Contrary Wife block

 I won a charm pack from Kathy Tracy's giveaway recently.  Of course I tried my luck especially since these are fabrics by Andover's Jo Morton!  What is there not to love.

 

The contrary wife block is Kathy's April challenge block on SQT.   When I looked at Kathy's cutting instructions, I found the charm pack to be perfect for this block.  So I've completed 4 blocks and will think about how I want to set them.  The middle piece is a woven from my scrap stash.  I pondered on adding cheddar but decided against it since I am shooting for a completely scrappy blue quilt.

 It's Jess W's birthday and I stitched a prim cat and sewed it into a pin cushion and a Needle Case from Kathy's book Civil War Sewing Circle.  The prim cat is a free design by Primitive Blessings.
Also a pair of prim scissors and a piece of printed linen.

Harmony

or is it?  More like a riot actually. But I love it nevertheless.

Harmony.  15-3/4" x 15-3/4"

This is one of Lori D's quirky quick QALs.   QQQ! :)  The best thing about it is that almost all the pieces are from scraps and I added a 'zinger'  just for the fun of it.  Makes me smile.  What a  mess the scraps made on my table.

I've run out of cotton batting.  So this will go into the hoop for hand quilting once I get some.

Here's the Asylum block April's Dixie Diary BOM by Barbara Brackman.

 

The blocks layout will be on point.  I'm trying to applique more Gay Bomer's Sally Post blocks to alternate the Dixie Diary blocks.

 

Some embroidery I'm working on for the Colette Laurel top.  

Welcome!

It's still me.  This blog will be more of the same.  Sometimes familiarity is good?  I hope you'll bookmark my new blog or add it to your reader.  Thanks so much for sticking with me. 

Here's what I've been up to this past month.

Beige cotton-linen blend short sleeved blouse

Some running stitches detail and love those flower buttons

Satin bias binding hem

Running stitches along the sleeve hem

 Very happy with how the collar turned out.  The hand stitching just makes the garment special.  And of course my favourite hem treatment.  I used French seams.

Pleated A-Line skirt

Invisible zipper, my favourite

In-seam pockets

Jump pleats lining

 Self-drafted A-Line skirt incorporating pleats and in-seam pockets.  I thought I'd try lining the skirt using a jump pleat at the hem.

 

White cotton long sleeve shirt

Flat felling arm hole seam

This shirt was an interesting experience with flat felling.  But I used this method only for the arm holes and hem.  I freaked out for the side seams.  The results were not good, I had to unpick it. 

Short sleeved men's shirt

Only the pocket cut on the bias interested me in this shirt.  It was fraught with mistakes :(  Well at least it will be a wearable muslin!

On the quilting front, I pieced 6 Jacob Ladder blocks.  This will be a very slow project.

With the 2 sides not added yet

Belgian Waffles by Moda Bake Shop

With Christmas so near I really wanted to do some Christmas quilting.  I got it all pieced in record time and I'm currently machine quilting this 47" square quilt top.  But the stitches are not regular.  I think I may have to tweak with the tension dial.  I'm using a Crazy Eight turnover with Kona Natural.  The inner red border is Kona Rich Red.