Attacking my UFOs

It feels so nice to have another UFO completed! Last week I shared my progress on my rainbow jelly roll race quilt I started back in early 2020 BP (before pandemic). I finished the binding, took indoor pictures then threw it in the wash. I posted the pics on Facebook and my niece immediately asked what I was going to do with it. I told her it did not have a home and asked if she wanted it… Yes! So I packed it up on Monday and shipped it off to her (she’s in Maryland)… and I totally forgot to take outdoor pics – oy!!

Here are the indoor pictures I took

_{(the vertical lines are from being folded for 2 years… they came out in the wash!)}

I’ll wait for APQ to release the next number in April to start on another UFO. Until then I’ve started making Color Blocks again to make the adorable March pattern called Pink Houses. As a reminder, this sew along is completely free and a new pattern is released every month. I plan to follow the directions except I’ll most likely leave off the last two borders so the quilt is not quite so big.

I finished my ‘tree’ blocks yesterday and will start cutting & piecing the pink blocks today.

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I’m 10 business days away from retirement 😮 omgosh, it feels so weird to say that but I’m so stinking excited to not be responsible to someone or something everyday I can hardly put it into words. I received my new medical insurance card so that’s all settled for me… I still need to get DH’s stuff all wrapped up, of course Social Security is taking it’s sweet ass time 😦 Mind you I submitted all the paperwork back on Feb 7th!! Oh well, not gonna worry about it… I’m sure it will all work out (fingers crossed!)

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That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend

Whole lotta nothing

It appears I’m taking a break after finishing my Christmas quilt cuz I haven’t been in my sewing room all week! I planned to make a few holiday masks after the fabric arrived early last week but I only got as far as washing and drying it.

In non-sewing related news, I mixed up my cookie dough yesterday and plan to bake them up today. I’ve had mixed results with my cookies in the last several years… I can’t figure out what the issue is – either the cookies spread too thin or they’re too thick and ‘cakey’… UGH!! I guess we’ll keep our fingers crossed for this year 😉

My great-niece had holiday pictures taken last week so I’ll leave you with all this cuteness!!

with Step-Brother

Have a great rest of your weekend!!

Covid fog…

Not much progress was made on my Village quilt…I made the backing but took no pictures. Yesterday I cut the batting, took my setup outside and got it spray basted…no pictures. Now it lays across my ironing board waiting for future action…still no pictures 😦

I think the covid fog got a hold of me this week and stole my creative joy 😦 I MUST do a better job of fighting it off!! I’ve read a few posts from bloggers I follow who are struggling with the same issues so I know I’m not alone; I guess I thought I’d be able to handle it better – HA!

I brightened up a little bit yesterday because I got to watch professional ATP & WTA Tennis! They’re playing the Western & Southern Open in New York with the players and their teams staying in a ‘bubble’. I can only hope it works – if it does that means the US Open will go on as scheduled to begin 9/1. There will be another 10 hours of coverage today…I know where I’ll be!

Just for fun, here’s a pic of my great niece playing in her backyard pool

That’s all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!

Progress

I didn’t get much done on the Esmerelda quilt because I had more company…this time I really enjoyed it!! My niece was here for 4 days, we just hung out and did whatever we wanted – it was so relaxing 🙂

I did get all the pieces traced, cut out and adhered to the background…and I even got the elephant stitched down last night. Now I need to do all the little pieces :-p

Before applique

I plan to get the rest of the applique done today and unless something unexpected comes up I should be able to get the 5″ squares pieced and have the top all completed too!!

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Another successful week with WW, down 1.6!! I’m unofficially down 10# since I started but because I didn’t officially weigh-in until a week after I started they have me at 7#. That’s ok…as long as the number keeps going down I don’t care how we count it!! lol

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Speaking of my niece…we didn’t take a lot of pictures and some of them were in pretty bad lighting but we had a nice time with her and that’s all that really matters. We’ll be going to MD in October for the baby’s 2nd birthday – it will be DH’s first time meeting her!

