Sewing With Sharon

After a super-long hiatus, Sharon and I have finally had a sewing day together and it was wonderful! I honestly could feel myself regaining my quilting mojo as we got into the day. The sound of our machines chugging away, the soft wafting of classical music playing, occasional spring bird calls drifting in through the open window - ahhhh, it was all so very much NEEDED! 

We both have finishes to show for our time, too, which is always the boost one needs to get moving onto the next project. Here's what Sharon finished - a layer cake quilt that she started at retreat a week ago is now a finished quilt top.

 The layer cake was one of the recent French General lines. One can never go wrong with FG fabrics. She simply divided the entire layer cake into pairs, then cut off 2 2.5-inch strips. This left her with a 5.5" square which she surrounded with strips and corners. At retreat she finished this as far as stitching all the blocks into vertical rows. Here on Tuesday morning, she stitched the horizontal rows, and VOILA! a finish!

For my own finish, I finally took the baby quilt off the long arm machine. I loaded it onto the long arm back in mid-September, and had it nearly all quilted. On the last pass across the quilt, I began having issues with the top thread breaking about every 8-10 inches. It was so daggone aggravating. I just left it. And left it. And then Reagan was born, and we had the holidays, and then we left for Florida. Well, you see how things sorta' lagged there for a good, long while.

The quilt was intended to be finished by the end of September when Reagan was to be born. I could not solve the breakage issue, and I already had one quilt ready to give her, so I put off dealing with it. This is a sweet fabric line called Effie's Woods by Deb Strain/Moda. I was gifted a lot of it - including the panels - and I had it sewn up in no time. Here's the post I wrote 4 days prior to Reagan's birth in which you see the quilt on the frame.

I did the last of the quilting Monday evening (yes, I still had breakage) and Tuesday, I bound it. I hope to wrap it around our sweet baby Reagan very, very soon. I'll get a proper picture of the quilt as well as the baby in the quilt, too.

With those two finishes out of the way early on, we both moved on to other projects. Sharon continued with yet another precut project. After her layer cake finish, she pulled out a jelly roll project using Tildas! Oh, that scrumptious fabric! She has a fast and easy design that is a twist on the popular "race" quilt.

After binding the baby quilt, I moved on to a scrappy 4-patch project from last fall. I wrote about it here. I didn't realize I'd made so many 4-patches - I'd separated them into groups of 10 and had about 150 total, so it seemed as good a time as any to begin sewing them together. With Sharon's input, I decided it best to just keep it simple, so with a whole stack of a rather neutral Aboriginal Dots (iykyk; one of the KF designs) I am in the construction phase of a really awesome scrappy 4-patch Kaffe quilt.

 And I'm gonna have to come back with a picture for you. It's dark as I write this and I just know I wouldn't get a good photo in poor lighting. 

Now, about that thread-breakage issue on the long arm . . . I am not yet convinced that it is entirely corrected. I will soon load on another smaller quilt and fiddle with the tension. I do believe minor tension adjustments, a bit of oil, and a new needle will solve my quilting woes.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Planning and Prepping

It seems doggone near impossible lately for me to maintain an interest in regular posting to this blog. I think it's because I have slowed down so very much in my productivity. There's a direct correlation between the amount of sewing and the amount of blogging. Consequently, if I'm not producing as much, I am not writing as much.

So, what have I been doing in the quilting room?

Preparing for a quilt retreat!

A week from today, I will join most of the Frankfort Girls (and a couple of extras) for a 4-day/3-night retreat at Needles n' Pines over in Nelsonville. It's the same retreat center we go to several times a year, and we always have such a wonderful time together.

Being productive is the name of the game at a retreat, so I should have a few things coming up for future blog posts.

 

I have cut one layer cake into 3" squares for a fun and fast quilt. I bought this layer cake last year while at retreat, and have had as a 2023 goal to make it into something. Wait till you see what I've come up with!

I will be tackling another 2023 goal while there - making a Falling Leaves quilt. I mentioned recently that I've always wanted to make a maple leaf quilt using fall colors, and now I am about to make it a reality. The parts are all cut - I've used only stash fabrics and scraps for this quilt. I have no idea how many individual blocks I will get out of what I've cut, but it will surely give me a whopping start. 

Yet another goal on the '23 list is using my stash of Effie's Woods fabrics in a quilt for my granddaughter. No, she doesn't need another quilt, as my daughter will tell me, but I can't help making 'just one more' for her. I seem to have accumulated quite a bit of this line thanks to my friend Jan who gave me all her remnants after she finished a quilt using Effie's Woods. I have picked up additional pieces along the way, so I will peruse my options for easy, scrappy-style quilts.

Lastly, I'd really like to continue tackling that '23 goals list by using my Winnemucca fabric. Click here to go back to read about the fabric I purchased last summer while vacationing out west. I have no firm plans as yet, but I do see either star blocks or churn dash blocks using this little collection. Or pinwheels blocks. Or 9-patch blocks. Or chains across a quilt with any of the above blocks. Lots of options still under consideration!

So, if asked what I've been up to lately instead of blogging, I guess I'd have to say I've been planning and prepping. Activity like that does not really translate well to blogging content.

Have a great week! It promises to be a hot, busy week here at my house.

Happy Quilting, Friends!