Getting Unstuck

 I have been stuck. Stuck trying to find a way forward with my sewing. I do understand that it comes and it goes and I'm not worried I will never sew again or anything weird like that. And I know why I'm stuck. Grief can do that to a person. I do have some days where I sew, and I enjoy it. Other days, I don't feel like doing anything at all. I have a couple of projects in process. One, I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for right now, and that's okay. It's more of a winter looking quilt.

My temperature quilt is one I am slowly plodding along with. I at least update the charted temps every week or so. I know I will sew them up eventually. I did some last week and am now mostly caught up.

This is January and February. I have decided to do each month as a calendar page. Whenever there is extra space in the month, I will use a piece of fabric that represents the month. Here, January is white on white that looks like snow, and February is hearts.

This is March, which has shamrocks for St. Patrick's day. Can you see how the temperature colors are changing?

This is April. April showers are represented here. Now, each month has 5 horizontal rows, but because of the way things fell in April, the 30th was all alone in a sixth row. I checked the rest of the year and it was the only one like that. So, I opted to split the last block between the 29th and the 30th. I know they usually do this on a diagonal line, but the houses don't lend themselves to that. So I guess I am caught up for the first time on this project.

Then, I got a bee in my bonnet, unlike anything else recently. I started a new project and finished the quilt top in one week.

This is from the book, Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison. One of my all time favorite quilt books. I go to it a lot for inspiration. This is the High Five quilt. Amanda Jean's version is totally scrappy and I do love the look of hers. But I used some scraps and some yardage that I was looking for a way to use. I also made it a few rows shorter that in the book. I am very happy with how it turned out and now I just have to find the energy to pin baste it so I can quilt it. This got me a little unstuck.

What really got me unstuck though, was this quilt.

I started this quilt two years ago. I made the top while living in California. My plan was to have it available to quilt when I moved home. I finally basted it, using thread basting, because I had thought to hand quilt with Perle Cotton and big stitches. Until two days ago, I stopped and started many times. I really wasn't into it and working on it was a struggle. You cannot do something you are not enjoying. 

I called on a friend of mine for help. I said I don't know what to do. She said she had only hand quilted one quilt in her life and that was one too many. That really struck me. I had hand quilted many quilts back in the day before I learned to quilt on my home machine. But hearing her say this freed me somehow.

I spent a couple of hours picking out all the hand quilting I had done. It was somehow satisfying to cut those stitches and pull the threads out.

I wanted, and needed a quick and easy finish. So I did an all-over large sort of stipple. Remember stipple quilting? It used to be so popular when we were all learning how to free motion quilt. I loved it!! The quilt is soft, and crinkly. It was enough.

I found a half yard cut from the same fabric line and did the binding. The entire process of quilting and binding took me about7-ish hours. I can't tell you how good it feels to have this one done! But I'm sure you know.

Have a great rest of your week.

June Spring Chicken

 I'm sure by now you have seen pictures of Sweetwater's Spring Chicken line. When I saw this back in October, I was smitten. This is the first time that they have done a fabric line that uses the colors that they used in Sunkissed. That was the first fabric line I ever bought on line. I fell so in love with it, and I have asked many times over the years if they would ever reprint it, but I never got an answer.

Well, now I have decided to just go with Spring Chicken. It is super cute and I think the colors have satisfied my needs. This line was supposed to be out in March, but Covid delayed it until May. I pre-ordered a half yard bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop back in October. I have never bought so much fabric all at once like this, and never an entire line either. But I had to have it, and there might not be another chance, right?

I have already sketched out a simple quilt to show off the fun fabrics. I know this will only be the first of several quilts, because there are 19 yards of fabric here! So much fabric!

I just had to get out my Sunkissed Squares quilt and lay all the fabrics on it to compare. My Sunkissed Squares quilt was made in 2011 and is my most favorite ever! The checkered gingham looking fabric is a part of the Sunkissed line, as well as Spring Chicken. When I bought Sunkissed, I did not have the whole line. I was an on line fabric newbie at the time. The other thing I noticed is that they did not use the pale yellow in the new Spring Chicken line. But all the other colors are there and that's okay by me.

      These are all the gingham like checks in the new line. Aren't they pretty?

Here is another print from the new line. I highly recommend that if these colors are your thing, buy some of this while you can. You never know if you will have another opportunity. Thus ends my PSA for today. I will be back when I have more of this quilt to share.

Sunkissed Fabric...Nearing the End

About 9 years ago I found the internet quilting world. I also found on line fabric stores. My very first purchase was Sunkissed by Sweetwater. Now, maybe that's the reason why it remains my all time favorite fabric, but whatever the reason, I am still smitten these nine years later.

 I loved this fabric so much that I bought this art piece to hang in my sewing room. It shows 12 of the fabrics from the line, but there were many more. I bought yardage of some and a jelly roll so I could have at least a little of every fabric.

I made this quilt from the Moda Bakeshop to showcase the fabrics. This was my first "modern" quilt that I ever made. I love how cheerful and springy it is. It is still a favorite quilt and has had much use since I finished it in 2011. If you look in my archives for March you can see the beginnings of this quilt. I finished it in September, so there are more posts about that.

 Fast forward to today. I am making a 36 patch quilt and have decided to use ALL my most favorite fabrics and designers so I will always have a bit of them. It makes it easier to let some of this fabric go into other projects.

These are the two blocks that represent my Sunkissed crush that I have been nurturing for these many years. I don't think I have enough to do one more, but I might.

 So with my whole 'letting go' process I decided to make a new dress for Miss N. She needs one for spring/summer and this definitely fits the bill. I feel nothing but happy to finally put this fabric into something that will get some use, instead of sitting in my stash.

This pattern is the Geranium Dress by Made by Rae. I have used it countless times to make dresses for my girl. There are lots of variations so it doesn't always look like the same dress.

And now my Sunkissed tale has come to an end. There are still some small scraps that will get used up eventually. I have asked both Sweetwater and Moda if they will ever consider reprinting this line, but so far, no luck. But if they ever do, I will be on the lookout to purchase some again, because it is still my most favorite fabric ever. Tell me, do you have a fabric line you feel that way about?

Have a lovely weekend my friends.

My New 36 Patch

So, I believe I mentioned awhile back that I was going to make a new 36 patch quilt. I made one a number of years ago as a sew along with Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts. It has always been a big favorite of mine. I have long wanted to make another one. This time, I am using a bunch of my favorite fabrics by some of my most favorite designers. Here is my progress report:

 These are a couple of prints from Laurie Wisbrun. The way I assemble the block, some end up upside down, but no big deal to me.

      These are a couple of Lizzy House prints.

   These are some very sweet Heather Ross butterflies in two different color ways.

     These are two more Lizzy House prints.

 These are a couple of Sweetwater prints from my most favorite of all time Sunkissed. I know there isn't as much contrast in these two, but I love them all the same.

This is a Heather Ross print, paired with a Dear Stella Mini Confetti Dots. I used to have that dot fabric in almost every color way. I am sad it's gone.

 This is two Denyse Schmidt prints from Flea Market Fancy reprint. A bit hard on the eyes, but kinda cool.

 Two more prints from the Sweetwater Sunkissed line. I have a few more from this line to include.

 And two more prints from the Flea Market Fancy reprint. This is the last of the grey seeds that I have and I just had to include them here.

Here are two prints from Sandi Henderson. The green is from Meadowsweet collection and the red is called Henna Garden, a classic.

I am doing this quilt, not only because I love the first one, but to sort of immortalize all my favorite fabrics that I have either been hoarding or am almost out of by now. A nice way of keeping just a bit of each one.

If you want to do something like this, it only takes two 2 1/2 inch x WOF strips of two fabrics to make a block. You sew the two strips together with a 1/4 inch seam and press it. I like to press it open. Then, you cut these into 2 1/2 inch units and sew them together until you have the 36 patch block. You will have some extra pieces to use either on the back or in another project.

Once there are 36 of these blocks made, I will join them all together to make my quilt top. If you want more detailed instructions you can search Crazy Mom Quilts. I know her blog isn't active any longer, but all her tutorials are still up there.

Today I am hoping to finish the last side of the binding on my 100 blocks quilt so I can wash it and have it to show you, maybe tomorrow?
Have a lovely Friday.

A Little Pillow Talk

I love making pillows. They are easy and pretty quick to make. They are also small enough to use to try out quilt blocks or just use up scraps. I took some of my old pillow covers off, once the packing was done, and decided to make new covers to go with our new living space. My sister is such a fan of color and fabric that she encouraged me, although I must say, I didn't need much encouragement.

 The first pillow cover was this one. My sister had some crocheted doilies that had been made by either my grandmother or possibly my great grandmother. No one knows for sure, but we wanted a way to showcase this one in particular. My first thought was to put it on a solid fabric, but when I found this in my stash, I knew it was perfect. This is from the Sweetwater collection Volume II. I stitched around the edge of the doily, and then a bit in the center to anchor everything.

 An envelope closure on the back and then is was done. We spent a couple of days admiring it on the couch before I made this nest one.

 I was just dying to cut into the Charleston collection. I did not buy the whole collection, but a few of the designs just called to me, one being this print of the houses and the streets. I love the way the red flowered print frames this piece.

 And to quilt the pillow top, I decided, after stitching in the ditch around the two borders, to just follow the map line of the streets. I LOVE how that turned out.

 The second border, which disappears in a frontal shot, is the navy blue umbrella print. So cute and the perfect frame for the pillow.

 I really wanted to include the pineapple print in this pillow, so it became the envelope closure on the back. So so pretty. This is my new favorite, but I say that every time I make one.

And here they are together, sitting pretty. Have a lovely day and I will talk to you soon.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

Quilts from Christmas Past

This will be my last post before Christmas, and maybe for the year. We will see how next week goes. I thought is might be nice to show some of the quilts I have done for Christmases past. So here goes:
In no particular order, since my computer has way too many issues...

 Cherry Christmas fabric by Aneela Hoey. Made from a charm pack, this is still one of my favorite Christmas collections.

              A tree...Lizzy House meets Sherbet Pips.

 Two charm packs of a Sweetwater Christmas line Countdown to Christmas, and the sashing is yardage from the same line.

             A QAL done with Christa from Christa Quilts a few years back.

                   Fun fabric on the back of a pillow.

                        A Christmas table runner.

               My very first ever quilt. And yes, I still have it.

             Trees from some book I no longer own. This is an older quilt also.

 This was a gift for the boys. It has bean bags so you can toss them and play tic tac toe. Made from Aneela Hoey prints from Little Apples.

              My first Fair Isle quilt made in a QAL with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

                                   Fun reindeer heads.

                      My second Fair Isle made for my daughter.

                             Another from a book I used to have.

Houses in Christmas fabrics. Love this one.

A Christmas Ticker Tape pillow. Not Christmas fabrics, but the colors give the feel of the season so that's how this one came to be.
I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, or what ever holiday you celebrate. Love your families and enjoy any time you spend together. See you back here soon.