Progress or not!

Bob hung my modern quilt (aka Beach Glass!) in our master bath yesterday.  It sure makes the room look different. I had two other quilts hanging in its place for the past 10 or so years!   Nice to change colors from burgundy/green to blue/greens.

So that's one project finished! 

 Although, let's face it...we're never finished with our projects are we!!  But then what else would I be doing if not projects!

Guess I could sit on the couch and eat bon bons!  Actually, some days that sounds like a good idea!

Hanging Time Next!

I've finished my modern quilt, added a sleeve and  just need to get a rod so I can hang.  I'm thinking of putting this piece in our master bath above the jacuzzi.  Right now I have two quilts hanging there and they need to be replaced!

I'm happy with how this piece turned out.  I'll photograph it again once it's hung up.  Fun to do a free form type quilt.  No real plan in mind for it other than I wanted a white background.

The only mistake, I consider, was I didn't have much scrap fabric left so my binding was cut to around 3/4 inch.  Instead of doing a single binding, I elected to sew a double fold which ended up having the binding around 1/4" or less all  around!  Boy, that was tough to sew the corners!!  But it's OK...it's not for show...only for us!!

Bob and I headed to the show AGAIN on Tuesday!  I can't believe it!  Two shows in two weeks!!!  We saw Magnificent Seven and it was great!  The movie was over 2 hours but honestly the time went by so fast!!!    We then headed off to The Laundry for a wonderful lunch!  Plus, we had the best waitress I think ever!  Her name was Sarah and she was fantastic!  So helpful to us as well as to other patrons.  She helped 3, 80+ old ladies select the right lunch for them...such a patient young lady and a great representative for the restaurant!

Think I'll be going to a third movie this year with Bob???  Guess we'll see!  Actually, I want to see the horror movie, Don't Breath!  I know I won't talk Bob into that one!  OK, I know I won't talk him into that one!

Am I doing anything?

I am actually working on multiple projects but it seems I've been on the go or just working around the house more and more rather than sewing.  OK, truth be known at night instead of my favorite hand work I have been binging on Netflix, watching Foyle's War!  I am so hooked!  It takes place in the 1940's during the war and is SO interesting.  Each episode is a mystery story or two!  There are 8 episodes and I've watched 5 so far...just started episode 6 while the baseball game is on.  I can always watch replays!  HA
I did finish hand stitching all the hex areas in my Beach Glass/modern quilt piece!

Next I started to hand stitch in the other strips but now I decided I'm not doing that.  Instead, I think I will free motion quilt or straight stitch instead....well see!  I am planning on 'unsewing' today and start some machine stitching.

I'm also working on a challenge piece I am part of in Florida with three other ladies.  I can't really show all of it but here's a peak!  Yep, it's all hand stitching!

I have alot of hand work to do on this piece but I am enjoying working on it.  It's isn't due until January time frame but because of my hands/wrists I need to work on it while the hands are still working.  I can have one more injection in December, if needed, but I would prefer to have this piece finished before December, so I can just relax and not feel pressured to finish or start new projects this winter.  I have too many places to go, people to see and things to do with my Florida buds!

One big event this week was Bob took me to see the movie, Sully!!!  First off the movie was great!  I actually forgot they were acting and I wasn't just watching a documentary/story being told by someone.  Tom Hanks did a great job...I forgot it was Tom and not Sully!!!
This movie going was a big event for us because since Bob and I have been together (over 25 years) we have only seen 5 other movies together.  He isn't a fan of going to the show...too loud, too bored, too...whatever.  He did enjoy this movie and wants to go see The Magnificent Seven next!  Woohoo!  We might set a record attending shows this year!  HA

Hand stitching

It's still hot, hot, hot here in Michigan...more like Florida weather.  I'm a fall gal...and sure I've said this before on my blog and to my friends.  I just don't like the hot weather.  I enjoy sitting out on the deck and doing beading or hand stitching, while listening to the birds!  But I'm not even having my lunch outside, which is what I would normally do.
We are fortunate to have central air so I can get away from the heat.   And I'm getting time to stay inside and sew!  Yes, I'm working on multiple projects, as usual!

At night, I've been working on the hex hand stitching on the modern quilt - which I'm naming 'Beach Glass'.  The name was given to me by Gigi's former foster!  Guess the colors do look like Beach Glass,  doesn't it?!?

I'm changing the sizes of the hex's for the hand stitching throughout the blocks.

I'm happy with the hand stitching, although it is a bit time consuming.  But since this piece is for us, I don't have a target date to worry about.  It's always nice to have something to work on at night.  I still have a few more open spaces to fill in with smaller hex's then onto the other two blocks!



