Getting Things Done

We had a lovely Thanksgiving gathering--we were 22 for dinner  and got to catch up with my brother Tyler's kids,  whom we had not seen in some time. There was a lot of furniture moving and cooking for the big meal.   I took zero photos but we did have two baby announcements! One was of our nephew and his wife who were not able to make it, they live a 12 hour drive away.  It is their first baby and my brother and sister-in-law's first grandchild.  So exciting for them  The other announcement we can now share is of our own son and daughter-in-law's pregnancy!  Dane will have a baby brother or sister next year.  Very excited about another grandchild!  It was great to have a big family gathering again.  Plenty of leftovers to enjoy too. I gave the Windham Challenge pillow cover to my sister-in-law.  

I did kind of "squircle" quilting, which is not perfect!  Though I like the colors and prints, it does not go with anything in my house. 

Extra parts landed on the back.  I had the text print in stash to use--only Windham fabrics were allowed.  The stripe navy print made a nice accented binding. 

My sewing room became a sitting room for the big Thanksgiving event--the annual furniture resetting was accomplished pretty easily.  I first worked on the quilt top of the moment, Beachside Bungalow. 

I had the bright blue solid and the purple print in stash.  This long and slender quilt will be great for naps. I will look through stash fabrics for backing options first.  

My sister's longarm machine may get fixed soon, but until then I decided to quilt some smaller projects on my own to ease the crowding in the "to be quilted" closet. 

Curved organic crosshatch with the walking foot for this small quilt/baby quilt.  I used pink thread for three of the corners, and black thread for the last one, just for fun. 

During the burying of thread tails in one section, I lost my grip on the needle.  My husband and I were searching my sewing area for about 25 minutes with flashlights without success.  Finally, I went to pick up the quilt from my sewing desk and the magnetized needle was sitting on a pair of scissors on the quilt!!  So glad the search ended well. 

Backing made from leftovers from other quilts.  I love the monkey print that came from grandson Hunter's baby quilt.  I'll use black for the binding.  Tomorrow I plan to get another smaller top quilted to end the nice long weekend.  

Setting Triangle Woes

The Beachside Bungalow tablerunner project occupying my small sewing room floorspace needed its setting triangles cut.  I used Kona Shale for the neutral and decided to continue that as the setting triangle color.  There was a decent length of fabric left for this job.  I checked the Scrap Basket Beauties book by Kim Brackett for the setting triangle size.  I prefer using Bonnie Hunter's Easy Angle Ruler to cut QSTs from strips, but after drawing out the square on paper and measuring, it was an odd size.  Therefore I just cut squares per the book.  Unfortunately, I was looking at the wrong pattern in the book!! I was just able to eke out the  correct sized 18 large QSTs out of my now smaller chunk of leftover Shale. 

It was a puzzle to put together.  I had not noticed initially in the pattern that there are no "corner" triangles, they are just two setting triangles meeting there. I think that is very clever and time-saving. I don't care a whit if there is a seam there!

The pattern for the quilt has a different print for the setting triangles, which I do like for its border effect, but for my smaller project I wanted to feature the rings and keep the background the same.  These triangles on the cutting table are the wrong sized ones....

...versus the correct size.  I was WAY off, lol!  Today's project is to get the rows off the floor and all sewn together.  My sewing room will become a sitting room for the Thanksgiving Day crowd.  Hoping for good weather--without the strong East winds we have had for days...

Sewtopia Palm Springs, Part 4

Sewtopia project #2 was a tablerunner, a cropped portion of the Beachside Bungalow quilt by Kim Brackett, in her Scrap Basket Beauties book.  I had all the block pieces cut and ready to sew.  I needed my husband's help to take a photo of the layout directions in the book, as I had only written down my changes on a piece of paper.  Eventually he got back to me after golfing! By that time I had finished all the blocks. 

Very scrappy but fun.  Most of the fabrics were from a JoAnn's store jelly roll, with some additions from stash.

The "corner" blocks alternated with a "twist" block. There was no further assembly as I will have to figure the  the setting triangle size for the sides.  I am glad all the center pieces got sewn, anyway!

My third project was the Four-patch X by Bonnie Hunter, but I was only able to get one block completed before the end of the last day.  

The pillow cover I made did not win the Windham challenge; I am not sure who won!  The winner was chosen when I was busy elsewhere, I suppose.

There was a great trunk show from Latifah Saafir as well, with lots of HRTs.  She was selling her new HuRTy ruler afterwards. 

Sewtopia swap gifts were on the tables in the morning.  I received a very clever zippered folding tray with goodies inside. 

When opened, it was full of loot. 

