Weekend Update

I hope your weekend was good! Mine went pretty well. I took my stepdad to Corpus Christi for a doctor appointment on Friday. Would you believe it rained all day in Corpus? I got back to Victoria around 5:30, and it hadn’t rained any here. I was so disappointed! Oh well. I’m tired of watering the grass, but I keep doing it. Especially around the house foundation. 

I put together another baby quilt on Saturday.

The picture really doesn’t do it justice. The fabrics are so pretty. I’ve had those five fat quarters for a while. I don’t remember if I got them from JoAnn’s or Hobby Lobby. I think I had two packs but not sure what happened to the other one. Anyway, I decided the pack I had left wasn’t doing anyone any good sitting on the shelf, so I came up with a way to use it for a baby quilt. I had to add a border to get it up to a reasonable size. It’s 40” x 43”. 

I ordered a bolt of 108” white flannel to use for backing, and I think I can put the baby quilt tops three across and two down on top of the backing and batting. I had five tops ready to longarm, and needed a sixth one. That was the motivation to get this one done.

Here are the six I have done now:

I cut off 3 yards of the 108” flannel and surged the ends so I could wash and dry it. When I get a chance, I will load it on the longarm and get these done. I’m not sure about thread color—maybe light gray.

I am continuing to work on my Irish chain blocks as leaders/enders, so needless to say, it’s not going real fast. I needed to see some progress so I started sewing blocks together into a row.

I don’t know if you can tell what I’m doing with the black and white. My concern with the pink blocks is that I have all that white space that will need custom quilting to do it justice. Not that I can’t do the custom quilting, but it does take a lot of time.  So this is what I came up with. Everywhere you see white on the top row, I subbed multi-colored squares. Everywhere you see pink, I subbed black, and for the 1930’s prints, I subbed white. It’s hard to keep up with, and I have made more than a few mistakes. Luckily, I like a challenge. LOL. I hope to add another row to each by the end of the week if I can get enough blocks made, but I’ll have to see how it goes. I will be linking this to Melva Loves Scraps. 

Scrappy Saturday

I’m so happy I was able to get the borders of the quilt I’m making for my church’s fall festival auction. I really like the way it is turning out! 

The border fabrics I ended up using are not what I had originally chosen. I purchased fabric specifically for the quilt, but once the center part was pieced, I didn’t like the way they looked.

The colors in the center are more vibrant, and made the border fabrics look muddy and washed out. I was a little frustrated, but my friend Betty came over and helped me pull some other fabrics from my stash. We decided on the daisy print for the first border.

Then a narrow strip of yellow, and a wider border of navy tone on tone. I think I can still use the stripe for the binding.

I’m hoping there’s enough.

I spent a few evenings catching up on some of the aqua RSC blocks. I think aqua was the July color. I did a couple of the big stars. 

I have almost enough 2.5” squares of aqua to do some nine patches, but it will have to wait. I took my stepdad to Corpus Christi yesterday for some neurology appointments, and I was so tired when I got back I didn’t get anything done. I just sat in the chair and vegged. Maybe I’ll make some progress today if I can get caught up on my rest. I have some purple cut for more big stars so I have plenty to do this weekend. I’m linking to So Scrappy.

Scrappy Weekend

I hope all of you had a good weekend. Mine was good and it was fairly productive. I didn’t do as much house cleaning as I had planned, but I got the bathrooms cleaned, load of laundry done, and the floors vacuumed. I also made a pass through my closet and removed some things that need to be donated. I had been meaning to do that for a few months now, and kept putting it off. 

I also got this quilt finished.

It was one of my goals to get it done, and it was such a relief. They are picking it up Tuesday, and it will be used for their raffle. Here’s a confession: it just about drove me crazy with all the directional fabrics. I did the best I could with it, but there wasn’t enough fabric in the kit to do it the way I would have preferred. 

I’m getting a little burned out working on everyone else’s projects, and I’m trying to make time to work on my own stuff. I made a few of the Irish Chain blocks.

I’m doing them as leaders and enders so it’s not going too fast. LOL. I also started one with a black and white chain. 

I made more than this, but about half of them were made wrong and will have to be redone. Instead of using all the white in the alternate block, I’m trying to use a scrappy middle.

I don’t have a pattern; just some vague image in my head which is why I keep making mistakes! I think it’s going to work, but I could be wrong!

I have gotten way behind on RSC blocks, and I did a little catch up work over the weekend. Two yellow stars:

I know the September color is purple, but I decided to catch up on August. I also cut some of the pastels, but they really don’t work with the other blocks, so I’m scratching that. I kept the pieces I cut and can probably use them for something else. I will go ahead and cut some aqua to work on this week, and then hopefully do the purple by the end of the month. 

I’m linking up with Melva’s Sew and Tell and Super Scrappy.

One Goal Done

Well, it took long enough, but I finally got Rhonda’s vintage quilt completely finished. Quilting, binding, and all.

It’s really big: 92” x 106”. You can’t really see all the fabrics in the photo, but they are all old. Nothing newer than 1930’s. I love those little pops of orange and red! Can you believe someone had such a huge variety of fabric that long ago?

The back and binding are the same fabric as the border.

Rhonda is coming today to get it. She doesn’t know I have the signature quilt finished. That will be a surprise!

I have three more big quilts to get finished. The patriotic one (94” x 94”) is on the frame now. I got the binding made yesterday evening so it will be ready to go. I also need to put borders on the disappearing nine patch and my church auction quilt. I ended up not liking the fabrics I had bought for the border, but Betty helped me pick something else from some of the yardage I have on the shelf, and I think it is going to work. I failed to take pictures of the different options, but I will get a picture of the final choices.

Midweek

I wish I knew something smart to say, but unfortunately I don’t know much. Monday was a holiday of course, but I worked all day. The only difference was that school was off for the holiday, so no grandkids to pick up. I got the border put on Rhonda’s quilt and got it loaded on the frame. 

Unfortunately, I had a lot of interruptions so it didn’t get finished. It’s very large, and of course, a little wonky, so it won’t go fast. It’s going to be pretty though.

I got some good feedback via the comments on my last post about the disappearing nine patch (spell check keeps wanting to change it to disappointing nine patch—LOL), so thanks everyone for the comments. I will use this guy for the border:

I also got the patriotic quilt sorted out. I repieced the pieced borders

after I cut down all the squares, and I got the side pieces put on correctly.

I still have three more borders to put on. Oh Lord. I should have been finished two weeks ago! The sooner the better on this one. As soon as Rhonda’s quilt is off the frame, this one needs to be ready to go on. 

I had meetings all day Tuesday, and I played Bunco yesterday. We moved our bunco day from Thursday to Wednesday. There were too many conflicts with Thursday. I won the prize for least games won! It’s a dubious honor, but the payout is the same as the other prizes. I bought Roger a Blizzard after I picked him up at school. I told him, “Mocha’s got Blizzard money today!” I was one of the hostesses for food at the game. I couldn’t think of anything to fix, and I didn’t have time to go to the store. I had black olives, green olives, and pickles in the pantry so I put together a relish tray. I also had an unopened container of humus and some pita chips, so I took that too. Three people brought sandwiches and there was a nice green salad and some chips and dip, so there was plenty! There were also a few desserts. 

We got a little rain yesterday—not enough, but any moisture is welcome! And that’s all the news for now. I hope to finish Rhonda’s quilt today and get the binding on it. She is wanting to pick it up tomorrow. Also, I need to quilt and bind the patriotic one. It’s good to have goals!

Weekend Wrap Up

I am happy to say I got my disappearing nine patch put together. 

This was a goal I had set for myself. It is current 72” x 72”, and I am trying to figure out the borders. I used the same white throughout, so I am thinking I will use that for an inner broader, and then I still need an outer border.

I was hoping this green might work. Or maybe it is too light. I’m not sure. I pulled a floral print off the shelf.

I think the background is too dark. Oh dear. I don’t want to go buy more fabric. I have lots of fabric. I just have trouble finding what is perfect. 😕

I have been working on a quilt that I am making for a church in Refugio. I make them one every year, and this year my they asked for a patriotic pattern. I have had nothing but issues wtb it. 

It has a pieced border which I cut wrong.

The hst’s should have been 4.5” and I made them 5”. Okay, take them all apart and cut them down to the correct size. And then this:

I put the side pieces on wrong. More seam ripping and resewing. I need to get this right! I will be so happy when then is finally finished and off of my to-do list!

How is your week shaping up? 

A Quick Update

Happy weekend everyone!

If I’m being honest, I was ready for this week to be over. It’s been a little too stressful. I’m hoping to put it all behind me and move on.

I did finish piecing another baby quilt.

I think it’s cute. The fabric has little blue and gray cats on it.

I have another vintage quilt to finish for Rhonda. She’s the one I did the vintage signature quilt for.

It’s small hand-stitched pieces. A lot of feedsacks.

She wants me to put a border on it before I quilt it, and I think that’s a good idea. The edges are pretty uneven and wavy, and a border will stabilize it. I’ll get it done probably this coming week.

My little kitty is doing okay after her surgery. She’s wanting to go outside, but I have been keeping her in. I plan to let her out today. When I got to my shop yesterday morning, she had eaten all her food and was starving. 

She gobbled a whole plate of food. 

Next week’s weather forecast looks too good to be true.

Do I really believe it? I don’t know. I’m hoping the rain part is real. I’ll find out today, I guess.