Happy Easter and Slow Sunday Stitching

 Happy Easter everyone, I hope you all have a great day. The ham is in the slow cooker and with pre-prep accomplished yesterday my day will be fairly simple with mainly the preparation of a couple of hot vegetables and dinner will be accomplished. We are still keeping it pretty simple with just hubby and I and our son. But that is better than last year so we won't complain.

Since completing my wall quilt for the Salt and Sand Blog Hop, you can read about it HERE, I have been trying to play catch-up. I was finally able to get these sashing strips cut

for my Quilt Guild project.

I also completed some more blocks for this project

Of course I am always adding blocks to my Leader/Ender project 

I am WAY behind on my Pride and Prejudice embroidery quilt blocks, I wasn't able to get the March block traced off until the 31st 

 I have been able to put in a few stitches but my goal for this Slow Sunday Stitching Day  is to get a considerable amount of stitching done on on it . I also traced off the next block for April, which is the first one on the left of the second row.

These blocks sew up fairly fast so I am hoping to get myself back on schedule. I am doing this project with my friend Lyndsey and I haven't heard from her as to if she is on schedule or not. 

Well, it is time for me to start finishing up my meal, so once again Happy Easter. Til next time stop on over to Slow Stitching Sunday and see what others have been creating. You will find it HERE.

Sherry 

Salt and Sand Blog Hop My Day

 

Welcome to my day at the Salt and Sand Blog Hop. This has been quite a week for inspiration from all the other participants. All the other projects have been so creative and beautiful.

I must first thank our hostess for this hop, Carol from Just Let Me Quilt. Carol comes up with such fun hops I just can.t resist playing along.

Be sure to check out all of the other participants that have played along this week. You won't be sorry. Here is the list.

March 22

Creatin' in the Sticks

Selina Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Days Filled With Joy

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Karen's Korner

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Crafts and Math

 

March 23

MooseStashQuilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Food for Thought

For The Love Of Geese

Becky’s Adventures in Quilting and Travel

Karrin’s Crazy World

Sew Many Yarns

Kathy's Kwilts and More

 

March 24

Ms P Designs USA

DayBrook Designs

Vroomans Quilts

Kathleen McMusing

Quilt Schmilt

The Darling Dogwood

Daughters of Dorinda

Annie’s Musings

 

March 25

Quiltscapes

Beaquilter

Stitchin At Home

The Joyful Quilter

Scrapdash

Freckled Fox Quiltery

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

Words & Stitches

 

March 26

Just Let Me Quilt

Websterquilt

Quilting Gail

Samelia's Mum

Quilt Fabrication

Little Penguin Quilts

Just Sew Quilter

Inflorescence

The first thing I thought of when I saw the theme was a Quilting Cruise I took to Bermuda in the late 90's. 

Pulling into port gave me this view. I loved the pastel homes with white roofs. It was a memorable trip but that is not the subject of this post.

Back to Salt and Sand.....

So here is my vision of Salt and Sand. Since I love doing applique and landscapes this fit the bill perfectly.

Since palm tress are so "pointy" I decided neither Blanket Stitch or Satin Stitch would do so I did kind of a straight stitch thread sketching to secure my applique.

Then of course I had to find just the right backing. Thank goodness for having a very large fabric collection. 

I am not sure how old this fabric is but it was just what I wanted. I let my applique provide most of the quilting as you can see from my backing.

And what is a beach without a sandcastle.....

Quilting it was a little bit of a challenge but I think it came out alright.

Well, there it is...I had fun with my Salt and Sand. Thanks for stopping by. And thanks again to Carol for being a super hostess!

Til next time,

Sherry

A Busy Time

 It seems like time gets away from me so easily, every Sunday this month I have had plans to write my blog post but there was always an interruption. But I decided today I would let nothing stop me. I like to blog early in the day but that did not happen but I am at least getting updated for the last day of the month.

With this being International Embroidery Month I attempted to keep up with the daily motif of different stitches to create a small sampler. I did fairly well....

I think I am 5 behind and I have to stitch around each motif but I wanted to finish the entire sampler before proceeding so I can decide which stitches I want to use plus if I wanted to use just one color floss or a variety. Decisions, decisions...My local quilter's guild is doing a Quilt Along to this pattern

Here are my fabrics. All left over FQ's from other projects.

