Believe...

I was digging through my embroidery floss box the other day and, the deeper I dug, the more I found - more than just floss, that is. In what seems like another lifetime, I used cross stitch. A lot. And I was in good company. My friends Nancy and Dawn were addicts as well; we were all hooked thanks to an absolutely wonderful shop called The Sampler that sadly no longer exists. It was when I lived in Toronto, so more than 20 years ago; I'm always amazed when I can use two digit numbers to recall times in my life!

Anyway, there are a few pieces that have been sitting in the dark patiently waiting for me to remember that I was working on them, and this one made it out of the box. It's called Believe and is a Mary Engelbreit pattern. This is one of my favourite of her illustrations - I also own a Christmas cookie tin with the same illustration on it and just love bringing it out every year.

It is so close to being finished that it's just sad. The pattern is dated 1990, so I suspect that it was started around the time I left Toronto. All that's left to do are some finishing accents and outlining with black floss - the needle is still in it! It's done on a raw linen and the stitched area is 10" x 14" so with a mat it will be about 14" x 18". I wonder if those fold lines will ever come out?

Well, I've decided that it's not going back into the box. I'm going to finish it and then figure out if it will be framed or made into a pillow. Not sure if it will be completely done by this Christmas given everything else that's on the schedule, but it will be finished and used. Maybe if I just do what the pattern says and 'believe' it will get finished in time. Regardless, even if it's just stitching on it, I will enjoy it this holiday.....M

Reforestation

There are more changes being made to Elizabeth's Stars in the Forest. Not huge changes, but just enough to make me like it more.

This is the layout that was provided, but it just seemed to me that all of those trees were upside down and it was starting to bug me.

So, since I had already changed the tree design a little bit I decided that a little bit more change couldn't hurt. I'm glad that I did. They are all upside down when compare to the pattern but seem a little more grounded now.

And I have to say that I am loving working with these 15" blocks! I don't think I've ever made a quilt with this large a pattern but it might be time to change all of that - you feel like you're just flying through the assembly. The fact that Elizabeth already had all of the centre star blocks made might have something to do with making me feel like such a Speed Queen ;).....M

Seeing The Forest For The Trees

I've been giving Elizabeth's Stars in the Forest UFO lots of sideways glances and decided that I'd play with it a little bit just to see how the trees in the first border came together. What looked like fairly fast blocks to piece ended up throwing me a few curve balls, so I changed things to my liking. The trees are made of three horizontal pieced strips, which at first glance were going to be very straight forward, but, when I tried making them, not so much.

The pattern calls for the tip of the tree to be flanked on either side by triangular pieces that had been cut from a freezer paper pattern, but even after trying my hand at a few, the best I was getting was this sorry mess. I think that she had cut only the narrowest of seam allowances and, despite trying to sew a very narrow seam, there was only so much room to work with.

I managed to get one that I thought wasn't looking too bad...

but when I sewed it to the strip below it looked like this. Not good.

Not to be refused, I decided to change the pattern. After doing a little math I figured out how to make the tip of the tree a narrower version of the two strips below it, and I like it - there was something about the original design that just wasn't appealing to me anyway, so in the end it all worked out. I need 36 of these so time for more sewing....M

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Remember the song, 'The First Cut is the Deepest'? It sort of describes how I was fretting about trimming away/wasting the points on Fly Away Home, but now that it's done it really wasn't that bad. Isn't it always the way?

With all of my attention given over to the Holly Bazaar recently, making the backing for this quilt had dropped to the bottom of the list. Roberta will be ready to quilt it at the end of the month so I decided I'd better get it together. Only then did I remember that I had my trimming to do. Luckily I was in the mood to get it done so it was done in no time.

I've saved the trimmings because the pieces are still a pretty decent size...

and then I started to play around with them a bit. Some potential, I think. They might also be nice just randomly put together and made into Christmas stockings.

Making the backing took more time than the trimming because I was trying my best to align the pattern. Having so little of the fabric, I really had to think about how I could cut it so that it wasn't looking like a dog's breakfast. It's together now too so next week it's off to be quilted. Roberta is so efficient that I expect that it will be back in a couple of weeks but even if I get it back Christmas Eve it will be fun to have in the living room, bound or not :)....M