Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2.29.2024

Happy Leap Day! I have a hankering to make a frog quilt! Instead I settled for a 'little bit of frogging' my seams on my round 6 of Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR)! 

Kathleen is our leader for Round 6 and she picked 'letters' or 'numbers'. I immediately thought of the words 'HONOR' and 'COURAGE'. I tried to talk myself into something else but in the end, I mustered up some courage to piece the letters. First I graphed the letters using the block system and 6 inch finished. 

The 'R's' gave me a bit of trouble. The 'R' in 'HONOR' is just so-so. I like the 'R' in 'COURAGE' better.

Sharing today with Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing - Quilter, Teacher and Designer

WIP Wednesday 2.28.2024

 The newest QOV is pieced and awaiting quilting. 

I counted the remaining Signature blocks and I'm about 10 short of a full quilt. So I started making more blocks and will take them to guild and ask the girls to sign a few. :)  I'm not certain Michigan QOV will have a booth at the AQS Grand Rapids in August but I figure the worst case scenario is to make a rail fence quilt with the un-signed blocks. :)

Since Baby (my Brother QC1000) is in the shop, I decided to old school the binding that needed completing. I was happy to find the tools I needed to complete this portion of the process.

Sharing today with Susan at MidWeek Makers.

Design Wall Monday 2.26.2024

On my wall today is another set of the QOV Signature blocks. I think after this set, I'm hoping I have enough for one more quilt in this round. :) I wasn't too excited about the tan with the flags print with the signature squares. I decided to sleep on it and guess what? It looks a whole lot better in morning's light. Mostly, I don't want to store the cut flag blocks and worry, er figure out how to use them at a future date.

 Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

The final round prompt dropped for the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR). The final round should include letters or numbers. Oh boy! My first thought is to piece the words 'Honor' and 'Courage' and use them as top/bottom to lengthen my QOV. Am I up to this challenge?!

SoScrappy Saturday 2.24.2024

Today is the 4th Saturday of February of the color red. Time for my Meals on Wheels placemats!

Guess what! The 'quilting stars' aligned once again for me as Joy's Table Scraps theme is 'hearts' for February...

pattern: Hug Me...single hearts

The quilting was a simple quilt as you go.

Sharing with SoScrappy Saturday and

 Joy's 2024 Table Scraps

Finish or NOT Friday 2.23.2024

I have a finish and a flimsy this week.

First is the finish. It's Signature QOV Foxtrot.

pattern: alternating patriotic fabric with the signature squares

panto: serpentine

The flimsy is my bear quilt. I decided to add one more bear and one more tree. I ended up using the tree fabric for the trees. My idea was simply to fill the bottom space with something 'sorta' interesting as the bears are really suppose to be the main focus of this quilt.

pattern inspiration: Mary Johnson, found here.

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday and 

Sarah at Whoop! Whoop!

SAHRR Round 5: 2.22.2024

Round 5 of the Stay at Home Round Robin dropped on Monday. Gail at Quilting Gail is our host for this round. Gail picked '4' as the theme for this border. You could pretty much do whatever you wanted but you needed to incorporate '4' in it. I took Gail's lead and made '4' Friendship stars as each Friendship star has '4' legs. I then used Lisa Sutherland as inspiration, found here with '4' rails between the stars.

Round 6 drops next Monday and it is the last border!

Sharing with Gail at Quilting Gail's Round 5.

WIP Wednesday 2.21.2024

I finished piecing the background for my Bear quilt. The inner portion is a rail fence.

 I added two more borders, a brown inner and pine trees that I discovered in the stash.

I made my bear family out of brown crumbs and fused Wonder Under Lite to the shapes.

I was excited to fuse and stitch around my bear family. I decided to set the family high since I am short and if I was holding the quilt up...well, it would work better if the bears were towards the top. Or so I thought!

Oh no!  I think I need to add something. More bears or maybe trees? I made a few crumb blocks in sages for trees but I didn't like the look. So I cut some trees out of the tree fabric. Maybe another tree and bigger bear?  This is where I left it. The three bears are fused down and stitched. The trees are loose. I'm thinking about it...

pattern inspiration:  Mary Johnson's rail fence with applique, found here.

In other news, I took my piecing machine in to be serviced and pulled 'Little' Brother out to sew on.

When I was in Ann Arbor dropping off  'Baby', I stopped by the Ann Arbor Sewing Center. Parking is down the hill out at the back of the store. The back is almost as cute as the front!

