Appliqué, I'm a huge fan but.........

I love appliqué! I look at all of the different Baltimore Album quilts & I think that, Yes I can make one of those quilts! When in actuality no I can not. I've tried machine appliqué & that is complete torture. If I'm on the machine I want to be piecing! I just got done "attempting" to hand appliqué. The best that I can say is that I tried my best but I just don't love appliqueing like I love my embroidery. Here's what I was attempting to work on

I remembered that I had some EPP flowers & Bonnie Hunters new appliqué/EPPtutorial & I thought why not. Hard to tell if I'll ever get around this single flower. 

Hope yall are doing well. It's quite soggy here & will be all weekend. Hopefully there will be some sewing time! More later on,

Vicky

 

Well it's not Monday but I'm working on the remaining 2800

I'm hoping that I have fullfilled my husbands desires of me making quilts that take a long time & use up lots of fabric. I've spent just about 100% of my time this past week next door at my in laws helping take care of my father in law. I've got a sewing project at home & next door. The next door project I'm calling "The Chess Board" It will be  10,000 1" squares when it's all done. I'm using my Civil War Reprodction fabrics for this monster. It all started because I had a Rubbermaid container full of bits & pieces that needed to be gone through, cut up & used.  As I cut up the scraps I have 3 piles, 1.5", 2' & 2.5". Here's what has accumulated in those piles since starting this quilt.

The pile on the left is 2.5' strips & on the right is 2" strips. It does slow the process of the primary quilt making by taking the time to cut these strips. When I'm cutting down my scraps I cut to use the maximum efficency of the piece of scrap. When I get done with this current quilt I will have two bags of strips already cut up & ready to use! 

I've got 9 rows out of 12.5 done on the Chess Board. Here is my current progress

I've got 7200 pieces done! Woohoo! I'm working on the reamaning 2800. As you can see I did make one row a tad bit longer than it was supposed to be. That easy oops has already been taken care of. My good friend Liz was having a hard time looking at it. She said that it was hard on her eyes. It's much easier in person than in a picture. I'm on the serious down hill leg of this quilt & I'm hoping that I can keep the momentum up on it! Mostly because my mind is already working/plottting on the next quilts. This quilt has been made completly on my little featherweight. I think that she might want a long vacation after this monster is completed.

My home project of the black/red batiks quilt has made snails pace progress. When you're never at home you can't work on it. I'm really ready for that quilt to be done. 

I have made a few more blocks since taking this picture but I've not taken a new picture. The setting will be a 12 x 12. I think that I have to make 30 or so more blocks & then I can lay it out & start putting it together. It'll be over 100" square when it's done. I like my quilts BIG! I believe that if I'm going to make a quilt for us to use it needs to be 100" or larger. That way it can cover any of our beds with ease.

I guess I'd better get back to cutting up scraps so that I can make more progress on The Chess Board. I hope that y'all are having a great day. It is perfection here in the middle of the USA. It's green, fairly cold (for May) and the sun is out. The only thing that would make it perfect is if there was no pollen. Check out what other quilters are up to at patchworktimes.com. More later on,

Vicky

It's Monday again & I'm working on a new pattern & a few other projects.

Mondays seem to roll around so much faster here lately. I do wish I could slow it down just a little. My kiddo will turn 13 in 2 weeks or so & he likes teasing me that I'm going to be the mom of a teennager & I'm just not ready for that. It will come though if I'm ready or not.

I've been busy this past week. I had a quilt presentation with the Starlight Quilters Guild in Overland Park KS & had a great time. What a great group of quilters. I dropped off my new to me Singer 301 for a much needed makeover. I'm hoping that I can pick her up tomorrow because I can't wait to put her through her paces. There are lots of projects in the works. Shhh, don't tell my husband but I've got multiple projects going at the same time. ( When I first started quilting he said that he had only one rule. Don't start another project until you've got your current project completed). I had been sewing happily on my Kite project 

Well quilty inspiration hit & a new project started and well it took precident over the Kite project.

I am using the Kite quilt as Leader/Ender for the new quilt. To add to the quilting pile my LAQ finished the White Nostalgia quilt & I need to get the binding on it & to the quilt store. It is beautiful but I prefer the original with black & batiks. When I get the new quilt done I'll post pics.

I'm still working on the Civil War 10,000 piece quilt when I'm next door. It is coming together a piece at a time. I need to iron these pieces & sew them into 16 patches.

We'll see how much I can get done this week. I've got presentations in Manhattan KS next Monday & I'm hoping to have some new quilts with me. I hope that y'all are having a great Monday. It's looking to be a rainy week. That sounds good to me. It should mean lots of quilty sewing time. Check out what others are up to at patchworktimes.com.

More later on,

Vicky

It's Monday morning & there's lots too do!

It's Monday morning again & not a lot has changed, I've got projects going at home & next door. I'm working on another 10,000 piece quilt next door. This one is much simpler to put together than the Perkiomen Daydreams quilt. This one is more like a checker board. I'm using whites/creams & all colors of the rainbow in Civil War Repros. I'm half way done, I've got 6 rows done!

