Stitching along!

Do you start the year with resolutions, I have really have never done that.  I do try to set goals for myself.  One of my goals this year was to get some quilt tops quilted before any new starts.

Some of the quilt tops hanging in my waiting area have quite a few seams and busy prints.  This makes quilting them with fine quilting stitches a bit challenging.  I have always wanted to try big stitching, which involves perle cotton and a larger needle.  Well, I have to say, I am absolutely loving the process. It was difficult for me to adjust to larger stitches and I definitely need to keep working on keeping those stitches even.

I did come across this great set of videos on You tube by Jo Glover.  There are five short tutorials and one is a gallery of quilts she has done.  I just love the look. 

  

I haven't quite made the adjustment to using size 8 or 12 perle cotton, but I do love using the #16.  So last weekend I got my QOV marked and started stitching . It is not a very large quilt measuring 53X53.  The blocks were stitched last summer using a tutorial I found on 15 Minutes of Play BumbleBeans Inc.  I use the paper pieced pdf that is included.  

 There are nine of these triangle galore blocks in the quilt.

 

I am outline quilting the center triangles that make up the hexagon. Then, I am doing a star point shape to mimick the shape of the red points of the star. I am using a double line on this to help emphasize it.

 The navy blue back ground is a diagonal line spaced one inch apart.  So of course I can't help but name this one Stars and Stripes  I can not believe how much faster this is moving along.  I have two stars and one border to finish up.  Most of that will get done today as I stitch along with the other slow stitchers on Slow Stitching Sundays.

 

Pay off!

 It has been a long winter, although down here we don't get very hard winters, but we have had our share of lower than normal temps.  I am really getting sick of looking a that bermuda grass that stays brown till we get much warmer temps. Hopefully there will be some signs of spring  soon.  I have kept busy stitching on a few projects, mostly hand work, which is slow going.  So slow, that sometimes, I wonder if these projects will ever get finished, but then I remind myself that I do enjoy the process it is nice to reflect on what those stitches produce. So this morning, after a few last applique stitches, I have the four blocks for my pumpkin seed done! Mind you, I don't have it assembled into a flimsie yet, but sewing four blocks together shouldn't take too long.

 Also after spending a couple of months of basting hexies, I drew out my design.  I wanted to make a frame for a center medallion block, which turned out to be harder than I thought it would be.  I finally got it worked out and started sewing the flowers together adding the background filler.  I  really have enjoyed stitching them together. This is my progress, 181 hexies stitched together!

After another cup of coffee this morning and once the sun comes out I will go back to marking my Quilt of Valor quilt.  I am excited to get it into my new hoop.  Again I will be using perle cotton #16, to big stitch this quilt.  So even though sometimes it doesn't feel like I am making progress, it is good to look back and see how far these projects have come.

Slow Slow Stitching

Thought I would update you on my hexie quilt today.  If you have ever worked with hexies you know it involves slow slow stitching.  I did make progress this week, in that I started to assemble my medallion block.

This evening, the plans are to add a few more black background hexies to a few more flowers, so that they will be ready to attach. My goal is attaching four more flowers, not sure that will happen but I like to work towards a goal.
 

 

 This morning, while the sun is shining bright I am marking some blocks on my Quilt of Valor so that I can get it closer to going into the hoop.