Welcome March!

Three days late to welcome the month, but I needed to do some important work first. I hadn't created my collage for last month and since I like to send out the old month when I am welcoming a new one, I delayed things a bit. Take heart! I eventually get around to things! 

I have already been sewing some good stuff in these first 3 days of March, and I am eager to share that here, but first I must close out February with my collage of highlights.

TOP ROW: In that first snapshot, I am standing with Barbara, a volunteer at Pioneer Florida Farm in Dade City. The historical group hosts a huge event - everything from draft horse pulls to quilt shows - and all the buildings on their 21-acre site are open for touring. Barbara was hostess in the tiny Methodist Church, and we talked quite a bit. Eventually we exchanged contact info because she was retiring and I offered to buy her pioneer dress. Yes, she is a bit shorter than I am, but we have already made the exchange, and I think I can make it all work out. The second snapshot is some of the luscious fabric I bought that same day at Quilted Twins - the most wonderful quilt shop in Dade City. And last, the snappy card wallets I made.

MIDDLE ROW: After much gnashing of teeth and wrangling of ideas, I took the final stitches on Grandmother's Flower Garden. At last she is ready to be quilted! The middle picture is yours truly with my baby sister Carol at Walt Disney World. We spent a wonderful 2½ days with them even though the weather was not ideal. Too cold and windy! The Magic Kingdom is in the distance in my last photo in this row.

BOTTOM ROW: Carol and Monte's guests at Disney: (l to r) Jayne, David, Dawn, Kevin, Sandy, John. We six are the family I refer to as the cousins on Moonrise Lane (our Florida residence). David and Sandy are my 1st cousins. The next photo is of a KF jelly roll quilt I have started. More on that to come! And the last picture is Lake Effect, the 10-year quilt that has found its way out of storage and onto my work table. Yes, I am back to take this to a finish!

February is a short month, but we packed a lot into it and just like that, our time in Florida is two-thirds over! We will return to Ohio at the end of this month. In the month remaining, I have a few more stitching projects on the agenda - pillow covers for beds and sofas here in the Florida home. I also need to stitch up some curtains for the lanai windows. And speaking of lanai, I have a futon out there that might get a new slip cover. We shall see just how ambitious I am.

So come on back and I will keep you abreast of progress being made!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Most of my slow stitching this winter has occurred on Thursdays rather than Sundays. That's because I go with my Florida quilting friend Charlaine to the Nobleton Group who meet a few miles south of here. I finished the Grandmother's Flower Garden with them, and now I am attempting to finish lake Effect.

Yes, I will have you take a quick look at a familiar old friend - Lake Effect. Gosh, it feels like an anvil around my neck trying to get this thing finished. It's getting heavier and heavier (figuratively speaking). But, I said from the very beginning that it would be a 10-year-project. This is year 9; the end is in sight.

Bottom border; adjusting for proper sizing.

You'll find dozens of prior posts that will show more complete pictures of this quilt coming together. I will direct you to this one, my last post (all the way back to June '25!) about this quilt, and this post which details the major mistake I made (discovering after 2 years into construction). Do a search if you desire more info. 

It is my fervent hope that I will finish this quilt top this year. Gotta' keep my focus on that completion!

I am linking up (after several weeks away) with Kathy and her Slow Sunday Stitching party. I always see such gorgeous projects taking shape over there. These needle artists are such an inspiration.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Bits of Sewing and Busy Days

Family and friends often ask us what we do while we are in Florida. My response is a description of totally different people from the ones they know in Ohio. We are such homebodies normally, but while we are in FL, we go-go-go.  Shuffleboard three times each week; bike riding; thrifting; estate sales; flea markets; games in the evenings (sometimes here, sometimes elsewhere - we take turns hosting); or walks around our little neighborhood.

I have to work to squeeze in time for sewing. Here's what I've been doing lately when I get a few spare minutes at the sewing machine - stitching up a jelly roll of cool-color Kaffe Fassett fabrics for a simple lap quilt.

The strips are cut at 8 inches; 5 strips make a block. And look at that fun pink fabric I plan to use as sashing strips. I am making slow progress. Perhaps about half of the blocks are stitched as I write this post.

These pictures have a decidedly yellowish cast to them; maybe afternoon sun hinders the true colors. Anyway, the quilt looks better than these pictures indicate, and will go together quickly once I take the time to concentrate on it.

 So, what have we been doing lately that has kept me out of the sewing room? Lots of visiting. We've had a couple of unusually busy weeks. We have visited with Ohio friends vacationing in other areas of Florida; we had family over for an afternoon visit; most recently, we have just returned from 3 days at 'the most magical place on earth' visiting my sister and brother-in-law. Walt Disney World!

 

We just happened to be there on some of the coldest and windiest days, still we had fun. We definitely got our steps in! We traipsed all over the place! Saw lots of cool and interesting attractions, ate at amazing restaurants; most of all - enjoyed the company of family. 

Sisters! Jayne and Carol.

 We were guests of my sister and her husband who vacation at Disney all the time; we got the royal treatment!

The gang - Carol, Monte, Kevin, John, Sandy, Jayne, Dawn, Dave.

We are grateful for all the Disney fun, but are glad to be back to our slower pace and less 'people-y' home on Moonrise Lane. Those folks in the photo above (John, Sandy, Dawn and Dave) are our cousins who also live on Moonrise. Sandy and Dave are siblings and are first cousins on our father's side to Carol and me.

