Sewing a Binding for Slow Sunday Stitching

I finally made and sewed the binding to the front of Everyday Patchwork last week and began the slow task of stitching it down on the back last Thursday.  I think I stitched an inch or two then, but today, I hope to stitch more while watching the Memorial Day celebration on PBS. 

I also plan to add a few more quilting stitches to Parsonsfield. I tried to add a photo but Blogger seems not to want to let me share a photo with you. I guess I'll post that another time or when it's finished.

I hope you're having a pleasant and restful Sabbath and have a good Memorial Day tomorrow (for those living in the U.S.)

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

Straight from the Quilting Hoop

At long last and with not much time to spare for my April One Monthly Goal, the quilting on my version of Cheri Payne's Everyday Patchwork is finished!

I first posted about this quilt in June, 2018, when I began making blocks.  Gosh, that's a lot of years!  I'm glad it's almost finished.

It is quilted with Baptist Fans, beginning at the bottom right side of the quilt and finishing across the top from right to left. I always wish the top edge of the Fans would end a quarter inch from the top edge of the quilt because I think the lower vertical edges of the Fans don't look quite right.  (You can click to enlarge this photo and see what I'm talking about.)  I suppose most people, including me, don't notice after the quilt is completely finished.

I have a question for you quilters who are reading.  When you cut the batting and backing edges off a top that's been quilted, do you cut along the quilt's edges or do you use a straight edge and a square at the corners to make sure the quilt is square?  I never have but I also notice that sometimes my quilts are not square, with one side or end a little longer than the other.  I'm just wondering what you do.  Thanks for responding (if you do).

I'll post details about this quilt after it's bound, washed, and dried.

I'm linking this post to
  >  April One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up at Stories from the Sewing Room
  >  Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.

Nearly Three More Rows on Everyday Patchwork

My One Monthly Goal for February was to hand quilt two rows of Baptist Fans on Everyday Patchwork.  I'm pleased to have finished nearly three rows.  I think I have three fans left to get to the end of the third row.  Maybe I can quilt them tonight and tomorrow before the end of the month.

In the photo above, you can see that I have a little more than two more rows of blocks plus the top border before the quilting will be done.  So I'm already setting my One Monthly Goal for March:  to hand quilt three rows of Baptist Fans.

I'm marking the fans with Prismacolor colored pencils, using a yellow/cream color on the darks,

and a dark green on the lights. (In the photo above you can see that my new phone's camera creates garish colors!)

I've used these colored pencils to mark quilts before and the colors have washed out. The green seems to be lightening as I quilt but I'm feeling a little concerned that it won't wash out completely.  I'll have to use cold water for the first wash.

In case you missed it in the paragraphs above, my One Monthly Goal for March is to hand quilt three more rows on Everyday Patchwork.

I'm linking this post to
> February One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up for my finish and March One Monthly Goal for March's goal.  Both at Stories from the Sewing Room. 
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
Thank you for hosting, Anne-Marie and Alycia.

--Nancy.

Tipping over the Edge of Halfway - One Monthly Goal

I'm so sorry for more photos of this quilt so soon.  When I'm working on only one or two quilts or projects it's hard to share something new with every post.

I finished hand quilting to the middle of this quilt today, or just above the middle.  In the photo below it's to the middle of the fourth row of blocks counting from the top of the quilt, the row with the pink and white skinny plus block. 

I considered quilting from the top down on the rest of the quilt so the fans would meet near the middle.  But when I quilt from an edge the fabric seems to shift forward ever so slightly, so I've decided I should probably keep going the direction I've been quilting.  Why risk a small mound of fabric in the center of the quilt?  I'm not sure why that happens.

My monthly goal for February is to hand quilt two rows of fans across this quilt.  I think I should be able to accomplish that.

On a health note, my vertigo seems to be gone--has been gone for longer than a week.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me.  The physical therapist recommended that I continue the eye and balance exercises the rest of my life!  Vertigo is one of the maladies that, once you've had it, can return unexpectedly at any time.  The exercises aren't so bad and they only take a few minutes.

