{Post 1,726} New Piecing Projects

 

I have started two new quilt piecing projects. The thing you should be thinking is “WHY?” It’s not like I don’t already have lots of UFOs. But when one is deboning men’s shirts and has lots of small pieces to use up...

You might remember these 31 six-inch rail fence blocks that I made in south GA last week.

Since I’ve been home, I started pulling all the yokes from my shirts that were previously cut up. I am also cutting for a pattern I just found on Pinterest that uses 2-1/2” squares (6 for each block) that I’m going to use for leaders/enders for the foreseeable future.

I’m thinking of calling this quilt “The yoke’s on you.” Get it? A play on “the joke’s on you”? You don’t get it. Well, maybe you’re not a Parker. 

 Here’s my rail fence blocks after making some last night and tonight.

The orange has been toned down some, but there are a lot more fabrics to go yet. I don’t want to use this ultra-simple layout. Any suggestions for how to use square string blocks? I want to make it somewhat more interesting. This isn’t floating my boat.

My eldest daughter had a baby on 9/20. I am going over every afternoon to home school her two oldest. I was there five hours today. I need to cut back on that. In fact, yesterday we discussed me bringing them to my house so there wouldn’t be distractions from the 2 and 1-year olds, not to mention the newborn. But my daughter has a sinus infection and mastitis as of today. I felt like it was an emergency rescue to go over and give her some backup.

Here is the Pinterest picture of the quilt I’m using as a leader/ended...

Surprise, surprise...mine will be from upcycled shirts.

That’s all for now. Have a lovely sleep. 

 

{Post 1,725} Time Has Flown

So much has happened this past week in our family that it seems like at least a month’s worth of events. I’ll just start a week ago. Timmy (6) and I drove 8 hours down to South Georgia on Tuesday to take care of my eldest’s three children while his wife had a C-section. The newborn (born Thursday) was immediately sent to an NICU in another hospital for breathing problems. He is still there, and is 4 days old. Just found out he will be there 3 more days at least. My second born had a baby boy yesterday as well. She is Timmy’s mom and lives a few minutes from us (at home, not here). She and baby are home recuperating.

We hit the ground running. I am glad we came a couple weeks ago to see the lay of the land here. I came armed with a detailed meal schedule and every single food ingredient I would need to make them. I even brought some of my own pots and pans (and my trusty Instant Pot). Forewarned is forearmed! The kids have loved the meals and are not picky eaters, thankfully.

Timmy got very sick Friday AM. He started vomiting early in the day and could not keep down one sip of water or one bite of food all day and through the early afternoon on Saturday. I thought it would blow over, but he started getting listless and really weak. He was up at least once an hour though the night screaming that his stomach hurt, and he was dry heaving. That is so unlike him. I decided he needed to be seen by a doctor. I called my DIL and asked her if she could get someone to come stay with her 3 boys. The woman who came suggested I go to the hospital where she works about 25 minutes away. He was given anti-nausea medication and slept most of the time there. I was so pleased with our caregivers. I worked as an RN when I was first married, and I am usually not pleased with medical personnel. 

I will now make a long story short (maybe for the first time ever). Timmy and I are very close. I was an emotional wreck the whole time we were at the hospital. Then the doc there decided he needed to go to another hospital in case he needed surgery...by ambulance...without me...YIKES! He slept the whole way and never realized I wasn’t there. Long story short, he was given an anti-nausea med at the first hospital. His abdomen was very painful all over. By the time we reached hospital #2, he had no pain and was drinking Powerade shortly after our arrival. We stayed a couple hours to make sure he could keep fluids down, and he could. I was so grateful!! We are both exhausted (most likely from the all-nighter Saturday AM). We are still pooped.

Here are a couple of pics of him at the hospital. In order...first arriving, after being examined, and at second hospital.

Here he is today, playing with his three cousins outside (only two are pictured behind him...watching them is about as easy as herding cats)...

Lastly, one of the time-fillers I brought was 18 new-to-me men’s shirts to debone. For some reason, I put off doing that. I did that my second night here. I cut out a 14” square out of each of them for a scrappy quilt I saw on Karen Brown’s “Just Get It Done” quilt channel on YouTube. It is on the “What to do with ugly fabric” video. I am not sure I like the blocks, but here are 16 of them. They are not trimmed in the picture, but will be 12-1/2” square when I do (I did not bring my 12-1/2” ruler, and that will make it so much faster and more accurate). I made a pile of the inside of the collars and cuffs when I was deboning them as well.

