"Snowbird" Snowmen

The snowmen I hand-embroidered into 22 blocks were determined to "go south for the winter" before becoming a bona fide quilt. Well, they got their way... three years and four months after being started, they saw their winter finish in sunny Florida! Yep, it was September 2009 when I first spied this Crabapple Hill pattern and thought I'd make a winter quilt for our home in Iowa. Ha! Little did I know.

In keeping with the winter theme of the embroideries, it's quilted with lots of snowflakes...

... or icycles. Whatever was appropriate for each block.

In each block, I began by echo-quilting around and inside the main shapes, adding snow mounds at the bottom where appropriate.

I'll have to say that I quilted a heck of a lot of snowflakes! I tried to occasionally change-up the style of each one.

48" X 71-1/2"

I treated the red and aqua borders as one, channel quilting "piano keys" three inches apart. Each channel has one large snowflake quilted into it. They're difficult to see on the busy aqua print, but I knew they were needed to hold the quilt together.

Each of the four corners has a stylized "S" swirl that seemed appropriate for the many snowmen in the quilt.

 

I carefully custom-quilted (on my Bernina Aurora 440, without the BSR) this because many hand-embroidered quilts are seen with an all-over meander or stipple design. That kind of quilting not only disregards the beautiful handwork, but it does nothing to enhance each segment of embroidery.

Thanks to friend Cindy for letting me "borrow" the palm tree in her front yard... the lucky duck!

I'm tickled to call this, 2013 finish #3! Linda

Stats
Hand-embroidered: DMC embroidery floss
Decorative machine herringbone stitch between blocks: two strands, Aurifil #50, turquoise
Red border fabric: Denyse Schmidt, Picnic Gingham Stripe
Aqua snowflake border fabric: Riley Blake, Santa's Workshop
Batting: Hobb 80/20
Piecing and quilting thread: Aurifil #50, white

What's Up

A week has just flown by. Activities are on again, with extra people at rec centers, and more golf carts and cars on the roads. I'm back to line dancing, stitchery group and Bible study, but have opted to drop out of yoga until April which is when class attendance will return to normal levels. It's just not fun to wait an hour or more to get into a class when I can do at home the yoga I've learned in the past five months.

Last week was Quilting Guild of The Villages garage sale. I came home with a M'liss Rae Hawley book called "Fat Quarter Quilts." Since I saw a quilter in Australia toting a whole quilt in a huge bag made from a pattern in that book, I've wanted one for myself. The bag is made from six fat quarters and needs 2-1/8 yard of fabric for lining! It's not very pretty but easily holds any size quilt I might need to carry around, and a few other things too!

I've resisted jumping on the Scrappy Tripalong that's so pervasive in the blogosphere. However, after we had a steering committee meeting for our Central Florida MQG chapter, and decided that our February meeting would be a demo about how to make Scrappy Tripalong blocks, committee members agreed to each make a block so the demonstrating quilter has blocks with which to show various layouts. These are blocks I sewed. I now understand why making them is so addictive. 

When Marmalade Fabrics had an after-Christmas sale, I jumped on $5 a yard Kona so I could make these king-sized pillowcases. Each case is sewn with an envelope at the end, so the pillow is hidden and doesn't slide out. We're sleeping on Kona Daffodils every night! Pretty amazing how that color matches the wall paint, isn't it?

Free motion quilting on Snowmen A to Zzz is coming along. I'm looking at each block individually to choose quilting designs, using a snowflake shape whenever I need filler. I like this a whole lot better than the all over meander shown on the pattern cover quilt. I've never liked the look of quilting on top of hand embroidery.

I've also spent considerable time FMQing my Madrona Road challenge quilt. Actually, I spent more time quilting than piecing and hand appliquéing! Now I'm adding big stitch hand quilting, using #8 perle cotton, to selected strips in the design.

Though I'm focusing on UFOs this year, only one of the above sewing projects is on my 18-item UFO list. (See tab above called "On the Horizon.") Can't wait to cross out a few of them, but I'm realistic enough to recognize that I'll have "UFOI" - UnFinished Object Interruptions. Already I'm on the lookout for a block(s) that I'll need to make for teaching a selvages workshop in October.

Everything I do these days seems better because of the climate we're in. We've gotten into boccé ball, a game that was new to us until last October. It's a great game, easy to learn and play any time, and play with others.... especially on a gorgeous Saturday, in January! My hubby is the one on court wearing the Panama hat. This is why we moved to Florida!

Linda

No Snow, Florida Snowmen

The "Snowmen A to Zzz" top is a finish and is awaiting basting and quilting. I can't believe that when I bought this pattern in Iowa more than three years ago, I would ever be living in a place where I'd never see a snowman again - or if I do, it will be some kind of fluke!

48" X 72"

The fly stitch (stitch #48) between the blocks, worked a treat when stitched on my Bernina QE440. A single strand of turquoise-colored #50-weight Aurifil didn't show up enough, so I threaded two strands of Aurifil through the machine - one thread to the right and the other thread to the left of the disk on top of the machine. Then, I threaded the two strands together through the eye of a size 90 needle.  I was pleased that it worked and gave the depth of color I was hoping for. The bobbin was threaded with gray-colored Bottom Line.

