This is how it starts; see cute fabric on sale, find free patterns to go with said fabric. Show project to prospective client, they like it, order two. Finish two tops, still have plenty for fabric left. Order backing (on sale) big enough for four small quilts in one go. Order more fabric to make two more quilts. Make another top and realize there is easily enough fabric to make a fifth top. Sort of self perpetuating? Scraps making scraps behind the scenes, it will never end..
I managed to make the fourth quilt in the Woodland Wonders fabric line this week too. I needed to order a bit more fabric to finish the third one, but most of the original half yard bundle is gone. There is enough to make one more baby size, and I have four squares left from the panel I used for number four.
I got and sewed together the sixth installment of Blooming Beauties this week. There were four 12 inch blocks, all the same and more four at a time flying geese. It is a theme this month, I am afraid to add up all the geese I’ve made this month. Nice sharp points on these.
This week I also finalized the quilting plans for the creepy quilt. Using a spider web panto, Old Giza King Tut thread on top and a variegated turquoise in the bobbin. Hoping for good tension, no struggles, please?
Consider the Lilies is getting some steady work time. I just keep picking away at the motifs, and I got some more left side border done. I think I am going to enlarge these flowers in a handmade chart on graph paper. They are all the same, except for the colors, just making them easier to count and stitch. I made a small mistake in the one I made last night, but I left it. Recently on Jo’s Country Junction, Jo was showing her retreat projects, as well as her daughter, Kelli’s. Kelli is also working on CtL, she started hers on the bottom, mine is working from the top down. If you combine the two of them, it would make a finished one. Makes me want to finish this soon, but also start something new. I found a possible substitute dyed Aida/linen for a different looking cross stitch pattern I got recently. It’s called Cherry Magpie, by Jessica Doize. I got all the threads and the digital pattern, thinking that the Beetroot fabric would “be available soon” but three months later, not happening. I ordered a color called Merlot, which is a bit lighter than the beet, but looks like the same shade/tint. Spilled wine instead of stained hands? I wonder if it is returnable, if it is awful together with the threads. Should have checked that before hand. It is not a common background color.
I am out of a Quandary, or finished with a quandary, fixed a quandary, un-quandaried? I got it all together this weekend. No without a small glitch, I put the two center sections together wrong. It was just one long seam removal and it was all better. The borders were fun to finish, I made them two at a time. I am really happy that there was plenty of fabric in the kit I bought from Fabric Depot, it was a left over from Craftsy at a great price. There was enough yardage to cut all the black border fabrics on grain, and enough colored fabric to cover any piecing mistakes. It’s huge, I think 102″ x 102″, now to get it quilted. I am wondering if I have a backing that’ll work. I think I saw something on sale the other day that may work.
From last week’s creepy monsters, I sewed on to the cute and neutral bunnies and rainbows collection. I started out making two of these, and quickly sold them before they were finished. Now I have enough left overs to make two more, well, I did have to get two more panels, but these are quick and easy. Did I mention the fabrics were on sale? I got the second one finished today. I can quilt them onto one backing, efficient time and product/resource management. I do have to get the Creepy quilt on there first, after I finish the Sparrows. Not much progress was made on the Sparrow quilting. I did come across the panto that I had originally wanted to use for it, aptly named sparrow. I ended up using the feathers, it’s okay, but I should have persevered and found the sparrow one.
More motifs on the CTL cross stitch, I am almost done with this page. Looking ahead there is a big brick house, I had forgotten that this design has one. I seem to remember swearing off red house samplers a few projects ago, after the huge one in the Christmas sampler (Heaven and Nature sing) I did, darn it. I would like to get the frame on the baby sampler, I am debating on whether to add interfacing to the back or not. I am afraid to press this piece with steam, although most of the colors are fast, there is always the weird black or red thread that bleeds unexpectedly.
