Quilting is in my Blood

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us the third border assignment which was to use any kind of triangle we wanted to use. I chose to make isosceles triangles (2 sides of equal length) drafting a 2.5″ finished block in EQ8 to paper piece. This project measures about 19.5″ square now.

I look forward to seeing what Brenda of Songbird Designs has chosen for our fourth border.

Linking up to The Darling Dogwood: SAHRR 2024 Border 3.

I’ve had a busy January working on several quilting projects. My favorite finish of January (and my ONLY finish!) was the Kite in Purple Sky mini that I made for the Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color challenge.

I also made two 6.5″ squares for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I am using Alison Glass fabrics for this BOM that is focused on learning new fussy cutting techniques.

I’m also participating this year again in the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 hosted by Quilting Gail. I’ve written three posts so far about this project: SAHRR 2024 Center, SAHRR 2024 Border 1, and SAHRR 2024 Border 2.

I have been busy cutting up a lot of scraps for future projects including two of Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting’s patterns (The Cleo Quilt-Rainbow Version and Rainbow Modern Postage Stamp Quilt). I was definitely inspired by her Are You Ready for a Scrap Challenge post. I’ll share some pics of these scraps next month.

For the first time, I’m also going to participate in So Scrappy’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024, but in a very small and doable way. The color designated for January is bright and dark green. On the last day of January I made one green Modern Postage Stamp block (I need 7 more) and a small 6″ x 8.5″ strip-pieced block. When I went to a recent quilt guild meeting, I saw a lovely rainbow quilt made using old dryer sheets for the foundation for strip-pieced blocks, and I thought it would be very doable to make one a month, and maybe I’ll make a table runner with the blocks at the end of the year.

What’s Up for February?

• Make seven more of the green postage stamp blocks
• Start sewing some HSTs for the Star Pulse Quilt Along hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.
• Make a red strip-pieced block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024
• Make the February Fussy Fuel block
• Make more borders for my SAHRR 2024 project
• Cut a lot more scraps for my rainbow Cleo and Modern Postage Stamp quilt projects
• Possibly participate in another Project Quilting challenge
• Attend QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC and take a Watercolor-to-Quilt class from Kitty Wilkin
• Some secret sewing

Linking up to:

Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish January 2024

Scrap Happy Saturday

Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

As a side note, I want to apologize for my lack of commenting on posts for many of you who use the Blogger platform. I read quilting blog posts almost everyday, and I do like to give positive feedback to quilt bloggers who share so freely about their amazing projects. But I’ve had a heck of a time being able to comment on Blogger posts. My comments either seem to go into cyberspace or show up as anonymous. I’m still trying to make this work, so please bare with me.

Anja with Anja Quilts gave us the second border prompt. We can do whatever we want, but we were limited to just using two colors. I chose to fussy cut some snowflakes on green background and framed them using Kona Chinese Red fabric. The corners are from our first border assignment from Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts. My project measures almost 15″ square now.

I’m mainly using fabrics from the Maywood Studio Christmas Night Collection. I cut all the 1.5″ squares used in my border above using the green fabric pictured below. I ended up having to sew with a 1/8″ seam allowance because of how the motifs were placed on the fabric. With as popular as fussy cutting is with many quilters, I really don’t understand why this fabric wasn’t designed so the motifs could be cut out with the normal quarter inch seam allowance. But as my friend, Roseanne with Home Sewn By Us, would say, that’s a first world problem!

Linking up to Anja Quilts: SAHRR 2024 Border 2.

Wendy with  Pieceful Thoughts gave us our first border assignment for our Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 which was to make signature blocks. I decided to just make four of these blocks and will use these signature blocks for the corners of the third border. Many thanks to Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing for providing signature block paper pieced foundations for these blocks in three different sizes. I chose to use the 2″ finished template.

Let’s see what Anja at Anja Quilts  has planned for us on Monday.

Linking up to Pieceful Thoughts: SAHRR 2024 Border 1.