My home project is this

I'm working on making many more pieces because this is just not big enough.😊

 I've invested in some technology. I've had multiple troubles with printing my patterns. When the patterns are created using one operating system & then they are printed on a different operating system things go down the tubes. So I've gotten a new printer so that I can print them at home. I'm really hoping that having the new printer will make my life a lot easier. 

On the farm front we let some of the heifers out so that they could get to the green grass. DH took down part of the electric fence so that they could get to the grass. Well that electric fence must have made a believer out of them because just one out of the bunch would go across the line. 

Eventually they all got brave & ventured in to the grass. Silly creatures. 

I hope yall are having a good morning. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day here in the middle of the USA😊. 

Check out what other quilters are up to at patchworktimes.com

More later on,

Vicky

The blog has been invaded by crickets I think

I do apologize for being so quiet on the blog. Life has been all kinds of crazy and writing on the blog has been put on the far back burner for the last few weeks. My father in law has been mostly stable with some bad days thrown in there. I'm thankful for that but it has changed how my days go. I am also thankful for the fact that we are not grain farmers right now. There's been lots of equipment going up & down the road getting the fields ready for planting. Our "crop" of hay is looking very good and in about a month we'll be talking about getting things ready to head out & start making hay. I'm truly hoping that the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to get into the fields shortly after memorial day. Last year  we didn't even start cutting hay until after Independence day. I was baling hay on my birthday last year & I really don't want to repeat that this year!

Ok enough babling on about the farm what have I been sewing on? Because yes even with how crazy my life is I need to sew. It centers me. After I had completed the  secondary color way of Nostalgia I needed to start a new project at home. I walked into my sewing room & was stumpped. I shouldn't have been. There was plenty of fabric with limitless possibilities in my small little room. All I had to do was pick one of them & start.

A few years back (I'm saying that because I can not remember how many) I made/finished a quilt for a lady & in payment she gave me all of the leftover yardage. There were yards  of beautiful red batiks. Here is a pic of the scraps after I've been doing some cutting 

Well what was I going to do with yardage? That is not usually where i jump off when I start a quilt. Well I had remembered that I had purchased a new Accuquilt Die and I needed to play with it for a while just so that I knew how the blocks went together. This is the die

Here are some of the blocks that I've created so far. More will be made, many more will be made because I don't make small quilts.:)

Right now I'm in the process of cutting more pieces & I'm thankful for the Accuquilt, it is definetly making that process much easier & more enjoyable.

I'd better close this down. There are more piecies that I want to run through the Accuquilt before I head out to do chores. It is simply beautifull here in the middle of the USA & I'm trying to enjoy it! I hope yall are doing well. There's been more inspiration for more quilts but that will come in a later post. More later on ,

Vicky

What I'm working on, things that I know

First half of this blog post will be quilt related & the second will be life related. 

On the quilty front. When I'm at my in laws I've been trying to stay busy. I've been busy slicing & dicing through my scraps to get more 1.5" strips. Here's the last of my pile to go through

But before I can go through this I have to finish cutting up the last of the strip sets & sew up this ice cream container

My husband helped my MIL clean off the table yesterday & did his best at keeping all of my stuff together. He put all of my pieces in the bucket so I'll keep on using it. 

I had noticed that after a while after sewing strip sets on my featherweight my  machine started to lag really bad & I was frustrated with it. By golly I wanted to put some strips under the needle & I felt like I was unable. So I started surfing craigslist looking for a Singer 301. I had heard & read that those machines could do 1300 stitches a minute. That was right up my alley. Were there any available in my area, nope. Next stop was eBay. There were plenty to choose from there. It just all depends on how much I was willing to spend. I found one & I won it!!!!! Woohoo!! Now I just have to be patient & wait for it to arrive. That is not my best virtue, waiting, but I guess it's good for me. 

(Disclaimer: I'm a caretaker for my FIL whose on hospice next door )

On the life front it's been an interesting last few weeks. Definely a roller coaster ride. There have been lots of late night trips for medication or help going to the bathroom. During the day there are lots of interruptions to go next door to give my help. I have found that when I'm home I don't want to do anything but enjoy the quiet. I have found that it has been hard to sew at home. I'm not completely sure why. My current home project is the alternate color way for my pattern Nostalgia, here's a glimpse

During the construction of this quilt I have learned that I'm not a solids lover. I like patterns & textures in my fabrics. Plus the more variety the better. I also am not a fan of white. 

I have a guild presentation tonight in 

St.Joseph MO & I'm looking forward to it! I hope that y'all are doing well. More later on,

Vicky

A shot out

Just a quick shoutout to the End of the Trail quilters in Abilene KS. I had such a great time with you last Tuesday. Dinner was fun & yummy. That was some of the best catfish I've ever had at Mr. k's Farmhouse

I'm looking forward to being back in the area in a few months! 

Vicky