Border fabrics are Denyse Schmidt (red) and Riley Black (aqua snowflakes) playing nicely together. 

Last week, sewing took a back seat to two days of watching our 2-1/2 year-old grandson, in Tampa. He has a track record for being a screaming demon when it's time to get his haircut. Thinking Nana might have better success than Mom or Dad, I took him to Great Clips. You can see by the progression of photos that he didn't much care for it, but he eventually became resigned.

Here's to hoping your haircuts all end with a smile. Linda

Busy Hands, Happy Heart

I've sorta been getting back into a sewing groove, and it feels great. Progress was definitely made this past week, along with a few finishes.

Prioritizing my to-dos, I accomplished the following:

1. hemmed two pairs of slacks for my dear DIL
2. shortened a t-shirt for a neighbor-friend, and unexpectedly received payment... a bottle of wine!
3. knitted two, much-needed kitchen dishcloths
4. made a valance for my Kansas City grandsons' bedroom window
5. trimmed and sewed 21 blocks together to make the center of Snowmen A to Zzz quilt
6. finished making three Christmas stockings for my son, DIL and grandson
7. and finished the wall hanging "Beach Cabanas Among Friends."

It took longer than I expected to trim down the Snowmen A to Zzz blocks. I had quite a pile of scraps when I was finished.

But the blocks sewed together perfectly. Now each seam is supposed to be topped with a hand-embroidered fly stitch made with red floss. I'm going to attempt stitching the seams with a decorative machine stitch using aqua-colored thread since I'm bordering the embroidered blocks with an aqua snowflake print. I'm going with a wintry look, versus a Christmas look.

The stockings were hung... and photographed on a holly bush in front of our house. A holly bush! With real, red berries! This is probably as Christmas-y as it gets in Florida.

Each stocking, front and back, was pieced and machine-quilted before sewing.

My "Beach Cabanas Among Friends" is a very happy finish, and it's already hanging in my sewing room. But before doing that, it just had to be photographed near water. Since the beach wasn't a handy option, I headed to one of the pools at a neighborhood rec center. When I took the morning pictures it was about 55 (12.7C) degrees, so I had the whole pool area to myself.

It's pretty heavily quilted because I tried to get the effect of ripples in the sand.

As I briefly explained on the label, the quilt is made with fabrics given to me in April by Iowa friends. Thank you Buds!

Ya know, I'm having a tough time getting into the Christmas spirit. When flowers are still blooming like this - at all the major intersections, in medians, and at entrances to villages throughout The Villages - I can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's getting colder up north, snow could fall at any time, and it's December!

I wonder just how long it will take me to get used to living here. Apparently five months isn't long enough.

A special hello to new friends from my Bible study group who might be visiting my blog. Thanks for stopping by! Linda

Loved and Stitched

It's great to be home again! These are the little people I left behind, and who were the reason I was in Kansas City - to take care of them while their parents were away. 

Aesa, 2 years; Tay 3 years

Honestly, I didn't see much of 13 year-old Celina who was in school or in her room studying during about 90 percent of my visit.

I also left this color behind. This tree was next door to our daughter's house. Check out that blue-blue sky! I very much appreciated seeing this beauty.

I also had the chance to visit with - several times! - my good friend, Carla. Here we're at the Blue Valley Quilter's Guild quilt show, standing in front of Carla's "Liberated Crosses" quilt, a perfectly lovely, free block pattern you'll find here on her blog.

L: Carla; R: me

My Monday flights went fairly smoothly - Kansas City to Chicago to Tampa - and I arrived only 20 minutes late, due to a strong headwind, or so the captain said. The best part was that my hubby and my luggage were waiting for me. My suitcase was easy to pick up, sitting as it was in the American Airlines baggage claim office. Note. Don't lose track of that little baggage claim ticket! It was used to confirm that the suitcase was in fact mine.

While traveling, I had a happy finish. I completed the last two of the 21 embroidered blocks for the Snowmen A to Zzzz quilt!

Checking back to older posts, I first blogged about embroidering these blocks here, in September 2009. So it's been a UFO for three years, two months. And it's still a UFO until I get it made into a quilt!

The Snowmen embroidery project was something my friend, Miss Kim, and I did together. Mine was mostly embroidered while traveling, by car and by plane, and at 90 minutes of Happy Stitchers every week since June.

Kim came to visit me from Iowa while I was in Kansas City. It's so great to connect with friends!

L: me; R: Kim

She brought along her Snowmen A to Zzzz quilt top so I could see it.

We agree that the border fabrics are what set the tone for the quilt.

Being one who's into brights, I'll be looking for something modern, perhaps with aqua. (And who would have guessed that?!)

As for my next embroidery project, I have a small piece in mind, an Australian design of Matroishka nesting dolls.






But for taking along to this afternoon's Happy Stitchers, I've resurrected a hand-pieced UFO, this Starfish quilt that I began in March, 2011. (Isn't blogging a great way to keep track of one's projects?) It's only about 30" X 40", and is looking a little rumpled for being jammed into a bag for so long.