A needle minder, needle book, needle setting tool, magnetic pin holder, and mini charm pack.  Thanks, Mandy!

Look at all the Sewtopia loot given and some I took home after we played games.  I did buy the strawberry print yardage and couple of fat quarters in the Sewtopia shop.  

An ironing board cover and several bottles of Soak spray, with a Kona color book were also gifted. 

Finally, I got a couple of birthday gifts, since mine fell during Sewtopia. My sister made me an H-bag. 

Love the sewing theme and the Lucite handles. Kathy cut up and covered used campaign signs for  a sturdy base inside the bag.  Our sister-in-law gave me a beautiful lipstick holder and thread winder butterflies. 

Finally, next year's Sewtopia was announced as NASHVILLE, TN!  I have never been to Tennessee.  Kathy is excited as her daughter and friends from Missouri.can easily visit.  We look forward to another great time put on by Amy and her SEWtopia crew!

Easy Breezy, Windham Challenge

 A combo post of the last few days...

I completed sewing the two quilt halves of my version of the  Easy-Breezy leader-ender and laid it out on our CalKing bed. Easy-Breezy by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville was the leader-ender that ran September 2020-2021.  I wanted a less busy setting so used 3.5x6.5" light bricks in place of Bonnie's neutral sashings and cornerstones. 

I've wanted another quilt for our bed that was lighter in color and less traditional.  This is certainly nice and light! However, there is a wart staring at me...

This block with dark rectangles stands out way too much.  I have leftover blocks so will audition them to replace this one.  It will be annoying but the placement is just too distracting!  There will have to be borders all around in order to fit this big bed.  The quilt you see under it did shrink more than anticipated once quilted and washed, which was disappointing, so I will make this one bigger.

My next project to ponder is the Windham Challenge for Sewtopia Palm Springs in November.

Pretty collection of prints in blues.  I am considering using a block from this Kim Brackett book.  It is called Triple Star.  If my sister gives me her fabrics, I think I can make four blocks for a small quilt. I drew an alternate woven block for variety. The retreat is in the early part of November so just over a month away. So glad travel will be by car for us!

Last year I made this pillow cover: 

It was a finalist and I got to pick out a prize :)

Design Wall Monday--9/26/2022

Design Wall Monday is here again.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Our trip to Palm Springs Sewtopia weekend will be here before we know it.  I looked around the sewing room for a project already in the works and found a box with table runner I adapted from one of Kim Brackett's quilt designs.  This one is called Beachside Bungalow, from the Scrap Basket Beauties book.  

The idea was to use up most of the leftover jelly roll pieces I had bought while shopping for placemat fabrics with daughter Erica a few years ago.  The jelly roll was at JoAnn's fabrics and Erica liked ONE of the fabrics a lot, a pretty mauve.  I used mostly neutrals from stash for those placemat fronts, and some of the brights from the jelly roll for the back.  

Lots of pieces in this project.  I chose one of my favorite Kona neutrals, Shale, a gray-green, to go with all the brighter colors.

Naturally there was an OOPS while cutting.  I had made one A block and was cutting more squares of the Kona for my plan....

..And sliced off a corner at the wrong angle.  Fortunately a rummage through the leftover solid scrap drawer yielded a large enough piece of Kone Shale to recut the square.  Since these photos I have completed sewing up a lot of the A and B Block Parts and filled a project box.  I've got the remaining two-patches paired and at the sewing machine to stitch up.  I will be all ready to layout and sew sew sew. Pondering what second project I will work on....

Design Wall Monday--Another Scrap Basket quilt and a Squirrel

Design Wall Monday is here again.  The month is flying by! See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

In my last post I mentioned another Scrap Basket quilt from designer Kim Brackett. I set aside a long-hoarded jelly roll and background fabric for this quilt at least a year ago, but have wanted to make the cover quilt, Hourglass, for much longer than that--I love it!

The jelly roll is Recess by American Jane (so very old it is out of print!).  I separated out the mini dot fabrics and light strips and will use the prints posed closest to the book for the blocks, with a white solid for background  The binding will be the measuring tape fabric; I'll supplement with mini dot fabrics if there is not enough  of that yardage.  There is a lot of cutting in my future.  

While rooting around in my Hoosier cabinet that houses all the project boxes, etc, I also found an unlabeled box which turned out to have pieces I cut months ago for a Plaidish 2 quilt.  That triggered a landslide of cutting from the overflowing scrap drawers.  I loved the  original Plaidish quilt I made and recently gifted to my niece in Arizona (free pattern and tutorial on Kitchen Table Quilting)

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours thinning the precut scrap and loose scrap drawers.  The pattern is a large throw but since the designer assembles it by blocks, you can make fewer blocks if you like.  The binding job on the Summer Breeze quilt got pushed to another day for this scrap box detour!  I've put away the Plaidish2 parts but will get them out to play again soon.  

