Hey, I finished something!

Well, I finally finished something, well two somethings actually, and one wasn't even something on the list to finish. It was a start and finish in less than a day wall hanging project. But I'm happy with it. I needed something to put on the wall where my Love Note Wall hanging was and it felt a little early to put up my patriotic one. 

I might change it out before mid May, but maybe not. I'm really loving how this one turned out, and because it's the Thistle Rose pattern, it works for St. Patrick's Day as well as spring. But it's also pretty enough that it might get hung up periodically throughout the year. 

I learned how to make half rectangle triangles for this one, and let me tell you, they hurt my brain. Because you don't make them like you would half square triangles. Well, you sew them corner to corner, but they aren't lined up as a rectangle. They look like an X when you sew on either side of the line. But I have proved that I can make them, I just don't think I want to make more anytime soon.

But here's my other finish! Lattice Baby Quilt from Diary of a Quilter. This should've been done two months ago but it wasn't. And my friend is due later this month. And I won't see her until next Sunday so hopefully the baby doesn't come early. But if he does, I'll give it to her mom who I know will be spending time with her grandson. A charm pack isn't quite enough to make this one so I did buy a little extra backing and binding so I could cut a few extra 5 inch squares. 

It's amazing how putting simple squares on point makes them so adorable. And I used white flannel which feels so snugly after only one wash and the texture change between flannel and cotton should provide some sensory simulation. 

And how could I not put Tigger on the back? I wanted to use the panel from the line (100 Aker Wood), but it was out of stock everywhere when I was ordering fabric. So Tigger was the next best option. 

And the I Spy Stars also became a top last weekend. Or maybe it was 2 weekends ago? Either way, it's still in top status, I need to piece a backing for it. I have the perfect alphabet fabric but it's not quite wide enough so I need to add a border to it. Yay, more borders. But I did make the label for it when I made the baby quilt for my friend. I had already picked Psalm 139:14 for her quilt and then I asked my brother what verse he wanted for the back of this one and he gave me the same verse. So since I had my machine set up, I figured I'd make them both at the same time. Especially since the thread color I was using worked for both. Which is great because it takes me a while to make labels so only having to type the numbers into my machine once worked out nicely. 

My goal of finishing the dresden plate blocks didn't pan out. It's still in the same state it was two weeks ago. I think I've lost my desire to work on that one. Instead I've been hand quilting. I have one and a half sides of the border to go yet and then I'm on to the sashing. I did quilt one sashing because I was impatient to see how it looks and I think it's going to turn out quite nicely. 

Normally, once I quilt the borders, I attach the binding next then move on to finishing the quilting in the center, but I don't think I'm going to do that this time. Just because I'm not sure if I'll have enough green thread to finish the sashing, so I figure if I quilt that until I'm out of thread and need to order more, I can bind it while I wait for the thread to show up. 

Yesterday, I was intending on piecing the 3 backings I needed so I could baste some quilts this week. I was going to start with the Calico Hourglasses quilt and much to my annoyance, I'm about a quarter yard short on backing. And because I had taken all my backings to my boyfriend's place to sew there, I couldn't look through my stash at home to see what I had that I could add. So then I moved on to the backing for Good Fortune. Only to realize that I had only bought three yards and not five like I needed. I know what I did. I was calculating what I needed if I bought a 108" backing instead of a 42" backing. If I bought a 108" backing, I only needed three yards. But I bought 42" backing. So I need 2 more yards. I think I'm going to order two more yards of the backing I bought. It's the back, so I could really put anything on there. And it's bed size so the only time I'm going to see the back is when I wash it. But I also don't have two yards of anything that I want to use. But I do have six yards of that white embroidered fabric I bought at Joann's last month that I might use instead. It feels like a backing that would work on a summer quilt. So I'll think about that one. But all was not lost yesterday. I did have enough backing for Old Town. So I can baste at least one quilt this week. Even though I still have no idea how I want to quilt it. I'll probably end up just cross hatching the entire thing since that's my go to when I don't know how I want to quilt something. 