Today, my bud Carol and I are headed to Rochester for an Art Fair.  Carol said they should have 80 vendors so we'll see how that works out...the area where the fair takes place is always so heavy with traffic and people, I can't imagine how it will be for an art fair!  But weather is suppose to only be in the mid 80's!  We've had 90 degree weather several days......not good for this 'fall' gal!!  It will still be a nice outing and of course that always involves lunch and a glass of wine!  Can't beat that!

Progress

I think this picture should be turned...but I won't know what direction until I get binding on and ready for sleeve!

I'm actually think of inserting some stab hand stitching in between the hex pieces/stitching.  


The hand stitching would be quite small and not large stab stitching....only because the stripe blocks are heavily quilting.

So, I'll get back to beading the squirrel and put this aside for a few days...then decide!

Speaking of beading!  Went to the Ortho doctor last week and got shots in both wrists!  WOW!  What a difference!!  Swelling and pain are down and, actually, pain is almost gone...of course if I bend, lift or twist my hand/thumbs the pain is severe.  Dr. recommended surgery but we'll hold off on that for awhile!!!  He also suggested to wear braces on both hands/wrists.  I'm going to pick another one up for my right hand at Walgreen's at Senior Tuesday!  HA

Things are lookin up!!!  Woo hoo!
I

Working away....

I did some more stitching on the 'modern quilt'....I'm happy with how the filling in the hex block is coming along.  It's a little hard twisting the quilt around the machine with my wrists but sewing a little at a time is getting the job done.  I think this block is pretty much complete...well,for the time being!  HA

And I've started back on my Blue Squirrel!!  Feels good to be beading again!!  Actually, just being productive again in my art work feels good!

Last weekend Bob suggested I look for some elastic to put on his pants so his shirt(s) don't pull out!  I couldn't find anything at Joann's so I looked online.  And, of course, I found a site that sold exactly what he was looking for!  I ordered the waistband gripper,  I believe on Sunday, and received our order on Wednesday!  I am very impressed with the Sewing Place!

Since I was just ordering a small amount of elastic, I thought I'd look at the rest of their web site and look what I found!

I've been trying to find a firm/foam brayer to use in my art work.  The foam rollers I have are really way too soft but I've been able to 'get by' these few years.  I looked at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. and never could find the one I wanted!  Until this weekend on TheSewingPlace!  I am so happy with it!!!  I'm thinking of ordering another one just to have on hand!!  If you want a foam but firm brayer for printing/stencils/etc.  check it out on their web site here.  Plus, they certainly get the order(s) out quickly!!!  My gosh!

Graphic pic in this paragraph!  Well, not that graphic!!!

Wednesday was a busy day with getting Gigi to the vet's @ 8 for her dental cleaning.  Running back home then to run errands and picking up Gigi @3.  She did great...whew!  Always scary when the little ones are 'put out'!   See...clean teeth now!  Our vet takes pics before and after...I only took a pic after!  She wasn't that bad so she came though this procedure really well!

So that's my week, so far!!!  Besides the 90+ degree weather, its quite a nice summer, so far!

Ring! Riing!

Not, "ring, ring...hello"....but real rings...I've had to make some new beaded rings as the ones I made several years ago are starting to look a little faded.   The metallic bead coating does wear off after awhile.  And I do wear my beaded rings every time I go out.  Just a me thing!  So I made a few more this past week.

The one of the left (grey/white trim) is in the works.  I just started it last night.  The other two are finished.  These should hold me for awhile!

And I'm working on quilting the hex blocks on my 'modern quilt'.  I'm satisfied with how it's turning out.  So far...so good!!

Just an update on my 'wrists/hands'....went to my PCP on Friday....she's made an appointment with an orthopedic specialist for possible injections in the wrists.  I've started back on a stronger dose of Prednisone as well.  So let's see how this all works out!
Today is a painful day (again!) but I have noticed that if I take 2 Excedrin for Migraine that  the pain does  taper off !!  I read about the dosage and you can only take 2 pills in a 24 hour period.  HMMMMMMM  I took  just 1 this a.m. since I took 2 yesterday afternoon for the start of a migraine.....Just have to find the right combo for dealing with these issues as we get older, right!

Quilting Designs

I finished quilting each of the non hex blocks and I'm happy with that part of this quilt.  Kinda hard to see the quilting, but if you really care, just click on it to enlarge.

Now comes the issue of quilting around the hex's.  I had a thought one night in bed but I'm thinking that particular thought may not work out afterall!  This was the thought....I traced out the hex's on tracing paper and started to 'draw' in my quilting lines.   This would work but it's going to be difficult to get an even pattern going around each of the 3 hex's....I just started to fill in with a pencil and I know I'll get lost for sure as I quilt it on the machine!

So today I started to play around with two more quilting ideas!  This is another one.....too much me thinks!

And the last one.......again, too  much...