I had my gift card I won last year, so I brought a few trinkets to put in a gift bag for this years challenge and this pattern by Allison of CluckCluckSew fame. I was on the lookout for a bat pattern. My birthday is October so the bats will be my entry into the 'Birthday Bash' Challenge I am hosting.

Sharing today with Susan at MidWeek Makers

Design Wall Monday 2.19.2024

 I quilted down the Irish quilt over the weekend. This was originally made for the 'If my birthday was in < March >' series and I had planned to donate it. But....I sewed a pleat into a seam and when I attempted to remove the stitches...I poked a whole in the dog fabric. RATS! I did patch it but...now it will belong to me! LOL I quilted it with the apple blossoms panto but they were looking more like alien toadstools to me. Oh well...it's mine so it's all good!

I also pulled fabric for the April Melon Heads presentation, the theme is applique. Not my strong skill. So I am going to prepare a quilt top and raggy edge applique a few bears on it. The bears will be made from some of my crumb fabric pieces. I've been wanting to make a little applique something to add to my crumb collection and this will fit both presentations. I hope it looks okay in the end!

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 2.17.2024

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

Time for the main block from the Stash Buster 2024 Challenge. I may have over made this block... I think any extra blocks at the end of the year will be paired with blues to make a QOV.

pattern: main block from the Stash Buster 2024 Challenge

Sharing with SoScrappy Saturday

SAHRR Round 4: 2.16.2024

I'm a little late to the linky party this week for the SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin). Brenda at Songbird Designs chose Square in a Square or On Point as this weeks prompt. I was not looking forward to this round. 

I first made my Square in a Square with the traditional method as I looked up the charts for the size cuts I needed. For a 4 inch finished blocks, cut the center fabric at 3 3/8 inch and the setting triangles at 3 3/8 inch and cut on the diagonal once. I did that, sewed a few together to check it out and when I went to square up...all points were going to be lost. Ummm...set this project aside.

I then re-cut a few inner squares to 3 1/4 inches and kept the outer triangles the same. Sewed a few together and this moved my points in so they appear to float...to me ~ sorta.

I made a whole slew of these little buggers. Sewed my first border...ummm. too long. Un-sew one block and add a spacer on either side of the row and ta-da! Round 4 is now complete! (It is square ~ my picture is wonky)

It's 48 1/2 inches (square) and my next rounds will be added to the top and bottom to get the lenght required for QOV.

Sharing with Brenda at Songbird Designs

Finish or NOT Friday 2.16.2023

 Hello, Friends!

I have a few finishes to share today!

First, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, my woven heart for the Melon Heads presentation next week.

pattern: Hug Me, found here.

panto: curly hearts

My second finish is Signature QOV Echo.

pattern: a simple alternating block of patriotic fabric with 2.5 inch (cut) inner

                    and 4.5 inch (cut) outer border

panto: Happy Times

My third finish is the Quilt Of Valor National Sew Day quilt. I chose a pattern that my friend Rhesa shared with me in November 2023. I was sewing virtually with my QOV FB Working Stars group and guess what? One of the sewing ladies, Lisa Sutherland said, 'Yes, indeed this is my pattern but it is NOT published nor does it have a name.' She had shared it at a QOV retreat. A retreat member shared it with his mom, who in turned shared with Rhesa, who in turn shared with me and I shared it back to Lisa! Such a small world, after all!!!

pattern: Lisa Sutherland author

panto: happy times

My fourth (almost) finish is that I finished piecing the quilt 'If my birthday was in <insert month>' series. This month I happen to be working on March's quilt. I saw this design 'somewhere' on the internet. It's not on my Pinterest nor is there a random screenshot. If you know who this pattern belongs to...please let me know in the comments!

Since I sew my bindings at 3/8 of an inch onto my quilts, I knew I wanted a border so I had a chance at saving a point or two. As I was auditioning tans, creams and golds, I place a plaid on the wall to think about binding. Yup, you guess it!

pattern: unknown...please help me find the author!

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday

Design Wall Monday 2.12.2024

One more QOV Signature pieced and ready to quilt. This one needs a backing made then into the quilting queue it goes! This time I used a fun flower fill red wagon as the alternate print.

I also pulled fabric for my March themed quilt. I have shamrocks and 'kiss me-I'm Irish' fabric hanging around the sewing room...forever...that I am going to pair with some Irish looking dogs. The 'kiss me - I'm Irish' fabric is a cut off from a backing so it's a little narrow but about 96 inches long. We'll see how this pairing goes...

Sharing with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 2.10.2024

Today is the second Saturday of February of the color red!

Time for my Hollow Nines block.

 Sharing with SoScrappy Saturday,