Goodbye, February

You've been a mixed-up month, February, and I don't mind saying goodbye. While the temperatures you have offered up have been mostly spring-like, the extensive gray, rainy days have far outstayed their welcome. We had a couple of good little snows, they didn't inconvenience me in any way, and you were kind in affording me plenty of sewing time.

I did have a rather productive sewing and quilting month, which pleases me immensely. I listened to a few good books, too, and enjoyed some quality family time.

Early in the month I finished off two baby quilts, one of which has been delivered. I met for breakfast with my 4 siblings, our mom, and two nieces. Next month, I will insist we sit in such a way as to get all 5 of us in one picture - and maybe try to get Mom in, too! I made a diaper bag to match one of the baby quilts. That was a fun, creative venture.

Evidence of the two or three snow events is there to start the middle row. All snow days were short-lived, as temperatures quickly rebounded back to the mid-40s. My big flimsy finish for the month is in the center - Summer Nights came together quite nicely, and I need to add it to the quilts I hope to put on the long arm this year. The final picture in the middle row shows the blocks I am making in our Frankfort Girls' sew-along.

The bottom row features my one big quilted quilt, Sweet Sixteen. I have yet to finish the binding; maybe I will make that this evening's task so that it can be a true February finish. A totally unplanned finish is the toile table topper that I excavated from the depths of the sewing room stacks. It currently adorns our kitchen table. And last, continued stitching on that 10-year-project, Lake Effect. Yes, I am still plugging away on it, and take it every time the Frankfort Girls meet.

I feel like I did get a lot done, and I attribute that to listening to several good books. In the queue this month were: Foreign Agent by Brad Thor, The Last Patriot by Brad Thor, Takedown by Brad Thor,  Raven Black by Anne Cleeves, The Pioneers by David McCullough, and my current book, A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier. Brad Thor books are fast-paced, require very little concentration, and keep me glued to my sewing. The Cleeves book is part of a mystery series all set in the same town, and the second I have read. In both I completely missed the clues leading to the uncovering of the culprit. The McCullough book was so good that DH is now listening to it, and I find myself all wrapped up in it again. The Chevalier book started out promising, but as I near the end, I find that I am growing impatient with it.

As I look toward March, I wonder what I will accomplish? Plans are swirling in my mind all the time. I still have a couple of baby quilts to finish and I'd like to get a wedding quilt checked off my to-do list, as well. The couple has already been married over 4 - or could it be 5? - months!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Scrappy 4-Patches

I had a bit of free time last evening, but not enough to really make a dent in anything significant. So I grabbed the 2-inch scraps I've been cutting and began chain stitching. It was a productive hour or so when I pressed the last of this batch. Take a look!

I made a total of about 44 blocks. The fabrics are all scraps and I have barely scratched the surface of all that I have cut. It looks like the majority of my colors are blue and rust. And neutral. There will be plenty of additional colors to come, for sure.

I just love the variety! And most of these fabrics remind me of past projects. I love that. When these eventually get used in a quilt, there will be reminders of the many hours spent on the original projects represented as well as the wonderful quilt the scraps went into.

All of these 4-patches made with the 2-inch squares will be used as the centers for square-in-a-square blocks, like the ones shown below. I made these few last month, and I am super-motivated to make more.

Short and sweet, today, Peeps! There's been no time for blogging, as I have been on the go all day.

I had quilting this morning at Helen's with the rest of the Frankfort Girls. Then I got to spend an hour or so with a new momma and her precious baby daughter, the recipient of a recent baby quilt. A bit later, then, I went to the funeral home for a friend whose mother passed away. And tonight we had our traditional Friday night dinner at our favorite Hillsboro Mexican restaurant, La Cascada. Mmmm.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Finishing a Small UFO

Instagram has many benefits for crafters of all sorts, and quilters especially make excellent use of the program. I recently had a comment from someone who'd seen a picture I posted clear back on December 22, 2018, of a table topper I'd made. Icopied a design that I'd seen Frankfort Girls' group member Sheryll share at one of our get togethers. The fantastic simplicity and striking beauty really motivated me to make one myself. So I did! Check this post to see the flimsy. You'll have to scroll to the very end. Below is Sheryll's topper.

My version has fewer borders and has wider borders. I like them both ways. Mine was certainly faster, but Sheryll's has more space for stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. It's all a matter of choice, I suppose. The photo below shows my quilting stitches in the ditch.

I worked on this last evening, and thought I would just do the quilting, yet it went so fast I decided to find some suitable binding fabric and finish it all off. The topper measures 21" so really, a finish was easily accomplished.

It was late, so I did not remove my blue table cloth, but here is my little finish in the center of the kitchen table. I am glad I was prompted to pull this out and finish it. I have dozens of these small creations stacked up in the sewing room. It really needs to be a goal for me to finish some more.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Quilted Finish!

I loaded a quilt on Monday and quilted it! I promised myself as I began this year that I would quilt a minimum of two quilts each month. I did a baby quilt earlier and now I have done this one, so I am hitting my goal in these first two months of 2020.

