What's In The Hoop?

 

I finally, now that it is cooler, have something in the hoop again for hand quilting. I am big stitching on Waffle Cone Roses, a top I finished back in December 2021. It is another quilt for my collection of quilts featuring rose fabrics. 

In the big print rose sections I am using a stencil and pounce pad to mark. I am not sure yet if that will be enough quilting for those sections. I will decide if I need to add more after I finish quilting more sections. 

There are several large triangular sections. I'm not sure yet how I will quilt those areas.

In the sections with strips I quilted along the seams. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

***

And speaking of roses...I can't believe I still have some roses in bloom in November!

I also have a few other flowers still in bloom too.

Helenium (Sneezeweed)

Cosmos

Calendula

Sedum

But most things are going to seed. Some seeds I collect. Some seeds the birds collect. Some seeds blow in the wind. I think I love the earthy tones of Autumn in the gardens as much as I love the bright colors of Summer and the cooler colors of Spring.

Chive seed heads

Milkweed

Hydrangea

***

One of my brothers lives near Nashville. They must do a lot of filming there. Since he retired a few years ago he has been an extra in a few movies and lately a TV show 9-1-1 Nashville.  I have no way to view the show. He was evidently in the last episode.

My brother is the diner seated by the window looking this way!

***

I finished a book! The Lion's Den by Eoin Dempsey. It is book one of a series of six books. Unable to find much work during the Depression a widower with four children moves his family to Berlin to manage his ailing uncle's factory at a time just before Hitler's rise to power. It was a little repetitive in spots and sometimes slow moving. It also ended abruptly so I guess I will have to read the next book in the series. 

***

I received a package of beautiful fabrics from Julie. Oh happy day! I spy some gorgeous quilt backs!

Soul Searching In The Rose Garden

 

It's a finish!

Soul Searching in the Rose Garden

84 x 84

Hand quilted

I finished the top back in 2022. I used red and white rose themed prints.

The inspiration came from the book Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty. Her Soul Searching quilt is 84 inches wide and 72 inches long. I added 3 rows at the top and bottom so I could have a little wider quilt. 

I big stitch hand quilted it with red and white threads - perle #12.

The back is a gently used sheet from the thrift store with roses.

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alicia Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Wednesday Wandering: Stopping To Smell The Roses in Bloom

“Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you." – Richard Brinsley Sheridan

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." – Alphonse Karr, Lettres Écrites De Mon Jardin

"Wild roses," I said to them one morning. "Do you have the answers? And if you do, would you tell me?" The roses laughed softly. "Forgive us," they said. "But as you can see, we are just now entirely busy being roses." – Mary Oliver, Felicity

“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow." – Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." – Alphonse Karr, Lettres Écrites De Mon Jardin

“This rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers." – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." – Emma Goldman

“I'd love to have the whole place swimming in roses." – James Joyce, Ulysses

Wishing you a fabulous day! 

Finished: A Garden of Hexagon Roses

Hexagon Roses

It's a Finish!

Hand Quilted

52.5 x 65.5

Pattern and templates from the book Scrappy Firework Quilts by Edyta Sitar.

All of the hexagon and connecting triangles are rose prints. For the hexagons I tried to keep with darker more vintage-y looking prints. The connecting triangles are small prints in cream or white. 

I hand quilted it (big stitching) with perle cotton #12 in a cream color.

I thought I was going to have a problem binding the top and bottom zig zaggy edges. I tried a single fold binding for the first time as that was what was suggested in the instructions and had no problems thank goodness. 

This one is for me. I just love roses and have made quite a few quilts with rose prints. 

 I enjoyed hand quilting this one. I just stitched about 1/4 inch inside each hexagon and triangle. I didn't mark anything just used my eyeballs to judge where to stitch. It's just for me and I don't mind if a few lines aren't all that straight or exactly 1/4 inch from seam line. 

I pieced the back. Again...rose prints.

And sew on...

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

 

Looking Through Rose Colored Scraps

Last week I decided to work with my Rose themed scraps. I divided them into two bins - one with pastels and one with darks- reds and blacks.  I started with the bin of pastels. 

The widest width of scrap was 6.5-7 inches and the narrowest width was 1.5 inches. At first glance I thought I could just make a simple Nine Patch quilt alternating Nine Patches and large squares. But when I found I really didn't have all that many 6.5 inch squares I changed my mind. I decided to make a variety of different six inch blocks - four patches, nine patches, framed squares.  I added in a few small pieces of pastel ginghams and polka dots.  It takes the longest time to cut the scraps using them to their best advantage. 

I'm looking forward to a nice throw sized quilt for me. I love roses. 

I have something different in mind for the bin of dark colored rose scraps. I'll tell you about it another day. 

 

Rose Petals

Back on June 14 I posted about an old UFO I pulled out to work on - crochet around 4 inch rose themed scraps later to be joined together into something.   I started on these back in September 2019 to use up both scraps and crochet thread.  When I picked up this project again last month I had 16 blocks. 

Now I have 42. 

They are reversible.  I start with two 4.5 inch square scraps right sides together and sew 1/4 inch seam all around leaving a little opening for turning right side out. I turn right side out and blind stitch the opening closed. Then I blanket stitch around the outside edges and finally crochet shell stitches around.   I do have more rose themed scraps but as you can see I have already used up two balls of pink crochet thread and both of those were different shades of pink. 

I do have more partial balls (spools?? things???) of thread but it is pink and white variegated. I'll use that next. You know...make do and all that.  Using up what I have was why I started down this road. I was originally going to make a throw but someone else  in blog comments suggested a tablecloth. Now I think I'm going to make a table runner to top the buffet. I just need to figure out how many squares that will take. 

I do love roses. But you may or may not know that I have been battling deer this year who seem have the munchies more than they have in previous years. The deer around here and the rabbits love to eat rose bushes to the ground. And if any roses bushes escape their jaws then they feast on the rosebuds.  

I do have several rose bushes so once in awhile I find a sweet smelling rose. 

Now these Seven Sister roses are being devastated by beetles (not shown here). Since I'm pretty much an organic gardener I pick the disgusting beetles off and throw them into a bucket of soapy water. 

It wasn't me that nipped off the end of the stem there. 

Last fall my husband bought me four Burgundy Iceberg floribunda roses after I showed him a picture of it and said I dreamed of owning one of those. The bushes are supposed to get 5 feet tall and blooms are supposed to be 3-4.5 inches and dark burgundy and smell like honey. 

All four of those bushes as well as most others have been eaten almost to the ground several times but I'm determined not to give up on growing roses. (Yes, I'm stubborn).  I've been trying several things to keep critters at bay. I've planted racambole garlic bulbils around my roses. That's a top setting garlic  and those are the heads you see in white. I have a stake with one of my old gardening gloves on it ( as well as my sweaty scent) in front of this one. That bag you see tied to the cage has some Irish Spring soap in it. I don't like the smell of it and deer are not supposed to like it either. I also put shavings of it on the garden paths.  Then you can't see it here but there's a zucchini plant growing up some of the cages since deer evidently don't like them.   Well, something must be working now. 

I do love roses!

I love scraps too so I'm hooking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework. 

And I love hand work so I'm going to go visit all the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's Quilts.