Quilting is in my Blood

To Do for the week of Sept 4th 2023:

1. Make a simple shelf runner. Done
2. Continue working on some Halloween projects. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

A few months ago, I ordered a really pretty panel that I thought I might use in a table runner. It’s called Zen Panel by Sue Zipkin. I ended up using it to make a shelf runner and didn’t need to add any extra fabric other than purple binding. The first photo below is the front of the runner and the second photo shows the back of the runner:

To-Do #2

I finished another Halloween mini quilt that measures 14.5″ square. The pattern is called Scaredy Cat by Trellis & Thyme.

I’ve also been working on a large Halloween quilt for the past couple weeks. Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts had an extra copy of the Rotation Quilt Pattern by Jennifer@Dizzy Quilter, and she asked me if I would like the pattern and also if I’d like to do a low stress sew-along with her. I thought immediately of all the Halloween fabrics in my stash and thought the Rotation pattern would nicely showcase these fabrics, and so I enthusiastically agreed to join Wendy in a Rotation sew-along. I will be making a total of 25 blocks. I’m paper-piecing my flying geese using Lee Heinrich’s Perfect Flying Geese. Below are four of the blocks I’ve sewn so far:

To-Do #3

I recently treated myself to a Panasonic cordless iron. It makes pressing my fabrics almost fun! I bought mine on Amazon.

To-Do for week of Sept 11th 2023:

1. Make more Halloween Rotation blocks.
2. Possibly work on one more Halloween project.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

To Do for the week of Aug 28th 2023:

1. Bind my beach quilt. Done
2. Continue working on some Halloween projects. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

I finished my beach quilt that measures 54″ square on Sept 1st. It is a gift for my friend, Annette, who lives in Florida and who turns 60 next month. The modern waves quilting was done by Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting.

When I was hand-stitching the binding, I noticed a small rip on the back of the quilt near the binding seam. I’m not sure what happened. Perhaps I grazed the fabric with my rotary cutter. Below is a photo of the rip and the appliqued flower that I fused over the rip and then hand-stitched down:

To-Do #2

I finished a Halloween mini quilt that measures 24″ square. It is made from one of the Ghost Party blocks. @woollypetals is currently hosting a Ghost Party sew-along on Instagram. The black and white skulls fabric was from my mom’s fabric stash in the 90s.

To-Do #3

I finished the book, The Covenant of Water, this past week. My book group is reading it, and I’m the one who chose this book upon the recommendation of my brother. He didn’t let me down. It was a wonderful book, though I had a take a time-out while reading the book when one of the main characters made a very stupid choice! But I went back to it and was definitely happy that I did. We’ll be meeting on Sept 17th to talk about the book. Maybe I’ll remember to take a picture at this book group meeting 🙂

To-Do for week of August 28th 2023:

1. Make a simple shelf runner.
2. Continue working on Halloween projects.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

To Do for the week of Aug 21st 2023:

1. Take photos of my finished camping quilt and write a post about it. Done
2. Start working on some Halloween projects. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

Earlier this week I was able to get some outside pics of my Mosaic Story Camping quilt. Read the post here.

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To-Do #2

A couple weeks ago I decided that I wanted to make a Halloween quilt for my bed (details to be revealed soon) and that I also needed some Halloween wallhangings/mini quilts. To that end, I sewed a Tic Tac Cat wall hanging quilt top, and even though it’s only 34″ square, I decided it needed some special longarm quilting done by Rebecca at Rebecca Grace Quilting.

I’ve been accumulating Halloween fabric for several years, and I even have some Halloween fabric from my mom’s stash in the 90s. I may or may not have ordered a couple other cute Halloween fabrics that could show up in Halloween projects in the next few weeks.

To-Do #3

My favorite retirement activity this past week was having lunch with my friend, Peter, in Santa Fe. Too bad I didn’t think to take a picture!

To-Do for week of August 28th 2023:

1. Bind my Beach quilt.
2. Continue working on Halloween projects.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

I finally finished my Mosaic Story camping quilt! I started cutting the 3″ on-point center squares (diamonds) in January to use in the blocks for my 54″ x 54″ camping quilt using the Mosaic Story Quilt pattern by Amy Friend at During Quiet Time (total of 49 blocks for the quilt top). I’ve wanted to make a camping quilt to keep since I made my first camping quilt in 2019, though truth be told, these days I enjoy glamping more than camping! See my three other camping quilts here, here, and here.

The fabric I used for the corners of the blocks and the outer borders is called Smoke Rust Stone in Grey. I purchased it from the Etsy shop Pink Chihuahua Fabric. Below is a screen shot of the fabric image in Soot where some of the words that relate to the outdoors can be more easily read. There are so many cool outdoorsy/travel-related expressions in this fabric, not all visible below. I can totally relate to: resfeber (noun, Swedish) the restless race of a traveler’s heart before a journey begins, when anxiety and anticipation are tangled together. After a cold winter, I absolutely love to apricate (verb) to bask in the warmth of the sun. How about perigrinate (verb) to travel or wander from place to place, fernweh (noun) an ache for distant places; an ache for travel, dendrophile (noun) one who loves the trees or the forest, or alpenglow (noun) the rosy light of a setting sun or rising sun seen on high mountains (this I have seen on the Sandias near Albuquerque, and it is so beautiful). My favorite definition on this fabric is coddiwomple (verb) to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination.

Below are some close-ups of the front of the quilt:

Here’s the back of the quilt:

And some close-ups of the quilting by Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting.

I look forward to taking this quilt with me for an adventure soon!

Linking up to Thanks Goodness It’s Finished Friday.

