Sweet Land of Liberty Month 8

Month 8...not sewn together with the other months as yet.  I do want to wait and see how the final month needs to be arranged with this one and the previous months.  My birds don't have legs because there is a banner that goes below them.  My new sewing machine has a small alphabet and I want to try the banner with that.  The letters look to be a little fancier than the basic block lettering so we shall see how they turn out.

Here is a portion of month seven with the lettering added.  I do plan on using buttons in the center of the flowers but it struck me that buttons are going to be very hard to quilt around and I've already got a lot in previous sections.  This whole thing may end up being hand quilted!

I'm linking this with Lori's blog, Humble Quilts, for the month 8 Linky party.

Sweet Land of Liberty Update

I have been working on my Sweet Land of Liberty quilt but haven't posted any updates recently.  Shown above are my months 7 and 8.  There are two blocks missing....an embroidered one and one with the head of the Statue of Liberty.  Both of those go above the flag and the head is partly sewn on the star block next to it.  I like my stars and don't want to block them!  So I'm trying to think of something to put in it's place.  I may make it a lettering block, but I'm having trouble with making  letters that show up.  I've taken most of the other letters off of the rest of the quilt top and am working on drawing a decent looking alphabet in the correct sizes.

There is still some detail work that needs to be done here...berries and the centers of the flowers and words on both that block and the fish.  I have no idea of why there is a fish on a flag pole...may be something to do with food for the revolution or a cash crop, but I made a salmon.  As usual most of these blocks are hand drawn.  I've progressed from trying to trace the design from my computer screen to just drawing it free hand.  I've only had one art class (landscape design) but on requirement was to draw for 20 minutes a day.  I t was amazing to see the differences in the drawings from week one to the last of the quarter.  I'm seeing that improvement again with this project.

Almost all of the fabrics used are from thrift shop shirts and a few other thrift acquistions.  The flag is an exception...for the stars I used a square of a Japanese themed fabric line...it looked so much like stars that I couldn't resist and the red stripes are a batik from stash.  When I started this sew along I was worried that I wouldn't have enough traditional looking fabrics to give the proper look to my quilt as most of my stash are bright colors.  My shirt stash came to the rescue along with a charm pack of Jo's Shirtings.  Overall, I'm please with how this is turning out.  Many thanks to Lori of  Humble Quilts for guiding us.

Linking with Moving it forward Monday and Monday Making

Catching Up!

Here are my City Sampler blocks 1-36 all together!  Frankly, I didn't think that I would last this long but they have all been done and posted on the correct days.  Block 44 will be posted to my Instagram today!  I wanted to get them all so that I could check my colors and get an idea of how they would all look together since  I'm not planning on using sashing in the finished quilt. Some blocks are better than others and some really highlight my inability to sew a straight line.  I've had some help in that direction from my sewing machine..I've been noticing that the feed dogs are grabbing the end of the fabric and jerking it out of alignment. Wednesday I'm getting with Amazon for a new one...nothing really expensive but an upgrade from what I've got now.

I'm still working on my Anthology quilt and I'll be making stars for my Sweet Land of Liberty quilt today.  Hopefully more pictures and progress will be posted later this week.  It's been so hot here that it has been a real effort to do anything.  I know everyone else has also been dealing with the heat but we are so unused to it here.  I had to laugh at a recent article in the Seattle Times newspaper...Seattle is the most un-airconditioned city in the US.

Linking with Em's Scrapbag

Technical Difficulties

Finally...here is my month six of the Sweet Land of Liberty!  This was going to be posted way last week but my pretty pink Samsung camera died.  It was about twelve years old so I should have expected it.  I now have a new Kodiak and it has taken me about three days to figure out how to get the pix from the camera to this page.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use the camera!  Hopefully, the pictures will look better than with the old one.

I need to do some embroidery on my couple block and am planning on spending the next couple of days with the embroidery and adding more bits and pieces to all my other blocks.  For those of you new to this, we are doing this sew along without patterns.  I'm copying  freehand from the blocks and directions posted on Lori's Humble Quilts blog.  About half of the fabrics are coming from my thrift shop shirt collection and the rest are scraps from stash...some quite old.  I'm really enjoying the improv process in this and that the quilt is coming together in layers.  First, the basic blocks then adding small shapes (stars, flags, birds, etc.) and finally embroidery.  Thanx so much for hosting this Lori!

I have some new fabrics coming on Wednesday for the Tula Pink 100days100blocks2018  which starts July 7.  I was planning on just using from stash and trying to it all in purples and greens..with some aquas and pinks.  It's been hard trying to collect them all with the move and I wasn't sure if I would have enough.  Craftsy had a BOGO sale and I was able to get a quilt kit (layer cake) and a set of fat quarters in the same fabric in the colors I was planning on using.  When these arrive, I'll starting cutting the blocks and storing them in baggies until it's time to sew them up.

What's worrying me is not the sewing but the fact that the blocks need to be posted daily on Instagram!  I've opened an account and have 1 follower!  Thanx nice person!  I did figure out how to get my photos on Instgram but I haven't figured out how to write anything or leave a hash tag.  That's next...I am NOT computer literate!

Linking with Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making
Em's Scrapbag

Snail Trails

Month six of the Sweet Land of Liberty quilt features four Snail Tails blocks finishing at six inches.  I've never done this block and so I googled it under "6 inch Snail trail quilt block".  Absolutely nothing came up.  I tried "Snail Trail quilt block" and got lots of hits although nothing that was 6 inches.  I decided on a 12.5" unfinished block pattern and figured that I could just halve the sizes.  I did so and if the sizes were over a half inch, I increased to the next inch....so 2.75 became three inches.  I cut, pieced, trimmed carefully and pressed and my block came out to a almost perfect six inches!  Which would make it five and a half inches finished.  How do you take a 12.5" block, divide in half and increase some sizes and come up short?  A complete mystery to me.

Today, I tried again...after more googling to find my instructions, a little header came up at the bottom of the page....6 inch snail trail!  It was NOT there yesterday!  After more cutting, piecing, pressing and trimming, I now have a Snail Trail block that required very little trimming to be 6.5". Just three more to go now.  After comparing the two blocks, I found that there is an extra round of triangles that wasn't in the first pattern.  Here are the two blocks together.

Here's the link to the pattern if anyone else is still looking.
6" Snail Trail block

UPDATE...Here is the corrected version of the Snail Trail block.  Even though I cut all my pieces and laid them out in order, I seem to have rotated the center as I was adding another round which gives the little false trail effect in the block above.

Just a hint...it's probably easier to just call any error a potholder and start over! I think it took me longer to take the center out and resew than it would have to recut and sew from scratch!

Sweet Land of Liberty Month 5

This is month five of the Sweet Land sew along started by Lori over at Humble Quilts.  My Lady Liberty still needs her flag and feet and I have some vintage buttons still to sew on the stars.  I did decide to keep my little girls holding hands instead of separating them out with some borders.  This was a tough month as we are not working with a pattern.  Lori and Denise show their finished blocks, give some measurements of the finished block sizes and borders and we copy them to the best of our abilities.It's wonderful to see everyone's interpetation.   I'm still finding it quite fun to do and looking forward to starting on month six.

All my scraps and fabrics are still piled in front of the bookcase where I'm very slowly sorting them out.  Looking forward to finally finishing that job!

For some reason, the needle in my modern Brother has started hitting the bobbin housing.  I broke three needles until I figured that out.  My Featherweight was oiled and ready to go, so that's what I'm using now.  We have a love/hate relationship dating back to when I first acquired it and it burned my hand and left a scorch mark on the table.  It did teach me not to leave vintage machines plugged in until they were thoroughly tested.  Now it has a new foot pedal and cords (which it shares with a Singer 99) and sews quite well with minimal problems.  I'm getting the 99 oiled and ready to go just in case as all my machines always seem to develop problems at the same time.

I'm linking up with Humble Quilts for the month five Linky party

Progress!

Slow progress but still progress for months four and five of my Sweet Land of Liberty blocks. I need flowers or stars (still deciding) for the top of my log cabin and something to fill the center of the sawtooth star block.  Still to be made is Lady Liberty.

A closer look at my little girls.  Some of the participants paper pieced theirs....since I'm making my own patterns, my method is more of adding chunks of fabric and cutting off what I don't need.   I do like the holding hands effect I've got and I think I'll just add some larger borders to bring it to size.

I'm still unpacking and trying to get all my fabrics organized after the move.  I'm planning on doing the 100blocks100days2018 which starts in July and I am really slow at cutting out.  The blocks are the Tula Pink's City Sampler quilt.  The first four blocks all take 20 or pieces for a 6.5" unfinished block!  Those will take me forever to cut out, so I thought I'd precut a bunch and then sew and post them on the correct date.

Linking with Em's Scrapbag for Moving it Forward
Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making

Catching Up

I'm trying to get caught up on my Sweet Land of Liberty blocks.  With the addition of this month's, I need a total of 16 Flying Geese plus the blocks I have to draft.  Those are the pineapple, a queen, a log cabin and several girl blocks along with several economy blocks.  I used this tutorial for the Sawtooth Star ...very helpful!  It has both the flying geese and the sawtooth star listed in many sizes so you don't have to fool around with the addition.  This does make the four geese at once.

Here are the twelve geese I've finished and the log cabin that needs some work...resewing and measuring coming up.

 The star is also finished but I need to find my extra batteries...It took me two days to find the iron!!


Linking with Busy Hands Quilts

Hand Stitching and Catch Up

Happy Easter everyone!

It's been a slow week in terms of progress and accomplishments.  I've been sewing down all the little pieces of my Sweet Land project.  It's been slow going as my machine has decided that it doesn't like the invisible thread and keeps breaking.  I've gone to matching regular thread which has lead to lots of thread changes.

I ran into a problem with putting my Quilty 365 quilt sandwich together.  I use a spray adhesive and after I got it about halfway done, I noticed that the backing fabric had bubbled.  I'll be taking that apart and restretching that fabric.

Since I'm planning on hand quilting that and since I've never done that, I  got out my Palmateer Point unfinished top and am now trying to hand quilt that.  It's not going well...I need more practice!  So far, my biggest problem is trying to keep the stitching going in a straight line.  I'll probably end up taking it all out and redoing, but right now, I'm going to keep on so I can watch my hopeful improvement!

My stitching is really hard to see on this...some are in pink, the others are tan.

I did manage to empty four grocery totes of scraps and get them sorted into strings and scraps to be cut into squares or other usable pieces.  The hard part is deciding what sizes and then organizing into colors.  I see beautiful photos of nicely organized scraps and hope one day to be among them!

Linking with Slow Sunday Stitching

Sweet Land of Liberty Month 3

Here are both halves ...the entire width won't fit in my camera's view.

The project for month three is mostly applique and adding embellishments to the already sewn pieces.  I dipped into my vintage sewing supplies for a quarter inch wide seam tape and buttons for the branch and berries.  As always, the birds, stars and lettering are drawn freehand.  I find it very interesting that something which looks fine in a rough draft or on graph paper looks completely different in fabric!  Once I cut the green birds and placed them, I thought they looked like lizards. After some adjustment, they do look a little more like birds.

If you aren't familiar with this sew along, it's being run by Lori at Humble Quilts.  This is based on a Cheri Payne quilt and there is no pattern currently available.  Lori gives us block dimensions and photos of what she and Denise have made and then we copy and/or change things as we see fit.

 I see that I lost a letter on the trip from my livingroom to the front porch.  The handwork on attaching alll the letters will probably take me the rest of the month!

Linking withBusy Hands Quilts and  Crazy Mom Quilts

Sweet Land of Liberty

The two panels and the stars are the February blocks for the sew along.  I'm kind of late with these....I had most of it finished by the end of the first week in of the month then spent the rest of my time thinking and procrastinating on the flying geese!  It's a case of I love the geese but they don't love me!  I always seem to have points cut off somewhere....I'd love to do one of those quilts that's all geese...but not yet.

There is no pattern given for this quilt.  Lori posts the month's project on her blog Humble Quilts then we all copy it or find patterns as best we can.  This has turned out to be quite fun.  I did try tracing the eagle from the computer screen but couldn't get the size quite right.  I do have a couple of tries that looked more like a bat but I'm happy with my final result.  The same with the angel...I finally got a wing that I was happy with.

Choosing the fabrics has been an adventure...most of my stash (which is mostly scraps now) are modern prints that I didn't really like with the primitive look of the quilt.  There is a little of every thing in this...a couple of strips from an old French General Christmas collection and men's shirts make up the majority.  The tan background of the angel is from a length of apparel fabric that I got as a mistake with an order years ago.  The pale yellow background for the house block is the wrong side of a very, very bright print and most everything else is from the scrap bags.

Here they are together, with some of the March done.  I still have all the little bits of March to do...there is a vine in the blank blue strip, lots of birds and lettering still to go. Now I need to sit down and do lots of embroidery on this!  This is all together in one piece but too long to fit in my camera's view.

Linking with Humble Quilts, Oh Scrap, and Em's Scrapbag

I'm Back!

I've not posted in a while...a variety of things...illness, procrastination, and a lack of interest in all of my fabrics lead the list.  I do have projects that I want to finish and projects that I want to start so I just sat down to the machine and started in.

My new project is the Sweet Land of Liberty sew along hosted by Lori over at Humble Quilts.  This is a Cheri Payne design and there is no pattern.  Lori is giving the basic block sizes and you do your own thing from those sizes and the pictures she posted.  I've never done a primitive style project and this looked to be the perfect project for my stash of  thrift shirts.  Here's my first month...I've still the embroidery to do.

For the economy blocks I used the information from Catbird Studios.  Very clear and the size turned out for me.  Thank you

I couldn't really see the house well enough in the photos so I made my own simplified house.  I'm fairly pleased with it but I think I may redo the light green economy block and the "A" again.  I'll put it away for a couple of days and then see how I like it all


Linking with Finish or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts
Humble Quilts