Hand Quilting

I finished up hand stitching the sashings and corner triangles to my Hand Pieced QAL quilt and decided to get it sandwiched and quilted.  I am not sure what took over in me, maybe it was being a way from sewing for a week on our get a way or just wanting to see this project completely finished.
I have to say I spent quite a few hours stitching this week and only have one corner triangle to complete.  I probably would have finished it Saturday but all of my stitching was interrupted by having to babysit my grand dog Zoey.

Her first ride in a shopping cart, she did surprisingly well!

She's a puppy so she commands quite a bit of attention, but she seems to love quilts and has adopted this one has her perch.  So hopefully, during her naps today, I can add a few more stitches to bring me closer to this finish.

I have started the final corner and am using a basket weave pattern. Something I have never used as a background filler but have wanted to use.  It was very easy to mark just using a ruler.  Hopefully a blog post will follow soon about this finished project. It has been a whole lot of fun!

Block #9 of QAL

I finished the final block of the Hand Pieced QAL this week.  I have to say this had been a fun and I have gained confidence as I pieced each block.  It may not be something everyone enjoys, but I really like how each piece fits together and the final results.  I am rearranging the block arrangement to make my final block the center of the nine blocks.  I have added sashing and some setting triangles.  When it's completed it will be a table topper.

I can't wait to see what some hand quilted stitches will add to this project.

Sunflower start

I am inpatiently waiting for block 9 to come out on Monday for the Hand Pieced QAL.  I have gotten in such a habit of stitching every day that I felt at a loss yesterday.  So I made some templates for a sunflower block.  Sunflower quilts are so stunning and it has been a dream to make one.  Then I saw Cathy's sunflower quilt on her blog  Sane,Crazy, Crumbly Quilting. I just love Cathy's blog she has such an eye for color and her scrappy quilts all make me smile. If you haven't seen her sunflower quilt its worth the time to hop over and see it.

 I use cereal box cardboard for my templates. I  rubber cement  two layers together and then print out the templates and glue them in place. Then using a rotary cutter for the straight lines and scissors forthe curves, I carefully cut them out.  The rubberr cement is perfect to use as no bubbles form on thepaper.  The added layer of cardboard makes them about the thickness of a quilting ruler so I can easily use my small rotary cutter to cut the fabric.

So I started my making pairs of piece A and B then adding C then pairing up those pairs until I had 16 units paired up.  I finished by backbasting some fabric to the center using my machine and hand appliquing the center to the the block.

I am very pleased at my first attempt at a sunflower block  I still need to applique it to some fabric to finish the block, but the scary part is over.  It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined,. I see making more of these as the summer progresses.  But I still need to get back to my hst's and decide what to do with them.  But it sure has been fun practicing my hand piecing.

Surprise Quilt Show

While on our little get a way this week. Tom and I stopped by at the Ground Zero Katrina Musuem in Waveland Ms.  It was only about ten miles from where we stayed and after seeing all the empty lots we felt like we wanted to know more.  It's not a big museum but just a little museum the locals put together to remember what happened.  It contained the usually things like the water line in the building showing how how much water had surged in from the hurricane.  But, I was surprised that above that water line were little quilts.  Nothing was said of them on our tour, but Tom asked about them.

They were made by a Canadian quilter, Solveig Wells,who had a home in the area.  She came down after the hurricane to find all her fabric and home gone.  I can't imagine what that would be like.  Her story is told here.   Her story of recovery is pretty amazing. After she passed, her husband donated the 55 little quilts to the museum.

I was told she made all of these little quilts in 18 months.  Being a quilter myself, I can understand the need to stitch and recovery can take many forms for different people.  I keep thinking about the day she found a bit of her fabric poking thru the sand at the beach.  A bit of hope! Another bit of proof of that quilts are art, a way for Mrs Wells to express her feelings!

Block 8 Handpieced QAL

It was great to get a way for a few days this week.  However, it's also good to come home and get caught up with the QAL.  Each block seems to get easier to do, so the adage that practice makes perfect comes to mind. I can't believe next week will bring us the final block, then it will be time to assemble this little quilt.

Block #7 Hand pieced QAL

Well Block # 7 is complete!  My pictures really didn't catch the true color of the fabric but it is what it is!  I didn't follow the piecing the directions on this one completely. The QAL directions used to flying geese to make the center block which caused a seam to go down the middle.  Since I am hand quilting this little quilt once its a top I eliminated that seam.

 I will be leaving on a road trip Sunday, so we will see if I will find time to work on Block #8 while I am away.  If not, I can't catch up on week nine.  Looking forward to setting these into a little quilt.

Slow Stitching

I feel I made good progress this week. Another hand pieced block was completed for the sew a long.  It seems like the sew along just got started and here we are on block 6. There are only three more weeks and all of the nine blocks will be completed.

I laid all my blocks out on the solid gray background I intend on using and am very pleased at how it's helping the colors pop.

Every evening I stitch a few more hst's for a future quilt.  I try and limit myself to stitching around 20 each evening.  I don't want to stress my hands and want to be able to do this kind of stitching in the future.  It's amazing how quickly they are adding up 220 on my last count.  I like keeping track of how many I have made so when it comes time to figuring out my layout I will know where I stand.

I am linking up with Slow Stitching Sunday so I can be inspired with all the other slow stitchers and their projects.