Hand Quilting .... holy cow!

 LOL .... did that title of this post catch your attention?  Yes, I'm going to be doing a bit of hand quilting.  Only on small projects.

Like this small 24" x 24" wall hanging.  Yes, you can't see anything except for a glimpse of something beneath my stencils.  Why?  

This hanging is for an quilt exchange that I'm participating in with Humble Quilts.  The exchange is now closed with 70 swappers and I have already received the name of the person that this hanging will be going to.  Our work can be showed, but if the recipient reads my blog then it won't be a surprise when my package is opened.  For now, this is all that you will see.

It was fun to go through my Civil War fabrics and pick and choose what to use.  At the same time, it has come to my attention that there is a lot of that fabric in my stash.   Time to bring them out and use them up ..... in about 10 quilts ..... at least, if not more!  LOL

For the last week, nothing else was worked on except this project and it is now at the hand quilting stage.  It has to be mailed by April 30, so my time will be consumed finishing this hanging.

It has been quite some time since I participated in an exchange.  I wonder who will be sending me my quilt and what will it look like?  Oh, the anticipation!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

First finish of the year!

Finally, I have a finish.

This is a quilt that I designed called "Spring Ahead".  This quilt was designed to teach applique to guild ladies.  Each month, we worked through the different blocks using a different method of applique.  What is good for me may not be good for another person.  They were taught that you could use different methods on the same project.  They were also taught to change the pattern if they were not happy with it.  Heck, I do that all the time!  At the end of the guild year, they were asked what was their favourite method.  Needle turn applique.  I'm just so happy that the ladies learned how to tackle applique and not to be afraid of it.

Now, let's look at the blocks.

Here is one corner.  They could do this border or they could just have straight strips of borders.  A few actually did this border.  Bravo to them!

I loved designing this block.  Simple, but effective.  Circles were interesting to teach.

This was fun to design also with a bit of embroidery.  Heck, all the blocks were fun to design.

Stars were interesting.  They were shown how to round out the inward points to make it easier to applique.

The circle with the loops .... they could embroider the loops instead of appliqueing bias strips.  This one was a bit tricky for newbies.  For the star, they could make just a regular star or be adventurous and follow my design.  A few did.

Just something a bit different for this flower.

More fun blocks!

Now, call me quirky but I do a bit of machine quilting after I get my quilt back from the LAer.  The main blocks have been stitched in the ditch around the perimeter of the background blocks.    Also, all my applique pieces have been hand quilted around the outside of each piece.  I do like my applique to look grounded.  See next photo.

  

Can you see what I mean in this photo?  So, a tad quirky, am I!  LOL

What in the world in that string doing hanging from the end?  My quilt was doing the wave at the bottom and by stringing a piece of knitting yarn through the binding, it helped to straighten out the wave and it is now nice and even.  That bit of black was just snipped carefully away and viola, no more wave!

Some outdoor photos.

So, now my quilt is finally done and now I can enjoy it even more.

Quilt details:

Top designed and made by:  Rose Marie Castonguay (me!)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy at Kat's Quilts using Gothic Vine quilting design

Quilt started:  September 2016

Quilt finished:  June 2020

Quilt size:  56-1/2" x 71-1/4" (size before quilting, washing and drying:  58-1/2" x 74")

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly

With all the doom and gloom news about Covid-19, I thought you would enjoy a bit of eye candy.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Ribbons again and quilt storage!

Yep, it happened again.  Our Quilts by the Bay-North Bay (Ontario, Canada) had another quilt show and I won three ribbons for hand quilting in the Viewer's Choice section.

First is for my bed quilt.  This quilt is fading in places and it has a patch from when our Miss Hank cat tore a piece of the fabric.  Still, she is a beauty and viewer's thought she deserved first place.  Thank you!

Second is for my Kentucky Flowerpot wall hanging in the middle.

Third is for my Xmas yo-yo tree wall hanging.

It is time now to consider doing some more hand quilting as I have run out of quilts to enter for the next show in three years.  Got to keep that craft alive and show my work again.

Nothing was entered into the Judged section of the show ..... because I was a judge!  Never in the world did I ever think that is something that would happen in my life.  It was interesting to judge, but due to my mishap at the cottage, it was very difficult and painful for me to stand and bend.  Who knows if quilt judging is something that I will ever do again?   Tick that off my bucket list, although it was never on it!  🐱🐱

Quilt storage!  This cabinet is finally finished and now it stands back in the corner, but this time we can see it better.  Brown to white truly transformed this cabinet.  During the sanding process, it was discovered that the inside was just stained.  No varnish, no protective coating for my quilts.  So glad that was caught and now my quilts are protected from any wood resin.  Two coats of paint and three coats of Varethane. 

Autumn and fall colours are in full force up here in the great white north.  Next post will show my autumn quilts that are hanging in our home.

Have a great day!

An old fashion garden!

That is the title of my hexie wallhanging.   I kept looking at it hanging on the wall and thought "what should it be called"?  It has the look of something old fashion from a long time ago period.  Bingo.

The sign just above the quilt was made by my niece.  I think carbon paper was used tracing the words/quilt block onto the wood and then she painted it afterwards.  I love it and how perfect to display with my quilts that were started and completed by moi!

Here are some close-ups.

Hand quilting (shown in shadow from the hall light).

Quilt details:
Leftover hexagons from another quilt.
Embroidery source:  "Beautiful Botanicals" by Deborah Kemball
The sheets that are in the book are huge and I just laid my top on top of the sheet and traced using Crayola Washable Markers.  It was easy to see through the fabric to do the tracing.  After washing, all the markings came out.
Size:  40" x 47" (before washing and drying:  40-1/2" x 48")  After washing, the wall hanging was blocked (using pins) onto a styrofoam board and left to dry.
DMC embroidery threads were used.
Started:  July 2010
Finished:  September 2019

What a treasure to finally have this UFO done!  A lot of work and a lot of hours went into the making of the quilt.

DONE.  A lovely word!

Have a great day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
https://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Binding and more binding!

My hexagon wall hanging is all finished now.  Just need to cut the correct size rod and I can show you the final quilt hanging.  In the meantime, here is a sneak peek of my progress this week.

Binding got cut out and sewn onto the quilt.  Look at all that hand quilting!  Oh my!  My hands hurt like heck, but it was so worth it!  There are a few more smaller tops that will be brought out and basted for more hand quilting as I quite enjoyed the process.  I tried a massage gizmo that will be great for my hands after each session of hand quilting.  The before and after was amazing and with that gizmo, I feel confident of doing more hand quilting.

Once the binding was on, I couldn't stop myself until it was all done.  Sleeve and label went on next.

Next up in the binding cue is this Xmas quilt!  Love it!  There will be photos of three finished quilts to show you soon.

To round out my week, these items are all due for a couple coats of Varethane.  Chairs and cabinets.  The quilt rack you see will get transformed to white.  Just waiting for another nice day to spray paint.

We have had a few cool mornings and our daytime temps are in the mid-teen's.  Our gas fireplace has come on to give us a bit of heat in the morning.  Autumn is making it's presence known once again.

Have a great day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
https://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

A little bit of this and that!

I'm hand quilting again after quite a hiatus.  My hands and fingers can't work like they used to, so in between sessions of hand quilting, other things were happening.

My lovely hexie wall hanging is the chosen project.  With all that embroidery, there was no way this was going to be machine quilted.  It would not have done justice to all that hand work.

After an hour here and there during the week, the centre is almost done.

In between sessions, binding got sewn onto this Xmas quilt.

Seriously .... that seam had to happen right in the corner!  LOL  Oh well, it was easy to fix and continue on. 

 Viola ... the centre is completed.  Now, onto the borders! 

Also, during the week, binding, sleeve and label were completed on this quilt.  Photos will be coming as soon as the leaves on the trees on our hill change colour .... and that should be happening within the next two weeks.   Sorry, but you will just have to wait until then.  I know, I know, I shouldn't tease you all! 

So, that was my week!

Have a great day!

Linking to:

http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/

https://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Not done with apple cores

You know, after making three apple core quilts, I thought that was it.  I was done with making them.  I was apple cored out!  Or so I thought.

So, what happened?  Well ...... do you remember reading about my friend Karin working on apple cores in the garage?  She rescued them from a friend's garbage and was determined to do something with them.  Well, that rescue didn't last long.  She up and gifted them to me!  LOL  Then, the friend (Cathy, Cathy, Cathy) found more apple cores in her studio and sent them up to Karin and Karin dropped them off to me.  So, I now have enough apple cores to make a small wall hanging.

That is what I've been working on lately.  It was a great project for the cottage to help keep me busy while sitting on the porch.

Now, I don't like freezer paper or glue.  All the cores were done using those methods.  What I did was remove everything and washed the apple cores to get rid of the glue and the markings.  One of you ladies used a permanent marker!  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  In order to get rid of the markings, a smaller template and papers were made to fit inside the markings.  Once they are sewn in place, those markings will not be seen.

