Better Late Than Never

Oh man, I was so sick last night and this morning (nothing major - just something bad I ate) that I couldn’t even begin to think about doing a blog post until almost this (Saturday) afternoon. But I’m here now.

This week, my sewing time was grabbed in bits and chunks and a brief hour here or there. My first priority was to get my Haunted House Halloween quilt basted. And I did. No pictures of the fully pinned quilt, but here’s a quick shot of the spiderweb, which was my first quilting priority.

I’ve also started stitching on the house and tree branches, but there’s not much to see yet. I will do a more thorough job of picture-taking next week. My goal is to get this done and bound by the end of the month so that I have all of October to enjoy it. 

Naturally, I did some string block (6.5”) sewing. I got 45 done this week - three groups of 15. As you can see, I did one group of brown strings. I have plenty brown strings left to sew at least one, and maybe two, batches of 15-block strings. Then I’ll pair them with matching novelty fabrics and donate to Quilts for Kids for kits. 

For my “Fall Finishing Frenzy” this year, I’m keeping my string blocks until the end of the year. My goal is to do 600 by December 31, and I want to see how tall that string pile will be! In the meantime, I have 105 blocks sewn so far, and I’m pinning the sets up on my design board to keep an easy tally. I’ll show a picture of that next week as well.

Finally I had time to tackle the Little Bricks blocks that I made as part of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks back in 2023. I made one entire kid quilt with green blocks back then, but I have enough blocks to make two more little quilts. I laid out, then webbed this first top of mainly pastels. 

The Little Bricks blocks pattern comes courtesy of Sylvia at Treadlestitches. They measure 6”, finished size. Next week I’ll sew together the bright Little Bricks blocks. Then I can sew up a backing and have three more little quilts to layer up and finish. 

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That’s all I have sewing-wise from here. but I have to take a moment to comments of the shooting that took place this week here in Utah. 

It’s so gut-wrenching when another horrific shooting takes place, especially when it’s in your back yard, so to speak. (My daughter graduated from UVU and we are familiar with the campus). While I had no agreement with or anything but disdain for most of Charlie Kirk’s beliefs, I certainly believe in his right to express them without fear or retaliation. He was a human being with an adorable little family, for heaven’s sake. Then some whack-job just snuffs him out because he could - he owned a gun and possessed a lot of anger. This type of slaying will continue until and unless we realize we have to put sensible controls on firearms. The type and quantity even allowed should be limited, ownership should be strict and registered, and penalties for abuse need to be swift and permanent. But I’m just one helpless voice shouting into the wind. 

PS - my comments on the blog are no longer being sent to my email (this just happened out of the blue). I didn’t realize that I’d even had any comments on last week’s post until I physically checked the blog. Does anyone know how to correct this? 

A Couple of String Quilt Finishes

Hello! I’m happy to share that I have a couple more quilt finishes this week. It’s been a long, dry spell for me between finishes. Well, I just looked back and it was mid-June when I finished the last three. I guess it’s not *that* long, but it seems like it to me. But summer is drawing to a close and I feel prime sewing and quilting weather coming around the corner!

As usual, I can’t seem to place blocks on the design board in a level fashion. If the truth be known, I didn’t even hang the design board evenly. But that’s a story for another time!

So, I sewed 30 string blocks in aqua, turquoise, and teal. It’s the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August, and I’m linking up, as usual, to Scrappy Saturday. These blocks finish at 6”. I give them to our local Quilts for Kids chapter, where they use both string and crumb blocks in sets of 15 to go into the quilt kits they check out to sewing volunteers. 

Maybe you have or have seen some of these prints. There is one interesting print in there that I got at the scrap tables at the last Worldwide Quilt Day in May. It’s a teal background with a sugar skull-like Darth Vader on it in black. Weird! Can you spot pieces of it? There are also some strings of the leftover panda print that I used in the flimsy I showed IN THIS POST. 

I also pin basted and quilted the first two of my quilts-in-waiting. These were both made from 8.5” string blocks, which I experimented with earlier in the year. After discussing it with the QFK ladies, we eventually decided that 6.5” string blocks work better for QFK quilt patterns, so I decided to finish these up myself. 

