Dolce far niente

Yes, how sweet to do nothing.

Nothing but quilt!

But first a little reading. Look at the wonderful book I just added to my collection. I love every inch of it. This book is definitely going on my list of favourites. Visit Michele Hill's blog and be inspired. And, to add to the excitement, Barbara Brackman has a line of fabric out now called, The Morris Workshop.

All twenty Tiny Baskets are appliqued and this sweet little yellow one is my favourite. Now, what to do with them? Any suggestions?

I'm very excited about Lucy Boston POTC and have my templates cut and ready to go. One to trace the shape onto the fabric and the other to add the seam allowance. One day, I would like to try Inklingo, but my printer seems to have an issue with coloured ink.

My first POTC, as I'm pretty sure there will be more, will consist of sixteen hand pieced blocks. I have selected 48 fabrics from my stash, just for the blocks. Each block with be different, no duplication of fabric. Some blocks use only two fabrics, others use three or four. Some fabric I selected for fussy cutting and others just because I like them! My colour theme is based on my favourite time of the year, Autumn.

As I was going through my stash I found five pieces of William Morris fabric and two others that could be, but did not have anything written on the selvage. Very exciting! I have set them aside.

Vanilla Fluff Daylily

Stargazer Oriental Lily

The display of lilies in my garden right now, is breathtaking. Vanilla Fluff and Stargazer are just two of many lilies that would knock your socks off with their heavenly scent.

Speaking of flowers, I have been working on Karen's Flower Garden. Now complete is 24 of 92 flowers and they are almost as pretty as the lilies in my garden.

And, last up my July A Tisket A Tasket Basket or you could call it my Canada Day Basket, which is celebrated July 1st. My little lamb is made from flannel, but looks like wool. I love how flannel appliques. My flag size has been doubled to fit the stitching of the word Canada and I also appliqued tiny circles in the center of the flowers, instead of buttons.

Until next week.....happy quilting!



Karen

Times Remembered 5

Hummingbird House

Times Remembered

I almost forgot to show you the last block of my Times Remembered quilt and the finished top. This is the largest quilt I have made and my first all appliqued quilt. The cat, heart in hand, eggs and hummingbirds were all done in wool. Everything else was needle-turned. If you recognize this Pat Sloan pattern, you will have noticed, that I changed the border from flowers and the words Times Remembered to lots of bees and butterflies. Hope I didn't ruin it by doing so.

It has been a year since I completed Times Remembered and I still don't know how to go about quilting it. This seems to be my trouble spot. Deciding how to quilt a quilt and if I should do it by hand or machine. I would love to do them all by hand. At present, seven quilts are waiting to be quilted and it sure would be nice to see some completed.

So, what I have decided is to machine quilt at least half of them. In order to do that, I need to adjust my quilting schedule and add some machine quilting time each week. Veranda Views BOM ends next month, so that will give me a little extra time, but it will also give me one more quilt that needs quilting! Oh dear, life as a quilter is not easy, is it?

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

Doing the Happy Dance

Dear Jane has me doing the happy dance. Last week I pieced together G-6. In the center of this block is a tiny 1-inch star, made from seventeen very tiny pieces. Each piece cut out individually and hand stitched together. I just love my tiny star!

Speaking of tiny, I would like you to meet Bella. Bella lives next door and we have become the best of friends. If she was mine, I don't think I could leave her outside, unattended, for such long periods of time. I'm glad she found the safety of my garden, as it seems to be the place other cats like to come to rest and play. The other day, Bella helped me weed and deadhead, but I think we spent most of our time chasing each other around the garden. Bella also enjoyed a ride on the end of a shovel and traveling around in the weed bucket was also lots of fun. After a long day in the garden, Bella and I rested on the patio. I with my stitchery and Bella with a saucer of milk. Such a perfect day, with my new best friend.

Flying Lessons

First Blooms

The past two weeks have been spent on stitchery BOM's and I am pleased to say, they are all caught up now. August will bring the last Veranda Views block. I will miss stitching this one, but look forward to piecing the blocks into a pretty little quilt.

Cathi made me do it!

After seeing all her lovely blocks, how could I not. So, I ordered Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses. Another wonderful book by Linda Franz.

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen

Reads and Seeds

Last year I started reading Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilt novels. I'm almost finished The Runaway Quilt. The fourth book in the series. I must say, this is my favourite, so far.

Gaillardia Oranges & Lemons

Gaillardia Arizona Sun

Lots of rain over the past couple of weeks and the garden is growing like a weed. Last year I searched for a perennial that would take the place of annuals and bloom all season. After thumbing through seed catalogs, I came up with the perfect plants. Arizona Sun and Oranges & Lemons Gaillardia. They bloom all summer and you can see them a mile away. I sowed the seed directly in the ground last year and just as summer officially arrived this year, the Gaillardia are in full bloom.

Country Calendar June

Country Calendar July

Can you believe it is July already? Only five blocks to go and then I can piece together my Country Calendar quilt. Have you ever visited Ellie's Quiltplace? Designer of the Country Calendar BOM. Ellen designs and sells her own patterns. I enjoy reading Ellen's blog and seeing all her wonderful hand quilted project. Very inspiring.

Freebie stitchery anyone....

Hats of Plenty

Two more Tiny Baskets completed. Ten to go!

Years before I started to quilt, I was purchasing Miniature Quilts magazines. My plan, back then, was to only make miniature quilts. But, when the time came to start quilting, I didn't think it was such a good idea to start with something so small. My first encounter with anything mini, was last year when I started hand piecing Dear Jane blocks. It is said that anything less then 36 inches is considered a miniature. So, I guess I have made a few miniatures already. But when I think of miniatures, I'm thinking much smaller then 36 inches.

So, time to start reading my miniature quilt books and give it a go. I would like to make the mini's by hand. My concern is quilting them. I don't think I could comfortably quilt without a hoop. My 14 inch quilting hoop (which I love) from Quilters Woodwork, may be too large for miniatures. They do sell a 10 inch hoop. Or, I could baste false sides to the miniature quilt and still use my 14 inch hoop. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Until next week.....happy quilting!

Karen