30 Bull's Eye Blocks Sewn Together

It was just me and my two youngest sons home last night, so since they consider Fridays "computer night", I considered it "make-two-more-blocks-and-sew-all-these-pieces-into-one" night. Here is what I have now. It's good to get an idea of the size and see how much more I want to make. This will make it easier to handle. I am going to make 7 by 9 bull's eyes, so I am well on my way. My partner in this quilt emailed me last night that she has most (if not all by now) of the large and medium-sized circles cut out.

Today is my wash day (everyone has an assigned day...a necessity in a house with 9 people). That means I've been up and down the steps a lot.

I've been cooking/baking all AM. This is my put my feet up and rest break. I cooked two whole chickens for soup. The broth from the cooked chicken is extraordinaire for soup. Made brown rice while the chicken cooked. Also made iced tea for tomorrow's lunch. Then I made two new recipes for our adult Sunday school snack time....cranberry/orange scones and a chocolate chip/coconut/pecan coffee cake. Oops...forgot I made 4 baguettes of whole wheat French bread in there somewhere.

Now that the chicken is cool, it's back to work for me. Down to hand up one last load of clothes then make a Texas sheet cake and crock pot mashed potatoes for the troops.

~Joan, who daily thinks about how much time we could save if we didn't need to plan, shop, prepare, eat, and clean up food

~Joan

Grandmother's Flower Garden, Bound and Tabled

Get a load of that quilting detail! I love a quilt right out of the dryer. They always look so...so... quilty. I am sad to say that the stains on the ugly top block did not come out. But the up side is that I won't worry as much about it getting stained on my very busy table.


Here's a pic of Isaac holding up the whole thing. After I bought fabric for binding, I found the remnant of the piece I bought to link them all together. I am glad I used the red after all, because I think so much blue that close together would have been too much.

Tons of cooking to do tomorrow, so I don't anticipate too much sewing time. Good thing I got lots of that tonight :)

~Joan

Bull's Eye Blocks on Design Wall

Here's what we have so far. I think this should be called "Where's the Kitchen Sink?" It's dizzying up close with all the different prints, but from afar, how beautiful (like it's maker, hahaha). The farther away you get, the better it looks!

I laid these atop my apple core quilt, so you see it showing through on the bottom right corner. The blocks finish at 8" square, so this section is about 40" wide by 48" long.

I think I'm going to sew these together to keep them sort of orderly. Yes--that will be my project for tonight.

~Joan

Bull'

Progress on Bull's Eye

My Bull's Eye buddy came over for a couple hours last night. We finished about 15 more blocks, which means 30 more units for each of us. We are a little over halfway with completed units and have a few backgrounds and circles cut out as well.

I made a stacking error when I put things away a couple months ago. I thought I had over 180 units (we need 252 each). When my friend arrived, we remembered that she left some of her blocks here (not a good realization). She only brought 50-some with her. After we straightened things out, we both had 91. But after last night's time, we have 131 each.

My design wall is layered with several quilt tops and pieces...the bottom-most layer is my spool quilt, then my Seeds of Kindness, and then this, made by my Susanna.


Off to another fun-filled day.

~Joan

Another Envelope of Happiness Arrived

These are blocks from Marcie. She sent me a pic of my blocks with hers and a half set from another blogger. What fun!! See her blog for the beginnings of her amazing spool quilt.

Here is my favorite block from her set. It was sooooo hard to choose. Now I need to practice the self-control needed to not run downstairs and add these to my growing spool quilt.



Have a great day!

~Joan

Sewing Some

Not a great picture (but it's the best my 12-year-old daughter standing on a chair in a crowded room could do) of my row quilt. I just have one more block row then the HST row that matches the one at the top. I am going to quilt on the cream between each row by hand, then in the green print border by machine in the border. The end is in sight.

~Joan

Barn Raising Log Cabin Wall Hanging

This little "barn raising" log cabin is about 27" square. I am finished machine quilting this except for the outside border. I don't know when I need it yet, but I'm trying something new...having something ready early!! This will be a wedding shower gift, but I'm not sure when the shower will be.

I used smoky brown filament (invisible thread) in the colored parts of the blocks, quilting straight diagonal lines. I used a variegated cream/taupe/light brown in a meandering pattern in all the cream areas.

This is date night for hubby and I, so I have to stop sewing now. Toodles.

~Joan

Hand Quilting

Here is my row quilt...I am hand quilting it. This is how much I have finished so far. I am starting on the next row. Below I am showing one block.

Here is a block from the next row. I have hand quilted it. To show you the difference the quilting makes, the second shot is a side-by-side of the quilted block and an unquilted one. The large yellow stitching is the basting stitches.

I am leaving the Grandmother's Flower Garden for a car project. I am eager to have it done, but am taking advantage of the time to hand quilt for the next couple days.

~Joan