This first string quilt, which finished at 40x55” has a teal-colored floral print as the constant. It doesn’t photograph well in that it looks much more dull in a full shot.

Up close, though, it really is much more vibrant and happy. I did the standard diagonal line quilting, then stitched a half inch on either side of the seamlines.

The 42” width backing was supplemented by a strip of fabric given to me a couple years ago by a friend. 

The second quilt of 8.5” string blocks is also 40” across, but with only six rows down is 48” in length. Obviously, I pinned both quilts up sideways on the design board.

Oh look, another panda! 

This green fabric was a wider print, so I didn’t have to piece the backing. 

My sewing goal for the coming week is to layer and finish two more quilt tops and to sew up my aqua and teal crumbs. That will finish up my teal scraps for the month. If there is time, I’d like to sew together the Halloween quilt I’ve been working on all year, two blocks at a time. I’m more of a fall person rather than a Halloween person. But I have my reasons for making this one. Back in August of 2021, Cousin Kim and I and Cousin Carrie (Kim’s sister, who passed away last year) and Carrie’s daughter Jenny all took a road trip to Missouri Star Quilt Company. We stayed for a week and attended a fun workshop together. At the time, we all bought identical Halloween quilt panels. Cousin Kim finished hers in 2022, and I had a ball custom quilting it. I really want to do the same for myself. Cousin Carrie loved Halloween, so I know that putting it together and quilting it will bring back a lot of wonderful memories!

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I didn’t know whether I should bother to share these next pictures, but at least for my own personal records, I wanted to (finally) get a picture of our mostly finished master bedroom after the wall repairs, painting, new bedding and art, and new window coverings. When we bought the condo last year, the walls had cracks and small holes in its formerly-almond paint, plus white metal mini blinds at the windows with floor-length lace curtains. The former resident was 99 years old when she passed and had no desire during her last decades to update it. And who would blame her?

But we wanted to refresh and update it for us. The only thing we have left to do is replace the carpeting. I’m not sure if that will be next year or the year after, because our bathrooms need painting and some cabinetry overhauls too. Anyway, here is our bedroom. The color is Sherwin Williams Acanthus.

I was going to ditch the lamps, but once I removed the ‘90’s-vibe tassels from them, they looked so much cleaner that I decided to forego sconces. And this is Darla’s favorite spot - under the ceiling fan! I would like to make a bed runner for the bed at some point. 

And now for Truth in Blogging, the photo below shows the west wall in its real life messy state, our computers, an old IKEA table (used to be in my old sewing room), mismatched desk chairs and papers all over the desk. Just keeping it real!

Yep, that’s my exercise bike there in the corner. It won’t be getting any more use until I’m recovered from my knee surgeries this winter. 

That’s all I have for this week. I hope you’re enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Me, I’m so ready to be done with summer. And it occurs to me that I haven’t even been swimming one time yet this year. I’ll have to rectify that before the pool closes for the season in early September! 

Gardening and Sewing

 Well, my photos loaded in the exact opposite order that I thought they would (why can’t Blogger be consistent?), so this post is titled Gardening and Sewing instead of Sewing and Gardening. . 

We have two tomato plants this year, one regular and one cherry tomato. There are six tomatoes on the regular plant, and my mouth is already watering for BLT sandwiches with fresh garden tomatoes!

The Asiatic and day lilies are blooming their little heads off right now. They were here when we moved in, but it is clear to me that they need to be moved a bit to give them both more “elbow room”. The Greenstalk planter is also blooming profusely with white petunias. The hydrangea in the foreground is being timid. 

Most of my sewing this week was done in the early part of the week. After Tuesday I never really made it back to my sewing room except to pack up everything I’m taking to Quilts for Kids today. 

The color of the month for June in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is orange. I had so much fun sewing these 30 orange string blocks at 6.5” each, unfinished size. They are shown here in two sets of 15, which is how our chapter of QFK likes them.