Weekend Sewing--Design Wall Monday

See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

It's been a quiet Memorial Day, I spent most of it in the sewing room doing a lot of cleanup.  The scrap drawers saw a lot of activity this past week when I was cutting for a Plaidish Quilt. 

The pattern is free on the Kitchen Table Quilting blog by Erica Jackman, with a tutorial here.    It uses more medium value fabrics than dark or light, which suits my stash well. She has introduced a second Plaidish 2  quilt just recently which utilizes a lot more light fabrics.  Lights seem to be hard to keep stocked in my sewing room!  I'm making a 6x8 version of her pattern, which is block-based so you can make it whatever size you like.  I'm looking forward to a lot of plaid piecing in my future.  

Meanwhile, in between Telehealth visits last week I assembled all the rows to the Cross My Heart tablerunner for my brother. The full size quilt is in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book.  

I got a lot of exercise picking up and sewing all the rows and setting triangles.  Another task crossed off the list today was choosing backing fabrics for the runner. 

The cutting table got cleared of all the assorted scraps and strips that get thrown in a basket as I cut, fat quarters and larger scraps went to their drawers, and I stuffed more yardage in the groaning tubs under the table.  Good thing the only fabric related purchases I made recently had specific projects attached to them :)

Our son and daughter-in-law came over Saturday for a socially distant lunch they picked up; we sat at opposite ends of the 6 foot patio table, lol.  Our future grandson is poking out a bit more, only 3 months to go.  They had a virtual baby shower and DIL Ashley was very excited for a particular item we purchased from her registry--a baby-wipe warmer.  I wish such a thing had existed when our kids were babies! 

A friend gave her a nice rocking chair, which she repainted, but the cushion covers were quite worn and she asked me to make some new ones--the old ones are pictured on the table.  We are getting very excited about having a new baby in the family again.  Meanwhile, there was great progress on the Dreamweaver quilt I started for them a year ago when they got married (pattern by Jen Kingwell Designs).

I was finally able to pick up my Superbuzzy fabric order on Friday, after a week's wait, and made the bias tape from a 3/4 yd cut of Kona Jade fabric.  I only needed to make one join for the medallion.  After I took this pic I looked at the pattern again and realized the streamers were too wide and needed to be adjusted to 1/2" wide.  My version of the quilt is much larger than the original and I changed the disappearing 9 patch background to simple patchwork.  Many prepared applique leaves and circles will be fused and stitched along the streamers.  Lots more time needed to cross this off the list!

Design Wall Monday--4/25/2020

Design Wall Monday to close out the longest April in history...see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

Lots more activity in the sewing room, including quilting smaller projects.  I made a Baby size Moda Love Quilt a couple of years ago and it stalled after the top was pieced--a fairly typical bump in the road for my quilt making process!  Something simple was called for and, since I had the right size batting and quickly stitched up a backing, quilting commenced.  

I started this quilt with a charm pack of Bonnie and Camille fabric and added neutrals and a few other additions from stash to finish out the layout.

Chunks of leftovers for a backing.   I used my Hera marker to space lines 1" apart and neutral thread.  I love the texture it gives.  There not being any other Bonnie and Camille fabric in stash, there were many options pulled and rejected.  Finally I happened upon a green print that works and it has been cut and sewn, ready to attach when I have the walking foot out again. 

A leader-ender project jumped ahead of others too.  I finished up the last five blocks of Cross My Heart from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket book and commenced layout of the tablerunner I'm making for my brother, all greens from scraps and stash. 

The bright yellow-green blocks were too loud and got pulled, and I had one leftover double.  I have to cut setting triangles before assembling but have the rows pinned in stacks.

Mini, my 15 year old cat, found the empty project box irresistible...

Her, um, +/- 15 lb body didn't really fit in the photo box...

But she gave it the old college try--for a few minutes anyway, lol.

Doll Quilt Moving Along

Lori of Humble Quilts' annual Doll Quilt Swap is in full swing.  I've seen a number of great doll quilts other participants have received on her Facebook group page.  I got the little top sewn together, it measures about 21". 

The uneven 9 patch blocks look pretty humble, but I'm hoping the quilting will add more charm.  The quilt sandwich is resting until tomorrow for the quilting step, and binding has been made.  I took a pic of the 1880 era antique quilt that inspired my layout, since I couldn't get a link to work from the auction site where I found it through Pinterest several years ago.

