After Years and Years and a bit of Gratitude

It has been years since I set up my quilt frame. When I moved to the city after getting married I didn't even bring it with me but I FINALLY brought it home with me after the last visit to my dad's. ( I'll have to get a daylight photo of this quilt- the colors make me so happy but this photo does not do it justice)

The biggest reason for not using it has been my rheumatoid arthritis. Most of the last 4 years my hands just couldn't hold a little quilting needle very well so I only quilted small little projects by hand. 

But this quilt changed that. It just spoke to me that it needed to be hand done. I tried doing it in the hoop with a clam shell design and my regular quilting needle and thread but discovered that was too hard on my hands so I had to find a solution. I just can't quilt like I used to despite wanting too.

I can big stitch fairly easily though. I am using a chenille needle size 24 and size 8 pearle cotton. And not to forget the most important part- my mini piers. Even with a needle grabber I can't get my needle pulled through- I need those pliers. 

I discovered I can only quilt directly towards me vertically or at an angle from the right. I can't quilt coming from the left, horizontally or away from me so my clam shells have turned into a straight grid- which I love by the way!

My stitches may not be as even as they used to be and I may only be able to put a few stitches on my needle before pulling it through but I am loving sitting in front of my quilt frame slowly stitching away.

 I try to spend a half hour to an hour everyday enjoying the quilting process. It is quite meditative. Some days I sit in the quiet and some days I listen to an audio book or a podcast. 

I am so grateful that I can still sit in front of my quilt frame enjoying the process even if I will never have small even stitches again!

I promised an update on Dear Jane... well I haven't quite gathered my thoughts on that yet. I keep changing my mind on color and size. My thoughts keep strolling to a red and white Dear Jane and I am seriously thinking of reducing the block sizes from 4-1/2" to 3". My husband thinks I am completely crazy! 

What do yo think? 

Happy Stitching!

Old Eyes, Christmas gift making and the Bucket List for this year!

I have old eyes!

It is time to accept that my eyes just can't see some of the things I used to. After Christmas I decided to get out a cross stitch UFO and while looking at it it just didn't seem right. I got out my magnifier and I had missed half the stitch in a whole row and in a few other places too! See if you can see it! 

This is a Santa, all in shades of white and cream. Even with my magnifier I struggle to see the differences in color and the stitches. That UFO has now been tucked away probably for good. 

Then I started a new knitting project using fingering and mohair. Fingering is fine but the mohair... not so good! This will be my last time using it- my old eyes are struggling to see that too!

Now that Christmas is over... here is a gift I made for my dad. He has a big metal rooster he keeps on his deck in the summer. He calls it Foggy ( for Foghorn Leghorn!) so when I saw this pattern I knew I had to make it for him. He loves it! 

It is all English paper pieced and it was quite a production keeping all those pieces in the right order.

It is now proudly hanging in his kitchen!

Here is the Christmas gift I didn't get done. I will get it done soon though. It is a fabulous dragon. It is ready for stuffing now and then assembly. Then the fun part comes with embellishing. Since I no longer have a deadline I can enjoy playing with my beads and threads and other shiny things!

And I have been making progress in this quilt! I have all the foundation piecing done that I am going to do. I'm not crazy about the clam shell border so I am skipping that. I will probably have to play with the layout a bit but I am loving all my colors! 

I have been busy trimming so now it is time to sewing the small points to the larger pieces.Then I can start laying it out. 

Now that the new year is here it seemed like a good time to reflect on my UFO's, my bucket list and what projects I want to play with this new year. 

My bucket list for this year is small. I want to learn to back baste applique and I want to make another scrappy quilt with really small pieces (still deciding on that!) 

Here are the two applique patterns I want to make to learn back basting! 

As far as UFO's...the only one causing me trouble is Dear Jane. More about that next time! 

Happy Stitching!