Finally Complete

 Last week's under the needle 

is actually complete!

This is the second half of 

Conquering Mount Scrapmore  

spring string fling Sew along from last year.

I attempted to make the queen size 

but it ended up so large I split it into two twin size quilts.

My complete quilts are always d

isplayed around the house 

until they are gifted. 

This pair fit

on the couch quite nicely. 

One has already gone to its new home.

There weren't too many pieces left over. 

Usually they end up on the back of the quilt.

This quilt has extra border pieces down the middle. 

It was even dry enough for some on the lawn pictures!

The borders of the quilt were modified from 

the original design. I completed the corner 

pieced triangle, 

and carried the arrow shaped

design to the edges. 

Happy Stitching!

Stash Report, Stitching Time , Scraps In?

 It's  the end of January

and I have one finish and no other fabric in,

 so my numbers are holding steady. 

This brings me to 7 meters of usage so far,

 with 0 fabric added,

so -7m fabric increase.

However with  guild /group 

meetings coming up that may change

for February. We seem to treat fabric stashes 

like a lending libray, meters move around a lot!

Sewing time has been consitent for the past two weeks, 

catching some minutes every day and still working on the

Millennium exchange blocks. 

A Discovery table clean up found these little posy blocks and 

a new top was born. 

They will be combined with some blue background stars

from this parts department:

and look something like this!

It's an exciting time for the begining of February

with a new top in the works!

Linking up with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Stash Report

Strings Are on the Move!

The late night layout of some multicolored string blocks

yielded another top for the rack.

My ongoing, ready to sew bag yielded 

a nice stack of 10" blocks.

I sometimes feel that multicolored blocks don't play well together. 

The addition of a four-block accent of gray, 

makes a nice moderation of the chaos of colors.

This top finishes at  57" x 76".

I am finding the 10" cut block is a bit 

ackward to get the desirable size .

The next blocks will be a friendlier size, 

possibly 7" or 8" cut. 

The layout started at 6 x 7 blocks, 

but looked a bit short, again the impact of 

the 10" block showing. 

So I separated the rows and 

both my eyes and my brain were much happier. 

I even used my cool cordless iron for the piecing of 

the addtional row. 

It is a Steamfast SF-760 cordless iron. 

A very good find at last year's quilt show.

Fast and fun, with good steam too!

Here is my victory lap. 

It will certainly help keep it all together

while it is waiting for quilting.

I had to use the floor for the layout as the design 

wall is full of little tiny squares for the next 

project from the Discovery table. 

This top will have a multicolored center and a rainbow

colored border.  The center is made of random 2 1/2" blocks and 

a few more 5x5 blocks from 2 " squares

will need to be sewn up to add to the border.  

The few extra red and green blocks will go on the back. 

The beige crumb pieced inner border is almost 

complete and will be cut to length as needed. 

The next creation may be a colorway rail fence

from this pile of premade strip sets that were in 

another basket of block parts. 

Always something fun to work on !

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with:

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew and Tell

Handmade Monday

SrSPS

To Do Tuesday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Off the Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

Favorite Finish

Free Motion Maveriks

Needle& Thread Thursday

Put Your Foot Down

RSC 2026

Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap!

Sew Steady !

 The Table of Discovery is certainly looking better.

 All the finding has allowed me to

 keep stitching all week, 7 out of 7 days.

 That keeps my percentage at 100% for the year.

 My stash usage has also gotten a big hit because I have a finish.

My first completion allows me to take 

7 meters out of the  stash  total, so no change in numbers. 

This brings me to 7 meters of usage so far, with none coming in.

Here are the gleanings from the Table of Bits so far.

First, the weave/hatchet block has yielded this top.

The background fabric here is a lovely pale gray.

 These blocks are 7.5" cut and made from pieces

 that were found  in the stash room. 

Next was the last of the 8s & 10s,

It came together quickly with the use of some

pre-existing strips set from the Discovery Table.

The last from the Saturday sewing is this 

lovely Christmas top.

It started off with a blue accent border, 

but the Saturday sewers' consensus was it just didn't work.

It was swapped out for a dark green, and voilà, the top is complete.

I also pulled a stack of 12x12 Christmas blocks, 

and they will be put together to make 

a nice surprise back for the string quilt.

There are a few more units to be joined. 

The white hatchet block are ready for assembly.

A string block with four lovely 

gray accent blocks is ready to join together.

Some older quild swap blocks are the

next up on the design wall.

There are some lovely beige pieced borders

 already made that will be used up to 

complete these next two tops.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Stash Reporting

Stitching Stuff

Cut'em Up!

 Remember the block race I was in a little while ago?

Well it produced a big stack of 10" blocks.

 

The pile was added to one late night 

when I just needed something to stitch, so it got larger.

Some of the blocks were trimmed down to 9 1/2" for a

devilish bingo game at retreat, but the pile was still substantial.

I've been collecting string quilt instructions 

for this year's string quilt push

and I came across a top made with 

perpendicular block halves.

The pattern is from Fons and Porter 2014.

Some were larger than required but

 I didn't want to cut them down

and waste all that good sewing and fabric.

So of course I modified the pattern.

Channeling the spirit of upcycling, sustainability and reusing,

I used a lime green poly cotton as the sashing.

Yes, it brought back all the reasons not to use poly cotton.

It isn't as forgiving when joining diagonals,

it has a peculiar smell when ironed, and it is rather slippery

and required use of  *gasp* pins. 

Actually, I do use pins quite a bit so that's nothing unusual.

Here we go!

First, I sorted my blocks, to keep green strips away from the center

so they wouldn't interfere with the sashing.

Then I bravely slashed half of them 

in the direction of the strips,

and the other half perpendicular to the run of the strips.

Next, I added the lime green 1 1/2" strip to the middle,

squared them all up again to 9 1/2",

pieced them all back together, and voila!

My top is already at the ideal size for a twin, 

It will end up with a small border of

squares set in a plane or reads a solid background.

Here is a mock-up of  mine next to the original pattern.

A piano key border would make the top larger than I like

so I will use my smaller border.

There's always the capacity for modification!

There is still a pile of blocks to use, 

so another something is definitely in the works.

Stay Safe and Sew on!

Linking up with

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings

To Do Tuesday

Design Wall Monday

Handmade Monday

Sr SPS

Free Motion Mavericks

Put Your Foot Down

Needle & Thread Thursday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Home Matters 

TGIFF

RSC 2025

Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap!

Stitching Stuff

On a Roll

It's taken me a long time but 

I finally have some finishes!

This is a big basket of finished quilts

with a gratuitous chicken thrown in!

The first top up,  is the  Sea Glass quilt.

My big machine went out for a service and 

an upgrade so this is the first time

I've set up the BSR, (a stitch regulator), after the service.

Ready to jump into quilting, I had my pattern chosen, 

machine threaded and the stitch regulator wouldn't work!

I tried all the troubleshooting steps provided in the manual,

took it off and put it on a number of times,

and finally resorted to texting my service guru,

to see if the upgrades would cause the BSR to cease working.

Online rumors indicate that the BSR and 

this model Bernina are not always compatible.

It did work before the service however.

As a last resort I took it off,

 looked at it for a while,

and my practical brain finally kicked in.

Two things are essential for free motion quilting.

Dropping the feed dogs, to let the fabric move freely

and probably not having an even feed foot down!

I finally saw clearly, moved it up and

have been quilting on happily.

The pattern for this top is a water ripple,

appropriate for a water themed quilt.

After some practice on a sample,

I moved on to the top itself.

It took me awhile to get the feel of moving 

the large quilt sandwich under the needle.

 As always happens for me,

by the time the top is done I'm an expert!

The learning for this endeavor:

~choose a pattern  that can be broken 

into sections a little bit easier

~relax.

The green binding sets off the 

watery colours quite nicely.

Piecing the back with green and brown,

not only match the front perfectly 

but also used up a bit of yardage!

This one qualifies as an "Aqua" for the RSC 2025.

Next up will be the Thousand pyramids top, Stay tuned!

Linking up with:

Monday Musings

Wednesday Wait Loss

Design Wall Monday

Needle & Thread Thursday

Handmade Monday

Free Motion Mavericks

SrSPS

Put Your Foot Down

To Do Tuesday

Finished or Not Friday

Sew & Tell

Home Matters

Off the Wall Friday

TGIFF

Patchwork & Quilts

RSC 2025

Life in Pieces

Oh Scrap!

Sunday Stash Report

A Finish Finally

 The Little Owl quilt is a finish!

Pulling off the cover of  big Bernie was the answer,

and I had a wonderful evening stitching up lots of pink.

The quilting ran along the straight horizontal strips,

and finished up with a rough outline of the Little Owls themselves.

Notice how nice and poufy it is?

I used a bit of my remaining high off poly batting

to make it soft and comfy.

The back also used up a majority of the leftover pink flannel strips .

Added to the nobly wide white strips I was gifted,

the flannel strips and minky bits made it a really cozy back.

A few of the leftover strips even made it into the binding!

This little quilt is nothing but pink.

There was one Little Orphan owl who really needed a place to be.

It would have taken me a while to find another project to add him to,

so he found a place on the back.

It will be a nice surprise for the future owner of this quilt,

 to flip it over and find yet another owl.

Big Bernie is also performing well after the trip to the shop.

So far the push button needle threader has performed

eight out of 11 successful trips to the needle,! Yay!

An update on the stash too.

This finish moves the numbers!

47.5  YTD Purchased

8.5m Jan- Jun

Used  5 m donated, 6 m ( 1 +1 baby quilts)

6m ( twin) 6m ( twin)

27.5 total meterage added YTD

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with:

Design while Monday

Sew and Tell

Monday Musings

Sunday Stash Report

SrSPS

Finished or Not Friday

Handmade Monday

To Do Tuesday 

Wait Loss Wednesday 

Put Your Foot Down 

Needle & Thread Thursday 

Free Motion Mavericks

Off the Wall Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

Home Matters

RSC 2025

Beauty Pageant

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap

Mountain Rest Stop

 I took a small hiatus and hung out in the 

beautiful Alberta Rockies for the weekend.

My YS (youngest son) and his darling wife ran in the

 grizzly paw Mountain Trail Marathon.

1800 runners over 2 days at the 

Canmore Nordic center. 

We enjoyed fantastic weather, 

lots of camaraderie and the kids both 

finished well in their classes.

The Young Buck of the family actually 

ran all five legs of the marathon and finished 8th in his class,

so overachievement all the way around!

We managed to get it all four seasons in one weekend.

Saturday morning was cool and fall like.

Later in the morning it was still cool 

but beautiful like a spring morning.

Early afternoon was bright and sunny,

without too much heat for the runners,

The evening began to cool off 

with a tiny spit of rain by dinner time.

A perfect day for running through the woods.

The next day we awoke to.... Snow!

We walked thru the beautiful town of Canmore 

and had a delightful lunch at a café. 

Truly a wonderful vacation.

Now on to the stitching!

The cover is coming off and 

I'm going to start working

on decreasing my personal backlog.

First up will be that adorable little owl quilt.

Horizontal stitches across the quilt,

will run up to each of the owls.

The owls will be outlined and 

maybe accented with one line of echo quilting.

A nice complimentary binding and it should be done!

Happy Stitching!