Monday Tip: Don't Give Up

If you follow my blog you know I’ve been on a quest to finish projects that have been cooling at times, percolating at other times. These are referred to as UFO’s (unfinished objects), WIPs (Works in Progress), WISP’s (Works in Slow Progress) to name just a few. I’ve tried 52 in 52 (one a week), 12 by 12 (one a month), FIF (Finish It Fridays) and other ways to get things done or at least moved forward. Some items did get finished, some have been moved along. But I’ve also started a number of new items – some that were requested, some that I just wanted to try, and some that were “what-if’s”.

So here I am at the start of a new year and a new attempt at finishing some projects. A friend posted an idea on FaceBook and I was off and running. Www.allpeoplequilt.com has a UFO Challenge for 2016.

List 12 projects and what stage they are in. They choose a number from 1-12 on the 1^st day of the month and that’s the project you work on that month. I can do that. 

My List for 2016

So I made my list – just writing down projects as they came to my mind. Truthfully I probably could list 24 or even 36 projects but I just did 12.

The first number they pulled was 2. Oh, oh. On my number 2 line I had listed what is probably my oldest (that I’ve uncovered so far) and most time consuming project. I was tempted to give up right then. I had hoped for one that only needed a little bit to complete and I would have success the first month to encourage me onward. I even thought about making that second list and then I would have an option to choose which ever list seemed best (read easiest). But I decided even though I would not finish it I could at least move it forward.

At first I found excuses to not work on it but then I realized I could do it – I could! So I opened the project box.

What's in the project box?

It’s a red and white crazy block style quilt with redwork in the centers. Three blocks had been sewn. All of the redwork embroidery was done. 

Where I left it in 2008

When I did those I didn’t know about the wonders of damp stretching my work (thanks Karen). So first I damp stretched all of those redwork embroideries. 

Then I had some cheater cloth of redwork squares that I had re-embroidered. For some reason (probably to protect the embroidery) I had fused some lightweight interfacing to the back of those. This caused the fabric to bubble over time. 

Cheater Cloth re-embroidered and bubbling

First I was just going to accept it as is but then I realized I could peel the interfacing off. So I was able to damp stretch those as well. The three blocks which were already sewn would have to stay as they were.

I have sewn two more blocks, and started to do the hand embroidery on one of the sewn blocks. The month is almost over and a new number will be drawn next week.

Will I put this one away? No it’s going to join my WISP’s. I’ve put the five (oh look now I'm up to six) blocks up on my design wall and I’m loving them again. When I started this project back in 2006 or 2007 I didn't have a design wall. Now I do and it is always a pleasant surprise to put something up there that I've done and let it brew for a while. It will take some time to finish this quilt – but I can do it!

Blocks on the design wall 

So I shared all of that just to say “Don’t give up, small starts count, slow progress moves you to the finish line”.

And that’s my tip for today.

Happy creating!

Rose 

A Long Overdue Recap of WWW!

Wow the last WWW (What I’m Working On Wednesday) was in January and here March is coming to an end. Where does the time go?

Ok so I mentioned back then the Quilters’ Guild of Arlington’s postcard for the annual festival of quilts show. Done:

Then I mentioned crocheting drink cozies for the “Meet Samantha” party. Here are the photos of the drink cozies, the mini crochet dresses and some bunting made for the party:

The cloud and hearts mobile for her room still isn’t finished (just need to go over the hoop with another coat of white paint). Now how hard can that be. Not hard at all, just have to remember to do it!

About the fingerless gloves I had listed as a FIF project, they really did get done and turned over to my son to use.

At that same FIF I had mentioned some smaller microwavable fabric bowls. They were finished and the whole set was given as a gift.

So what else have I been up to? Well I made myself a needlework pillow to support my hands and arms when I’m hand stitching. Where’s the photo you ask? Well I left it where my stitching group meets so I will have to wait until I get it back this Thursday. I’m really pleased with it!

I finally got some headpieces finished for my granddaughter and a friend. Similar ones are being listed in my Etsy shop. 

Oh and I’ve also finally finished the little embroidered pendants and listed them in my shop also.

Recently I took a class on back basted needle turned applique. So I’m practicing that technique.

And I almost forgot the Wounded Warrior Quilt. I’ve finished piecing it together and will give it to a longarm quilter this week. I’m attending a retreat this week and will try and get a good picture of it while I’m there.

And I’m slowly (very slowly) getting my workroom back to some sort of order. And I think that’s enough for now, although I feel like I’m forgetting something!

Happy Stitching (on Wednesday and every other day)!

Rose

Hello there! WWW

Well I haven’t posted a WWW (What I’m Working on Wednesday) post in like forever – well not since May anyway. Does that mean I haven’t been working on anything? No of course not and if you’ve visited my Finish It Friday posts you know I’ve been doing a little bit anyway.

