It's a Finish! Marginalia

 Marginalia

It's a finish! 

72 x 84

Hand quilted

 This was a Quilty 365/6 year long project.  I made a circle a day for a year. 

 I started my circles November 4, 2015 and finished them November 3, 2016.  I used 4.5 inch HSTs  as the background, cut a circle out of fabric that kind of  represented an event of the day, blanket stitched with embroidery thread around the circle and wrote in the margin something about the day.  

 There's lots of gardening notes, notes about family health issues, notes about the price of gas each month, notes about depression and stress, notes about quilts made and books read.  There were birthday celebrations, a birth of a grand nephew, a marriage of a nephew, a death of a cousin. 

 

 I finished the top May 2017.   

I kept the hand quilting very simple - big stitching with perle #12 horizontally and vertically through the colored side of the HSTs.  I did not use batting so I guess technically this isn't a quilt since it doesn't have three layers. I also did not use a hoop or mark any stitching lines so my stitches are not always straight or evenly spaced or all the same size.   But I totally enjoyed the stitching. 

 It was a fun walk down memory lane. I can't believe four years have passed since I started on this. If I made another one this year a lot of the circles would be the same; a lot of the circles would be different - life cycles, you know.  To every thing there is a season. 

The backing. 

And now I need to figure out what to hand quilt next. I have lots of choices. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Quilty 365/6: Marginalia

Quilty 365

I started my circles November 4, 2015 and finished them November 3, 2016.  I used 4.5 inch HSTs  as the background, cut a circle  out of fabric that kind of  represented an event of the day, blanket stitched with embroidery thread around the circle and wrote in the margin something about the day.  

Who knew what twists and turns life would take and who knew how colorful those daily events could be? 

There's lots of gardening notes, notes about family health issues, notes about the price of gas each month, notes about depression and stress, notes about quilts made and books read. 

Marginalia

a Quilty 365 project

72 x 84

It's a top

I need to decide how to quilt it now.  Actually, I need to find a backing first. 

Each month of 2016 I enjoyed looking at all of the variations of the Quilty 365 project.   It's been awhile since there was a link up.  Audrey (the project brainchild who blogs at Quilty Folk) is now hosting the final Quilty 365 link up for finished quilt tops.  Oh, what fun! 

Marginalia: Getting it Together

My Marginalia (Quilty 365/6)  needed 12 more blocks for an 18 x 22 layout.  What to do? What to do?  I found a remnant in my stash that looked like it had handwriting on it to make my circles. Then I used an ABC stencil from my scrapbooking stash and a fabric pen to put each letter of MARGINALIA on a circle.  The HSTs were all fabric that looked like doodling on a chalkboard.  

I wish this was one of those "no assembly required" things but it's not. (I love piecing but hate the boring task of sewing together rows and columns).  I have four of the 21 rows assembled and from now on it will be my JOT (Just one Thing) to work on a little bit every day after work until I'm bored with it which will probably be after one row is sewn together or before. 

Oh, in case you were wondering about the two extra blocks I needed for my layout...(I said I needed TWELVE more blocks and MARGINALIA is only ten letters)...they will be at the end. 

At least I didn't have to worry over a layout...they are going together in date order

 Nov 4, 2015 - Nov 3, 2016. 

But I will have to worry about how to quilt it. 

Quilty 365

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. 

Waiting and Waiting and Waiting and Appliqueing, Appliqueing, Appliqueing

My husband had a 14 hour surgery on September 29  - mandibulectomy and fibula free flap reconstruction which means they took his fibula and made him a new mandibule.  He had a broken jaw due to the radiation (osteoradionecrosis) he received several years ago when he had cancer.  While I was waiting through the surgery and for days afterwards  I read a book, caught up on adding blanket stitch around my Quilting 365 circles for August 9-31 and September 1-19, and read an entire book (Home by Harlen Coben) and part of another one (The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan). 

My husband was discharged yesterday and I'm taking a week off to get him situated at home. He has an NG tube for formula feedings and medicine, neck stitches that need to be cleaned several times a day and with drains that need to be packed, trachea hole where the trachea tube was that needs to be cleaned and bandaged a couple of times a day, stitches on his leg from knee on down that need to be wrapped daily and boot for minimal walking.   Some of these things I never dreamed I would be able to do because I get rather squeamish at the appearance of blood and body fluids but I'm hanging in there and doing what needs to be done. 

