Green, Peach and Purple

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Where to start? I think today’s post will be divided in sections determined by color. Let’s start with green as that happens to be my favorite color.

Yesterday I played with loads of evergreen boughs. Ray trimmed some of the trees in the backyard and he knew I would want some of the cuttings to decorate for the holidays. We are fortunate to have many cedar, spruce and hemlock trees on the property thus a never-ending supply of boughs. I brought them inside and tucked them on the mantle and a number of windowsills. They will dry out and drop needles but I love having them here and there. The fragrance is wonderful.

I also made two swags and hung one on our mailbox and the other from the railing by the steps to our front porch. For a quick minute, I debated wiring lots of them together and hanging them along the entire railing but nah, I wasn’t feeling like such a big project. Finally, I have a large blue pot by the front door and I filled it with boughs that are just ‘planted’ into the dirt. Along with a few artificial berries and pinecones, it looks very festive. I have boughs left over which I will bring to Mom and Dad’s house later today. Mom likes having pine boughs on the windowsills too.

PS – What do you think of those cute gnomes on the windowsill? I made them last year using the tutorial on Sew Can She. Super easy project and pretty darn cute, right??

Moving on to peach – the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year. What is your response to this year’s color? I have to say, I am not a fan. I like their reasoning behind the choice but the color leaves me feeling unenthused.

Pantone explains:

“…. we wanted to turn to a color that could focus on the importance of community and coming together with others. The color we selected to be our Pantone Color of the Year 2024 needed to express our desire to want to be close to those we love and the joy we get when allowing ourselves to tune into who we are and just savor a moment of quiet time alone. It needed to be a color whose warm and welcoming embrace conveyed a message of compassion and empathy. One that was nurturing and whose cozy sensibility brought people together and elicited a feeling of tactility. One that reflected our feeling for days that seemed simpler but at the same time has been rephrased to display a more contemporary ambiance.”

Seems to me, this is asking an awful lot from the color peach but so be it. I am curious to see if ‘peach fuzz’ becomes widely used in design (clothing, fabrics, interior design) this year.

Shall we move on to purple? If asked, I would tell people purple is not one of my favorite colors. I don’t use it a whole lot in quilts and you won’t see too much of it in my closet. However, I recently bought a piece of purple sweatshirt fleece from a thrift store (of course). My plan was to make matching pants for my grand daughters (who LOVE purple). Then last week I decided to use it to try out New Look pattern N6772 for sweat pants for me. I figured if they didn’t fit well it would not be a big (monetary) loss.

Guess what? They fit perfectly. These pants are super comfortable with just the right fit in the hips, waist and thigh. I can say with certainty if I had made this pattern for the first time with a nicer fabric for which I paid full $$, they would not have worked!! It is Murphy’s Law.

But with a $3.00 piece of (very) purple fleece, I obtained a perfect fit. So, I am going to learn to love purple and wear these! (I also plan to test my Murphy’s law theory and buy a piece of fabric in a better color and make another pair.)

As for the pictures of me wearing said purple sweatpants, I took them myself with the timer on my phone. It works for the most part but I won’t be including them in my sweat pants modeling portfolio.

There you have it – some green, peach and a big dose of purple! Hope everyone is having a great day. I am heading over to my mom’s today with those pine boughs and we are planning to make a batch of Cucidati . These figs filled treats are traditional Italian cookies served at Christmas time. I think I have been eating them since I had enough teeth to chew them with! I will take a picture of our batch of cookies and share in the next post.

Happy Sewing!

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Honestly, I should be dressed and out the door by now. I want to get to the grocery store and have another errand or so to do. Instead I am on my second cup of coffee and thought I would do a quick post. The grocery store can wait.

I spent all week down with a cold – honestly these grand daughters of ours really need to stop sharing germs with me. Ray is fine, the girls only felt mildly ill for about a day or two and I felt crummy for over a week. I think I am on the other side of it, just in time for Thanksgiving!!

