I feel like I am in the middle of too many projects, it’s keeping me interested though. I only finished two hats, two more to go. This week I’ve worked on:

• Quilting ‘A Ribbon Runs Through it’
• Stitching on ‘Consider the Lillies’
• Knitted two hats
• Borders for ‘confetti’ quilt
• Finished the ‘Morning Glories’ paper foundation block pieces
• Sewed up the first Indigo Way clue
• Ordered a bunch of fabric for future projects

My main impetus for all this activity is that I am resting my sore knee. I can walk a bit, and it is getting better, but sitting and standing still are easier. I had a small accident on Sunday, and twisted my right knee a bit too much. Anyway, it has left me with some extra time to sew.

RRTI is almost done, I did a little celebration dance when I finished the last sashing strip. I am trying to do the side borders without taking it off and turning the quilt. I think I may be able to, with a bit of resizing and morphing the designs to fit, turning the corners is always a bear.

I went through all my blue batik fabrics and decided that I had enough of a selection/assortment to do Indigo Way with. I have enough white and light beige to match. I did buy 2 ½ yards of red, because I only had about a half yard of red total. I’m hoping that the red is a blue-red and not an orange one, it looked good on my lap top screen, so fingers crossed.

I signed up for a different kind of a BOM. I have sworn off Quilt BOMs after last years RRTI and the Reunion quilt BOM. I still have to finish the Message in a Bottle, which hasn’t seen the light of day for a few months. The new BOM is a cross stitch one, 12 months of houses. It’s called Fabulous House and its by Cottage Garden Samplings. I signed up through the Fat Quarter Shop, its only for the patterns, fabric and thread not included. I am going to do it on 18 count Aida cloth, a little easier on the eyes and looking at the first one, Santa’s House, there is a lot of coverage. Sometimes I find that the linens don’t look even under full coverage. Plus it’s a large piece, 370 x 495 stitches, about a 2/3rds size yard, so pricey in linen.

The Morning Glories quilt is all ready to get blocks made. I looked through the instructions twice and there is only one place where it says to remove the papers. I have done it before sewing and after sewing the top. There are a lot of bias edges on the outsides of the block pieces, so I may just try it first with the papers on. I did put one block together, the pink one.

Future projects include four whole cloth Dream Big panels and I got a Layer cake of Effies Woods fabric collection. I am hoping to use up the rest of the Effies scraps and make another quilt. I also took advantage of Black Friday sales and picked up a bunch of end of bolt pieces to bolster current inventory. I want to remember that I got a backing for the Noel wall hanging too. Oh, and I want to make a ‘Tessa’ quilt out of the extra strawberry fabrics.

Be Kind.

Late last week, in between cleaning and making my house look presentable, I cut a bunch more green scraps for the Morning Glories quilt. I measured out 3 ½ inch strips, and carefully cut them with a Dresden plate ruler, as it made the most similar shape to those I needed. I think I cut about a hundred or so. I sat down later in the day, or it may have been night, and started to sew the 392 paper foundation pieces known as “B”. There are only two pieces of fabric on each, white and green. I had cut a bunch of white/neutrals earlier in the week and I figured I could get a start on them. I used a bit of glue stick to attach the white, and carefully lined up the green piece to sew. It was too short, ugh, I turned off the machine, and called it a day. All those green Dresden plate pieces were nagging me, I think I am going to use them on the borders. If I sew them together into half fans I can appliqué them to the borders, something like this.

I’m trying to figure if I can make the fans undulate, rather than alternate, like these are. I will probably need more blades cut, to do the 84″ long borders. Or I could just add them to the top and bottom. More math is needed for this idea. Since I have written this idea here, I won’t forget it, although that pile of too small green blades won’t let me do that either. I haven’t been working much on the RRTI quilt. I have about 80% done and the quilt top bottom is basted to the backing now. I still have to turn it & do the side borders.

Funny thing is I feel like I have so much time to work on it now that Thanksgiving is over. When in actuality I am putting off thinking about Christmas, I haven’t done much yet to facilitate that celebration. I have about three weeks to get ready for my two DSs and their SOs to arrive. Luckily, the house is ready, so it’s just maintaining it, getting the tree up, decorating, shopping, cooking. There, I thought about it, I have a week of calm to do what I want.

