36 Patch Progress

Making progress on my 36 patch quilt. All 36 blocks are now finished. Yipee!!

These are the last 5 blocks I made for the quilt. I am so happy that they are done. I am hoping to start putting them together this week.

I started laying them out on the bed to figure out my arrangement. I have trouble getting a picture of the whole bed with my phone, but when it is all put together, I will get a better picture to show you.
Have a great day y'all.

Hexing Again

So I dug out my hexies this week. I wanted to revisit EPP and I do enjoy hand work. I had lots left over from the Kingfisher QAL last summer.

These are all the hexies I had left after last summer. I made my quilt with Ombre Confetti Metallic, but went on to make a bunch more hexies, just because.

 I had quite a bit of the dotted swiss left from my book club QAL so I decided to use that to make some hexies to go around the hexie flowers.

I am thinking of a grandmother's flower garden type of quilt. I don't know how big it will be. Maybe small, but definitely not too large.

 And then I began to play around with the hexies a bit, trying things out to see what I liked.

I am thinking of this as a slow, long term project. It will probably come and go a few times before it gets finished. Speaking of long term projects...

 Two more 36 patch blocks. I now have 25  made and 3 more cut out. I am having fun putting these together. I cannot wait to see this one all done.

And with that, I will say goodbye for now. Have a lovely weekend. Edited to add: I wrote this last week and apparently I forgot to hit publish. Weird. So here you go again.

36 Patch Progress

So much going on here. This Saturday I am going to do my first ever craft fair. I am so excited for this. I have been making bags and pouches and other small goodies to sell. I am hoping this will be a way to make a bit of money to restock my sewing needs.

I am doing a bunch of other sewing as well. I am slowly amassing 36 patch blocks for my next quilt. I have long wanted to make a second one of these, after doing a quilt along with Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts about 8 years ago now. This time, I am doing blocks that are made of my most favorite fabrics and designers. But only what is in my stash.

Amy Butler

 Sarah Jane

 Rae Hoekstra

Farm Fresh





















Bonnie and Camille

Now I have 17 of the 36 blocks finished. Back to the stash to find some more pairs to cut and sew.
I have finished and mailed my Hands 2 Help quilts for Jack's Basket yesterday so that project is done. I will be sharing those quilts with you soon.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a couple of roses out of my sister's garden. I will talk to  you soon.

Firefly Finish

I bought the pattern for the firefly quilt this summer. Only the second ever solids quilt I've made, but oh so striking. I just couldn't resist. You know, we don't have fireflies here in California like we did in the midwest and back east. I never knew that before I moved here.

 Last weekend was all pin basting. I wanted to get that part done because crawling around on the floor is the toughest part for me anymore.

I figured once that was done I could take my time with the quilting. But seriously, this went so quickly. I began on Saturday and I think it was done on Tuesday.

Here is the finished quilt. All crinkly from the dryer, this will be going to my oldest grandson, V. At age 12 I am thrilled he still wants a new quilt for his bed. I know enough about pre-teens to know that may not always be the case.

 I quilted with a large stipple and a few loops here and there. I also added random asterix here and there to simulate the blinking of the fireflies. I used a bright lime green Isacord thread for the quilting.

The backing is a blue cross weave I got from Pineapple Fabrics. It was a three yard cut of 108 inch backing that I used on another quilt, and had just enough to piece together the backing for this one.

And of course, one of my new labels from Dutch Label Shop to finish it off. It is now winging it's way across the US to V. I can't wait until he gets it.

One of my many "next" projects is another 36 patch quilt. I made one about 7-8 years ago with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts and I still love it so much. I have always wanted to make another one, so I started, with no deadline in mind. I am going to use all my most favorite fabrics for this one, instead of scraps. I have already chosen some Heather Ross and some Sweetwater to begin. Because one cannot have enough in progress projects, right?
Happy weekend friends.