While I was being lazy on the couch and scrolling Facebook, I saw a post in our (sort of) local sewing group. Someone had made these ornaments and I really liked them. Looking at the tutorial on AppleGreen Cottage, I saw how easy they would be to make. I carried my Kleenex, Ricola cough drops and water up to the sewing room and got started. I love them! The bells really finish them off but the center could have anything – a pretty button or a fluffy pom pom would also be cute. I am going to put a thread loop on them for hanging.

When we were with the girls two weeks ago, A was really enjoying playing with American Girl Dolls (they were her mother’s). I thought about making something for them for Christmas and had this brainstorm to make a set of hospital items. My daughter in law is a physician so the girls see her wearing scrubs quite often. She is a radiologist so I am trying to create a way for them to play pretend doctor. There are two dolls so one can be the patient and the other, a doctor.

A few months back, the conversation above happened between A and Daddy. Clearly she is trying to understand what Mom does when in her office (she works at both the hospital and from home). Maybe she doesn’t understand one doesn’t have to take their skin off to look at the bones, she does seem to grasp that taking pictures of bone suits is the way to make some money. Hahaha

Additionally, I got to work on a Christmas tree skirt for Julia. This is her first time putting a tree in her apartment so she is collecting a few holiday items. I didn’t use a pattern for this – but in case you are wondering, I used five inch squares and kept the diameter at less than 42″ so I could back it with one piece of fabric. The pom poms really add some character to the skirt. It was an easy project and I will bring it to her on Thursday.

OK – my coffee is now cold (ugh!) so it is time to get dressed and head off to the grocery. For those of you in the US – enjoy the holiday this week. I know the world is a bit of a mess but we always have so much to be grateful for. Find those small blessings and count them up. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ring Me – Quilt Top Finished!

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Over the past year my friend Sophia and I have been trying to work on some older projects. We have done a decent job of it and gotten a few things finished up. I have another one to share with you today! This one came about because I had to take my Bernina to the shop. Fortunately I have a back up machine for these times. It is an older Kenmore and works well. However, I don’t have a 1/4″ foot for it. I wanted to work on something where precision wasn’t key.

My unfinished Ring Me quilt was the ticket. This pattern has no points to match making the piecing very simple. This project was started back in early 2017. I took part in a blog hop to announce the release of No Scrap Left Behind, written by Amanda Jean Nyberg (aka Crazy Mom Quilts). I love this book! Amanda has written two quilt books, Sunday Morning Quilts and No Scrap Left Behind. I have both of them in my library. She had an incredibly popular quilt blog but chose to stop blogging at the end of 2018 after a ten year run. Fortunately, she left the blog up so we can all still access her amazing ideas, tutorials and quilt patterns. She is definitely the queen of scrap quilting!

Back to the quilt now. When I was due to publish the project for the blog hop, I was really in the early stages of making the quilt top. I posted progress pictures (see above) and that was as far as it got.

In a relatively short time, I was able to complete the quilt top. With a charcoal gray background, the solid ‘rings’ add vibrant color. To make the rings, I gathered solid fabric strips and trimmed them to about 1 1/2″ or 2″ wide. After making strips sets I cut strips that were 1 1/2″ wide. These were combined with 1 1/2″ corner stones of the gray and stitched to squares.

I encourage you to find a copy of the book if you don’t already have it. The book has many patterns made with scraps with the projects categorized by shape of scrap (eg squares, triangles, strips). Before I knew it, I had my top completed and sewing without the 1/4″ foot was a non-issue.

Yesterday the sun was shining through a window in my bedroom and I knew it would light up the quilt top. Isn’t this stunning? I love the way it looks with the light pouring through.

Stained glass, right?? The seams on the back side of the flimsy look like black framing around the color and the sashing strips. Such a cool effect. This is as far as I took the project though. I wanted my Bernina back for quilting it.

