Redwork and Quilting

Today saw quite a lot of progress on the blocks using the red and white fabrics. I hope to get a lot more done on them tomorrow, and I'm happy to report that I'm liking the way it's turning out. I've decided that there are too many red blocks to even consider doing embroidery in each block. So I think I need to fill in the gaps with machine quilting, but that can be decided when it's finished.

I finished the last of the redwork snowmen a couple of days ago, but they have been put to one side as I work on the red and white fabrics, and I must get back to the machine quilting of the QOV quilt.

I thought I'd share a couple of photo's of both redwork and quilting.

This table runner was made for a swap and sent to Australia. I kinda wish I'd made another one and kept it for myself.
At Christmas time I decided I needed a table runner for the small table that was going to hold the bauble filed vase, candles and snowmen. So this is what I came up with.
I can't remember exactly which occasion it was but I made this little redwork bag for a friend of mine last year. In fact I don't think there was a particular occasion, just because.

Last is a photo of a quilt that I made for my DH as a gift when I came over to meet him for the first time in 2003

I must admit that I spend way too much time looking at other blogs, being inspired and getting ideas for future projects.

Someone on another blog posed the question: Do you blog stalk?.. I had to have a giggle, but when I stopped and thought about it, I thought well I suppose I do to some extent, as I just don't have the time to leave a comment on each blog that I visit. So my question to you is : Do You Blog Stalk?

Tuppence

Tuppence, now that's an old English word, referring to currency. My gosh I can remember using those coins when I was a child. That certainly dates me, doesn't it?

Tuppence is a teddy bear. I should explain a little as to why I have Tuppence. Among all my treasured belongings in storage in my daughters shed in Australia, is a lovely silk ribbon embroidered teddy bear that I made a number of years ago. I know that one day soon (hopefully) I'll be able to be reunited with these treasures, but until then I wanted to make this home in the US more like "home", if that makes sense to any of you.

So here's Tuppence.

Among some of my things in storage are a number of embroidered items. So to fill in the spaces until they arrive, I've stitched these in the past few months.

I definitely need to remember to take photo's in good lighting, these are terrible.

Today I worked on those lovely red and white fabrics, and managed to get the first few rows put together. DH commented on how nice they looked, now I should say that he hardly ever comments on what I'm working on. Tomorrow I plan on putting more blocks together so I can clear the sewing table so that I can get back to the machine quilting of the QOV quilt. It doesn't need too much more quilting, then I can get the binding and label on and ship it off to it's new owner.

I do hope that today's weather isn't an indication of what we have ahead of us. It was so humid and the temp only reached about 27c.

Totally Green

That’s what I decided to call the lap quilt, after all it is totally green.. I chatted with my daughter in Australia on the weekend and I was telling her how I thought I’d have this quilt finished in time for Max’s birthday, and how bright it was. Her response was "bright", what do you mean bright? As you can imagine the alarm bells didn't just ring, they screamed at me. I said lime green with a light green. No mum, was her response, I said dark green, lime green and pale green. But it’s all bright green. Not to worry he won’t notice, he’ll just see that it’s green. Oh my gosh, talk about a few minutes of heart failure there.
So here it is "Totally Green" completed, all that’s needed now is to run it through the wash and package it up ready to send to Australia.

I got my first copy of BH&G Patchwork and quilting magazine today with a little bonus, Quilting How To’s. Had a very quick flick through both before getting back to the quilt, but as I was flicking I noticed a rather neat idea for labels that I thought I’d try. All it is, is a 6 – 8 inch square pressed on the diagonal with the details either stitched or written on and then placed into the corner of the quilt. So here’s the result. Much easier, than trying to line the label up to the back of the quilt once the quilting and binding is completed.
I also managed to get just a handful of the "redwork" blocks made this evening. These are such a simple design, but so effective when they’re pieced.
These will be put together with 6inch red squares and white accent squares and triangles.

Well that's it for today. I hope you had a productive day and managed to get in some stitching time.

If you'd like to see what's going to be a stunning appliqued quilt, then pop on over to Rose Marie 's site and have a look at the quilt she's working on.

Redwork

I don't believe it, I just finished a post, took about an hour with all the photo's and blogger lost it. drat. So here we go again.


Rose Marie said yesterday that she was waiting to see what I was doing in redwork. So that got me to thinking, what exactly do I have in the works. Oh my gosh talk about a lot of irons in the fire. So here goes Rose Marie.