Okay so what have I been working on since May? Here’s a brief (I think) rundown of some of the works:

1. The butterfly vest – all embroidery is finished. I just need to add some sequins, beads, and maybe a few more stitches, and then maybe line it.
2. The monochromatic bird nest – some stitching has been done on the bird nest part but I haven’t worked on it in a while.

   

   Bird Nest Embroidery

3. The summer hexagon wall hanging – the hexagons have been stitched together and now I’m working on adding some border half hexagons etc. Again I put it aside for a while. I’m debating my choice of fabric for the final round. I thought it looked like shiny, sparkly beach sand but now I’m not so sure. I plan to use the same fabric for binding.

   

   Summer Hexagon Wall Hanging

4. The crazy quilt elephant block – a lot more detail has been added but I still have more to go. It gets picked up every now and again. I finally had to print out a copy of it and scratch some notes on it so I could remember what I planned to do to it.  Notice the upper left corner tie fabric. I couldn’t decide what to do on that seam allowance and so I tried to imitate the fabric. This is an idea I’ve been toying with, it isn’t perfect but it’s a great future reference.

   

   Notes

   

   Elephant Crazy Quilt Block

5. The crazy quilt blocks for “She Colored Everything Yellow” have also had a little detail added to them (well to one of them). Bullion loops, French knots, buttonhole stitch and more. I really need to get busy and give them some undivided attention.

   

   She Colored Everything Yellow Crazy Quilt Block

6. Embroidery has really taken over my creative life lately. Can you tell? All of my Finishes have been of small embroidery.
7. I’ve finished embroidering the Love sampler, just need to put it in the framing hoop and I’m done!

   

   Love Sampler Embroidery

8. The scribble “Elephant Bathing” that I did when I was a teenager has taken on a new life as an embroidered piece. Right now I’m just using it to test out a product. I have a feeling I will be doing more than one or two pieces based on that scribble.

   

   Bathing Elephant Scribble

9. In the mix is a scrappy quilt for our guild’s “wounded warrior project”. I agreed to do one that was all cut out from donated fabric. The pattern is Bonnie Hunter’s Pineapple Blossoms.

   

   Wounded Warrior Blocks in Process

10. What there’s more? Yes indeed. I have been busy making little tiny crochet dresses to be used as favors when my granddaughter gets introduced to the world (well to friends and family of the mom). She’s due to arrive in two weeks! Her ‘met the baby’ party won’t be until December though.

    

    Mini Crochet Dresses

11. Also crocheting some tiny doilies to finish off some already made needle “nabbers”. They just need to be added to the pots before they are glued onto a wood circle and little ladybug buttons need to be glued to the flowers. Then they are off to a quilt shop in Hawaii!

    

    Mini Crochet Doilies

12. Okay I need to make this an even dozen. What else is there? Oh yeah that’s right, I worked on trying to make my daughter a sleep mask. Wasn’t too successful in that department. The first one was too small and the second one was too tight.

    

    Sleep Mask

Not to worry though there are more projects waiting in the queue!

Happy Stitching (on Wednesday and every other day)!

Rose

Here We Go Again!

Oh goodness I've been missing in action for so long.  I have been busy, I have been doing things. Here are some of the blocks that I've made for our guild monthly block exchange.

Red and White Block for April

Flower Basket Block for March

This is a little card that I worked on for another on-line exchange I participated in. I was late with it as I forgot what the deadline was and thought I had longer to work on it. Oh dear. But I did get it done.

Postcard for online swap

The project was to do a postcard that included paper and embroidery so I designed this little card. I had some postcards for my inkjet printer that I had purchased a long time ago and then never used. Perfect. Then I remembered my sketchbook with a little flower design I had worked on, again some time ago. I thought it would look great as a card. The other part of the challenge was to focus on the word create so I added some words to the card. After I printed the design I decided to color in the flowers with some markers.  Then came the fun of deciding what stitches to use and then piercing the paper. About halfway though I remembered I like to keep the first of any new idea I make. So I printed another card and this time added the hummingbird to it (another one of  my little sketches!). When it came time to embroider the hummingbird I opted for some metallic thread. It was a little tricky to work with but I love the results.  I received this one from my exchange partner who lives in England.

Postcard Exchange from England

I'm still trying to straighten up and get somewhat organized in my "studio room". I may have a new idea to share later about fabric scraps. Testing it out now. 

I've been rather busy with my quilt guild lately, mainly working on promoting the show that took place May 1 and 2. It was a good experience for me and I also got involved in the take down. What a lot of work goes into putting on a show! I still have some things to finish for the guild and we are already talking about next year's show.

I haven't done any Finish It Friday posts because I haven't finished anything on Friday lately. (Well I haven't started anything new on Friday either!)

