Carolina Christmas Progress

I had hoped to get all the poinsettia blocks done this week, but my sewing time was limited.  By Monday night, I had this much done:

 

To say I'm finished with the poinsettia blocks, means I'd have to have these 48 units sewn into blocks of 4 to make 12 big blocks.  That hasn't happened yet, and now I'm thinking that I may wait to do it because it is easier for me to store 8 inch blocks than 16 inch blocks without getting them  all wrinkled up. 

 

In any event, I would have never even begun this quilt without the push from Jo.  Thanks, Jo!  I've always wanted to do Carolina Christmas, and now I might even have it done for Christmas 2014.

I'm linking up with:

http://www.joscountryjunction.com/bonnie-challenge/

Silk Ribbon Roll-Up

I took a class last Saturday with Susan Gay of Berryhill Heirlooms.  Here is my Silk Ribbon Roll-Up:

Three pieces of double sided satin ribbon were joined with a featherstitch.  It was a challenge for me to get the featherstitches even.  I am used to working on linen, not silk. 

Susie Gay was an excellent teacher. There were about 15 people in the class, at all different stitching levels, and she managed to keep us stitching.  I got about 75% of the piece done in a 6 hour class.

The beaded ends of the ribbon ties were hard for me.  I redid the first one 3 times before I got it done to my satisfaction.

Here is what the piece looks like on the inside.  The inner layer is wool felt.  The pocket at the end closes with an antique button.  It holds a beeswax strawberry.

Here is a close up of my beaded grapes.  I had the same spacing issue with the Antwerp stitch edging that I did with the featherstitch:  no threads to count to keep the spacing even. 

I did ribbon embroidery for the first time on this piece.  It was fun! I'd like to do more ribbon embroidery.  I signed up for a class last spring, but it was cancelled due to lack of interest.  I hope my guild will offer more surface stitching classes as I really need the practice.

This project was published in Creative Needle, August 2008.  I'm linking up with Sarah and Amanda Jean.
 http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2013/11/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-restoring-past.html

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2013/11/scrap-vortex.html

http://www.supermomnocape.com/2016/05/23/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-59/

November Ornament

I finished my November ornament a week early (or my October ornament 3 weeks late).

 

The gold beads, gold thread and sparkles woven into the fabric don't show up very well.  This is Christmas Box Ornament.  I'm afraid I don't know the designer of this one.

 

To see more ornaments:

http://stitchinglotus.ca/2013/11/ornament-sal-november-check-in/

 

 

 

Carolina Christmas Continues

I've gotten 48 small poinsettia blocks done.  These need to be sewn together in 12 sets of 4.  I hope to get that done tomorrow.  I will soon need to stop sewing and start cleaning because  about 30 people are coming to my house for Thanksgiving.

 

 

To see more design walls:  http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/11/18/design-wall-november-18-2013/

 

The Backup Machine and Carolina Christmas Whine

I sew on a Bernina 1260 that is about 17 years old.  My machine has been in the shop this week for its annual cleaning, so this week I've been using my son's 830 Record.  The Bernina tech told me that the 830 is considered a perfect sewing  machine.  It is still in  high demand  after 40 years because it is a great machine. 

Perfect or not, I miss my 1260.  I like having a needle up/down button.  I miss the way my 1260 can sew backwards without my holding down a button.  I even miss the razor thread cutter on the side.  My 1260 foot peddle is more sensitive than the one on the 830, which seems to only have a super fast or super slow speed. This sewing machine also likes to grab the corners of triangles and pull them into the bobbin area, even when using the leader/ender technique.  I am grateful to have a backup machine, but I will be glad when mine is out of the shop. 

Another thing I feel like whining about is this unit:

I've made almost 200 of them for this quilt.  Some of them look pretty good, but most of them are mediocre, just a hair too big or small or not quite square on the ends.  Quilting muggles will never notice, but it is driving me crazy.  A few of these units were so skewed that I decided not to use them.  

Is there a better method than sewing a neutral square to the end of the red rectangle on the diagonal? I actually drew  the diagonal lines on the triangles, hoping to improve the accuracy of my units, but it didn't really seem to matter.  I just made a boatload of these units this past summer for Lazy Sunday and had similar accuracy problems. Usually I get more accurate the more repetitions I do, but I can't say I'm really improving at this.  If anyone has a more accurate method, please let me know.  I like making units a sliver bigger than needed and trimming them down to the correct size, but am not quite sure how to do this with this unit.  If I knew the name of it, I would google it.  Someone must know a better way.

This week I got in about 3.5 hours of sewing time and made some progress, but I'm not as far along as I'd like to be.

For more Bonnie Hunter quilt progress:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/bonnie-challenge-update-2/

Carolina Christmas Continued

I've gotten a moderate amount of piecing done this week on Carolina Christmas.

All 192 neutral and gold parts are done.  I have completed 40 of the 192 red and neutral 'petal' units, and have another 80 half way done.  I am saving my bonus HSTs from this quilt.  I have a boatload of them right now because I saved the bonus HSTs from Lazy Sunday too.  Using up my  2 inch bonus HSTs will have to be a project for next year. 

Jo, my ironing board looks as bad as yours does!  Maybe making a new cover should be on my short list for 2014.

To see more Bonnie quilt progress:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/bonnie-challenge-update/

Carolina Christmas

I spent last week cutting trash scraps for Carolina Christmas.  Trash scraps are the winkled up balls of odds and ends of fabric that never properly get sorted.  Trash scraps are the kind of scraps a lot of quilters throw out. Trash scraps include the bandannas the dogs get when they go to the groomer. Trash scraps are lots of work to harvest:  they have to be starched and ironed flat before they can be cut.   I've gotten all the pieces cut for the poinsettia blocks cut.  My goal is to finish all of these blocks before Thanksgiving.

 

I cut some extra 2 1/2 inch neutral squares.  I don't think I've made a quilt of Bonnie's where I didn't need a few ( or 200) of them.  I'll use the extras in this coming mystery.

 

To see more Bonnie Quilts:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/the-bonnie-challenge-update/