Sunday, October 14, 2018

Snow Time and More

I hope everyone is enjoying the change of seasons in your part of the world.  Here in Indiana the weather has turned from scorching hot summer weather to crisp, cool fall weather.  We have been near freezing several evenings this week.  I guess it is October so it's to be expected.  I feel like we went from 80 to 50 in a matter of a few days.  I don't enjoy the cold, but I do love fall and winter and all of the holidays that come with it.  

This is my newest pattern called Snow Time.  The snowman, hat and scarf and wool, and the rest of the center is embroidered.  I'll have it up in my Etsy shop and on Craftsy soon.   


We were on vacation in the Smoky Mountains for about 10 days.  While we were there I finished my last few Kingfisher blocks.  I hand appliqued' them to the diamonds.  I'm waiting for inspiration to strike to add the setting pieces and borders.  There's a lot of color in those blocks, and it's hard to zero in on just one.  


A few weeks ago I met with a couple of ladies that have bought and made several of my patterns.  Sharon made this huge bag is full of pillows made from my Charming Hexagon Pillow Pattern.  (I can't believe that this is the only photo I have from that day.......)
Sharon M. and Linda B. met me at Back Door for show and tell, and then the 3 of us went to Portillos for lunch.   I had only known these two ladies on-line before, but I had such fun with them that it was like we'd been friends for ages.  I hope to get together with them again soon.   

I spent a few days down at Michele's in northern Kentucky a few weeks ago, and we really did sew.  It was one of those times when we ate most of our meals at the sewing machine so we could get lots done.  We finished our quilt from the June issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  You can see part of Michele's quilt on the right.  



We ordered this little quilt pattern on line and whipped it up one evening.


I had a big stack of these pink and brown log cabin blocks, and I was able to put some of them into a quilt top.



Here's the view from the cabin where we stay in Tennessee.   I think it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.   



I went over to Dayton, Ohio, on Friday to meet Michele, Barb and Meredith for lunch and to spend the afternoon at the One Stop Shop Hop.   I spotted a quilt made from one of my patterns in the Sew Happy Quilting booth.  Their shop is located over in Belpre, OH.


This is my leftovers pattern made by Sarah at Back Door Quilts.  They had it displayed in their booth.  I love how it looks in Kim Diehl fabrics.

Yesterday we put the Halloween/fall decorations out front.  My husband is a very handy guy and bored holes through these artificial pumpkins and put them on a dowel rod so they stay put and don't blow over.


The ghosts are made from tomato cages turned upside down.  I bend the wires at the top down and wind the cage with white lights.  I use binder clips to clip the white fabric onto the cages.  I've used permanent marker to draw faces on the ghosts.   


Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Stitching A New Pattern

I've been busy making 3/4" pentagon flowers and have written a new pattern.  I have mostly used the new fabric line by Edyta Sitar called Little Sweetheart.  The vase and stems on the center block are Kim Diehl fabrics, and the leaves are from scraps.  I've done the applique' by hand, but you could certainly applique' this quilt center by machine.  I've added some small embroidery stems and leaves and embroidered the flower centers, but you can leave those out if you don't like to embroider.


 This is what the center looks like before the embroidery has been added.

I also show you a trick that I use to applique' stems.  Whether you are doing the applique' by hand or by machine, this trick will cut your stitching time in half.  


I always wonder how people name their patterns or their quilts.  Sometimes I try to look for some deep, hidden meaning in the names.  In case you are wondering how I came by the name Four O'Clock Fancy......I just mailed a birthday card to a friend from back in grade school days.   She and I used to play outside a lot and would watch the Four O'Clocks bloom every afternoon, and we would gather the seeds.  That's where the Four O'Clock came from, but it took awhile to find something that would go along with it.  The Fancy came when I opened up our Tiki's cat food......Fancy Feast. 

Pattern is available on Craftsy here or in my Etsy shop here or at Back Door Quilts here. 


I'm linking up with my friend Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Quilter's Meet and Greet


Welcome to new readers who are here visiting from Victoriana Quilt Designs blog as well as those of you that have been here before.  Please feel free to browse and look around my blog.  Underneath my header photo, I have links to different pages.  There are also tutorials there as well as along my side bar over to the right.

I'm taking part in a blogger's Meet and Greet to welcome Benita to the blog world.  She has set up this meet and greet to help those of us that blog to get acquainted and visit each other's blogs.  Benita is starting a new blog, so I'd like you to hop on over to her blog and take a look around.  There will be prizes, too, so be sure to take a look at her blog and enter.

I'll tell you a bit about myself.  I've been quilting for over 20 years and have tried many different kinds of quilts.  Take a look on the quilts tab underneath my header photo.

Benita asked us to send her a photo of our favorite quilt.  The Dear Jane quilt holds so many good memories for me because I have met people from all over the world through connection with this quilt.  Twenty years ago, some of the quilters making this Dear Jane quilt started holding a retreat up in Shipshewana, Indiana.  I've been going to the Jane Stickle Quilt Retreat for about 18 years and have met people that I wouldn't have met otherwise.  Many of them have become close friends, and we've shared each others joys and sorrows.  We will all meet again soon at the retreat, and I can't wait.






