Oh What a Relief It Is!

First of all, thank you to everyone for your comments, suggestions and sympathy! Most of you felt that it wouldn't be noticed by many people. But most of you also felt that I had to do what made me feel comfortable.

And that meant fixing it! It actually was much easier than I had feared. I imagined having to take out all of the cross hatch quilting. But believe it or not, most of the rearranged leaves not only fit well between the existing cross hatching, but did so in a way that I only had to add more in two or three places.

I picked out the outline quilting around the leaves; removed them; re-appliqued in the right positions; and then outline quilted around them again. And there were only a few places where I either had to remove some of the cross hatching that now was behind the leaves or add additional.

All together it only took about 4 hours.

I just couldn't imagine feeling regret every time I looked at the quilt in the future..not after all the work I'd already put into it. And I am so happy I took what is really a very little bit of time to fix it.

Now it's still far from perfect. But it's my best and that's all that counts.


Doesn't it look better?

Arrrgghhhh!

My Dutch Treat has been laying on the living room floor as we continue to look at it and admire it. Hey, I worked a LONG time on this...I'm entitled to admire my diligence.

Then this afternoon I noticed something that made me feel like pulling my hair out.

Did any of you notice?

Because some of the center blocks are clearly directional, I so carefully planned my border since it would hang in one direction only.

The leaves in the bottom point out from the center, towards each side.....



They went around the corners and continue UP each side towards the top....


(Yeah...that's my toe)


And then they were supposed to round the top corners and point IN towards the center.....

But this is what I noticed the this afternoon......

The birds are flying correctly..TOWARDS the middle. But the leaves on the right side were appliqued in the wrong direction.

Can you hear the gnashing of teeth going on here?

You of course know that I will have to remove the appliqued leaves and take out all of the quilting in that section of border, re-applique and re-quilt. If I don't it will drive me nuts!

Or should I say this is my "quirky" quilt?

After 21 months of work, I don't think so...........

I think I have to fix it.

Last night and today I've been working on other applique...leaves actually....on a long set aside Baltimore Album style project.

It may take a day or two before I start....but I will fix it.

Can you feel my pain?

(And before somebody points it out, I know the birds in the bottom border are flying towards the center..unlike the leaves...but it's my quilt and that's the way I wanted it....LOL. They didn't look right the other way).

It's Done!!!!!

Much as I wanted to be able to say I finished my Dutch Treat quilt in January, I just couldn't get all of the binding done in one evening. But I did finish it today!

21 months..April 23, 2008 was the date I made my first 4" block. I started hand quilting in October 2009 and didn't really work on it much all of November 2009 as I recovered from the flu. It's been a long process, but I've loved every minute of the journey.

I will never be an expert hand quilter but I am so proud of myself for doing this and it will be one of my treasured quilts.

It's hard to get a full picture but I may be able to get one tomorrow when my oxygen delivery person is here and can assist Tom in holding it up (he's a kind and generous person). It will be laundered by then as well.

Geta's Giveaway

Boy, I can't believe more than a week has passed since I've posted anything. I've been BUSY..trying ever so hard to get my Dutch Treat quilt completely finished by the end of January. I'm in the home stretch...one more border to complete the crosshatching on and then binding. Think I'll make it?????? Only if I get off the computer!

I've been remiss in not pointing you towards my friend Geta's January giveaway. And it's almost too late! You have until tomorrow to enter for a chance to win her latest pattern for these darling little pocket projects. Scoot on over!

Borders Added

The appliqued borders have been added. Now they need quilting of course.

Top border

Bottom border

I'm pretty sure I am going to finish with a scalloped edge that follows the curve of the vine. May find a few more leaves to add here and there. It's my own design.

This is going to be a busy week..a workshop, two trunk shows and chicken noodle dinner at church. Catch you all on the other end!

New Siggies

I need to catch up with the siggies I've received in the last few days.

