My trip took me to the east coast of America, New England, Massachusetts. It is spring time there, everything is green and lush, flowering and moist. While there, I experienced rain storms, including one that dumped 5 ½” of rain in one day. Coming back to the west coast of America was a bit of an adjustment – visually. Here things had peaked back in April, now the grasses are done and the flowers continue, but not with the abandon of a few months ago. I returned to a bunch of fabric “someone” ordered and sent to my house. Packages of happiness and fun to open all at once. I haven’t found a place to put it all yet, so it is all free ranging in the sewing room.

I made some head way on the Tilda Birthday quilt, one corner of flowers and the name are stitched on. I managed that over a few nights of stitching, but I feel like the end of the appliqué is in sight. I also brought along a cable sweater, but ended up ripping out what I had stitched on the front panel. Note to self, knitting with dark colored yarn in low light is not going to yield accurate stitches. Mostly what I did in MA, was loving on a beautiful baby girl. Sigh, I miss her.

Two projects I have gotten done this week are the 48 QST blocks for the Blooming Beauty BOM, and I framed the Fabulous houses with the frame I got before I left. I need to get the Starry Skies June installment, Gemni, papers printed and start that block. Then I need to decide on a new project, I am wavering between a Log Cabin queen size, the Lollipops and Licorice kit, and the Lion Head quilt from Violet Craft. The fabric kit for this was in the happy packages, and I have the pattern.

I’ve added a few Xs to the Consider the Lillies cross stitch the past few evenings, almost done with this page. I am going to put it away to start a new birth sampler, I ordered the floss colors I don’t currently have, they should be here next week. I know I have said that I’m done with samplers, but this one is so pretty and not very large. I also want to get the long arm up and running, as I have a backlog of tops. In between cleaning this house up to be presentable for a guest this weekend. I also have a two quilts coming in from a client for quilting and binding.

Hitting the ground running. It feels good to be busy again, doing my own things, at the same time relaxing into the summer that is rapidly approaching.

Be Kind.

My Vacation time is looming up, and my time to finish my current projects is almost done. I feel pretty good about what I accomplished this week.

The Tummy time Mat (under the sea quilt) is together and ready to go. I made an envelope style backing with velcro closures and added it to the quilt. I sewed it all together, the quilt and the extra back, with a binding to match the front. Then I made a large liner cover to fit inside the pocket. I will fill the liner with two layers of thick poly batting to give a little cushioning. – Depending on how the parents feel about it, the baby is almost 6 months old at this point, but fluffy things are discouraged.

The forest fungi quilt is quilted and bound. I got the kit on 4/21 and finished the quilt on 5/7, pretty good turn-over rate. This is a gift for a friend who I will be seeing Sunday, so all good there. I used a washable wool batting for this batik quilt and I really like how it feels, light and airy. Plus, the quilting shows up just enough for a bit of texture. I find that batik quilts often look flat and can feel heavier than “regular” quilted fabrics. I used my go-to needle, 100 chrome universal, for the quilting, with no troubles. I whipped up the Starry Signs Taurus block too.

I wanted to get my take-a-long (the Tilda quilt) hand project ready to go. I am almost finished with the appliqué on the main piece, but needed to trace the top and bottom sections and get the fabrics basted on. I was able to get that started yesterday and decided to take only the top piece as there is probably enough to keep me busy. Today I’ll spend some time basting the rest of the flowers and leaves. It is my goal to finish this before November, I bought the kit on May 7 last year. That makes me laugh, I looked back to that post, 4 Patchy Patches. I had the best intentions of finishing it before November 2024, now I am shooting for November 2025. The other appliqué BOM, Message in a bottle, needs to be back in the rotation too. I started that as a BOM in August 2022, Hmm. Once I get back, I will take it out and assess. I think there are three more large appliqué blocks and a bunch of smaller pieced blocks left to do. Ew, looking at the pattern picture, I know I have not done any of the outer border blocks. I might try some machine appliqué techniques there, I really don’t like making the same blocks over and over even if they are scrappy.

I broke down and ordered a custom frame for the Fabulous Houses. I couldn’t find anywhere to order spacer bars in a small quantity, and the frame I have was not going to work. The new frame (18 x 24), acrylic sheet, backing and spacers were about a hundred dollars, shipping another 17.00, still way less than having it professionally done. I’ll tackle it once I return. More motifs have been stitched on the Lillies of the Field (started 7/23) piece. I have been trying to do more, but with all this busy-ness during the day, I find myself nodding off while stitching. Thankfully it’s not as dangerous doing so during other activities.

Okay now, that’s a wrap up for blogging for the next few weeks. I have a list of things to do when I get back too.

Be Kind.

This little quilt went together very quickly, no piecing and I even used a precut crib batting. I experimented with using a different needle on the long arm for this one. I normally use Universal chrome plate #100 needles from Schmetz. They usually work very well for me, I occasionally will switch up to a 110, but the 100s seem to do the job with the thicker #40 threads and the thinner poly-threads. Bernina has a Youtube video about picking the right needle for the job on their web site. After watching it I decided to experiment. My results were mixed, I tried to use their recommended Jeans #100 needle with a 40 wt poly thread for this project. I ended up switching back to the universal 110. There weren’t a lot of skipped stitches, but random toe catchers of an inch or more. Plus shredding at the needle with the jeans. These problems were alleviated somewhat when I added a healthy dose of thread lubricant to the thread path. Maybe it was my thread being too dry? Anyway the jury is still out on the Jeans needle. I got the last of the runners done and bound, and the Fungi quilt is on the frame and read to go today. I really want to get this quilt done this week, as my vacation is looming on the calendar.

The Taurus block for the Starry Signs BOM was begun too. I had to put it away to do the bindings, but I will finish it today. This block has thirteen stars, not the most of the constellations represented on this quilt, but after last months Aries four star, it seems like a lot. I did get all the blocks done for the Blooming Beauties BOM done last week too. The pattern has you put all the 4″ blocks together into the center for this quilt. I am going to do that next month, as my design wall has been covered with a Halloween quilt top and I am going to need a bit more brain effort to keep the blocks in the right pattern place. I am better at random, these are all laid out in a diagram in the pattern. So it will be a day of labeling the piles of blocks with letters and then carefully making the rows and columns.

Just a final note on the Glow in the dark thread experiment used for the last runner quilting. The spools were small, 100 yards each, I had just enough to stitch one row on the panto. I used my choice, universal 100 chrome needles to stitch with no trouble. Then I ordered another spool, which ended up being delayed, so I ordered another one from Jeff B. That one came in the mail first, so I thought I would be finishing the second and final row of quilting. Wouldn’t you know I was about two yards short? Then I had to wait three more days until the first ordered spool arrived. I really thought about just using some white thread to finish the tiny bit that was left – no one would notice. I was patient, and finished the runner. The seven of them are packed up and awaiting shipment tomorrow.

I started to get the frame ready to do the Fabulous Houses cross stitch piece. I think the frame I have isn’t going to work, as it isn’t deep enough. if I use it with the glass, I can’t use spacers, so the glass will be pressed on to the stitchery. I really want to use glass/acrylic on this piece to keep the dust and light from ruining it. I was looking at frames the other day from an online dealer, I may just order from them, plus they are having a sale. The Long Dog Sampler I did, Pilgrims Progress, was professionally done at a local shop, but it was $$$. I think the houses will be a little easier to do, as I used Aida cloth instead of linen. Which makes it much easier to get it straight on the backing board.

I have been stitching on the Consider the Lillies piece every day now. I sort of like the color changing and smaller sized motifs, I can stitch a few different ones each day and mix it up a bit. Finishing the center tree was milestone, I am on the sixth page now, the right side. I think I have to print the next row of pattern sheets out.

Be Kind.

The past three days I have been working on the Forest Fungi quilt top. Cut all the pieces the first day, made the oak leaves the second, and put together eight of the ten mushroom blocks. I was trying to do all the mushrooms at once, but it got confusing with the all colors, and that half the blocks are mirror image. The hardest part, for me, was piecing the ‘gills’ of the mushroom. I ended up doing two at a time, the color combo is the same, just one set is mirrored.

