Friday Finish!

Years ago, my friend Kelley, With Hook and Needle,  sent me some quilt tops and I finally finished one. She wanted me to have some tops that I could practice on my new machine, but this one just screamed, hand stitching. She hand pieced the entire quilt, it needed the same hand work for finishing.

I wanted to try something different and easier to see how it worked, so I put on the backing and hand quilted the flying geese blocks and around the borders. Once that was done, I put on the back and did tacks, down the strips, in-between the flying geese. That way I tacked down the backing without over quilting the back. I will be using it and it makes it a lot smoother and softer on the skin. I used a thin striped brown, homespun for the back, so it is nice to lay under.

I don't think it is the best way to quilt, but it worked and I didn't have to worry about pinning or puckering, if I did. I finished it off with a black edge.

I love how it came out, it is more prim in person, just fits the bed, so not sure how much it will shrink when I wash it. The top has been washed, but not the backing. I realize I should have washed both, to avoid puckering when the new materials shrink.

I laid it across the couch, it will be nice to hang on my railing too.

A little closer look. I had to use my wide angle to get it all in, so not the best shots. The bed is extra long, so this longer quilt was a nice size for it and will be nice for the summer. I used black pearl cotton, #12 on it, I like the heavier thread for doing prim quilts.

The turkeys decided to come through our yard, and I wanted to get a photo of the babies. Of course the babies started walking off, but the parents wanted to grab the goodies that fell out of the bird feeder.

And I didn't realize Bean had come out with me and the minute he saw them out there, he opened the gate and running after them. The babies got  upset and  you can see one as he is flying up to the fence. The rest followed and then the parents were stuck, so they flew the other way and went across the street. I could hear the babies calling to the parents and eventually they came back, but walked through the neighbors  yard, I don't think they will be visiting any time soon.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish!

This week I worked on a  new punch needle piece. My friend gave me a few from her old stash and she knows I love patterns by Brenda Gervais of Country Stitches. The bunny was a perfect one to do for spring.

The original pattern is set on a wooden board, but I wanted to do something different and make mine into a pocket. I like how it came out and it looks nice hanging from my peg rack. I added a thicker piece of wool yarn around the edge and used that as the hanger.

I also finished the ties on my quilt, now I just need to trim the edges and add binding. The triangles are done with hand stitching and then I used the ties along the middle of the strips. 

You may remember the post were I showed you my messy rooms. Well, now I am thinking it would make more sense and be more efficient to change the rooms. I hate to move my beach room, which was my daughter's room, but it is longer and I think it will hold the machines and table much better than the more square room. So, I am measuring and thinking it out and if I do that, the beach room will be upstairs and become a guest room and the small room will be my room to relax and create in, as well as a play area for the kids. I can get floor couch chairs that make into beds so they will also have a place to sleep when they visit. You can see the rooms on this post, what do you think?

It looks like a cold weekend, so no walks, but hopefully we can get out and enjoy some time outside for short periods. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

After Christmas Chaos!

This week has been slow and unproductive, but I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I spent most of the week thinking about what to do and then decided it was time to finish my quilt top. I finally finished the last row. What I did was, quilt the front with the batting and no backing, next I added extra batting and will attach the back by adding tacking to the rows.

I thought it would be a good experiment to quilt without the back to make it easier and add the back, later. Not sure if that was a great idea, took me forever to hand quilt and still have to attach the back. I think the next one will be machine quilted and the future hand quilting will be done the right way;)

I got out my snap frame and realized I have no backing that fits, so I need to sew a few pieces together, then I can work on it this weekend. The quilt top was made by my friend Kelly, she sent me a couple to practice my quilting on.

I really make a mess at Christmas, making gifts and fun things for myself and I get messier and messier and now my room is total chaos. It is so bad, I hate going in, where do I start, lol. So, I got some new boxes and a lot of the unfinished things and excess will get put away for now and the extra boxes that are cluttering up the room will get cleared out and removed. I have plenty of fabric and patterns on the shelves, so I will work on using my stash and doing the patterns I have been putting off, the rest can wait. My tables are becoming storage units, so those will be cleared and things put where I can find them and maybe some wall bins to put in my scraps of wool. I like having the scraps nearby so I can use a piece when I want something for a small piece. I will also sell anything I have lost interest in, time to do the ones I want and not worry about having to make it all. Maybe use some of the material to make curtains, should be on my to do list. I used my wide angle, so the room looks wonky.

I also wanted to make a rug for my beach room, but I also know I have a long list of things I want to make and a rug would take up a lot of that time. I found a small blue jean rug in the store and got it since it was cheap and wanted to see how it looked in the room, I loved it. So, I searched on the web for the same brand and of course I couldn't find it. I inspected each type of jean rug until I found one that was closest to it and I love the new rug. It is darker than the other, I did like the lighter shades and it is larger than I wanted. I was looking for a 4' x 6' and this is 5' x 7', but it fits perfectly.

Now I feel like the room is a room and I will start working on cleaning out the junk that was in there and a blue jean quilt and matching pillows for the couch. Someday I will replace that with something I can use for guests, as well. Of course I need to make things for the walls and I have some quilts I have been wanting to make, folk art styles with ocean themes, so that will be my winter projects and the room will be ready for summer. It is a lot cooler down there, so it will be a nice retreat in the summer.

Not the best photo, the wide angle tends to fish eye on the lowest setting, but I wanted to get more of the room in. It makes the room look small and narrow. There is also a large closet in the back, needs to be cleaned out and I will have storage for my excess that I can hide away.

Tomorrow is going to be a nice day so we will be off on a hike. I am loving the weekend weather, love being able to get out and explore. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and find your own adventure.