Summer Challenge

Let me be the first to say I’m not setting the world on fire here, but progress is pretty steady. I have been doing some crocheting. I got my Summer Challenge quilt quilted and bound and texted a picture to Sarah so I can be entered into the contest. 

Mine is super scrappy. I used this cute plaid on the back.

I think the plaid is cute — I used the leftovers for the binding.

I’m not sure I like it on the binding, but it’s on there, and I’m not going to re-do it! I’m mostly just happy it’s done. 

I think I had a burst of energy yesterday. I got two quilts quilted. No pictures since I still need to bind both of them. I also got one loaded to quilt today. I was way behind, but I feel like I can get caught up soon!

In the evenings I try to get a little sewing or crocheting done. I am working on another disappearing nine patch, but so far I’m just putting the nine patches together. I’m using five-inch squares so we’ll see how that goes. I crocheted two more of the facial puffs.

And I try to add at least a couple of rows each night to the second baby afghan.

I went to my Debbie’s wedding on Saturday. I went with two other high school friends. We were all in the first wedding, and it felt a little bittersweet. Kind of hard to explain. 

Then: 

Now:

47 years later. 

It’s Finished!

Yesterday was a pretty intense day. It seemed like a lot of things were going wrong. Someone brought me a king sized quilt, and the back is just not working. She pieced it so it’s wider than it is long, and it’s directional, so there is only one way it can go. I’ll have to work more on it today. 

I was able to finish the binding on Rhonda’s antique quilt. It turned out really well.

I’m really happy with it. I left the right bottom block unquilted so she can record the provenance.

I also embroidered over the pencil writing on this block.

My green wasn’t an exact match, but I didn’t really care. It’s pretty close.

Speaking of provenance, we know the exact date because this young man was smart enough to add the year to his block. 1935

On some of the blocks, we don’t know the names, just mother and daddy.

I find the entire quilt totally charming. It would have been nice to have it hand quilted, but at least it’s preserved and will last for many more years. I have a signature quilt somewhere—I’m going to look for it when I get a chance, and I’ll post it here on the blog if I find it.

Customer Quilts

I have been trying to get caught up on customer work. I get behind when I have a lot of meetings and appointments I need to go to, and of course there is always work to get finished. I’m not complaining! I’m lucky to have so many loyal customers. 

I’ve had some of these done last week, but I tend to put off getting them trimmed until I know they are going to be picked up. I did two for Chris.

She does a lot of cool scrappy quilts. This one was all batiks except for the solid black.

She said she got this panel from the “free” table at her quilt guild. 

The doggies are cute, and she used the little bit of leftovers for the back.

I also got three done for Susan. She’s been on vacation, but she is picking them up tomorrow.

It seems like the colors show up a little better in a closeup.

The back is a Susan Allred floral. I have a yard or two of this same fabric. I think it’s so pretty. 

This one is autumn-toned batiks, I don’t think the pictures do the colors justice.

A 1776 panel. Perfect for our 250th anniversary!

The border fabric is directional, but she cut it so it runs the right way. It always bugs me a little if they don’t.

The back is pieced. The batik (the larger pieces) is also directional. It’s got national monuments on it. I’ve never seen it before, and I thought I had seen everything!

I need to get another one on the frame today. I should have done it yesterday before I left, but I was tired and wanted to go home.

A Finish

I got my potato chip quilt top put together yesterday!

It’s 60” x 72” in case I didn’t say that before. This pattern was the Summer Challenge from Seams Like Home. Mine is totally scrappy. 

It doesn’t have to be quilted to get entered in the drawing, but I would like to go ahead and quilt it before it ends up on the shelf with its unquilted brothers. I didn’t have an exercise class yesterday morning, so I had some sewing time at home after I walked the dogs. I had finished all the blocks and gotten them laid out on Sunday or Monday and just needed to get them all together. I can’t wait to get it quilted! 

I had told myself I need to finish one of the current projects before I started the Irish Chain sew along. Since this top is finished, I went ahead and started cutting out the Irish Chain pieces. I ran out of white and will need to get some more. I was having a hard time choosing a pink. These are the two I have. 

I decided on the one on the left. I really like it the best. It’s probably a little brighter than the one on the right, but it will be okay. It will brighten up the whole quilt! I was planning to cut up my 1930’s jellyrolls, but I found a charm pack and some mini charms—also 1930’s—so I will start with those.

While I was at the shop yesterday, I finished the quilting on Rhonda’s antique signature quilt. I went ahead and got the binding made, and I am looking forward to getting it trimmed and bound today.

Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend really went by at warp speed. I think that’s what happens when you are busy. Not much sewing, although I did finish all my potato chip blocks and started putting the top together. I also sewed some jar openers for our craft sale. 

I got 22 done. That’s probably enough. It will have to be enough as I don’t plan to make more.

We started vacation Bible school at church yesterday. Ours is in the evenings so parents and children can all attend. There are classes for each age group including the adults. We serve a meal at 5:15, and break-out sessions start at 6:00. I am part of the kitchen crew—I’m sure that’s no surprise. We cooked tacos and chalupas yesterday; today is spaghetti and salad. The decorations are awesome.

The decorating crew did a great job! My youngest grandson had his 10th bday party at the city splash pad on Saturday evening.

On a less than happy note, I think this cat is pregnant.

Her belly has gotten pretty round. I was planning to take her to the low cost spay and neuter clinic, but I thought I had a little more time. She’s not even full grown yet. I am going to wait and see how many kittens she has, and maybe I can find homes for them. Once they are weaned, I will get her spayed. 

Still Catching Up

I don’t even know where to start. I have a lot going on right now. Yesterday was quilt guild, but I didn’t stay for the workshop. The workshop topic was collage quilting, and I had enough of that this week with the 4H kids. I have been working on getting caught up with customer commitments plus my own stuff. 

I made four more potato chip blocks. 

I had already done 23 so now I’m up to 27. I need 30 blocks for my quilt, so I need to push through and get these completed. I do them as leaders and enders, but I think I will just sew the final three so I can start putting the top together.

I’ve mostly been working on these.

There was somewhere between 20 and 30 in the box I found; I now have 50 total done. Depending on how many rows I do, I will either need 64 or 72. I feel like the end is in sight on this one as well. I just need time and more motivation. LOL.

I would like to say I worked on the Double Irish Chain sew along, but I didn’t. I got stuck on picking out a solid pink I want to use. I have two different choices—one is sort of a dusty pink, and the other is sort of a bubblegum color. Neither is exactly what I wanted, but I don’t want to go buy something when I already have this, and no point ordering anything either. It’s too hard to judge the colors when you order online.

When I get tired of sewing, I pick up some crochet. I got these done over the last couple of days.

I have been trying to walk in the evenings. Unfortunately, it is too hot to take the dogs. I feel like the sidewalks haven’t cooled off enough for their paw pads. They are not happy. I should take them early in the morning, but I go to the gym in the mornings. On Wednesday it was 101 with 70% humidity. I think the a/c ran all day. Some things love the heat. My starfish cactus is blooming.

The bloom is a five point star, but two of the petals are kind of folded up so it’s hard to see the star.  There is another bud so it hopefully will have another bloom.

It doesn’t bloom every year, just sporadically. It wasn’t quite as hot yesterday and somewhat overcast. There were a few rain bands from the tropical storm. Any moisture is welcome right now, but I wasn’t able to walk. Maybe today.

Something Old

One of my favorite things is old quilts and old quilt blocks. A customer brought me a bag of quilt blocks she found in her aunt’s house. She was cleaning out the house after her aunt passed away and found these a bag of signature blocks.

She said she didn’t know these existed and was surprised to find them. I asked her if she recognized the names, and she said they were family names. The blocks are mostly hand stitched, and I can guarantee you none of them are the same size. I didn’t want to trim the hand stitched ones

so I measured them from the back and drew a stitching line with a pencil. That way I could take a wider seam allowance where needed. I laid them all out.

There were enough plain muslin blocks in the bag that I could have used an alternate block setting, but the quilt would have been huge, so I opted to just use some purple sashing. (The purple yardage was also in the bag, and there was plenty.) 

I did use three of the plain blocks in the corners so everything would come out even. I think it looks okay with the plain corners. I used a darker purple for the border. Oh, this one had “age 11” written in pencil.

I went ahead and got out my green embroidery thread and embroidered over the pencil to preserve it. 

I’ll be able to get this quilted and hopefully get the binding on it sometime next week. I’ll post more pictures as soon as I get it finished.