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DH traveled back to the other house last weekend and delivered the memory quilt to my customer. He said she was a little emotional and she sent me a very nice text after ❤

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That’s about all for now…enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Two weeks worth!

***Fair warning: this is a picture heavy post***

I missed posting last week but I had a really good reason – I was in Maryland visiting my new Great niece!! OMG she is just the cutest, sweetest baby EVER! (Ha, I’m sure all Great Aunts say that…lol). Just look at Miss Campbell Elizabeth:

 

It was so hard to leave but after 6 days (!) I was ready to get back home. I missed DH and my fur baby…and I was itching to get back to my sewing room too!

First thing I did was finish up an old UFO (unfinished object) I started a few years back when I wanted to learn applique. This was a block of the month I followed from Jacquelynne Steves called Cozy Afternoon. The top had been done for a long time so I finally pulled it out, basted it and quilted all over it.

No specific plan for this – it measures 45″ square…I’ll offer it for sale on Facebook for $70, if there are no takers it’ll sit in my ‘done’ pile until I decided to donate it.

I’ve also started working on a Washington Redskins quilt for DH – after their extremely poor performance Thursday night I’m really not excited about making it but I’ve had it on my ‘to-do’ list for way too long so I’m just going to get ‘er done! Here’s part of it on my design wall, I still need to add a section on the right of the t-shirts. When it’s all done it should measure 75×84…whew!

I took a break today to put up a few Christmas decorations. As you may recall we’re supposed to be moving to Myrtle Beach (yeah that’s taking much much longer than anticipated) and I really didn’t want to pull out all my decorations just to have to pack them up when we move so I’ve only pulled out our pre-lit tree and a quilt I made last year to decorate the living room.

I then realized I didn’t have a Christmas table topper so I went right into the sewing room and made one! When I flipped my wall calendar to December there was an adorable snowman quilt which gave me the idea for this table topper. I pulled out my small bin of Christmas fabric and went to town – I really need to embellish this with some buttons for his eyes and mouth, and for his mid-section 🙂

And to top all that off, I’ve re-started the Couch-to-5k program (again!). The temps here in SC have been pretty mild so it was really easy to get outside. Week 1 Day 1 in the books…and it wasn’t pretty. My lungs are definitely out of condition – I was huffing and puffing through the first 4 intervals and I was only running 60 seconds!!! Ugh! More evidence that I’m sorely out of shape

That’s all for now…have a great weekend and week ahead!! 😀

 

Repairing an old quilt

I’ve been working on repairing a quilt for my niece (yes the same one that just had a baby!). When I went up for her baby shower she pulled out an old quilt made for her by my grandmother and asked if I could repair it. I’m so bummed that I didn’t take any ‘before’ pictures – ugh, what was I thinking?!!!

Here are a few pics after repairs, all basted with new backing – a twin size flat sheet.

I have no idea how long it took my grand mother to make this or if she did it with a group of friends but it sure looks like more than one person worked on it. The original backing appeared to be a sheet so I did the same thing. She also chose to tie the front & back instead of overall quilting, and with years of use the batting got all balled up inside. That balled up batting plus the separating and fraying of the top made it pretty clear I’d have to take it apart to repair it properly.

Oh boy was that fun – NOT! I spent one whole evening just unpicking the binding and removing the ‘ties’; as I worked, balled up batting was falling out everywhere – what a mess! Once it was all apart and most of the batting removed, I started repairing the frayed and separated squares. I did not want to remove the frayed fabric for fear something else might fall apart so I placed new fabric squares over the old fabric and sewed it in place. I pre-washed the new fabric so it wouldn’t shrink later and pucker. Once all those spots were addressed I moved on to the areas where the stitching had come out and sewed those pieces back together.

Because of years of use, the top is no longer square and I’m not going to try to square it up because I’d need to cut into quite a bit of the outside row. Of course this means quilting and binding could be a bit of a bear! It’s a good thing I love my niece so much!!

