Little I-Spies in everything

I love to tuck little "surprises" into my quilts...unexpected characters or animals peeking out of a block. This TUMBLING BLOCK quilt is no exception.... Can you find the surprise character I added for the grandsons to find?

Clue: I was going to wait until the 4th of May to put him in.

I was able to get quite a few tumbling blocks made this morning. We went out to breakfast and stopped to get groceries...lots of sewing time as Al drove. And now, I have a chicken roasting in the oven so I think I can get a bit more stitching in. Have a nice Sunday all! I-spy: Darth Vader (may the force be with you)

Saturday night sewing

We have a quick spring snowstorm that's moving into northern Michigan for a few hours this evening so instead of taking a walk, I'm sewing.

The Tumbling Blocks are coming along... About a 1/6 of the way done. When we're out for a drive, I bring this along so I'm not bored. Al likes to hit resale shops here and there and a lot of the time I wait in the car. Its nice to have something to do. Although, this week I went into one with him and found a lot of cute fabrics. They were mostly darker ones but they'll be perfect to add into my Pyramid quilt and my log cabin quilt. I also found a couple of cute plaid shirts that I cut up. They were only 50 cents...not bad for almost a yard of fabric.

The other great find was a stool

It opens up to hold my hand sewing. I needed an ottoman by my chair and this one works perfectly.

I'm keeping my fabric scraps for the tumbling blocks quilt in it and my thread basted diamonds. When I have a few minutes to spare, everything is there ready to piece another section.

And this hand quilting project is just about done. Im finishing up the last few stars then I'll pull it off the frame and doquilt the edge triangles. I haven't decided what design I'm doing there yet. Probably something simple.

Current projects

This is my newest quilt start. It's long term ...a hand sewing ( #epp ) project. My last English paper piecing quilt top took 7 years to make and it's taking about 6 months to hand quilt then bind. This one will be faster since it wont be just worked on during car rides and doc appts. I'm doing some blocks each evening. I've hauled out my bin of 30s reproduction prints and vintage fabrics and am sorting in color order. Then I have daughter Jenn finding coordinating light/medium/dark sets for the blocks.

Also, in the evenings or early morning, I'm putting in a bit of time on that first EPP quilt, my 6-point diamond stars. It's getting to the end. This week I flipped the quilt frame around so that I can quilt the last few rows. It should be finished some time in April.

No machine last week

I tried a new thread last week ...supposed to be wonderful for machine quilting...FMQ. Well, my machine ate it! It broke it off and wound it around some inside parts and it seized up. Yesterday, when I picked up my machine, the repairman told me I probably won't be able to finish the quilt with that thread! What?! I can't use two different threads! So, I'm going to put something different in the bobbin but keep the problem thread on top...and proceed SLOWLY. But in the meantime I've been doing some hand sewing.

I started a new English paper piecing project. This is "Tumbling Blocks". I'm going to make the quilt out of 30's reproduction prints, actual vintage fabrics and shirtings. This quilt will take years, I'm sure. My last EPP quilt took 7 years for the top...it's the one I'm hand quilting right now. I hope this doesn't take THAT long but it won't be quick. It'll be something to keep me busy on the road, at sporting events, doctor appts, etc

Of all the papers and patterns, I keep coming back to the 60° diamonds. They're so easy to work with. Before starting this, I searched epp patterns to see what was new or different. There really are a lot to choose from. One that I really like the looks of is Lucy Boston but it seems like a lot of fussy cutting and that's not something I enjoy. I also like the looks of Grandmothers Flower Garden which uses hexagon papers. I've had my fill of hexagons lately and I'm still making an occasional hexie flower for daughter Jenn's quilt. She's very slowly collecting/making those. Another epp pattern I considered was the apple core...really cute finished but maybe a bit harder to join together? So diamonds won out. Anyways, that's what's been happening here the past week. Now I need to finish FMQuilting that great neice quilt

Sunday sewing

Today's weather is pretty warm but very rainy and very windy. It's a perfect spring day to stay in and sew...at least until the rain stops. I've been sewing a few different things lately. One project I finished up for this month is my YELLOW blocks for the #rsc2022 which is the rainbow scrap challenge I'm doing.

My other project is a daily dose of hand quilting on this quilt:

I'm "trying" to do #300daysofhandquilting along with some Instagram quilters. So far I've been at it about 15 days.

Also, I've made some more log cabin blocks and added them to my wall...I think I have 25 or so to make. And as I'm sorting and cutting for the log cabins, I also cut drunkard path pieces and pyramid pieces. I was planning to start machine quilting a child's quilt this week but just wasnt up to it. Maybe later today.

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!

Hand and machine quilting my quilt

Im quilting my Stars Upon Stars quilt using a combination of hand and machine quilting. 

I couldn't make up my mind how I wanted this quilt quilted so I'm doing both. And I am REALLY out of practice with the hand work. But that's OK...I'm willing to have this scrap quilt be less than perfect. 

The thread I'm using is a first for me. It's very rough...natural feeling...almost like burlap but in a pretty Greige color. It was a gift from a quilty friend. I've been waiting to try it out. 
 

I'm hoping I dont run out of this thread because it doesn't have a label and I haven't seen it at any stores locally. If anyone knows what it is, I love to know! So for now I'm using it just here and there. I may switch to a perle cotton to do some detail quilting later.

Finished the scrappy hexagon quilt top

The Scrappy Hexagon Quilt top is finished!

If you'd like to make a similar quilt, I have the how-to here:

Scrappy Hexagon Tutorial

I debated over adding a border, just to the top and bottom to make it longer. My daughters both decided they preferred it plain...no border. So that meant I needed to do an extra row of hexagons (2 rows of triangles). I had 22 extra triangles but needed 28 to do a row that starts and ends with a diamond.

So two nights ago I started sewing and cutting, I was determined to get 6 scrappy triangles made.

After making them I thought I would push myself to make the two rows so that they were ready to attach in the morning. Well, I couldn't stop. I stayed up until the top was done. 

And that feels SO good! Done! I'm looking through backing pieces now to see what in my stash will work. It would be wonderful to make another quilt strictly from stash and scraps. I'm sure I'll find something.

Since the top was finished the night before, I ask Al if he would like to head out for a drive.. See the coast of Michigan south of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. This is less than 45 minutes from us and just a GORGEOUS area. He said SURE, why not!

His knees are acting up so he couldn't climb any steps but I just couldnt resist!

 The view was unbelievable! My heart was hammering like crazy when I got to the top (I think I need to do a bit more exercising, I'm out of shape). I wished I had counted the steps...there were SO MANY!