I'm linking this post to
> February One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room and
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia's Quilts.
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.

Marking was the Right Thing This Time

I lost momentum on Everyday Patchwork about a year ago and the hand quilting stalled. 

Now that I'm using colored pencils to mark several fans, I can just sit and quilt without the interruption of having to mark as I go.  Yes!  I'm no longer stalled on this quilt.

I love using these homemade templates, imperfect as they are.

I'm almost halfway finished.  I started quilted rows from across the bottom, upward toward the center.  I'm thinking of turning the quilt around and marking from the top to the center, then finish by quilting the fans in arcs from the sides to the center.  If anyone notices, it will be something interesting for them to wonder about.

My vertigo has been gone for a week!  Hooray!  I'm so very grateful.  I hope it doesn't return.  Having vertigo after a knee replacement prevented good improvement on my balance and gait.  Physical therapy will help so I will finish the few weeks of appointments. 

I continue to have the months-long headache.  The doctor thought it might be one of my prescriptions so she asked me to stop it for two weeks and see.  It's been 10 days and the headache persists.  It may be that my eyes need a new prescription for glasses (appointment scheduled).  Since nothing else has helped, I hope that's it.  Also, sadly, my body chose stress-induced sciatica for the next challenge.   Ouch!  It's not as painful as the last time I had it but still painful.  If I can manage the stress the sciatica will go, and it has been slowly decreasing.  One of these days I should be back to or better than the old normal.

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Thank you for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

Trying for Normal and Baptist Fan Templates for Everyday Patchwork

One of the quilts I've been thinking about while I've been trying to get past vertigo is this Everyday Patchwork.  I was hand quilting it and had finished about a fourth to a third of it, then lost interest.  I wondered why.  I normally enjoy hand quilting but this quilt stalled—maybe for a year—so I've been hoping to get going on it again.  Maybe not right away, though, because hand stitching and vertigo aren't exactly friends.

I had been marking each arc with pins before quilting and wondered if that was the problem.  I decided to make templates so I could mark several fans at a time, or even a whole row. 

I know I can buy ready-made plastic templates but I wanted one with the arcs 1 1/4" apart.  I finally settled on using cardboard (maybe from a cereal or cracker box), using a protractor to make partial circles, each a 1 1/4" larger than the previous. 

You can see the results here.  They aren't evenly spaced!  The outer and inner circles are just the right size but the middle one is a little small.  I decided to either shift its template toward the larger arc or quilt on the outside of the line to even the distance between all three arcs.  I used Prismacolor pencils to draw the lines on the fabric.  It has washed out on other quilts so I think it will be fine.  In fact, it may be too fine because part of several lines disappeared before I finished tracing several arcs.  I also have some washable Crayola markers to try if the Prismacolors don't work.

Trying to do what I normally do while living with vertigo is no small challenge.  I feel like my body is being held hostage, limiting me in so many ways.  And the constant headache doesn't help, either.  I went for an MRI yesterday and to a physical therapist today.  After some tests, the PT confirmed that it's not positional vertigo and is likely vestibular neuritis just as the ENT doctor thought, though the PT also said that it could be caused by something else but wouldn't know until we see whether the exercises he prescribed help or not. 

He suggested that if some particular actions (lying down, looking up) make me dizzy or feel like I'm spinning, I should repeat the movements at least several times, waiting for the dizziness/spinning to stop before repeating.  The idea is that this will retrain my brain.  Crazy!

This beautiful frozen kale greeted me on my way into physical therapy today.  Flowers in the snow!

We had a beautiful snow, though it happened at night so I didn't get to see it falling.  It was only about 4" but because it's so cold, it's lingering.  I love it!

I hope you have a good weekend.
--Nancy.

One Monthly Goal Finish for January

My monthly goal for January was to finish hand quilting one more row of fan on Everyday Patchwork. 

This is the end of that row.  (I quilt fans from right to left.)  I think I calculated/estimated how many more rows I have to quilt but I can't remember.  I just know I need to pick up the speed or the amount of time quilting so I can finish this quilt sooner than later!

I'm linking this post to January One Monthly Goal Finish at Stories from the Sewing Room.

Thanks for hosting, Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.

A Row of Fans: One Monthly Goal

I think I've been quilting Everyday Patchwork since the middle of August and have made only a little progress--just two rows of fans across the bottom.  If I continue at the rate I've been going the quilt won't be finished until next year around this time.  If it had dense quilting I would be satisfied, but I'm quilting Baptist Fans at 1¼" apart!  Definitely not dense quilting.

When I was quilting the border, it was easy going, though I needed more and better light than usual.  Now that I'm quilting the blocks, the seams make it a little challenging. 

I admire all the finished quilts others post on their blogs and decided that if I want to get this quilt finished, I need to dedicate more time to quilting it.  Finishing one row of Fans will be my One Monthly Goal for October.

I'm linking this post to October One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room.  Thanks for hosting, Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I have a choice of two things to stitch today.  Or maybe I'll stitch a little on both.

First is this little plaid basket with bright zinnias.

I haven't taken a single stitch on this block yet and before I do, I'll reevaluate the placement of the parts.  Do I like that stem in the middle?  Are its leaves a good size?  Does the flower on the right need a few leaves?  Does the flower on the left need another leaf?  Those kinds of questions.  I always begin by stitching the stems and I think the ones on the right and left are in good shape for me to stitch today.  (It's just the middle on that's in question.)

Second is hand quilting Everyday Patchwork.

I've quilted only one row of fans across the width of the quilt.  I like how the green thread mostly disappears.  For some reason, it's easy for me to do other things instead of hand quilt if there's not something to watch on TV or a book to listen to..  But I want to make progress on this so perhaps a few fans will be just thing thing for today.

I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

P.S.  Blogger is currently not sending comments to my email.  If you leave a comment (and I hope you do!), I'll respond here on the blog and if I know your email address I'll respond directly to you. 

Everyday Patchwork--August One Monthly Goal Finish

My version of Cheri Payne's Everyday Patchwork is finally layered, pin-basted, and quilting is in progress.  That was my One Monthly Goal for August.

Of course, now I can see how some blocks could have been placed differently.

I deliberated what quilting pattern to use.  I'd been leaning toward Baptist Fans and finally made the decision to go with three arcs per fan, each about 1¼" apart.  I've never marked the fans before and I didn't really want to this time, but I always feel uncertain about the irregularity of my freehand/free motion hand quilted arcs.  I found encouragement in this article, "How-to Quilt it Freehand," by Joe Cunningham at Threads magazine.  My arcs will never look like his, but then this is a primitive-style quilt in which perfection is not expected, right?

Quilt beginnings with dark green thread, right through the appliques.  Will I like it?  I don't know but I wanted to try all-over quilting on an appliqued quilt.

I love the combination of teals, dark greens, and greens-leaning-toward-blues.  Cheri used black for her background but I just couldn't do it.  These dark greens were the closest to black I could find on my shelves that looked pleasing to me.

It's a wonder I'm getting anything done.  I have little energy and no motivation.  Maybe it's the heat.  Even with central air conditioning, the humidity and high dew point make themselves known.   I'm looking forward to fall and cooler weather.

Just for Fun....

My husband grew a small patch of sunflowers a number of years ago....  The centers, with their amazing symmetry, never fail to attract and hold my attention.

And our girl, Nona, tight-lipped and not thrilled to be the Airedale-of-interest for the camera.  (She is always thrilled to be the Airedale-of-interest in person and loves any bit of attention.)  This is one of the first photos in which she looked my way and held a pose.  I'm still working to help her adjust to being photographed.  

I'm linking this post to
> One Monthly Goal Finish Link-up at Elm Street Quilts
> Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
> Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts
> National Dog Day 2023 at Quilt Fabrication
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

I hope all is well in your part of the world!

