Fall

 After a little rain, the trees began to change their colors. It is later than usual for the colors this year and because we have been so dry, it has not been so pretty. But my what some rainfall can do for us.   Fall is my favorite time of year.  Love the foods of pumpkin and squash and apples.  Love the crunching of the leaves on walks. And it has been warmer as well. All good signs of the season.

So what have I been working on: 

First off, I made 2 of the fabric bags for a Lori Holt kit I picked up in Houston at the quilt festival.  It was a last minute splurge.   The fabric is a printed canvas. I have layered and quilted the sides.  Lori Holt has a great video on Youtube that shows her steps which is well done. 

Quilting follows the lines of the fabric across on the top, diagonally on the bottom

Additionally, I have now made 24 of my log cabin blocks that are 4 1/2 inches big.  Only 76 left to do. 

                                        2 groups of 10 and 4 extras

And lastly I made a pile of half square triangles with black background for my pineapple quilt.  2 inch size. Now to attach them to the quilt and figuring out my coping strips. Hooray for progress.

Back to my regularly scheduled program

Well, maybe...  I am back home and and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I am hoping to use my time more wisely and utilize some of the tips and tricks I learned at Houston. Barbara Black was a fantastic speaker.  WOW!  And so was Christen of I see Stars vlog on Youtube.  Both were incredibly organized and experienced and had wonderful ideas. 

First up some little blocks: 

 I purchased a box of precut 1 inch logs for a 4 1/2 inch log cabins from Pieceful Gatherings in Chicago some time ago. (They no longer will cut these.)  It has been on my unfinished list to do.   And I really do like small pieces.

So I have been taking an hour at a time here and there to chain piece a few at a time. I am measuring each new seam to make sure my seam allowance is accurate.

And here is what I have so far.   

It will make 100 blocks total, which is NOT very big. 

Additionally, I am finishing up a couple cross stitch projects for bowl fillers. 

They are small: 4 and 5 inches and need stuffing.

I am glad to be back blogging and "talking" to you all.

Houston Quilt Festival

What a bucket list experience! There was so much to see and buy. And no, I did not purchase a sewing machine or high end ironing station or cutterpillar. Nor did I really buy fabric. But notions and patterns, yes.

I will start off with a post about the incredible winners. AND they would stand in front of them and talk about their process and answer questions.

Ricky Timms and a section of his amazing grand champion. This was at his concert. The music was moving. I did not realize his first career was in piano performance and composing with a scholarship to college.

He even made a shirt with the raven printed on the fabric from spoonflower.

Herr he is with the whole quilt. Amazing: hand dyed, theme and incredible details. Even a poem around the edge in the binding stitched upside down and backwards. 

Sorry it is sideways.

Karen Kay Buckley with hers. The DETAILS just blow your mind front and back.

Again sorry

Carol Bryer Fallert Gentry with hers digital printing and incredible feathers.

I don't remember her name. She was short in stature  but mighty in talent: over 30,000 of the 7 mm hexies completed over 10 years. There was a friend nearby who translated some questions.

Tree skirt

 I  am enjoying the tree skirt. It all started by needing to use up some excess flannel from a previous quilt.  So starting with some off white and green Bonnie Sullivan prints were good for a Christmas tree skirt. I just needed the red holiday print for the back and for some piecing.  ( It ended up being much more expensive than I realized. )  Oh, the price of fabrics these days.

But I digress. I am using my favorite pattern with the variation.  I am getting very good at set in points and completed 23 of them for this project.  Funny how all that sewing as a kid pays off. 

*

The next couple weeks I will be off the grid as we have the wedding to attend in the Minneapolis area for a relative. And after that we will visit the awesome grandkids again. I can't believe how they grow in more ways than height and always love hearing about their friends and their school.

Immediately following that I get to go to Houston for the quilt show. And I can't wait. 

Fig tree blockheads

 So my week so far: cleaning up the "quilting" room.  It looks better. I really have so many things going and that I want to do. 

I am on the lookout amongst the remaining spots for a paper pieced pattern I purchased a couple years ago as I decided a color combination for it while also getting my UFO list organized. It is still missing in action. 

My focus to finish is my Blockheads 4 which I have made from mostly Fig Tree fabrics. ( 3rd quilt from this combination but using a tan background.) It looks good next to my honey locust leaves which are dropping like snow.

Close up of the corner so you can see the spring green used for the setting blocks and the tiny border.

But the biggest chunk of time went to preparing my applique pieces for my border.  I watched several different quilters to remind myself of what I previously had done. I utilized some of my appliquik gluestick and one of the two metal styluses. It is what I had on hand. I also used Karen Kay Buckley's perfect circles. 

I am also using the new Bosal sheets which are like a slightly stiff web fabric to leave in when completed. It is easy to work with.  It can be printed on, although I just traced, stapled layers together and cut out. 

