Monday morning....

Soooo it's Monday and that means I can link to Judy's Design Wall.  And since I have a bit more done on my friends embroidery I think I'm going to link this.

Crosshatching is 1½" apart.

It is definitely the perfect quilting look for this piece (thanks Crispy & Kitty).  

Yesterday I finished the crosshatching on this and 'erased' all the blue marks and let it dry overnight.  This morning I just checked on it and found a few more little spots that I missed so they are taken care of now.  

Today the binding gets sewn on by machine and I'll finish by hand.  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

And so it's Monday....

Here's the second set of embroideries that I've gotten finished this week.
It certainly is much more intense than the first one I made.
Those little squares finish at 1" and the whole piece measures 27" x 33".

I have enough fabric left that I can cut some big squares and piece the backing for both of these.  Now I'm pondering how to quilt them.
I could do a simple meander on both of them .... ????  Or maybe just on the first one and then do a crosshatch on this second piece.  So I'll keep them both on my design wall and sit and stare at them for hours until I have a firm decision made.  heehee.
So for now here are a few closeups of the blocks.  Keep in mind that these were made by a very small girl.

And since it's Monday that means that I'm going over to Judy's Patchwork Times and link up to her Design Wall Monday.  

See you there. And I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

A Friends quilt...

A local gal called me one day and asked if I would be interested in making her a quilt to hang above her stairway.  We visited a bit about what she wanted and I told her I would love too.  Soooo after a visit to her home, and several questions later we had a design chosen.   I had pinned several quilts to my 'inspiration board' in Pinterest and after showing her several designs she narrowed it down to one.  I'm going to love putting this together.  (more on this design later)

And then she showed me some dish towels she had embroidered when she was a child.  Her grandmother taught her to embroidery and as she talked and told me about their time together she started pulling out each towel.
Let me just state here that she "loved" these towels almost to death.  One in particular!!  haha  
Over the years some of the towels have disappeared and these are all that she has left so she asked if I would make a wall hanging out of them so she could keep them forever.

So this is the first piece I've put together.   There will be a second piece with different embroidery pieces that she made.  Both will be hung in her laundry room  so she can enjoy them.  

The fabrics I chose to use was 30's prints that I bought from Quilters Delight in Holdrege.  

All towels had to be backed with fusible interfacing.
They were all so thin from so much use over the years.

A few had to be pieced because there were a lot
of wear holes in the cloth.  

The kitten face was a pot holder.  I attached it to a
piece of leftover towel from one of the other pieces.

Size:  34" x 20"

This has now been sewn together and I'm starting on the second set of embroidery pieces.   I'll show them later.  This second piece will be take a bit more time to sew together but the fabrics will be the same.  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Blackwork Basket

Today I put in my last stitch on the last block of the Blackwork Baskets.   I started these around mid January, 2008.  That year I completed several of them and then for some reason I don't remember.... I put them away and didn't get them out again until Bonnie challenged us to take just one hour a day and sit with needle and thread.  That did it for me.  Now let me show you all of the baskets together. 

I've been playing around with EQ and have come up with a couple of colorways that I'm pondering.  The background fabric that I've used for the baskets is a white on cream.  For all these many years I've always thought I'd set the blocks in black.  But while I was playing with the layout it suddenly dawned on me to try the opposite of black.  So I'm thinking creams and off whites might be the way to go. 

What do you think? 
Now you have to pretend the block backgrounds are cream instead of grey.  And I couldn't get them to rotate the way they should be but I think you can get the idea. 

Thanks for stopping by....Linda

Design Wall Monday...& One hour of Needle & Thread

I haven't done much work on this 'Walk About The Daisies' this last week so it's still up on my design wall.  All the rows are finished .... they just need to be sewn together.
My wall isn't big enough to hold all of the rows so I have the last three rows just laying on the shelf above my table.
Can you see them hanging down on the right?
 I'll try to get these sewn together this week so I can figure out the borders.  I think I know what I want to do.  Now it's just getting it done.
I have Christmas projects to get started!!  hahaha

I thought I'd show my progress on my Blackwork Basket so far.
This is my last block to embroidery before I can start setting them all into a top.
I didn't put in as many hours with needle and thread this week as I have the last couple of weeks... but it is coming along nicely.

