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.
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!
I didn’t get too very much accomplished, but I did get the blocks for my great niece’s quilt all laid out and ready to stitch together. It’s another Strip Mirage, (pattern from Sew Yeah Quilting) and I used a jelly roll I have had in my stash for quite a long time. A little bonus stash busting with this one.
I got the all the pieces for the next block in my Barn Star Sampler cut out. These will make two identical 24” blocks. And, I got to try out this nifty notion I ordered from Belle Bruner of Seams So Me. I follow her on Instagram and she posted these cool clips she designed to organize your quilt pieces. I love them!
They came in this cute little bag with a cute little sticker.
Here they are keeping my block pieces organized and identified.
They come in a set from A – N, and N was the only one not used for this block set.
I’m very happy with this purchase! They will join my list of favorite notions. Wishing you all a great week ahead! Thanks for stopping by!
This past week, my quilting attention went mostly to this lovely Optical Illusions quilt that I am quilting for a client. She made it for her 16 year old grandson. I felt a little intimidated by it at first, but this has actually turned out to be so much fun to work on. The center part is just straight line quilting through the intersections, in such a way as to enhance the 3D-ness of the piece. It’s just really cool. I’m doing all the black thread parts first, and then I will switch and finish up with the white. All I have left with black is the very outside border, and whatever I end up doing in the inner sashing. The outside borders will be the same as the pattern I put in the inside border corner pieces.
I’ll share pics of the whole quilt once I get it off the frame. I had to take a pause on the mermaid I was quilting because my client ordered little eye and mouth appliqués that she wanted me to stitch onto the face and we are still waiting on them. One of those times zippers on my longarm leaders came in handy. I was able to zip it off and lay it on my guest bed in the meantime, and move on to the next client quilt.
Last week, my Sunday Funday sewing time ended on a down note. I thought I was zipping along, making good progress on the diamond star blocks for my Barn Star Sampler. I was working on assembling the four corner units for each of the two blocks. Well, I don’t know how I goofed up so badly, but I sewed a total of 32 half square triangles into their units backwards or upside down. Good grief! I spent some quality time with my seam ripper, and felt for sure the pieces would then be distorted enough that they wouldn’t go back together nicely. I finished redoing them this afternoon, and I now have all 8 corner units done, and they didn’t turn out badly at all. The next step is to make 16 elongated flying geese units. Hopefully, I will get those sewn together without mishap. 😂
I’m no stranger to the seam ripper, but that was a much bigger mistake than normal. I’m ready to get these two giant blocks behind me. I was supposed to have finished my blocks in February, and then assembled the quilt top last month, according to the QAL schedule. Obviously, I didn’t make it on schedule. This block is month 9, so after it I have blocks to do for months 10 & 11, then the mini filler blocks and top assembly for month 12. I haven’t decided if I’m going to custom quilt it, or do a pretty edge to edge on it. I’m kind of leaning to doing an all over edge to edge. We shall see when I get there, I guess!
I’m curious to see how noticeable the eclipse will be here tomorrow. We are not in the path of totality, and that suits me just fine. Sounds like it’s going to be crazy in those areas with so many flocking in to see it. I find them (eclipses and gigantic crowds) kind of unnerving for some reason, so I’m just fine staying where I am, and going about business as usual.
I did get some exciting news from an area quilt show this weekend, but I’ll share that in an upcoming post! If you’ve made it this far and are still with me, thank you for stopping by!
The first project I worked on today was the machine sewn binding on the quilt I’m making for my great-nephew. Then I pulled out a WIP I started last February. I joined Shelley Cavanna’s Barn Star Sampler quilt along, and should have been assembling my quilt top this month, but I fell behind in December. Today, I cut out all the pieces for my next block. Just as I finished cutting the pieces, we had an unexpected thunderstorm that brought hail, and a tornado that caused some damage on the south side of town. Not fun considering my town was hit by a bad tornado last June, killing three people, injuring many more and leaving many homeless. Businesses were also lost. Anyway, we are fine. And, now it’s supposed to snow tomorrow!
Is anyone else reading doing the Barn Star Sampler?
After everything calmed down, I finished the hand stitched binding on my friend’s commissioned quilt.
Memorial quilt and nephew’s quilt
Thankful not to have lost anyone or our home today in this tornado. Counting my blessing as I go to sleep.
By the time yesterday was done, I had worked a bit on FIVE different quilts. Well six, if you count the prep work on a customer top I’m fixing to start quilting. But I made a little bit of progress on five of my own WIP’s. Yay!
I made great headway on my Boston Commons. I have one more row like these, then adding white fabric around and between, a pieced border, and then I am going to add an additional plain border all around so I have some more space to quilt feathers in. The original pattern, which is by Darlene Zimmerman, ends with a narrow border of the the squares and white triangles.
While I was sewing Gracie’s Star together, and while I was piecing on the above quilt, I worked on my leaders/enders quilt, Oklahoma Backroads, and I had my embroidery machine running, cranking out some blocks for a red & white Christmas quilt.
And then, when I went to bed, I took my 9P & stripe quilt with me, and worked on knotting and burying some of the thread tails I left on it. I should have done it while I was going along on it…now it feel like I will never get them all done. 😦 I’m glad I decided to go back to a backtack before I finished. And I still have to bind it!
I did get my backing and binding picked out for Gracie’s Star. Now I just have to decide on which quilting pattern I want to use. I think it’s a bit dark & busy to spend a lot of time on custom, but a pretty allover will finish it off nicely.
The first part of this year I just kept starting new projects. Maybe this last part will be about finishing! I would like to finish these projects I have started with my stash fabrics!
