I feel pretty good about my progress this month. I have two finishes I am happy with and a few steps forward in the UFO department. My biggest finish is the Hawaiian quilt. It is quilted and bound and if the weather wasn’t getting ready to storm, I would be bringing it back to its owner. This is the largest quilt I have ever quilted and what a bear it was. It was so big that I had to fold over the edges to fit it on the frame. I started quilting on it 12/10/23, and finished it on 1/29/24. A little procrastination and the holidays and maybe a little more procrastination, made for a lengthy quilting journey. The actual total quilting time was probably closer to 25 hours. I wrote a bit about its history in this post, when I return it I want to find out more about its history. I cut and used 11 strips of binding, 42 x 11 = 462 inches, and yes it was all machine bound.

I started quilting a Big Dream panel with Wasatch quilting’s digital designs. It is coming along nicely, each petal is a different design. I probably should have done my own hand guided designs, but, I had the set in my digital library. I put a remnant 108 backing on the frame, so there is room for three other small quilts once this one is done. I have a baby themed one, and maybe I’ll get my collage Grey Owl piece on there, finish that UFO from my Asilomar retreat last year. Then I want to get the Indigo Way top done, and a few other small throws. I just need a break from giant quilts before I start the Reunion quilt.

My biggest finish is also my smallest in size (compared to the quilt). The first fabulous house is done, Santas House. I started the next one, Castle, and the third chart “Greenhouse” is on its way to me in the mail. I think I want to stitch the outer border of the greenhouse, so that I can cut the extra Aida cloth off the long side. The 12 houses are stitched on a 3 x 4 square grid, my fabric is 36″ wide, because I didn’t want to guesstimate and come up short. I have a large roll of extra on the side of the hoop, which is cumbersome.

The Swordfish top is coming along too. I finished all the spikes and I am on to the next round with the Drunkards path blocks. I try to do a set or two a day, these sets have 36 blocks, so I am doing 18 of them. The laser pointer at the needle of my new-ish 790 pro is very helpful for sewing on the lines of paper foundation pieced blocks. 

On the BOM side of things, I got one block of the Simple Days and one block of the Message in a bottle quilts done this month. The swordfish project is taking up my sewing area, so I have not gotten to the 365 block quilt. I did go through it and figure out where I left off, and have signed back into the website to follow along once I can. 

We are supposed to get a lot of rain today, I’ll be sewing as much as I can today. Hoping we don’t loose power, as it is pretty windy out there today.

Be Kind. 

This week I have been concentrating on the Swordfish quilt top. I think the title refers to the coloration being similar to that of the giant game fish. None of the fabrics have fish or ocean related themes, although there are lots of pointy parts. It is a pattern by Judy Niemeyer, paper piecing to the extreme. As I said last week, it is an all encompassing project, forget about doing any side projects or leader-enders. This is one of those that requires immersive concentration. This is my third Quiltworx quilt, my first was Fire Island Hosta, and the second was a Christmas tree skirt. The written instruction are very thorough, each step is illustrated and written out in a descriptive way. Once you get the “rhythm” of it, it makes sense and is relatively pain free to process. I am trying to sew together one set a day, each set is eight pieces, each piece has many pieces to it. I start off each day by getting the fabrics cut and organized, then sewing them together. Here’s what I have so far.

Todays pieces are a bit larger, chunks instead of strips. I did make a cutting error, and had to order another yard of the dark blue spotty fabric just in case. I was lucky to find some at a shop in Michigan, a few other yards jumped in my cart as well, gotta justify the shipping.

I’m making progress on the first Fabulous House, Santas house. The snowflakes are a bear, I am so happy that I chose Aida cloth for this project. I would be pulling my hair out counting them and spacing them on linen. I’d like to finish this by the end of the month, and start the next one, the Castle. I saw the third one, and its a greenhouse, thankfully a bit less fill work. I still want to work on the Consider the Lillies piece, so I may devote a few sessions to it before starting the castle.

I am a fan of Crabapple hill Studio, having made a few of their quilts and purchased a few patterns for the someday pile. Meg Hawley is doing a daily stitch-a-long for February, which is also International Embroidery Month. You can download the free pattern at her website, and each day she’ll post a stitch pattern/prompt on Instagram @meghawkey1 . I’d like to try to keep up with the 29 daily prompts, as the hearts are small and it looks like a fun and doable project. I got my pattern ready, and I think I’m going to do it multi-colored and maybe add a little colored pencil shading to each heart.

The rain is pouring down this morning, so it may be a stay in and sew day. There are a few things I need to do around the house, we’ll see.  

Be Kind.

