Blog titles are tough some days. I want to come up with the title first and then the talk-y part. Anyway, it seemed like this week was productive. I got three quilts done, two sent out and one for the Shop. I finished the Hocus Pocus top, and the backing for it. Got the customer’s Candy Corn quilt on the frame, just waiting on him to choose a panto. I am quite proud of my pattern matching on the back of this one. I had to sew two widths together and match the flowers. I used a little school glue to help and had success.

I am still waiting on the last few yards of fabric to get here so I can finish the last Halloween quilt for the shop. I thought I had a good substitute, but when I got all the fabrics together for “Spooks and Spells” I wasn’t liking the mix. I started a table runner last night, it was a kit from Connecting Threads, using the Art Haus collection from them. I originally thought it was 2 ½ inch squares, but after reading through (good habit) the instructions I “discovered” they were 1 ½ squares, finishing at 1 inch. I used my handy Accuquilt strip cutter and quickly cut a million or so squares and enough strips. I think I have enough to make another runner or two. I will have to add some more Amish black, or maybe a different color background. I think I needed something mindless simple after all those cut corner squares and rectangles of the last three tops.

Lillies of the field has gotten a few more stitches. I worked on the peacock last night, this corner needs a few more motifs and the border. I should work on bringing the border around the corner. Looking back, I started this project in August 2023, after completing the Heaven and Nature sampler. In between, I finished the Fabulous Houses, the Manor, and a Baby Sampler. I really want to finish this, and start a smaller piece. I enjoy being a monogamis-tic cross stitcher, but I do have a back log of kitted up projects.

Be Kind.

In the last four days I managed to finish another top, for a customer. It wasn’t a particularly large quilt top, just lots of steps. This pattern uses the wasted triangles method of piecing, which is not one of my favorite methods. I really tried to get the pieces cut at angles and sewed with triangles. The CutCorners rulers are very helpful, using them saves a lot of fabric and I have a few less tiny cut off triangles. I guess if you’re into crumb blocks these are a windfall. I think I will add them to the recycle bin this week.

I am stitching away on the latest custom long arm project. It is all batik, the backing too, and it is causing me grief. I can’t seem to get even tension, the bobbin thread comes through, or it railroads on the back. The top thread shreds, or shows on the back, or everything looks lovely for about a hundred stitches. I have tried every trick I know to make the stitching consistent. This one has me stumped. I am seriously considering giving this one back with a discount, as it doesn’t represent my true skills. Since it is batik. there can be no ripping out and redoing. Plus this panto has a lot of backtracking and it is pretty dense. I have noted this and will not use this panto again without some modifications. I am so glad I am using 80 wt thread, otherwise it really would have been a disaster. I really need to finish this, because the custom quilt I am doing for a baby shower, just got pushed to the front of the line. The baby was 4.5 weeks early, so now I’m late. He’s healthy and everything is going to work out. I just need to hurry it up.

I did get all the new Etsy listings listed and sold one yesterday. So rewarding! I will be tweeking them over the next few days, but they are up and “live”. I have two more Halloween quilts to make, and one Christmas themed custom. I will be busy for the next few weeks.

Be Kind.

The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. Seems like all of the sudden I have multiple finishes and progress. I know I have been steadily working towards this though, so why am I surprised. I have been thinking about the ways I work at quilting and creating and how it is different than your average Jane “the lady who quilts”. I am a split personality, I quilt for myself and for others. I have many ufo’s and many in progress personal quilts, and then I have many in progress “for sale” quilts. There really aren’t any UFO’s in that group, they are either finished or repurposed. These past few weeks I have been working on shop restocking. I really wanted to get some more Halloween themed quilts up and ready for September sales. Looking back through past sale years, Sept-Oct is my busiest season.

I am working on getting nine quilts posted to the store. That means ninety post-able photos, nine “Look at Me!” titles, nine engaging descriptions, and 117 unique SEO tags, all told. That’s a lot of creative writing, and I have been employing my assistant, better known as GPTchat, to help a little. I hope to have this chore finished by this weekend, although it’s coming up fast.

In the almost finished category this week, is the Message in a Bottle BOM. I am really pleased with how this turned out, there is a lot going on in this quilt. The center is finished, the borders are not. There are 32 blocks to make, with appliqué, 16 have four leaves and 16 have a shield and a dot. I wish I had had the fabric to make a few of these a month, well, I sort of did, but didn’t plan ahead. I started this BOM in August 2022, ugh, meaning I have been slogging along for three years on this. I am entertaining the thought of machine stitching these border blocks. The prep work takes about the same amount of time as hand appliqué. I could do some raw edge, but then it may look weird to have the neat and tidy hand turned appliqué next to the scruffy raw edge.

Speaking of appliqué, I got this huge (24″x 36″ (not really) appliqué block/top ready for stitching. I used Flexi-Fuse, as I have had good results with it in the past, and it comes in 21 inch wide rolls. These patterns, from Pacific Rim Quilt Company are called two fabric appliqué, and are done in a similar way to Hawaiian quilts. Large pieces layered and cut away to reveal the background. Since this is a commission quilt for me, I needed to get it done before Halloween 2025. I spent a few hours prepping and sticking this together, now I need to machine stitch the edges and then quilt it.

I received the fabric for the next few Halloween quilts to be made, “Hocus Pocus”, most of the fabric for “Spooks and Spells” is coming in Saturday, and the kit for “Happy’s Place” is already to go/cut. That makes three, plus the commissioned one, Candy Corn, four more Halloween quilts. I finished two “Witching hour”, and two “Pumpkin Patch” quilts in August, I think I am going to be thoroughly done with black and orange by October.

I have been devoting a little stitching time to Consider the Lillies the past few nights. The carnation took a bit of time, but then the smaller flowers can be done in one session. I had to print out the last row of pattern pages, yay, I am hopeful that I will finish this behemoth, the last row of pattern pages are 1/3rd filled.

Be Kind.

Retreat – noun

1. the forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy, or the withdrawing of a naval force from action.Antonyms: advance
2. the act of withdrawing, as into safety or privacy; retirement; seclusion.Synonyms: withdrawal, departure
3. a place of refuge, seclusion, or privacy.The library was his retreat.Synonyms: shelter
4. an asylum, as for the insane.
5. a retirement or a period of retirement for religious exercises and meditation.
6. Military.
   1. a flag-lowering ceremony held at sunset on a military post.
   2. the bugle call or drumbeat played at this ceremony.
7. the recession of a surface, as a wall or panel, from another surface beside it.

I guess numbers two and three are most appropriate, not number four, yet. I’m on day five of my at home retreat, and have about a week more. Things I have gotten done so far:

• Ahoy appliqué top
• Blooming Beauty BOM blocks
• Pumpkin Patch top
• Witching hour top
• Peter Rabbit top – waiting on outer border fabric
• Tilda Quilt finish
• Lotus leaves and Vase MiaB block
• Floral Frolic Quilting

I would like to start quilting the Pumpkin patch (older version) and the Witching hour, using one backing. That backing should be here, ordered on the 14th. I have another piece of the same, but it is only three yards wide. I need to piece the backing for the newer, bright colored Pumpkin Patch too. I could do that one first and then the other two, while still in Halloween mode.

The three kits for custom quilts arrived. One Pacific Rim appliqué wall hanging, a Christmas wall hanging and a cute bed size Halloween themed one called Candy Corn. The Candy Corn one has a million or so pinwheels. I think I have a Accuquilt die to cut those though.

Be Kind.

Last night I finished the appliqué in the lower section of the Tilda Anniversary quilt. I was so happy to have it done. I went into the studio, and got the other two pieces out to put on the design wall and admire. I was thinking that I could sew it all together in the morning and have it ready to quilt next week ( I need to piece the backing). I noticed the big red flower in the center, it was only basted, sigh, one more flower to do. When I looked over the pattern, I also noted that there are two leaves that span the center and top piece that need to be added too. I am inspired to finish the appliqué on the Message in a Bottle BOM now. I have been needle turning at night instead of cross stitching this past week. I think another week of this routine will finish up that bunch of blocks too. I am afraid to look though, as I may find more than one more to do.

The land of appliqué has been well visited this past week. I finished the sixth block of the Ahoy quilt, now I have to decide on the sashings. I have this bright blue print that I want to use, but I don’t want to do a checkered sash. I am leaning towards plain strips, maybe corner stones, red might be a nice pop.

I was able to finish the I spy quilt, binding and all. It came out really cute, I used some quilting designs that were included in my initial package that came with the machine. Funny thing is, I have always seen these letter blocks as useless. They are ten inches square, and boring, not really suited for an ABC kids quilt. Too big for monograms, so they just sat. The American Jane pattern calls for appliquéd letters in the top five blank blocks. I sort of forgot about them until I got the top on the frame. I had an idea, and tried it out on the sideline of the mounted quilt. I reduced the size of the quilted letter block to 4 inches. I thought it would be too dense, but no, the computer was able to rescale it to a good size and density. I stitched them ( I,S,P,Y) out and realized that there was supposed to be a blank space in between the I and the S. Darn! (insert colorful language) I stitched the last one with the recipients initial. I then went on to block/mask those squares out of the ABC panto graph I had picked. It was a bit tedious, all the stops and starts, worth it in the end.

I found two more cute forest-y animal pantos for the last two Woodland friends tops. Got the first one done (bound too) and the second one is on the frame now. I got all the pieces cut for the next halloween quilt, a Pumpkin patch pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew. I have made three of these, sold two last year, and have one to quilt in the TBQ pile. I like this fabric line, its was on sale for less than 5.00 a yard and it has cats and cute halloween themed prints. Pink and orange, not my favorite color combo, but it works for this. I also got the fabric I ordered for the other Halloween quilt, the Witching hour, I want to make.

I’m going to have a Homeside retreat, starting in two days, for ten days. I’m planning on doing a few things that have been on my to-do list for a while, and catching up on Etsy things. I want to be in good shape for the fall/winter seasons of shopping. I think will be a nice way to end August and cruise into September and the fourth quarter.

Be Kind.