One Last Thing

 I decided this morning to post one last thing before Christmas. I have been madly sewing and baking every day almost. I really love having the time to do that since I no longer work. My one last thing is that I finished my Pas de Deux quilt top. This has been a year in the making. It is a pattern by Rachel of Stitched in Color. We have been having a sew along for the past year and now...we are finished.

What made me fall in love with this quilt pattern was the colors and all the different block styles. Rachel has a wonderful sense of color and these blocks are amazing. Some were easy, some were difficult. All were wonderful to see finished. As with many of her other classes and sew alongs, I learned so much by doing this.

I chose to mostly follow Rachel's color choices to the best of my ability, with my stash. I did not buy any fabrics for this quilt top. That made it challenging for me in some of the colorways, but I like to be pushed. It makes me more creative sometimes.

Some colors I didn't have enough scraps of, so I had to slightly alter the plan. That's good, though. I son't need to have an exact duplicate of her quilt. (Notice the rainbow on the yellow block?)

There are a lot of partial seams in this quilt top, which I have done before. I can't imagine Rachel trying to figure all this out. It seems very complex to me.

The hourglass blocks at the bottom are another example of having to adapt my color plan. Rachel used a dark burgundy with her oranges. That is a color I don't really have and I didn't like the purples I did have, so I found some dark blue to set off the oranges. And it works!

Now this quilt will sit in the queue waiting to be quilted. It is number 3 in the queue. I also have one other quilt that is getting a bunch of hand quilting before it gets machine quilting as well. I have a busy 2023 coming up I guess. Have a very Merry Christmas and I will see you soon.

Hoop It Up!

I love Bonnie Hunter. I so enjoy her blog Quiltville's Quips and Snips and the real and creative life she leads. It inspires me. She has been doing some hand quilting and showing it lately. Even though her business also involves a lot of long arm work, she still likes that cozy, slow stitch feeling too. It made me want to go back to my quilting roots.

Around 2010 I found the modern quilting movement on line. I learned how to machine quilt and I was hooked. It was so much faster, and the possibilities were endless. I pretty much gave up hand quilting. These days though, I find myself drawn back into the slower pace of hand work. I have been doing tons of embroidery and crochet. Now, I wanted to start hand quilting again. But not on a large quilt.

I am quilting along with Rachel at Stitched in Color on the Pas de Deux quilt this year. She showed a photo of some fabrics she had pulled for a project that included this Heather Ross print of the moths. I love that print and happened to have a little. I wanted to use it. So I chose several fabrics to go with it, wanting a spring colored vibe. I edited the colors and then pulled out my Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, looking for ideas. I wanted that soft purple to be  focus of the piece, so I made 5 blocks identical. The other block I wanted to feature the supporting fabrics. But I didn't like this. Too much too much.

So I chose my favorite and settled on this. I added the green back in as a very narrow 1 inch border, and had just enough of the purple to make an outer border, which is wider at the top and bottom than the sides. I am very pleased with this.

Then pieced together a backing from some long held fabrics that weren't getting any use. I pulled out my old quilting hoop and hooped it up, after thread basting the layers. I had to kind of relearn that thread basting too. It's amazing what you forget.

And now, for however long it takes, I am going to hand quilt this piece. It is 24x27 inches, so not too big.

I am going to let it lead me, and show me how it wants to be quilted. I took the first few stitches yesterday, and let me tell you, my hand quilting needs work. But, the only way it gets better is to do it. Practice, practice, practice. So that's what I will be doing for awhile. And I couldn't be happier about it.

Talk to you soon.

January Chilling

 So, here we are, two thirds of the way through January. We still have not made much progress with finding a place to live. So much of living life is getting in the way of the search. Weather related delays and children out of school for various reasons. We will get there, though. Not to worry. So then you might wonder what am I up to creatively. Well, mostly hand work still. I did take my machine out a couple of times last week. I did some much needed mending and put together a couple of my plus blocks that I had cut out an pressed before I left California.

Here are some of the things I have been working on recently:

First of all, I signed up to be in this Stitched in Color quilt Along for this year. It is a monthly block program, and while I can't get started just yet, I know I will have time to catch up eventually. I am going to spend some time planning while I don't have access to my stash right now.

