Almost March

It seems like February just started and now it's almost March. Spring is on the way! Of course, here in Michigan we still have a chance of snow until May. Almost every year around Easter, we will get hit with a huge snowstorm. Hopefully not this year. With spring right around the corner I thought I would do some spring cleaning... in my sewing room.

It was a disaster before this. I'm piecing 3 or 4 quilts right now. The main two are on the floor and on the wall. I found old log cabin blocks as I was digging for Civil war fabrics, so I added those to my wall along with a star I had started years ago.

The corners needed to be added to the lone star and then a a border to bring it up to 24-1/2" so that I could insert it in the middle of my log cabin quilt. The two were originally going to be 2 separate quilts but I changed my plan. These old UFOs need to be completed...

This was another UFO that needed some work. Over the last year or so, I've been making hexie flowers...these I applique onto a background square to use as a border on this quilt. I finished up the last hexie flower this past week so I've attached the border and used random leftover blocks as corners. The corner blocks were designed YEARS ago for a quilt that I never made. I loved them and wanted to use them somehow. In the future I may release a pattern using the blocks.

So that's what I'm piecing (along with my monthly rainbow scrap blocks). This is my machine quilting project. I'll be FMQuilting it on my Pfaff....probably starting Monday.

And of course, this gets a litte attention every day. On Instagram, I joined the ladies that are doing #300daysofhandquilting ...This will help keep me working on it a bit all through the spring.

Working on 3 or 4 quilts at once

It's no surprise to anyone that knows me that I'm working on multiple quilts. I get bored VERY easily. I love to spend a little time on each quilt every day.

I'm currently working on piecing my Pyramid quilt, basting a quilt for a grandniece, hand quilting on Lisa's quilt and just finishing up a vintage looking quilt that uses old fabrics.

This is Lisa's. It's all hand pieced (epp). It took me over 7 years to piece so I felt it needed to be hand quilted. ****** Below are some of my vintage fabrics that were cut up for the vintage-style quilt. I wanted all "older" fabrics so that I would get a true vintage feel.

This would be cute done with all 30's reproductions or all civil wars style fabrics, or anything bright...but I think using a variety of old fabrics gives it an olf look. It looks like many that I see in antique stores. Anyways, if you'd like to stitch one up, this is what I did: Cut: (240) 4" sqs from assorted fabrics (16) 3-1/2" x 18" from solid blue for vertical sashing (15) 3-1/2" x 14-1/2" from solid blue for horizontal sashing (20) 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" red print for cornerstones Layout 20 squares in a 4x5 grid. Sew 4 squares per row...5 rows per block. Make 12 blocks. Sash blocks using blue strips and red cornerstones. Quilt will finish at 65"x 71-1/2"

These blocks were easier to put together if they were laid out next to my machine. I could have just randomly grabbed pieces but I wanted to alternate darker and lighter or busier with plainer pieces. It didnt always work out that way but I'm happy enough with the results.

Early morning sewing and memories

It's 8am and I'm just finishing up some early morning sewing. If I cant sleep in, like Al, I head downstairs to sew for a few hours. Today was no exception. I worked on cutting pieces for two quilts.

The first quilt is the #pyramidquilt ....lots of little trianges need to be cut (12 of them) and one main triangle for each pyramid block...then the plum or aubergine setting triangles. Sewing these up goes quickly but coordinating fabrics then cutting, is slow.

As I was digging through my Civil War reproduction fabrics, I found a green fabric with a tag on it. It's from a quilter friend that died years ago. She lived in Canada and liked to trade fabrics with her U.S. friends. I guess getting certain fabrics like our Civil War ones, was difficult. We met on a quilting forum.... that is a thing of the past, shut down years ago, called Block Central. Many of us worked on each other's quilts through world wide round robins and traded projects like pincushions.

Finding this little piece of fabric with her note on it, sent me down memory lane. I'm cutting some of her fabric and putting it in this quilt. I know I'll think of her when I see that block.

Ive been gone for a while...

Posting on my blog on a fairly regular basis was how I shared my quilting makes, for years. But since covid it's been VERY sporadic because Instagram is so much easier....and life in general was not. So I'm back again...I hope. I do not have internet at home. I use the library for the most part...or my phone. And cell service out here is touch and go. Dropped calls are the norm here. So it's a struggle to get a post out. But here goes... Now that it's a NEW year and we're sort of leaving the pandemic behind (I think), I'm hopeful. I've been super busy quilting up small quilts for 5 great niece/nephew.

This one is for Lewis. I'm working on his sisters quilt now. Just before Christmas I sent off this one and another (can't find the pic):

Now I'm basting a fourth child's quilt, for Della. If you know me, I'm always working on multiple quilts...I get bored easily. So right now I'm quilting daughter Lisa's quilt and piecing a Pyramid quilt. I just finished a bowtie scrap quilt top which was my "leader-ender" project for the past year. That top will go into the HUGE pile of "to be quilted" tops.

I'm still looking at that Bowtie ...does it need a border? I might add one💁 And my final project going on in the sewing room is #rsc2022 I'm joining Angela at www.superscrappy.blogspot.com She's hosting the annual Rainbow Scrap Challenge. So far I've made blocks for January(red) and February(aqua). This is a great way to organize and use up little scraps.I'm doing 3 rainbow quilts.

Guess that's it for now!