The Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt is finished

I'm finished quilting the top last night and the binding was finished today.  I'm so glad this is done because I can't make myself have more than one quilt on the go and I want to make other quilts.  I have loads of scraps for string quilts and some charm squares set aside for another quilt.   

I took this picture outside hoping it would show the quilt colors better.  I was wrong.  I didn't do a great job picking my colors because they are the same bright tones, but I loved them when I got them and thought they would be an awesome combination.  They look cool, but it's hard to distinguish the pink from the orange in my pictures.

More pictures.

Grandmother's Flower Garden Top Is Finished

Okay, I finished the seventh row this week, added the borders and sandwiched the top for quilting.  Here is a picture of the top with the gray borders.  Not a very good picture showing the colors.   It's currently draped over my cutting table waiting patiently as I do my version of hand quilting.  Once it's finished, I will take a picture outside in good light to show the colors properly.

Flower Doily

Using the video tutorial here, I crocheted this cute doily in about 40 minutes.  It was fun and I love how simple it is.  I used cotton yarn in a navy blue color with a size H or 5.0 mm hook.

All The Hexagons Are Ready

   Here they are.

    All the hexagons I will need to finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.  I have two flowers for the 5th row put together already.  I need three more flowers then I will add the green path to each and add them one by one to the quilt top.

    It takes me approximately two hours and ten minutes to make each flower including the green path.  Then it probably takes another hour and a half to sew each flower onto the quilt top.  No wonder its taking me so long to finish this quilt.

Spring Flower Garland

   I finished hanging up my spool pin doily garland.  It's so colorful in the room.  There is about 46 inches between the two light fixtures and I was able to have three strands of garland hanging between the two light fixtures.

Crocheted Flower Garland

    I crocheted up the green thread that I received on Saturday.   Since the flowers were already made I just had to make the vine to add the flower (spool pin doilies).  It took me about an hour and a half to get all these flowers on.  This turned out really well and I'm going to hang it in my living room between the two spot lights that are on the ceiling.

Flower Garland and Wedding Gift

     I'm going to use up all the spool pin doilies I haven't given away and make a garland to hang in my living room for spring.  I ordered a dark green cotton thread and I'm going to crochet a chain adding flowers as I go.  I have approximately 129 spool pin doilies made and I'm going to keep crocheting a chain until I run out of green thread.

   While I'm doing this, I'm knitting yellow dishcloths and making some pretty potholders for a special niece who is getting married in the summer.  I ordered two yards of this lovely fabric to make the potholders.  My DD and I had already purchased gifts from her registry, but I decided that she needed some homemade things in her kitchen.  She is not expecting this so this will be a nice surprise for her.

    Here's the fabric for the special potholders.

    I'm still working on my hexagon quilt top, or should I say, not working on it.  It seems I'm finding all manner of different projects to do that take me away from that monster.  I'll get back to it as soon as I finish my potholder dishcloth projects.

Organizing, Knitting and Quilting

   I split my time over the last month working on two big projects.  One was the Grandmother's
Flower Garden Quilt and the other was an organization project.

    I organized all my craft supplies and projects that have been stored into big, medium and small storage boxes over the years.  I have over 48 storage boxes and they hold fabric, yarn, buttons, zippers, pins, pin cushions, rotary cutters, snaps, Velcro, excelsior, batting, fiberfil, batting, embroidery floss, embroidery hoops, tape, paper, greeting cards, thread, stabilizer, beads, jewelry findings, paints, glue, and glue guns, etc.  Some have specific projects in them that are ready to be started (or finished) and some boxes just hold several items that go together like yarn, pom pom makers, and a nostepinne.  I organized all the like items together, labeled the boxes and indexed the box on the computer.  I put most of those boxes in my office closet and I have a legend that tells me the location of each box and what is in it.  It's nice to know where everything is.

     Here's are a couple of pictures of the inside of my closet.

    I spent about 3 weeks last month working on the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  After I finished putting the third row on the quilt top, I figured up how many hexagons I need of each color for rows 4, 5, 6 and 7.  I traced them and cut all of those out.  I paper punched more hexagon papers for basting, then I basted and sewed together all the flowers for the fourth row of the quilt top.  I just have to add the green path to each flower before I sew it to what is already together.

    Here's a picture of the flowers for the fourth row.

    On Saturday and Sunday last weekend I spent time knitting dishcloths.  They are a thank you gift for my DD for helping me with some yard work last Saturday morning.

    Here's a picture of the knitted dishcloths.  I love the yellow yarn.  I have to get more of that color for me.

Getting Back to Hand Sewing on the Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Top

   I pulled out my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top on last Friday.  I had to add three flowers to the third row to finish it and I finally finished those tonight.

     I started this quilt top way back at the end of May, 2017 and I can't believe that I am still working on this.  I have never had a project linger this long.  I really, really, really need to get this one done, so I am committing two hours each day during the week and more on Saturday and Sunday to sew on this top until it is finished.  I have four more rows of flowers and path to add.

    I notice in the second row that the half flower on the right hand side is wrong.  It should have an orange outer ring and a pink inner ring.  I will be taking that half flower off and fixing that. 

    I fell out of love with this project before, but looking at this picture reminds me how much I like this and I am excited to work on this again. 

    Here's a picture of the three rows finished.

I Love This Fabric

   I mentioned that I bought a fat quarter bundle of Bake Sale by Riley Blake.  Well, I actually ordered two of them, even though I didn't know what all the fabrics looked like, I fell in love with the background colors and some of the obvious designs, like the gingham.  The other designs include flowers, mixing bowls, cake stands, recipes, cherries, and some stylized dotty fabrics. I took pictures of all the color groups and fabrics in it.  I had to share. 

This fat quarter has two color designs on it.  I had never seen that before.  So fun.

More colors.

    Some of these fabrics will end up as hanging dish towel toppers because, hello, kitchen scheme.  I don't know where the rest will be used but these fabrics will be used carefully and thoughtfully because I am in love with this collection.

Just Getting Over The Hawaii Jet Lag

   Wow, it's taking me awhile to get over the time difference while I was in vacation.  I finally got some of my things back to normal in the house.  I had to clean up my bedroom because when I went on vacation I moved a bunch of stuff into my bedroom to make room in the rest of the house so the cat sitter wouldn't have to search for the cats.  I also shut my bedroom door and put a do not enter sign on it.  It was one less room that the cats could hide in.  This morning before work I also took time to clean out the winter clothes from my regular closet to move into my storage closet.  I even threw away some old clothes that don't fit anymore.

  Here is the lone hexie flower I worked on while I was flying to Hawaii.  Once we landed I never picked this up again.  On the plane rides back, I was too busy sleeping to do any sewing.  I fell asleep every chance I got.  I slept in airports, on flights and even slept on the car ride back home.

     Here's an old project.  I made this quilt several years ago.  It was gifted to my brother and his wife.  I used some of her favorite colors in the quilt and she loved it.  This is the Sugar Flowers quilt pattern by Jera Brandvig of Quilting in the Rain.  It's a free pattern and you can find it here.

Woo Hoo! The Second Row Is Done, Well Almost.

    I finally finished the second row of the Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt top.  Actually, it's not totally finished.  I need to add three green hexies to the bottom of the each of the half flowers on the end, but I was so happy to get all these pieces put together that I rushed taking my picture.  It won't take long to add the extra hexies.  Now it's time to cut more fabric to make flowers for the third row.

    I made a decision last month about how I'm going to finish this top when I get all seven rows finished.  I will applique a silver/gray border to all four sides of the top.  I don't know how wide the borders will be yet.  I will use the same silver/gray fabric for the backing.  I have decided to piece the back with a row of flowers, as well.  I bought eight yards of the Mirage line of fabric in the silver lining colorway at Connecting Threads on line store (Link to Fabric).  I'm glad I finally picked a border and backing fabric.  Now all I will need is a batting and I don't have to buy that until I actually finish the top and at the rate I'm sewing now, it may not be done until next fall. 

     I took a day trip to Jacksonville, Florida on September 23rd to see the quilts in the Quilt Fest 2017 show.  This show is held each year and this was the first time I had ever been.  The show was fun and there were a lot of great vendors there.  Since it was fall, the vendors had a lot of fall and Halloween patterns.  I was on the hunt for a nice quilt pattern and the gray fabric for my current quilt project.  I did not find anything I couldn't live without, but I had a blast looking.  Dear daughter found a backpack pattern that she had to have.  There were lots of local quilts and quilters.  It made a nice change from all the international quilts I saw in Paducah last year. 

Still Hand Sewing

    I don't sew everyday, but I try to sew a few days a week.  I get a lot more accomplished on the weekend.  Here is an update on the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top.

    I have started the second row.  The second row flowers still have to be attached.

