Valentine's Wallhanging for January's OMG - a second one!

This simple panel wall hanging was sewn in 2016 and then... it sat.


Finally cleaning off my  sewing table and putting things away I ran across this older WIP  and since I now have room to work on it, it became my OMG (One Monthly Goal) to finish up for my January 2019!
Deciding to let the print motif create the quilting designs and then filling in backgrounds with simple meander stitching. 
First quilted perimeter

• Second did a circle design on the vase as if it was a hobnail vase.
• The flowers needed some detail quilting to show petals in a soft outline
• Hearts were edge stitched and then a soft scallop sewn around them imitating a lace edging
• The brown first border was edge stitched on both sides..
• Then the red border.....,   I was stumped.... and then I saw a panto graph that eluded to a heart sew by two rotations around with echoing, so I did my rendition of it.  One side the hearts are upside down. : /

 I'll show the back side illustrating the quilting details:

I LOVE IT and love that it's quilted!  Next the label, binding and hanging sleeve.....

Split hanging sleeve to accommodate two different modalities of display.

Just in time!

Is it perfect, heck no,

but Done is better than perfect and it will hang in the kitchen for February.

TTFN

Jane

Quilt Show Entry #5

 
Was a Jack in the Pulpit wall hanging.

 

  

The main panel in this was stenciled in 1998 and then it sat.  After getting the borders on a radiant star quilt that shares these fabrics, I was finally able to select which fabric this one called for and am pleased.

This one was finished in about 20 hours worth of time.  Now why did it wait for a decade and a half to get totally done? 

I swear this perfectionism thing is so crippling when it comes to creativity. 

Done is better than perfect any day.

 

For finishing a dark green flange edged between the first maroon border and this batik was the final border. 

For quilting, a meander around the centered stencil's background with an 100 weight ivory silk thread and Superior's Bottom line in the bobbin. For the maroon border, it was just echo quilted 1/4" away from the seam lines with a dual duty thread that matched that color the best. That left the outside border of batik to be quilted with a 100 weight dark green silk in a vine and leaf freehand motif where again a Bottom Line thread was in the bobbin.

All in all this one is pleasing and I am so happy it's done.  It amazed me during the layering process of my hesitation to use "good fabric" for the back and how crippled I became.  Since there really was no time to hesitate in that step I called my Mom after wishy washing for over an hour contemplating which fabrics to use and/or how to do the backing.   Her response was classic.

She said, "On No Janie.  Don't use that fabric.  Wait until you die so your daughter or Wayne can throw it in the trash bin or give it to someone else." 

Obviously I became strong and cut the fabric I wanted.   Will have to frame those words for future projects and reference to stop this paralyzing hesitation.  lol  

Only 2 left to share for entries.  Not sure when, there is more quilting that needs to be done on all three large quilts.  Am currently working on the Tweet Camping, quilting the dark brown sashings and inner borders right now.  Will show all of that when it is totally done.

My list of Four this week is;

1. June's Lil' Miss Shabby embroidery block
2. Brown sashing in Tweet camping quilted
3. Hem work Pants for son's friend
4. Carve a pumpkin

Of course I won't be listing all the other chores needed like chauffeuring, cleaning, cooking and  other hot spots that need action but I'll be making efforts there along with letting my body exercise which it so desires. 

Enjoy your week.  
Jane

 

I'd love to do that!

Joanne at Thread Head recently posted some of her feather quilting that she's been practicing. 

WOW! 

is all I can say. 

 

Her feathers and quilting designs are fantastic.  I want to be able to do that!

Here's the blog post where she discusses what she did.  Meanwhile I have this little baby I want to get quilted. 

 

I think I may draft a meditating Budha or similiar icon in this since feathering it seems way  beyond my reach just now. 

Even though this piece would be fantastic feathered.  Any ideas? 

It's a project I started a couple of years ago with a precious friend, Trudy.  She actually gave me  the Ricky Timm's fabric after she and another friend attended one of his classes in Colorado.   

I'll percolate some ideas a bit longer since today I'll be cutting that aqua for a piping and the white,

and yes,

I said WHITE for the binding. 

 

Enjoy your day,

Jane

Finally

Spring Patchabilities is done.  What was the holdup besides my natural tendancy to procrastinate and to overthink a process, you might ask.  Well I had a vision of daffodils dancing in front of the embroidered gate and I finally made got some time to play.

First I tried coloring the recyled Tevlar (sp?)  mailing envelopes to hold onto the color.  That was a bust.

So I then  cut out diffferent sized circles to heat shrink it.  Thinking I would paint them afterwards with an acrylic paint.  Some shrinkage did happen but I wasn't satisfied with the end result so ditched that option. 

May have to try that out on another project with more shapes baked in molded cups before using the heat gun.