1. Redwork Snowmen bom. I'm stitching these with Sulky thread, they are a bit too Christmasy red for my liking, but oh well. I pulled these out last night and finished up 2 more blocks, which gives me 9 finished and only 3 more to do. Then to decide on how to set them.

I also did this same pattern for a friend in Australia, done with Needle Necessities overdyed floss. I just absolutely love this thread, the colours are stunning and it's a terrific thread to stitch with. (link in the side bar)

2. Winter Wonderland by Crab Apple Hills Designs. I suggested on my RedWorkStitchers yahoo group that, as so many members were buying the pattern, that we do it as a group bom. I've chosen a pale blue mottle fabric to stitch on and a Needle Necessities blue to stitch with. Are you getting the idea that I just love this thread?...lol.... It's going to be terrific to see these quilts finished, same pattern but so many different fabric and thread colour choices.
3. Herb bom done in, you guessed it, NN threads in greens.

4. A girlfriend sent me a pattern for an "Australiana" redwork quilt. So seeing as Australia is where I'm from, I thought it only right to have a quilt showing the beautiful flora and fauna from home. I have all the 25 designs traced onto the blocks, and am just waiting to hear back from the lady that I buy my thread from to make sure she has the colour that I'm wanting.

5. Bronwyn Hayes "Flowerbed quilt". I have 15 blocks completed and about another 7 or 8 to stitch. Although these are done in multi colours it is still oddly enough referred to as redwork.

As for the red and white fabrics that I posted yesterday, I plan on using those in a lap quilt. Another friend in Aussie sent me a pattern that I'd used in a workshop, that I want to use for these fabrics. I had a fiddle in EQ5 last night to try and create the design in there, but alas., I'm just not that clever. I have a lovely red Kona cotton that I'll use for the centre squares, that I'll embroider in white, (still need to decide on a desgn) and I'll use the reds and whites to set the red squares. I'm hoping I can get the fabrics cut soon, as I'd like to take it with me to quilt retreat, especially as some of the ladies have asked me to show them how it goes together. I do hope I can remember...

If I think of any more I'll give myself a headache, so there you go Rose Marie, I've confessed....lol.

Made progress on the "green" quilt yesterday, managed to get half of the machine quilting done.

Red Work FQ SWap and a Flimsy

Today I had the fun job of swapping out all the fat quarters for a swap we had on the Redwork group. Below is the photo of the lovely fat quarters that I received, aren't they just wonderful?

I have a collection of Red and White's that I'll add these to and a pattern that I'd like to use them in. I'm hoping that this will be one of the projects I can have ready to stitch when I go on retreat in May.

Friday I managed to get Max's quilt top to the flimsy stage. DH and I went and did a quick shop before heading up to see dd on the Saturday, so I got the backing fabric and the batting for the quilt. I hope to make a start on pinning it out tomorrow.

We had a wonderful time with dd on our visit. We took her to Tulsa zoo on the Saturday and to the aquarium on Sunday, had lunch and dinner out on Saturday and collapsed into bed on Saturday evening. Both days were absolutely wonderful bright sunny days.

Bag Lady Top Finished

I'm so happy, today I finished the top for the bag lady quilt top.

So now I can gather up the leftover fabrics that were sent to me along with the quilt top and mail it back to the owner.

Tomorrow I'm going to start on the green nine patch for Max. I've had a play in EQ5 with layouts and colours and think I have it worked out what I want to do, but as we all know plans can change quickly.

We had another stunning day today, all the doors were opened again and I had a wonderful breeze flowing through the house. I decided today it was time to take down the winter wall hangings and put up more summery ones.

So tomorrow I'll take this one down, my lovely snowman wall hanging which was made for me last year in the bag lady swap, bu Susan in Indiana.

And put this one back up, my Twilight Garden quilt which was a bom from last year.

Take down my Christmas Redwork quilt and put this one back up. Jilly's Garden, by Chook Shed designs, an Australian quilt pattern company which unfortunately has closed down.

I hope you all had a productive day and managed to get some stitching time in.

Frog Stitching

Today was one of those days where I worked on undoing what I worked on yesterday, otherwise known as frog stitching. I spent time unpicking the border that I put on one side of the bag lady top yesterday. It just didn't look right. Then on to making new blocks for the border and managed to get one side on, again.....

