Turtle Progress

Hi everyone - I was all set to say Happy Easter, and then DH reminded me that was LAST WEEK !!!

oh well.  It's been a very difficult week in my 'day job' - the end of the school year brings an increased level of deadlines, activities, crises, and other stress.  Coming home and quilting has been my oasis... 

PROGRESS IS SLOW ON LINEN QUILTING...


I have been doing the "finishing" on this piece, "Rings of Olympus"  ..

I am tacking down the lace trim, which seems to take forever... Two sides are done.  The small 'window' trim hides the rather blunt seam between the linen and the underlayment - I am learning that lace can hide a multitude of sins!!

Remember this?  It doesn't have a name yet....  The middle is now complete................

 here's a closer look.  

 

And, three little charity quilts all washed and ready to go out the door - two will go to Hands2Help, and one to Wrap-A-Smile...  these are so fun!

I hope you are having a great Sunday....   I'm off to do some more sewing!!!

Kate



A Huge Challenge

Oh I am having so much fun working on this linen wholecloth !!!!

At this point, the "big stitching", what I call the "bones" is stitched in, all except a little at the bottom of the photo, that you can't see.  I stitched that part, then had to rip it out because I saw that it wasn't drawn straight (why can you see it so much more clearly AFTER stitching??)

I sprayed off the blue marking - that's one of my favorite, favorite parts -  suddenly it just looks so gorgeous!

The next job is to stitch all around and in each of these embroidered medallions... that seems to take forever, but oh boy is it worth it!  After I have completed one, I will show you before and after, and you'll agree, I am sure...

How long will this take?   Oh boy, a long time...  but it's fun... fun...

Remember this piece?  Elizabeth's Legacy.... it's going in a box, to the Denver National Quilt Show, where it was juried in...  this piece has now been in three national/international shows - pretty soon it will be getting frequent flyer miles ! 

 

I hope you are all quilting something you find as enjoyable as I find these linen quilts... 

 

Happy Quilting to you,

 

Kate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hands2Help Progress !

Happy Sunday to everyone... 

It is a spectacular day here - sunny and beautiful - the hummingbirds are gulping down their food, the kittens are wrestling on the den floor...  and I slept late, late, late... 

It's time to link up to Sarah's Hands2Help initiative...  I'm making great progress on the two quilts I promised for Happy Chemo.  

I love love this one - it's all finished.  It came from my 2 1/2 inch scrap drawer... with black squares interspersed.  I just love black - makes any color look fabulous, doesn't it?   It's in the washer right now...

My second one is another quilt made from leftovers, this time with white as the offset color.  As you see, I still have some binding to sew down, and this one will be finished, too!

I hope to get these both in the mail sometime in the next week.  

This is a great project - and I think more than 80 quilters are participating - and there are fantastic PRIZES!!!!  If you want to jump in, there's still time... just visit Sarah at her web page, and she will tell you how ...

Have a nice day, everyone. 

Kate

Nature Sounds

Hello everybody - I write this post from a little bit of paradise.. ok, hazy paradise, but still paradise..

I am in Morro Bay, CA, for a conference at Cal Poly.  We are in a lovely little in called The Inn at Morro Bay, and this is from our deck... lovely, lovely.

That giant rock?  Well, that's an extinct volcano...  from millions and millions of years ago... 

The Inn is next to a protected wildlife area that has become a rookery - thousands of cormorants and egrets are nesting there now... the eggs are just starting to hatch...they make the most amazing racket - cooing, purring, honking, squawking - a cacophony of sound...there are nests everywhere..

So after I had drunk in all the nature sounds I could stand on our balcony, I came in, and what did I see on the nightstand beside the bed?  A sound machine that makes - you got it - 'nature sounds'... ha!!

With a little view of sunset, I bid you goodnight, I am off to sleep, perchance to dream.

Kate

It's A Linen Quilting Sunday

Oh I do love Sundays...  and Saturdays... 

One day, when I retire, will life be a long string of Saturdays and Sundays????  oh my, that sounds lovely.  

Today I am quilting on this lovely..................remember this piece?  It's a Madeira linen tablecloth... and it's just beautiful..

I put in double batting - a very thin cotton, and then a layer of wool, so the quilting is really well-defined.

 It will take a while to stitch around all the cutwork and the embroidery... but it is so beautiful I don't mind at all...

While I am stitching, I am trying to decide on a name... this piece doesn't yet have a name... 

I have also put together a couple of charity quilts - I found these blocks while cleaning out a drawer, and they quickly became this cheerful top.

 and this modern-looking crumb block piece that now needs some binding on it!

Well - have you finished your taxes?  I have not , and they are strewn across the dining room table - so I better go make some progress on that little task !

Be back to sewing later...

Happy Sewin Sunday

Kate

I'm Out of My Funk!

Well, when last I posted, I was just overwhelmed - everywhere I looked, there was just 'too much'...

too much paperwork for taxes, and where oh where is DH's form from Social Security???? not to be found, waiting for a replacement now......

too many quilts...........??????

too many scraps.............???????

funny how your perspective can change.

I covered up the tax paperwork with a big towel.  It it's still there on April 15, I will hit the button on Turbo Tax that says "file extension" and worry about it later...

I took all the charity quilts outside and photographed them on the fence:::

 here are some closeups:  

 

I made a few of these - others I just quilted, over the past 8 months... aren't they fabulous???  They will go to the Wrap-A-Smile program , that sends Rotary-sponsored doctors to third world countries to perform facial disfigurement surgery.... and we send quilts to wrap children in afterwards...  a big old lovey hug.

 

Well, that made me feel a WHOLE LOT better...

 

And then the mail came:

 

My quilt "Elizabeth's Legacy" got juried into the Denver National Show... yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have to get it all packed up - at least it already has a sleeve and a label. 

 

And, as for the scraps - well, they just are what they are....  an invitation to sew - not a mandate,  not a burden, not something to be guilty about.........

 

OK, I am finding my way back to some even keel - I think I will go sew!

 

Take care,

 

Kate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

quilt - tax - quilt - tax - quilt - tax

Oh me

Oh My

Oh Me Oh My Oh Me

UFO quilts

UFO taxes

and I need a nap.

Be back later........................

Kate