Major Problem

This week (and the week before) has been a hot and humid week.  Not as hot as other areas, but we are in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and don't get this weather, usually.  Have been out in the gardens first thing in the morning, 0700.  I have let them go as long as I could, and the weeds are not nice.  The only good thing is that the rain has gone around us, and the ground is so dry the weeds come up easily.  The really bad thing is that the rain has gone around us, and I am having to water the gardens.  I'd rather have the rain.  Weeds come up easily from wet ground also.

Gibbs is one of my most important supervisors.  He is watching very carefully what I am doing.  

Ziva is on the plant stand in front of the window trying to catch a breeze.  She wasn't as interested in me.  The pictures were taken during clean up moment.  

A moment that moved into setting up my list of stuff waiting for completion in the next 12 months.  Last year I joined Mary's Dirty Dozen at County Threads Chicken Scratch.  I wasn't super successful.  She is not doing it this year, but I made my list and will shake out my own numbers.  I have a major problem.  The problem of not completing anything.  (There has to be a name for this disease.)

Making the list was procrastination but it kicked me a bit.  

Great intentions but a short mind span.  I am so glad that I was able to stick to the chips quilt and keep working on my littles.  The heat and the big chips becoming a flimsy has slowed me.  What now.

Squirrels have been around and not to the point of completion.  So.  Here is the June Tea and Cookies Mats from Shabby Fabrics to almost done.  I need to do machine quilting of a heart on the white side and a little stitch in the ditch of the log cabins.  Then they are done.

Another squirrel; 4th of July Trio Table Runners from Laundry Basket Quilts.  They were made over the last week or so.  They are now sandwiched and will be machine quilted over the next few days.  Hopefully sooner.    

I am not sure that any slow stitching will be done today.  I cannot start anything new until I begin the Santa stocking.  There are a few stitching squirrels calling me to start them, but they have to wait.  There are many stitching projects that need that final finish.

Shall keep a record of my list getting smaller here.  More needs to be done than just keeping that LONG list on the wall.  If anyone read this, thanks for listening.  Now to put words into action.   

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  

Please stay cool and enjoy your threads.

 

Squirrel, Flimsy

My first potato chip block quilt is a flimsy!  It is 25 blocks, 5 blocks X 5 blocks.  It measures 80-inches X 80-inches.  I was two blocks from the finish and continued to complete the quilt to flimsy stage.  It is being held up by two of my friends.  We gathered for lunch on Wednesday.  This is my first totally scrappy quilt, and I am pleased. 

After getting the first chip flimsy done, I needed to do another project before I came back to my Littles.  (The Littles were put aside to do the final run to get to flimsy stage.)  

I love cloth books.  I love children's books.  Whenever I see more book panels that I find interesting, I have no problem picking them up.  They need to be finished.  They are just waiting to be turned into pages.  Thank goodness we now have a Grandbaby.

The Fuzzy Duckling was completed.  It is four layers, and I was not able to stitch the seam by machine.  It took me a bit to find the proper needle that would go through the batting.  The batting in the center pages was not the concern.  I used Pellon 987F Fusible Fleece for the cover.  It made a very nice, not floppy, but soft cover.  I am pleased with it but needed a thin needle to go through it.  Tatting thread was used for the binding, Lizbeth size 20.

Now it is back to the smaller chip blocks and my Littles.  Maybe I will have another flimsy next week, for sure the week after.

My Slow Stitching was closing the book pages after I turned them proper.  Also, the binding.  Need to get back to more Slow Stitching.  The Santa stocking has not yet been started and July begins next week.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  May you all enjoy your threads today.

 

Littles

Here are the last seven Littles that I made.  My chips, big and little, look the same.  (Same material just a different placement in the chip.)

It takes about an hour and ten minutes to make two chips and the nine-patch.  It can take me between one to two hours to make a Little.  They are foundation paper pieced.  Easy to do (as long as I am paying attention) but fussy.  I am glad that I am making them but glad that I am doing chips so that I can see a bigger finish.

I have four more 16-inch chip blocks to make and then I will stitch them together.  I will not use sashing for this one and will make a knife edge binding for it.  That is my plan now.  It will be sent out to be quilted.  Looking forward for it to be done but I still have lots of scraps left.  The little chips continue, and I have another idea in mind.

Slow stitching today, not sure what it will be.  Will be sitting at the machine making it do the work.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Enjoy your threads today and stay safe.

Not much

I have been weeding in the gardens.  If I had gone out in April and May it would not have been so bad.  It was just too cold and grey for me.  Now I am paying for my sloth ability. But I am beginning to do some repeat garden maintenance work which makes me happier.

We have also had friends staying for a bit.  (And two different day trips to Boston. 3 hours one way.)  It has been all good, but my stitching has been almost not there.  

Not much interesting to show.  So, I will show how I set up for my next machine visit.  Here it is waiting for me.  Sad and lonely.  Great to be able to look out the window as I stitch, North direction.  Bushes and birds outside the window.  Gibbs loves to sit in this window.  He will be there even when the machine is working.

The top board has the 10.5-inch potato chip block.  I stitch from the center out.  

I chain stitch chip 1 & 2 together, 5 & 6, and 7 & 8.  Then I move on to the larger block and do the same.  Then I start the nine-patch block.  I use that block as a leader ender.  

I separate the chips, press seams open and then place back on the board in the proper spots.  Stitch 3 to center, then 9 & 10, snip center off chain and add 4, then 11 & 12.  Do the same for the next chip block and stop with the nine-patch.  Then continue in that manner until they are both finished and also the nine-patch.  

The 16.5 block waiting on its board.

The material square with the clip in my basket is my nine-patch.  I set them out in their proper order, and they are used as leader enders.  

