HQAL March Update 1 Day late

I am back from my long weekend trip to the baby shower for my granddaughter Heather. My daughter Fawn, living in Fairbanks, Alaska, flew in to me (Washington) and together we made the trip down to Oregon. Fawn was a shower surprise! And a wonderful surprise it was. From her sister Marion to Heather and to grandson Joe ~ shock, surprise, happiness all overflowed and made the weekend extra special.

I know I said I’d pass on this posting but I think one day late is just fine.

The finished baby quilt 

A weekend celebrating Heather and Trent as we await the arrival of baby Wyatt James

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

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SAL Update: Backstitching

A busy 3 weeks has passed with lots of projects both inside and outside with spring knocking at the door. I have cleaned out a few flower beds, added a new black iron arbor at the back gate and finished the baby quilt for my granddaughter. 

But what I am most excited about is the simple progress I have made with my cross-stitch project since the last posting. I tried my hand at back stitching which was the major question in my very first post. 

To backstitch as I go or at the end? That was the question. I am definitely a backstitch as I go girl now! 

Here is where I was before 

And now 

 

What I think was the decision clincher for backstitching as I go was, I can catch my mistakes and missed stitches sooner than later, fix them, and be done with it. The excitement of a finished project could get lost with too many ‘fixes’

I still have quite a bit to learn about technique but so far …… so much cross stitch fun!

Please take a moment to visit the pages of these wonderful creative people and see what they have been working on. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

This SAL posting takes place every third Sunday. The next update will be posted on the 7th of April 2019. If you would like to join please contact Avis at the link above and she will walk you through the painless process. 

HQAL: 3 Week Check In

It’s amazing how quickly 3 weeks can fly by. Those 21 days really marks progress or not and this week I must report no progress at all was made once I finished quilting ‘Wishing You Good Will’

I am simply not sure how I want to do her border. I did watch a few youtube videos to gets some ideas and to learn more about cutting on the bias (thanks to many of your suggestions)

What I did do was work on my project with a deadline which was the baby quilt for my granddaughter, expecting her first child, a boy in May. The shower is on March 23rd and  I needed to get going on this.

So I have switched project gears with this posting and focused my attention on this new hand quilting project for this hand quilt along check in.

Back in January, I posted my fabric choices and ideas. Last week I finished up all the blocks and pieced the blanket together.

A slight fabric change was needed. I had originally planned to do all the sashing in a solid light gray but realized I did not have enough material. A quick trip to the fabric store, only to discover they were all out of what I needed soon led to finding the complementary material to the original block choice with the little princely bears…. I couldn’t be more pleased.

With 1 block left to quilt, I’ll be moving on to the border today

I used a light gray thread to quilt with but after I was into it I began thinking perhaps a light turquoise might actually have worked better.  No turning back and no second-guessing myself, I continued on.  The border will be a wide medium gray blanket binding with a dark gray pom pom ric rac.

The shower is being held in Oregon City, Oregon the home of my granddaughter, and I will be traveling from my home state of Washington. I will be gone  22 – 24th which looks like falls on our next 3-week posting. If I miss the update, I know you will forgive me 🙂

Please take some time and visit some of the other amazing projects of the other participants in this quilt along.

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

SAL: First Posting

Delighted to be a part of the SAL ~ I had almost joined along back in August of this past year and if I had I might have completed this beauty for Christmas gift giving to my daughter living in Alaska. But stitching halted sometime in Sept., dead in the water, abandoned, frozen in time like it’s setting.

This cross stitch project is by Barbara LaVallee, one of my favorite artists. I picked her up at my local Goodwill many, many years ago. And for many, many years she has sat untouched, actually forgotten, that is until my daughter and husband made their move from Virginia to Alaska in February 2018.

Their move reminded me that I had the perfect gift to work on for them. I was gung ho in the beginning but by August I was running out of steam and she was taking a back seat to quilting project. I had actually written to Avis to join in and then ….. well, decided I had too much on my plate. Just think, if I had joined in this may have been done.

 

Here is where I am at as I start with the SAL

 

This is what it should look like when finished. I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this project.

This is a true challenge for me as I have not done many cross stitch projects. Printed patterned yes, counted no. Curious if you do the outline stitching as you go or at the end? or is this simply a matter of preference?

 

 

This stitch-a-long is organized by Avis, we share our progress every three weeks, it’s a great motivator to keep going. Please follow the links to see what everyone else has been working on. If you would like to join us just send a message to Avis.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, LucyAnn, Kate, Jess, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy,Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Steph, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah,Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

 

 

Hand Quilt Along: Wishing You Good Will

The quilting process of ‘Wishing You Good Will’ has been completed. 1 year and 1 month ago I began this beauty. She was a Goodwill find that needed some love and tenderness to restore. She sat for quite a few years until I hooked up with this Quilt Along. With the encouragement of all of you, I began this journey with her.

Next step is to do her borders. No thoughts yet on what I will use or do. Idea’s appreciated!

A sea of blue. The color is not true – it’s a much deeper midnight blue. I just could not get the lighting right 😦

And mentioning lighting, If you haven’t read KerryCan’s post on using lighting for photo taking (which was excellent) all I can say is – I tried my best Kerry!  Winter time in a room with little to no natural lighting was not the best for this show and tell. You can read her post by clicking on the link below.

https://lovethosehandsathome.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/of-making-hay-and-glamour-shots/

One last look

 

 

Hand Quilt Along Links
This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

Velmas Quilt Completed

Velma’s quilt could not have been completed on a more appropriate day. A very light snow was falling, in fact, our first snow fall of the year.

The perfect day to present Velma (84) with the lap quilt I made using the log cabin blocks her mother had sewn many years ago. Using only the material that she had given to me, I assembled the blocks, sashed them and actually added a thin additional batting of a lightweight throw blanket to bring some dimension to the sashed areas. I did a general quilting around each block. Nothing fancy.

What was interesting for me was each block had been sewn individually with batting and backing already. Removing the batting and backing meant dismantling the entire block and starting over with cut strips. So Ileft it alone and worked the quilt using the blocks as is. The pre-quilted squares added quite a bit of puckering but I actually kind of like the effect.

My goal was to get a lap quilt finished in the least amount of time so that Velma could enjoy it.

 

 

 

©2019,copyright,Sharon Haimowitz-Civitano.All rights reserved.

T Block Quilt Along

This month T block was called Imperial T and I have to say it is my favorite block so far. That’s most likely because I am finally getting the hang of the flying geese.

Imperial T 

So far I have completed 3 different block patterns, the Double T, Capital T and this month’s Imerial T. Block 4 will come out tomorrow and I am excited to get started on it.

Isabella of    Then and Again Quilts  is hosting this “T” Quilts, Sew-Along – please click on either link to learn more about it and come quilt along with us.

The history of this block is fascinating and Isabella has been doing an awesome job of investigating and learning about this wonderful block, sharing her knowledge and coaching us along in the quilt along.

The origin of this block is in question but seems to have been associated with the temperance movement at one time but I want to leave the history to our hostess who has done a considerable amount of research into this topic. ** the above sentence was rewritten as a clarification and an addition to my original posting – I have heard from Isabella regarding the origins of the T quilt and that there is not enough proof that this quilt stands for the temperance movement.

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/temperance.htm

Temperance or not I found an amazing letter pertaining to the Temparance movement that I am sharing.

While looking on ebay for vintage photo’s – a hobby – I came across a ‘lot’ of pictures mixed in with some magazines and letters. One letter jumped out at me and I had to purchase the whole lot (minimal cost) to get my hands on this

Amazing Letter 

I have been unsuccessful in locating any information on a Roxborogh Throckmorton or his poor departed friend Avery Fortesque (Ancestry/google)  I have no clue to an actual time frame of this letter as no date was written on it. The temperance movement has seen many waves of renewal and activity.

I have no real proof this letter is even genuine.  However, I have been able to find numerous accounts to the movement specific to the term ‘temperance disciple’ in newspapers.com Here are two I found that are quite fun, if fun is the right word. One from Buffalo and one from Brooklyn.

