Good Fortune and Bad Fortune

So, first the bad. My trusty little iron died. It was about 3-4 years old, the longest I’ve ever had one of the little ones. (The big weight-lifting caliber Rowena still functions just fine, dammit!) I use the little one almost daily. Since it plugs directly into the multi-outlet surge protector (like the sewing machines), everything gets turned off when I’m finished working (which really means playing) for the day. Bruce, an electrical engineer, was able to fix it, but it was not designed to be put back together. Insert sad face here! So, I’ll be using an Amazon gift card I got for Mother’s Day to buy a new one - and some new quilting gloves. Since the weekend, I’ve quilted 4 small baby quilts for Quilts for Kids and finally really LOOKED at my poor gloves. They're hole-y and worn out, so I’ve got some serious online quilty shopping to do.

And speaking of Mother’s Day, which was over 3 weeks ago I realize, I also was given an orchid. I snapped a picture of it to prove I’ve managed to keep it alive for three weeks so far. My green thumb is definitely limited to the outdoor garden, not indoor plants and flowers. Here is a picture of the orchid along with some matching irises (pure “coinkydink") from the yard.

I won’t regale you with all the false starts I had in the sewing room today that fall under the category of Bad Fortune. Instead, here is my Good Fortune quilt that I finally added the binding to this afternoon. YAY!  It finished at 55x69” - I intentionally left out one of the borders. This was Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt-Along quilt for 2018-2019, and the first Bonnie Hunter quilt that I’ve finished - but not the last!

The back is the 2-tone green print that I’ve had in my stash for a few years.  The quilting I did was free-motion flowers, swirls, feathers and anything else I wanted to practice on. It actually looks pretty OK. You can kinda/sorta see parts of it in the picture below.  This was goal #2 on my Finish-Along list for the second quarter. You can see my list here.

Since we were out in the garden snapping pictures of Good Fortune, I had to take some more pictures of the garden. After all, I hadn’t taken any pictures since Monday. HAHA! Actually, we had some incredible weather in the high seventies/low eighties (F) on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Today it’s been raining and is breezy again. I guess those two days were our summer......) Anyway, look at the difference in some of these pictures!

So, this is my Chihuly rose; it’s a floribunda. The picture on the left was taken Monday, June 3 and the one on the left (different angle and time of day) was taken today, June 6.

Chihuly Rose

And this red climbing rose and irises are shown on Monday (left) and Thursday (today, right)

Our vegetable plants have gone nuts and are finally growing by leaps and bounds. Even one of our tomato plants has a tomato!

I know I’ve shown this vignette under the apricot a time or two already this spring with the bird bath, the miniature roses, Boomer’s headstone and the hollyhocks. But just look at how those hollyhocks have taken off. They’ll be blooming soon!

Now, I’m off to see if I still have time to pick a goal for June for One Monthly Goal (OMG) and link up.  

OMG - One Monthly Goal for May

Once again it’s time to declare our One Monthly Goal (OMG) for May over at Elm Street Quilts. Patty does such a great job of running this fun goal-setting program. I love having the challenge every month to set a personal goal and then working to get it completed by month end. It’s so motivational! And when we do finish a goal and share a picture of our finish, we are eligible for one of the monthly prize drawings. Having a carrot dangled in front is certainly an added bonus (wink). I’ve never won a prize, but that’s OK; I feel I’m a winner every month when I accomplish my goal.

For May, my OMG is to stitch these string blocks into a quilt. I need 120 of the blocks, and will have to sew the final 20 of them first. Each component block measures 6.5” (unfinished). Four will be sewn together to make a 12” (finished) star. Then they’ll be set 5 across by six down for a final quilt that measures 60x72”. 

My goal is to not only finish the blocks (already in progress) and top, but to get it quilted and bound by month-end. I do have one quilt to finish up for Hands2Help before I get to this, and we are tentatively planning a weeklong trip to Colorado later this month to visit family. We’ll see how that goes. But either way, it’s totally do-able.

My April OMG of finishing the Good Fortune top was accomplished, and today I basted the top. I’ve had lots of help this week in the sewing room from Darla. Here she is, helping me sew some of the string blocks. 

And she was invaluable in helping me pin baste Good Fortune, as you can see.

With her help, the quilt did not fly away. And she kindly moved her paws when I needed to baste around her. What more could I ask?

And don’t forget - I’m depositing some of my precious furs on your quilt, too! 

Finishing Aqua Scraps and a Flimsy

This has been the quintessential spring week here in the Salt Lake Valley. Take yesterday, for example. It was nice but cool in the early morning. Then around 10:30 am the rain showers started. We headed to the grocery store, and by the time we came out an hour later it was sunny, drying, and there were only a few puffy clouds in the sky. So we put the groceries away, had lunch, and Bruce went to work out in the yard. Two hours later it was raining and thundering again and he had to come in. Then the whole cycle repeated again before dinner. I tell you, it’s hard to figure out how to dress for the day!

I have been concentrating on finishing my One Monthly Goal for April, and I did it! But first, let’s talk about wrapping up Aqua for April in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here are my blocks for the month.

Top Row, L-R:
4  Selvage 4-Patches, 8.5” unfinished
8  Cracker Blocks, 7.75” unfinished
5  Crumb Blocks (6.5”) sewn with last year’s blocks into 3 13.5” Crumbcake blocks

Middle Row, L-R:
8  Anvil Blocks, 8.5"
12  9-Patch variation blocks, 6.5”
8  Garlic knot blocks, 8.5"

Bottom Row:
1 Selvage Tumbler Row (sewn to two previous rows)
4  String Blocks, 9.5”
2  Bitcoin blocks
Total:  52 blocks

Here is how the Bitcoin blocks are looking to date. I probably should be keeping track of total inches sewn as I would like to use them as a border for a Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt in the future.

I’m linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday link-up, where the scrappy fun never ends!  In addition, I have a completed goal to share. My April OMG - One Monthly Goal - was to complete the top of my Good Fortune quilt. Good Fortune was Bonnie Hunter’s mystery quilt-along quilt that began in November of last year and was revealed in January.

My quilt top started the month out in pieces - not even all of them at that! I had decided to initially make about half to two-thirds of them to begin with. I wanted to wait for the quilt reveal to see what it looked like and what size I would eventually want.

As it turned out, I did like the quilt quite a bit, but prefer rectangular quilts to square ones. So I made several fewer blocks and eliminated one small green/neutral inner border.  I had to do a bit of quilty math and creative piecing on the final side center borders (inserting a narrow strip where the blue HSTs meet in the center), but it all worked out.

I’ll never get an award for my piecing, but I am proud that I was able to keep those borders from flaring out. I had to remove and resew those scrappy neutral borders just inside the final border, but it was worth it to keep it all squared up. The flimsy measures 54” x70”.

So, I’m linking up to Elm Street Quilt’s April OMG Finish post. And breathing a huge sigh of relief!  I now have a few days before the RSC color for May is announced, so I’m going to piece a backing and select a binding for Good Fortune, then just play with my string scraps for a few days while I think on some goals and projects for May!

Finish-Along Goals for Second Quarter

It’s time to set our goals for the 2019 Finish-Along, 2nd Quarter. I always find this quarterly challenge (with a drawing at the end for prizes based on finishes) to be so motivating and inspiring. So once again I’m linking up to the 2nd Quarter goal-setting post HERE.

I have selected 10 projects/goals for the second quarter. Here they are, in no particular order.


1.  ON RINGO LAKE

This has been in my pile of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) for over a year. In fact, it’s my oldest unfinished quilt project, although I do have some older stitcheries. Unfortunately, until I get my carpal tunnel issues handled, stitching by hand is out of the question. Anyway, I may simplify this from the original on-point setting to something easier. Or who knows... maybe I’ll gut it out as is.

2.  GOOD FORTUNE
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

This quilt, like On Ringo Lake above, is a Bonnie Hunter mystery pattern. Good Fortune is the current (2018-2019) mystery. I have pieced about 60-75% of all the pieces, because I wanted to do a smaller version. This is also my personal OMG (One Monthly Goal) for April, so it’s the highest priority for finish. Yikes!

3.  PINEAPPLES TWO

I did a Pineapple Quilt (with pieced pineapples, not the classic zillion-pieces block) a couple years ago. It was so much fun, I want to make another one for myself since the first one went to my granddaughter Lauren. I’ve already done a lot of the strip cutting.

