Happy Valentines Day

 

Donation Quilts

I did a little organizing at my shop and found five quilts that I had missed when I took the last batch to Mid-Coast Family Services. I was able to find enough pillowcases and mesh bags to go with them, and they are now bagged up and ready to go.

Here are three of them.

I didn’t make the last one; someone from the guild made it and donated it. I think it’s an interesting pattern. I was able to locate a pillowcase that coordinates pretty well. 

I need to call the Mid-Coast director and see when I can bring these over to her. I also have a stack started for Gabriel Project, and I want to get some things done for that. I also unearthed a bag of flannel during the re-organizing that needs to be washed and sewn into receiving blankets.

Soccer season is over for Kathryn. It seems like her brother plays all year. The last home game was “Senior Night”. 

I’m glad I got to go—the times are often not convenient. 

The game was a tie, and they did a penalty kick shootout to determine the winner. After about a dozen kicks, the other team (St. Anthony) was declared the winner. Oh well. It was a good try.

Road Trip

Tuesday was road trip day. I left Victoria with three other ladies from the quilt guild headed for Sequin. The primary purpose of the trip was to drop off all the quilts the guild was donating to Day One Bags. Here is a link to their page that tells about their mission. We met the director for our region in the Walmart parking lot in Sequin and transferred the quilts from our vehicle to hers. 

After we finished our business in Sequin, we drove to the nearby town of McQueeney. It’s a little bitty town with a large quilt shop called Fiberworx. I didn’t take a picture of the outside of the building, but I found this on the internet. I think it is the same building.

There is a lot of fabric and a large classroom inside. 

They also had a lot of books and patterns. I didn’t find a pattern for this one, but I really like it. 

We spent about an hour in there and probably still didn’t see it all. It was just overwhelming. 

From there, we went to Luling and got some barbecue. 

I got brisket and sausage and had plenty left to bring home. 

There is also a quilt shop in Luling, Holly Dee’s. The owner has taught classes at our guild before. 

Lots of great fabrics, precuts, and notions. By the time we left there, we were ready to head home. It was a tiring trip, but it was a lot of fun, and the company was great. Best of all, we got all our donation quilts dropped off. I want to get busy and get some more done for 2026, and also some zipper bags. I saw on their website that they were also taking zipper bags for donations. 

Free Pattern

I haven’t posted a free pattern in a long time…..I have mostly been using patterns I have, or doing BOM’s. Anyway, I saw this one recently, and I really like it. 

It’s called Agatha’s Garden. The pattern is on the Andover website. You can go directly to it here. It really looks more complicated than it is. It would be quite easy to cut and sew, and it’s fairly big at 74” x 74”. I think it would be a great way to use a fat quarter collection that has an equal number of darks and lights. I am going to play with a few of the blocks and may end up adding this one to my inspiration list.

Happy Scrappy

I saw a chandelier quilt last year made with scrappy blocks, and that got me motivated. I added it to my UFO list for quilts I want to make this year. According to my calculations, I need 50 blocks. How far have I gotten? 

They are 6-1/2”. There are plenty more in various stages of completion. This is my favorite kind of sewing, so I’m sure I’ll get to 50 soon enough. 

I’ve Been Busy

So, I missed Goundhog Day. I may have slept through it, but apparently, he saw his shadow. No worries—it’s already starting to warm up here so I don’t think we’ll get six more weeks of winter.

I think everyone was busy piecing during our recent snowy weather. The quilt tops are starting to come to me for quilting, and I have gotten a few done. I didn’t take pictures because I didn’t have them trimmed, but yesterday, I made myself get busy and start trimming. How cute is this? 

It’s a baby quilt, and I have never seen this pattern before. 

The next one is bright and spring-y:

The colors are so happy. I managed to find the pattern online, and I bought it. It’s a nice throw size (55 x 63). 

Another finish:

This one was pieced by Amanda. She has brought me quilts to quilt before made from this pattern. I still need to do the pillow tops that go with it. 

There are a couple more that I didn’t get trimmed. I’ll try to get pictures posted when I can. 

Today I am headed to Sequin with three other quilt guild members to drop off quilts for Day One. Our guild pledged 25 quilts, and we met that goal plus a few more. Here are most of them:

I am hoping we can pledge 30 quilts for next year. We should be able to meet that. I already have a top (pieced by Betty) than I can get done soon. 

UFO’s and Other Stuff

The weather has been warmer, and it made my soccer watching much more pleasant. Our girls lost again, but they did play much better. 

We had a good turnout for the game. I also had lunch with Roger last week. 

He’s eating carrots. LOL. They were having book fair on the same day, and I offered to buy him some books, but he decided he didn’t have need any at this time. I think he was anxious to get to the playground. 

This is the picture from last year:

And here is Kathryn 12 years ago at the same school during the same week.

If it wasn’t for the grandkids and church, I wouldn’t have much of a social life.

I finally got all my UFO lists made. I made one for quilting, on for tops to finish, one for projects I want to try, and one for new quilts I want to make. Yeah, it’s a little too ambitious, but I will see what happens. 

There are only 9 items on the “New Quilts to Piece” list, but that’s okay. I’m not going to be able to finish all of this anyway. 

The January number was 2 and I did get my Day One quilt finished from the “Quilts to be Quilted” list.

On the other lists, I started the Twister Tote, and the Logging In Quilt is pieced, but I’m still working on the border. I’m going to try and finish it before I move on to the next thing. The Red Rock quilt is mostly pieced; it needs the outer border, which won’t take long. 

I had kind of given up on the “To-Do List Tuesdays”, but I might have to start doing it again to keep myself on track. I have so much I want to do, and I have a tendency to start more than I can finish. I’ve been that way all my life.

Yesterday, I decided I was tired of eating my own cooking, so I went to Tres Estados and got the ribeye and shrimp dinner.

Oh my, it was good, and it was a lot. A ribeye, four shrimp, rice, charro beans, guacamole, and tortillas for $15.99. That’s a lot of food for that price. It was more than I could eat, and I brought the leftovers home. I sewed a little when I got home, but I was too full to be super productive.