Guild challenge

 Since last spring, our guild has been doing a round robin challenge with small groups of people who were willing to do it.  Each group had 6 people in it and tonight it is FINAL reveal. You provide a 12 inch center block of your own creation, a variety of fabrics, a journal if you please, and turn it over to the next person on the list. Every 2 months you return the border you created on the original and pass it on again. Completion has 5 rounds on the center. 

Here was this month's block  ( don't you just love sock pictures?)

And after my addition: 

My inspiration came from this book with some modifications.

I look forward to getting mine back, as well.  I really love the challenge of design using what has been provided. Pinterest give lots of visuals to aide the creative process. 

This is mine!!!!!

The reveals were all amazing, one as fantastic as another. We all were just gobsmacked at the incredible work of all the rounds together. 

Grooving into the New Year!

 I don't quite know what is different, but I have been quite productive since I returned home.  Part of it is getting warmer weather and being outside. Part of it is getting done with all the Christmas presents, food, and family. I love Christmas and do enjoy the traditions, the music and the joyous celebration of Jesus's birth. But now, I feel relieved of the pressure and hub bub and am back to my routine!

And I have started my new calendar journal making lots of lists.  ( I am truly not very consistent over time.)  But the new year brings new starts and new goals.  So I have been more organized... so far. And I have dropped the afternoon nap, although I don't know if I can keep it up.  

Lots of you have stated how much we have accumulated.  And as a 60 something lady, I am in that same category.  So I am attacking the boxes.  I am using Karen Brown's method ( from Just Get it Done Quilts) of doing a little each day.  And so far have cleared out 6 boxes. ( leaving 1 from the reorganization).  My first big push is clearing my teaching things. I retired 4 years ago and although I do tutor a little, I don't need all the books and manuals and such.  I am donating the books to a school. And am throwing out the tried and utilized methods away.  My local school district just adopts new curriculum every couple of years after the powers that be determine what is best.  ( not the teachers) So giving the materials to them is worthless, hence the garbage dump. 

But I have also been working away at some projects:

1) January's BOM for my guild this week:  a spool block

2) All the sashing strips are pieced for my Blockheads: 

3) I restarted a scarf for my daughter.  I had wanted to do it for Christmas, but really struggled with the pattern. And then I felt it was too narrow, so I ditched it.

Now it is wider and all that practice has made the knitting easier and even. 

And I will give it to her later this month for her birthday.  WIN WIN

HOME!

 My spouse and I arrived back at home January 2 after a week with the grandkids (and parents). It feels so good to be back home drinking my coffee, sleeping in my own bed, and so on.  Love, love, love them all to death. But I am getting older and like my own things. They also have a lot of pets. 

But we had fun playing games together, hanging out on the couch with them while they played video games. and going outside with them. We also cooked with them. I am so happy to see the boys helping out around the house. 

And the younger boy had his 9th birthday. ( New Year's Eve) We did tacos and Sonic theme.  He is such a cutie and a sincere kid who cares about people.  He is still as skinny as a rail, but so much bigger than the 3 pound premie.

Stash Bee Hive 5

Great pattern where you sewed around the middle square and then cut it into fourths and realigned.

Sewing started for Stash Bee and My Corrine et Cecile Celebration SAL

Celebration SAL

So I am excited to get started on my list of projects. Happy New Year to you all!   Hope your goals are exciting and fun for you. 

Starting the new year!

 In my last post, I commented over not completing or even starting my 3 new quilts from a year ago.  2 of them are still on my sometime to do list.

So a big goal I have is to continue finishing projects.  And the top of the list is to finish these projects:

1) Blockheads 1  (Started in 2017)  At this point I have the layout planned with 2 major steps of piecing to complete before getting it quilted.  I need to finish all the sashing strips and only need 24 left to do. The second is the large pieced block of the center.  

Photo is of the completed side sections of the center.

2) New York Beauty with pattern from Karen K Stone's book. All the blocks are made; I only need to lay it out and sew it together before quilting. I have 36 of these blocks completed and 24 side blocks.
I want to enter this is our guild show in March.

3) Stash Bee: I was queen bee for November.  I have yet to receive a couple blocks due to Canada's postal strike. But it will be a great summer quilt in red, white and blue:

4) Tilda quilt in the pattern: Everlasting by Corey Yoder. I only need 20 of these blocks and sashing.

It was a new start after my birthday in November. I am just completing one block at a time with no specific deadline. ( I do need to buy more Tilda fabrics for it, though.)

5)   A miniature quilt:  5 blocks completed 7 more to go.

6) Lastly I have a Rainbow Scrap quilt started 4 years ago. I made huge progress in the setting this last year , but needs final arrangement and borders:  ( Maybe 1 more block to make it 75 or so inches squared. )

I will be starting a mystery quilt in late January. 

And I am participating in the blue squares exchange with a scrap pattern in plan.

And I do have 6 small quilt tops needing finishing. (Plus one which has been at the quilter for a while. )

I am still debating the Corrine et Cecil quilt along: the theme is birthday and I have found a row by row that looks tempting.  HMMMM.

Plus a few other squirrels along the way, not that I don't have enough patterns and stash to use. 

How about all of  YOU!  Inspiration is always welcome. 

Happy New Year to each of you! May your quilty dreams come to fruition!

End of the year recap

 Bad news first:  I did not start ANY of my beginning of the year goals for 2024. I have 2 boxes kitted up to still start: Fat Cat Designs of A Southern Gentleman  with some gorgeous blues, aquas, and purple. and Crinkly Quilts pattern for Dynamite Rings with a brilliant blue background and bright grunge scraps. I still want to do them, really.

But the Good News is that I proceeded with finishing up quilts and followed through all the way to the fall before starting any major projects.  ( I am not counting the small wall hangings done for my Mom's door at the nursing home.)

So here is the parade of  large finishes:

Huge quilt with blocks from Sewcialites 2, currently on my bed.

100 inches square made of 9 inch blocks

Currently on my wall;  Bunny Hill quilt with wool snowmen

One of my all time favorites: 9 patch wonderful 

Won 1st place at my guild's quilt show

queen sized

Sewcialites fall blocks from last year:

Throw size 60 inches square

Not the finished picture. Over the River by Crabapple Hill

 I still don't like the quilting in the borders and it sits.

Wall quilt   7 year project

Nice flannel quilt from Primitive Gatherings panel and fabrics.

Throw size wall quilt

Chandelier quilt of leftover 1/4 square triangles.

 Twin size

NEW start and finish:

Hey Boo by Lella Boutique 

throw size

That is a total of 8 large quilts

And I finished 13 other small projects.

Additionally, I completed at least 2 blocks for Stash Bee each month, a Round Robin for guild 5 months. and various other starts. 

All in all, I feel good for being lucky enough to have time and fabric to complete these. Quilting is definitely a part of my life. I thank all the bloggers who follow me and comment. Their ever amazing inspiration of their own projects is incredible.      Hallelujah!

Getting ready for Christmas!

 I have been slow to the season. Usually I have a stack of presents already hiding in the closet, but I didn't collect too many thus far this year.  It is easy to buy online, but I miss the selection of looking around a shop for the best ideas. Today, I stopped at a little shop after being at the post office. It was so darn cute. 

I am getting ready to see the grandkids after Christmas; the biggest presents already arrived there.  And we will fly the day after Christmas to see them.  They are in the midst of semester end as well as testing.  The little one made the largest leap in math.  I am oh, so proud. I will miss the program at school but hope to get pictures and maybe a video tomorrow. 

They are preparing to move to New Orleans: a much greater populated area with tons of things to do for them all. So I am excited for their opportunity. We will help organize and pack some when we are down there.

In the meantime, my daughter has come for the week.  She is lucky to be able to work from anywhere. But she has unfortunately caught a bug. We hope to see a blues concert tomorrow. And then to bake Christmas cookies Thursday. I baked and she supervised but only for one batch.

But we did see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy which is a New Orleans style group:  so fun!

My biggest progress has been my Tilda blocks:  I am up to 4 large blocks completed. 

And I keep working on the sashing  for my Blockheads 1: 7 pieces per sash. 

Hope all is well with you and your family!  Enjoy the season.

P.S. Today is my Mom's 93rd birthday ! Here she is with my sister at her holiday family dinner.

2017 Blockheads

 I had the pleasure of another weekend quilt retreat. I debated a lot about which older WIP to take and get moving along. And I decided for my old Blockheads which was the very first Moda quilt along. Here is my post from the first block I completed: Blockheads and this was block 1. Here is Lynn Hagmeier's post of block one:https://my.modafabrics.com/2017/03/blockheads-block-1  The blocks are all of 6 inches big.

As I laid them out, I realized I had 50 blocks because I made all the blocks both the applique ones as well as all the alternates I had pieced. I already had a collection of Kansas Troubles fabrics and that was the color pallet I chose. I had even selected my setting and purchased the fabrics as well as making a set from one width of fabric.  It was good to have extra blocks for balancing out the colors, mostly the background ones. 

While designing the setting and working out all the math, I changed how I wanted to arrange the blocks. And that requires me to make a center focus block and I have already selected the pattern.  It will be a challenge with 1 inch half square blocks everywhere. 

So all weekend I sewed and sewed making a headway on sashing "blocks" and getting 2 smaller sections together. I feel like I hardly made a dent, but I am so pleased to get this UFO off the stack of projects to complete. And it motivates me to complete it! 

Taking part in this quilt along really helped to improve my piecing skills as the 5 designers ( Jan Patek, Lisa Bongean, Lynn Hagmeier, Betsy Chutchian, and Carrie Nelson) posted blocks with tips and tricks all along the way.  And I participated in successive quilt alongs only one of which is completed finished and that is the latest one of which I only made the 9 blocks of part 1. 

I encourage you to try any quilt along whether Blockheads, Fat Quarter's, or Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.  Pat Sloan also has many going on. I am sure there are oodles more. 

Happy Sewing!

New Christmas quilt along

 Each year I have started the free motion quilting from Helen Godden  from Australia.

( emphasize the word START, as all are not finished.)

Here is the link to her introductory version for this year. This is the email image taken by camera. You will not to find it on youtube.

Link to her website to download free pattern for this:

Helen Godden link

Again it is free.  You need to order it from her website and I pdf file will be sent to your email. 

I have done this in previous years. No emails or other information sent for promotions.

The video shows how she traced it.  ( I like the use of the ruler for straight lines.)

I did use a Fine Sharpie Marker.  It bled a little on my fabric at the beginning and end of the lines.

I don't know if it was my fabric choice.

I did choose to paint it using a textile medium and q-tips as the triangles were quite smallish.

(My good paint brushes were given to the grandkids.)

Website with information:

https://canarystreetcrafts.com/how-to-turn-any-acrylic-paint-into-fabric-paint/

I just purchased the fabric medium in a small bottle next to the acrylic paints. 

After all the painting is through

The green was metallic.

Now there are videos for 24 days of Christmas to practice the free motion designs in the spaces, one posted each day. I am already behind as the 9th one has been posted. 

But I hope to catch up this week.

There are several other Christmas designs that are still free, if you are  so interested: a Nutcracker, a poinsettia, a different Christmas tree last year.  The videos are free online still. And you can also get the patterns to trace. 

I so love hearing her voice with the down under accent. Helen Godden is quite talented and has visited the U. S. She also has completed a huge mural about Australia.  She uses Lumiere paints and has other classes online as well. 

Thanksgiving!

 What a wonderful celebration!  I love the celebration for remembering all the wonderful things we are so lucky to have. Being where I am in my life is such a blessing!  We all have ups and downs: me as well. But I truly know how very lucky I am to live in the United States and have a family that pushed education and experiences for us.  

 And this year it was especially wonderful to have family here. My daughter and her beaux came for the entire weekend. We have been truly delighted to spend time together with them.

I did so much cooking both prior to their arrival as well as when they were here. We had so much fun enjoying time together.  We even had several drinks to enjoy throughout the weekend. Plus we went to the Milwaukee Symphony while it accompanied The Muppets Christmas Carol.  This Movie is a family tradition usually at Christmas.  My daughter had purchased the tickets for us.  We wandered around downtown Milwaukee visiting the art hotel named Saint Kate and then this "mall" of restaurants which I can't remember the name of.  

So last week was spent getting ready for them, cleaning up the house and cooking.  

And because of that little sewing has been done. :(

But I will show you one more block of my new Tilda quilt and the pattern I am using:

Sending thanks to all of you who read me. I do appreciate it!

Happy Birthday to me!

 My long time quilting buddy and I went for a drive to Cedarburg and our favorite quilt shops. We  bought each other a lunch as presents for both our birthdays.  We have been friends so long. 

So besides the company, we had a great time at Ye Olde Schoolhouse. It has lots of stitchery and wool as well as a great assortment of reproduction fabrics.  Oh, the inspiration! I only bought some yardage to fill in some holes in the stash.  I need to start my half square triangles into something. 

But then we also found the new location for My Material Matters. And I fell for some Tilda fabrics as a gift to myself. The fabrics are made in Norway and they have an awesome feel to them. 

I found a pattern from Coriander Quilts and made my first block:

Christmas sewing started: 

Last year I deocorated 2 stockings for my daughter and her beau.

This year I made 2 little ones for their pets to go along with them.

Knitted stockings from Target , trim and wool embroidery added. 

And for in front of the tv at night, I have a new cross stitch:

It is a Primrose cottage pattern:

My progress so far:

No quilts this year for Christmas and that is ok. 

Birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant:

Finishing little and big

 I have been finishing things: old and new.

1)  So happy to finally get the binding on my navy Chandelier Quilt.  I really love the  colors and design as it sets all of those leftover quarter square triangles. The patchwork is in reproduction fabrics and it is twin sized. 

I sent it to my quilting with a no rush request and she held it for a while.  No big deal.  and then when I got it back, I put it on a back burner especially since I went on retreat and visited the grandkids. 

She elected to quilt with an interesting lightning bolt all over stipple. So appropriate!

2) I finished my cross stitch for fall which I have been doing for the past 6 weeks.  It is a Lori Holt design, but I used her colors from another pattern and kit I have of hers.  My first work on evenweave.  I like the results, and it was a challenge to count. but I am so happy with the result. 

3) I worked on quilting some small projects.  I did a rough straight line quilt around the blocks for a July 4th piece.  In the middle, I knocked off the thread stand and spent an hour searching for it.   So I ended up organizing some projects. And that was an accomplishment.  And then I found the thread stand.  YEAH.

So I then attached a 30 inch square of exchange blocks I whipped together at retreat.  Not a great quilt design, but I just wanted to get it off my pile.  So donation quilt it is.  My muscle memory was pretty good for the large free motion stipple.  My foot however, was inconsistent on speeds changing stitch length as I sewed.   It was good to practice again.

The back was an old Deb Strain flannel, perfectfor the colors AND I had a spool of a light orange. A perfect thread for the quilting. the edge of the binding fabric is sticking out. Good enough.

These were churn dash blocks cut into fourths, which I then reassembled.