Also got all the Bronwyn Hayes blocks that I've embroidered squared up ready for piecing, along with all the new green fabrics pressed.


Jenna, (dd in Australia) put in a request on the weekend for lap quilts for both herself and Max (soon to be son-in-law). As it's Max's birthday next month I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and make the lap quilt for his 21st birthday. He's decided he'd like lime green, not a colour that I'd normally work with but I found some really nice prints on Saturday.

Jenna asked for a simple patch, so I've decided on a nine patch set on the diagonal. Hope to be able to start on the cutting on it tomorrow, after I put those blessed borders back on the bag lady top.

Flower Bed Quilt

I thought today I'd share my progress on the Flower Bed quilt.

I've been working on two blocks, for what seems like forever. Finally last night I got the last of the stitching done on them, and wanted to see what they would look like set in the fabric for corner blocks.

I was really happy with the way they turned out, there are 2 of the same design, stitched in opposite directions. I think the floral fabric blends well with the colours in the embroidery. I'm working on 4 smaller blocks at the moment, and then I have another 2 the same size as those above to stitch and one more really large block and then I think I'm done. I'm ready to have the embroidery finished and get it into a quilt so that it's ready for Spring/Summer.

I was looking at the patterns on AnnAKa the other day after seeing a few of them stitched up on both May Britt's and Sølvi's blog and just fell in love with them. The only problem is I don't read Norwegian so I emailed May Britt and she very kindly offered to send me a couple of the patterns to stitch. Thank you so much May Britt. I'm so looking forward to receiving them in the post and making a start on them.

So now that I've had a play with the Bronwyn Haye's blocks and I can get back to the border on the bag lady swap top. I managed to get one side of the pieced border on yesterday before the light faded and hope to get the rest of it done today so that I can post it back to it's owner.

Once I've completed the border on that one I want to get back to the machine quilting on the Quilt of Valor quilt. I have almost 2/3's of the quilting done and really want to get it finished and posted to a soldier.

Another stunning day today, 24c, it's so nice to have all the doors open and the fresh air flowing through the house. The dog's outside soaking up the sun and I'm starting to think about Spring planting.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend and manages to get some stitching time in.

Thanks to those who stop by and leave a comment, it's always nice to read what others have to say and visit their blogs.

Bag Lady Swap Progress

I've finally got the blocks together from the bag lady swap. Now I just need to work out what to put around it for the borders. Any suggestions?

Still working on the Bronwyn Hayes blocks, and have started shopping for the fabrics to use for the setting of the blocks. Don't need any excuse to shop for fabrics. While I was at the store I decided that I needed a new cutting mat as the one I had was starting to retain fluff.

Once I have the Bronwyn Hayes blocks finished I need to get back to my Winter Wonderland blocks which have been put on hold until I get these BH blocks done. If your interested in looking at the pattern, here it is: http://tinyurl.com/ybhlca scroll down a little. I'm doing my blocks in a mottled powder blue and using Needle Necessities overdyed floss in a deep blue.

If you like this design I'm sure you'll enjoy the other designs made by Crabapple Hills Designs. Have a look here:http://www.crabapplehillstudio.com/retailer_resource.asp

The mail has brought in a load of beautiful red fat quarters for a redwork fq swap. Will post a photo of those once the last parcel arrives.

Finally after having several weeks of not sleeping well, I had a good night last night. So I woke up this morning ready to do something constructive in the sewing room. Not wanting those 1/2 square triangles to collect dust I decided to get stuck into them and get this quilt closer to the finished stage. Today I spent the day pinning all those pesky little squares together into rows for each block. Got down to block number 20 only to discover that I was short by about 6 triangles. So back to the cutting mat and the machine, got the extra triangles made and pressed open ready to trim up in the morning. Now I'll need to sit and rearrange all those blocks that I pinned today as I brought in a new background fabric on the last few blocks. So tomorrow I'll get the new triangles squared up, rearrange the blocks I pinned today and hopefully get them all stitched together. Then I think I'll put up a large flannel sheet over my wall quilt in the living room and use it as a design wall to get a good layout of the blocks.

As I don't have any new photo's to share I thought I'd share one that I completed late last year.

This quilt was made for a family in Tulsa, who lost their 15 year old son after he returned from a mission trip to Peru. If you'd like to read his story of faith, love and loyalty to our Lord, go to: http://prayforbj.blogspot.com/