July 4 2019

**** Formatting Woes Caused this Blog Post NOT to Post on July 4th****

PLUS I tried to do the posting on my older laptop - I learned that lesson well!

 

July Fourth on the pond is a unique adventure.  Wave runners and pontoon boats, jet skiers and ski boats, the place gets crowded.

Once a year there is an awesome party going on which culminates in a huge fireworks presentation sponsored by the JPCA.

I hope everyone enjoys the day and is thankful for having the opportunity TO enjoy the day.

Happy July Fourth 2019!

 GQ was 

Catching up with quilty things.

I am participating in this year's 100 blocks in 100 days challenge, primarily on Instagram with posts on my Facebook pages.

Here are the first four days.

 

Block 1

 

 

Block 2

 

 

Block 3

 

Block 4

I have also visited my ironing board this morning so here are blocks from other quilts in progress.



"Merry and Bright" was the Pat Sloan block of the week in the fall of 2018.  Only the alternate blocks are left for this one.

This is block 2 of the Curved Ruler Block of the Month that i purchased from Amelia's Garden in New York state a few years ago.  Progress has been slow on this one but it is coming along.

 

Block-Who-Knows-What-Number of the "Box Kite" blocks.  This Bonnie Hunter design is probably ready to be webbed in the near future.

Also in progress is another Pat Sloan project, her 2016 Block of the Month pattern called "My Secret Garden".  I am up to block 8 of the twelve block sampler.

 

All of these have been ongoing projects that I work on as time permits.  They will all be finished in due time.

Hope you have a wonderful US Independence Day on this July 4th, 2019.
Our fore-fathers sacrificed much so that we would be able to relax and enjoy this day!

Louise, on the deck, enjoying the Fourth of July 2019

 

The First Day of Spring 2016

This first day of spring brings a snowstorm to my world and the island.  Not a block buster, but nevertheless, snow.  It is covering the deck and the crocuses which were beginning to pop. Its forecast has caused all of the state's schools to close, even though now everyone is wondering why classes were canceled.

But such is the world of weather forecasting....

Now, on to quilty things....

I am making progress on my little blocks.  I now have ten of the needed thirty-six.

I recently purchased some new items 

And unearthed a few more.

Some only need borders; others are cut and ready to sew, while others are still in the planning stages (like that bag of fabric!)

Life is good when you have projects to do!

Have a great Monday everyone! Happy Spring!

Louise, on the island in the first day of spring snowstorm.

One Month Later... And My "New" Sewing Space

I have not posted for 32 days, a little over a month.  There are many family issues which have been and are continuing to be draining.  So much so that the moments to sew are few and far between.  I do have numerous opportunities to hand sew but rare opportunities for machine sewing.  I thought today with the few moments I have at home, that I would re-enter the blogging world and bring you up to date on the UFO progress!

In my "new sewing space", created to provide opportunity for found moments for sewing, there are the following...

2 more blocks for "Lazy Sunday" left to do.

Numerous blocks for "Easy Street #2" needing to be finished.

Many pieces of several steps to sew on "Celtic Solstice", but I am caught up with the cutting for each step 1 to 4.

 

Working on cutting Step 5 now.

 

Since this is predominantly where I have been able to sew in those found moments, I am pleased with the progress of each project.  Thank you to Bonnie Hunter for providing patterns that fit into this new "found moments for sewing" lifestyle I currently am experiencing!

Life will continue to be crazy in the weeks ahead.  But I can trust that I will continue to be handed short segments of time to spend in my new sewing space. Life can be trying sometimes, but it also can be good.

Happy New Year to All!

National Quilting Day

Has come and gone..what did I do that day? Lots of things, but no quilting.

As a result I am celebrating a bit later this year and in a different way.

I am making my own National Quilting Day by setting aside some time to sew each day. Twenty four one hour sessions will add up to a complete day and will help me celebrate for many days instead of just one. Maybe it is not in the exact spirit of a "day". But it works for me and allows me to justify stitching each afternoon for an hour (not that I really need to justify my stitching time). While some folks may nap, I am spending an hour stitching on bindings.