Today I was able to go pick up my machine. I have one quilt in process where the quilting is nearly finished (I was working on it when the Bernina decided to get stuck). Once that quilt is done, I will baste this one and get going on it. Can’t wait!

This week has been a bit of a drudge as I have had a cold. While I can’t prove it, I am guessing I caught it when I was babysitting the girls last week. Who knows? Historically, my sweet grand daughters have been very generous in sharing any germs they might be harboring. We went home on Thursday, Friday the 3 year old started running a fever and on Sunday I started to feel sick. Oh well. They are worth it. We had so much fun with them. My son and his wife took a well deserved trip to Hawaii. Ray and I had the pleasure of spending loads of time with the grands. Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

Playing in puddles.

So much dancing, wrestling and gymnastics happens with these two. They love to perform for an audience.

This silly girl was having some dessert and watching a show on the iPad. I had to laugh when I walked by and saw her sitting like this. Ouch.

We did a number of art projects with the kids. This one was fun. I put blue painters tape down and told them to paint the sections however they wanted to. It was a challenge to peel up the painters tape though. I should have used heavier paper (or even cardboard). The tape was pulling on the paper a lot so I had to go super slow. The results were great though.

Aren’t these pretty??

We went shopping one day and H (age 6) saw this make up kit that said ages 5 years and up. I was very hesitant to buy it so I texted the parents a picture of it to see if they approved. She was overjoyed when Mom and Dad gave the go ahead. Oh my gosh, the glitter and color these two had all over their faces for the remainder of our time together. It was so funny.

The girls love their grandpa and he enjoyed lots of snuggle time.

Overall, the week went well. We came home exhausted and happy. These two kids were one of the reasons we wanted to move up to Washington. Ray and I grew up with grand parents who were actively involved in our lives. It is so special to have a close relationship with the girls.

It is time to go plug in the Bernina and get it set up. I have missed this machine and am anxious to have her back up and running! If I don’t post again, I wish all of the US folks out there a Happy Thanksgiving next week!!

Linking up with Alycia at Finished or Not Friday

October Activities

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October has been a great month for being outside which means I have not done tons of quilting. However there will be plenty of time when the rainy, gray weather begins. Ray and I have done lots of hikes around the area, picked berries, spent a week with his mom – so many fun days. Let’s go through it!

Ray’s mom had not been up here since last fall so it was a treat to spend time with her. She is a very easy houseguest. I had gotten my Covid vaccine a day or two before she came and it knocked me down pretty hard. So for the first couple of days she and Ray hung out together and when I felt better I joined in. (I don’t know why that vaccine was so hard on me – did any of you react strongly to this one??) My kids all came for a bbq over the weekend which was fantastic.

We went to a local nursery that is a favorite of Ray’s and mine. Michele bought me a Japanese Maple tree for the front yard as birthday gift. While we wandered around we came across this wooden carved statue of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Look closely at all of the detail as this is just amazing. It is all carved from ONE tree trunk. We inspected it for a long while; it was incredibly impressive work. Red Riding Hood’s facial expression looks a little strange but otherwise, amazing!!!

So many of you have asked about my dad’s health. You are all really thoughtful!! I want to show you picture proof of his improved health. Steroids can be magical. Fortunately, he isn’t experiencing any negative side effects from taking them daily. It seems like he will need them for months to come. But the doctors are following him closely and monitoring his health while he is on this regimen.

Last May I started adding a bit of a jog to my walks. In June I began running and soon was able to run three miles. Not fast, mind you, but I could run the distance. Since then, I have done two races with Ian, my youngest son. He loves to run and is really quick. For this race on October 15th (celebrating Ian’s 33rd birthday) he did the 10K and I did the 5K. He ran his best time so far for for his 10K and took 3rd in his age group. I had hoped for a better time but for whatever reason, this run was a struggle for me. (I think it had to do with my blood sugar and the food I ate before the race.) Anyway I ran it but was a bit slower than the first race I did in August. I also took 3rd in my age group but many of the women in my age group choose to walk the race so this isn’t a huge deal. But I am enjoying the running I am doing and try to do a three mile run at least twice a week.

