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.

Row 6 is done! Quick review of small tool.

I finished row 6 on my quilt top.  I have one more row to go.  Then I will applique this top to a grey border fabric.  I bought the border fabric almost 2 years ago so it's been very patiently waiting to be used.  Here is a picture of the 6 rows.  I'll be using the grey fabric for the backing fabric as well.

My quick review is of the cute flower threaders I bought last year.  I have been using the same threader for the last two rows of the quilt and it has held up very well.  The wire is sturdy but its not too big to fit in a small needle eye.  I bought the threaders from Amazon.  The link is here:   Flower threaders for sewing needles

I'm Hand Sewing Hexagons Again. Another Row Is Done.

   I picked up this quilt top a couple of weeks ago determined to finish it so I can move on because  I'm unable to start another quilt until I finish the one I'm working on and even though I'm not in deep love with my hand sewn hexagon quilt top, I do want to finish it. All the flowers are ready to be added, I'm just adding the green path to the flowers and sewing them to the quilt.  Now I have to add 8 full flowers and 2 halves to it to make it done.

    So I finished row 5 and I started row 6 last night.  Here's a picture the 5 rows.

Quilt Ladder Finished

I finished staining my quilt ladder this week.  I put the quilts on it this morning.  It will be set up in the living room.  I'm very happy with how this one turned out.  It was easier to make the second time.

I pulled out my hexagon quilt project that has been in the works for over 2 years.  I decided to make up all the flowers I need for the next three rows.  I'm working on the last flower of row 7 then I will start adding the green path to the flowers and add each flower with the green path attached one by one.  I have a total of fourteen full flowers and 2 half flowers to add to the quilt to get it finished.  I will post a picture after I get row 5 added to the quilt.

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.

English Paper Piecing.

  I have part of row 5 put together now and I've been busy basting hexagons in my spare time.  I don't have quite enough to finish the next three rows, but I'm working on them. 

   

Yard Work, Family Reunion, Family Wedding, And Quilting

     I've been busy cleaning up my yard for the past month.  It was a complete mess.  I have tons of leaves to shred for mulch, big sticks to take the chain saw to, and at least 32 big black plastic bags of yard waste ready to go out to the curb.   I spent every night and every minute I could out in the yard during the month of May.  It was not fun.  And then to top it all off, it was really dry the month of May and with all that dry weather, the pine straw started falling as soon as I finished raking up last year's leaves.  I had to rake up all of that pine straw and I filled up another four bags of yard wast.  I mowed the grass last night and I'm all caught up with big yard word.  Tomorrow I'm going to poke around and do some weeding in the front beds.  Easy work after all the raking and bagging.

     Another easy outdoor project I have to do is get some some summer flowers to put in this big lovely pot.  My daughter gave this to me last month because of the sea turtles on it.  It was nice of her to think of me when she saw it.

     

    At the end of May, my DD and I went travelling.  We flew to Colorado to attend my niece's wedding.  It was also a mini family reunion, meeting up with both my brothers, their wives and one of my first cousins and her husband on my Dad's side.  Daughter and I always have a good time when we travel and meeting up with family this time was really special.  All of us out-of-towners in our immediate family gathered at the hotel on Friday night, May 31st. to decide where to gather and eat some dinner.  We went to a fun bar and grill and had a great time catching up.  The next day we were on our own until we had to go to the late afternoon wedding.  My niece was radiant and her husband must be a great guy to want to marry into this family.  LoL.  They both are very happy.  Her father, my brother, was so happy that the wedding was over, he was jumping around on the dance floor like a nut.  It was a fun reception.  Everyone danced and enjoyed themselves.  It didn't hurt that there was an open bar.  On Sunday our family, my sister-in-law's sister and husband, and the groom's parents gathered for brunch at a fun local restaurant for a lovely meal.  Then our family spent the afternoon at my brother's home talking, laughing and eating pizza.  It was a lovely way to wind down.  DD and I had to leave early on Monday.  It took all day to get back to Florida.