Then I thought, perhaps I could fuse 2 fabrics wrong sides together to make my imagined dancing daffodils and use some of those Shiva Paintsticks and the other brand of fabric markers that I bought at Michaels to blend more colors.  So I played around with that for quite a while.  I couldn't manipulate the fabric to come out like I envisioned, so ditched that.

Then I thought perhaps some silk flowers could lend their way into helping me to create those daffodils.  Natta!

This is her, SPRING PATCHABILITIES.

That's when I called it done and proceeded to quilt, bind and hang it on the wall. Now you know why I am slow to finish things. I am my worst enemy for finishing as I always am thinking more and what if I tried that scenerios. Seems like I start with a baby quilt and before you know it I get a king quilt done.

 

Despite having thatunseasonal 80 degree weather several weeks ago the gardens and landscapes are really looking like Spring is here. These two pics are where I tore up my garden and transplanted , weeded and mulched last year. Can't wait to see how much better this will be. Crossing my fingers now.

Next gardening focal point will be to revamp that section  that sets behind the gas tanks and the garage.

Jane

.

A bit more done.

It feels wonderful to be finishing up some UFO's I've had going for a bit. Between the Counted cross stitch, quilting, and beading hobbies, many times I feel like my creative endeavors are just running amok!
But Whoo!whoo! several more projects have been finished this past week.
My UFO#6 through Judy Laquidera's UFO challenge, Bird house wallhanging or Waiting for Spring, finished.



There is art glitter glued onto the fleece that I used for the ice and snow. I also changed a bit of the design by also creating some ice spots on the branches. To me it was unrealistic that the bird house was snow and ice laden while the rest was not touched. I know here in the Adirondacks, when something is encased by the elements, many things are encased too so I made it more reflective of that.
Besides the white fabric changed out for a lustrous fleece batting, I also changed some of the fabrics in this kit I got from Nancy's Notions years ago. The birdhouse and branch colors were all brown and too close in color to be visible. So I did some stash diving to come up with a higher contrast values. The pattern is actually "Waiting for Spring" designed by Lake View Quilts adn I am glad that Vince pulled No6 UFO. Just in time for Winter in these parts.

Next are the beaded earrings I finished last Sunday while playing with friends. The "Read and Bead" group I belong to gathers monthly to bead, eat and share lives. Each month a different person will share their technique for a project when we can. At December's meeting, Michelle taught us how to do a dodecahedra (aka: Chinese Pearl Balls). Usually I am not so thick headed but I had an awful time trying to grasp this concept. Poor Michelle actually did one of my beads since it was too difficult for me. Each step that I would do and she'd check it and it was wrong, so she'd correct it. Ye gads! When you work on this bead you need to use 2 needles of thread at the same time. One of the ladies mentioned it may be better to try 2 different size needles to help keep you straight with which needle should be at whichever orientation per row since with each row the needles would change positions and making notes while beading it. So when I got home later that night, I pulled out all of the necessities and I actually was able to finish another bead. Of curse not correctly, but I could tell where the next spin off design was needed and then would work my threads to that area. Close enough I say!
Anyhoo, I made them into festive drop earrings and they are DONE! And I'll never tell that one bead is correct and the other one is a very near miss. LOL



This next photo is of a counted cross stitch design I finally picked up from the framers. Shhhh! it's a gift for a stitching buddy when we gather for our late Christmas party. I know she doesn't read my blog, so it's safe to show here.



It's a Calico Crossroads pattern designed by Linda Connors called "In Stitches". It's just purrrrfect for my bernina and cat loving friend. I even stitched our initials into the outermost border of it with a tiny heart in between as a token of our friendship. I hope she love sit as much as I loved doing it for her.

The last photo is of the pet bed I finished in a gridded pattern for a community project that our guild does for the local animal shelters. This pillowcase bag has been hanging out under my cutting table for the past year. Any snippets of trims not large enough for my scrap bins, found it's way into the bag. Ingenious way of utilizing the scrappiest of scraps. It was finally full enough that I realized I needed to finish what I had in mind. Grid off the main area to stop the shifting of the stuffing.



When assembling the pet bed, it also was a trip down Memory Lane of past projects and felt great to reminisce about all the "love" sewn into projects this past year. Since we don't have any pets currently, but remembering trying to wash the different animal beds from the past, I found it difficult to keep the stuffing from shifting whilst trying to be neat, clean and sanitized around here. So I tried a "grid" of stitching for this bed to help facilitate against the stuffing from shifting where ever it lands up. The most difficult part was trying to keep the stuffing equal in the parts, Of course I used my zipper foot and chalked pencil lines which I needed to continuously re-draw after rubbing off the previous lines by stuffing it. But now it's done and I'll need to cut and sew another bag from upholstery fabric to hang off my cutting table for another bed next year.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate and look forward to all the comments from your visits. I'm off to the sewing room now, enjoy your Sunday.

