I have finally finished hand quilting this for my husband, I think it turned out pretty good. I love plaid/homespun fabric and really like the red fabric I picked out. It is a coin quilt and I did echo quilting on each rectangle, just straight free form quilting on the middle red rows, then I put lighthouses (I used burnt orange thread to have it show up) with wave pattern on the borders.I started working on quilting this a little over a year ago, but really worked most of it since last month. In the past two days and nights I have started and completed the borders. Mr. Meows normally isn't too social during the day, but he loves quilts, so he sat by my feet when I was working on this. Even if I knit or crochet he doesn't pay too much attention to the yarn. Even though I still have an EPP GFG (English Paper Piecing, Grandmother's Flower Garden) quilt I am hand piecing, but I don't have another hand quilting project to work on now until that is complete or I start on a smaller project and get it done. I guess my main focus will be on machine quilting my nehpew's quilt, which I haven't worked on since about March.

What Design Should I Make?

Out of these EPP 60' Diamond shapes? I haven't worked with them before, but have so far came up with these so far. Perhaps I might end up using all three of them in a table runner or other size quilt. I am so glad that I didn't get the shape bigger than 1 3/4" as it would be too big for the mini charm fabric I want to use for these. I didn't think they would be this big as per yesterday's post I have only worked with 3/4" Hexagons, they are measured quite differently than these shapes. What would you make?

Different EPP Pieces...

Normally, I only work from hexagons for EPP (English Paper Piecing) but decided to branch out. I forgot though that the way they are measured is vastly different than all of the other shapes. I already had mini charms picked out for the two new shapes 60' diamond and coffin. The mini charms I have for the coffin shape is no longer available, and consists of mostly light cream type shirting and blue fabric. The charms only consisted of 45 pieces of fabric, where most of the newer mini charms I have gotten consist of 75. I thought I would make a table runner and have one coffin piece per fabric, as you can tell from my pictures that I will be getting probably at least 4 or 5 EPP pieces from one square of fabric. 😂

They are 1" but of course not as big as the close up even appears. I guess at least I will get end up with more coffin EPP pieces, but not sure I want to try and make a table runner since they are so small. Normally, I do not work with hexagons smaller than 3/4". My next post will be all about the diamond shapes I got. 

Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn Classics Club Review

I have read this book for the Classics Club blog, and haven't read any books lately on my list. I am really behind, but hope to make inroads this year. Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn was a very short read only about 50 pages. While it doesn't give too much detail besides Henry VIII to ask Anne to be his or come to court, it does every now and then vaguely talk about other events during this time. Some may not know what they are or the reference, and no worries in the version I had it listed them. Although, for me I knew what most of them were since I love history. I am surprised though that any letters from Henry to Anne actually survived, I would have thought Henry VIII would have had them destroyed after her death or by other people throughout history or just the because of how old the letters are. There is only one letter from Anne to Henry VIII that has survived. In the book for some reason they put it behind all of the notes, which sadly I almost missed it since I knew most of the events they discussed I didn't need the notes section.

Bout of Books 19 Wrap Up....

I didn't get as much read as I had planned, but didn't do to bad either compared to my last readathon.

Total Books Started: 3
Total Books Read: 2
Total Pages Read: 380

The Healing Quilt had 310 pages, Love Letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn was 50, and then I read about 20 pages of The Outsiders. The next Bout of Books is from August 21 to 27th. I am not sure what will be going on then, but hope to participate. How did the readathon go for you?

Bout of Books 19 Day 5

I finally completed reading the Healing Quilt yesterday (Friday). It was highly predictable and was so much like the other two books in the series, it was quite a disappointment. I would probably only give it a 2 out of 5 rating.

I am writing this post a day on mid Friday, and I haven't decided what other books to start reading since I have finished the other book. I have narrowed down the options to these books, they are the shortest on my Bout of Books list;

The Outsiders, 179 pages
Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, 50 pages
The Letters of the Rozmberk Sisters (Noblewomen in Fifteneenth-Century Bohemia), 98 pages
The Awakening, 208 pages

My next post will be on what book/s I decided to start. I think I might be able to get done with one or two or at least 3 of these by Sunday.

