Catching Up With You

Dear Readers

Thanks to everyone that wrote to ask if I was still among the living.   Yes, thankfully, I am.   I've just been really busy this summer and fall.    The weather has turned from fall into winter, and now we're back to fall again.  We had heavy snow flurries on Halloween night along with strong wind so there's a  lot of candy left over which is why I buy candy that we like.  During the summer, I spend a lot of hours sitting out on the porch stitching.   So I either choose stitching or sitting at the computer to write this blog.   And you know which one I did this summer.  I love to stitch outside in the natural light.

In the last month, I've done 3 trunk shows/programs for guilds.  This is how my bedroom looks when I start pulling quilts to pack.  I normally take anywhere from 35-45 quilts along with me depending on the time allotted.   The first program was at the Mudsock Guild in Fishers, IN.  The second was out in Crawfordsville, IN, which was half way to Illinois from here.   The last program was for the Indianapolis Quilt Guild South.   I enjoy getting out and meeting other quilters.   I want to thank my friend, Theresa, for coming to the Indianapolis South guild meeting.   She not only assisted with holding my quilts and packing them up after the meeting, but she was able to share some of her quilting experiences that we both have been involved in over the years.   Thank you Theresa!!!!   You were a great addition to my program!

 

Here are some of the quilts I finished.  This is the Kingfisher Stitch Along quilt.  This was an on line stitch along by Tales of Cloth and Stitched in Color bloggers.  There are 46 - 1" hexagons.  They are all hand pieced, and I did the machine quilting.   The photo was after the quilt had been folded for several days.

This hexagon sew along was in the June issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.   These are 1" hexagons, and I machine quilted this one.

This one is made up of 1" octagons.   It's not my favorite because I used all one line of fabric instead of pulling my own fabrics like I normally do.   

I've taken a couple of classes at Back Door Quilts by Brian Haggard.   He lives here in Indianapolis and does what I would call free style embroidery.   This is done on black linen with very little marking.  The left hand block is what we did in class.   The second one is the same except that I just kept adding more branches and stems.   Brian showed an example in class where he used alcohol based markers to lightly tint his work.   I have the markers and instead of trying them out to see how it would look, I've kept stitching.   That way I won't mess it up, right?   You are using all one color of perle cotton and ribbon so there is no agonizing over color.   This is a fun and relaxing stitchery project which is different from anything I've done before.

Here's the front of the house decorated for Halloween.   The decorations need to come down in the next few days.   I always hate to see them packed away for another year, but it's not the same feeling as packing away the Christmas decorations.  

I'm rambling a bit here.   I'm so far behind with updates, that it's hard to just jump back in and start writing.   I'll try and get back here more often.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today!