Trying My Hand At Smalls

Smalls; I first heard the word used by fellow crafter Margaret who is linked in with the Hand Quilt Along group I joined a little over a year ago. She is an amazing seamstress, quilter, cross stitcher, crafter in general. She lives in Yorkshire, UK and not only does she craft but also hikes her countryside and takes me on amazing journeys crisscrossing her gorgeous country. You can learn about Margaret here:     https://thecraftycreek.com/about/

As I said, I had never heard the word smalls or associated it with tiny cross stitch creations until I began following Margaret’s blog. Please stop in and take a look at May’s beauty’s created by Margaret.

https://thecraftycreek.com/2019/05/02/cross-stitch-smalls-for-may/

I had picked up a small cross-stitched sampler in a ‘goodness gracious awful frame’ at my local Goodwill some time back. I instantly removed it from the frame, throwing it away before thinking I would wish I had taken a picture of it for you (before and after shot)  I had just thought I would replace the frame with something simple and natural to bring out the beauty of the artists work. May’s inspirations by Margaret changed my mind and I quickly went to work. With the front already stitched – and beautifully, I used one of the leftover quilt block squares I had from ‘Velma’s Quilt’ for my backing.

Velma’s Quilt 

My very first small measuring 4 1/2″ X 6″

A quick look at youtube for a refresher on crochet borders completed this. I can see how I should have used a matching thread to the yarn instead of using the peach thread matching the backing.

I think it’s still adorable and will make a sweet gift to go along with a birthday card.

I see “smalls” in my future!

 

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SAL: Making Progress

Progress was made these past 3 weeks. I finished the dog and moved on to the legs of the 3rd woman. Here is where I was last time

Here is where I am now

 

Accountability to a group is a good thing

If you would like to join us, contact Avis at the link below, and do take a visit around to see everyone; we are all working on something different, so the variety is wonderful!

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

Please Help Date Me

Please help me date this beautiful Dresden Plate quilt that I found at our local Goodwill. She is just lovely and in almost pristine condition. Aside for half dozen small size rusty looking spots, I can find nothing else wrong with her.

The back is a solid white, heavy, coarse cotton, the same as used on the front.

While material patterns are reproduced, I have enlarged two sections of material I am hoping will give you a clue.

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In the photo above you can see one of those tiny spots. When I first brought her home she was dirty, with numerous yellowish discolored areas. A good dry cleaning and she cleaned up beautifully.

The quilt measures 61″ X 81″ and each plate block measures 15″ X 15″ What concerns me about her is the connecting stitching of the plate blocks which appears way to tight to be hand stitched and seems to me to be machine stitched (?) They most certainly could be.

I would love to hear from you with any thoughts or opinions on the age and construction of this beauty.

Hand Quilt Along ~ New Choice

For over a year I was working on the quilt I named Wishing You Goodwill for the HQAL. Once her quilting was completed, I still had/have her binding to work on but I put her aside to work on the baby quilt for my granddaughter. (which I highlighted in our last posting)

 

So here we are again and I had to decide what I wanted to work on; to continue with the binding on Goodwill or continue with the ‘T’ quilt I began some months back. I had joined a quilt along that was started by Isabella of Then And Again Quilts. We were 4 months in when Isabella had to bow out due to personal reasons. You may remember seeing her gorgeous quilt.

I decided I wanted to continue working on my T quilt. I had these 3 x2 completed

and have now added the following ~

Looking at this first one, I am feeling like the T with the flowered material seems to get lost to the bold blue of the center design. I may try it reversing the colors, the blue as the T and the flowers as the center.

I have made 2 of this blue block below. I seem to gravitate to the cleaner more traditional looking blocks. The solid with a pattern or 2 solids as with the red and white, but with this started with multi-patterned blocks, I’ll soldier on……

There are 4 slightly different patterns I am using. I plan on making 2 blocks each of my color choices. So far I have 9 blocks made,  Not sure how many or how large a quilt this will be, I’ll figure that out as I go.

 

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 Update Post

Work on my project has been ongoing and I am feeling like I have really made some progress since picking up this cross-stitch to continue with it. Here is where I was last time we posted. I had begun outlining which I will continue to do as I go.

Here I am now

 

I finished up with some more outlining and started on the second dog.

Barbara Lavallee is one of my favorite artists. I was so surprised when I had found a cross stitch featuring one of her paintings. My plan was for this to be a Christmas gift for a daughter who had moved to Alaska last year. Christmas 2018 came and went but this year….with the encouragement from this SAL, I’m planning on a 2019 finish!

 

Please click the names below to see what all the other members have been up to in the last three weeks. We live all over the world so you may need to allow for time differences. Posting takes place every third Sunday, local time. Our next updates will be posted on the 28th April 2019. If you would like to join please contact Avis at the link below and she will walk you through it. 

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

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

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