Took a trip to the U.P. of Michigan

As Al drove up to my brothers farm, I was able to get some hand stitching done. These 1930 reproduction fabrics are becoming hexie flowers for a medallion quilt. 

I packed plenty of fabrics but forgot to grab extra hexagon papers so I had to resort to cutting up flyers and magazine covers... Not pretty but it works!

My brothers farm needs LOTS of work to get it producing like he wants. He's still in the process of repairing outbuildings and planning fields. 

Potatoes were planted in the spring, then neglected till now because he works full time in Detroit. This will become a retirement farm for him. In the meantime, my sister and I will harvest, can and freeze some of the fruits and veggies. 

I worked on one long row and two short rows to get these beauties. The plants could REALLY use more growing time so we'll be back in a month to dig the rest.

These are just a small amount of the potatoes....we wanted to try all the varieties. Purple potatoes are a new thing for me... I haven't ever had a chance to try these and was very surprised at how creamy and good they were.

After we came home I had a chance to work on my Double Nine patch blocks. As of today, I have eight blocks left to make :)  seeing a light at the end of the tunnel!

September UFO & color of the month

Can you believe it's September already?! Where did the summer go? Well, with a new month we have  a new UFO to work on... this month it's #4 according to Patchwork Times. My hubby is excited because this is HIS quilt. He's hoping to see it finished up.

And the color for September is ORANGE 🍊... perfect! This will be a nice bright change from beige. Time to dig out my scraps of orange and make some blocks.

Summer is almost gone so we are enjoying these last warm days. We spent some time walking around the Common (the old insane asylum) here in Traverse City. There's some wonderful old architecture here.

I love this old metal arch over this doorway.

And of course, we've taken Henry downtown, to the beach and on some hikes.

I'm making progress on Double Nine Patch quilt... 20 of the 32 nine patches are done so more than halfway.

Today Al and I are road tripping to the U.P. to visit my brother Karl's house. He's up for the holiday weekend along with my sister. I'm finished with my EPP stars and needed another hand project so I'm making hexie flowers that will border a 30's style medallion quilt.. I'll appliqué these onto a white (?) square to create a border....probably need about 25-30 of these.

English paper piecied stars quilt top is done!

It's FINALLY done...after nearly 8 years! English paper piecing is slow but SO worth it. Now I'll start the hand quilting. I'm still trying to decide exactly how I'll be doing it... Design and all....but I think it will go onto my quilt frame by the living room windows. Fall/winter will be here in no time and that will give me a good amount of light.

Now that the epp project is finished I decided to tackle some tops that needed quilting. There are three waiting....well, actually MORE than three, but three that are hanging in the sewing room. This spools and bobbins quilt will be first.

Harry dog came to visit for a bit yesterday while I was sewing and Al was cooking. It was national DOG day so he got to have his picture taken.

Al made us fresh lake perch for dinner...OH. MY. GOSH! Fantastic! 

And now that the EPP stars quilt top is done I'm making more hexagon flowers for Jenn. Can't go anywhere without taking a little hand project....

Six-Pointed Star Quilt Top is ALMOST DONE

All the stars are done and now I'm working on large triangles to give the quilt a nice straight edge.

I taped a bunch of the star paper pieces together to come up with this large triangle...then cut a bunch out of card stock. 

This deep green is a vintage feedsack and the red, blue and yellow flower print is from an old apron. There's a lot of old pieces mixed in.

It's going to need a really good pressing then I can get it ready for hand quilting. Yup, hand quilting! I feel like it NEEDS to be hand done since I've been hand piecing it for the past eight years.

And hopefully the quilting won't take as long as the piecing!

Start of a vintage style quilt

Here I go again....off on a tangent! I'm blaming my daughter for this... She wanted to borrow som shirting pieces and as I was digging through the box I found two small 9 patches. These were just small pretty scraps that I put together YEARS ago for no real reason than that I thought they looked nice together. They were then packed away and forgotten.

