Night Owl

It makes no sense.  I'm usually ready for bed by 10 PM.  Sit me in front of a TV screen with nothing in my hands, and I guarantee I won't know how the movie or show ends because I'll be fast asleep.  But set me loose in my sewing room, and I'll look up and discover it is the middle of the night and I'm still going strong.

Today was my first day of sewing after two weeks on the road.  What a treat to just play with fabric after two weeks of constant travel - sleeping in 10 different cities!

I assembled four more pinwheel blocks for my Good Fortune quilt (no photos) as a leader-ender as I worked on pressing, cutting and sewing strips for the Sew Many Strips APQ Quiltalong.  There's a lot of orange in there because I started by cutting up scraps from my Good Fortune quilt.  Once I get more pieces cut and sewn, I'll dilute that orange a bit.

I'm not so good at following directions, so I've jumped around a bit in the quiltalong, sewing together one of the corner border blocks.

This quilt could also be called Sew Many Seams!  With all these little pieces, this is not going to be one I'm going to want to hand quilt!

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap!

New life...

Remember how I said that five of my co-workers were having babies this spring?  The shower for baby number 3 is tomorrow, and I am READY!  I pulled out a small top that I finished a couple years ago, thrilled to see that I had also already pieced a backing and stored them together.  Good thinking, Erin!

I pressed and basted on Thursday,

quilted and started binding it on Friday,

Instead of just plain cross-hatching again, I stitched on both sides of painter's tape in a modified cross-hatch.

I don't watch nearly as many shows as I would like, but binding a quilt is the perfect time to watch.  This is Heartland - I absolutely LOVE the scenery!

and finished binding it on Saturday (today)!

It is currently in the wash, and when it comes out, I will sign it, wrap it up and pat myself on the back.

The block is inspired by Melissa of Happy Quilting's Summer Breeze pattern.  The sashing and cornerstones to create the little Shoo Fly blocks in the corners and middle are my own spin on the pattern.  I'm happy to say that I used up every bit of the fabric scraps that I chose for the front by incorporating them in the back. 

The quilt measures 39" square and is destined for a little girl who is due later this month and whose name has yet to be revealed.

That is FOUR finishes for me already this year.  What took me so long to jump on the "simple quilting on the domestic machine" bandwagon?  Yes, I love to hand quilt, and I will likely continue to hand quilt those that I make for my own family, but I'm definitely going to keep machine quilting these tops that I've completed over the years who have been patiently waiting their turn to go under the needle.  Hmmm, which quilt should I do next?

Actually, working on a baby quilt and thinking about new life has been sustaining me during what has been an emotionally trying couple of days.  On Thursday, I learned that a friend with cancer was just told she has no more than 100 days to live.  I want to find a quilt from my stash of tops to finish up and send to her to let her know I'm thinking of her.

And then, this morning I received the phone call that my beloved aunt suffered from a ruptured aneurysm yesterday, and is now in a coma with a CT scan that reveals that she is brain dead.  The doctors say there is no hope for recovery.   They removed the breathing tube and she is breathing on her own now.  They say she doesn't feel any pain, but that it is only a matter of time before she is gone.  I'm alternately numb with shock and weepy with grief.  She is one of the most beautiful, loving, generous, fun and fierce people I know, and I am going to miss her deeply.

This is a happy memory from a visit the boys and I made to her house two and a half years ago.  She was pretending she was going to drive off in our new Jeep.

I will be linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.

This and that

Both baby quilts were delivered on Thursday.  Getting those done on schedule really motivates me.  I've finished three quilts already in 2019 - that's got to be a record for me!

So when I had a few minutes this evening, I got started pulling fabric for the #apqquiltalong.  But I can't just pull fabric without cutting it.  And I can't cut lots of fabric without sewing it.  So, while the instructions say to pull this week, cut next week, and start assembling the week after, I'm kinda doing it all at once.  Here's me playing around with what the outer border looks like.

I simultaneously made some progress on my Bonnie Hunter mystery Good Fortune quilt.  Slow and steady, and all that.

I'm hoping to get in a few more hours of sewing tomorrow, too.  I'll be out of town, traveling for work, from March 3 - March 17, so it is important to sew while I can.  While I am traveling, I can knit.  Of course, I could also prep some pieces of my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt, the one I started almost a decade ago...

So many projects, so little time!

Crushing my goals!

Usually, I set goals that turn out to be too lofty, but this time, I'm getting it done!  I finished piecing the second baby quilt:

I like this one better than the first.  Better balance.

AND both quilted and bound it before the weekend was over, right on schedule.

I will definitely be machine quilting with cross hatching again.  I love the look, and it was so easy! 

I had enough of this super soft yellow to back both quilts.  To bind this quilt, I used up this floral scrap.  I love the feeling of using up all of a fabric.  As much as I hate to see a fabric go, it frees me up to buy more with no guilt!

Today, I basted quilt number two

and I plan to start quilting it tonight, finish quilting it tomorrow, and get it bound by Wednesday so that I can wash and dry them on Wednesday night and deliver both quilts during faculty meeting on Thursday (both dads are back at work already).

It feels so good to finish something, rather than start it and then have it languish.  It helps that they are small baby quilts (both 40" square) and that I machine quilted them.  Whoever suggested cross hatch quilting to me after I stressed over stitch in the ditch for my last quilt - THANK YOU!  I love how it looks, and it was so easy to do!  I was worried that it would detract from the piecing, but, if anything, I think it enhances it.

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap.

Quilt in a Day!

Two of my co-workers gave birth this week.  I told myself I wasn't going to start anything new, that I had enough things going on without adding new quilts to the mix, but I couldn't help myself!  Babies need quilts!  Luckily, both new babies have short four letter names (Otto and Liam) so as I sat up sketching possible quick and easy "Welcome to the World" quilt ideas last night, what I did for one would easily work for the other, too.  I've always wanted to make pineapples...

After lunch, I got started picking out fabric and sewing.  Much of the squares came from my pre-cut scrap bins, and the background is a larger scrap from my neutral drawer.  The size of that scrap pretty much dictated how big the quilt would be.  I was thrilled to have very little of that fabric left - it will quickly be cut up and added to the scrap bins.

I'm moderately pleased with the final result.  There seems to be too much white space on the bottom and in the middle, but I'm leaving it.  It measures 40" square. 

I hope to get the second one pieced by Wednesday, and get at least one quilted (by machine, yikes! but there's no time for hand quilting) this weekend.  By next weekend I'd like to have them both ready for delivery.  That's pretty ambitious for me, but I'm gonna give it a go.

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Pursuing my Good Fortune

Now that my last quilt is in its new home and in use

The recipient posted this photo of the quilt (I cropped it) on her Instagram

I've turned my focus back to finishing my Good Fortune quilt.  All of these blocks are done, time to finish the alternate blocks. 

I accidentally made too many blocks...

Of course, I should also finish LAST YEAR's On Ringo Lake mystery quilt,

I have made no progress since getting to this point.  C'mon, Erin, you're so close!

but the colors in this year's quilt just make me happier, so they seem to always get top billing.  And I'd love to finish my 2018 Temperature Quilt, but I seem to have lost my paperwork/chart, so that project is stalled out until I find my worksheets or redo them (I still have December and part of November to complete).

This is everything through September assembled.

And then there is this quilt that I need to finish hand quilting before my niece's first birthday in April. 

I've finished quilting all the white spaces - now to the colored stars

With all these things to finish, I sure hope I can be disciplined about not starting anything NEW!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

A Fast Finish!

Last Monday, I received an email from a friend, inviting me to a co-worker's birthday celebration on Thursday evening.  She's one of my favorite people at my current job, so, of course, I wanted to go.  She has also spoken admiringly of another friend of hers who is a maker, so it seemed like she'd be a good candidate for a handmade gift.  Off to the stash of completed quilt tops I went!

I chose my Sister's Choice top for her, because, if I were given the chance to choose a sister, I'd choose her.  She's fun, supportive, clever, vulnerable, fierce, silly, mischievous, smart - just a great person!

First, I needed a backing, and it had to be something I had on hand because there was no time to go shopping.  I love this sun and moon print, but I didn't quite have enough, so I added a strip of dark blue batik.  The backing was pieced and the 56" square quilt was basted on Monday night.

Since I didn't have much time, I wasn't going to be able to hand quilt, so I put aside my fear of machine quilting, slapped on the walking foot, and started straight-line, stitch in the ditch machine quilting on Tuesday night, finishing it up on Wednesday night.  On Wednesday, I also made the binding (luckily, I had already set aside the fabric to do this and stored it with the quilt top), and stitched it down on to the front.

On Thursday, I woke up early to start stitching down the binding by hand, skipped lunch, and spent two hours after practice and dinner but before the party to get as much done as I could.  Unfortunately, it wasn't enough time.  I still had one side of binding left, and while I had buried all the thread ends on the top of the quilt, I hadn't yet gotten to the back.  I wrapped it up anyway.

She did not disappoint when she opened the present - she seemed to be both genuinely surprised and honored.  I reassured her that it was a utility quilt, meant to be used, and then asked for it back so that I could finish the binding and burying the quilting threads.

It is back in her permanent possession now, and I am feeling mighty pleased with myself for FINISHING something.  I much prefer hand quilting, and I am infinitely better at it (it is HARD for me to consistently quilt in the ditch by machine - why?  It's just a straight line, for goodness sakes!), but I feel empowered knowing that I can finish something with some simple machine quilting in a pinch.

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.