Last night I took the final stitch in the binding on my Nine Patch Quilt. It is 70x70 but because of the size of the pieces it is a heavy quilt. It now needs to be washed since it has been in progress for such a long time. I am delighted to be done. This was a leader/ender quilt and it has been on my list for many years.

After taking the last stitch I picked up my March FFF from Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. While working on the Nine Patch I realized that the fabric I had purchased for the binding would be lovely with my stitchery. I plan to make a pillow with mine instead of framing it. After all, the piping is already made since it is left over form the quilt. I will have to piece the back but the fabric I purchased to finish the Nine Patch will be all used up. Oh how nice that is.

Finally the piping is all sewn on.



I was so glad that I had purchased a piping ruler several years ago.




It certainly makes trimming the piping so much easier.


Then to cut the binding and add that to the quilt.





At last the binding is complete and I can call this a finish at last. Of course I want to get it washed next.




As you can see all the nine patches are 1 1/2 inch blocks.

I really must do something about the lighting upstairs. It seems that all of my pictures are so dark. I will take another picture this afternoon to replace this one. I promise. I just didn't want to miss the Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times. It is good to see what others have going on.

Here is the June 2008 block for the Jan Patek BOM of that year. At least some progress is being made on something.


I took this picture out of the window upstairs in the studio on April 20th. It seemed to be the first sign of spring and I did not want to miss it.


Same tree six days later. If we get a few more warm days it could be even fuller.

Pickle met on Tuesday. Peg gives me the quilting magazines that she is no longer interested in. Isn't she such a good friend. I can always find things I want to make in them. The ones I do not want I pass on the the library here in Orleans.

There were several quilts that caught my eye so I marked the magazine with a post-it note. I can write on the top of the note just what I am interested in for a second look later.
magazine cover


This year I have been trying to clear up some major projects I began in years past. I am soon going to finish two quilts, that is if I can get about three good sewing days instead of having to do the ubiquitous house blessing.

I have the GFG to the point of needing to be quilted. I plan to postpone that till the fall. Then I can order the backing and enjoy the winter quilting it.

While waiting to get to the interfacing I picked up the Jan Patek 2008 blocks and I will get another one of those done this week.




After work today I will shop for interfacing to finish the last 4 blocks on Country Cousins.

Two embroidery patterns from Kaaren at The Painted Quilt need to be stitched .........

BUT.........................

There were two small pieces in the December 2009 American Patchwork Quilting Magazine that peaked my interest. They are the perfect thing for our new home and they are small pieces. I have the materials to actually complete these projects on hand. I think I will put all else aside and try to get one finished. Another finish this year would be good.

Here it is............. Block eight................ I am amazed that I have 2/3 of the center of this quilt complete. I need more interfacing before I finish the last four blocks so I am putting this aside until I go shopping again.





Here are eight of them together. I am really liking this quilt.





I like to get up on a weekend morning and go upstairs and sew and sew and sew. Lately I have not been able to do that as much as I would like but I do have a few hours each evening to do some hand work.

Since I am putting the Country Cousins quilt on hold for a bit I looked around for something else to stitch in the evenings. No, there is no shortage of projects but I did want something that had already been started and was easy to get to and left little mess in the studio when block prepping was required. Of course, my Jan Patek BOM from 2008............ I have some of those blocks done so why not do a few more. I got one prepped and ready to start on tonight. One good thing about Jan Patek. Her designs are more unstructured so being a bit off adds to the design.

Block seven is now complete. At last I am past the half way point. Tonight I will work on block eight................

Not much of a showing for the weekend. I did get the kitchen chores done and the house blessing complete and all the laundry finished.

I even managed to find time for a wee bit of stitching.

The Thangles were the chosen to work on first. On the left is the February block that I completed last month. The middle blocks are the March blocks. One in the Thirties fabric from the BOM and one in the blue and white that I had at home. It is just as easy to make two as it is to make one. The third block is the Thirties BOM. I never got the second blue and white block made. Maybe that can get done during the week.

The Thangles BOM from Emily's Quilt Cupboard came in this week so I have these blocks to make.


I finished the hand quilting on the nine patch and purchased the cording and fabric for the piping and the binding.


I got the flowers on Block 7 of Country Cousins.

I still need to add the hanging sleeve to the Quilt I finished for Rebekah..... I wonder if I will have time this weekend to do any of these things.

I managed to finish the first green top.................



Now to begin work on the second one. It is obvious the difference in the greens. Only 10 more blocks and this one will be done. If I could do one block a day I could finish this in two weeks but I seriously doubt I can do that. My sewing time gets interrupted with other responsibilities.


