Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Give Me Liberty

July has been a hot, busy month
and it was nice to work 
on a small quilt to
commemorate the  signing of 
Declaration of Independence 
of the United States, July 4, 1776.


"Give Me Liberty"
30" x 36"

This July mini started out as
vintage x-stitch piece picked up by a 
friend at a
"jaunting for junk" sale in Nebraska
a couple of years ago.


I'm thinking it was a piece completed 
during the bicentennial, July, 1976.


I'm sure many of us did something similar.
My friend, Liz, thought I would like to
create something with it because of my
family patriots who served during the Revolutionary War.

She was right.
It took a few months to come up with a plan
and then to do the math to make the pieces fit.
But it didn't take long for my head to hurt because
the numbers were not good quilt making numbers.

I decided to go ahead and make hst's and see
what happened.  The surprise was that by some
miracle it worked out.  It sure didn't on paper.


The next pieced border needed 
a couple of coping strips to make 
it fit. 
In this case, the measurements looked good on paper,
but when it came to adding the 
3" sawtooth star borders they was too short.
Adding some narrow background pieces on both ends
solved the problem. 
Who wouldn't  know that I didn't plan 
it that way.
So much for paper and pencil!


I had to look far and wide for
an outer border that wasn't too plain
or too busy.
 I finally found 
an older French General print that 
was the perfect one.
I pulled all the colors that were
in the original stitchery 
and use them to create the quilt.


Along with another French General piece and a very old
 Barbarar Brackman civil war fabric, 
complete with cannons and flags,



I put together a backing.


Most of the quilting was simple
but the outer borders called for something more elegant,
like feathers.
I really enjoy quilting
 organic freestyle feathers.


It gave the quilt the finishing touch.

It's a sweet quilt to be included in 
my July collection of
red, white and blue and is
a special way to remember
that so many have given their best just for me.

Be sure to check out the links of other fabulous
monthly minis
on Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter.


Until Next Time-
Kyle


Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Hand Stitching through the Heat

The hot summer weather that
we've been experiencing 
has left me feeling drained
and lethargic. 


Maybe it's a combination
  of the heat, 
the continuing quarantine,
isolation,
and boredom.
I suppose the list could go on, 
but I've tried not to dwell on 
too much of the negative.
But still,
it does eventually catch up with you.

Running Man and I spent a couple
of days camping 

 with our daughter's family.

The 3 grand kids kept us very entertained,

but then that wisp of normalcy was gone.

I have used the past week
to focus on enjoying hand stitching
a variety of projects.

Stacey West at Buttermilk Basin had a 
free sew along a while ago called 'Stars and Stripes'.


I decided to order the kit that included the wool
pattern and fabrics because
I wanted to support her business and thank her 
for sharing so much of her 
talent online for free. 

I found 
whip stitching around wool,
even with the heat,
was totally relaxing and 
mind soothing.
 
 
I usually have to change a few things
that comes with the kit,
but that's a quilter's choice.

I did use my machine to add the flange binding 
Love the quickness of that!
Thanks again, Stacey, for
your talent and willingness to share 
with so many.

****
I've also taken the time to
make another block for Stars Upon Stars.


"Ogeechee"
made by Aline Loulin
Houston, 2018

Once the block is sewn together it's 
all fingers crossed
to see if all those
 tiny diamonds will lay flat
or if the center point looks decent.



Will you have a volcano in the middle?


or a deep whirlpool?


All of the blocks for this quilt 
have been sewn by hand
and have been pressed carefully.

Whew!
Looking pretty good!

Block #12


There's more hand stitching on the
agenda for this week.  
The weather is still 
unseasonably hot for this area.

Hopefully, I'll catch a
cool breeze 

and keep stitching along.

Until Next Time-
Kyle

Friday, July 3, 2020

June's Mini Quilt

What a busy month.
It seems to have 
 flown by.

Like many of you
I have attempted and continue
to complete several unfinished projects.

My June mini is an applique and 
pieced pattern started in November,2019
as a QAL with Sharon Keightley.



The Secret Garden
July, 2020
22"  x  34"

I was using the pattern from
Sharon's book 
Autumn Bouquet.

It was a wonderful pattern to
use up little bits of leftover fabrics.


All those sweet scraps
were sewn into wonderful
shoofly blocks.



It also was a good project to 
machine applique the leaves 


as well as, layers of circles 
that created flowers.


The stems and flowers
flowed gently out of the 4 corner vases
for the outer border.



My purple salvia 

is a good backdrop 
for this scrappy garden design.

As well as, the purple penstemon flowers
and sulfur yellow buckwheat


I actually had to run out and quickly take
these photos as it looked like
it was going to start hailing any second.
If that happened, the flowers would 
be completely trampled and been
reduced to 
a colorful flower mush.

It happens here a lot, but
fortunately, this time 
it turned out just to be
rain, which we always need.

The month of June may have faded away,
but this little secret garden quilt 
will be a reminder of one of 
summer's happy month.

Need some wonderful inspiration?
Check out the Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter,
for links to the other
Monthly Mini Makers.
You'll be glad you did!
Until Next Time-
Kyle