The Indigo Way top is progressing nicely. As I was laying out all the blocks, on point, I realized I was one short. I had a few extra pieces in my project box, but I sometimes make a few more, to switch out pieces that are a bit off. There were just enough to make the missing block. All the blocks are sewn together, I need to trim all the points off and add two inner solid borders (finished this faster than I did this post). Then the pieced outer border, light blue and red triangles, goes on. 

On to the Sommerville Circle quilt top. I got it together too, just measured the borders and applied them. I am really impressed with this quilt, it was a bit intense in regards to cutting, but it went together easily. I am hoping to have it quilted and bound before the QAL finish date of 3/5/24. I am thinking of quilting some sort of circular design in the white spaces, maybe a Dresden plate or sunflower. I would like to try a rainbow colored one, or a one color family one. Scrappy is fun too, although it doesn’t use up much yardage.

Once these two are finished, I will start on another project that has been languishing, either the Tessa quilt, or the Swordfish one. Easy or intense, the Swordfish pattern is all sorted, but not cut, Judy Niemeyer quilts are an “all in” type of project. The kind that takes over your work area in an organized way. The Tessa quilt is just large pieces, but still needs to be laid out for piecing and stripe continuity.

Another block was finished for the Simple Days quilt. Block seven, which is in the sixth space on the quilt, which is set up like a nine patch. It was very satisfying to cross that number off the white board list. I also finished a block (12) of the Message in a Bottle quilt too. These are numbered up to 26, but not all are appliqué blocks. I figured out where I was in the grand scheme of the pattern. This current one (left side of picture) is one of the larger appliquéd pieces. 

Yesterday I spent a few hours on the Hawaiian quilt. I am becoming a stipple master, it’s mesmerizing at times. Lots of texture is being developed here. I really want to finish this and get it off my frame, lots of other projects are calling to me. Sometimes the ease of a simple digital panto graph can be equally satisfying. 

The mailman brought me the new piece of Aida cloth I ordered. The color is Cashmere, it reminds me of a wintery blue sky, a bit gray and cold. I started on the December house, in the upper left hand corner. There is a lot of extra stiff fabric to deal with. I am hoping that once I get the top three houses borders stitched I can cut the width to a more manageable size. I like the 20 count fabric, it is easier to stitch on and count than the linen. Seems dense enough, the unstitched areas won’t be too distracting. I find larger count Aida isn’t as finished looking as linen and even weaves like Laguna. Personal preference, although I will use it for smalls and such.

Be Kind.

This week is an impromptu retreat for me. My DH is out of town, so I have no one to care for but my animals and me. I really enjoy a little time off, I do what I want, when I want and how I want to. It’s not that I’m unusually restricted at other times, it’s just my “obligations” that I get a break from. I admit that I don’t have many either, but the structure is there. I like a more fluid schedule, if I’m hungry – I’ll eat, if I’m tired – I’ll sleep, if there’s a chore to be done, I’ll get to it. After raising children and all their schedules and appointments, I really enjoy not having to constantly watch a clock or calendar. Life has gotten a lot easier with the nest being empty, but DH works from home and although he has his own space/office here, he’s “in the house”.  I like that he checks in on me, “whatcha doing?” “what’s for dinner?”, but sometimes I don’t have an answer, “stuff” is pretty vague. It may be that that is the reason I’m happy to be alone for a bit, no upper management staff – LOL. Or it could be that I need to recharge myself after the holidays. This time of year is tough on an introvert, add in the cold, rain and short days, all I want to do is stay in, listen to a book and sew.

I have been sewing a lot this week. I got all the blocks together for Indigo way, it is a very pretty quilt, the reveal was last Friday. It reminds me of the Orca Bay (2012) mystery quilt and the Provence (2017) mystery quilts. 

Has it really been 12 years since I made the Orca Bay quilt? I remember I started following Bonnie Hunter about a year before, she was hosting the Carolina Christmas Mystery then. I thought it was pretty, but didn’t participate, I got sucked in to the mystery quilt the next year though, with Orca Bay. What an initiation that was, string piecing and lots of pieces. The experience was good, and I was hooked, I liked the comrades and the link ups and seeing all the other quilters work. The Mystery quilts have been streamlined a bit now, and most of the sharing takes place on Facebook. I still like the challenge, sometimes it’s the color way, sometimes the piecing, or even the sheer number of pieces that hooks me in. This assembly-line style has changed the way I approach quilting too. I will look at a pattern and break it down to the essentials and then how to make the most of my time and energy to create it. 