And I know I probably shouldn't have, but I started another quilt yesterday too. This one is my own design, so I'm pattern testing it to make sure my quilt math is correct. I didn't get very far though, I just have the half square triangles cut out. I also haven't finished writing the pattern yet, I only have one of the two blocks written, but since I'm working on that one away from home, I have time to write it. I still want to open a pattern shop this year, so I want to have a few more patterns written so I don't feel like I'm under a time crunch to keep making quilts and I can enjoy the process. But my goal is to have at least four patterns written and ready to go when I open my shop and adding two or three patterns a year. I don't want this to be another full time job, just a side thing. And I think the hardest part is that there are other people's patterns out there that I want to make too, so I need to balance that with my back log of patterns that I've doodled out as well. 

Well, I'm off to do some quilting. Happy quilting!

Starts and Stops

I've been a little all over the place since we last chatted. I've worked on my Dresden Plates a bit, I now have four of the nine plates quilted. It's slow going though because of all the starts and stops. Which is kinda how I've been feeling with all my quilt projects lately. 

There were a few days where I didn't feel much like sewing at all, so I just worked on scrap management. Because as much as I try, there is always an overflowing box waiting to be trimmed down and filed away in its correct bin. I think the news about Joann Fabrics probably didn't help my mood at all. I think we've all known it for a while, but it's still sad to see them go. I don't didn't buy much of my fabric there, the fabric rarely felt like it was quality stuff, but I usually made at least one trip down there every other month or so. And the trip isn't really that far, they're like ten minutes down the street. But it was a great place to dig through the remnants or to get solids. 

I stopped by last Sunday, I was expecting a mess from what I'd seen online, but my store was as clean as it always is. Some areas were a little messier, but in a way, it was nice to see my old friend being treated well while she's on her way out. I'll probably make at least one more trip down before the end. I wasn't planning on buying much, but I really wanted some more of an embroidered white fabric that I picked up a yard of last time I was there. I got the last six yards on the bolt this time. I think the texture of the embroidery will make a great backing for something I'm bound to create in the future. I walked away with a  few other fabrics too, but I did restrain myself, I do have quite a bit of fabric already in my totes. And the backing fabric I just purchased online for my Good Fortune quilt. That makes three quilts that I need to piece the backing for so I can get them basted and ready to quilt. 

But other than buying fabric in the last two weeks, I also picked up my EPP project again. I finished two more blocks and added them to the completed pile. I want to start sewing them together, but I need to finish the rest of the blocks first in order to lay them out and get the color balance right. I'm not really in a rush to finish them though, it's my travel project so not something I work on when I'm sitting at home. It's a stitch on it during my lunch hour sort of project right now. 

But also in the realm of hand stitching, I picked up my Quatrefoil quilt again and started hand quilting for the first time since late November/early December. My callouses are long gone and are kinda painful to re-acquire. I'm enjoying the big stitch quilting, but also, it's harder. Maybe because I'm used to making such tiny stitches, but I can't seem to get the hang of even large stitches. I like the look and I'm learning what works needle wise and thread wise as well as what size to make my knot, but I'll probably save this technique for a quilt that truly calls for it. My next quilt will definitely be with small tiny stitches. And probably baptist fans, I've only done them once and am ready for something easy that I don't need to mark so accurately. 

Wanderlust also made an appearance under my needle again (under my snips in the above photo) as a leader and ender project while working on the I Spy Stars quilt for my brother. I'm not sure if I mentioned them before, but making the half square triangles is where I'm currently at.

I don't have all the tiny stars made yet, I only have half, and it's a very slow, in between chain piecing quilt. I don't expect I'll have it done for a while, maybe not even until next year. Unless I suddenly have the desire to work on just that. Which has happened before when I made it just past half way with a leader and ender project. We'll see.

But the I finished making all the sawtooth star blocks for the I Spy quilt today. I wasn't planning on sashing between the blocks, but it just might need it. It would add an extra five inches to the width and six to the length though, which I don't really want. It's already 42x50" which about the size I like for a baby/toddler quilt. I need to think about that for a little. 

My goal for the next two weeks is to finish quilting the Dresden Plates, or at least quilting the plates. I think the sashing/border should be fairly quick to quilt. The hardest part is going to be marking the sashing/border. I want to do a braid, so then it's also a matter of making a template to trace and getting the sizing right. I also want to get the I Spy blocks into a top. And finish working with the pink thread for my hand quilting. I think I can get all that done. Hand quilting is probably the lowest priority as much as I'm enjoying it right now. What are you up to? Any projects that you'd like to move along in the process?

Happy quilting!

Mystery Quilts! And other quilt updates!

I hate pinning. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's why I get stuck at the border stage so often. It requires pins to make sure that I don't end up with wavy borders. And then I end up sticking myself so many times while sewing on the borders because of the pins. But without them, I have wavy borders. So I guess I have a love/hate relationship with pins. And also why I end up adding borders to a bunch of quilts all at the same time.

Last weekend, I finished the top of my Old Town mystery quilt. The colors are much more vibrant and harmonious in person. I find that cameras don't seem to know what to do with the color red. But I changed up the outermost border because I didn't really care for it in my color way. I think it looks amazing on Bonnie Hunter's quilt in her colors, but the black made it look weird in my opinion. 

So instead of the larger square border, I made another row of four patches. I'm crazy, because those squares are small! But I love how it frames the quilt and I might use that again in the future, but not in the near future. I need slightly larger squares for the moment!

And since I was in the "I guess I should just do all the borders now" phase last weekend, I attached all the borders on Good Fortune as well. Oh yeah, I finished all the blocks. Again, sorry about the lighting, it's been overcast for the last month or so it seems. Or it's sunny while I'm at work. 

But because I made the quilt larger to fit my bed, I had to do some math and adding another border to make the pieced borders work. So my Good Fortune quilt has five borders. Have I mentioned I hate pinning? But I pinned each and every one and it lays flat and I have no wavy borders, so it works, I just don't like doing it. 

Now I just have to find the right backing for this one. I have backing for Old Town, I still need to piece it together before I can baste anything, but I want something with a large floral I think. But I can't find anything in the right color/style so I may end up going with a solid backing, I'm thinking light blue as I want this to feel like a summer quilt. And I even know how I want to quilt it. But Old Town? I have backing, but no idea how I'm going to quilt it on my domestic machine, especially since I can't seem to get the tension right to free motion quilt. Not that I'm very skilled at free motion quilting, but I was halfway decent at loops with my old machine. 

My friend's baby is showing up the end of next month, so I figured I should switch over my machine to quilting and just finish the baby quilt I started. And since I was ironing a quilt top and backing, I dug out my Dresden Plate quilt and basted that one as well. The baby quilt I was able to quickly quilt in a few hours after work one day, but the Dresden Plates are going to take a while. Which is probably a good thing since I need to figure out how to quilt the next one. 

I'm quilting the Dresden Plates pretty densely. The plates are hand stitched down, and while I would love to hand quilt them, there is interfacing behind the plates and I didn't trim the white from behind the plate either, so that's a lot of layers to quilt through. But it took me an hour and a half to quilt one square. And I'm going to have sooo many threads to bury once I'm done. Thankfully I only made 9 plates instead of 12 like I was debating when I started it last summer. I think I'm going to quilt a braid through the sashing. The fancy sashing is asking for something more intricate with this quilt. 

But I think I'm going to share updates every other week. The way my work schedule is, I have time for quilting after work every other week. So the other weeks I don't really do much at all and don't have much to share. My free time is more fragmented those weeks, so I tend to do things like press a quilt top and backing one day and then baste the quilt the next. Or I might do some scrap management or sew a few things together that I laid out the day before. But I think it helps in a way prevent me from burning out. I can go crazy and accomplish a lot in one week (like finish two large bed size quilts), but then the next, I have time to reset.

Happy Quilting!

Chugging Along

You know, it really stinks when work gets in the way of hobbies. But hobbies don't pay the bills, so work it is. I really didn't work on much this past week, really I just kept working on my Good Fortune quilt. Last Sunday I finished one of the two blocks. I think I finished the easier block first, because the other block in the quilt is a little more tedious. 

It started with all the half square triangles. Those took me two days just to sew and press after work. Thankfully they all turned out almost perfect so there was minimal trimming afterwards. 

And then there were the half chevron blocks, those were the most tedious. Because it involved marking the line corner to corner on the back of squares, but also the line for the bonus triangles. 

