Let’s close out 2020

We had a quiet Christmas, just the two of us. There weren’t many presents, at this age if we want something we just get – no waiting for the holidays 😉 We talked/Skyped with family and friends which was nice, otherwise we spent the day watching TV. It was pretty chilly here in Myrtle Beach, the high was only 32 with a ‘feels like’ in the 20’s…Brrrrr!

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I think I’ve found a quilt-a-long for 2021: Debby Brown’s Color Block QAL This is intended to use up scraps and each month she will release a new pattern. Fingers crossed I can keep up! LOL She has released some information early in case we want to get a head start on January and I’ve decided instead of using scraps, this time I’ll use one of the many FQ bundles that have been piling up from my FQS subscription.

As per the details, most of the patterns will use 2.5″ squares and the first one will use 16-patch blocks so I cut and pieced the FQ into strip sets, then subcut them into 2.5 strips ready to be pieced into blocks.

I pulled out four strips and made a block…but…I don’t like it. The color placement is off – too much dark blue and yellow check in this one block so I’ll be ripping it apart and starting over Plus I didn’t iron my seams open and it’s just too bulky at the intersections…must remember that when I get started again!!

I’ll be using up the last of my PTO this week and I plan to spend most of my time in the sewing room {fingers-crossed!}

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No big plans here for New Year’s Eve. I bought a bottle of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante and some frozen appetizers that I’ll heat up for munching as we watch the ball drop in Times Square.

I want to take a moment to Thank You for sharing your kind words with me this year, it really has meant so much ❤

I wish you all a safe and very Happy New Year full of Health, Wealth and Happiness!!

UFOs Finished!

I’m so happy to say I finished TWO UFOs that have been sitting in the ‘to be
Basted/Quilted” pile for quite some time.

The first one is the smaller of the two and I finished the top back in April – it’s a free pattern called Puzzle Box from Christa Watson and this came entirely from my scrap bins

The lighting is a little off due to shade 😦 The backing came from leftover remnants, one is a soft lilac text and the other is a black & white flower print. I did very minimal quilting using a large swirl/double loop, it’s not great but it’s ‘good enough’ 😉 This finished at 54″ square – I don’t have a home for it so it’ll go in the donation pile.

The next finish is a big one…it’s my Plaidish quilt!!! Woohoohoo, I’m so happy to finally have this done. This is another free pattern but this one is from Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting. I used a combination of fat quarters and my scrap bins and the top was finished way back in January!

(excuse the dead looking grass…we seem to have gotten some fungus 😦 )

I took these pictures this morning after finishing up the binding 🙂 I used large remnant pieces of various green prints from my stash and a few fat quarters for the back…then I used leftovers from the backing to make the binding, WIN/WIN!

I did straight line quilting along the seams both horizontal and vertical. This puppy measures 65×84, I plan to drape this one across my bed in hopes of some cooler nights as we head into fall 😉

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I’ve been watching the US Open tennis tournament this past week…Yay! It’s so nice to have professional sports again as long as they can play safely with limited risk. The tournament moves into week 2 starting today…my favorites to win? Men: Dominic Theim Women: Victoria Azarenka

They’ve both been playing really well but time will tell…there have also been a few ‘upsets’ so anything can happen :-p

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That’s all for now, have a great rest of your weekend and if you’re in the US:

Have a wonderful Labor Day holiday!!!

Villages quilt

Slowly but surely I’ve been spending a little more time in my sewing room this past week. First up, I finished the binding on the Chandelier quilt… while playing chicken with the spool of thread! Ha! I won

Then I pulled out my Plaidish top with all intentions of basting & quilting it…but it’s still draped over my ironing board waiting for attention.

Instead I decided it was the perfect time to start a new project 😮 I’ve long admired the Villages quilt pattern and it’s been on my ‘to make’ list for quite some time…so, why not now?

I pulled out my blue scrap bin and found pieces big enough for the roofs, then I cut enough for the rest of the pieces and before long I had a dozen!! I’m calling it my Blue Neighborhood.

The next day I pulled my green scrap bin and made 12 more houses…and last night I finished up the yellow neighborhood 🙂

Once I have enough houses for the full quilt I plan to put them all in a bin and randomly pull them out to put it all together. Only 8 more dozen to go!!

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I made a few more masks for family & friends but otherwise I’m just staying home as much as possible trying not to go plum stir crazy!

Have a great rest of your weekend

On and off

I spent a little time in my sewing room last week but it was scattered. I have my scraps sorted into bins by color and I got started by pulling the ones that were over-flowing and I just kept going. I started cutting 5″ squares last time I posted and I kept that up…by the time I had gone through all my bins I had this stack almost 8″ high!

Now that I’ve done all that cutting I need to decide on a few ‘charm’ patterns to make! Lucky enough, Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict is running a series on her blog this month with those kinds of patterns!

I also got my Chandelier quilt top pieced…I sewed the diagonal rows together a few each night and now it’s done!

