Stories from the Sewing Room

My first finish of this year is one of the pillow covers I shared a few weeks ago.  I finished the binding Monday night.  This will be sent to my mom.  The pattern I used is called I Heart You Quilt by Then Came June & Pen + Paper Patterns.  I made one block and added borders to get to my desired pillow size.  I quilted it with Ginger Heart by Apricot Moon.  I love the entire series of Ginger patterns.  They stitch out so nicely.

My second finish of the year is also my One Monthly Goal for this month.  {My goal was to take a pile of fabric and completely finish this quilt.} My small quilt guild sews memory quilts for a military base program.  Since there haven't been many deployments, the organization was not in need of our services, but said they would accept quilts for baskets that go to new parents.  Here is my contribution, completely constructed from stash.  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - January Finish Link-up

Years ago I was planning to make my daughter a skirt with the backing fabric.  This is a nice use of it.

The batting I used was a remnant left over from a previous project.  I quilted it with Kra-Zee Day-Zees by Crystal Smythe.  This is a design that came with my IntelliQuilter (it might be called something different within my program), but can also be purchased at Intelligent Quilting.  I used lavender thread for the quilting, but it ended up looking gray.  Purples can be so hard to match.  Also, don't you hate when this happens?  Two inches left to stitch.  Ugh.

I sewed a quilt top over the weekend as well.  The pattern is called Under the Sea by Sweet Jane Quilts.  It was published in her first book.  All fabrics were in my stash. Many of the blue fabrics are Cotton+Steel prints.  My daughter helped me with fabric layouts and pressing.  I'm hoping to quilt it soon.

Finally, a totally random share.  My daughter's college campus is closed until April.  She had her first biology lab this week at home.  She was supposed to test buoyancy of various  mixtures.  I had to laugh when I saw what she was using.

Have a nice week.

Linking with For the Love of Geese and My Quilt Infatuation.

After my fall last week, I decided to take it easy over the weekend.  I completed one client quilt and just really didn't do anything else at all.  I really enjoyed taking a long weekend off.  I should do that more often.  Side note:  other than a giant bruise on my elbow, I am doing quite well.  The pain, while quite intense, thankfully lasted only a few days.

I have the pillows I shared last week ready for binding.

I still need to sew this month's Morewood Mystery blocks.  I have them laid out, ready to sew.

My Bonnie Hunter Grassy Creek mystery is at a standstill until I finish sewing the remaining quarter of my For the Love of Geese pieces--they are on the design wall and I need the design wall to finish the Bonnie Hunter.

I have one last block of the month to test and write up for my year-long program in the small guild I belong to.

I have participated my first large guild board meeting. I am now officially the secretary and I successfully completed the notes for that meeting.

I am making some progress on my OMG, which is a charity quilt for my small guild.  The top is done, the backing is pressed, and I found a remnant of batting in my stash that is the perfect size--that there is a WIN!  I will quilt and machine bind it over the next week.

I am taking part in a local quilt shop's online Mystery Quilt Retreat this weekend.  I am trying hard to use what is in my stash, so I will be doing all of my cutting from this fabric.  {Creating my own jelly roll.} The background fabric is the background of this picture.  😄  I've used it for several recent projects.

My plans for the rest of the week are to get the fabric pressed and cut in preparation for this weekend and try to catch up on the stuff mentioned above.  Oh, and get a much-needed haircut.

What are your plans for the week?

P.S. We are finally done with all the windows!

P. S. S.  It's Inauguration Day.  Gonna try to catch it with my kids.

Remember my reindeer pillows?  I decided to make Valentine's Day pillow covers as well.  I made two blocks using Pen + Paper  and Then Came June's I Heart You quilt pattern and added borders to get to 15.5".  I decided to quilt these two blocks using different quilting patterns.

The pillows aren't done just yet, because I have been super busy with other projects and personal things outside of quilting.  I took a tumble in driveway yesterday and I am feeling pretty beat up, so I took some quick, poor quality photos, but hopefully it illustrates how very different quilting can change the look and/or feel of a pattern.

The first one is quilted with Ginger Heart.  I sized it to be very tiny since I felt that was the size that best fit my vision for it.  I used super cheap muslin for the backing because it is going on the inside of the pillow.

Which do you prefer?

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation and For the Love of Geese.

My goal for January is to make a baby quilt for charity from these fabrics, all from my stash.  Years ago I was going to make a skirt for my daughter from the bunny fabric.  Pretty sure she wouldn't wear it nowadays!  It is just the right size for a quilt backing.

I have completed two quilts for clients and have several more to go.  Here are some sneak peeks of a few of them.

I am mostly current on the Bonnie Hunter Grassy Creek mystery.  I have not started last Friday's clue yet.  Here is its current state:

These are my completed clues from the two previous weeks.

I also signed up for a mystery quilt retreat from a local shop--don't worry, it is all virtual.  I am still staying at home other than groceries and appointments.  Here are a few of the fabrics I'll be using. I'm planning to work from stash as much as possible.

My husband is great at using the Silhouette machine that I just had to have and never figured out how to use.  We made these shirts for our kids as Christmas gifts.  My ideas, his work. 

Finally, the mystery block of the month I designed for one of the quilt guilds I belong to kicked off on January 1.  Here is my first block.  The colors are Kona Watermelon and Quilter's Linen navy (offered as a fabric option in EQ8 and found at Hancock's of Paducah).