Calendar House UFO

Continuing with my series of Inherited UFO’s, we now come to my Mom’s Calendar Houses.

As part of her love for button-hole stitch applique, she made these 12 blocks….

I love the details, like chickens pecking in the yard…

….and the Santa coming down the chimney in this southwestern scene…..

It was fun to find her notes to herself about adding ribbons to the maypole….

Although the blocks are cute, I don’t have any particular desire to finish it off.

I would love to hear your thoughts…..

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Abiding Garden update

When I started my “Abiding Garden” hand-appliqué project, I thought it would be slow, but I didn’t expect it to be quite THIS SLOW!!

When I last posted about it, I had glued/pinned two flowers to the background….

My plan was to spend a bit of time most nights and do the applique, but life has gotten in the way.

This is convention season for Michael’s side-hustle, and I needed to travel with him to help with photography and videography. Consequently, I was away from home for almost half of February!!

Needless to say, there was NO stitching going on!

When I did make a start, I added the yellow flower, but was unhappy when I realized that I hadn’t pulled the threads tight enough on each stitch, and it didn’t look great. I tugged on the threads from the back and was able to tighten it up…..

….but I am thinking that I may need to re-sew them at some point.

The problem with THAT is that I had already cut out a lot of the backing fabric…

…before I discovered the loose stitches.

Needless to say, I was disappointed, and my stitching motivation went out the window.

But, I am happy to say that I am back at it now…..

…and am being SUPER careful to pull the threads tight on EACH stitch!!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

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It’s In Press….

Back in December, I told you about a collaboration with two other women in my guild…..

Collaboration Fun!

Today, I was scrolling through Facebook and found THIS post…..

I love that they showed the entire quilt, along with how it is used on the cover!!

As I said in my original post…..

When someone asks you to collaborate…..ALWAYS SAY YES!!!!

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Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..

Click HERE for more information

No more Owls!!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Owl quilt I inherited from my friend Nancy…

My EASY decision was to quilt it and donate it to my guild’s charity group.

My initial plan was to add a border or two, but I finally decided to keep things simple and add a striped binding…

BUT FIRST, I had to quilt it!!

I had so much fun quilting the owls and leaves….

I had way too many ideas for how to quilt the background, but once again, went for simple and did some curvy lines….

When it came time to add the binding, I had to remind myself exactly HOW to cut a bias binding….

After a few false starts, I had the binding made and applied….

It is the PERFECT finish for such a fun quilt!!

There has been one change…. the quilt is being donated to a fundraiser for the Jeannette Rankin Foundation.

This wonderful organization empowers women aged 35 and older to complete their college degrees and transform the next chapter of their lives.

I can think of no better place for Nancy’s wonderful quilt!

My goal for this UFO was to have it finished by the end of January, and I ALMOST made it. The final stitches were put in on Sunday, February 1st!

I am thrilled that ONE of my many UFO’s can be marked off the list!

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Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..

Click HERE for more information

Hurray…. I’m Ready to Sew!

When I left you last week, I had finished preparing 2 flowers, ready to be sewn onto the background.

But first, I had to put them into their proper place!

I got impatient one night and did a bit of sewing, appliquéing sets of petals together…

I glued the sets together, so I had a complete flower to start with.

I placed my pattern on top of the backing….

….and put my first two flowers in place, including the stems….

Now I had to get the flowers UNDERNEATH the paper…..

I added a dab of glue to hold the flowers in place….

…..and finished off with a few tiny applique pins to hold everything in place….

WOO-HOO……

I’m finally ready to start sewing….at least the first two flowers!!

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Who knew I would enjoy hand-appliqué SO much!

Join me in this journey by subscribing to the blog…