A Weekend of Projects

This weekend was going to start with me working on Bonnie Hunter's mystery "Good Fortune", but it was derailed by other sewing things until Sunday.  I still have more four patches to make, and I plan to have that finished before the next clue comes out on Friday.

I love reds.... and I love spinning the seams so that will nest properly when it all goes together.

I need to sort through some current scrappy strips from Madame Rouge to finish up with the four patches:


I haven't decided yet if I will just do a half-quilt or the full mystery quilt.  At least four patches can be used in anything so they won't go to waste.

The day after Thanksgiving is always the Boy Scouts tree lot setup day, and usually I put our tree up on that day.  I haven't done that yet this year, perhaps next week.  Before Kevin left, he showed me a fleece beanie cap that he had bought for Darrin and himself (but Daniel ended up claiming one leaving Dad with none) and asked if this would be an easy item to make.  I put aside my first mystery clue sew to play with a beanie pattern.  It was pretty easy to make and then I learned how to do a blind hem stitch on my serger.  I had to play around with it so I had the fabrics going the right way for the hem, but what a great feature.  I think it is also called a flatlock stitch, but in the fleece that is hard to tell.

Here is the sewing I started the weekend with (Madame Rouge in the background):




I ended up sewing the troop patch onto the grey beanie. I wore the pink one for our tree lot shift last night and it was warm enough. I may choose a thicker fleece beanie for our next shift in two weekends.

This coming Wednesday is Darrin's first band concert and I had totally forgotten about finding a white shirt, black pants and shoes!  I decided to try out the thrift shop first and we lucked out!  The pants will only be good for this year (length), but the shirt and shoes should be able to see a couple of years of concerts.  If I had hit the shop on 1/2 price day, the cost would have been even better but I'm not complaining about $23 for these items.

Daniel was thrilled to find a guitar with an American flag on it :)  We also did our annual ornament hunt at the Hallmark shop.  Our local shop was suppose to close, but they were able to renegotiate the lease.  I am really glad because I'm not sure where the next closest one is.  Our original shop that we started our tradition with closed down when Darrin was 3, so we've been going to this one for the past 8yrs.

It's been a full weekend!

Link up day!
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/11/mystery-monday-link-up-and-cyber-monday.html

Catching up with a couple of finishes

I am not sure what has happened to my quilting bug.  It has waned on and off over the years, but it seems like the past 5yrs it has really taken a nosedive.  I am trying to keep it fresh--or as fresh as I can... and boy I can find some great projects that really excite me... however, the doing part!

After finishing up Daniel's Eagle Scout quilt, I was drained.  I joined in on the Humble Quilts doll quilt exchange, I enjoy that one with hopes it would spark something.  And I think it did get me going to work on Stitch Happens.  I started two of these, one (pic below) is a quilt I gave as a birthday gift to a dear friend.  I had planned to give her the other one however (still not finished), but I wasn't happy with the quilting (I admit I am too critical of myself) so I went with straight line quilting on this one--and it still wasn't the way I wanted.  Shift Happened vs Stitch Happens.  It's still a great pattern though.


Here is the little quilt (18" square) that I created for the Teal Mini Swap which is an Ovarian Cancer fundraiser:


My partner likes cats, The Broncos, orange, rabbits.  Perfect.. I love using orange, and I planned right away to create something with a cat.

Here is the transition I went through as I created this quilt:
I first sketched out an idea with flying geese and a cat under a tree.  My tree in the sketch was larger and this just wasn't working for me.


The next step involved looking for a paper pieced cat pattern, and craftsy has some great ones in silhouette.  Adding the butterfly was needed.


Overall I am pleased with how it turned out.  My quilting wasn't perfect, but it was ok.


Here is the quilt I received from my partner:

I love how it turned out.  For a first time experience with this exchange, I had a good time with it and I may do it again in the future.

My current project:
I am currently working on a new quilt called Madame Rouge by French General.  It's a very simple string quilt (though the strings are suppose to match up, so not quite so freewheeling).  I finished the top on Saturday and will show that one in the near future.  I have an idea in mind for quilting already--that rarely happens!  Looking at the sidebar of how many quilts I have started this year, I am surely lacking in creativity!  I do plan to do Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt this year--how can I not?  She has orange in it :)   Here's to hoping that the new year I get some sparks of creativity lit under me again.

Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Exchange

I once again joined the Humble Quilts Doll Quilt Swap. I received a wonderful quilt from Cynthia Nanto.  I love the fabric designs she used and how she focused fun prints into the four patches.


This year my little doll quilt flew all the way to France! I mailed the one on the right to Cecile, and I made a 2nd(left, with the binding still needing to be sewn) for myself. The background fabrics I used with the baskets is too dark/busy, I should have used the wrong side instead.


I also made a little clutch pouch with an extra basket block to mail the little quilt in:

Kids can be like pets with photo bombing!  It took three takes to have just the pouch and no teenager :)

A Finish: Four Patch Woolies

I was attracted to this quilt a year or so ago when Keepsake Quilting was having a 50% off sale on kits.  This is one of three four patch patterns by Bonnie Sullivan in a booklet called All Through The Night.  I could have easily purchased a jelly roll and background fabric for less, but whatever.  Sometimes I don't think things through all the way, but at least it was on sale.

The Flannel fabrics are from the Woolies line, printed to look like suiting, houndstooth, and checked wool fabrics.  For the backing fabric, I chose not to do flannel. As much as I love flannel, it does make a quilt heavy.  I found a great homespun on sale that I think works well with the Woolies.

I'm thinking if I had put the quilt on our grass for a picture, the colors may represent better, but I'm not a professional photographer so this will do :)  This quilt will be used as a throw in the trailer, hopefully we'll be able to go camping in it soon!

A Return to Hexies

I can hardly believe it... I have enough background hexies now basted and ready to finish up my flower garden quilt.  One thing is for sure, the background matches the weather!  I have some spring flowers in bloom, but that constant grey and rainy weather we've been having!

I get to the point that I don't even want to look at another hexagon, so this project sits (beside my chair!) for years until I decide to pick it back up again.

I only have four rows left to sew, hopefully this will be the year that it falls off the UFO list. Here is the last photo I took of the progress, July 1, 2016:


I didn't sew anything in regards to this project for nearly 2yrs.  On the pink piece of paper I tried to figure how many more I needed.  Right now I have 366, but I only needed 352.  I am undecided if I want to grow this quilt beyond the current plan so I am keeping that as an option.  I was considering a scrappy colored ring around the grey.  But considering this quilt project is 17yrs old, I may just be happy with a single grey edge.

I am really glad I took a picture of my blocks laid out, and then clipped together/numbered the flower blocks when I finally decided on the layout.  That cut down on any future confusion I would have had :)

Flickr is driving me crazy today.  First it wouldn't upload my box of hexies, now it is uploading it multiple times from my phone.  I've already deleted 8 copies of the image, hopefully it will stop.  Happy Monday!

A Finish: Eagle Quilt

It has been a long time, it's been nearly a year since my last post.  I haven't been very prolific in my quilting and I think life just said I needed to give something up for a while.  On the other hand, I have been busy with my serger... I have been having fun sewing clothing.  I have learned a lot on that subject, and am still in a trial and error phase with it.  I love being able to sew tops with real sleeves (vs the cap sleeves that it seems like they all have today), and with enough length to cover my rear end.  I don't like to model the creations, so I haven't been posting... but I am loving that type of creativity.

Now... after more than a year, I am finally finished with Daniel's Eagle Scout quilt.  As of today, he turns 18 in 11 days.  He has one more merit badge requirement left to finish, and I am feeling grumpy that he isn't taking the bull by the horns on it to finish.  So frustrating as a parent.  I will be relieved when he reaches that rank.  And then on to high school graduation on June 18.  What a year.

I plan to hang the quilt at his Eagle Court of Honor, which will take place likely in May.







Sorry for the blast of half-sun... from the back, it seems as if this could be a peacock quilt!



I am glad I changed the beak color.  I think using the yellow fabric from the talons and the one border helped to balance the quilt.


I haven't taken a finished measurement of the quilt, but it's approximately 90" square.  It was a bit of a beast to quilt with my Juki, but I am overall very happy with this finish (even with some "oops" and errors within).  It is now tucked away, waiting for me to write on the label and gift it to the Eagle Scout.

New Clothing Finishes

I don't have a lot to report on the quilting front (or, I think I forget where I am putting my in-progress pics!), but I wanted to post three recent apparel finishes.  Well, except I still need to hem my patriotic top....

First is Rhapsody by Love Notions.  This top fits well and is meant for light wovens.  Because I didn't want to use quilting cottons (woven that I have on hand), I decided to pick a more flowy knit (an ITY which was a little slippery).  I like the fit, but I prefer longer sleeves.


Next is Mama Blair by Made for Mermaids.  This is one of my favorite patterns, this is one of three that I currently go to.  The blue fabric doesn't have a lot of stretch, but it will be good for the 4th of July.


Today I made the Park City Pullover from Peek-a-Boo  I slayed the zipper like an advanced beginner! :)  Actually, it wasn't too hard but the pictures in the pattern aren't easy to see in order for me to figure out what they were wanting.  Thankfully I have experience with zippers with bags, so I understood the process when it seems like everything is backwards.  The rest of the pullover was easy!  This one fits Kevin well, but I am going to upsize the sleeves a little for him.  What I am looking forward to is trying this pattern in a waffle knit like LL Bean's tops.  I'm thinking Christmas might be good to Kev this year!  Now if I could just get a little more brave and try out button down shirts.


I may even make myself one!

I need to make a retreat post about the last two retreats I went on (one in May and the other this past weekend).  Perhaps in the next couple of days.