I finished the Unity Quilt top yesterday.  I was going to add another side border to square it up, but I think it is done.

Plus, I have used up most of the French General scraps.  The larger pieces will be incorporated into my stash drawers, and neutral bin.  The smaller pieces will be cut into 2 ½ inch squares for the squares bin.  The large tan piece will be for binding, I am hoping there is enough for the Estrella quilt too.

These two photos show how big the pile of FG fabrics was before and after Estrella, there was a jelly roll and some extra yardage that I needed for Estrella that aren’t shown below. I’m pleased with the dent that this has made in my stash.

This French General collection started with this quilt below, Generally French.  Made in 2016.  I forget where I got the idea from, maybe a kit I saw.

My design wall is blank today.  As a “reward” for finishing the Unity top, I made some more masks for my MIL and DD.  My daughter has to wear them all day at work, as she is a dog groomer.  You can just imagine the amount of dust, dander, and hair in the air.  She also wear ear plugs to save her hearing, the blowers are loud and constantly on.  Talk about job hazards.  Anyway, I dug into a deep stash drawer and found this pretty print.  I think after 20 years of marination it is about time this got used up.   It’s still pretty too.

This past week I also worked on the Dutch garden quilt, the blue and yellow one.  I had to order more fabric for it, as I ran out of the dark blue background one I was using.  It was on sale at BluPrint, so I bought enough to finish it and for a backing.  I’ll have to wait until that is delivered, the mail is a bit slow.  Reminds me of the old days, before Amazon Prime, Fed EX, Priority Mail, etc.  “Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery” was a common postscript.  Carefully filling out order forms in block print, enclosing a check or money order (ha, that was another fun step).  Mailing out the order and then waiting for delivery, simpler times, less hurry.

Linking up with Judy, at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday today.  Judy is working on a lovely hand stitched block sampler, lilac flowers in a basket.

This weeks project is my interpretation of a quilt that I saw on Pinterest.  It is sort of a one large block quilt, with added detail to it.  I have a pile of fabric left over from a quilt kit, the line is Dutch Garden II, blues and yellows.  I felt it was a good way to use it up and make myself a fun project.  It has become a puzzle of sorts, as I go through each section of blocks.  I am trying to make it controlled scrappy, so each block is similar in shading.  My version of the pattern is all squares and half square triangles, I think I could have done flying geese in some parts though.  I am going to make some square in a square blocks for the next border.  I think it needs to be a little larger, it’s square, not really a good size for a throw.  Kinda not baby quilt style either.

I got a phone call yesterday that made me very happy.  The Bernina dealer called and said he had fixed my machine YAY!  There was something wrong with the bobbin sensor, it was still under warranty, so he replaced it, gave my machine a computer update and a thorough cleaning.  I drove right over and picked it up.  The funny thing was that “normally” I would wait until the next morning, as the traffic would have been at a stand still at 3:30pm.  I breezed over in about twenty minutes.  I had an appointment with the shop, so it was just me and the sales lady.  I bought some fabric too.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese it’s the one year anniversary of Put your Foot Down .  I think if you do something for 52 weeks it’s officially a habit.

 

 

I have been working behind the scenes, a bit, on the quilts for the Hands 2 Help quilt donation drive.  This year I have five, last year I made six, seems like I have more time this year, but I have been making the Unity quilt, so that takes up a bunch of sewing time too.  I can honestly say that these quilts are all made from my in house stash.  Even made a few franken-battings and pieced backings. Yesterday I quilted the last two, the binding will go on today, and I am hoping that I can get them out to the post office early this week.  I ordered a batch of stamps and tyvek envelopes, thinking I could get everything packed up at home and then make a quick trip to the post office.  Our town has a small office branch, the sales desk area is quite small, so the less time I spend there, the better.

These three quilts are for the Little Lambs program.  I wanted to keep them bright and cheery, but also hard wearing, able to go through many washings and dryings.  The sizes are within those requested by the organizers.  I used up most of a layer cake and a whole pile of solid scraps and charms.  The purple one is a pattern from Jo at Jo’s Country Junction called Brick house.

