Next Up: Jade Garden

Finally, I have begun work on Jade Garden. This was a Block of the Month project offered by Wilmington Prints in around 2021. When I found the pattern offered for free and the fabrics available, I ordered them. I've looked for the pattern to link it here but it's no longer available.

I've spent the last three days doing all the cutting. Wow, what a project; there are so many fabrics! I cut out the rectangles and squares by hand with a ruler, but most of the rest of the pieces with my Cricut.

I think I am finally finished and can start sewing it together for Friday Night Sew In. I think I'll assemble it from the center out.

This is how far I got by 3AM. LOL It is so difficult for me to be a responsible adult when pieces are just lying there ready to be sewn together!

Finally Made a Quilt

My husband and I have spent the past few months sifting our garage and storage areas and decluttering. In June, we had a garage sale and then donated virtually everything leftover. The house is looking much tidier at the moment.

Last week, I had a couple of paid long arm quilting gigs so it finally spurred me to spend time in my sewing room. There was a pile of bright hibiscus and coordinating fabrics stashed under my long arm so I gathered them up and decided to make something with them. Finally. They've probably been there for two years.

I decided to fussy-cut hibiscus flowers into 4.5" squares then I just made a quick Scot's Plaid block pattern. It was a quick one-day project. I had been planning to add a border with the hibiscus fabric, but it is a large scale print and I decided it wouldn't look good sliced into strips.

I long-arm quilted it with Christy Dillon's Hibiscus Hideaway pantograph with Dark Rose Maxi-Lock thread. As usual, I used Quilter's Dream Green batting.

Of course, once I had the scraps spread all over my table, I couldn't resist working on another Broken Bricks quilt for the Friday Night Sew-In. That is my favorite scrappy quilt pattern. I'll probably finish it this weekend.

Leaves!

I’ve made more progress on my Fall Foliage quilt this week than I initially anticipated, thanks largely to some late-night sessions in my sewing room after my husband had gone to bed. Although it means I’ve been staying up way too late, the results are worth it: 24 of the border leaves are now complete, with just 20 more to go!

I'm aiming to finish the remaining leaves this weekend. However, with a paid quilting gig scheduled for Sunday, it might take a bit longer than planned.

Seeing the end in sight is really motivating me to spend time in my sewing room. I'm thrilled with how the quilt is turning out.

For those who haven't followed along on my progress pics, this is how the leaves will be laid out on the center panel once I put it all together. This is the Fall Foliage Spectacular quilt from Judy Martin's Cookies 'n' Quilts book.

Linking up With:

Finished (or Not) Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Friday Night Sew-In

Drawer Organization

I've spent the last couple of weeks working on house projects. I've sold some excess furniture and been deep cleaning, but while I've been working on these things, I ordered some drawer organizers for my sewing room table drawers. For this month's Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to spend some time organizing my sewing room.

Wow, I had a lot of stuff crammed in them. The drawers were full to bursting and I couldn't find stuff when I needed it.

As I sifted through everything, I found about thirty seam rippers and fifteen measuring tapes. LOL At least now I can find them and I'll stop buying more. Anyway, I'll probably downsize some of my excess supplies.

I bought some organizers from Amazon and they fit the drawers pretty well. I'm double-stacking the bins in the deep drawers.

Paducah Log Cabin Progress

I spent quite a lot of time on Friday assembling blocks. I tend to just make strips assembly-line fashion and sort them into piles. For this month's Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to sit down and just sew all the strips together and make finished blocks. I didn't take many photos because they pretty much look the same as all the rest. LOL

In total, I finished 35 blocks. I don't have a large enough design wall to show them all. 

The central quilt is 12x12 so I need 144 total; I'm more than halfway finished now. 

Squirrel!

This week began with the sole intention of diving into my insulated bag project. However, life's little detours led me to a pile of scraps from my recent Rose Lane quilt. Pawing through these beautiful remnants, I spotted a stack of triangles and four long strips of patchwork-look fabric. The creative muse whispered, "Why not craft something fresh with them?"

As luck would have it, I stumbled upon a pattern that seemed tailor-made for my scraps. Titled 'Chocolate Dip' by Lesley Chaisson, this design can be found in her book, "Charmed, I'm Sure: Quilts and More from 5" Squares." Most of my scraps were too small for her design, but with a little tinkering, I resized the blocks to fit. 

With my trusty Cricut by my side, I carved out the beige hexagons, while the remaining pieces were fussy cut from the pile of scraps. Admittedly, I indulged a bit too much time snipping those 2"-squares from the backing remnants. 

After assembling all the pieces, I found myself with a charming but modestly-sized quilt (30" wide). That's too small, so I decided to add another row of half-blocks around the quilt's perimeter. 

I played around with the arrangement of pieces and came up with this creative knotwork layout. I like how it makes my version unique.

I think I'll just do one more time around the perimeter with the small blocks before I add the borders. If I have enough of the grey floral outer border, this is my plan to finish this.