I was able to get 11 of the 12 blocks completed.

Hopefully tomorrow I will get the 12th one completed and ready to set the quilt together, That will be my One Monthly Goal.

But I plan to devote the rest of the day to complete my Pride and Prejudice block for the Pride and Prejudice Quilt my friend Lyndsey and I are doing as a BOM. Then it will be time to trace the next block which will finish the top row. I should easily finish this tonight.

It will look better when it is pressed but I always do that after I finish the block before putting it away.

And now for the reason I am so late with my post.

My sewing machine had been sitting on top of a table and it was very tall. So my dear hubby purchased me this wonderful table to sit my machine down in. I am not a big fan of extension tables so this is perfect.

The table it was setting on is now behind my sewing machine so large quilts can run onto it when I am sewing instead of dropping off the back.  I told hubby he might have a difficult time getting me out of the sewing room now.

I'm linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching and with One Monthly Goal by Elm Street Quilts tomorrow. Thanks to both these fine quilter's for these fun link-ups

That's all for now.

Sherry

Scraps, Embroidery, Tracing and More Scraps

 It seems at times the more I try to get accomplished the less I get done. I have lots of projects listed on white board and it seems all I get accomplished (well, maybe not accomplished) is working with those pesky scraps. I cut and cut and they just seem to multiply. Currently I am pulling red, aqua, neutrals and pinks for a recently purchased pattern from Bonnie Hunter, "Forever Mine". 

It is foundation pieced strips for the most part with a few half square triangles thrown in and I will first make just one block for a small wall quilt to place on the side of my refrigerator, (there must be quilts everywhere you know!). Hopefully I will get it finished before Valentine's Day so it can be up a few days. I also plan to make the table runner for my dining room table but that won't appear until next Valentine's Day. 

I have also been doing some embroidery tracing. First, I traced my second block for the Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice BOM quilt. 

February is going to be a busy embroidery month, rightly so as it is National Embroidery Month  as I will be stitching the daily motif from the free pattern provided by Meg Hawley at Crabapple Hill Designs.

 

Starting tomorrow she will post instructions on how to embroider a selected square on the pattern. 

This year she designed individual motifs to be placed on a stretched canvas but since I prefer a wall quilt application I made an additional copy of the patterns, cut them apart and hubby (since he is more precise than I am) arranged them in wall quilt fashion so it could be made into a wall quilt.

It is now traced and ready for tomorrow when the first instructions will be posted to Facebook.

When I am not doing the Crabapple Hill Sampler and the Pride and Prejudice block I will be working on my Crabapple Hill "Salem Quilt Guild. I got a little start this last week by doing the embroidery on all the faces and hands and now I will just concentrate on "Demelza Von Spellcaster. She will be my goal today on Slow Stitching Sunday.

Probably won't get much done on this project this week as I have other projects to take up my time.... like more scraps!

I'm linking up to Slow Stitching Sunday and am going to check out what others are doing. Some great inspiration over there. And I really need another project. Right?

Have a great week,

Sherry

A Little of This a Little of That

 

Before getting to Slow Stitching today hubby asked for homemade Chicken Pot Pie. It was an easy request and they are so good baked in the cast iron skillet. The bottom crust is always so nicely browned and flaky.

So I am just now getting to my blog writing and figuring out my accomplishments this last week on the sewing front.

First last Sunday I was able to finish the first of my Pride and Prejudice blocks.

Before the end of the month I need to get block #2 traced and ready to start the first of February. Block #2 will be Darcy and Bingley talking about Elizabeth. It really is an easy and fun embroidery.

I was able to get the binding completed on the wall quilt from the Jan Patek workshop.

I am recycling last weeks photo before the slow stitching because I think the gremlins ate my finished photo it is no where to be found.

The Curvy Log Cabin is now awaiting its turn to be quilted. That pile is getting larger and larger so I must address it soon.

In my quest to clean off my table I found a pattern from The Whole Country Caboodle for a Santa Mug rug and decided to sew it up real quick and be able to file the pattern away.

It is ready for hand stitching so I will let that be my Sunday Slow Stitching to link up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching.

The only other thing I accomplished in sewing this week was to make another block from the 30's Farmer's Wife book. I love to read the letter that accompany each block. There are 99 blocks in the book and I do one a month. Chances are I won't complete all of them at that rate, but my goal is to get enough for a nice size quilt.