Finally Finished

I started this quilt last summer with Amanda Jean's 36 patch QAL.  I finally got the back pieced and this past week on my staycation, I got it quilted.  And I love it so much!!

 It is so scrappy!  But I love the way all the blocks look together.

 I used a bunch of leftover strips to piece the back, and when I ran out, I just grabbed some big chunks of fabric from the stash.

 With all that color, I decided a black and white binding would be the best.  I had some jelly roll strips from my Summersville jelly roll so I sewed them up.

Doesn't it look good?  This is my new favorite quilt...until the next one is finished.
Have a great day.

Whirlwind

A whirlwind of activity, that was my weekend.  This was the weekend we were going to start tearing down our rotting back deck.  Before you can build, you must demolish.  So a plan was made.  My part was to get as much sewing done as possible before Sunday so I could be available for whatever was needed.  Gonna be a lot of pictures here folks, so bear with me if you will.

Remember this from last summer?  Crazy Mom Quilts 36 patch quilt along?  Well I finally got a back pieced for it.  It was slow going with so many other projects to be done.  But this summer I am as poor as a church mouse with regard to funding my quilting, so I have been reinspired to finish old projects and use my stash for everything else.

 I had pieced the left section from leftover strips from the quilt top.  Then I stopped because I ran out.

So I just grabbed a big chunk of fabric (2 yards) that I had used a little on the front and put it together.  And you know, I kind of like it.  That amazes me.

 Then I had to make some more of these cutie things.  My daughter's response when I sent her a picture?  "I think I just had a cuteness stroke!" LOL!

                                                  They are for this little cutie pie!

Now, onto the real work of the weekend.  It was so humid and hot.  I was a water girl for the guys.

 Here they are just getting started with pry bars, hammers and sledges.  The sun is high!

 After a bit, they decided it would be quicker to use a circle saw and cut the decking boards and then remove them.  This really sped up the process.

                          Middle of the afternoon and almost done with the decking boards.

 A few nails still to remove, and a couple of boards.  The joists are going to have to wait until next weekend.  We needed to clean up.

 Just a few of the nails they pulled.  After everyone showered, we lit the grill and made some burgers and corn and hotdogs.  We ate outside at the picnic table and even had brownies and mini ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

Just before the party broke up, I got this picture of my three guys, all together for the first time.
Dirty, and tired, but happy.  Have a great day!

I think I can, I think I can

Sometimes I feel like that little engine and only if I keep "thinking I can" will I accomplish anything.  This is a tough work week for me and I am tired already, mentally as well as physically.  For my mental well being, I am trying to sew every spare minute I can.  So to that end, yesterday before I had to go to work, I got a couple of quilt tops finished.

The first one I got finished is my 36 Patch Quilt Along that I did with Crazy Mom Quilts this summer.  I am so glad to have it together and now I will begin piecing the back.  I already know what I want to do, so I just gotta do it.

The next one I finished is on my brother asked me to make for a special little girl on his wife's side of the family.  I had wanted to make a simple strip quilt, and that's how I started out.  But anyone who has quilted for awhile knows that sometimes a quilt wants what it wants and your best option it to go with it.  So this is what happened:

My strips needed a bit of something else, so I made some small strips going the other way and put them in.  This is good, I thought. I continued adding more strips and then WHAM! the quilt needed something else. So I gave it this:

Since there is a pinwheel print in it from Children at Play, it seemed to fit.  I like the scrapiness.  And then it seemed happy and fine with the progress.  I ended up with a thin green border and a larger pink border.  I measured all the leftover fabric and I think I have enough to piece the back without buying more fabric. YAY!

 I was also able to finish piecing these blocks and got the layout done.

And I did all of that in just about 3 hours before work.  So today when I got home, I pieced my October Birdie stitches block and started putting the hometown squares together.  Sewing soothes my mind and my soul somehow.  I can still think about problems, but they seem less urgent somehow and I feel calmer.

I hope you all get lots of sewing time this week so you can feel it too.
Have a great week.