While this isn’t an award winning photo, it shows the size of the huckleberries my husband has been picking. I haven’t lived where these grow wild prior to now. Last year we were just too busy getting settled to notice them. But this year! Ray has picked so many of them. He spends quite a while cleaning them because they are tiny!! Getting those little stems cleared out is not a fast task. But yum. He has made huckleberry jam and a batch of huckleberry muffins so far. There is a quart of berries in the freezer waiting for his next inspiration. I do enjoy having a husband who is comfortable in the kitchen.

Check out these quilting rulers!! I treated myself to two sets of Bernina quilt rulers as well as a ruler foot. When Sophia was here in September we talked about how much fun she has using rulers to quilt with. I have thought of these now and then but couldn’t get it in my head that it was doable. Free motion quilting is already fairly awkward. To add a ruler to the mix when moving the fabric around?? But guess what? It is so fun. The rulers have a layer of thin adhesive (or some sort of gummy substance) on one side of them so they do not slide. I have been looking at loads of YouTube videos and tutorials on the Bernina site.

I haven’t used them on actual projects yet. So far, I am just playing with them. It is super fun and I can see using them on something real fairly soon. Also, for those of you who are frugal like me, Bernina presser feet and accessories are super pricey. I am a fan of watching EBay. The foot I bought used for half of the retail price. The ruler kits arrived in unopened, original packaging so were never used. They were also half of retail price. This hobby is rather expensive so saving a few bucks where I can is helpful. It takes some patience to watch for items that you specifically want or need but I think it is worth it.

Looking ahead at the week, I am hoping to spend a bit of time in the sewing room. However, on Saturday my Bernina started acting up while I was quilting a lap quilt (see above) that I am anxious to finish because it is a gift for a friend. Why fail me now??? The timing is not good here. But it seems to be something to do with the hook (behind or under the bobbin area). I have cleaned and oiled, threaded and re-threaded, changed out needles, rewound the bobbin about 87 times. What else can I do??? Ray looked at it for a while but couldn’t find anything either. I don’t want to take it in because it takes so darn long to get it back, it is probably something simple and it will be a $250 outlay. How frustrating! If anyone has ideas as to why the upper thread is binding up below after just a few stitches, please leave a comment. Anywho….. If I can get the Bernina 570 back on track, I will finish the lap quilt.

At the moment, I have my little back-up machine set up. I used it to make a pair of cozy joggers yesterday but I can’t finish the quilt with it. The little machine is actually quite a work horse and is fine for piecing and making clothing.

Have a lovely week everyone. Wish me luck in figuring out my silly sewing machine mystery!!

Love These Batiks

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It has been a long time since I made something with batiks. This finish is actually one of teamwork though. I was in the Goodwill at some point in early spring and found this quilt top for $5.00. I sure don’t know why someone donated it and I knew I couldn’t leave it there! How easy it would be to finish it up and donate it to Mercyful Quilts.

With life calming down around here, I found a few minutes to spray baste it and get it quilted. This was the first time I quilted a project that had been spray basted and it was lovely. No pins to fuss with and the backing stayed nice and flat. No wrinkles or puckers to be found. I am in love.

Quilting this was actually a quick, fun process. (Sometimes the quilting part gets a bit boring for me). But I decided to do (mostly large) circles and they look cute. It is a really cheerful quilt between the bright batiks and the bubbly circles.

The backing is a very soft voile I have had on the shelf. The photo doesn’t show the exact color which is a soft orange. I love voile backings – they have a wonderful drape and make for a cozy quilt.