Elizabeth from France

Illene from Australia



Wanda from The Netherlands

The siggies themselves are wonderful and always so creative. But reading the notes that accompany them are often an even bigger treat.

I'm always open to trading with anyone reading my blog..the more the merrier! Just email me to exchange mailing addresses.

Now, I'm off to finish sewing the appliqued borders to my Dutch Treat. Yep! I got all four appliqued this week, except for the corners which I'll do after they are on.

Here's a sneek peek.

Happy Saturday!

A New Year

I've been busy..just haven't taken time to blog about it. So I'll try to do some catching up.

First, looking back on last year. My goals at the beginning of 2009 were

.............to continue making quilts from my stash of fabric and limit the new fabric purchases

.............to finish as many UFO's as possible and limit the new projects started

.............to ignore both of the above when I felt the need to just enjoy myself

And this is how it turned out:

13 quilts --3 were baby quilts, the rest were sofa sized or larger; 5 were UFO's

9 wall hangings or table runners, etc. ---1 was a UFO

3 new full sized quilt tops made but not quilted

3 small quilts quilted for someone else

111 Dutch Treat blocks reverse appliqued (to complete the 196 in the quilt) and 11 rows hand quilted

17 Dear Jane blocks sewn (to bring the current total to 158 out of 169)

I started both Dear Jane and Dutch Treat in April 2008. I'm definitely happy with the progress on my Dutch Treat (more later in this post).

And I'm disappointed that I dropped the ball on the Dear Jane. I only had 13 more to go at the one year mark and have only made 2 blocks since then.

I gave two trunk shows in 2009, which was a new but enjoyable experience.I have two more and a workshop scheduled for next week.

For 2010 my goals are pretty much the same. I'll keep the monthly list of completed projects in my sidebar.

I still need to use more of my stash. And that's fun for me since I love making scrap quilts and I also like the fun of starting something without being sure if I'll even have enough of the fabrics I start with. I guess it's my way of designing. You know what they say..."necessity is the mother of invention".....well that sort of applies to quilting I think. Some of my favorite quilts are ones where I had to change plans part way through and was surprised by the outcome.

On that note...this is the top I pieced this week.

My borders aren't that crooked. This picture was taken before all three were actually sewn. I was testing to see if I liked the way it would look and had them just laying in place.

In case you don't recognize it, I used the same block that I've come to refer to as "Grandma's Block". I just love it and I think I've only scratched the surface of the ways to use it.

You can see all the versions to date using this block here

The best news of all is that this morning I finished quilting the last block in the Dutch Treat. I started quilting it about 3 1/2 months ago. Considering I was pretty much out of commission for several weeks in November due to H1N1, I'm proud that I finished the part of the job this soon.

Now I need to add borders, applique and quilt them. That won't be real fast either.

I'm so glad that I have such an enjoyable hobby. Because it's good to be able to sit inside where it is warm and toasty and not have to venture out for days on end. We are having the coldest weather we've seen since 2001. And you have to go back to 1979 to find a string of days like we've had. We are supposed to get down to -7º tonight. I was used to this kind of weather in Iowa, but after 23 years living in SE Kansas, my blood has gotten awfully thin I think.

So it's good to sit in front of a sewing machine or cuddle up in the recliner with a good movie and hand work. We have plenty of groceries and no need to go out.

Hope the rest of my Midwestern friends are staying warm as well.

Now Where Was I?????????????

It seems like forever since I've posted anything. I'm feeling a little stronger each day, but it sure is an uphill battle. I can't believe how hard the H1N1 hit me. It not only robbed me of physical strength, but it seems to have taken my emotional and mental strength as well. I'm having a difficult time finding enthusiasm for much of anything.

So....we went to Iowa for my family reunion. I've never heard the final count, but I believe we had over 150 people attend. This picture of my mom, sister, cousin and I was taken shortly before we left for the day. About 4 hours later I was riding in an ambulance!

After returning home to Kansas on the 3rd of November, I've spent most of my time in bed or in the recliner.

