Back again!

My sewing machine...dies

I have been hand sewing for the past few months as I did not bring a machine down to our winter home in AZ. Last week I decided to work on some projects...hand bags from a pattern and material from the Sunflower quilters. The needle kept breaking on my Singer Quantrum.  I decided to clean the bobbin and that actually made matters worse. The. The needle broke again and I think blew the circuit board of the machine. Nothing worked. So my husband did some searching on the best quilting sewing machine and came up with the Brother 6000i. I was in the middle of a project for a cousins bridal shower so I wanted a machine quick, but not expensive. So ordered this with gift cards and daughters discount. Overall it has been performing well. I do miss my automatic thread cutter as it prevented thread waste. Also you have to leave large tail of tread or it slips out of the needle. Thank goodness for the threader. I have done some piecing,used decorate stitches and I am getting used to it.

At some point I will try out the quilting stitches.

Amanda's shower gift 

Scraps from Sunflower 2013 quilt, hand sewn on way home.

Will attempt machine quilting.

Works in process...

365 Challenge quilt blocks ( hand sewn)

Started the western wagon wheel BOM

Using up some scraps for a boys charity quilt...fish. I am going to do  this in pieces. 25 blocks.

We currently have the house on the market. We had an offer last week, but with all the countering offers it did not go thru. We will loose our offer on a condo in Hartford, as that property has a secondary cash offer accepted. We will not take out another loan to retain, so back searching for log cabin or other condo.

Daughter Cherith has just returned from Zambia as part of her nursing class. Daughter Hannah will be moving to De Pere and begin her teaching career early July. Will talk more about this in future.

Will try to get back to blogging a bit more regularly. 

At lease that is the plan.

Fabric Organization Tips

Fabric Organization Tips

365 Day Challenge Quilt progress

So excited to sew these many small 3 1/2 inch blocks to the the center. They really look cute together sewn. Tomorrow will show to Sunflower quilters, who describe me as the hand sewing and small block quilter.

I have picked out some new fabrics from these quilters from their stash and plan to make a charity quilt to bring down next winter. Using the guilds accu- cutter to cut 5 inch squares. Should speed up the quilting. I have a pattern picked out from quilting book based on nickel squares. Will miss this group. We head home in 8 days.

Let's catch up....

It is hard keeping up with a vacation blog and all the goings on and keeping up my normal quilting blog. But I have been hard at work. I have kept up with the 365 challenge blocks. They are fun to do and learning new techniques. I am glad I am hand sewing them. It will be interesting when we get to six inch blocks. I have done two splendid sampler blocks. I will do them I I like the pattern, but keeping them all. I have finished hand quilting a small top I brought down. Took my time with this one. What I have not done with great regularity is my Dutch treat blocks. Maybe a bit tired with the reverse appliqué.

I did attend the Tucson quilt festival with some Sunflower quilters. It was AWSOME. I also joined this group as I believe in their cause of creating quilts for children in foster care. Look forward to doing one on my own. They also have had two classes I attended. One with potholder psych and other with crayon coloring on fabrics. Both very cool and would make great gifts.

Challenge blocks...catching up

The past few weeks have been busy due to travel to our new winter home and getting settled.
Here are some recent pictures of this challenge.

365 Challenge blocks...week 3

This week we expanded to triangles. Nice change. I moved to greens and some Browns. Tomorrow and for the next 4-5 days will work on them if easy to cut out and do in car as we are on our way to Tucson and our new "winter" home.

Val Laird Designs - Journey of a Stitcher: Free Block of the Month Wall Quilt - Pattern 1

Val Laird Designs - Journey of a Stitcher: Free Block of the Month Wall Quilt - Pattern 1: Once again I have a free Block of the Month Wall Quilt design to share with you this year. I have called it You are Blessed The new...

365 Challenge blocks week 2

Changed colors to brown this week. Hand sewn and so cute.

A Quilting Life - a quilt blog: Quilt Your Stash Week Two

A Quilting Life - a quilt blog: Quilt Your Stash Week Two

Allietarecherith backing complete

 Spent the past few days working on the backing. Was a bit more challenging than I thought it would be, but happy with the result. I am also liking the flannel material. Took some pictures as I am. It sure if it will travel to AZ in a few days. I have lots of hand sewing projects to work on. I have been playing around with quilting patterns for the two pillows that I am constructing. I do want an overall quilting pattern like long arm quilters. I thinking have found one that might work. Will try it on one of the pillows.

