am almost to the end of the How Does Your Garden Grow blocks.

Of course, there's a pretty labor intensive border to be done, but I'm having a lot of fun with the blocks for now.

Tulip

Pear Tree

Hmmmm....Hydrangea??

Red Bird

I'll be working on more blocks while keeping an eye on Game of Thrones tonight.

I've also got myself caught up in watching Aquarius. All of the episodes are available for a limited time, so I've been doing a little binge watching as time permits.
 It has everything we loved from the 60's:
hippies, Black Panthers, Charles Manson, police brutality, sexism, racism, homophobia, an unpopular war---oh, wait---maybe it was just the music!
It seems like the only things that have changed in the last 50 years are the technology, crime scene forensics and the music!
Happy Stitching!
Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

May UFO Done!

As usual, it seems, my UFO for the month is finished just under the wire. I put the last stitches on the binding Wednesday morning before heading out to teach the Lemoyne Star class at Colorz--more on that in a later post. 

Sunflower Gatherings: 2014 Summer Block of the Month from Primitive Gatherings.
 I didn't purchase the finishing kit, so to complete my quilt,  I added a few more rounds to finish the chain into the outside and called it quits.  

 This is how the quilt looks with the finishing kit.

The chain is blunted around the edges of the quilt, and then applique is added. 

This photo is from the Primitive Gatherings website.

Instead of keeping it a square quilt, I added an area at the top for some embroidery.

The embroidery is a quote attributed to Helen Keller:
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow, it's what Sunflowers do.

My favorite block is the watering can with a big sunflower.

I was tempted to bind the quilt with a brown print since there's a lot of brown in the chain blocks, but this French General stripe looked so fun with the backing.

The best part: it's done--yay!!!

Linking with A Lovely Year of Finishes HERE and Binding Blitz HERE and Needle and Thread Thursday HERE and WIP's Be Gone HERE

Not So Slow Wooly Stitching...

My blocks for How Does Your Garden Grow? have been so fun to work on!

I'm more than half way done!
I didn't bother to reverse the patterns, so my blocks face the opposite of the original pattern.

The Bee

The Daisies

Fanciful Bird

Bee Skep

Nesting Birds

Tulips

Blue Bird

Bunny

Folk Art Flowers

This is the block I'll be stitching later today.
 I love this piece of red wool that I've been saving for just the right design.

Linking with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

Coin Purses!

I've finally made it back to quilting my Sunflower Gatherings quilt.

It dawned on my that the reason I couldn't make myself finish up this top was because I hated some of the quilting I had done. Once I figured out a better design, I worked on my quilting almost all day Thursday--the only day this week I was home.

Rebecca gave me this idea during our long arm quilting meeting and I love it. I did a variation of the same design at the top corners that I wasn't happy with, but worked out something I like much better for the lower corners. Now I have a lot of picking out to do at the top--yeesh! I'm pretty satisfied with the continuous curve quilting in the four patches--another suggestion from Rebecca.

 The Coin Purse class I taught on Wednesday was so much fun.

 It's always exciting to see all the variations from each person in class.

These are pics of the little purses done by my students in various states of completion:

Martha's--this will be a gift.

Roberta's--another gift.
(note: the basting stitches hold the purse to the frame while beading and are removed later)

Gloria's 

Ellie's

Paula's

Aren't they all lovely???

Next week I'm teaching the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star class again--another super fun one!

I will be pretty busy again next week, so I better get that reverse quilting done ASAP! I'm determined to have Sunflower Gatherings bound by the end of next week.

Linking with WIP's Be Gone HERE

Midweek Update

Later today I will be teaching my coin purse class--I can't wait to see what fabrics everyone selected for their project! I know we will have a lot of fun.

It's already been a busy week with my stitching group on Monday, and the monthly Breezy Point sew-in yesterday, Somehow I managed to finished up clue 10 of the ThimbleCreek mystery..... 

and gradually got to work on the next batch of checkerboard four patches....

and finally finished up clue 11 last night,
Tuesday's clue 12 is for more little framed stars, so hopefully I will find time to cut up some fabric over the holiday weekend.

I don't have photos from Monday's Stitch Therapy meeting, but if you haven't already seen Martha's pretty version of Sophie's Garden, be sure to check it out HERE . Enjoy!!

Rainy Sunday

I seems like it has been raining for weeks here and it looks like today will be another soggy day.  Occasionally we have had a few glimpses of the sun, but they are gone so quickly--more time to stitch!

Tomorrow (Monday) is the May Stitch Therapy meeting.
Since I had all the blocks finished, I wanted to get them all together for the class.
The pattern doesn't specify a border--what do you think???

The class "lesson" will be on making these stars.
They aren't the same angle as a Tri-Recs, so they are tricky!

I'm almost ready to put together a row on How Does Your Garden Grow thanks to all these rainy evenings!
Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching HERE

  and WIPs Be Gone HERE

Another Week Almost Over??

Something happened--this week disappeared!

 I have had my nose buried in machine quilting, and I guess I'm making progress--but it's hard to tell! 

Since I can't show my progress on that, this is something else I've been working on:
I will be teaching a class for this coin purse at Colorz next Wednesday.
 It's the perfect size for all those quilt shop punch cards we accumulate....
 or other special little treasures!

I used French General fabrics--a linen blend on the outside and a cotton print for the lining.

 The linen fabric was embellished with embroidery before sewing the body of the coin purse, and  part of the class will be learning to do the beading on the frame.
I think it's going to be a fun class!
Linking with My Quilt Infatuation HERE

Scrappy Tuesday

I haven't made a lot of progress on my ThimbleCreek mystery stars---I still have 10 to go before I can start on today's clue (more checkerboard pieces!).

However, I have done some machine quilting, attended our May guild meeting, had a mammogram and grocery shopped, so I haven't been idle!

Clue 10 ThimbleCreek mystery stars.
(My new enameled tray is from Decor Steals)
I am really scrounging for fabrics. I've pretty much used up the original fabrics I had pulled from my stash, so every week I have been adding new prints.
 That's okay--the scrappier, the better!

My new ironing pressing station!
I picked up this cart at Sam's Club a couple weeks ago, but hadn't had a chance  was too lazy to put it together.
My youngest son got it set up for me on Mother's Day.  

 The center shelf is adjustable, so we made sure there was room for my gallon jugs of Best Press and starch, etc.
I love it!
linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday