"Harrison Rose" and Other Things.

You may or may not have noticed I haven’t been around blog land for a while.  I have spent most of my time trying to discover what else other than quilting I might enjoy doing.
There surely must be something.  It’s not shopping, gardening or cooking that’s for sure.

I did a little knitting.

 I finally sewed in all the ends and blocked this shawl.  Poor thing has been hanging around forever.

Traveling with my grandchildren is on the top of my list.
We had a fun trip to FL until I came down with Strep and had to come home early.  Let me just say stay away from people with Strep because it can be really hard on  elderly people- like me.

Now that I am recovered it’s back to my quilting.

I finished all the blocks for my Harrison Rose quilt and put the top together.  It’s such a lovely pattern and didn’t take too long to complete.  Once the beautiful feathers are quilted in the border I know it will look even better.
I really enjoyed working on Harrison Rose one of Collector with a Needle’s great patterns.  All of Dawn’s beautiful pattern can be found on her Etsy shop here.

Until the next time,
Nancy

Old Voices New Impressions

Karen has started a new sew a long using the book 

Old Voices New Impressions by Jeana Kimball.

The rules are very relaxed.  We try to stitch four blocks a month and post at the end of the month.

I decided to make the Cranberry Album Quilt on the back cover of the book.  The directions say to enlarge  the block patterns 141% to get an 8 inch block and I thought I did but evidently not.  After printing all 25 patterns I got the brilliant idea to actually measure one to see if they were 8 inches.

Guess what they were 7 inches.  So my blocks will be 7 inches because I am not wasting more time, ink and paper to print them over.

I have been sewing with reproduction fabrics for some time now so I thought I would give a new impression to my quilt and use batiks.  Eight 7 inch blocks are prepped and ready to stitch.

The first four blocks are stitched.

It will be fun to stitch along with Karen and everyone else once again.

If you have access to the book feel free to join in.
Sewing with others is always fun.

Until the next time

Nancy

The Months Just Roll Along.

I am always amazed at how fast time is moving in my life.  Why just yesterday it was May and I was at a retreat with some of my most special quilting friends.

We did a lot of sewing and I managed to finish a couple of kits I have had stored away for several years.  The first is a small 45”x45" table topper or wall hanging.  Very Patriotic.  This was a kit I bought on sale from Connecting Threads.

Winterlude is a table runner I made from a free Moda pattern using lots of my christmas fabric scraps.

Southern Hospitality was a kit "Little Quilts" in Atlanta sold back in 2004 when they were featured in Quilt Sampler magazine.

I have also started a new project The 1718 Coverlet.

My blocks so far.  

They are somewhat brighter than in this picture.  The 1718 Coverlet  quilt has some very strange blocks and I am getting to try things I never thought I would.

Until the next time, Happy stitching.

Nancy

Mountmellick - Di Ford Mystery

 I started working on the Di Ford mystery quilt back in September of 2014 along with hundreds of other women.

The almost final border was made of all  these paper pieced stars.  I am not really a big fan of english paper piecing but they had to be made so I decided to order the papers and a template from Paperpieces.com

 The papers were great but I was not too happy with the plastic template.  It had too much writing on it making it very difficult to see what you wanted to fussy cut for the center.

The seam allowance was so large it lapped over itself and had to be trimmed wasting fabric and time. I did push on and managed to make all 36 stars.

Now all that's  left is the last little fabric border.  I really love this quilt and am so glad I made it.
It contained two first for me broderie perse  and english paper piecing

Until next time happy stitching.
Nancy

Harrison Rose

It’s time for an update on my Harrison Rose quilt.  There are 16 blocks in this quilt and I have stitched nine of them so I am over half way there.  They are really very easy to stitch.
I see there is one on the bottom row that wants to be different.

The first border is made up of half square triangles and I wanted to have them ready when I completed stitching all of the blocks so I could put the quilt together.

The finial border is  plain leaving room to quilt the beautiful feather design that is included in pattern.
I am really enjoying working on Harrison Rose another one of Collector with a Needle’s great patterns.  All of Dawn’s beautiful patterns can be found on her Etsy shop here.
Until the next time
Nancy

Ohio Sampler and Other Projects

It’s Friday and Karen, Lori, LuAnn and Cathy are posting their  Ohio Sampler updates.  Since I have already assembled my quilt I thought I would post an update on some of the other quilts I have been working on.

First Benjamin Biggs.  

I will say I have done a complete turn around on my attitude about this quilt.
At first the dark reds I had chosen to uses didn’t appeal to me but after putting the first half of the quilt together I find I really like the way it is looking.

Next Chester Chriswell.  

I chose to make both versions of this months blocks because even if they are the same block they look so different when you add the green.

It’s hard to believe that after three years of working on this quilt we only have one block left to stitch.

There were a few more photos I would like to have uploaded for this post but it seems the new Apple  Photo App is not cooperating .  I hate this new update.  It is so confusing and difficult to use.  In my opinion change is not always a good thing.
Until next time,
Nancy

Ohio Collection Together

It took a little figuring and several coping strips but my version of the Ohio Collection quilt is finally together. The final version is 80.5 x90.5 a little larger than the pattern.

This may turn out to be one of my favorite quilts.  I think because it was difficult and is so different from any other quilt I have ever  made. 

                                         

 Once again I would like to thank Karen from Log Cabin Quilter for all the unique patterns she sent for me to include in my quilt.

After all the stress from putting Ohio Collection together I decided I needed something quick and simple to stitch.  When I first started quilting I bought a lot of kits - not so much anymore.  I have had this Shadowbox kit for several years, too many to remember.

Oops, I see I got the two end blocks on the first row reversed.  Why can’t I remember to take the picture before I sew the whole thing together?
Until the next time.
Nancy

Ohio Collection Sampler

I missed posting last Friday so I have two weeks of work to post about today.

Spice Pink

Folk Art Birds

Folk Art Flowers

I have been using Kona cotton for the solids in this quilt and am not very happy with the way the pieces look after being washed.  I always wash my blocks after stitching to remove the glue and starch.  I am wondering if it is just the Kona or do all solids do this?

The Stork

Tree Everlasting

Small Baskets

Cactus Basket

Since I have finished all the blocks I plan on making for this quilt I thought I would start trying to figure out just how I was going to get them all sewn into a quilt.

I can say it has not been an easy task.   Lots and lots of Y seams and little empty spots to fill with fabric. I needed to make several filler blocks of squares, strips and half square triangles.

It’s like trying to put together a giant puzzle made out of cloth where the pieces seem to keep changing size.  There has been much taking out and putting back, some do overs because of careless cutting but I think I may have this one all together by next Friday.

Be sure and check out Lori, Cathy, LuAnn and Karen’s blogs for there progress this week.
Until next time,
Nancy

That Quarter Inch Seam

So last week feeling the need to do some piecing I decided to make a Log Cabin quilt.  This seemed like an easy project that would not take much thought.

Now I was under the impression I could stitch an accurate quarter inch seam.  Boy was I surprised when I started pressing my blocks.  They all looked like they were swaying in and out.

I used the log cabin die for my Go cutter so I couldn’t blame the crooked sections on my cutting.

I kept stitching and stitching going slower and slower.  I tried using a guide but that only made  things worse.  After about 100 eight and one half inch blocks I got a little better, not perfect but good enough.

I am making this zig zag quilt to fit a queen sized bed.  With 100 blocks sewn it turns out to be 80 inches square.  Since I don’t have anymore of the colored fabric  I was considering adding a border of some sort.
Any suggestions on how to do this without it looking like I just stuck on a border  to make the quilt larger?

Ohio Collection and other blocks

 It’s Friday and time for an update on my Ohio Collection progress.

I stitched three blocks this week.  The lamb, the basket and this great rooster.  Once again thanks Karen for sending me the drawings for these blocks.  They add so much to my quilt.  It’s getting close to the time I need to start trying to figure out how all of these blocks are going to go together to make a quilt.
Hop over to visit Lori, Cathy, LuAnn and Karen for a Friday update on their blocks.

I am also up to date with my Chester Criswell  blocks.. There are only two more blocks left in this three year journey.

This is my latest Benjamin Biggs block.

Until next time,

Nancy