I think the best part of the quilt is the binding. When Sophia and I were on our mini shop hop last month, she found this cool rainbow hombre fabric and suggested I use it for the binding. By cutting it along the length of the fabric (parallel to the selvage) the shades alternated in a lovely fashion. It worked out so well.

The scary part was washing it. With so much of red batik in that quilt top I was quite apprehensive.

Two Color Catchers to the rescue!! I am ever grateful to whomever invented these great little guys. Not a bit of fabric bleeding happened.

This simple project is a finish and now I have three quilts ready to send off to Mercy Hospital. Each one is very different which is great because each of the families served are just as unique. We like to have a variety to offer them.

If one (or two) readers want to join me and do a joint contribution to Mercyful Quilts, I would be happy to finish a quilt top of yours. Lap size and not made with any juvenile prints are the main requirements. I know there are many of you with extra quilt tops made and maybe you’d like to send one to me for finishing. Let me know and we can work through the idea together. Alternatively, you are always, always welcome to send a finished lap quilt to Mercyful Quilts on your own. If you need more info, let me know.

Thanks everyone!! Happy weekend to all of you!

Linking with my favorites. Check out the Link Ups tab at the top of the page.

2023 Positivity Quilt Finished!!

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I really wanted to get this posted during September! The goal was to have this finished by Labor Day weekend which, for the most part, it was. The only thing unfinished was the hand sewing on the back of the binding. But so much was happening and by evening I was too darn tired to stitch it down.

As Dad has gotten better and the worry lessens, life is getting to feel (a little bit) more normal. I finally got that binding stitched and am happy to show you this sweet quilt!

I loved making flowers using the Dresdens I had made some time ago. I only had to make one more to complete this. I was attaching the ‘flowers’ first to the quilt top by stitching around the border and along the seams of some of the petals. Then I attached the center circles using a blanket stitch on my machine. So they are firmly attached to the quilt top. As I was finishing the binding I kept thinking about washing this before donating it. I realized (luckily in time!) that I really need stitch through the Dresdens and backing fabric so they won’t pull apart when washed. The unquilted portion, especially on the larger Dresdens, is too wide.

Looking at the back side, it is obvious where the blank space is from the unquilted Dresden. As an aside, backing this quilt with the last of this bold floral was very satisfying. It has such a pretty, autumnal vibe to it. The background on the front and this print on the back were from the same fabric line so I wanted to put them both in the same quilt. I did have to add a chunk of blue solid to make this work.

The butterflies were made with tiny Dresden bits and pieces. I really like them as well as the partially blooming flower above it to the left.

Another little butterfly! Quilting was done with a simple stipple on the background and wavy lines on the leaves (thanks to Janine, Quilts From the Little House, for that inspiration)!

Many, many thanks to Preeti for this cute pattern and her time hosting this QAL for Mercyful Quilts. Also sending gratitude to the quilters who made and donated Positivity quilts to Mercy Hospital.

For those of you who were not able to participate but want to help, Mercy Hospital is in need of more lap size quilts. Basic requirements are no smaller than approximately 55″ x 55″ and no larger than approximately 65″ x 80″. For style, that is totally up to you. We do not serve children so no juvenile fabrics please. We love having a mix of male, female and gender neutral designs and colors. Also, if you want to, we do love having one or two patriotic quilts for our veterans. Lastly, please do not send us anything from a home where someone smokes inside the house. We need quilts free of fragrance. Should you decide to wash it before sending (which we do prefer) please do not use fabric softeners or any sort of scented detergents. If you have more questions, please leave them in the comments and I will get back to you.

I am just finishing up one more comfort quilt which I will share soon. Then they will be sent off to Mercy Hospital!

Linking up with Oh Scrap and Finished or Not Friday. Check them out too. I have been so out of the blogging world and had forgotten how much I enjoy looking at everyone’s projects!!

My Parents, My Kids and a Dear Friend

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It has been one month since my last post. Many times I have thought I should sit down and write but it never happened. Life got so crazy around here!

