Tag Archives: Provence

The top quilts I want to get done NOW!!!

Provence is really close to being finished finished finished. I’m actually quilting the final border and I’ve got 3 sides left to quilt. It takes about 2 hours per side and I only have enough energy to do half a side at a time. If I would just focus on this it could be done in a week.

I lost my center on this project. As a reminder, this was a guild sew a long hosted by a friend of mine. I used 100% stash. Now that the blocks are put together I don’t like the green and how it gets muddled with the main fabric. I wish I had used a yellow or something lighter instead of the green. My recommendation for next time is to do a practice block to see how it goes before cutting for all 12 blocks.

This was the September guild workshop. It’s paper piecing and I’m in a groove. I have 8 of those wedges complete and the other 8 in various stages of completion. In my head, I have Dora Carey’s instructions on how to put the wedges together and an interesting binding technique. I’m afraid if I put it away I won’t get back to it or if I do I won’t remember these instructions and will mess it all up. I want to just finish it. I also know exactly where I’m going to hang it.

Storm at Sea with Snails Trail – Wendy Mathson

For my guild’s October workshop and speaker, Wendy Mathson came and taught us this project. She has these cool rulers she calls Trimplates that make the making of these so easy! I got this little top done on one Sunday. The workshop itself was 6 hours and then I spent a few hours at home finishing it up. The hardest part in the making of this quilt was putting it all together and not losing any points. I pinned pinned pinned and sewed very slowly to get it all together. It’s not perfect especially that final seam but it’s not too bad and I enjoyed it a lot. I think I need to add some borders and this little practice project could be finished.

Happy quilting friends!

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: paper piecing, Quilting. Tags: Arabesque, disappearing 9 patch, Provence, quilting. Leave a comment

Feb. ’19

Update on February Plans and this week’s POA, week 7, 2019

Good morning my friends,

It was a productive week.

For quilting:

Celtic Solstice – Goal for February is to have this bound and labeled.

Celtic Solstice
2/9/19
Binding in process

Good Fortune – Goal is to finish Clue 2 and start on Clue 3. I normally work on this on Sunday’s with a friend and yesterday was our guild’s workshop so we didn’t get together. Next Sunday I will be out of town so the next time I will be getting together at Tova’s will be Sunday, 2/24. You’ll be happy to know that I did finish Clue 2. and all I need to do is to start on Clue 3. Which I’ll be able to do when we next get together.

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt
Clue Two
Finished
2/3/19

Provence – Goal is to piece the border. – not yet done… And with the next 2 weekends filled with activities, not sure if I’ll be able to get this done.

For Knitting:

January Socks – Finished one sock!

January Socks
just one
2/5/19
Honey Bees Dance
by Helen Stewart

February Sock – I’m working on Mercury socks by Kim McKenzie/Drotrar using Hypnotic Yarn’s Grinchmas. I love the colorway but the yarn is too plum for socks for me. I would probably love a hat or gloves with this yarn. While it’s cold now, it doesn’t get cold often enough in Los Angeles to warrant making a lot of wool plump socks. The yarn is 80% SW Merino, 20% Nylon and at first my knitting friend who is much more accomplished than I thought it might be the 80/20 blend that I don’t like. But after a few days thought that that’s probably not it as I’ve been knitting with similar yarn compositions in the past. So then we realized that there are only 400 yards in this 100 grams and I’ve been knitting with yardage around 430’s and up. Which is why this particular yarn is plumper than the yarn I normally work with. The yarn is lovely, don’t get me wrong, just not something I want to use in socks again. Anyway, I’m almost through the foot and will be working on the heel before the weeks ends.

Jacob’s Weasley Sweater – This sweater is in time out. I can’t even talk about it at the moment.

Featherweight cardigan – I am finished blending out yarn 1 on one sleeve. I have to work on blending out yarn 1 on the second sleeve and finish blending it out of the body. Then I’ll be working solely with yarn 2 for a little bit while I think about when to blend in yarn 3. I’ll get a picture once Yarn 1 is blended out completely. Right now there are so many yarn bits hanging out it’s difficult to try on let alone to take a pic with it.