The description notes the border is a tiny red check, not a pink print.  Is this not striking?  I've never seen anything like it.  It was hard to see the quilting but appears to be a simple crosshatch in each triangle quarter.  The quilter's nine patches are much simpler than mine, with a single muslin/off white and mostly two different prints.  I want to get this little guy in the mail by Tuesday, and also send off large quilt to be quilted. 

I have made a lot of scrappy cross blocks while sewing 9 patches and masks.  These will become a tablerunner for my brother when I finish all the cut pieces.  I made a similar runner a couple of years ago from a charm pack--the full quilt pattern is in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book. 

The latest batch of masks went to my fellow employees who are still seeing patients at one of our practice locations. 

That was a lot of cutting and sewing over two days and my fingers need a rest!  A family friend has requested masks so there will be more cutting and sewing over the weekend.  Our county is still doing well with under 400 confirmed cases recorded, and low number of 13 deaths from COVID-19.  There is a cautious hope that we may soon have quite a downturn in new cases and more recovered folks.   We will stay the social distancing course...and wear a mask in public :)

Design Wall Monday--March 2, 2020 New March Challenge

First Design Wall Monday of March is here--see more beauties on design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

Last March I did a UFO self-challenge working on a different project every three days.  That was a very motivating exercise and helped move along lots of different quilts that had been stalled at some stage or another.  This year I'm working on hidden projects, mostly contained in/on/under the Hoosier cabinet that substitutes for closet space in the open family room where I sew.  It's Empty the Hoosier this month!  I first attacked the overflowing scrap situation; I had a shoe box and deep wire basket full of fabric to deal with.

Pieces I had already precut to the sizes I save went into the drawers under the cutting table, and the larger slabs and strips to the ROY G BIV drawers under the desk, or the fat quarter dresser, depending on size.  The wire basket and plastic shoebox are empty again!  However, I accidentally started a new project while cutting up some of the green scraps....Squirrel!

I'm going to make a tablerunner for my oldest brother--his favorite color is green too. The fabric in the bottom right stack I used in a bed quilt I made him several years ago.  This squirrel project will match another started in April 2017 from Kim Brackett's pattern called Cross My Heart (from the book Scrap Basket Beauties), and finished in my Three for March self-challenge last year.

 Obviously this pic doesn't show the finish! I cut 40 sets of green fabrics but still need to cut the corner pieces from solid white. 

In the Hoosier cabinet I have a box with small unfinished projects; that also needs to be emptied! I chose one as a new leader-ender. I think the 5" charm pack was a prize and the pattern a free project card.  Anyway, I had already cut all the corner squares, they just needed to be marked with the stitching line, a tedious job that had stalled the project. 

This will make a good baby quilt if I make it square instead of a rectangle, wouldn't it?  Lots of fun piecing to start my Empty the Hoosier Challenge--I like it!

Design Wall Monday--Progress plus Another Squirrel

On this DWM, I'm still getting sucked into projects I didn't mean to start, simply in the process of cleaning my sewing room!    I had some leftovers from the Cross My Heart runner from last post, so stitched them up quickly into this small runner or table mat (from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book). Squirrel!

There is another pile of leftover squares still on the cutting table, so they may turn into borders or another mini quilt, we shall see :) 

 I sewed up the Twilight Hopscotch block (Kim Diehl's Simple Comfort's Lap Quilts book).  I really want to make the whole quilt now, and will be ordering from Connecting Threads' Oh My Darling Line.  I tried to order fabric but the website was not cooperating with me on Saturday. 

Then another project jumped out from the cutting table, from a 10" square stack also from Connecting Threads.  I saw a pattern called Sliced Cake  HERE and pulled fabrics from my stash with plans to make a mini version of this pattern, for a baby quilt. 

Unfortunately I had a miscut accident and won't have three pieces of one set I was cutting :( .  There will be some shopping to add to this bin and quilt project as my stash lacked any appropriate yellow, turquoise blue or mint green to pull.  

Saturday it was beautiful out and I set up a tray with hand stitching supplies for finishing up the doll quilt for the Humble Quilts Swap.

Though I had to wear a visor and move my chair around the patio table to stay in the shade as the sun moved, I really enjoyed watching the birds, planes, palm trees, and butterflies as I stitched down the binding and added hand quilting.  On this end of town there is a tiny post office--which is very inconviently closed at lunchtime--so I have to wait until my morning off to send it on its way East.  

What is NOT getting worked on is the UFO pick of the month.  I made the backing the first weekend the number was picked but am stalled at the usual stage, basting and quilting.   

A friend called all the other projects I've been doing instead "Procraftination".  Love that!

See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.