Well, once I found them I just couldn't stop thinking that they would be great in a vintage type quilt. Digging through my old quilt magazines, I came across a perfect pattern... The double 9 patch or Irish chain.

The pink is old....from the 80s. It was at the bottom of my solids tote and I'm crossing my fingers that it will be enough to do a twin size quilt.  The scraps for the small 9 patches are getting cut from shirts, old blocks (very old!) and old calicoes. These blocks above are very vintage.... If they were salvageable I would use them as is in a quilt but they have stains and holes. 

This star quilt top was a mess....puckered...torn...stained ....so again CHOP, CHOP!

These pieces were cut from those old blocks... They look so much neater.

I'm stitching them inti 3" 9-patches and not worrying if they are a little wonky. They'll just look that much more vintage :)

Seven Double 9-Patch blocks are done...I need at least 25 but hoping to get 32 made. I'll be alternating with the pink (hopefully!).  There won't be a border on this quilt unless I decide on a very small one. Got to keep it looking old.

Bobbin border

I'm posting from my IG account...only picture I have of this quilt top. I'm NorthernDebQuilts and private but you can request to follow. The bobbin blocks are from a Cotton Way pattern, altered to suit my quilt. 

So I'm done with the bobbin border and am happy with the results. It adds just a little interest to it and what good are spools of thread without bobbins?

So now it's time to find a backing and get it basted. Since I have no idea what I want for a back, this could end up in the UFO closet for a bit. 

This is my first completed top done from following along the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2017 with Angela at www.soscrappy.blogspot.com

August beige blocks

I finished the August tan blocks (Rainbow scrap challenge) ...then I decided to make the orange and pink spool blocks so that I could get this spools quilt finished. But, now that the top is together, I think it might need a fun border. Maybe some bobbin blocks bordering the spools?

And these are the rest of the tan/beige/cream blocks. 

Now back to my other SIX projects.....

Color & UFO for August

It's AUGUST and we have a new scrappy color....TAN! Tan, beige, cream or off white....this could be fun. I know I have plenty of scraps in this color.
And what is the AUGUST ufo? Number 8! For me thats my scrappy blue Kaffe log cabin quilt.
It needs borders, quilting and binding.

And here's my favorite little guy....who can resist that face!!

Old project is getting worked on.

The fifth row of this old UFO is finished. I'm making slow progress on it but at least it's getting done.

Each row need 60 HSTs! That's the part that takes so long. The centers are all finished, just waiting for the sashings.

I've tried a few methods do making HSTs but with these it seems this ruler is the fastest. I cut a 2-1/2" of light and dark, lay them right sides together and cut a pile of  the triangles.

Keeping them together, I chain stitch a pile, cut them apart and press.

No need to trim...they are all the correct size!

Here's my favorite little visitor....summer is more play time than sew time.

Summer fun time...

Lazy days of summer?! THAT's a myth! It seems that my days are crammed full...barely any time to sew. But this morning and late last night I squeaked out a couple of hours to work on a VERY old UFO. 

This one came from a block swap I did with the on Block Central at least 7 years ago!

I'm making the sashing, which is very time consuming.

I did some using paper piecing but found that was just too slow.

Cutting the triangles and chain stitching is the fastest for me. I cut them exactly the size needed so I don't have to trim them.

This is my birthday week! My youngest daughter sent me some Kona that I've been searching for. This is FLAMINGO. 

Al and I spent some time in Charlevoix at the car show....

Plus spent lots of time with Henry picking berries. There's just too much to do and not enough time to do it all.

UFO number 12 is finished!

The UFO of the month, according to www.patchworktimes.com, for July is #12. 

I finished up the quilting today then attached the binding and stitched it down. 

This is a happy summer quilt for taking to the beach and for picnics. It's all HSTs in scraps.

I used a gingham for the binding....just screams picnic, doesn't it?

It's also an I-Spy quilt for Henry...lots of novelty prints for him to search through.

Beach balls and Jell-o.... Snails and 

Lime slices!

Apples, flowers, mushrooms and even some trucks.