Another Day, Another Border or Two

Jealousy????? Who's jealous?  I am. I am jealous of all the Dear Jane's that have their corner and borders on perfectly! I am jealous of those that have been quilted and have the scalloped borders on them. And I am jealous (but proud ) of all the Dear Jane's that are bound and ready to be admired. Maybe someday mine will be finished and I can say "Am I glad that's over".  It's nearly one o'clock here in Western Iowa and I just need to curl my hair and then I am going to start sewing on DJ again.  I have two more chunks of border to add then the borders will be done, kinda..I still need to add the outside border for the scallops but I don't have the fabric yet so it will be a few days again. I think I want to use a shirting fabric for the scallops and I want the background to match or blend with the muslin that I used for sashing. I best get busy so I'll be back to you later today with updates.   (Note:  the postcard was written by my grandmother to my grandfather in November 1910, they were married January 12, 1911)  I would like to think this is their wedding picture but I don't have any proof of it. Charles W. and Mabel E. Fletcher Seaman

4:00 p.m.- All four triangle borders are on and the top is pressed. I still need to add the last border for the scallops but I have to buy the fabric.  After I get that border on, I will take DJ to the machine quilter to baste it and then I can start hand quilting. I'm not even going to put a time limit on getting it finished as I know it will take me longer than I think it would, so when it's done, it's done.



Dear Jane, all triangle borders are on!

This was a lttle better day than yesterday when I fussed so much with the corner blocks. I have decided to leave them for the time being. Perhaps in a few days, I may tackle a couple of them again and see if I can improve upon them but they may start looking better every day, we'll see.  Gee, now I can start on another of my Phd Challenges, I think it will be the Quilted Village.....I'm on a roll!!  Until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of evening. 

  

Dear Jane, not again, you say!



This is a "Chunk"



Jane in a heap



Well, this is the "next" time that you are seeing her and she still does not have her borders on. This ole gal has been keeping me awake for the last two nights. I hear her crying and fussing (or maybe it's me) and it's got me in a dither. First of all, I had all the borders sewn together and I procrastinated for several hours about getting one of them on with a corner block and then adding the next border to it...let me tell you, I just couldn't figure out how far to sew or where to stop at the corner to make it come out and lay flat and look right. Aagh!! So that night (Thursday) she ended up on the floor in a heap, that was the night I was awake from 3 to 6. She was so cranky...Then I found Anina's blogspot "ThatQuilt" showing how she puts her corners on. She calls it "chunky" assembly method. Thank God for Anina, I would never have thought of doing that, I tried it and it worked.(only sometimes, for me)  But I had to un-sew my borders (just a little bit) and I got my first corner on yesterday morning. Whew! I was like a "deer in the headlights" when I got the first one done. And then I was gone all afternoon, came home and worked on Jane again last night and actually got the top border and both corners sewn on. (top picture) And the other corners ready to assemble, hmmm, I guess I didn't sleep last night very well again because I was so happy that I was making good progress and Jane seemed to be pacified about it too.  I hope to get all the borders on today.



I'm trying to git-r-done





My Featherweight, love sewing with it.



Well, between the last sentence and right now, I have had the 3rd corner on, unsewn it, sewn it back on FOUR times.  I cannot figure out the problem and I may have to take it to my friend, the hand-piecing guru to evaluate it. But right now, I'm going to church and pray that the 4th corner will go on as easily as one and two. I'll report back later. (Reporting--that didn't go so well either.)

I'm not doing any bragging here tonight. The corners did not go well today, it's after 9:00 o'clock and I'm quitting for today. I sure hope Jane doesn't keep me awake tonight, I'm so frustrated with her. I just have to admit that she has out-smarted me and it's not a good feeling. Now I know why I really prefer applique to piecing....so I'm going to go embroidery for a while..I sure hope you have NOT had a "Stitches" kind of day!!!

Here's a calming picture of the clouds that I took about noon today. Pretty aren't they?  Well, until next time.



Another Day of Sunshine and Sewing

Good Morning! as the postcard says.  This card is out of my grandmother's postcard album that I have. Most of the cards are at least 100 years old and I just love looking through them so you will be seeing a few of them from time to time. I'm so glad the sun is shining again today, it's makes such a difference in my mood and just makes Winter seem better.  I am participating in Myra's PhD Challenge as some of you know. One of my challenges is my Dear Jane quilt. I'm patting myself on the back already and my arm is getting sore! But when I started sewing on this again, only the middle part was together. The triangles, pieced and plain, were all just in pieces. I have all the borders sewn together and ready to put on the middle. I also had to add the little 1/4" piece all the way around the middle and that is done too. In the pictures below, the borders are just laying around  but hopefully, the next time you see it, it will be a whole quilt top.

 I'm just throwing a couple of pictures from my flowers file because I am reminiscing about last summer when they were so pretty. They are Caladiums and they are called "Gingerland"..I just love the red splotches on them and I just love Caladiums.  Do you think they are as attractive as I do?   I would love if you would comment on my blog.

I hope you will have a "Stitches" kind of day.. until next time.

Transfer-eze, a new product for me

Over the River and Through the Woods, to Grandmother's House We Go

I just want to "toot my horn" for a few minutes. I am embroidering on Crabapple Hills "Over the River and Through the Woods, To Grandmother's House We Go". If you are familiar with this pattern, you know that it has a lot of embroidery on it. I am using Transfer-eze for the first time and I love it. It comes on sheets and you just run it through your printer and print your pattern, then pull off the film and lay it down on your embroidery fabric and you are ready to go!!  Wow, can you imagine how much time that saves? And a backache from leaning over the light box. And when you are done, just soak it in cool water and the film is water soluble and it disappears, how easy can that be?  I have had a little problem with the film not sticking around the edges on some of the pieces and quickly just basted them down. I am willing to take the time to do the basting rather than tracing my patterns by light box. I have had my Transfer-eze for about 1 1/2 years and I am wondering if age has dried mine out a little. If anyone else, has used this product, I would love to hear about your experience with it, good or bad, just leave me a comment.                                          Another product that I use is Pellon fusible knit interfacing. I adhere it to the backs of all my embroidery to hide the stitches. It is very easy to stitch through and does a good job of giving body to the fabric and hiding the stitches. I have found between the 2 products that they give the project enough body that I don't have to use a hoop and that is a great advantage, I believe. It saves time when you don't have to hoop, unhoop, and hoop again. Can you hear the horn tooting? Try it, you'll like it. 

On this picture,  I have pulled the corner of the Transfer-eze up so you can see it.

This one just show the film on the fabric.

This is a picture of the back of my embroidery with the Pellon fusible interfacing on it.



On this one I have washed out the Transfer-eze and pressed my embroidery. I used Cosmo embroidery thread # 8042, it's a variegated brown thread and I really like the movement and depth it gave to my project. I don't know if you can see the different shades of brown or not in the pictures.  Always be sure and test your threads for colorfastness.

The sun is shining very bright here but  it is still very cold (only 5 degrees when I looked about an hour ago) shiver, shiver. The sun makes everything better, even the house is warmer but it's a good day to stay inside and get some sewing/quilting done..Until next time, I hope you are having a "Stitches" kind of day..ta da

Oprah and Australia

    I have been tossing and turning in bed since before 5:30 a.m. this morning with all kinds of things going through my mind for different things that I could blog about. I should have written them down immediately so I don't forget. I guess I will call this one of my "Etc." blogs. Have you been watching the Oprah show this last week? It has been unforgettable, I just love those kinds of shows where you get to see the sights and sounds of a far away country. She took over 200 staff members and 300+ audience members. What a trip of a lifetime for all of them. Oh, how I would love to talk to one of those people that were chosen to go on this trip, as I know they would have many more stories to tell than was on the Oprah show. After watching her shows, if I was to ever travel out of the USA, Australia would be at the top of my list. I found some pictures to share with you about Australia and I am glad that I got to learn so much from watching the shows the past week.  On a more sobering note, parts of Australia are having the worst flooding that they have had in over 100 years. My heart goes out to them and I am hoping that they have lots of support when it comes to cleaning up and getting back to a normal life. My prayers and thoughts are with them.