A few of my online quilting friends have participated in Project Quilting challenges (hosted by Kim Lapacek) over the last several years. I’ve never participated before either from being too busy with other projects or not being confident enough in my quilting/design skills. Now that I’m in my tenth year of quilting (how did that happen!?!), I still struggle with enough time to do all the projects I want to do even though I retired from full-time work in June, but I’ve decided that I need to add more creative play into my life these days. When I saw the Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color challenge with the rule of taking inspiration from the colors of the sky but excluding or using less than 10 percent of the usual blue, I knew this was right time for me jump right in. I have always loved seeing photos of purple skies. When I did a Google Search on Purple Skies, I found out that the purple skies are most likely due to a phenomenon called airglow which is caused by the interaction of the Sun and ultraviolet radiation. I wasn’t sure how I was going to hang my finished Kite with Purple Sky Mini Quilt, but I found these hanging clips on Amazon which worked wonderfully.

To get my project started, I went to my purple solid fabrics bin and decided to focus on the fabrics that are more red violet than purple. Many of these fabrics aren’t labeled, but I believe I pulled Kona fabrics in the following colors: Berry, Magenta, Geranium, and Dark Violet. Initially I wanted to do a paper-pieced project and designed a basic equilateral triangle divided into four equal pieces. I pieced two of these triangles, trimmed them up, and decided to sew them together forming a kite shape. I then decided to frame the kite center with 1.5″ strip borders and ended with a larger Kona purple border. I quilted the kite in several red violet colors in 25 intersecting lines which reminded me of how kite strings can get tangled.

I then made a scrappy binding referring to the helpful post by Quilting Jetgirl on Tips for Making/Planning a Scrappy Binding.

The angles of my kite mini were a little tricky as far as mitering the corners, but they turned out decently.

I look forward to seeing what the third Project Quilting challenge will be for Season 15.

Linking up to Project Quilting 15.2 Sky Color.

I have participated in the Stay at Home Round Robin organized by Quilting Gail for the last two years. See my Blue Dog quilt here made in 2022 and a similar one I made for my stepson, Drew, here. And last year I made a wall hanging with Alison Glass fabrics which can be viewed here.

For this year, I have decided to make a Christmas runner for my pressing table. In December, I made Christmas Placemats for my friend, Kristen that I liked so much that I decided that I wanted a runner with fabrics from the Maywood Studio Christmas Night Collection to use in my future Christmas decorating. The center of the placemats had a star that was 12.5″ square. For my Christmas runner, the star below is 10.5″ square.

I’m really looking forward to see what border prompt Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts has in store for us this coming Monday.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2024 Center Block Linky Party.

In my #2023QuiltingQ3Checkin post, I shared that I was going to have carpal tunnel release surgery on my right hand in October and was going to take a break from sewing/quilting and blogging for awhile and focus on other activities in my life. My surgery went well, so I have been able to do a little sewing including some Christmas placemats and a couple of other small Christmas projects.

For my friend Kristen:

For Mary and me:

For my friend Joanne (slanted tree pattern by Quiet Play):

And hung above a paper-pieced cardinal (pattern by During Quiet Time) I made a few years ago, is a JOY (pattern by Center Street Quilts) mini quilt in my quilting area:

I’ve missed blogging, but it has been nice to focus on other areas of my life including getting many areas in my home organized. I’ve continued to provide online mental health therapy to couples and individuals. I’ve increased my exercise and most recently have started doing some Better5 classes. And I did get one puzzle finished. I worked on this San Francisco Giants puzzle while watching the World Series. It was given to me by my Dodger fan friend, Manny, as a retirement gift, and I love all the different baseball-related shapes in this puzzle.

I’ve done a lot of relaxing reading in the past few months. Through Kindle Unlimited on Amazon, I discovered the author Jean Grainger who writes historical fiction based in Ireland. I started with the Mags Monroe series which has a very likable female police sergeant as the main character and then moved on to her Tour series which centers around an equally likable bus tour driver who shares interesting stories with his quirky passengers.

I did enter my Mid Century Modern quilt (see pic below) into the 2024 QuiltCon quilt show in Raleigh, NC, but it was not accepted. I have to say that the rejection letter was very nice and informed me that they only accepted 20% of the quilts entered. I’m still planning to go to QuiltCon in February and look forward to seeing lots of fantastic modern quilts and taking a watercolor-into-raw-edge-applique wall hanging class from Kitty Wilkin.

I plan to continue to prioritize exercise and reading in the new year but also want to do more traveling starting with my trip to Raleigh in February. I also want to get back to writing at least occasional blog posts.

2024 Quilting/Stitching Goals

The main goal is to get back to more regular sewing/quilting. I’ve signed up for Bobbie Gentili’s Geeky Bobbin Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month where I hope to expand my fussy cutting skills. I also will be participating in Quilting Jetgirl’s Star Plus Quilt Along. And because the Stay at Home Round Robins organized the past few years by Quilting Gail have been so much fun, I’m planning to participate in the 2024 SAHRR. All three of these projects start in January.

Also in January is Angela Walter’s Dot to Dot Free Motion Quilting Challenge which is a free video series. My friend, Ed, has helped me get my Juki sewing machine going, and I really want to learn at least some basic FMQ.

Other 2024 quilting projects may include a Baseball Star quilt, a Luminary lonestar quilt, some mini quilts from the Quiet Play Make Mine Mini pattern club, a Fussy T-Shirt and Sea Glass quilt both in classes I’ve purchased from Allie of Exhausted Octopus, a retirement banner/photo memory quilt, and assorted Halloween and/or Christmas projects.

It’s likely that I will also work on some Sashiko projects. I have the panel and thread for a beautiful Japanese tea mat in different shades of purple that is quietly calling my name. Let’s see if that voice gets louder in the new year!

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl’s #2024QuiltingPlanningParty.

To Do for the week of Oct 1st 2023:

1. Depending on how my hands feel, I may do a little Sashiko stitching on my Seven Cranes Sashiko project. Nope
2. Start working on my #2023QuiltingQ3Checkin post hosted by Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

My hands weren’t feeling that good plus I was really busy, so I didn’t even pull out my Seven Cranes Sashiko project. This past week Mary and I went back to Moab, Utah for a couple days because I really wanted to see Arches National Park. In the pic below, Mary (left) and I (on the right) are in front of Delicate Arch a ways off in the background. There are two more general arch and rock formation pics and then one of my Mosaic Story Camping quilt with red rock in the background.

Then we drove to Albuquerque because Mary’s niece, Lori, was flying in for a visit. We had a fun three days with her including going to Santa Fe (see pic below of Mary and Lori with the large rabbit sculpture while checking out the stores in downtown Santa Fe–we also went to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum and my favorite restaurant in Santa Fe, Cafe Pasqual’s), the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (because Lori is a third grade teacher who teaches a unit every year on the pueblos). I really liked the display there about the sun dagger. And that hand painted pottery was so amazingly intricate. The hot air balloons were also beautiful and some of course reminded me of quilts.

To-Do #2

I finished my third quarter check in post. See link here.

To-Do #3

I am  definitely continuing to enjoy my retirement. The tree below in downtown Santa Fe had this perfect sitting spot, and of course I had on my favorite Life is Good t-shirt:

To-Do for the rest of 2023:

I’ll be taking a break for awhile from quilting and blogging to have my carpal tunnel release surgery done on my right hand on Oct 12th. For now, I have no quilting or stitching plans though I certainly will be reading quilting blogs and commenting when I can. See my post above under To-Do #2 to read what I’ll be doing with my time.

I will leave you with a You Tube video taken at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Until We Meet Again.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

I did well on the goals that I identified in my #2023QuiltingQ2Checkin post. The only goal for the last half of 2023 that I haven’t gotten done is working on a sea glass wall hanging, pattern/class by Allie of Exhausted Octopus. At this time, I think I will move that goal to early 2024.

Quarter 3 Finishes

My favorite finish this quarter by far was my Mid Century Modern quilt. Details are in this post.

My second favorite Q3 finish is my Mosaic Story Camping quilt. Read about this quilt here.

The Beach Quilt that I made for my friend, Annette, was also on my list for this quarter.

Donation Quilts

I made two donation quilts this quarter. The first was a boy’s baby quilt that I donated to Little Lambs Foundation of Utah. Read more about this quilt here.

I also made a donation cradle quilt. Read more about this project here.

Halloween Projects

In the past couple months I fell hard down the Halloween projects rabbit hole and made three wall hangings, a tiny ghost wrapped around a 6″ tile, a throw quilt for my bed, a table runner, and a pillow. Read about these projects here,  here, here, and here.

Goals for the last quarter of 2023

As of right now, I don’t have any quilting or stitching goals for last quarter of 2023. As many of you know, I’ve had significant pain/numbness in both my hands. Cortisone injections have been a decent short term remedy along with wearing wrist braces at night, but I’ve decided to have carpal tunnel release surgery starting with my right hand on October 12th. I will probably wait until early 2024 to have the left hand done. So in the last three months of 2024 I have other priorities:

• Continue providing part-time online therapy to individuals and couples.
• Continue a regular reading practice including reading book group books (our current book is The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride which I have just started) and to do some professional reading including The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work and The ADHD Effect on Marriage.
• Continue listening to two therapy-related podcasts: Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel and Dear Therapists with Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch.
• Continue riding my Peloton bike on a daily basis when possible.
• Go for more walks.
• Do some household and quilting organization.
• Put together some puzzles given to me by friends.
• Go back to yoga after I recover from my hand surgery.
• Make more home-made meals. I especially love making soups in the fall. It’s a good thing my best friend, Mary, doesn’t mind chopping/dicing all the veggies!
• The one quilting-related priority is to complete an entry for my Mid Century Modern quilt to the Modern Quilt Guild’s quilt show in Raleigh, NC, in February. A big shout out goes to Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl for her recent, very helpful post on Quilt Show Entry Tips.
• And of course, continue to enjoy my retirement. Even though I’m doing a little part-time work, it’s work I enjoy with minimal paperwork, and it’s been really satisfying to grow my skills in working with couples. I control my schedule and the number of clients assigned. Right now I have eight clients and don’t plan to add any more for the next several months. My current retirement guilty pleasure is watching the Major League Baseball playoffs. My San Francisco Giants did not make the playoffs. I’m rooting for any team but the Dodgers!!! And also not the Braves, that tomahawk chop needs to go! I’d really like to see the Minnesota Twins do well. I imagine my friend, Wendy, would like to see them beat the Houston Astros.

Linking up to #2023QuiltingQ3Checkin.

To Do for the week of Sept 24th 2023:

1. Finish my Halloween Rotation quilt. Done
2. Make a cradle quilt. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

This past week I was able to finish my Halloween Rotation quilt which measures 62″ square.  I did a sew-along with Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts who had an extra copy of the Rotation Quilt Pattern by Jennifer@Dizzy Quilter. I paper-pieced the flying geese using Lee Heinrich’s Perfect Flying Geese. I ended up accelerating my sew-along schedule as I made a decision to schedule carpal tunnel release surgery for my right hand and needed to get my current quilting projects finished. I pieced the back with fabrics from Melissa Mortenson’s Spooky Schoolhouse collection. This was such a fun Halloween project to make, especially because it included fabrics from my mom’s fabric stash purchased in the 1990s (the black and white skulls in second block of the first row, the dark blue-back spider web fabric in the first block of the second row, and the black and white spider web fabric in the third block of the fourth row). The three blocks that look like they have a white background are actually made with Michael Miller’s Fairy Frost glow-in-the dark fabric. Below are photos of the front with one close-up that shows that bat quilting done by Cara of Sew Colorado Quilting and back of the quilt.

I just had to add a photo of our cat, Sunny, looking awfully cute on this Halloween quilt. Of course, her coloring goes perfectly!

To-Do #2

I did get a chance to make one cradle quilt for the cradle quilt drive organized by Carole@ From My Carolina Home. Please see her Cradle Quilt Drive post for more info on this project. I used two Grunge mini charm packs gifted to me a few years ago by Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us. Rather than using the dark browns and blacks in charm packs, I chose to add nine 2.5″ squares of Grunge Metropolis fabric. The back is a unicorn fabric I’ve had in my stash for a few years. The first two pics below are taken with my llama beanie babies in a little outside wagon in our front garden area. The last two are full shots of the front and back of the cradle quilt.

To-Do #3

I am continuing to enjoy my retirement but am also doing a little part-time online therapy. I’m putting that extra money into my travel budget. I’m especially enjoying doing some work with couples.

To-Do for week of Oct 1st 2023:

1. Depending on how my hands feel, I may do a little Sashiko stitching on my Seven Cranes Sashiko project.
2. Start working on my #2023QuiltingQ3Checkin post hosted by Yvonne@Quilting Jetgirl.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.