On a side note. When I started piecing the Bunny Run quilts, I wanted to use the 4-at-a-time method for flying geese. However, the blocks I needed were 2 3/4″ by 5″, not listed in the cutting tables I could find. I asked the AI what size squares I would need to cut and it gave them to me. It was so easy, no math or fudging needed. I want to use it, AI, in the future for figuring out inner border sizes, and other things that my limited geometrical understanding can’t easily do.
This is a project in a day type quilt. I’m stretching it out to two. It’s a Yellow brick road quilt, with a slight variation. Not my favorite prints, sort of fifties movie monsters, it’s called Creepsville. It was a kit, so just enough fabric, 12 FQs, border and binding fabric. I have made a few of these, (prettier) and even taught a class (a long time ago) to make it. One would think I could do this easily enough. Nope, I mis-read the cutting instructions, and cut 10 of the 12 FQs width-wise instead of length-wise. Meaning I had too many small size strips and not enough wide ones. I got a little creative to finish the 35 blocks, but it all worked out, just look at my left overs. I am waiting on the backing for this one, it should be here by the end of the week.
In the meantime, all the fabric arrived for the Bunny Run! quilts. Which is good, as I have a buyer for them already. I’m going to try to do these at the same time, mostly strip pieced, and I found a pretty floral backing that works too.
At the same time, I want to get the Sparrow quilt quilted. It’s on the frame and waiting for me to pick a design. I am thinking I’ll do something modern-ish, not too monotonous, maybe clamshells or orange peals.
Consider the Lillies is getting more stitches each night. I enjoy finishing a motif in a day or two, I should continue the left border before I finish this page. The frame kit came in for the baby sampler, I need to get that put together too.
After my very productive last week, I feel like I am slacking off a bit. I’m off to a late start this morning too.
Pacing as in time management, not walking back and forth over the same ol’ ground. I have about a week of “me time”. My DH is out of town as of about an hour ago. I will miss him in a few days, but right now, I am breathing and stretching and relaxing. Not that life is stressful with him around, but my introverted mind enjoys being alone, no one to care for, no scheduled things to do or meals to plan. Just me and the dogs for now.
On my list of things to accomplish and work on this week are:
Tilda appliqué
Custom quilting on Black/white/red quilt👍🏻
Message in a bottle construction
Quandary quilt top👍🏻
Quilting Sparrows bed size quilt
Quilt Licorice and lollipops top
Bind two customer quilts👍🏻
Cut and start Quandary quilt top👍🏻
work on birth sampler👍🏻
catch up on Starry Skies blocks (2)☑️
I think this is doable, for now it is written down. I am thinking I’ll just leave this post open for the week and add to it as I work on each project listed above.
Friday: I finished cutting all the pieces for the Quandary quilt. I had to iron the black yardage first, which I did while watching the LA machine stitch out the last rows of the B/W/R. Yay for multitasking. Once that quilt was off, I attached the backing and batting for the small woodland friends quilt. I worked on the sampler, I am in the top section now, lots of color changing. I managed a bit of straightening of the sewing room too. I had to move the ironing board to the LA area, and there were a few piles of things under it, that needed to be put away. I made the first block of the Quandary quilt too, wrong the first time, but an easy fix. I need 16, in different color combos, best to get the mistakes done with the first one.
Saturday: I worked on the 16 twelve inch Quandary quilt blocks, once I got the hang of the pattern they went together easily. There were a few mistakes, but I quickly remedied them. I “found” my small Rowenta travel iron when I moved the ironing board the other day. I really like using it with the wool pressing mat set up next to the machine. I had been using the full size iron, but it is getting too heavy to keep using it for piecing. I just need to remember to unplug it, as there is no auto shut off. No cross stitches were made, I am thinking of ordering a frame for it, there is a 40% off sale at one of the web sites I order from.
Sunday: I sewed together another eight Quandary blocks (#2’s) and half finished 12 more. These are 6 inch finished, same as the #1’s in design, but smaller. I want to finish those today and maybe start on cutting the pieces for the Bunny Run! quilt. I have fabric that I ordered for it here, but not the fabric I ordered first. That order has the panels in it, so maybe I’ll hold off and wait until that gets here. It was sale fabric from a Henry Glass line called “You are my Sunshine”. Really cute in muted tans and reds and browns, non gender specific baby quilt. I got a good start on the quilting of the small Woodland friends quilt. I am using one of my go-to designs – Forest Floor- in light blue. I cross stitched a bit too, got a good start on the cradle, the end is in sight. I started this June 10th, so a month of monogamous stitching. I wonder if I’ll feel like going back to Consider the Lillies, or maybe another small?
Monday: Got the rest of the Quandary block 2’s done, not without some un-stitching. I made one block 3, just to see how it is put together. There is not much difference, these are the border blocks and there are 52, with block 4 being the four corners. I managed a few hours of cross stitching, I should be finishing in a day or two. I was so proud of myself for stitching the hummingbird, only to find that I did it over two threads and not one, it looked like a giant hovering pterodactyl over the crib. I’ll try again today.
Tuesday: I finished the yellow #2s and the green #2s, making 16 blocks today. After that I trimmed and bound the two customer quilts I had finished long-arming. I received the quilt kit for another customer in the mail this morning. It’s pretty simple, a yellow brick road pattern with some really nifty halloween prints. I’ll start that soon, maybe do a few more quandary blocks. I finished the baby sampler, including the reduced size humming bird, yay! And I finished the woodland friends quilt on the LA. Might bind it tomorrow, but I have to make some binding first. Also bought two digital quilting designs for the Licorice and Lollipops quilt. I want to quilt it next, before I forget my “vision” for it.
Wednesday: No quilting or sewing was done. I spent the whole day cleaning out my garage. I clocked 22,704 steps doing it, almost nine and a half miles. I still have work to do on it, and a bunch of stuff to re-home or safely dispose of. I did manage a bit of cross stitching, I re-started the Consider the Lillies piece, I sewed the word “Consid–” before I went to sleep. I also measured the baby sampler for a mat and frame and got those ordered too. Thursday will be a bit more productive in the studio.
Thursday: Started off with a bang, I ordered 21 yards of Tonga Batik for the Stormy Sea quilt pattern. This is a Wing and a Prayer pattern, that I also have a complete set of digital quilting designs for. I may end up making this for myself, or gifting it, but I really like the theme and design of it, it reminds me of the Atlantic Ocean. I grew up on the south shore of Long Island, the ocean was an omni-present feature. Now that I live two thousand+ miles away from it I miss that. I do get to see the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean a few times a month, but it’s a different scene. Gemini quilt block is done, there were a lot of pieces in this block. I sewed in the morning and then in the late afternoon, finished around dinnertime. I really thought I would be able to finish both Gemini and Cancer. I want to work on Quandary tomorrow, so we’ll see if I have the energy to do the cancer one after that. I did pull the MinaB block out and sewed on four leaves before dropping off the sleep.
Friday: Pedal to the metal, I got sixteen more Quandary blocks done. Which is four different color ways in two sewing sessions. Only made one error, in the angle placement on one set. I have sixteen more set up for today. I also would like to get the bed sized Sparrow quilt on the longarm. I need a backing that is wide enough, so I found some that will need to be sewn together. I’d like to find something appropriate for the licorice and lollipops quilt. I ordered two remnants that I think might work color-wise, but I might just go with a solid. I cross stitched a few more letters, completing the word Consider and started a floral motif at the top of the page. For extra credit, I sewed two more leaves on the MinaB block. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but it ended up being too hot in the house to turn on the oven.
Saturday: Finished 16 more Quandary blocks, which means I have 20 more to do before assembly – sixteen more #3 and four #4 . There are some more HSTs for the center, but those are quick and easy. Strangely, these 16 blocks took a lot longer than the last set, my rhythm was a little off? I put together the backing for the sparrow quilt, just need to get it pinned onto the leaders. While I was printing a few other things I printed the Cancer FPP sheets this block is only 4 pieces and some border blocks, less intensive than the gemini block. The FPP pages for the first bird in the Birdwatchers project BOM, the Common Loon, also got printed. And, yes, I got to the cookies 🙂
Sunday: I finished up the last 20 blocks for the Quandary quilt. Most of them are for the border. Next week I’ll send some time putting together the sections that become the center of the quilt. Nothing is on point, it is strategic color placement and size of sub blocks that makes this design work. Later in the day, I vacuumed the house, and even my sewing room. The colorful dog ears were threatening a coup, they were migrating out into the hall way and catching rides on the dogs to the outdoors. I finished the day by packing up the three customer quilts and a bit of cross stitching.
Monday: Only a half day of retreat time left. I have to go to the airport at 2pm to pick up my DH. I did start to miss him a bit, but it was a good break for me. I got a lot more accomplished than I thought, but not my whole list. I think I underestimated the amount of time piecing the Quandary quilt was going to take up. I bought the fabric on sale from Fabric Depot, it was a left over Craftsy kit that they were liquidating. The price was very good, and there was plenty of fabric. Hopefully I can make a profit on it, the amount of time spent making it will figure into the selling price. I spent about 40 hours on piecing it, and it’ll probably be another 20 by the time all is done. I have a few things to work on this coming week, that I didn’t touch the past week. Especially the hand appliqué on Tilda and MinaB, perhaps when I am long arming the three quilts next up in the line. I will get a few photos together to add to this post and hit publish. Thanks for reading through, if you made it this far.
This past week I put together the Licorice and Lollipops quilt top. It went together very smoothly. There is so much variety in the fabrics that I didn’t have to spend much time playing switch a block. The bonus quilt, made with the left over triangles, is another story. I made the 52 blocks easily enough, pressing all the seams open takes a bit of extra time. Now they are up on the design wall, every time I look at it I find a switch that needs to be made. I am hoping to get this one together and off the wall this weekend.
I have been doing other things too, I got a lot more sewn on the baby sampler, so many thread changes. I sometimes feel like I spend more time burying threads than making stitches. I am happy that this is a smaller piece though. I think I am about half way through, I will need to graph out the name, so it is centered. I winged it with the birth date, and got lucky. Nobody likes to frog ‘over one thread’ X’es.
I made a set of matching bucket hats for an uncle and his niece, Fourth of July is next week, and they’ll be together. I also made two really cute dresses, the trim and rick rack are from old stash, the prints were too. Not me though, sadly I am holding down the fort, well not really sadly, as I will be enjoying a short at home retreat. There will be lots of sewing and early meals and maybe a little firework viewing. The nights lately have been cloud filled, so my view is limited. I’ll probably only be able to hear the booms from the five or six different towns displays near by.
The first of the two custom quilting orders has begun, it’s a simple heart panto that I have used often. The customer wanted smaller hearts, with the biggest being around four inches, so this simple panto now takes about twenty minutes per row to sew. Thankfully she isn’t in a hurry to get these quilts back. It looks pretty though, and really makes this simple jelly roll race quilt look finished.
I had a quilt customer contact me yesterday, about making up some kits that they had bought and where to learn how the make better quilts. I am a little stumped by the last question. There is so much out there to learn from it must be overwhelming, I need to find a few websites to lead them to an easy path. I think Bonnie K Hunter is a great teacher, then there is Eleanor Burns, I wonder if she still has tutorials available. Maybe Creative Grids, I think they have a bunch of tutorials. I’m going to look at Fat Quarter shop too, I know they do a lot of videos. I am pretty sure this person is just starting out, maybe they have a quilt shop near them.
The custom cushions are finished, along with a matching table topper. I ended up serging the edges, because the fabric kept unraveling in a most annoying way. They are done and packed up for shipping tomorrow.
Touch of Grey 