To Do for the week of Aug 14th 2023:

1. Bind my camping quilt. Done
2. Work on a some camping placemats. Done
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement. Done

To-Do #1

I did get my camping quilt bound. Below is a sneak peak of the back that shows a tree and a picnic table that is part of the Camping Quilt Pattern used by Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting.

To-Do #2

I made three camping placemats this past week. I sized down the star from the star table runner pattern by A Spoonful of Sugar Designs and did some simple echo quilting in one of my favorite Aurafil threads, Medium Orange 5009. The back of these placemats is pieced entirely from fabrics from Aneela Hoey’s Meander fabric collection for Moda Fabrics. The color is called Saddle, and I just love it. I figure it will be best to have the back facing up when eating messy foods!

To-Do #3

Another activity that is a priority to do now that I’m retired is to spend regular time organizing my fabric stash and quilting space. Now, that’s truly not one of my more enjoyable activities, but it sure does feel good to have less clutter and know where things are. One thing I try to do is to label my new fabric in case I might need more in the future. Below is a Halloween text fabric I received this past week:

To-Do for week of August 21st 2023:

1. Take photos of my finished camping quilt and write a post about it.
2. Start working on some Halloween projects.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

To Do for the week of Aug 7th 2023:

1. Work on a table runner.
2. Work on a donation baby quilt.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement!

To-Do #1

This past week I made a star table runner using the pattern by A Spoonful of Sugar Designs. I did some simple echo quilting in one of my favorite Aurafil threads, Medium Orange 5009.

To-Do #2

I finally finished the boy’s baby quilt that I will be donating to Little Lambs Foundation of Utah. I originally planned to make this quilt in the spring as part of Confessions of a Fabric Addict: Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge 2023, but I started experiencing pain and numbness in my right hand which was diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome. After getting a cortisone shot, wearing a brace at night, and doing hand stretches, my hand discomfort is less, but I may end up getting surgery on it. I quilted this baby quilt myself using simple wavy lines in Aurafil Light Wedgewood 2725, and after I washed it, the quilt measures about 37″ square. Below are pics of the quilt and the back:

To-Do #3

One of my retirement goals was to start doing yoga, and I’m happy to share that I finally went to a yoga class on Friday. Here’s a pic of my yoga mat that looks so nice with my Ombre Lotus Quilt. I ordered this mat two years ago and finally took the plastic off it on Friday. Hopefully I will get a lot of use out of it now that it has been broken in.

To-Do for week of August 14th 2023:

1. Bind my camping quilt.
2. Work on some camping placemats.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

To Do for the week of July 31st 2023:

1. Finish my beach quilt top.
2. Piece the back of my beach quilt.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement!

To-Do #1

This past week I finished my beach quilt top that measures 54″ square and sent it off for quilting to Cara at Sew Colorado Quilting.

To-Do #2

I pieced the backing for my Beach quilt from a fabric collection I have hoarded for about 8 years! It is called Low Tide by Jane Dixon for Andover Fabrics.

To-Do #3

I was able to go to Albuquerque on Tuesday and visit with my friend, James, and gave him his Mid Century Modern quilt. He loved it and was very appreciative of the work that went into the quilt. James wants to display this almost 60″ square quilt on one of his walls, so I brought it home with me and sewed a quilt sleeve on the back. Here are some pics I took on Tuesday.

Then James picked it up yesterday, and we had Mary take a pic of the two of us with the quilt at the local plaza park.

To-Do for week of August 7th 2023:

1. Work on a table runner.
2. Work on a donation baby quilt.
3. Continue to enjoy my retirement.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday.

I am so thrilled to share the finished Mid Century Modern quilt I have made for my friend, James, who will be celebrating his 50th birthday next month. Rebecca with Rebecca Grace Quilting outdid herself quilting this 60″ x 60″ quilt with a Square Meander Edge-to-Edge design in Aurafil 3-ply 40-weight thread in Dove Grey. Read a little about the quilting and her thread choice here.

Below is a close-up of the quilting:

And a cool on-point close-up taken by Rebecca:

I was inspired to make this quilt for James when I saw his bathroom tile during a visit to his spectacular Mid Century Modern home. Below is one of the pics I took in March. I became very excited when I pulled back the shower curtain to take a shower because I knew many of the images would translate wonderfully into quilt blocks. So I postponed my shower for a few minutes and went to grab my phone from the guest room to take a few pics.

I’m only a basic Electric Quilt 8 user, but my skills improved while drafting blocks for this project. What I found is some blocks were much easier to draw in EQ8 than to make! I ended up selecting the 16 simplest images to replicate in EQ8. Please see my MCM Update #1 post for close-ups of the first eight blocks I made and the details about this project and my MCM Update #2 post that shows close-ups of last eight blocks. For a photo of the finished quilt top, click here.

I am considering entering this quilt into QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh, NC and possibly the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show in Paducah, KY. The only reason I’m considering the AQS show is that I have plans to be there next April. My MCM quilt seems like it would be a much better fit for QuiltCon. When I give the quilt to James, I’m not going to wash it first, and I’ll ask him to not really use it until I hear if his quilt has been accepted into either show. If it does get accepted, I’ll get it back from him and sew a hanging sleeve on it before shipping it off. I know the odds are not in my favor of having MCM accepted, but it’s been an item on my quilty bucket list for awhile to enter a quilt show. I also know that I need to seek permission from the tile manufacturer to submit this quilt into a national quilt show. It took me awhile to find the tile online, but I finally did. See it here. I’ve sent two emails so far but have not heard back. Wish me luck, and please pass on any quilt show submission tips you might have.

Linking up to Duck Creek Mountain Quilting: TGIFF.