For Cross Stitching:

Mama’s Bukid- Goal is to finish column 1 and 2 on page 3 and 6.

Mama’s Bukid
2/10/19
almost done with columns 1 and 2 on pages 3 and 6

Gamer – Goal is to finish page 6. I have about 2 more columns to do so I’m pretty close to this goal. I just need to finish my goal for Mama’s Bukid, then I can work on this project. The only thing is that I am out of town this coming weekend so I will not be able to stitch a lot. I think that that is okay but it does mean I have to rush, which I hate doing. 🙂

Snowman – Goal is to finish stitching the perimeter of this WIP. I have worked on this a bit and I have about 1 side left to finish in order to have the perimeter completely stitched on this project. This is my traveling piece so I’ll be working on this a lot this weekend.

This coming weekend I’ll be out of town so I may not be able to get a post out. I plan to not visit any shops (quilt shops, yarn shops, needlepoint shops) as I need to not spend money on anything other than food and gas and possibly parking, if necessary. My daughter was just accepted to Boston University and I need to watch my pennies. Of course, we’re still waiting to hear back in regards to her financial aid package and depending on what they give her will determine whether she will go there or not. Instead, the daughter and I will be visiting San Francisco State just in case the financial aid package at BU is unacceptable.

Keep crafting and love on!

xoxo,

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: 2019 Plans, Cross Stitch, Knitting, Quilting. Tags: 2019 goals, Celtic Solstice, Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt, featherweight cardigan, gamer nouveau, Good Fortune, honey bee dance socks, jacob's weasley sweater, mama's bukid, Provence, snowman cross stitch. 1 Comment

Feb. ’19

Saturday Musings, quilt on!

My major project over the next couple weeks is this skirt:

Delphine Skirt
by Tilly and the Buttons

I hope it’s cute on me. But if it’s not – well, I am taking this opportunity to practice sewing. It’s fun and right now I have the pieces cut up. Tomorrow, I plan to cut some interface for the band and to start sewing all the pieces together. Oh and I need to buy a zipper. So we’ll see how far I get tomorrow. I’ve been wanting to sew skirts for a long time and I hope that this will help me learn to do more.

I did a bit of unplanned crafting today. I took my daughter to a school tour to see if it’s one of the places she might attend for college. It was not as far as I had thought and we spent about 30 minutes when she decided it wasn’t the right place for her. So we returned home much sooner than I had thought and was able to get some things done.

1st, I was able to get part of my sleeve done on my featherweight cardigan. I am having some yarn management issues as I transition from yarn 1 to yarn 2 so I finished yarn 1’s part on sleeve 1 and now just need to do the same on sleeve 2. Then I can continue on the body and get to the point where I start adding yarn 3. I love how it’s turning out and I’m sorry I cannot get a very good picture of it. Here’s the last time I was able to take a pick:

Then I was able to work on Mama’s Bukid. My goal for February is column 1 and 2 and I’ve been stitching 1 box per day. So today’s the 9th and since I was a little behind I stitched both box 8 and box 9. I have 3 more boxes and I will be done with column 1 and 2 for the month. I don’t really like stitching on Mama’s Bukid but it’s my focus WIP for this year. I’ve discovered since I started stitching more that I like to stitch 18 or 25 count. As Gamer is on 18 and A Stitch In Time is on 25. Mama’s Bukid is on 14 count and I feel like it’s so big. I need to use 4 flosses to get the right coverage I like. But I’m persisting and I’m on track to get this done this year.

And Finally, as of this moment of writing, I measured the perimeter of Celtic Solstice and pulled fabric from the stash bins to start cutting for the binding. I hope to cut and piece the binding tonight before I move on to my next project.

