Yay! It is done. This top was a lot of work. Simple piecing, but a lot of sewing. I think I went through almost three full bobbins. I like the color combinations in the fabric collection, Sequoia by Laundry Basket Quilts, they are so “California”. I am linking up today with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts, for week three of the Quilt-a-long. This is actually week five, but I needed an extension, as I was waiting for fabric. I may even get it quilted by the end of the month.

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Yesterday, I tried to start a new project, it’s a BOM from Elefantz, called Simple Days. I had the first two months downloaded and downloaded the third. I figured I had some time to work on the blocks. Originally, when I drew/traced the embroidery designs on the white fabric I planned to stitch them and then cut them apart. I should have measured more carefully around each one, because I didn’t leave enough room around some of them. Yesterday I started cutting them apart, and assembling the blocks, so that I could then do the embroidery on them. That’s how I discovered my mistake. I ended up cutting out the ones I could, and will have to re-trace a few that didn’t make the cut. I also had to leave the sewing room to do chores. Household stuff that I have been putting off for a few weeks. We have tile floors in our great room, and I have been waiting for the rains to stop before cleaning them. With three dogs, the muddy foot prints add up quickly, and yesterday was a day to wash the floors.

My Pet All the Dogs sampler is coming along. I am at the point where I want to take it off the frame to use a hoop. There are too many spots that need just a few stitches of a color. Flipping the frame over to start and finish the threads is more trouble than its worth. I’m going to finish up the lower border triangle motifs and un-frame it. I am hoping to be done by next week, so I can start Strawberry Fields.

Be Kind.

This past month I have been participating in a QAL with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts. The quilt we are making is Hampton Square, one of her patterns. I have had my ups and downs with this quilt. It is a well written pattern, and I like my fabric choices too. I just can’t seem to do things right the first time. It has become a “It’s not you, it’s me” kinda thing. I gotta keep following the directions and not going off course. I got all the strips sewn together (despite cutting errors) and started making units of 7 strips. They are long and slightly different lengths, no seams to match. Okay, this is easy. Mmm, not really. I found that by the last strip there was a bit of creeping going on. The last strip was a full inch too short. I quickly deduced that, yes, I should have ironed all the seams flat and some of these strips need pinning. Had to rip and resew that last row. I spent some more time organizing, labeling and ironing my strips. Sigh. The next unit went together easier, until the second to last strip, ugh, it was sewn in upside down, wrong end up, two long seams to rip and resew. Deep breath. I am going to try to finish this top before the end of this month, the date on the QAL is 3/29, oh, tomorrow. I have four, no, eight more units to complete, then I’ll start on the H2H quilts.

Then a British squirrel showed up. Last week I made this Union Jack from a tutorial over at Molli Sparkles blog. I was planning on a mug rug to include with the shopper bags and zip bag for a gift I am giving. Should have looked at the finished size, before starting, because it turned into more of a place mat size, I’m going with Tea time mat. I spent a fair amount of time, two hours I think, happily quilting and finishing it.

I did get two units of the Hampton Square done later that day.

Last Friday, Jo, at Jo’s Country Junction posted about a new scrap quilting book by Lissa Alexander called Scrap School. I immediately bought the Kindle version, since I have the kindle app on my laptop and I had a dollar off coupon, I felt thrifty too. There was one quilt in particular that grabbed my attention, Rolling Nine Patches.

I am thinking of making one in blues and tans and whites. There are also quite a few that would make good H2H donation quilts. While looking at my new kindle acquisition, I realized that I had another Lissa Anderson book in there, Sisterhood of the Scraps. There are a few in there that I’d like to revisit too. Patterns, patterns, everywhere.

Linking up wit Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts today for Design Wall Monday.

My latest quilt is a commission for a baby girl, the client wanted “something girly”. I sent out a few ideas of flower quilts and designs, but they weren’t feminine enough. Then I saw a simple quilt made with soft pastel colors and florals, yes, that’ll do. Next, the fabric search, what did we ever do with out google search? Rose & Violet’s garden fabric line popped up a few times and it was “perfect”. Luckily it was still available (what did I ever do without Etsy?) and I ordered a fat quarter pack and a few yards for the outer border.

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The blocks were simple, my mind started working on how to make them in a quick and efficient manner. I first though I would do the square on the corner, sew a diagonal and cut method. I didn’t want to take the time to mark or cut and have a bunch of extra triangles though. Folded corners would be a good way to reduce waste and increase efficiency. Next thought, how big of a starting square? I got out a pencil and paper and the easy angle ruler. I have two folded corner rulers, but since I didn’t know what my block size was going to be, I had to work backwards. I didn’t want to waste the cut off corners, I would make them 2 ½ inch HSTs. Then after a few tries of block size, I figured 6 inch finished would give me a balanced look. Then I had to figure out the white triangle size, if you look at the drawing/pattern you’ll see four lines marked sew or cut. I placed my easy angle on the innermost cut line, and came up with a 3 1/4 triangle. I then figured that I would need 42 blocks to make the top. I cut them from the 21 FQ’s and then cut the 84 – 3 1/4 triangles from Kona “Bone”. I like bone, because it has a slight pink undertone, and it went well with the Rose and Violet. Some quick chain piecing and ironing and the blocks were done. I then achieved a semblance of random, without two of the same fabrics touching.

