I'm happy to be linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.  I want to be posting more, but I just don't seem to be having a lot of new news to report.

I have been working away at my latest Quilts of Valor quilt and have gotten all the smaller red blocks pieced and now I'm working on piecing all the smaller blue ones.  Here is a glance at how things are progressing.

 Small red blocks, check.  Next the small blue ones.

Two blocks completed.

I took time Monday to sew 12" blocks together and adding the border on a quilt for our guild that will be going to someone battling cancer.  Sad to say, the picture is a poor one.  The recipient loves purple so the nine patches are done in purple fabrics and the solid squares are blue/purple.

I added a little more to my redwork block, but need to be doing a lot more before the end of April to reach my monthly goal.

Tonight is the meeting for the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild, my first one, so we will be heading down to Vegas and staying the night with family then back home early tomorrow so I can attend my guild meeting here and my next mastery class for my new Bernina tomorrow afternoon.

My Splendid Sampler blocks, EPP and cross-stitch projects have been on hold, but I need to get moving on them before they become serious UFOs. 

And for fun, how about making a table topper for the 4th of July?  Do you celebrate the holiday with a picnic and watching fireworks?  This would be perfect for indoors or outdoors.  Thanks to Connie over at Freemotion by the River.

I'm linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching today so be sure to click on over there and see all the beautiful projects being work on.

The big news for me is that I got my Bernina unpacked and set up.  My wonderful husband cut a bigger space in my sewing table to accommodate the larger machine and it is perfect.  First step was to learn to fill the bobbin and thread the machine.  It sews beautifully and is so quiet.  On Thursday after quilt guild I attended the first of six mastery classes on learning all about it.

In the meantime, I worked on piecing the quarter runner challenge from my quilt guild and this is the table topper I'm in the process of making.  I only need to sandwich it, figure out how to quilt it and then bind it.  When finished, I'll take back to guild and show it.  Everyone that finishes and shows their version has their name put into the pot and then at the end of the quarter three names are drawn for the prizes.  Last quarter each of the three persons received $60 so they could buy more material.  :)  This is what mind looks like so far.

I started working on my next Quilt of Valor quilt.  I'm using the "Blueberry Pie" pattern which is on the cover of the May/June issue of "Quiltmaker", but using reds for the "X" blocks. It was going really well until I sewed three pieces together going the wrong direction so last night and again this morning I'm ripping out all those seams.  I am becoming quite proficient in ripping.

 

 

The oops pile.  A lot more to rip out

 

Last, but not least, I started another redwork block for the Christmas quilt.  I sure didn't get very far, did I?

 

My plans for this week include attending my first meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Wednesday night, Shadow Mountain Quilters on Thursday, Mastery 2 class at the Bernina shop Thursday afternoon, and, of course, lots of piecing on the Blueberry Pie quilt.  May you all have a wonderful week and lots of happy stitching with no ripping.





Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts.

It was a bit of a slow week in the stitching arena.  The big news is that I bit the bullet.  How?  I visited my local Bernina dealer and ordered a Bernina 770 QE (the QE stands for Quilters Edition).  It hopefully will arrive this week and then there will be a huge learning curve.  I was so excited when I visited that I locked my keys in the truck and the owner was kind enough to take me home to get my husband's keys.  Thank you Bernina lady. 

I finished up another Redwork block and hope to get 3 more done before May arrives.  I've just about finished all the larger blocks.

I attended my first Quilts of Valor meeting on Wednesday and we were going to be cutting material and needed to take our cutting mat and tools.  I had previously gotten a pattern for a cutting mat tote and I finished it up on Monday.  I've very happy with it and only need to sew on a button to have it really finished.   I took all my red, white and blue material with me to the meeting and a pattern I will be making.  I used some white with blue star material that was available there and got it all cut along with some of the blue I had.  That was a chore as I had a lot of leftovers from the wedding quilt I made for my son.  I still have a lot more cutting to do but that will wait for another day.  If you are interested in making quilts for QOV, be sure to go here and check out the organization.  I'm happy to say that they will be gifting quilts to 5 WWII veterans on the 25th here at my park. 

Another finish this week was Blocks 16 and 18 for the Splendid Sampler.  Block 17 has a lot of pieces and I'll tackle that one this week.  You'll be seeing blocks for this for quite awhile as there are two posted each week for a year for a total of 100 blocks.  When finished each block will be 6 inches square.

Block 16

Block 18

My slow stitching today will be hand stitching the binding down on the project from the class I'm participating in at quilt guild.  The lesson was setting on point with sashing.  

 

 

A close up on some of the quilting I done on it.

 

A highlight of my week was joining the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild and watching a webinar by Christa Watson, quilter, designer, and author.  It was fantastic and if you are interested in modern quilting you should join either the national or, better yet, a local guild.  To find one near you click here.  I am in great hopes to design and make a modern quilt as I tend to be drawn to them over traditional quilts.