The Meadow Mist QAL quilt, Sommerville Circle is also getting put together. There are lots of little squares and rectangles, and I am happy with the variety of scraps that can be used in these blocks. Although it has hardly made a dent in the 1930’s reproduction scraps. I’m a bit ahead of the quilt-a-long, as there are 2 weeks to get each part done. I’m at the 1/30/24 point, getting the units together, I want to get the 18 half units together today. Then I’ll start on the blocks after Indigo way is put together.

Consider the Lillies is also a work in progress, I stitched the tree branches and the people, note Eves fancy green dress. I was all set to start stitching the Fabulous Houses this past week, I got all the thread sorted out and the fabric hooped. I started stitching the border for the December block – Santa house, it’s white, and my Aida cloth is/was white, oh! no… I ended up ordering a new piece of Aida, in a light blue/gray color. The model is stitched on a beige-gray cloth, I don’t know what I was thinking when I got the white. Possible that I ordered white because it has the wash out alignment lines printed on it, and I figured it would be a little easier to line every thing up on. Once the fabric gets here I am ready to start, the second house pattern got here yesterday, I am a month behind already. Sigh.

Speaking of catching up, I finally got the yarn I ordered for two hats I was going to make for Christmas gifts. It was back ordered and coming from Italy. Not as backlogged as the three linen aprons I ordered in November. I did receive one of them, and the other two are slated to arrive in a week or two. I wish I had taken a picture of the embroidery (picture below left) I did on the olive green apron. I was in such a hurry to get it packed up and sent out, I forgot. I used another one of the Embroidery library color-theory designs. These designs are lightly stitched and only use four colors, the effects are achieved through the blending and shading. I stitched one a few weeks ago on a horse pad. 

Be Kind.     

I guess this decision is sort of a resolution, as this is the season for them. I have decided to continue with this blog on WordPress. I figured out how to mass delete my media files, which made a lot more storage space available, and more importantly, the cost will not increase.  I kept last years media(photos) and I am slowly deleting all posts prior to 2023. These go a bit more slowly, one at a time. I will miss being able to use the computer to look back in on them, but every year I have them printed into a book with Blog2Print, so the books will become my old school reference. 

I got my white board set up, all I could find was an orange dry erase marker, not the most attractive color pen, but it’s a start. I know I have some more around here somewhere, I didn’t want to spoil the momentum. I got a few things listed, so it is sort of a to-do list, with a nod to a memory enhancer, as in “Remember this project?” I have to figure out which blocks are done in the Message in a Bottle BOM. I counted the finished ones for Simple Days, and sadly I have six of nine put together and four finished. I’m not really sad, kinda deflated, that there weren’t nine ready to embellish. I still want to finish this project.

The Indigo Way blocks are coming together, 1/1/24 there was surprise step released. I was able to get those parts finished up. I think it’s an alternate block, as there are still a bunch of pieces and sets yet to be used.  I am enjoying working with all batiks for this quilt, they are so crisp and easy to work with. Many of the block pieces in this mystery are triangular, and the bias edges with batiks aren’t as much of a problem. The fact that I didn’t have to purchase any more fabric also makes me happy. Oh wait, I did buy the red focus fabric, it was on sale though :).

I am contemplating starting a quilt with Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs , she is doing a QAL with her book “Just two Charm Pack Quilts Book”. You have to choose one of the sixteen from the book to make. I have the PDF book and I got it to do the quilt called Sommerville Circle. The QAL is 1/2/24 through 3/5/24, with cutting this week. I need to look and see what’s in my stash to make this work. It calls for 2 – 3/8s yards background (white) and 1- 7/8 yards background (pink) and of course two charm packs. I could very well just use scraps for the charms, I know I have white yardage. I pulled out my box of 30’s retro prints for the Simple Days, they would be nice as the scraps/charms maybe with a light green background. I doubt I will do all the postings and -graming that one is supposed to do with this QAL. It will give me an agenda/plan though, and I am good at sticking to them.

I haven’t posted a photo of my current cross stitching project lately, Consider the Lillies. I am on page eight, the center section. It’s got a symbolic Adam and Eve with the serpent, although they both have apples (?). Trying to decide if Eve will have a bra for her body, the pattern gives a hint of breasts, but it’s all in the tan color. I could just stitch the body in green, extend the skirt up into a sheath dress. It just looks weird to me that she is half dressed, fig leaves would have been more in line here. May be that they were too difficult to chart. 

It’s a rainy day today, good for staying in and sewing. I may dismantle the Christmas tree, and do a bit of cleaning. I am finally caught up on the laundry that amassed after our visitors left. I have been wanting to make some cinnamon buns too. Time to get moving.

Be Kind.