A little stitch here and a little stitch there!

Last weekend I did not do a stitch in any of my cross stitch pieces, but I did stitch!

Many, many moons ago I got bitten by a different type of stitching bug - the patchwork and quilting bug.  Unfortunately I argued with the sewing machine (and my ex-husband) and didn't do many blocks.  You see my ex-husband was not as supportive of my stitching as my dearest darling husband of today is.  My motto is 'Stitching Forever, Housework Whenever', but that did not go down well with the ex!  Think that was probably one of the reasons I finally saw the light... but that is another story!

As I was saying, once upon a time I did try to teach myself to quilt.  I bought some templates and made some very simple blocks, which I found again only recently hidden away in a box with what was the beginning of my stash.  All the blocks were machine pieced and made using one set of templates.

Can't remember the name of this one

Card Trick

Ohio Star

Friendship Star

Can't remember the name of this one either

When I found my old blocks I also discovered a long misplaced piece of stitching.  This Pierrot was one of the first things I ever stitched.  Now that I have found it again I will have to finally do something with it.  I might turn it into a cushion... or not!  I actually have another kit that is the partner to this so maybe I should stitch that as well and then do something with the two of them... oh boy, my stitching list is long enough as it is!!

Pierrot - stitched way back in the 1980's sometime....

So that was then and this is now....

Since I started reading the "Elm Creek Quilts" series of books by Jennifer Chiaverini I have started to get this feeling that I want to start making these beautiful 9 patch blocks again.  The descriptions of the quilts in the books have fired up my imagination and for the last couple of months I have even dreamt about quilt blocks.... very strange!

So last weekend, I gave into the feelings and started to look around the internet to see what quilting blogs and info I could find to give me the hints and tips to start off again.  Dear Hubby has lots of quilting stuff that he has started accumulating over that last couple of months, but we don't have a lot of info relating to the traditional hand piecing and quilting that I want to have a go at.

On Sunday I pulled out my old templates and the material in my original stash and decided to have a go!  And this is the result.  The block is all hand pieced.  As you can see the seams aren't exactly the straightest, but overall the block turned out ok.  Nothing went particulary wrong, and lots of practice will make the block look better.

Hand pieced... in 2011

While I have been bitten by the "Quilting Bug" I am still going to be doing my cross stitch.  Cross Stitch is my first love and quilting will be just something else that I want to do when (if) I have the time.  For the next couple of weeks I will be cross stitching as I have a few pieces to finish off, and then I would like to have a go at playing with some 9 patch blocks for awhile.

Wish me luck!

Til next time, happy stitching no matter what type of stitching you might do...