Finishing this flimsy seems like a good Friday Night Sew-In project.

Update: I stayed up insanely late and finished the flimsy.

Linking up with Finished (or Not) Friday

Friday Foto Fun
Peacock Party
Whoop Whoop
Patchwork & Quilts
Oh Scrap!

June Friday Night Sew-In

My initial plan was to piece together my Diamond Lane quilt during Friday Night Sew-In (FNSI), but an unexpected appointment with a client offering me a commissioned quilting job came up.

Though, before ending the night, I managed to put together the horizontal strips. I'm eager to finish the assembly over the weekend, although I will give priority to the paid quilting gig.

What's more, I'm genuinely thrilled about this lady who has begun giving me her small quilts to work on. I completed three for her this week, and she has just handed over another one. It's always exciting to have new opportunities and challenges to explore!

May Friday Night Sew-In

Oh, the anticipation was real! The whole week was a lead-up to this Friday Night Sew-In. It was like a pre-party, where I spent several days joyfully snipping and prepping the sashing and corner block pieces to coordinate with the leftover purple comet blocks.

Finally on Friday afternoon, seated at my sewing machine, I was surprised at how quickly things started coming together. Piece after piece, the blocks and sashing were assembled like a whirlwind! 

I even managed to finish earlier than expected. This extra time turned into a little social time with my husband before bedtime.

Up next on my agenda? A matching dark purple border that I'm hoping to add over the weekend! I now have two lovely quilts eagerly awaiting their borders. A bit of a challenge, indeed, but one I'm ready to take on with gusto! I'm absolutely determined to finish quilting these beauties by the end of the month. Here's to a weekend filled with productive fun and plenty of stitches!

Cut Out a New Project

I spent several hours over the past few days cutting out a new project. It was inspired by a pile of scraps I've had kicking around on my sewing table for quite a few months and I needed to clean them up. This is roughly the color scheme, but since I mostly cut it out from scraps, there will be quite a bit more variation in the blocks.

I did cut quite a lot of the black with white prints from scraps, but I didn't have nearly enough so I cut some extra strips from yardage. And I cut the pointed aqua corner pieces out with my Cricut so that needed to be yardage as well. And, eventually, the outer border will also be from yardage.

Easy Street pattern by Bonnie Hunter from her book,
More Adventures with Leaders and Enders

I originally planned this as a leader-ender project, but it may end up being my actual project since I am having a hard time finding the motivation to work on my previously planned projects. Frankly, I'm a little overwhelmed. I just need to get started again. My break from sewing has already been too long

I'm planning to get started sewing blocks tonight during the Friday Night Sew In.

Lake Cabin Quilted

I've been a little distracted the past couple of weeks and before that, I spent at least two weeks ironing fabric so my productivity has not been that great this year, so far. But my workspace is way cleaner and I don't feel so cramped in my sewing room.

I finally needed a break from ironing fabric and for last week's Friday Night Sew-In, I finished putting on the border and quilting the Lake Cabin scrappy quilt. This pattern was designed by Kim Brackett, from her Scrap Basket Sensations book.

I quilted it with the Crystal Gem pantograph which came with my ProStitcher software and is available from Quilting Daily. The pattern had a lot of backtracking and it didn't match up as perfectly as I would like, but it looked good with this border fabric.

I used four different 80-20 cotton-poly scraps for the batting. I used the trick where you just keep adding pieces, as shown in this video.

And today, I finally got my Finger Lakes Log Cabin quilt on my quilting frame.

Now I just need to get brave enough to start. I published my quilting plan several days ago.

My plan for the week is to work on this quilt until it is finished.

Linking up with Tuesday ToDo.

Jan Friday Night Sew-In

I had hoped to spend the FNSI making the backing for the Arlington Square quilt and then getting it on the long arm, but when I actually got into my sewing room I didn't feel like it. I guess I have a hard time working up the motivation to work on projects I don't really like.

So, instead, I found myself picking up my current leader-ender project. I had most of the block strips assembled and I started putting them together. The quilt is pretty small so it went together quickly. It really helped having everything already cut out. I did decide to change the fabric in the sashing. I didn't like the striped fabric I had originally cut out. Now that I've got my fabric more organized I was able to poke through and find a better option.

The name of this pattern is Lake Cabin by Kim Brackett,
from her Scrap Basket Sensations book. 

At the moment, I'm trying to decide what color pieces are going into the center of the pinwheels; I am auditioning the different options.

I chose these colors to coordinate with this old Morris print fabric I chose for the border. All the rest of the fabric was from my purple and pink scrap bins. It feels good to make something from scraps.

I definitely need to go back to the Arlington Square backing over the weekend, but I had a fun time working on this one this evening for the Friday Night Sew-In. Thanks for letting me join you all.

Nov Friday Night Sew In

I was finally feeling well enough to get back to sewing so I joined this month's Friday Night Sew-In. I worked on the last 8 Providence blocks for my current project, sewing them all at once, assembly-line fashion. Around 9:30PM I got tired. Usually, I would power through until I finished, but not this month. I've been sick for more than 2 weeks so I'm trying to not be stupid about my health.