--Nancy.

Flowers, My One Monthly Goal Finish for July

I finished quilting "Flowers," my One Monthly Goal for July.  Hooray!  I'm such a slow quilter so I'm happy it's done.

To finish, I quilted diagonal lines on the lower right block, quilted around and in the flowers of that block, and also quilted the leaves and flowers in another block or two.

After finishing the quilting I just kept going, cutting and attaching the binding.  I had hoped to also finish stitching the binding before the end of July but I know I won't get it done because I've only finished stitching most of one side.  I'll finish sometime this coming week.  I'll post more about this quilt when it's washed, dried, and completely finished. 

I'm looking forward to getting the next top ready to be quilted!

I'm linking this post to July OMG Finish Link-up at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Patty and Anne-Marie.

--Nancy.

Flowers for April's One Monthly Goal

Hand quilting is the easiest thing for me to put off.  I usually quilt when I'm watching--or half-watching--TV or a movie.  There are programs I watch several days during the week, but not every day.  I need to make the commitment to quilt six days a week whether I'm watching something on TV or not.

The photo above has truer colors than the one below, but it's harder to see the hand quilting.  The photo below shows the quilting lines better.

I am somewhere between halfway and two-thirds finished with the quilting.  My One Monthly Goal for April is to finish the outline quilting on the tulip block in the upper left corner and quilt the diagonal lines through that block and the sashing to where the morning glories are.

I quilted lines through the vases and I think I need to reconsider that.  Maybe they would be better quilted some other way. 

You wouldn't think straight diagonal lines would take so long but they seem to!

I'm linking this post to April One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Patty.

--Nancy.

Slowly Quilting Flowers

If I slow stitch today, it will probably be hand quilting this Tulips block and the surrounding section of border on Linda Brannock's Flowers quilt.

I think the quilt is going so slowly because I'm quilting lines an inch apart.  What was I thinking?  I think you can see the quilting in the photo, below.  The background, sashing, and borders have parallel lines; the flowers, leaves, and pots are outlined with some echo stitching inside.

I've quilted six blocks:  on the top row, the two on the right; all three on the row below that; and the pineapple.  And about a third of the border is quilted.  Still to do are the tulips, top left; the little baskets, below center on the left; the three blocks across the bottom:  Cacti, Stocks, and Marigolds & Blueberries.

Don't bother enlarging the photos to see details.  My phone's camera doesn't do very well sometimes and my poor, dear, old Canon PowerShot A560 is having some problems and needs to go to a repair shop.  I think--and hope!-- it just needs an adjustment to the settings.

On Sunday I'll link this post to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

Volunteer Bloom and Berries - December One Monthly Goal Finish

December's One Monthly Goal was to finish hand quilting one block of my version of Linda Brannock's Flowers quilt.  It's this one, Volunteer Bloom and Berries, below, and it's finished.

It's hard to see the quilting but it's there.

This is the third block I've quilted and have moved on to the fourth, Bluebells.  You can just barely see it to the right and below the block I just finished.

I think I like the diagonal quilting lines, ~1" apart.   This Mountain Mist 80/20 cotton/poly batting is puffier than most others I've used and I'm not sure what that will do to the appearance of the final quilt.  One thing I know, though, is that it will be warm.

This is the whole quilt.  The red lines you see in some of the photos are the ones I used to mark a few diagonals.

I mentioned in the last post about this quilt how challenged I felt about quilting diagonal lines across the whole quilt and keeping them in line across and down the quilt.  Robin of I Like to Create mentioned in a comment that she'd had trouble with that until she discovered why.  When I asked, she said she'd been marking each new line based on the previous one.  I had been doing that after I marked the first line or two.  (It doesn't seem practical to me to mark every line across the whole quilt, from one edge to the other.  So I've been marking sections....)

When I first marked the quilt I'd made a paper template with the angle marked with a fold.  You can see that the paper is not a true rectangle but the only two lines I'm using are the top one and the angle.

