Design Wall Monday - February 3, 2020

It is possible to go through your entire life without ever having gone through a universal palindrome.......but we did it yesterday!  For number geeks like me who get excited about things like this, it was a special day.  The date 02/02/2020 is an eight digit number that can be read forward and backward and be the same.   So, if you didn't feel special yet today, just know that yesterday you lived through a unique phenomenon.  It won't happen again until 12/12/2121.  

This month's UFO is a Bonnie Hunter class project that I took back in March of 2014.  Talkin Turkey is the name of the pattern.    

I stopped before making the pattern border as I was unsure what border I wanted on my quilt.  Bonnie Hunter's border has many pieces and that didn't appeal to me.  Then my brain when off on a tangent with a plan for a border with appliqued turkey feathers on it.   It sounded good at the time, but I rejected it.

There is a reason why this UFO has been in the decision making stage for this long.  

Now is the right time to move this UFO into a finished quilt.  I have decided to put a simple hst border on it.  Here is a picture of the quilt on my design wall today, with a sample of a simple border.

What is on your design wall?  I didn't look at very much last week, as I caught the flu/cold that has been going around, and am just now feeling better.  I hope to spend some time Tuesday admiring this week's pictures.  Please provide a link back to this blog post from somewhere within your blog post.  Thanks!

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Sewing on the Porch

This week has been a week of adjustments in the quilting area.  My sweet dog Sally is unable to climb the stairs to join me in the quilt room, and as she ages, I like to keep an eye on her while I work, so I just bought an old Singer 404 machine, and I can sew downstairs on the porch, with Sally at my side. It's a win, win.  The machine was $40, all refurbished and ready to go.  It was one of the last metal Singers that were sold to high schools for use in Home Ec 101.  Straight stitching is all I need most of the time.

New sewing area on the screened porch:

Another adjustment was a change in the size of the turkey feathers I'm using in the border of Talkin' Turkey.  The feathers didn't look large enough, so I enlarged my pattern, and am making feathers again.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of talkin' about Talkin' Turkey.  Need to get it off my design wall, but it's still up there.  Here's a picture of the larger turkey feather, and some in the process of being made:

The trip to buy the sewing machine was a serendipity.  The machine was in Petersbury area, and we stopped in City Point, VA, where General Grant had his headquarters during the siege of Petersburg.  Lincoln spent five days there with Grant during the war.  It's a beautiful piece of land jutting out where two rivers join, and was a beautiful place to take a little walk.  Here are a few pictures from our walk:

General Grant's family cabin

Headquarters of Union Soldiers

It was a perfect day!  The sky was so blue and the clouds were cotton puffs.

Crossing a river on the way home

I am linking up with Design wall Monday's at patchwork times today.  (Here)

Memorial Day (Decoration Day) Thank you to those who serve.

Happy Decoration Day (Memorial Day) and thank you to all those who serve our country.  These pictures are from a few years ago, of a little girl, Madeline Grace, who helped her mother put flags in a cemetery, in memory of those who died in service.

I have Talkin' Turkey almost assembled - just a few more rows to sew together, and then the middle will be finished.  The border on Bonnie Hunter's pattern involved more flying geese than I wanted to make.  I asked some friends at an applique group what they thought about a border, and they said "Applique a border!".  Of course they did, they are an applique group!  So they got me started thinking about a few feathers in the border, and then I decided on some string pieced turkey feathers, and this is the sketched results:

I am using a nine inch border of red checked fabric, with a few turkey feathers in two corners.  I have only made one feather, so far, but this is the plan.  What do you think?

It's still on the design wall, and I am sewing rows together, and making more string feathers this week.  

Here's a picture of the quilt top, with rows partially sewn together:

Talkin' Turkey on the Design Wall

Mondays are the days I "regroup" in my quilting plans.  There are so many projects that are in the waiting stages while I work on this one, shown below.  I've had Talkin' Turkey on my design wall for the last two weeks, and I want to sew it together into a quilt top before next Monday.  It will be nice to have it in one piece finally.

I am looking for a big bold plaid for the back of this quilt, so if you see one that is similar to the one Bonnie Hunter used on her quilt, please let me know.  Here is the back of her original Talkin' Turkey.  I love it!

I am not going to make the border of my quilt the same as the pattern, because I am ready for this quilt to be finished, and the border on the original quilt has a lot of strings and more flying geese.  I haven't decided what I will use for a border yet.

Here is the last bit of flying geese to put into the quilt before the borders:

I've been doing a little redwork while watching baseball this week in the evenings.  Here is the start of a new square with three little birds on it.

My Dear Jane group meets tomorrow, and I have not been working on my blocks, but I am hoping to get some new enthusiasm for my Dear Jane project at the meeting when I see all my friends there.  I am feeling guilty for not working on my Dear Jane project, but it will be next in line.

What's on your design wall?   As usual, I'm linking to Design Wall Mondays (Here)

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!!!

 A beautiful afternoon to be outdoors with quilts!  Millstone Quilts had their annual Outdoor Quilt Show and the sunshine and cool breezes made the quilts shine.  They have this show once a year, and serve up delicious free barbecue lunch plus 25% off everything in the store.  I am making this an annual event!

To learn more about the quilt store, their website is:  http://www.millstonequilts.com

Eye candy for you:

Front Porch

Stream next to the Mill

Entrance Door

Sunshine and Shadows - Literally!!!

Love the Thirties Repros

These looked like older fabrics - lovely quilt!

Love these two!

The middle quilt colors say "Spring is Here!"

See?

Five Quilts - All Beautiful!

Looks like it was a fun group project!

A House Quilt!!!! Be Still my Heart!!!

This "building houses from scraps" project was a 2012 phenomena!  If you want to learn more - http://buildinghousesfromscraps.blogspot.com/

The Window of each House has a Fussy Cut Picture

 Well, today is Design Wall Monday, and here's what's on my design wall:

It's a Bonnie Hunter design, "Talkin' Turkey", and I am in the process of sewing flying geese to the plaid sashing pieces.  To see what other quilters are working on, here's the link:  (Here)