Big finish!

 I have 2 big finishes to celebrate:  

First is my Blockheads 1.  This was started in 2017. I truly enjoyed making each block and learned so much from the postings of each of the 6 block creators. It improved my piecing skills so much.  Now you can get the full set in a printed book.   All the other series session 2 through 5 are on the modafabrics.com site.  ( And you can start Blockheads 6 which has 3 blocks already.)

I got it back from my long-armer about 10 days ago and quickly attached the binding. But then left for a trip to a lake with my daughter and husband to relax. 

Here is a close up of the center:

And here is a close up of the back to see the special designs of the blocks and borders

The color is a beige stitching on the navy background.

Total design on the back with the pieced backing:

(I am working on using up the stash.)

And now it is ready for the state fair.

Interesting week

 I was so excited that my daughter wanted to come and spend a week with us.  I was totally looking forward to spending time with her, going out for dinner and shopping.  We are lucky because she works remotely and can go anywhere. But I had come down with this cold after visiting the grandkids. And it lasted ALL week when she was here. So I did get to have many conversations concerning her job search and beaux. Tough decisions for anyone. 

But I finally got better the day she left. Oh well.

The only thing I was able to do was read and I finished a good book by Chris Whitaker, All the Colors of the Dark.  Very good book full of twists and turns.  All the chapters were less than 5 pages; something you normally don't see. 

But now I am back to my self and fulfilling regular tasks around the house.  

But most importantly, I have completed the top to my Blockheads 1 started way back in 2017 as a block of a week by 5 fabric/quilt designers.  There were great instructions as well as hints for better piecing, working with small sizes, and use of color and design within the block pattern.

I had selected my design for assembling them together a while back and arranged the final layout last December and pieced the center early this year. 

Drum roll please: 

Outdoors in the sun

Center:

I am so glad to have this together. Such a long project .  Now off to my favorite quilter. 

Still home, still stitching

 Thanks for all your kind words.  My sister's surgery went well and she is recovering the best she can.  I leave NEXT Monday for assisting her. The sister in law has been holding on, doing ok and has moved from hospice to have her final days at home. 

So winter has taken hold of me. We have been lucky enough to have sun and lots of birds in the backyard. But I dislike hate this cold forlorn weather between seasons without any new growth and temperatures in the 40s. Ugh.  My mood is affected; yucky me. I should not complain; I am lucky for my life.

Anyway to happier, more fun things,  I finished a baby quilt for my daughter to give to her hopefully future sister and brother in law.   It is not your typical baby quilt; I was given a photo of a crochet blanket for inspiration.  I really would have done any color or theme. And I found some Bonnie Sullivan flannels that were perfect for it and the shop owner showed me an easy pattern resembling it.

Hooray for easy finishes. And since she really didn't know the difference between crocheted blankets and quilt, I just stitched in the ditch for the design. Simple. DONE!

And as I always have something to do in my evenings:  I am hand embroidering on paper punching holes for the design.  ( found on Pinterest, of course)

These are for the book sale for my PEO group. 

And then I finally tackled putting my center together for my Blockheads quilt. It wasn't too hard, just took some patience.  Slow stitching on my bias edges  But my piecing turned out accurate on almost all the half square triangle sections.  20 inches! 

A winter trip to Detroit!

 I finished the rainbow knitted scarf for my daughter's birthday and it went very well with her khaki green jacket. She loved it; I forgot to take photos of the finished piece, fringe and all. 

But we traveled all the way across Michigan to Detroit by car. Highway 94 is not exactly flat, but rather bumpy and there is always Chicago to drive around. This makes for a long drive.

Getting to be with her and her beaux was definitely worth it.  We had Detroit style pizza, so yummy that went with a local beer I liked. Yummm.

Saturday we went to their Eastern Market, the biggest farmer's market that is open all year.  There are many buildings (sheds) with walkways in between lined with produce and products.  I am looking forward to trying a chicken casserole kit  and bean soup with a ham hock as well as the cranberry walnut bread I purchased there. Plus we had some crepes with apples and cinnamon, so good.

Afterwards we went to Belle Island to see their aquarium and a conservatory with incredible plants ( already having daffodils and hyacinths ready for spring). Lots of interesting water creatures as well as cactuses and rainforest flora in the 2 buildings. Belle Island is a smallish island in Lake St Clair between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

Our guys in the bottom :)

And last but certainly not least we went to Cliff Bells for an incredible 5 piece jazz band. What a great old décor with mahogany ceilings and old booths. And the musicians were just amazing. 

Oh, if only they lived closer. 

On the quilting front:   I have finished piecing the small half square triangles for my center block:

Each half square triangle is 1 and 1/4 inches.  when put together this should be a 20 inch block. 

Fabrics are Kansas Trouble fabrics from my hoard.  I have an entire bag of jelly roll strips , layer cakes and lots of fat quarters and half yard leftovers, most of which have been cut into  ( several donated from friends. )

I have made several quilts from these. 

As I emptied it out I found some blocks that I had started from guild, and no other pieced patterns were given. So I have determined to use my stash and make blocks: 

Here is what I have so far:  These are 8 inch blocks.  

Keep on quilting

 Well, I am not "quilting" my tops,    YET!  Still on my to do list.

But I am continuing to work on my Blockheads 1.  I like seeing the progress and working a little more over several days.  And now I have the top and bottom rows pieced together along with the side portions. All that is left is to make the center medallion.

And I have really been knitting. The scarf needs to be done in by the weekend . But as I have been sitting on the couch, watching a favorite football team lose, or trying warm up on the couch.   ( OH, the weather outside is frightful. )  But it is not in the chill factor frigid, yet.  Addendum to that: all the schools are cancelled and it is well below 0. 

Any way, the pattern is getting more automatic and I make fewer errors. And I am getting better at undoing a row of stitches. All signs of improving my knitting. This shows the coloration better.  It is about 4 or 5 feet long.  Mostly done!

I took a trip to Indianapolis to visit the family again.

Here are some pictures.

Mom (93) and I 

Friday she was very talkative and was able to answer lots of questions.

Saturday, she was not quite as good. So goes the life with dementia.

My sister, Diane and I

It was a good trip. I even got to play with my grand niece and nephew.  So darn cute. 

Stitching away!

 This has been a week of progress on lots of projects:

1) Machine quilting (free motion) my Christmas Gnomes for my daughter in law.  Each gnome is quilted in detail with monofilament thread. All that is left is the background and the tree itself.

2) New blocks to catch up for Moda blockheads 5:   Only 1 left to do.

3) More paper pieced borders for my 9 patch quilt 10 out of 28 finished

4) 3 1/ 2 inch  churn dash  blocks for Midnight at the Oasis:  28/ 52 finished

5) Mini orange peel blocks for the same quilt  8/ 20 finished. I have been enjoying the hand applique by the television each night. 

What I need to do is bind my quilt, Over the River and Through the Woods.  However, I am debating on the quilting and whether I need to add some more to it. I worked so very hard and so very long on the hand stitching that I want this to compliment and accentuate it well. 

This week will not be as productive as I will be heading to Canada to help transport my mother to a care facility in Indianapolis where my sister lives. 2600 mile trip not all driven by me and over many days for packing and unpacking and such will be part of the experience. I am relieved that this is finally occurring . 

Memorial weekend

Holiday and warm weather.   Hooray!

So good things to do on the weekend:

Quilting:   I have been behind on my Blockheads 3  Finally completed a few of them.
These are 6 inch blocks.

Gardening,   grilling,    cleaning,    relaxing,

Kayaking:   I think they would do this every warm day. And although I like being on the water/ I don't like the hastle of loading, transporting, busing, and all the rig a ma role.  Get me to a lake.  I will go in, paddle a while, come back and take out. Done.  This i my daughter and husband.

Jude's nap quilt

Last Thursday, I got to visit my grandson's classroom with his mom. It was a get acquainted night. As a mom and teacher, I am so excited for him to go to 4K next week.

While there, I saw there were nap mats/ quilts. So I asked my daughter-in-law if she wanted me to make one for him.  Yes!   And off I go to create something wonderful.

I had the space/robot layer cake  of fabrics in cute boy colors and even the black fabric which kind of looks like space . Perfect!

Thanks to Sew Yummy's Around the Block quilt from last week for the idea:   http://sewyummy.ca/around-the-block/

Now it is quilted using a fat polyester batting and a fleece back. Spray basted and then just outlined black and zig zagged the squares.



Cute back which is a fleece.  The binding is the red with robots print of the coordinating group, but they are so small, so it is hard to see.


And his name is embroidered with pearl cotton.  Side note: when I delivered it to him.  I asked him what it said.  He had just learned his first name. So he said " Jude,  I love you!" I am o.k. with that. It did my heart proud!

I also made some trial lattice for my blockheads.  Looking good.

 Blocks 6 inch. Lattice 3/4 inch blue on each side of 1 1/2 beige.  Total 3 inches finished. Cornerstones will be that navy and the star points in navy on the end. (sorry for the fuzziness and decorative carpet underneath.

This is what it should look like completed: ( photo from Pinterest)

More Blockhead blocks

Little by little, bit by bit.

2 more 6 inch Blockheads

I have finished two more of my Blockheads blocks.

This first on is 73 pieces; I kid you not. 

This is an alternate block from Lisa Bongean for block 40.

It looks like it would be hard 

But I will say that I use Best Press prior to cutting, trying to be very precise.

You need to have an accurate 1/4 inch seam. 

I did use a product to make the 3/4 inch triangles, but still needed to trim a few.

The picture is hard to tell colors but the center background is a green

The outside is two purple fabrics.

This is another alternate block from Lisa Bongean fro block number 46.

(They are alternates for applique) 

The center star is 2 inches finished. I had to research for cutting sizes as her directions were off. 

Foxes and blocks

Still working on my blockheads: 5 done of what I had remaining and 4 more to go for the whole 48 week set plus substitutions for the applique blocks.

Remember these are only 6 inch blocks. 

This one went together well.  I was surprised when I put the 4 blocks together.  I didn't have lots of intersections to deal with . These ae 3/4 inch half square triangles. This is number 44 by Betsy Chutchian.

This is number 48  by Lisa Bongean. I got my geese with the 2 colors flipped. But at this point, I don't care. 

Lastly, I finally got this foxy baby quilt together.  I had extra sashing between the foxes that had to be removed.  Sometimes, I frustrate myself. 

Found my mojo!

It is summer! The break in the weather has been FANTASTIC.  Opening windows and doors is a delight. Such a contrast to almost 100 degrees. 

And I finally am back to being productive.  And boy, does it feel good. 

Last night I got out my Crabapple Hill embroidery; it has been untouched for a long time. 

This is Over the River and Through the Woods.  I have one panel totally  completed. This is the most busy. This is all I have on the right side.

Here is a bigger picture of what has been completed.

And here is what needs to be embroidered on the other side:

Baby steps, baby steps!  

But this week has been a whirlwind of cleaning.  After school is out each year, I like to do the deep cleaning that never gets done during the school year and clean up the accumulation of stuff as well. 

And I finally started. ( only a month after school is out). 

And I am on a roll, with a few more floors, cupboards and such to do. We will see how long it lasts.

I even finally cleaned out my garden beds from the winter's dead.   It has been TOOO hot to get to it. 

And then since I am done with a couple projects, I needed to get things going.  So I made 40ish of the Blockheads from the first go round. 

Blockheads update

One more block for last week: number 39

It is hard to believe that the 1st block came out in March.    And I am doing o.k keeping up.  Just one block to tweak.  But overall it is looking very good.  If you haven't seen these before, they are 6 inch blocks and mine are made from Kansas Trouble fabrics. Starching is truly the key to precise piecing.

And here are all the blocks so far.

Hmm my light backgrounds really stick out.

  It has truly been an adventure on piecing. And it has not used up much fabric.