Lucy Boston

Thursday, April 30, 2015

slow stitching, three years slowly

It's all about perspective.

If you've read my blog over the past half year or more, 
I've been holding down my lazy-girl chair a lot,
slowly recuperating.
I've also been doing some red-work embroidery stitching
on The Gardener's Alphabet quilt blocks.

The Gardener's Alphabet is a Crabapple Hill pattern that I just love. 
(: I love so many of Meg's Crabapple Hill patterns that I'll never finish all of them that I'd like to do, but I may start them!... more on that later :)

I've had the last half of the alphabet traced and crayon-tinted for a long time
(Yes, I started at the end of the alphabet, not the beginning).
I can't believe it, but three years I've had this one going!!
I even went back and checked the time-period, 'cause I couldn't believe it's been that long!
Now I have the letters M/n and P blocks stitched!
I'm so excited!
The letter O- Ox eyed daisy is in my embroidery hoop now,
and the next letter I have readied is Q- Queen Anne's lace, 
so a lot of french knots coming, I know.
But that means that it's been three years and I 
have the quilt half stitched!
That also means that I only have 3 more years working on this one!! :)
I don't have any blocks pressed yet as they are just going back into a work basket and will re-wrinkle during the next three years while I continue stitching the remaining blocks.  The close-up photos look better than the far shots (which show the wrinkling more than the stitching).
And finally, here's the 'more on that later':
It's not a UnFinished Object!
It's a six year plan of attack!
So, plenty of time to start more of the CAH quilts that I love!!!  lol

I've heard confirmation from other quilters, 
who've said that a six-year, 
hand-stitching embroidery project is a good plan,
not unheard of at all.

See? Perspective!

What are your slow stitching, six-year quilt plans? :)

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

a little meandering last week

Little by little, I'm building up quilting-steam again
and thank everyone for the well-wishes sent my way.
(Med#5 seems to be working without causing too many ill side-effects,
and thankfully, all test results were negative or benign.)  
I know I'm feeling better, as I have even, 
over the course of the last couple of weeks,
done some meandering!

Here is Bev's quilt that I got to meander over:
(warning - book store head-turn :)
(I don't know why it won't turn right-side up - sorry!)
Bev is in a quilt guild and signed up for the guild's UFQ challenge.
The challenge?  
To list and sequentially number six Unfinished quilts.
Each month of the six month challenge, 
a die would be rolled and the number that turned up
would specify the quilt that would be the next month's 
challenge to finish.
She said:  that of course, the first month the die was rolled, 
her challenge was to finish a quilt that was just blocks in a box!! :)
She had no other fabrics, borders or layout chosen, 
just a box of twelve, pieced blocks from a mystery done a few years ago.

She got right to work and found a piece of stash yardage that had barns on it and decided to incorporate that.  Then she found a border fabric of roses that worked with her pieced block's fabric colors.
Good choices, weren't they?

Her request to me for quilting was to do anything I wanted,
but asked, please, if I'd not quilt over the barns.
Here are a few of the barns and what I came up with for quilting:
In the pics, you can see how I quilted in the pieced blocks, and in the last two pics, you can see the border's quilting also.  The barn fabric itself had just a little foreground design printed, and most of the blocks had clouds printed, so I just added what I thought would be more foreground and scenery.
It was a fun one to quilt and felt good to get back to meandering!

As I finished it up by trimming threads, I remembered: 
I think I have a piece of that Barn fabric...somewhere!  
Now to just come up with some pieced blocks to go with it! lol

I'm off to look through the stash for barn fabric! :)

Thanks for visiting and
Happy Stitching!

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

happy day, sunny day, Tuesday

To start off, I'd just like to declare that
quilting friends are THE best!

A little surprise came in the mail today:
charm squares and 'candy'
which I think will fit right in with my plan
for the Farm Girl Vintage sew-along
Isn't that the greatest!
A combination get-well/hello Spring gift from Wendy.
It was a very thoughtful and appreciated gift!
Such a lovely surprise
from such a wonderful, quilting friend.
She lives miles and miles away, 
and somehow she knew I needed a smile today.

And on that note - of wonderful, quilty friends...
I've never met Wendy who sent me this gift,
yet I feel that I've known her forever.
We've only 'talked' through emails and blogs,
and seem to have so much in common,
quilting just being one of the commonalities.
Do you also feel the same about
quilting friends that you've never met in person?

Hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday,
my friends!
(and thank you again, Wendy)

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

I have issues...

There, I've said it...
I do have issues.


C.A.N.N.O.T 
stop
myself.

