A Couple of Things

 I've been working on a couple of things I'd like to share here. In my last post, I shared my latest crocheted blanket. Now I am making one for my youngest grandson, B. His favorite color used to be orange, but now it seems he likes yellows and golds as well. So this is the yarn selection. I am crocheting a ripple pattern from Lucy at Attic 24.

I think I posted that I was painting rocks during the pandemic. This is one of my latest rocks. I do lots of little pictures on rocks which I put positive messages on the back and we put them in a basket out front for neighbors to take. I believe we have done a few hundred rocks since we started.

On the sewing front, I was finally able to move ahead on the Penny Sampler Quilt. I am doing the Dutch version since I have already done the Nordic version a couple of years ago when Rachel offered it.

My quilt is all blues, pinks and a bit of red. So this is my tree. It was so fun to choose the fabrics for this block. I pulled all my fabrics back in the beginning, so I just go through the bin they are in for each new block assignment. We are in the home stretch with this year long project.

This is my faceted diamond block. I forgot to re-orient it. It will go longways on the quilt. The third block for September is the windmill, which I haven't downloaded to my computer yet, so I will do that soon so I can document that here. I am so excited to get this quilt put together. I have really been enjoying the monthly assignments.

So have a great weekend and stay safe and well. I will see you soon.

Crochet!

 So, in addition to sewing I also love to crochet. I have been crocheting blankets for the last 3 years, along with Lucy at Attic 24. She has so many lovely patterns and she is really good at explaining the techniques. She shows pictures of how things should look, which is so helpful. And her patterns are free!

This is one of her patterns I just finished, in my own chosen colors. This blanket is to be a Christmas gift for Miss N. Her favorite colors are pink and purple.

This is the Cosy Stripe Blanket. It is all double crochet, except for parts of the border. This is a picture of the final row of the border which give such a pretty little finish here.

Every two rows alternate between a plain double crochet and one with three stitches done in one spot skipping stitches on each side to give this unique look. I alternated between pink and purple on each row.

I started out using up bits of leftover yarns from other projects, but then I soon realized I didn't have enough of either pink or purple to complete this. So I found an on line source for the same yarn, here in the US.

I usually order all this blanket yarn from Wool Warehouse in the UK, but at the time, they weren't shipping to the US because of Covid.

I am very happy with the way this blanket turned out. These pictures are on my queen size bed, so this is a sizeable blanket. My daughter requested it be big enough so she could use it as she grew up.

And here is the little wooden button I put on all my crochet blankets. I found these on Etsy. There are many vendors on Etsy that sell something like this if you are interested in finding some for yourself. I hope you have a great rest of your week, and I will see you soon.

Happy Fall

 Well, now it is officially fall, or Autumn, if you prefer. Days are getting shorter, temperatures are cooling down a bit. It's awesome! Here's what I have been doing the last couple of weeks.

I made all these balls of fabric "yarn" from string scraps that I have been saving for the past two years. A number of years ago, Crazy Mom had a tutorial on how to crochet or knit a throw rug with these. I have made a few of them over the years. I want to do one more. This will be my last. I'm not saving these kinds of scraps any more.

This was the table as I sorted all the scraps. After I made the very first one, I decided to sort into color groups and I like the look it gives me much better.

It takes about 3 pounds of this yarn to crochet a decent size rug. The blue is the largest ball I have and you  can see it is close to a pound. I weighed all the balls and together there is 4.8 pounds, so this will be a sizeable rug.

I also finished this lovely EPP piece. I am going to look for a backing fabric so I can remove the papers and quilt it. I will finish the edges without binding. That should be interesting. 

I hope you are all doing well. I will be back with more projects to share.

Dear Dottie #2

 I have finally finished my second Dear Dottie quilt top. I think I know how I'm going to quilt it, so all I need is a backing now and I can pin baste.

Here she is in all her glory! When I made my first Dear Dottie, I made the baby size and I made it completely scrappy. No fabric used more than once. And I loved it, still do. But then I saw one on Instagram that used a more limited pallet and I couldn't get it out of my mind. So I decided to try it.

I found a bundle of fabrics from a collection I had in my stash, and I pulled a few others to add to it. I had to restrain myself from adding too much. I kept telling myself what I had would be enough. And truly I found limiting the amount of fabrics to be more difficult than just putting something else in that I felt it called for. In the end, I'm glad I did limit my fabrics. I love the effect.

I think I struggled when so many of the blocks were the same, or similar. That's where I had to tell myself it was fine and it looked good. And I think it does.

So, I now have 3 quilt tops completed and needing backs and quilting. It's going to take a while to get that done, but I love them all and cannot wait to see them quilted and on the bed. I hope you have a good rest of your week. Talk to you soon.