The main issue was my dad and this weird illness that seemed to begin out of the blue. He is 88 years old and other than a cold here and there has never really been sick so this was shocking to him and the family. Turns out he has developed an auto-immune disease that is quite painful (Polymyalgic Rheumatica). He has been in so much pain and trying to get him the proper treatment for this has been horrific. When Mom and Dad moved to the area in July, they immediately made appointment to become established with a primary care doctor. The first available appointment was in November. Because they ~~are~~ were in good health, we all thought nothing of it. When Dad became sick in August, it became clear we do not have enough doctors in our area. NO ONE would see him since he wasn’t an ‘established patient’. We took him to Urgent Care and the Emergency room twice and each time, they suggested Ibuprofen and that we should make an appointment with a rheumatologist because his blood work indicated he had a problem. This was not the least bit helpful. He cannot have an appointment to a rheumatologist without a referral and he can’t get the referral because he doesn’t have a primary care doctor which he cannot get an appointment with until November. What a vicious cycle. I spent many, many hours on the phone just calling doctors randomly to try and get him in. It was truly a crazy experience.

Finally as luck would have it, I had an appointment for my annual physical. While there, I told my primary care doctor of this whole debacle and he felt terrible for my father. In an act of true human kindness, my doctor said he would see my father. My doctor isn’t accepting new patients but he walked me to the reception area and told the scheduler to get my father in that same week. OK – now we were making some progress. The same doctor talked to his partners and one of them said they would take my parents as new patients. Even more progress! At his visit, Dad was prescribed steroids which are helping but he is still very uncomfortable. The doctors are working on getting the level correct to reduce his pain. Now that he is ‘established’ with a doctor I was able to get him an appointment with a rheumatologist Except the rheumatologists are all scheduling months out. Sigh.

Well I know how to play this game. Dad is now scheduled for two appointments with two different rheumatologists (and hopefully they don’t read quilting blogs or I will be busted on this)! He has an appointment with one in December and the other in April. I asked he be put of the ‘cancellation list’ at both offices. I have a reminder in my phone to call each one every week and see if he can take a cancellation because I don’t honestly have any confidence they will remember to call if one opens up. With any luck, he will get in sooner than December but at least we are making progress.

As my daughter-in-law said, Dad has been the victim of our very broken medical system. What a wildly irritating experience this has been. As for Dad, I am grateful he is feeling a bit better but he is still having so much pain so we need to keep working this broken system until all of this can be resolved.

While visiting with my dad and mom, we have been looking at old photos. They are such a treasure – here is one with Dad (left side), his little brother and his younger sister. This was taken in their back yard in about 1947 or so.

During all of this, there was a family wedding celebration. My son came out from Brooklyn, NY for a week. It was a great distraction for Mom and Dad to see some family (though Dad was unable to go to the reception).

I loved having Kyle here – we went to the beach, did some hiking, he jogged alongside me at my very slow pace, and we ate loads of yummy food.

Our visit with Kyle was followed by a visit from my friend Sophia. This was also a great treat! I created a mini shop-hop and we toured around visiting quilt shops. The state fair was happening so we headed over there, specifically to see the quilt exhibits. We also did some hiking, and again, ate some yummy food!

Because she is a veteran with a can of spray baste, she helped me use it to baste a lap quilt. It wasn’t messy and, was in fact, super easy. Since she left, I sprayed two more projects. My only issue thus far was having the spray nozzle clog up. I think I have that all fixed though.

Best of all, Sophia taught me how to do some basic paper piecing. Yahoo! I can’t say I enjoy it all that much, but I can see the benefits of it for certain types of projects.

The holiday project on the right side has been in my unfinished pile of projects for years. Sophia and I had taken a class together back in 2016 and this was one of the projects. Once I set it aside, I totally and completely forgot how to make the little trees. My patient friend showed me and I got the trees finished, just seven short years later. Hahaha. The block on the left is just practice. I printed a few papers to use as practice so I won’t forget again! I have to keep practicing this or it won’t stick. This isn’t how my brain works so it is tough for me to remember the process.

