My stamina is not was it was before surgery, so every thing is taking twice as long. Before, these 2 quilts would have been done by mid-week, but it was late Saturday before I completed them.
Along those same lines, Eclipse would have been done, but I just didn’t have the energy to mess with them. Maybe tonight. There has however been a lot of hand work happening. That bottom section, along with prepping the hexies has been my go-to project with my feet up.
I haven’t spent much time in the quilt studio, instead sitting in the den with my handwork. Earlier this week I attached the 2nd section to the main body of the hexie quilt. I’ve also prepped hexie for the next section.
I’ve even pulled out the Star-A-Day – that that I’ve finished one.
I don’t often hand stitch down the binding on quilts, but on this Handwork Tuesday, I did. This is a table runner for a friend. I found a quilting design for the Ohio Star then looked for something I could put in the border and sashing.
I’m not sure I can call this a Star-a-Day — yet. The top left star is #1. It measures about 3″ instead of the 3-1/2″ it should measure. It took me nearly a week to get it finished. Hand piecing is right up there with applique. Which of course explains why I’m trying to embark on making 365 stars by hand.
Star #2 is the turquoise and brown. I started working on it before I finished the first one and it’s just not going together well. It will have to be taken apart and made over again.
Star #3 – the lime, blue & pink one. Well, this is about the 3rd time I’ve put it together. I discovered starching the fabric really well before tracing the templates makes it much easier to line the pieces up. However, my thread (a silk thread I use for applique) kept pulling out so I set it aside to work on star #4.
Star #4, the one with the lady bugs, I finished earlier this evening. It’s not quite 3-1/2″ but it’s close enough and I switched threads. Once I finished it I ripped out the stitches on star #3 and started over. It wasn’t until I tied off the end of my thread that I noticed I have a couple of pieces in the wrong place. My husband suggested it was a design element. Nope, simply the lack of concentration.
I’ve been told it takes about 10 stars to get in the groove. I wonder if doing stars over counts.
There’s all sorts of stuff going on in my sewing area. Eeyore is still hanging there — well Piglet is. Eeyore is still to be done. The baby quilt is still in process, but no additional work has been done since I finished the embroidery on the second border. That’s Sydney’s red, black and white rail fence on the right. The backing fabric is laying over the DWR on the left.
So why haven’t I done more? Saturday I ran to Jo-Ann’s to pick up a spool of thread to bind this quilt for a friend.
I had a 40% and a 50% coupon, so I wandered around the store looking for something to buy – not really something I normally do. I end up using coupons on the two spools of thread – the green for the binding and a gray for piecing. Additionally I picked up another skein of black embroidery thread for the baby quilt and this:
This is a the X-Large Fiskars Hexagon punch. It measures 1″ across each edge. Needless to say, there is a not a junk mail card that hasn’t been punched. While I was at it, I cut a ton of hexagons from 2 1/2″ strips and put together a busy bag.
This bag was given to me a few years ago. Previously I had sewing/quilting notions in it, but then migrated to other solutions. It’s perfect for what I need now.
Left to right: the punched cards and a small bag of paper clips; cut hexagons; basted hexagons and a few clipped to cards. The next page is has a whole stack of neutral hexagons on one side of the page and the black embroidery thread for the baby quilt on the other side of the page. That’s where I’ll put the the next two borders once I get them traced off.
I have a few hexagons stitched together — I really need to nail down the pattern before I go too much further. On the right is a panel of Winter Wonderland – a long term project that I’ve been working on.
I also have the hexagon template in that sleeve – which I will probably pull out. In the next to last pocket just shoved willy nilly is the thread for the hexagons and the red work, scissors, nail file, needles, pens and who knows what else. The last pocket has the next to last block for the Christmas BOM and thread plus those applique flowers I did a couple of months ago.
Since everything is together it will be easy to grab and go. I don’t even have to worry about getting bored working on just one project – there’s 4 in this bag.
Hop over to Patchwork Times to check out what other’s have on their design wall.
