Sunday afternoon sewing time was quite productive this week. I trimmed the Stip Mirage quilt for my great niece and made the label for her quilt. I made the label for my Barn Star Sampler, and I got the binding sewn to the front and have been working on hand stitching it to the back. Business wise, I had three quilts come in from a client in Colorado this month, and I also trim and bind for her. I have two of those ready to ship back, and have one left to bind. I am currently working on a custom job for client that is her entry in an upcoming show. My “sew-jo” is in full force right now. Really enjoying working on my projects.
My great-niece’s stip mirage during quilting.
I guess this isn’t so much a label for the back, but more of a name tag. I will sew one of my little tags I had made that has my business name and made by information into the binding, as well.
Weather here is psycho again. We were plunged into arctic temps this week, and currently it is -4 with a windchill of -17. But Sunday, we are supposed to be almost 70! Weather whiplash! I hope you are warm and having a great week. Thanks for stopping by.
Before washing.As close to a label as it’s getting. It says “handmade by Randi Ortega” on the backside of the tag. After washing.
I was aiming for a very old fashioned, vintage quilt look and I think I achieved that goal. It’s a cheery little quilt that makes me think of sunshine and blue skies. Pattern by Kairle Oakes, Virgin River Quilt Co. I purchased new fabric for the top, but was able to clear almost 4 yards from my stash for the backing.
One of the things that took up a lot of my time last year, along with the fact that I’m in the process of building a second house at the ranch, was that I agreed to make three large t-shirt quilts for a grieving family. It felt like a monumental task, and I had to get them all done by Christmas. Which I did! I’ll add that I do not enjoy making t-shirt quilts. It’s simply not my jam, but I was thankful to have the opportunity to make these as I dearly love the sweet family, and the loved one they lost. She was a beautiful, vibrant mother, grandmother, super active member of our community and was killed by the tornado that tore through our small town in 2023. I felt God gave me the gift of being able to do something for them, when I was at a loss to figure out what I could possibly do to comfort them. Anyway…once that was behind me, I felt free to return to my own projects and my sewjo mojo is back with a vengeance!
I hope to really tackle some older UFO’s, WIPS and squeeze in some new projects as well this year. I have actually made a list to track my progress. I was hoping to finish one UFO a month. Well, I picked one for January and I almost made it to the finish line before the month was over. It is on my longarm and I’ve almost completed the custom quilting on it, so I will get the binding done as soon as I complete that. My January pick was the quilt I started in 2023 that was supposed to be my entry for our quilt guild challenge, due at the October 2024 meeting, but didn’t finish in time since I took on the t-shirt quilts. (I won’t be sharing the t-shirt quilts out of respect for the family’s privacy.) The pattern for this one is called Douple Dip quilt and it’s a free pattern from Kairle Oaks, Virgin River Quilt Company, on Instagram. The guild challenge was to make a two color quilt. I purchased new fabrics for the top and binding, but I did get 4 yards out of my stash for the backing.
Completed TopQuilting in Progress
I’ll share again once completed. I have so many new projects I’m dying to work on, so as long as I’m working on a UFO or older WIP, I’m allowing myself some new projects time each month, as well. I don’t usually do the “word thing” for a new year, but this year I have decided that I must be a finisher and not just a starter 😂 so I guess my word to focus on this year is FINISH. I have way to many works in progress or unfinished projects that haven’t been actively worked on in years, and that must change.
So, the new project recap is that I started on my challenge quilt for this year’s guild challenge, which is to make a quilt that uses half square triangles. I had a quilt kit that I bought several years ago that fit the bill perfectly, so I pulled it out and got started, and I almost completed the whole top in January. It just needs the flange and border added to be ready for quilting. The pattern and fabric is Rural Jardin from French General. I love it so much!
Center Portion of Rural Jardin Quilt Top
I’ve also wanted to make a pineapple quilt forever, and this quilt kit was quite generous with the fabric and there’s a decent amount of scraps, so I pulled out a pack of pineapple paper piecing blocks from It’s Sew Emma that I purchased from The Fat Quarter Shop. This will be a long term project, unless I get quite a bit speedier as I go. It takes me almost an hour to do one block. I’ve had two Instagram quilting friends recommend the Creative Grids pineapple rulers for future projects. These are turning out so pretty!
I also made a little heart from Lella Boutique’s free valentine heart pattern to give to my step-grandson and his wife, in celebration of what would have been their sweet angel baby’s 1st birthday. She passed away in the womb at full term and was delivered straight into the arms of Jesus on January 23, 2024. When I saw Vanessa’s pattern, I thought how perfect to remember our sweet Ella June.
I have also started trying to learn crochet and some embroidery. This post is already quite long, so I’ll save that for its own post. I hope 2025 is treating you well! Thanks for stopping by!
Sometimes simple custom quilting is the perfect touch to make a quilt shine. My client requested custom quilting, but wanted it simple, with just background stipple around the butterflies. I think it turned out very nicely! What do you think? Are you a fan of the simple stipple, no absolutely not? Personally, I think it has its place, for sure.
