I finished my scrappy Cross/Plus quilt early last week! The quilting doesn’t really show up well in either of these pictures 🫤 I did an all over meander inside the gray border, an organic wavy line in the gray border and I did lower case ‘L’ loops in the piano key border. When I got to the corners I did a heart ❤ I really love how this turned out!! I offered it for sale on my FB page and if there are no takers I might send it off to a charity later this year.
This quilt was also my #6 for Feb APQ UFO Challenge and I got it done just before the month ended – Yay!
Of course I had to start another project, right? Each year I participate in Sarah’s Hands2Help charity event and before it gets started she offers up some quick quilt patterns that can be used for the event. I have been wanting to make an irish chain type quilt and she just so happened to post a tutorial for a ‘modern irish chain’ and I love it!! I also love the color way she used so I found a FQ bundle of orange fabric online and jumped on it. Here are some progress shots:
The March APQ UFO number is 11 which is my Weight Loss quilt. The key was to chart workouts and weight loss over a 6 month period… I didn’t get very far so I’m going to look at what I’ve got and try to put a quilt top together. We’ll see where this goes!
That’s about all for this week… have a great rest of your weekend!
I haven’t made a whole lot of progress on my elephant because I’ve been distracted by other projects and too tired from watching Australian Open matches – in the middle of the night!! Ha! I finally cut out and folded the paper pieces for the next big quadrant then yesterday I completed 5 of those pieces
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This is not a very good picture but I’ve finished all the cross/plus blocks for Scrap Frabric Love’s scrappy sew along. I’ve also sewn together the rest of the 2.5 x 4.5 rectangles I had already cut and will attempt to use those as a piano key border… I’m worried it will look way too busy but I also plan to put a small border of medium gray fabric between the top and the key border. We’ll see what it looks like when I get it all laid out 😉😂
there are more blocks behind the sewing machine that don’t really show here
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I finished sewing all the Safelight cases and will get them in the mail tomorrow
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Lastly, I finished piecing Block 12 of Sewcialites2 QAL. Block 13 was released on Thursday but I haven’t started it yet.
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As for the Australian Open, the last Final was at 3:30am EST this morning between Novak Djokovic and Stephanos Tsitsipas. Yes I set my alarm to get up and watch it… and yes I went back to sleep when it was over!!!!!!!! As expected Novak won the match but it was pretty close the whole way. This is his 22nd Grand Slam title and his 10th Australian Open title – WOW!!!
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Later today we’ll be watching the two NFL games to see who will play in the Superbowl. I’m cheering for Philadelphia and Cincinnati… I hope I didn’t just jinx them!!! 😂🤣
That’s all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!!
I’ve been jumping between projects this week, that means I haven’t finished any of them!! I’m officially halfway done with my Elephant Abstractions. All the pieces are completed in the first three quadrants and are now attached in three big sections. I’ve cut out the paper pieces for the next quadrant and I’m setting a goal to do at least 5 pieces a day.
The other project that got my attention is Scrap Frabric Love’s scrappy sew along. I already had a bunch of 2.5 x 4.5 rectangles cut so I laid out the plus/cross block in contrasting colors and started assembling them. I’ve got 14 done… six to go!
As for Sewcialites2 QAL, I printed Block 12 on Thursday and cut out the pieces for it yesterday. It’s a pretty straight forward block so I should get that completed today.
I also took a slight detour when I saw Carole’s post about the Safelight Project 2023. I’ve made these cases before and thought I could bang out a few more to help the cause. I’ve got several cut out and plan to get them done and in the mail this week. This is a simple pattern that uses two coordinating fat quarters per set (cosmetic bag, sunglasses case, tissue holder), please join in if you can.
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I’ve also been distracted by watching the Australian Open. Since most of the good matches are in the middle of the night in my time zone, my sleeping patterns are all off!! But I’ve also missed a few great 5 setters because I just could not stay awake! LOL Many of the top seeds have fallen on both the Men’s and Ladies sides but the young Americans are really having a great tournament. The matches are only being carried by ESPN and most of them are only on their streaming service ESPN+ for an additional charge. Luckily when I got my new Pixel 6 in late 2021 the plan I chose included ESPN+ and Disney+ at no extra charge 😍
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That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!!
