February Love

Hello!  There has been slow but steady progress in February on my various quilting projects.

It is always fun to announce a finish. This is my first finish for 2019 - Irish Star Chain. It's also my first project quilted with my new midarm.  My hubby and I have already snuggled under it watching television one evening. I'm so pleased with how it looks - even my quilting!

April Showers (the 54 degree grey/yellow/teal quilt) is under the midarm needle and about halfway done.. I hope to finish that one next week.

This weekend I finished the Out of This World block and my yellow RSC blocks for February

Then I began working on Highland Fling, evapaigedesign's mystery quilt. After a quick Facebook consult on background color choices (most quilters preferred white for contrast against my brights), I finished all the cutting and began sewing. Now I feel like I have a million half-square triangles to trim. This will be a quick project. Just two more weekly clues and it's done.  I can't wait to see what all these pieces turn into. And this one is all from my stash, even the background!

If you try the accordian trick to make a wide variety of half-square triangles, be sure to have a leader-ender project at hand. I was able to make six Lady of the Lake blocks while making my first set of accordians for Highland Fling.

What's next?  According to my quilting plan spreadsheet, I need to add borders to Acadian Mist and make more units for En Provence over the next two weeks.  Maybe I need to shoot for that 20-minutes-a-day goal so many of you are trying. Some evenings after work and dinner I just want sit and relax. That's probably the best time for some quilt therapy.

Have you been making progress on your 2019 quilting goals, too?

Sunshine a plenty

February's RSC color per Angela is YELLOW. That means I am digging through my yellow & gold scraps to make several blocks for the my RSC projects. The last time I pulled yellow scraps, I made this for my daughter:

Yellow makes me think of spring.  This week is projected to be much warmer than last week here in the south. That makes me so happy!  <singing "I've got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine">

I am happy to announce I finished the quilting on Irish Star Chain, the first I did with my new mid-arm, and will bind it this week. Then I can plug that finish into my 2019 page (and update the picture).  Next up should be Arcadian Chain (Patty Cake/Irish Chainish), but I really want to work on the Stormy Skies, the grey/teal/yellow quilt that is already sandwiched and ready to go.

Beth Hertler of evapaigedesigns announced her new mystery quilt - Highland Fling - dedicated to us fans of Diana Galbaldon's Outlander series. Of course I have to participate! I have been a fan for more than 20 years, when I found her first Outlander novel at a bookstore innocently waiting for me to thumb through and become engrossed. For a small fee, you can jump in on the fun here. I dug through my scraps last week and decided I need to either use white as my background or shop for a light grey. Even if you do not want to do another mystery quilt, check out Beth's unique accordian triangle trick. It's a great way to mix colors for half square triangles.

Green Blocks and Irish Star Chain Flimsy

On Thursday my offices were closed due to Hurricane Michael's visit. After all the rain and wind, Michael moved out quickly and the afternoon was sunny and clear.

So what's a girl to do but sew, sew, sew!  And I did!  I finished all the green blocks for Irish Chain Stars and actually assembled it and prepared the dark green leafy backing. I was inspired to make this quilt by Cathy's version here.  She was one of the Block Lotto winners that month, and I was GREEN with envy. And now I have one of my own. At first, I laid out my blocks without regard to their hue depth and it looked rather blah. Then I remembered Cathy had placed the darker blocks at the bottom.  A little shuffling and my eyes said Yes!

Before:

After:

Now I just need to check my batting stock and quilt it. (Quilt as desired. Ugh! My least favorite phrase!)  Those strong diagonals will get a line of stitching down the middle. Cathy also quilted straight lines horizontally and vertically, so I may copy her yet again.

I have to gush a bit at Cathy's blog saneandcrazy.blogspot.com.. Her quilts are so bright and scrappy. They make me smile. And sometimes they make me want to sew my own. I really like her tall ships kid quilt (see the 2017 finishes page) and the Salmagundi quilt.  And I am amazed at the patience she must have had to make her Jacks Chain version. Wow!

October's RSC color is GREEN, so this flimsy fit right in. I also finished the October RSC blocks.

Angela showed her straight set pictures here. Isn't her quilt lovely? I couldn't resist laying out my RSC blocks. They certainly are colorful. Angela's layout instructions had a 1.5 inch sashing between the blocks, but I'm thinking she probably copied her text from the smaller blocks and really meant 2.5 sashing. At least that is what I am planning to do.

This is my version. I will probably shift the blocks around a bit more until I will finally be satisfied. I may even rework at least one of the September blue/yellow blocks, replacing the yellow with light blue. Or not. Maybe adding the white sashing will help the colors look brighter. I will check out everyone's RSC18 layouts once Angela opens up a linky post. Someone will likely link up with an  on-point version that may add more inspiration..

Eighteen Blocks and...Squirrel

Hello!  This year my goal is to reduce my UFO collection in half (13 out of 26). It has been difficult to focus on finishing rather than starting yet another new project.  In my last post, I had finally finished several old projects, bringing my finish count to 10. But...two of the ten finishes were new projects so I have more catching up to do.  Starting point was 26 projects of which I have finished 8, plus started 8 new projects of which 2 are finished and 3 are flimsies ready for quilting.  Progress has been made on the old UFO list so it also now has four flimsies ready for quilting and one in the middle of quilting, and three just need to be assembled. Not too shabby!

While surfing the web several months ago, I came across a beautiful quilt made from Block Lotto winnings of green Irish Chain Star blocks.  I had loved that block and was green with envy for the winners that month. So I decided to make my own.  My collection of eight Irish Chain Star blocks has grown to sixteen. Just need to kit up four more blocks and soon I will have my own throw quilt of these big 16" blocks. AND green is the October color (linking up to soscrappy).

RSC18 Squared Away just needs its October blocks made and it will be ready to assemble. It's been fun to make these each month. Have you seen several quilters sewing additional rainbow-themed blocks for their own RSC projects?  I've already made a wish list of rainbow quilts I want to begin in 2019.  (1) Quiltmaker's Extra Fancy big block surrounded by smaller versions; (2) solid blocks with fancy FMQ; (3) Academicquilter's Odd Fellow Out; (4) soscrappy's Twinkle Stars; (5) Saneandcrazy's Depression blocks. Is five RSC projects too many? Maybe I should whittle this down to one or two so I can use some of my free time for exercising my body, not just my stash. LOL  Do you have a wish list of rainbow-themed quilts?


The other new quilting project is one which needs some computer prep work, then it's off to the races.  This twist on Grandma's Flower Garden is different than any other quilt I've done before. Should be fun once I get the printing and color selection figured out. If you have made a similar applique quilt, please share tips!

And ....Squirrel!  My attention keeps diverting to new projects. It's getting difficult to resist. Like many of you, I have been watching Pat Sloan's "Let's Go Camping" monthly block program. I have collected a handful of camping/outdoorsy fabric and would love to jump in, even though the last block was announced last week. Or maybe finally cut into my collection of reproduction fabrics for Barbara Brackman's Antebellum Album quilt. Or maybe stretch my applique skills on the "It's a Wild Life" program. 

Or maybe I should grab the bins of hoarded fabrics saved for various projects such as Christmas-themed Anita Grossman's Arrowhead pattern, or a 30's fabric Twinkle Stars-style pattern called Points of Interest, or a patriotic Tobacco Road by Bonnie Hunter, or jump in to that fun Margaritaville quilt by Kim Brackett (she calls it Tipsy Baskets).

Or....<sigh> continue finishing more UFOs. And maybe indulge my desire to try something new with a few small Christmas present projects. And maybe Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt in November.

Do you have a wish list of projects?  I have a few that have stayed on the wish list for more than a year, so maybe early 2019 will be the right time to tackle them.

Three More UFOs Finished

Hallelujah1  Three more old UFO projects were finished this past week!!!!

The red/white disappearing 4-patch from 2012 is assembled, quilted and bound!  I had just enough backing material from Connecting Threads to piece the backing. The quilting is lots of hearts done in a red/pink variegated thread. The  outer border is a red-on-white print of hearts. My longarmer Patty claimed that I have my Valentine's present done early. LOL.