Now for the leaves and small blob/flower shapes. 

In the meantime, I need to make a Christmas tree skirt for a wedding next weekend with some pretty flannels. 

Pineapple UFO

 I have so many projects in process, with many more patterns and kits and assembled fabrics for quilts. Our guild has started a new challenge this year for UFOs.  And the first step was to identify them.  I know I wrote down more than 2 dozen or my list. ( and that is not all, of course.)  

But I really have been pretty good at staying the course and completing projects in boxes of which I only have 11. Two of them were planned to do last year and have not even been cut out . 

So here are my starts for now:

I put this top together. It was an exchange from at least 10 years ago. 

Here is the extra block completed. I used mostly tone on tone fabrics

And here is the same block from the back.  You can see the paper piecing.

And the reason it has been in time out, is because the pattern which we all used, was not square. One side was 6 3/8 inches while the  others were 6 1/2 inches. I tried to square them up, all 30 of them.  And then, they would not cooperate when sewn together as the seams interfered with the width of the presser foot.

I still like it and at this point it is approximately 29 by 35. I plan to add a coping strip of black and then half square triangles for the border. 

I am also working on an applique border for my Blockheads 2 blocks. It had been sitting in time out for a while as I had the blocks assembled.   I now  have border 1 on and border 2 cut. I am working on the applique pieces.     

Lastly I made 2 more applique blocks for Baltimore Bliss and am caught up to month 7. 

Madison Quilt Show

 Once we had returned from our weekend getaway by Lake Michigan, it was September in full swing.

And that means the big quilt show in Madison, Wisconsin. 

The quilts were extraordinary as usual: I did not have the time I usually have to peruse the exhibit at a slow pace, but did totally admire the work whether pieced or handwork. Such a great assortment of so many, many quilts. 

Best of Show: the Lucy Boston paper piecing was so pretty, but the machine quilting in between was over the moon and back. Such beautiful quilted blocks and fillings. 

This was my favorite with beautiful paper pieced designs. 

Border of the quilt below:  crystals on the outer edge and the circles were of the fabric design

But the outlining of the blocks and borders in black set it off. WOW!

Pretty warm colors

So unusual. Even the "beads" on the end were rolled fabric

There were 2 wool quilts of  this design: the other made by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings. 

both were gorgeous. 

Such another beautiful quilt with interesting borders and exquisite machine quilting. 

This was an unusual size but had incredible applique colored branches on this beautiful background. This quilter, Cathy Geier, previously did several quilts of her twin daughters over the years. 

 

I could have spent another day, as I had several socializing visits. And I was so happy to see Nann again  from https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/. She was so talented to get 3 different quilts entered in the show. 

Trips and blocks

And a new month has come.  I have been busy traveling.  

First I went to Indianapolis to see not only my Mom and sister, but my brother whom I have not seen in several years. We were all together for Mom. These moments will be far between times; so this is special.

                                

I spent a couple of days with Mom especially having some very wonderful times together and also a visit where she did not know me. That breaks my heart to see the eyes that were so blank. She was very polite and kind, but very distant as she replied to my attempts to engage her. She now has palliative care as her medical conditions are taking a toll. But she  has also recovered  from the cold that went around. 

Following that my husband Gary and I went "up north" in Wisconsin to be on the peninsula into Lake Michigan called Door County. This is our yearly trip which we have gone on for at least 10 years. 

Very rejuvenating for the soul to be near water again and to be outside.  We go to Sister Bay, one of the small tourist communities for their Marina Fest weekend:  outdoor music, food trucks, art fairs, and shopping in small stores.  

The best part is being by the water.  Oh, my absolute favorite thing. 

When I got home, I was ready to rock and roll.  I did cleaning, even windows inside and out. And it felt good. 

Then I picked up some small projects to get going:

These are from Fat Cat Designs for her block of the month: 

Baltimore Bliss. 

And these are my Stash Bee for September.  It is fun to play with color and fabric, not that it really uses up much of it from the stash.

Whirl to the end

 And another one bites the dust.  This quilt was from the Give it a Whirl blog hop in March of 2024. 

I enjoyed assembling the spring colors and based my design off a picture. I do enjoy a good math project to figure out blocks and sizes. 

I was only able to finish the top at that time of the blog hop and it has sat on my pile of tops to quilt. I have been on a roll to get projects finished. This one was next to do. 

I added some strips along the edges to frame it and then found another couple of green pieces for the back and binding. 

Using up some more scraps of batting, this time I used a wool one that is more puffy than the usual 80/20 cotton. 

I still didn't feel like tackling a challenging quilt design and utilized painter's tape for spacing, quilting in vertical rows. 

                   

And another quilt top finished!   Hooray!   ( About 40 inches square)