July 5th, we went to the ranch and I took one of my older quilts with me to take some #quiltsinthewild pics with it. I hung it on this section of fence by the old garage, and as I knelt down to straighten the bottom corner by that little cedar tree, while my head was right next to the tree, a loud hissing noise came from inside of it. I jumped back, not knowing what was making that sound so close to my face.
I walked around to the other side of the tree to investigate. At first, I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing, at first glance my brain thought melting snow, but it’s July, so obviously not that, lol.
And then, I noticed the feet.
Two fluffy baby turkey vultures! What a complete surprise to find those under that cedar. I was obsessed with them this summer. I was worried for them with so many predators around, but I’ll save you the worry and put a spoiler alert here. As far as I can tell, they made it to flight stage just fine. I have to run now, but there will be more to see on these two in upcoming posts! Have a fabulous Friday!
Gosh y’all…it’s been a minute! Summer was incredibly busy, and I just pretty much let my posting on all my media accounts slide. Thought I’d pop in quickly this morning as I try to get back on track. Keeping up with blogging, IG and FB does tend to be a big time sucker and I just needed a bit of a break while I focused on other aspects of life. I spent lots of time with my grandsons this summer, and lots to keep up with in my quilting work, plus I got started on a BIG project at the ranch that I’ve been dreaming about for the past 4 years. I’ll get to that in future posts, but the summer was great. All is well and I appreciate those that missed me and reached out to check! Thank you!
At the beginning of June, we had a lovely getaway with my son and his family to Red River, NM. We hiked to the top of one of the mountain trails, and we all made it, including the youngest grand, who is 7. It was a great day and precious memories made.
Hubby and me after making it to the top. What a beautiful view as a reward for our efforts. My son. He was still just a kid when I started this blog, and now he’s a 33 year old husband and father. Just starting out. It was just a spectacular day.
Thanks for taking time out of your day to stop by. I’ll be recapping more of the summer and catching up with my blog reading as I go. Now, I’m going to give the golden doodle another brushing before he goes to the groomer this morning.
Whew! Just unloaded a huge client quilt from the longarm. 106” X 113” of snuggly flannel for a lucky little boy! Quilted with edge to edge digital design, Tire Tracks from Urban Elementz. This quilted up so nicely! I know my client will be pleased. She was so hard on herself about the quality of her work. This quilt is great! I’m telling her she needs to ease up on herself. Nothing is perfect, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful, anyway! It was actually quite square and I had zero issues with it. Even being ginormous, lol. It was a joy to work on!
It pushed the limits of my leaders, for sure.
We missed the tornadoes Thursday, thankfully, but my heart breaks for those in Nebraska and Iowa that did not. Now, our neighbors in Oklahoma are under the threat today. Sure hope they are spared.
I finished two more of the 24” blocks for the Barn Star Sampler I’m making. This block was pretty fun to make. I didn’t have to use the seam ripper near as much as I did on the last block.
After I finished them, I took all the blocks I have so far and laid them out on the basement floor following the layout in the pattern. You can see I still have several little blocks left to make and two more 24” blocks to fill in the empty spaces. I mostly used fabrics from my stash, but I did have to purchase some extra background and some darker teal, as I just didn’t have much of that color in my stash. I think I’m going to be pleased enough with it once it’s all together.
One thing that frustrates me is that this one fabric isn’t photographing the way it looks to the naked eye. At least not the way it looks to mine. The fabric in the background of this smaller block looks like a nice dusty rose pink, very similar to the pink in the large block next to it, but in photos, it has an orangish or brownish tint, and just looks kind of yuck next to the other blocks. I’ve tried all different kind of lighting, and it doesn’t look good in any photos.
Finally, here it is again on top of the whole stack of blocks. It really makes me wish I had used a different fabric for the blocks I used it in, but I’m not going to remake them. Especially not since they look good enough in person. 🤷🏻♀️
I have been working on client quilts, as well, and will catch up sharing some of those here soon. I’m also working on a very special t-shirt quilt project for a sweet local family, but that is super secret for the time being. Eventually, I will get to share about that here. My “sewjo” seems to be in full swing lately, and I’m here for it!
We are under the gun today for potentially very severe storms. Some rain sure would be nice, but praying we dodge the bullet on all the bad stuff. They are saying on the radio, as I type, that we could have large hail and tornadoes. They are saying that we should actually hope for no rain today, because if we “break through the cap” enough for moisture, we will also see bad storms in this one. We have a 40% chance of wind, hail, and possibly tornadoes. 😬 😩
I have been very busy this past week. It was a good week, just busy. I started and finished a custom quilting job, but it’s going to a guild challenge, so can’t share just yet, tho I doubt any of the guild members are reading this. Probably better safe than sorry. I started yet another project. I can’t seem to stop starting fun new projects before I finish others. This was the absolute high light of my quilting week…one of my sweet grandsons wanted to do some of the sewing on this latest project I had going. I have been wanting to try the fold and sew method of making blocks with a layer cake and charm square pack. I chose the Strawberry Lemonade collection from Sherri McConnell and Chelsi Stratton. Here is my little helper at work.
And, some of the finished blocks.They are fun to sew, but I’m wondering if the seams are going to be a bit too bulky once I start sewing to to each other. Also, some of the prints on bottom do shadow through the top charm square, so I will probably trim out the center on the back of those. It makes a nice size lap quilt.
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 