 

Then I finished up my Little Fox quilt, a Patch Pals pattern from Quiltmaker magazine, that I had sewn way back in 2015. This was actually enjoyable to FMQ myself. Why do I procrastinate when it comes to quilting my own projects (at least the small ones)?  This one turned out so cute!

While I was on the FMQ bandwagon, I decided to finally finish the quilting on my Red Cross quilt, sewn in 2013. Again, I had stalled out on the FMQ step.  This has the same backing as my other red/white quilt above.  The block pattern is Greek Cross. The color scheme was one I had seen from a modern quilt guild in Oklahoma (can't recall which one). Each cross block featured a different red print. <giggle> It gave me an excuse to buy many different reds to build up my stash.

Ah-hah! With three UFOs finished, you know what that means?  Time to start a new project1  Oh, wait. I did that already with that green Irish Star Chain pattern.  Eight blocks are finished and eight more blocks are kitted up ready to sew. My plan is to make 20 blocks, set 4 by 5 for a nice lap quilt. 

Red quilts and green quilts? Sounds like I am gearing up for Christmas. Maybe it's time to work on that tree skirt and Christmas table runner I had cut out late last year. Those are two more UFOs on my list that could be easily crossed off.

Have you started on your Christmas projects? It's best to get them done before the busy holiday preparation time begins. Every year I promise myself that I would get my gifts purchased or made before Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the holidays without rushing around at the last minute. Never have been able to achieve that. And only rarely do I get holiday cards sent out more than a week before Christmas. My sister is one of those people who sends her cards out the day after Thanksgiving. There has only been one year that I beat her, or at least I thought I had.  Her card came in the mail the afternoon after I dropped off my cards at the post office. Maybe I should step up my game and bake cookies to send the day after Thanksgiving with a pretty card. Game on, sis!

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Summer is Here

Tomorrow may be the official start of summer but the summertime heat is here with a vengeance!

So how do you keep cool?  The swimming pool feels like warm bathwater and you hope there is a slight breeze to cool the droplets on your skin.  Or you towel off and go inside to air conditioned coolness. In my case, I work during the day in 68-degree-Fahrenheit air.

Anyway, the weather isn't the only hotness around here. My sewing machine and fingers are hot from finishing up a variety of projects.

First, my longarmer finished custom quilting Mesa Valley and it turned out fantastic!  I am nearly finished hand stitching on a wider-than-normal teal binding. This one will hopefully grab a shiny ribbon in the next quilt show.

Second, I free-motion-quilted a tablerunner and finished hand-stitching on its binding.

I even added some stitch-in-the-ditch lines on a table runner from a couple years ago (*now* it is finished).  This is a Connecting Threads kit.

Third, ummm....I started two new projects. Yeah, I know. I have plenty of UFOs that I need to concentrate on completing. But both of these called so strongly to me. While searching for images of a different quilt block, I came across an image from a completely different quilt. It was a quilt someone had made from blocks received in a block exchange. I had participated in that exchange, hoping so hard that I would be the winner. Alas, I didn't win, but the idea of making my own set of blocks had been percolating in my mind. Seeing that example was the inspiration to finally make my own. I now have eight blocks for the planned 20-block setting, all from my own stash.  It's so nice to shop your own stash!

 

The other new project is from a recent Sew Sampler box. My daughter's boyfriend really liked the quilt pattern. I figured it might be one more incentive for him to stick around for a while if I made this quilt (lol-if my daughter is reading this post, maybe you could curb your morning grouchiness so he will stick around longer than your previous boyfriends).  I finished cutting the fabric last night. It is an easy pattern so should go together pretty quickly.

Last week my hubby and I spent time visiting my parents and helping with home renovations. It was great to see them again, along with my brother and niece. We took a drive around the town and the nearby lakes to check out all the changes that have occurred in our home town over the past few years. It sure was nice to get back home again, though.

Where have you gone on vacation this summer? Or where would you recommend we check out on our next vacation?