   This week I have been working on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt this week.  I finally finished row four.  The quilt top is officially half done.  Here is a picture of my progress so far.

 

     The last time I posted a picture of this quilt with three rows done was January 16, 2019.  That's a long time in between rows.

    Now I'm basting more hexagons to make the rest of the flowers for the last 3 rows.   I need enough hexies to make 14 whole flowers and 2 half flowers to finish those last rows.   Time to get this done.

Two Quilty Items

Here are two quilty projects I have shared before.

This dresden plate wall hanging was made to fill up the alcove.where my TV sits.  It was originally supposed to be a fireplace, but I wouldn't use a fireplace so I elected not to add it to my mobile home and they gave me a nice alcove instead.  It's the perfect size for a long dresser and my TV and small stereo live there.  I made the dresden plate using four turquoise fat quarters, the dark blue was from stash and the backing fabric was a piece of batik from stash.  I didn't quilt this piece, I just hand sewed the plate to the brown batik and hemmed the backing fabric making a casing at the top for a curtain rod.

  

   I made this block into a small quilted piece to decorate my front door in between holidays.   I can't remember where I got the block from.   This one is quilted and bound.   Edited to correct my previous statement.  This is a Missouri Star Block and I got the tutorial from the Amanda Rolfe at Three and Three Quarters Blog.  Here is a link:  Missouri Star Quilt Block Tutorial

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.

Lots of Snowmen

    I made the rest of the snowmen ornaments and used up every inch of the white felted wool I bought.   Very little waste on this project and I love these guys.  There are twenty three of them.  I made two banners of ten snowmen each with some bakers twine and they are hanging in my living room.  The other three are standing with my trees in my dining room.  So much fun.

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. 

Hexagon Quilt Update

   I have finished another block in my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I have two done now.  Only 33 more to make.  😎  I have been taking my sweet time with this project.  No rush.  I have plenty of quilts to keep my warm when the weather turns cold.

 

   I received the yarn for my Hotel of Bees Shawl on Friday and I wound all nine skeins into yarn balls so they are ready to use.  I should take a picture of my yarn.  I also took some time to read through some of the pattern last night.  I don't know when I will start this project, but I want to finish my Christmas hanging dishtowels before I start this.  I still have two dishtowels to embroider.  Once they get the embroidery done I have to make the top part.  I didn't get a chance to finish the embroideries on the last two towels this past weekend because . . . 

   I spent a lot of the weekend buying mulch for my large flower bed in the front of the house.  I have a small car so I can only buy 4 bags of mulch at a time.  I made four trips to the home improvement store buying mulch Friday night and Saturday morning to get enough mulch to cover this space.  I used 15 bags of mulch in this space.  I swear my roses look happier since I put the mulch down. 

   

   

Christmas Is Coming, Believe It Or Not

    I thought I would get an early start this year.  I hate giving Christmas gifts, I have a hard time deciding what to give anyone.  I do know that my daughter and my brothers like the hanging dish towels that I make, so that's what I will make to give to them.   I will make five of these pretty dish towels and I should have them all finished by next week.

    I bought the fabric and the towels for this project last month.  I bought two huge white tea towels and cut them into quarters.  I hemmed the one cut side on my sewing machine and then I put the towel into the hoop to add the embroidery to it.  I only got one embroidery made tonight but I love it.  I will embroider the rest over the weekend then I can start adding the fabric toppers to each one.

    Here's the embroidery design I'm using on the towels.

     This makes a nice break from hand sewing hexies.  I really miss my sewing machine when I'm doing a hand sewing project.  I love pressing down on the foot pedal of the machine and sewing at full speed.

I Decided On My Next Quilt Project

   I finally decided on my next long term quilt project.  It will be a slow hand sewing project making little hexagons with English paper piecing.  I'm going to make another Grandmother's Flower Garden ("GFG"), but this time I want to make the quilt more traditional.  I will be using three fabrics for my flowers.  The center will be yellow, of course, and the two rows of petals will be orange and pink.  Here are the fabrics I purchased from Fabric.com this week for this project.

