Snow Stitching!

How many of you are covered up in snow?  Here in Nashville, we received a record 6-7 inches of snow yesterday - very rare for these parts.  And it's beautiful!!!  No ice.... just soft, blindingly white, puffy and fluffy SNOW!

I think it's interesting that the two projects I had planned to work on this weekend are the blue Twinkle Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (first photo above), and Bertie's Year - December.

Angela at SoScrappy posted a fun tutorial for these beautiful Twinkle Star blocks on her blog as the January block for the RSC Column-Along she is doing this year.  I saw Sharon's beautiful blocks on her post at Vrooman's Quilts last week and fell in love!  So much so that, although I had other projects planned to be working on, I immediately had to to pull fabrics and print out the pattern right then and there!  I chose blues and whites that made me think of snow - maybe my bones were telling me the white stuff was coming our way? :*)

I managed to complete four blocks last week ....

..... and today I plan to put them together into a winter-themed runner for our kitchen bar.

Believe it or not, this was my very first time ever to use Tri-Recs rulers.  I've had the rulers forever, but always avoided them.  I was even tempted to paper piece these; Angela very kindly gave us a link to the foundation patterns in her wonderful tutorial.  But I decided to be adventurous and was rewarded with a fun afternoon of piecing.  I can't wait to finish this runner and enjoy it in my kitchen!

Yesterday, I finally pulled poor little December Bertie out of the bag and started work on her.

She was part of a BOM project for me in 2014, and this was the only month I did not finish up last year.  I felt really sorry for her, being so neglected.  I put her on my guild's UFO Challenge list so I could make sure she got finished this year in time for Christmas, and was delighted when her number was called for January!

These kits were laser-cut fusible applique, so all I had to do was peel away the paper, place them on the background and fuse.  Easy-peasy!  Then I stitched the applique pieces down, using either a straight stitch or a buttonhole stitch... Leaving me with lots of strings to tie off :*)

Last night I caught up on a few episodes of The Good Wife and worked the embroidery embellishments....

I also got all the half-square triangles made and assembled for the border.

Tomorrow I'll join Kathy's gang for some Slow Sunday Stitching as I handstitch the border embroidery while watching the NFL Playoff games with My Guy.  Our Panthers are playing for the Conference title, and of course if they win, they will go to the Super Bowl!!!  Exciting times my friends :*)

We are settled in for a long, solitary weekend.  One of my favorite things to do on cold, snowy winter days is to work jigsaw puzzles! I have this one set out to play with this weekend when I'm not stitching.

After New Year's while I was too sick to do much else beside sit, I did this one ....

Maybe I should have waited until this week LOL!!!

How well I remember the days when my children were small and they almost vibrated in their excitement to get outside and play in the stuff!  We didn't get a lot of snow in south-eastern North Carolina, so it was an exciting event when a storm dropped anything more than half an inch.  I had to go dig out a couple of my favorite memories from their childhood to share with you ....

Joshua in front of our house
circa 1980

 I bundled them up as if it were a North Dakota blizzard!!!

Christy in front yard
circa 1978
Probably one of my favorite pics of her childhood ever!!!

Notice in both pictures that there is only a small patch of snow for them to play in.  It almost always melted quickly, so they had to get out there and make the most of it!  Of course, they were out there maybe ten minutes before they were crying to come back in again, dripping water and snow all over the floor LOL!!!  In and out, in and out, for as long as the patches of snow lasted.  Those were good times :*)

Hoping you are finding ways to enjoy the snow if Jonas visited your neck of the woods!  My snowbird friends are sending us pictures of sunny Florida.  I'm not sure I'll be speaking to them when they return.... =^..^=

Also linking up:

DesignWall Monday

Tuesday Linky

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Slow Sunday Stitching - Playoffs Style!

I'm so looking forward to watching the NFL Playoff games today!  I'm all set with my hand sewing project and joining my friends at Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching ....