Anyway, I had to spend a couple of hours on Saturday finishing up the square blocks.

I'll still need to finish up all 18 of the filler triangles, but that will wait for another day.

Thank you Wendy for hosting the monthly link-up. It's fun to go see what everyone else was working on.

Oct Friday Night Sew-In

I got started early again for Friday Night Sew In. I went back to work on my Paducah Log Cabin quilt because it has become clear that I won't be receiving the new fabric from Hancock's in time to finish before the end of the month so I figured I may as well finish something.

I started sewing after breakfast and sewed all the way until after 10PM, with a couple breaks for meals/washing dishes.

This morning, I started out with a bin of strips and the smaller pieces already sewn together.

Then I spent all day assembling strips. These are most of the pieces for all 48 border blocks and the first two strips of the remaining 44 quilt blocks

This pile will probably take me a couple hours to iron, so tomorrow I think I'll put my Snake River Log Cabin quilt on my long arm frame and alternate between ironing and quilting all weekend. I would really love to finally be able to have one of my Judy Martin quilts finished. They've been in my queue for way too long.

Aug Friday Night Sew In

I didn't get much done for FNSI this month. I seemed to spend most of my time cutting out fabric. I've been having a problem with my block sizes drifting lower. I'm not sure if it's because I'm still getting used to my new sewing machine, or if my paper templates have gotten smaller. In either case, I've printed out new templates, and when possible, I started making my HSTs oversize, and then I'm cutting them down to the correct size. (I'd forgotten how time-consuming that is.)

Anyway, during FNSI, I got four more of the Flowers for Nana Girl blocks finished.

I had forgotten I let a friend raid my blue batik scraps so I didn't have much left. I'll have to make another blue block after she finishes her project and returns some of them to me.

I'm planning to continue sewing this weekend on my other RSC projects. I'm trying to catch up on most of the blocks I missed during May and June.

Thanks to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew In.

June Friday Night Sew In

I got started a little early for June's Friday Night Sew In. I'd chosen a task to get caught up on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks because I missed them the last two months when I was busy with house projects. I had intended to spend all evening on them, but after a couple of hours I got thrown into cleaning mode. My sewing room is a disaster and it was getting hard to work in there. It would be nice to have that room usable again so I can focus on my projects and not looking for things.

Anyway, I got started on my blocks for the Arlington Square quilt. I have been intentionally using uglies because I want this to be a really scrappy quilt and I think they give character. =) I may have to start cutting white fabric off of yardage because I've gone through nearly all my white scraps with all my recent scrap projects. 

This is the design of the finished quilt. I may end up doing the sashing during next year's RSC.

I'm linking up with Friday Night Sew-In and Finished or Not Friday. 

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'll likely spend it cleaning my sewing room.

Feb Friday Night Sew In

For this month's Friday Night Sew-In, I decided to focus on my Rhododendron Trail no-longer-a Mystery Quilt. By bedtime, I'm about 75% finished. All the filler corner pieces are finished. The rows are assembled and I have to sew three more of them on.

Once I finish sewing them together, I'll have to trim down the inner border and add the outer border. Unless I get distracted, I should be able to finish this weekend.

Amethyst Blocks

My husband got a new job and he's working from home. Since our basement is currently under construction, my husband has basically set up in our living room so I've been spending a lot of time in the past couple of weeks in my sewing room because I don't want to disturb him. 

I got an early start on the Friday Night Sew In; I guess I was observing Nova Scotia time today. LOL. Today's project was to work on making Amethyst blocks for my Pieces of My Heart quilt. According to BlockBase+, this block design dates from prior to 1895. It was originally published by the Ladies Art Company under the name The Priscilla. It was later published in the Kansas City Star in 1931 under the name Amethyst. Then it was published again in the Needlecraft Magazine in 1932 under the name Star and Diamond.

I cut out 24 of these blocks based on my large quilt design. This afternoon, I spent about 5 hours sewing and got eleven more of them finished. I have eleven more to go.

Sewing these blocks was definitely a challenge when I got started. I would often get ripples or pleats in the fabric and the points didn't match. But, by the sixth block, I got it mostly figured out. I should easily be able to finish them this weekend.

In case anyone is interested, this is the process I figured out to make these blocks.

I sewed the pieces together into three "strips".

Then I would pin on one side, starting on the right third. I would lay out the pieces so the edges aligned and I would sew from the seam to the point.

Then I would lay out the other side so the edges aligned. I wouldn't worry about lining up the center area.

I would sew from the point to the seam and then put the needle down and raise the sewing machine foot.

Then I would pull the fabric straight, align the edges and then sew the center section.

I admit every time I went to the iron, I sort of crossed my fingers the seams were in the right place. Today, I only had to rip one apart to fix it.

I'm also linking up with Finished (or Not) Friday.  Thanks, Alicia for hosting the linkup.