My goal for today is to sew a giant four patch. This action will complete the Split Nines quilt top. I carefully webbed/pieced together four quadrants of 8 blocks by 8 blocks rather than doing 16 blocks across and down. Each quad took about an hour to complete and I think it was much easier to wrestle through the harp. I did end up changing the layout, and added 12 plain nine patches to make all the rounds repeat the center one. I still have an about a thousand 2 ½ inch squares left, but all the Hsts I made are used.

The Noel quilt got quilted and I put the Moondance top on and quilted it with a simple Baptist Fan design. I played bobbin chicken on the last row, and lost on the last fan. I had a bobbin with only a few yards on it so I popped that in and finished it. Since this quilt is only 60 inches square, I was able to roll it up on the frame and add two wall hangings to the same 108 wide backing piece. The kaleidoscope is a digital Hoffman print and the top I made from the Strawberry Fizz rolls fit on there too. I think I am going to call that one Strawberry Basket, the green squares remind me of the plastic baskets the berries are sold in. I have a set of digital designs for the kaleidoscope, similar to the Big Dream Dahlia I did recently. That reminds me, I need to bind that. I think I want to do a clam shell or orange peel on the SB quilt.

I started the Good morning blanket, after dutifully finishing the pink scarf, the yarn was delivered a few days after I ordered it. Sadly, the first block is the white rectangle and I didn’t get to break into one of the 32 colors yet. The hobbit house got a little less attention this week, but I really want to finish it before the next pattern, the Treehouse, gets here. It’s funny to me that when I signed up for this stitch-a-long, I thought I would have time to stitch other smalls while waiting for the next installment.

I bought some fabric this week and a quilt kit. The kit is for a quilt from the Tilda Fabric company, the pattern celebrates their 25th year in business. I hadn’t really heard of them until recently, but they have beautiful colorful fabric lines. The pattern is a free download at Tilda’s World, along with a lot of other nice ones. I bought a jelly roll of Mad Masquerade to add to the few yards I have from that line. I also picked up a few things at the sale at Green Fairy Quilts. Through looking for a appropriate pattern for the Halloween themed collections, I found a new to me online retailer called Bear Creek Quilting Company too, They are in Oregon, and also have lots of sale items this week. I found this free pattern there called Under A Spell. I think it’ll work with the Mad Masquerade line well.

Time to start my sewing day.

Be Kind.

I have been sewing blocks like a mad/crazy person these past few days. I only have 26 more to do, I have sewn 230 so far of the 256 I need for the split nine’s quilt top I have in mind. Amazingly enough I can see the bottom of my 2 ½ inch squares box, there are still plenty of squares in there for another project or two. I am excited to finish these, and put it all together. I figured out how many yards of fabric the 2 ½ inch squares would be if they were all cut from the same piece. There are 224 in a yard, and I used 6 per block so 1536 (white and colors)that makes about 6 and 3/4 yards. There are 6 half square triangles in each block, also 1536 pieces. There are about 336 – 2 ½ inch triangles in a yard, so 4 ½ yards for those. 11 and 1/4 yards for this top, it makes a dent in the stash.

The Hobbit house is slowly being built, I didn’t stitch last night. I did get the first window done, and I think I have about ten more days until the Tree house (#6) pattern arrives. The picture is posted on the web site, Cottage Garden Samplings. It’s pretty cute, I like the birds, especially the cardinal. I have all the called for flosses for it too.

The weather has been so nice lately, that I can’t seem to find time to finish the quilting on the Noel quilt. The room that it is in looks out to the back yard and this time of the year is when it looks its best out there. The sun is shining and there is still some moisture in the ground from the winter rains and everything is blooming and green. Maybe tonight I’ll get it finished. I have to finish knitting a scarf I started in February. I think I wrote about the yarn I had ordered in November and that it finally got here in February. I started a simple scarf with it and then decided I needed it to be larger, so I ordered another skien of the recycled cashmere and I am down to the last few rows. It’s mindless knitting, stockinette, but it will be a soft and cozy scarf for me. I would like to finish so I can start a new blanket that I bought the yarn for today. It’s a cotton yarn from Purl Soho called Cotton Chirp. I am going to make the Good Morning blanket and a few other goodies. The 32 colors seem vibrant and saturated, plus it is machine washable. Simple garter stitch, more mindless knitting, but the colors are exciting.

Be Kind.

In for a Penny In for a pound.

idiom. British. used to say that a person should finish what he or she has started to do even though it may be difficult or expensive

That’s how I feel about my Split Nines project. It started as a way to get my bin/box of 2 ½ inch squares reduced. This bin also contained a bunch of HSTs too. I needed 1008 squares and 504 HSTs to make a top that will be 72″ by 84″. I started by cutting a few more white and off white HSTs with the Accuquilt cutter die. It cuts 16 triangles from a 8″ x 9″ piece of fabric. I think I must have gotten carried away, as I soon found I had more than enough cut. I also found a bunch that were already cut in the bin. I spent two sewing sessions making about 700 of them. Yeah, a few too many, but I was thinking I could use them as an outer border. Last night I started putting some of the nine patch blocks together, they go pretty quickly, once you have all the HSTs done. Definitely not expensive, as no new fabric has been or will be purchased for this project. The only difficulty is avoiding boredom, but it is an interesting way to wander through ones fabric collection. I remember most of the projects each square/fabric came from, it is like a trip down memory lane, is that strange?

I am sticking with the layout that Bonnie Hunter used in the free pattern/guide she has. It is based on a quilt she calls Perkiomen Valley Split 9 patch. I found this explanation:

The Perkiomen Valley quilt design is named for the Perkiomen Creek that flows diagonally through Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. This is an early documented pattern from the Germans who settled in this area. 

The design is made of nine-patch blocks split by a diagonal, thus creating a dark and light color scheme. It’s the way these blocks are put together that makes the Perkiomen Valley quilt design, which is said to represent the hills and valleys. Typically a scrap quilt, the layout always results in a square, 10 blocks across and 10 blocks down.

Atypically, my top will be a bit larger 12 blocks by 14, although, I could make it 16 x 16. I would need about 20 more HSTs. It’s a possibility, plus just think of all the squares I would use up. There would be 768 hsts, and 1536 squares, I might even begin to see the bottom of this bin.

The Hobbit house is about 40% stitched. On the FB group I follow for this year-long stitch-a -long, one person is done with it. She started the same day I did, 4/11, she is a pretty quick stitcher. Each house is in an area 120 stitches by 120, I’d say the area is about 75% filled, so roughly 10,000 little X stitches. (Yay math!) She finished in 15 days, thats approximately 650 stitches a day. I think I average about 300 a day, and I usually stitch for about 2 hours. The previous 4 houses took me about three weeks to stitch.

With this house, I have started to use bees wax on my threads. I have a small tin of it, and by pressing my thumb over the thread, I pull the thread through to get a light coating. I found that the threads were fraying and breaking as I used them and were looking fuzzy. I usually use a ten inch length piece to avoid this, but it was still happening. My theory is that the Aida cloth is rougher than the linen and other even weave cloths I have used and the thread wears out faster.

I did finally finish the Strawberry Picnic quilt this week, needs binding though. I put the Noel quilt on next, and I’m about ½ way through it. Once the Split Nine patch quilt is done, it’ll free up my sewing table and I can get the bindings done on those two three, (don’t forget Morning Glory). I also go the Spot-on quilt top together, it will join the TBQ pile too. Next up is the Moondance Revival, as the backing for it was delivered.

Lastly I finished block 6 of the Simple Days quilt top. I have three more to do, 8,9 and 3, I don’t know why I missed 3, but I still have to construct the block, then embroider it. Eight and Nine are made, just need embellishments.

Time to get a move on, the day is passing quickly.

Be Kind.

Todays “chore” is to get 6 quilts styled and photographed to post on Etsy. Yesterday I gathered them all up and steamed them to get fold lines out. Now I am just waiting for the sun to come out so I can get some good natural lighting, probably around 11am. I really should do these photo shoots more often, but during the winter good lighting is hard to come by. I try to get eight to ten shots of each, I have a list made by Quilty Love that I use as a guide. Still its easier to get them all out, set up the photo site and do them one at a time.

This week I finished up the five quilt tops from last weeks scrap using sessions. I started a new kit that I got a few months ago. It is from Connecting Threads, called Spot On. I got it all cut out and have started making the blocks. It is simple piecing and lots of assembly line sewing, make forty-two of everything. I like the fabric line, general store, it’s probably not readily available as it was a line from last year. It is sort of a 1930’s repro, but in more primary colors.

My next project is going to be a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Split Nine Patch, it’s a free pattern from Quiltville. I have a very big pile of 2 ½ inch squares and a smaller pile of HST’s. This quilt uses about 1000 squares and 500 HSTs, it might make a dent. I still have a quilt top that I made a few years ago, from Wedding Dress Blue, ‘Growing up Odd‘ and it used up a bunch. I have made lots more scraps since then, and the top is still in the TBQ pile. I bought fabric this week, two backings for quilt tops, Indigo Way and Moondance. Plus Fat Quarter shop had a sale on Jelly rolls, so I picked up one of those. It is from the Queen of ‘Ween collection, that I have a bunch of already. Hoping to get a quilt idea for this halloween themed fabric.

The Hobbit House is taking shape, the door at least. What I thought were sheep are actually pigs, very clean pigs. I can’t remember if Hobbits raised pigs or sheep, I kinda thought they were vegetarians. I didn’t work on it yesterday, instead I pulled out a Simple Days block and got most of the embroidery done on it. I hope to finish up the appliqué parts and the rest of the stitching tonight. Maybe while the Q24 stitches another row of strawberries on the Picnic quilt.

Be Kind.

Five quilts made for (almost) the price of one. I can’t remember when I bought the fabric to make this quilt, I got it from Craftsy/Bluprint, so thats an age (2018) or so ago. I was going to make the quilt pattern called Field Trip, the kit contained two rolls of 9 inch wide-WoF, 19 different prints from the line called Strawberry Fizz. I just did the math, it’s about nine yards of fabric. The original pattern is no longer available, but Busy Hands quilts has a similar one called Scrappy Goodness. This past week I was determined to use up all of this fabric. First there is “Picnic Plaid” (a Busy Hands pattern). Then the “Morning Flower patch” (from JTCPQ), the “Tessa quilt” (from Kitchen Table Quilting), Super Star (from the booklet Simple Treasures by Ankas Traeasures), and lastly “Lovers Lane” (from JTCPQ).

A few of these quilt tops were modified, as I made the pieces a little smaller. I wanted to use the Accuquilt dies I have on hand to cut the HSTs and the strips. The remaining scraps will be cut into 2 ½” squares. No more Strawberry Fizz for me, thank you. Now it’s on to something else from the stash. Maybe Halloween themed?

In other finishing news, the Cottage from the Fabulous House series is complete. I stayed up late one night and stitched the last of the flowers. Although looking at it here I realize I forgot three little leaves in the left hand border. I’ll get them done before I start the Hobbit house. I can’t start that one yet, as I am waiting on the pattern to arrive. It was supposed to be here yesterday, but alas, USPS didn’t deliver for me. These houses are small, about 6 inches square. The Cottage was a bit boring, too many bricks to stitch, I like the way it turned out though.

Today I am going to try to get the quilting done on the Morning Glory quilt, and finish off the Lovers lane top. The weather has been very conducive to being outdoors this past week, rain is coming Saturday. Good stay in and sew time.

Be Kind.