Design Wall Monday 2.27.2023

I've gotten the sewing space back into order after the power outage. We are having another batch of freezing rain...not sure if this storm has a name...so here's crossing my fingers that we don't loose power!

I'm slowly working my way through the various Quilt Show Attendees QOV Signature blocks. MY! That's a mouthful!

Signature Quilt #8 found it's way to the long arm and I quilted it with Fern Gully pantograph. I forgot that there is quite a bit of stitching on and off the edges of the quilt. For me, on the right side of the quilt I have an increased risk of puckering I need to watch out for.

pattern: Quilt Show Attendees QOV Signature Blocks quilt

panto: fern gully

Signature Quilt #9 found it's way onto the design wall.

pattern: Quilt Show Attendees Signature Quilt #9

Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday

SoScrappy Saturday 2.25.2023

Today is the fourth Saturday of February of the color pink! I made one lone pink braid for today. I think in next month's color, I might try darks on one side and lights on the other. Just to see how I like the look. 

pattern: Quilting Buddy and

                     Missouri Star Quilt Company Binding Tool Friendship Braid

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday.

Finish or NOT Friday 2.24.2023

 Oh Boy! What a week but not in a good way...more on that later...

First up: A Big Thank You for Trisha at Villa Rosa and Diann at Little Penguin. I won a prize during the recent blog hop and it arrived earlier in the week. This book has lots of potential for many projects using many colors...I'm looking at you RSC2024~ THANK YOU! to Trisha and Little Penguin!

Second up: Winter Storm Olive. Well, she was more an ice storm for us here in lower Michigan. I spent all day Wednesday...worrying about the storm and what would happen.  The power went out on Wednesday night about 8:30 pm and wasn't suppose to be back on until possibly Sunday. The first thing I did was take the ice cream out of the freezer and have a 3 scoop bowl...right? It was going to melt any way so why not enjoy it? So on Thursday, I made the decision to pack up my sewing room just in case pipes broke and water went every where. DH got a room at the local hotel with heat! I left the house and about an hour later...you guess it...the power came back on! I am happy to have power but since it was after 6 pm, we had to pay for the hotel room...better safe than sorry and warm!

I did manage to get some sewing completed before Olive arrived. 

Third up is the modified Jelly Roll was with the red Tall stars is quilted and bound. We were given bundles of 42 : 3 inch cut strips to sew together at February's guild meeting. I'm just waiting on my new order of QOV labels to finish it.

pattern: Jelly Roll Race with 42 : 3 inch cut strips with

                    red tall stars strip added for width. Tall Star pattern found here.

panto: Happy Times

Fourth up today is QOV Signature Quilt #8. I guess I forgot to say that the Michigan Quilts of Valor has been collecting blocks at the various quilt shows where there has been a QOV booth. The sttendees of the shows are invited to sign a block free of charge to be included in these quilts. I volunteered to take the baggie of blocks and make the quilts. Each quilt takes 35 attendee Signature blocks and 35 alternate blocks along with 2 borders. This one is currently pinned to the frame, pre-Olive.

Look! I know her! LOL

Thanks for making it all the way to the end of this very long post! The next thing I need to do is unpack and unearth all my sewing stuff. I was just putting it into cupboards and luggage, where I could find room!

Sharing with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday 

Design Wall Monday 2.20.2023

QOV Signature Quilt #8 is on the design wall. I have 4 remaining left to sew together. I'm going to try and make a push to get these completed and off my to-do list by the end of the month!

 Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 2.18.2023

Today is the third Saturday of February of the color pink!

Time for my Northwinds block. This block is the Stash Buster Challenge 2023 block over on FB. I'm making my hst's with the tube method so I am making all my blocks the same. I suppose the 'S' in RSC for this block is 'stash' and not 'scrap'! I also opted to piece the blocks as a 9 patch.

pattern: Northwinds block

Sharing with SoScrappy Saturday.

Finish or NOT Friday 2.17.2023

This week, I'll have to take the 'NOT'.

On Tuesday night at guild, I took my sewing machine to participate in the QOV almost Jelly Roll Race Sew Night. It is almost a Jelly Roll Race as the strips were cut at 3 inches instead of the standard 2.5 inches. Here is my flimsy at the end of 2.5 hours of sewing. It was measuring at approx. 56 x 80 before trimming. There were 42 strips in my bundle.

pattern: modified jelly roll race (strips cut at 3 inches)

Since I needed width but not necessarily length, I decided to insert a vertical row of stars. The guild's challenge for 2023 is 'orphan blocks' so I have a few orphans out milling about the sewing room. Here is one star I saw. This is Sophie's (from Block Lotto) Red Skies with Tall Stars block. Her directions can be found here. The stars measure 6.5 x 9.5 inch (unfinished) and I thought if I made a few more, they would work. I originally made these stars in 2013 and blogged about the finished QOV here.

pattern: Sophie's Red Skies with Tall Stars, found here.