I’m still trying to decide what I want to use for the back – I grabbed some fabrics on clearance from Connecting Threads a couple of weeks ago, one of these just might do the trick

I have 6 blocks leftover from the front that I’m going to work into the back as well, my plan is to get that done today [fingers crossed!]

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I officially changed my WW plan to Online only last week and I’m actually relieved. I think the stress of attending a workshop I didn’t really like was making me eat more! Haha!! And now that Officials are recommending we we stay away from large crowds (Coronavirus!) it makes even more sense.

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I’m sure you’ve heard about the horrible tornado that hit middle Tennessee last week. If you’d like to help out you can get more details here

I’ve got 4 lap quilts I’ve finished over the last couple of months just waiting for a home so I’ll be sending them off next week.

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And hopefully you remembered to change your clocks last night/this morning:

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

Finding mojo

I’ve been having a hard time finding my mojo in the sewing room…I can sit for hours and think about all the lovely things I want to make but that hasn’t translated into a lot of actual sewing.

I did get a few more improv color blocks made since last week and here’s the layout I’ve had in my mind. The green scraps have been sitting untouched on my cutting table for almost a week – ugh!

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I dropped 1# at my WW weigh in this week for which I’m very happy. I had a bumpy week with food choices so I was a little worried.

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Nothing new with the other house in Lake Wylie, the intended buyer still has not responded to our attempts to contact him so we’ll need to start making other arrangements to put it on the market. DH seems to be in a bit of a funk too and isn’t his normal ‘gung-ho’ self so I’m having to light a fire under him 😦

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That’s all for now – I’ll leave you with a picture of my Sammie girl. I was getting ready the other morning and saw her sleeping so peacefully I had to grab my phone for a picture

Have a great rest of your weekend 🙂

Scrappy Jacob’s Ladder

Wow, 3 posts in one day…I think that’s a record for me.

I put the finishing touches on my scrappy project earlier today and just needed to share!

I started this project many months ago by making the 4-patches with my blue & yellow scraps…then set it aside to wait for the white & gray fabric I ordered. And when that came in…it all sat some more.

Last month I got around to making the white & gray HSTs needed to complete the pattern and pieced it all together. From there I decided on the backing fabric and finally got it basted. And…it sat for a little bit more while I contemplated how I wanted to quilt it. Several ideas came to mind but I just couldn’t decide…until last night…I ended up doing a large meander all over. That seems to be my default motif 😉

After the quilting was done, I cut the strips for binding and finished it off…Oh my, I just love that striped binding – it matches the blues and yellows on the front perfectly!!

Here are pictures I took outside today…the first two are in full sun, the others are from the front porch this morning while it was still overcast.

Scrappy Jacob’s Ladder

Now that the memory quilt is all finished I want to turn my attention to a few WIPs.

A few months ago I pulled out my scraps and sorted out the blue & yellow. I found two patterns I liked, both very similar, so I started making 4 patches – more details here. I had to let it sit because I didn’t have the background fabric to finish the top (so much for using my stash!). Once I got the fabric I had already started something else (ha, more like many other things) so it’s been sitting idle for a while.

I pulled it last week, put it up on my design wall and started piecing it together. I’ve gotten rows pieced and the last four blocks are made…a few more seams and the main part of the top will be done.

I’m planning to put a 4″ white border all the way around to make it a little larger but I’m not sure if I should use fabric from my stash for the backing or buy something else…what do you think?

Here are two options I found in my stash

I’m leaning towards the one on the left because it echos the same colors as the top…but who can refuse those cute little kitties on flannel??

Take a closer look

Please weigh in with your opinion…Thanks!

Linking up with Let’s Be Social and I May Have a Scrap Problem

 

 

WIPs

I’m still sewing and quilting but I haven’t started back running yet…not sure what I’m waiting for 😦

I started another baby blanket, this one intended for one of my grandsons…probably grandson #1. He’s really into trains right now but I don’t want to make him a blanket with all trains and have him lose interest so I’m taking a gamble and making him a really bright top with the cars and bikes from the Ready, Set, Go collection. I got these as part of the fat quarter fabric club shipment for February and then used some of the other coordinating fabric to fill out the rest.

I was stumped on what to use for the backing fabric but I really LOVE the remnant piece I got at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago (I don’t know what it’s officially called but I call it ‘cosmic‘) and I wanted to use it … so I decided the top of the blanket would be for his current age (2) and the back of the blanket would be for when he’s a little older … problem solved! I didn’t have enough of the cosmic fabric for the entire backing so I added strips of plain black to get the size I needed.

(my photography skills leave a lot to be desired but hopefully you can get get the idea)

with flash (a little over-exposed)

No flash

Now I need to baste and quilt it…I’m thinking of running a chevron pattern down each of the strips on top using red thread while having black thread in the bobbin, the idea of it looks good in my head…we’ll see!

It was too late to keep working on that quilt so I started taking left over fabric scraps and began building ‘scrappy blocks’. I have no idea what I’m going to do with these – maybe inspiration will come one day.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

G’night…