What's on my agenda for this week?  Redwork, cross-stitch, binding, piecing, and some designing.  Be sure to stop by next week to see what I actually accomplished.

Happy stitching.

Another link up with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts.  Please take a few minutes to check out all the great stitching that has been going on over there. 

I finished the class project for learning "on-point" settings.  I did a spiral quilting on the main piece, which I've never done before, and straight quilting on the borders.  DO NOT look closely at the quilting.  It was a fun project and this past Thrusday we were given a new project of setting on point with sashing.  I got my fabric cut out after the class and will be piecing it this week.

Earlier in the week, I made block 15 for the Splendid Sampler and it was fun but I did give Jack, my ripper, some exercise while making it.  It used foundation paper piecing and I seem to have a tendency to sew pieces together going the wrong way.  Oops!  I do like how it turned out though.

 



I received some happy mail on Friday from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Lots and lots of solids.  I'm in the process of designing a quilt and needed solids (sounds like a good excuse doesn't it?).  I also ordered the Kona Cotton Solids color chart. 

I must confess that I'm not slow stitching today, but will later on this evening.  I'm attempting to get a tote made that my cutting mat and rulers will fit in and make it easier for me to take them Wednesday when I attend my first ever Quilts of Valor meeting.  We'll be cutting fabric that day.  The photo on the left is the beginning of the tote and the one on the right is the cover of the book with the pattern.  Of course, my fabric colors are actually a lot brighter.  I'm looking forward to using it Wednesday.

I did get a little more work done on the Christmas stocking.  The color changes take more time than I would like, but it is what it is.

I also started another Redwork block this week as my painful finger decided to not be as painful as last week.  I'll see the doctor Tuesday and will bring up the problem and see what she has to say about it.

We went down to Las Vegas on Friday and came home about noon today.  It was my step-son's and his lovely wife's 15th wedding anniversary on the 7th so we took them to the Black Bear Diner for breakfast this morning.  The food was great as was the service.

What's up for this week?  Finish the tote for my cutting mat, etc., and get some slow stitching in.  Oh yeah, I need to catch up with the Splendid Sampler by getting blocks 16 and 17 done before Thursday when 18 come out.

Happy stitching.

Another link up with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts.  Our temperatures are getting up there and today it promises to be in the low 80s.  I'm sure my husband and our dog, Lola, will want to have the air conditioning running this afternoon.  Me, not so much. 

I finished up the La Passacaglia Rosette I had been working on and got it attached.  I have a lot more to make.  A lot being about 38 more to go, some of those are just small pieces, but 38 is 38 when you get down to it.  This is how it looks now.  The process is English Paper Piecing (EPP) for those of you who are not familiar with it.  It is fun and very addicting.  Click here for a great tutorial if you want to have another project to work on.  There are lots of small projects you can make using EPP.

I finished blocks 13 and 14 for the Splendid Sampler this past week.  Next one up comes out today.  They are posted here each Sunday and Thursday.  I only have 86 more blocks to make.  There is a Facebook group for this project and I've seen a couple posts by women who are doing this as a quilt-as-you-go project and I really like that idea so am going to be looking into how to do that.

 Block 13

Block 14

 

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know that I've been having a lot of pain in my index finger on my left hand which has really slowed down my handwork.  It has been having a few okay days, but some pain is still there.  Because of that I didn't get an early start on my Redwork, but was able to finish the 4th block for March on April Fool's Day.  Here are the 4 I finished.  This month I'm going to try and get 5 of them completed.  Wish me luck on that.

 

 I'll be doing "Snow" this month.

 

I really like this little guy.

 

On Tuesday I drove down to Las Vegas and picked up my husband.  He sure was happy to be back home after spending almost 3 weeks with his daughter and her family in Alaska.  We did some shopping at Sprouts and, of course, Jo-Ann's while in the big city.  I was able to pick up all but one of the remaining embroidery flosses that I need for the next Christmas stocking I'll be making for my granddaughter-in-law to be.  She lives in Colorado just like my children and grandchildren.  I got started on it yesterday and as you can see it is really slow stitching.  I'll be working on it some more this week so be sure to check back and see my progress.  Can you tell what it is going to be?

 

 

On Thursday at quilt guild I took a two-part class we are doing from the book "Quilter's Academy Vol. 2--Sophomore Year".  We started on a small diagonal set which I had never done before.  Here is what I have completed so far.  I'll be basting it and quilting it this week.  The class instructor provided the fabric for the center and the 9-patches.  Not sure what I'll do with it when it's finished.  Maybe find a home for it in our small 5th wheel that we travel in as it has a blue décor.

 

 

That is all I have to report for the past week.  As always, I work on more than one project at a time.  I must say I don't get bored.

 

Happy stitching!