This is the top right section of the border for my Blue Collection quilt.  Both of these top sections are complete, and I am working on the first of two side border sections now.  The sides are long vines like this that will come out of vases in the bottom of the quilt.  (I'll show you what I mean in a later post!)

All of this quilt is hand appliqued, with the exception of these side border leaves and a few very intricate motifs in the vase blocks, which I've chosen to do as raw-edge fusible applique.  They have so many curves and valleys, it would take FOREVER to hand stitch all these leaves, and I decided I'd rather finish this quilt in my lifetime than worry about whether it is ALL hand stitched LOL!!!  I've indicated one of them by the arrow on the right.....

I'll finish them with a straight-stitch along the edges.  The flower buds indicated by the arrow on the left are little monsters to hand stitch all by themselves!  The fabric I chose for the medium blue in the center is too flimsy and it's almost impossible to make neat V's.  And the points on the stems are very narrow and steep, so it's hard to stuff the seam fabric underneath such a small space.  On some of the last pieces I prepped, I drew the points in a little bit wider V to make them slightly easier to stitch.

It's a great day to be inside stitching here in Nashville!  I'm under the weather a little, battling a sinus infection with the usual accompanying aches, sore throat and cough, so the order for the day is to take it easy.  We're having one of our coldest days so far - currently 32 degrees and woke to a light snow on the ground.  Here's the view from my front window ....   Brrrrrrrrr!

The only bright spot is my little Christmas cactus....

Love that beautiful fuchsia color!!!  I bought it a few weeks before Christmas this year because I loved all my friends cacti which were blooming.  For some reason, it finally decided to wait to bloom this week - I'll take all the bloom and color I can find at this time of year, right?

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Folk Art Album - My Way!

My sewing needles have been just as busy as the knitting needles, so I have lots of sharing to catch up on =^..^=  Several hand-stitching projects in progress, which I love because I can just pick one up and carry it anywhere.  It's so nice to be able to enjoy stitching no matter how busy I get!

Today I thought I'd share the progress on my Folk Art Album blocks.  This is a quilt design by the oh-so-talented Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.  I finished this little sweetie last night ...

Block #8 - Folk Art Album

This block took a while to stitch, with all those little leaves and quite a bit more stitching around the flowers than you would think until you get around to actually doing it.....

It was well worth the time though, 'cause I'm absolutely in love with the way the stitching seems to lift up the top layer of the flowers to give them a beautifully textured 3-dimensional look!

This little bunny is so adorable!  We trimmed him down considerably - he is a chubby little fellow in the pattern.  He will get a little black bead eye and a fluffy cottontail after the project is quilted.

 I had a hard time choosing a fabric for him.  I'm not a "primitive" style quilter, although I truly enjoy many designs in that style - Lisa Bongean's in particular!  So although I use black a lot in my quilts, I don't at all care for the primitive style of using solid black for animals.  It totally erases all of their wonderful personality - and it just seems so dreary and gothic to me. (Black crows in particular give me the creeps!!!)  The rabbits in my backyard are a rough gray color, but going with gray wasn't working for me either.  Solid gray was too flat, and prints looked cartoonish.  I did a very impromptu happy dance when I happened upon this smoky gray/brown batik piece buried deep in my stash - I think it's perfect!

So now I have three of the FAA blocks stitched and done!  Yesterday I got Blocks 9 & 10 fused and ready for hand stitching.

Block #9 - Folk Art Album

Block #10 - Folk Art Album

Block #10 is one of my favorites.  Just look at those wonderful colors playing so happily together!  If you are familiar with this pattern, you may notice that I've pretty much used Lisa's color scheme in my blocks; they're just on a brighter scale - doing them My Way!   And the beautiful aqua batik for the dragonfly wings gave me exactly the look I was going for.  Ethereal blue, reflections of water ♥  I love it when a plan comes together ;-)

Although I have 10 blocks fused, only three are completed with the stitching - the Bunny (#8) and these two .....

