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.  

Design Wall Monday--Windham Challenge

I'm late as usual for Design Wall Monday--but still wanted to share the sewing room project of the moment.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The Sewtopia Event this year in Palm Springs is coming up fast.  I signed up for the Windham Fabric challenge and received a fabric bundle. I showed it a few posts ago with the block I wanted to make. 

The challenge rules allow any Windham fabrics.  I had some scraps of solids from a previous years' challenges and pulled those to play with the new group. 

I cut and sewed, cut and sewed...

The block turned out pretty well---but it was far too busy.  I let it stew overnight and tried again. 

After some careful surgery of some of the non-current challenge fabric, and and frustration with wrong-sized strips, I was happier with my changes. 

It took nearly all day but now it looks like this!  Much better.  I believe I will make a quilted pillow sham from the block.  I have made binding with the remainder of the blue and white striped fabric.  There is a light-colored fat quarter from stash that will do for half of the backing, and I'll cobble together extra block parts/pieces of challenge fabric for the rest. 

In other Sewtopia prep, I sewed together one of the blocks for the Four-Patch X quilt I also plan to work on--but it turned out too big!  I am blaming that on the sewing machine foot I was using.  Still to finish is a general swap gift and my sister's birthday quilt...as well as packing, etc. 

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 :)

Sewtopia Orlando--Part 1

I'm back from Orlando, Florida, where Sewtopia retreat again was a great event and getaway.  Attendance was cut in half due to social distancing requirements, but the fun and camaraderie was full as always. My sister Kathy and I spent the night at an airport hotel the night before our flight, which included free parking and a shuttle to the LAX airport.  We got to the airport way early and breezed through security, but nearly missed our boarding as we were hanging out in the wrong terminal!  We were running through the airport and were the last on, I think. The flight was very bumpy and this delayed drink/snack service.  There were a lot of folks getting up and moving around even after being told not to by the staff/Captain due to the turbulence.  Our window seatmate slept almost the entire time, unbothered!  

On the plane, I worked on stitching down binding on the Copy Cat pillow I made with the Windham Challenge fabric--also not easy due to turbulence! At the hotel, I finished closing and attaching the stuffed toy balls to the pillow before bedtime, as we had to turn them in first thing. 

Sewing on the ball toys was the hardest part of this pillow cover!  It turned out really cute with the plaid binding.  I did not win the challenge, as there were many other fantastic entries, but did get to pick out a lovely prize for participating. 

There were shoppers before the sewing room was fully powered--man on the left was part of the crew taping down outlets and cords!  Having an in-event shop is a good thing.  Amy and her team are always so responsive to issues or questions. 

My first task was laying out my precut rectangles for the Cosmic Crush pattern (Modernly Morgan) I had cut all these months ago from stash when there was a stitchalong that I ended up not doing.  I tried to balance out all the colors/prints in the blocks. The background pieces were mostly cut with my Accuquilt die.  

                               

Thank goodness for cell phone cameras to provide reference for placement, as I shuffled the pieces while sewing on the corner triangles. 

First block came out pretty well.  I wished the provided Juki sewing machines had a 1/4" stitch setting, as I struggled at first with scoring with a Hera tool after laying on the corner square.  Eventually I trimmed off the corner triangles prior to sewing with the 1/4" foot, as it had a guide piece. I was SO glad I had included my small round Omnigrid cutting mat for this job!

                  

I am absolutely a fan of the Folded Corner Clipper tool by Creative Grids, as well. Very clever tool that is easy to use.  I got a bit ahead of myself in the order of events, though!  We had a small shop hop trip and lunch out before the sewing room opened.  I'll make a separate post for that--and our continuing adventures and the loot I brought home :)