Just Like Grandma Used to Make

I've finally assembled the Butterfly quilt top. 

I've been trying to duplicate a quilt I inherited from my grandmother that is falling apart. 

And now I'm pinning it in preparation for hand quilting.  I may not get much hand done in the next few months because I don't have air conditioning in my house and so it gets a little too warm for me to have a quilt in my lap. BUT this summer so far has been rather cooler than normal...so we shall see. I'm anxious to get quilting. 

I finished the 12 inch Crazy Farm block I was working on last week for my lap quilt. 

We used to have geese when we first moved out here to our 18 acres. Maybe when I retire we will get some again. 

I have to say that Pansies are one of my favorite flowers.  I start them from seed every year and have pots and baskets and all other sorts of containers on my deck full of them.  I used to press them and use them on homemade cards. 

I kind of free form stem stitched a vine around the pansies and added some french knot and detached chain stitch wisteria. 

I actually do have apple, pear and cherry trees on my farm. I used to have a plum tree but it died several years ago. 

And below that I did some free form buttonhole stitches topped with some detached chain (lazy daisy) stitches. 

The butterfly doesn't show up as well as I wanted. Maybe later I'll add some stitches inside. 

I forget what stitch that is that I used for those green leaves. 

And finally there's a little lady bug button. 

Slow Stitching today? 

Join us for Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

Back to the Crazy Farm

I've finished stitching on another 12 inch block for my Crazy Farm crazy quilt. 

A hummingbird in the morning glories. 

(Actually the hummingbirds around here like the fuschia and petunias on my deck and when the trumpet vine starts blooming they will be there). 

Daisies are blooming in my flower gardens and on my block. 

This seam reminds me of the damned  weed Virginia Creeper that winds its way all around the gardens before I can get it pulled up.  I swear it must grow 3 feet each day. 

The seams here are kind of plain and crooked. Must have been stitching them while enjoying a Margarita on the deck. 

Both sets of "flowers" use buttonhole stitches.  

I started on another block.  This is block 7 out of 20 I want for a lap quilt. 

I hope to finish embellishing the seams today. 

(Oops...you caught me...I know I'm not supposed to leave my needle in my project). 

Do you plan on doing any "slow stitching" today? 

If so, join us at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Odds and Ends but Mostly Odds

I finished another 12 inch block for my Crazy Farm lap quilt.  The Crazy Quilt Journal Project somehow keeps me on track with getting at least one block completed per month.  

I embroidered a windmill in back stitches. On the sunflower patch I added a strip of ribbon with sunflowers on it. I tacked it down with some blind stitches and added some tiny sunflowers of straight stitches and french knots which look more like rudbeckia (black-eyed-susans) than sunflowers to me.  Then I crocheted a sunflower and tacked it on. (Note to self: maybe I should add some french knots in the center to make it look more like the sunflowers on the ribbon.) 

I didn't want to detract much from the printed fabric so just did a bunch of straight stitches in a v-shape. On the lime green section I did some lazy-daisy flowers in variegated thread.  The lazy daisy stitch is one of the first stitches my grandma taught me. 

And here we have a tractor (button) without a driver in the fly stitch field. 

Here I did a stem stitch in perle #8 in kind of a pea vine free form squiggly meander and then added some leaves.   

Finally, I added a feather stitch with straight stitches and french knots. 

And here is how it looks joined up with three other blocks. 

For Christmas I like to give sets of embroidered dishtowels, crocheted dish cloths and potholders. I finished up a dishtowel yesterday as well as a dish cloth.  That finished dish rag look wonky but it isn't. I'm in the middle of another dishcloth that I hope to finish today. (My retired husband does the dishes and swears by these.)

Slow Sunday Stitching slows down for me in the spring and summer months since I spend a lot of my time off work out in the garden but I still like to stitch a few minutes each evening after dinner and before bed so...

I hope to get a couple of blocks ready for CQ and another dishtowel stamped and ready for embroidery some time today, Slow Stitching Sunday. 

Join the virtual sewing bee, Slow Sunday Stitching, at Kathy's Quilts, if you are doing any hand work. 

How's the Crazy Farm?

I've finished my March  12 inch "Crazy Farm" block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project.  At the end of the year I hope to assemble all blocks into a lap quilt. 

Carrots, buttonhole wheels outlined with chain stitches and feather stitch and lazy daisies...

...stem stitches with french knots to sort of imitate the green fabric, cast on stitch pansies and the red are just straight stitches topped with a detached chain stitch...

...crocheted star flowers with french knot centers and a tulip in wrapped back stitch. 

And now it joins the other "Crazy Farm" block

And now that my March crazy quilt block is finished I will probably spend the rest of the month finishing up the final 10 applique butterflies I need for the quilt I'm making like grandma's. 

After I finish hand binding a quilt I'll be working on the butterflies for my Slow Stitching Sunday project.  If you are hand stitching today join the party. 

What's Happening on the Crazy Farm?