Block #1 - Folk Art Album
(Previous blog post HERE if you're interested)

Block #7 - Folk Art Album
(Previous blog post HERE)

I'll share the others as I begin to stitch them down.  One of them will be chosen to do some Slow Sunday Stitching today during the Carolina Panthers game.  They've totally shocked us with their 8-0 start this year - we were expecting something more in the line of 0-8!  I'm' sharing at Freshly Pieced - WIP Wednesday!  Are you hand stitching anything today?  Share your lovely work with Kathy's Quilts!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Cool, Crisp Slow Sunday Stitching :)

It sure does feel like Fall out there ya'll!!!

And this next Folk Art Album block in warm reds, oranges and yellows is right in season!  Even the cool blue-greens of the stems and leaves looks Fall-ish to me :*)

I'm enjoying working these blocks by hand - I even got a little adventurous by adding an orange thread stripe around the yellow .... I love the character it adds to this happy little flower.

Here's a picture of the full block in progress.....

Can you see the Peacock photo-bombing this picture?  LOL!!!!!  That peacock runs tame in my house - it knows it is a favorite 'child' around here :*)  You just never know where it will pop up!!!

I'm watching the first Carolina Panthers game of the season as I stitch -  What are you stitching on today?

Share with us at Kathy's Quilts ....

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Slow Stitching Sunday - POTC Update

I've been playing with my Patchwork of the Crosses blocks again lately - and remembering how much fun these little English paper-pieced blocks can be!!!!

This is my current favorite ....

I just love the blast of light on the outside of this block with that strange yellow fabric!  It was a last minute substitution because the fabric I was originally using didn't work as well as I'd hoped.  My friends and I all agreed that this gorgeous plaid with all the same colors in it was the perfect fabric to frame the center....

I even fussy cut those darn stripes!!!  But as I was stitching down the first couple pieces, I just knew something wasn't sitting well with me - it just didn't give me that thrill of being "right" that I expected.  I put it up on the design wall and stepped back - and was totally underwhelmed.  Yeh, it was okay, but it was BLAH!  That's is always a deal breaker for me.

So I went back to the stash and just started pulling anything that might work...

To my total surprise, this icky yellow was the surprise winner - it just simply began to glow behind those fabrics!  I suppose the moral of this story is, never feel that you are so far along in a project that you can't back up and make changes if it's not working for you!

Here is another block completed.  I love the hot pop of these colors! I'm a little concerned with the lack of contrast, but it's staying as it is because I'm not unhappy enough to tear it apart and try to make changes :)

I have two more in process right now and then I'll have to go digging in the stash for more blocks - YUM!!!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching, while watching golf to see if Tiger can play his way into the Playoffs this year.  NFL season starts soon, and I can't wait for Sundays with My Guy and lots of stitching and football - woohoo!!!!

Also linking up with Main Crush Monday @ Cooking Up Quilts and Tuesday Linky Party @ Freemotion by the River

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Slow-ly Stitching .....

Sunday is the day we join Kathy's Quilts in the celebration of Slow Stitching!  In my case, I have to admit it is more like Slow-ly Stitching!

Rosette #2 in progress
Center and Round #1 attached
Round #2 hexie units are assembled and in place on the design wall, but not yet sewn together

That pukey yellow above is what I get when I try to take a picture close up and face on.  I tried it with three different cameras and finally gave up.  This picture is closer to the actual colors.....

I've shared my current obsession handwork project with you before ... The New Hexagon - Millefiore designed by Katja Marek.  And I am still having a ball playing with these wonderful rosettes!  However, progress on Mille goes very slowly, at least mine do at any rate.  I am still plugging along on Rosette #2, while many I see on Facebook have done all 5 rosettes and are drumming their fingers, impatiently awaiting the unveiling of #6 tomorrow.  I even know of a few who have made extra rosettes while waiting for the next one to be presented!  (Bear in mind, the rosettes are 36" wide!!!)  Yes, these people obviously have no life LOL!!!