The rest of the paper and material in the basket belong to one of my littles.  I stitch that at the end of the block stitching.  The little is a foundation paper piece block.

Here is little #237, Beacon Lights.  With everything being so busy I was not able to sit and think this out.  It is not hard, but it takes more thinking than the chip blocks.  It was stitched last evening so I am ready to get back into routine.  I have made sure that a little is stitched before I can set up for the next chip blocks.  Is that the carrot and stick?

The boards have been prepped and the basket is ready.  That will be this evening's stitching.  Back into the routine tomorrow, after more garden work in the morning.

May your day with threads be enjoyable.  I will be linking to Kathy's Quilts and Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

Interruption

My stitching pictures are all looking the same at the moment.  18-inch, 10-inch potato chip blocks, nine-patch blocks and my littles.  Little #236 was the last one finished.  I have sewn almost every day this week.

We did have a wonderful interruption to our schedule.  Youngest, SIL and Grandbaby came for a quick visit.  They came in on Wednesday and left Friday morning.  Youngest had two job sites to visit in one day.  (She is an Environmental Site Monitor.  My words.  She told me her real title, but I have already forgotten it.)  One site was an hour West of us and the other an hour East of us.  She was able to work both sites in one day.  While she was working the rest of us were Grandbaby playing.  It was great.  

While I was baby playing, SIL was hummer playing.  My hummer feeders have been up since the beginning of May.  SIL has never seen them zipping around so close.  Here is one of the pictures that he took.   

This picture is much more interesting than more pictures of the same quilt blocks.  

Today I need to get some weeding done.  Then back to my blocks.  I am still enjoying making them.  Layout plans are dancing in my head.  Maybe one of them will have sashing, hmmm.

My slow stitching for today will be planning.  It is now June.  I need to make a family Christmas stocking for Grandbaby.  Will need to look to see what I have already and what thread colors I may need.  There are three stocking patterns that I have used for the family stocking.  Shall show you them next week.  They are by Janlynn and the first were stitched in 1992.

Enjoy your day with weeds and threads.  Threads are always more exciting.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Something

Nothing exciting in the land of threads.  We were in Maine visiting two of our daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter, my youngest sister and brother-in-law.  It was wonderful being with them all.  My sister celebrated her last birthday in the 60s.  How time moves on.

I had two littles that were pieced too small.  Here is the second one corrected.  Now the proper size and the left lower quarter has been placed properly.  I was going to leave it when I saw the mistake.  But, since I had to redo the block, I fixed it.

Have been working on the potato chip blocks.  13 of the 18-inch blocks have been made and I will need 27.5 for the size quilt I want.  (Not sure how that will work out.) 34 have been made of the 10.5-inch blocks.  I will need 72.  I am thinking of making the quilts with no border and doing a Welsh edging, no binding.  (Need to do some reading to learn what to do.)

I am enjoying making these chip blocks.  I leave them all set up at the sewing machine and can walk in and begin sewing.  In order to be able to make another set, I have told myself that I need to make a little block.  I just finished #232 today.  Need to make 365.  With making the chip block I feel like I have accomplished something, and then it is not so hard to make a fussy little.  (Those littles can take over an hour to make.  Especially if it has many pieces.)  They are getting done.  That is the important goal.

Have been spending time outside with the gardens.  Should have started earlier but it was so cool in April and early May that I didn't want to go out.  Now it is in the 70s and I have a lot of work to catch up on.  

Enjoy your threads today.

Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

 

Littles

Blocks are now left set up beside my sewing machine when I leave my cave for the day.  When I return, I am able to get right to stitching.  Not having to prep to get ready to sew.  (Why didn't I start this years ago.)  

The three blocks below took me about one hour and 15 minutes to stitch.  A 6-inch nine-patch block, a 10-inch potato chip block and a 16-inch potato chip block.   

The nine patch works as a leader ender when stitching the chip blocks.  62 nine-patch are made and squared up.  150 are needed for the nine-patch quilt that is in my mind.  All are made from left over bits.  

The potato chip blocks are stitched in assembly line fashion.  Fat quarters, ones that I don't know what to do with, are being cut up and used.  The quilts will be super scrappy everyday quilts.  Both will be about 80 X 90 inches in size, maybe 90 X 90.  24 of the 10-inch blocks have been made and at least 72 will be needed.  When I first began the larger chip block (of which I need at least 25), I was trimming them square and trimmed to 16.25 as I didn't think I could do 16.5.  I don't have a ruler that big so was hoping that they were trimmed square.  They are not quite.  So, a new ruler has been ordered and I will wait for it to arrive before any further trimming.  The four blocks that have been trimmed; I will turn into a table runner.

I am enjoying this easy piecing, stitching.  Not having to match anything.  It is rather freeing and joyful.  

I am back to working on Little Blocks 365 from Sentimental Stiches.  These are foundation paper pieced.  I have 225 made.  Maybe 200 of them have already been stitched together with their sashing.  I will have to take the flimsy out of its basket and show you with a picture.  

This block is one that was made to small.  I had to have done something wrong with talking to the printer.  The one on the left is 3.5-inches, the size I need.  The one on the right is 3.25 inches.  I am glad that I trim them square before they go into the basket for the quilt.  That is the only way that I caught this.  I have another to redo as it was printed on the same page.  The small one will be made into a pincushion.

The green and yellow block did not take too long to stitch up.  

The block below took me about one and a half hours to stitch up.  I think that may be why I stopped making these.  Some little blocks with all the bits take so long to make, a 3.5-inch block.  All that time for something so little.  I am finding if I add them on to the end of the three scrappy blocks, I have accomplished something.   

Today I will be working with my blocks and hope to work on some cross stitch later in the day.  It looks like an all-day rain.  Maybe I will do some picking up.  Oooooo, housework, that is pushing it.  Enjoy your threads today.

Linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.