Pink Double 9-patch quilt is finished

It's done!! And I love it❤

I finished this pink and blue Double 9-patch shirtings quilt today. 

 I used an older, stained dress shirt for the binding. Since we we're under "stay home" orders, I dug through my stash to find binding. This shirt just made it! I used the little "Polo" insignia so no fabric would go to waste and am glad I did. I love that it shows a shirt was used.

 I've been collecting shirts for years. A local resale marks them down after a month of them not selling. Many times it's because it has stains, tears or other problems...perfect for quilting.
And of course, Al contributed a bunch to my pile. When he buys them new, I make sure they are all cotton so that I can upcycle them later.

Binding the pink quilt

The binding is cut and I'm sewing it onto the quilt. I ended up using the back and 2 front pieces of a striped dress shirt (xxl). 

The binding strips were bias cut ...I love bias stripes. This won't be the last time I use a shirt for binding. I just never thought about it before. But now with all that's going on, I'm trying to use what I have and not go shopping.

The weather today was super hot and muggy. Al and I worked in the yard for a bit this morning but by 11am I was dripping with sweat so I started sewing...no air conditioning yet but the house stays pretty cool. 

Let's hope I can get this binding sewn down by the weekend. I'd sure like to have a finish!

Freedom in Northern Michigan

We've been pretty busy lately, Al and I. The house building is finished but now its landscaping time. Bushes and trees are MOSTLY in...edging too. Al built me a grape arbor, a few sections of decorative fence and a raised garden box. Now he's planning the sprinkler system.

He's a keeper, that's for sure! We also celebrated 39 years of married bliss (well, mostly bliss😂).

We were lucky that northern Michigan, where we live, opened up restaurants the day before our anniversary so we were able to go out and celebrate. 

I did find time between celebrating the anniversary, celebrating Memorial Day and landscaping, to finish quilting this quilt. Today I trimmed it and squared it up.

 Then I dug through loads of boxes and stash fabric looking for binding. The only thing I really liked was this shirting. I have a back and two front sections. That should add up to enough fabric...might be close...might be playing binding chicken!

Anyways, I'll start cutting that tomorrow since it's supposed to rain.

Since northern Michigan opened up, we've had a chance to play with these sweeties again. 

They "helped" us landscape.

 We also played Legos and read books on the back porch. I've really missed spending time with them...It's good to be able to once again.

Quilting, reading, relaxing....

Still quilting the quilt....

The weather has been SO wet lately...perfect quilting weather but it's also arthritis weather...so I quilt a bit then read a bit. And every so often I just get lost in memories. This quilt is full of them. Little pieces of Al's shirt, Lisa's dress, 80's and 90's fabrics that I never got around to using...or used and these are the leftovers.

Then there's pieces that Lisa bought me as a birthday present. Those were feedsacks. Some were REALLY tiny (but so CUTE) that I was only able to squeeze out one or two 1-1/2" squares. 

So it's coming along but very slowly.

Like now...my back hurts so I'm going to take a coffee/book break.

The quilting will definitely be done today....I'm sooo close.

Rainy sew day

 It's a dreary, rainy day here in Traverse City. Yesterday was Al's birthday ...I cooked his favorite foods and celebrated with him....no sewing on his day.

So today I'm back at quilting my pink double 9-patch quilt. I worked on it for an hour then took a hand sewing break...lol. Free motion quilting can be hard on the back, you know? I'd like to get this quilted up today so I can bind it over the weekend....but only if the weather is bad. If it's nice, I'll be outside.

                 
It's been raining since last night...maybe that's why my bones are complaining today.

Looking out the windows just looks like work to me right now. We have so much landscaping to finish up outside. But...at least the new bushes and flowers we planted last week are getting watered.

We're getting the edging in so that Al can start figuring his sprinkler system out. After that, GRASS!!

The pin basting is done and I've started the quilting. I thought about hand quilting this one but in the end, with so many ufos, I figured I just needed some finishes.

So I'm doing free-motion quilting in a swirl design (my favorite).

I'm loving the pink...it's so nice to work on happy colors right now.

And, with being stuck at home, I'm also baking up a storm. My hubby is gonna have to buy new jeans when this pandemic is over...he says I'm feeding him too much.

We both love bread. Since March, I've learned to make a great loaf of chibatta. Bad thing is, we eat it up SO fast...hot out of the oven .....with real butter and homemade jam...amazing!

Pink Double 9-Patch quilt

Today is a basting day. I took one quilt out of the "to be quilted" pile...it was 12 high and toppling over. As I started pressing it, 

 I noticed all the cute, vintage fabrics that I had stitched into it. 

 These dots are from the 50's or so.

This red, below, is feedsack.

 This cute kitten drinking milk is a reproduction 30's.

 The tiny piece in the upper right corner, below, is from an old apron...50's probably. And the royal blue with white flowers and red centers is a teeny tiny scrap of 30's I had.

 Some of the fabrics were so small I could only cut one 1-1/2" square.

 So today this got pinned. I started this quilt in 2017 and really enjoyed making it. There are a lot of tiny pieces but still...it was fun.

Maybe on Monday I'll be able to start free-motion quilting it.

If anyone would like to make this quilt, I can add a tutorial. It's very easy...just 9 patches and snowball blocks.

Started a new star quilt

So I started another quilt. It was an accident... really...not planned at all.

Remember those vintage scraps and old blocks that I was organizing? I remade the friendship star blocks and put the 16 of them together as a future quilt center. Well, I was thinking about it at night and thought, "what if I cut up all the scraps that matched the stars and surrounded my center with a huge star.
This was about midnight...couldn't sleep. I pulled out my laptop with my EQuilter program and started playing with ideas.
Long story short... About 3am I finished my design and in the morning I wanted to test out one block. Just to see if I liked it. And I haven't stopped. May as well finish it at this point.
So the plan is to make one more border of star points. The quilt will be 72" sq, a good size I think.

These are some of the vintage fabrics I tucked into the star points. This stripe above and the brown print below, are early 1900's fabrics!

This stripe with the flowers is 50's I think (36" wide). It's a really nice, crisp cotton.

I'm still organizing the vintage scraps too. The ones that don't make it into this star quilt will go into my next one. THAT quilt needs to wait! No more starts allowed!