Kim Diehl Mini Finished!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Queen of Procrastination has finished a UFO!

Shouting from the rooftops and ramparts, this is a finish I am sooo happy to finally share.

Our Frankfort Girls group met for a pseudo "camp" last June at Terry's, and every day for that week, most of us worked on making the blocks for this little sew-along hosted by Kim Diehl on her IG feed. I am sure all the others had theirs finished ages ago while I was stuck in UFO land. On June 11, 2019, I posted my flimsy.

Over a year to finally finish this little gem. *smh*

The reason for my long, long delay? Well, numerous issues popped up after I marked the entire quilt with the Pounce marking tool - it just made a mess of chalk dust everywhere, and it faded off before I could get to the outer edges, and it smeared too much. A total fail, IMO.

So I put it aside for awhile (months) while I stewed on how to proceed. I finally determined that I could re-create the markings with a white pencil. I did that with decent success. I may have fudged a bit on the overall quilting design, but I didn't sweat it.

Then, daggone it, I ran out of the floss I was using to do the big-stitch quilting. The trouble there was that I had no clue as to what the color number was; it was a bit of floss without a color number; I miscalculated on having enough to do the job. Again, I set it aside for awhile (more months) deciding how to proceed.

Then one day in mid-June, I found myself in Hobby Lobby walking through the sewing section. Right there staring me in the face was all the embroidery floss. I pulled out 4 different browns figuring that I would get at least ONE of them to work well enough to finish this mini. And I did. It is really obvious in a side-by-side comparison that the original brown is different from the new one, but when you look at this mini in these pictures, I doubt very much if anyone would see the inconsistency.

I love a story with a happy ending. Even when the ending takes way too many months to unfold.

Hope you are having a great Sunday! We entertained a big bunch of extended family here today; our house was full  - as well as our hearts! I am linking with Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts. Check out all the pretties when you have a moment.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Simple Friendships 2 Update

In May and June, the Frankfort Girls participated in a quilt-along to make a Kim Diehl sampler. We jokingly referred to it as a mini-group doing a mini-quilt in a mini-quilt-along. It lasted just 5 weeks; the resulting mini-quilt was a fun little table topper. Recently, Terry shared her finished top.

I will add the minis that I have already shared, just so that all of them are collected here in one post.

Helen's

Jan's

Mine

Hopefully, I have not missed anyone. I know that several are still working on theirs. I began quilting mine, but lost the markings, then started something else, and I have not gone back to it. I will find some time to work on it sometime this fall, hopefully.

I am going to be short and sweet with this post, Peeps.This has been a tough week of classes and schedules and prepping and demands. I am plum wore out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Prepped for Quilting

Anticipating a few hours in the car this weekend, I prepped the little quilt just recently finished - The Simple Friendships II Mini.

I dug out a scrap piece of batting and scrounged around for a suitable backing. This backing is quite old - Thistle Creek by Sheri Strole.

 I used 505 Spray Baste to layer the parts together after pressing and stretching carefully.

I knew I wanted to do the Baptist Fan design for quilting, so I located my template and then decided to mark it with a tool that has some history. I gave this Pounce marking tool to Grandma many, many years ago. Marking quilts had become difficult for her in her later years, so I gave her the Pounce hoping it would ease the job. However, she didn't care much for how much dust it created. When she cleared out her quilting stuff, the Pounce came back to me.

And, I agree, it does create a good bit of dust, but the speed! I think I can put up with a few clouds of chalk dust in favor or a super-fast marking method.

The last picture above shows 3 strands of quilting floss - which color to quilt with? I decided on the darkest (top) color.

Happy Saturday! And happy quilting, Friends!

Simple Friendships 2 Quilt Along

Yesterday, author and fabric designer Kim Diehl posted her final installment of her mini-quilt-along on Instagram and Facebook. It has been a fun ride, and I am happy to show you my finished top today.

Every Monday for the past 5 weeks, we have been given instructions for a couple of blocks. It has been fun using her signature fabrics/colors as well as learning a few tips and tricks that she has shared along the way.

Last week while we sewed at Terry's, most of us Frankfort girls worked on these blocks. We decided early on that we would be a mini-group doing a mini-quilt-along for a mini-quilt. Sounds good to me!

I have a tub-full of remaining fabric, as this barely made a dent in the little Kim Diehl collection I've hoarded. I believe I will peruse her books - I have several - to see what I want to make with the rest. I may have a hard time making up my mind, as just about all her designs appeal to me.

Next up for this mini-quilt, is spray-basting and big-stitch hand quilting. I believe I can add that to the growing number of projects for my baseball-watching evenings.

To read more about the quilt-along just finished, visit either site above for directions over the past five weeks. The patterns are all in her book Simple Friendships II.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Productive Friends

Sewing all week at Terry's was productive for all of us. The last post showed off my own stuff; today's will show you a good portion of everyone else's. I will dispense with words, mostly, and just show pictures.

Becky's Projects
For sure, all of these were not done this week, but are very recent mini-quilts of Becky's. She did make some Simple Friendships blocks, but had taken them home on the day I was photographing.

Helen's Blocks
Helen made most of her Simple Friendship blocks this week. Here are the ones I took pics of.

Jan's Projects
Jan had her Simple Friendship blocks done ahead of time, so she worked on this handkerchief quilt at least one day.

Sheryll's Projects
I have both Sheryll's  blocks for Simple Friendships and her other projects for the week - Moda Love in 2 sizes - Mini Charm and Charm.

Terry's Projects
Terry made her SF blocks, which I don't have pictured, and some cutting of kits. What I can show you from Terry is her newly tidied sewing room!

So, in case you hadn't figured, we all decided to save our efforts for Kim Diehl's quilt-along from her Simple Friendships II book to work on this week. At some point during the week, most all of us completed the blocks, I believe. Monday is the final day of the QAL, so we will soon be showing off our finishes.

Hope you are finding some time to make something fun and beautiful!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

A Week of Quilting With the Frankfort Girls

What a week we have had! Sewing at Terry's house! Every day! While her DH is away on a hunting trip, she has had tables set up in her family room for us to come and sew all day, every day.

I have been able to make it over each day except Tuesday when I went to the APQS demonstration. My focus for the week has been to catch up with the Kim Diehl quilt-along, Simple Friendships 2. It is a mini quilt and we are in the fourth of its five weeks. Nice and short, in other words. I now have all my blocks made and await the final week's instructions for finishing. All the blocks are in her book, Simple Friendships II from Martingale Publishing.

Week 1 blocks

Week 2 block

Week 2 block

Week 3 blocks

Week 4 blocks

Others in our group have also been working on this quilt-along. Sheryll, Helen, Terry, Jan and Becky are all making Simple Friendship blocks. I will try to bring pictures of some of their pretties in an upcoming post. There are several other projects under construction at any given time, and those, too, I will do my best to photograph for you.

Since my blocks for this quilt-along are finished, I have moved on to the June blocks of the Quilter's Planner quilt-along. They are cut out and waiting for me to stitch today.

Happy Quilting, Friends!