I like all kinds of quilting, but right now I am a bit obsessed with English Paper Piecing.   Using paper pieces and a Sewline glue pen has made the basting process very easy.   I love to find a piece of fabric that I can fussy cut to add a secondary design to a hexagon or a 6 pointed star.  You can see my fussy cutting tutorial here.


Here is the link to Benita's blog.  I hope you will stop by her blog, have a look around, and say hello while you are there.
https://benitaskinner.blogspot.com/2018/09/2018-online-quilters-meet-greet.html

Of course there will be prizes.  Visit the link below or click the prize photo to be entered for a chance to win.

 https://www.victorianaquiltdesigns.com/fabric/




I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  


Monday, August 27, 2018

Summer Sewing


Hello Everyone

I never intend to stay away from my blog as long as I do, but the summer is just whizzing by and I can't seem to slow it down no matter what I do.   I am either sewing, thinking about sewing, or shopping for things to use for sewing.   If I don't pick up a needle and thread for at least a few minutes each day, it just doesn't seem right.   I did work on my blog a bit the other day, and I think I accidentally misfired the page about my Mitered Square Blanket tutorial.  In the process I also lost a page I was going to launch with photos of a lot of the quilts I've made.  That one just vanished into thin air, so I have to start from scratch.

I am over on Instagram some, but I haven't really posted lately over there either.   You all know that there is so much out there in blog land and on Instagram to get involved in that you could spend every day just doing the sew alongs or blocks of the month.   I have tried hard not to get too much more started, but I did succumb to the Kingfisher Sew Along hosted by Stitched In Color and Tales of Cloth.   If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I like anything with hexagons or English Paper Piecing.  The Kingfisher Sew Along only has 46 - 1" hexagons. 

This is not my usual color pallet, but sometimes I like to work in brights.  My friend Michele gave me a couple pieces of the Nancy Halvorsen fabric Bree.  You can see that it is just perfect for fussy cutting. 



I have managed to find almost every piece of the collection in my summer travels.   A lot of the hexagons you see in the photo below are cut from this line, but I almost never make an entire quilt from just one fabric line so there are hexagons from other lines, too.  All 46 of my hexagons are sewn.  I just need to get busy sewing them to the backgrounds.  



Here are a couple of my hexagons on the first background that I bought.   Three and a half yards later, I decided that I didn't want all of the backgrounds to be alike and look too planned.   


So I bought some that were kind of alike but have a subtle pattern.   Hopefully when I get the quilt put together, these won't all look the same.   

I finished another Lone Star quilt made using Quiltsmart.  I thought it would be interesting to put something pieced in the corners.   I like the look, and there is a lot less machine quilting to do in those big spaces.   

Here are a couple more double hexagons for that project.   These are just fun to make, and I have to stop myself from just making these and not working on other things I have in the works.   



These hexagons are a good way to use up some of the 6 hexagon rounds that you have cut.   And......they are even good for those that you can only find 5 of.   



Here is the scene from in front of my local Kroger store.  Yes, those are pumpkins and mums that you see.   Can fall be far behind?  


I'm linking up with Judy over at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Monday, June 18, 2018

Hexagons (Of Course) and Some Finishes

Hello dear readers

This is the third day in a row that we've had a heat advisory here, so it is perfect weather for doing some stitching.  The weather service alert says that afternoon and early evening temperatures will be in the lower to middle 90s, with maximum heat index values around 105 degrees.  They say to put off all strenuous activities.  They don't have to tell me twice:  the vacuum cleaner is parked in the closet, the stove is off, and I'm sitting in the air conditioning with my needle, thread and hexagons.

I have a lot of 1" hexagons basted, so I have been making more of these double hexagons.   I usually baste 6 hexagons from one fabric, and I usually find something that I think would look good fussy cut.   Sometimes if I find a fabric that I really like, I'll baste 12 from the same fabric.    



A lot of the time, two of the fabrics I use come from the same fabric line like the two purple fabrics.  The red stripe was just in the container.  When I find a fabric like I used in the first two centers, I baste several of these because I think the center hexagon makes it look like a flower.

The inner floral fabric and the blue stripe are cut from the same piece of fabric.  The brown wavy is from the Lewis & Clark line by Barbara Brackman.  I still have some of it left, and I use it sparingly.  I love that fabric!


This is my container of basted 1'" repro hexagons.  You can see I've used snack bags to group more of these double hexagons.   I have another container just like this with bright 1" hexagons.


In the afternoons, I usually pour a glass of iced tea and take a basket of hexagons to stitch out to the porch for awhile.  These are the hexagons for the Rose of Kaleigh sew along by Sue Daley.  I think there are 52 of these 3/4" hexagons.  The ones on the right are complete with the center.  The pile on the left still needs to have the center sewn in.  


By the way, I have switched to these Tulip #9 Sewing Needles to do my English Paper Piecing, and I think they are saving my hands.  They are showing up in a lot of quilt shops and are available on line.