I am still working on crocheting these beautiful Flora Granny squares designed by Lucy at Attic 24. I only have 23 more to go and I will have 100 of them. They will be joined to make a 10 x 10 block square throw. This is a great project to pick up and put down as needed. I am using all my scrap yarn from other blanket projects for this one. It's the quilter in me.

I have several other long term projects lined up. I am doing the pineapple  quilt along with Gigi's Thimble which begins at the end of January and I have saved all the clues to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt as soon as I have access to my scraps for that one.

I am also working on some embroidery. This is Rebecca Ringquist's Schoolhouse Sampler.

It is her newest release and I am having so much fun with it. I check Instagram often to see what everyone else is doing with theirs.

There are so many different and fun elements in this sampler. I am going slow and choosing my colors carefully.

I don't think I have ever done quite so many colonial knots in one piece.

I am really enjoying the pace and doing all this embroidery. It is a skill I learned as a child and I am so happy I did. I have definitely improved since then. Lol

I bought these fun butterflies on Amazon. They are magnetic and so it the chalkboard in my daughter's kitchen. You get about 80 butterflies in a pack and they are beautiful. We put some on the refrigerator as well.

And this little cutie turned 6 this week. It was a week of threatening winter weather and of germs.

We ended up getting a bunch of these because the little cutie pie above was diagnosed positive on Tuesday. So far, all is well and no one else has gotten sick. Yay for vaccines and boosters. Hoping to make it a few more days to be out of the woods. 

Have a great week, stay warm if you are in the cold winter weather. Talk to you soon.

Dear Dottie

 Last year, I decided to join in with Rachel, of Stitched in Color, to do the Dear Dottie QAL. I really wanted to do this pattern, but I had tons of projects on my plate, so I did the baby size quilt, hoping to revisit the pattern and make a larger quilt. Eventually.

This is my Baby size Dear Dottie. I made this on totally scrappy. Technically I guess it's a charm quilt, since no fabric is repeated here. I used up lots of my 5 inch charms in this quilt. I totally love it.

Then, I saw a picture of a Dear Dottie in a limited color pallet. I fell in love with it and wanted to do one as well. But I waited a bit, trying to figure out what colors. Or what fabrics. Or something. I finally found some fabrics that I loved and added a few from my stash. 

I have to say, I think it is harder to limit your fabrics than to go all scrappy. Any time I couldn't decide on a fabric, I would think "it needs more variety". Then I would stop and remind myself that the point was to limit the fabrics and the pallet in this one.

I finally finished that quilt this week and here it is now. I posted the small one above for the sake of comparison.

The other thing I did different was to add a narrow border to this quilt. I just really felt like it needed one.

The top and bottom borders are both dark blue, but two different fabrics. The two sides I made different.

This Dear Dottie is so much softer in color tone and also has less quilting which makes it literally softer than the small one. I knew the small one would be a wall hanging, so I quilted it rather densely.

This is most of the back of the quilt. I didn't have enough for the whole thing, so I added a strip of red down one side. I didn't get a picture of that.

I am very pleased with the result, and happy that this second Dear Dottie quilt is done so I can enjoy it.

I will see you soon. There are two more quilts pin basted and ready to be quilted.

My Penny Sampler Quilt Club-February Blocks

I have just finished my February blocks for the Penny Sampler Quilt Club. I am making the Dutch Version of the quilt. The other version available is the Nordic version. Here we go:

 The first task was to select the fabrics for this unique courthouse steps block. I laid out my background fabric and set all the step fabrics in order on top of it to make sure what I saw in my head was what I really wanted.

After taking a picture and looking at it, I decided to move the larger white polka dots down one position. I was going for a kind of ombre look with this. That made me happy, so I was ready to sew.

I put this little sweetie in the center. This is Lola Dutch, by Sarah Jane. I found her in my scraps that were left from a skirt I made for Miss N for Christmas. The perfect touch.

 And this is the end result. I am very happy with it. My husband says it looks like stacked wedding cakes. :)

It is quite a large block, one of the largest in the quilt. I love that it just shouts "Look at me!"

 Nest up was the double diamonds block. I chose this solid red to really make the blue pop, and I think it worked.

                  Here is one of the four diamonds in the block.

And here are all four of the diamonds together. This quilt is really a balancing act of colors. Some soft, some not. Choices are based on the position each block has in the finished quilt.

My last set of blocks is thirteen small pinwheel blocks that will go into a sashing strip later on. This is the first one, and I am showing you the back, because it is paper pieced. I don't like all the bulk in the center where the seams meet. So I decided to try piecing one the old fashioned way and trimming it to size.

 With a block like this, I like to press my seams open to achieve maximum flatness in the center.

See how much flatter the whole block is? I was much happier with this option so I made all the rest using this technique.

And here they all are lined up and waiting. And now, February is done and I can sew some other things while I wait for March.
Enjoy your day.

My Penney Sampler Club Quilt-the Beginning

I made a Penny Sampler Quilt in the second round of Rachel's classes for that quilt. Maybe a year and a half ago? I loved it. I took the class to get better at the several skills that were used to make the quilt, and it worked. I feel like I have truly mastered those techniques.

Rachel has now come up with the Penny Sampler Quilt Club. I never would have decided to make another Penny Sampler Quilt, but she has two versions now, and the new one is a Dutch inspired version. That was where she got me hooked.

 This is the coloring sheet, for help in getting started on this year long project. I used colored pencils to help me establish some sort of color scheme for the quilt. I knew from my last class that this was the best way to keep it from being a daunting task to choose colors and fabrics. Some things will change, as this quilt will lead me and show me what it needs as we go along.

 This is my initial fabric pull for the quilt. I know that as we work through the blocks, some fabrics will not make it into the quilt, and others may join this stack. But the point is to have a starting point.

 This is my first block for January. The compass block. It turned out so much softer than I had imagined. But I truly love it. I have left it on the design wall so I can just look at it.

 This is the row of diamonds on the top of the quilt. My second element for January. The red in this block was not in the initial fabric pull, but when I was digging through my stash and I saw this, I knew it was perfect. The color is so rich and sharp, especially compared to the compass. This quilt needs some of that kind of color in it. I am super happy with this.

My third January element is the ribbon block. Again, a bit softer look, but all these came from the original fabric pull, except for the pink background. After I did my initial fabric pull, I ordered some Kona solids to compliment those colors. This is such a busy quilt, it needs some solids to give your eyes a place to rest a bit. It makes the other fabrics really show off to their best advantage.

This is a year long project, so I will be back with updates along the way. You can still join the club at any time. There are two different Penny Samplers to choose from. You get the patterns for both and you can mix and match as you like. Don't care for an element? Swap it out. The only thing that needs to be consistent is the different block sizes in their place in the quilt.

Have a lovely weekend, and I will see you soon.

Christmas Time is Busy Time

Lots of sewing projects going on here. I scarcely have time in the day to work on all of them. I guess it's good that I keep busy, though. And holiday cookie baking begins today. So, let's see what I've been up to.

 First up is my Dear Dottie quilt. I made the baby size in a quilt along with Rachel of Stitched in Color. I do plan to make another in a limited pallet soon.

 I am doing some very dense straight line quilting on my Dear Dottie. I am almost finished with it.

And here is the back. I don't think I could ever do this much quilting on a larger quilt, but for this size, I am loving it.

 And all these next photos are my Tomte blocks from the sew along with Sue of Moss and Lotus. All the patterns here, plus some new one are available in her Etsy shop.

 They have been so much fun to make. They are all paper pieced, so if that's your thing, go check it out.

 I made a new reindeer head for my middle daughter. I got this pattern years ago. It is still available on line, but the links with the directions are nowhere to be found any longer. It was a bit of a challenge to assemble, but since I had made 3 of these in the past, I finally figured it out.

 I bought a bunch more tiny bottle brush trees to add to the holiday decor. I love these cuties.

 I got myself an early gift of some LED lights for my sewing machine and all I can say is WOW! They sure do make a difference. They weren't too expensive either, so I can't believe I waited this long to help out these old eyes of mine.

 And here is the first of 4 Santa ornaments I am making for the grand children for next year. It is the Twelve Days of Christmas ornament from Mmm Crafts. I figure I can work at a slower pace and do it right. No rush. That will make next year even easier for me. Yay!
Well, lots to do today, so I gotta run. Talk to you soon.