Later on Friday night I ended up starting and finishing Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, with it only being 50 pages it was a very short read. I will do more of a review of it next week, as it is a book from my Classics Club challenge.

Bouts of Books Day 4 Update...

I read 100 pages yesterday of the Healing Quilt by Wanda Brunstetter, this is the last book in the series. I will end up giving my review tomorrow. I hope everyone is having a great reading week!

Bout of Books 19 Day 3..

Again, I didn't read too much only about another thirty pages. I am however now more than halfway done with the book. I think tomorrow I will be reading more, after I complete this book though I plan on starting one of the smaller books on my list for this readathon. The challenge for today was to show pictures of our books, I have about two floor to ceiling bookcase, and the rest probably total up to another floor to ceiling bookcase. This picture is only part of one of those bookcases.

Bout of Books 19 Day Two...

I didn't get as much completed only 35 pages of the Healing Quilt, but I am almost halfway done. I think in another day or two I might be done. Then I plan on reading some of the smaller books, so I hope to get 3 read. The challenge for yesterday was to photo a book that did not have a regular font, sadly I do not have any books that meet the requirement. It was interesting though to use what titles looked like without a regular font.

Bout of Books 19 Day One Results..

Yesterday, I ended up spending my time reading just one book and completed 110 pages. I hadn't started reading it previously so I think this was pretty good considering I am also packing to move. I did some multitasking and using our bread machine (I plan on selling it) while reading at the same time.

A post that Bout of Books put out we were supposed to in six words describe ourselves. I thought of several different words, but thought perhaps these were the best; bookworm, quilter, baker, gardener, introvert, and knitter. What six words describe you? Did you do any reading yesterday or are you participating in the Bout of Books?

Time for another Bout of Books....

And more time to get caught up on some reading! I have participated in Bout of Books before, sometimes I am successful and other times I am not. We shall see on this one. The event runs from Monday May 8th to Sunday May 14th.

I am not sure how many books I will get read or what my complete list is so far. Here are a few that I know will be included, and not in any order;

The Seekers by Wanda Brunstetter
The Healing Quilt by Wanda Brunstetter
A Cousin's Prayer by Wanda Brunstetter
Merry Market Murder by Paige Shelton
Murder, Handcrafted by Isabella Alan
The Long Stitch Good Night by Amanda Lee
Her Secret by Shelley Shepard Grey
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
A Little Folly by Jude Morgan
The Poet by Michael Connelly
The Outsiders by SE Hinton - reread
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - previously started
Othello by Shakespeare
The House of Mirth Edith Wharton
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
Poor Folk and other stories by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Letters of the Rozmberk Sisters
Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

I don't plan on being able to read all of these, but several of them are quite short so I hope to be able to completed at least 3-5 or more books. Several of these are part of my Classics Club list. Will you be participating in the Bout of Books?

Quilt Retreat Shopping...

Here are the items I ended up getting while on the retreat. I purchased two small kits and am excited about starting them. One of them has HST (half square triangles) with 30's reproduction fabric (which I love). The other is a farm/vegetable table runner with placemats (which I didn't realize they were included when I made the purchase). I got a few fabrics that have vintage stamps and quills on them. I love vintage items and hand writing letters. I plan on doing a big quilt with some of the fabric. The thread spool fabric I plan on making a pillowcase for myself, since I have never made one for myself, just as gifts for other people. At one of the quilt shops they it is in a farmer's market type of place that   has bulk food items and homemade jams, bread and jellies, etc. I ended up getting a strawberry jam and a jalapeño one for Mr. Crafts4others.

A few quilts I saw...

at the retreat I was recently at. I wanted to get a few more photos but by time I got ready to take them, the people no longer hand them out on display. My next post will show some items I purchased during my shop hopping.

Nice and Quiet...