4.  STRING STARS ON BLACK
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I just realized that I haven’t blogged about this project yet. It was started back in February when we went on vacation to Arizona. Currently I have 80 out of 120 (I think) blocks pieced. It is such a blast to work on that I have to force myself to work on other things that have higher priority!

5.   ALTERNATE 9-PATCH DONATION QUILT

This needs a better name, too, but I don’t care. It’s just going to be a donation quilt. I won these Nine-patch in Four-patch blocks in the Block Lotto in February. I have to sew several more (but not too many) and will then whip it up into a donation quilt.  This picture shows nine of the blocks together.

6.   STACKED COINS
FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I did a stacked coins quilt last month in gray, blues and reds; a more masculine or at least a more gender-neutral color scheme. This one will use some of my multi-colored scraps in greens, aqua and yellows with touches of other colors and flowers for a more feminine version. I am seriously trying to cull my basket of multi-colored scraps.

7.   CRUMBCAKES

This is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project that I’ve been working on for over a year. In 2018 I made 6” crumb blocks and this year I’m sewing them into these 13” (finished) Crumbcake blocks by adding black sashing. Sometimes I have to sew up a few 6” blocks to come out to an even number to make the 4-patch Crumbcakes. But I’m down to the last 2-3 colors, so I want to finish it off this quarter to avoid a year-end logjam.

8.   NEWPORT PLACE

Cousin Kim and I both bought this Newport Place Layer Cake (10” pack of squares) a couple years ago. Last year, Kim made herself a small quilt of half-rectangles from hers (which I blogged about HERE). Then she gave it away. So, I’m going to surprise her and make her another one, only in a different pattern and with some Kona Snow, a floral border (fabric on order) and that old Tula Pink clamshell print on the back. Kim follows me on Instagram and Facebook, but doesn’t read my blog (I don’t think), so I think it’s safe to show this.  :-)

9.  LEMON-LIME QUILT

We are doing some updating to our guest bedroom. The gray paint on the ceiling and baseboards will get a refresh of white paint. The dark wood ceiling fan will be painted white and the gray carpet shampooed. And I need to make a new quilt for the daybed since is has an old store-bought (blasphemy!) quilt on it. I bought this Pepper and Flax fabric (and some other coordinates mixed in) at last year’s Utah Shop Hop in May/June. Time to get a move on!! I have mostly sworn off buying single fabric lines as being too matchy-matchy, but (a) these were the exact colors I wanted and (b) I still have older stash to use!

10.  BLOSSOMS AND SPOKES

This one isn’t even started, but I’m adding it to the list anyway. I fell in love with this pattern last year and cannot wait to start it. It has some fusible appliqué, but I don’t care; I love it too much. (After last year’s Groovy Guitars, I swore off doing appliqué, but... like Goal #9 above, I am reneging on that....) I can’t wait to hang this cheery wall hanging in my living room. And I can’t wait to get on my bike (when it stops raining) and RIDE it this spring!!

Well, since I mentioned fusible appliqué, I have to chuckle and tell you that I just ordered two more fusible appliqué projects from Missouri Star Quilt Company. They’re called Sew-fari kits, and I fell in love with the elephant and the giraffe. I’m going to keep the elephant (when I make it) for us and give the giraffe to Harambe Humanitarian for a fundraiser! But these finishes are not on my list for this quarter, because unless I clone myself, there is no way they’ll get made until third quarter!!

Thanks for stopping by!

April Goal Setting for OMG

It’s already the 4th of April. How did that happen? I have to get my rear in gear and get my goal-setting post done for One Monthly Goal (OMG). I’ve been putting off making a decision on this, but time’s a-wasting!

Last fall and through the holidays, I joined in on Bonnie Hunter’s annual mystery quilt-along. This year it was called Good Fortune and the colors of red, blue, orange and yellow (and a neutral) were based on her trip last year to China. I changed the red to bright pink and the orange to golds and oranges, and got most of my pieces sewn.

And when I say I got “most” of them sewn, that was with the specific intent that I was going to size down the quilt. Therefore my goal was to sew between 60-75% of the number of pieces. Now it’s time to dig through this to refresh my memory and see what I have left to sew. And then comes the construction. I’ve seen lots of beautiful finishes of Good Fortune, and I plan to also modify mine to allow for fewer borders and a simpler setting.