On Thursday, I'll be focused on preparations for the first meeting of the Central Florida Modern Quilt Guild. I'll be at Sharky's Vac 'n Sew (Wildwood, Florida) at 5:30 pm to get set up for our 6:30 meeting where I'm offering the program, "The Modern Quilt Guild: Quilting for a New Generation" that will mostly be presented on a big screen TV. I'll show modern quilts from the Flickr Fresh Modern Quilts group, while explaining what modern quilting is all about. We'll have about ten modern quilts on display too. I'm just not sure what to expect as far as turn-out. Twenty? Thirty people? Sharky's can seat 42. Here's hoping to filling up the place! Linda

Some of This and That

Great Granny Along blocks are coming from my sewing room, disorganized as my sewing space is. 

Ten blocks are done, and here you see them on my new design wall. I don't know how a quilter can function without a design wall. I stewed over several ways to put this up, particularly because I can't yet bring myself to pound the first nail into the walls of this brand new house!

The fabric is 108-inch wide white flannel purchased from Fabric.com. Three sides are double-folded hems, with a 2-inch sleeve at the top. The "bar" inside is two yard sticks duct-taped together! I went with a lightweight rod because the entire thing is hanging by magnets.

Three pieces of 3M wall-mount adhesive strips are along the ceiling. Glued to each strip is a heavy-duty, round magnet. Glued to the long yard sticks, in three matching positions, are another three magnets. (If you do this, be sure you have the magnets glued on with the poles the proper direction!) Even through the fabric sleeve, the magnets are strong enough to hold together. 

Playing with the BSR on my new Bernina Aurora 440, I'm figuring out how to FMQ without using a foot control - just by moving the fabric. There's quite a different feel to this quilting than when I'm controlling the stitch length. I sure like the texture of this design.

Quilting is with YLI white polished polyester thread that I won. It's pretty, but slippery. I'm taking plenty of securing stitches so stitches don't come undone. By the way, if you see bits of orange in the quilting, that's the color of the Frixion pen used to draw straight lines.

Since I'm attending Happy Stitchers every Wednesday afternoon, I've managed to finish a couple more embroidered blocks in the Snowmen A to Zzz project.

Only two blocks remain to be finished! Letters "T, U, V" together in one block; and "Z."

On the home front, it's taking a long time to feel like The Villages is home because it still feels like we're on vacation! I love going everywhere on the golf cart. The scenery and landscaping is beautiful and the weather is great. (It's not even as hot here as it's been in Iowa!) Whether I'm going to a Saturday sewing group or line dancing lesson; making a quick run to the grocery or stopping at Walgreen for odds and ends; or going to Sumter Landing Market Square for live music and dancing, I can go in the golf cart! It's just plain fun!

From a golf cart road, this is a south view of The Villages where so much new construction is happening. The growth is pretty hard to believe. If you look closely, you can see the streets, street lamps, and even street signs for another new neighborhood. 

Golf courses are always a priority and this one is nearing completion. Behind the trees is either a new country club or a recreation center. I love pedaling my bicycle around the new neighborhoods because the streets are quiet. It's heartening to see an area that's thriving, and where the economy is booming.

In Tuesday's newspaper, The Villages sales offices published this information.

Those numbers mean that in The Villages sales offices alone, they've sold an average of 345 homes a month! Pretty incredible numbers I'd say, given housing sales in the rest of the country.

In small increments our house is looking more like home. I've finished painting for now. I'm lovin' all the fresh white furniture, but now I need some bright color. The rocker will get a cushion, and the lamp will get a new shade.

Two palm frond lamps were an online order (Wayfair.com) and I'm pleased with how perfectly they suit the furniture!

However, the rugs ordered online did not work out perfectly. In fact they were awful. We ordered two different sizes of the same rug design (see previous post) and this is what the small one looked like when it arrived. Comparing my picture with the web picture, there isn't a bit of the red in the web picture. And the binding was burgundy! At our own shipping expense, we've returned this rug and cancelled the order for the larger one. Ugh. It's back to rug shopping again, but this time not online.

Sharing some news... "Snowflake Medallion," the quilt many of you have seen dozens of times already, has been juried into the AQS (American Quilter's Society) show that will be in Des Moines, Iowa, October 3-6. I'm pretty darned happy about that. Before Snowflake heads to Des Moines, it will be shipped to Colorado to be photographed by "Quilter's Newsletter" magazine for a future issue! Oh, and "Life is a Celebration: Nature" will be photographed there too. Gotta love those Aussie designers - Emma Jansen and Kellie Wulfsohn - for making my quilting look good.

This morning I'm going to a class about palm trees at The Villages Lifelong Learning College. I think you all know how much I love palm trees. Oh, and my attempt to sprout a palm tree from a seed? Well, that failed. Rotted, actually.

Today we're also making a point of eating at Chick-fil-A. It's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, to show support for the company's biblical values. If you're in the US, I hope you're eating there too! Linda