Since I am seriously behind on that aspect of quilting, this seems to be a win for me.

Here are some current bindings needing to be finished.

Yep, there are five quilts - all queen sized or larger.

Now you can understand why my idea is a good one!

Super Bowl Projects

Having signed up for the "Superbowl Craft A Thon sponsored locally by Barbara Chojnacki, of "Six Gables Designs", I knew I had to do something! I finally finished the borders on the quilt shown above. Yes, it is black and white.

My small quilt group, The GQ's, had swapped black and white fabrics some time ago. With the addition of a few fat quarters and a pattern found on line as inspiration, I was on my way. Of course, I had to modify the pattern a bit. What resulted is shown above! I call it simply, "Back and White".

New Quilts

Here are some quilts that have been recently finished.  They will be available in my Etsy shop soon or at Maxwell's Made in America.  You can check them out at those sites in February.

 

Sawtooth Star

 

Butterfly Mystery Quilt

 

 

9 Patch

 

Snail's Trail

Just received the new quilt rack the other day.  It make it sooo easy to take pictures now.  Four more UFO projects finally completed!

Couldn't resist taking a picture of Easy Street on the new rack.  Now I can't decide if I really want to put on those borders or leave it as it is.  I do know that purple will be the binding however I do end up finishing this quilt.

Waiting for Step 2

I am participating in Bonnie Hunter's new mystery , "Easy Street". I have all of Step 1 complete, 192 (plus) four patches. So while I have been waiting for Step 2 (which comes out Friday morning) I have been catching up on the Barrister's Block Sow-A-Long (and a few other projects too). Since I started working on this only two months ago and the group started in February of this year, I am considerably behind.  But I am trying to catch up. 

Here are the blocks I finished this week.

This group is from the March Sow-A-Long blocks.

Broken dishes - Wannabe! 
I mixed up the block as I was putting it together. 
That will teach me not to look at the directions. 
Guess I will just have to make another one.



 

Shoo Fly

 

 

Churn Dash

 

I also managed to complete a few pinwheels and a 5.5 inch block with half square triangles.  These blocks will go into the "someday" bin - someday the blocks will be used in a quilt.  All of these were made from the corners of various flying geese units and were previously pieced as leaders and enders.

 

 

 

 

It has been fun accomplishing all of this while waiting for Step 2. 

Is it Friday yet???

Progress

I have been slowly but steadily working on some projects. I feel as if I have made progress. Even though some projects are from awhile ago, by working at them little by little they are getting finished. It helps that I still like them!

Here are some of what I am working on and I know you have seen parts of some of these projects. Just know that by working on them a little bit each day, the projects are slowly creeping into the finished pile and leaving the UFO stash permanently.

Yeah!!!

 

You've seen these blocks a lot lately.  There are only 9 more to finish.

 

Exploding Pineapple -(above) a block and quilt from awhile ago found in the UFO Stash.

Finally (below), another Quilt of the Month in the beginning stages.

 

 

 

Progress is really what it is all about.

 

Today's Accomplishments

After spending the morning attending to paperwork, I rewarded myself with a few hours of sewing this afternoon.

Here is what I accomplished!

One block from the Barrister's Block Blog Sow-A-Long.  This is a 6.5 inch block with 28 half square triangles that measure 1.0 finished.

 

 

Two repaired flying geese (there were tucks near the points and thus the blocks were not lying flat)

 

 

 

Three foundation pieced string blocks. 

 

 

 

 

Four 3 inch windmill blocks.

 

 

 

3 blocks to add to the finished blocks to make this UFO Quilt of the Month. 

(Now you know where the flying geese from above were heading!)

 

 

 

And a whole lot of sashing pieces - 47 sashings to be exact and guess what, I need one more!

 

 

 

 

A fun afternoon, even though I may seem a little unfocused in my project choices. 

 One thing I can say for sure, I never get bored!

