Not Much Sewing

I really haven't done much involving a sewing machine. I did pull out my keyhole quilt (another UFO from the quarantine period) and started putting the blocks together. The pattern is from a Missouri Star tutorial. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DroCi9b6rOc&t=70s

This is what I have so far:

I'm not too sure about the light colors clumped together on the right side, but I'm not sure I will change it. Let me try looking at it from another angle.

That is not any better. I will have to think about it. I also can't find all the extra strips I need for the pieced border, so that will take a little time to locate. 

Free Pattern

Here’s another fun one that uses 1.5” strips.

I have had this one pinned on Pinterest for a while, but I’ve never made it. Someday I will. It’s called A Bright Morning, and the pattern is here. 

Thanksgiving Day

We went to Whataburger for lunch and I will throw something together for supper. I got my chocolate cake baked—I’m waiting for it to cool so I can glaze it. This is the recipe I used: Recipe

There is a pumpkin pie in the refrigerator, and the cornbread for the dressing is in the oven. I’ll finish the dressing tomorrow and make the sweet potatoes. 

As for being thankful—where do I start? The kids are all healthy, Bill and I are mostly healthy. We have everything we need, plus a lot more. I can afford to retire in January, and then I will start working on my dream of owning my own business. I honestly have so many blessings in my life, and I truly am thankful for all of them.

Thanksgiving Eve

We aren’t celebrating until Friday as that gives the kids a chance to spend time with the in-laws and not have to eat two big meals in one day. And, honestly, I am so thankful every day. Tonight I cooked beans and cornbread, and I pan fried some potatoes. It was so good; sometimes the simplest things are the best. 

I worked at my new shop for a several hours today. I want to post some pictures over the next few days of all the progress. 

Here’s a picture (or four) of the bathroom:

Quite an improvement, I think.

Anyway, have a good Thanksgiving, wherever you are.

Packing It Up

I am trying……who knew I had so much? Fabric, rulers, patterns, notions, and more fabric. I think I need to do a major destash, but I don’t have the time right now, so I guess I will just move it now and destash later. 

I’m trying to keep it semi-organized, even though I would like to just dump it all in boxes and not deal with it. 

I have quite a few tops to quilt, and once that is done, I will need to find a new charity for quilt donations. If you know of some, please leave a comment and let me know. 

Another Top Done

It was a weekend of finishes. This is one I started a couple of years ago when I got the Creative Grids pineapple ruler, and then it sat. Now it is all put together.

I love pineapple quilts and I love 1930’s fabrics, so I am sure this will stay in my possession once it is quilted. It is about 67 x 90, so kind of a weird size. I could add two more columns and make it 90 x 90, but I don’t know. I think I just wanted to be done. Here’s a closer view:

So pretty. Of course, I am well aware that all these finishes are just my way of putting off the packing up that I need to be doing in the sewing room. I am trying to not wait until the last minute, but I do know how I am.

Finished!

What a nice Saturday! The weather is cool enough at night we don’t need a/c, then the days warm up into the mid-60’s. I got up this morning and finished putting this one together.

I like it pretty well considering I didn’t have to buy anything. The dessert rolls were all from a shop hop, and I supplemented with some more golds and neutrals from my stash. The main challenge was that these three dessert rolls all came from the same shop, and each roll had some duplicates, which were in each roll, so I had six of some of the strips. I tried to not have same fabrics touching, but other than that, I couldn’t spread them out ver well….

All in all, it’s fine with me.

I took the dogs out for a walk this morning. I haven’t been walking since I hurt my foot last week on the spin bike, but it has mostly quit hurting, and I was able to go a little over a mile. I could have maybe done more but didn’t want to push it too much.

I hope you are having a wonderful and productive weekend wherever you are reading this from!

Dessert Roll Progress—Or Lack Thereof

 I had plans to get the blocks together, but….

I was just so tired and several interruptions. A guy from work wanted to come by and look at the Jeep, and that took a little time, then I figured out I was smelling gas from somewhere under the Jeep, so I took it over to TJ’s and asked them to check the connections on the fuel lines. I ended up having to leave it and got home a little late.

I did get the blocks laid out and ready to sew, so that was something.

It’s quite a bit bigger than I realized. I looked in the book, and it finishes at 81x81” with no border. If I add a border, it would work on a queen bed, so that’s something else to think about.

Dessert Roll Progress

 I'm still working on the dessert roll pattern I started in September. 

At this point, I have all 36 blocks made and need to get them laid out and sewn together. I will try and do that this evening.

The project is from this book:

I like these Pam and Nicky Lintott books; they have some nice patterns for precuts. This one uses the 5-1/2" strips, but of course, any of these patterns would also work with jelly rolls. 

 

Another Freebie

 Oh I love a scrappy quilt, and I'm always looking for patterns that will use up a lot of scraps. This one is called Spring Quilt. 

This uses 1-1/2" strips and would be great in solids as well as prints. I'm not sure I would follow the pattern as much as just use it as an inspiration. It's really pretty and would certainly use up quite a few scraps. 

Another Oldie

Here's another on of the antique quilts I packed up over the weekend.

It looks a little pink, but it is light purple. It is another one I bought because I have several old ones that are pink or yellow or green, but not too many purple -- if any. I found it in an antique mall in Alvin several years ago and don't remember what I paid, but I'm pretty sure it was less than $200. The batting on this one is not very thick, but definitely thicker than the blue one I showed yesterday. The quilting is not really fine on this one either, but not bad.

