Just Because

...it is Saturday
...almost Easter
...I feel like it

I am having a giveaway. I know. It's been a long time. This is what happens when one starts cleaning and organizing.

I have this cute little primitive pattern to giveaway. It is a combination stitchery and some piecing. The whole finished thing measures 26"x34" -- just right to fit into that spot on your kitchen wall. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by evening on April 1. This is a fairly relaxed drawing so no pressure and no hoops to jump through.

Update: the drawing is closed. As soon as I hear from the winners (yes, more than one!) I'll post who won what.

Embroidery and Quilting Opinions Needed

I've been working on some stitchery blocks, 9 to be exact. The smallest is about 6x6" and the largest is a whopping 10x10". This is one of my committed UFOs, you can find the challenge over there on my sidebar. Over the weekend I started sewing them into a flimsy. This is not really a question about embroidery or stitchery, but a question about putting embroidery in quilts and then quilting it.

Have you done this? How did you quilt it? Did you quilt up to the embroidery and then leave the embroidery alone? Did you disregard the embroidery and quilt right over it?

I am tempted to disregard the embroidery because of the disparate sizes of the blocks. I have done this before but because the blocks were a uniform size and was being hand quilting, I just quilted a big X in the block; it really is not that noticeable as you can see in the photo above. This new piece, however, is begging for a leafy vine.

Your opinion matters to me, please leave me comment! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn Harvest

A Christmas Wish

I know I haven't said anything about working on this Gail Pan design but here it is in flimsy form. Originally, it had nine blocks, but I wanted a table topper for the antique chest that is used as a coffee table in my home. To do that, I needed one more block. It wasn't hard to design one more, can you find the additional block*? The hard part was deciding on a word that fit right in with the rest of the blocks. Without any additional borders, this is a perfect size for that chest.

Now to sandwich it and get it quilted -- maybe in time for Christmas? *grin* But if I don't, then that's okay too. It will fit perfectly under the glass that is on top of the chest.

* it is in the lower right hand corner: cheer

Noah's Ark

 

I stitched up Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark BOM. This one is for me; you need to give yourself a present every now and then. Tanya added a fabulous border so I 'borrowed' her idea. I set my sewing machine on a serpentine stitch that resembled waves then added the walking foot and presto! it's quilted. The backing is an old Jeffery Gutcheon white on tan fabric with stylized waves. One couldn't find a more perfect backing. It is bound and signed and up on my wall. Too cute!

Autumn's Harvest Pumpkin

Will you look at this? A finish; a quilt finish at that! This is about 24"x 36" and makes a perfect little table topper. It is a pattern from Crab-apple Hill Studio. Can you believe that it is totally hand quilted. Astounding!

It's been a busy week-end at La Casa del Quilter. I got this little quilt done and I finished up the Four Season's Quilt Swap round 5 quilt. No sneak peak. I'm going to mail it out after Valentines Day so you will just have to wait to see it. I also got the third QOV top almost together. Well, it is a D9P so all I have to do is sew the blocks back together. Tucked in here and there have been a few knitted stitches on the socks on the needles. They are nothing spectaclar, just some tube socks. Can't wait to finish these. I did a seed stitch rib just to keep from getting as bored as I did doing the last pair of tube socks.

I realize that I need to stop creating tops and do some quilting on them. I have 9 items that need to be quilted. Nine! That's ok, I need the practice.