The pink geraniums are blooming on my windowsill!

Spare moments find me stitching more little squares together. There are getting to be enough of them, that I wanted a way to view them and keep the cats from laying on them, so I constructed a quick temporary "design wall" by taking a wide piece of flannel from my fabric stash, pinning one end around a length of short closet rod and hanging it over a door way. I like the fact that the flannel will still be whole if I choose to make something with it, but also that it serves a practical use in the meantime!

The squares are in no particular order at the moment. I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't getting "off track" with the color arrangements. As I go, I'll start grouping them into 12" blocks. So far, I have enough for 2 ~ 12" squares. This quilt will need 16 ~ 12" squares, so lots more stitching to go! For now, more stars are on the agenda!

Happy Father's Day!

Holly, Myron and Lisa Plooster 1st Pres Centennial, originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

Remembering my Dad today.

I just love how my Dad's eyes are sparkling in this picture!

Tiny Patches

I've been stitching little squares of fabric together on my two days off! Love the way these are coming out. Each 9 patch is 3" square, the larger patches, such as the star block are 6" square. For the woodland quilt, I'd like it to be about 52" square so will need a total of 16, 12 " blocks (plus a forested border), which means I've got a lot of stitching ahead of me!


The little squares are 1" and the larger ones are 1 1/2". The tiny size means these are nicely portable projects. In a sandwich bag, I can tuck a stack of fabric pieces, the tiny card stock template, a needle and bobbin of embroidery thread as well as a small pair of scissors. It fits nicely in my purse or my work bag and means I can use spare minutes stitching!


I hope to make at least 4 stars for this quilt.

With some of the tiny leftover scraps from making blocks, I've been stitching book marks! This is about 1" wide by 5" long. These scraps are from a second set of blocks I've been working on for a summery bag.

Aqua Glass

7June2011 Sketch LPBoni 2, originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

No new stitching to show today, but I did another watercolor and ink sketch! From time to time I participate on the Wet Canvas scavenger hunts. Every 9 days they put out a new list of items to draw and I've been using that list to motivate me to get back to sketching!

Sketching and Stitching!

I've been neglecting my sketchbook for far too long, so decided that the only remedy was to get it out and start doing a small sketch each day. What better to sketch than what has been distracting me from sketching?!

Block 4 is coming along nicely! Only 3 or 4 more spots (maybe 5) to fill and then I can begin assembling the quilt! Knowing it is so close provides great motivation to get this project finished!

Wow. When you take a photograph of a small area of stitching and blow it up larger than life, it really shows off all the uneven-ness. Yikes! I guess I need to make that call to the eye Dr. and get some new stitching glasses!

I'm much happier with the butterfly, though it also has it's faults. I added some beads to decorate the needle lace medallion. And what I like the most is this spray of Cast-On stitch flowers! I've learned so many new stitches working on these blocks! Now that I've got the hang of cast-on stitch, I think I'm finally ready to try bouillon stitches again!

What I've Been Working On...

With a few days off, I've been keeping busy with all sorts of things. I'm back to stitching tiny patches together, working towards the small quilt I want to make.

Though these patches aren't in any particular order, I love how they can mix and match so easily with one another! Eventually, they will be intermixed with larger patches and maybe even a few squares with modified star patterns and hearts.

I transferred the embroidery designs onto Block 4 of the Cream/White CQ Quilt by doing simple running and back stitch directly through the tissue paper. Then I stitch right over those outlines.


There is even a bit of knitting in the mix. I started this light shawl a year ago. It is so soft and lovely to work with, but I have a long way to go! It's a good project to pick up and knit a few rows on each day.

While Jonathan was here, he helped me get this old dresser sanded and prepped for painting. My BIL George helped remove the old bubbled veneer top and I've been painting it and getting it finished up. This used to stand in the hallway of my old house that burned back in 1999. With minimal smoke and water damage, it was one of the few pieces of furniture that I decided to try and salvage. It's been sitting in storage since that time and it is so good to see it coming back to life!


I just love white painted furniture with glass knobs! And I love that all the old character remains in this piece even after all the sanding and priming! I should mention that this dresser used to be dark brown with metal hardware. I'm loving the transformation!

This picture of my kids and me was taken on the morning of my Dad's funeral. From left to right: Gary, Jonathan, Zach, me, Jessie, Stephen and Amanda. Amid the sorrow of our loss and the memories of my Dad that day, there was much laughter and much joy. My Dad would have loved it!

Working on Block 4

Often, what takes me the longest when working on one of my crazy quilt projects, is coming up with what to do on each block. Since this is the 4th block, it's even harder, as I want everything to go with all the work that has been done before. I spend more time mulling over what to do, looking at the blocks, looking through books, photos, blogs, stash, etc. Then suddenly, it all seems to come together and progress makes giant leaps forward!

I spent some time looking through old embroidery books and eventually made my way to the stack of old embroidery transfers that I have. I narrowed down a selection of embroidery motifs to the two shown on tissue paper pinned to the block. In the taupe velvet patch, I hope to do a stem of cast on stitch flowers inspired by some that Diane did, which were shown in Issue 2 of Pat Winter's new CQ magazine. There are still a couple of patches to work out, but at last I have lots of ideas!

As I look at all the blocks together, I'm so pleased to see this getting towards completion! At first, I thought I would add corner squares to the border, but as I look at it with the filet crochet rose trim in place, I'm thinking it doesn't need them, just some nice creamy fabric under the lace to make a nice border.

It has been lots of fun looking through the old embroidery transfers. I've been gifted with so many over the years and have used them for so many things. Remember all those embroidered jeans and work shirts in the 1970's and 80's? One of my treasures is this set of transfers from the early 1900's. Way back when, I placed them on these photo pages in order to preserve them. Of course, now I know that the "stickum" used is not good for them. But they are well stuck, so one of these days, I will scan them all in order to make sure they survive for posterity. One of the butterflies turned out to be just perfect for Block 4!

While most of my transfers have been gifted to me, I also keep my eye open for them whenever I am out antiquing. There is something about these lovely old designs that I love. So graceful! I love to think of women taking the time embroider these lovely bits on their undergarments and baby clothes!

Among the transfers in my keep, there is quite a selection of flower baskets! I'm imagining these all being used in a crazy quilt some day!