I was out-of-town for a week, but took along my An Autumn Quilt to work on and a lot sure got done. It was heaven .... no cat trying to get on top of my quilt frame and deciding it was a good place to have a long nap! There is just one corner remaining to hand quilt and 2-1/4 borders still to do and then add the binding. It is getting so close to being done, I can hardly contain myself! :o)

To the lady that left a comment on a previous post about my whole cloth quilt ..... sorry but this is the back of my quilt that you thought was a whole cloth. Years ago, I took a class on designing my own whole cloth pattern and perhaps one day you will see a tutorial from me on how to do your own too.

Miss Hank is sure eye-balling those threads. I already caught her trying to chew one thread and had to pull it from her throat just before this shot was taken. That was a caution reminder to me to hide my threads and fold my quilt up when not in use.

Have a great day!

Booties galore

While we were visiting my SIL (the same one that did all the quilts in the last post) she brought out a box and showed me the contents. What a surprise to look and see these. Have you ever seen so many baby booties?

There are 2 levels of booties in that box and all will be for upcoming great-grand children. Let's do some math. She has 10 children and they all have at least 2 or more children and now those children are having babies. There are 30 pairs of baby booties in that box ..... I think she will need to knit more!

She graciously gave me 2 pairs to give to my niece for her upcoming baby shower.

Have a great day!

Old fashioned look

I have to show you some quilts that my SIL in a rural town in Quebec made many years ago. Whenever DH and I visit, there is always a portable hand project that I bring along with me. Over the years, she has seen my work and has always oohed and aahed, along with a lot of lovely French words, over my projects. On our last visit a week ago, I snuck into their upstairs bedrooms and snapped photos of all her quilts on the beds. Have a peek at them.

Can you see her style? For all her quilts, she used polyester knit fabrics and did an embroidery stitch all around the raw edges. With this type of fabric, there is no need to roll the raw edge and then applique or embroider the pieces in place. The first quilt has batting but not the others as they are used as a summer bedspread.

What can I say, except I love these quilts! Simple but sweet!

Have a great day, eh!

Table and chairs

Since our new home will be a little bit bigger than our current home, there was a need to go out and buy some furniture for our kitchen and dining room. So, off to a few thrift store I went with Debra to look and see what can be found. Actually, we went shopping at a quilt store first and then went thrifting .... but that is another story. :o)

First off, I bought this antique table ($100.00) that you can only see part of in the photo below. It was quite the struggle to get this table into a storage pod that is currently sitting in our driveway and there is no way it is coming out for a photo. You will have to be patient and wait to see it in our new home. Can you see the balled feet? It is absolutely gorgeous.

This antique table was quite the find and I left Debra guarding it while I went to the cash to pay for it. In the thrift store, the table was partially hidden and it was only after we pulled it out to get a better look that other people in the store saw it and came over and suddenly they were interested in it also.

Originally, the price was $200.00 but there was a 50% sale on all furniture that day and that is how I got it for $100.00. Lucky or what! We couldn't take it with us that day but returned the next day and looked around the store for chairs and Debra talked (she wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer) the manager into letting me buy just the chairs (they came with a table which I didn't want) and he debated about it and finally sold them to me for $40.00 for the 6 chairs! Good Lord, I was having a great time of it. All of these chairs will be painted after we move but they will be perfect for our kitchen.

Then, this past weekend, DH and I went to a nearby senior citizens' residence for a furniture sale and we came home with this Duncan Fife table and 4 chairs ($275.00 for the set). I already own a Duncan Fife table and 4 chairs but the new-to-me table is a classier model which we will use in our dining room. My chair set has the blue seat cover. Now, all the chairs will get re-uphostered and can all be used together with this table. The 2 sets of chairs are slightly different, but the style is the same and all will work just fine together. The greenish colour seat covers are all needlepoint and they will be removed and framed. Some lady spent a lot of time making those seat covers and I will honour her work by framing them.

So, no more thifting for me, eh!

Have a great day!

Hand work

Slowly, but surely, I'm making progress on my Autumn Trip quilt. So far, it looks like half of my quilt has been done. I would love to have this lap quilt finished before we move because there will be a lot of work sorting, etc. to do and there won't be much time for any serious quilting for a few months.

In the meantime, my Got Dots project was found and 3 more blocks got done! Yeah! Only 10 more blocks to do and then I can start to assemble the centre portion and think about what to do for borders.

Have a great day!

Another UFO!

Here I go again ..... working on another UFO and trying to get back on track with my daily hand quilting schedule. With the help of Miss Ashes (of course), this top got marked up. This is what the quilting will look like on the top .....

... the back shows up the quilting a lot better. For the backing, I'm using a cotton curtain that was purchased from IKEA a few years ago. It is a wee bit stiffer than regular quilting cotton, but it still quilts up OK.

Have a great day, eh!

Gathering of Pumpkins

We have sold our house and bought another one to live in come June. It was 30 yrs. ago when we moved into our current house and I just don't remember the stress that goes along with a move back then. So, we have a couple of months to sit back and relax and then get serious about packing.

We de-cluttered a lot before putting our place up for sale and now, I can't find anything. My studio is almost non-existent and cabin fever was starting to set in since no quilting/sewing of any kind was done for almost a full month.

Mind you, having my studio all packed up is forcing me to work on my UFO's. I decided to just work on those and not start anything new. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to get a few tops finished over the next few months.

This is my 3rd finish for the year and a bit early for autumn; but it will be ready to get hung up on the wall for display along with my collection of pumpkins come September. Here is a peek at the hand quilting. This grid design is one that I will do again. I just love it!

There are still a few threads to be tucked into the quilt and a hanging sleeve to be added. Right now, I can't find the material for the sleeve. Once we are moved it will surface at some point. :o) My label has been sewn on .... so this quilt is finished.

Quilt size: 48" wide x 47-1/4" high

Quilt source: Country Quilts for Friends by Margaret Peters and Anne Sutton. The quilt name in the book is When the Frost is on the Pumpkins.

For those of you wondering how my tally for hand qulting was for February .... let's just not go there. Other than a few days here and there, I was just too exhausted by the end of each day to do anything let alone quilting. Hopefully, March will be kinder to me.

Have a great day, eh!