Revisting the past on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ...it is Sunday? Right??  With the holidays in the middle of the week I've been totally off on what day of the week it is... I like holidays but I am a creature of habit... I like my routine... eat, sleep, craft, repeat...

As I've said before I don't make resolutions but a new year does make you think of things you want to do... I know some people have made tallies of UFO's both quilting and cross stitch... ummm.... NOT gonna happen... I don't need to know the actual number of projects that are languishing in plastic bins and bags... I am content in the knowledge that they are dry and dust free and are patiently  waiting to be released from their plastic prison.... someday... someday...

However something came over me on January 1... I saw a new pattern on a blog and thought, oh I'd like to do that... and then I thought Carol you have lots of stuff already started, why don't you look at some of those... and I did ... and then I decided that I should work on them.... OMG... I've been abducted by aliens... what has gotten into me???

First I pulled out a top that hasn't seen the light of day since October, 2016... it is called Cutting Corners and you can see the pattern  here ... it was put in time out because it had gotten on my last nerve... its problem was I could not get the borders to lie flat... I had taken off the borders and shortened them and then put them back on THREE times... but I resolved to give it one more try... and I did ... and it still isn't perfect but it is better... here's a pick of what it looked like when it went into time out...

I don't have a picture to show of what it looks like now but it was improved upon... I decided that I didn't want to look at it anymore... I had fabric for a back and sewed that up and sent it off to Quilting by David... hopefully it won't drive him as crazy as it did me... I figure he'll stretch it when he goes to quilt it and fingers crossed it won't get too many puckers... but if it does I will be okay with that because it will be done... and done is waaaay better than perfect...

A caveat for this pattern... if I want doing it again I wouldn't do it the way the pattern suggests... you end with bias on the all the outside edges of the blocks ...which I believe is the root of the problem I've had getting the borders to lie flat... you are sewing a straight of grain piece - the border - to blocks that have bias on the edge... I did starch the blocks and stay stitch the edge but as you can see it didn't fix all my issues... just a warning...  I have seen other quilts using this pattern and they looked fine... however the pictures weren't of the top but of a finished quilt... I'm hoping quilting will help this one...


And somehow working on this top from the past got me thinking about another one I had worked on... I remembered that the fabric was funky prints and colors and I don't have a clue why I put it into a plastic holding cell... but I did... and I found it and released it... I had 2 more rows to sew on with sashing but the rows were sewn and the sashing was made and it didn't take much to get it together... then on Thursday I got the borders on it and I made binding for it... ta da!!!

This pattern is one of my own ideas... it is a riff on a pattern from Missouri Star called Diamond Dash that I made in Christmas fabrics back in 2016 ... you can see it here... anyway I still like the chartruese-y yellow and olive green and slate blue and peach... you hardly ever see peach colored fabric... and the mid-century retro line drawing and birds give me flash backs to the 50's...

the golden age of my childhood... I was wishing I had more of this collection from Jenn Ski... it was called Tiki Tok... and decided to search the world wide web and I found some yardage on an Etsy shop... it is winging it's way here as we speak and will made a funky pieced back...

Unbelieveable... two days into the new year and I had 2 quilt tops completed... and I'm thinking of releasing another one from its solitary confinement as I know it only needs a border... I just don't remember if it needs one or two borders... but it may see the light of day here soon...

I also have a couple of new quilt  projects I want to work on and I have way less guilt starting another new project since I've completed something from the UFO collection... and speaking of UFO I did look in the box that has most of my cross stitch UFO's... there are several samplers there that I'd like to break out and finish up... I'm currently working on this piece that I started on Christmas Day...

this is  Welcome Winter by The Drawn Thread... you can find the chart here... I'm stitching this on a 32 ct Opalescent linen that I dyed Rit Aquamarine ...  here's my progress...

I don't know if you can see it but it very sparkly even after the dyeing...

I've already stitched the Summer and Autumn Welcomes and I'd like to do Spring too... I love these charts except for the fact that they are charted for silks and I don't want to pay the price for silk for a seasonal piece... so I've  come up with my own conversion using DMC and one Gentle Arts and one Crescent Colors...  GA Ruby Slipper for the cardinal and CC Queen Bee (my favorite yellow) for the house... I also changed the shutters on the house to DMC 3371 and made the front door DMC 934... very similar to the actual colors of my little house... I'm happy with my choices... I'd like to have this done next week when I go to put out my snowmen for winter... I still have all my Christmas stuff up and I think I've reached the point where I want to put it away... however, I'm waiting for my new snowman wall quilt to come back from the long armer... it is just the Moda panel but he will be cute ... you can see the panel here... my decorating usually  starts with getting the quilt up on the wall and then I do the rest of the house... but there is no sign of the snowman and now I'm getting antsy to release the snow men... I will see what next week brings... think I'll start with just putting some stuff away...

For the obligatory weather rant ... the weather was lovely on New Years Day... sunny and around 50.. I sat out on the sunporch stitching for a while... great way to begin the year... however, things turned gray and rainy and yuckky... snow flurries but not sticking... so I shouldn't complain too loudly... forecast has some sun in it for today ... and right now it is sunny...yeah... I think I'll  crank up the space heater and sit on the sunporch...

Doing dinner with Elliott and the rest of the family... not a lot of obligations on the calender for this week... I like that a lot... not sure why I'm feeling energized to sew and stitch but I want to keep moving as I'm sure the feeling will pass...

Elliott is growing like a weed... he really really wants to walk... his daddy walked at 10 months and he is going to be 9 months old in a week or so... his parents are so proud that he has 4 teeth... Grandma is happy to see this...

curls... he has curls... his daddy has naturally curly hair and so do I ... a gene that I didn't think would get passed on this far, but it looks like it has... Oh he is too stinking cute!!!  Totally unbiased opinion... LOL

Well I'm happy I got this post together early... started  on Friday and worked on it Saturday and Sunday... perhaps that should be my new routine... we shall see... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... and maybe doing a recap quilt post for Monday... we shall see what I get done today... working on some snowflake blocks...

Hope you have a productive week ahead with plenty of crafty time...
happy stitching-
carol fun