English Paper Piecing with my English Springer

I've got Charlie asleep in my lap and I'm hand piecing some hexies.  I've worked so hard this week.  I decided to start the weekend early by taking it slow.  I'm thinking I'll make him a little hat?  Naaaa....he would hate it.  

What are you doing this weekend?  Got plans?  We're working on our son's room right now.  Photos to follow.....  Or check out my Instagram or Facebook, as I update more often there, than I do here.    

This is Charlie, our first Springer foster, and obviously, first foster fail...and that's totally ok. :)

If you're interested in adopting an English Springer Spaniel or becoming a foster parent, please visit English Springer Rescue America and look around.  It's a fun breed.  :)  It will change your life.

"Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them, 

filling an emptiness we don't even know we have."

~Thom Jones~

If you need anything for your pet this summer, please shop through the Amazon affiliate link below.  We thank you for your support.  I highly recommend owning a Thundershirt to get you through firework season!!!  We lost Charlie last summer for 10 days on the 4th of July.  Make sure your dog is tagged and microchipped before it's too late.

Mini Hexi Scrap Quilt ~ English Paper Piecing

I saved ALLLLLLLLLLL the scraps from

my daughter's wedding quilt. 

I saved every tiny piece and used them every where and I'm still using them now. 

For example, I used them on the wedding programs and her thank you notes. 

I was craving a quick Hexi project, something I could do quickly and not get bogged down into a project lasting years. 

I think these are half inch pieces.  I like to buy my paper from Paper Pieces.  I know you can make your own and I do when desperate, but I don't have time for that.  Support small business and some very nice people who have done the work for you.  :) 

I went traditional with the green paths through the garden.  I didn't have enough scraps of this size to make flowers so I just did the diamond thing....went a little rainbow-ish with the placement.  It turned out lovely and original (enough). 

The backing, I used a green Christmas type of fabric, incase the owner wants to use it as a table runner.  I like using green as backings because it can be used throughout the year for so many different holidays and seasons.

The binding is original feedsack fabric found while thrifting.  I absolutely LOVE it.  I'm afraid to use old feedsacks in quilts that will be heavily utilized by my chilly family.  I like using them in wall hangings or table pieces though. 

Oh, and I hand quilted it too. 

Hand pieced and hand quilted. 

You can see some of my other quilts here

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Pooh loves the green garden paths the best. 

Mama likes the flower beds. 

Be blessed and be a Blessing.

Choose Joy.

Sharing with:

Fluster's Creative Muster

 Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Free Motion by the River

Show and Tell Tuesday at I have to Say.

We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado

 Threading My Way ~ Quilting

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Binding Friendships = Binding Quilts

Friendships are what our dreams are made of.

We hold onto each other with its binding love.

We stand close to each other, hand in hand,

showing each other we understand.

Some friends may come and go,

but you are the truest friend I know.

Yes, I realize this little poem borders on cheesy.  D'oh!

 I see so much metaphor and symbolism in quilting.  I love to sit in silence while I quilt, listening to the prose of each stitch I make with my hand, thinking and praying for the intended receiver. 

Be quiet and listen to the work of your hands.

Blissful, peaceful blessings to you this week!

....ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh....



English Paper Peacing

“Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. ”  ~ Corrie ten Boom ~

Using scraps saved from the original grandmother's flower garden

Trying to catch my breath.  My brain pushes my soul too far sometimes. 

I have to stop, refocus and remember whom I love and what it's all about.

How about you?  How is your week? 

Blessings and kind love & hellos to you all.

Sharing with:

The Sunday Showcase Party at Stephanie Lynns



Wedding Quilt Fabric Scraps

Here is the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt I hand pieced for my daughter and son-in-law.

Took me 2 years, lots of Tiger Balm and Advil.  

I saved all my scraps to make smaller hexi's or use on cards.  I never throw pretty scraps away,  no matter how small.  If it's too small to sew, I can at least glue it to paper. 

One of my goals for the wedding, besides being cheap, was to have every single thing hosed down with Pepto-Bismal sentiment.  I thought it would be sweet to use up her wedding quilt scraps on stationery needs. 

It turned out pretty and cost me nothing but my time.  I had plenty of white card stock, glue sticks, my sewing machine and thread.  

Meegan Weaver was the wedding photographer, out of Wichita Falls, TX.  She will travel.   (She took the second photo in this post). 

BOOK HER!!  SHE IS WONDERFUL!! 

 

Cowgirl Up at The Farmhous Porch

Just Something I Whipped Up

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Be Blessed and Be a Blessing

Hebrews 13:4 ~ Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Pooh pouted, "Excuse me, but I told you I wanted to read

Harry Potter.  Crookshanks inspires me".

Waiting for my son...

After all is said and done...

and our children are grown and gone...

have been raised and graduated...

careers,

married off,

etc...

How much of our time as parents was spent

waiting?

And yet, I dare not complain! 

(bite my tongue and God forbid it)

My daughter is a junior in college and will marry her fireman in 2 months. 

During her freshman year at Florida College,

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed her coming home to do laundry. 

Who knew I would miss dirty laundry so much? 

Her dirty laundry was such a comfort and for the first time I could ever remember,

I actually enjoyed doing it. 

Yes, it's true. 

I did my grown daughter's laundry because it smelled soooooo good. 

What's more comforting than the smell of our children???

 

You miss the unmade beds.

You miss the 4 dirty plates in the sink, where now there are only 3. 

You miss their friends being over all the time and the messes they make as they try on 13 different outfits to look good for the boy they liked that week. 

Last Thursday, I sat in the car and waited for my son while he was in his homeschool co-op.  

I've been forbidden (ouch) from thrift store shopping for the rest of the month,

so I brought my quilting along...the almost finished wedding quilt.   