Hi y’all! I’m back from our trip. Golf was not kind to my son last week. But he kept an amazing attitude the whole time. I am so proud of that kid. He never lost his cool, and put every hole behind him and tried his best on the next one.
I also wanted to say I am loving using Google Reader to keep up with my blog reading. I caught up with so many posts yesterday, and it was so easy. I got my whole blogroll moved over to it, and will be adding some new ones to it, as it makes it soooo much easier to keep up with all y’all.
I looked for a cool quilt shop to visit while in Abilene, but wasn’t able to find one. So, as far as my stash report, it remains unchanged. None in, none out. However, this weekend I have gotten to get back to quilting on my 9P & stripe, and it is a stash project. A big one. I have another set of borders finished, two to go. And, I’m afraid the final two will be problematic, because I did not follow the rules. I did not have enough fabric to leave myself enough extra backing on the edges. Since it’s my own quilt, I’m going to try to forge ahead, but I may end up having to try to add some strips, which will not be easy at this point. Someone slap me. I know better, really. Yesterday, I quilted the swags and beadboard, and today I did the Georgian feather strip. I love feathers. I love quilting feathers. A few progress pics for you, even though they aren’t much different than what I’ve posted from this one before. But, I’ve been seriously lacking blog content lately, and I guess same old, same old is better than none at all.
I don’t think my reports are about stash busting any more, but what I’ve done with my stash. I added 5 yards of Kona white cotton back to the stash, since I’m using what I had in my Boston Commons. That is a staple I like to keep on hand. I finished by sawtooth star blocks, finally. And, I think I might like them all together, after all. If you’ve been following my progress on them, you may remember this previous post, where I posted the ones I had finished together, and then divided into different color groupings and settings. Well, here is the whole lot of them, finished and laid out how I would sew them together, if I decide to follow the original pattern.
I think I do like it. My husband likes it. How about a poll?
To see how they looked divided into orange and no orange groups, click the link to the previous post, mentioned above. I’m curious to see which one wins. Doesn’t mean I’ll follow it, but I might!
I know it’s usually thankful Thursday, but I’m going early this week on some things. My Dad is doing much better. Everything seems to be resolving and doesn’t look like anything too serious is going on with him. Yay! My husband had some tests a week ago Friday, one involving what the doctor suspected was another cancerous mole. But it wasn’t! Yay! And while he was having that biopsied, he also had the blood test that screens for prostate cancer, and that came back normal, also. Yay!
And I’m thankful for all my blogging friends that sent prayers and kind thoughts. And thank you all for the encouragement you’ve given about my 9P & stripe! So many sweet comments. I appreciate them all!
I’ve been doing a bit of piecing on my star blocks again, but I don’t think they are going to end up in the pattern that was intended. I love the blocks, I love the fabrics, I’m just not loving them together. So, I think this project is going to go a different direction, which will require a bit of extra thinking on my part…lol. I think that it’s the orange fabrics not going with the reds…maybe. At least not when they are butted next to each other, like the pattern.
When I pull out the orange ones, I like it better.
And the oranges aren’t bad on their own.
But I’m still not really feeling it. Maybe it’s a value thing…I’m not really sure why I don’t like it, it just doesn’t seem to be working. But I know these block have the potential to be an awesome quilt, or maybe more than one quilt.
So, I looked closely at the fabrics, and notice that several share a similar green accent color, that happens to be very close the color of this bolt I bought to use for backing fabric. And I wondered, what if I set them on point, and used this green for setting blocks and triangles?
Or, sashing and setting triangles, with the blocks on point, which I think is my favorite.
Even like this, I don’t think the polka dots and oranges go with the rest, and will figure out a way to put them together, on their own. What do you think? Am I on a better track with this?
I haven’t posted a stash report for the last couple of week, because I’m still working on the same quilt. Still quilting on my 9P & stripe quilt, but just remember, it is a stash project! 🙂 You can see the progress on it in every post since mid-May. I now have approximately 31.25 hours into the quilting. I did get the outer top border done, and I have all the setting triangles and blocks quilted now, except for the very last row.
Top border:
I was afraid of doing the beadboard down to the swags, because of the backtracking there, but I did fine on that.
What I didn’t do quite right, and didn’t notice til after I had all the beadboard done, was a couple of the swags…apparently I didn’t have them lined up just right, and a couple are a little lower than they should be. I am not taking it all out to fix it. I can live with it, and have learned to pay closer attention to that detail in the future. 🙂
This is the stencil I chose for the setting triangles. It’s from Barbara Chainey.
I have this much left to quilt, to get to the bottom, then I will turn it the other way and quilt the side borders.
It doesn’t look like much, but based on how long it took me to quilt the top borders and the other setting triangles, I’m guessing about 7 more hours to turning. I love that Georgian feather in the stripe border, but that first one took about three hours to stitch. I love the way it looks, though, so I think it’s worth the time.
So, even thought my stash numbers aren’t changing, I’m so glad to be getting the quilting done on this very large stash quilt. If I get nothing else finished this year, I’ll still feel great about getting this one done!
I spent a very anxious morning waiting by the phone. My Mom called and she was taking my Daddy out to the ER. They came to see me yesterday for a visit, and we had a nice day, but Daddy wasn’t feeling well. He was having stomach issues, which worsened overnight. They gave him an IV at the ER, as he was dehydrated, and ran some blood work, which looks ok, and sent him on home. He will be seeing his regular doctor tomorrow, so I’m glad he is following up with this.
I have a busy, somewhat stressful week ahead, so I may not get much quilting done this week. I hope you have a good week!
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 