Another Monday, another link-up

Woot woot ! I’m on a roll. Both with the posting and the sewing. Enough so that I almost thought I”d get this done early today. But life gets complicated some times so here it is halfway through the day before I get anything to link to Bonnie. On the bright side, it is still Monday.
I didn’t get all of the outstanding units finished but I did make a huge dent in the pile.,
Doing the string piecing on papers this big was a new one for me, but boy is it going fast.
The orange ones, not so fast. Working with papers that small ( I went and cut them all before I realized how fiddly it was) is time consuming. So I fudged a bit and started sewing strips, then cutting them down to size. That is speeding things up.
And boy was I ever glad for the Scrap User System with the last clue. I did need to cut some neutrals, they always seem to be depleted. But digging through my 2 inch bin I discovered a whole roll of orange strips from a Strip Exchange I took part in three (?) years ago. They are adding lots of variety to my quarter square triangles.

Almost finished sewing these together, then I’ll go back to strings.
This has really rekindled my mojo. And given that my sewing group is on hiatus for the holidays I needed it.  Who knows, maybe by the time the group starts up again in the new year we will be putting blocks together. And this time I will have all the pieces.
Now off to post this and link up with Bonnie.

Monday Linkup

Another Mystery Monday Link up with Bonnie ?  Yeah, I stirred my stumps and got writing in an attempt to get this posted on time. Even though Bonnie keeps the link open until Thursday, I always feel like I’m running behind if I don’t write and link on the Monday.
This week I am sort of more behind, in that I haven’t even cut the clue we were given on Friday. Instead I went down to the cutting table and finished cutting all the missing parts for the previous weeks clues. That has been my focus for the past three days, pushing fabric under the rotary blade and under the needle. The result has been positive. Clue number three is almost finished and clue two is sitting waiting it’s turn under the needle.









Once I get these caught up to date, then I will turn to cutting the last clue. I’ve seen too many times before that if I am missing parts of a clue the whole process grinds to a halt once it comes time to piece the blocks together. Then the project sits in bins, waiting for me to regain my momentum. Trying a different approach this year, we’ll see how well that works out.
Hope you all are having a safe and happy holiday season.

Mystery Monday Link-up

Well, finally I have something to post. Actually, I’ve been doing lots of sewing. It’s just a combination of bad habits that have kept me from writing posts. Things like procrastination, distractibility and quilters attention disorder.  But I’m going to get back to it.
If I had posted the first week, I would have been very confident. I had completed all my cutting and piecing was right on track.

The second week started not as confident. I didn’t have enough blues for my liking, due to the amount I’ve been using. ( seriously, did every quilt I did last year need blue?). So all the pieces didn’t get cut, therfore all didn’t get sewn. New blue was purchased at my Monday sewing group. ( so handy that it is in a quilt shop).  But already falling behind since that was the week I decided to finish a top for my nephew’s present.

The third week, I  fell even more behind. While I did get all the green pieces cut, I only have a quarter of the neutrals cut and marked. And none of them sewn.

And that brings me to this week. I pulled all the orange scraps and strings that I could find in various bins. Plus I sliced some of the fabrics I had pulled for this mystery. And I cut all the pieces of paper I would need. That was all ready to take to my Monday group and sew. Which did happen for a grand total of 10 completed. Given that it was also the Xmas luncheon for the group, I felt it was pretty productive. Also, I was alternating with the red strings for a Talking Turkey that has been ongoing since spring.

And the quilt for my nephew?  Completed and mailed. It was Nifty Thrifty from one of Bonnie’s books ( will have to look up which one later because that is the sort of thing that totally distracts me from finishing these posts. If i get up and go look in the sewing room for the book, I will start finding things to work on and never get back to this and end up discarding it)

So, there it is. A finished blog post to link up with Bonnie. Going to go put a gold star on my calendar !

Strings ! ( and cousins)

I did get some work done on my Spiderweb strings this week. But there was a lot more cousins than strings going on around here.
My husband has a lot of cousins. Of course most of them are not first cousins or even in the same generation. So when I am talking about visiting cousins, or cousin’s weddings it is almost always his side of the family. And they are almost always first cousins once removed or second (even third) cousins.
 And as much as I gripe about it,  I really do like the fact that we are so connected with what would be in my family distant relatives.  Heck, I haven’t even talked to one of my cousins in years, let alone fly across the country to their social events. With all of the traveling and visiting that we do, it was time this week for our turn to be visited. Twice. Yikes. Within the space of eight days, we had two sets of guests.

Almost no pictures were taken during the visits. Just spending time together and talking, with some touring around our area. I did try to take one when we stopped at a scenic lookout over the Niagara River but our Boston cousin doesn't want any pictures taken of her so that didn't work out as planned.

It was fun to see them but it didn’t leave much sewing time.

So what little time I had, I squeezed in some string piecing at my bedroom machine. With everything already to go, I was able to zip through a few strips in the early morning before breakfast.











The picture of the completed blocks is from back when I had 11 of them done. There are now 14 and I have enough of the centre kites cut to make 20 blocks. The last kite is a little skinny on one side but it will do. I could have stopped at 16 but I don’t like square quilts for some reason. The next decision is what to use as a border.
While I think about that, time to link up with Jo.
Jo's String Challenge update

Double Wedding Ring Quilt Along

All right ! I’m excited to start this. I enjoy taking part in Jo's quilt alongs. Jo's link up
I’ve been distracted and busy with other things these past months. ( Gardens, family, garden, etc. ) But I did get some quilting done.
I believe the last time I blogged I mentioned a wedding quilt I was about to start. Done and presented.

Asymmetrical Diamond

A simple pattern in two colours, it went together fast. I did this pattern before for a wedding quilt only that time I used 9.5 inch triangles. This time I stayed with the 8.5 inch that the pattern originally called for, making it more lap quilt size.
Another finish was the rainbow bargello I attempted.

Rainbow Bargello

I was very pleased with the finished quilt. Not so pleased when the friend I had made it for declined to accept it. Oh well, her reasoning was valid and flattering. She said it was too good to give to the persons she had intended it for, they wouldn’t appreciate it.  So it goes.
I also buckled down and quilted some of my backlog of UFOs. The Star Struck by Bonnie that I started back in Feb. 2015. It is now waiting for binding. Plus I finished quilting on the quarter section of the Big Star quilt in Black and Grey that I started back in Nov. 2015.
While those two still need more work, one  other UFO is actually a finish. Bonnie’s mystery quilt from 2012, Easy Street. This one is also hanging as an unfinished top in my header photo. It was claimed as “my quilt” by my younger daughter and languished in the UFO pile. Mostly because I was intimidated by it’s size and there was no hard deadline for it. Then there was a deadline – she was moving away, far away. 1800 km away. ( I know the number well as I just finished driving there and back to deliver her stuff). Time to get quilting.

Easy Street

Back of Easy Street

So that’s what I’ve been doing while I haven’t been on the computer.
Now to get my fabrics together for the Double Wedding Ring, I know I saw them around here some where…

Another Monday String update

Whew, this has been a busy week. A lot of it not blog worthy. Nobody wants to hear about my adventures in ditch digging, gravel in-filling and garden clean up. But that’s where I was every non-rainy day.  Some tangible rewards for my effort: puddle area in front of clothes line is no longer a puddle, ruts from wheels in driveway gone, seeds in the ground.
To the left, a row of snow peas and spinach, hidden by my shadow, a row of kale. Picture to the right is my garlic that was planted in October. I’m tilling up the area in front where I planted a fall crop of carrots and beets.
For the plants that can’t handle April, we have set up a grow light and started our tomatoes and peppers.

On the days that it was raining and those seemed to be too frequent, I worked on the rainbow Bargello. With some string units as leader and enders.








My current dither is whether to go on with the bargello, adding another column or stop now and add borders. It came out long and skinny, 33 X 53.5. Which is sort of like a crib blanket size.  It probably needs another stair step unit, and I am just being too eager to get on to something new. That happens, short little attention span in action. And I do have two new projects to get on with.
While we were at a family function yesterday an invitation was issued for a cousin’s wedding. Why a verbal invitation? We weren’t on the original list but are being included as the transportation of my husband’s parents. As in; if you want them to attend,we will have to drive them. So now a wedding quilt needs to be done…. in six weeks.  I have a plan. More about it later, the sun has decided to come out and I need to get outside to do stuff before the rain comes back.
Now to link up with Jo: String Challenge

Update to String Challenge

Looking back on last week’s post I see I was about to sew together all the string blocks I had made.  Did so and found I had 11 3/4 blocks. Looking at them laid out, it did not seem to be enough to call it finished, leaving aside for a moment the last 1/4 that needed to be done. So back to the cutting table for more grey kites.
These are being made with the Missouri Star Wacky Web papers. I picked up a pack of them during a close out sale at one of my local fabric stores. I thought I could cut the kite shape using Bonnie’s directions but it didn’t quite work, so broke down and bought the kite template from Missouri Star. Depending on the time this package was made, there are either 250 or 100 papers in the pack, either amount is more than I need or will be able to get out of this length of grey fabric.  My goal at the moment is a 4 X 5 setting for which I need 20 blocks of 4 subunits. That should keep me busy for a while.
And if that wasn’t enough, there is the Checkered Past quilt to work on. I sandwiched it and machine quilted along the sashing. Now I am hand quilting inside the blocks. The effect I wanted just wasn’t possible with machine quilting. Well, I didn’t think it was possible without a lot of wrestling with the quilt top and a whole lot of starts and stops. Not what I call fun. Inspired by the hand quilting I was doing last month I decided to do what I wanted by hand quilting.






Basically just a cross hatching of the checkerboard and outline quilting around the pocket and the edge of the pocket square.  One and a half done out of the 20, lots of quality book listening time ahead.
And that’s it for here this week, other than the ice storm over the weekend that has now turned to rain. Puddles every where. Ah spring.
Linking up with Jo’s String challenge to see what everyone over there is up to.

Progress on Strings

Finally a  Monday Link UP where I have some strings to show.
Unlike Saturday’s Block of the Month, which got totally sidetracked. So much so, I didn’t even try and post. We had an  unexpected visit from my in-laws that absorbed most of our time and effort in the afternoon. Then my son dropped in for his usual Saturday visit albeit several hours earlier than usual. He has developed a habit of showing up just before midnight, loading up the washing machine, snacking on whatever is to be found and watching TV all night. Ah, feels almost like he still lived here.  Not complaining, mind you, we both like that he is comfortable coming back to hang out here. The point was, he came early enough in the day that we took him out to dinner. And there went any evening sewing.
Sunday more than made up for it.  I got the back for the Checkered Past all together. This was a twin coverlet I had found with a ruffle around three sides. Once I took it all apart, there was a lot of fabric, but most in narrow strips. So I combined them with a black and white and came up with something big enough.




At the same time, I finished up the last strip of the giant bargello that I had originally considered for a back. Now intending to showcase it as a front in it’s own quilt.

Just have to find a back for it. Oh wait, that sounds so familiar, isn’t that how I wound up working on this?



And, having gotten hooked on the bargello pattern again, I worked on another strip in the baby rainbow bargello. These are taking time as I carefully select each fabric to eliminate duplicating one in the next row. So a fabric may repeat but not in the very next stairstep. Just a touch nit-picky but I think it makes the finished product look scrappy and not matchy.

And some of you might have picked up on the detail that this bargello only has four steps before the change.
A mistake in math and cutting on the first strip. Some how I got it in my head that 10 inches would give me five sub-cuts. And it would it they were 2 inch and not 2.5 inch. So in the time honoured tradition of " just go with it", I carried on doing 4 sub-cuts.

I know, by now you are saying “ where are the strings? None of these are strings “


I pulled out the bright SpiderWeb project Sunday afternoon and cut some more kite shapes for it.  And by bedtime, I had enough for 12 blocks. So today I am going to sew the 12 blocks together and see now it all looks.

Ta da ! Strings

Wednesday Link-UP

I have been linking up with Jo for a long time, mostly for UFO challenges.  It has been helpful to have a focus. And I’m sure it has resulted in more progress than I could have made on my own.  However, I’m more than willing to switch over to a general link-up as I’m working more than just UFOs lately. Jo's Link Up
After I finished the Irish Chain quilt for my Sister-In-law, I went back to making a back for my hubby’s retirement quilt.  The first thought I had was to do a Scrappy Bargello. Why? Well, I found another panel already assembled and a big stack of strips already cut. So for a few days I worked on that.
Then I had second thoughts about it.  And I had a look at the stack of fabrics I have accumulating for backs.  One of them was a twin coverlet in a faux crazy quilt pattern.  After taking it apart, it looked like it would work, with some help.
While I was working on these two items, my hubby put in a request for another baby quilt for a co-worker. The first thing I thought of was all the lovely fabric in the order from Quilted Twins I had just picked up.
And I went flipping through past projects looking for something fast and easy. Coming up with a Chinese Coins using the Crayola fabric supplemented with the Toy Chest 2 from Penny Rose fabrics.
It came together as fast as I had hoped.
The border looks red in this picture but it is really a bright raspberry. It was so much fun to do.  Now I’m using the Toy Chest fabrics to make a Baby Bargello.
So that’s what I’ve been up.