TTFN,
Jane

November 2nd already!

Where does the time go? It's hard to believe that there are only 2 months left of the year. We just got all the Halloween decor put away and started retreiving the Thanksgiving items. Here's a wallhanging I hang over the back, kitchen door at this time of the year. It was made several years ago and I used scraps and stash that I had on hand. Notice the brick orange painted walls on the side of it. We had to hire someone to paint for us. Between DH's and mine health, these simple do it your self jobs are just too much for us now. Sometimes it's really difficult to swallow, but when it's necessary, you do what you have to do. Oh well, I digress.

It's always enjoyable to view but I do love it even more with the color of my kitchen as the background. NICE!

Being a member of Stashbusters, a recent topic made me chuckle. At different days, a member will give a shout out to Vacuum the floor of your sewing room, or clean up your sewing table... etc. Well today's shout out was to gather all your sewing machine feet and perhaps get a tackle box, or matchbox car case to store them in and put them away.

Yippee! That is one part of my sewing area that is organized and has been for years. Now why can't I get the rest of it together? Here is a photo of how I store my machine's feet. The container is a bead storage box that has 32 compartments. Some of the spaces are used to hold a couple of feet. I do use a numerical system to store or find which ever foot I need. How did I get so many? I guess fabric buying was not the only thing I overdid, but most feet (with the exception of some of the specialty feet) were purchased at quilt shows when most vendors offered a 25% discount. I'd bring in my handy chart of which feet I had and which new feet I'd like to get and would purchase 1 or 2 per show. Thank goodness that Bernina also puts out the volumes 1-3 of FEETURES, a very handy reference manual that I also acquired at 25% off to use as a guide and reference. Most feet have been used at least once if not more, so the expense and effort has been worth it. :~)

The feet and attachments that won't fit in that case or the base slip-off unit of my bernina go into this plastic shoe box.

This last picture illustrates how they look together on the shelf, with the exception of the cover that I removed for the photo. Nice and handy and I don't have to check all over the place. The only thing I need to do is to remember to grab whichever foot(feet) I'll need when I take a class or have a get together with friends.


Enjoy your day,
Jane

Yippee for NOAH!

The above picture is of the Noah's Ark Wallhanging I just completed called "Genesis Chapter 6".

Lynette Anderson offered this free pattern of embroideries as a SAL (Stitch a-Long). I found out about it too late to be in the SAL, but I did save all the patterns monthly so I stitched on it as I could. SWEET! I probably worked on this project for about 7 months total and it never got shelved! Diligence does pay off, PLUS I was able to get at least 2 projects done each month since the beginning of the year, (another challenge I pledged to was to finish 1 thing a month). DH and my son both laugh when I tell them that I need to finish such and such because I took a pledge. It's about time I started putting myself first! * Towanda!

With my back, neck and shoulder issues however, the larger quilts are sometimes too painful to manage, so the smaller sizes like stitcheries and wallhangings and such, help me keep my sanity. Sometimes even those are difficult when my arms and hands won't cooperate, so I'll just rest and BE.

Well, I've been tackling my scrap boxes for 15 minutes a day to start attempting to have some control on those, after the 15 mintues I'll work on other pending PHD's and UFO's as I can.

The next cross stitch I'll be concentrating on are the 9 little patterns I bought while vacationing with my sister in London. Hummmm, that was already 9 + years ago, so it's time I got shagging on them. I was able to puchase several yards of a red and white Liberty of London fabric too, hummm... I'll have to "shop my stash for that" when I complete them. Perhaps they will become another wallhanging. The patterns are all adorable and represent vacation mementos of the places we witnessed, visited and did while in London. Ohhhh, so many fond memories there.

Stay well and Happy Stitching,
Jane

Another one bites the dust!

Oh Yeah, another bites the dust. Sharing this picture of another UFO finished. I really don't undersdtand why I perpetually put away a project to have it sit there for years. This one has been sitting around for over 2 years. It started because of taking a class from Nancy Davis-Murty called "Stitching Fancy with Nancy" that was enjoyable and broadened my horizons as far as using more of the decorative stitches on my bernina sewing machine.
After the class I had every intention of finishing it, although I hadn't used a stabilizer under the heart shaped flowers and wasn't thoroughly impressed with the way this wallhanging was laying. After the class, life was interrupted and having other commitments, etc.... so needless to say, it became shelved.
So with the challenge I'm doing through my Mother's guild, this one is my finish for May. Here is a picture of some of the detail. I had to stiple the heck out of it to make sure it laid flat in the background and I used some of the bondable crystals within the flowers. I really smile now that it's finished and this makes me happy. The next number pulled is 4 which is my "Alien Invasion" quilt top. Off to pick up the sewing room and think how I'll be piecing my backing for the invasion quilt.
Enjoy your day.

Jane