Design Wall Wednesday–French Cottage Garden quilts

      

I haven’t posted for since just after Thanksgiving and I really have no excuse.  Well, I did put up the Christmas tree (yes, in my house it is called a CHRISTMAS TREE).

There she is in all her glory.  I moved the location this year for the first time in 16 years and I really don’t like having it here in this spot, but it is the only place we have room for it.  When hospice came in to take care of my husband, they brought a hospital bed in along with a bunch of equipment and I had to move furniture around to accommodate that.  Then I had to move my sewing studio out of my studio and into the dining room because he wanted me to be close to him.  So, as a result, my sewing machine and ironing board now reside in the spot that my Christmas tree stood in last year.  Let’s face it, my whole house is a jumbled up mess right now.  Sigh. 

OKay.  Back to my story.  I put the tree up and that is it for decorating this year.  No evergreen door tops with red and silver bows and little elves.  NO pencil tree in the kitchen.  No decorations on the front porch ( or the back porch for that matter).  No icicle lights.  Nada.  Just the big tree.  This has just been a bad year for holidays.  Better luck next year.

Back to the design wall.  It has been empty for the most part for the last 2 weeks.  I’ve just been too busy with other things to spend a lot of time at my sewing machine.  What other things, you ask?  Oh, there’s the gingerbread that needed eating, and Netflix to watch (another round of Downton Abbey) and then I have 2 seasons of Game of Thrones to watch …… because reading all those big fat books just weren’t enough Westeros for me.  Kay?  Then I hauled off and ordered the Peter Cottontail pillowcase pattern from Crabapple Hill and that has been sitting on my desk calling my name ever since it arrived ….. so I had to sit on my fanny and embroider that!

              

I have no pictures to show to you other than this picture of the pattern, but I have made 2 of these pillowcase cuffs, one in a mainly turquoise colorway and another one in a mainly purple colorway; and I am seriously considering one in red or magenta.  I am addicted to Peter Cottontail at the moment.  Pictures will be forthcoming in their own blog post later.

Okay, so back to my design wall.  You got a glimpse at the top of the blog post. 

  

   

This is where I am on the two quilts (remember I told you there were going to be two of them to top two antique twin beds in one of my guest rooms).  I have SOME of the first quilt finished and I have the embroidered panels for the second companion quilt trimmed and ready for the pinwheels to be sewn on.  Hopefully I will have them done in a couple of weeks.  I will try to give you an update next Wednesday.  Since it is Christmas and I have no idea what is going on this year, I’m making no promises.

                                                                                                                                        

In the meantime, I’ll be up to my elbows in pinwheels.

 

Enjoy, Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday - French Cottage Garden Quilt

I just took 'Be Mine' off the design wall so I could sew it together!  I went ahead and pinned the embroidered panels up onto the wall because I want to work on this before I sew the borders for 'Be Mine'.  I actually have 2 sets of these panels made for the FCGQ.  These quilts are being made for a pair of antique twin beds in my guest room.  And these panels closely resemble the wall paper border in that room.  I will post a picture of that when I get to the point of putting them on the beds.  But I have to finish them first!  For today....

Enjoy, Merry Gay

Eye-Candy Gram- It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

I just love Christmas!   It is my favorite season.  Putting up the tree isn't my favorite thing to do though.  This is a very old tree that I bought back in the mid 1980's and each limb has to be put on separately.  One by one, each one has to be fluffed out and inserted into it's very own slot.  It took me all afternoon yesterday to put it up.  Then today I put on it's ribbons and ornaments.  Whew!  Job done!   On to the garlands over the doors!

Enjoy, Merry Gay

Eye-Candy Gram - HO-HO-HOHO-HO-HO

It's that time of year again!   Since it was looking to be a lazy day of SEC football and a crock pot supper, I decided that today would be the day to put up the tree.  I could watch the games and get that pesky job out of the way.  So far I have it up and the lights on.  I may or may not get the ornaments on tonight depending on whether or not Bonnie Hunter is having 'Quilt Cam'.  Either way the evening will be enjoyable and fruitful!   Hope you are having a nice evening too!

Enjoy, Merry Gay

Eye-Candy Gram - Test BlockBlock

I finished a test block for 'Be Mine'.  I like it!   What do you think!

Enjoy, Merry Gay

Again!

The last exposure was still a little dark.

Still adjusting

I've got the right size ... maybe.  LOL.  Now to fiz the light!

Adjusting the pictures

I adjusted the size so it wouldn't be so BIG!   And the light settings were all wrong.  Sorry for spamming the blog, but if I can get this to work I think there will be more posts to the blog.

Hugs,  Merry Gay

Testing....

I am playing with my phone.  Just seeing how well the Blogger app works.
   

Hearts and Flowers …….

                     
This is ‘Be Mine’ my Valentine quilt.  I hope I have it finished by then!  Who knows?  I have had these blocks finished and languishing in my stash for a couple of years.  I remember ….. I had been working on another quilt and had cut out a bunch of hearts to applique on, and then I went in another direction on that quilt which eliminated the hearts from the plan.  So I was left with a stack of hearts that sat on the corner of my cutting table and kept calling me ….. “Come on, we want to be a part of something too!”.  So one evening when I just wanted to fool around and play with fabric, I did just that.  See these ……
                  
The second one is hard to see, I know.  It was up high on the design wall and I was too lazy to get up on a stool, so I just reached my arm way up with the camera.  Anyway, I had been playing around with different embroidery designs.  I had cut some 10 inch light pink squares and had just messed around with embroidery thread on them because I had run out of tv handwork and needed something to do with my hands while I watched ….. The Tudors I believe it was.  So I had some random heirloomy kind of embroidery squares that I could mix some hearts with.  I cut some more 10 inch squares and here we are ….. ‘Be Mine’ was born!
                     She looks kind of cobbled together right now. My plan is to anchor the squares with a pieced square SIMILAR to the one that I used on Vintage Kids.  We shall see how that works out after I have a few made.  In the mean time-
Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving!  It’s time to count your blessings, give thanks and fill your tummy with all the good eats that this holiday offers. 

          

Many Thanks,

Merry Gay

Design Wall Saturday

                  
I finished stitching the center blocks of Vintage Kids together today and wanted to share with you.  I still have quite a bit of work to do on this quilt, but I am happy that this part is done.  I’ll start next on the borders.  What I have in mind is a wide white border with rick rack vines and appliqued leaves and cute little Dresden plate flowers sporting either button centers OR yo-yos ….. all in various shades of red.  The binding … it will be red, but I haven’t decided on whether or not the border will be straight or scalloped.  Or whether it will be prairie points or double binding (like the magic binding on Pinterest).  Or I’ve even been toying with the idea of adapting the Madeira hem technique from heirloom sewing to the borders on this quilt, which I really do think would be very cool.  Only time will tell.
               
You can see that I put the label on the front of this quilt.  I usually put the label on the back, but I really needed another embroidered block for the front of the quilt and there were only 8 designs in the Vintage Kids series, so I had to do something!  This quilt is for me and I can live with that.  It is coming off the design wall today and another set of blocks that have been languishing in my unfinished pile will be going up there.  It will be a few weeks until I get back to this one.  I want to play with some Valentine blocks and I have to finish the Vintage Tin quilt before Christmas because it is a gift.  So next Wednesday you will be seeing hearts and flowers on the design wall …….. “Be Mine” ….. the Valentine quilt is coming up.  Until then …..
Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday–Vintage Kids

      
  
I’ve been working on Vintage Kids this week at my machine.  I still have 6 of the red and white checkerboard blocks to finish and then I need to finish the borders on the embroidered blocks.  I will also need to work up a signature block to go in that space in the lower right corner.  We’ll see how far I can get this week. 
               

Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday

                  
Finally getting back with a new design wall update.  This is the Bluebird Quilt, adapted from a pattern from Crabapple Hill Designs.  Since I actually took this picture last week and am just now finding the time to blog, I have already sewn these blocks together and am working on the borders.  The borders will be white and will also be embroidered with bluebirds and ribbons around the edges.  It will take some time to complete.
            
I’m sorry it’s taken so long to update the blog.  Things have been so hectic at my house.  My husband has been sick for a very long time and he has recently has some severe medical setbacks which has necessitated the services of hospice.  The days have become such a blur with the arrival of medical equipment and nursing staff and getting our dog, Sophie, adjusted to all the new people coming and going.   At this point, I THINK things have settled down into a more quiet routine and I am able to sit down and sew a bit here and there, so will have some things to show you periodically.  Thank you for staying with me!  I do appreciate it.
                  
Until next week …….
Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday

                

Vintage Tin is almost finished.  Well, the top is almost finished!  I have all of the hand embroidery work finished and pieced together and now I am working on some borders.  See those star blocks on the left?  There will be 6 of those on each side.  Then there will be a border around the entire thing.  Then this top will be ready for sandwiching and quilting! 

          

The next time you see Vintage Tin, it will be finished and ready for it’s photo op.  I will have it off the design wall and under the needle by this weekend and something else will be up there by next Wednesday. 

 

Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday

Here is a picture of my design wall today :

            

I am almost finished with the smaller panels.   I managed to finish 3 of them last week :

                   

There are only 3 left to embroider!  Hopefully I will complete them before next Wednesday as I would like to have this top finished by October 15, leaving me the last 2 months of October to quilt it.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that to happen.  Till next week …..

 

Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Drought 2012

              

Last week I had to go to the doctor for a check-up which meant that I had to go to Cape Girardeau, about 35 miles north of me.  I had been hearing about how low the Mississippi River had gotten, so while I was so close, I had to drive down to the riverfront to check things out for myself.

             

My oldest son, Evan, was with me and since we had stopped for lunch at Culver’s and ate Butterburgers and Concrete shakes, we needed a little walk. 

You can see from the pictures above that the river isn’t exactly dry!  However ……….

          

take a look from another angle.  I was not all the way down to the water’s edge when I took this.  Can you see how far it is up to that levy wall?  What absolutely amazed me was the fact that it hasn’t been all that long ago that the big gate up there was closed and ‘they’ were scared that the river was going to flow over the top and flood downtown Cape!

I looked out across that expanse ….. the river is probably close to a mile across ….. and figured how much water it would take to fill up that area.  Boggles the mind.

      

 

Here’s a photo taken of the wall from another angle.  The university students have painted murals all along it showing the historical events of SE Missouri.  We walked for awhile along the wall looking at the murals and had a real good time.  My son has gone back ‘home’ to where he lives now and it is nice looking back at the good times we shared while he was at his ‘Missouri home’.  And it was nice to see the river at this time because I can’t ever remember it being low like this.  Kind of like watching history unfold.  Now I can say, “I can remember when the river got so low that the barges didn’t run!” 

Thanks for humoring me.   I’ll be back with a Design Wall Wednesday post tomorrow!

 

Enjoy,  Merry Gay

Design Wall Wednesday

On my design wall today … Vintage Tin ……

 

          

 

I don’t have all the embroideries finished, but I wanted to sit at my sewing machine and piece today, so I started playing with the layout.  I will try to update the blog on this project at least once a week.

 

           

 

Enjoy,

Merry Gay