Daily Stitching

January is half over and it feels like I've been on a bit of a treadmill.  Mind you, there's no room for a treadmill in our little house, but trying to meet a fast-approaching hand quilting deadline can sure feel like it!  Getting close to completing the big stitch quilting on the giant hexie quilt, then it'll be on to the binding and label for an end-of-the month birthday.  So looking forward to having this one completed and being able to get on to a new project.  No new photos since it basically looks just like this last one, only with more of the same ...

I'm continuing to love that bit of respite each day when I stitch up the next Quilty 365 circle.  Teresa of A Quilt and a Prayer blog recently commented on how much she liked one of the reindeer circles from December, so I sent her the small piece of that fabric that remained from the fat quarter .. as a bribe encouragement to start her own Quilty 365 project.  A few days later she gifted me with a piece of this fabulous winter bird fabric - I love it!  Thanks so much Teresa!  I've already used it for two of this month's circles, and I'm sure the remainder will find its way into another project or two.

Hmm - not too good at keeping the camera angle straight on.   Anyhow, a few other favorites from this month's batch of quilty circles:

Have always loved these primitive house and barn sketches

Memories of whale-watching trips along the Oregon coast

Trying out a few different colors for background squares

Back in December Anna at Woolie Mammoth blog held a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway, and I was one of the lucky winners - of this book filled with yummy recipes and quilts in all my favorite colors. Thanks Anna!

Signing off for now - with luck my next post will have a first 2016 finish.  One can always hope!

Quilty 365 - January Link-up

It's a new year and time for our second link-up with Audrey's Quilty 365 Quiltalong. December was a decidedly frenetic month, and for awhile I was so bogged down that my little circles were piling up, nearly two weeks' worth, waiting their turn under the needle. Thankfully we're all caught up now, and here are my December circles (the one in the upper right is actually November 30 - forgot to remove it for the photo).

Debbie at Stitchin' Therapy had a great idea of offsetting the blocks rather than lining them up straight across, which I immediately borrowed for this photoshoot.  They seem to be more interesting this way, to my eye.   Here are all the circles I've completed so far, with the newest ones on the left, placed on the design wall vertically by weeks. I finally had to remove the spare basket blocks from the design wall since these babies are quickly taking over!

I began stitching circles on November 9, and there are 53 circles made through December 31.  Seems like I've been binging on dark circles so far ... will need to work harder at finding more light/bright fabrics to use.  That will probably occur naturally when spring arrives, don't you think? My circles are pretty much plain-Jane, especially compared with some of the more creative participants in this group.  It's been so much fun to see all the originality happening with this simple concept!  While I'd hoped to make the circles completely from the various scrap bags and bins, there are already a few instances where a somewhat larger piece of a favorite fabric has been cut into.  And there will definitely be repeats of the same fabric before all 366 or so are completed!

A few of my favorites from December:

So, here's the thing - there's still time to join in the fun.  Several of my blogging friends have decided to begin on January 1, a great way to begin a new year.  That little bit of time every afternoon or evening with a hand stitching project is so relaxing!  After 50-plus circles I can see my needle-turn applique skills slowly improving, though there's obviously still room for much more improvement! You can check out some really creative takes on this project by heading over to Audrey's Quilty 365 linky party right here.

January 1 - Happy New Year!  

Out with the old ...

No, wait, I love old!  What's the hurry to begin another year anyway?  We're all just going to get another year older.  It's 3 a.m. and I think I'll just savor this very long sweet last day of 2015 since sleep seems to be eluding us yet again.

Many of my blogging friends have been considering their Word for 2016.  Something I've not done before, but considering it seems pretty harmless and doesn't require keeping up with a BOM or mystery quilt-along, I think we'll join in for 2016.  So, the word from here is Thankfulness - for each day of life, for our family, our church friends near and far, blogging buddies, for the luxury of being retired and (almost) able to have enough time to quilt to my heart's content.

So, the other night after our houseful of guests including four of the grandkids and two (large) grand-dogs had left, I found myself with nothing prepped for evening stitching!  Let me just say that was a most empty feeling - that needed immediate fixing.  So, by the next evening my recliner looked something like this.

Much better!

Current quilt in the hand-held hoop is my version of Country Roads from Lori's Humble Quilts fall quiltalong.  I've so enjoyed making this little quilt top and look forward to seeing it finished and gracing the antique table next to the recliner.  Though difficult to see in the next photo the central pieced block is now quilted with cross-hatching through the small four-patches and the setting squares are marked with a feathery stencil.

After a week of being way behind on stitching my Quilty 365 circles, they are finally caught up again!  This week after Christmas is a time of reflection and several of the circle fabrics have a softer, antique-y feel.  This next one was chosen for Christmas night, when we experienced a gorgeous full moon and starlit sky, so bright we could see the surrounding mountains clearly.

   Galaxy

See you next year!

Merry Christmas!

May the Reason for the Season reside in your hearts throughout the New Year!

Finished at Last!

Finished at last and slept under last night.  My Christmas gift to me, this Blockade Quilt, now officially out of the quilting hoop, all bound and about to have its label attached.

I had help stitching down the binding

Trying to find a place large enough to spread it out for photographing the entire quilt was impossible. It finished at 80 x 90 inches after washing - here it is on the guest bed where it will take up residence

This quilt came to me as a completed top, the seller had acquired it from the estate of an Ohio Mennonite lady who was a prolific quilter and had also owned a quilt shop for many years. The top is machine stitched, with fabrics primarily from the 1950-1960s era, although there are several fabrics that appear earlier than the others, the one below feels and looks like feedsack to me.