By the way, thank you to all who offered prayers and healing thoughts. The doctors are amazed by my husband's recovery.  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

August circles.

We had a family reunion campout, my son-in-law was discharged after 3 weeks in the hospital for chemo for leukemia, I made and canned salsa, finished a baby quilt and attended a shower for my nephew and wife, made a couple of quilts for a medical benefit for my son-in-law, took the grandkids school shopping and won a $25 gift certificate from FQ Shop for Scraptastic Tuesday. 

September 1-19 circles. I have the rest of the month cut out but just not completed yet. 

I started them on November 4 last year and I'm still making them and having fun with them.  

I also took along some Peacock fans to applique. 

I think I now have 20  14 inch blocks.  Can't remember my target number. These will have sashing between them. 

And now I need to prep more handwork. But I guess there's always hand quilting. 

Thanks again for those healing thoughts and prayers. They seem to be working for my son-in-law also. He will still need a bone marrow transplant; however, his second bout of chemo which was last week went much smoother than the first round. His medical benefit was also a huge success. 

Amen. 

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

July Marginalia- a Quilty 365 Project

I am caught up through July 24 with my appliqued circles.  

I started them on November 4.  I use 2 strands of embroidery thread to blanket stitch around each circle that represents something in the day of my life.  Then I use a micron pen or ultra fine sharpie to write on each block. 

In July I made and canned wild black raspberry jam and pickled beets, have been harvesting broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions.  I bought tablets for my grandkids. I've also played a lot of games with the grandkids and this month their new favorite game is UNO.   I finished 5 quilts this month - three for charity, one QOV (Quilt of Valor) for bro-in-law and one for me.  We celebrated my daughter and youngest son's birthdays. 

And then...July 18 my granddaughter tested positive for Lyme disease and the same day her dad (my son-in-law) went into the hospital and was later diagnosed with Leukemia. As a separate problem he had a pacemaker installed because of arrhythmia before he started on his chemo treatments. He's been in the hospital since, my daughter at his side and we have been watching the grandkids (thank goodness school is not in session)... well, grandpa has mostly been watching them but I've also been taking a few days here and there off of work to help out.  Then grandpa found out on July 21 that he has a fractured jaw that will involve bone graft surgery. His consultation appointment is Aug 3 (his birthday) an hour away in Iowa City where they do that type of surgery.  I think I will soon be taking more than a few days here and there off work.  Thank goodness I have a lot of vacation time saved up. 

These circles are nice to pick up and work on these hot summer days when I have a few minutes here and there to stop and do a little stitching.  The problem is getting them prepped and ready. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Quilty 365 at Quilty Folk

June Marginalia

I'm still working on my daily circles and am caught up through June 26.  I started these on Nov 4 last year so I have about 8 months of circles. That means I'm 2/3 of the way through the year!! Slowly but surely I'll end up with a big journal quilt. 

A lot of my circles this month are about fruits, flowers and veggies.  I love gardening about as much as I love quilting. 

And speaking of LOVE...we just celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary and the spark is still there. Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music!! 

We still haven't had a honeymoon and we still do absolutely nothing special when our anniversary rolls around. We just got used to having no money when we were younger to spend on anything other than necessities and have just continued on living frugally. 

We lived in Naples, FL back then (39 years ago).  We had lived together for four years and had two kids together so we decided to tie the knot one day after work.  Our friend, Sandy, was a notary public. In Florida it was legal for her to marry us so she officiated. My soon-to-be-married brother and his fiancee were our witnesses. After a few verses were read that I had chosen from a  Kahlil Gibran book we were married. Sandy and her husband surprised us and made a cake and served some champagne.  It was just another day. Ahhhh, memories!!

(P.S.  I made most of our clothes back then.  See husband's shirt and my outfit - halter top and matching long loose pants in some slinky knit. These were NOT specially made wedding clothes but our everyday wear. ) 

The daily circle was Audrey's idea - Quilty 365. 

There's usually a monthly link of creative Quilty 365 ideas at her blog Quilty Folk. 

Marginalia: Quilty 365 Project

Another month of circles.

I've been making them since Nov. 4 and I am caught up through yesterday although when I put May's circles up for a pic it seems I've misplaced May 7 which, according to my notes, was "rain, rain, go away" and May 14 which was when we planted green beans. 

As you can tell I've been doing a lot of gardening in between the rains and the paying job. 

I took a "staycation" this week. I need it. 

I really need to start sewing these together.  I say that every month. 

