Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Merry Christmas

My favorite Christmas quilt is along with us on our RV travels. I made these wonky Christmas trees (pattern from Buggy Barn) a few years back and I used flannel backing fabric so it is a very cuddly quilt.

As I worked on my latest blocks for Celebrating Mary Brown I was influenced by the season and did one block in red and green.

I also finished another of the long center blocks and it really does not matter if it is Christmas or not I just love red and green applique and manage to get some in almost every applique block I do.

Merry Christmas from Galveston, TX

Cheri

 

Monday, November 14, 2016

Quilting on the Road

My husband and I are in the beginning of our cold weather escape to Texas. We have been on the road for a couple weeks and have reached our winter destination in the Houston area. This is our third year of being Winter Texans and besides missing snowy weather our biggest draw is the opportunity to live near our son's family and getting to be a part of their family and getting lots of Grandparent time over the holidays. Because we have enjoyed this RV experience we have moved up to a larger 5th wheel camper.

This move up to more space has allowed me to take more than just hand quilting projects along. I found a small used Bernina 220 on eBay and promptly named her "Sally" after a girl I met camping last year who brings her embroidery sewing machine, serger, and Singer featherweight in her RV. Sewing Machine Sally, as I affectionately think of her, and her husband are full time RVers. They sold their home and live in their RV, they are work campers for KOA and spend their summers working in campgrounds and winters escaping the cold much like us. Sally's RV is called a toy hauler and the back is a small garage that carries motorcycles or golf carts, when they get to a destination the vehicle is moved out and the toy hauler garage becomes Sally's sewing room. My set up is not nearly so grand but my little "Sally" and I are getting accustomed to the space and getting some projects worked on.

I sew at the dinette table and brought a small trunk that holds my projects and doubles as my ironing area and a coffee table/ foot stool.

Quilting in an RV is a bit like going on retreat, you hopefully pack more than you can possibly have time to work on and hope you organized your projects and remembered to take everything.

So, what have I been working on since we have been on the road? Well the Mariner's Compass quilt has a new border.

The scrappy octagon border is machine appliquéd and next will be a final applique border.

I have decided to tackle the large postage stamp blocks again on the Rowdy Flat Library quilt. I tried one earlier this summer and all my carefull peicing and measuring resulted in a block that measured an inch and a half two large. Ever since I have put off these blocks (there are 4 in the quilt) and seriously thought about appliqueing the squares onto a background block or hand piecing it, but I am going to give it another try by machine.

All of the pieces are laid out on a scrap of batting to stay somewhat organized in my smaller quilt space and I am just going to go for it, no adjusting my needle position like I did on the first try in an attempt to get a perfect 1/4 inch seam.

And of coarse there is still time for hand applique. Here are the latest Celebrating Mary Brown blocks.

In our travels we camped at an alpaca ranch and had perfect timing to see two new baby alpacas. Brown boy was 24 hours old and already running through his little pasture.

And Kismet's new baby was born a few minutes before our arrival, we witnessed the baby's first steps out of the birthing barn.

The herd of about 15 alpacas were so gentle and unafraid of strangers even with new young ones nearby. They were eager to greet campers and be petted, the camp hosts were so proud to show off their little herd.


We celebrated our stay with 4 skeins of Kismet's latest trimming spun into the softest yarn.

We have also noticed tiny houses popping up among the campers at some of the places we have stayed.


There have been many new quilt shop visits along our way but mostly we are settled in one place now for a couple weeks . After Thanksgiving we will be making a move to the beach on Galveston island.

Happy Thanksgiving and happy stitching from the road,

Cheri

 

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Applique and a Recipe

Just a few quick progress picture from Celebrating Mary Brown (pattern by Corliss Searcey, Threadbear.com.au).

This block finishes the center four for the quilt.

Also some work on Rowdy Flat Library quilt mystery BOM. (pattern by Susan Smith)

I am not much of a cook but I saw this simple 5 ingredient almond crusted chicken dish on a TV show and it really is easy and delish!

Happy Stitching and occasional cooking :)

Cheri

 

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Finishes, A Trip, and A New Quilt Comes My Way

I finished Roseville Album a couple weeks ago and I was honestly so sick of it I did not even take any photos of the finished quilt until this morning. It is a beautiful quilt and I really like it.

It just took me a LONG time to complete, six years start to finish, and it is machine appliquéd. That is probably the reason for the length of time I much prefer hand work.

I also finished the McKenna Ryan quilt, And On This Farm, I was working on.

This was purchased as a kit and has the cutest embellishments, a little cow bell so the quilt tinkles every time I move it,

a handle on the basket

and several Apple beads sewn on the trees.

While working on this quilt another McKenna Ryan quilt came my way. This is Aurora Ridge.

Once upon a time I had a little machine quilting business and although I sold that long arm machine I still will quilt for old customers once in a while on my home sewing machine.

My husband and I also went on a camping trip thru the Black Hills of South Dakota, we had breakfast with the Presidents,

truly saw "where the buffalo roam" where ever they please,

and ended up with this as my temporary back yard view, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

This was a fun campground, every evening they show the movie Close Encounters of The Third Kind (Devil's Tower has a key role in the movie if you have not ever seen it) at an outdoor theater. We were right outside the gates of the park and spent one morning hiking around the tower, stopping frequently to watch the climbers. There are four sets of climbers in this picture.

Looking down during our hike back at the campground.

There was also a group of hot air ballooners and one evening the flag was finally still enough, their signal that the wind was down and it was safe to fly.

They took off from an area in the National Monument park and landed in the empty field next to the campground.

I am not sure which hobby I think is more dangerous the rock climbers or the ballooners but it was fun to watch. I was happy to keep my feet firmly on the ground and spent many quiet evenings stitching on Celbrating Mary Brown in the camper.

A

Happy Stitching,

Cheri