Slow Sunday Stitching Sunflowers

 I have six out of eighteen Sunflowers made and have been at a standstill for awhile on this quilt. I have been embroidering a little each evening on my chicken scratch sashings but ran out of white embroidery thread.  I haven't been in the mood to pin baste anything for hand quilting so decided to applique my Sunflowers to some backgrounds.  I don't really pull fabrics at the start of a project and I don't buy a lot of large pieces of fabrics (usually a yard or less) so first had to hunt around for pieces I could use for backgrounds in my reproduction stash.  I found enough so far for 10 backgrounds so have those ready.  I still have to hunt for 8 more backgrounds and decide what to do for side background pieces since this will be set on point.  That's a task for another time. 

So the last couple of evenings I've been appliqueing Sunflowers to backgrounds.  I know there are lots of magic and other ways to add circles to a background but for this one I decided with all those points I would applique by hand because that seams to leave my circles a little less wonky than doing it by machine.

So far I have three down and three more to go. That's what I'll work on the next couple of evenings. 

Sunflowers #7 and #8 are in the works. I cut the pieces out by hand since I'm not good at cutting odd shaped pieces with a rotary cutter. Then I machine piece them. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Marginalia: a Quilty 365/6 Project

Here's my October circles. 

I discovered I love maple bacon potato chips, dug the last of my potatoes and onions, picked some brussel sprouts after frost which makes them sweeter and ate a bunch and processed a bunch, picked the last of the broccoli and made some yummy broccoli - cheese soup (twice) , missed the grandparent's day ice cream social because my grandson had to have a tooth pulled that was giving him great pain, celebrated my granddaughter's 12th birthday on Halloween, brought in the houseplants from the deck, dealt with the nuts at work, played in the leaves, decided I need to retire sooner than later (maybe Dec 31 instead of March 30????) , felt really, really blah a couple of days, started assembling my spool quilt, finished a chevron and quilt of valor quilt, my sons fixed the metal fireplace chimney and a leak in the roof, found a possum in the cat food and a mouse under my bed (again), made a couple of trips to Iowa City (an hour away) with my husband for follow up Dr. appointments and Oh, Dem Bones, Dem Bones...my husband's leg bone is connected to his jaw bone! (But he's doing well.  We were just there again today for an appointment but don't have to go back again for another month. Wooohoo. That's a long trip there and back for a 15 minute visit - especially when I'm driving and not doing hand work or reading a book! )

I started my circles on November 4, 2015 so tomorrow is my last day and I will have a complete year of circles and marginalia.   I will assemble them in date order 18 x 21 which means I need 12 more circles to even things out.    "Marginalia"  has ten letters for ten circles and a little dot before and after will make 12. 

Stay tuned. 

And if you want to see what other quilty 365 projects are circling around out there click on over to Audrey's Quilty Folk blog and the November Quilty 365 Linkup. 

Marginalia: Quilty 365 Circles

I had finished my circles up to July 24 when I posted about them last month.  Now I have only completely finished up to August 8.  

My husband has a broken jaw due to osteoradionecrosis (death of tissue due to radiation he had for cancer).  The doctors are going to perform a mandibulectomy and fibula free flap reconstruction (rebuild jaw with his fibula).   We have been going to appointments and hour away at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. One of the projects I've worked on during those road trips has been these circles.  He is due for a 12 hour surgery and 7-10 day hospital stay on September 29 so I've saved the rest of the August circles and September circles to work on while I'm staying up in Iowa City with him.  

My circles are in various states...cut, basted, matched to HSTs.  

 I feel like almost every block for August should just be those punctuation marks (oh, cuss words!) but I have done a few other things like attended a family reunion camp out (and then came home from the trip to the awful smell of a dead mouse in a house without air conditioning- memorialized by the mouse HST with house circle) , canned spaghetti sauce and salsa, took grandkids school clothes shopping (boy, it sure gets more expensive every year), and watched the grandkids most of August while my son-in-law was in the hospital with leukemia.  My sister from CA paid us a visit. I also made a couple of quilts, made some delicious blackberry cobbler and some awesome grilled cheese/tomato/basil sandwiches on homemade bread.  And I've used up most of my Tweety "nurses are tweet" fabric memoralizing family medical problems- leukemia (son-in-law), broken jaw (husband), sepsis (86 year old dad), lyme and co-infection bartonella (granddaughter).  Oh, and my husband celebrated his 66th birthday (with day long dr. appts. in IA City). 

I started my circles on Nov 4, 2015 because I was inspired by Audrey's (Quilty Folk) Quilty 365 idea.  

September Link for August Circles

We've Got a Winner!

The random number generator picked Quilting Babcia who blogs at Amity Quilter as the winner of the autographed copy of Build-A-Barn. Congratulations! I'll contact you soon. 

I'm sorry everyone could not win but if you would like to purchase a copy see 

Build a Barn - the Blog. 

Meanwhile, I just got finished traveling 4 hours across state on Saturday and 4 hours back today and I probably saw literally hundreds of barns.  Barns are everywhere in Iowa - all shapes, sizes and colors. I even saw a Harley Davidson store in a barn shaped building.  

I took along my circles to applique.  This one commemorates my Build-A-Barn blog week! 

Quilty 365: The Circle Game

I am following along with Audrey's (Quilt Folk blog) Quilty 365 circles. 

These are my finished circles for December 1 - 25.  I buttonhole my circles to a 4.5 inch HST and then write something in the muslin part of the HST that denotes a highlight of that day. 

I've been making circles since November 4.

   I showed most of November's circles in a previous post.  

These are my Dec 26 - 31 circles...not completely finished. 

We ate the last of the home grown potatoes, I started a few quilts using up scraps, it snowed, I have x amt of circles on Dec 29, I almost ran into 3 deer in the road on early morning drive to work and I'll end the year with a quote from the Cat in the Hat. 

Here's how I make my circles.

I have about a 3 inch cardboard circle template. And I use thread at the end of bobbins and spools. 

I put the circle on my fabric and cut out around it leaving 1/4 inch or more (looks like "way more)  for seam allowance.  If you want to be more precise than I happen to be you could cut a second cardboard template 1/4 inch or so larger than the size of the circle. 

I then baste around the outside of the circle staying as close to the edge as I can.  You could machine baste if you wanted. 

You have to be sure to baste a little past the starting point or you will have a little lump at that point of your circle. 

Next I take it over to the ironing board and spritz it a little with some starch (if I remember).  This helps the circle keep in shape. Don't use too much or get it too wet or the basting thread will be difficult to pull around the template and your cardboard template might start to fall apart if it gets wet too many times. (Believe me). 

I then center the cardboard template over the backside of the fabric circle and pull the basting thread tightly around the circle. 

Press and cool for a little bit. 

Remove cardboard template from circle.

Pin to background. 

There are lots of ways to make circles...probably a lot easier than I make mine but it works for me. 

Why not join in the circle game, Quilty 365...there's so many different versions at play...it's fun to see all the creativity each month at the linky party.

Quilty 365 Linkup