UFO update

Happy to link up with Jo’s UFO challenge to report progress is being made on some UFOs. Specifically the 4 Patch Revisited has it’s first brown border attached.  Bonnie had done this as scrappy strips of all sorts of browns, I chose to go with a constant.
Mostly because I didn’t want to take the time to piece all those strips. This is called Sugar Dot and is old stash I’ve had around for several years. If I go back through the thrift store postings I probably would find that’s where it came from. ( yes from back in Jan 2014) There is still enough of it left ,I think ,for the next brown border. In the mean time, still sewing together the pieced checkerboard border.
And the second success story, the Irish Chain hand piecing project I was finishing for my Sister In Law, finished and ready to bind.






On this one I was only doing the outer red border. She was in full agreement with leaving the outer green border blank. I think I should stitch in  the ditch between the red and green to hold the batting in place, then on to the binding. Her mother had two strips of it already cut in the storage container but they are 3 inch strips. Not a size I’ve used for binding before, and measuring the remaining fabric, I’m not sure I would get enough 3 inch strips from it. So going to go with 2.5 inch, folded in half, sewn down and folded over, it will give a durable edge.
Now, do I dare machine sew between the borders ? Or should I go back to hand quilting it. That would be so tedious to have to keep moving the hoop but it would keep the authenticity of the quilt.

Monday Update

Here we are, it’s  Monday and time for another string challenge update.  And another week of no progress on the strings. Hardly any sewing this week at all, most of my time has been taken up with socializing either with family or others.  A big apology for my whiny post the other day, I meant to go back and erase it once I realized how petty it was but maybe I should leave it as a reminder to myself.  I wasn’t as upset about the fabric as I was about the people who had promised my son that they would come visit and then didn’t, even after repeatedly assuring him they were coming. Ranting about the fabric was a deflection, I was mad because some one was hurting my son’s feelings and I couldn’t do anything about it.

Back to the fabric, I did get a chance to nip downstairs yesterday and get it all ironed and folded in my preferred method.  And I figured out what I’m going to make with it. The idea to redo Pfefferneuse got tossed, then I considered Zuckerwatte . But flipping through String Fling looking for Zuckerwatte I passed by Talking Turkey. BINGO !
The only colours are red and neutral, this will use up a whole bunch of the reds.
Here they are all ironed, folded and labeled with size.



And then what to do with the blues, they are a great bunch and deserve their own project also.
The floral’s will go in Becky’s pattern, Elsa’s Garden although the blue and white floral is over 3 metres and could do something all by itself. The stack to the left are fat quarters, the indigo is a metre and the lighter blue is 2 metres.
So…Blue Skies
But first I have to finish something. Anything, just to have a finish, there are too many works in progress to dash off and start a new one . While I was in the sewing room yesterday, I got the first border cut for 4 Patch Revisited so that's a good place to start today.
First to link up with Jo:String Challenge

Drowning in fabric

and unable to sew a stitch.
My sister-in-law arrived Wednesday. This visit was the reason I was working so hard on the hand quilting project. I didn’t finish but got really close, only one side left in red border to mark and quilt. But it’s ok, she’s really not in a rush, as she has told me numerous times.  It did give me a chance to confer with her on the outer green border; quilting or no quilting. Her vote was don’t quilt just bind it off when I’m done with the red border. And we came to an agreement on the binding to use.  So very good outcome.

As a big bonus, she brought another load of fabric from her mother’s stash. Which I would dearly love to be sorting through, ironing,  and finding quilts to use them in. However, along with their visit, comes a string of dinners and social times. Which means, I can’t spread the new fabrics all over or sequester myself in the sewing room for hours.
It’s a real challenge.  But here’s some pictures of the fabrics I snapped as I was unpacking them.

Cat refused to let me get more pictures

  Blues

Blue/White floral

Various reds, much more vibrant ( bad light)

A lot of reds. In large size pieces, most at least a half yard, some even a yard. Off the top of my head I’m thinking another Pfefferneuse.  And a good many dark blues, as well as some florals. That blue and white piece might even be 3 yard. Oh, I so want to go iron these and look through patterns.
But we are waiting for company to show up, the house is cleaned, all fabrics tucked away from the main floor. 
Maybe I could just flip through a book or two…..

Strings ??