The fabrics in this one intriqued me. There are some that are quite old, and then you see the quirky floral or the black and white geometric, and those look more 40's or 50's to me. So, even though it said on the tag that it was early 1900's, I don't really believe it. 

I like this "make do" block where she ran out of one fabric and subbed in another. 

The back is solid purple:

And, here it is packed up with its sisters ready to go back to Victoria:

A Busy Sunday

It was a really productive day. I went through the bedroom to see what was in there that could be packed up and decided the antique quilts can go back to Victoria now. Here's some pictures of one of them:

I bought it at an antique store in LaGrange that was going out of business. It was their last day and everything was half-price. It had been $150, and I really debated with myself about paying $75 as it is a little primitive....not what I would call really fine work and there are a couple of stains. But, I didn't have any blue quilts in my collection, and the black embroidery thread around the dresdens gives it a lot of charm. The batting is really thin so it is lightweight. Funny thing, when I took it to the register, the lady said she was going to only charge me $60 because she was wanted me to have it and was hoping I would buy it. I took it home and soaked it in oxyclean, and most of the stains (and a lot of dirt) came out. Here are some close ups of the blocks and the quilting.

The border is really cute. It's just a little wider on the top and bottom than it is on the sides. The backing is the same light blue as the setting blocks and the binding.

Packing It Up

I have been so busy! I filed my retirement paperwork this past week, and now that I have a date, it is time to start transitioning to Victoria. I pretty much did nothing all week except work on packing my sewing room.

I hate it. I am actually glad I did the reorganization stuff in the sewing room a few months ago because that does make it easier. I am still finding stuff, though. I found a quilt top that I had already put the inner border on, and I had cut and pieced the outer borders. I think I got lost on the measurements as one end was 79.5" and one was 80.5". I am not usually that far off on the edges, but this one had a lot of small squares through the main part of the quilt so I'm sure that's how it happened.

I am pretty uptight about those border measurements. Once I started longarm quilting, I found out what happens if you don't measure the borders carefully--you end up with big ole wavy borders. I finally measured through the middle and it was 80", so I cut both strips that size and went with it. Even if it is not prefect, that small of a difference won't affect the quilting enough to worry about. The pattern is a variation of the Scrappy Trips, the variation being that you alternate neutral strips with the patterned ones. 

If I keep finding things that lack "just a tiny bit" to get finished, I may never finish packing. I hate to do it anyway, so I will pretty much let myself get sidetracked.

Not Sure How This Happened

I so love a table runner on my kitchen table. It looks so nice, plus it protects the table -- at least in theory. I changed my table runner this morning and was surprised to find a damaged spot on the table underneath the runner.

I can see the varnish from the table transferred to the bottom side of the runner, but I honestly have no idea how this happened. I must have set a hot dish of some kind on the runner thinking it would protect the table from the heat. 

I am going to throw the runner in the wash and see if that stain washes out, although it is on the back so no worries if it doesn't. I put on a clean runner to cover the blemish on the wood. 

I'm really sad about the damage, but as long as I keep a runner on there I won't think about it too much. I just need to remember to avoid sitting a hot dish on the runner. Apparently the batting doesn't offer enough protection. I feel like I should have know that, but......I must not have really thought about it. I have some of these place mats I bought last year and never used.

They are pretty much like big trivets. I think I bought them to use under the Instant Pot and air fryer and didn't. I have them on the table now and need to remember to use them for hot things instead of trusting the table runner.

Scrappy Irish Chain

 Here’s a free pattern—one of my faves, even though I haven’t made it yet. 

I feel like it is in my near future, and mine will definitely have the pink!

A Few New Precuts

 I've been on the hunt for some 1930's precuts to add to this project:

I have been using the jelly rolls I have here, and I also found a few random charm squares that I cut up, but I felt like I needed some more variety. Of course, I looked at the Lake Jackson quilt shop, but she didn't have any. I looked on online, but I really don't want to buy a charm pack, and then pay $5 or $6 for shipping. I stopped Friday in Ganado, no luck there. Once I got to Victoria, I went by Quilter's Patch, and they had several! I was so excited. I bought a couple of charm packs, a layer cake, and some mini charms.

I'm not sure the mini charms will work.....I thought they had a 30's vibe, but once I got them home and looked closer, I'm not so sure. Either way, I'll have enough (I think) to finish. If I can't use the minis, I'll add them to my box of 2.5" squares, and they'll get used in something else.

Weekend Update

 I knew it would be busy, so no surprises. I drove to Richmond Friday morning to finish paying for my new machine so they could place the order. It will look like this one:

Once I got all that done, I drove to Victoria, so quite a bit of driving for one day. 

Julia and Roger are on an anniversary trip/vacation, and Kathryn had her first homecoming dance Saturday, so that was a full day of nails, hair, makeup, and stress. It's unbelievable to me how these girls go all out for a dance. I can remember my homecoming dances, and we did our own hair and makeup. Of course, in Port Lavaca, there was no place you could have gone to get your makeup done. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures. Kathryn is the one on the left in the bottom picture. Her friend Emily (I think that's her name) is on the right.

Houston Quilt Festival

This is the last of the bunch. The last three were part of a Tula Pink display.