Design Wall Monday - June 28, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  I’ve been up north at the cabin all week, and only took embroidery with me.  The next basket for the May Day Quilt is completed except for the French knots.  As usual, there are plenty of French knots.  The knots will be finished by next Monday though.  It is exciting to be near completion on these 30 baskets.

The second embroidery project I’ve worked on is finishing the borders of the redwork quilt UFO. Here are the four borders:

I realized while they were on the floor (my design wall up here) for this picture that I haven’t even measured how long each border will need to be.  As you realize by now,  I’m more into enjoying the process than doing the finishing up details part of UFOs.  But it seems like a lot of my old, old UFOs are all getting near the finish line at once.  And that’s a good thing.

The Red Delicious apple core quilt needs a label and hanging sleeve, so no completed pictures of it for you until that happens.  That is one of my goals for this week.  

And my tests I talked about last week are happening tomorrow. (Brain scan, Carotid arteries ultrasound, and heart echo test) All day spent in waiting rooms for three different tests will give me lots of French knot time won’t it?  And embroidery is very calming for me, so there is that too.

What are you working on this week?  I hope you link up your blog and show us a picture.  I apologize for not adding comments to your blogs this week.  I was in a funk - but I did read them all, and this week I’ll be sure to make comments.  You all do such amazing work.  Please add your blog to the Design Wall Mondays linky party below, and give us the pleasure of reading your blog.  Thanks!

My requests of you, if you link up, are two things:  Mention the Design Wall Monday  linky party within your blog post, and also that you provide a link back to this particular blog post (not just to the generic smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com)

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Desgn Wall Monday, June 21, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!

So much is happening that I could write about, and some of it isn't quilty.  But I guess I will get my thoughts down on paper so my head can be clearer.

In no particular order, these things have happened:

Father's Day was a wonderful day trip to Lansing for a golf outing.  Two Grandpas, one son and wife, and two Grandsons golfed, while I rode around with them in a cart, working on one of my embroidery baskets.  They included me, even though I'm not a golfer.  We had a great time.  The course wasn't super busy, and that allowed us to play all together, instead of a foursome and a twosome, so everyone had fun seeing everyone else's golf shots.   

Saturday, we volunteered to clean house and spread mulch outside for a charity near and dear to our hearts.  Lighthouse for Teen Moms is a Grand Rapids charity that provides housing, life lessons, and life skills to young teen mothers, who range in age from 14 to 18 years old.  The work day with filled with lots of volunteers and we cleaned the two homes where the charity houses the girls.  It was so good to see all the people working together, and many hands made light work.   I like this charity because it gives options for girls to choose life and not abortion at a critical time in their lives.

Tuesday, June 15th, was our 58th wedding anniversary.  We had a great day and celebrated with friends Wednesday night.  I made a pineapple upside down cake for them with 58 spelled out in pineapple.  I had to think backwards and upside down, because you flip the cake over and the bottom becomes the top.  Tuesday morning, when we ate breakfast out at our favorite restaurant, I told the waitress we were married longer than she has been alive....and she said "twice as long!" lol  It is so amazing and such a joy that we have been married for so long.

Midweek in week before, while driving back to Grand Rapids after a visit with my sister, a strange incident of temporary blindness in one eye for a very short time, led me to several appointments last week.

I've had an appointment with two eye doctors (someone in my family advised I see an Ophthalmologist instead of my Optometrist)  Both eye doctors said my eyes are fine.  My appointment with my general doctor's group was next.  While there I had an electrocardiogram and also have three more tests scheduled: a brain scan, a carotid arteries test, and a heart echocardiogram.  I have never had any of these three tests before.  

The internet (sometimes a reliable source, sometimes not) gives me the following info: A reduction of blood flow through one of the carotid arteries may cause temporary vision loss in the eye on the same side.  The loss of vision is like a curtain being drawn over the eye and usually lasts just one or two minutes. 

Also the short blindness in one eye can be a warning that a stroke is coming later.

My appointments for all three tests are on June 29th, and I shall report the results to you when I know.  

But in the quilting world, I finished machine quilting the red charm quilt in the other direction.  You were correct - it looks so much better quilted in both directions.  And I even finished binding it, and followed the curved edge of the apple core pieces with the binding.  I want to make a label for it, and add a hanging sleeve before it is totally finished.  And with all the traveling this week, I failed to take a picture of the completed quilt.  But it is so rewarding to have this quilt on the finish line!  Here is a picture of the binding:

Also a picture of my newly replanted small bed of flowers where our flagpole is.  All of the perennials were chosen because they are "deer resistant", and the Bee Balm is the star right now.  The hummingbirds love it, and of course the bees do too.   Behind the flowerbed you can see our Dogwood tree, which has been outstanding this year.   It is not a native, but is a white Kousa dogwood. 

What are all the things happening in your world?  I look forward to seeing your quilting walls, projects, blocks, and other happenings in your life this week.  Please link up to the Design Wall Monday linky party and show us.  Thanks.  Don't forget to put a link back to this particular post from somewhere within your post, and also let people know that you are linking up.  

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Design Wall Monday - June 14, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  This week was not very productive for me because I was caring for my sister.  She is doing much better, and I came back home on Wednesday.  So Saturday, I had a dedicated quilting day and got the courage to work on another UFO that has been here for a long time.  I looked back on my blog, and the last time I talked about this quilt was Sept., 2019.  (Here)

My friend, Joan Brink, came over with her sewing machine, and we both machine quilted on our own projects.  I am not very adept at machine quilting, but had this UFO set aside to try it on for quite a while.  My red apple core charm quilt has been basted together waiting for me to try domestic sewing machine quilting.  I finally read more about it, and gave it a try.

I read and "youtubed" about settings, feet, feed dogs, and "super slider" mats.  I googled how to make your own super slider type surface, and used contact paper.  I cut a large piece of contact paper, and removed the backing from only the edge of it on the left and right edge.  Then stuck it down, and cut a hole in the middle for the sewing machine needle.  It worked just fine, and I was able to remove it to change a bobbin.

I ended up trying one of my Janome machine quilting feet, and kept the feed dogs up.  I went slowly, and used a stitch setting of 2.2.  It actually was fun.

Here is my UFO, which I plan to name "Red Delicious" because it's red and an apple core pattern.  It was started long ago by a friend, Joan Edwards, and she sent it to me to add more squares and make it larger.  I increased it to 1,000 squares (I think a little more) and then it sat as a UFO for a very long time.  Until this week - Finishing is finally happening!

I followed the curves across the quilt from one edge to another in only one direction, and am now deciding if I should/could stop, or should I quilt the curves in the other direction.  What do you think?

I think I know the answer - I should quilt it more by quilting the curves in the other direction.  But I wish I was finished.  But, on the positive side, it will be more practice on my machine quilting, won't it?

What are you working on?  I so enjoy looking at the pictures you show us and reading about what you are creating.  Keep up the good work!  Please link to the Design Wall Monday party and don't forget to mention Design Wall Mondays in your blog post.  Also, a link back to this particular blog post is required.  Thanks!

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Design Wall Monday - June 7, 2021

Good Morning Quilters!  In 2019 and 2020, I worked on a cheddar basket quilt that had large white empty squares and pieced baskets surrounding them.  See a blog post (Here) I had thought I wanted a long-arm quilter to custom quilt baskets in the large white squares.  But I also wanted to use some basket patterns I had (these are different than the May Day ones), and was unsure if I could explain what I envisioned to a machine quilter.   Plus the cost would be more than I wanted to pay and I was leery of paying someone to do it and then not be happy with the finished quilt.  So I decided to embroider the basket patterns in the blank squares of the quilt, using cheddar embroidery floss.  It involves embroidery on a quilt that is already a quilt top, but it hasn’t been too unwieldy for me.  I thought of combining the May Day baskets into this quilt, but the colors in the basket were not compatible with the cheddar look I was going for.  Remember this post where I had the idea?  (May Day Basket idea)

 

 

We are up at the cabin, and I’m including some pictures of plants near the front door.  We have some English thyme, which is in full bloom right now, and some ferns.  So far the deer have left these two ferns alone, but have eaten most of the other varieties of ferns that were planted along the sidewalk.  I was told that deer don’t generally eat ferns, but they like the varieties I have planted up here.  And as you know, nothing is “deer proof”.

We are up north to visit with my sister and her caretakers to see if we can adjust her meds to make her feel better.  She has been very anxious lately.  I will be sitting with her during her dialysis treatment and will take my embroidery with me.  Here is the basket I’m working on:

What have you been working on this week?  Please join the linky party and show us your design wall.  You know it doesn’t have to be a design wall (mine isn’t this week) - just show us a picture of what you are working on.  Thanks for joining in, and please provide a link back to this blog post from somewhere within your post. 

 Also thanks for all the kind condolences about Mojo.  He will always be in my heart. 

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