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Update

   The first row is almost done.  I have five full flowers in my first row.  I still have to make a half flower to put at the end of the row so when I add the second row the edges are pretty even.  I will be appliquing this finished quilt top to straight edge borders and I think half flowers on the end of rows will make the quilt look more even.

More Sewing, No Crocheting

   I have two more flowers done on my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.  I love the way this is turning out.   I should have taken this picture when the sun was out so you can see the colors clearer,  but the weather was not cooperating today and I wanted to get this posted.

    Here is a picture of my yarn for the Hotel of Bees Shawl that I will start soon.  The yarn is Knit Picks Comfy Sport, the dark pink is Peony, the beige is Parchment, and the light pink is Flamingo.  I'm looking forward to starting this project soon since I did manage to finish the Christmas towel embroideries and that project is half done now.

Making Paper And Fabric Pieces For My Hexagon Quilt

I'm making my own hexagon paper pieces to use in my current quilt project.  In my last project I used old greeting cards and some junk mail and my Fiskars paper punch to make my hexagon paper pieces.  I also made some of my papers out of a heavy 110 lb. 8.5" x 11" white cardstock and those papers lasted the best and I was able to reuse them much longer than the others.  So I'm using the cardstock in this project.  The Fiskars paper punch is labeled an extra large, (I bought it on Amazon a couple of years ago) the sides measure 1" and the longest measurement from one point to another is 2".   I can punch out 20 hexies of this size from one sheet of this size cardstock.  I like to have lots of the papers available so I can baste enough hexies to make more than one flower at a time.

At this stage I cut the edges off leaving a piece big enough to punch out an additional 6 hexies.

All of my yellow centers are basted and ready to have flowers created around them.  This is all the fabric hexies basted.  

Time to cut more fabric.  To cut the fabric, I use a paper hexie with a 1/4" seam allowance added to it and I trace the shape onto the back of the fabric and I cut out each one with my trusty Gingher scissors. 

Here is a picture of the back of my hexies in my first block of this quilt.  I basted the hexies with blue thread so it's easy to find and remove when I take the papers out.  This block is ready to have the paper removed from the yellow, orange and pink pieces.  I leave the papers in the green ones until I have another block added to it.

Here are some hexies I made and put together.  I want to use these as a decoration on a bag in the future.

I

A Slow Start To My Slow Stitching Project

   I finally started my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I started this on a day I spent at the beach with dear daughter and friends.  I knew I wasn't going to be swimming in the Gulf and that I wanted to spend my time on the beautiful deck with a sea breeze and some hand stitching.  I finished my first flower for my new Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt during that beach trip.  I have since added the green path.  I am totally in love with this project.  I can't wait to see more of these lovely flowers appear.

  The green fabric almost looks minty or blueish, it's not. I tried to get a good picture using my faux Ott Light.    I will try to get a picture where the colors are more life like on a day with more sun.  We have had some rain the last couple of days and it's hard to get a good picture indoors.

    I was kind of worried about the pink and orange clashing but it looks stunning in this picture.  I originally bought a very pale yellow for the center, but I changed that to a bright yellow when I saw how dark the orange and pink are and I'm so glad I did.

   So there you have it, the beginning of a another quilt top.  

 

Under Hurricane Watch Making A Quilt Top

    My home is in the path of Tropical Storm Hermine which might turn into a Category 1 hurricane by the time is makes landfall late tonight/early tomorrow morning.

   I spent the day sewing up my shabby chic flowery 10" squares into a quilt top.  I bought these squares from an Ebay seller a couple of weeks ago.  The set came with 48 squares (2 each of 24 different fabrics) and I wanted 49 squares.  I found the exact fabrics at Marshall's Dry Goods and I bought a yard of one of the fabrics so I could add one more square to the group for a total of 49.  I think 10" squares in a 7 block, 7 row configuration make a good size quilt top.  It comes out to be about 66.5" square.  I'm putting this top away to finish later in the year.

   Here it is:

   Close-up:

Yo Yo Flower

   I made this yo yo flower to put on my 6" quilt display stand.

Update On The Grandmother's Flower Garden Scrappy Quilt Top

   Here is my current quilt project with the sixth row added to it.

     I have one more row of flowers to add.  I'm hoping to have that last row done by Sunday afternoon.  Then I'll move onto the next step of sandwiching this with the batting and backing fabric.  I have decided to hand quilt (something I have never done before) this quilt and I will be using large stitches in order to get this done a little quicker.