Tuesday ToDo #88

I think I'll try making lists again and see how I do with them. I've had mixed success achieving my goals. Oftentimes once I feel I have to do something, I don't want to. LOL

I would be really happy if I could finish all the foundation paper pieced stem squares for the Fall Foliage Spectacular quilt. I've started on them, but I'm still learning the technique and am fairly slow. I need 44 total for the borders squares, and I've managed to make 14 so far.

I would also like to start making the leaf blocks. Ideally, I would finish all 44, but I'm pretty sure I won't get that far. This is what they look like.

Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to sew this week because my father is visiting soon so I have to spend a lot of time straightening and cleaning house, but when I can, this is the project I want to work on.

Linking up with:
Tuesday ToDo

Fall Foliage Progress

I've finally gotten started on living room quilt #2. This is the Fall Foliage Spectacular quilt from Judy Martin's Cookies 'n' Quilts book.

As I often do, I cut out the odd-shaped pieces with my Cricut Maker.

When you start with a new cutting mat and blade, it works beautifully!

I foundation paper-pieced the little stem pieces because it was the easiest way to make them perfectly accurate. (This is a departure from Judy's original pattern so I made a handy pdf with foundation pieces. You can download it here. Be sure to print out at 100% or they won't be the correct size.)

Now I just need to make 44 more leaves for the border! LOL

Linking up with:
Oh Scrap!
Design Wall Monday

Monday Sew & Tell

Monday Musings

Chilhowie Quilted!

Chilhowie is quilted! I do think this one needs a label so I'll be setting it aside until the next time I do a batch of labels, and then I'll finish binding it. The backing I ordered turned out to be perfect, so I'm glad I took a chance on it.

I'm quite pleased with how this one turned out.

I quilted this quilt primarily with Christy Dillon's Orange Blossom set, but the original plan done entirely with these blocks felt like too many of the same flowers so I substituted in the alternate blocks with Donna Kleinke's Lady of the Lake 2 Block 1.

As usual, I used Quilters Dream Green batting and MaxiLock thread in the Lauren color. I had intended to use Glide thread, but I just didn't find a color I liked among my supply.

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss
Put Your Foot Down
Brag About Your Beauties
Finished (or Not) Friday
Off the Wall Friday
TGIF Friday

2025 Planning Party

I've decided I should try and set some goals for 2025. I'm a little reluctant since I had so little desire to make anything last year, but I am hoping my recently acquired motivation will persist.

I'm going to come up with a pretty short list of goals. I think it's better to have a short list that I can finish, than a long list I don't finish.

First, I would like to finish the Chilhowie quilt. I've got the flimsy finished, I've received the backing fabric, and I've got the quilting plan figured out.

Second, I'd like to make two more quilts for the living room in the same fabrics. Not the same pattern, but the same fabrics. I think one of them will be Judy Martin's Fall Foliage Spectacular from her Cookies 'n' Quilts book.

The border on this isn't quite right, but it's close enough.

Third, I'd like to finish (or at least do a lot of work on) one of the three UFOs in my stash. I'm not sure which one, but at least one of them. My choices are: 

• the Stained Glass quilt (it takes so long to make the blocks),
• the Desert Sunset (I got stuck at a point where the some of the blocks were the wrong size and I didn't have enough fabric to make more), and 
• the Japanese Poppy EPP (I was dissatisfied with how the points were matching so I set it aside.)

Finally, I have some non-quilt projects I'd like to finish. My husband asked me to make him insulated shopping bags for buying cold items and I have tried, but I've struggled to find a pattern that doesn't end up with too many layers to fit under my sewing machine foot. So, I'm going to try again. And again, until I can get it. My husband doesn't ask for much, so I want to make these bags for him.

I struggled to finish much of anything in 2024, so I'll be delighted to get this much done in 2025.

Linking up with the 2025 Quilting Planning Party.

Easy Street Finished...and Gifted

In usual fashion, I was in such a rush to get the Easy Street quilt finished that I didn't get good photos. It was really big and my husband didn't have enough reach to hold it up for me.

It was gifted right after Christmas when my husband drove down to see his family.

My brother loved it and I'm happy to have finished a UFO.

I used the Quilter's Dream Green batting and lavender Glide thread. I quilted it with Anne Bright's Feather Garden. It's a beautiful pantograph, but it took so long to quilt. It was more than an hour for each row, plus the time to advance the quilt and fiddle with realigning the design.

Linking up with:

Brag About Your Beauties

Finished (or Not) Friday

Off the Wall Friday

TGIF Friday

Chilhowie Flimsy

My husband's mother is in her 90s, so he's made a point of visiting her every Fall to help her sift her belongings and spend some one-on-one time with her. This year, because he was busy working on election campaigning he didn't have time to go until December so I found myself alone on Christmas. 

Of course, that meant I didn't have to fuss with making food, or cleaning house for company. I just had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, a couple of cookies, and called it good. After about 12 hours sewing, I finished the Chilhowie Flimsy. Yay!

Last week, I ran across a batik fabric at Hancock's Paducah that appeared to have the same color palette as this quilt. I've been burned by batiks before, but it was on clearance, so I decided to go ahead and order some, even though there's a high risk the picture is a poor representation of the actual colors. I won't be receiving the fabric until after the first of the new year.

While waiting, I've been playing with my long-arm computer program to create a quilting plan. I spent an entire day trying to create a fall-themed design, but I couldn't come up with anything I liked. So, I'll probably compromise and use a nice set of pantographs from Christy Dillon with flowers. This is my tentative plan at the moment.

Customer Quilt

Yesterday was my last chance to use the car before Jeff took it for two weeks to visit his family. I was hoping to find some more rust-colored fabric. It was slim pickings. Apparently rust is not in style right now. I went to three stores and I only found one decent match. That beige also isn't in style either. 

I had enough fabric to finish Chilhowie, but I'm hoping to make a second lap quilt from the same color fabrics (in a different pattern) and it would be nice to have some overlap.

Today, I worked on a paid quilting gig. It's a pretty scrappy baby quilt. I quilted it with Wholehearted by Christy Dillon. I used a bright fuschia Maxi-Lock thread and it turned out well.

Now that I have finished all the projects with a deadline, I can get back to finishing the Chilhowie lap quilt. I've prewashed the new fabrics so I'll try to finish cutting out all the pieces tomorrow.