These two are going to Quilty Hugs.  Last year, a very good friend of ours went through chemo for throat cancer.  I made him a special quilt with this comic book themed fabric and his favorite football teams logo fabric on the back.  The scraps are made into one of these quilts. The second quilt is made from the same scraps as those above, but I used an idea/pattern that a guest blogger, Kate, posted about at Confessions of a Fabric Addict .  It’s called Charming Bingo block, a split nine patch derivative.

 

The quilting was all computerized pantographs, hearts, bubbles, loops, rainbows and stars.

 

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict  today for the Parade of Hands2Help quilts.

Which is a better skill for a quilter to have, the ability to count accurately or to measure accurately? Both would be ideal, but lately I have been slackening on the counting skill.  Yesterday I was happily sewing the 34 blocks for the Unity quilt together.  I had carefully counted out the pieces needed (816), as my supply of French General fabrics is dwindling (yay!).  Each block has 16 pieces, 8 of which are HSTs and 8 solids.  I have been counting these piles over and over since Monday, when I started this clue. 126, 68, 34 were the magic numbers, until I got down to the 34 blocks.  After I finished sewing and ironing them, I counted them, 30 – wrong answer.  I separated them into piles, 10 – 10 – 10- and 3.  Better but still missing one, looked around, on the floor, design wall, my chair, nope, only 33.  I set about making one more, it went together pretty quickly.  Then I started sewing the rows together, 2 rows of 8 blocks and 2 rows of 9 blocks.  Wouldn’t you know, I had one extra?  I got them sewn up to the main body of the quilt today.

I  am still kinda struggling with the rental machine,  it’s a great little machine, hums along and makes nice stitches.  I think it would be one to bring on a retreat.  But, sigh, yesterday I sewed a seam with out bobbin thread.  No bobbin thread sensor.  I am still struggling with the knee lift, I still stop sewing and wait for the presser foot to raise, not a function.  Mostly I miss the even feed, especially when easing seams together.

I have two more quilts to get on the long arm, and one to get binding on, and I am done with the Hands 2 Help quilts.  That’ll be my weekend project, and then I may pull out an UFO and see if I can finish it.  Or… there is the commissioned wedding quilt for September.  Options are good 😁

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese Put your foot down #51 today, check out her photo trip through her part of the world.

I am crushed.  My beloved, yes, beloved, B790 plus, stopped working yesterday.  I was sewing a binding on to one of the Hands 2 Help quilts and it stopped sewing.  I pressed the pedal again, and it sewed about two inches and stopped again.  I was hoping it was the foot pedal being loose or something, so I pressed the “on” button and the machine did the same thing.  Then it gave me the “gears of death” screen.  Whaaaa!

My dealer is open for appointments and curbside pick up on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I had to wait until 11 to call him, but I was able to bring it over to the shop in the afternoon. Apparently, Bernina in Chicago has also been shut down.  So my machine is in the queue to be sent out, this repair could take up to three months.  What!?! I ended up renting a 535 Bernina from the shop so that I can finish up the Hands 2 Help quilts and save my sanity.  I’ll probably only rent it for the month as it is a little pricey.  This little machine is a work horse though, it’s got most of the bells and whistles that my 790 has, albeit smaller.  The only draw backs for me, are no dual feed and no auto foot lift.  I dug out my knee lift attachment, this action is going to need a little practice.  First world problems.

Here are a couple of pictures of the H2H quilts I finished up last night.

I want to get to quilting the Comic book quilt top I finished this past weekend.  This quilt came about from a bunch of 4X6″ rectangles I cut from this fabric:

I surrounded them with RWB 2 ½” wide strips and came up with an 8X10″ rectangle.  There was just enough of the blue and red coordinating fabrics to make the quilt come together.  I added the borders and then the backing made from the same line as the original fussy cut rectangles finishes up this pile of Comic themed fabric.  BIG YAY!  the scraps will be cut into 2 ½” squares to join the ever growing pile of them.  

This week I also bound the Rambling Rose Quilt, chalk it up to a finish✅. Also stayed up late last night and cut a bunch of HST’s for Monday’s unity quilt step 7.

Trying to Whoop it up, but it’s hard.  Linking with Sarah is hosting “Whoop Whoop Friday” at Confessions of a fabric Addict  today.