Churn Dash Explosion

Since late August, I have been on a churn dash kick. 

 

 

In August, I bought the little fabric grouping above. This random stack of fat quarters looked so irresistible. I subtracted the lightest fabric (second from top) and added shirting fabrics in yardage form and in charm pack form. My churn dash journey had begun.

 

After making a dozen or so blocks, it was time to switch gears a little bit. The Frankfort Girls' modified quilt retreat took my focus away from the 5" churns and I worked the whole week on True Blue, a pattern that required 9.5" churns. Still fun! Still churn dashes! Just as satisfying! Big, chunky blocks make quick work.

Now I have returned to the 5-inchers. I have spent the last couple of days making the last of the blocks, and then laying everything out for a pleasing yet random arrangement. 

 

During this 2-3-month time span, the Frankfort Girls agreed to another block exchange. Yes. You guessed it--churn dashes! So on the menu soon, I will be making 6.5" dashes. Fun, fun, fun. I am not growing weary of making these blocks at all. In fact, I feel as though I am in a kind of rhythm with them. These are very satisfying to make and really, only a few steps more involved than a 9-patch. 

 

I pulled my fabrics for the Churn Dash Exchange. I need to check a few things off my list and then I will dive into them. The deadline for our exchange is our Christmas gathering, so I can pace myself. 

After a really long stretch of cloudy, rainy, dreary days, we have bright gorgeous sunshine today. What a welcome sight to see! Hope you are having a great day!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sharon's Birthday Quilt and a Kites Update

 In July, we celebrated Sharon's birthday, and for us a standard gift is quilt fabric. I found a gorgeous jelly roll of French General fabric that I just knew she would love, so that and a bottle of wine (another standard!) and a gift took shape.

Can you believe that Sharon has already sewn that quilt top together?!? By mid-September this was finished. (That's how late I am in sharing it here.) She calls it The Birthday Quilt, and it is a beauty. She has a penchant for red and white quilts, as well as a particular fondness for French General fabrics, so this was destined to be a winner on many fronts.

We saw a picture on Facebook of a quilt we both really liked. Sharon figured out a pattern and away she went. Simple piecing and massive impact - a great combination. At one point we had a name for this pattern, but neither of us can remember it, so help us out if you know it. Here is the inspiration picture that I screenshot from FB.

When we sewed together this past Tuesday, Sharon made fantastic progress on her Kites quilt. It is going to be such a gorgeous quilt. Here are a couple of pics of it draped over the ironing board.

Slowly, I am catching up! The fall semester is coming in to the homestretch - only about 5 weeks to go. The kitchen remodel has been at a standstill for a couple of weeks. I am making calls today to see if we can't get the last bits of this job done. I want my house back!

We had over 2.5 inches of rain yesterday. What gloom! It was dreary and cold and miserable. The good thing: I sewed all day, and I listened to an audio book. That is how I brighten a dreary day!

Come on back tomorrow! I promise I am going to get back to more regular posting! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Will I Ever Catch Up?

 Remiss. That's the word of the day. Or the word of the month, perhaps. 

I am so totally remiss in my posting here on the blog. So, once again, I will bring you up to date on a few of the projects going on in my world as well as projects from quilty friends.

First, let me share some quilts from the lovely friends in the Frankfort Girls quilting group. We met a week ago at Sharon O's house. All seven of us were present, and what a grand time! It seems 3 hours (9-noon) is just not enough for us to cover all the topics.

Here is a quilt that Terry had for show and tell. It is lap-quilt size, blocks are big ones, and they have such impact! I took a couple of close-up shots so you could see how fantastic they look.

 

 

Hostess Sharon had a couple of quilts to share.  First, a leafy wall hanging - look at that color! This was all done by hand, a technique Sharon finds she prefers. She even did the binding by hand!