Two Finished Tops

 Well, I have buckled down and finished two quilt tops in the last couple of days. One of them has been lying around since about February I think. The other was one of those that I got a bee in my bonnet to do so I did it in a couple of weeks time.

This was where I left off with this one. I call it my Heather Ross quilt because of the rose prints. I had enough to make 18 of each color. I did two different layouts and asked my IG followers for advice.

This one was the unanimous choice. So I stacked them up in order, put them in a project box and that was it until this week.

Here is the finished top. It took me two days to get this put together. I am so easily distracted these days, and I kept getting up and walking away, but now it's done.

I had just enough of the fabrics left to give it a small border, which I think it needed. It is about 42 inches square. So now it will sit a bit until I get a backing and am ready to baste for quilting.

The other quilt top I finished was the one from No Scrap Left behind. I really wanted that one finished so I can start to plan how I want to quilt it.

I had all these strip sets (72) to attach to a larger rectangle. I normally don't pin much, but I needed these to come together perfectly so the blocks would match up when they were finished.

This is one of the completed blocks. Half of them had a blue center, and half of them had a pink center.

And here is the completed top. I am proud to say that all the strips came from my scrap stash. I only cut into yardage for the large rectangles.

The pink rectangles, you may notice are different shades of pink. They are from the original V and Co. ombre line of fabric. This chunk has been in my stash for about 5 years I think.

So now that I have two tops done, I am back to working on my Dear Dottie quilt top. I have about 50 more curved pieces to assemble, then I can make the 4 patch pieces. After that, it's lay out time and I have a map for that from Rachel. It's all based on color value. So, easy peasy.

I will talk to you soon and have more progress shots.

More Quilts In Progress

 So now I am here to talk about my other two quilts in progress. The first on is my Dear Dottie quilt. This is the second Dear Dottie I am making from Rachel Hauser's pattern. It is all about the curves.

My first version was scrappy. This time, I wanted to make a larger quilt and control the colors a bit. Theses four stacks represent the colors I am using for this version of the quilt. It has been "resting" in a project box for a bit. I have been struggling a bit to stay engaged with some of my projects. I have had days where I don't feel like sewing. I have now made myself a goal to finish the quilt tops I am working on. Then, I will baste them and quilt them, all one after another.

These are blocks for what I am thinking of as my Heather Ross quilt. For some reason, these early pictures are the only ones on my computer right now. I know there are more somewhere.

I have already sewn these into blocks and they are about 6 1/2 inches square. I have enough of them to make a small quilt. I have started putting them into rows with some that have a different fabric background, alternating the two backgrounds.

I think I have one row together, since it's been awhile since I have pulled them out of their box. I hope to be getting to them soon, and I will take more pictures for my next showing of them.

Aside from sewing quilts, I am crocheting another blanket for my granddaughter, embroidering a sample, working on a small EPP project and painting rocks. What, you haven't heard of rock painting?

                               This is my gingham rock.

                       Mandalas and gingham

                        Autumn leaves

                                Cactus

                            Sunrise/sunset

And my sea urchin. I love painting and rocks give me a small canvas that can be completed in one sitting. It is daily gratification. I will talk to you soon.

Did You Miss Me?

 I knew I hadn't posted in awhile. I was surprised to see it had been so long though. I am still chugging through my days here. We started walking in the mornings before my husband leaves for work. We are up to 2 miles a day, and will probably not add distance any longer, but are aiming for a little bit of speed. It has been 3 weeks now, and that's about how long since I have been here, so that's my excuse. Lol.

I still sew almost every day, even if it's only a little bit. I have 4 different quilts under construction right now. The first is my Penny Sampler Club quilt. This is a year long project.

This is the Bridges block. I decided to use the Ombre Bloom fabric that I used for the Hanging Diamonds block. I thought It might add some continuity. These are the only two blocks with this fabric in them. The other August blocks are the small square penny candy blocks. When I went to pull fabrics for them, I discovered that I did not have enough background fabric for them, so I am waiting for my Kona Lake fabric to arrive. Those may become September blocks.

The second quilt I am working on is my version of Amanda Jean's Scrap Happy Rails from her book No Scrap Left Behind. I saw that someone had posted theirs on Instagram a couple of weeks ago and I was instantly smitten and had to start one. Funny thing though, I just looked at their quilt and figured out how to make it, before I even realized that it was Amanda Jean's. As soon as I finally noticed the one hashtag, I laughed and got my copy of the book out to look it up. So much easier than doing all the math.

I got out my red, blue, green, yellow, and teal scrap bins and cut all of the strips for the quilt in a couple of sessions. Then I worked on my strip sets and cutting them to size. Yesterday, I attached all the strip sets to the large piece, making my 36 blocks. I have my layout done and will start sewing them together today.

I will take pictures as I go, so I can share that with you soon. I will be back to discuss my other quilts in progress. Have a good Tuesday.