Linking up with other Quilty 365ers at Quilty Folk. 

Marginalia: Quilty 365 Circles

My March circles for Marginalia which is a Quilty 365 project - an idea of Audrey's who blogs at Quilty Folk.  The idea went viral and there's all kinds of circles out there in blog land now. 

I started my circles on Nov 4, 2015 and have made one every day since.  I don't know how many that happens to be but I need to start sewing them together. But first I need to make up some circles with the letters in MARGINALIA and then I will sew them together in date order in rows 18 x 21. 

I keep a note some highlight of the day on each 4 inch block with either a micron pen or permanent fine tipped marker.  I finished up March 31 last night while waiting to hear on my brother's quadruple bypass surgery.  He had a heart attack two days in a row which was a surprise to all of our family since he didn't even know he had any heart problems - he doesn't smoke, is not overweight, and doesn't drink or take any drugs.  He does love bacon, though. So no more bacon for Steve! It's difficult to be so far away (he's in FL and I'm in IA) and feeling helpless. 

When I went to take pictures of my circles I also noticed I forgot to make circles for two days (so maybe I fibbed a little when I just said I "have made one every day since"). Either I forgot or they got lost but anyway...I had some black fabric with eyes on it...those denote that either the block for that day fell into some black hole (or I was feeling like I was in a black hole). 

Other than that I celebrated a birthday, St. Patrick's Day (I'm of Irish ancestry on dad's side), first day of Spring, PI day and Easter.   I had crocus and species tulips in bloom. My granddaughter received a blue ribbon for her violin solo. I decided I will retire March 30, 2017. I finished the book "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom ( a good book, btw).  I finished a Jack's Chain quilt and I ended my sewing machine tension problems (on Janome DC2010) and my tension headaches and bought a new  Brother SB3129. 

There's quite a variety of circles (and other shapes). Just look and see at the Quilty 365 linkup. 

Marginalia: A Quilty 365 Project

February Circles

Since Nov 4, 2015 I have been making a circle a day. That's 118 circles if I counted right.  I choose fabric that kind of highlights something from the day, match muslin with fabric for a HST background then buttonhole stitch by hand around each circle. 

In February I:

•  finished four quilts that were UFOS - Which Way to the Chocolate (hand quilted), Fireworks on the Rails, Wonky Logs and Pentland Crackers 
• read two books - What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman and The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
• celebrated three birthdays - son -in-law, dau.-in-law and grandson
• experienced unusually high winds and unusually high temps
• celebrated Ground Hog Day, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day and National Drink a Glass of Wine Day
• had a sick computer, a sick sewing machine and a sick body
• enjoyed flock of cardinals for several days and almost ran over 5 deer in the road out front on my way to work at 4:30 a.m
• gas was down to $1.42 per gallon (I've been keeping track monthly for posterity)
• gave myself some advice to "stay calm and eat bacon".

Quilty 365 was Audrey's brainstorm

On March 1 she will have a Quilty 365 linkup where you can enjoy quite a variety of interpretations of the year long journey. 

Marginalia (aka The Circle Game)

My January Circles. 

I finished a couple of books, we ate the last of our homegrown onions, my cousin's husband died, my oldest son turned 42, I looked through seed  catalogs, ordered seeds and received seeds.  I finished a quilt, I remarked on grandkids shoe skating on ice in the cornfield on a frigid day, played games with the grandkids...

...I suffered some very stressful days at work...

...felt crabby and blue...

...and I'm sick of robocalls.  Iowa caucuses are tonight so hopefully the calls will end. 

I've been making circles since Nov 4, 2015. I guess I now have 89 circles.  I need to start sewing them together. I want to keep them in order sequentially and think I have a layout in mind. 

Whose crazy idea was this?

Audrey of Quilty Folk

She talked quite a few folks into her Quilty 365 idea as evidenced by the monthly link!

I can't believe the variety of circles being made out there in blog land. Oh what fun!

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

Quilty 365: Marginalia

Marginalia

Nov 4 - 8

I was thinking of ideas for a quilt journal project for next year and I was trying to decide on an applique project for next year and then up pops Audrey of Quilty Folk with Quilty 365.   

I'll call my project Marginalia. I'll be writing in the margins about daily life and the circle fabrics will depict something to go with the marginalia.  I've been blanket stitching with two strands of embroidery floss and writing in the margins with a pigma pen and ultra fine sharpie. 

I started right in because if I didn't I never would.