First November Finish

Paint Chips is a finished quilt! I’ve had so much fun with these 2.5” squares (and some 2.5x4.5” pieces), that I almost hate to see this one end. The blocks were constructed this year as part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge plan. Please note that the blocks are not supposed to be identical - I pieced the colored columns of each block any way that I wanted to so that the ups and downs would be more varied. Probably would’ve worked better with an uneven number of columns, etc (like a 25-patch block). Hmmm… I may have to try that.

Regardless, I do love it, and Paint Chips finished at 48x56”, a good size for a young child. Naturally, it will go to Quilts for Kids. 

Once that was done, I did some webbing on the Weathervane quilt. I’ll finish this later today, but the vertical columns are webbed and the first horizontal seam has been stitched. The rest are just pinned up there, safe from Designing Cats. 

And speaking of cats, Mr. Cat himself, Alfie, had a dental visit on Thursday. The sore he had on his gums had healed up, so he got a cleaning and didn’t need to have any teeth extracted. Way to go, Alfalfa! 

Pic taken a few years ago

I only got 30 string blocks done this week (6.5”), which brings my fall total up to 408. I hope to finish 600 by the end of the year and this puts me at 68% of the way there. I’m not sure my strings or stamina will last until I reach 600, but I’ll keep on plugging away. I’m sorely wishing I had taken a “before” picture of my strings tote, a big beach bag, jammed tightly with strings yet still overflowing. Lots of other strings were given to me at the October Quilts for Kids workshop (a gallon-sized zip bag), plus I pieced 63 blocks from my Christmas scraps. So the fact that the tote is now loosely filled and 2/3 full doesn’t bode well for reaching 600. But we’ll take it one block at a time. 

Here they are, pinned in the corner of the design board with the 3 sets (of 15) from last blog post. All the others have already been given to QFK except my Christmas blocks. 

After Weathervanes is a top, I’ll sew a backing and then it, together with my Windmills quilt top shown last week, will be pin basted. Hopefully that will be this week if my back cooperates. It’s been so stiff and sore (arthritis), that I’ve spent too much time with ice packs and heating pads. This getting old sh** is for the birds! But the past flare-ups have always passed, so I’m hopeful (and maybe naive). 

Next up in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge “finishing pipeline” will be these Night Flying Geese blocks. Stay tuned!

The last bit of news that I have is that my first knee replacement surgery will take place on Thursday, December 4. I’ll talk more about that as the time approaches. 

Have a good week, my friends! Linking up to Scrappy Saturday.

I’ve Got Nothing!

It’s been a crazy week. I’ve been so busy and frazzled, that I didn’t get too much done in the sewing room.

***Warning, rant ahead! ***

We had doctor appointments, meetings, running here, going there. I hate that the HOA work grows like the scraps in my sewing room. I hate that I have to go to multiple stores to find basic coffee creamer. What’s up with that? I hate that everyone (friends, family, acquaintances with a question) wants to talk to me - on the only free afternoon I have - and they call or text or both to just chat (normally I love that), but after everything this week, I wanted nothing more than to be alone, to be still, to recharge my batteries and just be away from anything involving decisions or responsibilities. I’m craving some quiet time. 

And then…. Here’s what the next several days look like: this morning I need to be at the fabric store by 9:00 for a BOM class (Block of the month) with Ruby. After that, her sister is driving us up to the Capitol in Salt Lake City to participate in the No Kings Day. Ruby’s car is already parked up there for us to return home in after the rally. I really didn’t want to go for myriad reasons, but… Ruby. I intend to come straight home and not make it a Girls Day Out. Sunday is sewing day (Church of Bernina), which should be fun and relaxing. Monday is our monthly HOA Board meeting but, gee, I have to miss it (she said, dripping with sarcasm) because I have to drive Bruce up to Bountiful (40 minutes by freeway) to a doctor appointment. Oh, the housekeeper is coming on Monday too, which is a good thing. Who has time to do housework? Tuesday is shot - Weight Watchers in the morning (I enjoy that) and a trip to the VA with Bruce in the afternoon. Maybe by Wednesday I can relax and have some time to myself. But I know I’ll get calls, issues to research and writing assignments after the HOA meeting. I’m going to have to develop a spine and say NO to any more projects. I may just shut off my phone. Calgon, take me away!!

***End of Rant***

What I did do: 

I sewed 30 string blocks. But they aren’t pressed or trimmed and there is no picture. Trust me on the count. I’ll have a picture next week (plus hopefully another group to show). 

I quilted and trimmed the two Little Bricks quilts, but they still need to be bound and labeled. Again, no pictures, but there will be next week. 

I pulled out the blocks for my next quilt top - Paint Chips. They were one of the block sets I sewed this year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here’s a picture of them pinned on the design board.. I will get them webbed and sewn into a top on Sunday.

And here’s a gratuitous picture of Herself - Miss Darla, rolling on the floor showing off her beautiful tummy furs. I love all her orange undertones. 

And that’s it. I’m actually writing this on Friday night, and since I have to get up early, I’d best haul my buns off to bed. I am tired in so many different ways! But I’ll be back to my ol’ cheery self next Saturday, with lots of eye candy to share. I promise. Have a great week! 