I keep finding new, quilt-y projects that I want to do.
And because I have no restraint whatsoever,
there are now, at least, 1,700 quilts I'd like to make.  This month.
(insert maniacal laughing here)

The latest make that one of the latest quilt-y projects I'd like to start?
It's called Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt!!!

I AM a farm girl, 
and well, I AM vintage,
and it IS another quilt!,
so what could be more perfect, I say!
 
Ms. Holt's new book FGV, is just now out
 
and starting May 1st, she's hosting
 a sew-along on her Bee In My Bonnet blog.
Check out the FGV info HERE.

I'd pre-ordered the book for my February birthday, but since I don't yet have it (as it's being mailed to me now), I had to grab this picture from the Bee In My Bonnet blog.
To set the record straight,
I am not, in any way, affiliated with Ms. Holt, her Farm Girl Vintage book, or the Bee In My Bonnet blog.  
I just LOVE this new book!!!
I LOVE Ms. Holt!
Oh, and I just love Ms. Holt's patterns and fabrics!
Not LOVE in a stalker kind of way, 
but in an addicted quilter way, you know?

I don't know if I'm going to join in the FGV sew-along, 
but my plan is that I am going to make my own version 
of at least TWO of the 14 quilts in this book!!!

So, folks...
that's my latest issue... err, ONE of my latest issues. :)

By the way, did I mention that I ordered me some polka dot fabrics?
If you scroll through the Bee In My Bonnet blog, (here) you'll see why.
And, (here's) the link that originally got me hooked - 
the fabrics and the Flower Box block!

Definitely issues here. :)
I'm not the only one, right?  Right?

Happy Wednesday and Happy Earth Day!
Hope it's wonderful for you!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Sunny days

Folks have noticed that I've not been as productive in
quilting and blogging over the last few months.
And, I missed my semi-annual quilt retreat this week.
Which is unheard of, right? :)
A quilter missing her retreat only happens if something is not right.

Well, I've not been 'right' for a while now...
I seem to be on the mend, but it's been a long time coming.
The short story is this:
Evidently, my body doesn't like antibiotics anymore,
Antibiotics I've taken over the last year for a root canal infection and a couple of sinus infections killed the bad bacteria in my body, which is good.
Antibiotics also can, and did, disrupt the beneficial bacteria in my gut, which is bad.
Good news?  No cancer or other bad things discovered.
More good news, 
there are medications today that will help me heal.

I just have to find the RIGHT medication...
  • Med#1 worked great but was not covered by my insurance and would have been $900 a month.  But I only purchased 5 days worth to get me through the long holiday weekend and until I could get something covered by my insurance
  • Med #2 was insurance covered, but, whoa, bad side effects
  • #3 med was a sample, so I didn't have to purchase, but it was not being digested
  • #4 med caused massive headache and knocked me out
Hopefully 5th time's a charm on the medication front...
(Sorry if that's too much info... but I'm a tell-it-like-it-is-and-have-it-out-there kind of person.)

SO... my thanks to everyone who's checked in on me -
I so appreciate your continued prayers and good wishes.
I have so many good people in my life, and so appreciate all of your concern.
And, sunny days, 
I'm already planning on attending 
the next retreat in just over 200 days!
Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise. 
And I find a med that my body doesn't veto. :) 

Here's my next hand-embroidery block ready to stitch:


Those sharply creased fold lines indicate that 
I've had it traced, hand-tinted with crayons and all prepped 
then stored for a while - like a few years, 
so it's definitely time to do some healing stitching!!!
The pattern is from Crabapple Hill, A Gardner's alphabet with Cosmo/Lecien threads off to the side.  
I LOVE stitching with Valdani threads!!!  If you've not stitched with them, they are worth the little extra cost in their color variations alone!

Thank you again, for checking in on me!
Happy Stitching
and sunny days, good friends!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

tax day/mindless sewing

Here in the U.S., it's THE DAY to file income taxes.
Yes, I've already filed and mailed off my $$$$ a while ago. 
I know many folks that file extensions,
as it takes more and more time each year to 'file'.

Even though I'm a 'numbers' person and enjoy 'figuring',
after all of that tax prep and brain work, 
I've needed to let my brain rest a little.
My brain rest-time was wisely used to do some mindless sewing.
My mindless sewing is half-square triangles
for my Strawberry quilt!

There was a little thinking involved earlier...
but hopefully my pre-prepped cutting stacks 
will have been conducive to just sewn, not un-sewing the blocks. :)
The pic above shows a block that has been
snipped and then pressed per the instructions.
Then layered with an over-sized fabric square 
and, below, again sewn and re-cut:
I love working with patterns that are thorough, well-written and have plenty of diagrams.  What I really like about this particular pattern is the well thought out pressing instructions, AND that everything is a little over-sized for trimming down to the exact size.

