Surprisingly disciplined!

I am inordinately proud of myself.  I usually use this space to lament my quilter's ADD, always starting new projects and only rarely completing them.  Today, however, I'm super excited to share that not only did I convert one of my many UFOs into a flimsy,

Getting my boys to work together to hold the quilt straight took forever! 78" square, this quilt was from July 2016's 12 Days of Christmas Quilt Along, even though I made two of the blocks incorrectly.  I also ran out of background fabric, and I thought it was Kona Natural, but it turns out that the color is just a bit off.  No worries, this quilt will be for me and my family to snuggle under while watching Christmas movies, so the mistakes don't bother me.

I also completed the first clue for Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt, On Ringo Lake.

Fifty 3.5 inch (unfinished) nine patches!

Could it be that I am turning over a new leaf? (I don't want to say that too loudly in case I jinx myself.)  I need to keep hand quilting my niece's quilt, but my sister is pregnant again, so I wonder if I have any other UFOs that I can turn into a baby quilt for the newest addition to the family, due on April 1.  Hmmm...

Or maybe this scrappy stars quilt can be his/her baby quilt...

I finished this flimsy in October 2016.  At 50" square, I think it'd make a great baby quilt (even though I think I'd switch the position of the green and yellow in the bottom right corner first).

I am linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap.

The trifecta of quilting bliss!

Today was my last day at home alone for this Thanksgiving break.  Tomorrow, I'll collect the kids from school and head north to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  I'm really looking forward to it, but in the meantime, I've been doing my best to take advantage of these hours alone at home.

I spent my day enjoying the three parts of quilting that I love most - hand quilting, piecing and pulling fabrics.

First, I pulled out my niece's quilt.  She's turning two in a month, and I still haven't given it to her!  I'm determined to have it under the tree for her this year, along with a handmade stuffed animal, a sample from my shop.  Hand quilting takes me FOREVER, but I'm doing simple straight lines, so it shouldn't take too long.  I hate marking quilts, so I use painter's tape - anyone else do that?

My niece's quilt top

How I love sitting under a quilt while I hand quilt it!

I helped make this giraffe sample when I owned my shop.  Now that I no longer own the shop, samples make great gifts!

Then I went back to the Christmas quilt.  What does it say about me that I am already a bit bored with that project?  But just you wait - by the time this break is over, I'll have a completed top. 

On the couch back, since I don't have a design wall.  And terrible lighting - it sure does get dark early here in Massachusetts

Then, so I'm ready to jump into the fray when I return from my mom's house in New Hampshire, I pulled my fabrics for Bonnie Hunter's new mystery, On Ringo Lake.  The first clue goes live on Friday.

Chocolate browns, aquas to turquoise, coral to melon ,and neutrals

I won't be back on here until after Thanksgiving, so have a great one, everyone!

I blame the dog!

Twas a lovely vacation day!  I dragged myself, kicking and screaming, to the gym and got a workout out of the way early.  Then, a leisurely breakfast, a long shower, started a new book over lunch, visited the quilt shop for more Kona Natural for my 12 Days of Christmas Quilt-along quilt, and then spent the bulk of my afternoon sewing.  It doesn't get much better than that!

First block done!

Second block done...OOPS!!!

I blame the dog.  I don't have a design wall here in my new spot, so I do what most people without design walls do - I lay my blocks out on the floor.  However, I forgot to close the door to my sewing room/office when I went to the gym this morning, and my dog went in there to hang out, missing me, I guess.  When I returned, the blocks were all messed up, and it's clear that I didn't put them back together correctly.

No worries.  There are only four 33" blocks in this quilt, so I'll make one more block the correct way and one more block the incorrect way and claim it as a "design element."

But for now, enough sewing.  Off to curl up with my current read, the third Amish Quilt Shop Mystery, "Murder, Served Simply."  These cozy mysteries are quick and fun for me, and this one has the added benefit of being a Christmas book (have I mentioned that I'm really feeling the holiday spirit this year?).

Earlier this weekend, I read "Birds In The Air," a lovely little read, not a mystery.

If I'm not quilting, I love to be reading about quilting.  One of these days, I hope to write some quilt fiction myself.

I'm linking up with Monday Making.

Thankful for time to sew!

