July block

July CQ, still in progress but nearly done (I think). This is the Aunt Peggy block, Mom's youngest sister. Pictures are from the 1960's.

The rick rack in the upper left is from Malaysia. I found it on Etsy. Sorry about the picture quality. My good camera is broken & I haven't made it to the camera shop yet.

The bonnet stitch is one of the later TAST stitches. It was done on the seam in the upper right hand side.

CQJP - June and an Overview

Here's a view of the completed block and my July block, which I've just begun stitching. 

Looking at the photos, I wish I'd thought of  arranging them so that they form a big circle around the quilt. Just didn't occur to me. I noticed this when I put the bottom middle block next to the bottom right one. That would have really made the eye travel around the quilt. Next time!

The middle block will consist of the photo I have up and I am thinking I'd like a lot of flowers - appliqued, embroidered, ribbon, fabric - something of that nature, surrounding the photograph. 

I also need to soften the angles of the linen pieces in the middle, perhaps some of the florals overlapping those would help.

Your comments are welcome!

A Small Problem...

...which has been corrected.

Here is the preliminary layout of the entire quilt (disregarding extraneous photo in the middle). This is the back of my design board. I had something else on the other side and I've just never switched these over. The other side is much nicer looking.

This is the sixth and final "aunt" block. It should be in the lower right hand corner, chronologically. But I realized after stitching my mother's block that hers should have been the middle block, with the two linen pieces pointing up. That was my first screw up. So I decided, what the heck, this is for me/my daughters and we know who came first. And if anyone doesn't know, does that really matter that much? No.

Then I started block 6, Aunt Peggy (bottom pic) and stitched the basket (lower right). Pointing those linen pieces in the right direction will make the basket upside down. So I pulled out the pics, which I had really just tacked down. This will be the first block in the second row-as you can see in the top picture. I'll have to do another one for Peggy, bottom middle, with the correct placement of linens and pictures.

Eventually, I will be doing something to soften those hard edges and angles created by the linens. They're too stark for the overall effect that I want.

This will probably work out better anyway, since one of Peggy's photos is a little large, and I can make a larger space to put it, and place it so it is balanced and fits in with the other blocks' photo placement.

I've got to start thinking about the middle block and how it's going to look.

I hope you followed that. It's very early and I'm probably not making sense.

Happy Independence Day!

I survived my third Independence Day Parade in Marietta, where it was in the 90's - practically a spring day after last weekend.

However, between not getting much sleep, the heat, the sun, and a visor that was gripping my head like a vise, I have had a splitting headache all day. Bitch/moan, bitch/moan.

Just for fun, and because I don't have a thing to post today, here's a really sweet Youtube video that I watch about once a day because it just makes me happy:

If you haven't seen this, you've probably been in Siberia for the past few months.

CQJP: June Block Progress

Not much progress. It's slow go, and I can't find decent photos of my mother's youngest sister, Peggy. Here are some details:

You can see my Palestrina Stitch over at Tuesday Stitchers. Once I got the hang of it, I really liked it - as with most stitches.

I am having Scottish oatmeal for breakfast and boy is it bland. Needs more something - sugar? butter? I thought grits were tasteless without accoutrements.