April Update

I really did intend to keep updating my blog, but time just seems to be flying by.   My last post had photos from the fall Jane Stickle retreat in Shipshewana, and I'm heading to the spring retreat early next week.  

This photo is from my newest pattern called All American.   I love making Dresden plate blocks.   I hate to tell you how long I had the Easy Dresden ruler before I ever took it out of the package, but it was a really long time.   These Dresden plates are made using a Creative Grids 30 degree ruler.   You sew them the same as you do the pieces cut with the Easy Dresden ruler, but there are less blades to sew so it goes together faster.   You can click on the image on my sidebar to take you to my Etsy shop.   The pattern is also available at Back Door Quilts here in Greenwood, IN.

I decided to join in on the Jemima's Creative Quilting annual mystery quilt along.  The next round has 12 hexagon flowers and will take some time to stitch.  I might take this project along to the retreat next week.  According to the next part that was released, I should use green on the next round of hexagons, but I'm thinking I might switch it up and do something different.  

Here's another hexagon project I have started.  This one is the Tea and Cake quilt from the book Quilts for Life 2 by Judy Newman.  I have the next round cut for this quilt.  You can really create a lot of different designs from the simple hexagon shape.

These next 2 blocks are from the Judy Newman pattern Beehive Coverlet.  These blocks are fun but kind of confusing to create a secondary design.  There are 67 hexagons in each block, so each one is kind of a mini quilt. 

I'm still cross stitching, too.  These are some of the stitches from one of my St. Patrick's displays.  These patterns are by Stitching with the Housewives.  

The pillow in the tiered tray is a design by Helen D found as eastcoastcrafter on Instagram.  The table topper is made from my pattern Sunburst Dresden Table Topper.  It's a quilt as you go pattern so comes together pretty quickly.  

These next few stitches are from the pattern A Year in the Round by Kim and Jade of Small Town Needleworks.  These patterns are so cute and a lot of fun to stitch.  I have May downloaded and am ready to start stitching on it.  

This pillow is a design from Primrose Cottage.  I made this into a small pillow for the smalls exchange at the retreat with Two Tall Stitchers Carol and Jen.  This was my first time at this retreat.  It's nice to meet others that share your interest in stitching.  Cross stitch retreats are becoming a "thing" just like quilt retreats.  Both are a lot of fun.

This was the small that I drew in the smalls exchange.  It was made by Jen @jenquilter on Instagram.  I have this displayed in my sewing area along with tomato pincushions that belonged to my Mom and Mother-in-law.  The little wicker basket is where my Mom kept her needle and thread.  

Here's a small spring stitch I did.  This is a design by Erin Elizabeth.  

I didn't plant any tulips last fall, so these in my family room will do until I plant some.  The weather here has turned to spring with warm days and cool evenings.  Most yards have been mowed once or twice, and the daffodils are blooming.   Hope the weather is great where you are.

Until next time.....

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

I'm going to try to work my way through the quilt blocks that I've started and never put together into a top.  This pattern is Antique Baskets by Brandywine Design.  The pattern has more baskets, but I'm stopping at 16 to make a wall hanging.  The handles are embroidered.  I used a product called Transfer Eze.  You can see more photos of the blocks and a photo of the pattern here.    I'm trying to choose a sashing fabric from my stash.  I'm not sure about either of these fabrics.  

I've started a new hexagon project.  One of the girls at the Jane Stickle quilt retreat gave me a package of hexagon papers that she didn't want  I thought that was a sign that I should start a new hexagon  project.  I'm using my stash of Tilda fabrics.     

Here are just a few photos from my trip to Shipshewana.  Each time I pull up to the side of Yoders Department Store , there are more barn quilts.  These are over on the side of the store that has all the fabric.  

Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus are standing out front of the entrance into the hardware/department store side of Yoders.  

The Amish were in town on Saturday to do their shopping.  

This is a new to me popcorn store.  It's called The Dutch Kernel, and there are lots of different flavors including Snicker Doodle, Cheddar Caramel and Pizza flavor.  They have a website, and you can order online.   

This is a wreath that I wish I'd bought.  