Making sure that the quilt is flat and straight, I place the paper against a horizontal line in the quilt, then use a 24- or 36-inch ruler to mark a few quilting lines.  (In case you can't read it, the paper below says at the top, "Place this edge along horizontal straight line."

I'm hoping checking and marking the angle of the lines against the template will be successful.  And if it isn't, I hope the quirkiness of the lines will fit with the quirkiness of the quilt.

If you have any pointers for me, I'd love to hear them.

I'm linking this post to December One Monthly Goal Finish at Elm Street Quilts. Thanks for hosting, Patty.

I'm also linking this with
> Finished (or not) Friday at Alycia Quilts and
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
Thanks for hosting, ladies.

--Nancy.

Finished Flowers Blocks and Thanksgiving Memories

My One Monthly Goal for November was to finish quilting these two blocks of my Flowers quilt, the bromeliad on the right and the morning glories on the left.  I had already quilted around the edges of the bromeliad and some of  the triangles around the edges of that block, but nothing on the background.

You can faintly see the diagonal quilting lines in the photo above and the two below.  The lines are about 1" apart.

I decided on the diagonal lines (that are not at right angles to either edge) based on another Linda Brannock quilt I saw online here.  To me this Flowers quilt is quirky enough to handle non-right angle parallel lines.

I think it will be tricky to keep the lines straight and parallel across the whole quilt, though.  I've been marking a few lines on one or two blocks at a time using a yardstick.  I use a piece of paper folded to the diagonal angle I want and then place it along one of the straight edges of the quilt to mark the line.  I hope that by the time the quilting is finished all the lines will be fairly straight and close to parallel.  It that's not so, I hope the quilt is quirky enough that the quilted lines being slightly crooked will look like they were intended to be that way.

Before I decided how to quilt the background and before I saw the inspiration quilt (link above) I'd already outline-quilted some of the half-square triangles that form the sashing.  I've decided to quilt right across those triangles with the parallel lines, which means I have to decide whether to remove the stitches from the triangles I already quilted or leave the stitching.  In the photo below you can see the lines marked for quilting and how they cross over the already-stitched triangles.

After having quilted these two blocks I realized that this quilt would have been a good candidate for big stitches using perle cotton.  But that's a change I'm not going to make this time.

Thanksgiving was fun, interesting, and challenging.  We have such a mix of personalities, likes/dislikes, and needs in our family.  My daughter, son-in-law, and their five children (ages 10 to 18 months) came.  Think fun, energetic, noisy, and curious, and not all were perfectly healthy.  My nurse daughter had just finished working five 12-hour night shifts on Wednesday morning.  (Read that as exhausted and in need of sleep.)  

Some highlights of the weekend, small memories that I think will be indelible in my mind:

• Seeing my year-and-a-half granddaughter moving glass votive candle holders into a small glass baking dish was such a treat.  She was very carefully holding the dish and even more carefully lifting and placing the holders into the dish.  She looked so pleased with herself.
• We recently discontinued our home phone service but hadn't removed all of the phones yet.  Our 10-year-old grandson noticed one of the phones and asked if we were still using it and, when we were finished with it, if he could have it.  I immediately removed it from the wall and gave it to him.  What fun to see his imaginative play focused on that phone! 
• Our daughter and family shared a thankful poster with so many items.  Amongst the commonly-listed family members and other people, all named individually, they included beets, ice, lettuce, avocados, chickens, moon, oven, pain medicine, Cheesy Bacon Brussels Sprouts, and many more.  
• They brought a huge stem of Brussels sprouts.  I've seen them at farmers' markets but had never purchased them.  It was fun to cut them off the stem and, with the help of the two older children, wash and cut them, then roast them to go with Thanksgiving dinner.
  

My horticulturist son-in-law gave a video class on wreath-making earlier in the week.  He gave me the wreath he used for demonstration (which I just now noticed is crooked hanging on the door).  I don't decorate for Christmas until December 1 or after but for this, I made an exception.  It is beautiful!

