Floral Purge

Nine years ago, Bonnie Hunter came to my quilt guild and led a workshop on her Scrappy Mountains Majesty pattern.  I had already made a quilt using that pattern, so while I attended, I played around with my blocks, hoping to make something different.  I pulled that UFO out again last week, and started playing around with it again.  I realized that I had the capacity to make a flimsy that is about 90" square with the blocks I had cut out, which is exactly the size I've been looking for to make a duvet cover, so this quickly became my top priority project.

While I started the project as a way to purge my stash of old-fashioned florals, the more I work with this, the more they are growing on me.  The individual fabrics themselves still don't really appeal to me, but I'm liking the way they are coming together. 

Ugh!  See that muddy patch in the bottom right?  Why do I only notice these things in photographs - AFTER it has been sewn together???

I went back to work today...but since we are working from home these days, it means I was still in my sewing room/home office, but I spent it on the computer instead of sewing.  When I emerged from a day of virtual meetings and phone calls, it was to this winter wonderland...except my calendar now says spring!  I'm not excited about this turn of events!

But, once I was done with work for the day, I was able to turn my attention back to sewing - no dorm duty to worry about since the kids are all at home.  And I was smart enough to put dinner in the crockpot this morning before my first meeting even began, so I was FREE to play for the rest of the day!

And if you played along with the quilty adoption, please know that I have emailed Joyce, Joy, Sharon, Becky, Maggie and Mari to send me their addresses so I can send out their tiny adoptees.  I'll pop them in the mail as soon as I hear from you.

Be well, everyone!

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

Yours for the taking - Quilty Adoption Event

I've been participating in this event for years now.  What a great feeling to free up some of my creative space while giving someone else a head start on a new project!  Thanks, Cynthia, for hosting!

My offerings this time around are pretty small - plentiful, but small.  As in, if you don't like tiny piecing, these probably won't appeal to you.  And while they won't free up a whole lot of physical space for me, I will feel so much better if they get put to use somewhere.  The only restriction on who can win is that I will only ship to the US and Canada (sorry, friends across the pond and elsewhere!).  Leave a comment letting me know which entry(ies) you want and I will pull the names of winners on Sunday, March 22 with a random number generator if more than one person is interested in any given offering.

A. First off, we have the 52 extra 2.5" scrappy yellow and neutral 4 patches left over from my Good Fortune (2018 Bonnie Hunter Mystery) Quilt.  Eight of them have been sewn into 16-patches, but they can be disassembled...

B.  And then there are the 115 1.5" gray and scrappy bonus triangles that I cut off (and sewed) from a baby quilt I made in 2013.

C. You're going to see a theme here...more bonus triangles!  I really hate throwing anything away, and I love tiny piecing!  I just never seem to get around to using my bonus triangles!  Here are 42 1.5" patriotic HST in a blue with white stars and a flag fabric left over from a quilt that I had my students make in a summer camp quilting class sometime between 2013 and 2016 (hmmm...can't find a photo).

D. Surprise!  More bonus triangles!  These 118 scrappy red, white and blue HST trim down to 1.5", and come from a RWB star quilt that I never finished.  (which reminds me, I should pull that out and work on it!  I started it in 2015.)

E. In 2016 I had customers who came into my shop sew blocks for a community quilt, Arkansas Crossroads, which then was raffled off to raise money for a local charity.  These 146 white (Kona) and scrappy 1.5" HST are left over from that project.

F. And finally, some more bonus triangles, but these trim to a whopping 2"!  These 52 white and solids HST are left over from some Block Lotto blocks I made in 2012.  Time to let them go, right?

Won't you please give these little fellas a home?  Maybe there is a mini quilt or a doll quilt in your future.  Or maybe these can make a pieced border for something.  Or perhaps they can make pinwheels to form the center of other blocks.  Lots of possibilities here!

Check out other adoptees at Cynthia's blog.

Revisiting Mill Girls

My family has cabin fever, but I swear, I was made for social distancing!  As long as the food doesn't run out, I could stay home and read and sew and knit indefinitely!  It's scary out there with so many people getting sick; I am happy to keep my own company for a while, and creating keeps my mind off worrying about the future.

Actually, this time has me revisiting lots of UFOs from my past.  One of my favorites is Mill Girls, which I started in February 2016.  When I realized I was out of background material, I kinda stalled out.  Today, I pulled it out and realized I had enough for two more blocks using the background material from the original blocks so I sewed them up.

I now have 9 blocks, enough to make a baby quilt, if I want.

But honestly, I love this pattern so much, I want something bigger that I can use!  I have these other WOW fabrics - are they similar enough to mix them up in there and make more blocks?

I don't know.  Maybe it works since it is a scrap quilt, but maybe I should keep the background constant since there are so many different scraps in there.  What would you do?

