In The Hoop

I finished up my hand quilting on Flowering Snowball and now Vintage Spin has sneaked into the hoop.  I hope to work on it a little this evening. I really need to catch up on some blog reading and answer some of the lovely comments left on my blog. If I don't do it on the weekend I don't really find much time after work to do it these days.  I've been trying to get files moved over from my old XP laptop to my new one...I didn't realize I have so photos and genealogy files and other documents.  And, of course there's Christmas.  Thankfully my granddaughters were out this weekend and decorated my tree for me since I really hate decorating.  They invited themselves and my grandson back next weekend to make cookies.  So, I guess I need to add that to my plans. 

There's always some hand quilting (and some eggnog and a little Christmas music) to make one feel relaxed at the end of a day.   I'm quilting concentric circles and using the tiniest needle I've ever used yet for hand quilting. I can hardly see to thread the needle -  I usually do big stitching but decided to practice small stitches on this quilt. I'm putting a little spin on things... I thought the concentric circles would give Vintage Spin some  movement.

I'm using regular hand quilting thread in green, navy, and orange.  I need practice...practice...

...practice.  I'm hoping the tiny stitch practice will help me with some hand piecing I want to do some day on those Daisy-do Jen Kingwell flowers. 

There's a whole lot of hand stitching going on today in blog land...go find out for yourself...

Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

I Finished Off The Cherry Pie!

I Love Cherry Pie

(aka Flowering Snowball)

91 x 101

Hand quilted

Lots of different red and cherry themed fabrics were harmed in the making of this quilt. 

I started it in 2014 when Mary at Molly Flanders Blog hosted a quilt along. I used her templates but somehow ended up with a 10 inch block. 

I found a mistake while I was quilting it...see how the "flowers" are all red like above? 

Well, I Spy a white "flower". 

I hand quilted it with some red perle #8...

...there are some cherry blossoms in the snowball sections and I just quilted 1/4 inch inside the seam on the red flower sections. 

I used homespun on the back with CHERRIES! I made the quilt a little larger than intended so had to piece some other red checked homespun on to one side.  It sure is easy to hand quilt through homespun with the loose weave. 

This was my goal #1 for the 2015 Finish Along 

with  Adrianne of On the Windy Side

Today I will link up with:

Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

No, I'm Not Going to Waste Waste Triangles

It's time to clean off part of my sewing desk so....

1.  I cut some 2.5 inch red squares

2. gathered up some waste triangles from the edge of my desk and sewed them to the corners of some of those red squares

3. ironed

4. trimmed even with the background red squares (no I didn't cut off the background because that would then make another waste triangle for the corner of my desk and we are trying to avoid that)

5. sew them together along with some red 2.5 inch squares without triangles into the Ocean Waves configuration for a large 16 inch block. 

6. Repeat

7. Admire your work on Ocean   Confetti Waves and wonder how big a quilt you will make.

Then cut some 2.5 inch blue squares  and attach waste triangles as you see above for some little butterflies or, if set on point I suppose they could be little bow ties.  I like butterflies.  I don't like to waste.  Waste not, want not.  Ok, I have to admit there are still a few things I want. 

Since these blocks used up my smallest of scraps and since it is Scraptastic Tuesday I will be linking up for Scraptastic Tuesday. 

So Sue Me!

Sunbonnet Sues

63 x 78

These blocks were swapped in 2009. They were my first attempt at fusible applique and I really didn't like them after I made them but swapped anyway.  We could use any Sunbonnet Sue pattern and white on white background. We were supposed to use fusible applique and then machine stitch around the shapes.   

Luckily after the swap I had the same amount of them facing different directions so I could alternate blocks.   A couple of years ago I sashed them with some 30s reproductions and "that green".  I had some 3 inch 9 patches in 30s from another swap so I threw some of those in too.  And so the top has been sitting around for another couple of years.  I really don't like the stiffness of the fused interfacing but figured a quilt is better than wasted blocks. 

So, I quilted it on my plain Jane DSM with some three petaled flowers and on the dress and bonnet I quilted some really tiny 3 petaled flowers...really tiny. 

I didn't quilt into the arm and shoes so they sort of stand out as 3D.  All that quilting in Sue kind of softened the fusible interfacing.  

I used a vintage sheet on the back. 

My husband and I are from large families and our siblings are all becoming grandparents many times over so I'm sure there will be a girl baby coming along soon that will need a quilt that's perfect for crawling around on. 

I can cross another UFO off my list. 

This was a Q4 goal for 2015 Finish Along (#6)

with Adrianne of On the Windy Side. 

Linking up today to:

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilts 

and a new one

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag.

Handwork Odds and Ends

It's Sunday and you know what that means...time for Slow Stitching Sunday! - Join up with everyone at Kathy's Quilts for a virtual sewing bee  I have my choice of projects.  

Totally finishing this quilt is my December goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

 So today can finish appliqueing fireworks on the scrappy rail fence...

...I can finish up hand quilting on "I Love Cherry Pie".  I only have four more cherry blossoms to quilt and then I can work on the binding for this monstrosity. 

I have eight more redwork  nursery rhymes that I need to trace and then embroider. 

And there's always circles that need some blanket stitches.   This one commemorates yesterday. The grandkids were over for the annual "Making of the Ornaments".    When my kids were little we made some type of ornaments every year from the time they were about 2 years old.  When they grew older and had their own Christmas trees I gave them most of the ornaments they had painted through the years.  And now I carry on the tradition with the grandkids. 

Ten Pillowcases

10 Pillowcases

I  give some family members pillowcases for Christmas. 

You may think spiders and webs would not be very conducive to a good night's sleep. My daughter wanted me to make her a different set of pillowcases for each month of the year. Last year I gave her snowmen for January and some lovey-dovey valentines for Feb.   I skipped forward to October for this year's gift and spiders/webs is what she gets. 

Now I can throw in the washer and dryer and wrap or use them for gift wrap. 

This was my goal #14 for Q4 Finish Along with     

Adrianne of On the Windy Side. 

The Circle Game

And the seasons they go round and round 

And the painted ponies go up and down 

We're captive on the carousel of time 

We can't return we can only look 

Behind from where we came 

And go round and round and round 

In the circle game  - Joni Mitchell

Audrey of the blog Quilty Folk had a brilliant idea to applique a circle a day for a year that  she called Quilty 365.      I decided to play along starting on Nov 4. I had been thinking of making some type of journal quilt so decided to choose my fabrics based on some highlight of the day. I also add a little handwriting describing the highlight.  Reminds me of the old Joni Mitchell song Circle Game so I'm calling my quilt Circle Game.

I'm showing my circles Nov 4 - Nov 29.   I have fabrics chosen for Nov 30 and today but don't have those circles cut yet. (It's been a long couple of days at work).

And, in case you are curious about some of those highlights -
In health news I found out lumps in my breast were cysts, my granddaughter needs to carry epi-pen since she had a severe allergic reaction to fresh pineapple and my health insurance premium will go up 127 % next year...Affordable Health Care, my ass.In other news,  I experienced an awesome sunrise, saw Venus every morning on my way to work and we had a record 9.9 inches of snow.  I finished a book, celebrated 29 years on the job, thought I heard a mouse under my bed, bought a new laptop with Windows 10 to replace my antique Windows XP.  Gas was 1.99 a gallon, we ate the last of our fresh tomatoes and I started a Peacock quilt.  Can't wait to see what December brings...one day at a time. 

Join in if you haven't already.  There are so many awesome interpretations of Quilty 365 out there. Don't believe me? Then you need to check out the Quilty 365 linky party.  I'm hopefully going to visit all the links this weekend.