Here's where I ended up at the end of sewing today. I did add one more 3 inch row to the bottom of the 'race' portion of the quilt and a little spacer on the bottom of the star strip to make it even.

pattern: modified jelly roll race with strip of Tall Stars. Tall Stars pattern found here.

I'm not really loving it, but it is growing on me. I'll need to piece a back next and get it into the quilting queue.

Sharing with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday and

Sarah at Whoop! Whoop

WIP Wednesday 2.15.2023

Here are my St. Patrick's Day placemats out in the wild, aka on the kitchen table! The bigger placemats are where DH and I usually sit to eat.

On the wall right behind where DH sits, DH put up quilt hangers for me that I switch out my wall hangings with the months/seasons/holiday ones. This St. Patrick's Day quilt is date 2004, before I started my blog. I'm pretty sure the pattern was in either Quiltmaker or Quick Quilts magazine as they were sources of patterns for my early quilting. I did put the date on the label but not the pattern source. 😍

Yesterday before the guild meeting, I made a few springy/flowery placemats to donate to Meals on Wheels.

Here is a close up of one placemat. I did find this fabric in the 70% off rack at JAF. I noticed that the last chance fabric is now marked at 60% off.

On a sad note...one of the leg supports on my rolling sewing cart broke off. I've had it for about 15 or so years, so it's had a good life. I've been researching a new rolling tote and it looks like I'll need an extra extra large one to accommodate Baby Brother. I'll be heading down to the sewing room soon to fire up the glue gun to try and glue the leg support back on. Fingers crossed that it works until I can purchase a new one as Baby needs to go to Charity Sewing Day tomorrow!

Sharing with Susan at MidWeek Makers.

Design Wall Monday 2.13.2023

A long time ago, in a sewing studio far, far away, I made reversible St. Valentine/ St. Patrick's Day placemats. Well, my cute kiddos peeled off the after thought applique of the shamrocks and my St. Patrick's Day placemats are just looking sad. 

I had brought a yard or two of shamrock fabric back at Christmas time with the intentions of making placemats for our local Meals on Wheels. You're right! That didn't happen and I boosted the fabric to make my own St. Patrick's Day placemats! 

Imagine that...I indulged in a little 'guilty sewing' as my quilting buddy used to call it when 'me sewing happened'!

The pieced placemats. I did make one more dark one. I actually have a bigger kitchen table here at the new house. I found the Irish Blessing fabric deep in the closet. Now I just have a few scraps of it left. LOL. 

Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 2.11.2023

Today is the second Saturday of February of the color pink.

Time for my houses and huts.

First up is my pink house.

 pattern: Debby Brown's Little Pink Houses

Next is the hut I made. I chose a crumb block that had a few hearts in it...for Valentine's Day. 💘

pattern spark: an 'oops' that I liked. Read about it here.

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday.

Finish or NOT Friday 2.1.2023

 I spent just enough time in the sewing room to finish Signature Quilt #7.

pattern: signature squares alternating with patriotic fabric

panto: large scribbles

Sharing with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday

and Sarah at Whoop! Whoop!

Until we sew again...

WIP Wednesday 2.8.2023

 I finished Signature Quilt #6 yesterday.

pattern: signature blocks alternating with patriotic fabric

panto: square spiral

I also was able to sew Signature Quilt #7 to a flimsy. It's currently on the frame, ready for quilting.

pattern: signature blocks with alternating patriotic squares

I was able to help at a QOV Award ceremony today. 

!10 veterans were honored today!

I also 'did a thing'...replaced the cover on my ironing board. Some black gunk transferred from the cover to my white fabric..eek. Time to change the cover out! of course, my trusty travel coffee mug goes to the sewing room with me everyday.  😍

Sharing with Susan at MidWeek Makers

Design Wall Monday 2.6.2023

I participated in the QOV National Sew Day on Saturday. 

I started the day by sewing a label onto one of the Signature quilts. It's my last label from Spoonflower, so I'll need to order more.

By lunchtime, I had the inner portion of the next Signature quilt sewn together.

After lunch, I was ready to sew on the borders. I dug into the QOV treasure fabric bin to find a different border. I had just enough to border this one!

Of course before I went upstairs for the night, I put the next set of Signature blocks on the design wall.

Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday.