Tag Archives: squared away

Finish – Squared Away!

It has been a while since I actually finished a quilt. Hurray for Squared Away – all finished and so pretty! I started this quilt in the beginning of 2018. The block of the month was hosted by Mari at Academic Quilter. Somehow I didn’t end up following along all year though. I can’t honestly remember why. Then the blocks sat and waited, all lonely and sad, until I stitched them together last spring. Since I didn’t have enough blocks for an entire quilt, I interspersed them with a modern print of Pat Bravo’s. It was from her line called Dare. I had an abundance of it leftover from a previous quilt I had made back in 2016.

I love the way this all came together. The squares are bright and fun while the background calms everything down. When I chose the borders, I shopped downstairs in my fabric shop and chose a chartreuse textured solid and then did a wider border with a beautiful print by Bari J called Bougainvillea Lilac. I love how these look together. So much so that I used the chartreuse fabric as the binding. They are perfect together!

For quilting, I kept it simple with straight lines and my walking foot. I did two different patterns, a checkerboard in the background and a simple star in the pieced blocks. This was easy and kept the quilt loose and fluffy. In the wider purple border, I did some free motion with curving lines and little hearts.

The backing fabric is a cute rainbow print with rectangles of all sizes and colors. I labeled this quilt as I intend it as a gift to my nephew who married last summer. I machine embroidered it which was fun. Don’t even ask my why it is so crooked. It just is. Kind of how things go with me. 😉

Let’s see…. what else can I tell you about this one? It was my goal for January and yahoo! I got it done! Makes me so happy – it was fun to quilt it and I enjoyed the hand stitching for the binding. It has been too long since I finished one up!

I am now working on a quilt for grand daughter number two. She is scheduled to arrive (by c-section) on March 12th, unless her mama goes into labor sooner. So that is really exciting! I will share some progress on that in a post soon.

Just in case you missed my post from a couple of days ago, I am holding a giveaway to share lots of cute scraps. You can hop over here to read about it. Be sure to enter today as this is the last day of the giveaway. I will select two winners tomorrow morning and will email the winners. Great fun if you are a scrappy quilter or if you like making quilts for kids.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts and also with Brag About Your Beauties. How about you? Are you happily finishing up a project this weekHappy weekend everyone – Enjoy it and find a few minutes to sew!

January Monthly Goal

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Happy New Year Everyone! Last year I set and linked up an OMG with Elm Street Quilts exactly once, in January. I finished the goal, so that was a good thing. I didn’t remember to link up the finish though. And that was the end of my organization plan for 2019! Anyone want to take bets on whether I can do a bit better in 2020? Who knows? I am going to give it a shot though. So many times I flit from thing to thing which doesn’t make for a lot of finishes. Hoping this will help me get a few things accomplished.

Progress shot of my Squared Away quilting.

This month I plan to finish my Squared Away quilt. Last week I got it basted and I have been quilting it with straight line patterns. It is going well and I would guess I am 30% done? So it should be easy-peasy to finish quilting it and get it bound. I really like the look of this so far and it is going well.

I also got my first block done for the 2020 Monthly Color Challenge hosted over at Patterns by Jen. I was a lurker with this challenge the last two years, watching others make these fun blocks. So I am joining in. One block a month is attainable and while it likely won’t make a dent in my scrap bins, at least I will use a few! This month is yellow. It was actually tough to find two yellows to use together as apparently all of my yellow scraps are exactly the same value. This looks pretty good though. Side note – when I was looking at my scraps I couldn’t remember where the heck any of them came from. Then I remembered that Mari sent me lots of yellow pieces last year when I lamented not having a yellow bin. So, Mari – do these look familiar? Did you give me these???

Did you see this great story in the news? I love stuff like this!! To whomever left this woman a tip of $2020 – you are amazing!! I would rather read about these sorts of events than politics any day of the week.

OK – that is it for now. Today I have a Chemex Cozy to make for a customer. I am also hoping to get outside and help Ray with some yard work – the last four days have been migraine days so I have been a couch potato. Maybe some fresh air will do this quilter good. How about you?

Back to the Real World

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After a fantastic ten days of family time, my kids have gone back home to their lives and I am getting caught up here at home. We all enjoyed our time together and I am so happy they were here to celebrate Julia’s graduation from high school. It was so much fun to have this long visit together.