So, that is how apple cores are once again in my life!

What else am I working on?

A bit of hand quilting in the evenings on this wall hanging.

More hexies have been made for the third section on this project but I hit a bit of snag for the applique and have to do a bit of math before assembling.  For now, this project is on hold.

One more row was sewn together on this project.   There is a need for me to get these blocks into a top.   I can't believe how hard it is to capture a good photo of this project.  Everything turns out hazy/blurry.

So, now you know what is keeping me busy.

Have a great day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
https://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Binding away ....

I've been busy finishing the hand quilting on the quilt for the elderly lady and as it turns out today is her birthday and she is 91 years young.  She will get her quilt today.  Here it is drying on my design wall.  It was a bit hard to match her hand quilting and I hope that she is happy with her quilt and that it is finally finished.  What a delightful surprise it will be for this lady.  I didn't know it was her birthday today but something was telling me to FINISH it.

My fee?  Her small box of hand quilting stuff that came with the quilt.  That is it.  I love tins and this one called to me to keep.  The lady doesn't want it anymore and I was very happy to take it and to me, this box is a treasure.  Funny, eh, how such small things matter more than money.

I was running out of her quilting thread and my garage friend, Darlene, came to the rescue.  No, actually, it was her Grandma's sewing box that came to my rescue.  I brought the quilt with me to sew in the garage and when I mentioned that the thread was running out, Darlene went into the house and came back with a spool that matched the colour.  Thank you Grandma!

This lady's quilt was weighing on my mind and not much else has been worked on lately.  Now that it is done and gone to her, it was time to do something for me.  Sewing binding onto a quilt.

Hand sewing the binding in place. I was able to finish the binding late last night.  Now, it is just needs a sleeve and the label sewn on and washing and drying before I can show you.  That will be for next post.

Ah, yes, it is a good day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Three at work

There are three projects being worked on in my studio and at the cottage.

Hand quilting the applique on the borders is still on going.  The binding is done and it won't take me too long to finish this job.

Stitch by stitch, this hanging is slowing coming to life.  More embroidery thread was purchased so I won't be running out any time soon.

This ufo was pulled out and the applique borders can continue.  Except for the vine, what you see here is just pinned onto my design wall.  So far, I'm not totally crazy about this design, but it will do.   Those leaves are throwing me off, so they just might get changed. 

The last two projects will come with me to the cottage so that I have something to work on.  When it is too hot to work on them, then a good book gets my attention instead.

We have had some rain here and the fires around our neck of the woods are under control.  The rain has helped and the air quality is much better these days.   At least our windows can be opened to let in cool night air.  Now when we walk on the grass there is only a slight crunching sound.  A couple more days of rain is still needed.

August is going by much too quickly and there is so much that I want to get done this month!  Oh dear me .....

Have a great day!

Linking to:  http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/ and http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/

Angles and Squares

Another quilt ..... another finish!  Oh, how happy am I to finally have this quilt done.

I really do need to thank my garage girl friends again and again and again for pushing me to get my quilts done by either me or by someone else.  They are so happy to see a finished quilt and that means my list is dwindling.  Any top that a LAer can do, off they go now.  No more hoarding with wishful thinking that it can be hand quilted.  Sadly, those days are fading into the sunset and only the special ones I hold onto in the hopes that I will do them myself continue to stay on the shelf.

Now, let's look at this quilt.  I fell in love with this design when it was first on the design wall and I can't believe how well it turned out.

This quilt started with a workshop that was given by Heather Stewart.  At the end of the class, Heather asked us to do something different with the final layout.  She did give us examples to get us started.

At the time, I was in the "star" mode and that is how stars appeared on this quilt.  Still love those stars!   The quilt is straight ... it is the photo taker (me) that can't get her act together!

Quilt details:
Started:  October 18, 2012 in a workshop presented by Heather Stewart
Top finished:  January 9, 2013
Quilt finished:  April 9, 2018

Top size:  67" x 83" (before quilting and washing:  70-1/4" x 86")
Batting:  polyester

Machine quilted (using Swiralot pattern) by Tella in Scarborough, Ontario.  I did add additional machine quilting on the diagonal lines and on the vertical and horizontal rows.  Using polyester batting made those areas too puffy and I just didn't like how they looked.  So, I took the time to fix the look and I'm so glad that I did.  Also, hand quilting was added around the stars and circles.  Why not, it is my quilt.

Label and sleeve on?  Tick and tick!

DONE!

What a glorious word.

Have a great day!

Linking to:  http://estheraliu.blogspot.ca/