Time Out

Another busy week here, and not so productive on the sewing front. While I did sew some on Saturday and Sunday, my machine was having a hissy fit on Wednesday. After rethreading it about 632 times due to thread breaks, I gave up in frustration. I’m not sure if it’s me or the machine that’s in time out, but last night I finally started at Square One with my machine: I thoroughly cleaned it, changed the needle (including the size), grabbed a fresh new spool of thread, and crossed my fingers (my four steps for solving machine problems, short of throwing it out the window). It’s now behaving, at least on the test scraps. Later today it meets my Halloween quilt once again, and they had better get along. 

And just to make sure that my machine knows it had better behave, I introduced it to a new machine companion: a Pfaff Grand Quilter 1200. It was given to me by my sweet friend Pat who lives in Ogden. 

I’ve known Pat for several years - we actually met through the online game Hayday, where we both play in a Utah group (that also has members from Texas and South Africa). We first met several years ago when we had a group luncheon together. We have talked on the phone regularly since then. Last year she and husband Eddie invited Bruce and me up to their beautiful 15-acre property in the hills above Ogden, about an hour’s drive north. That’s when she gifted me (and mostly Quilts for Kids) several large plastic tubs of wonderful fabric that had come from her twin sister in California. Last week Pat called and told me about this machine that her niece had found at a thrift shop for $12. Did I want it? (Ummm…. Is the Pope Catholic)? So she and Eddie actually drove down here on Thursday and brought the machine. It was so delightful to see these special friends again. It was a too-short visit.

Pat’s niece had printed out an owner’s manual from online because there wasn’t one with the machine. The machine even came with a rolling travel case that was a match to the one I’ve had for 20 years that has recently developed a hole. I’ve not yet used the machine because I’m still reading the manual and familiarizing myself with it. It’s straight stitch only, with a generous harp (throat) space. Thank you so much, Pat!!  Guess what I’ll be doing today?

I did get some sewing done this week between other obligations. First I sewed 15 string blocks, which brings my String Frenzy block total to 210. I started at the beginning of September and my goal is to stitch 600 string blocks (if I have that many strings!) by the end of the year. So even though I slacked off this week, I’m still on a good pace. 

Then I spent a fun morning going through all my Christmas fabrics, sorting the keepers from the give-aways. I unloaded pieces (most under 1/3 yard) that were not ever going to be used by moi. I’m just not into cutesy blue prints from the nineties, but Cousin Kim is. Win/win. Anyway, I want to make a string Christmas quilt, like my friend Julierose. I think it’s masterful the way she subtly added in non-traditional colors and non-Christmas fabrics. So I wanted to sew a few test Christmas string blocks to gauge how many blocks I think I can get out of my scraps (although I can supplement the fabrics as Julie did). 

Here are my first four blocks (6” finished size).

I think I like them! While sorting my fabrics, I also drew out a quilt plan for a quilt for my daughter and cut out all the pieces! But before I could change my mind, I bagged that would-be Christmas “squirrel” along with the sketch and put it back with my remaining Christmas fabrics on the shelf. And then I texted her that she was getting a new Christmas quilt in 2026! HA! That’s how you keep Christmas squirrels in check!! And then I had another squirrel showdown. I found a table runner I had stitched together last year from 2.5” Christmas squares. 

Anyway, that tiny squirrel wormed its way under the needle, and 8.27 minutes later it was quilted. I still need to add binding and I don’t know when I’ll do that. But anyway, I got a tidy fabric shelf out of the morning, as well as a nice pile of strings to sew into blocks, a table runner quilted, and a quilt kit cut out for next year. 

And then I switched to sewing on my Halloween quilt. I did not finish it this week as September turned to October, but I made progress. First I stitched the remaining portions of the center panel. The predominantly black color makes it hard to see much of the quilting. but hopefully this photo will give you an idea of the freeform quilting. It’s fun, but very time-consuming. 

After that, I moved on to a couple of the surrounding blocks. I got the corner bat blocks quilted before the thread started breaking. Sometimes it was the top thread, sometimes the bobbin. After fighting with it for about fifteen minutes, I just gave up and decided it was Timeout Time. I figured a couple days apart would do us all good. I cooled down, the machine got the spa treatment I mentioned above, and the quilt has been “hanging out” here. 

Today we will all try again, with the Pfaff standing by and looking eager for her chance in the spotlight. “Her”? I guess now that she has a gender, she should have a name. Something that starts with the F sound to alliterate with Pfaff. Fern? Fiona? Fannie? I think… Fannie! Pfannie Pfaff. 

The only thing I got done after that was some more sorting through sets of finished RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) blocks to decide what would be my next project after I finish the 3.5 quilts that are already sandwiched and ready to be quilted. I found a few cut bright fabric squares and fabrics to cut more. I quickly measured and counted up the cut blocks, figured a basic size and pattern for a kid quilt, and cut out the remaining needed blocks from some of the fabric. The rest of the fabric got put away and I had another empty project box. I threw the blocks up on the wall, and voila! This little squirrel project will be quickly webbed and sewn into a top, then put away with its backing until I get to it later in the month.

Oh! The RSC project I selected for the next project (after those 3.5 quilts are quilted) is the group of Paint Chip blocks. 

That’s all from here for now. I hope you all have a nice week. 

Fall Was in the Air. Actually, it Was in the Courtyard

Last Monday, around noon, I was rushing off to our monthly HOA Board meeting around noon. I usually walk the two short blocks with my armful of reports and binders and…. Well, I was be-bopping through my courtyard and tripped (on a cement seam? On air? Yes, I am capable of tripping on air). Landed face first on the cement and everything went flying. Bruce had just gone into the bathroom to shower and didn’t hear me yell for help. My phone was in my pocket, so I called my neighbor Andy, who was already at the Board meeting, and he and another guy hopped in a car and were with me in 2 minutes or less. Long story short, I ended up at the emergency care clinic with a face full of bruises, lacerations, punctured gums and a possibly fractured right knee (the two doctors reading the X-rays disagreed about whether it was fractured). My face looks like I went a couple rounds with Rocky Balboa. I’m in a knee brace and using a walker until I can get in on Tuesday to see my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Nikolaus, who did my hip replacement in 2023. I’m pretty sure I won’t need surgery and that I can just wear the brace for awhile and avoid putting weight on it, but we’ll see. 

But other than that it’s been a good week, LOL. Seriously, you never really know how much people care until you injure yourself. Flowers, cards, food, errands, visits and gentle hugs. I’m staying upbeat, and Bruce has really been there for me all the way. He took one of our collectible teddy bears (our favorite) and “fixed him up” for me, complete with bandages and a “leg brace” (sock). My sweet kitty Darla has been with me all night every night, giving me IPT (Intensive Purr Therapy). How lucky can I get?

In the meantime, I had luckily finished all my purple Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing on the weekend before the fall, so I do have things to share today. And after a couple days of total rest, I was ready to try some sewing with my left foot on the foot pedal. I can do it, and I have a small footstool on which to rest my gimpy right leg. I got the last two blocks for my Halloween quilt sewn, but I’ll save those for next week. Let me show you the rest of the purple scraps for July this week. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

Here are nine crumb blocks that will finish at 6”. They’ll be put away for next year when we once again work on purple, because I need 15 to make a set for QFK. 

And then I sewed five Paint Chip blocks, which finish at 8”.

Notice how the columns are randomized between the darks and lights? I do that on purpose to vary the ups and downs. Here’s a picture from back in May with only five of the colors. It gives an idea of the look I’m going for. 

When I finished the purples, I only needed one more Paint Chip block to complete the set.. So I whipped out my aqua/teal scraps and made the very last block. 

So, these are all done and will join my RSC block collections to be sewn into tops. Finishing up all the RSC block sets will be my focus for the remainder of this year. Well, that and the QAL (more on that below) and starting on a wedding quilt for my grandson. 

While I had my aqua/teal scraps out (hopefully Angela will announce it as the August color of the month) I found about three dozen little squares of a pale aqua fabric with pandas on them. So I decided to use my teal and aqua 2 ½” strips to make Happy blocks. I did have to add a few 7.5” solid green squares and strips in to round it out. That green shows up - minimally, but it’s there - in the panda print. 

I’ll get it webbed and sewn, and a backing made this weekend. Then it can be added to my ever-growing group of tops to be pin basted and quilted. I had hoped to start on those this week, but it’s hard to stand one-legged for too long. Plus I had to elevate my right leg for several days. But the quilting will all happen in time. 

**************

I’ve mentioned in the past, and talked about to many of you as well, Kat Scribner (Scrapbox Quilts) and I are going to be hosting a house and neighborhood-themed Quilt-Along beginning in mid-September. We’re calling it A Quilter’s Cove QAL. We will each have a post and a joint linky party every Saturday. We plan to run it through the fall, then break before the Thanksgiving and December Holidays. We anticipate having another few linkups in January to round things out and present our finishes and/or progress. 

Kat created this delightful logo for us. Isn’t it adorable? Feel free to add it to your sidebar. Both Kat and I have the linky on our blog sidebars that you can copy. If you click it, it’ll take you to our A Quilter’s Cove page on our blogs. Once the QAL goes live, we will house the links to all our QAL posts there. Additionally, we both have our A Quilter’s Cove joint Pinterest Board, where you will find hundreds of ideas, photos and links. Our Pinterest Board link can also be found on our blog sidebars. 

So, start thinking about what YOU would like to do, as this will NOT be a one-size-fits all. Do you want to make a full-sized quilt? A wall hanging? Rows or medallion-style or free-form? Will you buy and sew an existing pattern? There are so many cute patterns out there! Or would you rather use a favorite block pattern to sew and build your own neighborhood?  Do you like improv style? Traditional piecing? Appliqué? Or a combination of all of them? The sky is the limit! And, speaking of the sky, it can be any color, time of day or night, or season you choose! 🤣 

If you have questions, do write to us! We’ll have more details for you as the time draws closer, and we hope you’ll join us in this fun Quilt-Along!

*****************

Have a great week!