Good thing I am taking pictures and blogging about what I am working on as I just found a photo of some of the leader-enders from Bonnie Hunter's Easy Breezy pattern over at Quiltville that I did this week. You can find the free pattern HERE.

Well, that does it for me this week I'm heading over to Slow Sunday Stitching to see what everyone else is up to. It's always full of inspiration.

Have a great week,

Sherry

Slow Stitching This Sunday

 Last Sunday I was able to get my little mini quilt quilted and bound.

I chose this for the back.

I hung it above part of my collection of toy sewing machines.

Today I plan to finish the first block of my Pride and Prejudice quilt. I have lots of ideas for finishing this quilt. But that is a year away.

Today I will also slow stitch the binding on this small piece I finally finished from a workshop conducted by Jan Patek I attended a couple of years ago.

This week I also set together this quilt of Curvy Log Cabin blocks I have had finished for a couple of years. This quilt is from a workshop I attended a couple of years ago also. I am really trying to finish those UFO's this year.

I will try to get the border on today so it can go in the quilts to be quilted pile. I will be using this border.

I accomplished one more thing this past week and that was to start cutting this quilt for my local guild Quilt Along. I have only the background left to cut. It calls for 2.5 yards and of course what I want to use from my stash is only 2 yards.  But after calculating what is actually needed it is 73.5 inches. These will be some leftover from the larger pieces I need to cut so I am going to try to cut some of my smaller pieces from that. Wish me luck, hope my brain can figure all this math. I'll let you know how I come out.

If I am going to accomplish all this today I better hustle. I am going to link up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching and see what everyone else is doing. Check out her link on my sidebar.

Til next time,

Sherry

A Small Finish

 Yesterday while dong a little slow stitching on my Pride and Prejudice block I noticed one of those cute little 2.5 inch  squares packets I found while tidying up my sewing area.

My initial thought was to put it in with my 2.5 inch squares box. But upon looking at it closer I decided it would make a cute wall quilt for my sewing room.

At a retreat a couple of friends showed me a technique they had learned at another retreat they attended. I checked back on my photos and found I had taken a photo of the technique so I grabbed a handful of neutrals and started in making the required 9-patches.

The secret is to make sure a colored square is in the middle.

I made up all the 9-patches I could from my little packet.

I then cut them in half both ways.

Arranged the blocks in the proper layout.

Sew them together and I have a little wall quilt ready for quilting. I loved this technique because it looks like you did lots of work when in fact all you did was make 9-patches and cut them apart. I will perhaps experiment with larger blocks for a lap quilt or larger on my next Charity quilt.

Here it is the 4th of January and I still have not touched a UFO. Perhaps another day because today I plan on starting the cutting for a Quilt Along sponsored by my local quilt guild. Perhaps I could use scraps. I wonder if that will count as part of my yearly goal. 

Have a great day!

Sherry

 

Quiet Sunday

 It's a foggy day and a great day for just relaxing. I plan to continue working on my Pride and Prejudice embroidery. I got this far yesterday.

I also have a few pieces that need the binding hand stitched so I will probably choose one of them for a little hand stitching also.

Yesterday I finished cutting those scraps. Now the box is full. But I plan to start cutting a scrappy quilt in the next few days so hopefully the scraps will go down a little. The quilt will be made with blues and neutrals but more about that later.

I am linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching . Thank you Kathy for hosting this fun event. you can find her HERE. I am on my way to see what others are hand stitching this Sunday.

Happy Stitching,

Sherry

Starting Off Scrappy

 With the turkey breast in the Crock Pot I headed to the sewing room to start my projects from my list of goals for the month.  First I decided I need to put away some of the strips I had cut from small scraps I found while organizing my table. I knew I had a nice box I wanted to store the 1 1/2 inch strips in so I pulled it off the shelf, opened it and found...more small scraps needing to be cut.

After this discovery I spent most of the day cutting more strips from this box. This is what is left. I hope to finish cutting these fabrics up today and fill the box as I intended.  Then I will be able to move on to more fun stuff.

I did take time out to prepare my first Pride and Prejudice block. After tracing I backed my block with Shape Flex as I do not like to use a hoop for my embroidery I didn't get very far but I really like it already.

Have a great day.

Happy Stitching,

Sherry