Sew many pieces together and make a block or two or 32. I have been sewing the blocks for the star bright quilt the past few days. Each diamond log cabin has 17 pieces and 7 colors, all on a paper foundation. I think that trying to make this block without a foundation would be a terrible idea. Maybe if there was a special ruler involved, but the chances for error are great, seam allowances are very important in getting this block to be the right size. I read ahead to the construction phase, and Y seams are employed, imagine trying to get wonky diamonds to play nice. I have an older UFO that suffered from a similar construction mishap. It was (is) the maze pattern called Labyrinth Walk, lots of diamonds and bias edges. I’m still not ready to re-start that one, it might just get culled in next years de-cluttering.

I am hoping to finish these blocks up today. Although I have 5 that I have to wait for more fabric to come for. I mistakenly didn’t order enough of the graphite gray, and was short a few strips. 27 blocks done is a good start, and the complimentary blocks are a bit simpler. Strip piecing and more assembly line cutting.

I am trying to find an appropriate pantograph for the Starry Nights quilt. There are some zodiac themed ones out there, but none that will work for me. I am toying with the idea of making my own, I have the software, and sort of the knowledge. I want to do something like this print, the symbols for the signs in a swirly pattern. How hard could it be? The hardest part is setting up the laptop and remembering how to use the windows program -ew.

I am almost finished with the last page of the Consider the lilies cross stitch. I have five more motifs and five more border flowers. Yesterday I devoted a few hours of time to it, mostly while talking on the phone. I also got notification that the four patterns from Nashville that I “liked” were in stock. I ended up buying two, the Bird in the Berry Patch from Luminous Fiber arts and Hearts Garden from Blue Flower. I got the thread pack for Hearts garden, as I didn’t have any of the Weeks dye works threads called for. I am going to finish the Lilies soon, I was looking at the piece yesterday, to see where I needed to fill in flowers on the top border and saw that the year I put in the personalization space was 2023. I might change it, because it really didn’t take me three years to stitch it, but three years to finish it. A hyphen would look weird, I’ll think on it a bit.

Be Kind.

Three down and one across its like a puzzle or a parking lot in my sewing room. This weekend was a good sewing time. I finished three small quilts and got the Quandary quilt back on the frame. Plus I started organizing for the first of three commissioned quilts. The three smalls bound and done were a custom quilting, the second Awesome Ocean and the last (hopefully) Thomas quilt. Plus I sold two more quilts (including #150) to end February on a high note in the shop.

This week I want to get a good start on the Starburst Quilt. It is a paper foundation pattern, yesterday I spent some time printing the papers for the 32 log cabin diamonds. The version I want to make is purple and green, similar to the one pictured in center. I have all the fabric, I just need to take the next steps and get the pieces cut. I am hoping to use my Accuquilt 1 ½ ” strip cutting die for this. I foresee lots of assembly line sewing in my future.

I am still stitching away on the lilies, I am almost done with the border lilies, there are a few on the other sides of the border that need the yellow added to the centers. The mortar on the house is almost done too. I think I am going to start the Mirabella mermaid stitchery next. I got the pattern in April of last year, and recently found all the threads and beads needed for it. Maybe if I kit it up, I’ll have even more incentive to finish the lilies. On a sad note, the art and framing store where I got my last huge cross stitch piece framed, is closing. It was a great resource for art materials, paper, pens, paints as well as framing. It was family run for decades and a beautiful and well stocked store.

Be Kind.

I got a lot of sewing in yesterday, finished up the Starry Signs quilt top. It took me about eight hours on Monday to stitch the mountains section. You would think that these large size PFP pieces would be easy, but I found some difficult to wrangle and there was a bit of ripping involved. Whole Circle Studio has a good video on how to make large size FPP blocks on YouTube. It also helped that I precut all the pieces before hand. Usually I just cut strips and use them as I go. I am not sure how I want to quilt this yet, maybe part manually and part Qmatic. I was thinking of adding lines to the mountains to give them a bit more texture. Adding swirls to the clouds too, but the sky is so dark I think any custom designs would be lost. The original quilt has ½” spaced horizontal lines, very tedious to execute on a 88″ square quilt. I am really happy to finish up this BOM, and I can start something new.

Speaking of BOM, I got the second block of Merry Halloween ironed together. I need to figure out how I want to finish the edges and embellish them. I made Berties Year a few years ago, and it was a BOM with flannel. It was easy to do the hand embroidery on the blocks when they were separate. It was done with Perle cottons, I wonder if I have enough left overs from that to do this one too. It might be too much though with the thinner cottons of these blocks.