I downloaded the first part of Indigo way, the Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. I had really hoped to have the Morning Glories a bit more finished, but you know. I got fabric delivered to finish the Washington puzzle quilt pictured above. I ran out of the Ash gray Kona, and it really needs some borders. I also have enough ombre pieces left to make 14 more blocks. I may incorporate them into those borders, maybe on point so the look like they are spinning. I think I am going to use that purple print on the top for binding.

All the yarn I ordered for hat making arrived too. I started the first one last night, and got a good start, about 30% into it. I am planning on making five, like last year, but I got a late start. Partly from my oblivious-ness to the end of November, and the holiday crunch. Trying to keep it that way 🙂

The cross stitch piece didn’t get much added to it, I worked on page 6, most of it is a large potted plant with giant flowers.

Be Kind.

The lure of starting something new was strong this weekend. I had the whole weekend to myself, as DH was out of town. Lovely to just take care of my dogs and me, eat when I wanted and do things when I felt like it. I actually achieved a few good nights sleep too.

The “stall” part of the weekend was my Morning Glories blocks. I finished off all the color blocks for the flowers (245) and decided that I needed a pFp break. I will do the rest of the green and white pieces once I have the blocks done for my newly started project.

The “start” part of the weekend has been drifting around in my mind for about a month. It all started when I saw this quilt at PIQF.

I was intrigued, and thought about the yards of ombre fabric I had in my stash. I drafted a paper piece foundation pattern in EQ8, thinking about how many I would need and how to go about it. All sort of back burner thinking, as I had lots of other projects going on. I was on the Accuquilt site, looking for a die to cut rectangles on the diagonal, but found that it had been discontinued. Looking through the sale dies, I saw the Washingtons puzzle die. Although it is a BOB (block on board) its finished size is four inches. I had been hoping to make my blocks for the quilt six inches. Here was a way to get the pieces all cut and ready to sew with one push through the cutter. Did I mention it was on sale? I made a good start on the blocks, and have 64 A blocks and twenty B blocks.

I have been stitching on the Consider the Lillies piece too. Last night I found that I was a bit off on the placement of the bird/branch in the corner, which was affecting the flower branch I was trying to sew under it. I then noticed that the flower branch was a half stitch too high, and had to frog it. I think I will leave the bird, and redo the flower branch, as it still fits okay in the corner. It won’t affect the other motifs under it, as it lines up with the border in the right spot.

In my last post I mentioned I had a commercially made quilt/bedspread that needed altering. I did do the work and sent it back to the client. However, I mistakenly cut the wrong side due to a misunderstanding. The quilt was too long for the bed, but too long horizontally, I cut the vertical edge. So now it was still too long but also too short. I felt terrible, and offered to get a new one, but the client declined, but I did anyway. The new one was delivered to me on Saturday, I fixed it correctly Sunday and have it ready for shipping out today. Surprisingly, Amazon was not the fastest or best priced for this, Walmart was. Lucky for me the quilt was still carried by them, Lowes, Home Depot and Amazon. Also lucky that it was a relatively inexpensive one too.

Not much LA quilting was accomplished, I did another row of motifs on RRTI Friday afternoon. I am about half way through it now. I still have to turn it to do the side borders, but I feel like I am making progress.

Be Kind.

Foundation paper piecing, or is it paper foundation piecing? Maybe the latter. Anyway I have been making a concentrated effort to make the blocks for the Morning Glories quilt I started. I am trying to make ~20 “A” squares a day. There are four per block, and 49 block total. I am going through some of my scrap bins for colors and greens, and finding some. I went through a large bin the other day, and ended up deciding to cull all the tiny/small scraps into the circular bin. It felt good to have that bin empty enough to combine it into another. As much as I like to save fabric, there is a limit of space I have. I have decided I am no longer saving scraps less than 2 ½ inches wide. There. It’s in writing.

So many scrappy quilts made, and hardly a dent in the scrap collection. The Morning glories quilt is 84 inches square, but mostly neutrals, so the color pieces make up only about three or four yards. There is a lot of green, over 700 pieces, but again, not much of a dent in the yardage department. I am enjoying the assembly line piecing and the ease of getting these blocks neatly put together.

In other Quiltville news, Bonnie announced the color families for this years Winter Mystery quilt, it’s called Indigo Way. Dark blue, sky blue, neutrals, and a constant fabric of red. I am happy with the blue, because it’s like my favorite color you know. I know it too, as I have lots of it. I am contemplating using Batiks, there are lots of scraps left from the Alaska quilt I made a few years ago, and the Storm at Sea. This quilt calls for 3 yards of dark blue, 2 yards of light blue, 4 ½ neutrals, and 2 ½ of red.

I have been progressively working on the Ribbon Runs Through It quilting. The 32 ribbon sashings are a PITA, but I have gotten to the point where they are easy to set up and stitch out, repetition it the key. The whole blocks stitch out nicely too, there are so many pieces (115) in each block, but the designs seem to bring it all together. I used an extra wide cotton sateen for the backing, I am hoping that it will look like a whole cloth quilt on the back-side. I like the feel of the sateen too, sort of silky.

Today I have to do some Quilty alterations, to a bed spread. It’s is too large for the bed it was bought for, so I will pick the binding off, cut about 10 inches off and re-bind it. Bleh, I’d rather hem pants. I haven’t opened the package yet, so I am hoping it is cotton, not some polyester slippery fabric. Hmm, it seems like I am a bit reluctant to start.

Consider the Lillies is being stitched, pretty much daily. Although I have been nodding off while stitching after a day of activities. I switched to a rectangular hoop, I was having to move the circular one too often. I would like to get the top border done this week, so I can complete the top section which is the first four pattern pages. Finishing those four pages is my end of November stitching goal. I still haven’t started a smaller project, that means I’m focused I guess.

Now that the weather is cooler, I have been thinking more about knitting. I have picked up a sweater that I started early this year. I am almost done with the back, the problem is, that the pattern requires thinking. Lots of “while this is going on, do this and this and reduce and add and pattern and…” etc. One needs to pay full attention, and sometimes I only have a half of an attention left after a day of my life. I need some mindless stockinette if you know what I mean. My subscription to Interweave Knits magazine is due for renewal, and I am on the fence about sending a check. I like the magazine, and there are always projects I would like to do, but I have about ten years worth of issues. It is printed four times a year, but that is still a lot of shelf space. Most of my current sewing, knitting patterns and books are PDFs or Kindle, which saves a lot of space. I also feel that I should support the magazine as it is an excellent resource, even if digital is taking over the market. I just looked at the web site and I can get membership with Interweave, and have digital access to all their magazines and patterns for about twice the paper subscription of one. I think I’ll just send them a check.

Be Kind.

I spent a lot of time this week trying to find an appropriate border pantograph for the Ribbon Runs Through it quilting project. Last week I found a set, at a new to me site, called It’s a Quilt Thing. The set included block designs and sashing ones, but nothing for the outer 6 inch borders. After looking extensively through the many digital panto sites, I found the perfect one, and it was already in my library. It took me a few hours messing with the sizing and positioning, but I got the first border stitched yesterday. I am using a rather ugly spool of King Tut thread, called Caravan, but it really looks good on the quilt. There is a bit of dark teal, tan, and rose in the thread, just like the quilt fabrics. It blends in with the pinks, and looks good on the teals. I had auditioned pinks and grays, and tans, but this spool is the winner.

In between surfing for pantos, I finished this top, from the Busy Hands pattern Picnic Plaid. Lots of little squares, but the pattern is very well laid out with charts and instructions to help achieve a random look. The fabric was from another quilt kit I had bought from “Craftsy” a few years ago. Two rolls of 9 inch wide 42 inch long strips, from the line called Strawberry Fizz. I have one roll left, which may become a Whimsy quilt.

In cross stitch land, I am finishing the October page for “Consider the Lillies”. I am doing this as a stitch a long with Jo from Jo’s Country Junction. The plan is to complete a page a month, since there are a bunch of motifs and flowers on each page, it wouldn’t be boring or overwhelming. Although, lately she seems to be working on other things. All good, though, as I finished two side projects this month as well. I still have to finish sewing the chenille to the edge on Hocus Pocus.

I am not sure if I truly like punch needle crafting, I find the constant needle threading tedious. Plus these projects eat up thread like nobody’s business. Also not sure how I want to finish that, it’s about 5 x 7, so framing is a possibility.

The color ways for Bonnie Hunters Winter Mystery Quilt are coming out next week. I would like to do that QAL, I did last years in her color ways, but orange, turquoise and purple are not my first choice. Hoping for no orange this year, or maybe I’ll finally get adventurous and change up the colors to ones I like. I did just buy her newest pattern, Silk Road, so many small brown squares. I have a few totes of scraps I can use, and I like brown scrappy quilts, lol. Perhaps I should work on the Morning Glories quilt I started last month. I got a bunch of green scraps cut, now I just need bunch of neutrals.

Be Kind.