Showing posts with label Christmas Lamb for All Seasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas Lamb for All Seasons. Show all posts

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Progress--slow and steady.

I've been wanting to try this pattern for some time (from Crafts ‘n Things magazine, December 2007; design by Mary Ayres). Well, once I got started, my compulsive nature took over. Now there are six!
 I put my own twist on them, and I made them a little larger than the pattern (6 1/2" by 7 1/2"). Once I decide what to use for binding, they will get bound and I will hang them from little hangers using little clothespins. No, I am not keeping them all! : )
They are "big stitch" quilted--well, at least as big as I can stitch. After years of being programed to take tiny stitches, I find it hard to do big stitch, much as I like the look.










My Christmas themed Lamb For All Seasons (based on Lisa Bongean's Old Glory Gatherings pattern here) quilt is bound and hanging in its place for the holidays.


















For the first time ever I took my Mom's quilts off my quilt rack and put Christmas colored flimsies on it. The one in front is Practice What I Preach by Pam Buda. I started it at Pam's workshop last January.
The middle quilt is a log cabin star top made by the late Jill Reid. I need to get it quilted--I really love it over the back of my sofa.
The top flimsy is my Rocky Mountain Stars  based on Bonnie Hunter's Smoky Mountain Stars free pattern.
Maybe by next Christmas some of these will actually be quilted. And then again, maybe that is too much to hope. (Speaking of hope, I have Bob Hope's Lemon Drop Kid playing as I write. Love the old Christmas movies.)

The blanket stitching on my Spring LFAS is finished. I decided to add a chicken to this little piece. It has quite a beak--looks more goose-ish, if you ask me (which I know you didn't). Again, this is based on Lisa's pattern linked above.

 I'm still using the windmill blocks in red/blue/black and cream as my leader/enders. It is fun to have a project where the blocks come together quickly (and are larger than 3")! But since most of my stitching lately has been by hand, these haven't been multiplying rapidly.

I was going to try and post some Christmas decor, but it is late, I am tired and getting loopy, so maybe next time (though not a lot has changed since last year).
Until next time,
Janet O.



Friday, November 7, 2014

Scavenging, scrounging, and accepting hand-outs.

These lovely star blocks were passed to me a while back by Karen (Log Cabin Quilter blog). There are more stars than will fit on my design wall. 
They were half stars when I got them, because the pattern she had used to make them had you assemble the rows with half stars and the stars were completed when you sewed the rows together. I am not following the pattern, so I sewed the stars into full blocks. Apparently I wasn't careful enough, because now that I am squaring them up, I can't get them all the same size. I am probably going to need coping strips, so this is going to take time. I want to create  small cheddar stars around the cornerstones. This will be one big quilt! And there will be enough blocks left to make a lap quilt. Thanks so much for these lovely stars, Karen!

After making my miniature Kim Diehl quilt last month (which, BTW, I am naming "No Big Diehl"), I had lots of scraps that I set aside.  I scavenged more at Kim's class. After seeing what tiny pieces I use, people were handing me what they had planned on throwing away and asking, "Do you want any of these?" I did. : )

I used those scraps to make some Halloween and Christmas ornaments, and then some non-holiday colored ones. I finally got them to the point that now they just need to be stuffed and sewn up.





Of course, there were scraps left from the ornaments, and I couldn't just sweep them into the garbage, so I started making little 4-patches. I haven't sewn the blocks together yet. Can you guess how big these blocks are or how large this will be when they are sewn together? If you have some of these fabrics you have a clue. ; )




At the Carmen Geddes class last month, where we made the leaf hot pad afterward using the fusible product she was demonstrating, there was a point in our instructions where Kris (shop owner) said we could throw away the triangles we had just cut off. I think I gasped, or groaned (maybe both), and she added, "Or you can give them to Janet."
I collected a nice little bag of Fall colored batik bonus triangles that day. Using batiks from my stash, I am making them into small leaves. Still toying with layout ideas.

My 84-year-old mother is working on what she says will be her last quilt. She's not planning on going anywhere, she just thinks she has other things to do before her time here is up. As usual, I got her scraps once she had the quilt sandwiched in the frame to start hand quilting. There were a few units that she had assembled that she didn't use. I am trying to use those units actually sewn by her to make a few blocks.
There were a few HSTs, 3 complete and 1 partial hexie flower, and lots of trimmings from the piano key border of Mom's quilt. I'll be able to make 4 blocks like this if I complete the partial hexie flower. Just need to stitch down the hexie flowers on these two blocks. I seldom work with colors like this. Kind of fun, for a change.



All the wool on my Christmas "Lamb For All Seasons" has been stitched down. (This is based on the Old Glory Gatherings pattern from Primitive Gatherings.)














Until next time, enjoy the moonrise. : )
Janet O.