Tatting and Quilt Along Announcement

Hello everyone! I feel like a gob of time has passed since I last posted, but not really. I have been busy busy. I have noticed as I age, that the 40 hour work week is no more complicated as it once was. However, the older I get, the more I am slowing down. My energy reserves maintain while at work, but once I relax on the commute home, I am finding it harder and harder to stay active in the hobby. I am apparently a quilting weekend warrior now!

I want to keep my hands busy in the evenings, but do not have the energy to sew. So what does one do? Well I could bind several quilts, and that did happen in the last week.

Citrus, as I have named the quilt above, has been bound and placed in the done pile ready for exhibition.

I have also started binding on another quilt.

Last July, I was trimming the excess from the quilt edges and I felt myself cut more than I should have. No I did not have it all flatted out on a table. I was careless. I accidentally cut into my #embroideryflowersquilt more than a 1/4 inch. This quilt was on my list for the year to get bound. I was uncertain how I would fix this. As this sat on the back burner and at the back of my mind, I have figured out a fix, plus added greatly to the asthetic of the quilt. Be looking for a post soon on how I recuperated this mistake. I am hand binding this now. Amazing how each quilt I make, I learn just a little tidbit from it. I have learned much on this one! Be looking for a video to post about that soon!

Also, in the evenings, I have had the itch to pick up my tatting shuttles and give it a go. Very pleased at my success. A new spool pin doily for the old featherweight!

Isn’t this the prettiest of pictures? The purple backdrop is just all this stuff laying on a bolt of fabric. I tatted the blue one. The other doily was a gift from Gina Butler when I met her in person back in 2018. I guess I am my own worse critic, as I was tatting the replica of Gina’s, I kept thinking my gapsosis was terrible and that I was just not perfect in my hitch knots. And then I took the photo, and that little doily is so photogenic. It looks perfect (but it is NOT). I will retire Gina’s creation and change it out randomly through the year. Nothing like putting a little lipstick on the featherweight to doll her up eh?

This picture however, is not photogenic at all! LOL! I have been working on the Tildas Vase Embroidery pattern. So I am happy to report that I am officially a bag lady with this project, and all my squares have been cut, minus many of the background fabrics. I have announced a quilt along on youtube for this project. Be looking for this to post on youtube as well with tips and tricks as I create the content there. Be sure to go to my playlist to get all the details as they post.

And I cut what interfacing I had left. I will be buying more for this project. I only managed two panels. So the fabric diet will be broken again. However, one could argue is interfacing really fabric? Isn’t it more of a notion? And if I were dieting with food and fall off the bandwagon, I can just jump right back on. So a little diet cheating it is! If you are interested in the pattern for the above video, make sure to snatch the PDF and print this in color to get you going on this journey. You will be glad you joined in.

This is now quilted! My binding pile, as I complete one, another takes it place. Not sure when I will get to this one, and not sure what I will bind it with. I could dive into my kaffe drawer, but those pieces are relatively small. I am still scratching my head on what to bind this with. Once day when I am searching for fabric I need in my stash, I will come across the perfect solution. In the meantime, it can stay as it is.

And may I pose a question to the readers? What are you working on? Please comment below with your details. I love hearing from each and every one of you!

And Thank You for reading my blog!

Scrap Happy March Madness 2023

Well, even though February was a short month, it still flew by! I had to go back to my own post to see what I had been working on. Well, let me tell ya, much scrappin’ is happenin’.

I managed to make a shopping tote. Part of these fabrics was in a scrap bag from Sew Yeah Quilting, the other was given to me about 3 years ago, and I have almost used it all up.

If you are interested in the free pattern make sure to check out the shopping tote post.

I am binding this, glad this UFO is almost over. 🙂 The binding of this is the leftover 7 strips from the jelly roll that did not get used. I have named this quilt Citrus Spinning 9 Patch.

I also finished a baby quilt, a 3D one. I used continuous prairie points of various green fabrics to give the idea of dragon scales. This has been gifted, and everyone loves it! I calculated how many yards I had in this quilt. The quilt measured 43 by 40 and had almost 9 yards of fabric in it. Because of all those layers, it was weighted! Got fabrics you want to move quickly out of your stash, this would bust that nicely. I was a little sad to see it go. I can make another. This is a one of a kind. Please share this video on social media, as there is nothing out there like this.

I quilted what I have named my large gray crumb quilt, 50 shades of gray. A few months back, I just randomly sewed a bunch of large scraps together making this quilt. I finally got it quilted

And now, my binding pile has grown. I will be binding for weeks I believe. When I am not hand stitching, I will be at the machine quilting some Moroccan tiles onto a Kaffe quilt.

This quilt is made from a fat quarter bundle, cutting into 18 inch large squares and then making a 9 patch. Then making a couple cuts to disappear the 9 patch, I always have a hard time to utilize Kaffe. It is beautiful, large and loud. It is very intimidating for me to cut this up, because you may cut it twice and end up with three pieces of fabrics with completely different colors, which may mess with my scrap happiness LOL.

I was in another virtual sewing Bee. Practically Creative aka Melissa invited me to sew along with the group. Make sure to check out Melissa’s, Coleen, Brandy’s, and Sylvia’s youtube channels. And don’t forget to subscribe and give me some thumbs up on my channel. This international sewing bee was a bunch of fun, and it is lovely to connect with these ladies. I have known them for a while, but have smiling faces on screen makes the quilting and conversation special.

And please visit our scrap happy group links below. There are some amazing projects going on all over the world, and these are quick to just click and enjoy the read and eye candy of scraps.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jill, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

And don’t forget, this is National Quilting Month, sew quilt your heart out and move those scraps out! Thanks for visiting and reading my blog!

I quilted!!!

Hello everybody! As you can guess by the title, the weather, mind, and spirit finally cooperated with the hobby! I got three projects moving.

First let’s talk about the prairie points dragon scale baby quilt.

I decided that the amount of fabric I was putting towards this baby quilt was ridiculous on my fabric diet. If I kept at it, I would have no greens left afterwards and may not be able to bind it. I decided to finish it with a QAYG method or quilt as you go. This is probably how the whole quilt should have been made. Even though the theme was green, and I used up some questionable fabrics. I am very pleased how this finished. I say finished, but I still have to trim and put the binding on. I also told more about this quilt top on my youtube channel. Here are more details.

When I went to cut this off the quilting frame, I could not believe how heavy this turned out. Definitely a weighted blanket. And because of the weird construction, I am going to offer advice to the parents of the baby I am giving this to, make it a wall hanging and don’t use it. This thing could suffocate a baby!!!

The very last picture of prairie points are my leftovers and will end up quilted down with the binding at the top edge. I probably will not even use them all.

You will need to watch the video above to see how it all looks! And that is when I realized how heavy a work of art can be. So the temperature when I went home was only 58 degrees. It was rather chilled in the garage. But when you are working, you don’t really notice it. There were a couple of times my hands got cold, and my nose was always cold, it was totally worth it! Gee I have missing quilting. It has been since August since I felt the cushioned handlebar grips in my hands.

Since the dragon scales came off the frame, it was time to load my next top. I have them all right here in the garage with the sewn backings just waiting to be quilted. I went with the Spinning 9 patch. It was my most freshly ironed top.

I selected a pantograph that reminds me of citrus slices. I think I am going to call the spinning 9 patch citrus. The colors on the front, along with the backing I chose, give a tangerine, lemon, orange, and red grapefruit vibe!

This is now quilted!!!

And I decided to load yet another quilt on to the frame, and selected the gray quilt, which I have named 50 shades of gray. The quilt is wonky and not square. The construction is much like a crumb quilt, but on a large scale. Since this really had no rules and there really was no pattern, I opted to quilt a meandering dogbone free motion.

And this, is now quilted!!!! I managed to quilt these between 8:40 am and 2:30 pm. I was very productive!

Today I will be back at it! I can’t wait to get there and start quilting some more! Although this time I will curb my enthusiasm to just a couple of hours. I have many quilts to bind, but will probably stick with my priority, the dragon scales quilt. The parents have been waiting patiently since the end of December when the wee one was born.

