Stories from the Sewing Room

I have completed sewing all 25 green blocks for Grassy Creek.  

Do you have a block or unit you just don't really like making?  Mine is the quarter square hourglass units that feature in this block.  I can never get them just right. I tried to fix the worst of the intersections, but I have decided to "embrace the suck" as they say at my husband's workplace.

Anyway, I got these blocks done in time, so I am happy.  Next month's goal will probably be to add the next layer of pieces around these blocks, but we'll see how I feel next week.

I've done lots more quilting, including a few of my own projects in between clients' quilts.  Remember my odd quilt top from last week?  I quilted it using a tiny scale Unwind, which I thought was the perfect panto choice.  I think it looks kinda cute in a weird way.

I was intending to bind it yesterday, but discovered that my zig zag stitch has malfunctioned either during or after when I took it to be serviced, since it worked perfectly prior to servicing.  I'm not very happy about this, obviously.  I am planning to address it with the store I took it to for servicing later this morning.  Not ready to talk about it any further at the moment.  My range of emotions is like 😩😨😡🤬.  For the record, I NEVER swear out loud, but this brought me close.

I also quilted and bound one of the Sunshowers quilts I made last year during a quilt along.  This one is the baby size.  My family chose the Interlocking Rain Lines pattern for quilting this one and we selected purple Glide thread.  I'm now calling it Purple Rain.  

Additional quilting this week includes one for Sandy, quilted with Echo Blossoms.

And one for Sara, quilted with More Square Drama.

Other than that, the school year wraps up today for my son.  My daughter now has a part time job, her first, and will be taking a class this summer as well.

The Brood X cicadas have hit my part of Indiana.  I don't like them.  They are huge and leave gross shell carcasses everywhere.  I have found multiple shells hanging on my pear tree leaves, along with one live one.  They are also pretty loud, though that isn't super annoying to me.  It's just a weird sound. 

Also--my Bartlett pear has baby pears!  Most of them are up really high, and there's not that many, but it's more than there has ever been.  Maybe we will finally get to harvest some pears this year.  I don't know though, the first year we had the tree, we had a few that were similar in size, and then they disappeared.  Not sure what creature got them. There has been no fruit all the other years, and the Moonglow pear has never set fruit.

The veggies are coming along very slowly.  All the green beans have sprouted, as have the beets.  No cucumbers sprouted, so I will likely need to replant.  No chives came up; nothing new there.  We also planted more dill, but I don't see any coming up.  There are two dill plants that came up on their own.  The peas and lettuce are growing, but not well. The tomato and pepper plants we put in seem fine.  

We are also harvesting our strawberries for the first time.  I haven't gotten to try any yet, but my husband says they taste good.  There are a ton of unripe ones on the vines, so this is good.

Oh, I now have a robin nesting in the clematis near the back of the house.  I was watering the plants and it waited 'til I'd been standing there a while and then shot right out of the plant at me.  It does this every time we walk near there now. It flies out when you least expect it.

I guess that's about it.  I hope you have a marvelous week.  Follow me on Instagram @just_anne_marie to see lots of photos of my clients' beautiful quilts.

Linking with For the Love of Geese, My Quilt Infatuation, Alycia Quilts, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Hello!  I finally started working on this month's OMG.  I have completed 11 of 25 blocks so far.  Why 11?  Because that's how many available design boards I had.  😄 I've really lost steam on this project, but feel like since so many of the units are made, that I need to see it through.

This first one is being quilted with Bear, Moose, Pines.

I have this lovely donation quilt ready for quilting.  I hope this thing doesn't scare some poor child. 😳

That's about it on the sewing front.  I have also accompanied my children on multiple appointments/tasks, including getting my son his first vaccine!  One of us celebrated a birthday as well.

Oh, wait.  I forgot that I made this little pillow from an orphan block left from our guild donation quilt. This was Friday afternoon's project before I returned the quilt to guild on Friday night. I quilted it with Midnight Sparkle.

The only other thing I have to share right now is all these lovely irises and one of our clematis. They sure are spectacular this year.

I have gotten so much done this week.  Lots of gardening, lots of planning, lots of spending money, and a little quilting.

I worked on two more quilts. This first one belongs to Ann. I think it has a lot of digital prints.  Have you worked with digital prints?  What do you think about them?  Quilting design is Soho.

I cleaned up more of my sewing room.  I am still trying to figure out how I want to label and store my Kona charm squares so that they are easy to use, yet organized and out of the dust.  Or, so they don't give off more dust/lint.  Why do charm squares have to be so messy?  Anyway, I found some unopened IKEA storage containers in my big cabinet, so assembled them to see if they were the right size.  They are not, but I organized the end of my cutting table and grouped projects inside the boxes.  

After doing that, I decided that some of the stuff that was in the end of the cabinet should move into containers in the closet since I'm not planning to work on them in the foreseeable future.  That led to looking through some of the project bins in the closet and moving some fabric and other stuff around. 

Wait, why is this project in with the fabrics I'd pulled as potential Quilts for Kids tops?  Do I have everything I need to make it?  It's only one block; it won't take long to make. I don't like the color of the fabric I bought for the ears and chest.  I wonder if I have scraps big enough?  *Looks through scraps, looks up pictures of koalas, finds perfect colors and sizes of scraps, reluctantly sets aside.*

Back to the closet to finish moving stuff. I should really make another Quilts for Kids.  I wonder if this panel is big enough.  Oh, good, this other piece is the perfect size for the backing. I should iron all this fabric. I'd really like to work on this, but I have other things I need to get done first and I won't even be able to quilt it until I finish the work I have scheduled.  *Irons fabric.* Side note (yes, I am so easily distracted all the time, especially when I don't want to work on something that I should be working on)--isn't this fabric weird?  I've had it for around 20 years.