The first set of string blocks have a common center string - the orange check. But with the brightness of all the orange, they don’t really register as a pattern to the eye. But that’s OK.  It was the largest in quantity of all the orange strings, so I wanted to get at least one piece in each block.

The second set of string blocks is more random. Do you see any fabrics that you have (or have had) in your stash?

I will also be doing 6.5” crumb blocks for the kits in addition to the strings. But crumbs are usually among the last blocks I sew of any given color each month to maximize the scraps I have from sewing other blocks. So we’ll see if there are enough crumbs to sew 15 blocks. 

Actually, I sewed my two remaining bat blocks before I did the string blocks above. I have to thank Past Cathy for having cut out all the pieces about 3 months ago when I sewed the first two. It saved me so much time and worry this week! Surprisingly, they were a breeze to sew this time. 

The photo below shows everything just placed willy-nilly (a technical art term haha) on the design board. The center panel will need to have a black border added to match up to the four blocks that will run along each sides. The four bats will to in each corner of the quilt top, leaving two blocks left to sew for the remains spots along the top and bottom edges. I have the blocks selected and will do two in July and two in August. Assembly will begin after that so it will be ready for use this year. 

And here’s a teaser: Kat Scribner (Scrapbox Quilts) and I are working together on a developing a Quilt-Along that we’d love for you to join us on. More details will be forthcoming from both of us in the coming weeks. It’s even something that could be done in conjunction with the RSC. Stay tuned!

Giving Scraps the Green Light

Green gets a green light in the sewing room this month. May is not only green outside (it’s so beautiful here in the Salt Lake Valley in May!) but we’ll be working with our green fabric scraps inside for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all month. And I’m down for it!

But first I wanted to finish up the quilting and binding on the two quilts I basted last week so I could put them down as April finishes. And I did. But it’s hard to get pictures when you only have a one-armed Quilt Holder (my hubby Bruce had an arm amputated due to cancer from Agent Orange in Vietnam). And it’s also very bright outdoors, so we had to find some shade or dappled sun so I could snap some pictures. Given the results of these photos, I think I’ll be taking the photos indoors or on cloudy days from now on.  But I’ll share these photos now, for better or for worse. 

This string quilt pattern came to me from my friend Nann of With Strings Attached, who thought it up. Big thanks (and hugs) to you, my friend! 

The backing is green with a bright insert that seemed to fit the vibe of the quilt. As usual, I quilted this string quilt in a basic meander/stipple. I always feel that’s best for coverage in a string quilts. The working title for this quilt was “Nann’s Strings”, but its final name is “Nann’s Heart Strings” because of the very recent passing of her husband.  Nann, what a wonderful companion and caregiver you’ve been to Stevens. May this silly little quilt also give comfort to someone else - all because of you! 

The second finish for April was this purple diamonds quilt. I absolutely could not get the color accurate with my iPhone camera. It’s less of a red-purple and more of a blue-purple. But that’s OK, I guess. It’s done and will be heading off to our Quilts for Kids workshop next weekend. 

I had just enough of the purple fabric to finish the backing and binding. That is, with the addition of the little bit of blue in the back. 

And then - green sewing! Fifteen Switchplate blocks that will finish at 3x5”.

And here they are with all their friends that I’ve sewn this year. We haven’t quite reached the halfway point with these yet, but they’re shaping up.

I started sewing the side sashing to the Rainbow Candy blocks. But of course I sewed the second row bass-ackwards from the first row. No problem, I thought. I’ll just flip the row. Um… no. It’s still the wrong orientation and then the two greens would be neighbors. So I will be alternating the direction of the candies every row. 

I’ll continue with this during the week, as well as sewing its twin with the other half of the candy blocks. And I’ve pulled out all my green strings for some nice string piecing this week too. I loves me some mindless string piecing (key word there being “mindless”).

This week was another doozy. Sometimes I just want to run away to a nice tropical island, lay under a tree sipping Margaritas and napping. (Who’s with me?)