 

A second finish from Sharon is this quilt made from the blocks we "assigned" at the first of the year. We had a small, loosely-formed sew-along in which each of us took a month to assign a block that we would all make. After 7 months, we could do with those blocks whatever we wanted. Here is Sharon's version. (PS: She loves purple!) She made a couple of extras for this quilt, but we were very open in our interpretation of what the blocks would become. When a few more get theirs done, I will put all the quilts together in a post to show you what wide variety we have. (Click here to see the quilt I made in the sew-along.)

I have progress photos to share from Sharon P. - saving that for the next post. I also have an update on the 5-inch churn dash quilt I began in late summer. Click here to be reminded of it; I now have 110 of these little blocks, which is probably way more than I will need for a quilt, and I am ready to sew the quilt top. Yay!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It's been awhile since I shared in the fun of slow Sunday stitching. Perhaps that is because I've not been doing very much hand work of late. Lots of irons in the fire these days, and it just became an easy objective to move to the back burner.

That said, I did put the binding on a quilt last week, and so have been enjoying the process of stitching it down. More often than not, lately, I do this step by machine. Since this is a gift and a baby quilt, I decided that doing it by hand would be appropriate.

The quilt is a bonus quilt made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics that were cut away from another project way back in 2015. You can click here to see that special quilt. I saved the cut away corners knowing that at some point they would be useful. I turned them into this little quilt which became a baby quilt when a family friend announced the birth of a baby girl.

The binding fabric is the only part of the quilt that is not by Kaffe Fassett; it is by Patrick Lose, and it worked so well, and I had it on hand, so why not?

I'm still stitching. It won't take me long to finish it off, and I am definitely enjoying the rhythmic nature of the process. Soon, the baby girl and her parents will take ownership; I will try to provide pictures.

Hope you are enjoying a slow stitching project! If you are, or if you aren't, you should pop over to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts to see some inspiration from other slow stitchers.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Sharon's Kites are Taking Shape!

 We had such a good day of sewing on Tuesday. I showed you my Meadow Lily (complete with the late-discovered wonky block - see this post). Now I will show you the progress Sharon made on her Kites quilt.

Sharon laid out all her blocks a couple of weeks ago; you read about that in this post. She labeled each row as she picked it up. Check out the numbered sticky note, below. With everything properly organized, she was quite the efficient stitcher on Tuesday. Row after row, those strips were formed.

She systematically worked her way across the quilt. It is set on point, so the first 13 or 14 got progressively longer, but of course, once she reached that long middle row they grew shorter, and then finishing each row became faster and faster. I believe she will have about 27 diagonal rows; it'll be a big quilt.

By the end of the day, she had moved into flimsy construction, and just take a look at this beauty taking shape. It is so very playful. Talk about a quilt that exudes FUN! I cannot wait to see it completed. I know Sharon is stoked about finishing, too, so we should soon have a happy quilt to share here!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Mercantile On Main

Coshocton, OH, DH's hometown, has a sweet little quilt shop that I love to visit when we are in town. I recently had the chance to visit - yes, and shop! - and I thought I would share this cozy shop with you. 

I always seem to find something I just have to have when I stop in. Usually, I am just enhancing my stash; rarely, if ever, am I there for a specific project. So I browse around every single nook and cranny.

 

This most recent visit made me realize that I have not done a whole lot of shopping this year - fabric shopping and otherwise. First, I really don't need anything, and second, Covid-19 has interrupted so much of everyone's "normal" activity. When it comes to quilting needs, I just make do, or order online. That mentality of online shopping will be the death of small shops, so when I get a chance to stop and shop, I try to find something to buy; I don't want these family-owned, small businesses to shut their doors!

 

 

 Mercantile on Main has some fantastic display quilts - they would appeal to a wide variety of quilting interests. I recognize that last quilt as it is on the cover of a Carrie Nelson book I have. I sorta' want to make it. And even though I would love it made as it shown, I sorta' dream about how it might look made up in some really awesome soft florals. Hmmm...

But I digress. That one quilt on up a bit reminds me of the Periwinkle quilt I made this summer. Of course, it is slightly different, but similar enough that I would still call it a Periwinkle design. I love that blue border. 