Last week I did find enough energy to quilt this cute little baby quilt for my friend, Cindy. She had given it to me for quilting just before we left for Iowa and she was hoping to have it to give as a baby shower gift this week. So I didn't want to disappoint her, even though I knew she'd understand.

It was small, so I was able to finish it in a few hours. It's really cute...would love to own it! Cindy does a marvelous job of piecing and applique.

When I left for Iowa I only had about five more blocks to hand quilt on my Dutch Treat to reach the halfway point. I not only fully expected to finish those during our trip, but I added two more rows so I'd have plenty to keep me busy.

We all know how those plans turned out.......................

I've done some hand quilting in short bursts in the last week and today I finished those five blocks. I can now say my Dutch Treat is half quilted! Of course that doesn't count the border, what ever that turns out to be.

Close up of some of the quilted blocks. Wish I could get a picture that really shows the quilting.

I've received a couple of really cute siggies in the last couple weeks as well

This from Nicola in Germany

And this from Erna in Germany as well.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

Dutch Treat Quilting

My friend, Crispy, wanted to see progress pics of the quilting on my Dutch Treat quilt. She's a master hand quilter and even in my best dreams I'll never reach that level, so I hesitate to even share these.

I'm definitely not a hand quilter! And I can't quilt well in a frame, especially something like these little blocks which require lots of frequent, tiny direction changes. I'm quilting small sections (this piece has five horizontal rows) at a time and in my lap. This allows me to continually turn the piece to outline all these tiny shapes.

First I quilted in the ditch around the sashing. Now I'm going around all the shapes, keeping the quilting always in the white fabric. These blocks are 4" finished, so some shapes don't have very much room left for quilting between the shapes. That means I'm often quilting not only through both layers of top fabric (none of the blue is trimmed away so that the shadowing is even) but right through the turn under allowance of the reverse applique. The end result is that I'm most often quilting through five layers total. Hard to keep stitches small and even, especially for a novice hand quilter like me.

But I'm enjoying the process as I work on this in the evening while watching TV. And over all I think I'm going to be happy with it. I'll have a real sense of accomplishment I hope.

While I'm sharing progress pics...here are some blocks I've made over the last month for a darker version of "Remembering Grandma". I'm mostly using Civil War repros.

We've received over 4" of rain in the last day and a half. I hope it's done now. Lots of flooding in the area and our police officer granddaughter has had to deal with accidents and stranded motorists. We pray she and everyone stays safe.

Dutch Treat Top

After spending the morning making a couple of friendship blocks, I put the last two rows of the Dutch Treat quilt together. Now I have four sections...2 rows, 5 rows, 5 rows, and 2 rows. This is how I'll quilt them and then join the sections and lastly add the borders. Those may be appliqued or they may be pieced..I have yet to decide. I figure it's going to take me a long time to quilt this so plenty of time to let ideas percolate.

Done!

Whew........196 Dutch Treat blocks are done!!!!!

Last night I finished............

Lace

Picture Frame

I started these April 23, 2008..a day before starting my Dear Jane (still 11 blocks to go on the center of that one). I took some longish breaks here and there..but for the most part I steadily stitched my way through them. I think I'm actually going to miss working on them, but now there is the challenge of a border and quilting.

I've pretty much decided to try to hand quilt this piece in sections, adding the border after that is done in a "quilt as you go" fashion. We'll see.............

I also have the Dear Jane to finish...............and a couple of other applique UFO's..........and ..............

Don't think I'll be without something to work on.

I'll finish sewing these last blocks into rows and post some pics of the sections later.

Two to Go

I finished two more Dutch Treat blocks yesterday and last night.

First "Twizzler" which I have avoided about as long as possible..Whew.............I'm glad it's done! May not be perfect, but it's done! Those little squares are about 1/8".

And Crown Molding wasn't as hard, but still not that much fun!

Back to the recliner...watching golf and stitchin' the last two!