Sunday Stash

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I remember I used to write lots of these posts. There was a link up at Mollie Sparkle’s blog and people would share the newest fabrics they were working with. Mine were usually fabrics I had thrifted. Once I had the shop those posts ended for obvious reasons. Even now that the shop has closed, I have sooooo much (too much) fabric so I rarely buy any.

But, there is always a but, yesterday I was at a tiny quilt show with my friend Annette. It was held in a church and the quilts were displayed by laying them over the pews. It was quaint but I can’t say I am a huge fan of this sort of display. For one thing, the viewer cannot step back and see the whole quilt. So many quilts look best from a few feet back. Because the church was small, many of the quilts were folded and then draped over the pew. This meant we only saw half of the quilt. This doesn’t allow for looking at secondary patterns or the effect of the outer quilt on the center. It was sort of frustrating. Anyway, it was fun because you know….. a quilt show is always fun. Plus they had a little table of home baked treats and a great shopping section. Annette and I found a number of things we liked.

There were loads of books for $1.00 each. I picked up two that are different from most in my library of quilt books. But they have some really cute projects in them. The Remembering Adelia book contains journal entries from a young woman during the Civil War. I love this sort of thing. Life is so easy now. Women worked all day, every day back then. The journal entries sucked me in and I enjoyed reading most of it yesterday when I got home.

The Folk Art Quilts book has some really fun projects. I love the whimsical critters on these two pages and plan to make something with them. This is way out of what normally appeals to me but I am looking forward to this.

The same book also maps out how to make the letters of the alphabet which will come in handy some day. I know this isn’t rocket science but it is nice to have it mapped out visually and then just adjust the size of the squares to get the correct size letter block.

I also picked up two containers for thread. I have had my thread hanging on a wooden rack but it is poorly placed in my sewing space and I was constantly knocking thread off the pegs. I sorted thread and put what I could fit in these bins. The left bin contains the shiny Sulky threads as well as my hand stitching threads. On the right is a large portion of my standard threads.

Unfortunately my some spools are too big for these bins. Since I was in the mood, I reorganized some of the drawers in a bin under my sewing table. This allowed me to put the Glide spools and the Connecting Thread spools in a drawer. I still have a small number of Aurifil threads that I haven’t found a good space for but I am sure it will work out.

It is much easier to see what I have now. This exercise forced me to look at all of the thread I have. Is it too much? Yes, yes it is. How I acquired all of this is a wonder!

This little stack of fabric is the extent of fabric purchased. I really wanted that little cheddar yellow check because it will work in some of those silly animal blocks I want to make. The others look good with it and should work with the project.

Quilt shows are the best. It always makes me itch to get back home and head to the sewing room! (Which is exactly what I did)!

My sweet girls have been on vacation with their parents all week. We are dog sitting in their absence. From what I have heard and the pictures seen, they are having a wonderful time. It is a great finale to their summer. We get to see them next weekend for some family time. Happy Sunday all of you!!

Positivity QAL 2023 Finished Quilts

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Hi Everyone! I am a bit late in posting this link up. We have been busy the past few days helping Julia move into her new apartment. She has been living with my son and his wife for a couple of months while she looked for a rental she liked, could afford and was close to her work. She found a great complex and is happily unpacking her things.

It was a family effort, helping her move her things and set up her apartment. Of course some of us worked harder than others!

Her complex has so many cool features. It has lovely courtyards with fire pits and pretty plants. Apartment dwellers need their outdoor space too and this gives them a nice place to sit outside, gather around a fire pit, read, whatever! Also, there is a roof top area that can be used for the same sort of thing. This area includes a gas grill and a small kitchen area so people can cook a meal and enjoy the view.

I love the view from the roof top!

