Happy Day

Yesterday was such a good day. My church sewing group hosted the Cade Middle School Kindness Club. About 35 6th, 7th, and 8th graders came to the church and helped tie comforters. They worked for two full hours and got 89 quilts done. We had already pinned them and sewed the hems, so tying them was the last step. It’s so wonderful to have that many done, and they enjoyed it too. 

Here’s the entire group: 

I just want to say they were so friendly and so polite, they were a joy to be around. They can come back anytime!

I went to my shop after all that and worked on finishing the twister tote. Yay! I got it finished.

Here’s one that shows the handles better.

I managed to get a zipper in it—yay again!

And, I put a mesh pocket on the inside:

It will be gifted tomorrow to a pastor friend. I think she will like it. Now I need to make my pastor one! Oh, and one for myself! 

Vintage Quilts

March has been a month for quilting old quilt tops. The first one was brought to me in January, and I finally got it quilted. 

It is quite large and is what I call the hummingbird pattern. 

Lots of feedsack type prints in this one, and pretty a much a little bit of everything as far as colors and prints.

I posted a closeup of this one when I was quilting it. 

I like it a lot. In fact, I came home and searched my 5,500 Quilt Blocks book looking for the pattern but found nothing. I haven’t been able to locate all my “Aunt Martha” books, but I thought it looked like something that could have been in one of them. Anyway, I finally broke down and did what I should have done from the beginning. I got out a pencil and a compass, and I drafted a hexagon and marked out the sections. I now have a template I can use if I get a burning desire to hand piece a quilt.

The other two were string quilts and look like they were pieced by the same person. 

The maker used every kind of fabric available including polyester double knit and tufted bedspread fabric. They both weighed a ton and were quite challenging to quilt. The one with the borders was especially awful. I texted her and told her it was going to have some tucks in the borders and maybe other places, and she said she knew they weren’t flat, and she didn’t expect perfection. That’s a good thing, because they aren’t perfect. But, they are done, thank goodness.

A Little More Done

I keep meaning to post my progress, but I have been forgetting. I have been busy with spring break; I didn’t go anywhere but the kids did, and I had dog duties. Rosie looked so terrible I took her for a bath and a haircut. 

She looks so mush better now. 

I should have taken Leroy too, but he’s an escape artist, and the groomer is close to two busy streets. 

I got a quilt finished for a customer. She was super pleased with it. 

I believe it is for a heart association auction, and she said she would be bidding on it herself. LOL. 

I made four pin cushions for the quilt show sampler store. I already sold one. I want to make about four more.

I also spent some time working on my UFO lists. One of my January tasks was to put a border on Red Rock, and a February task was to get it quilted. This is where I left it:

And, I got the borders put on, and it’s now ready to quilt. 

As soon as I get a break in customer quilts, I will try to get this one done. I put a wide outer border to increase the size, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s quite a bit wider than what I usually do. I think I just need to get used to it.

What I’ve Been Working On

Oh my, I have been busy. I'm still not very energetic, but it’s better than it was. I haven’t made a lot of progress on the bag I need to make, but I did get the two panels cut out and fused to the Bosal foam.

I still need to quilt them both, and get the construction done. I found some turquoise/aqua fabric I can use for the lining, and I have a zipper to match, so I have no excuse to not make some progress. I know how I want to do the handles, and I probably need to do that step next. 

I’ve gotten a couple of customer quilts done. I got this one trimmed yesterday. 

I like it a lot. I asked her if she would make one for me to enter in my church auction, and she said she would give me the pattern! LOL! I guess I will have to make my own. I’m not sure where I will find the time.

I sewed 13 more pillows for our church ministry. 

Of course, they still need to be stuffed. There is a never-ending demand for these pillows at the hospitals and oncology centers. We make them 12” x 16”.

I also worked on some blocks for the kit I started. 

They are taking a lot longer than I thought they would, but I only work on them in my spare time, so they are low priority for now. 

I’ve been working on some more vintage quilts, but I don’t have pictures yet. They should be finished soon—I hope! There have been a lot of challenges.

There are a few other things I would like to work on if I get time. I’m thinking of doing the 2025 BOM from A Quilting Life, and I have a couple of new kits I want to start. I will be at church today working on lap covers. One of the junior high groups is coming on the 26th to help us tie/tack the comforters. They enjoy it, and we appreciate the help. 

Sorrento

 Sorrento is a free pattern from Robert Kaufman. 

This one popped up in my Pinterest feed, and I liked it enough to download it and read through the directions. It is fat-quarter friendly. Find the pattern here.

A Fast Finish

Sometimes you just need to finish something. I was putting away some fabric and ran across some Halloween fat quarters. I generally don’t do Halloween, but I wanted to use them so I cut and sewed a quick table runner.

It’s pretty cute. I’ll bind it with the same Kona black once it’s quilted. 

I sewed a few more potato chip blocks, but I still need to cut up some more scraps so I have plenty of variety. I keep sewing and sewing on the potato chips, and someday, I will sit down and put them all together. In the meantime, it keeps me busy and doesn’t require too much thought. I actually spent most of yesterday sleeping. I came home early and took a two hour nap. Maybe I’ll have more energy once I catch up on some sleep.

We have our first Lenten meal at church tonight. (First for this year.) We have been reminded by Pastor to keep the meals light. We’re not very good at that. We decided to do salads tonight. I made a pasta salad last night and let it marinate in the refrigerator all night. 

I make this one quite often, and it’s always good. Looking at the picture, it probably needs a little more pasta, but I’m not making changes at this point. Someone is making a green salad, and someone is making a carrot salad, and another lady said she’s bringing a cheese ball (??), and several people are making desserts, so there will be plenty. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

That Time of Year

 

Why can’t we just pick a time and stick with it all year? I don’t know why it matters to me since I have retired from my “regular” job and can sleep an extra hour if I want to. I don’t mind having the extra hour of daylight in the evening since it is Lent, and there are extra evening church activities for the next six weeks. 

I have been busy with some vintage quilts I am quilting. This one is my favorite. 

Sometimes the hand-pieced ones give me problems because they are wonky and won’t lay flat, but this one is perfectly flat. I’m guessing the fabrics are 1950-ish. 

Although, some look to me like they could be 1940’s.

I am definitely not an expert on fabric dating. LOL. 

I also decided I wanted to make a tote for someone, and pulled out this pattern.

I managed to get the patchwork pieced and today I will get out my twister template and get everything cut out.

I plan to use the black with white dots for the main part of the bag. I’m still thinking about how the handles will look. I can follow the pattern, or do handles with a different color binding. Not sure.