2016 Crossroads Quilt Along

Back in February, I started a Quilt Along through the Fat Quarter Shop.  So far I have kept caught up with the blocks that are to be done each month.

February Blocks:

March Blocks:

April Blocks:

May Blocks:

I had the May blocks cut out when the pattern came out on the 15th, but did not get to working on them until the last few days.  Tonight I can say I am caught up until June 15th.  Sigh.

Just a note, I have completed 7 quilts in the last two months, but have not figured a good way to get them photographed for the blog.  This is something I am working on, as I want to get them documented as well as getting them shared with all who follow my blog.  I am feeling accomplished in betting old UFO's done, but now the quandary of getting pics and then a final blog post about each one.  Stay tuned...

Warmest...

New BOM

I really need my head examined.  Really!  Sign up for a new BOM??  Aw, what the heck, it's just one this year.  I used to do several (that's why I have so many UFO's, but that's been a whole 'nother story)

This BOM is called "Vintage Sampler".  I took this picture at one of my favorite quilt shops, Something to Crow About in Springfield, Oregon.  We stopped there on our way to a trade show this weekend, and when I saw it in person, I swooned.  First of all I really like shirtings, and that is the basis of this fabric line.  Not to mention it is in Red, white, and blue colors.  And, I like doing samplers.

Vintage Sampler Block of the Month Quilt

Filled with American appeal and a rustic feel, this 82" x 89" full-sized sampler quilt is pieced and fusible appliqued over the period of 12 months. Each month you'll receive Barbara Eikmeier's pattern with directions and fabrics for a section of the quilt top from her Vintage Shirting & Dress Prints 1880-1910 line for Paintbrush Studio. 

So there you have it, another BOM on the list that never ends.  Sigh!!

Warmest...

Log Cabin UFO

I have done several posts about UFO's and past BOM's that I am working on getting completed, and this post will be about such BOM.

I also have talked extensively about the designer, Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries.  I have mentioned that I cut my quilting teeth on her patterns, as they are user and newbie friendly.  I have never had to make an adjustment or have pieces not fit perfectly together in any pattern of hers.  

During 2008 and 2009, the Main Street Cotton Shoppe did several BOM's featuring Thimbleberries new line of fabrics, her favorite past patterns, and other topics.  This UFO BOM is called Anniversary Club that began in April 2008. Yes, I make a notebook of all the information about each and every BOM that I choose to do.  Even though this might seem a bit tedious, I am glad I did this in the beginning of my quilting, because going back to older UFO's and BOM's, I have all the pertinent information and can pick up right where I left off of the projects.

This Anniversary Club BOM uses one of Lynette's books called, In Celebration of Quilting, which is a collection of her best (favorite) quilting patterns.

The patterns are separated out based on the four seasons.  There is 12 patterns in the book and the Anniversary Club did all 12 patterns with one coming each month.  

I had started one of the projects when it came in the mail, and I finished it back in November 2014, and I posted about it here.

The next project I chose was the one for October, called Log Cabin.  This project is on the front cover of the book and also I had cut out all the pieces back in 2008.  It got put away in a show box, so I pulled it out, because it was easy to pull out and just start sewing it.

The log cabin pattern has always been one of my favorite quilt block patterns.  It is one of the classic antique quilt block patterns that I seem to lean to in my collection of favorites.  You can read about the history of the log cabin quilt block here if interested.

The log cabin quilt in the book was made with country colors of red, beige, and blue, but this project used one of Lynette's newest fabric lines during that year called, Harvest Eve.

Below is a completed block with 12 of the 24 prints used from this line.  The strips are 1 1/2" in width and the finished block measures 8 1/2" square.  I chose, of course, to do this in a random, scrappy layout.

The quilt requires 80 blocks.  There will be 8 blocks across and 10 blocks down.  Here is my pile of 80 blocks a portion of the way done.  

This is the lay out that the quilt will have, as I like the way it looks on the cover of the book, so I am going to do it the same way.

I finished all the blocks this evening, so I will be assembling them in the next few days.  The book has the option of no borders or borders, and the project kit did not have enough fabric to do borders, so it will be made without borders.  This will be one of the first quilts that I have done that doesn't have a border.  I think I am going to like it.  We'll see...

Warmest...

Busy Spring

Spring, as usual, is a very busy time for me.  Mostly with the greenhouse and then gardening, both the vegetable beds and the flower beds around the house.

First off, the new fruit will be coming ripe in a few weeks, so I dug out of the freezer all the frozen fruit from last year and made jam.  I ended up canning 54 half pints of cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and triple berry.  

I also had my sister in law of New Mexico, send me some green chili.  Twenty pounds of frozen chopped chili.  So I canned about 50 half pints of chili, but didn't get a picture.

Then I got busy planting about 65 tomato plants (those are the plants with the bamboo sticks).  There are more tomatoes off to the right where you can see only one corner.

Now you can see them in the box next to the green house.  The box in the lower left corner is lettuce, spinach, beets, chard, etc.  and the box in the middle back is cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.  Then in the back box is the peas, glorious peas.  They are so prolific this year again.  We should have a bumper crop!  in front of the peas in the same box is carrots.  There are the regular orange carrots, yellow carrots, red carrots and purple carrots.  They all taste the same, but they make for a pretty bake vegetable dish.

And of course there are the chickens.  They didn't like being cooped up in their little space, so we temporarily fenced off a portion of the yard, and they are happy campers.

Next up in the greenhouse are tender annual flowers, like foxglove, sweet william, and holly hocks.  Then some herbs like basil, purple basil, chamomile, parsley, marjoram and dill.

I haven't had time to get out all the marigolds I started back in February, so they are blooming in the perfect conditions in the greenhouse.  The egg carton flat is some moss rose, maybe I can get to them this Friday????

These plants are miscellaneous items, some house plants, some stragglers of tomatoes, peanut plants to little to be put out yet, etc.

These are my 53 pepper plants that finally have come up and needed to be transplanted into these 4 inch pots. Now that they are in the bigger pots, they will grow pretty fast.   These will go out some time in early June.  

 I also have two other vegetable beds full of watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, winter and summer squash, cucumbers, and more cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.  And, I also have four flower beds that we spread two yards of bark dust around.

So, there you go.  Spring is all about being outside getting lots of gardening done. 

My next post will have a couple of things I have been working on in my sewing room.  Believe it or not, I do spend my evenings in the sewing room.  All about balance between work and play, right?

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...

Next Crossroads Block

The next block pattern came out this last Friday, and I was able to get them cut out and made.  This next release is a block called "Friendship Block"  It is made up of squares and 8 flying geese per block.  I am not a fan of "flying geese", as mine don't ever come out as good as I think they should, but all in all, I think they came out pretty good.

  You can read and see the prior blocks here.  Also the post has all the links to the information about this quilt-a-long.  The patterns are free, they just ask that you make donations to the March of Dimes.

Come back next month to see more progress.

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...