And I had to take a picture of that Churn Dash quilt up at the very top. (Click on it to zoom in.) I have really been on a kick with those lately. That one is soooo pretty. Do I have yet another one in me?? Maybe. *grin*

So, you're probably wondering what I bought, right? Well, here ya' go. I picked out a fun little grouping of fall-colored fat quarters, 2 mini charm packs of Christmas fabric, a floral FQ package and a bit of yardage to go with it. Little ideas are forming for each of these, and it was enjoyable just randomly picking out little things.

 Here's a couple of closer views of the floral pack and the accompanying yardage, with my apologies for the glare. Also note the attractive packaging. That really puts a unique touch on the product, don't you think?

Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Coshocton, OH, be sure to stop in at Mercantile on Main. It is right downtown across from the court house. Years ago, the shop was called Vac Shack (or something along that line), and they still sell and service vacuum cleaners, as you see in one of the pics. I have found some great fabrics in this little shop, and the owner always makes me feel welcome.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Silent, But Busy

 I don't seem to find much time to blog these days, but I do find time to sew and quilt. That's about the best I can do while everything is weird for the present. Remodeling unheaval, DH's continued mysterious ailments and virtual classes - all these have kept this gal off her computer and away from her blog!

Sharon and I found a day this week that we could sew together. She was here Tuesday and we both felt very accomplished as we finished out the day. I have a new finish - a former UFO - and she began stitching the rows together on her dotty Kaffe quilt, Kites. (see previous post)

This is Meadow Lily, a Thimbleberries pattern from way, way back. I do not recall the publication date on the book, but I know I started this quilt in 2006. It earned its UFO status when I decided to make it larger than the pattern called for only to discover that I would not have enough fabric to complete it. 

Back in 2017, I tackled and finished twelve (12!) UFOs with a whole lot of satisfaction. That was a huge accomplishment; I did not have very many more UFOs left in storage. Meadow Lily was one of those 3 or 4 remaining, and it has nagged at me quite a lot since that big, productive year. It became a goal for 2020 and it is done! Well, at least the flimsy is done; quilting it is another goal. Yes, it IS satisfying to finish such an old UFO.

 

I spread this flimsy out on the bed Tuesday and began taking pictures. Sharon started to say something, and then stopped; it was as if she wasn't sure she should mention it. And then I saw what she'd just seen. 

How on earth did I NOT see this mistake? Incredible. I have not yet decided if I want to fix it. After all, it is such a great representation of this crazy, mixed up, coronavirus year we are having. It might get to stay the way it is simply to salute 2020 - maybe. I still may take the seam ripper to it and turn that little flower bud around the right way. It wouldn't take long at all. So I am still in the deciding process.

Early this week, I graded the biggest assignment of the entire semester; whew, I am always so relieved when that is done. I have rewarded myself with that sewing day with Sharon, and a few hours here and there with some additional projects. It feels like I might get back to more regular blogging since that big assignment is past.

Sharon did some great sewing, and I will be bringing you an update on it. I traveled to a quilt shop in DH's home town not long ago; I plan to share it, too. I do have some planned posts, so come on back! I will try not to be gone so long from here on out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Dotty Update

 My good friend and sewing buddy, Sharon, has been making good progress on her dotty Kaffe Fassett quilt. Our sewing days have been rather erratic lately, but I did manage to snap some of her progress during one of our recent stitching sessions.

 

Above, Sharon has laid this massive quilt out on the bed, and since it is so huge, she had to finish the layout on the floor. 

Below are some fun shots of her block construction and the little box of overflowing 9-patches. All the fabrics are polka dots or some likeness of dots/circles. The entire effect is just as playful as can be, and I cannot wait to see this become a flimsy.

I have shared once previously on Sharon's dotty quilt. It has a proper name: Kites. All the details are in this post.

Today is my mom's birthday, and tomorrow is my husband's! Big celebrating! My siblings and I have not all been together since February - before Covid, in other words. There's a good chance we will all show up at my sister's today. Wearing masks and social distancing - what a strange time that will be!

Happy Quilting, Friends!