Our friends from Florida reached out late last week to tell us they’d found another house in our area they were very interested in seeing. They asked if I would do a video walk through on Sunday and if they were impressed they’d drive up to see it for themselves. I love walking through houses so I had no problem saying Yes!
We spent about an hour walking through the house and they really, really liked it so they drove up on Tuesday (8.5 hours) and saw the house on Wed… and made an offer to buy it!!!! 😯 After a little negotiating back and forth, their offer was accepted with a Dec 9 closing date!! Woo hoo!! Of course now comes all the hard work of selling their house in FL and packing and moving – ugh – I remember how stressful that can be! We’ll help however we can.
We went out to dinner Wed night to celebrate and as expected they had a little too much to drink (I was the designated driver!) DH also had too much! Later that evening the discussion spiraled into politics…never a good thing! Thankfully no one got out of hand but my anxiety was on high alert…which means the next day I was totally exhausted 😕 Our friends left early Thurs to go home so I basically sat on the couch all day in a fog…what a waste of a day!
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I finished the last two Swoon Sixteen blocks and decided on the layout
I did finally find some useful information on YoutTube about the camera on my Pixel 6. There is a ‘temperature’ slider that can make the photo feel more warm or cool and that has helped a little with the colors, yay? Anyway, the colors above are as close as I can get to true 😉
I’ll be using sashing around each block to make the top 60″ square. I bought some Century Prints Hopscotch by Alison Glass in Smoke earlier this year and I think it will add some interest 🤞🏼
I’ve been keeping up with the Sewcialites 2 QAL from FQS and finished Block 3 yesterday… Ha, I’m still questioning the yellow background! This is going to be a very bright quilt!!!
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How about some cuteness overload? My neighbor got a new puppy and of course I’ve taken every opportunity to play with Lily 😉 She’s a 14 week old Corgi and yesterday one of her ears started standing up
That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!!
I got on a roll this week and finished the two most recent projects: Heart Strings and Pumpkin Patch!!
I had already started quilting the decorative design within each heart, I just needed to finish the ribbon candy variation in the background. I was surprised how quickly that went then had to decide what to use for binding. Some people make these decisions at the very beginning but I like to wait until the quilting is finished and then audition several fabrics for the binding. I went with a mint/teal dot fabric in my stash. This finished 48″ square and is available for purchase $75 plus shpg.
For Pumpkin Patch, I wanted to do an all-over quilting design but I also wanted to do something different in each pumpkin. I landed on meander quilting in the background and echo quilting in the pumpkins. I chose an orange thread for the top and a variegated white/tan/black thread for the back. I used one the same fabrics in the quilt for the binding and I used a decorative scallop stitch to attach it 🤗 This one finished 48×58 and is also available for purchase for $100 plus shpg.
With both of those quilts completed it was time to start something new, right? LOL It just so happens Fat Quarter Shop started a new QAL this past Friday which was perfect timing!! It’s called Sewcialites2 and it runs from Oct 21-Apr 14 and… it’s FREE 😍 Each Friday they will release a new block with directions for three finished sizes: 3″, 6″, 9″; I’m doing the 6″ size. I have a FQ bundle of Boundless Nectar fabric just collecting dust on my shelf so I pulled it down and found a rather bold choice for background that I *think* will look nice.
Whoowee, that yellow is bright! 😎 I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will look good once it’s all done 🤞🏼
I still need to make 5 more Swoon blocks so I think I’ll work on that this week. I also need to take my Elephant Abstractions pattern to OfficeMax to get copies on 11×14 paper. I plan to start that project after our Aruba vacation next month!!
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Speaking of Aruba!! We’re less than a month away from a 10 night vacation in our beloved Aruba!! We haven’t been to there in 10 years 😲 I’m sure a lot has changed but based on the FB pages I’ve been scrolling through it’s still the best ever destination 😉
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We celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary on Friday… wow, where does the time go!?!?! We went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris and had a lovely evening. DH got the petite filet and I got the garlic crusted Sea Bass… omg, soooo good! I tried to take a selfie with us together but I am just so bad at it… got these instead 😂
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I just realized I forgot to mention DH got a new pickup truck!! We sold our Kia Soul (which I loved 😕) to CarMax and he got a 2022 Chevy Colorado Crew Cab. I have to admit it does drive nice and the gas mileage isn’t too bad, 24mpg on the highway.
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I think that’s all for now… have a great rest of your weekend.
The Heart Strings top and back are made! I switched things up a little bit on the heart blocks, initially I was going do both sides of the heart very scrappy but with the fabrics I chose I just didn’t like that look…it was too busy for my eyes. I matched up the strips so the fabrics aligned within each heart and I’m much happier!
I took this picture before I pieced them all together – no sashing. Then I went about making the back. I had several strips sets leftover once I changed the design so I put them in the back and I found a coordinating mint colored fabric in my stash to fill in the rest.
It will finish 48″ square. I plan to get this basted and quilted before I head out of town on Thursday – fingers crossed!!
I haven’t made any more Swoon Sixteen blocks yet but that will definitely be on my list when I get home.
I received all the fabrics I need for Elephant Abstractions and I’ll start on that when the Swoon quilt is done. I was going to join Devoted Quilter for her 60 day WIP challenge because I have quite a few tops that need to be finished into quilts…but… that Elephant pattern is calling to me! :-p
I got confirmation that our clubhouse is available the 2nd Monday of each month for a Sewing Club so our first meeting will be Oct 10! Squeeeeeee, I’m excited and nervous!
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In other news, I FINALLY got around to hanging the lights on our screened porch yesterday – actually I hired the neighborhood handyman to do it! Ha! I turned them on last night and I love them! They are the perfect amount of light for sitting on the porch at night to enjoy the fall weather!!
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Roger Federer played his last professional match Friday night and afterward it was a very emotional celebration. He was so moved by all the out-pouring of love and admiration…not a dry eye in the house!!
That’s all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!
I’m happy to report I finished the enlarged Tall Tales quilt and it’s ready to go with me to Maryland at the end of the month. I decided to quilt an all over swirling loop design to soften all the edges of the books.
I just have to say, quilting on my new sewing cabinet with my machine dropped into table is a HUGE game changer. I have so much more quilting area and I don’t have to deal with the quilt slipping over the edge of the table as I move it around. Another bonus is my shoulders didn’t get tired from being all bunched up around my ears! The only issue I had is when I opened the drawer on the left to hold the extension I couldn’t sit exactly where I like in relation to the needle on my machine. Over the years I’ve found I like to sit just a smidge left of my needle but the arm on my chair kept hitting the drawer, so today I’ll be removing the arms on my chair and see if that helps because I’d really like to leave that extension on full-time but I’m not about to buy a new chair!!!
I no sooner finished the Tall Tales quilt when I decided I just *had to* make a Swoon Sixteen block. I was going to buy the pattern but I figured I could do it on my own watching her tutorial on YouTube. Of course it wasn’t as easy as it looked but after a few stops & starts I got it down. I now have four blocks!!
As if that wasn’t enough, I joined in the National Sew a Jelly Roll day yesterday and started the Heart Strings blocks I mentioned a few weeks ago. Now that I’ve got the pieces all cut, I’m not sure I love my fabric selection but there’s no going back! This is not a complete picture of all the blocks and I still need to sew all the corner pieces to make the hearts… my design wall is very busy right now!
As for my bucket list project – Elephant Abstractions – I received the bundle of fabric yesterday from Hancock’s of Paducah and unfortunately they were out of the background fabric Kona Curry 😦 I went online and found the next closest shade, Kona Duckling, and ordered it. I’m not going to start on this project until I get back from Maryland so there’s no rush 😉
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I don’t recall if I mentioned it here but I went WAY outside my comfort zone a few weeks ago and sent a note out to all the residents of our neighborhood to see if anyone would be interested in a monthly Sewing Day at our clubhouse. I got responses from 3 ladies, two of which are new to quilting…I was not looking to start a class but it might turn out that way for the short-term. Anyway, we decided we’d meetup the second week of each month on Monday or Thursday (waiting on confirmation the clubhouse will be available) from 10a – 2p.
One of the newbies doesn’t even have a machine yet! She asked for recommendations which is like asking about your favorite child – LOL! She lives one street over from me so I invited her to come look at my two machines, Pfaff and Singer, to get some perspective. One of the other ladies said she had a Janome for sale for $450, so hopefully she’ll have a machine by our first sewing day!
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That’s about all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!
We had company this week so there was not much sewing happening 😕
I did get the Positivity top all pieced before they arrived, but that’s it! I’m not sure if I want to finish it this way or add borders … hmmm 🤔 It’s already 64×80 and I do all my own quilting so adding borders will just make it bigger, LOL! I’ll think on it for a little while.
Our visitors are house shopping to relocate from FL to SC so we spent most days touring houses for sale! I love walking through houses but some of the ones we went to were real ‘stinkers’!! They did find two that they really liked so we’ll see what happens!
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DH is just about fully recovered from his bout of early stage pneumonia so things are getting back to normal. Whew!
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My plan is to dive into making the enlarged Tall Tales blocks this week and see how far I get… October is just around the corner – Ha!
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That’s about all for now… enjoy the rest of your weekend!
After ripping out all the straight-line quilting and smoothing out the puckers, I went right back to quilting using an all-over meander. Ahhhh, much more forgiving and no puckers! I auditioned a couple of fabrics for binding and chose a green print (like a wall of hedges around the ‘neighborhood’! Hahaha).
Here’s a close up of the binding and the variegated thread I used to zigzag stitch the binding to the front. I was so worried the blue chalk lines left over from the straight-line debacle weren’t going to come out…and they didn’t all come out in the first washing, but after a second wash with an all purpose cleaner, they’re gone!!!
And one of my friends here in the neighborhood wants to purchase this so, Yay! 🥳
Positivity QAL 2022
Another neighbor that had expressed interest in this quilt in rainbow order decided she was not going to purchase it so I’m putting it together in the scattered pattern I liked better 😉 I’ve got the top two sections pieced and I should finish the rest by the end of the day. The lighting is horrible in this picture, but you get the idea!
Enlarged Tall Tales
Once I get the Positivity top done, I’ll start making the enlarged Tall Tales blocks. The friend that I want to surprise with this Book quilt has a birthday in October. But if for some reason I miss that deadline (ugh) I can always give it to her for Christmas!! I’ve chosen this FQ bundle I got from FatQuarterShop last year for the book covers. I checked my stash and I only have one FQ with text print so I’ll use that for the ‘pages’ part of the blocks. If it won’t do the 25 blocks I need I’ll use some of the other FQ in the picture to fill in.
That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!
Ugh, I spent 2 hours doing straight-line quilting only to end up with this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My instincts told me stop after the first pucker but did I listen? Nope! I told myself “you can ease it in” then “it will blend in when it’s washed” Hahahahaha!!! So I spent several more hours reverse quilting = ripping it out!! LOL
I think the issue is some of the fabrics were cut on the bias so I’ll be doing a nice ‘forgiving’ meander on this instead!! I guess it was meant to be because I really didn’t like this quilting design on this quilt after I stood back and looked at it 🤦♀️
In other news, I bought some more fabric…just because it was on sale!! I got these Alison Glass prints from 5bucksayard. They weren’t $5 but they were on sale for $8.25/yard which is still awesome!
I finished all the Positivity blocks but now I need to decide on a layout…here are the two choices I’ve landed on for now. I realize the rainbow order one needs some repositioning but you get the idea 😜 One of my neighbors has expressed interest in buying this quilt in the rainbow order, if she’s really serious I’ll make it in that layout… if not, I think I’ll go with the scattered layout!
I finished the enlarged Tall Tales sample block and I really like it! I enlarged the pattern to 130% and with sashing it measures 10×12.5. Now I need to print the pattern on freezer paper and make more!! I’m thinking about changing the fabric I use for the ‘pages’ so there is some contrast… hmmm, we’ll see!
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DH is doing better now but he was not well on Monday so we went to urgent care. They checked him out, did a chest xray and said he had early signs of pneumonia 😲 Darn good thing we didn’t wait any longer!! They gave him 2 different antibiotics to take for seven days and by Wed he was starting to feel better. Each day he improved and he was feeling MUCH better yesterday – now he just needs to build his stamina back up. I continued to wear my mask in the house until Friday and it must’ve worked because I didn’t catch it!! Yay!!!
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I forgot to mention the gift I got from my niece while we were in Maryland. Her wife is very talented and likes to make crafty things. They gave me this canvas print for Sammie and I found a place to hang it in my sewing room so she’s always with me ❤️
That’s about all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!!
I love to share my Quilting projects with other Quilters. My goal is to share my progress on projects that I am working on. I would love for you to follow along with me during my endeavors. I hope you enjoy watching me tackle new techniques and projects. Hopefully you can learn from my "hiccups" and mistakes and make your journey easier.
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