Slow Sunday Stitching

Today is Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's blog - Kathy's Quilts. I haven't linked up in a while because I haven't been doing very much hand work at all. How lucky for me that things changed this week.

I did finish a hand applique Dear Jane block and I blogged about it here. I am so excited that I have picked up this project once again.

quilt back

Today I will be spending some time doing some hand quilting on my blue Seven Sisters quilt. Kathy blogged about using big stitch with red thread for her current project. Well, I can't say that I have done any big stitch quilting intentionally but I have stepped away from my usual neutral quilting thread and I am using blue thread for this quilt.

closer look at the back

There really isn't a lot of contrast so it doesn't stand out a lot but I think it does look pretty good with blue stitches.

What hand work project will you be working on today?

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

The colours that we are working with for the month of October are brown, black or gray. In my scraps I found some fabric that has a black background with a brown motif and I made some 6" churn dash blocks with it. I had started working on a churn dash quilt last year and even though I haven't made a lot of progress I do have a few blocks already made. I have no plan at this point other than to use a variety of 12", 6" and 3" blocks in the design.

These are the blocks that I have made so far. It appears that I am missing a 3" block or maybe I didn't have enough scraps available to make it at the time. Hmmmm...I will have to keep an eye out for it. In any case, I still have a long way to go before I have enough blocks to make a quilt.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at soscrappy's. Stop on by and check out the other links - you just may be inspired to dig out your scraps and join in!

Winding Ways

It sure doesn't look like 96 block segments!

Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time piecing these curved block sections for my pink and brown winding ways quilt. I did pretty well and I got 96 done and that is enough for 24 more blocks. I am now finished all of the pink with brown corner sections and I am ready to move on to sewing the rest of the sections that are brown with pink corners and then of course I still need to add the center sections. I do already have quite a few full blocks completed and I am hoping to streamline the process with the final blocks.

I wasn't too sure how I felt about these blocks but once I put the finished blocks up on the design wall I was relieved to see that it does look better than I anticipated. I hope it all works out because it is quite a challenging block to piece. It is also a bit tedious and time consuming to sew all of those curves. :Q

Way back when I first started sewing these blocks I used three pins on these curves but on these block sections I have got it down to just using two pins. Good thing for me that my sister Cheryl cut these blocks for me using her Studio cutter because those notches really do help with alignment. Honestly, I try to avoid using pins whenever I can but I really cannot get away with it for these blocks!!

Dear Jane - Jane's Tears (C-9)

It has been such an incredibly long time since I have worked on these blocks!!  On Wednesday, I went to my Moraine Guild meeting and of course I went early to take part in the sit and sew.  I decided to take Dear Jane with me instead of hauling my sewing machine and all of its accoutrement. I have found that I don't really get too much sewing done so why bother with the hassle of lugging all of that stuff around with me. So Dear Jane it was...oh Jane....how I have missed you!

So far, I have been sewing these blocks pretty much in order but I chose to skip a few blocks because I wanted to take applique with me instead of hand-piecing. The pieced blocks usually have so many pieces and I didn't want to get any teeny-tiny pieces lost.

I think my block turned out pretty cute and pretty well considering I still classify myself to be a beginner with hand applique and I am really out of practice. :)  When you compare my block to the real Dear Jane block there is a larger gap between my applique tear drops but it did turn out more in line with the pattern from the book. I think I would have liked it better closer together but I am happy with it regardless.

On the home front - my husband had his surgery a week ago on Monday and he is making great progress. I really hope that things have settled down enough around here for me to go back to some wonderful routines that I really do enjoy. You know...things like quilting and blogging!