And since I pulled fabric and went through the bins in my closet, I started looking at the projects that I’ve got going. I’m going to 2 retreats at the end of March. It just kind of happened. One of the retreats is with a friend and we will be up in the mountains in a cabin. We’re both excited for that one as it sounds really nice to be up in the mountains near LA in spring. This one runs Monday through Thursday and the second retreat is near Santa Maria, CA the following Saturday through Monday. I will be taking my work laptop and I hope they have internet in the mountains so I can stay connected and take care of anything if necessary. So I looked at some longstanding WIPs and I’m starting to plan which projects I will take with me. I’ve got 2 quilts ready to be quilted and those are not going to go with me to the retreat. The 3rd quilt I’ve been working on, Provence, will probably be done before the retreats and will be in the quilting queue with the others. So I have to look at what I will take. I am still working on my Civil War Diary quilt but I generally only do a block or two at a time. My computer crashed a couple of months ago and I still haven’t re-installed EQ7 so I can print more of the block instructions. But I think I have 2 blocks printed and ready to use from the last time I printed block instructions. And I’ve got Area One Mystery Quilt from 2012. I have quite a few blocks finished from previous retreats and that will be a good #1 project. I also have Bonnie’s Good Fortune quilt that I can continue working on. So that’s 3 projects. I pulled a Glam Clam quilt that I started a few years ago and I don’t think it ever made it onto the blog. I also pulled “Dancing with the Stars” which is an old Linda Ballard pattern I started at a class I took with her at PIQF many years ago. I love how my quilts are slowly getting done and I’m starting to go into my old WIPs. At some point, I’ll be going through my new fabric and making stuff with them. I took this opportunity to pet some of them. 🙂 I have quite a few that I purchased specifically to make skirts or to make bags. So, one of these days, I will jump on that. But I currently have 2 totes in process so I want to finish those before I start any new bags.

Happy crafting friends!

I will go back to my cutting table and start cutting the pieces for my binding.

Happy quilting!

Hugs,

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Cross Stitch, Knitting, Quilting. Tags: Celtic Solstice, delphine skirt, featherweight cardigan, mama's bukid, Provence, quilt queue, retreats, sewing. Leave a comment

Jan. ’19

Provence, a border fail

So I got Provence out yesterday ready to start taking care of my #1 quilty goal this week when I pulled out the border fabric I purchased in 2012.

I hate it. Okay, hate is too strong of a word. I’m not sure what I was thinking but it’s one thing to get a border with an idea of how the quilt will be. And quite another when the quilt is actually ready for a border. I laid the purchased fabric to the side and decided I needed to get something else. So off to my LQS, quilt in tow, it is. 🙂

~Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Uncategorized. Tags: Provence. 1 Comment

Jan. ’19

Monday, POA, Week 4, 2019

I really rocked it and was able to get the inner parts of Celtic Solstice all quilted up. Now I’m all ready to quilt the borders. Except that I’m busy for the next 2 weeks. The next time I have the time to tackle the borders will be Saturday, Feb. 2. So I’m putting it on the calendar. This is the reason why it takes so long for me to quilt a quilt. I need to have a full day to get into the mindset to do something. And with such a big quilt, every bit of quilting is hard work. It is exhausting. But I made another step of progress and I’m almost done!

In the meantime, my plan is to work on Provence. The last time I worked on Provence was at the quilt retreat I attended at Thimble Towne in Bakersfield, CA last September. It was the first retreat I attended with fellow guildmates and my crafty friend, Mindy. I finished piecing the inner top and the next step is to piece the border. So, sometime this week I want to press the top, measure appropriately, cut the border, and piece it.

Here’s a pic of Provence as it is currently:

Provence
9/22/18

I currently have a quilting queue. Remember my #MakeNine2019. The 3 quilt projects on my #MakeNine2019 are Celtic Solstice, Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas, and Staycation. The top for Quilty Little Christmas has been done for a while. Since Feb, 2017. All the details are on my project page.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
Top is finished! 🙂
2/24/2017

It has been waiting for Celtic Solstice to be finished quilting for a long while. I have the batting and back ready for this thing. It’s been ready for so long I need to pull it out and make sure the back is actually cut. I don’t remember anymore.