Some of the fabrics remind me of pajama prints from the 50s when I was very young, especially that blue print in the lower left corner of the following photo.

I spent nearly eight months hand quilting this vintage piece, working on it a little every day and finally finished the borders in a week-long marathon of stitching, pretty much abandoning all the other in-progress projects.

Border detail

Back is white muslin that shows quilting detail 

The mail brought a little package the other day, from an old friend on the west coast.  Inside was her Christmas card and this sweet little ornament!  Exquisitely detailed, constructed with five different wood species, and the machine has gold metallic thread 'threaded' through a tiny wood tension mechanism and wire thread guides.  The ornament is approximately two inches long and a little over an inch tall.   Love it!

A closer detail:

Today's agenda includes making a huge batch of pierogi for the holidays, then we really must get out the wrapping paper and ribbons and attack the mound of gifts piling up in the guest room.  Time's a'wasting, and we celebrate an early Christmas with my son and DIL and the three youngest grands on Wednesday.  The rest of the grands will arrive on Sunday for their Christmas in the country.  Busy happy times ahead.   To all of my blogging friends I wish a joyous and peaceful Christmas with friends and family.  

A Little Bit of This ...

A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and the days go flying by.  The Christmas cards are on the dining room table, partially addressed, not a single gift is wrapped, the cookies and pierogi are yet to be made.  What's the problem you ask - birthdays, that's what!  Just this week we've traveled halfway across the state twice - in different directions - to celebrate three family birthdays!  Fun, but the travel time sure eats away at productive time.  I tried taking along some of the Quilty 365 circles to applique while traveling on Wednesday, managed to complete one and get a start on another.  Found that if the roads are not entirely smooth, traveling in a pickup truck makes it somewhat difficult to maintain nice tiny even stitching.  Still, it is possible to get something accomplished.  Anyway, here are last week's circles.

A bit of a holiday theme going on at the moment.  I've been going through the Christmas fabrics and scrap bins looking for some pieces that remind me of Christmas projects past.  Christmas seems especially festive this year as we've had a fun time decorating our little country home (actually more of a slightly overgrown cabin) for the first time, and we will be seeing all the grandchildren this year.

I also managed to complete one quilty Christmas gift this year, and since I don't think the recipient reads my blog will show it now.  Easy peasy with this great fabric purchased a few years ago.  The backs of a couple of the placemats are pieced, the mats are free motion quilted in meandering leaf, wavy lines, overall flowery and the jesters hat patterns.  There was just enough fabric left to make four coordinating napkins.

A slightly closer view though the color is a bit washed out:

With any luck there will be one last finish for the year - hand stitching the binding down on the Blockade quilt is proceeding slowly during the evenings, about half completed now.  I may just reach my goal of having this one finished by Christmas!

Christmas Nostalgia

Every year when the boxes of decorations come out, the first items to be hung are two fabric Christmas trees.

My mom and I made four of these trees in late summer of 1982.  I was living in Alaska at the time, was expecting my daughter, and my mom was visiting for a couple weeks.  A happy time stitching and stuffing the triangles, one of my favorite memories of my mom.  I kept two of the trees for our home and gave one to her and the last one went to my MIL for Christmas that year.  This one hangs in the dining room and the second one decorates the back (main) entrance to our house.

The Blockade quilt inches closer to completion with less than 3 feet of the last border left to be quilted!  Hopefully I'll be on to the binding by weekend, though our schedule is getting busier by the day, with a lot of family birthdays in addition to Christmas preparations.  A last-minute gift project is in the works, photos to come later.

The circles keep adding up and are slowly taking over the design wall.  Here are days 22 thru 28.

Starting to find a few seasonal fabrics in the scrap bins to add to the mix.  And I found one scrap of this lovely old indigo floral.  So nice to see it again!

Quilty 365 - Linking Up

As many of you know, Audrey over at Quilty Folk is hosting a year-long quilt-along she's named Quilty 365, and today is her first linky party where we get to share our progress and admire what everyone else has been doing along the way.  These quilts are a very personal journey for each participant, a journey with a simple premise, to choose one fabric each day that reflects that day's mood, the weather, a holiday, whatever represents that day in your quilting life.  Applique a circle of your chosen fabric to a 4 1/2 inch square.  Next day, repeat.  For a year, or even a bit longer, depending on your desired finished quilt size.

And it's not to late to join in.  Several participants are a week or two ahead of my progress, others have just begun their own Quilty 365 journey.  It's all great fun and great encouragement to share our progress with some new quilty friends as well as long-time blogging buddies.

Today will be day 23 in this girl's Quilty 365 odyssey, as I began on Monday, November 9.  Though today's circle isn't yet stitched (it is only 7 a.m.) I'm happy to report that so far I've been able to stay on task and have a completed applique circle for each day so far of this year-long journey!

The first 22 days

It's difficult to resist the urge to pull scraps for a week's worth of circles at a time, so there's a messy pile in one corner of the cutting table most of the time these days, with several other projects going on simultaneously.  And I tell you, it's doubly hard to resist cutting just one little circle out of a corner of some favorite fabrics waiting in their respective bins for quilts still in the planning stages!  But this like so many other quilts will be built from a year of patience, one piece at a time, of contemplative stitching while sipping a mug of morning latte or evening tea.  I've been documenting each week's progress, this is my third week - days 15-21:

Week 3

and yesterday - day 22:

Now, it's time to link up with Audrey at Quilty Folk, then find some breakfast, pour a second cup of coffee and come back and check out what everyone else has been stitching.