Half of the Dining Room Table

Ok, I know it is not at all do-able all at once and may show a serious lack of time management. But these are the projects waiting for me when I sit at the dining room table. The table is easily cleaned when company comes and little bits of each project get done each day and each week so that the dining room projects eventually are finished.  I like the variety of project choices, even though currently everything does seem a bit out of control when you look at the picture.

I think this post is acting like my to do list. Tackle this first and then move on.   Once it is in writing and posted you are committed.

May your dining room table always be clear!

Oops! Almost forgot the picture!

From the top left, fabrics to be cut into scraps for mom, the scrap boxes, and pillowcases. Top middle, a mystery quilt in browns and tans and top left, my guild's block if the month for this guild year.

In the middle row on the left, are some rotary cutters next to the on-going windmill scrap project which has cheddar for the background and uses 2.5 inch strips that I cut from the left over fabric from my finished projects. Next to that is a box of block of the month steps ready to be cut. On the right in the middle row is the border print that needs to be cut so the wall hanging can be assembled.

Oh, see that bit of red and tan fabrics? Well, that is block 6 of the Martin Michel templates quilt sitting ready to be cut and sewn next.

Finally on the bottom row are three knitting projects, a black shawl, a pastel afghan and the directions for a shoulder shawl with entwined "fingers".

Just enough to keep me busy! LOL!!!

Tuesday Tasks

Today was another at home day with no appointments or have to's. This gave me another chance to wade through another pile of quilt related stuff.

This is what surfaced.

 

On the lower left, a shirt box full of bright solid pieces, on top of it another quilt of the month partially done (maybe 40% done).  In the middle at the top is a wallhanging with all pieces cut except the border.  Below that, in the middle, are the blocks for a small baby quilt and below that, peeking out at the bottom, are blocks for a lap quilt - I think the pattern is "Yellow Brick Road".  On the right at the top is a collection of 2" and 1.5" strips for a strip quilt and another quilt of the month in the lower right.

 

Let's see 4 projects in progress and two ready to be cut and one box of fabric for a future project.

More in the picture below!

 

 

 

 

On the left, the rest of the stack, slash and mix them up pieces, in the middle, a Georgia Bonesteel pattern with some blocks made without the pattern book to help so I had to draft it myself.  Finally, on the right, 12 stars made after a class with Bethany Reynolds ready to be assembled into a quilt top.

 

Three more in progress projects. 

 

Hmmm...

I don't think I will tackle any other section soon.  I seem to have enough to do for the time being!

 

Super Saturday...

...weather and taming the stash.

The temperature is in the low 70's and it is October 20.  I think the average high temperature for today is usually in the 60's somewhere.  So I have the doors open again and the house feels wonderful.  DH and half of the neghborhood is outside picking up leaves in the noisiest way possible.  No one uses a plain old rake anymore it seems.  Notice the magnolia tree is now leaf free.

This afternoon will be spent doing the usually Saturday afternoon chores but with quilt cam on the horizon for 2 PM Eastern, there will be some sewing and quilt related activities thrown in. 

I just cleaned off the dining room table to see which pile of cutting will get done first.  Then I will go upstairs to tackle the sewing stacked next to the machine.  The last thing will be to do a bit of pressing of sewn pieces and then back to cutting what has just been sewn.

 

Left over fabric from other projects to cut.

Two smallish wall hangings to organize for piecing later.

 

My leader and ender project (windmills) on the right.  All of the cheddar background is cut.  The windmill pieces will be cut as I cut up the leftover pieces from other projects.  On the left is one of those stack the 9 fabrics, cut into a wonky 9 patch, rearrange the pieces and sew the 9 blocks together, projects.  I already have two stacks of 9 blocks made, but could never manage to finish the rest. 

This UFO's time has come!

 

Under the brown piece on the left are 4 or 5 blocks to cut in order to finish two different block of the month quilts I started years ago. 

The brown fabric indicates how long ago....

Another UFO that needs to be done.

 

This week has been busy with my church, volunteering to help with Bazaar preparations.  Now that is over I can get back to taming the stashes - of fabric and UFO Projects.

I am looking forward to taming the table on this Super Saturday of weather!