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

Hitting the reset button

This winter, life has been crazy hectic!  I've been squeezing some sewing time in while running full speed at work and parenting my teenage boys (who are relentlessly creative about finding ways to get into trouble). But then, a week ago, it all came grinding to a halt.  My heart goes out to all whose health and/or livelihood is affected by this current crisis.  Luckily (knock on wood), my family is healthy and we are on vacation from school anyway, so our lives haven't been that disrupted.  My kids may be bored, but honestly, apart from this being a scary pandemic, this time at home has been a dream come true for me!

I read the entire book club book BEFORE the book club meeting for next month!  That right there is a sign that these are crazy times!  While I read A LOT (I've read or listened to 17 books since January 1), I somehow never seem to find time to read the book club selection!

I've also been sewing up a storm while listening to audiobook after audiobook.

I've pulled out my Grandmother's Flower Garden UFO and have done some hand sewing.

I've pulled out my Carpenter's Wheel UFO and made two more blocks.

Can you see that a couple of my muslin pieces are a different, lighter muslin?  Oh well!

I finished my 2018 Temperature Quilt and now just need to figure out borders.

A pretty mild year!  I have LOTS of blue left over (blue was for cold!)

I made a couple more blocks for my String Shadows UFO.

I sewed a baby quilt top, and am currently contemplating...is it done?  Does it need borders?

I pulled out my leftover border blocks from my Sew Many Strips quilt and made two of the corner blocks so I can use this border treatment for another quilt - who knows what I'll put inside?

I've made a total of 11 Jewel Box Stars blocks so far as Leaders & Enders.

There is so much scrappy goodness that I can hardly choose what to work on at any given time.

In the meantime, I'm keeping calm, sleeping in, talking long, slow walks with the dog, and appreciating this time to hit the reset button.

This is a first!

These past couple of weeks, I've been sewing up a storm!  Every spare moment, I've been at the machine or the ironing board or cutting table.  For the first time in the three years I've been doing Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilts, I'm completely caught up!  Maybe I'll actually finish one!

Clues 1-7 DONE for Frolic!

Or maybe not - I still haven't finished On Ringo Lake or Good Fortune, but I haven't given up hope yet.

Good Fortune still needs three more borders added - I love the look of pieced borders, but I hate adding them!

On Ringo Lake just needs to be assembled, but I don't love the colors so my motivation is low.

I've been finishing lots of other things lately, though.  I've read half a dozen books in the last couple of weeks, and I finished several knitting projects for gifts this year.

Matching hats for my little boy neighbors who love everything I wear in rainbow colors.

Socks for my mom (at the bottom of her bed is a quilt I made her about 12 years ago - another Bonnie Hunter pattern - and on the bed is a flannel & denim rag quilt I helped her make for herself).

I hope this creative finishing streak continues - I have LOTS of works in progress that I would love to see come to completion!

Leading with my Leaders & Enders

Sometimes my Leaders & Enders project gets me so excited that I work on it exclusively.  That was me this weekend.  My husband's basketball team was in a tournament outside Philly, so I spent two afternoons watching his games on my computer so I needed something easy and mindless to work on.  For me, that is Bonnie Hunter's Leader & Ender challenge from summer 2018, Jewel Box Stars.  I'm adding scrappy sashing and cornerstones to let each of the stars shine.  Oh how scrappiness makes me happy!

When I wasn't sewing this weekend, I was knitting.  I visited WEBS yarn store and came away with some wonderful colorful yarns. both to make gifts and to make things for me. 

But when I got home and started putting the yarns away, I uncovered some other bits and bobs of yarn that I wanted to use up first, so I put the new projects on hold to knit up some leaf washcloths to take as a hostess gift when I go to dinner at a friend's house later this week.

Other bits and bobs will go into my Excavation Blanket, my go-to easy knit project as I travel and attend meetings these days.

Making puts me right in my happy place!

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

November

Oh, how I love November!  No, not for the cooler temperatures, not even for Thanksgiving (which is my favorite holiday).  I love November because it means the soul-crushing grind of October is over!

So far this month,

I have napped...aaahhhh!

I have read multiple books...cozy mystery lover that I am, I read Thread & Gone by Lea Wait - A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery, Close Knit Killer by Maggie Sefton - A Knitting Mystery, and am currently reading Murder, Handcrafted by Isabella Alan - An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery.

And I finished piecing this quilt top.

All basted and ready to quilt!

I originally thought to give it to a friend who is adopting a toddler, but at 41 x 36, it feels like a baby quilt, not a toddler quilt, so I am giving it to my good friend's daughter instead as she expects her first baby.  For the toddler and her older sister, both of whom will be adopted together - yay! - I'm going to make something bigger, maybe quilts with their names on them.  We'll see.

And now that I'm not spending every evening reading essays and writing recommendation letters, I think I'm going to knit and watch an episode of something on Netflix.  Aaahhh, November!

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