Anyway, we sold our second car this week, but it entailed a lot of phone calls and running around. It was three days of chaos, then done. And I even remembered to promptly cancel the insurance on it. My friend T is coming home from the hospital today, YAY!! We are so relieved, I can’t even believe how much her illness has worried us. But one of our neighbors passed away this week. Another friend, Joan, had her daughter visiting from Connecticut, and they invited me over for lunch one day, then sent me home with cake for Bruce. 

My grandson Easton is getting married next April. Right now Easton and his fiancé Madalyn live in Connecticut (yes, a lot of Connecticut people in this post, right Julierose?) and he is in the Navy. His mom, my daughter-in-law Kim, and I talked about colors and theme for their wedding quilt. So, I’m going to attempt a Storm at Sea with a Snail’s Trail block variation in the center of some blocks instead of the large square-in-square economy block center. This is my inspiration photo from Pinterest:

I have an Accuquilt Storm at Sea die, which I can use for all the diamonds and small economy blocks (I’ve checked sizes) then I’ll piece all 36 of the 6.5” Snails Trail centers separately. Right now, the hunt is on for a line drawing to color up so I can figure color placement and yardage amounts. We have a quilt show coming to town in a couple weeks, and I plan to buy the needed batiks it all at once. This quilt has been on my bucket list for years. I hope I’m finally capable of pulling it off. If not, there’s always simple patchwork to fall back on!

Have a great and relaxing week!

Seeing Red

I was seeing red this week - all over my sewing room. Red is the color we’re working with for April in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I have plenty of red scraps. Hopefully, by the end of the month I’ll have lots fewer red scraps and lots more red blocks to add to kid donation quilts. 

This month I made three Weathervane blocks because the reds in my stash have multiplied tremendously over the last year. 

The Weathervane below is my favorite of the bunch, but the camera could not catch the actual shade of the center square, nor could I manipulate the photo to get it to read correctly. In real life, it’s not bright, but rather close to the background color of the other two reds in the block. 

These blocks are so enjoyable to sew! Which of the three do you like best?

I also sewed thirty string blocks that will finish at 6”. They are pinned here in two groups of 15 for our chapter of Quilts for Kids to use in kit making. I figured you didn’t need to see every single block - they’re all pretty much the same. (You’re welcome!)

One of my monthly goals moving forward is to sew up one or two sets of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks into quilts. This month I’m focusing on the crumb candy blocks I made as one of my 2023 RSC blocks.  There will be enough for two quilts if I sash them like this (pretend the sashing is pinned all round). I had a black background fabric that has various types of candies and other confections scattered over it, but I didn’t want that stark contrast with these blocks. So I went hunting for a cute rainbow-effect print that would tie all the colors together. 

 

Here’s a close-up of the print that I purchased from one of my favorite online fabric sources, Hancock’s of Paducah. They have a killer sale section. Anyway, it’s a Moda fabric that reminds me of Skittles or Chicklets. I’ll use it for the sashing, borders and binding on both quilts and for at least one of the backings. Both if I have enough. I think I bought 5 yards. 

Next week I have two quilts (Purple Diamonds and Nann Strings) that need to be pin basted and quilted. There is certainly no lack of projects and goals in my little sewing room!

We’re busy working with the VA again to get an additional (revised and updated) rating on Bruce’s CLL (leukemia). He is chronically fatigued, so after his May doctor visit, we’ll have a better idea where that all is headed. And we’ll be applying for caregiver benefits as well. Right now our biggest thorn is getting our hands on documents from previous marriages. But we’re working on that too. As if that weren’t enough, I’ve got a writing assignment to finish over the weekend for the HOA (long story, too boring). And then there is Easter. I’m fixing a turkey, making a pie - a semi-fancy meal for the two of us. I hope your celebration is however you want it - lively and fun or quiet and peaceful. Ours will be the latter. 

To my dear friend T - you are in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers. K is giving us daily updates. And I hope she brings you your Mountain Dew! xoxoxo

Some Quilt Finishes and More String Blocks

Before I dive into my sewing and quilting for the week, I have some good news. We had a sum of money deposited into our account by the Veteran’s Administration! I think Bruce was approved for Vietnam-area disability benefits (not to be confused, I’m learning, with ongoing healthcare benefits. We were denied the healthcare benefits, as previously whined about, hehe). Anyway, we have not received anything in writing from the VA detailing the payment made or the monthly benefit amount, but we expect it hopefully next week. It is most welcome, even if it appears to be less than what we were initially told to expect if approved. Time will sort it all out.

Now, on to sewing. This week, I finished the quilting and binding of the last two Community Quilts as organized through Jo at Jo’s Country Junction blog. These are the last two that were generously donated by Susan L of Iowa. I saved the best for last, and these two were absolutely delightful to quilt and study.

The first one is a girly Rail Fence quilt. I had to quilt this one in loops and hearts. 

Truly, the pictures don’t do these quilts justice. The fabrics in the rail fence have sparkles and just radiate spring joy! 

The second one is a masterwork of scrappy piecing. I love the navy polka dot fabric that sets the blocks off to perfection! I quilted it with a basic stipple.

Thank you for entrusting me with these beauties, Susan. They will be donated to the Salt Lake Chapter of Quilts for Kids at our April workshop. 

Now it’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge time and I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday. The last block of my monthly makes is the one I call Paint Chips. Here are the five of these 8.5” (unfinished) that I made in yellows. 

And here are all three of the colors for this year so far. I wanted to see what these looked like together, and I am pleasantly surprised at the pattern that results. It’s better than I had hoped. Naturally, more colors and blocks will look better. And I have no idea what the actual finished pattern will be. I see so many possibilities. Oh, and the pattern of color and neutral varies from block to block. 

A quick note - if you didn’t see my (rare) mid-week post, I joined up with the final Parade of Quilts for the 2025 Stay at Home Round Robin. My post showing and describing the quilt is HERE, and the quilt parade, which I highly encourage you to check out, is here at Gail’s blog. 

Cathy’s 2025 Stay at Home Round Robin Quilt

And let’s not forget the strings! I finished the last twelve 8.5” string blocks, which I call Nann Strings, after my friend Nann of With Strings Attached, who came up with this block and sewed a stunning quilt. 

Here are my blocks slapped up on the design wall. I’ll sew them all together next week. 

I recently acquired some fabulous scraps from a Friend With Very Good Taste (Wanda). I’ve spent some - but not nearly enough - time this week fondling and sorting them. I started going through my quilt kits and trying to match up fabrics with them. But I’d see one fabric, dive through the kits searching for something in those colors, then get distracted by another kit or fabric. Before long, I had piles and fabrics and orphan blocks everywhere on tables, chairs, the floor and also draped over the sewing machines and ironing board. It was such a chaotic mess that I realized I was never going to make any progress that way. So I put it all away and have devised a plan to move it all out to my kitchen island and go through it methodically there. That kitchen island is so big, that I’m afraid Trump is going to want to take it for its strategic value, hehe! Kidding. Sorta. 

And speaking of the T-word, here’s a cute picture I borrowed from former Labor Secretary (under Clinton) Robert Reich. Some women attorneys from Tennessee are commenting on the leaked military attack plans and other facepalm actions of the T regime: 

Have a great week, friends. And if you can’t do that (because you read or listen to the news), then at least stay healthy and safe! xo

Busy Week

Busy week. Duh. Who doesn’t have a busy week (unless they’re on vacation)? But this was an UNUSUALLY busy week, so I’m sticking with my unimaginative post title. My brain is fried. I need one of the kitties to curl up in my lap and purr. 

Darla here, at your service!

Last week started with a bang - Worldwide Quilting Day. Cousin Kim, Ruby, Ruby’s sister Cathy and I attended the festivities at the Sandy City Senior Center, a large venue that accommodates a good crowd of all ages. There were over 150 attendees, judging by the numbers on the tickets for the door prize drawings. Both Ruby and sister Cathy won some fabric prizes. Kim and I weren’t so lucky, but we definitely scored at the Give and Take tables. Actually, it was more than a few tables. It also included dozens of boxes as well as a piano and bookshelf covered in books and patterns. Oh my. It really was quite spectacular!