I made Simple Sixteen in very late December of 2018, a super easy, super fast quilt with 30's prints. I wrote about it in this post.

I got along great with my quilting until the last 30 inches or so of the final pass of the machine. I began having threads breaking - it was very, very aggravating. I don't know for sure what the trouble was, but I switched out the bobbin, and after that I finished without incident. I did all the usual troubleshooting: rethread the machine, clean out the lint. Since it was the bobbin thread that was breaking, I checked the bobbin tension, and then I changed the bobbin. I don't know. Do some prewound bobbins cause problems? I will ask around.

 So here she is, trimmed up and draped over the Tin Lizzie. I will prep the binding from the excess of backing; I hope I can get it all finished up this week.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Blockheads 3; Week 6 Block

Plodding right along with my numerous sew-alongs, on Friday and on Sunday I finished Magic, the name of Lisa Bongean's block for week 6 of Blockheads 3.

This block finishes just shy of the 6.5 inches it's supposed to be. It was totally intimidating to make such a small block with so many tiny half-square triangles. The designer recommended starching the fabric to eliminate nightmarish results, and I heeded that advice.

I made the center portion of this block on Friday when I attended Frankfort friend Terry's sewing day with the rest of the gang. I would say that every single part of it was 'unsewn' at least once. After one mistake would be fixed, then I would go straight into another mistake. Time and time again. I take total responsibility for the repeated mistakes. I thought I knew how to construct the center section, yet if I'd properly read the instructions I could have saved myself much aggravation. Oh well, live and learn.

As I faced the prospect of adding the outer border of HSTs, I planned ahead a bit - I made them larger than required, and trimmed them to size - 1.25 inches. Did you count? There are 24 of those tiny HSTs. Whew.

On Sunday evening, at last, I finished the block, and while it does measure slightly small, I don't expect that it will give me any trouble. Seam allowances can hide many irregularities, you know?

Here are my four finished blocks. I have the appliqued birdhouse block from week 4 in process; I am still undecided about adding the paper-pieced block from week 5. I will continue to think on it. I read that some participants are subbing in blocks from previous BH sew-alongs, and I very well may go that direction myself.

I do like how my blocks are looking; I sure hope I can continue to stay (relatively) caught up with this sew along through to the end.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Practice Block

Happy Monday, Quilting Friends! Are you all geared up to tackle this final week of February? It is exciting to look forward to March which brings S-P-R-I-N-G!

I believe I have written about making practice blocks or test blocks each month for our Frankfort Girls sew-along. I have been using scraps from my 30s remnants for the trial blocks before going forward with my red and white blocks for the "real" project. Have a look at my "real" blocks here.

Turns out that I am loving these trial blocks so much that I plan to make a quilt with them also! Here are the three I've done so far.

January Block - Ohio Star

February Block - Churn Dash

March Block- Basket

All my blocks are 9.5 inches unfinished. So far these three have come out just perfect. Now we await our next assignment which will come from Terry.

This is a fun sew-along - few rules. The freedom for individual decisions is wonderful!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Slow Stitching

It's been awhile since I shared my hand stitching, so today's post will fix that. I have been slow to finish the applique blocks of week 4 in Blockheads 1 and Blockheads 3. I prepped the blocks several weeks ago, worked on them sporadically, and finally today finished the BH1 block.

You mustn't inspect too closely. I certainly did not do my finest work here, that's for sure. But a finished block is better than no block at all, regardless of how finely executed the workmanship.

 

The block still needs to be trimmed down. Won't take but a sec to do that. Don't you love that it's so simple? Made for quick work.

Below are my first 4 blocks in BH1. I am using all my remnants of French General fabrics. I don't see how I can possibly go wrong with great fabrics like FG. Love them all!

I will link up with Kathy for her Sunday party, Slow Sunday Stitching. Hope you will pop over there to peruse the pretty contributions.

Have a great Sunday!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Big Blockheads Plans

In keeping with my optimism to stay till the finish of a Blockheads sew-along, I am diving in on this BH3 version currently in week 6. And I am doing reasonably well. I will need a bit more time to finish the applique block of week 4, and I made an extra block for week 5, but will get to work on the one for my BH3 group, and I have the current block to make. I am hoping that tomorrow will see weeks 5 and 6 finished off. (Keeping all that straight??)

I sorta' started off at a disadvantage, though, when the fabric I chose to use was a fat-eighths pack from years ago. I wrote about the limited fabric in this post. An out of print line, and only fat-eighths. Good grief. Could I have made a worse decision? But get this! I believe I have solved my dilemma.

Yesterday, DH and I took a pretty drive across a bit of southern Ohio to McArthur Quilt Shop. Pretty day for a drive, too! Such sunshine! I had some hope that I would find a fabric for a project, so I figured I could also look for suitable fabrics to substitute in to the pack shown above.

Before we left, I dug into the stash and found a stack of potential add-ins for this grouping. Those are stacked at the top of the picture. The only one I bought new is the brown on the right. I feel as thought these additions will work just fine, and I will be sure to check that some of those from the stash are pink and not peach or orange. I'm feeling pretty good about how this is going to work.

