Monday, July 31, 2017

La Belle Dame...framed!

I finished framing La Belle Dame Sans Merci this past weekend!  Here it is:


The frame is from PictureFrames.com.  It's from their Renoir collection.

I got this done just in time to show in my local county fair.  Entries go in this coming weekend.  I'll post after the fair with my results.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Finish It Up Challenge

Yes, yes, I know.  I have been neglecting this so far this year.  I couldn't even remember all that I had put on the list.  I did remember one thing though:  Finish my Through the Storm cross stitch as a free-standing block.

Guess what?  It's done!




Here's my list for this year:
  • Put all my loose floss on bobbins finished January 27th with new purchases done February 3rd
  • Stitch a design for the candlescreen that I have
  • Assemble my Happy Blocks quilt top
  • Assemble my Crumbs quilt top
  • Finish hand-quilting the Bullseye Quilt
  • Finish the Log Cabin Star wallhanging
  • Hand-quilt at least 10 blocks on my Christmas Strings quilt
  • Finish my Through the Storm cross stitch as a free-standing block  finished 30 July
  • Finish my green Temari ball
  • Finish 1 of my Santa kits (not cross stitch)
  • Make bookcases for my sewing room
  • Decorate wooden "S" for my sewing room


I have started on the 3rd one from the top:  Assemble my Happy Block quilt top.  So far, I have most of the blocks assembled.  I need to figure out what I'm going to do for sashing and borders.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Monday, July 24, 2017

If it's Summer...

...I must be working on quilts.  I don't know why, but when it gets hot outside, I want to create quilts.

At the moment, I've joined a couple of exchanges on FB.  In these exchanges, you make one 12" block for each person that has signed up and then mail them out to each person.  Here are some of the squares I made for the June/July exchange.  The colors were chosen but we each got to pick out what block to use them in.


I chose the Wagon Tracks block from QuiltersCache.com.  These were the last ones I needed to do for June/July.

For August, there were so many of us signed up, we got divided into smaller groups.  My group has 11 people with one person doing 2 blocks so I had to make 11 blocks total.  Our group was totally random for the colors and the block choices (as long as it finishes at 12").  This time I picked the Mosaic block from PatchworkSquare.com.  Since I had been running behind on the previous exchange, I wanted to make sure I was on the ball for August; my blocks are already done!  Here are the blocks I did:




These were a lot of fun to do!  The big squares in each block are 5" and the little ones are 2".  I have bins of both those sizes already cut so that saved a bunch of time.


I've been trying to tame my fabric stash while I've been making these quilt blocks.  I'm also doing a leader/ender project as described by Bonnie Hunter.  I've folded almost all of my fabric yardage (again, using Bonnie Hunter's technique) and rearranged it on my shelves.  Here are the before and after photos:



Now, I just have to deal with a few more yards and all the pieces that are less than a yard:



The first photo is mostly yardage.  The second is my "fat quarters" and scrap pieces.  Not all of the fat quarters were fat, they were smaller.  True fat quarters (18" x 22") are all getting folded the same way and put in a drawer together.  All the other pieces are getting cut up into:

  • 5" squares
  • 2" squares
  • 2½" strips
  • 2" x 3½" bricks
  • strips narrower than 2½ for string quilts
  • little bits smaller than 2" for crumb quilts
As I'm working on managing all these fabric chunks, I'm doing the Caroline Chain from Bonnie Hunter's book Addicted to Scraps as my leader/ender project.  It's the first one in the book.  I'm thinking about just doing every one in the book.  I'll get back to you on whether I do or not.  Here's what it looks like in the book:


I've been cutting a lot of the 2" squares and 2"x3½" bricks for this one.  I've been cutting 5" squares from my fabric chunks first and then I do a bunch of the smaller squares and bricks for this quilt.  I've been throwing the dark and light sets into these two baskets on the floor but I guess I needed some help from Spooky.


The shoebox tubs have the brick and squares in them and I just grab them at random to piece together.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy