A Little More

I got a little more done on Saturday after my two-day break. I got some potholders finished.

Here’s a question for you. Does anyone use those hanging loops? I put one on the Halloween one, but not on the other two. I personally don’t use the loops; I don’t hang up my potholders. I keep them in a basket on top of the microwave, and I know my mom keeps hers is a drawer by the stove. Adding the loop is an extra step, and I don’t mind doing it if it’s needed, but I’m not sure anyone still uses them. Let me know what you think.

I got the binding done on this quilt.

I actually quilted this one a couple of years ago, and she recently brought it back to get it bound. The interesting thing is that it been laundered, and it’s very crinkly now. I trimmed tons of thread off the edges before I could sew the binding on. I can’t imagine why she laundered it before it was bound, but I’m not sure if I should ask her or not. I’m curious, but it’s probably none of my business. 

I got a quilt quilted, but I won’t have pictures until it is trimmed. 

Today is the fifth Sunday of the month, and my church does a pot luck meal on the fifth Sunday. For us, everything is an excuse to celebrate, and all celebrations include food! I had some over-ripe bananas, so I made some banana nut bread. 

I had four brown bananas so I made two loaves.

I admit I sampled a piece. LOL. The all-important taste test.

Once I slice it all up and put the slices on a tray, no one will know the difference. My neighbor wants a zucchini walnut loaf, but I didn’t have the energy to do anything more. Maybe later this week I can make her one. Her son came over yesterday and mowed and edged my front yard. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he said it was because I do things for them. Well, I don’t expect to be paid back, but I was glad to have my yard looking nice without having to sweat. 

Workshop Progress

Wow, we had a really good workshop on the Matchless Star quilt pattern, and the best part is that I got my top done….i just need to add whatever borders I want to add. Here’s my version:

And here’s the pattern cover:

The pattern instructions have a narrow border, and then a sort of narrow bordet with pieced square in a square blocks in the middle, and then another narrow border. I don’t love a square quilt, so I will figure out something different for mine. Something that will make it rectangular. 

It was a smaller than usual group for the workshop: we had 15 people on Thursday, and 13 on Friday. I enjoyed the smaller group. We were able to chat more between tables, and there were more empty tables to lay out our work. 

Most of us brought our lunch on Thursday, and we ordered pizza on Friday.

I got some pictures of other ones that got their star finished. 

Aren’t these great? I think the best part of the workshops is getting to see how other people interpret the pattern, and how the different color combinations work together. It really opens my mind and makes me want to go home and experiment with other colors. 

Productivity

It makes me feel so good when I can get a lot done with minimal issues. Yesterday was one of those days. I finished a customer quilt and loaded another.

Of course, it was small so it didn’t take long to quilt. After that, I got the binding made for the two quilts I need to bind. 

I also got a couple of things ready to take to Bronte Bee today. 

I just need to appliqué the “Texas’s” down. The top one will be a pot holder, and the bottom one is a tea towel. I will only need to take my machine, thread, and scissors. Maybe a seam ripper. Bronte Bee is a bi-monthly guild activity where we meet in the Brontë room at the library to work on projects for the quilt show. I think it actually started as a community outreach where people could show up and guild members would give basic sewing instructions, but that was before my time, so I’m not sure. 

I was too tired to do much in the evening, but I did vacuum up about ten pounds of dog hair. It’s a wonder to me they have any fur left on their bodies. I saw this ad on Facebook 

Six-week old Jagdterrier available for his forever home.

I was tempted for a minute until I vacuumed all the dog hair off my family room floor and decided I don’t need another dog. He sure is handsome, though, and there’s nothing better than a puppy.

To-Do-List Tuesday 6-25-24

Looks like June is almost over. July should be more productive for me since I will be at home the entire month. At least that's the plan. If I get an opportunity to go somewhere, I would probably take it! I did pretty well last week on my to-do list.

1) Make strip sets for guild workshop. Yes. 

2) Finish sorting scrap fabrics. Yes. I need to find a better place to store all the bins--right now I have some here and some there. I think there are nine total, and I would like to have them all together. I'm not sure how that's going to all work out.

3) Quilt two or three customer quilts. I wish. Only one got done, although I worked on multiple quilts. I had issues with threads, running out of thread and having to order more, and not having enough backing. Here's the one I finished.

Super bright and cheerful. I really like it!

4) A Quilting Life BOM. No. I made some of the pieces, but I never did get it put together. 

I have a busy week this week…..Brontë Bee on Wednesday afternoon, and a guild workshop Thursday and Friday. Oh, and Bunco on Thursday night. LOL. Of course my to-do list is getting longer. 

1) Finish piecing polka dot quilt top.

2) Work on Villa Rosa quilt.

3) Get some projects kitted up for Brontë Bee.

4) Quilt three customer quilts.

5) Bind two customer quilts.

6) Make some more potholders and/or dish cloths.

It would be wonderful if I can get all of this done. The good news: I am able to wear shoes

with insoles! I don’t know if it’s all in my head, but I feel so much less tired at the end of the day. 

Have a good week everyone! I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. 

Weekend Update

It was a good weekend! We got a little rain both Saturday and Sunday; not a lot, but enough to keep it from getting too hot. Of course the humidity was horrible, but I mostly stayed indoors. I was able to finish sorting through the scrap fabrics I was working on. While I was sorting, I found a ziploc with pink and black polka dot blocks. I laid them out to see how many were there and if I wanted to keep them or not. 

I found a decent sized piece of the pink and black to cut out some more squares. A couple of the pieced blocks were not the right sized, so I went through my stash and found some polka dot fabric. 

I made some nine patches and some double four patches.

The double four patches were fun—that may be an idea for next year’s rainbow scrap challenge. After I laid everything out (again), I realized I need two more. I’ll try and make two more of the double four patches today. Why is it that it is more fun to play with other people’s scraps than with your own? I need to cut some pink sashing, and I’ll have another free quilt. It will be square, and that’s not my favorite, but it will be okay. 

I had to go home a little earlier than I had planned because my feet were killing me. I usually wear shoes with insoles, but my sweet little grandson accidentally stepped on my foot with his soccer cleats. I have been wearing flip flops all week, and they don’t have enough support.

The swelling has gone down, but my big toe is still sore and discolored. I wore sandals to church Sunday, and I’m hoping I can wear some closed toe shoes today with my insoles.

My neighbor called Saturday and said she had thawed out a roast but her oven isn’t working. That’s where I come in. I told her I didn’t want to heat up my kitchen, but I would cook it in the Instant Pot if she was okay with that. I picked up the roast that evening along with some potatoes and carrots and cooked them Sunday afternoon. I kept enough for last night and tonight. 

I used the juice from the roast to make some gravy. Everything was good. I never fix roast because it is too much for just me, but this worked out pretty well. 

Linking to Design Wall Monday.

Strips and Improv

We have a guild workshop next week, and the project is called "Matchless Star"  

For pre-work, we need to make four width-of-fabric strip sets. I got mine done yesterday.

The reason I chose this particular color is because I already had a bag of strips cut that I could use. 

The strips gave me a pretty good headstart on things. I was planning to use the strips for an improv log cabin. One of the Facebook groups I follow has lots of posts and photos of what they call a “Duckworth” quilt which is basically an improv log cabin done in a single color way. From what I can tell, the center squares are usually the opposite of the main color way. Meaning opposite on the color wheel. Since I was using the aqua/turquoise strips for something else, I started some improv blocks in purple. 

Notice I used yellow (opposite of purple) for the centers. These blocks are fun to do, although it will take a while to get enough done to make a quilt. They are almost as addictive as the potato chip blocks.

Fri-Yay!

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is right around the corner.

I have been busy for the last couple of days--trying to make up for lost time, I guess. I feel like I need the weekend off to rest, but unfortunately, I will need to work Saturday, and try to get some of these quilts done and out the door. I worked on this one today:

Beautiful fabrics on the front and the back. She told me it is her "casket quilt". Wow, that's a lot of responsibility to get this one perfect! She asked for an all-over quilt pattern in pink thread. 

The thread is Glide pink lemonade. I guess if it's for your casket, you might as well go all out and make a bold statement!  

While I was sorting scrap fabrics, I found several strips of seersucker. I sewed them together and made a top about 45" x 58".

The fabrics are brighter than this picture shows. I think it will be cute quilted with maybe a yellow binding. And, other than the backing and batting, it's a free quilt for donation. The seersucker has a nice feel to it, and it should quilt up well. I saved two of the strips to make a matching pillowcase. 

I quit a little early and went home because my back was hurting and I was tired. I wasn’t the only one who was tired. The dogs apparently stayed busy all day while I was gone.

We all went to bed early. 

Rain and More Rain

We are dealing with the rain bands from Tropical Storm Alberto.

I’m not saying we don’t need the rain because we do. It was slow and steady all day yesterday with more forecasted for today. The best thing for me to do is stay inside and play with fabric.

I had gotten a fat quarter bundle a few months ago, but it was only six fat quarters which kind of limits what I can do with it. I pulled out a Villa Rosa pattern and headed to the quilt shop to get a couple of coordinating fabrics.

The fabrics are so pretty. I can’t wait to get it cut out and start sewing. 

I worked part of the day trying to corral the scraps.

One of my customers passed away recently, and her niece brought about eight boxes of scraps from her sewing room. I have been sorting it by color into the baskets. I will have a better chance of using it if I get it all organized and out where I can see it. I put the batiks in a separate basket.

I hope to finish all of this today and get everything out of the floor. I hope. I haven’t decided yet if I want to cut everything into specific sizes; right now I just want to get the colors sorted.

To-Do-List Tuesday 6-18-24

Tuesday came fast this week! I haven't gotten a chance yet to go back and read everyone's to-do-list post from last week, but I will do that maybe over the weekend. Most of my list was done before I left for vacation, and it was intentionally short. Bottom line, it all got done! 

1) Quilt and bind t-shirt quilt. Yes.

2) Quilt two customer quilts. Yes.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the second one was made from vintage tea towels. Very cool!

3) Pack for cruise. Yes. Now it's time to get all the laundry finished and put away!

I have several things I need to get done this week.

1) Make strip sets for guild workshop.

2) Finish sorting scrap fabrics.

3) Quilt two or three customer quilts.

4) A Quilting Life BOM.

There’s something else I need to work on, but I can’t seem to remember what it is. If I think of it later, I’ll add it to the list. In the meantime, I’m linking to Quilt Schmilt. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Back to Reality

I’m back in Victoria and back to real life. My cruise was great, and I was able to finish my summer challenge quilt top. Well, I think it’s finished….I may add a border to it. We had a conference room to sew in, and I took my 3/4 size machine.

Three of us drove to Galveston from Victoria.

Donna (in the middle) was my roommate. The other ladies in our group were from North Texas.

I actually did get off the ship in Costa Maya. Donna wanted to get some vanilla, and I walked over there with her.

Most of the time I was sewing, although I did take some time for a facial at the spa, and I went to the gym every morning and used the equipment or I walked about two miles on the top deck. The views are amazing, which makes the walking very enjoyable. And, the best part is I ate whatever I wanted and didn’t gain any weight.

Here’s the top I finished

I’m still thinking about borders. Oh, and here’s a picture of the room Donna and I shared.

Not big, but it was adequate. I’m ready to go again in January.