Summer Daisies Update and a Cross Stitch Finish

Hello Everyone! I hope you all are safe and well and finding things to keep you entertained. It was such a pretty day on Friday and we were tired of just seeing the neighborhood, that we decided to take a drive. We ended up driving by Lake Allatoona through Red Top Mountain State Park, then through a good part of the counties west of here almost to Alabama. Always trying to take the back roads and going places we haven’t been before.

Euharlee Covered Bridge

Red Top Mountain State Park was full of cars and we saw lots of people out walking, but mostly keeping their distance. Then I said lets drive by the covered bridge, which is where we started our adventure driving. Instead of going towards home, I said, “let’s go this way”, so we did. It’s a good thing for navigation tools because we could have ended up in Alabama without them! We stayed in the car, with the windows down and just enjoyed the ride.

I did get Farmhouse Christmas finished!

Farmhouse Christmas by Little House Needleworks

I was happy to finish this one up! It was one of the first pieces that I started when I got back into cross stitch big time. Here are some stats on it.

• Date Started: 1-4-19
• Date Finished: 4-15-20
• Number of Days worked on: approximately 100
• Fabric: 30 ct Portobello by Studio Line (called for) 2 over 2
• Floss Substitutions: DMC Blanc for CCW Bamboo, DMC 470 for CCW Weeping Willow, CCW Cupid for CCW Cherry Cobbler, and for the center square, CCW Pine Needle for Pebble Beach

At this point I’m not sure how I’ll fully finish it. I could frame it, make a pillow or make a wall hanging.

You haven’t seen much quilting progress, but I have been busy with my Summer Daisies quilt using Pepper and Flax fabric by Corey Yoder for Moda.

It took me over a week to make the applique blocks. I used sew-in interfacing and turned the pieces so I would get a nice clean edge. I tried one block with fusible web, but it was flat. I wanted the pieces to look like they are hand appliqued. For the first group I made, I tried to use matching thread on top, but I didn’t have thread to match some of the grays. So I went with invisible thread on top and matching background thread on the bottom. I’m very pleased with the results.

These are a few after sewing the corner squares on.

A nice big stack all ready to sew into rows!

This is the center part of the quilt, but the borders still need to be added. After I had the center sewn and my first border pieces sewn together, I decided to change the border layout. That’s going to require cutting the borders already made down by 3/4″. I hope I can cut those long pieces straight. I do like the new plan much better.

My problem with finishing the quilt is that I don’t have any backing fabric. I bought this fabric at a local quilt shop and there was a little left the last time I was in there. I’ll have to call to see if there’s enough for the backing and binding, then have them cut it and I can curb side pick it up. If there’s not enough fabric, I’ll go with a solid that matches. I am in the process of writing a pattern and hope to release it the first part of May.

By the way, while I was sewing all those corner squares together, I went back and sewed another seam, so now I have lots of half square triangles to play with. There are so many combinations, it may be hard to choose which layout to use. I plan on including a bonus project in the pattern using the leftover pieces.

I am almost through with the strawberry embroidery from The Art of Home Club. I’ve been mostly working on this late in the afternoons while I’m sitting outside enjoying the day. I’m still not sure how I’ll finish this one. I’ve stitched it on a tea towel, so I may end up leaving it on that and adding some pretty fabric to it.

That’s it for now. Stay safe and let’s hope that things are going so well, that we’ll be able to get out sooner rather than later. Thanks for stopping by.