At the recent quilt retreat I went too. There was quite a bit of socializing, shopping, sharing of ideas, and laughter at the retreat. This was my sixth retreat I have been too, and last one at least with this group of quilting friends. The retreat is up in the mountains and the place is relatively quiet, except for the sound of birds, geese, and ducks, which this is surprising since they are right in town.

This is one picture of several buildings were we stayed.

The first retreat I ever went too I started making this coin quilt for Mr. Crafts4others. Eventually I was able to get the top pieced together, this was done in about three retreats (mostly because I miscalculated how much yardage I would need for the top and backing. It is the biggest quilt I have ever worked on and I wasn't working from a pattern. 

Off and on since last years retreat I have been hand quilting it. In previous years the retreats have been for three days but this year it was for four. I spent all of the time hand quilting, although I did take an EPP (English Paper Piecing) project just in case I needed another one. By the last day I was already working on the borders and felt that I was running out of fingers to quilt. 🙂 I have started on the second border now, but haven't done anymore quilting for several days.

Progress from Dewey's 24 Hr Readathon

I participated in the readathon but didn't post on the blog about it before the big event. I got a late start yesterday on reading, and only read for about six hours. During that time I spent all of it just reading one book, and I was able to finish it. It was a cozy mystery book called Shunned and Dangerous by Laura Bradford. I have already started on the 4th book in the series called Suspendered Sentence. Dewey's 24 Hr Readathonn is international and I love to read the posts on Facebook and blogs. Their next event is on Oct. 21 2017. Here is a picture of what books I thought I would want to read during yesterday's event.

Learning a new stitch...

I have recently learned how to create the Chinese Wave (I think otherwise known as honeycomb) stitch. I am really liking the design so far, and can't wait to see what it looks like once the dischloth is completed. I am wondering if this pattern would be a little too dense for an afghan, and if I should just use it for perhaps dishcloths. I plan on making a few more before I end up reopening my Etsy store. So far I have one dishcloth done in garter stitch.



This is the front of the Chinese Wave

 And then the back

 The yellow in reality looks more like gold, and I plan on selling this dishcloth. I hope to have my shop reopened by the end of this month if not before. I just want to ensure that I have a few projects complete before doing that. I plan on having dishcloths, scarves, afghans and perhaps other items as well.

Can't wait to try this yarn....

I found out that the local Walmart has the Lion Brand Mandala yarn (which only 500 nationwide have it, and Lion Brand is out of it completely until Sept.) and just had to get some. They had about five or so different colors of the yarn. I ended up getting two balls of each color, they are only around $5 at the store but on Walmarts website it was $10 (I think they have run out of them online). I also got a bright green and blue yarn by Peaches and Creme called ocean stripes. Normally, I get the big cones of cotton yarn (Lil Sugar 'N Cream, I think they merged with the Peaches and Creme company) for around $15, but Walmart had them for $8.

So I plan on making quite a few dishcloths, and haven't decided either scarves or more granny stripe afghan's. The Bernat baby yarn will be for another granny stripe afghan that I hope to make to sell.

An Afghan Finish

I finally completed the Granny Stripe baby afghan I was making to send to my cousin. It turned out much different than the baby boy granny stripe afghan I did, since there were so many different colors in this one.

I started on another granny stripe afghan already, the colors are various purples with green. The yarn is by Michael's called Loops and Thread and even though the weight is only 4 worsted weight it feels very bulky and more like a 5 or 6. It is 100% acrylic but unlike other brands that are a little soft, this one isn't at all. I do not think I will work with this yarn again, but am hoping after I complete the project it will soften up somewhat. It is wider than our queen size bed, so it will be quite a big afghan.

Birthday Gift and Afghan Progress..

I enjoy making people gifts for their birthday.  I really liked the color of this yarn, but it looked like it would appeal more to men than most women, so I end up making a wash/dish cloth for my dad. I thought perhaps he could use it while he works out, or does some yard work.

I worked more on the granny stripe afghan, even more tonight, but here is an updated version from Sunday. I included a few close ups.