Slow Sunday Stitching

 It was such a lovely day on Friday that my husband and I went on a drive to Minden, about 90 minutes from home to do a bit of fabric refreshing. There is a quilt shop there called Remember Me Quilts and More. It is owned by the loveliest, friendliest lady. I needed border fabrics for the McKenna Ryan Aurora Ridge quilt that is hopefully on the fast track to being finished. And then I wanted some bright and happy fabric that I could semi-fussy cut for a new EPP project. I seem to have renewed my obsession with EPP. It’s a Willyne Hammerstein design from her third book called Flower Power. I’ve gotten a start on the centre stars. I’ve cut them stack and whack style rather than true fussy cutting. I didn’t want any more fabric swiss cheese and I think this will work. There is lots of motion in these, which is what I was hoping for. 

I’ve had to put my Connections project into time out. I’ve run out of 2 inch squares. Originally, the squares came from some of my friends at the London Friendship Quilters Guild, which led to the name Connections. Would any of you reading this be willing to send me a small envelope of 2 inch squares so I can continue this project? Nothing big, perhaps just enough to fit into a regular envelope that can go in the regular mail. That would be so much fun. If so, contact me at caleeshepherd at gmail.com and I’ll send you my address. Don’t leave it in the comments as I likely won’t be able to respond. So many comments now come through as no-reply. Thank you in advance, so much. 

The really big news for here though, for the slow stitching, is that I’ve finished My Tweets. It  is trimmed and waiting on binding. I took it with me to the church on Thursday to spread it out on the big tables to trim it and then laid it out on the floor for a picture. I’m going to bind it in the same fabric as the sashing/border so it won’t look too much different than this when it is done.

Anyhow, it is time to get this day fully started. So I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get to it.

What we are working on

 I haven’t done one of these posts in a few weeks. Our Prayers and Squares meeting last week was cancelled due to weather and the week before I wasn’t there due to illness. Susan continues to work on getting all our boxes of donated fabric organized and into bins and onto shelves. I think she might be on the last tote box now, unless of course we count the 2 boxes of Christmas themed fabrics. There is one almost finish. It just needs its final blue/grey border added and then it can be layered and quilted. It is likely going to be used as a fund raiser. I’ve been working on more sampler blocks at home. So far this year our small group has given out 7 quilts. As fast as they get done they seem to have people in need to go to. It’s a wonderful ministry.

I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I took the last quilting stitch in My Tweets this past week! The last stitch went into the junction of those three sashing bits. Celebration time! However, it is currently still sitting on the chair in a heap, still in the quilting hoop, waiting to be trimmed and bound. Hopefully I don’t leave it too long. Since finishing that I’ve been rather unfocused and unsure of what to do next. I picked up my Jackrabbit cross stitch, but had a difficult time trying to concentrate on the tiny threads and the counting. I ended up ripping out stitches two different times in his right ear, so I put that aside. Then I went digging looking for an EPP project I started years ago, back in 2019, according to this blog. It’s called Connections. I found the fabrics and the papers and got started on doing some more glue basting. But the biggest thing I’ve been working on this past week is machine quilting an old McKenna Ryan project. I’ve dived in and am doing some free motion quilting on my domestic machine. It’s actually going better than I thought it would. The hand sewing bit comes in on the back. I’m doing it a block at a time and then putting it together quilt as I go style, which involves hand sewing cover strips over the seams on the back, hence the slow stitching part. I really want to get this one done so we can use it as a fund raiser for our Prayers and Squares group this spring/summer. It is the pattern Aurora Ridge.  According to this blog, I started it way back in 2016. I bought the patterns as kits with the fabrics in them. I’m not sure why it got put into cold storage. But anyhow, it is back in production. I have one more block to put together. Pictures to follow in more detail in another post. I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I have reached a milestone this week. All of the quilting in the bird blocks for My Tweets is now finished. A few nights more work on the sashing and bottom border and it will be ready for trimming and binding. It could very well be finished and up on the wall by the end of March, which has been my goal since I picked this back up. And of course, there is no getting close to finishing one project without thoughts turning to “what’s next?”. I am seriously thinking of getting back and picking up some much neglected English Paper piecing projects that have been packed away in a box that I’ve recently found for years. I’ve gone so far as to order some more papers so that I can get them to a finish. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Stay at Home Round Robin prompt 6

 I’ve been slow this week working on my SAHRR. Unfortunately a virus of some sort got me at the end of last week and I’ve been feeling punk and unwell. No energy for even any hand stitching, let alone sitting at the sewing machine or doing any cutting. It seems to be easing off now, so I was able to get some work done on this project today. The prompt this week was “kites” or something beginning with the initial “K”. Well that was easy. I’d already done some Kites Tails, a pattern found in the Quilter’s Cache site,  in my quilt in a previous round. So I thought do the same, but in a bigger size. And because I wanted this quilt to end up rectangular, I’m just adding them to the top and bottom. I have one row of them almost done. But I’ve hit a bit of an energy wall, so will have to call it quits for today. I’m hoping to have it all put together in time for the reveal link party. In the meantime, I’ll link up to The Darling Dogwood who is hosting the link party this week.

What We’re Working on

 There were only 3 of us at our little group yesterday, so our progress was slower and there is less to show. But there is still stuff being done. We are working on ideas for fundraising, a necessity for supporting the number of quilts we do each year. We have a number of lovely wildlife panels that will work well. This one is ready for its borders. They are all animals found here is Muskoka.  The Great Granny Squares only need 2 more blocks and then it is ready to put together. The sampler in blues and greens that I’ve been working on here at home is finished, except for binding. And I’ve started another, also in blues and greens with the addition of a gold in the blocks. 

These are fun to do and a great way to gradually build quilts in between working on others. Susan has finally made her way through sorting all of our odds and ends of fabrics. She’s sorted it all according to sizes and colours and it makes it so much easier to see what we have and hopefully use it. I may end up starting another of these samplers using purples, as we seem to have a lot of that as well.  I brought a bag of purples home with me so we’ll see what it becomes.

I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

 

Stay at Home Round Robin, prompt 5

 This week’s prompt for the round robin was “Quarter Log Cabins”. A block I love to sew and which works really well with what I have so far. I need 20 of them for the idea I have. The finial decision though, will depend on next week’s prompt. I’ve only managed to get 10 of the quarter log cabin blocks made. I ran out of the dark blue fabric, which was cut offs from some backings. But I know there is more of it on a bolt at the church, so I’ll pick it up tomorrow at our Prayers and Squares sewing day. In the meantime, here’s how it looks so far. Final decisions and add ons will happen next week which will be the last prompt. As it is now, it measures 54x54 inches. I would like it to end up longer than it is wide, but that too will need to wait until next week. I’ll link up to Brenda at Songbird Designs who is hosting this week’s SAHRR link up.