 

clipping_27873275

Daily Commercial Advertiser (Buffalo, New York, United States of America) · 19 Jan 1837, Thu · Page 2

 

 

clipping_27873741

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, Kings, New York) · 9 Jul 1845, Wed · Page 2

 

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If you would like to participate in the sew along click here. You can also visit the other participants by clicking on their link below. Happy Quilting!

Please take a moment to jump over to Bella and Nanette’s page to see their blocks

Nanette & Bella

Cutter Quilt Ninny

More often than not, especially today, I feel like I am back in the stone age when it comes to quilting. It’s not just because I consider myself a quilt purist, (only hand quilting) I never owned a rotary cutter (bought my first 3 months ago) or pre-cut templates or quilting rulers; 60-degree triangle rulers, triangle square up ruler, strip wonky ruler, strip tube ruler, the types are endless, I was lost to the world of quilt lingo up until joining my first quilt along a year ago.

The quilt vocabulary I knew were backing, batting, and sashing. But more recently, in fact in this last week, I learned a new term; cutter quilt.

Who knew that the beautifully framed quilt square I did as a gift for Velma and one for myself came from using a cutter quilt, I didn’t. From a quilt not able to be saved I cut out two of the squares and repurposed them….I created this art piece from a cutter quilt.

It certainly makes perfect sense now. It did not make sense when trolling ebay for vintage quilts and I came across a number of these for sale. They were smaller sections of quilts and in the heading for the quilt for sale, the term cutter quilt was used. That seemed odd to me, my mind jumped instantly to a ‘cutter’ as in a boat. That didn’t make sense but I trolled on.

I eventually wrote to the poster of these beauties and asked her why these quilts were such an odd size and here was her reply.

New message from:   bayberrycottage  (631)

Good morning! These are quilt “pieces” for crafting, sewing and such. The sizes are the “cut” sizes, as they are cut from what are called “cutter” quilts. Thanks for your interest. Enjoy your weekend!

Now you may be thinking what a ninny, everyone knows this. In fact, I do feel like a ninny with a capital N.

Of course, it makes perfect sense. But in my defense and returning to the word cutter and boat here is the definition of a cutter:

Wikipedia says:

A cutter is typically a small, but in some cases a medium-sized, watercraft designed for speed rather than for capacity. Traditionally a cutter is a smaller sailing ship with a single mast 

hmmm ~ smaller sailing ship ~ smaller quilt piece, do you see where I am going with this? or is it simply what it sounds like ‘cutter quilt’; cutting away pieces from a larger piece.

And then there’s good old handy google – I could have just googled ‘cutter quilt’ and brought up all kinds of information on this but I didn’t.

So just in case, there may be another ninny out there …….

 

Quilt for Baby Wyatt

A new project has begun, my favorite kind, Baby Quilts! This one is for my granddaughter Heather and her husband Trent; expecting their first baby ~ a boy.

Shhhhhh….it’s a surprise and good thing she doesn’t follow along on my blog so I can share the excitement of this new project.

I decided to use the very basic pinwheel pattern and will make it light weight with no batting.

First I choose this sweet fleece backing and then added the my material choice. The sashing will be in light gray.

I’ll use wide satan blanket binding finished with a very thin trim in gray (pom pom’s) I wanted to add a border but since baby is a boy I did not want anything to frilly. I found this Simplicity trim which was perfect.

 

I actually made a crutial error in picking my material with the patterned baby bear. Not enough bears to cut out and the pattern was lost in the pinwheel. I could have gotten more material but I decided to add a 4 patch which I will also do with the turquoise material.

Before beginning and testing my pattern pieces I worked these two sweet wheels. I just love the rainbow material, I have so much of it, soooooo another baby blanket is in the future. This one for a baby girl, extra frilly with a wonderful wide lace border.

Speaking baby blankets ~ this one is going home as a gift ~ baby shower tomorrow night for the nephew of my husband and his wife!

The Forever Home

I wanted to share this post by blogger Isabella Eisenbeil who I have had the blessings of connecting with this past year. Her story of the reproduction Double T quilt has been a journey I am so happy to say I have had the chance to follow. Not only that, but this quilt was the beginnings of the T Quilt Along I am participating in led by Isabella. It’s not to late to join along. ~ Sharon