So, simply stated, my goal is to get these blocks into a flimsy (a top) by the end of April. Quilting and binding will have to come later.  Wish me luck. Right now the song “The Impossible Dream” is going through my mind.....

Linking up to April’s OMG Goal-Setting post with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. 

Hello January!

I’m doing a quick post today to link up the picture of my Good Fortune Mystery Quilt-Along Part 6 pieces to Bonnie Hunter’s linky party.  Come see the amazing participation by quilters worldwide!!

Here are all my neutral string pieces. Not terribly photogenic, I know, LOL!  I actually pieced the whole amount (instead of 1/2 - 2/3 like the other clues) and will spend the next few days hopefully catching up on some of the other clue pieces. This has been so much fun!

I also wanted to take a moment to share my favorite Christmas gifts from this season. 

This first item is a table topper that now resides on the vintage radio in our entryway. It was made by our dear friend Terri W, who was widowed in the early part of last year. Her hubby Mike was Bruce’s lifelong best friend. Notice the three Friendship Stars? That represents their folk group, The Muddy Gutter Boys, which consisted of Mike, Bruce and Rob. I’ve spoken about the Muddy Gutter Boys (MGB) on the blog before. (See This, or this ).

The fabrics of the three stars (and border and backing) came from Mike’s MGB shirts. The three guys wore matching long-sleeved shirts in the winter, usually in colors reminiscent of Christmas - because they did lots and lots of Christmas programs for senior homes, churches and other civic groups. They played together as a group for 53 years (starting as teenagers!!). 

The second item is a photo collage on canvas that my son and DIL Kim made for me. The pictures are from our summer trip to Kenya last July. The pictures show the sunrise, animals and two of us; one with me and DGD Lauren and one of Lauren, Kim and me with the Maasai warriors that we met in the bush. It’s hanging in the library, which I now call The Africa Room. It’s about 16x20”.

Hope you’re staying warm! We woke up this morning to 13-degree (F) temperatures. COLD. It did get up to 25 today, however. A heat wave! LOL.

Good Fortune Pt. 5, Zip Pouch and Merry Christmas!

I’ve been stitching along with Bonnie Hunter’s Good Fortune Mystery Quilt-along. I’m only doing half (or slightly more) of the counts she’s giving us, but I’m keeping up. After the reveal, I can decide how large I want my quilt to be. Anyway, here are my Part 5 pieces. I really enjoyed making these! Come check out everyone’s participation over at the Mystery Monday Part 5 Linkup!

Yesterday I started on a new quilt, Saguaro Sunset, a free pattern by Kairlee Oakes.  This will be for my sister- and brother-in-law when we go to visit them in Arizona in February. They love and collect cacti.

The quilt contains 12 cacti, set four across and three down. Instead of a solid background, I’m using an ombre fabric and hoping to piece it to (roughly) represent an Arizona Sunset. So, the top four cacti will have the dark purples and oranges.  The middle four cacti will have the orange-reds, oranges and orange-yellows. And the lower four cacti will have the range of yellows, medium to light.

I hope I can pull it off. There is sashing involved, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to get more fabric. But the piecing itself is fairly straight forward.

Today, in addition to baking cookies (just enough for a small family gathering), I made myself a long-awaited zip pouch for my colored pencils. I use the pencils a lot when designing quilts (like Lattice Birds, and All You Need is Love), so with the new year around the corner, I knew it was time to corral these pencils in something cute.

I used that way cute colored pencil fabric (by Tamara Kate, “kayajoy” on Spoonflower) on the outside and quilted it with s simple loop design. The inside is a piece of regular pencil fabric I got who-knows-where.

And the pencils fit great. In fact, there’s enough room for me to add to my collection. Santa, are you listening??

Finally, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I appreciate you all reading along and commenting and just being great friends. May your Holidays be wonderful and filled with love and good health.

Darla and Alfalfa would also like to add their greetings, especially to Molly and Buddy, Trixie,  Smitty and Sadie, and “cousins” Emmett, Bella, Pashmina, Teddy and George. Alfie says he’s been as good as he can be and promises that this will be him and Darla tonight:

HA!  Bruce and I know better. We’re pretty sure that as soon as we go to bed, THIS is what Alfie and Darla will be doing:

Good Fortune Part 4 and a Finish!