Here are the 31 Rail Fence blocks I got out of the small bits of the shirts. These measure 6” square. I think I cut up the yoke of the bright orange shirt, because there is an abnormally large proportion of that one. This isn’t even 1/4 of the quilt I want to make, so there will be many other fabrics participating. I think this is quite the accomplishment since it was done while chasing around 4 littles, doing all diapers, baths, meals, hospital run, etc., etc., etc.

Again, that orange is screaming, but will be toned down with the addition of other eye-catching colors later. 

The 4 amigos have been playing well for a long time now, and that will probably end soon. Better run for now!

{Post 1,724} Anticipating Fall

  

Fall is my favorite season. I got down my two boxes from the attic and put up most of my decorations. I still have a few things to find. My decor is all over the house. I hope to consolidate it soon. Since all but one of my kids have moved out, I have empty bedroom closets to use. I am going to put seasonal things in one, kids toys in one, games for teens and up in one, and shower/reception things in another. That does not include my craft room in the basement or my sewing room upstairs (that doesn’t have a closet since my husband and I still use the master bedroom, and we each have a closet right before one enters the bathroom).

Anywho, here are my areas fit for public inspection. I have little signs, wreaths, and table vignettes other places, but these are my main decorating areas.

This is our foyer, what you see when you enter our home. The bottom right section is an opening under a drawer. It is hard to see in the picture since it is painted black.

This is in the kitchen, on our sideboard.

These two are in the living room. A console table and the mantle/shelf above the sofa.

Well, that should be enough orange for you today.

 

{Post 1,723} Hot Pads from Slivers

 

Well, I was going to write a post about making a hot pad, potholder, or trivet from trimmed block slivers. But I see that I did that back in March. I keep forgetting to put labels on the posts. If you want to see the tutorial, search my blog for potholder.

When the recipient of my first set’s sister saw them, she asked me to make her some, too. I had just trimmed up a bunch of men’s shirt fabric blocks, so I used those to make some for her. They are still hanging up drying, so they are not complete, but here is a picture reenactment for you.

Tonight I did something I have been needing to do for some time. Actually, I just got started good. I am working on organizing my things. We have 4 closets that are mine to use for non-clothing things. I have a plethora of seasonal decor, seasonal quilts (that is not redundant), items from the days when I did all our church showers and receptions, craft stuff GALORE, etc. It’s time to consolidate one thing to each closet. I tend to just jam something in where it fits. Made great headway in my craft room downstairs. I emptied out the entire closet, sorting into donations and trash and keepers as I went. Oddly enough, only two small boxes went back into the closet. I put the things that went elsewhere in their new location when I handled them, a la A Slob Comes Clean (read the book—it will change your life). So I didn’t make a bigger mess while cleaning up. I threw away 3 13-gallon trash bags of stuff (mostly empty DVD cases) and have 3 bags to donate. My goal is to organize those things so that I can work on stuff for my booth w/o searching every room in the house for supplies. Speaking of stuff for my booth, I made all these pumpkins today. I also stiffened some crocheted snowflakes.

The snowflakes are wet, or I’d show those as well. I do have these that were stiffened and unpinned from a few days ago. Some of my pins left rust marks (!!!!), so they might not be usable.

I hope you are all doing well. Drop me an email or at least leave a comment!

{Post 1,722} New Project ~ Busy, Busy

I have had a productive few days here as far as sewing. I finished and sold this modern quilt. Definitely not my go-to style, but I made it and sold it 5 minutes after the piecing was finished. I machine quilted it in another new-to-me style, and it turned out soooo well. A big shout-out to my quilting friend, BJ, who referred it to the new owner. I am meeting her to deliver it tomorrow. It’s 51” x 70”.

First picture. Washed, dried, and hanging on our half wall.

I had a really large piece of the cream background left, so I used it first on the back, then added a row of the scraps left over from the scraps from the front, then added a width of fabric of the dark rose. It is sort of a reversible quilt. I really like it. One nice feature is that it’s really lightweight.

One of my daughters from 350 miles away came Saturday AM with her family. Her sister, who lives 3 minutes from us, had a birthday, we we had the two families and a couple extras here for supper Sunday night. Had a great meal and a good visit. Spent the last couple days with my daughter from afar. Her family left this afternoon for a few days at the coast. After resting up a little (old age stinks)...

I pulled out these birch tree blocks and arranged them on the design wall in my sewing studio. I had more finished than I realized. I also have a bunch of additional background pieces cut out, so I pieced a couple more. Here is the forest so far. Each block finishes at 9” x 11.5”.