I also finished the Log cabin re-do quilt. I made the binding slightly larger than usual, 3″ wide. I sewed it to the back with a 3/8ths inch seam, so when it was folded over, it shows 5/8ths on the front. I am really happy with how this came out, and will be returning it to the happy couple tomorrow.

Today I am working on a Walker Saddle Bag, a By Annie Pattern. Lots of steps involved, I was able to quilt the main pieces last night and will try to get this mostly together today. I had to order some folded elastic, poly-webbing and a zipper in matching colors. This is one of those times I miss Joanns. Amazon actually had these available for delivery today. I feel like I should do some carbon neutral activities to offset this purchase though.

I was reading through Jo’s Country Junction the other day and she showed a new sampler from Heartstring Samplers called All things Wise and Wonderful. It’s going to be available at Nashville this coming month. I wish it had been around before I started the Lilies, I like it so much more. I doubt I will do another huge sampler of this type again. I would rather do a Long Dog Sampler, if I am going to invest a years worth of stitching. I really want to start a smaller piece – must be strong and finish Consider the Lilies.

Be Kind.

So (sew) many stars. The past few days, except yesterday, I worked on getting the Starry Signs BOM, from Whole Circle Studio together. Sunday and Monday I made the last monthly block, Sagittarius, and all the center stars. Thankfully I had the moon made, and the single stars were relatively easy compared to the constellations. In preparation for the queen sized quilt, one must first make the throw sized version. Then add three more borders to make it into an 88 inch square top. I am at that point right now. I need to set aside a day for making six more stars and the mountains. I did end up replacing the dark pinks I originally bought with two slightly darker shades. When I first started this quilt I purchased a ten yard bolt for the dark blue background fabric. I have about two and a half yards left, the pattern calls for about 11 yards for this version. I am wondering if I should order another yard or two to finish, I could use extra for binding.

I got the Log Cabin quilt loaded and started quilting it. I picked a feather panto that covers nicely, not too dense, but it will hold this quilt together for another ten years.

I am starting to feel like I am nearing the finish line on the Consider the Lilies cross stitch. I worked on the bottom right side border yesterday. I will confess that the two pieces didn’t match perfectly, off by one stitch. I was able to adjust it on the diagonal corner section. No one will ever know, the stitches are so small, and unless I point it out, I doubt anyone will notice. Thankfully the rest of the piece isn’t throw off. I did notice that my fox is two stitches lower than it should be. Hmm, now I am wondering if the other fox is low too.

I’ll admit to pre-ordering a few charts from Nashville, along with buying a full kit for a new project. It’s called Needleworker from Little House Needleworks. I thought it would look nice over my sewing room door.

The weather outside is frightful, I may just stay home and sew today.

Be Kind.

I got my machine back earlier this week. It is humming along, I didn’t get to talk to the tech when I picked it up, so I don’t have a full report of what was wrong. The receipt says lubricated feed dog cam and cutting knife. I am speculating that something was amiss after the cutting knife was replaced back in October. I celebrated by making the second Awesome Ocean quilt top. I think I am done with folded/cut off triangles for a good while.

This second Ocean was blue-er than the first. Although I kept the Kelp (peridot) green, I like the first coloration better, this client wanted more blue. I will be getting it quilted up this weekend, using the same panto as the first.

The backing came in the mail yesterday for the Log Cabin quilt. I spread it out on the longarm to relax over night, but got to thinking that I really should wash/shrink it before using it. So it is in the washer now, I am really happy with the quality of it. It’s a Northcott flannel, thick and soft, hopefully it washes well, I do expect some shrinkage. I am waiting on some black iron on interfacing to finish the repairs before I quilt it. There are holes left in the black center squares of the cabins from the knotted pearl cotton ties. I don’t want to replace all those centers, so a one inch square of iron on will patch them up.

This weekend I would like to get the last Starry sign block done. The fabrics I ordered for the mountains came in, but the pink and magenta I chose are a bit too bright. I re-ordered Bella solids in Berrylicous and a Petal pink to replace them. I am thinking that I will start the first of the commissioned wedding quilts this coming week. I need to print out the foundation papers for 32 blocks, each of them are made with two sheets of paper. I may try to use the laser printer for them, I can’t remember if that printer likes the newsprint or not. That printer has been sitting for a while, it has a fairly new cartridge in it, so I should be able to print all of them.

Be Kind.