All of those are trimmed and ready to go, but wow. A) they are tiny and B) I realized how much I hate drawing lines to see on. I'd much rather use the masking tape I have on my machine to sew corner to corner.

So because I'm impatient, I skipped ahead and put together four blocks to I could see how my colors will play together. And I'm really happy with the result, but before I sew any more blocks together, I need to sew all the half square triangles together. Which brings me to my last thing for this week, because this is all I managed to get done. If you do a lot of chain piecing, you really should get yourself one of these. 

This one has a regular blade in it, but they make them that you can put old rotary blades in. That kind was sold out when I purchased this one and it makes chain piecing so much better. No more clipping each unit apart, this gadget makes it so much faster. The blade, which you can't cut your finger on, cuts apart all the little chaining threads between your units. 

This week I hope to get the rest of the half square triangle pairs together and if I'm lucky, I'll finish the other block. After the blocks are together, I'll go back and make the last unit I need for the border. And maybe on Saturday, I'll have the borders on Old Town as well. I might have to show up for jury duty on Tuesday (yippee), and if I do, I'll be taking my doodle notebook and maybe coming up with more quilt designs. Or write the patterns for some that I've already doodled out. 

Happy sewing!

Back in the Saddle

After a nice December break full of holiday activities and baking cookies, I'm back in my sewing groove. So far this month, I have managed to do a little bit of quilting almost every day. Projects that have taken up my time in the last week or so have been the Quiltville Old Town mystery and an old Quiltville mystery Good Fortune. Yesterday I finished sewing the blocks together, I think I had six left to go, and all the sashing. And since it was still early, I laid out all my blocks and started sewing. And I got to the point where the quilt top is in 4 large chunks before I lost steam. But even after I get the center sewn, I'm at the point where I have to make a lot more four patches because I decided to change up the outer border. So instead of her large squares, I'm going to make a lot more 4 patches and create a checkerboard border.

Honestly, it's not even the thought of cutting or sewing that many units, it's the pressing of that many units that has my head spinning. I haven't calculated how many more I need to make, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot. But that project is currently sitting at my boyfriend's place. And the intention was to get the center together earlier today, but the snow came in faster than expected. And since we're supposed to get between 5-8" and I need to go to work tomorrow, I stayed home today and made soup. Because snow days, specifically weekend snow days, call for soup and fresh bread. And sewing. Lots of sewing and ignoring housework that could be done. 

Since the Good Fortune mystery is over and I have the reveal, I switched up the colors knowing how they would all play out in the end.. I'm pretty sure I decided to start this one as soon as I finished my Ice Crystals quilt. But I received two fat quarter bundles for Christmas, Flowerhouse Camille by Debbie Beaves and Shoreline by Camille Roskelley and I was surprised how well the two bundles worked together. I only have one of the blocks done, I'm working on clues out of order so I can do a block at a time and not lose parts and I'm loving how well they're coming together. Next up is the alternate block using navy blues and greens. 

What else, the baby quilt for my friend is a top, it still needs to be quilted and I haven't taken any photos yet, my apartment doesn't have very good lighting and I've been working on it in the evenings. I meant to take a picture today, but because of the snow, still not great photos. I might not get any photos until it's done at this point, but I will say it has turned out super cute. 

And I'm sure everyone has heard the news with Joann Fabrics. I won't lie, I made a trip to the bigger store on Friday after work. That store looked like a disaster zone. There were boxes everywhere and empty shelves, but I will say that the employees did look like they were trying to keep a positive take on things. I walked out with a lot of fabric, something like 25 yards. And with all the holiday sales going on, I think it came out to about $5/yard with the coupons I had. I grabbed a few quarter yard cuts of some novelty prints. I think this next baby quilt is going to be an I Spy quilt and my novelty fabrics are quite slim. Other than that, I stocked up on neutrals, of which I'm always running low, and some oranges. Along with a few fabrics that caught my eye. I want to say I didn't go nuts, but I feel like 25 yards is going nuts. 

But despite the reason why I went, it is always fun to inject new fabrics into your stash. You end up with combinations you wouldn't have paired otherwise or sometimes there's one fabric you want to make the focal point and you already have the rest in your stash. And I won't lie, if the worst happens, and there are liquidation sales, I will go buy fabric. And probably another storage bin for it since the two I have are quite full now after this last shopping trip. 

Right now I should probably work on those baby quilts, but I really just want to work on Good Fortune. So that's probably what I'm going to end up doing. The quilt for my friend only needs to be quilted and I can probably get that done in a day. And her baby shower is over a month away. And the I Spy quilt isn't needed until August, so I have lots of time there. Or I might end up hand quilting as that quilt has been keeping me company on the couch next to me untouched for almost two months now. Decisions, decisions.

Happy Quilting!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's been almost two months since I shared anything. There have been things to share, but not as much as I would like. My current job involves shipping and as you can imagine, it gets a little hectic at work around Thanksgiving and lasts through Christmas, and if I'm being honest, January is a little crazy as well as everyone stocks back up on things after the holiday rush.

I was able to sneak a few things in quilting wise over the last month, but it's been quite sporadic and it takes a minute to figure out where I was when I pick it back up again. I started my first big stitch hand quilting project right before thanksgiving but haven't picked it up since. I did finish that last baby quilt (more on that last part later), All was going really well until I was joining my binding strips. Would you believe, while cutting the excess binding away so I could join the ends of my flange binding, I cut the quilt top? I was so upset with myself that I set the quilt aside for a few days. 

In the end, I ended up patching both sides as the cut was about an eighth of an inch past my binding. And somehow I was able to match up almost perfectly the front pattern. When asking for help on how to fix it, one person suggested I use a bite shaped patch in a different color as there were dinosaurs in the prints used. And while that sounded like a great idea, my skills are not there yet so I didn't want to go for it. But I will keep that in mind for a future oops. Not that I'm planning to make that kind of oops again. This one was handed over to my brother for delivery on Christmas and he has said that the couple is very appreciative. 

Oh and as far as that last baby quilt? I got a text on New Year's saying that another friend is going for a first ultrasound in a few weeks so he's going to need another one by the end of summer. At this point, I really should just make a few tops for either gender and maybe a neutral one so they are ready to go when he needs one. But before that, I need to make one for my friend. I have a free pattern picked out and fabric was delivered so I can't wait to dive into that. 

I think it was a day or two after Thanksgiving that I decided I wanted to make a Christmas table runner to put under my nativity set since it's porcelain and I am always afraid of bumping it and knocking them over, so off I went and whipped up Baking Day from the Barnstar Sampler book. In an attempt to make the table runner as flat as possible, I tried matchstick quilting. Which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would, but unfortunately the seams were too think in the table runner for my nativity pieces to stand up. Those little sheep are just too small and light to handle anything slightly bumpy. But it found a home on the table and made the dining room a bit more festive. 

Let's see, what else? I've been working on the Quiltville Winter Mystery. I mostly kept up through the whole thing and decided a few weeks in to make it the full size, so I did end up ordering the rest of that beautiful backing. Now just to finish the quilt as the reveal has happened. 

And then, while I was super impressed with myself for finishing 14 projects in 2024, I decided last minute to try to finish my Ice Crystals quilt. So I spent the Saturday after Christmas crawling around on the floor basting the quilt and then Sunday and Monday quilting it. Binding went on Tuesday and it was washed and dried before the clock struck midnight, which brought my 2024 finishes up to 15. Wow, I was busy last year!

Ice Crystals does not have a pattern. Yet! I'm trying my hand at pattern writing and finding that it's not as easy as you would think, but also I'm not sure if I'm just wordy, but with lots of pictures and diagrams I think the pattern is around 26 pages. Included are a cover page and a coloring page, but directions, materials, and diagrams make up the remaining 24 pages. And I still need to find at least one pattern tester before I figure out how to go about publishing a pattern. 

Which has led me down another rabbit trail of how to go about opening an Etsy shop, and while that part looks easy enough, it's the tax and legal side that is currently mystifying me and giving me a headache. My goal for this year is to be able to open an online store, so don't hold your breath that it will happen in the next month, but cross your fingers I figure it out at some point this year. I have a bunch of patterns I have doodled out that I want to make and if I'm going through the effort of figuring it all out for me, why not make it available for others as well?

Happy quilting! My sewing machine is calling me!