Well, they are still sitting in a heap, waiting for me to get back to them.  In the mean time, other projects continue to take precedence.  First and foremost, the curtains. I am halfway through,having completed 7 of the 15 required. The last 8 are kicking my butt. They all need to be the same length. Not just pairs, these will be hung in sets of four to cover wide windows. And rather than hang to the floor where a half inch plus or minus isn’t obvious, these are hanging at window sill height. Pressure much? Oh yeah.
I pulled out my cardboard layout helper finally to assist with lining up. Things might go a little easier now.
After getting this set up, hubby occupied the rest of my day with a visit to friends.
Once I get this posted I will get back to it. This is laid out on the dining room table and the light is best there in the daytime.
In between cutting curtains, I did some sewing on the 4patch revisited top. Enough that the centre section is assembled.
Next up, a brown border.  Bonnie did hers scrappy but I think I will take some of the browns I have pulled for Ringo Lake and find one of them with enough yardage.
As Leaders and Enders for webbing this, I was assembling bargello strips for the back of Checkered Past. It was an idea I had once I saw how long the top was. Using my UFO bargello in my Frankenquilt didn’t finish all of it. There was still a finished strip, several partial strips, and a whole lot of fabric cut for it. It is certainly a lot more work than just finding a couple big chunks of fabric but hopefully will clear out a whole container of 2.5 inch strips.
Enough computer time, back to the sewing while I still have light. But first to link up with Jo;String Challenge

Bucket List?

A random comment on a Facebook group yesterday set off a day long intense introspection.  Do I have a bucket list of quilts I want to do? Am I doing the quilts I want to make or just reacting to Mysteries and Quilt-A-Longs? What am I quilting for, my pleasure or fulfilling gift request/needs?
No clear answers yet but perhaps a clearer path of action.
I have a list of UFO, quilts I have started and not finished. That should be a priority. There is a lot invested in them by way of fabric, time and effort. A quick flip through my photo files pulled up 26 projects that need a finish. Some just need quilting, some borders,  others more piecing. So time to put some focus on these, before jumping into another.
There are certain quilts I have always wanted to do. Time to make a list of them and instead of participating in quilt a-longs do one of them.  I’m not sure I am ready to give up the mystery quilts but realistically I have hardly used any of the tops I’ve done in those. Most of them are still folded up in a plastic tote.
The  biggest reason for this soul searching is my retirement. I had to make a decision this week to either declare myself retired or go back to work. I haven’t been taking shifts all winter. My husband retired December first and I fell into staying home with him. Despite being classified as a casual employee, I was required to take a shift every three months and my time was up.
What this means in terms of quilting? Being more selective I guess. I have lots of fabric, tons of thread and even a good supply of batting. I should be able to keep myself amused for quite a while using it up.  I will be able to purchase more but until we see how things go as pensioners, time to be frugal and not jump at every sale.
This has been a very wordy post, time to think of a picture to illustrate this. So here’s a collage with a few of the UFOs I found and want to get done.

UFO update

Now that the retirement top is finished, I am working on a UFO. This one isn’t my UFO but another of the quilt tops that my Sister-In-Law asked me to finish for her. These were started by her late mother and the plan was for me to finish them so they could go to the grandkids. AKA my SIL’s daughters.
I finished one and gave it to her when they were here in October. The other one was hanging over my head all winter. The voice in the back of head kept reminding me that I needed to get it done but other projects keep pushing it down the priority list. Then my Brother-In-Law announced an impending visit and it jumped the queue.
The biggest reason I was putting this off ? Hand Quilting. This was 90% finished with an intense hand quilting, and I had promised to complete that.
And as per standard, once I stopped procrastinating and settled down to do it, not as bad as I thought. Two sides are now done, I turned the corner last night and am well on my way down the third. My big question now is what to do with the outside green border, and would it look too incomplete if I don’t do any quilting in it.
Well, lots of stitches to go before I have to reach my decision.
Now to link up with Jo's Country Junction


I almost forgot another UFO I've been picking away at, the Four Patch Revisited. It got webbed together just before we left on vacation and I've gotten 6 rows sew since coming back.

While working on this, I got to thinking about Jo's mission to finish every quilt in one of Bonnie's books . I can't remember just now which one she's working on but it inspired me to check out how many I had done in the book I had in front of me.  And it turns out I have a third of the quilts in Adventures with Leaders and Enders either in progress or finished. So... maybe I should make that a goal, finish all the quilts in one of Bonnie's books before I buy another one? Still thinking about it. One thing about hand quilting, lots of time to think.