For my 15 minutes a day project I've been concentrating on this vest.

Butterfly Denim Vest WISP

I've blogged about it before here. One thing that I keep reminding myself of is to keep track of the thread colors I'm using. I started this about 15 years ago - what!!?! I can not find the blue thread that I used on it to begin with. I have found a DMC light effects thread that comes close but that thread is a little more difficult to work with than the regular floss. But I'll manage. Right now I'm concentrating on doing an irregular running stitch on the lines within the butterflies. Here is a view of two butterflies, one has been stitched and the other one has not. I think doing the stitches adds a lot to the look of the butterfly. Why an irregular running stitch? Because I don't seem to be able to keep my stitches perfectly even in length! Plus I think irregular is more interesting than perfect. 

I keep thinking I need to add some flowers among the butterflies but that will mean an even longer time before this is finished. I do wear this vest every once and awhile just because I can.

Well that's just some of what I have going on at the moment. 

Happy Stitching!

Rose

Hello there! WWW

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts! My surgery went well. The tumor was a very small one and only Stage 1A cancer so no more treatment is needed, just watching me closely for a while. I’m feeling great just have to be sure I don’t overdo it with lifting etc.

I have been slowly getting back into stitching so this is what I have in progress this Wednesday.

I finished a block for my quilt guild’s monthly block exchange, I’m only two blocks behind now!

Scrappy Blues Block

My first fifteen minute project is now complete. It was surprisingly easy to keep it going. The day of surgery and two days of recovery did not see any stitching but I made it up later in the week by stitching extra fifteen minute periods. Thirty eight days later the monkey is now done but I think he will just go in the box with all the rest of my TAST2012 pieces. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet. (Please don’t ask how many French Knots are in that piece!) I did add ears which were not in the original scribble. Generally I do not add any lines or scribbles to one once the pencil leaves the paper or fabric but he just needed some ears so they were scribbled in.

French knot monkey 15 minutes a day priject

I’ve gotten back to working on my summer hexagon project that I started last year using embroidery designs from Wild Olive. I modified a few of them. This is my first time making hexagons and I struggled with sewing them together. I worked at it during a few of the Friendship Stitchers group I belong to. Then I decided I really want to get it finished (I have the designs for Fall, Winter, and now Spring waiting in the sidelines). So I started doing it as one of my just fifteen minutes a day projects but I got carried away with it and worked more than fifteen minutes. So it is getting done a little faster than expected.

Summer Hexagon Embroidery Pioject

Painted hoops

Next I painted some outer embroidery hoop frames in anticipation of another Finish It Friday project. I’m hoping this Friday to have some results to show.

Happy Stitching! 

Rose

The 15 Minute Project Update

Monkey French Knot Scribble 10 days later

Here’s my monkey scribble after 15 minutes a day stitching since the last posting. Can’t believe I’ve gotten this far with him. I do need to add his ears. I don’t normally add anything to a scribble but I am making an exception to this one for the ears.

Nest in Tree 

My other 15 minute project has taken a detour, I’ll explain later when I have some photos to show. But this is where it is at for now. I won’t be stitching on it for a while. Need to do some planning.

One more thing I did this week was for a special order in my Etsy shop. These are hope rocks in felt pockets. My son does the etching and I make the heart pockets. And I finished them today so they are my FIF (Finish It Friday) for this week! 

Hope Rocks in Felt Pockets

My posts will probably be sporadic for now since I will be having surgery on Monday. I hope to get back to a more normal posting schedule in a few weeks.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts!

Happy Stitching! 

Rose

WWW - The 15 Minute Project

So I posted last Friday a picture of my scribble French Knot monkey that has been sitting in a pile of unfinished projects. I knew I had too much to do to be able to finish it in a Friday. So I decided to just work on it 15 minutes a day, you know, slow and steady. Here it is as of today.

Monkey Face 

Can you see the progress? I’m not the fastest stitcher for sure but I am actually enjoying my fifteen minutes a day with it. I read somewhere recently that our attention holds onto something for about 28 minutes. So we should set a 28 minute time limit for each project and at the end of 28 minutes go on to something else. Well I’m not sure that is really true as I know I can get started stitching and lose all track of time. Now when it comes to cleaning or organizing well yeah

about 28 minutes as all I can handle!

I’ve decided to take the 15 minute approach to some of my other projects that I have sitting around waiting for some attention. This is a piece I started back in 2012 while taking an online class from Sharon Boggon.

Bird Nest in a tree

It is a monochromatic encrusted nest in a tree. What you don’t see the encrusting? Right. It’s not there yet. I got stuck on the tree part. 

Here's a close up on the tree which I worked on today.