I had 17 of these bright hexagons finished and some more cut, and I wasn't sure what I would do with them.  My friend, Michele, showed me a photo of a hexagon quilt in the June issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life blog.  Her hexagon quilt uses 35 hexagons so I basted and stitched 18 more for the quilt.  The background is 4 squares of low volume fabrics made into four patches, and I will hand applique' the hexagons onto the background.  I think that will be a good summer project (yes....another one).



Michele also got me started on these Lone Star quilts.  They are made using a foundation by Quiltsmart.  They have a light fusible on one side and are marked with placement and sewing lines.  This was my first one, and I've kept going.  I even taught a group up in northern Indiana how to make this Lone Star quilt.  This one is 38" without the border.   I used batiks on this first one because it's easier to concentrate on the technique and not worry about getting the fabric upside down.



This was my second Lone Star.


I love this one in fall colors.  The fabrics were given to me by my friend, Barb.  I just love the border print.  

This is the Little Lone Star at 19".


Michele gave me this bag to carry quilts in.  These are really Laundry bags, but they are great for taking quilts to show and tell or packing a lot of "stuff" to go to a retreat.  In order to cover the word laundry stitched on the bag, I covered it with a 6 pointed star left over from my quilt.


This is the 38" Lone Star made by one of my students, Kim.  She invited me to come up to Hebron, Indiana, to sew with her group for the day and teach them the Lone Star.

Pam brought hers along to the Jane Stickle retreat in Shipshewana, and she finished it while she was there.  Judy was almost finished with hers, too.  I didn't get a photo of her progress.



This is my Pretty Plates quilt.  Theses blocks are English Paper Pieced, and the pattern is by Annette Williams of Sewing the Good Life.  These blocks have very little hand sewing and are appliqued' down to the background.  I added broderie perse flowers in the centers of my blocks using fabric by Di Ford, and I machine quilted it.  




I know this looks like a lot, but I did a trunk show for the Evening Star Quilters in Columbus, Indiana.  That is always a good motivator to finish quilts.

I hope you are still reading because I have seen several of my favorite bloggers ranting  talking about the  problem with Blogger Comments.   Not long ago, I found out that I was only getting part of the email notifications when someone left a comment on my post so unless I went to my own blog post, I didn't see those comments that were left.  I went in and toggled and untoggled my settings to get it to work.  Today, I was reading Fun with Barb's blog, and she says this is just the way that it's going to be.  It's a change and not a problem with Blogger.  One way around this is for me to post and then put down the first comment and then the rest of the comments will come to my inbox (I think).  But, if I don't know your email address then I won't be able to email you back.  I'm not sure what their thinking is with this.   I have been told that I should reply down below the person's comment.  After I've read a blog and comment, I hardly ever go back to a blog again until their next post.  How about you? 

I'm going to link with Judy over at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.


Hope you are finding some time to stitch today!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Monday, May 28, 2018

Happy Memorial Day

Hello dear readers.  Happy Memorial Day everyone.  God Bless those that have served our country in the past and have fought and died for our freedom and those that are currently serving in the military.  Thank you all for your service. 

Most all of my draft posts start out with an apology for being absent for so long so I won't start this one that way.   I'm always stitching, so I thought I would show you some of the things that I've been working on lately.

This is my progress so far on Sue Daley's Rose of Kaleigh sew along.   Sue gives us a few steps to sew each week.  I believe the sew along is on week 13.  I have finally caught up and have done the center and some extra single hexagons. I laid it all out on the floor to take a photo so I can get a good idea of what the finished quilt might look like. 


This is another block for my double hexagon quilt that I talked about in my last post.  I am using some leftover 1" hexagons that I have basted to make these blocks.  These blocks are really a lot of fun to put together.


This is one of the baskets from the Antique Basket pattern I've been working on. The baskets are cut from a template included in the pattern.  I've prepped all of the basket bottoms and needle turn appliqued the top and bottoms onto the baskets.  Now I am embroidering the handles on the baskets using a product called Transfer EZE.  You put the Transfer EZE sheets in your printer, copy the outlines, and stick it onto your background.  It is fairly thin so you embroider right through it.  Then when you are finished with the embroidery, you soak the block in water and the Transfer EZE comes off. 

Here are 4 more 3/4" hexagons for my Libby Morgan Reunion quilt that I talked about in my last post.  I will start putting the quilt top together soon.

We are on vacation in the mountains for a few more days.  We've been here about 10 days.  I've been to 4 different quilt shops while I've been here.  Nope.   I didn't think to take one single photo.   



It's rained just a little nearly every day and most times there has been a rainbow.


On the way down we took some back roads through Kentucky and saw lots of barn quilts.  I realized later that we were on the Barn Quilt trail because there almost wasn't a barn that didn't have a quilt on it




We also stopped and took a tour of the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.  The little buffalo on top of these bottles are collector items.  This is the room where they bottle the bourbon and put the labels on the bottles.


This is our tour guide getting ready to pour the samples.  


Image result for american flag image

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope you are finding some time to stitch today!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

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