I just finished block #3 for my Crazy Farm lap quilt. 

It was really difficult to see the stitching lines for this lady her chicks but I guess I managed okay. She's all done in black back stitch. I wasn't sure how well any colors would show up on that egg background.  I used 1 or 2 strands of black DMC.  The seam on the side is done in feather stitch, detached chains and pistil stitches.  I used a variegated cotton floss that changed colors from deep purple to lime green. 

On this seam I used some variegated floss too but it was all shades of green. I added some leaves to the turnips. 

I stitched up this motif in outline stitch using two strands of different flosses. The center to the sunflowers are all french knots. That was a lot of french knots! 

This flower seam is also stitched in two (or was it three?) strands of variegated floss.  I cut the butterflies out of some fabric with about 1/4 inch seam all around and then first appliqued them and then did a blanket stitch all around in one strand of brown. The bodies are all bullion stitches. 

On that long top seam I first did some long running stitches and some x stitches in between. Then I alternated some lazy daisy stitches on the running stitches. I did some back stitching around the seed packets but it was in black so doesn't show.  A couple of short seams have some herringbone stitches and one has a few straight stitch stars/asterisks. 

And so far I have 3 - 12 inch blocks finished out of the 20 I want. 

Doing any hand stitching today? Then head on over to Kathy's Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday and join the party. 

If you are interested in crazy quilting visit Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2014 for some inspiration. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

In crazy quilt news...I've finished block 2 of Crazy Farm - my Crazy Quilt Journal Project for 2014. 

Every crazy farm needs a scarecrow.  (Note to self: doesn't look like I finished scarecrow pocket) And growing next to him is some crazy colored wheat (wheatear stitches). 

On the seam above the pigs I just did straight stitches thinking they might look like a fence.  You can see a poor lone strawberry. When I was thinking about seam treatments I was originally going to wind the strawberry runners up on the seam above it with some additional little strawberries but when I actually got around to the seam I forgot and instead added some bullion rosebuds because of the peach roses in that scrap of blue fabric.   One good thing about crazy quilting is there is no right or wrong way to do things, no pattern to follow...you can just go with the flow. 

Every crazy farm has tomatoes.  (On my real "farm" I grow Celebrity and a different heirloom each year and some cherry tomatoes.)  Seam above is fly stitch and lazy daisy and seam below is three rows of chain stitch. 

I crocheted some little flowers and gave them some french knot centers to imitate the daisies in the fabric.  I have lots of odds and ends of crochet cotton I've picked up from thrift stores so this is a good way to use those bits and pieces. 

This seam just has herringbone stitch that I did twice. First pass was in the lime green and second pass was in the darker green.  And I also added some french knots. 

Blocks 1 and 2 together. 

In other crazy quilt news I've got the rick rack stitched in the border on 2 sides. 

In embroidery news... I've got another fruit embroidered - Thursday pears.   Somehow I'm going to use all these embroidered days of the weeks fruits in my Tea Towel Challenge Quilt.  I think I have 3 fruits left to embroider. 

 Finally, in applique/embroidery news...Last week I had 10 butterflies appliqued. This week I've finished the blanket stitch around all 10 and now I need to ...

...finish up the other stitching.   After these I think I will have 32 butterflies and I think I need 48 in order to make a quilt like I inherited from grandma.  After I make my quilt I am going to try to repair hers. 

So that's it for my Slow Sunday Stitching projects.  Kathy's Quilts is host to the Slow Sunday Stitching linky party.  There's a lot of beautiful projects being worked on. You will miss out on them if you don't visit. 

A New Year of Slow Sunday Stitching

As I posted previously my Crazy Cravings lap quilt is a top now but it is far from finished. First I need to somehow embellish all the connecting seams.  Some people leave them as is but I like to have some kind of stitching on all seams and don't like to be able to tell where one block starts and ends. 

When I'm finished with that I need to add some rick rack to the brown border and I was going to do some chicken scratch embroidery on the gingham border but I'm finding the 1/8 inch squares don't show it off so well so will probably either crochet some trim or do some herringbone stitching on the gingham.  Ahhh...the best laid plans....

 And this year's Crazy Quilt Journal Project is a Crazy Farm lap quilt.  This is my second block to work on. I'm going to try very hard to do two 12 inch blocks per month.

I'm also embroidering Days of the Week fruits for another project I have in the works but have not yet revealed. 

Good thing I take pictures of my projects every once in a while. Looks like I forgot to stitch the cherry blossoms.   I have 3 out of the 4 days finished.

I finished the applique on 10 more 30s Butterflies and now they are waiting for some blanket stitches and backstitches.  These are for a quilt that I'm making like the one I inherited from my grandmother that is falling apart. 

I took the two days off after New Year's Day so got a lot of hand stitching done. Normally I try to work on my hand stitching projects at least 15 minutes each evening after work and on Sunday.  Friday night and Saturday I work on my sewing machine.

For some inspirational projects being worked on by hand visit Kathy's Quilts Slow Stitching Sunday.