The Part 4 clue for Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilt-along was string pieced rectangles. I was up early to order my copy of her new book String Frenzy, so I printed off the instructions for the clue and had them done before dinner. So.Much.Fun.  I love string piecing!  I substituted gold for orange in her suggested colors, although I did use orange as well. So, they comprise a rather nice, warm range. I’m linking up to the Good Fortune Part 4 Mystery Monday linky party. Come see what everyone else is doing!

Next, I finished sashing the blue and green selvage quilt. Here is a picture of the finished flimsy.

On Saturday and Sunday I quilted both this selvage quilt and the gray/brown/red/purple one. They are all trimmed now and ready for binding, which will happen in the next day or two.

After Sunday, I decided to take a break from selvages and turned to a quilt I had committed to do for Quilts for Kids. Last month I attended a gathering at The Quilters Lodge. The Utah Chapter of QFK is run by Sandy Schut, who happens to be the wife of one of my former bosses when I worked in health insurance. Fred was probably my coolest boss ever. Anyway, when I attended the meeting, Fred and Sandy were off on an anniversary trip, so I haven’t been able to reconnect yet (although Bruce and I have actually run into them a couple times over the last decade in restaurants!).  Oops, I digressed, didn’t I?

Anyway, this is the quilt (from a pre-cut kid that Quilts for Kids provided) that I sewed, quilt, bound, labelled and is now in the wash. It measures 39x45” before washing.

I selected this quilt to complete because of the saturated, bright wonderful colors that remind me of Africa.

And here is the label sewn on to the back.

I’m not sure if I’ll call Sandy to turn in the quilt this week or just wait until after the Christmas rush.

For the rest of the week, I’ll probably finish binding the selvage quilts. And then maybe I can tackle some pillowcases and my colored pencil zip pouch - some small finishes before the year end. I’m also finalizing my 2019 quilting plans and goals, so stay tuned for that. Have a good week, friends!

Good Fortune Part 3

The All You Need is Love quilt is finished (post coming soon), but in the meantime I figured I’d better get my rear in gear and post some pictures of my progress on the Part 3 pieces for Bonnie Hunter’s Good Fortune mystery quilt-along.

I’m only doing about half the quantity of pieces, and this represents only half of that. The rest are on the sewing agenda for today.  And I’m linking up to Bonnie’s Monday Mystery Link-up (two days late, LOL). Come see everyone’s progress!

Normally, Cousin Kim comes over on Wednesday and we walk (but today she was going to cut my hair), then go out to lunch, then sew in the afternoon. But it’s snowing like crazy here. Snow doesn’t usually bother us intrepid folk in the Salt Lake Valley, but when it’s this intense (near white-out conditions) and sticks to the roads, we know to wait for the snow plows if there’s an option to do so. So, our sewing day is cancelled, and I’ll just sew by myself, accompanied by Christmas music and the cats.

Speaking of cats, Darla performed her quilt Snooperviser duties outstandingly during the finishing stages of All You Need is Love. She snuggle-tested it not once, but twice.

That is one dedicated cat!

Scrappy Stars, A Flimsy and Part 2 Pieces

Now that the bulk of my Christmas chores are behind me, I’ve got more sewing time once again. I should clarify that I still have two packages to mail. One of those will get mailed tomorrow (Friday), and the other will get mailed next week to my daughter - after finishing her quilt. So let’s start off with that.

All You Need is Love is now a flimsy (quilt top).  The color in the photo is a bit off kilter, probably due to all the brights in the center and the shadows of the overhanging soffit.

Cousin Kim was over yesterday and we got it basted up, so I will hopefully begin quilting it today. My goal is to finish it over the weekend so that I can mail it on Monday. Right now it measures 68.5 x 80.5. Naturally it will shrink a bit when laundered. I do plan to bind it in the solid hot pink that’s featured all over in the quilt. I figure that should tie it all together.

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

I also finished my Part 2 clue half-square triangle pieces (I’m only doing about half) of Bonnie Hunter’s Good Fortune mystery quilt-along. So, I’m going to link up to her Part 2 Mystery Link-up post.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
And I just completed nine blocks for the Block Lotto’s December drawing; Sawtooth stars in blues and purples with light stars and dark backgrounds. I love these little 6.5” blocks!

Now, off to start some quilting!!!