The fabulous houses piece was finished and I set about ironing it. I was trying to iron it dry, as some of the floss I used wasn’t colorfast. Most of the creases were flattened, but others were still visible. I ended up using my large rotary cutting board as a weight on top of the piece. I lay down a thin towel, then the cross stitch – face down, then put my mat on top of it. I was reminded of how Jack Reacher would carefully press his trousers in between the mattresses of his bed. I peeked at it, and it seems to be working. I am back to stitching on the Consider the Lillies piece. It is a bit more fun for me, as I can usually complete a motif in an hour or two. It was a bit of a mind re-set going back to linen from Aida cloth.

I had an idea for the last Pumpkin runner – glow in the dark thread. I had bought a spool for a machine embroidery project that didn’t get sewn, and my client was happy with the choice. I set about sewing the first row (of two) of the panto out. I won at thread chicken, but I needed another spool to do the second row. Apparently this panto is 99 yards of thread long. I tried to order another from the original vendor, but there was an issue with the credit card so it has been delayed. I ended up ordering another from Amazon, which should be here Wednesday. I am hoping to get these finished and out the door by Friday.

Once the frame is cleared, I need to get the mushrooms quilted, then a special quilted project. Last month I got a whole cloth quilting design of an underwater scene. It’s 40″x40″ sewn out. What I want to do is stitch it out as a quilt, then attach another backing by sewing it on with the binding. To make a sort of small duvet cover, I will then insert a thick polyester batting into the pocket. I probably should make a case for the polyester bat. My resulting creation will be a tummy time mat.

Be Kind.

ISQ stands for Incredibly Shrinking Quilt. Thats what I am re-naming the Mini Rings quilt I finished this week. If you read last weeks post I was looking for something to sew together. I had the pattern for the mini rings quilt on my to-do stack. A few months ago, Wasatch quilting had included a digital quilting package for this quilt in with the monthly pack I subscribe to. I thought it was a nice way to finish up a double wedding ring style quilt. A long time ago I made a queen-sized DWR quilt with FPP a pattern from Quiltworx/Judy Niemeyer. I didn’t have a longarm, so I brought it to my LQS to have it finished there. The LA person was helpful, and when I told her about my ideas for the quilting, she said it would be $$$. Plus, she thought the custom quilting would make the less than perfect piecing show more. Okay then. I settled for an all over design of leaves and vines, which was nice enough. When I think of the hours I spent putting the top together, it makes me feel like I could have done better by it. Back to 2025, and I have a smaller quilt pattern with quilting designs specifically made for it. I have made Sew-kinda-wonderful patterns before, using the Quick Curve Ruler designed by them. As I began cutting the fabrics and sewing them together I realized that this was a small block. I then read through the whole pattern, specifically the finished size 33″ x 44″. The blocks are 6″ – 5 ½” finished, I had originally looked at the block size where it is listed at 11 ½”. In my head I was making a block twice the size of the one on the sewing table. There are many steps to making one of these blocks. Lots of sew, press, and trim, sew, press, and trim, at one point I was doing the same steps 96 times. I chain pieced as much as I could and powered through them. Yesterday was the webbing and final piecing of the top. I took these four photos to show how much the quilt shrunk up as it went together. The pattern calls for 20 – 10″ squares, 2 1/4 yards background and 2 – 1/3 yards for the setting triangles. All that trimming and cutting used up most of the yardage. I am also rethinking the quilting motifs and which I can use. There are small ones to fit inside the arcs which, in my mind, are a waste of thread. The larger ones to fit in the two diamond shapes might be the ones I use. I may just sew parallel lines in the arcs and outline the inside wedge.

I am edging closer to finishing the Log Cabin or the Fabulous house series. I have two more motif things in the left hand corner. I am so ready to be finished with this project. I am concerned about finishing the piece, specifically ironing it flat. Many of the dyed flosses are not color fast, so I am hesitant to soak it or even mist it. I am wondering if it would be possible to soak it in synthrapol, then iron it and keep the bleeding down to nil. I may just do a test stitch with extra fabric and threads.

The kit for the Forest Fungi came in the mail yesterday. I want to get that started, as well as finishing the last pumpkin table runner. I am still a little undecided as to which color thread I want to use. I thought the aqua would be good, but maybe the purple. I really want to go with orange, the customer is very nice about it, saying “what ever you think”.

Be Kind.