Catching Up

I have been working on a few things, just not enough to get done and get posted.  Life and circumstances have a way of changing things a bit.

I have a few projects that I have been focusing on and off for the better part of 2019.  Mostly projects that I started and need to get finished.  I am planning on doing that for the rest of the year as I want to get all my UFO's done.  My past UFO's have included both actual projects I started and then there were programs that I purchased in the past and never started.  I am going to concentrate on working on only UFO's that I have actually started, for instance, BOM blocks are done, but need the assembly (sashing), borders, quilting, and binding, or projects that have been cut out and need assembly.

My first UFO is a Leader and Ender (by Bonnie Hunter at Quitville.com) from 2012 called Cheddar Bow Ties.  I have been working on this since 2013.  I wanted to have a total scrappy look, by not having any repeats in the blocks.  I planned on making two twin bed sized quilts, but ran out of the Cheddar I was using as the background fabric, so I found a solid cheddar fabric to continue to use, and ended up making a king size.

I ended up assembling them by alternating the printed cheddar background and the solid cheddar background.  It is now ready to head off to the long arm quilter.

The second UFO project that I have been working on this year has been the Leader and Ender from July 2018.  It was called Jewel Box Stars once again from Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com.  Once again, I have opted to use my abundant amount of Thimbleberries scraps to do this project.  

I still have some assembly to do, and a border to add, and this will be off to the long arm quilter.

My third, fourth and fifth project is not really a UFO,  but projects I work in while working on my main projects.  I make Quilt of Valor blocks for a FB group.   Starting last fall,  had a mystery block program, and I had been keeping up with the blocks until recently.  I have three left to do.

Each month the fabric layout changes, but the pattern is the same each month. It was quite surprising how the block looks so differently just by changing the fabric layout.   This is a sample of a couple of the blocks:

Then I did a presentation of a quilt made with donated blocks from this FB group, and one of the members quilted it and sent it to me to finish it.

As soon as I got it bound and the label put on, I was able to present it to the Veteran.

The third QOV quilt is for a friend of ours that I took his army uniforms and made two memory stuffed animals (one for his wife and one for his daughter), and then I also made a quilt for him.  More about the stuffed animals here.

My fourth UFO is completed to the quilting phase.  I still need to cut the binding, bind it and take final pictures.  This one is from a monthly program back in 2009 for the month of June.  Each month the online shop Main Street Cotton Shoppe (no longer in business) would send a complete quilt kit that matched one in Lynette Jensen's book "Celebration of Quilts".  The program was called "Anniversary Club".  This month's quilt was called "Child's Play".  I did have a start of posting about it here.

Then the last project I have been working on is the annual Quiltville Mystery Quilt, called Good Fortune for 2018.  Usually, I have this done during the time the mystery is going on, from Thanksgiving to New Year's, but I am still working on getting the piecing done. Again, I am trying to use up my Thimbleberries scraps on this mystery quilt.   I have one more border to do, and then it is off to the long arm quilter.  

As soon as these are completed, I will do an individual post with more information and pictures, because I am using the blog mostly now to document my different finished quilts.  

Working on Vintage Sampler

I have been working on the Vintage Sampler, the next is a large Feathered Star block.  Anyone who has done one of these blocks, knows it is somewhat a difficult block.  

There are 133 pieces when the block is completed.  I have to keep everything labeled, and organized, so I can't do chain piecing.  So, if you look at the back of the first picture, you will see the last few blocks of the leader and ender "bowties".  Yes!  I am at the end of this project.  The next few weeks, I will be trying to figure out how I will be putting them together.  I have enough blocks to make two over-sized twin quilts.

Here is a block as a ender of one of the sides of the star points.

Snapshot of a layout of another part of the feathered star.

Some of the finished areas of the feathered star.  Taking a couple of days working on it, a few hours at a time.

I am also working on refinishing my kitchen cabinets this summer.  I am a novice at this kind of project, so I am taking lots of time to get it right.  It will take more than the rest of the summer to get them done.

Here is the before (cabinet doors off already).

The after pictures.

One-third done, two-thirds left to go.   Then considering to do the rest of the house, as all the wood (door frames, bathrooms, window sills, and baseboards) all need to be done and updated.   

Warmest...

Gardening and Sewing - Hand and Hand

This time of year is picking up in the garden, my mom and I shelled peas this week, ended putting up about 9 quarts.  Doesn't sound like much, but when you are shelling them, it is a lot to get done.

The rest of the garden is planted, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and soon lots of peppers.  I have fenced off the chickens, so they can do some free ranging in the back yard.  They are happy campers.

This is under my needle for the last few days.  I finally got it back out to do the quilting myself.  

I am so close to being done, I have two corners and the border left to get done, but as always, something seems to pop up that take the front burner.

We went to a city in our fair State of Oregon, called Bend (supposedly it is in the top 10 best places to live in the whole United States).  It is a fairly small town, and they have three quilt shops.  So we stopped at one and they were holding a parking lot sale, where customers can rent a parking space and set up to sell their extra quilting stuff and fabric.  It is just awesome to attend.

This is the first thing I came across, a vintage toy Singer sewing machine.  It was made in the 50's and is so cool.  It has an on/off switch (no foot pedal) and no bobbin.  Simple and a nice addition to my vintage collection.

Then I moved on to another parking space and this quilter had a extra large bin of scraps with a free sign taped to it.  I asked if I could have all the scraps, because you know, I am still needing about 400 different fabrics to finish my cheddar bow ties.  To my surprise, she said take them all.  I bagged them up, two grocery bags full, and brought them home and sorted them out.  This is a pile that is being cut for the cheddar squares.