What you see here in the bottom of my hand-sewing basket are the pieces for the Round #3 hexies that still need to be sewn together.  YAY!  It is indeed getting slim pickin's in there!  I can actually see the bottom :*)

These Round #2 hexie units are all stitched together, but they still need to be attached to the center round (see first picture).  And then the Round #3 hexies - the ones still in the basket - will be added after that.  Quite a bit still needing to be done, but it will be an enjoyable journey of slow stitching all the way ♥

What's in your basket???  

See all the wonderful projects at Kathy's Quilts!
Also linking up with Design Wall Monday

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been playing around with my PINK scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month, and since it's Valentine's Day, of course I had to make some hearts!

My crumb jars didn't have any scraps big enough for these, even though they are only 6 and 7 inch blocks, so I had to pull out the big guns - my PINK scrap bin.  I was SO tempted to pull some beauties from my pink stash shelf, but I am determined to use primarily scraps this year, so I am happy to report that the only fabric pulled from my fat quarter drawer was the light pink background on the heart on the right.  I had a lot of darker pinks in the scraps bin, but light pinks were scarce.

All of these blocks were paper-pieced.... I was even very thrifty and reused the clean side of a mis-printed scrap page from an earlier project.

I made the two hearts on the sides from a pattern sent to me by Julie of Me & My Stitches.....

Every time she sends us our Charming Club charm, she also sends a 6" block pattern for that charm so we can make a matching quilt block if we like.  I thoroughly enjoyed making these easy hearts!

The heart block in the center was from a free pattern I downloaded earlier in the week - and for the life of me, I can't remember from where!  The pattern sheet does not mention the designer or website or anything.  If you know where I got this from, please let me know so I can give credit :)

I think it turned out really cute!!!

I'll be sharing my hearts in SoScrappy's 

Valentine's Day Pinkstravaganza HERE

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Tomorrow, I will join Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching group and continue assembling my Millefiore blocks for the last round of Rosette #1.

The last of the blocks I have to assemble for round 3 are sitting very lonely in the bottom of my sewing box :*)

There are 8 pieces in each of the six outer point blocks - I have finished all of these ....

Looks a bit like an owl, doesn't it?  *grin!*

And then there are 6 pieces in each side block between those point blocks.  I only have two of those done so far - 16 to go!

Then I will need to sew all the blocks from rounds 2 and 3 together for the finish.  I am glad that I determined from the beginning to not have a timeline for this project, because I would be really feeling antsy right about now if I had.  Beautiful pictures of completed Rosette #2 are popping up all over the Millefiore FB page, and I'm feeling pretty jealous!  Rosette #3 will be released March 1 too!  But I'm enjoying taking my time on this, and I want to make sure it is as beautiful as I can make it.  I'm steadily stitching on it at night and whenever I can find an hour or so of quiet time.

Tomorrow, I plan to cut out the pieces for Arcadia Avenue Block #2.  I just realized I never showed you the completed Block #1, so here it is!

Isn't this just GORGEOUS???  

Sassafras Lane has hit this one WAY out of the park!

I can't wait to start on Block #2!

We are expecting some truly frigid temps here in Nashville this coming week - zero and below a few days.  And maybe even some accumulations of SNOW - woohoo!!!!  It will be nice to get at least one decent snow this year.  I do hate that it is supposed to fall on Monday though, which is my sit-n-sew day with friends :(

I'm told that some of you who usually experience lots of snow have been strangely lacking in snow this winter, but the northeast has sure gotten hit hard.  My mom texted earlier tonight to let me know that they are experiencing some pretty major winds in the NC mountains tonight - a tree went down about 10 feet from their house!  And I think snow is on its way to them too.

Hope you all are staying warm and cozy 

and finding lots of stitchy projects to keep you happy and sassy!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Also linking up with the following fun parties!

WIP's Be Gone
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?
Design Wall Monday
Tuesday Linky Party