I remembered to snap a couple pictures later in the day after the incredible potluck lunch. The pix don’t capture the crowd well, because things were beginning to wane by then.

Looking across the room to the stage/stash area. Ruby in the foreground, talking to Kim

View from another angle. Kim in foreground, hand sewing a quilt binding.

And here are some of the scraps and pieces I scored in the Give and Take area, photographed once I got home.

The two green fabrics at the top right are larger cuts of 1.5 - 2+yards.  The rainbow and striped fabrics could make great borders or bindings for Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. Most of the rest were smaller pieces to flesh out my thin scrap bins. And those flamingoes!! I don’t know what I’ll do with that piece yet, but I love it so much! I may just have to keep it just to gaze upon, LOL!!

I also fell in love with this yummy Mary Englebright fabric panel. It’s got four repeats of these two squares. I’m thinking it would make two fun girl quilts in gold, blue, red and other accent colors. That pink and red checkerboard block border is screaming to be repeated in a quilt border. I’m sure wishing there were 48 hours in a sewing day!!

My sewing for the WW Quilting Day consisted of string blocks - both Nann Strings (with the black centers) and some 8.5” string blocks - a new, larger size to help me whittle down my huge bag o’ strings faster. I laid the two styles out (below) on a whim, but they’ll actually be used separately. 

On Sunday, Ruby and Kim came over to sew, as we usually do on Sundays. We call it the Church of Bernina. I sorted my scrap haul and got everything put away. 

On Monday, I had a mammogram in the morning and then HOA meetings in the afternoon. Although it was St. Patrick’s Day, it was too cold to wear my new Kelly green short-sleeved blouse. But I managed to avoid Bruce pinching me when I told him I’d had enough pinching and squeezing at my mammogram appointment to cover me for the day!!

On Tuesday I had Weight Watchers in the morning, then got to sew in the afternoon. Here are some crumb blocks I got sewn for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge’s color of the month, yellow. They measure 6.5”, unfinished. 

On Wednesday, we spent most of our time going back and forth to the DMV for Bruce. It turns out the letter revoking his license was sent automatically by their system before it could be recalled. So he could’ve been driving. But, because of the CLL diagnosis last summer, his doctor reported (in an annual letter required for amputees) that his health had declined. That meant that, by law, Bruce was required to take another written test (which he aced) and a driving test, which he failed. He had another appointment set up to re-take the test, but then that evening he said he didn’t want to take the test or even drive anymore. He is voluntarily giving up his license and will use the future scheduled appointment to get a State-issued ID card instead. Bruce said he’s just not confident behind the wheel anymore, and tends to get confused easily. I’ve noticed that, too. So I’ll support him in this personal decision. 

That means that we will sell our second car, a 2021 Nissan, once my son Shane is done borrowing it while his car is having a new transmission installed. 

On Thursday morning I helped with some HOA issues that sprang up, and the afternoon was spent blissfully playing cards with my girlfriends at the clubhouse. Boy, did I need that fun time!

Friday was just grocery shopping, food prep, and finally more sewing time!!

I finished the quilting on my Stay at Home Round Robin quilt, got it trimmed and the binding made. Today, Saturday, I’ll sew on the binding to finish it up. If it’s sunny, I’m hoping to take it outside for some glamour shots before Monday’s final reveal in the link-up next week. But for now I can show you some of the quilting I did on my DSM (domestic sewing machine - a Bernina 570). 

Inner panel; a pattern of curls and leaves.

On the row of Friendship Stars I did simple little loops.

Next came a round of fat “l” loops:

And then some basic stippling:

And finally, on the outer border I decided to do a hybrid motif of  swoops and elongated loops. 

I’m calling it a hybrid motif because I do loops al the time, but I’ve never done feathers. I thought maybe this design (which I was practicing on my pillow one night with my finger as I was trying to fall asleep) might be a good halfway point between a loop and a feather. I’m trying to work up to practicing feathers!

So, that wraps things up for this week. Next week will be slightly calmer. I hope. I hope your week is calm, too. And a good one!