Project(s) Update

I finished my first quilt where I designed the pattern, pieced the top, quilted it all together and bound it myself!  I feel accomplished and sooooooo satisfied.  I'm so grateful for Christa Watson of Christa Quilts and her machine quilting workshop.  I gained the confidence to try the quilting myself and I am so happy that I did.

Embassy Windows -- finished!

I had been feeling so lethargic and plain sad after the election.  I made it through my days, but felt like I was wading through molasses.  After work and getting dinner on the table, I didn't have any energy for sewing.  On Friday, with the Veteran's Day holiday, I turned a corner.  To get my sewing mojo, I tackled a few of The Splendid Sampler blocks that had been piling up in my absence.

First I tackled Bows designed by Jane Davidson.  Her original patter was paper pieced.  I reworked it so that I could piece it regularly.  I love how the intersection of her four bow blocks came together and I made sure that I kept that aspect when I reworked it.  I also added another 1/4" to all the outside pieces so that I would have better odds of getting a true 6 1/2" block.  Sometimes my seams are bigger than a scant 1/4" and my block ends up a hair small.  I really find this block beautiful and my fabric choices were "on point" as my son would say.

Bows designed by Jane Davidson

Next up was Little Things by Jacquelynne Steves.  I knew when her pattern appeared that my version of her block would be pink and gray, like my china and place mats that I made previously.  I've lugged some of those scraps through all my many moves these past 25 years.  I love the block!

Adding my tea cup and place mat to the photo. 

Little Things designed by Jacquelynne Steves

Feeling that I could continue, I trimmed my Embassy Windows quilt and pinned the binding.  Every stage of this quilt has been fun. I think the binding fabric was a good choice.  I like that it is dark and the dots fit right in with the rest of the fabrics.

After returning from Selim's soccer team farewell dinner, I sewed on the binding.  I didn't want to  take my sewing machine to Mom's on Saturday, so I felt really good to have the binding on and ready for the hand sewing part.

Saturday morning I had a couple of hours before heading out and I finished two more blocks.  A Taste for Giving  by Joan Ford was so fun.  I love her canning jars.  My fabric for this sampler quilt didn't have food prints, so I went with pink and blue.  And I do more freezing than canning...but I still loved the block.  Instead, imagine that these are jars of freezer jam, strawberry and blueberry.

A Taste for Giving  designed by Joan Ford

The last one of the morning was Jersey by Carrie Nelson.  I'm not sure where I went wrong on her block with either my cutting or following the directions.  But I had to remake the flying geese parts of the block because the first time they were 1/4" too short.  I switched methods and paper pieced them instead.  Second time around worked like a charm.  I love this block too.  There is something so sweet about it.

Jersey designed by Carrie Nelson

I spent much of Saturday afternoon on Mom's couch, hand sewing.  I didn't expect to get it all done in one day.  But I did!  And then today, after lunch, I took it out for a photo shoot. Woo-hoo!

The green goes great with the new siding.

Draped over the rocks by the Hall.

Matching lichen and rock colors to the quilt.

Straight line quilting

All folded up!

Next up: curtains for the man cave.  Now that the leaves are off the trees, it is easy to look right in the windows from the road.  I told my hubby that I would work on those over the Thanksgiving weekend.  Now that I'm back in the groove, I should be able to knock those off before the end of the year.