The town was all decorated for Christmas.  

I love time spent there with friends.  It had been 3 years since I'd been to the retreat.  I had a great time even though I didn't get much sewing done.  I embroidered 3 basket handles during the retreat.  That was pretty much it.  But, that's ok.  Catching up with friends and having fun was more important.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Fall/Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Hello everyone.   I know it's been awhile.  I've just come back from my semi annual quilt retreat in Shipshewana, Indiana.   That was my first time being there in 3 years.  It was wonderful to see old friends and meet some new ones.  Several people asked what happened to my blog.   I've been over on Instagram lately.  My user name is loosethreads_luann if you want to follow me over there.  I've also been doing mostly cross stitch lately, but after being at the quilt retreat I'm inspired to do a bit of quilting.   

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner here with family and friends.   My Grandsons helped  pick up my fall decorations and take them to the basement.   As soon as I get those things organized and stored away, it's full speed to Christmas decorating.   We have the outside Christmas lights up.  It's snowed already here in Indiana, but we had a couple days that were close to 60 degrees so we took advantage of the nice weather to do the outside.  OK.   I was supervision and did some pre Thanksgiving meal prep while my husband and daughter did the outside decorating.   Before we picked up the fall decorations, I took a few photos.  

This is the fall table centerpiece I made from some picks and a pumpkin from Hobby Lobby.   Underneath everything is my Sunburst Dresden Table Topper made in fall colors.  You can find the table topper pattern in my Etsy shop here.  

Everything here came from Hobby Lobby.  This is a glass jar with felt pumpkins that came on a long stem.  I just pulled them off and filled the jar.  The jar is sitting in a small wreath.

I just happened to go to Hobby Lobby for something on the Monday that all fall decor went from 50% off to 65% off.   I came home with the fall sign, the galvanized pumpkin container, and all of the pumpkins in the bucket.   There was an overflow that I'll use somewhere next year!

Here are some of my fall quilts.  I love the color teal so I try to add some teal to my decorating every season.  This leaf quilt was from a pattern by Judy Martin.

I did this one when watercolor quilts were popular.  It was folded up as just a top for a long time.  I decided to do a little machine quilting on it so I could display it.  I made it so long ago that the book is gone, and I don't remember the designer.  I have a stack of quilt tops that I'm hoping to quilt my way through this winter.  

 

This is a twisted bargello.  I combined directions from a magazine and a pattern that I bought at a quilt show.  This one is a one and done.   I'm glad I made it but won't do it again.  

The Lone Star is easy to make using a product called Quiltsmart.  Quiltsmart is  foundation paper piecing using cut rectangles.  There are no bias edges, and it's the perfect way to make a Lone Star quilt.   

I love this little pumpkin wall hanging made from a pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew.  The pattern is called Mini Pumpkins and can be found on Etsy.

This one is on the bed in the guest room.   The applique' block in the center is from a quilt I started and didn't finish.   The rest is squares and half square triangles.

These are just a few of the cross stitch pillows I finished for fall and Halloween.  

I found this pillow at Home Goods and decided I needed a fall afghan to go with it.   I don't know if I'll get this one finished until next year.   Once a season is past, I move on to the next.   Unfinished projects get stored away until the next year.  I'm going to have to start working a couple of seasons ahead to be ready in time to decorate.   

 

I know this post is a bit scattered, but lately I've been looking up some of the bloggers that I used to read to see if they are still posting.   I've found some and have enjoyed reading them again.   I've subscribed to some that are quilting, cross stitch, and a combination of both.  Some have a little crochet and knitting.  I've always enjoyed different crafts, so you may see several different things here.  

Until next time.....

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

New Patterns and Some Stitching

I've been busy doing a lot of sewing the past couple of weeks.  I enjoy pattern writing and explaining how to sew things step by step.  I made this quilt in different fabrics a couple of years ago and wrote a rough draft of the pattern then.  A few weeks ago I decided to remake the quilt in Lori Holt fabrics and double check the pattern draft I wrote.   The result is the quilt below called Dresden Blossoms.   You can purchase the pattern in my Etsy shop LuAnnsLooseThreads.  

I'm still cross stitching a lot and have a lot of Sunflower stitching to work on.  I wanted a table runner to go under my tiered tray that will hold my sunflower stitching.   I came up with this table runner below and wrote and published a pattern for it.  You can click on the link in my sidebar to purchase that pattern.  

I've been in the mood to get back to stitching some hexagons, so I decided to jump in with some other hexagon stitchers over on Instagram and do the Tea and Cake quilt from Judy Newman's new book, Quilts for Life 2.  This has been a lot of fun so far.  The book gives a general idea of the layout of the quilt.  But it's kind of like a choose your own adventure quilt.  Right now I don't have a plan, but I'm enjoying getting back to stitching hexagons again.

Here's the book that contains the pattern.

Here's some of my small cross stitch projects.  The two small pillows are free patterns from   Melisa at Pinker N Punkin blog.  She has a lot of other free patterns that are really cute.  A lot of them are my "to do" pile.  

This pattern is called Freedom and the designer is Monica from Monica's Stitching Studio.  I love this Uncle Sam with his flag and eagle.   You can find this pattern and more of Monica's Designs in her Etsy shop found here.   Now we decorate our cross stitch with some fru-fru, so I've added a bow, stuffed gingham star and a Patriotic pick.  Cross stitch is a lot of fun this time around.  I cross stitched a lot back in the late 1980s.  Now there are patterns that are small enough that we can finish them in a couple of days.  The finishing (making into little pillows or framing with different fabrics behind the stitching ) takes almost as much time as the stitching itself.  The possibilities are endless.  

We had a fun July 4th barbecue with hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, potato salad, and fruit pizza made by my two Grandsons.  I found this trifle dish on sale at the grocery store, so I made this banana pudding trifle.  (My other trifle dish went to Goodwill because I didn't think I'd ever use it again.)   

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!!!!!

Switching to a New Email Subscriber Service

 Good Monday morning

I wrote my first blog post here in August 2008.  At some point I added the box over on my sidebar that allowed you to subscribe to my posts by email.  In the past Blogspot has used Feedburner to allow you to get notices when I post here on my blog.   But for some reason, Feedburner is going away.

So I've signed up with a service called Follow It.  You will probably have to confirm your subscription again since I'm using a new service.

The email will be from follow.it.

When you open the email, it will look like this.  Click the link in the green bar, and you will continue to receive updates from my blog.   




If you are a blogger and haven't switched over from Feedburner yet, email Follow It.  When you click that link and their page opens up, there is a box that pops up at the bottom that says "Send us a message."   They were very helpful and emailed back and forth with me until I (hopefully) have made the switch.  I believe Feedburner is going away on July 1, and if you don't switch to another service, you will lose your subscribers.  

Those of you that follow me, thank you.   I'll be back later today or tomorrow with a quilt/cross stitch post.

Hope you are finding some time to stitch today.

Thank you for visiting!

Patriotic, Wreats and Hexagons - Checking In

Hi Everyone

I'm just checking in after several months of being MIA.   I'm just making sure that I can still remember how to do a blog post and to see if there is anyone out there that is still reading my  posts.  

This is a quilt that I made a couple of years ago.  It's just a pattern that I made up.   I have it hanging up in my kitchen using the yardstick hanging idea from Janet that blogs at Rogue Quilter.    I love Patriotic decorating and will post more later.

I've been making wreaths the last couple of weeks.   The wreaths below are all made from a tutorial on YouTube from Priscilla at Stitching with the Housewives.   Priscilla and her daughter, Chelsea, are cross stitch pattern designers and have a you tube channel.  

 

This one is made from small tulip stems from Michaels.  

These really are easy to make.   Once I stopped dropping the roll of wire and getting the grapevine wreath to stop sticking to everything, it was pretty easy.

This one is on my front door now.  It is made from 4 different geranium branches from Michaels.

I've been doing mostly counted cross stitch for the last several months.   Lately, I've been thinking about pulling out my hexagons and starting a new project.   More on that later.

This post is mainly a test to see if I still remember how to do a post and see if anyone is out there reading this.   

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!!!