I just finished Staycation last weekend at the most recent quilt retreat I attended with my Crafty friend, Karen. We were at Creation Station in Solvang, CA (actually it’s really Buelton, but no one really knows Buelton unless you are from SoCal and Buelton is 2 miles from Solvang. It’s actually the town you are at when you exit the 101 to head into Solvang.) So I still need to prep batting and the back before I quilt this one. I’m planning to do that when I’m finished with Quilty Little Christmas. So I’ll be working on Provence as my current quilty project. That’s quilt #4 that’s almost ready to be finished and then sit in the queue until I’m ready to quilt it.

Happy quilting!

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Quilting. Tags: Celtic Solstice, Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas!, Provence, quilt queue, staycation quilt. Leave a comment

Feb. ’17

Maker Monday! 2/27/2017

Provence
2/27/17

And after a long time hidden in my crafty closet, I’ve taken out Provence (not to be confused with En Provence, Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt from the end of last year). Anyway, before I put it away I did piece some of those blocks together so I just need to finish piecing the rows. I also need to cut more fabric for the side triangles. Then I need to piece those on to the rows and then I can get the inner top finished before the borders. Almost done with Quilt #4…

Here’s this week’s to do list:

Missing Ivy – If you saw my post yesterday you’ll know that the machine I used to quilt Missing Ivy took a time out in the middle of quilting. Hopefully the technician can get it fixed and back up so I can finish quilting Missing Ivy this weekend. There’s nothing for me to do other than wait to hear what the shop tells me. 🙂 I’ll keep Saturday clear of appointments also.
LQS BOM Provence – piece the blocks, cut fabric for side triangles and piece them on. Hopefully I can get the inner top finished this week.
prep fabric for more drawstring bags –
prep fabric for more zipper pouches (the boy wants one for his pencils and stuff for school).
watch my Craftsy class, “Knit Original Cuff-Down Socks” with Donna Druchunas.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at and and and

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Quilting. Tags: BOM Away Monday, design wall Monday, Provence. 4 Comments

Nov. ’16

WIP Wednesday – 11/23/2016

Happy Wednesday!

This week my goal for Provence is “I need to figure out what the next step is.”

Provence
11/23/2016

I laid out all the blocks and in the picture you’ll see that the corner blocks is the same green fabric as the center of the alternative blocks. The original fabric was supposed to be the dark blue with the dots that shown in the alternative blocks. I went through all my fabric for this project and I didn’t have enough of the dark blue. It’s weird I was confident that I bought all the fabric that I needed. I do not know if I took some of it to use somewhere else at some point or if I just didn’t buy enough. 🙁 Which is probably the case since this seems to happen to me a lot with projects I started in that time frame. I’ve learned that lesson over and over again as I finish up UFOs started in that era. The fabric is 1219 olde world style by Monique Dillard for Maywood Studio. Since this was a Block of the Month from my LQS in 2012 I didn’t have much hope of finding the same fabric there. A quick online search, and I couldn’t find anything available online either. I needed to pick up the final kit for “Have yourself a quilty little Christmas” so I trekked it over to my LQS to find something to use. Luckily they still had the same green that I used for the center of alternative blocks. I bought a yard, took it home and proceeded to MISCUT it. Yup, now I have to go buy another yard. I had just enough to get my corner triangles but I do not have enough for the side triangles. I’ll have to find time to go back and get some. 🙂

Provence
Organized to piece the blocks together
11/23/2016

In the meantime, I’ve organized all the rows without the side triangles and can start piecing pairs together.

Linking up with

~Here’s to a great week!

Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Quilting, WIP Wednesday. Tags: Let's Be Social, Provence, WIP Wednesday. 9 Comments

Oct. ’16

Fabric Tuesday, 10/18/16

Happy Tuesday!

