Slow Stitching

 

String Star

I finally have a quilt in the hoop so I can do some big stitch quilting in the evening before bed. 

Quartet of Birds

Crewel embroidery decorative pillow. I am working on the third of four birds. 

Binding

Both of those slow stitching projects have been on hold while I hand stitch the binding on my Lego quilt. 

And sew on...

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

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

It's a Finish! Boho Roosters

Bohemian Roosters

80 x 80

hand quilted

It's a finish! 

 Sunburst pattern is from the book Making Quilts by Kathy Doughty. 

The rooster fussy cut centers were cut from a fabric in my stash  - Bohemian Rooster Click by Susan Winget. 

I then found enough stash fabrics that I thought were boho enough to coordinate with the centers.  All sunburst points are yellows from stash. 

The quilt was started in November 2017. 

I hand quilted a flower in the middle of the blocks in aqua thread.  I used a stencil and the eight petals extend out into each sunburst point.  

I hand quilted in yellow an eyeballed 1/4 inch inside and outside each starburst point.  I made a template for quilting in extra sunburst points between each sunburst point.  I also used yellow to quilt an eyeballed 1/4 inch outside the inner circle.  I hand stitched in the ditch in red around the outside circle. 

I used the same eight petaled flower stencil and hand quilted in red in the area where blocks meet. 

I used some of the same fabrics as used in the blocks for a scrappy binding. 

Even though I've been on "no buy" for over a year I did have to buy batting (Hobbs Heirloom Premium Cotton Batting) and backing fabric (deeply discounted) in order to complete the quilt. 

I've spent months of Slow Sunday Stitching (and every other day of the week)  so time to celebrate with other hand workers at Kathy's Quilts. 

This was my goal #2

for Q2 Finish-Along

And on to the next one...

You Don't Have to Jump Through These Hoops

 I wasn't going to make a Slow Sunday Stitching post but Kathy challenged us to take a photo of our hoop(s) and I couldn't resist. 

This is the quilt I'm working on stitching with perle #8.  It's in a big hoop that sits on my lap while stitching.  It's big and not my favorite for hand quilting but I use it when I want to do a lot of rows at a time that are in close proximity so I don't have to constantly move the hoop. 

 I use small round hoops for most embroidery like this stamped card table sized table cloth I found at the thrift store.   This is a smaller project I work on in the summer when it's too hot to have a quilt on my lap. 

 Then there's this oval hoop. I picked it up with a bunch of hoops at the thrift store and never found a use for it until I started stitching chicken scratch sashing strips for a quilt I'm working on.  I like that it's long enough for me to get the entire length of the sashing in the hoop and it's narrow enough for me to easily stitch the rows. This is another summer project or something I pick up when my wrist hurts from too much hand quilting.  This is a different arm motion. 

This is another summer project or when I have the time to dig through trims and threads and feel like thinking about what to do on each six inch block.   Since these are six inch blocks and I like to use a  small hoop for stitching  but one big enough to stitch the entire seam without moving the hoop, I baste some scrap muslin around the block before putting it in the hoop.  The block with the cats is one I finished before Christmas but haven't posted about. I usually don't post about them until the set of four improv circle blocks is finished. 

This poor wrinkly thing resides in my Bug Out Bag (or To Go Bag) along with some yarns and crochet hooks for crocheting dish cloths.  It's a quick easy project to pick up and put down at a moment's notice. I found a bunch of these stamped embroidery projects complete with single color thread on clearance for about 1/6th the regular cost so snatched them up.  They are supposed to be pillows.    I like a small hoop for embroidery like this.  I haven't gone anywhere in awhile so wrinkly bird will go back into the bag and stay ready.  I probably shouldn't leave it in the hoop though. But...

And finally this PVC hoop is my fav for hand quilting. It's a lot smaller than the wooden hoop but it's perfect for quilting areas like I did on my Glitter quilt.   I'm still need to leave this hermitage and get to the store to buy a long needle so I can tie in the middle of the nine patches using blind tie or international stitch.  I was also thinking of tying in the center of the oval - ish area where I already stitched but I may just stitch  another row inside that one.  I love how the stitching there makes the nine patches pop out. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

where everyone is showing off their hoops today. 

2020 in 2020 Crazy Quilt: Block 4

I've finished the embellishment of block 4 of the 2020 Crazy Quilt Challenge.  This is a six inch block. 

I tatted that butterfly long ago when I was teaching myself to tat because I found a tatting shuttle in some of my husband's grandmother's things my mother-in-law gave me.  I need to brush up again on some tatting and try some new things for this quilt.  The piece of ribbon and eyelet trim was found at the thrift store.  I have a giant box of trims I've found at the thrift store over the years - time to use them. 

Fabric: 0 (counted in block 1)

Laces/trims:  1/4 inch piece of satin ribbon, eyelet lace, tatted butterfly of white crochet thread 10, 1/4 inch twill tape = 4

Beads: 1

Threads: DMC Antique Effects E436; DMC embroidery floss 2 threads of 676, 543 (Sullivan's 45122), 3781 (Sullivan's 45393) = 4   (only counting threads not previously used on blocks like the variegated brown).

Stitches and Stitch Combos: Blanket stitch flowers (over twill tape), pistil stitch x3 cluster, dragonflies (in antique effects thread) = 3

Total new items this block = 12

Grand total items blocks 1 through 4 = 43 

How all the blocks of this circle set (blocks 1-4) look together.  I'm not sure if they will stay together in the final layout but for now I'm keeping all circle sets together.  I'm doing the whole quilt in neutrals from white to black and anything in between. That doesn't include "low volume" fabrics. 

This is how the four blocks looked before embroidery. 

This is my next circle set to work on. 

It will take a month of Sundays (and other days) to finish this crazy quilt but for today linking up to:

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

All Creatures Great and Small 25-36

All Creatures Great and Small

I've finished another dozen and now have 36 little hexies.  Not sure what my goal happens to be so I'll just keep making them when I have a few minutes here and there. 

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

All Creatures Great and Small

All Creatures Great and Small Hexagons

I try to finish one per day.  I now have 20 hexies.

They are 3 inches per side and I use ladder stitch to sew pieces together. I like it better than whip stitching pieces together. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

In the Hoops

May Baskets

The 30s Baskets quilt is in the hoop.   This quilt has two different basket blocks in it. Some are from swaps.  One basket block was smaller than the other so I added some sashing strips around those blocks to bring them up to the same size as the larger block.  I then alternated blocks and set them on point. 

I'm hand quilting inside the fabrics on the larger blocks and outside the basket on the smaller blocks.  And I'm stitching on both sides of the sashings. 

And one of the things I've had in my Take-Along bag is this little stamped block for a pillow.  I picked up a few of these stamped embroidery kits last year (or was it the year before?) on clearance for little or nothing so I couldn't resist.   I see a lot of pillows in my future because that's one of the ways I'm going to use all of the little, little, little pieces of batting scraps taking up space around here. 

Slow Sunday Stitching  with others at Kathy's Quilts

In the Hoop: Tiny Spools in a BIG quilt

Tiny Spools in a BIG quilt

I was going to quilt this on my DSM. 

Then I wasn't. 

Then I was.

Then I wasn't.

Then I was. 

Then I saw some #12 perle cotton thread on clearance. 

Then I bought LOTs of #12 clearance perle. 

Then I remembered I always wanted to hand quilt a quilt with Baptist Fans.

Then I decided this was the quilt to quilt with Baptist Fans. 

Then I marked a few rows of Baptist Fans in mechanical pencil.

Then it went into the hoop and then I started hand quilting.

Then I linked up at Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Then I linked up with Quilting is More Fun than Housework  - Oh Scrap!

Triangle Stars Finished !!

Scrappy Triangle Stars

56.5 x 75

Hand quilted

Pattern at AllPeopleQuilt

Last year I made one triangle star each month from little bits and pieces of scraps. I used a paper template and cut each triangle piece of the star individually by hand.  Each block was made in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  For the backgrounds I used chunk scraps  in solids or tone on tones. 

I used different colors of hand quilting thread.  I hand quilted 1/4 inch inside each triangle in hand quilting thread the color of the star. 

You can't see it very well but I quilted stars in different sizes in the background areas.  I used simple star templates and traced around them with a hera marker. Again I used hand quilting thread in the color of the background to quilt the stars.  

I used a low volume print I had on hand for the backing so all of the hand quilting in the various colors shows up on the back.   I like to use Hobbs Heirloom cotton batting when I hand quilt and since this was a smaller quilt I pieced my batting. I didn't have any problems hand quilting with pieced batting. 

I couldn't think of what to use for binding that would look good on the front. I finally decided to try facing a quilt.  This was my first time trying it and I'm glad I did. 

This one is for me. 

Take time for some Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

and use those scraps because

Oh Scrap! Quilting is More Fun than Housework. 

Still in the Hoop but Moving Right Along

Triangle Stars

All 12 of the stars have the hand quilting completed 1/4 inside each triangle. 

Right now I'm working on quilting some stars inside the areas between stars that form an HST. 

After that I'll have the areas where the stars form a four patch. 

Joining the virtual quilting bee, Slow Sunday Stitching, at Kathy's Quilts

Vintage Butterflies: It's Finished!

Vintage Butterflies

79 x 90

Hand quilted

from Nostalgia Cafe

My inspiration was the above quilt I found when researching "vintage butterfly quilts" a few years ago.   This block is actually called Beggars Block.  The individual blocks within each block is actually a 3 inch spool block. 

I started making the individual 3 inch butterfly (or spool) blocks from 1.5 inch scraps as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project in late 2013 (I think).   When I accumulated 8 butterflies I made a block.  When I had enough blocks I made a quilt.  When you use scraps some quilts are not a quick make. 

I used Kona Candy Blue (blue candy?) as the background/sky. 

I normally don't lay out my blocks before I sew them together. I really don't like to spend time moving blocks around endlessly because no layout seems pleasing.    I don't have a big space to easily lay blocks out nor do I have a design wall (except for that old cutting mat with the piece of batting on it propped up on the wall next to the sewing machine).  So I usually sew blocks together randomly.  I'm rarely disappointed. 

I should never add sashing without cornerstones because sometimes things just get a little wonky. The good thing is that it all works out in the end somehow.  This quilt will give warmth same as a perfect one.  

I hand quilted in a variety of colors of regular quilting thread.  I didn't mark anything but the center butterflies. I just stitched. And stitched some more.  I have a callous on my "underneath finger" to prove it.   The stitching served as a kind of quilty yoga to soothe the soul, clear the mind and calm the nerves. 

After a good wash and some time in the dryer the quilt came out more crinkly than usual. I think that's because the backing fabric, a sheet from the thrift store,  was pre-washed and the fabrics on front were not.   Thank goodness I like crinkly. 

Now, about that backing. I found a sheet at the thrift store in a pale blue, in perfect condition and silky soft. Must be a far higher thread count than what is on my bed. I was a little leery about using a sheet on a quilt I was going to hand quilt because I wasn't sure how easy it would be to hand quilt. Not to worry...the needle went through it like a knife through butter.  And as a side benefit the back looks like a whole cloth quilt. It's difficult to get a good picture but all of the different colored threads on the pale blue are joyous. 

This was my goal #1

for 2017 Finish-A-Long Quarter 1

Lots of scraps in this one so linking up to:

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

And since it took a month of Sundays to hand quilt linking up with:

Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Kaleidoscope of Butterflies is still in the hoop. 

I started making these 9 inch blocks (aka Beggar Blocks) years ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project after I saw a vintage quilt I loved called Vintage Butterflies.  The individual "butterflies" finish at 3 inches and are the same as making a 3 inch spool block.  

I've been hand stitching in different colors (the colors of the butterflies in each block) about 1/4 inch inside each "wing" and then I just stitch two rounds around inside each "butterfly body".  Up to this point I just eyeball everything - no marking.  That changes in the center of each block where I used a stencil and mechanical pencil to mark a little butterfly for stitching. 

I only have the blocks on three sides left to stitch.

I'll be joining others today for some Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. 

And did you know that a group of Butterflies is called a Kaleidoscope of Butterflies? It is. 

Working on kaleidoscopes, butterflies, kaleidoscopes of butterflies? 

Link up! 

An InLinkz Link-up