Two finishes!

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.

A day late…

I totally forgot to post yesterday 😮  Not much going on, but here are the highlights:

Last week I celebrated 40 years of working for the same company! WOW, do I feel old!! The company has been bought & sold a few times and I’ve survived each one. I’m hoping to ‘retire’ in a few years and work part-time at my LQS – that would be a dream come true!!

I put the final stitches in the commissioned memory quilt top – now I’m waiting on the client to decide on backing fabric.

So…while I’m waiting on her, I decided to start a scrappy postage stamp quilt. I’m pulling my scraps out by color bin and making as many 5×5 blocks as I can. Here are the 7 blocks I made from my Red bin. I’m following Sarah’s tutorial using 2.5 strips, it sure does make it easier!!

Next up is my Pink bin…for some reason I have a ton of pink scraps so I’m sure I’ll get way more than seven blocks.

Lastly, I re-joined Weight Watchers, WW as they like to be called now. I’ve got about 23 pounds that needs to come off and the only success I’ve had in the past was with WW…I just need to get my head refocused and stop all the junk food snacking I’ve been doing!

October update

I missed a few weeks posting so I’ll start off with what’s happened since the beginning of the month.

First, we went to Myrtle Beach on Thur 10/4 to have the final walk-through of our new house on Fri 10/5. On the surface everything looked fine but as my husband started really inspecting things we found a ton of minor issues – from missing door knobs & hinges to scuffs & marks on the floors and walls. As you can imagine we were NOT happy. There was a war of words with threats of legal action but I was finally able to calm the situation down and the builder will be addressing everything before we take possession of the house. We’re going back down Fri 10/26 and I pray it will all be done and we can move on from this horrible experience.

I was in a pretty bad funk after all that and I seemed to be punishing myself by not doing any sewing for about 7 days  :-p  but then I remembered I needed to finish the quilt for my great niece and I got my rear in gear!

The indoor lighting is pretty bad here but it’s all quilted and bound – it measures 72×90, plenty big for her new transition bed.

And then I went back into my funk until a few days ago when I finally started making some progress on the commission memory quilt. I called my neighbor to apologize for taking so long and she said ‘do not even give it another thought’…so sweet of her! But I did get a few inner rows pieced last week, I just need to keep the momentum going!

We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by going out for a nice dinner last night at Del Frisco’s in Charlotte. Both the food and service were amazing 🙂 We had the valet snap this picture as we were leaving…

That’s about all that’s been going on in the last few weeks…

Have an awesome rest of your weekend 🙂

 

Let’s try this again…

For some reason I’ve been having issues trying to load pictures up on WordPress so I just stopped trying for a while. I’m gonna try again today and see what happens…

Hmmm, well I had issues again when uploading pictures so I went to the WP forum for help (none of which I could understand!)…but then it magically started working…(((scratching head)))!

I quickly loaded up all my recent projects and here they are:

1. I’ve been commissioned to make a Cat quilt…you may recall last year I made a dog quilt and a friend showed a picture of that to a co-worker and she asked if I could not only make her a dog quilt but could I make a cat quilt. I searched the webs for a pattern and came across Elizabeth Hartman’s The Kittens – ‘purrrfect’!!! This first picture is a ‘test’ I did with some scrap fabric – love it!!

The cat quilt will be for her MIL who has two rag-doll cats so she wanted me to try to make the cats with those colors and use jewel-tones for the background. I found this ruby-red fabric at Mary Jo’s and knew it would be a good contrast with all the tans & browns. I’ve made 7 cats so far (took this pic after making 5)…I need a total of 25.

2. We celebrated our 31st anniversary on Oct 21 with a nice dinner on the town with two friends who were visiting from Maryland.

3. I was itching for a finish so I went to my Pinterest and scrolled through the hundreds of quilts I’ve saved. I ended up choosing this simple yet interesting design. I opened up a FQ bundled of Cotton+Steel and went to town. Once again – fabric selection is everything and I think I got a little carried away…it looks a little ‘busy’ but there’s no going back now!! 

I decided on a more calm backing!

Next up is another quick finish…again, I found it on Pinterest. It’s called 2,4,6 because of the size of the fabric cuts. This finished size is about 48″ square.

I completed the October block in the Sugar Block club BOM (top left) and put them all up on my design wall to start contemplating the final layout. Amy suggests something a bit more airy (with lots of negative space)…I may follow her guidance. 🙂

I’ve been seeing a lot of folks working on tiny houses the last few months so, of course, I had to give it a try! I got this Bonnie & Camille Handmade fabric in the October Sew Sampler box and thought it was perfect. I found the green floral for the border in my stash…now I just need to figure out how to quilt it…and then I have no idea what I’ll do with it. It could be a wall hanging as it measures 22×30…???

And last but not least is this 10 minute block quilt from last month. I don’t have any finished pictures because I was not really happy with how it turn out after I did the final quilting. I used a QAYG technique for each of these blocks and then sewed them together to finish the top. I added the backing and then did more quilting in the diamond squares on each block. Unfortunately I did not baste it correctly and there are fabric ripples on the back (ARGH!!!).

I decided I was not going to rip out all those feather stitches so I plowed ahead and put binding on it. I tossed it into my stack of finished quilts and forgot about it. My neighbor stopped by to give me the check from her co-worker for the Dog & Cat quilts and she saw it in the pile. She went ga-ga over it. She said it would be the perfect gift for her DIL because grey & yellow are her colors. I told her I was not happy with the finished product but she was adamant about buying it!! Wow, ya just never know!! I gave her a discounted price…

OK, this post is getting pretty long so I’ll just add one more thing…

Another neighbor contacted me to ask how many quilts I have ‘ready for sale’ so I counted them…17! Most are baby/child size but I have a few that are lap size and one twin size. She’s going to be hosting an ‘artisan party’ at her house in early December and invited me to show my stuff!! WOW!! Now I’m thinking about making some smaller table top/table runner items for the show…squeeee…this should be fun!

ttfn…