Sewing and sewing some more. This week has been all about finishing, I did have one new start too. I wish I could finish the Light house, because the Floating house is here and I have the floss all ready to start. Looking back at my progress this week, I did make a lot of X’s, I can see the progress. I started this house on 7/27, almost 4 weeks, but I did take a few days off. There are only so many hours in the day.

The second Pumpkin Patches is a top. I didn’t add the row of 2 ½” squares to the top and bottom, but I might do that later today. I would like to use up as much of the kit fabric as possible – no more scraps.

I started the next kit I bought, The Forest den, cute fabric prints, even if it has squirrels. Got the panel blocks cut and 436 triangles to sew together into HSTs. I have been fighting with the squirrels all summer. They are winning. I have a few planters on my elevated deck with dahlia tubers in them. I plant them every spring, and nurture them with fertilizer and watering for the beautiful flowers. They are on the deck to keep them from the gophers and deer. The squirrels have discovered them and eat the stems and flowers. I have tried sprays that smell terrible, leaving the dogs out there, and besides wrapping them in netting, they are hungry squirrels. Acorn season has begun here in the oak forest, so maybe they’ll start eating them instead.

The purple pineapple quilt is getting done row by row. The motifs I am using stitch out fairly quickly. Although the one for the actual pineapple block has a lot of back tracking. I should have looked at it before stitching that first one, as I think it is a bit too dense for the design when using 40 weight thread. I have been cutting small designs in half to fill in some of the open spaces between the squares to create a cohesive look.

Knitting is at a pause, I have reached the last row of the back, but need to pay attention to the shoulder shaping and back neck. It needs my full attention, as counting is involved, so I need to set aside some quality time to finish this part. Then I’ll start the front pieces, I got some buttons for it the other day. I had some cute ones in my stash, but they were either too small or the wrong color. Hmm, looking at the back has me wondering if the front pieces continue the design. Those half ducks and boats must line up, I think. Yet another reason to knit in the round.

The backing fabric I bought for the two El Camino quilts came in. I had the foresight to prewash it. The first wash proved that I needed a second wash. I did add synthrapol to the second and third washes, the color catchers were still bright as day, and the red was easily blotted up with a paper towel from the damp fabric. The fourth wash earned me “suds lock up” and I was scooping the suds out into the utility sink. The fifth time through the machine was a rinse, and the catchers were vibrant red again. I am not going to use this fabric for backing, it was on sale, so not a really big loss, maybe I’ll make a whole cloth with it. Use it front and back, with a Karley Porter design on it. The other fabric I ordered matches well enough with the “bessie” top, I put that together in the TBQ pile.

Be Kind.

Furious as in whirlwind, not anger. I managed to get this top done in three sessions of morning sewing. It went together very quickly and the results are good. The pattern is easy to cut and put together, the hardest part was getting random-ness and no two same prints touching. I see in the picture that there is one block that needs to be turned. I still have fabric left over from the pumpkins, but I used all but three squares from a layer cake, and a yard of 108 wide white that I had hanging about. I didn’t have enough All Hallows Eve scraps for this top, so those are still on tap for another pattern. This mix is from Stacy lest Hsu, Holiday Essentials, cute and not too spooky, no witches or monsters. I am going to cut the pieces from the kit that the pattern came with today. The fabric line is from Maywood – Harvest Gatherings, but I can’t see the name of the designer. It is more fall themed and rusty reds with green and yellow. Much more sedate than skulls, cats and bats.

The light house is growing stripe by stripe. I am falling behind on this BOM, the next one will arrive tomorrow. I still like the project, just wish I was a faster stitcher sometimes. I keep seeing new things and want to start something different, but I know once I put this away, it’ll be a while before I want to do more with it. As long as it is set up and ready to go, I will sit and stitch.

The sweater back is growing, I finished the duck row last night. I noticed a feather out of place, damn, I may go back and fix it. I am disliking knitting this flat, purling the color changes is taxing. I would much rather stitch in the round and steek it. Should have thought of that to begin with. I will chalk it up as practice, I don’t like it, but I need to do it and it is small.

The diaper bag is 98% done too. The binding needs to be secured inside. The pattern calls for doing it by machine, but I had enough trouble wrestling the thing through the machine to attach it in the first go round. It is a fairly heavy bag, might just be that all the hardware and extra straps are in/on it. It is a nice looking bag, if I do say so. I also made the changing pad to go with it. I had to re-do the Velcro three times to get it right, and the end result isn’t perfect, but functional. I wanted to make a bag that could be used and abused, and still look nice. The heavy weight chambray seems like it will do nicely. I remember the diaper bag that we used for my three kids, it was made from nylon, like a back pack, indestructible. I wonder what happened to it.

I’v been toying with the idea of cleaning my sewing studio. Purging some of the magazines and such. I have no clean/organized flat surfaces besides around my machine, which is alarming to me. Messy, and cluttered, but I know where everything is LOL. I’ll start small, maybe the top of the book shelf. Certainly needs a dusting at least.

Be Kind.

Bag making is fun. Bag making is enriching. Bag making is frustrating. Bag making is a process. Last week I started making the Everyday Everyway bag from ByAnnie. I thought maybe I would have it finished by Friday, when we left for the weekend. By Thursday night I was on the inside pocket divider. I had finished all the straps. If you’ve ever made a ByAnnie bag, you know that all strapping is covered with fabric. It looks really nice, and makes the straps less slippery, but what a lot of sewing. Make a tube, turn it right side out, insert the strapping, then sew around the edges. This bag is called every-way because of all the strap options. There are regular handles, a shoulder strap, stroller straps, and back-pack straps. A lot of hardware too, all the pieces I ordered from ByAnnie, came in little plastic boxes. I am determined to find a use for them as they close tightly and are a good quality plastic.

Yesterday I spent two hours on the side panels of the bag. Today I am hoping to get the front and back panels done, and maybe get the bag put together. I think there is inside binding that needs to be hand sewn, I don’t want to look ahead in the pattern and spoil the fun. I am enjoying the process though. Really.

As a break from the bag, I started the ABC cardigan. I really like this Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn. It is the same yarn I used to make the hoodie out of. Everyone loved the hoodie btw, the blanket was a big hit too. I think my DIL was expecting the quilt (Tilda Anniversary quilt). I have that ready for appliqué, just have to get started on the process of sorting the prints and cutting chunks for the flowers. I drew all the shapes on to the reverse side of the background with permanent ink pen using my projector. Sadly, or rather frustratingly, I had to do it twice, as the first time I did it too small. It’s kinda of a mess back there, but it doesn’t show on the front.

After the bag of all bags is finished, I am going to start the two Pumpkin Patches quilts. One from the kit fabric and another from the stash fabric. I am ready for some mindless chain piecing about now. I sold one of the Halloween quilts and the other one, the zig zag, is in someone’s cart. Two more fall themed quilts would be a good addition. Probably should do another Christmas themed one too. I would like to use up the rest of the All Hallows Eve fabrics this year. I think that I have a small Fig Tree quilt pattern around here that’ll work.

I really should get quilting on the purple pineapple top. It is all ready to go, first row set. There are only so many hours in the day. I am going to be home for the next few months, no excuses not to get some more things finished. There are still 37 days left of official summer.

I just got notification that the next Fabulous house has shipped. I really need to make some more stitches on the Light House. I don’t like being behind on BOM’s as it soon leads to UFO’s for me.

Be Kind.

Last years post from the end of July had me finishing the last of my Etsy client quilts. That was a big finish, 10 quilts in four months. Sadly, or happily, depending on how you look at it, I miss the business and the busy-ness. There are only so many quilts a person can use, and this client has over 20 from me. One assumes that it is probably a once in a lifetime thing for ones business, but one can hope. Anyway, I have been finishing things and starting to catch up a bit on my to-do list. I updated my white board to reflect what is happening in the studio. I would rather erase than add, but there were some things erased. Trying to keep in mind what I am accomplishing and what is gathering dust.

The two kits I ordered came in the mail. The one, Pumpkin Patches is the pattern I was going to repeat using Fig Tree fabrics from stash. Sadly, not enough oranges left for that. I did a little shopping and found that the fabrics from All Hallows Eve aren’t around anymore. I shopped my stash and came up with a layer cake of Stacy Iest Hsu Holiday Essentials Halloween that will do for a sub in the pattern. Yay!, stash reduction and the pattern is adaptable for layer cakes. What I am hoping to do is to make two at a time, cut everything and then chain piece like nobodies business. The other kit, is cute forest animals, but I don’t see the pattern being replicated for another line of fabrics. Although, I may have enough of the Farm charm line, or the forest babies line (can’t remember the name of it).

Indigo way was quilted, bound and off to the Lions Veterans benefit. The benefit raffle is in October, so it is a bit early. I wanted to get it done because my DH has officially retired from the office where the benefit coordinator worked too. I donated a quilt back in 2019, a big red white and blue star quilt from a Judy Martin pattern. That quilt garnered 250.00 donation, that person definitely got a deal on a really nice quilt. I hope Indigo Way goes for more, I was happy to make it from mostly scraps and with all the Quiltville friends camaraderie.

I have been steadily working on the hoodie sweater, specifically the hood, I need to measure and see how many more rows I need to do. Then I’ll move on to the arm/sleeves, thankfully babies have short arms.

Yesterday I worked on block 16 of Message in a bottle – MIAB. Only 10 more blocks to go, I think 5 are appliqué, then it’s on to the border. The border is appliqué too, diamonds on squares and leaves in squares. Those leaves remind me of the BOM autumn quilt I made a while ago, there were hundreds of leaf shapes. I don’t think I have a picture of it on this computer, nope. I think I made it in 2012 or 2013.

The purple pineapple top was loaded and started too. In my quest to organize all my digital quilting designs, I have found quite a few block designs to choose from. I found a set from Prostitcher that work well, and they stitch out fairly quickly. I’m using a king tut thread that is variegated light lavender on the top. I have to figure out what to do for the borders and the 1 ½ inch strip around it too. This ufo is on its way to being an FO, yay.

The next Fabulous House pattern was released yesterday. It’s a floating house, as in house boat. Brings back memories of a time when I worked as a dock attendant for a few summers. We had a floating shack with a few chairs, a freezer for bait and a fridge for sodas. There was a cash register, the gas pump controls, some bagged chips and a tip jar. That tip jar helped me pay for school and other things. Perfect summer job, as it was a self serve gas station, all we did was hang-out in the sun on the water and read or listen to music.

I need to stitch more on the current Lighthouse piece. I finished the whales head and I’m moving into the base of the lighthouse itself. The lines coming out of the whale are a seagulls legs.

Be Kind.

I first saw this quilt in an ad for Fat Quarter shop on Facebook. I was making the Summer Swag quilt from my El camino fabric stash and thought it would be a good pattern to use up the scraps. I found the pattern and downloaded it, it is by Chrissy Lux of Branch and Blume. Also layer cake friendly, so I knew having a bunch of scraps would work. Once I read through the pattern, I realized that it was a folded corners technique using one. I dislike folded corner blocks because they create more scraps. I re-drafted the pieces by making one block as per pattern and then carefully measuring the pieces. I then cut parallelograms instead of strips and HST’s in place of squares. I was able to get a good variety of prints and use up most of the scraps to have a few yards (total) left of the El Camino fabrics. There are 36 – 8 ½” blocks for this pattern and each block has 19 pieces. I spent a few hours cutting and the next day started chain piecing. It was all going so smoothly, until I realized I had 72 of wrongly cut chisel pieces. There may have been a few words uttered unsuitable for general audiences. Flashbacks to the Washboard quilt top too, and the hours spent re-doing those blocks. The problem here was that I couldn’t turn the pieces over and use them, as this was printed fabric, so right facing angles can’t be turned into left facing ones. My solution involved adding another piece to the block and only having to recut 36 pieces. The only seam ripping was done to the sample blocks I had made.

All the blocks are on the design wall, I think I have them assorted enough to not have any same ones touching. Just have to add the sashing and outer border and it’ll be a top. I was going to use the dark blue print for the sashing squares, but since I used the ones I originally cut for in the blocks, I needed to cut 49 more. I went with a mix of all the fabrics instead, yay! for scrappy.

In other handwork news, I started the Light House. Lots of solid blue X’es, the whale makes up a lot of them. Other blue stitches are in the knitted Hoodie I am making. I decided to make the 9-12 month size, room to grow into. Slightly odd construction technique with this Debbie Bliss pattern. Make the flat back, make the flat front and then divide for neck. Insert a few increase stitches, bind off shoulders and keep knitting the hood. I think I may do a Crochet edging on this hood to make it a bit more feminine, and reinforce the V at the center neck.

I got the backing for Indigo Way on the frame, and put out the batting to relax on it. I ended up doing yard work instead, as it was wonderfully cool yesterday and there were a bunch of things that needed pruning and cleaning up. I may do some more gardening today as the weather is very similar.

Be Kind.