A Good Start

My new year has started off at a fairly productive pace.  Of course with the end of the Christmas season come the take down of all the festive decorations.  Always a little sad for me and the house looks unhappy also.  So the only remedy is to do some redecorating.  My dining room was the focus for this new look.

A friend from high school (which was a long time ago) made me this quilt rack a couple of years ago and I thought it would look nice as a feature focus in the dining room.

Since I have been quilt making many, many years, I have many, many quilts to display. This was the solution for four of them. My friend is making me another rack for the opposite side of the wall so four more will be displayed when I receive it.  I will post a photo of the completed project.

As for my quilting accomplishments, I feel I am off to a good start.  As stated in my last post I wanted to make this block from Season's Tweetings.

Since straight stitch applique was to be used on this project. I decided to take some time to choose a needle and thread that I felt would work best on the project.  I finally decided to go with a Schmetz Gold 75/11 Embroidery needle.  Since the fabrics were batik for some of the applique I wanted a needle that would pierce the fabric and not skip stitches.  For thread my choice was Wonderfil Invisifil.  I was first introduced to this thread while attending an American Quilter's Society Show in Des Moines, Iowa in 2017.  The thread is fine and as the name implies is virtually invisible without using a monopoly or monofilament. I also decided to apply my embellishments now because I did not want the stitching to show on the back of my finished quilt.  I will have to be extra careful with my quilting but I think it will be worth it.  There are very tiny seed bead to be applied to each block with glue but I will apply those after the quilting process is complete.  Four more blocks to go.  The remaining blocks are not as large but I surmise I am still in for a challenge.  I get the Pine Needle Newsletter and am very tempted to order more projects but remind myself to finish this one first as it definitely is a challenge.

My next effort was to set the blocks together to get my first flimsy of the year. I had finished the blocks just before the end of the year.  Lots of buttons on this one and I kinda dragged my feet on getting all those buttons applied.  Once again quilting will be a slower process but I am okay with that.  Next week my goal is to get the backing made and batting cut so the quilt is ready for the quilting process.

This past Tuesday was my all day quilt guild meeting where we sew, have lunch, have meeting, have program and sew some more.  I chose to make my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  You will find their button on my sidebar and the link to the So Scrappy blog here.

Next on my list was to start the Sunshine Garden BOM from Quilt Doodle Doodle.  Button once again on my side bar and you will find the blog here.  

I am really excited about this BOM as I love this first block.  Can't wait until February and the next installment. At first I couldn't decide the method of applique wanted to use.  Being old school I like to turn my edges under and hand applique but with so much to get completed this year I decided to go with a fusible technique with Blanket Stitch.

Not sure why this photo flipped on its side but I can't flip it upright, but you get the picture (pun intended) I used this new to me fusible by Clover, I generally use Steam a Seam 2 or Heat and Bond Lite. I found it a nice fusible to use, it adheres well and using my Applique Scissors by Karen Buckley I didn't have any fray on my edges which is one of my pet peeves with raw edge applique. I used polyester embroidery weight thread in a color to match my fabric to finish the edge.

This is the results of our Friday and Saturday of this past week. It is really quite a lovely snow but I have been enjoying it from the warmth of my studio. I have kept my sewing machine humming with blocks for a new Charity quilt from a pattern called Roadblock Quilt, a Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial.  I will be presenting it to my day guild in February for approval so we can divide up in 4 groups and try to make four of the quilts in a day for our local police department.  It is a quilt consisting of blocks and strips so they should go pretty quickly. I'll show the completed flimsy in my next post.

The project that tags along with all my other projects is my leader enders project by Bonnie Hunter "Jewel Box Stars" I have lots of pieces and parts to this, but finished these six yesterday evening while making my 9-Patches for the Charity Quilt.

And where will I be the rest of the day...…

Hopefully finishing up the Charity Quilt, life is a journey...have a great day!