I still can't decide, so I'm going to hold off working on this piece until after our fiber meeting this coming Monday!  I know the ladies will provide some good input on how to quilt around the hex's.....or if you have an idea, PLEASE leave me a comment!  All suggestions will be welcome!!

And let the quilting begin!

I stitched around the edge of the hexagon strips with invisible thread to secure them to the background then sandwiched my 'modern' piece  on Wednesday.   I used invisible thread and had some issues with the thread bunching up..come to find out it was my fault and not the machine...go figure!  I was using the edge foot and from time to time I would get the foot caught on the edge of the hex's!  After I figured out what was wrong it was quick to sew the hex's down!

So now I'm machine quilting the piece!  Woohoo!  Feels good to be back sewing or should I say making something.   The background was pressed and looked quite nice when sandwiched....but pushing and scrunching this piece under the machine sure makes the quilt look wrinkled!  I've stitched inside all the seams and now starting on the inside of the strips.

The only funky part of the quilting will be the quilting around the hex's.  I've traced out one of the squares on tracing paper and started to play around with possible quilting designs.  

My first thought was to echo around each hex piece but I don't think that will work.  On the tracing paper I drew 3 lines around the hex strips and that might work.  

There's a lot of quilting to keep me busy so I'll have time to think through  the quilting design for the hex blocks! 

Thursday is  Kris, our DIL's BD!  I didn't get to the kids earlier this week so I'll be headed down to spend time with Nick and Amber then we'll all go out to dinner to celebrate Kris' BD.  Should be a nice time sitting with everyone!!  Bob will stay home with the 'girls'!! 

Modern Quilt - Part 2!

Saturday and Sunday were cleaning and laundry catch up days but I also accomplished some progress on my modern quilt.   Mainly because Bob was watching the Tigers (lose their game!) so I could hand stitch my hexes.  Interesting that stitching the hexes didn't bother my wrists...embroidery work does but I'm using a hoop, hence, I'm stretching my wrists/fingers...ugh...anyway, I did get all the hexes sewn together.

 Also, just so I'll remember....After I had my hex stripes sewn together, and before I removed the paper backing, I used spray starch and ironed them.  Then I carefully removed the papers and applied more spray starch and ironed again.  This just makes the hexes easier to work with and place on the background.  They aren't as 'flimsy' if you use spray starch.

Next up was playing around with the layout!  This is what I thought I wanted...or close to it!

But while drying dishes Sunday night,  I got another idea and decided I wanted to group or sew the hexes together in blocks.





Only problem, I had already removed the papers from the back of each hex.  I was afraid I wouldn't get a accurate matching of the hex strips when trying to  sew them together to make the blocks.

So this is what I finally came up with for the layout.  The small hexes are 5/8" and the ones in the center right block are 1" hex pieces.

I also sewed together all the scrap pieces I had to make a small insert as well as using them for the binding.

The binding will be a single binding  vs double fold as I only had enough fabric to cut 1 1/2" strips.  Works for me.

Bob is golfing Monday so I hope to get started on sewing the hexes to the background.  I was going to hand applique but think I'll just machine stitch...I'm planning on hanging this in our master bath on the wall behind the whirlpool tub.

We'll see how much I get done this next week as I'll be gone 2 or 3 days.  I still have to finish hand embroidery on another solar fast piece....and my blue squirrel is waiting in the wings too!!   But I guess they aren't going anywhere are they!  Or is that the problem!

A modern quilt? Maybe!

So, as I was trying to get to sleep the other night, I got thinking about some of the modern quilts I've seen.  I haven't made a 'quilt' size quilt in quite sometime.  So that, along with pictures of modern quilts in my head (to put me to sleep!) I decided to start making one on Thursday!

This was my start!  I knew I wanted to use white cotton sateen for the background and wanted something bright AND I wanted to use hex's in the quilt!   So, I started to slice and dice, as they say!

I purchased these fabrics while in  Florida to make the wine cozies for my sister and friends.  Just happen to have enough to cut into wedges for my blocks.

Yes, the girls had to help!  Actually, we had to have our air conditioner replaced today so the girls were watching out the window at the servicemen.  Kept them occupied!

These are the blocks I made, which measure 12" x 16"...next up I looked in my stash of hex's already made up...I did find some to go with my color theme but I needed more so I made a few more from the scrap fabric I had left from the wedges.







And this is what I've come up with so far!  Looks like a lot of hex's but not really...at least I don't think so at the moment.

So far I have the two rows sewn to white blocks, which will have hex's on them, as well as the borders.   I already know how I'm going to quilt the piece...I'll outline the hex's and continue with the hex 'outline' throughout the piece...quilting in white thread, of course...or perhaps teal.  I must still have our grand daughter's wedding party color in my head!  HA



OK, I really don't know the layout for the hex's yet.  That will have to take place tonight or tomorrow night when I'm trying to fall asleep!  I accomplish a lot at night...in my head!