My last post was celebrating my five year blogging anniversary! I want to let you know who the giveaway winners were.

For the charitable donation, Jinger S. was selected by the handy dandy Random Number Generator. Her charity of choice is the Alzheimer’s Association. She has family members who were or still are suffering from this insidious disease. I am happy to donate $50 to this cause. I hope someday there will be some way to prevent the disease or at very least, stop its progression. Interestingly, June is Alzheimer’s Awareness month so the timing of this giveaway couldn’t be better. If you would like to see a few of the facts and figures about Alzheimer’s, click here.

For the handmade wooden point turner, Random Number Generator chose Robbin G. Robbin is a reader who actively participates on the blog. I always enjoy her comments on my posts and I am happy to send this prize off to her!

Last Wednesday, during an incredibly hot evening, Julia graduated from high school. I was so proud of her and her classmates as they all completed this phase of life. She had such a great experience at Ghidotti and I know she will grow even more when she goes off to college in September.

My grand daughter endured the hot, long (and for her quite boring) commencement like a champ. The high school is quite small, Julia’s class had 43 students in it. The Parent Association provides cake and lemonade at a reception after commencement. I love this picture of H looking up to her Auntie Julia.

The rest of the week was spent celebrating graduation with a family party and just hanging out on a stay-cation of sorts. H loved watering with this little watering can I picked up for her at the Dollar Store. Luckily it was really warm so my plants didn’t mind her zealous watering routine. Haha.

As usual, the cherry tree ripened all at once! We have so many cherries. Ray spent some time pitting fruit and freezing it. We were too busy to can or cook jam. Hopefully later on we can get to it. Cherries rot so quickly but we were able to take advantage of some of the fruit.

Aside from her watering chores, this girl enjoyed pushing a little red wheelbarrow around the property. Isn’t she the cutest?

We also spent an afternoon on the pond at the edge of our property. My son, Ian, caught a bass and it was fun to see H’s response. She was enthralled with the whole process and enjoyed watching the fish swim off when he was set free.

Today my plan is to clean up the house a bit. There are toys strewn everywhere. Then I need to open the many boxes of Mercyful Quilts that arrived last week. The only package I did open last week contained this gorgeous piece by Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts. Preeti named it Oasis and you will surely enjoy her post telling more about the quilt. My grand daughter clearly approves of this donation. It is so pretty and has an hombre effect with the blues gradually changing shade. Thanks so much Preeti.

Once the house is (somewhat) under control, I need to baste my Squared Away quilt top. I am excited to quilt this one up. It is going to be a warm day so this will be a perfect way to spend the afternoon. How about you??

Squared Away Quilt Top

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The pieces to this quilt top have been stacked up for such a long time! I am so excited to have pieced the top together – finally!! In 2018 I had the best of intentions to sew along with Mari and her Squared Away BOM. Who knows what happened though? I only got about 1/2 way through and set it aside, never completing all of the blocks.

When I was moaning and groaning to Mari about my lack of fortitude and asking her what the heck would I do with these pretty blocks, she said to put them together with some solid blocks and make a top. It is very clear she is the teacher and I am the student, and I am forever grateful. Being an obedient but not timely student, I did as she suggested. Back in February I cut lots of 10 1/2″ squares of a piece of yardage I had from Pat Bravo’s Dare line. Then it sat for a while. I stitched the squares and the pieced blocks together soon after. Then….. it sat for a while. See my pattern? It is not very efficient.

I started to look around in the shop wondering what would work for borders and found the perfect combination!

I love the celery green textured solid with this floral from BariJ’s Sage line. Don’t they look great? There are quite a few green blocks as well as purples and this pulled it all together.

I couldn’t be more pleased. (Well, that isn’t exactly true. If a quilting fairy would come slip into the sewing room tonight, prepare the backing and pin baste this baby, then I would be absolutely thrilled.) That isn’t likely to happen though so the backing choice will be decided upon soon.

It is really a pretty quilt top though. I am motivated to finish this one up now.

I did press it and hang it in the closet for now though. Julia has high school graduation next week. We have a family reunion on Saturday and …. guess who is coming in on Saturday night???

I can’t wait!! They will be here for ten days which is lots of Grammy time. I will be off-line for much of that time because, you know, I have lots of important things to do.

