I Got Distracted

 The string fling sew along is almost

to the last step. However, I got distracted and 

dug into my UFOs. The 8s and 10s were calling me,

and after I finished a twin size top,

I moved on to the blocks from the string block race.

Those were finished up,

and all the strip lengths were replenished. 

A few narrow strips might have snuck into

some of the sections, but they will still 

fit nicely together to make blocks.

The project will be easy to carry to

my weekly stitching group.

One visit to the stitching group produced more partial blocks,

so I went on to finish those up,

trim them and remove the papers from everything.

Now I have 51 string blocks.

After a visit to my daughter,

I realized they're using a queen size quilt on a king size bed.

So.... I took the rest of the 8s and 10s blocks,

and put them together to form nine rows of nine blocks.

This should make a nice 90" by 90",

which I'm advised will be perfect for their bed!

There is still some room on my quilt card 

so I can send it off to get  a nice overall pattern. 

One holiday gift sorted!

I have more leftovers!

Twenty one more of these will make a twin

so more stitching ahead!

Sorting out my big  Bernina,

 finalizing some guild program plans,

and getting ready for a family sleepover 

should still allow me to stitch in

some more sewing this week.

Maybe I could work on the sew along top!

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with :

Design Wall Monday

Monday Musing

SrSPS

Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Finished Or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

RSC 2025

Patchwork & Quilts

One Monthly Goal!

 Well after 7 months it's finally time for a goal!

My goal for this month is to finish up

two charity quilts  that needs quilting,

and start on my own big stash of quilts to quilt,

the ladder quilt rack is full to bursting!

I started one of mine this morning.

It is ready for trimming, so I pulled out 

this beauty.  

A curved nine patch made with the 

Quick Curve ruler. 

I would have finished, but my sewing partner, Bernie

 decided to be persnickety with my threading.

I gave up in the afternoon and decided to spend

an evening on the couch,

with some old detectives and puzzling mysteries.

Good luck with your monthly goals and 

we'll catch you at the end of the month!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with : 

One Monthly Goal

Alberta in the Summer

 Every morning before starting my day,

I join a friend outside for a walk

around our small Alberta community.

Our province has a lot of varied topography,

and I've seen two small quilts lately

 that illustrate this wonderfully.

The first one, you may have seen before 

as it hangs on the wall of my sewing room.

It is a small 26" x 7" depiction of Alberta 

done in 1" finished squares.

If you look closely you can see, 

starting at the bottom:

Green fields, 

golden fields (wheat),

yellow fields (canola),

green (forests) , blue  (lakes), 

green ( old timber) , grey, brown

and purple( mountains ), then big blue sky!

This was part of an estate clear out and 

I treasure a fellow quilter each time I look at it. 

These little mug rug "Albertas" (6 "x 12") are made 

with 1" strips and depict our ripening 

canola fields of late summer. 

They are very interesting and backed with 

Canadian trivia fabric. They are perfect host gifts 

that are traveling off to Europe with a friend. 

They are made by ER and BK. 

Enjoy this quickie tidbit 

on some beautiful quilting. 

Stay safe and sew on !

Low Volume, Great Impact

The crumb square bank is getting a

workout with the low volume sashing 

ready to be added. 

The crumb squares 

will be getting cornerstones.

It will be fun to see how it turns out.

Here is the first little trial.

I did frame them since it will mimic the big squares (I hope).

The look is much different without the 

frame around the corner stone.

Together the difference really shows. 

The cornerstones will all have the frame!

A week later and it is all ready to stitch together, 

but first, the 8s & 10s needs to vacate the design wall. 

Things were starting to layer up!

I haven't followed the RSC for 2025 often, but look!  

Feb - Blue

March - Yellow

April -Red

May - Green

July- Purple 

So I have gotten a few of the RSC colors into

this top. The rest of the crumbs are on the wall. 

There is a pile of crumbs still needing homes.

Maybe a smaller quilt is in that pile!

A whole box of low volume/whites/beiges 

were discovered on shelf so there will 

be no shortage of backgrounds this time!

The top will finish with 4 x 4 of the large 

crumb squares and 3 x 3 of the small cornerstones.

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with :

Monday Musing

Design Wall Monday

Monday Sew & Tell

SR SPS

To Do Tuesday

Wednesday Wait Loss

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Off the Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

RSC 2025

Quilting This Week

 Well this new week has begun and 

it's finally time to get to some quilting!

First, just a few things have to be 

done to make the workspace suitable.

To keep everything from ending up on the floor

as a quilt moves around the table,

I have to clear off the sewing desk and 

move all my permanent residents.

They are nicely relocated over to the work table.

The big desk is clear so nothing should hit the floor.

Now I'm sure I talked about my big lady in the room,

My new to me Bernina 820.

Peculiar, but my voice to text wrote 

that down as a Bible verse! There is a book of Bernina,

but I don't think it was ever written 

down on ancient scrolls or stone tablets!

Anywho, I haven't used her for a while,

 so it took me about an hour to get back in the groove.

I thought I was ready so I tried a" looks like hand quilting" stitch.

It turns out that in order to make it look like hand quilting,

the upper thread has to be monofilament.

Well, I don't really like sewing with monofilament.

I think it's because when I first started using it,

 it was more like fishing line than sewing thread.

So I did a little exploring and now 

I'm making a lovely little feather stitch.

It should look lovely on these charity quilts I'm stitching up.

This the lovely brown and pink one that is first on the table.

 

I may even use it on my own tops because I do like the look.

First I should get this one done and then move on.

Have a great week stitching.

Stay safe and sew on!

What a Week!

 

Well it's been a very busy week.

All the units for the sew long were completed.

They managed to get stitched up during

the visits with family,

a bit of yard work,

some sewing workroom cleaning,

and a lazy, rainy afternoon with small visitors.

We had a dinner out with one offspring.

a golf tournament with another,

cat care for a third, and the lazy rainy day

with the last. 

Looking back, it was quite productive week.

All the sew along units are done.

It turns out there are two blocks for this quilt, surprise!

Block A used the pinwheels,

and the blue peaky and spikes,

as well as a large stack of four patches!

A few sashing blocks were thrown in for good measure,

The small diagonal string units

finish up block A as cornerstones.

I did a lot of catching up over the past two weeks,

 and some of  the units I've been making,

went together nicely to create block B.

 There were some small challenging pieced kite blocks,

and even more peaky and spikes.

The center feature block is a

commonly used scrapbuster block,

a small square surrounded by strips.

Put them all together with a 

few inverted sashing blocks and 

they spell anything but mother.

Whoops!

There's still a few pieces left.

A complicated pieced diamond rectangle,

four solid blue squares, hourglass units and and some two inch

strips of accent fabric. There are also some sashing 

units and some diagonal squares. 

I think a pieced border was mentioned

 so unless I over-sewed a lot,

these should be the components to finish  off the top.

In the midst of all that, I won spool chicken!

I managed to sew up my block and 

still have a few inches left on my upper thread.

Tada!

I also got to experiment with a different layout

for those prize winning blocks from last week.

Very fun!

We even picked some early cherries.

Have a great week stitching!!

Stay safe and sew on. 

Linking up with:

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

SrSPS

To Do Tuesday 

Wait Loss Wednesday

Put Your Foot Down

Free Motion Mavericks

Finished or Not Friday

Off the  Wall Friday   

RSC 2025

Patchwork & Quilts

Oh Scrap!

Stitching Stuff

Stash Report

8s & 10s Together!

 This adorable stashbuster was started a few weeks ago,

after a sample shown by a friend and 

a visit down the rabbit hole of Pinterest.

Here is the beginning of the project.

Strings of assorted sizes have collected over last a little while

and many have come in the door from other quilters.

I had a some enjoyable days stitching up 

lots and lots of strip sets. 

Sometimes, it feels good to just get the machine humming!

The strip sets were trimmed to roughly 11" in in length,

and exactly 8 1/4" in wide.

Then one and a half inch wide strips of the unifying colour, 

in this case black, were added to each side.

A final trim  to 10" X 10 " and the blocks are ready to assemble.

I made 57 blocks for each of the twin quilts I'm assembling,

Each quilt will be seven blocks wide by eight blocks long .

The twin a nice size and will make great gifts or donations.

Fortunately, or unfortunately I still have lots of strings left.

I ended up with enough strip sets and blocks to make

three twin size quilts! My gift closet will be a restocked!

Here we go! 

I'm at the joining phase. This stack is alternated in 

direction and should sew up quickly!

Stayed up late and here is the first top!

It finished at 67" x 77".

It is quite dramatic and gave me a few challenges

A few of the blocks were 10 1/4".

It sounds like a very small variance but it did add up.

I ended up fixing a few issues by getting out the ripper

and trimming off that extra quarter inch.

The next set of blocks will be verified before I start stitching.

Only two more tops to go!

Have a great week!