I am buying a bolt of fabric tomorrow. Gray. My only one. I am going to make another modern quilt or two, and I know that’s a really popular color right now. Wish me luck!

Take care, and keep in touch.

{Post 1,721} Finished Customer Quilt

I have a new quilting customer. She is a brand-new quilter, and look what a wonderful job she did! I machine quilted her top today. It is a big one...91” x 109”. I did a Fern Stipple in dark cream thread on it, and I think it turned out wonderfully.

{Post 1,720} So Much Time Has Passed

It has been many moons since I have posted. I looked back at my last pictures to see what had been going on back then. I have had two of my grandkids for a week, a doctor appointment, been to OH and PA for a week, had two times of guests for supper and games (that’s a big rise since several months ago), took a flower-arranging class, rearranged my booth and took on a booth buddy (woman from whom I took class that also sells homemade candles and pottery her husband makes), went to GA again overnight and brought grandkids home, Lazy 5 Ranch today, and tomorrow is one grand’s 6th birthday (he has my heart, so this will be sweet). So, I’ve just been sitting around, LOL!

I’ll start with the most recent stuff first. Well, no, I’ll really just be jumping around. I brought back a 13-gallon trash bag full of mostly floral fabrics from my sister who lives in OH. I had literally just gotten rid of all of my own floral fabrics. Florals are not something I’m drawn to, so I use them very little. I just decided tonight that I need to make masks again. I will use some of the florals for those. My daughter that is the mom of the grands I have right now lives in the Atlanta area. She said they just announced today that kids will need to wear masks to school in the fall, so she asked me to make some for her kids. I already have 4 they can use and will make a couple more for the little princess.

So for the floral fabrics, I used some new ideas from a new YouTuber I have been listening to...Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts. I have gleaned several good ideas from her (and Bonnie Hunter, who I’ve been reading for years). I looked through Pinterest for large floral print quilts and decided on 4 I’d like to make. I figured this bag was good for at least 4 queen-sized quilts. I sorted through the entire bag and combined like fabrics and set aside a few (actually very few) pieces I knew I would not use in quilts. I took those to the thrift shop on the next trip there.

Then I took paper plates and wrote the size of piece and how many I needed for each quilt. For example, I had one that had 75 2-1/2” squares. I ironed each piece and straightened up the edge. I started with my largest squares needed. If the fabric was too small, I used the largest size I could get from that print. I stacked them up so I was cutting through several layers. I only worked through about 1/4 of the fabric (it was this past Monday. I watched a friend’s two youngest boys so she could take care of something for 6 hours. One of the boys took a 4-hour nap, so it wasn’t very hard). Once I cut down the big squares, I cut the rest into 2-1/2” squares, then I cut strips from the scraps.

I started using the strips in these blocks that I made without a pattern. I copied a pattern I saw called “Rinse and Repeat”. I saw a close-up of a quilt and could easily see the pattern. So I made these so far. Keep in mind that I have rarely had a spare minute the last 3 weeks.

I started with several sizes of squares and added the same fabric on two sides, log cabin style. Then I trimmed the blocks to 7” square. These were made last night because I wanted a few minutes of machine time. And I mean a FEW minutes. Here is the quilt I copied...

I’d like to make it at least 60” wide. I like that the strings are all different widths, as are the starting squares. Everything can be used in these, but I will limit the color palette slightly. I like the horizontal straight-line modern-looking quilting, too.

We went to the Lazy 5 Ranch today. It ended up taking nearly all day. It has over 750 animals from 6 continents. One drives through. We always left our windows up. What. A. Blast. 

Here is Katie getting her first glimpse of a group of 4 buffalos in front of our van as we pulled in. She is so emotionally expressive. “Are those REAL, Grammy Jo?” Yep!

We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then the drive-thru car wash on our way home. Katie yelled, “Ooooo...there are buffalo boogers on your window!” And she was right. There was also long-horned cattle drool, ostrich feathers, and a host of other animal debris. They definitely get up close and personal!  The little burgundy edge at the bottom of the next picture is the hood of my van.

Here are just a few more pictures to catch up...

 Snap bag from salvages and denim for my booth:

Live flowers I arranged for my (Zoom) class then later gave to a friend going through cancer treatment for the second time in less than a year:

My new booth set-up. We switched the hutch and hanging screen and added a curtain rod for table runners and wreaths (in the fall):

My 2020 hydrangea color:

One of my fancy up-twists. I am a hair model. Helping encourage the gray-haired ladies:

PA visit...son-in-law and grandson: