Catching Up

I spent the weekend playing catch up….both with my projects, and with some customer obligations. I finished three table runners: Two Christmas ones

and one for Halloween. 

These will either go in the quilt show Sampler Store or will be donated to Luther Fest. Of course, I want to keep the Christmas ones, but I’m trying to resist! I already have table runners, so I don’t need more. That’s what I keep telling myself. 

I got a couple of customer quilts finished. One for Martha

and one for Diana

I’m happy I got so much done on the weekend, because yesterday was not too impressive. I sort of fiddled and putzed all day. I watched a lot of YouTube videos trying to get some inspiration, and ended up not accomplishing very much.

Speaking of yesterday, how often do you see a house going down the street?

It was really interesting to watch. There were some AEP bucket trucks both in front and in back.

They were picking up the power lines so the house could pass under them. It was quite an operation. 

Progress

I’m happy to say I’m over whatever illness I had and am feeling much better. I’m still a little run down and tired, but it’s getting better. I had brought some kits home from church to work on, and I’m glad I had something simple to work on while I was sick. I didn’t have a lot of brain power, but I was getting bored with doing nothing. I got three pieced. 

They are 60” x 80” will be layered with batting and tied with crochet thread. These are for Lutheran World Relief. 

After I started feeling better, I did a few things for the quilt show sampler store. 

I thought these were cute. Two potholders and a tea towel.i want to do another set for the church fall festival. I have some cute chicken fabric that I can use to make a few more sets. 

I got a couple of customer quilts done Thursday and Friday. 

The notches quilt is the one Donna pieced on our cruise. Now it’s quilted, and she just needs to bind it. 

I got another one quilted and bound, but she picked it up before I could get a picture. It’s the same panel that I did for her sister last year. 

What A Week

It seems like everything has been a challenge this week! It started Monday evening when I hit something in the street when I was driving home. I think it was a piece of concrete. There was someone in the lane beside me and someone in the oncoming lane, so I had no choice but to hit it. One of my front tires went flat immediately. It had a big gash in it. I should have taken a picture of it, but I forgot.My tires are “run flats”, so there is not a spare….you drive on the flat until you can get it repaired. I was at Discount Tire when they opened Tuesday morning, but it still took all day. It’s okay; it’s fixed now. In fact, I had all four replaced. The tread was low on the back ones, and I decided better safe than sorry. 

I got Betty’s quilt finished Thursday. It’s huge! 

I’m glad to have it done and back to her. She texted me yesterday and said she had finished the binding. She also commented on how heavy it is. Yes, it is! I had noticed that. It is for her nephew, and he will love it if he likes those weighted blankets. 

I got the borders finished on this one

and, it’s on the frame now. I would have liked to have been finished with it, but I caught a cold or the flu or something, and I haven’t done much for the last few days. I fact, I stayed in bed most of yesterday. That’s not like me, but I was just too tired and weak to get up. I did get up long enough to feed the dogs and let them out, but immediately went back to bed. I’m hoping I can kick this fast; I have a lot of things on my calendar for this coming week!

Not Quite Finished

I’m making a quilt for a church raffle—not my church, but one in another town. I had a small start that I needed to add borders to,

and I have taken way too much time working on borders. I got bogged down on how to make this one fit, and on how to turn the corners, but I finally got it done. 

I knew I wanted a little more color, so I added a narrow border of red and then started working on eight inch pinwheels to finish it. I got confused and thought each side needed eight pinwheels instead of ten pinwheels so I didn’t have enough blocks when I started putting it together. 

Needless to say, I spent part of the weekend cutting and sewing pinwheel blocks. I think I got them all done…

I’ll find out for sure today when I put the last border on.

I have quite a few customer quilts to photograph, but I need to get them trimmed, and I have put that off. 😕   I also want to get a few small projects done for the quilt show sampler store, but that hasn’t happened either. This needs to be my week to stop procrastinating and get things done. My taxes are due at the CPA on the 15th, and guess what? I have put that off too. I said I was going to get the taxes done early this year, but I kept saying “I’ll do it next week.” The deadline is here, and it has to be done. Ugh! Who wants to work on taxes when they could be sewing?!

Poppy Blocks for Kerrville

Good morning friends. I’ve been busy sewing poppy blocks. 

One of our local quilt shops is doing “Hugs from Texas”. Last year she collected quilts for North Carolina after hurricane Helene. I donated three finished quilts, and I’m sure others donated many more than that. The quilt shop owner (Connie) rented a u-haul truck and drove the quilts to North Carolina.

This year, we had the flooding in Kerrville, Texas. It happened just last month, and it was very emotional for me because of the deaths at Camp Mystic. My granddaughter went there and was planning to apply this year to be a counselor but missed the deadline. Anyway, Connie has assembled a team of volunteers to make quilts for the Kerrville residents who have lost everything in the floods. She is making videos of the blocks and quilts that are being sent to her. Here is the latest one.

The poppy blocks are 12”, and not difficult at all. If you want to make some, message me, and I will send you the instructions. You can send finished blocks (or quilts or quilt tops) to me, and I will deliver them to Connie.

Collage Quilting

A few weeks ago, some quilt guild members taught a collage quilt class to the area 4H kids. There were about 15 of them there, and it was a three day class. I think nine of them finished their collages, and a few of us instructors took them home to quilt. I took three of them, and I got them quilted yesterday. 😀

Aren’t these great?!

Here’s more detail of each one. A cow:

A flamingo: (There were some contrast issues with this one, but she was only nine.)

And a chicken.

I got them trimmed, and I’ll pass them off to another guild member who will bind them. These will be in our September quilt show. I hope it will inspire the kids to pursue quilting as a craft. 

I’ve been working on borders for the quilt I’m making for the Refugio church. I came home early to make some more pinwheels, but I noticed the house looked pretty bad, so I started cleaning instead. Today, I will finish the cleaning and then make pinwheels. 

Two for One

Do you remember the phrase “quilt in a day”? It was a slogan Eleanor Burns used, the premise being, if you used her patterns and gadgets, you could complete a quilt (top) in a day. Well, I’ve got that beat—I finished two tops in one day! 

The pattern is called Moondance, and it’s from Villa Rosa Designs. 

It makes a quilt that is 40” x 50”, so not huge, but one of our guild charities is Gabriel Project. Wouldn’t this be a cute baby quilt? I am absolutely in love with the fabric. 

It has little vignettes of dogs at the dog park. It is so adorable! I am going to try and get some more of the fabric so I can make another one or two quilts. If I can, I will likely keep one for myself. 

Here’s some good news: Vacation Bible School is over, and I can rest now. We fed approximately 125 people each evening. Yes, I was in the kitchen. I am pretty much exhausted, although I did have my grandson today. He’s pretty self sufficient as long as he has his iPad, so it wasn’t too strenuous. I took this cute pic when I dropped him off at his house:

His boots beside his mom’s boots in the garage. So cute! 

The other good news is that I finally figured out how to end the border on this one. 

The corners have a little gap between them and the rest of the border, but at this point, I don’t care. The square in a square continues the diamond theme, but there was no way to have the black parts touching and still have it be the right size. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I am satisfied with what I’d did. I have two more borders to add- one just a 1-1/2” strip, and the other pieced. Then I can quilt it and be done! 

Retail Therapy

I finished Kathryn’s quilt! Quilting, binding, and all!

It measured 75” x 84” before I quilted it…..no doubt, it shrunk a little with the quilting. I wish I could get a better photo because it’s really pretty in person. Maybe I can photograph outdoors if I can get someone to help hold it. 

I rewarded myself with a shopping trip. My main goal was to locate some Lysol concentrate.

I had heard it was being discontinued, and there isn’t any left in Victoria. I did some searching on the internet, and located two bottles at the Ace Hardware in Yorktown and three bottles at the Ace Hardware in Yoakum. I prepaid for all of them, but it turned out there were only two bottles in Yoakum (as well as the two bottles in Yorktown). Shipping wasn’t available, but it isn’t a long drive to either town, so that’s what I did. I don’t know what I will do without Lysol. I mop my floors with it, and I love the clean smell of it. I sometimes buy flat sheets from Goodwill to use for quilt backs, and I wash them in a capful of Lysol. It takes out any kind of odor that sometimes lingers in used fabrics, and the odor is gone for good. It really is the best cleaner ever. 

I went to visit the quilt shop while I was in Yorktown, and found several nice pieces of fabric. I’ve been making it a point to not buy fabric unless I specifically need a piece to finish a quilt, but she had so many nice things, and I was in the mood to buy. 

I got these with collages in mind.

Most of these were half price. I bought a yard of each except for the pink roses. I think I got four yards of that one. I could think of a lot of things I could make with it. 

I’ve been thinking of making some composition book covers, and I got these for that purpose. I haven’t worked out the details of how I will make them, so I haven’t got the vaguest idea how much I need. To be on the safe side, I bought a yard of each except the stripe.

I bought two yards of the stripe since it will make such a great binding. And, it was also half price.

A Few Things

There’s not much sewing going on around here. I was busy Monday and Tuesday helping with the 4H kids. We had a pretty good turnout…..about 15 kids and five or six instructors. They had asked to learn how to make collage quilts, and some were able to finish in the three days we had allotted for the class. Their facility is nice and roomy and the a/c was good and cold, which is important! 

I wasn’t able to participate on Wednesday because I had a water leak and was waiting for a plumber. I had really wanted to see the finished projects, but they will be displayed at our quilt show in September so I will see them then. 

I have continued to work a little when I can on the Soul Mate quilt.

I am halfway through the piecing, so that’s a little progress. We have quilt guild today, and I needed a sample to show what we will be doing in August, so I took some time Tuesday evening and made this placemat.

It’s a “self-binding” placemat and doesn’t require quilting, so it is something that can be completed during our August workshop. One of our charity projects this year is to make placemats for Meals on Wheels, and this should work out well for that. At least, I hope it will! 

Weekend Update

My weekend was mostly busy, and I got a lot done. I really can’t ever get totally caught up, but that’s my fault for constantly overloading myself. Sunday’s sermon was about having a quiet time and making time to worship at the feet of Jesus. The sermon is on YouTube. I think I will need to go back and listen to it a few more times. I don’t know what is the answer to this dilemma. 

I got Janice’s quilt quilted and she picked it up Friday. 

She had brought this bag with her.

 Oh, I am so jealous. It’s the All the Things Tote.

She had given me the pattern, but I haven’t had time to make it yet. I know, story of my life. 

On a positive note, I also got Susan’s quilt finished. 

And, I got Joycelyn’s table runner quilted and bound.

She is gifting it to a friend that she will be visiting this week, and I delivered it to her house Saturday. I don’t usually do deliveries, but she has been so nice about recommending me to other people and praising my work to the local quilt shop. I felt like she deserved preferential treatment. 

What else? My madevillia is blooming. 

This is my third try at growing these. The other two I planted in the ground, and they didn’t do well. I have this one in a pot, and so far, so good. Fingers crossed. 🤞 

I opened a pint of chow chow last night for a taste test. 

The picture is a little blurry, but the chow chow is good! I made it a little spicy, which is how I like it, but now I’m hoping it’s not too spicy for the kids. Well, today is Monday, so I will fix a pot of beans and some cornbread so I can really enjoy the chow chow. I’ll make enough beans and cornbread to take to the kids, and I’ll also take them a pint of chow chow. Lol. Does anyone else cook beans on Mondays, or is that just a tradition from my family? 

Also on the schedule for today, I am helping to teach quilting classes to the 4-H students. It is a three day class, so it’s quite a commitment for me, but it’s so important to get young people involved in quilting. So many people have told me that sewing and quilting is a dying art, but it doesn’t have to be. We just need to find opportunities to get young people interested. Same with canning! There is a lot of knowledge that needs to be passed on to the next generation.