     Here is the green I found for path which I think is perfect.  It's a Kona cotton in the colorway Pond.  I can't wait to get started.

    Here's a link to the scrappy GFG I made last year.  It was totally different from a traditional GFG.  I don't know what I was thinking of when I bought the dark green and greyish fabric for this.  I should have made the flowers with two rows of petals and then used a lighter green for the path, but I made only one row of petals then I used that concrete color before the dark green path.  It it unusual to say the least.

Playing With Hexagons, Again.

    I felt the need to hand sew some hexagons the other day.  I don't know why.  When I finished my Scrappy Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, I never wanted to see another hexagon.  I don't know what I'm going to do with this block, it may be the start of another quilt top.  We'll see.

   Merlin says, "Hello".  He had just finished having a nice drink at the kitchen faucet and he jumped up on the ironing board.  He gave me a few of his sexy cat growls to let me know he was happy and I couldn't resist taking this picture for the blog.  

My First And Last Hand Sewn Quilt Is Finished.

   The Scrappy Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt is now finished.

    I did very big stitch quilting around the yellow centers and the beige hexies so it would go faster.

   I hand sewed hexies to the uneven sides to bind those edges.  Today I applied the binding on the straight sides with the sewing machine.  It felt really weird to use the sewing machine after spending so many months hand sewing all those little hexies.  I love this quilt and I'm so glad it's finished.

      I'm so happy I will be able to use my sewing machine to make my next couple of projects.

      I bought fabric to make myself a flannel rag quilt for Christmas.  I want to start it next week.  It's going to be made with a lovely red plaid flannel for Christmas.  I love plaid fabric.

      I'll be using the red plaid for the top.  I will use the blue flannel for the middle and backing fabric.  I bought 3 yards of the red plaid and 6 yards of the blue flannel.

     I will cut all the fabric into 10" squares.  I will need 108 of them to make a 6 block x 6 row quilt.  The blocks will be assembled with the red on top and the middle and bottom layer will be blue.  I made two flannel quilts last year and I really enjoyed the process.  

     Another project I have fabric for is a new cotton nightgown for the winter season.  I bought some red plaid cotton fabric, like the red plaid above, to make this one.  I won't share a picture of this sewing project because I'm not going to take the time to match my plaids at the seams and it will look very wonky.

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.

 

My First Hexagon Block For My Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt Top.

   I have to make 34 more of these for my quilt top.  This quilt top will definitely take me a while but it's a lot of fun to make.  I love the scrappy flower center, the third round looks like cement pavers in the garden, and the fourth round is the green grass growing around the pavers and the flowers.  This is my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt in progress.

 

Weekend Sewing Fun

    I had some fun with my new hexie obsession the last couple of days.  I made some hexies to turn into a flower decoration for my purse.  I couldn't stop making hexies so I also made the same type of decoration for DD for her use.  I used yellow centers for my flower decoration and ladybug fabric for DD's decoration because her friends call her ladybug.  These are double sided and hand sewn except for the machine stitching on the strap.

   This morning I finally created the Christmas tree forest.  I decided that each tree needed a different fabric for the trunk and I only had 3 brown fabrics in my stash, so I placed a request on the Quilting Board for 4" squares of 9 different brown scrap fabrics so I could get the trunks done.  Several lovely people responded to my request.  I took the offer of the first person that had 9 fabrics.  I received them last Monday and got my tree trunks cut out.  My Christmas Tree applique wall hanging is now ready to sew.   I had to stand on a chair to get all the trees in the one shot.  I placed 11 of these trees in this wall hanging and I'm putting the last tree in a square all by itself.

    I did send my brown scrap fabric angel an appropriate thank you gift by return mail last Thursday and she should get it tomorrow.  I made her a lovely quilted wristlet in a black fabric with royal blue polka dots.  I hope she gets a lot of use from it.