While the Quilt Rests

 After the Christmas break, returning to work was hard!  I haven't spent any time in the sewing room since last weekend, but was productive then.  The backing for the 30's prints quilt arrived.  It is so sweet and pretty. The line is Aunt Ella's Butterflies, as you can read :)

I tore the yardage in half and sewed it back together about 1" in from the selvedge edge, then trimmed off the bound selvedge. Were you taught the same way?

Layers were immediately assembled and smoothed. Does that step always take longer than you think, too?  Then I folded the quilt package loosely to rest and left it on the floor.  Knowing Mini, my cat, claims anything on the floor as HERS, I had to add some obstacles to keep her off it.

She wasn't in the room when I grabbed all these things from around the sewing room but I found her there minutes later.

...and it worked!  She was very close, but not ON the quilt. :)

Unfortunately, no quilting happened during the workweek.  I'll get to it tomorrow morning, unfolding the package and re-smoothing the layers before I start quilting with the walking foot.  I'll start with ditch stitching and see how much more than that the quilt needs.  I should be able to finish the quilting in a day and then make and attach the binding on Sunday.  I'd like to get this to my daughter next week, to give to her friend when she gets out of the cancer rehab facility.

Scrappy Play Finishes

There hasn't been much machine time, but I finished up the bindings on all the scrappy play quilts.  I tried as much as possible to use leftover binding or pull from the precut strip drawers.  The cheddar print is a favorite scrap. I think I bought this fabric at the Temecula Quilt Co shop over 10 years ago!  It is a Jo Morton print.

Little tablemats/large coasters, I'd call them. 

Mini the cat wanted to be in the photo with the mini quilts. 

Sans Mini, I noticed somehow I managed to center the tumbling blocks quilt backing pretty well without trying.  Always a good thing!

I chose leftover backing fabric cutoffs for the longer tablerunner as the colors matched well with the backing and the front. Pardon my new slippers making an appearance!

I like Tea Time print colors with the green blocks.  Always a good thing to use up some of the saved backing cutoffs. 

I've been using this mini as a large coaster for quite a while.  I made this years ago.  I just love the teapot print. 

Puzzle piece quilting was really fun to do on such a small quilt.  Now that these littles are all finished, I'll be making the quilt sandwich for the '30's print quilt destined for my daughter's friend with cancer.  The backing has arrived from the Fat Quarter Shop and I have a package of batting on hand.  I'll ponder quilting designs as I get the layers ready.  

Slow Sunday Stitching--First of 2022

It is odd to type 2022!  Glad to see the butt of 2021 as we slammed the door on it :)

I got a little stitching done to complete all the light green on the DMC Cat stitchery.  See more stitchers' work on Kathy's Quilts blog. 

I love to stitch under a quilt with my feline supervisor providing company. There is a lot of white to stitch when I have completed the cat's feet and some color details in different spots.  There is also embroidery to add after the cross-stitching is complete.  Still enjoying this very much.  I'm going to use washi tape to cover the hoop for the finish. 

We missed our New Year's Eve beach sunset this year, and yesterday I was too exhausted after spending all day taking down all the tree, house, and mantel decorations to make it to the harbor--plus Grant was involved in his football games.  Maybe today!  It will be a great finish to the holiday season. 

There was more play with mini quilts as well, which I will share for Design Wall Monday tomorrow.

Slow Sunday Stitching--post Xmas

Linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching--see more stitching on Kathy's Quilts blog.

Progress on the cross-stitch of the moment, the DMC kit of the Cat. I put a lot of stitches in Christmas Day before starting the cooking for our expected guests. 

Actual cat inspection by Mini :)

The only other slow stitching  this week was the binding on this tablemat I gave to our daughter-in-law. I love the gray minidot.  The triangle squares were all cut offs from other projects and the mini-dot binding was cut from a fat quarter. 

I made it two sided--I've hoarded this pretty floral long enough!  Ashley was excited to use it on their new dining table, which took at least 10 weeks to get  here from Canada. 

Design Wall Monday--Winding Ways and Winding Up

 Design Wall Monday--see more great quilts on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I've again reached maximum density in the sewing room and need to thin out the overload.  Soo many baggies with leftovers from quilt tops and HSTs/leftovers I hate to waste!  

Purple block left over from My Lupine Heaven quilt top  got some borders and quilting  to become a tablemat (Bonnie Hunter's My Blue Heaven pattern).  My sister/sales rep marketed this to Dad for $25, lol.  I'll need to deliver it soon and collect the fee. 

This should be the last batch of Easy Breezy blocks for the layout I chose for another Bonnie Hunter design--this was her 2020 leader-ender project. 

This container holding leftover Accuquilt die cut Winding Ways block pieces has been sitting here for years. In 2015 I finished a commissioned quilt for a family friend's relatives as an anniversary quilt. I got out the die cutter and, amazingly, found a leftover strip of the turquoise print in the fat quarter dresser big enough to cut more shapes.

They are fiddly blocks but the notches and precise die cuts really help.  The hardest seams are the last ones joining the two sections. 

Well hi, Skinny Mini!

--here's a cat-free version :)  That copper color was--and is-- difficult to find.  

I made a clip cushion by request for my sister for her birthday, from some other solid scraps, but couldn't help throwing just a little pattern in the mix.  I cut the cushion pieces 6 x 7.5" and the clip holders 2" wide, as per the pattern instructions I found on thesewingdirectory.co.uk.  I again used scraps of fusible batting to give them body, and for cushion stuffing thriftily sliced up and pulled apart more leftover wool batting cutoffs that have been hanging around for ages.

Kathy put it right to use :)  It holds a lot of clips and hopefully is large enough to keep from getting buried on her cutting table too often!

Design Wall Monday--Labor Day

 Design Wall Monday--see more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

This Labor Day I'm working on the Windham Challenge project for the upcoming Sewtopia sewing retreat my sister and I will attend late this month.  These fabrics are from Denyse Schmidt's new line, Five + Ten. I love her designs. 

I'm making a pillow with this collection.  

I became concerned about all the pieces needed for the pattern I chose (which I wish had been given in a cutting diagram!), so I drew them all on paper and cut them out, to try to make my fabric cutting the most efficient.  I will likely need every bit of the 5 fat quarters for my pillow, since I am not adding any additional Windham fabric.

Tesselating design and applied stuffed balls.  I have had this book for some time, but the original pattern was in an insert from the LA Times, and I have that from the 80s! but never made one. The new book includes modern techniques for cutting and piecing. 

Cross-stitching: A reader of yesterday's post (Hi Debbie!) noted she had never heard of a scissor weight.  I must agree, but this was the pattern cover for the cross stitch I just finished.  I assume the scissor weight keeps your scissors on your lap or surface so they don't slide away.  

One Year Ago: 

Our two older grandsons Cove and Hunter met their new baby boy cousin, Dane, being held there for the first time by Auntie Erica (not the baby's mother).  The boys just started Kindergarten and Second Grade last week!  Time flies.  

Pets: 

A year ago Mini stuffed herself in a project box I had just emptied.  She's lost a lot of weight since then and can fit much more easily now, lol.

What I'm Working On Wednesday--Busy Days Til Deadline

The looming deadline for the Double the Plus quilt resulted in more cutting and sewing.  I am this close to being short of white fabric for the outer border, but until the top is completed, it isn't a certainty.  What is a certainty is that rushing causes mistakes.  Can anyone identify the one in this pic?

Give yourself a gold star if you spotted the white sashing right side up instead of right side down.  I was able to simply open the short seam of the solid sashing and just enough of the long join to resew and bring the seam to back where it belonged--the benefit of solid fabric!  There was a second fail while stitching what I thought was a completed cross block row, but I was short one cross block.  Luckily scraps were quickly cut and sewed and the last block attached. Batting will need to be purchased before final sandwich assembly and quilting.  I have already made the binding. 

Mini watched from the top of the project boxes and under the other half of the quilt top. 

I spent some time this week with this almost one year old while Mama was working in her home office. Dane is now running and very very busy. 

Son Nick came home from work while we were playing so I got to visit with him too.  We'll see the other grandsons soon and hear all about their recent vacation and fishing. 

A quick trip to the local fabric store for embroidery thread for the Poinsettia and Pomegranate project shown in the last post resulted in another purchase.

These DMC kits were so cute and reasonably priced, I couldn't resist. 

Hoop, fabric, pattern with thread already separated--so helpful to jump in and start stitching with the provided needle...just add scissors :)   

Tuesday's Orts On Thursday

 Tuesday's Orts on Thursday--thoughts and events that land here occasionally...

• Caught this funny cloud coming back from lunch break. 
  
  
  
  
• We've been back working in the office for a  month.  It has been an adjustment but there are fewer technical difficulties to curse at from home! There are a few new employees whom I don't know at all, but it is good to see the familiar faces I've worked with for 6 years. 
• 
  
  
  I don't know if it was an old or new employee whom I can thank for this entertaining misspelling of umbilical. LOL
• Returning to wearing scrubs for work hasn't been bothersome, but I 've had to get used to wearing makeup daily again.  Since we wear masks all day, I only have to apply eye/eyebrow products. 

• Mini would prefer I stay home with her, I'm sure. I'm getting the steely-eyed glare in this pic because my cross-stitching equipment was blocking her preferred position on my lap. 
• Traffic Rant: While there seem to be fewer drivers on the road on my commute, the tailgaters are still well-represented among them--of every age and style vehicle...
• Six years ago I was attempting to Kon Mari my sewing room and came across these vintage promotional sewing items of my mother-in-law and grandmother. 
  
  
  
  I would love a vintage photo of the Perma-Kurl Beauty Shop!  

Doll Quilt Swap and Stitching

Lots of corny Star Wars jokes for May the Fourth!  I couldn't come up with one cornier...BUT I do remember, as a high school teenager, the original movie playing at our local theater for about three months straight, and lines of folks stretching around the building, waiting to get in!  Yes, I'm that old. The rest of this post has absolutely nothing to do with space battles...

Quilty mail arrived from Texas, from my Humble Quilts' Doll Quilt Swap partner, and it was with happy anticipation that I opened the package. Many Thanks to Liz Bushong for this charming and scrappy beauty!

I just loved all the fabrics and prints Liz used in this doll quilt. 

Mini liked the first border fabric a lot.  or maybe she was just eyeing the 1/2" center squares.

Liz generously sent this beautiful tea towel and charm with her cards.  Many thanks, indeed!  Every year I have participated in this swap has brought a wonderful mini to treasure.  If I ever get organized enough, I'll hang them all together in my sewing room.

I've spent a bit more time with my latest cross-stitch, Blackbird Designs' Loose Feathers. Not too much unstitching needed, but it does take concentration to count threads on the linen. 

This fanciful tree has several more branches to add, but I'll work on the leaves for this portion first.  I'm enjoying it very much. It is a welcome distraction from having to return to in-office work!  Luckily my commute is not far and I can come home for lunch and get a few stitches in.  Looking forward to playing with all the other pretty threads.  :)

Friday Fun

I had Friday off due to the doc I usually work for being out of town.  Grant took me out to breakfast at one our local favorite restaurants, where we sat on the patio in our own arbor.  Afterwards I made the 45 minute drive out to Simi Valley to pick up my sewing machine.  I was so pleased they did the cleaning faster than estimated, in only 9 days rather than 2.5 weeks originally allowed for.  They replaced the thread cutter blade--$9.95--which I hadn't been using as it was dull.  I'll have to remember to push that button after stitching once again.  

A quick stop in the Quilty Pleasures quilting shop across the parking lot resulted in some purchases. 

The yummy cheddar is a Ruby Star Society print.  I love that color and it can be hard to find just that shade.  The fat quarters I picked up go pretty well with it too.  

Back home, I stitched on the label to the Humble Quilts doll quilt and got it mailed off to my swap partner. 

I included a fat quarter from stash, and the tin watermelon from stitching early in the pandemic shutdown--the pattern I bought today.  I hope the doll quilt pleases my partner.  The package was mailed today and expected to take about a week to be delivered to Wisconsin.  

Mini supervised from the box lid :)  The newly cleaned sewing machine got reinstalled in the sewing desk and I tested it out with zigzagging the edges of the linen for the latest cross-stitch project, and sewed up a few leader-ender 2" squares into twosies. Speaking of squares...

While cleaning up the cutting table again, the precut square drawers got a lot of pieces added!  These are all 2.5" squares in stacks about the same depth drawer...must.sew.faster....

Design Wall Monday--A Finished Top

 It's Design Wall Monday.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The Greenpiece BOM is a finished top at last.  I sewed the last border sections on with only some difficulty, namely that I trimmed before I should have and had to add an extra piece to the bottom border.  Then I sewed the bottom border on upside down.  Sigh.  Directional print...

So satisfying to see it all together at last. 

I love the way the border picks up so many of the block colors. 

The join I had to make in the bottom corner blends in pretty well from a distance...

...and is just a little more noticeable closer up. 

Lots of leftover fabrics from each month's kits will go into the scrap bins and fat quarter drawers.  I will have to purchase backing but plan to send this out to be professionally quilted.  

Mini has been waiting a long time for the Greenpiece quilt box to be emptied, LOL!