Here's a shot of my first finished block, 
and the trimmings from that block off to the right:
Over-sizing and trimming makes such perfect little points!

The pattern is Strawberry Social, by Margot Languedoc, ThePatternBasket, Ontario, Canada;  (a picture of the pattern cover is here, that I shared on a previous post).  
I purchased my pattern through a local distributor, so if you like it and HAVE to make one also, just ask at your local shop and I'm sure they can get it for you.
And, no, I have no affiliation with Margot or The Pattern Basket,
I just like the pattern and how well it was written and thought that was worthwhile to share.
Mindless sewing, yet so worthwhile, as it's taken my mind off all the tax work and $$$$ sent. :)

Are you a work 'til-the-deadline or file-it-early type of person?
Do you also need a little mindless sewing (or something similar) after all that tax work?

Happy middle of April!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

snack bags

A friend gives me her scraps -
boxes of scraps,
and I love it!
She's cleaning out and feeling good about it,
and I'm getting great, usable strips and pieces of scrapiness!

Last time I saw her, 
she gave me two, one-foot-square boxes of goodness.
But what makes me smile the most
are these little bags of snacks she packs for me:
I know, it's the little things, isn't it?  :)

Happy Tuesday!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

too early for poppies

or late, depending on how you look at it...

P is for Poppies -
one of the blocks in the Gardener's Alphabet pattern:
I've been stitching (or not stitching) on this 
Crabapple Hill pattern for quite a while now,
as I started it three years ago!  

In my mind, 
it was just last year that I started this wonderful quilt...
but I double-checked, and it really was three years ago.  
Am I alone in this quilting-time warp thing?
Too many projects ongoing, just not enough stitching time.

So,
Weather-wise, it's too early for the poppy blooms...
but stitching-wise, it seems perfect timing!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

family & garden fun

Easter weekend was wonderful here.  
I hope yours was also.
The weather cooperated- the rain cleared and it was jacket warm.   
Almost all of the family made it for dinner on Saturday evening,
and then we laughed and carried on, visiting late into the night.
I have too many left-over baked potatoes,
but that's easily remedied eaten.
(note to future self: don't put the pile of baked potatoes at the end of the buffet line!!!)

Sunday afternoon, I did a 
little more playing in the strawberry patch -
The stems are all done, 
and the red/green, zig-zaggy strawberry tops are now half done.
I'm loving how it's coming together.

Mine was a very nice holiday.
Did you have a little stitching time in your weekend?

Monday, April 6, 2015

a little meandering, and some bunny napkins

Louise has another great-grandbaby,
and I got to quilt her special gift quilt!
I meandered little bees and loops around the cutest little sheep:
Here's the entire, cute quilt:
Didn't Louise do a great job?!

On another note, 
I hosted my family Easter dinner here Saturday evening. 
Here's a picture of one of the table-sets:
I don't know why my family thinks I'm just a little wacky. :)

Happy Monday, and hope your week is wonderful!

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Bluebirds are my sure sign of Spring

Happy April!
I saw more snow flurries last night - no April Fool's joke!
But today it's sunny and the birds are chirping.  
One of my signs that Spring is a'coming, is when
the bluebirds come back to my area,
and flit around in the pines.

So what did I see a few weeks ago???
The first of the bluebird arrivals!
Around that same time, I needed to make postcards 
to send to quilting friends in a fabric postcard swap.
I had an eureka moment...
since bluebirds are my sure sign that Spring is around the corner,
I should make some 
Bluebird postcards for this Spring card swap!! 
This is what I came up with:
Since I had the bluebird/card idea, 
I dug through my photo archives and
pulled out this photo 
that I took in my back garden a few years ago:
Aren't they so sweet looking, lined up & sunning themselves?
Using my photo, I made my applique pattern:
and chose the fabric for the back/writing side of the postcard.

Then I exploded it into color-pieces, and traced it onto fusible:
Some of the bird-parts awaiting assembly:
 And, finally, here's what I ended up with - ready to address and send!
My Bluebird fabric postcards! MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot
Though I'm not usually a fan of machine-applique,
I loved making them - maybe because of the cheery bluebird.
Each card was quite labor intensive, 
but I loved sending them so much so, that
I also made a few extra just to have on hand,  
to send when needed, as thank you notes.

I've mailed them off to gals in the United States,
Belgium and Canada.
Nationally, they should have already arrived, 
and internationals will get theirs this week, hopefully.

So, April has arrived here with sunshine, 
and my bluebird postcards have flown out of here...
A great way to start a new month!!!

Hope your April is great,
and happy stitching!