Linking up with:

Needle and Thread Thursday, Brag About Your Beauties, as well as this week’s TGIFF over at MMM! Quilts.

Playing Catch Up

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Well, I did great for the first three months of the year. My two RSC18 projects were worked on each month and one was finished in time for the next. Somehow April and most of May slipped by and I didn’t work on either of them. Knowing myself, I figured I had better get caught up. Once I am too far behind, it becomes very easy to talk myself into skipping it altogether. We know what happens next don’t we? The blocks I did make end up in orphan block land, a very sad place to be.

While I am not totally caught up yet, I feel much better with the progress I made. To remind you, I am sewing along with Angela and Mari’s Squared Away BOM and I am making nine patch blocks for a separate project. April’s color was yellow with a touch of gold. The block tutorial for the month was the 4X Star, also known as the Carrie Hall block. These made for super easy piecing as only squares and a handful of HST’s were required for each one. I love both of these blocks – note that I used the same golden fabric for the four squares in the center but it looks quite different on each one. I was having a really tough time finding scraps of yellow for April because I only had such a small amount of yellow. Mentioning this to Mari, she sent off a huge packet of yellow scraps. Though her idea of scraps might be different then mine because she generously sent a number of fat quarters. So, Mari’s tutorial, Mari’s fabric….. I wonder what it would take to get her to come to California to cut my pieces and stitch them up? Thank you Mari!

May’s color is pink and rose. This was easier for me as I have plenty of pink scraps in my stash. I don’t know if I really went with rose but I like the combinations I came up with thus far. The block for this month is by Nancy Cabot, called Baton Rouge Square. Mari describes it as a package with ribbons tied at the top. I like that! Again, these are easy blocks to construct as long as you watch the direction of each HST. At this point, I still need to make one more of each block for both April and May, and I will be good to go. June’s block will pop up on Saturday so I better get these done!

Here is a shot with all of my Squared Away blocks to date. Looking good, with the exception of the missing pink and yellow blocks! I am thinking of placing them on point and sashing them with a gray that is a tad darker than the background color I am using. But there is plenty of time to figure out those details.

Finally I did make a few nine patch blocks. I haven’t made the wonky stars in pink yet, but these are quick and simple to put together.

Now I am off to the sewing room to make a custom Chemex Cozy for a customer in Virginia. Time to get busy. Also, come back on the first of June as I have some updates about my shop to share with you. Until then, happy sewing!

Linking to Let’s Bee Social and Needle & Thread Thursday. Info on both of these is found at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

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Catching up on RSC18

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First of all, thanks to everyone for the get well wishes. I am feeling better and have spent the last day or two getting caught up on things. Whenever I spend time down due to some illness or other, it is always so satisfying to get back to normal and have a regular day. Do you know what I mean? It makes me appreciate normal.

Today I am sharing my RSC18 projects to date. I finished the green blocks on the last day of March but never took pictures or posted them. The block for March is called Red Cross and dates to 1897. I don’t get the name but it is a fun block to make. Luckily I didn’t sew any bits together with the green HST’s pointing the wrong way (unusual for me, I know!) The color was to be light or bright green and this was easy as my green tub is truly overflowing. Like January and February, I tried to keep to the same scrap for each of the Squared Away blocks. Two of the greens look very similar (the lower two) but I am fine with this.

This green and yellow fabric is striking -somehow I have no idea where it came from. Usually I can remember but not this time! I love sampler quilts but sometimes they have a very busy look to them. I think using the gray background and keeping the fabric the same within each block is going to add order to the quilt.

Here are the blocks together, though none have been squared yet. There is a third purple block but my OCD self couldn’t take the picture with an extra block hanging out in space. Oh dear, what is wrong with me anyway??

I have said this before but it bears repeating. Mari, designer of the quilt for Squared Away, does an excellent tutorial and I appreciate the bit of information she provides about each block. If you haven’t sewn along with her before, I highly recommend her block of the month projects. Organizing, writing, preparing for this sort of event has to be incredibly time consuming. Thank you Mari!

As I make the Squared Away blocks, I have also been pulling smaller scraps from the bins and making nine patch blocks. These finish at nine inches each. In February I did a few wonky stars to go with the purple set. I really like these and will make more as I go along. I am unsure what I will do with these. Maybe just sash them in black and use it as a donation quilt. The nine patch blocks are a breeze and this uses up more of the small scraps in each bin.

The wonky star blocks add interest to this project.

I need to pull yellow scraps for April. This could be a challenge because I have so few yellow scraps. There are some charm squares I might be able to utilize, depending on the cutting instructions for the April block.

Another project I worked on this week was cleaning up my shop. I have deliveries tomorrow and next week. Hurray for new fabric!! There was a stack of 1/2 and one yard cuts that were end of the bolt so I did some measuring and pricing. Each of these is listed in the Bargain section of the shop. Come take a look, maybe you will find something you like!

Enough for now. I have lots to do. Hope you are all enjoying a ‘normal’ day too.

Linking up with a number of blogs, including Finished or Not Friday. See the list up at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

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Squared Away in Purple

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It is already mid-February and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month is purple. On Tuesday I set aside my doll quilt projects and pulled out my purple scrap bin. It was time to get to work on some scrappy piecework.

The second block for the Squared Away BOM, hosted by Mari of Academic Quilter and Angela of So Scrappy, was released last Saturday. For this month, Mari chose a block called The Wishing Ring. Let me say, this is a great block – not fussy at all! My kind of quilting. 🙂

I have decided that, as much as the scrap bins allow, I would like to use one fabric throughout each block with the same gray background throughout. I think it will look more cohesive. Luckily I had some reasonably large purple scraps so it worked for this month.

I had some fun playing around with these blocks. I think it would make a great quilt on its own. I have not made a quilt with just two colors but maybe someday…. I like it. ( Though I doubt I would choose purple for a whole quilt.) There are some fun secondary patterns that appear with this block.

Putting the January and February blocks together looks like this. So far, so good!! I still have the purple bin out on the sewing table. I started cutting three inch squares and playing with them yesterday. Once I figure out what to do with them, I will show you. 🙂

Have a good weekend everyone. We are enjoying spring like weather so it should be a nice one!

Linking up to my favorites. Please take a look at the Link Up tab at the top of the page.

Using Scraps – Light Blue

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Last year I didn’t participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge held each year by Angela of So Scrappy. I did participate in 2015 and 2016 though – it is a great way to use up scraps. This year I plan to follow along with the BOM hosted by Mari of Academic Quilter, Squared Away. I sewed along with Mari during her first quilt along, Classic Stitches, back in 2015. I had a great time and loved the clear directions Mari provided with her posts each month so I am happy to sew with her again this year! If you want to see the row quilt I made, click here.

Here is the first month’s block, Red Cross. According to Mari, the block is a Clara Stone block that dates to 1906. Traditionally, this block is made with red, but since the color this month is light blue, that’s what we made it in. I have a large piece of pale gray solid fabric (I am fairly sure it is a Moda Bella solid but I don’t know which one) I have set it aside in the hopes it will be enough to use as my background color for this year. We are making three 10″ blocks each month which will make a nice size quilt by the end of the year.

I am happy with the look of this first batch of blocks and they came together easily. Not to say I didn’t have to rip one apart though. I had one corner section pointed the wrong way. It hung on my design wall for quite a while before I noticed it. At least it is early in the game and was a quick fix.

RSC16 Scrappy HST Quilt Top

I am also making little 5″ square crumb blocks. I want to finish this scrappy HST quilt I started in 2016. I really like it but feel it would be nice to have it a bit larger before I finish it. I am going to make a border by alternating five inch crumb blocks of all colors with the gray polka dot. I think the gray polka dot will be rectangles, not squares, to make the border more interesting. I have to look at the math on that, certainly not my strong suit as you all know!!

I don’t plan to take all year to make these crumb blocks though (by following the color schemes of RSC18). I hope to get this one finished earlier in the year.

Did you see the giveaway I am hosting on Facebook today and tomorrow? Go check it out – might be your time to win. 🙂

In other wonderful news, I just had SIX days migraine free days in a row! It was heavenly, like a gift, you know? It has been many months (probably didn’t happen at all in 2017?) since I had that long of a run. Unfortunately, I woke up last night with a zinger but I was able to sleep it off and I feel reasonable this morning. It will be a good day to take it easy and play with my scraps. Fortunately, one doesn’t need to think too hard to make crumb blocks. 🙂 Hoping you have a lovely weekend and are able to enjoy some creative time!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilt as well as a few others. Check the Link Ups tab at the top of the page!