(Can't believe I actually did what my husband told me to do!!  Go me!!)

I sat there and waited for over 2 1/2 hours. 

The radio was my company. 

The windows were rolled down.  

A perfectly warm breeze (not too hot, not too cold) was blowing. 

The citrus trees are blooming in our area so the air smells heavenly now.  It was a peaceful time.
  Waiting. 

 He is 16 and will be gone in 2 years.

  

I don't think I'll miss waiting 2 1/2 hours for my son,

but my heart knows better...

 I'll miss waiting for him terribly. 

  

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Choose Joy.  It's there.  Find it. 

Be blessed and Be a Blessing...

"It is strange that the years teach us patience;

that the shorter our time, the greater our capactiy for waiting." 

~  Elizabeth Taylor

Poo says hide in the grass and practice your pounce. 

You never know when you might need it.   

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

My Magnum Opus

1. A great work, especially a literary or artistic masterpiece.

2. The greatest single work of an artist, writer, or composer.

[Latin : magnum, neuter of magnus, great + opus, work.]

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt
Part 1

It's a wedding quilt for my daughter. 

All
hand pieced 
with her grandmother's fabrics using the
English Paper Piecing method.  

It lacks maybe 1 1/2 more rows. 

 I've been working on it 2 years. 

 ....pant, pant, pant....

I've gone through 2 leather thimbles and lots of Tiger Balm and Advil for a sore neck and aching fingers and shoulders. 

Just a quick English Paper Piecing tip: 

Don't be frugal and think you're gonna go all "old fashioned" and use thin phone book pages, or print out your own pattern off the internet.  

***Face Palm*** 
(Not that I tried that or anything, it's just what I've "heard"). 

Spring the money at Paper Pieces and buy pre cut, firm, sturdy, card stock pieces which hold their shape and can be used and reused.  They make piecing more accurate. 

(In all seriousness, you can print or make your own template, but I suggest card stock, for sure...You'll get neater corners and seams)

You will thank me.  

This quilt is made using  1 1/2" Hexagon Bulk Pack, 600 pieces. 

Here is a nice tutorial, and there are a few on You Tube as well. 
English Paper Piecing at Sunshine's Creations

Sharing with:

Sew and Tell Friday at Amy Lou Who

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Masterpiece Monday at Boogie Board Cottage

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Choose Joy. 

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing.

"Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might."  Eccl 9:10

Lee Lee the Cow Dog, says brush your teeth and pose upside down.  It's fun. 

Wedding Quilt Progress

Grandmother's Flower Garden Progress

Here is what my view looks like most of the time.  A big bulk of hexi strips and a TV on in the background.
Don't you wish you were here to sew with me?  

Holy Moly....at this point, I'm wondering why I am doing this.  Oh yes, now I remember.  I'm crazy in love with my daughter and I'm a quilter.  How can a quilter NOT make her only daughter a wedding quilt?  Never one to shy away from punishment, as I'm a glutton, I am still working on my daughter's wedding quilt which is queen sized, hand pieced, English Paper Pieced, hexi quilt....pant, pant, pant.  That was a mouth full.   Grandmother's Flower Garden... Oy Vey ~ Face Palm...yada, yada yada....what was I thinking?

Can you tell I'm watching Malcom in the Middle?  LOL  I loved that show.  I LOVE Dewey.  What a sweet boy he was.

Don't let my whining fool you.  I AM enjoying the process.  Hand work and hand stitching of any kind is my favorite thing to do.  Although, I have noticed I'm going blind.  I don't know if it's because of my age now 40+ or from paper piecing a queen sized quilt.  Hmmmm....probably both.  

You are getting sleepy.  And more sleepy.  And more sleepy.  Slump..... Honestly, I think these fabrics are boring me.

Anyway, here is a reminder for the audience of why I'm doing this.

• Grandma died.  
• My kids are the babies of the family and never got their handmade wedding quilt from her. :(
• Determined to carry on the tradition of each grandchild receiving a hand pieced, hand quilted wedding quilt for their wedding from their grandmother, I take this challenge on.  How hard can it be to hand piece a quilt???
• I decided English Paper Piecing would be the easiest way for me to hand piece something.
• Spiritually and emotionally, this quilt would be "from grandma".  I only allowed myself to choose fabrics she would have chosen.  She loved 30's reproductions.  Voila! 
• I also used a lot of her stash in this quilt, which I inherited.  
• I'm using 1 1/2 inch Hexagons from Paper Pieces.  I am not an affiliate.  I just like their products.  

Annnnnnnndddd....here we are.  I'm getting close to being done.  I think this is my last row.  And let me just tell you.......my photos are horrible.  I know it.  The lighting in my living room is terrible.  I don't think I EVER got a good photo of this quilt.  *sigh*  I can blame it on the camera and the lighting but let's face it...it's probably me.  On well.  Onward.......

It takes up the whole living room floor.  I'm exhausted just looking at it.  100% hand pieced.  Doh!

I always liked 30's reproductions until I worked on this quilt for 2 years.  I hate them now.  Sorry.  

It took me awhile to figure out it would go faster if I stitched in rows.  Hello????  Why did no one tell me that trick?

Well.  There you have it.  My progress thus far.  I'm getting so close to finishing.  I only allowed myself to quilt something grandma would have approved and stitched herself.  I think she would have LOVED this.  Just wish she was here.  I miss quilting with her.

You can see the finished quilt here.

Have you made anything large with English Paper Piecing yet?  Or Hexies?  

Have you challenged yourself with rules similar to the ones I've made for myself, above?  

• Share with me in the comments below. Link me up to your work.  I would love to see it.  

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