I have let too many days get past me without a blog post. When there's no time for sewing, it goes without saying that there's also no time for blogging. 

Stay tuned! I do have some hand-stitching to share. That will be my next update.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Peach Lemonade

The colors in this 3-yard quilt remind me of peaches and lemons, so Peach Lemonade is her name. From all those 3-Yard Quilt books that came out in the last few years, I have earmarked several that I wanted to make, this being one of them. I brought the fabrics with me and cut the quilt out at this new group-thing I've been going to on Thursdays. I have spent on-and-off time stitching her up! Voila! It goes pretty fast when you only have to piece 9 big blocks. 

You know that I'm going to be a grandma again, so this might just have to be earmarked for this new little girl coming in April. I hope I can get that long arm machine back in working order so I can quilt it up when we are back in Ohio.

All three fabrics used in this quilt came from existing stash. I did not buy them as a group, but they work very well together and I envisioned something exactly like this when I began working on it. I am so pleased with it, and know it will be perfect for our new girl.

This makes the 3rd quilt top I've finished since arriving in Florida on January 2. Add in all those card wallets I've made and a few pieced blocks for other projects (namely pillow covers), I feel as though I've been as productive as I can be while also running around to various fun activities we have going on from day to day.

I do have another quilt in the early piecing stage. - I brought along a Kaffe Fasset jelly roll with the intent of coming up with some sort of easy and fast quilt. I've cut everything, and have about 6 or 8 blocks pieced at this point. I will share some pics soon.

Have to run! Shuffleboard is calling! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne
 

More Card Wallets

These little wallets are just the most fun things to make! They go together so fast, and while all the necessary supplies are right here at hand, I have indulged myself in making more. They are multiplying fast.

I made these 5 over the weekend; I was in the middle of another project, yet I felt this strong desire to set it aside and make these easy wallets. I cannot explain it. So I whipped these up and returned to my previous project. 

 Yesterday, I just couldn't get past the notion of how fast they can be made, so I decided to see how an assembly line method would work. I finished 9 more in relatively short order.

From the first round of wallets, I have only two remaining. Currently, I've got these 16 made and ready for gifting. It has been fun selecting the various colors of snaps for each little wallet, and I'm getting the entire process down to quite some impressive efficiency.

 I'd been using calicoes for most of my wallets; then some graphics ( plaids and dots), then I tried some reproduction prints. They all look great! I can't see a thing wrong with any of these. 

I think at gift-giving times like birthdays and Christmas, it would be fun to make these using themed fabrics and then insert a gift card. Easy, yet personalized gifting! Yay!

Definitely more of these will be in my future! And I am visualizing how to enlarge the pattern to make on to cover my cell phone. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne
 

 

 

GFG and Borders

The long saga of the completion of my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt is nearing its conclusion. So many times over the last couple of years I have considered that this quilt was finished, yet before long an idea for "one more thing" presents itself and so I return to it and do a bit more. 

 

The latest chapter of the saga has been adding borders. I auditioned several colors of solids and decided on this pale yellow. I wanted to applique the hexie center to the border, but couldn't be sure how I would secure it sufficiently to prevent shifting as I stitched. So I basted the border to the hexie center. That worked really great for the two straight sides of the quilt.

The other two sides are curvier, so I used a glue stick to hold the borders in place while I stitched. One side is done; one side remains. I think it will be done by the end of this week. 

While straightening this quilt out on the bed, it occurs to me that I am likely to have the waviest border ever. I plan to trim off a good portion, so that may soften those ruffly bits, but I doubt it's a total fix. I expect that quilting will cover up some of the fullness; I also think I can improve things with a carefully measured binding. 

Getting that last border on is my next concern. Then trimming. Then it will likely be put away for awhile - like until I am ready to quilt it. This entire portion has been done by hand. It makes such perfect sense to hand quilt it, too, but that is such a hefty decision. I just am not ready to commit to that. Maybe I will, eventually. 

We will wait and see.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

 

Stash-Busting Project

From deep within the depths of my stash, I found these three fabrics that look like they should have been bought with a single project in mind. No, they were not. They were bought at various times over the last several years. How they happened to meet up this past fall, I do not recall, but I sure am glad for this happy accident!

The neutral fabric is by Andover. The yellow is by Joanna Figueroa/Moda. The peach is by Marcus. I can't be any more specific because I've tossed all the essential info with the selvages. My guess is that they are pretty well aged.

Like I said, they were all matched up back in the fall, but I didn't get around to doing anything with them. I brought them with me to Florida in the hopes that I'd have time for a quickie project. 

I cut out a 3-Yard Quilt yesterday called Modern Charm. I cannot tell you which specific book because I only took a picture of the cutting instructions. But I'm sure I borrowed my friend Jan's book; so I can identify later, if I need/want to.

Obviously, with only 3 yards of three fabrics, this will be a small quilt, and I have in mind yet another quilt for new grandbaby Dillon, arriving in April. She already has one quilt prepared; this will be #2. (I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be making quilts for grandchildren for years and years.) *smile*

I have sewn and cut all the sub-units. Now to stitch the remaining churn dash blocks. They will alternate with the yellow dot fabric. I am hoping that the resulting quilt will be a gentle, calming quilt for a new baby girl.

I have already made a couple of 3-Yard Quilts - click here to see one - and all the Frankfort Girls have made them, as well. Some have made quite a few! 

I am motivated to keep going on Modern Charm, so look for a fast finish!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne