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

Happy New Year 2021

 

Happy New Year to all. Lets hope 2021 is a much better year. Upon reflecting on 2020, I realized I could remember many of my finished projects but not all. So I have decided to revive my blog to keep track of my doings for the year.

The last few days I have been reorganizing and deciding what I would like to accomplish in this new year. Looks like we will be home a lot which will be a repeat of 2020. During my reorganizing efforts I found that everywhere I turned I unburied a pile or tote of scraps. Thus, I have decided that this year I will devote more time to finishing UFO's, which are aplenty and using up and organizing scraps. Now that doesn't mean I won't be starting new projects. In fact today I plan to prepare and start my first block of this:

I have always loved the works of Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice being my favorite. So I decided it was only logical to have a Pride and Prejudice quilt. My friend Lyndsey in London and I will be doing this as a BOM. These nice simple blocks should be easily accomplished in a month leaving time for other hand stitching.

We awoke this morning to sleet followed by snow.  It's certainly a good day to stay in and sew. I have a turkey breast in the Crock Pot so our meal today will not be very time consuming with the Crock Pot doing most of the work.

I also need to plan my projects for the rest of the month so I best get busy.  Do you have sewing plans today?

Have a good day, Life is a Journey

Sherry