Now, on to the business at hand. Do I have a finished quilt to show you? Umm, no not really.

My quilt top is still at the finished only phase. . I did get the backing pieced as well. You might remember I was whining about my dislike of pin basting my quilts.

Many comments were made singing the praises of spray basting. While I am still apprehensive about making a mess, I ordered a can and plan to give it a try. Crossing my fingers it is easier than I am imagining. I would love a better way to baste a quilt.

OK – here is the link up for you. Please link up a post about your finished Positivity Blooms or Positivity Grows quilt. As always, Preeti and I thank you for joining in and making a quilt for Mercy Hospital (or the organization of your choice). We will pick names for prizes after over Labor Day weekend. Good luck!!

If you have issues with completing the link up, let me know. I can easily post a picture of your finish right here!

This pretty quilt was made by Erica, @skynme. Thank you so much!!!!

Many thanks to Danielle in California for this beauty. She has been a loyal donor of Mercyful Quilts and we are grateful!!

Procrastination Situation

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Whenever there is a post on social media asking for a quilters most favorite or least favorite part of quilting, the answer for my least favorite is immediate and passionate. I really dislike basting quilts. There is so much riding on it. The need for a perfectly flat backing, a well prepped quilt top, the perfect amount of pins (I haven’t yet tried spray basting), no secret folds or wrinkles – ugh! It is more than I can stand. This is where I start to procrastinate. I know I am not alone. This is clear by the fact that the majority of quilters have any number of quilt tops that are unfinished, waiting to be basted and quilted. I don’t mind the quilting process and I usually enjoy binding a quilt. It is just the basting.

This is why I found myself in my sewing room this week starting a new project. Because really I should be basting and quilting my 2023 Positivity quilt. The top is finished and it is adorable (if I do say so myself). But I need to fuss around and create a backing and then…… baste it. I would venture a guess that someone could make a successful side gig offering to baste quilts for people like me. There are loads of us. Off I went to make something else, anything else, so I wouldn’t have to baste the quilt.

Last week while wandering the local quilt show (where I enjoyed that Sinbonnet Sue quilt) I spent more than a few minutes checking out the country store portion of the show. I love looking through the fabrics and other items quilters are selling. There was a bundle of charm squares that had been put together by a quilter. It was from a variety of lines and looked like leftovers from charm packs they had used. I liked the colors and knew it would be cute to make something with them. (I am proud to say this is the only purchase I made! I dug deep and restrained myself from buying anything else).

On Sunday I found myself in the sewing room looking for something to work on, anything that didn’t require basting. There were those cute charm squares sitting there, calling to me. “Choose us, choose us. You’ll have days of fun before any basting is required.” Sounded like a grand idea to me. I poked around on my Pinterest boards and decided to make a quilt similar to one I had pinned some time ago.

I looked through the solid green fabrics on the shelf and chose one to put on one corner of each charm square. Then I stitched them into a four patch. Because of my limited number of charms, I put a black border on them using the same green for cornerstones. (True confession time – I didn’t keep the little triangles from the stitch/flip on the corners. I know I should have, it was reckless of me, but I tossed them. Mia culpa.)

With the twelve blocks and the sashing, the quilt was fairly small. First I added another narrow border of the green (using almost all I had of this fabric) and then added a wider black border with green cornerstones. But it was still too small.

Last night I put out an alert – all the way from Washington state to Minnesota. Isn’t technology the best?? Texting Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts, I asked for some ideas. After sending pictures of a variety of fabrics to her, it was agreed that a narrow border of this denim blue dotted fabric would be cute with another black border. I used cornerstones again for consistency.

TaDaa! Another quilt top is finished. Another quilt top is whispering ‘finish me, baste me, don’t let me sit here forever.’ This puts me at four quilt tops needing to be basted and one that is in the midst of being quilted yet no where near finished. It is a vicious, never-ending cycle. Help!!! Help me!!!