Working at a boarding school is SO DIFFERENT than running a yarn shop!  For the past four years, I closed the shop early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, enjoyed a day of food and family, and then started the holiday retail season bright and early on Friday morning.  There never seemed to be enough time to enjoy the holiday.

Not so this year!  The students left for home yesterday, and I have an entire week off!  Woo hoo!  I spent quite a bit of time doing housework yesterday, but I also found time to sew!  I've been itching to start new quilts (a desk job means more time on the computer which means more time for me to be inspired by what everyone else in the quilting blogosphere is doing), but I've been pretty strict with myself about not cutting into any new fabric, just tackling the UFOs and orphan blocks that I already have overwhelming my sewing room.

Perhaps it is a function of being back in New England, but I really want to dive headfirst into the holiday spirit this year.  I want to decorate.  I want to bake.  I want to watch holiday movies while cuddled up under a holiday quilt.  Except I don't have a holiday quilt...

And then I remembered the Twelve Days of Christmas Quilt Along I joined back in July 2016, the one where I only made it through Day 3 before getting distracted by finishing off my county fair quilt show entry.  

By Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, tutorial found here

I hauled it out and got to work!  I already had most of the fabric cut, and the centers of the four big blocks pieced.

I made these on July 15, 2016

Non-pattern follower that I am, I set to work constructing a block from the inside out.

CUTE!  But I'm doing it wrong...

When I actually looked at the pattern, though, I realized that the block is built as a nine-patch, not from the inside out.  Oops!  I can make that block work.  But I'm making the other three blocks the correct way.

Not sewn together yet, obviously, since I need to buy more Kona Natural to finish the block

Except I never cut the 4" strips or the sashing and borders, and since I sold my shop, I no longer have a bolt of Kona naturals to cut from.  Luckily, the Textile Company is less than 3 miles from here, and I'm pretty sure they have a full selection of Kona solids.  Unfortunately, they are closed today, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to complete any one block, but I am determined to do all the other piecing that I can do today.

As I said when I first started this quilt in the summer of 2016, working with just three fabrics is hard for me - my scrappy nature wants more variety.  The fact that there are only four blocks using big (4.5" squares, big for me, anyway) squares of fabric is the only reason I think I can stay on track with this quilt.  Maybe I can go scrappy for the back, piecing a bunch of large chunks of Christmas fabrics together...

And I'm SERIOUSLY considering tackling Bonnie Hunter's Mystery, On Ringo Lake, this season.  It's not a UFO, but having already completed one UFO top in the past two weeks and well on my way to completing another, I think I'm going to treat myself!

Lest you think I've skipped over Thanksgiving to get to Christmas, I used my turkey potholder this morning when I pulled the morning's muffins out of the oven.  Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I have NO BUSINESS joining a Quilt-Along!!

I need to turn in my entry for the quilt show in TEN DAYS, and I'm only 1/4 done hand quilting it.  But did that stop me from starting a new project?  Of course not!  Here's how it happened:

After Guild meeting on Saturday, a friend brought by a bag of donated fabric.  I didn't get a chance to go through it until this morning, at which point I separated it all by color or genre and put it away with the other donated fabric that I use for classes.  Some of it was Christmas fabric, so I stuffed it into the overflowing Christmas fabric bag that I have at the shop.

Then, at lunch time, I decided to visit some quilt blogs while I ate because I haven't been keeping up with blogs the way I'd like.  Somehow, I came across a Christmas In July QAL at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  It got me to thinking about that overflowing bag of Christmas fabric, and when I read that an hour a day for 12 days would yield a 76" quilt, I thought, "why not?"  The blocks are big, (which is not how I usually operate; most of my quilts are built from blocks anywhere from 1.5" to 3", and the smallest piece I cut for this QAL is 4.5") and I'm only using 3 fabrics (which is REALLY out of character for me, the consummate scrap quilter!).  However, the fabric is cut, and I am all caught up with the first step - these fussy cut snowmen will be the centers of the four big blocks that make up the quilt.

Back to the quilt I am finishing up for the fair...I had seen a basting technique using boards that eliminated the need to crawl around on the floor while basting so I gave it a try on this quilt. OMG!!! I'll be doing this on EVERY QUILT from now on!  I sat in a chair at my dining room table to baste and it was a breeze!  And the backing is the smoothest I've ever achieved while basting any quilt.  And the whole process was quick, to boot!  I encourage you to give it a try!  The link I used was for Color Me Quilty.

Well, gotta get some Zzzzs tonight.  This week has been exhausting, teaching at Summer FAIR at 8 AM each day, and staying up past midnight quilting each night.  This week I taught the kids how to weave circular rugs on hula hoops using old t-shirts.  They did a fabulous job!

And I was thrilled that I had 6 boys and 3 girls in my class - how's that for thumbing our noses at traditional gender roles?

PRESENTS!

Thursday was all about PRESENTS! In the mail, I received my heart in the form of a necklace from my soul sister, Em - thanks, love!


I also received another of my Let's Bee Together blocks.


I started working on a present for one of karate instructors, whose birthday party is this Sunday evening. It is a quick and easy Ticker Tape or Mosaic Tile quilt. I just hope it is quick enough to complete by Sunday at 5 PM. The R is her initial, and I'll be making 9 bands of color to correspond to the nine colors of the belts we earn in karate.

I also finished making and sewing together my modified Flurry blocks for my Christmas quilt. Now for borders...I think I'm going to do a braid on either side, partially to make it wider but also to use up more of these hideous Christmas fabrics.

And finally, this has nothing to do with a present, but I finished my second Pindrop block.

Today, I worked only half a day, then met my kids at the city pool and swam 20 invigorating blocks. Now I'm sitting on my porch, enjoying a refreshing breeze and the gorgeous views while I shuck corn and snap beans for dinner. What a great start to the weekend!

Que pases un buen fin de semana!

Running out of time (and bread!)

Even though I am stitching a bit on my Pick and Choose quilt a little bit every day, I was dismayed to spread it out this morning and note that I am only working on my FIFTH block of the quilt. There are 25 blocks PLUS sashing and a border to quilt. I am NEVER going to finish!!! My goal was August 15, but I'm starting to think that isn't possible. Phooey!

So, did I sit down and stitch on it some more? Nope! I went down to the sewing room to piddle around a bit. I wanted to practice mitering some more, so I pulled out some border strips that I had inherited from someone cleaning out their stash and added them around this leftover stencil block. Not perfect, but I think I'm getting the hang of mitering.

While doing that, I also sewed a couple of FLURRY rows together.

I removed the extra rows of background fabric in between the rows of gifts so I can make more presents and make the quilt bigger. (remember, I am using up stash, not buying, so I have to make my background fabric stretch as much as possible)

I also started making another of my Pindrop blocks - I'm really feeling compelled to bust some scraps now that I've added a bit of yardage to my stash.

I'm feeling a bit euphoric because I don't have to do ANYTHING after work today. No karate, no pool, no shopping, no nothing! I'm going home to read and sew!

(OK, not exactly true. Last night, while we were watching a movie in our movie theater, the new dog, Rosabelle/Deuce, got a loaf of bread off the counter that I had just bought and ate the WHOLE thing. Ugh! So I have to buy bread so my kids can have sandwiches for lunch at camp, but that's IT! I'm not doing another blessed thing!)

Christmas in July

I'll admit it - I got caught up in the Christmas in July hype! First of all, I picked up a Cleo Coyle book, Holiday Grind, that our library just got in.


I've enjoyed the other 7 Coffeehouse Mysteries by this author, so I jumped right into this one. (It is no surprise that my coffee consumption skyrockets when I read these books!)

And then, to see Mrs. Quilting in my Pyjamas working up that Flurry pattern, which looked so quick and easy and cute, well, I couldn't help myself. I spent some time in my sewing room this weekend with my bag of Christmas fabrics. Although the Flurry pattern is awesome, it doesn't make up for UGLY Christmas fabrics!!! I have inherited most of my Christmas fabrics from others, and of course, I am grateful to have them, but they aren't the gorgeous fabrics you see out there today. I'm less than impressed with what I have so far, and in true Erin fashion, I have had to modify the pattern to fit my limited fabric supply.

Maybe once it is sewn together I will like it better. Maybe once it is quilted. Or (gulp) maybe, I will never like it.

At least my machine and iron and rotary cutter got a little workout.

On a more satisfied note, my husband and I got the over-the-range microwave installed last night - yippee! I've banished my little countertop microwave to the basement and reclaimed my counter!!! (It's the little things that make me so happy!)