It was so nice to work uninterupted! But after I was done, I was pooped. My body was actually sore. This was a workout that I was not used to. Ibuprofin and I became reunited, because it understood. hehheheheehehhehe.

Thanks for dropping in and reading my blog!

March 2023 checklist

Today is the day I announce how I am doing with my goals for the year. Let’s see if I am on track.

Back in December I vowed “watching youtube videos will NOT plant seeds and make my stash grow, nor will it make me switch gears into another project”

• There have been a couple of things that have tempted me. But, I have decided to make a private board on pinterest and pin those items. After the year is up, if I can even remember what project I pinned and want to do, it is not all the way forgotten. This is actually working for me. ✅

So I also said, I would have zero tolerance for spending on fabric…..er….this lasted for two months LOL. Was I tempted way before in those two months? You better believe it. But, in reality, I have used up several bolts of fabric and knew of a couple projects looming that would not be able to start or progress. So, I caved. The fabric diet crashed! But I will still try to conserve and shop the stash as much as possible.

Have I been able to quilt at the longarm? There were a couple of pleasant days this past month, but covid reared its ugly head. I had been exposed by three different people at three different times, so I stayed away from the longarm. I mean I have a baby quilt on there, could I transmit it through the fibers? Maybe not, but I would feel horrible if I did. Also, it would require me to orbit around my parents and that is a definite no. My parents missed celebrating my birthday with me. But they made it a very happy birthday with little details that will make me smile for years. And No, I did not catch the virus. Direct exposure for hours, and did not get it. Thank you vitamin D for keeping me well.

I have not done any binding. I do have one to bind. This is TBD or to be determined at a later date.

Work UFOs

• The spinning 9 patch is in progress and turning out splendidly. I anticipate to finish this over the weekend. I am almost halfway. And I might add, laying this out is kind of a nightmare. I do not have a pattern. I am winging it. I will probably turn these pieces upside down and repeat the remainder at eye level on the design wall so I don’t get turned around. It is called spinning 9 patch for a reason, it spins the maker!✅

Hand stitching on La Passacaglia

• No stitching once again this month. I find it very disturbing to have to many projects going at once. At my day job, this is part of the job and it drives me crazy. I just want to finish one job before I go to the next. So, La Passacaglia is stalled.

I have also failed to donate any quilts. The year is still young and it will happen. It just has not happened yet.

I have managed a planned make for 2023. The deconstruction of a grocery tote and the reverse engineering of this bag was a great success.✅

Last year I also committed to sewcialites2 and the scrappy triple irish chain.

The triple irish chain went together rather fast. Glad to check it off the list!✅

I am now 2 weeks behind on sewcialites2. Will I catch those up over the weekend? Not sure. Making several projects at once is grating on my nerves. I am bothered because I am behind. But at the same time, I make a huge mess of dragging everything out in the middle of another project, which complicates the mess I am already making LOL! Well here are two of the last blocks I made.

And then, this month was the release of the Tildafabrics Embroidery Flower Vase free pattern. I got that printed up and have done my fabric pull. I am not going to work this right away. But I will have to go purchase two measly fabrics, as I had nothing in the stash that matched the swatches close enough (there were 40 plus that I managed to match!). I made do with the rest of the fabric pull. I have not went back and made sure I have enough of the fabrics so the list of 2 may grow.

The Embroidery Flower Vase pattern was going to require lots of yardage of background. This was one of the purchases this past month. Not sure which I will go with. I am leaning towards lavender or a very light light pink. I could even go a nice light peach. I think I need to go a cool tone color as the background is a cool tone. A warm tone may interfere with all the warm tones in the flowers. I think I learned of this pattern release back in Decemeber, but cannot remember if I ever posted about it. I promise, it was planned.

What are my goals for this month?

• finish the spinning 9 patch into a top
• Finish dragon scales baby quilt
• Finish one UFO on the longarm
• Bind dragon scales quilt
• Bind one UFO
• Stay up to date on sewcialites2
• Start Embroidery Flowers Vase quilt

I wonder how I will do? Stay tuned to find out.

And thank you for reading my blog!