This is just the start of the pile I am going to be cutting out over the next couple of days.

And alas, the progress of my cheddars to date.  The bag in the back of the picture has 600 completed squares.  The bowl has about 250 so far.

Then yesterday, that new BOM I posted about here came in the mail yesterday.  It is block one and the initial flyer of the BOM.   

I better get going and get busy!

Warmest...

New Scrappy Books

Well, you know me and scrappy.  And, I also follow Bonnie Hunter and her annual mystery quilts, so I bit the bullet and bought her books.

Yep, I bought all five of her books (I think she has a new one coming out soon)!  You can look here if interested in getting them yourself.  She also has a list of what quilts are in each book, if you are looking for a specific pattern and only what to buy that book.  

I have spent an evening going through the books and tried to narrow it down to what I would like to get started on for my next scrap quilt.  Talkin' Turkey and Scrap Crystals seem to jump out at me for a new project.  But so does Jamestown Landing, Blue Ridge Beauty and ......Sigh!

But as we all know, I need to finish my cheddar bowties (I have about 950 done of the 1200 I need) before I start another scrappy project.  Just in the dreaming stage now.

Warmest...

Cheddar Update

With all the different things that I have started lately, I have been using the cheddar blocks as my leader and enders so something is under my needle at all times.

So to let you know again, I need 600 for each quilt that I am making, and I am making two, so I need a total of 1200.

Here is the first bag of 600:

And here is the start of the next 600 (so fare I have 260)

So far I have not repeated any bow tie print.  I have gotten fabrics from a fellow blogger, my DIL (who is now quilting), and from a couple of quilters who own a quilt shop.  

On our quilt trip along the coast this last February, I asked at all fourteen shops if they had any scraps.  Some did, some didn't, but all in all, I got a bag full to use for my cheddars.

This week while I was back in Albuquerque, burying my Dad, I visited my Sister in law, and she asked if I was still working on my cheddars (apparently she reads my blog), and when I said yes, she pulled out a box of scraps she had leftover from when she sews and from when she once worked at Hancocks.

Not only is it full of wonderful scraps, I got a really nice box with "wren" birds all over it!

I just might make the whole 1200 without repeating a single print!  Getting very excited!!

Warmest...

Plodding Along with the Cheddar Bow Ties

I have come a long way on this little project, since I last wrote a post about them.  I have about 500 little blocks done of the 700 I originally wanted to accomplish for a double size bed.  I have since changed my mind and want to do two twin sized quilts, so I calculated I would need 600 for each quilt.  So, to look at it on the positive side, I have the blocks almost done for one of the quilts, and then I just have to start over for the other one.

This is a pile of chain piecing.

A set of piles of pieces needing to be sewn.

And a pile of pieces needing to be added to the first part of the block.

I have piles of various different stages all around my sewing machine at any given time.  I am now working on sets of 50 in my chain piecing, so I feel like that I am getting big chunks of the blocks done at any given time I can work on them.

What is so nice about this type of scrappy project, it allows me the ability to just sit down, even if it is only for 10 minutes or so, to make progress.  It's repetitive work that doesn't require the need to look at a pattern, or be so precise in the stitching or joining of the pieces in the block.  

Warmest...

Swapped Fabrics

Back a few posts ago, I talked about a blog friend SLIKstitches who sent me some scraps from the United Kingdom.  I showed that I had cut most of them up and here is a set of ten Cheddar Bow Ties all sewed up.

Didn't they sew up nice and pretty!

Warmest...

Blogland Friends

I have a blog with a small following.  My biggest intention of writing this blog for for me personally to try to track and write about the things I enjoy doing.  I have three boys, that for the most part, could care less about what I do in gardening and crafting, so I wanted to do this just for myself.  Well, then my mother wanted to read the blog to follow what I am doing as she lives four states away, but she is now too ill and weak to read my blog, so I am back to just doing it for myself.  My stats tell me that I have to have at least a few readers out there, which is quite flattering.

Then during a link up sometime last year, I became friendly with another blogger who is clear across the ocean, all the way to England.  We have been communicating with each other and our posts for some time now, and during a post about the Cheddar Bow Ties, (and me needing 700 different prints) this blogland friend offered to send me some scraps.  I was beyond excited!  I have read different bloggers who have blog friends who exchange fabrics and gifts on a regular basis, but I would have never believe that I would have a blog friend.  I love technology just for this reason.  It brought two like minded people together to share the leftovers from projects with each other, and build a casual friendship that would otherwise never happen.  Most quilters I know are kind, generous, and sharing people and this blog friend is all of these in the package she posted ( I know it costs a lot to ship overseas) and sent to me.

Here is a small glimpse of what she sent in the package.  All of which will work perfectly in the scrappy Cheddar Bow Tie quilt I will be working on for the next ten few years.

This is the specific blocks after I got most of them cut out.  A great addition to the amount I am needing to accomplish the blocks.  Hopefully I can keep getting scraps so that I don't have any duplicates in the quilt.

She also added this darling tea towel with Union Jack flags in an assortment of colors.  Isn't it cute?  I had commented on her blog about not having so called tea towels here in America (at least not that I have come across in my shopping), much less ones that have such cute prints on them, so she included one in the package she sent.  Very Sweet of her, don't you think?

Not sure if I have the courage to cut this one up and make into pouches (you can read about them here) like she did with her tea towels, so I will have to think on something special to do with it in the future.

Warmest...