Slow Sunday Stitching--Fifty Shades

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more lovely projects being slow stitched on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

My slow stitching today will be a binding for a small quilt. This was from Lori of Humble Quilts sewalong in 2020, Fifty Shades of Brown.  I had a lot of fun making this little quilt, which measures about 14x18".  

I made a simple backing "Bar" style.  The tan fabric is from a fat quarter that has been in the stash a long time!

I used my walking foot and brown Aurifil thread for SITD quilting.  

...And added a few more brown prints with the binding. 

All ready for hand stitching the binding down with the same Aurifil thread.  I think I'll sit outside for this small job, it is a lovely day in SoCal with a nice breeze. 

Sewing Room Update, Shopping, Quilting

The former family room I use as my sewing room got a much anticipated update. We recently ordered new blinds for most of the bedrooms, which we had put off doing until we finally replaced the single pane, builder grade original windows. For the sewing room however, we wanted to match the shutters we added years ago to the living room, for consistency.  I've had an inexpensive bamboo rollup shade covering the window for a long time.  

The shutter looks so nice and I love being able to control the light better than just an up or down shade.  Since we replaced the former picture window with an actual functional one, I can even catch a breeze :)  Having moved the the tall fat quarter dresser that used to be in the corner next to white desk, the room even looks bigger.  I spent some time at the sewing  machine today.

These tumbler placemats got quilted, simple walking foot with a specialty stitch from the sewing machine menu. I used a simple hack I saw on Instagram when I attached the binding I'd already made.

Sorry I can't give credit for the idea, but I was struck by the "duh, I should have thought of that" simplicity of using a binding clip to keep the quilt sandwich gathered up and out of the way while joining the binding ends.  Clever, right?

Bad nighttime shot! This print was leftover from a backing, as was the binding   A visit to Superbuzzy  today to spend my Mother's Day gift card resulted in a perusal of the clearance bolts for another quilt backing. 

The red cookies recipes print and brown geometric were a great match for the quilt I made last year during Meghan's (Then Came June) Meadowland quiltalong.  I got the Christmas fabric FQ bundle  (We Whisk You a Merry Christmas) as a prize at Sewtopia Seattle.  I'm trying to keep the quilt tops to finished quilt ratio a reasonable amount!  It would be fun to enter into this year's County Fair, which is coming up next month.  Hmmm....

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  We're planning a BBQ with a number of dads--should be fun :)

Design Wall Monday--Log Cabins and Star Blocks

 Design Wall Monday--see more beautiful design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The Log Cabin and Star swapped blocks continued to occupy my design floor.  There were so many blocks left over after my initial layout that I played some more with the little quilt. 

An extra row of blocks all around was fun to lay out, but looked a bit heavy. 

I adjusted the rows and sent out a query on Instagram: double row, or spacer strip and cornerstone?  The latter won out.  Luckily I had a large piece of muslin in stash that I cut vertically so no seams would be required. My strips were cut 2.5" wide and the 2.5" cornerstones came from my scrap system drawers. 

I pretty much scant stitched all  the seams of these blocks together; I wanted the stars to be pointy and preserved.  I think it turned out well.  The quilt top is about 60" square.  I am not really a square quilt lover, and will audition another border top and bottom. I'm happy to have so many of the swap blocks in the quilt top!  

Slow Sunday Stitching--DMC flowers

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more great needlework on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

I hadn't touched my DMC kit stitchery in a few weeks, but pulled it out today to work on while hubby was needing me nearby while he was installing new window blinds in our  bedroom vanity area. 

You can barely see that I've added more of a very light pink color around the center flower.  I had previously stitched most of this section and had to pull it out due to several errors.  It has been weeks since I removed those stitches. I'll probably work my way down to the lower portion of the design next. Now that I've fixed the bad spot, it is more appealing to pick up again!

There are several completed stitcheries from last year that need final finishing/framing.   Why is that so often the hardest part?  lol

Log Cabin and Star Block Play

I had a small number of leftover blocks from the Log Cabin Loonies project recently sewn into a small top last month. A lot of star blocks remained from Barb's last swap (Fun with Barb)  a couple of years ago.  I laid them out together. Some of you may remember that the mailer I sent my swap blocks in had exploded en route to Barb, and a kind mailperson had forwarded them on to Barb, but too late to swap.  Barb very kindly sent my blocks back and HER swapped blocks.

My Log Cabin blocks finish at 7.5 inches, and if I have figured correctly--and skinny the seam allowance while sewing the 6" finished star blocks together--they should just come out even.  I really didn't want to scramble my brain trying to figure a spacer border between!  I like it set block to block anyway.  Grandson Hunter told me he liked my quilt and wanted to help sew it.  I told him this was too complicated, but I'll have him choose some big squares of other fabrics and we will sew them into a quilt. He was very excited about that. It would be a great summer activity.  

I made this mini quilt last weekend while Grant was golfing.  I think they were leftover charm pieces.  

Backing cut from a fat quarter and diamond quilting, with binding made from a long hoarded print. 

Cute on my mini quilt hanger.  So fun to play with small projects!

Design Wall Monday--June Doings

Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  Always lots of variety to enjoy there. 

In the endless effort to move projects out of boxes, on Saturday I sewed up the Plaidish2 blocks I had kitted up a couple of months ago. The Plaidish quilts are designed by Erica Jackman of Kitchen Table Quilting and are a free download on her site, with  tutorials. It is all about value placement. 

I managed to successfully chain piece the rows together without twisting!  

I have now completed 10 of the large  A blocks, but less than 10 of the B blocks, and none of the C blocks.  Lots of playing in the scrap drawers on Sunday and cutting, cutting, cutting for more variety. 

For my plan, I'm making 20 of the large A blocks, 31 of the rectangular B blocks, and 18 of the C border blocks.  

A mini rainbow made of 2.5 x 3.5" rectangles--lots and lots of different medium prints in my piles--hmm, that dark purple may have to join its dark friends.  Each A blocks uses 12 of the medium print pieces and 9 dark pieces..  I love playing in the scrap bins and moving things along.  My neck isn't very happy after all that cutting, though! 

The original Plaidish quilt pattern uses a lot more dark fabrics.  I finished this one in May 2021 and gifted it to my niece, Hannah; it lives in Arizona now.  I do like the narrow sashing and center squares on this design. 

Our County Fair is finally returning this year   Entries are due in July so if I want to enter something, decisions will need to be made on possibilities. Pondering....

A Day in The Keys

Our daughter-in-law's parents invited us on a Harbor boat ride last weekend.  In our City, the area with homes on the water is called The Keys.  Our hosts bought a builder-grade and altogether boring house a few years ago when they retired, and turned it into a lovely home.  They enjoy lots of cruises on their power boat and watching all the wildlife there.

We went all the way out to the harbor mouth.  Our man-made harbor is bordered by long jetties on the beach side, and a large breakwater on the seaside.  Pelicans spend a lot of time fishing and resting there.

It was an overcast day but it seems the fishing was good. 

This Pelican was being hounded by several seagulls while trying to consume a catch. 

Back in the dock area of the marina, some sea lions were playing King of the Dock, jumping up and knocking each other off.  Well, some of them were--the big brown one in the back of the above pic complained about the noise and activity but didn't join in the play :).

We watched the five sea lions playing for some time, before heading back into the Keys and home.  It was a lovely couple of hours getting our Vitamin Sea!   Our mutual grandson is nearing his 2nd birthday in August.  Hard to believe it has been two years since we were all awaiting his arrival!  We're so glad to have joined families.