I had such a great response on Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas! Thanks to everyone who commented on it. Here are some close ups of the blocks from this month’s kit.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
October Kit
Block 1
10/18/2016

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
October Kit
Block 2
10/18/2016

I love the snow globe block! At the shop, we fussy cut the picture we wanted. The fabric is Riley Blake Pixie Noel Main in Aqua.

Rather than ask me which image I liked, Susan, our fearless BOM leader, asked me what makes my heart sing. I love that. Initially I was just going to pick whatever but when she asked me that, I took a moment and looked at each image before I selected the one I picked. This fabric is too cute and I may just end up getting a yard or two of this one to do something with in the future.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
October Kit
Block 3
10/18/2016

I’ve been slowly getting the alternate blocks done on my Provence quilt. Here is the block with the first round done. I’m currently working on getting the second round done for this week. I’m about halfway through.

Provence
Alternate Blocks
10/18/16

~Happy quilting!

~Melanie

Linking with and and and and

Posted by Melanie. Categories: Quilting. Tags: Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas!, Provence, Quilty Fun!. 8 Comments

Jun. ’16

This week’s line up, Week 24

Provence
The beginnings of the alternating blocks
6/11/2016

Sometimes I’m just not in the mood to do any of the things I set out to do. I’m sure none of you are like this but I looked at all the things I set out to do last week and I just didn’t want to do any of it. I tried to quilt Moon Glow but Bailey was fighting with me. I got halfway through 1 pass and my shoulders and hands hurt so much that I decided to put it in “time out”.

I didn’t want to hand quilt… It was 85 degrees so that was out of the question. I’m going to be gone soon and parting ways with my domestic machine so I wanted to spend as much time with it as possible. The problem is that I didn’t have much on this week’s to do list to work on the machine. I pieced the rows so that they are ready to be put together for Missing Ivy and actually started to put the rows together. But I got tired of that really fast. I’ve been working on Celtic Solstice as my leader/enders project so while I’m not working on it solely I’ve been making progress on it. So what to do????

I almost pulled out a new project. I didn’t. I pulled out Provence. I’ve already finished doing my goal for this project for this month so it wasn’t on my list for this week. My goal was to finish a block. I have only 1 block left to do. I didn’t have the brainpower to actually do the last block so I reviewed the instructions for the alternating blocks. I reacquainted myself with the fabric and which was for which – dark, background, and center. I discovered that I had already started the center pieces. It’s a square with corner triangles. I had all the required 20 squares with 2 opposite corners pieced and trimmed. Half were pressed and the other half were not pressed. I finished pressing them. I had all the remaining squares (for the corner triangles) already cut AND I had already drawn the diagonal sewing line on the back. So all I had to do was sew the corners on. And that’s what I did. I even trimmed off the extra fabric. All I have to do is press them.

Provence
The beginnings of the alternating blocks that need to be pressed
6/11/2016

Here’s my crafty plan for the next few days:

Moon Glow – Finish quilting the inner part with Bailey
Raining Cats and Dogs – continue hand quilting as I have the time and can stand to have the quilt on me.
Spooky Halloween – get the fabric for row 2, block 1 put together and all the applique pieces traced. If I get it together I can take this block with me to hand applique while traveling.
Missing Ivy – step 11 – piece all the rows together to finish the inner top!
Celtic Solstice – work on these as Leaders/Enders while I’m doing other projects.
cross stitch a bit
knit a bit
work on my wool project a bit

Have a great quilty Saturday!

~Melanie

Posted by Melanie. Categories: weekend line up. Tags: Provence, this weekends line up. 4 Comments

Thousand Needles

Quilting, Scrapbooking, Gardening and whatever else catches my fancy

Tag Archives: Provence

The top quilts I want to get done NOW!!!

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Update on February Plans and this week’s POA, week 7, 2019

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Saturday Musings, quilt on!

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Provence, a border fail

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Monday, POA, Week 4, 2019

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Maker Monday! 2/27/2017

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Fabric Tuesday, 10/18/16

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This week’s line up, Week 24

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