THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm pulling out a very old quilt.  One of my firsts.  Not even a label.  I didn't know better.  Not well done but the spirit is there.  It started me on my journey into the art of quilting.  

BABY QUILT

I've been absent from my blog for a time.  I'm coming close to being organized.  It's been rough. Moving when you are my age is a long process.  And so much needs doing in this Florida home.  The sewing room/computer room is at least usable now.

Our new grandchild is expected in December and a quilt for the baby was requested some months back.   We know it's a girl.   I've been so busy with the new house and the parents estate that I could not take time to hand piece and hand quilt even a small baby quilt.  So I brushed up on my machine skills and came up with a nice little quilt for sweet baby girl soon to be born granddaughter.  Parents haven't given the darling a name yet.

A request was made a request for beige and pink.  I decided on 5 inch squares which I  was able to cut by pulling enough from my stash to make it interesting.  I used EQ7 to set out the design.  It's machine pieced...and it's a miracle...I got all those corner points to match.  Machine quilted with a walking foot in the ditch and then cross hatched.  All done.  Label done.  I like to come up with rhymes, so the little label poem is my own. Ready to send out.  I'm in Florida.  Baby is in Pennsylvania.  I enjoyed making the quilt.  This was super fast speed for me.

Baby's Quilt

Label Poem Sandra Lee White © 2015

The colors are much brighter than what shows in the iPhone photo....taken in the evening in a not-so-well lighted room.  It's on my design board.  Yes, I used flash.  Reminder to self....get better lighting in your sewing room.

And now on to a quilt made by hand.  My next sewing project.  I plan to hand quilt a quilt top made from Inkingo's Free Collection.  It's a hand pieced carpenters wheel.  My first Inklingo project.  I've been using it as the background for my blog.  The top was finished some time ago.  I think I'll put borders on it first.  Maybe a thin strip of color, then cream.  We'll see.  I miss hand quilting and haven't done much of it in the last 4 months. And the hand quilting will take a while.

Florida

It's been a while since I've been able to blog.  Moving took up a lot of my time.  So now the move to Florida is complete.  Well maybe not "complete" but we are here.   We found a house in Ocala in a gated community.  I've yet to enjoy my surroundings entirely.  We have been updating and repairing our home.  When my husband and I purchased, we decided to buy something we could fix up and make our own.  That's what we are doing and the doing is time consuming.  I expect we will be almost finished by the end of October. New flooring, new sun room, new kitchen are some of the big projects in the works.

In the mean time, not much sewing on my part.  My sewing room is much larger than the sewing room in Toledo.  I've almost got it to where I want it.  I've incorporated my desktop computer into the room. Now when I want to print Inklingo I can do it in my sewing room and make the cuts right here instead of going from computer room to sewing room. All in one now.  I can't wait until life settles down a bit and I can get to all the Inklingo projects I have in mind.

Sewing Machine and Computer in an L shape

Pressing and cutting station starting to shape up

 I can now write my blog surrounded by my fabric.

Fabric Wall

This is part of my Fabric wall.
About a year ago, I'd wrapped my fabric around Comic Book Boards and arranged by color.  This made them much easier to transport and put them back up when I started to organize my sewing room.

Design Wall

My design wall got a bit mussed up during the move, so I took off the old batting and refreshed it with new.  And some advise, if you want to make this type of design wall (stapling batting onto wall board) use a Bostitch Heavy Duty Stapler.  The last stapler I used did not work well and I had to hammer the staples in.  This one was a dream to work with and the entire project took about 20 minutes.

I've also began to organize my threads.

Threads

My home is starting to come together.  I've found some time to work on my projects.  I just finished the last border on my Celtic Solstice.

This is the quilt top without the last border.  I'll try to get a better photo of the entire top soon but right now the house is in chaos.  We are having the plumbing repaired and screens put in enclosing our front porch and garage today.  Noise level is pretty high and we have the water shut off. Aarh! 

And just a bottom note:  To all my wonderful friends in the Toledo area.  I miss you all terribly.  This was the worst part of the move...leaving you all behind.  Love and hugs to you. 

Moving But Quilting Continues

Sage

I've been walking around my property today looking at all the plants and taking a few pictures. I live in NW Ohio.  We are moving to Florida. The house is sold.  I've lived in Ohio since 1968 and lived in this home for close to 28 years. Before that I lived in Chautauqua County in upstate NY.  I love the North.

It will be a hard move.  I will miss the Azalea with it's magnificent bright orange/yellow blooms. It was here when I moved into my home.  So was the Lilac.  My Sage comes up every year.  I planted it many years ago.  A good friend gave me the Iris Bulbs a few years back.  Thank you Kathy.   There's more.  I have peppermint that came from my grandmothers garden after she passed.  Our weeping pine was planted in 1991.  

Lilacs at the Back Fence

Weeping Pine

Azalea

The move for me is so difficult.  I'm leaving behind so many friends and in my opinion a perfect climate.  I will miss all of this. But no matter where I live there will always be my quilting. And no matter where I live, there will always be quilters to share with.

Patchwork Pig

One positive aspect of moving is the de-cluttering. A few days ago, we brought boxes down from the attic. And look what I found!  My Patchwork Pig.  I made this quilty pig in the late 80's when I got into ceramics....even then quilting was in my blood. And so my quilt life continues.  From Ceramics to machine work to hand work.

   My two latest finished projects are small. Both hand pieced and hand quilted.

Miniature Patchwork of the Crosses in Red and White

Hexagon Table Topper

Hand piecing is a joy with the help of Inklingo.
I used 1/2 inch 90 degree hexagons for the mini POTC and one inch 60 degree hexagons for the Table Topper.

C-3

I continue to work on my Dear Jane
and Dutch Treat.

Dutch Treat Reverse Applique

And...I have a number of tops that I want to hand quilt.  As soon as my Roxanne Thimble comes to me from my exchange I will begin.

By the way, did you know you can exchange sizes for free?!! I purchased a Solid Sterling Silver--I'm allergic to other metals- -Roxanne Thimble 15 years ago.  It's now too big.  I mailed my thimble to the supplier last week.  They have received it...I tracked it and insured it.   I hope to get my smaller size Roxanne soon so I can begin my hand quilting again.

More to come.

Patchwork of the Crosses

 

I made this miniature (18.25" x 18.25") Patchwork of the Crosses using bits of scraps in my stash.  It's hand pieced with a running stitch made possible with Inklingo .5 inch POTC. It's hand quilted. It got 3rd place at Sauders Quilt Show in Arcbold Ohio.  

CELTIC SOLSTICE UPDATE

U.

The first two borders are stitched on my version of Celtic Solstice.  I'm still in Florida and don't have the fabric for the third and last border and here's why.  I packed my fabric away and shipped it to Ohio thinking I had already cut the last border, but no.  So my fabric and other projects are now on their way north.   I'll have to finish this when I get home.  I'll be leaving Florida next Wednesday so not too long to wait to finish up.  In the mean time, I've run out of projects.  What to do.  Well I brought my laptop and have EQ7 loaded on it so I think I'll play with designs in my free time.

By the way, Pooks misses me.

Works in Progress

I finished  hand quilting the Rose of Sharon and did the binding completely by hand.  So OK, not that easy. Usually I machine my binding on and hand sew it on to the back.  Still need to give it a label.

In the mean time, I continue on with Celtic Solstice.

Three of the pieced borders are done.  Working on number 4.  All hand pieced.  

Celtic Solstice

My hand piecing kit

I'm still in Florida helping my dad with all the day-to-day things that have to be done after mom passed.  I will be leaving to go back to Ohio in mid-March. In the meantime I've been catching up on my handpiecing.

I brought along my hand sewing kit.   I've got my needle keeper, my needle threader, my thread, pincushions, my scissors, a tiny box for small pins, and yes of course a seam ripper,...and my beeswax candle that smells deliciously of honey.  Inside my needle keeper I have John James appliqué needles (number 11) and John James milliners needles (number 11). As I handpiece, I switch back-and-forth between the two. My favorite thread for handpiecing is Aurifil 50 wt.  I also use Mettler 60/2.   Both of these threads are cotton.

While I've been in Florida, I've been working on my Celtic Solstice.  Celtic Solstice was Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt for 2013. I began this quilt in September of 2013 and followed along with the clues.  I chose my own color palette based on the fabric I had the most of.  (I am quite determined to use up my stash.) As the clues developed, I printed out my pieces using Inklingo.  During the next year between other projects I pieced together Celtic Solstice at a leisurely pace, first putting together the 3 inch blocks then joining the 3 inch blocks into the 9 inch squares. Once I finished my 9 inch squares I join them together in fours.  The project box that I brought to Florida with me consisted of 9 inch blocks and some joined four block squares.

4 blocks joined

During the last few weeks I have finished piecing the center of the quilt and am now working on the pieced border.

Without other projects to distract me, I should be done with the Celtic Solstice top in the next few weeks.  

Rose of Sharon

 I've been in Ocala Florida since January 4, 2015.  I didn't expect to be here very long and came here all in a rush when mom and dad called me to say mom was sick and needed help.  I brought just a few things to work on.  Mom saw what I was working on and really liked it.  At the time I arrived in Ocala, I had one section of the four to finish quilting and the borders.  The first week mom would sit with me and talk while I quilted.  After mom passed I continued with my quilting in my spare time and evenings.  I'm just about done now mom...    Tomorrow or the next day, I'll visit the local quilt shop Tomorow's Treasures to find fabric for binding.  This is an old old UFO so some of the appliqué work needs some redoing.  I'll bind it, label it.  It'll need a washing. Then I think I'll use it as a table topper for moms sewing table. 

It looks like I'll be here for another month helping dad. I'll work on another project during this time.  I brought my Celtic Solstice to finish piecing.  Perhaps I'll work on that.  Being away from home without major distractions from unfinished projects in my sewing room, I'm forced to finish what I have.  That's a good thing.  I'm feeling a sense of accomplishment.  I'd also like to finish up the hexagon table topper I pieced a few months back.  I need to hand quilt it.

Four squares of Celtic Solstice

Hexagon Table Topper

Passages

On January 19, 2015, my mother passed away.  She was 89. I've been in Florida since January 4,  first tending to mom in her last days and now helping my father through  the morass of tasks that must be done.  My loss is too fresh now for me to say much more.  Will post again soon.