I'm linking this post to November One Monthly Goal Finish at Elm Street Quilts.  Thank you for hosting, Patty.

I hope all is well with you and in your world.

--Nancy.

Using a Little Hoop for Slow Sunday Stitching

If I can I'll add stitches to Dear Prudence today.  I'm using a little 10" hoop. 

I chose olive green thread and am quilting simple outline stitches.  Since the batting is a piece of flannel and because it won't be heavily used, I don't think it needs a lot of quilting.  After I layered it and searched for a needle I began to think that the flannel was going to be too hard to quilt.  I kept trying out different needles and realized that the right needle makes all the difference!

I hope you have a good Sabbath, whatever you're doing.

--Nancy.

Very Slow Stitching

I've quilted seven of the blocks on Cheddarback, enough that I decided I could begin quilting sashings between the quilted blocks.

I remember noticing a quirkiness about the quilting in the sashing when I watched Gay Bomers's video about Cheddarback.  Can you see it in this photo below?

All the blocks are quilted on the diagonal about 1½" apart.  The sashing is quilted on the diagonal, too, but perpendicular to the quilting in the blocks.  One would think it should all align uniformly but it doesn't in the original, and it doesn't in mine.  The quilting lines around the red cornerstones between the large blocks don't frame the cornerstones like I imagine they should.  I won't change it because I'm trying to replicate the original as much as possible.

If I have a chance to stitch today, this is what I'll be stitching.  This is definitely slow stitching because all those seams are challenging. 

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.   Thanks for hosting, Kathy.

--Nancy.

One Monthly Goal Finish for April

My One Monthly Goal for April was to hand quilt 10 of the 39 remaining unquilted blocks in Autumn Maples.  You know how it is when you get to the edges of a quilt:  it seems like it takes longer than the whole center.  It's no different with this one.

Of the 39 blocks that needed to be quilted at the beginning of the month there are now 20 left to quilt, which means I've quilted 19.  Goal met!  I know the month's not over but we're on call to help our daughter when she comes home from the hospital with our new granddaughter.  I'll continue to quilt while I'm home but the quilt will stay at home while we help her and her family. 

You can see the quilting lines a little better in this photo.  It's probably because I'm quilting this autumn quilt in the spring, but I'm having a love/hate relationship with it.  

I'm looking forward to having this done, which tells me I need to get the next quilt ready so I can just keep quilting.  I'm sure I'll have to choose and possibly buy backing for whichever quilt it is and I'll need to get batting, too.

Have you heard that the price of fabric will be going up within the next few months?  I wish it weren't so, but then hasn't nearly everything increased in price?

I'm linking this post to One Monthly Goal April Finish Link-up at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Patty.

--Nancy.

Binding the Blue and the Gray - One Monthly Goal for November

Hooray!  I finished the quilting on the Blue and the Gray quilt yesterday, and today I cut around the edges.  

I think maybe you can see the quilting a little better in this photo, below -- diagonal in the blocks and cornerstones, lines in the sashing.  At the time I took this I still had one border rectangle and one corner to quilt.

The corners of this quilt will be rounded.  The sashing on either side of the corners are quilted in straight lines so  I decided to continue the quilting lines right around the curves of the corners.  I marked the corners before I layered and basted the quilt.  But by the time I was ready to quilt them, the marks were too light to see.  (I know, they show up in the photo below, but not so much in real life.)  So I marked them again.  I couldn't remember what bowl I'd used the first time and couldn't find one that was the same size.  In the end, I used a 10" quilting hoop because the pattern for the half-size quilt used a 5" bowl.  

I couldn't find sequential sizes of anything to trace the curves so I just measured from the outside edge using pins, then quilted toward along the pins.  Not a perfect solution but it worked well enough.

My One Monthly Goal for November is to choose fabric for binding then attach it for a finished quilt.  I'm a little uncertain how to bind around those curves, unless I cut the binding on the bias.

I'm linking this post to One Monthly Goal November at Elm Street Quilts.  Thanks for hosting, Patty.

--Nancy.