Medallion Mystery

65.5″ x 65.5″

As near as I could determine this one hasn’t been a UFO for an extremely long time based on some of my other projects. It was a quilt-along from the National Quilters Circle and the first clue was released in October of 2018. The first photos I have of my work were from March of 2019. I was stalled on the project for quite awhile because I had some mismatched points in the centre and it took awhile to talk myself into taking it apart and fixing it. The top was finished by May of 2020 mainly because it appeared on my 2020 UFO list. When it appeared again on this year’s list I was motivated to get it done.

I used only straight lines for the quilting but I tried to be a bit creative in the lines I stitched while keeping some consistency. I’m pleased with the results and I’m feeling more confident not using any free motion for my quilts. I saw a video for using a stencil to quilt feathers with a walking foot. I tried it for the border but changed my mind; by the time I was ready to do the border I just wanted it done and feathers were going to be too time-consuming.

That did, however, give me the idea of using my quilting rulers to form a pattern. I used chalk to mark the pattern and it was relatively easy to use my walking foot for the quilting. Although I need to measure things out better it certainly worked; best part of the ruler work was that it hardly shows so my pattern placement hardly shows. I’ll be exploring this technique more often.

Although the purple backing isn’t really a good match for the purple on the front it is a nice fabric with lavender stalks in the pattern.

UPDATE: This quilt went to Kathryn

Mail Updates

Monday, August 2, 2021

If you are receiving this post it is because you have found me through my website.

For many years I used a mail delivery system on my website called Feed Burner which worked really well. I’ve know for awhile that the program was going to be discontinued but I underestimated how difficult it would be to find another supported program.

I’ve now tried a couple of different ones and neither has worked out well. They take a lot of time to set up, test and take live and they each came with their own problems. One of them was very sporadic on when and if it sent my latest posts, and the other one sent out posts one at a time rather than a single mail out for the day. I could live with that but the number of fake subscribers with that app were hard to manage.

No doubt if I were willing to pay for an app I could find one that worked well and did everything I wanted it to. But I’m not willing to do that so I’m stuck having to find a different solution.

I’ve given some thought as to what to do next and I’ve come to this conclusion. I want to use the website to keep track of my projects and my books. I’m less interested in keeping track of movies, and if all I’m writing about in my Journal is cleaning, gardening and sewing I think we’re all a little tired of that. Moving forward I’ll keep posting to my Journal if I have something interesting (in my mind) to say or if we do something interesting, but there won’t be a daily post. I will continue to post my projects when they are complete.

Thank you for your past support and I hope you’ll check in with me occasionally.

Sherry

Catching up

Friday, July 30, 2021

I had several things that were almost complete so I started working on those this morning after I did some computer work and ran a couple of errands.

I fixed the mistake I made in my embroidery project. I’m not sure anyone would have picked it out but I knew it was there and so I had to go back and fix it. Fortunately I didn’t have to take out too many stitches.

From there I moved on to pressing and trimming the sixty blocks I made yesterday for one of my mystery quilts. Next clue will be out early next week and I didn’t want to fall behind. I wonder if we’ll get a day’s reprieve? The clues usually come out on Monday but that’s a holiday so maybe we’ll get an extra day, but I guess it would mean a shorter week for getting the clue finished.

I couldn’t avoid it any longer so after lunch I got back to my quilting. It seemed wrong to be putting on gloves when the temperature was 30 degrees but I managed. I have a ton of ends to tie in and bury. My next section needs a thread colour change so I’ll leave that until tomorrow. It still looks possible to get it done by the end of the weekend.

Before I tackle all those thread ends I’ll bring my laundry in off the line and, if I’m lucky, it will be supper time by then.

Another hot one

Thursday, July 29, 2021

We’ve had another hot day here and it is going to get worse over the next couple of days. I usually like to work in the front yard in the morning as it is a bit cooler but there was a breeze coming in the back door and I didn’t want to close the door so I worked in the driveway instead. That meant I was out in the sun almost all morning and I was certainly dragged out by the time I finished.

When Pat asked me at lunch what I was going to work on this afternoon I said I had to finish my cross stitch-along. He wondered if that didn’t hurt my wrists more than quilting or piecing and I hadn’t really thought about it. Both my hands and wrists were already sore so I knew I wouldn’t be quilting because even without the yard work that bothers my hands.

I really wanted to keep up to date with the stitch-along so I finished this week’s pattern. I notice I made a small error in one of the patterns from a couple of weeks ago so I’ll have to figure out how much trouble it is going to be to fix it.

Piecing is probably the least hurtful for my wrists and hands so how lucky was it that I had another mystery quilt clue to put together. I pieced sixty small blocks; now they need to be pressed, measured and maybe trimmed. Both the pressing and trimming are going to hurt and standing that long is going to set my back off. It is too hot for the iron this afternoon so I’ll put all that off for another day.

It’s sad to have so many aches and pains but I like seeing the yard tidy and, if you don’t look too closely, weed-free.