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All together and waiting for quilting. Lots of fabric left for a few more girly quilts too.

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I am starting to think about making some Hands2Help quilts. I have a bin of binding scraps, most are 2 ½ inches wide. This was my go to size for a while, but in the past few years I have decreased it to 2 1/4 wide. I like the lesser width for machine sewing the binding on. I sew it to the back first and bring it over to the front and machine sew it to the front. The narrower size allows for a better 1/4 inch showing on the front, although its more like 3/8ths, truly. I don’t like to cut those border HST points off either. I’m thinking scrappy log cabin or split rail, less cutting and more sewing. First there will be ironing, getting those center fold lines out, not fun. Maybe I can use the steamer, what can I hang them over? Maybe the laundry drying rack… I’ll let you know.

Today I want to finish the strips for Hampton Court, they had to take the back seat while I worked on the baby quilt. I have three more sets of 15 to make, then the assembly of the top can start.

Linking up with Denise at For the Love of Geese today, for “Put Your Foot Down”. She’s been making a special baby quilt too.

Be Kind.

In case you were wondering, the bees have a new home. My neighbors bee keeping friend came by on Saturday and gently persuaded the swarm into this box. It was fascinating to watch, and after a few hours, they had all settled down into their new home.

I was busy inside (safely) sewing together the Evolution top. I’m happy with the way it turned out. Only one or two spots where colors meet, but I’m leaving it.

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I worked some more on getting the strip sets cut into units for Hampton Court. I sewed units together into rows too, I’m making a queen size top and they are long. This week I’m planning on getting them together into quilt sections, 7 strips sewn together. I think it would be too unwieldily to try to sew all the rows (49?) at one time. Plus I want to avoid the stretching and warping that may occur.

I started quilting the Garden City quilt too. I decided to do an all over diamond pattern for the center, and will probably do ruler work in the two borders.

This coming week I have another commissioned baby quilt to do. I ordered the fabric Friday, so I am hoping it’ll be here soon. The store is in Utah, so we’ll see. The fabric I ordered from Joann’s is having a jaunt around the state, it made it to Hayward, but for some reason, it then made a hard 180 to Tracy, ah FedEx ground so special. I am supposed to get more fabric delivered today, from Nancy’s Notions. They were having a sale, I got some cute coffee themed charms and coordination yards. I also want to start making plans for this years Hands 2 Help quilts.

I did a little shopping for Cross stitch supplies, bought some linen, two charts and some thread. One of the charts is for a Long Dog Sampler design called Pilgrims Progress. I am going to use one color thread for it, it calls for 300 meters of it. Since DMC and Weeks Dye Works are 8 yard skeins, that would get a bit pricey. I am going to try 12wt Aurifil thread, I got a pretty medium blue and it was less than ten dollars for 350 yards. Using it one thread over two strands with the 36 count linen.

Be Kind.

Yesterday, I was puzzled to see a crowd of honey bees on my doorstep. They were sort of flying around drunkenly, and crawling on the concrete. I am allergic to any kind of stinging thing, including bees, but I am fascinated by them and respect them. I called my neighbor who has a hive, and asked her if they were hers, nope, hers were all together in their home, not active yet. I continued to watch them through the day, I thought maybe there was a swarm, but couldn’t see any from my vantage point, and I wasn’t keen on going out there to look. At around five, my DD came home from work and she told me that when she got out of her car she could hear a buzzing and looked up, and there in the small oak above was a massive swarm. They were there all right, and I could see them from the safety of my kitchen. I called my neighbor back and asked her if she was sure her’s were home, yes, they were. She also said that the bee keeper who helps her was coming tomorrow, and he could take a look and take them with him to a new home. That was my excitement of the day. They are still hanging out this morning, I am hoping the Keeper will be able to get them. In a way, I’d like them to stay, find a nice hollow tree somewhere, but I can’t risk it. They will have a new hive later today.

I got about half of the evolution quilt top rows sewn together yesterday, I worked on it after making a bunch of strip sets for the Hampton Court QAL. I had to quit after half, because I had been at the machine too long, my upper back was starting to ache a bit. The Hampton Court strip sets are going quickly. In my last post I explained that I mistakenly cut the brown strips for the single piece piecing plan, and realized half way through. I sewed the all the right sized strips I had together to make as many strips sets as I could. Then I got creative and figured out I could sew the rest in web-mode. I sewed the pairs or three’s of the prints together, cut them to width and then made a web with those strips and the brown spacers. It was quite a bit slower than normal strip piecing, but I only had so much brown. I’m glad I went with the brown, I was afraid that it would be lost in the prints, but it is a nice rich color, like the Sequoia fabric line. I want to finish these sets (36 more) today, and if I’m up to it the Evolution quilt top too.

Happy Worldwide Quilting Day!

Be Kind.