Tree stitching

I really would like to get it finished all though I’m not sure what I will do with it when I’m done stitching. I’ve added some more stitching (couching) to the main tree section and I’m happy with it. There is one stitch that sort of sticks out like a sore thumb but I think I know how I will fix that. Anxious to get started on the nest. You can read more background about this piece in this post. 

And I’m not sticking to my fifteen minutes on this piece. I may go over that time if I get really into what I am stitching on it. I think when I get to the encrusted nest part I will happily get lost in it.

Only time will tell.

Happy Stitching Wednesday!

Rose 

WWW or What I’ve been Working on Wednesday

Here it is Wednesday again (and it's almost over too! Oops it is over. Oh well.)! I’ve finished all of the blocks of the month for 2013 for a group project I was participating in at the Arlington Quilt Guild. Yes I was four behind and had to be finished and turn them in last night. Here are the last five. The fall leaves one had to be redone because my seam allowances were way off and my choice of fabric for one of the blocks didn’t not sing for me. Here’s the first one and it’s replacement.

 

Fall Leaves 

Then these followed:

I “won” (we all received one of the sets by having our names drawn) the blue and white blocks. I kind of wanted the black and white/red and white ones but I’m okay with blue and white. I’ve always loved that combination ever since I was a kid. I actually carried around a page from a magazine of a blue and white bedroom that I dreamed about having. I may even still have the page somewhere. I don’t think I would want that for my bedroom now but I still love blue and white.

The other thing I’ve been working on is FME. That’s free motion embroidery. But not the pretty colorful flowers that your grandma or in my case that I embroidered on pillowcases but a doodle type of FME on loosely woven fabric. My first attempts at this process were dismal not to my liking. They were ok but I found it a little difficult to do. I finally got the courage to try again and discovered that I had been using the wrong type of hoop to hold my fabric. It had a ridge on the top and bottom so that the fabric was not flat on the bed of the sewing machine. Once I switched to a different hoop I was off and running. After listening to Karen Ruane talk about her process several times I realized the other mistake was not running the machine fast enough and not moving my fabric around slow enough. Sort of like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. But I finally got the rhythm of it and now I want to do more!

The only thing now was my hoop was round and I kept hitting the edge of the hoop with the FME foot. All of the work was done in the round. I wanted a more rectangular piece to work with but didn’t care for removing the fabric from the hoop and re-positioning it. Then I stopped at JoAnn’s for some yarn I needed and decided to look around. I found this square hoop that looked like it would work. So I’m giving it a whirl!

 

Trying out the new hoop for free motion embroidery

One thing I found out was the "frame" is too high and I had to take off my FME foot and then insert the hoop and put the foot back on. That was a pain. The other thing is the hoop is too wide for the arm of my machine so I had to think about how to maneuver around the hoop. Just takes practice. And I do like it.

And I’m still trying to straighten up my work area. I can find things and get more sewing/quilting/crafting done now but I still have more to do.

Happy Stitching!

Rose 

I Love Doing Wheelies!

Buttonhole Wheels

Much to my surprise I found the buttonhole wheel addictive. That’s the stitch assigned to this week’s TAST2012. Maybe I like it because it is round. Round seems to be my favorite shape. I love buttons, fabric yoyos, woven spider web stitch, and dots, just to name a few.

I considered going a different direction for this stitch rather than my usual scribbles but decided to stick with the scribble. I did however scribble in a conscientious way so that I would have round places where I could work the buttonhole wheels. Then I added little individual circles all around my scribble. (And this was even before I knew how enjoyable I would find them!) I like the way it turned out, I used a backstitch to connect my scribble ones and added large French knots to a few of them. I might put a bead in the center of the smaller ones. The thread I used was variegated pearl cotton.

Cretan and Knotted Cretan stitch

The week before was a catch up week but I had already finished working all of the stitches. Before that was the knotted Cretan stitch. Since I didn’t get a post up earlier I’ll show it now. I had trouble getting started with this stitch so I started with a plain Cretan stitch and then worked into a knotted Cretan once I was comfortable with how the basic stitch went.

I’m continuing to work on my butterfly vest. The outer edges of all of the butterflies have been finished as well as their bodies. I’m in the process of adding the antennae.

Batik block

For the quilt guild I belong to the challenge for June was to use four different batiks and made a railroad block. I found some batiks in my stash and then added two more before deciding which ones to use. I wasn’t sure I liked the combination until I actually put the block together. This is how it turned out. Now I wish I had enough to make a full quilt!

Lion and Lamb embroidery

My blocks for the crazy quilt challenge are coming along- slowly. The lion and the lamb for the March block are done.

I know, I know the lion should be roaring but my grandson (8 months old) loves to look at his Tutu’s work and I didn’t want to scare him! Haha!

Finally went ahead and made the blocks for April, May and June. Now to get them all stitched and embellished.

April block

May block

June   block

Happy Stitching,

Rose