This weekend I put the final stitches in the Nine Patch quilt. It is in the car now and after work I will take it to Murray's to select the piping and binding fabric. I just might get a quilt finished this year.

I also took the time to stitch the stem in place on block seven of Country Cousins. It is a beginning.

Lem and Wade Hamilton had a tiring day yesterday. I will confess that I sat holding the needle more than I stitched with it. At least we had a start on being ready for a showing this morning.
I even had a few minutes to go upstairs and trace the design onto interfacing for the next block. I have my fabric selected and if all goes well I can get the pieces cut out tomorrow. I might even get four of five rows together on the first green quilt.

No pictures today. I really need to work harder on getting pictures taken.

I have been spending my time in the evenings working on the Nine Patch Quilt. All the center part is quilted. Now I am doing the edges. I have two sides done and have just started side three. As soon as the quilting is complete I can add the piping and the binding. It will be good to have a finish this year. I might even get this one completed this month. Time will tell.

I have about 4 hours of work left on adding the border to the GFG. That will be ready to baste and then to hand quilt. It is a BIG quilt and will take a long time to hand quilt. At least for me. I would really like to finish it this year.

I am also casting about for something to do when I need a handwork project for a break while quilting the GFG.

I want to finish my March embroidery from Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. Tomorrow will bring another gift from her and I will want to get it ready to embroider.

This morning our realtor hosted an open house for other MLS realtors. We had to have the house ready and be gone by 9:00 AM. I went upstairs to put away the ironing board and pick up my blocks off my design floor. Since I had a few extra minutes I taped together the pattern for the next block of Country Cousins. Perhaps this weekend I can get it traced onto interfacing and get it ready to applique. That would give me three projects to chose from when stitching at night. I know I cannot sit at the quilting frame for several hours at a time.

This morning while reading a few blogs I saw the Buzz Saw Quilt on Kathy's Quilts. She gave the link to the instructions. How did I miss that delightful quilt. It looks like a good Leader/Ender quilt to me. I have been wondering what to do with my green fabric from Peg and this just might work. I am still sewing together the half square triangles from my last two quilts and I am rather tired of that. This seems like a welcome change.

Break time is over so it is back to work.

Some progress is being made. I am starting to assemble the rows to make it easier to pick up off the design floor if someone wants to look at the house.

As I mentioned earlier, I started this quilt some years ago. My skill has improved more than I had imagined. Still I will not redo the blocks that could be better. After all this quilt is supposed to be a warm quilt, not a perfect quilt. I am not sure how I will finish the quilt. I had envisioned a couple of borders but now I find that I might not have enough of the background material. I will have to finish the second green quilt before that decision is made. What was I thinking.

The realtor we are using now gives us feedback. I like that much better. There are 13 villages on Cape Cod. They each have their own personality. Why in the world you would show a house in Orleans to someone that wanted to live in Chatham or Dennis is beyond me. Chatham is a "Lovely drinking village with a fishing problem (or so the bumper stickers say). Dennis has more traffic and is more of a tourist trap. Orleans has more retired individuals. We have a large grocery store and several pharmacies but you do have to go at least 15 miles for the hospital. Orleans is quieter. Perhaps that is why we like it best. Our house was built in 1954. No it is not a new house. So Saturday we got all ready to show the house and they were only there for 15 minutes. Why? Well, they were interested in something newer. The age of the house in on the sheet of information. Why bother to show a house built in 1954 to someone looking for new construction. I am annoyed that our time was wasted on someone not even at all interested.

I haven't had much time to sew lately. I have taken this up twice so we could show the house and it is no longer on my design floor but should I ever finish another block I can put it down again. I am thinking about adding the sashing so it would be easier to put down each time. As you can see I only have four block left to make. I have three other task that need to be completed before I get back to this one. Maybe one day soon.


Now this is actually on my design wall. The design wall is only 4 feet by 4 feet so it will not hold an entire quilt. This works well for small blocks.

This is block six of twelve of Country Cousins. I did enlarge the pattern and my blocks are 24 inches............ And I plan to hand quilt this one too.


The weekend was spent getting the house ready to show and doing errands while it was being shown. The bread is made, the dog food is made and the house is clean. I am still appliqueing the border on the GFG and quilting the Nine Patch.

On Monday Wade Hamilton went for his day of beauty. I needed him to look his best for the Pickle meeting on Tuesday. We opted for his summer trim. Of course he is still wearing his coat since all of his hair is gone but that won't last long. He sure does look like a different dog.


Sunday I went to Vickie's to get help in adding the borders to my GFG. On her design wall is her current project. All of the circles on the quilt have embroidery. She is amazing.

This is a closeup of the quilt.


Vickie is working on a hexagon quilt also. Sort of an 'add as you go' quilt.




Scrappy quilts are my favorite. If I ever finish the hexagon quilts I have started I might even do one of these. It is fun to look at her quilt and see some of my fabrics in there.

We got my quilt all spread out and cut the strips for the borders.


Then we pinned the borders in place. Now every night I am appliqueing them to the quilt. I have one side done and the second side almost done. Still many nights of stitching ahead.

Well, another dark picture. I will have to get a picture outside when it is finished. I am making progress. This morning I prepped a few more hearts and leaves and got them ready to stitch. I might even get this block finished before Monday.

I did not realize how dark this picture was till just now. Oh well, it will have to do. I have the tulips done and this morning I added a few more pieces to stitch down tonight. And tomorrow night. And maybe even the night after that. We shall see.............

This is my Monday Design Floor. Just look at the progress on my one of two Green Quilts. Just a little bit done at the odd moments I am able to sew and one day it will be done.



As to the sitting downstairs and watching TV stitching, I stitched part one of three parts of the Tulip in place and this morning I added part two of three. I can get them stitched in place tonight and then continue with my stitchery from Kaaren at the Painted Quilt. I worked on the stitchery also. It is coming along nicely. I am just not sure yet how I plan to finish it. Perhaps it will tell me when I am finished.


The realtor called to cancel the showing on Sunday. You would think that meant more time to sew but alas that was not the case.

Judy at Patchwork Times has gotten me started making my own bread. It is wonderful. I made two loaves this weekend and now have enough in the freezer for a week and a half. I made three batches of dog food for the darlings.

Judy also posted a hand cream recipe. Yes, I tried it. It is grand. The only hand cream for me from now on.

I even made a cheese spread for us to enjoy in the evenings. I have meals cooked ahead in the refrigerator and it is a good thing too. My hours have increased at work and I will be getting home later each day. On the whole it was a wonderful weekend spent at home with the light of my life.............oh and the dogs too of course.

Last night before starting my Free Embroidery from The Painted Quilt I picked up this piece to finish the last bits of applique. When I began this project several years ago the first four blocks were finished in record time. Then I made an error on this one. I tried to cut out a few steps and got it all wrong and had to do it again and again and once again............ Now it is done and I picked up my March embroidery and got a bit of a start on that.

I had planned to come upstairs this morning and sew all day but the realtor called and wants to show the house tomorrow morning at 10:00. What an obscene time to have to leave home but this could be our buyer so we will be obliging.

Instead of piecing I began the next block for this quilt. Thought I would take the time to do it the right way. I had the pattern enlarged so now I am required to tape the bits together to get the basic design. I properly traced it to lightweight interfacing and stitched that to the top of the fabric. That piece will stay there until the block is completed to make sure I get the correct placement. I try to get around this step and make a muddle of it so it is much quicker to make the tracing and move on.


All traced and ready ....................


Fabrics are chosen...........


Bias tape made and pinned in place to stitch the first bit. I will try to get this stitched tonight. Heaven only knows when I will get up here to add the next part so I want to get this done and be ready for the tulips.

I have taken the papers out of part of the GFG. Now I need to wait until Vickie and I can get together and cut and place the borders. My plans are to applique the quilt to a flowered border so that I won't have to use half hexagons or put on a small bias binding. Vickie has a large surface that is tall enough to make it easy to work on. She also works 50 hours a week and takes care of a home and family. She has so little time for her own creative projects and it is so good of her to help me with this.

While I am waiting for a break in her schedule I have looked around for something quick to stitch at night. Happily today is the first Friday of the month and Kaaren at The Painted Quilt posts a free embroidery on the first Friday of the month.

This morning we woke up to snow. Not much, but more than I wanted to deal with in order to get to breakfast with the girls at 8:00 AM. Instead I went back to sleep and did not wake up until 8:00. Then I realized that today was The Day so I went upstairs to print off this month's offering. I have it traced and all ready to start stitching tonight.

Together at last. I have the last flower sewn on and I have begun to take out the paper.



The next shots are of different sections of the quilt top. You can double click the picture and it will enlage.










Now to get the border cut and ready so that I can applique the quilt to it... Then layer and baste, quilt and bind. This quilt will be on my lap for some time to come .

I am astonished that I have gotten it together. Hanne is right. If you just keep working on something it will be finished.