Isn't this about one of the most peaceful pictures? I would love to be there.

No More Apologizing

apology 1.an expression of regret for having insulted or wronged another 2. a defense, as for a cause or doctrine
     I haven't posted anything for 12 days but I am not going to apologize (ever again). I don't believe that I have insulted or wronged anyone, at least, I hope not and in my own 'defense' I think that I have been just plain lazy about posting or I haven't had anything to say..and if I don't have any thing to say then you wouldn't want to read it anyway, would you?? There I got that off my chest and now I can go forward...it's not that I haven't been busy or doing stuff. Last week 4 of my quilter friends came for lunch and brought most of it. We had 2 kinds of soup, seven layer salad, cheese, crackers, pulled BBQ pork, bread and dessert..it was really tasty, what a nice way to entertain and get together with friends!!.They said they wanted to come over to see what I had accomplished on my PhD's. So we looked and discussed and pondered over my PhD's .I have been working on my Dear Jane and I am glad to report that I have 3 of the borders sewn together. I planned to sew today but it is already 3:30 pm and here I sit at the computer.

   A few weeks ago, I embroidered on a tea towel and plan to give it away to a friend, who had done several things for me and I think she needs to be compensated a little. I embroidered on opposite corners and I think the teapot, cup and saucer came out pretty good. Can you see a couple of little yellow beads that I added for just a little bling?  I love beads and put them on anything when I have a chance. I sure hope she likes it and if I make a loaf of Poppy Seed bread, she surely will. I will let you know when I give it to her. Well, I best go do some sewing, perhaps I can get that 4th border sewn together and then put them on the quilt. It will be a fine day when DJ is sewn together at last!!  Until next time, I hope you have a "Stitches" kind of day, my day here is very snowy.

Sorry I've been "silent" for so long

Greetings from snowy Iowa. We are supposed to get between 6-8 inches of snow before Tuesday and actually I'm rather looking forward to being housebound so maybe I can get some sewing done. I just got done posting pictures on Myra's PhD Challenge..I have committed to getting 3 projects done before June 30th. The three that I chose (it was a dam hard decision) have been laying around for far too many years. So I will share with you the ones that I have chosen.

This is a Santa Block of the Month that I did several (many) years ago but want to add an extra border to it and also add some applique Christmas lights to the border. I will have this machine quilted but not by me. This is the oldest of the three I have chose for the challenge.

The next one is the Quilted Village. The center and the blocks are done but the blocks need to be cut to size and added to the center and then quilted. I plan on quilting it myself.

The last but not least, is my Dear Jane quilt. "She" is ready to have the borders put on so I think today I am going to work on sewing some of those triangles together. "She" has just been laying around for several years gathering dust and "she" is sick of it.

I don't know what my hang-up is with finishing projects, maybe I need some consolling. :-) I would much rather start something than finish it, what do you think about that? Well, time's a'wasting so I best get busy and GET THOSE PROJECTS FINISHED. I will let you know how much progress that I am making on these from time to time...Until next time, I hope you have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Happy, Happy New Year!!

I just had to jump on here and wish everyone a Happy New Year because I wanted to say that today is 1-1-11 and we won't ever be able to say or write that again..I didn't do much today, infact, I didn't even stick my nose outside. It was so cold and it just felt nice to be inside and keep warm. I was reading the Pioneer Woman's blog and ran across her Cinnamon Swirl Bread, it looked so good that I jumped right up and went to the kitchen and made it.  I have already had 2 pieces and another may be in order before I go to bed...;-) I embroidered on one of the panels of the Crabapple Hill pattern "Over the River and Through the Woods". I am going to post on it and tell you how I am doing it and what products that I'm using. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow, if I'm not to full of Cinnamon Swirl Bread, yummmmy stuff.

Hey, come on over and have a piece with me, I'll put the coffee pot on.  Until next time, I hope you had a "Stitches" kind of day.