Design Wall Monday - December 28, 2020

Happy New Year! 2021 here we come!!

The Cynthia England kits that Joan Brink and I did were a lot of fun to do together, and we had a “reveal” party where we took off all the papers from the front of our projects, and here are the pictures from that evening:

Before we started:

During:

And after we tore all the papers off:

The big reveal:

Joan is going to add borders to her kitty picture and make a wall hanging.  I plan to make my sewing machine picture into a cover for my sewing machine.  

The week between Christmas and New Years is always a very leisurely one for me.  I do plan to re-evaluate all of my UFOs, and see how much smaller the list is than last January.   Also, I plan to set some UFO goals.  How about you?

If you would like to join the Design Wall Monday party, lovely. Link up your blog below, and show us what you are working on.  It doesn’t even have to be on a design wall.  Just remember to mention this blog and provide a link back to this blog post, and we are good. 

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Design Wall Monday - December 21, 2020

Merry Christmas to all the Design Wall Monday bloggers.  Here is a picture of me with Santa, taken in Frankenmuth, MI on another year.  This year we didn't visit Frankenmuth due to the recommended quarantining.  I hope Santa still leaves me some presents - even though I didn't talk to him in person this year.  I have been very very good....most of the time.  

Speaking of presents - I have a give-away for one of you.  The Buds in a Basket Quilt that I finished recently (See details here) is from this quilt book:

And as you can see, I have two copies of the book.  The quilts are from Japanese quiltmakers from the magazine "Quilts Japan", and all are beautiful quilts.  If you have linked up to this blog in the last three months (before today), you are eligible to win the extra copy.  If you win, I will contact you for your address.  If you already have this book, or you don't want it, I will draw another name.  But I want to thank all of you who contribute to Design Wall Mondays.  You make me happy.

One of my UFOs has been finished in 2020 and is now on top of the Christmas tree!  Woohoo!!!  Remember this needlepoint angel I was working on earlier this year? (Talked about her Here)  Back in January when I first made a record of projects started, I found this angel that was partially finished, and now she is finished!  She enjoys being on top of the Christmas tree, in all her glory.

There wasn't a pattern, but I just winged it - chose a backing fabric from the stash and lined it with white sheeting.  I used the backing fabric to make a finishing binding around the bottom.  Here are pictures of the front and back before she went up on the tree.

What are you finishing up for Christmas?  I am baking with one of my daughters in love this Wednesday, and that will be fun.  She likes to make candy, and I do too, so we will make candy and Christmas cookies.  Merry Christmas to you all, and I will talk to you again next Monday with a report to tell you if Santa brought me anything!

Please talk about Design Wall Monday on your blog post and link back to this particular blog post somewhere within your post.  Thank you!  

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Design Wall Monday - December 14, 2020

 Good Morning Quilters!  This morning Covid 19 vaccines are being distributed all over the United States.  That makes me happy.  Also, it snowed this last weekend, one of those wet snows that makes me want to make a snowman.  I think the east coast is getting snow this week.

I finished another May Day Basket block.  This makes 20 finished and 10 to go.  I am actually enjoying French knots more and more with each block.  It is amazing.  Here is a pic of #20:

My friend Joan and I are working on our Cynthia England kits tonight.  I talked about it last Monday (Here)  Below is my kit as it is right now.  I’ve divided my remaining sections into three groups and I hope to finish it in a few more sessions.

One issue I see is that I have worked on several separate sections by themselves, and now that I will soon join these big sections together......

.....I will have a problem where the edges are not straight.  The mood I am in now is that I will just make it  work.  With all that is going on in our world in 2020, this is  a tiny tiny issue. 

What are you working on this week?  Please link up and show us.  I only ask that you talk about Design Wall Mondays somewhere within your post and that you provide a link back to this particular post.  You are such a mood lifter to us all and we look forward to your weekly post.  Thank you!

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Design Wall Monday - December 7, 2020

This is the first Monday in December.  I admire all of you quilters who have your Christmas decorations up and your gifts made/purchased.  I have just started to think about Christmas, and the only thing I have done is put out Christmas placemats and napkins on our kitchen table.  

But as I said last December.....I try to remember to forgive myself for all the things I wanted to get done and didn't.  The house will get decorated for Christmas a little at a time this year.  

What have I worked on this week?  Well, I continued on the embroidery for the May Day Baskets quilt.  This one is #19 and I have just started #20 of 30.  I would surely like to talk to the designer of these baskets....about his obsession with French knots.  This block not only has flowers with lots of French knots but also the basket itself has French knots.

The other project I've worked on this week is one that I never thought I'd finish, but it appears that I will.  Here's the story:

My good friend Joan Brink comes to my house and works on her quilting projects with me on Monday nights.  A few weeks ago, she brought a UFO to show me that was a kit designed by Cynthia England.  Cynthia developed a technique called "Picture Piecing" which is a method where freezer paper (tiny little pieces) are ironed to the front of the fabric, not to the back.  Joan's project was a cute kitten with a quilt.  As I looked at her pattern, I remembered that long ago I bought a similar project that had so many tiny pieces in the design, that I folded the pattern back up and never started it.  Joan said - "I bet it's a Cynthia England design." 

After she left, I searched through my "highly organized and efficient filing system," i.e. the black hole, and found my pattern.  It was indeed a Cynthia England pattern. 

Joan is working on finishing her project.......so I said "If Joan can do it, I can do it!"  I've started on mine.  

Here are the pictures of our two projects:

Joan's:

Mine:

And here is a picture taken of what the freezer paper pattern looks like:

Are we nuts?  Well yes we are, and we both like a challenge, and Joan took a class from her!  It isn't hard - just small pieces....and you know I like small! There are videos (and simple patterns to learn her technique) at her website to explain her method. (Go here to see)  Think of it as putting together a 1000 piece puzzle.

The pattern is divided into sections which are sewn separately and then the sections are sewn together.  I am about halfway through.  I am keeping the freezer paper on the top of the sections as I go, and am going to have a "big reveal" night when I have all the sections sewn together, and take off all the freezer paper pieces.

What are you working on?  Please link up to Design Wall Mondays and show us!

 

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