The Big Reveal !

The "Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere" quilt is finished!
Yay!

I finally finished all the stitching and quilting.

Next, I had to peel off the transfer paper. I totally underestimated how long this would take. It had to
be done very carefully so  the stitches were not pulled out. This was a very tedious job, and I am still finding stitches that were pulled out!

I spent 5 evenings working at pulling it away with tweezers.

After this, the binding was next. I decided against a contrasting binding. I think using the same dark sky color for the binding gives it more of a feeling of infinity to it.

Finally, a finish!

This was hard to photograph. I did the best I could to get it all in.

Here is a close up of the Milky Way that took forever with all those French Knots!

Here is a shot of the back.

 It feels very good to have finished this! I still don't have the hangers on the back, but that is a problem for another day!


In between working on the quilt, I made a new start. I have had this in my stash for ages.

I am stitching it on 40 count Picture this Plus linen in Heritage. It is hard to tell from the photo, but it has a green murky color to it that looks like the water.

This is what I have so far.

I didn't realize quite how small it would be. I wish I had saved some of the linen. I didn't need this big of a piece, and it was pretty expensive! Oh well, better too big than too small!

I will be back with more photos soon.

Enjoy the Spring everyone!

MacIntosh Poster Finish, a new start, and quilts!

I'm back!

This has been such a busy time for me, so full of distractions!

I have finally finished the MacIntosh Poster. I don't know why but this one seemed to take a long time. Lots of partial stitches and backstitching.

I will be looking for a simple black frame for it.

I need to go back and work on my braided rug, but I will also be starting Harvest Blooms by Hands to Work.

I am planning to stitch it on 32 count Light Sand, using Sampler Threads. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to use one strand on 36 count, but the piece I had wasn't quite big enough, and I am determined to use the fabric I have in my stash if possible. With the 32 count, now I will will have to use two strands.

I had a really good weekend. I went to a flea market on Sunday and found some wonderful quilts! I love vintage quilts, and when they are a bargain, I cannot resist them!

The first one is "Trip around the World". It is very worn and well used, but it was clean with very few tears. I guess some would consider it a cutter, but I couldn't bear to cut it up! I just love the colors!

The next one was a modified nine patch with a lot of triangles. This featured a lot of the indigos that I love!

Last, but not least was a cranberry Basket quilt top.

This top was made many years ago, and then put away. It is in excellent condition, with no wear or stains! I will be looking some period fabric for the backing. I am looking forward to quilting and finishing this one!

Weekend Yard Sales

This time last year we were making several trips to out of state flea markets. With the price of gas so high, we can long longer do this. In spite of this we still manage to put on quite a few miles going to local estate and yard sales.

Until this weekend I haven't really hadn't found any real treasures.

On Saturday, I found this wonderful little crib quilt at a local antique sale.

(Gracie must of course approve anything that comes into the house)!

I love the cranberry reds. The prints are actually all different, but so carefully selected that they match perfectly! It also has indigo prints, black mourning prints, beautiful old browns, and lovely shirting prints! The backing is a white and brown shirting print.

It dates from the 1890's to 1910's. What is really remarkable is that even the binding was made from one of the cranberry prints, and it is intact, in excellent condition! That almost never happens!

I also picked up two other quilts with lots of indigo and mourning cloth prints, but they are definitely "fixer-uppers". The real prize was the crib quilt!

The only bad part of the day was when I fell on a pile of plastic bags that someone left out. Kaboom! I went down hard! Landed on my wrist. Luckily nothing is broken but oh boy does it ache! Oh well, the quilt was worth it!

At another garage sale I found this little Victorian angel pin cushion.

And, at another sale, I picked up an antique tea cosy. There is a different cross stitch design on each side.
I love the little red squirrels!




All in all, not a bad week-end! I am so pleased! Normally all I ever see at these sales are those dreadful bright colored plastic toys that everyone is trying to get rid of!