Then I looked at this pile of knits I've had for several years.  I really need to get these made into shirts.  I definitely could use some new shirts since I haven't been clothes shopping in more than a year and many of my shirts are so old and in poor condition that they need to be replaced. 

I need to trim these quilts and attach the binding too.  But I need my cutting table cleared off for that.

Over to the cutting table.  I really need to get this swap project done before I start working on anything else. *Dutifully cuts 208 1.5" squares from scraps and arranges them and even starts sewing them.*  No photo other than this for another month.

Hmm...I really need to work on this other project, but the colors aren't quite right.  Maybe I should look through the Kona chips and see if I can match some I like to the charm squares to compare to my fabrics.  Then I could order all the fabric I need for all the projects all at once.  *Spends a few hours rearranging colors.*

I really, really should be sewing together all these Grassy Creek blocks since that's my OMG.  They aren't really doing much for me.  I wonder what it will look like with the next round.  *Adds next pieces to the wall to see how it looks.* Still blah.  Everything is cut and partially sewn, so this really does need to be done before I do all that other stuff.  But still, I'm not really looking forward to this one.

So.  This is how my week has gone.  I have chased every squirrel. Did my stream of consciousness wear you out? Even with all the rummaging and ruminating, I've still gotten a lot done, especially when you see the garden.

You may recall I was whining about the stupid spearmint last week and we'd started weeding it.  We spent much of the weekend removing the vast majority of it. It's so invasive I'm sure we'll be pulling out more strands for years, but for now it looks pretty good.  I just need to remain vigilant about it.

I also had my husband pull out a shrub I didn't like (it kept sending out runners and spreading and I surely don't need yet another invasive thing in that garden) and we shopped for a replacement.  I also ordered a reblooming lilac online since the local place didn't get their expected shipment.  Funny side note--I didn't really pay attention to the address of the garden place I ordered it from until they sent an email that my order would be delayed.  Turns out it's around the corner from one of my old houses.

My daughter and I planted all of the vegetable garden last Thursday.  I do need to replace my tomato plant since I broke the stem during planting.  I thought maybe it would survive, but it wilted right away. It's been too cold the last few nights to plant the replacement, but I do have it ready to go.

We have bluebirds in the nesting box attached to the garden.  Here they are.  Can you see all five?

I'll leave you with a few of our blooming flowers. This first one is one of the Siberian irises. I don't know its name.  

This is a newly planted columbine.  Isn't it pretty?

Have a great week.  Hopefully I'll be able to continue my productivity into next week. 😊

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

My goal for May is to sew together the 25 blocks pictured here.  They are part of my version of Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery.  I had stalled out when we got to the part with sewing all the strings.  I am still unsure I want to sew all the strings, so I set this one aside.  I decided a good way to decide what to do is simply start assembling the parts of the blocks I like and go from there.

I'm also working on a project made almost entirely from my scraps.  Here is a literally very small piece of the project.  {The only thing I purchased was backing fabric specific to this project's recipient.}  Bonus points to me for figuring out how to draw up and print my own foundations in EQ8.

Of course I am also quilting.  I returned two quilts to their owners over the past few days and worked on a few others.  

Here's a sneak peek of a guild project.  I forget which charity this will fundraise for. I chose to quilt it with the Curlique pattern.  I always wonder if this one should be pronounced "cur-leek" or "curlicue". 

I'm still working on removing all the foundations from my For the Love of Geese quilt top.  It's going a bit faster than I expected; however, I'll still be glad when that step is done.

I am happy to report that I have filled a book box with quilting books, patterns, and other assorted things that I will donate to the Treasure Shop fundraiser for the other guild that I belong to.  There's one box less stuff in my room. Progress!

I am really happy that I was able to spend the weekend buying flowers.  It was really relaxing and rejuvenating and I'm glad I took the time to go outside and do something I mostly enjoy.  Here is my haul from one of the four places I went.  Also, did you know you can buy sugar at Menards?  You'll pay a premium, but it's there.  

I also couldn't pass up these beet plants (bought two, only one pictured).

Part of the process that I don't really enjoy is pulling weeds.  I wouldn't mind it that much other than we have a major spearmint infestation in our lower garden.  We planted one of those little square containers and it went insane.  I do not use chemicals in any of my gardens or my yard, so pulling the spearmint out by hand is the only way to get rid of it.  We all worked on it as time, the weather, and, for two of us, our out of shape, middle-aged bodies, would permit.  We made a good dent, but there is a lot more to go.  We found that using cultivators to loosen up the mulch really helped with getting down to the roots. If you ever feel the urge to plant spearmint, don't!  The only good thing I can say about it is that the deer don't eat it.

If you have really sharp vision, you might see all the milkweed coming up in the photo below.  It makes the garden look a bit sloppy as summer goes on, but we can host monarchs.  Last week I saw a sparrow eating dandelion fluff in my lawn.  That was a new one.

All the irises are starting to bloom.

This one is called Batik.  It looks really good this year.  I'm not seeing many buds on my ultimate favorite, which is Crater Lake Blue.