Sunday Stash and Slow Stitching: Love Blooms Here

I'm ready to start the embroidery for the stems on this block. All of the applique is done.  I swear all of the leaves ARE green - just didn't show up so good in the photo. Hmmm.

And yes, I did tell some horrible lie by saying that I could complete this quilt from my batik stash.  I stopped into the Triangle Sewing Centre this week to enhance my batik selections. Forgive the horrible lie.

Linking to Sunday Stash and Sunday Slow Stitching

Coming along...

As I mentioned in my last post - I've decided to make "Love Blooms Here", the new series that started in this month's issue of Quiltmaker.  I managed to hand applique the basket and hearts down on Sunday evening (before Downton Abbey of course!) and now the leaves are ready for needle and thread.  I thought I'd share this tip, since I'm not sure I've ever seen it before.  I use painter's tape to hold down my applique pieces instead of pins.  It works well for me, and easier to handle.  Give it a try sometime.

Love Blooms Here - Slow Sunday Stitching

  

The newest issue of Quiltmaker includes the 1st of 6 parts of a new series called "Love Blooms Here".  I quite like it - but when I saw the quilt in batiks, rather than "folk art calico", I was sold!

So last night I pieced together the little friendship star blocks, and today I am hand appliqueing the basket block.  Here's a little confession: I have a drawer full of batiks, but I have NEVER made a single thing with batik fabric.  I think there is plenty of fabric there to complete this project.

Oh! Scraps!

It doesn't matter how many drawers full of scraps I already have - - I love, love, love scraps.  

I did a little bit of thrifting on Friday with Hubby and bought a $3 bag of scraps.  Here's what I got that I'm keeping:

The smaller piece of batik (with the stars) is a 1/2 yard, and still had the price of $7.50 attached to it.  Thank you!  I'll take that!

When I was at the Greenwood Quiltery yesterday, I snagged several bags of scraps too.  I spent the evening pressing, squaring up, trimming, and organizing scraps.  My favourite way to spend a Saturday night!  Even Gibson got in on the fun.

Linked to Sunday Stash # 58 @ Molli Sparkles

Weird Weather Walk

Took a break from finishing Celtic Solstice today to get some fresh air and exercise.

Like most places in N. America, we too have been experiencing record cold temperatures this past week.  Well, Mother Nature has decided it's time for the annual January Thaw today.  It's foggy, it's slightly misty, but Hubby and I agreed to take a walk (this is really one of the few times this month that it's been warm enough to be outside longer than a few minutes!) down to Greenwood Quiltery for the first day of their Winter Sale.

This isn't far; it's usually a 10 minute walk (just about 1 km) from our place.  Today it was absolutely treacherous! Ankle deep slush, streams of melt water, and where the sidewalks were actually clear of snow, thick ice. But we made it there and back, with each of us taking only one fall -- no injuries to report.  

The store was PACKED!  I managed to grab some fabric and get in line to check out pretty quickly.  (There had to be at minimum 60 women in that store, with two lineups for cutting, and another lineup, winding halfway up the stairs to pay!) A pair of ladies ahead of me in line recognized me as the 'shirt quilt lady' - - ah, celebrity!!!

Antiquing

Between the snow and the bitter cold of the past week, we've been pretty much house bound.  So yesterday, I asked Hubby if he wanted to go to Southworks Antiques in Cambridge to have a looky-loo and shake off the dust.

Lots of eye candy to be enjoyed, but this one had some particular quilty goodness about it:

I wish I could have gotten some better photos of the hand quilting because it was outstanding.  I only had my cell phone with me, unfortunately. There are six big eight-pointed string-pieced stars.  The prints are beautiful, and I really liked the bright red strips.  

Back to work on Monday!  I'm ready.  I miss the routine, and being with people, and using my creativity to help solve problems. 

Celtic Solstice Progress

I finished piecing and pressing the blocks - and like some other participants in this mystery, I flipped the chevrons in the B blocks to make stars.

Maybe tomorrow I'll finish it?  

I had an awesome quilty experience today.  I packed up a couple of recently finished quilts, mailing one off to a newly engaged couple, and presenting the other one to a new bride.  She was completely floored by the gift, and cried happy tears.  I was so pleased and proud.  I've let the engaged couple know that a package is on it's way, and insisted on photos of the opening!

Big Colourful Geese

I've decided I'm going to hand quilt this baby - - probably with some dramatic colour of thread.  Navy maybe?  No borders.  So I'm thinking about doing some more blocks to make this a good sized lap quilt.  It's about 54"x 48" right now.  Lord knows I've still got acres of scraps to use up!

Attention Stash - You're getting TAMED

Further to last week's culling to the UFO's, I'm taking steps to tame the stash.  I've been hoarding fabric for too long, and it's time to set it free.

Towards that end, I've been creating Little Dresses for Africa.  I've got several more cut out and hemmed, but I'm all out of bias tape!  (Family & friends, check your sewing boxes - if you have 1/4" bias tape you're not going to use in this century, pass it on to me).  There's lots of good quality fabric in my stash which will never go into a quilt.

I'm also working on piecing a top together that I've been working on, on and off, for a few months, inspired by a quilt I have pinned on Pinterest.  I have all of the flying geese pieced, it's just a matter of putting them together.

The original inspiration is from Hoosier Toni's blog.