Final backing all sewn.

Possible quilting pattern.

Cherith and cousin Bethany...apartment hunting.

Week one of 365 Challenge Quilt

The Challenge

A few months ago Kathy http://www.365challenge.com.au/inspiration/. posted a challenge that I thought was awesome. Make a block every day Of the year. Sounds interesting and something I could do. I saw the quilt layout and was sold. Blocks range from 3-6 inches and a few slightly bigger. The web site shows all the possibilities. They are tiny blocks that remind me of Dear Jane or Dear Hannah. 

We will be traveling to our "winter" home in Tucson AZ. for the first time. Purchased the home on our travels home last March. We will be traveling with a car full of things. Last year I completed several hand sewing projects. I currently have several more Dutch Treat blocks to complete. I also cut out some miniature blocks to hand see on the drive down. I am not planing on taking a sewing machine down this year. Maybe I can find one at a garage sale or resale shop. Also may start hand quilting Allietarecherith if I have time. http://allietarecherith.blogspot.com/

My colors will be blues, Browns and greens. A bright pink at times for contrast.

Here are week one blocks in blues.

This is a perfect hand sewing project. I have gathered several fabrics for the trip. We will see if I can keep up. We will be without internet for a bit, and travels will prevent cutting the blocks.

Allietarecherith...top complete.

The final border material came yesterday, so I was able to finish up the quilt top today. So excited to share it. It was great that I could get a picture outside in the snow before the rain.

Today also finished some orphan blocks with some of the Wild & Goosey blocks I was playing with before and during the quilt mystery. I have decided to do two pillows with red flannel backing it I have enough material. Very please on how they look. I will do some hand quilting on these during my travel to Arizonia in a few weeks.

I used my embroidery application on my machine to design two quilt labels. I will include a white block to write any additional thoughts or events in my daughter's last year of college. She is thinking about taking a J term next winter. A 3 credit course that would take her to of all places...Italy! So will have document some of those travels if it occurs.

I have decided to use some nursing fabric and red flannel fabric for the backing. Will also do some scrap blocks along with some 10.5 inch blocks of other red fabric left over.

This quilt will be difficult to give up...I have enjoyed making it. I look forward to hand quilting it.

Bonnie Hunter's link up :  

http://quiltville.blogspot.in/2016/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal.html

See all the great quilts, colors and everyone's progress.

See my regular blog:
http://lindaquilting.blogspot.in/

Allietarecherith...my progress the past few days...

New Year's Day..final reveal of mystery.

Bonnie posted the final reveal on New Years Day...time in Italy. We celebrated with sister-in-law/ brothers house with games and food. I did not see the reveal until next day. As usual another outstanding quilt design. Now with one set of blocks it showed the gold center. While I like this very much, my daughter not so much. I looked at the Badger fabric I had left, not quite enough for all centers so used another favorite the red speckles fabric. This should be a bit more red. The border has black, I again I do not have enough so will substitute the flowered red and gray flower print that I liked so much and use the back with little red flowers for thin border. I will go with the red speckled gold fabric for side triangles. I did have to order some of the border fabric and got the last yard of fabric. I will decide the color of binding when I get that far. While I was ordering fabric I decided on some red flannel and some nursing theme fabric for backing. I have some scraps of fabric that I will do some kind of scrap vortex backing. We are planning to leave for Arizonia in about three weeks. If I can get the backing done I might take it along to hand quilt. (Also if we have the room) I will not have a sewing machine so if I don't get that far it will have to wait. Will use wool batting.

Here is my progress....

Here is the layout with all the Badger fabric facing the same way and colors spaced out a bit more uniform.

The beginnings of the side triangles

Close up..

Worked on a system to sew and press to make sure they are correct.

It took about 3 1/2 days working on all the main blocks. They were fun to put together and fell into place easily. Fun mixing up the colors. The gray in the blocks reminds me of patio pavers. Very cool effect. 

Auditioning borders

Final decision about borders

 I started working on the corner and side blocks. Also fun to do and quite easy. I did half of them and decided to stop.

Here is some of Bonnie's inspiration.

The following is this week's link-up link: http://quiltville.blogspot.in/2016/01/mystery-monday-link-up-reveal.html

So many different colors all so great. 

Cannot wait to finish putting the rows together tomorrow and maybe the side border. I will have a few weeks to work on the pieced backing.

One day's work of sewing blocks and rows together.

So fun!