Embroidered Quilt is Pieced

Several months ago, I showed you some quilt blocks I had embroidered years ago. They were sewn together and the quilt needed to be wider. I solved the problem by adding two side borders with flying geese, then a blue border, then a checkerboard border, ending with the blue fabric for the outside border. The top now measures 90″ x 98″, decent size for a bed.

The center blocks have yellowed some over the years. I plan to hand quilt this top someday, maybe by the time she gets quilted, the white fabric I’ve used will have yellowed too.

I know this isn’t a popular style of embroidered quilt but when she is quilted, she will have the quiet dignity that this style of embroidered quilt embraces. She won’t be quilted this winter but perhaps in a year or two.

Linking up with Kathy’s Slow Quilting on Sunday and then on Monday Super Mom-No Cape. On Wednesday I’ll link up with Esther’s Wow, then on Thursday My Quilt Infatuation.

Red Radiance is Finished!

The binding and label have been attached to Red Radiance and she has been added to the Projects Finished list. Having a finish gives me such a sense of accomplishment!

The pattern for Red Radiance came from the December 2000 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. She was designed by Betty Alderman, Cindy Oates and Laurene Sinema.

I’ve also completed the rest of the triangles for the right side border for the Jane Stickle quilt. These 6 triangles all have applique of some sort, some more than others.

 

 

 

 

 

The border with the alternate white triangles.

What hand project am I going to work on now? I’m not going to start a new project. I have several small tops that need to be quilted and they will be going into the quilting frame but not this week-end. This week-end I’m enjoying time with our son from upper New York state and our grandson.

I’ve linked up to Kathy’s Slow Stitchin Sunday and Sew Many Ways.

Red Radiance is Quilted!

Sunday evening I finished the quilting on Red Radiance! She needs to be trimmed and have the binding sewn. I not sure how soon that will happen. This picture looks blurry, but if you click on it, the photo that pulls up looks much better.

 

 

The left side triangle border for my Jane is now completed.

 

Left part of border.

 

 

Right side of border.

 

The right side border is prepped and I was able to sew 9 triangles the end of last week.  This week has been very busy and I haven’t had time for hand work or piecing.

We’ve been getting constant rain for the last 3 weeks, not everyday but often enough we can’t get in the fields. The problem is now it is time for  the 2nd cutting of hay. We decided to go for it and mowed down a field last Saturday to wet bale and wrap on Monday. Sure enough, it rained late Saturday night or very early Sunday morning. (I heard it raining but I was too sleepy to look at the clock to see what time it was.)

Monday morning we had fog and I couldn’t start raking until around 9 am. It was very overcast and dreary and it looked like it could rain any minute.

We need to rake the windrows together to make the bales pack better.

 

 

 

 

 

We custom hire a neighbor to come and bale the field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While he is baling, the Farmer and I pick up the bales. I drive the tractor and wagon and he runs the skidloader. The skidloader has a bale punch with 3 prongs. He stabs it into the bales and lifts it onto the wagon. We can fit 15 bales on the wagon.

 

I pull the wagon to where the bales are going to be wrapped and the Farmer unloads the wagon. He stacks them in a row, ready for the wrapper. In the background you can see bales we wrapped from the 1st cutting in May. We got 70 bales wrapped and this will be fed to the cows next winter.

 

Like I said earlier, we’ve had constant rain and I have been busy sewing on my Jane. I’ve my neglected the garden and it looks like a disaster! See the green beans there next to the garlic? The garlic is fine since it was mulched.

 

 

The broccoli is doing great, they love all the rain, but the potatoes are under attack by potato bugs.

Today was garden clean up day. I pulled weeds, hoed and tilled. It looks a lot better than it did this morning, but she still needs more work. When I’m satisfied, I’ll take updated pictures.

Red Radiance Time

The week with the grands went fast and now it is just the Farmer and I. The small quilting frame has been carried back downstairs and I’m ready to start quilting again. But first I needed to remark some of the quilting lines. I took pictures of her while she was out of the frame.

 

And the back.

I have mixed feeling about this quilting hoop. It’s great for the center section but more challenging for the outside edge. I guess I didn’t cut my backing fabric large enough. It is definitely bigger than the center but quilting the outside triangles is annoying.

 

My thimble marks where I’m quilting at the moment. I’m guessing she’s 3/4th completed.

It feels really good to be quilting again and I’m going to try to finish this quilt this month. Since I’ve publicly announced it, you can hold me to it.

Next week I’m also hoping to work on the top row of the Jane Stickle quilt. I need to cut out the white alternate triangles and sew the row together.

I’ve linked to Kathy’s Slow quilting Sunday.

Jane Stickle Triangles, Crops and the Garden

May was a very busy month. Yards to mow, crops to plant, hay to make, garden to plant and, of course, quilts to piece. I’m going to start with quilts first.

I made good progress in May on unfinished projects. Besides the Medallion quilt top I showed you several posts ago, I’ve finished a long time Zig-Zag 9-Patch project that was started many years ago. The intent was to use up older fabrics but this didn’t even put a dent in the stash. He will be gifted to a friend who will add borders and hand quilt him.

 

 

 

I embroidered these quilt blocks years ago. They came 6 in a package but there were only 3 packages available. Using one of my quilting stencils, I marked and embroidered 2 more to make 20 blocks. I’ve cut pieces for flying geese to make the side borders wider; the geese will be leaders and enders for the summer. There will be another border after the geese, but just one step at a time.

 

 

I had to take a break from quilting on Red Radiance. My fingers got too sore and developed some cracks. Ouch! But I could applique.

 

 

 

The light green sashes have been attached and I started appliquing the hearts. Sometime I’m going to get a good photo of this crib quilt. I know I cropped this photo. I guess the computer wanted to show you the green grass!

 

 

With those projects out-of-the-way, it was time to pick up Jane again. I prepped the top row of triangles, started sewing and here they are. I’ve made a few changes. One of the changes was to eliminate the annoyingly narrow white borders that were on some of the triangles. I just cut the pieces longer and extended them into the seam allowance. I need to cut out the alternate plain triangles so the whole row can be sewn together before prepping the next row.

We were able to plant all of the soybeans in the early part of May but corn planting was halted because of rain. When the soil was dry enough to plant the rest of the corn, the hay was ready to be mown. Forty acres of hay made 155 bales which were wrapped. We would have like to have dry baled some hay, but they were calling for rain and we didn’t want to risk getting it ruined. That was the right decision. Hopefully we will be able to dry bale the next cutting. And we did plant the rest of the corn the same week.

Soybeans were no-tilled into the corn stubble in the field south of my garden. I will be showing you their progress over the summer.

I haven’t been very enthused about gardening this year but everything is planted now except for the winter squash. The early planted vegetable are doing fairly well. Some of the early green beans didn’t survive the light frost we got the middle of the month. After the crops were all in, the Farmer was able to help in the garden. My tomato cages never stay upright when the tomato plants are mature. They always fall over because of the weight. The Farmer pounds a fence post into each individual cage to keep it upright.

This year I’m experimenting with growing green beans on this curved fencing panel. (This was also a Farmer job) The idea is the pole beans will grow up the fence and the green beans will hang down so I can easily pick them and save stress on my knees.

The amaryllis bulbs have been transplanted into the garden. I try to keep the soil from the pots intact and set the roots/potting soil into the hole, cover with soil, then mulch. They normally just sit there for several weeks and I worry that I’ve killed them. The roots are growing into the surrounding soil. Once the roots have spread out, they send up new green leaves. They have all survived.

The west end of the garden is planted with broccoli plants I started and transplanted into the garden. Once the plants are full size, I’ll plant winter squash seeds into the paths between the broccoli plants. About the time the broccoli is finished yielding, the squash should really be taking off and spread over the broccoli plants, I hope anyway. On the east side of the broccoli is a row of early red potatoes. Yukon Gold potatoes were planted later and haven’t popped up yet. As you can see, we’ve been receiving plenty of rain.

This is what happened in May here on the farm. What is happening this first week of June? We’re busy making memories with 6 of our grandchildren!

Embroidered Crib Quilt

The embroidery has gone fast on this small project and is completed. I’ll work on the applique when I’m tired of quilting.

See those bunnies? I don’t like them and I’m going to applique hearts over them.

I worked in my garden last week. I’ve planted green beans, carrots and 1 row of early red potatoes. I’ll take a picture when everything is up.

An update on the fox. We watched the fox run around the pasture last week, then the heifers (who had been at the other end of the field) spotted him. They came running up to play but unfortunately the game they wanted to play was ‘Chase the Fox Around the Field’. He soon scooted under the fence and must have moved the kit(s) during the night because they are no longer under the porch.

They’re still around though, we’ve seen them several times playing in the cow pasture. There is one kit for sure. We hope they stay around, they are very interesting to watch.

Red Radiance is in the Hoop!

I’ve started the quilting on my embroidered Red Radiance wallhanging. I normally quilt with the old-fashioned sticks and stands, but I purchased this hoop stand at the Lang Store during the pajama sale at Lolly’s Fabrics. I think it has been a good investment and is perfect for small projects. Best of all, I can sit in my glider chair while I quilt!

An Embroidery Project

I find hand work in the evening very relaxing. Until I get Red Radiance marked for quilting, I’ve have been working on a couple other projects.

I sewed these 1″ hexagons flowers. Sometime I’ll use them in a crib quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

I was at a local resale shop last fall and stumbled across this crib quilt to be embroidered. The large letter A had some royal blue embroidery but wasn’t completed. I didn’t like that color and easily removed it. I’m going to embroidery the alphabet with the pink and green embroidery floss.

You can’t see it very well but there is a quilting design with a sash and hearts. I plan to applique the sash and hearts with the fabric displayed, a pale green and pink floral.

I’m hoping the outside embroidery row washes out because I don’t like it, but I have come up with Plan B in case it doesn’t disappear. A pink border will be attached after the inside is completed.

These are small projects and can easily picked up and laid down anytime.

Red Radiance

Even though my Jane quilt is a high priority, I haven’t forgotten about Red Radiance. The embroidery is finished and the piecing is completed. I need to get her marked then into the quilting frame she goes.

I have several other hand projects I’m considering. I show you what I’m up to when I decide which one to work on.

Spring is Slowly Coming

Spring is slowly making her way into northern Indiana. The neighbors have buckets hanging on the maple trees to collect sap.

The white pails are hard to see against the snow background.

Most of the snow has melted and I can see the roadside trash that needs to be picked up. Daffodils have started emerging from the ground and the skunks have emerged too!

When I walk down to the road in the early morning to get the newspaper out of the box, I often hear the male cardinal singing to his mate, if I’m lucky, I’ll see him too. The other morning I could hear a killdeer in the bottom pasture field calling and another bird from the neighbors farm, crying in return. We’ve had bluebirds sitting on the fence and the other day in town I saw robins hopping around in a yard.

The garlic is waiting for a little more warmth before completely waking up. I’m glad I decided not to plant peas this year, the garden isn’t fit for planting.

I have taken the time to sew the buttons in the center of my pincushions. Don’t they look better? I just used regular buttons from my button tin.

I’m still working on my Red Radiance embroidery project too. I’ve completed 3 of the 4 borders. I hope to get the embroidery completed before we start field work this spring.