Now, the title says big plans, and so far nothing I've described here has been out of the ordinary.

Since BH3 started in mid-January, I decided that I would work on BH1 from 2 years ago, and do those blocks week-by-week as well. That is going very well, and I am staying relatively caught up - about the same as for BH3. I am using my stash of French General fabrics for BH1 and I believe I have enough of that to make things work. Fortunately, if I should run short, I know I can easily get more.

Aaaannnddd...what about BH2? I really did get that one started on time, and I had two quilts going at once - one in a bright historic fabric grouping, and one in a muted floral calico grouping. By week 8 of that sew-along, I threw in the towel. I was entirely unprepared for the unexpectedly large blocks, and I was running out of fabric, especially neutrals - same story for me, right??

So, I figured, why not go ahead and see what fabrics I could find - first from the stash, and then in McArthur - to at some point try to finish both of my BH2 quilts? Sure! Why not? Every quilter needs to have about a dozen quilts going at once, right?? *good grief*

This picture is the grouping of bright historical prints. I am willing to bet that it is hard to tell which is newly added and which is from the original pack. The blue, red, and cream fabrics folded at the top left of the picture are the new pieces. I think I got pretty lucky with these finds. It gives me renewed interest in getting back to work on those blocks.

My muted floral grouping also has some new additions - they are the five fabrics folded across the top of this picture. Again, I am feeling pretty good at how these appear to work so well.

With that, I believe my fabric shopping trip was successful. I found "fillers" for 3 quilts. I will give my best effort to stay caught up. I know I run the chance of the classes and grading to cut into my stitching time, but I believe I can always get caught back up if that should happen.

So, yes, I do have big plans. We shall see if I can accomplish them! If you'd like to see some of my previous Blockheads efforts, here are a few links - BH3 week 2, BH3 week 1, BH2 week 2.

Oh, guess what?

Last night, I cut out a baby quilt.

Yeah, I know. Too many quilts going at once! But I do love it so.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Block-Making Fun

The fabulous Frankfort Girls have embarked on a year-long project - possibly the most loosely-structured sew-along ever. Each month, the first hostess of each month assigns a block to be made that month. Edited later - egad! What a sentence! Evidence of a late-night post and a tv distraction! Let me try this revision: We get new assignments from whichever one of us hosts first each month.  Since Becky was our hostess last Friday, our first meeting of March, it was her duty to assign a block - and she did! We are to make a basket block. As many as we want.

I am making two blocks each month, and made mine last evening. Pictured above, you see them on the bottom. The churn dash blocks are my February effort, and the Ohio Star blocks are the January assignment. My blocks are 9.5 inches. By the end of the year, I will have 24 blocks to use however I like. I can add setting blocks, or set them in any fashion I desire.

I'd best be sketching out some options!

Hope you have a great day! DH and I are taking a drive to buy some fabric! More details, later.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Summer Nights

A Monday finish gets my week off to a great start! Yesterday, I had only to sew the blocks of the last row together, and then sew all the rows together. Easy, peasy.

The star blocks have been finished for over a week. The fabrics are all from my stash - the blues include some Thimbleberries, Kansas Troubles, even a batik, and a random handful more. The stepping stones setting blocks are made with just two navy blues intending to "settle" the randomness of the stars. I still need to add borders; that will be my goal for this week.


Here are a few additional pics -  close-up views - just because you need to see a variety of angles, right?

I'm off to teach today, and this evening I will try to make the blocks for our year-long exchange in the quilting group. Becky chose baskets for our blocks this time around, and I can't wait to get mine made.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

9-Patch Exchange Update

In early 2019, the sweet gals in my quilting group - Frankfort Girls - participated in a fun 9-patch exchange, making and exchanging 42 random, scrappy blocks each. A more complete explanation of our exchange can be found here. We held our exchange last March, and ever since then, we have been on our own with finishing our individual quilt tops.

Above is my version. I made more 9-patches, used a consistent print for setting blocks and made borders for a full-size quilt top. I did face a glitch when I ran out of background fabric, so I subbed on that bottom row, which you barely notice, unless you're looking for it.

Helen has finished and even quilted her exchange quilt!

Sharon has her top finished using various purple fabrics for setting blocks.

Jan's exchange quilt is set together with 'X' setting blocks, giving the quilt a totally different look.

On Friday when we met at Becky's, Terry showed us her finished quilt top using the exchange blocks. What a great variation! Surrounding the center panel with the 9-patches results in a beauty with major impact.

The hope when we began this exchange project was to enjoy the variety of fabrics in our blocks and use them in any way we wanted. Our individuality shines through with each finish. And we are not putting pressure on anyone to finish by a certain deadline, so when we get an inspired idea, we can take off and run with it.

Maybe you and your sewing buddies have had fun group projects like this? We have found that the fewer "rules" the better. We are currently working on a block exchange that will run this whole year. Stay tuned for an update on it - maybe by the end of the week.

Happy Quilting, Friends!