That’s about all I’ve been working on this week. I’ve scheduled a trip up to see my new great-niece on 11/28 so I want to be sure this is finished so I can take this quilt with me. I think I’ll be getting another t-shirt quilt job – another one of my neighbors has reached out and asked if I can make one for her daughter who recently turned 10. She spent many years in gymnastics so I think there will be many shirts for that time period.

We’re still planning a move to Myrtle Beach although the timing has changed a bit. The builder has fallen behind and instead of the house being completed end of Sept (!) he’s now committed to end of the year. So much for enjoying the holidays in the new house! Oh well, there’s always next year 😀  Here are two pictures from last week, they’ve finally started putting the brick on.

And that’s about all I’ve got going on right now…have a great Thanksgiving!!! ❤

 

Big News!

I’ve got lots to share quilting wise but the biggest, bestest news is: I’m a Great Aunt!!!

My niece gave birth to a 5lb 11oz, 18″ long little girl on Friday, Nov 10. Her name is Campbell Elizabeth and she’s perfect!! She came about 2.5 weeks early and they’re keeping an eye on her but she’s doing really well 😀

I’m just so tickled…my niece has been trying to have a baby for many, many years so this is such a blessing. I’ll be traveling to Maryland later this month to spend a week with them, helping out in any way they need me to – squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

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A few weeks ago I mentioned that I made some seasonal table toppers for a friend who lives near Seattle…and here they are! She saw me post about my own Pumpkin topper and asked for one, as well as a Christmas topper.

I used decorative stitching on the tree to mimic garland…I love it! Now I need to make myself one 😀

I added to my Honeypot Bee collection with this October block…every time I make one I get all giddy because I still love that Blueberry Park fabric!! Can’t wait to put all these blocks together 😉

As I usually do, when I’m knee deep in a big project I just have to pull out some fabric and start a new project :-s I had a charm pack of Batiks and I was feeling the seasonal change so I added a brown background fabric and made up this little baby top. It’s sitting patiently in my ‘tops’ box until I get back around to it.

I also finished the Quilt for Vegas and put that in the mail this week. I used fabric from a half-yard bundle of Mini Bracelets I’ve been hoarding for a few years. I did straight line quilting to mimic the block pattern and used text fabric for the backing.

 

Last but not least…I F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. finished the Memorial quilt. This one really challenged me because of all the different clothing fabric – velvet, satin, crepe, and rhinestones – wow! The customer picked it up yesterday and she was thrilled which makes all the hard work worthwhile 😉

I did double straight line quilting in each row…used Kona Navy for the back and binding. It measures 67″ square.

Now that I’ve finished these big projects, I think I’ll spend a few days cleaning up my sewing room before I dive into anything else…yeah, that sounds good – let’s see if I can do it 😉

ttfn…

 

 

Baby animals quilt top

I no sooner get the Crossword Puzzle quilt completed and delivered to my Mom (she LOVED it), and I just had to start on a new top. The remnants and clearance fabrics I bought last week were calling me so I jumped right in when we got back from Maryland and I have a new quilt top, it’s currently 33 1/4 x 39 3/4.

I cut the baby animals remnant into 5.5″ blocks and then decided to border them with the red plaid clearance fabric. I realized too late the plaid was probably not the best choice as the material was quite wavy and it makes the top look all wonky…but it’s done now. I still need to square it up and decide what I’m going to do for a border. I need to go back for more fabric because I really don’t have anything that will match – I was thinking a light/medium green (to hopefully offset all that red), all ideas are appreciated!

I also started playing with ideas for making a quilt for my niece. Her last name starts with M so I was trying to figure out how I could make a big M for the middle and then use her favorite colors for the rest of the quilt. I created a foundation paper piece block and did a trial run with some Walmart clearance fabric…good thing because I still need to tweak it a little bit, this sample is almost 6 x 6 (the right side looks all wavy but it’s really not, it must be bad lighting or bad photography!).