I'll have it finished this week.  I've also played a bit in EQ7 and I'm pretty sure I have settled on the layout and color that I want.  I'll keep pondering for a bit though just to be sure. 

So since it's Monday I'm going to grab my cuppa and head over to link up on Judy's Design Wall.  And while I'm at it I'll link to Bonnie's  One Hour Of Needle & Thread. 
Let's go see what a few quilters ham been up to.      
Thanks for stopping by....Linda

Redwork Bear

I started out with quite an elaborate plan to border this little Redwork bear.  I went to EQ7 and played until I liked what I had designed .....that was fun.
I then printed the paper-piecing papers and as soon as they started coming out of the printer.... UH OH!!
I quickly realized that didn't look like much fun.   They were very small and looked very tedious to do.
Now don't get me wrong.... I don't mind tedious (sometimes) but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to spend as much time on this as it would need to have.

So I went the other way.  

Simple!   Fast

  #1 on my 'Christmas Hope' List.  done

9" x 11"

  
Thanks for stopping by....Linda

One more block finished thanks to Bonnie's challenge to sew One hour a day.  I didn't work on it at all this weekend but just last night was able to put in the last few stitches to get this one done.

Here's the next block I'll be working on now.  This is the last block to embroidery and then I can start setting them together.  Now I'm going to have to get serious about the color I will use for the rest of it. 
Of course black would be the most obvious color but a solid is not what I'm after.  I'll be looking for something with a bit of texture and marbling.  Perhaps a lightly patterned gold on black might be pretty. 
But that's what I'm using for my Carol Doak BOM so that idea is out. 
Looks like a shopping trip is in order.  lol 
Thanks for stopping by....Linda

 Last week Bonnie Hunter tossed out a challenge to use just a needle and thread (no machine) and sew for an hour a day.   She thought we could post about where we sew and keep track of our time and show how much we get accomplished each week. 
Well that's exactly what I needed.  So this week I got back to my chair and pulled out my Black-work Baskets. 
I started these baskets way back in 2008 and worked on them off and on for a couple of years.  Then for some reason I just set them aside.  With this challenge I figured these would be a great project to work on. 
 This is my recliner with my snuggle quilt and my favorite little pillow and the floor lamp that I couldn't do without.  I have a large basket that sits on the floor right behind the light and I keep some of my yarns and needles in there.   I sure don't have any shortage of things to keep my hands busy.  I love to crochet' and I've made several scarves and dishclothes.  Nothing fancy by any means.

Here I am all set up to embroidery.  Must have my ice water and Chap Stick! 
And my little mug rug.  I just love that little thing.  I'm thinking I may have to make a few more.  

See that green thing?  This is what it looks like inside.   I really don't like threading the needles one at a time..... so I do several to be ready.  It's just a simple piece of fabric and batting.  The batting grabs the thread and keeps them from unraveling all over the place. 

I know Bonnie and others are using a calendar to keep track of their time ..... but I really don't want to have something that big so I did find this little tablet from one of my favorite quilt shops and decided this would be perfect. 

So this is where I started this week and after 6½ hours this is how far along I got. 

I'm going to try to put in a little more time this week.  I know I can get this block finished and get another one started. 

Now I'm heading over to Bonnie's Quiltville (One Hour of Needle & Thread) to link up.  Grab your cup and follow me.  Let's go see what others have done this week. 
 Have a great week and.....

Thanks for stopping by....Linda

Last week as I was blog hopping I saw Kathy post (here) about linking to her blog with any hand stitching that we may be doing.  So that jolted me into remembering that I had just a few more blocks to finish on my Bushel of Baskets embroidery.    I had to dig around a bit before I found the block I had stopped working on.
And this will be just the thing to keep my hands busy while I'm watching all the athletes trying so hard to make Americas Team to head to the Olympics.   Amazing dedication!!   I love the Olympics!!!

This is the 11th block that I've made so far and if you'd like to see the others I have a page up there titled Embroidery.  The info there (as to how many I will make) may or may not be accurate since I have been known to change my mind occasionally.  
Now I'm going over to link up at Kathy's Quilts - Hand Stitching.   Come on over to see what others are working on.    
Thanks for stopping by....Linda