Floral Finesse - another page finished

Whew!  I thought I'd never finish this page!  Of course, I was distracted by the quilts I've been working on.

I've never been so eager to make quilts as I have since last July.  The only down side to that is my cross stitching has suffered from neglect.  The up side is I've finished 4 quilt tops (just the tops, so far) since last Summer.

Yesterday, I sat down and concentrated on finishing my current page on Floral Finesse.  I had all the cross stitching done, I just needed to finish the backstitching.  I tend to backstitch as I go, so thankfully, there wasn't much to do.

Here it is:

I finished this in the early afternoon and then switched to...a quilt top.  See!  I don't know why, but I've definitely been bitten by the quilting bug.

I have all of the individual blocks done, all 1,260 of them.  See?

I'm going to just take them out of the basket randomly.  The only thing I will check is that I don't use identical fabrics back to back.  I've heard this quilt referred to as a zipper quilt or a cobblestone quilt.

These are simply dark (black, navy, deep purple) 2" squares sewn onto light-ish 2" x 3½" bricks.  They'll all face the same way, square/brick, as I sew them into rows.  The rows will be 20 blocks wide, or 90" finished.  When I assemble the rows into the quilt, every other row will be flipped.  In other words, row 1 will start with a brick, row 2 will start with a square, row 3 will be a brick, and so on.

Here are the first 5 rows.  Each row is complete but I haven't sewn the rows together yet.  I am going to wait until all the rows are done so that I can keep identical fabrics away from each other.

I did switch back to cross stitching on God Speed (HAED) after I'd gotten this much done but I didn't take a photo.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

2018 FIU Challenge Update

Hello!

I have progress on my list!  It's not much...yet, but it is better than nothing.

• Stitch a design for the candlescreen that I have
• Finish hand-quilting the Bullseye Quilt
• Finish the log cabin star wall hanging
• Start hand-quilting my grand aunt's grandmother's flower garden quilt top
• Clean up the nook area in my sewing room - made a start, barely
• Finish the mystery quilt top I've started - finished 3 February
• Clean and re-frame my hummingbirds cross stitch
• Post all the stuff I have waiting to be listed in my Etsy shop
• Clean up my scrapbooking area
• Make a start on archival scanning of all my family photographs
• Get my printed recipes put into my recipe software (Living Cookbook)

Here's a photo of the finished quilt top:

This was Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake mystery.  It's the first of her mysteries that I've done.  I used her suggested colors because they were out of my comfort zone and it was a way to expand my personal horizons...so to speak.  ;-)

As a mystery quilt, this has been retired.  However, she does have the pattern available for purchase on her website (see link above).

Happy Stitching!

Stacy

Sweatshirt

I know, it's an odd title for a blog post.  However, it is what I made for hubby for Christmas.

Hubby has this old, ratty sweatshirt that he loves.  It's hideous looking though.  It used to be black but had gotten some bleach spots on it, so I washed it with the whites to really bleach it.  That made it turn orange.  Ugh!  It also has holes in several places.  Holes that I couldn't "fix".  I know because I tried.

The problem is the company that made it, hasn't made that style for years.  Hubby had scoured the internet looking for another one with no luck.

Well, hubby got me a very thoughtful gift for Christmas:  a Christmas addict's pack from HAED.  I knew before Christmas because their packaging is very distinctive:  a shiny, red, bubble-pack mailer.  I didn't open it until Christmas Eve so I didn't know precisely what was in it but I knew what it was.  I was so touched, I tried to figure out what I could do for him that would be as thoughtful.  Cue the sweatshirt.

I quilt, which means I sew, but I rarely sew clothing.  On the occasions when I do make clothes, I have a nice, orderly paper pattern that tells me what to do and when to do it.  I have never made anything using an existing piece as my template.  Now the nerves kicked in big time!

I knew I needed sweatshirt fleece and ribbing.  When I got to the cutting counter at Joann's (I forgot the ribbing!), I had no idea how many yards I needed.  I made a guess and crossed my fingers.  Apparently, I'm a good guesser because I had enough with a little to spare.

I won't bore you with the gory details on making the patterns I needed (it wasn't pretty).  I did follow this excellent tutorial.  Due to my paranoia over getting this gift right, it took me a full day to bring myself to make the first cut into the fleece.  It took awhile to make it.  I think it was 3 days.  I'm not sure because I was in such a state!

I finally finished it and in time for Christmas Eve!  When hubby opened it, I asked him if it looked familiar.  He said, "Yes." and promptly checked the collar for the tag!  I knew I had accomplished what I'd attempted when he did that!  He's worn it pretty much every time he's left the house since Christmas.  I doubt I'll ever give him a present as meaningful again...though I will try.

Here's the finished sweatshirt:

Sorry the picture isn't the best quality.  The sweatshirt has a double color and a kangaroo pocket.  If I get a chance to get a better photo, I will post it.

Happy Stitching!

Stacy