Stories from the Sewing Room

I am happy to share my fully completed Loves Me, Loves Me Not quilt. 

I decided to do a flanged binding on this one. I haven't used this technique in quite a few years. I'm definitely rusty. It turned out okay, but not as nice as ones I did in the past. Maybe I need to gently press it so that it looks sharper. I think I might have had my proportions a bit off too. Oh well, the quilt is done, so it's good enough for me.

I'm struggling to get photos that accurately depict the fabrics. The background is white Blossoms by Riley Blake. I also used Moda Grunge (in turquoise?? can't find my order), Cotton + Steel Stitch and Repeat in Sorbet, and an old print from Denyse Schmidt. Backing is Riley Blake swiss dots in navy on white.

The pattern is by Patty Dudek (of Elm Creek Quilts and One Monthly Goal fame) and is available for purchase here. 

I've had a tough few weeks, nothing I want to discuss publicly, but it's been mentally exhausting. I am still working along to meet my commitments, and almost everything outside of my longarming jobs is complete. Woo hoo!

I've been thinking about what I want to work on next. Right now I think I'm going to assemble my Women's Voices blocks into a quilt top and get that finished. I have another block of the month-type program that also needs to have the setting pieced, and I'll probably work on that one after Women's Voices. And then reward myself with a new project. Maybe even in between those two projects. 😏 I'm no longer that interested in many of my unfinished things, though I feel like I should finish them if possible since I started them. 

I did manage to complete a few quilting jobs over the past week. The first one belongs to Lauren. She selected Boho Boxes for her quilting and we used Glide Sprout for the thread. I am working on binding this one.

Next up is a secret project belonging to K. It's quilted with Mountain Range. Very small portion of the quilt so as to keep it secret. :)

Finally, Charlene's LSU quilt. She picked Slick for her pattern and wanted purple thread. We picked Glide Raven since it matches the LSU purple. (I think it's Baltimore Ravens purple. 😀)

I've been busy trying to catch up and keep up with the Loves Me, Loves Me Not QAL. Last week was a catch up week, which I used to make the three remaining Wedding Ring blocks. This week we made two Milton Falls blocks. Here are all my blocks so far.

My OMG this month is to get all the blocks made for the top. 

I also need to finish up assembling my Melodic Mystery top. I have two rows made. I'd love to finish up this and my Board & Batten. Board & Batten is ready for quilting, but I still have not come up with a quilting design that feels right for it. Sometimes this is the reason why my quilt tops end up as UFOs. I just get quilter's block. That seems funny for someone who quilts for others as a living, but it happens. I make so many decisions on others' things that mine are just one decision too many.

I had plans to get lots of quilting done, but the universe had other plans for me this week. I watched eight hours of FTC state tourney live-stream (the boys finished in 15th place in the state, won a second place Think Award, and were chosen for a finals alliance), my family needed me for other things, we had high winds that kept blipping and eventually knocking out our power, and then yesterday our lift pump for the downstairs plumbing quit and it smelled too bad to work downstairs. Yesterday also happened to be my husband's birthday and he spent it changing out that pump. 

Anyway, I did get a few done, just not as many as I'd planned on. 

Here's Cindy's, quilted with Triangle Meander. The end result was pretty cool.

Margaret's is quilted with Persephone 3 and Glide Cool Mint thread. I was trying to capture a wave-like feeling.

I also quilted Linda's quilt. It doesn't show here, but there is a large panel with a tractor in the center. I suggested Diagonal Plaid for this and she agreed to let me use the design. I think the finished quilt looks amazing and I hope she likes it too. Diagonal Plaid is one of my all-time favorites. Thread is Glide Smoke.

Other things of note this week are that I have two quilts hanging at the IHQS this weekend. They are really not "show quilts" at all, especially when compared to the pros such as Margaret Solomon Gunn who send quilts in to the show, but they are there. Hopefully people will be kind. 

The larger guild I belong to had Sue Nickels speak the other night. She is an award winning quilter and for most of her career she quilted everything on a domestic machine. She now has a sit-down long arm. Random fact: the first time I ever went to the AQS show in Paducah (1998), Sue and her sister, Pat Holly, had their Beatles quilt there. It won best of show. I went digging and found the photos I took of it back in the day. 

It was nice out over the weekend, so my husband took Henry out of the coop and placed him in the run. We ran some errands, came back, and found an egg in the run. That's the first time that's ever happened. Can you see it? It's to the bottom left of the waterer.

Also, Smoky, the other rooster, is such a jerk to Henry. Every time he tried to get up to walk, Smoky would jump on top of him and crush him back down. 

Signs of spring are all around my neighborhood. My first daffodils of the season bloomed on February 26. 

 It's time to select your monthly goal. {I'm totally saying that in a sing-song voice! 😄}

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

I have a really busy work month with lots of quilts that need quilting and binding, so my goal this month will be pretty simple. I plan to turn my remaining pile of fabric into the required blocks for the Loves Me, Loves Me Not QAL. After taking advantage of last week's catch-up week, I am currently up to date--stop by to read my regular blog post tomorrow to see my blocks so far. By the end of March I will need to have all the blocks made for the entire quilt top. 

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on March 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal March Link Up

I've made pretty good progress this week. Last week I had only made a few blocks of the Board & Batten quilt even though I should have been working on the second half of the blocks by then. I now have 3/4 of the rows fully sewn. This week's task is to assemble the top. I need to finish sewing row four and then it's just three more seams to have a completed top!

This week's task in the Loves Me, Loves Me Not QAL is to make four Wedding Ring blocks. I have one complete and I really like it. I'm using Riley Blake Blossoms for the white fabric. It's really floppy. Not sure why--I've used lots of other Blossoms fabric that wasn't like that. Weird.

I have two rows assembled on the Melodic Mystery, but that is taking the lowest priority of the three projects for me right now.

I still need to do the bindings on my three quilts for my OMG. My plan right now is to do that this coming weekend.

I have not yet sewn on the hanging sleeves or labels for the quilts I entered in the show. I have two weeks left to get that done. 

Of course I've been busy quilting for others too.

This one belongs to Linda. It's quilted with In the Swirls.

Next is a baby quilt for Jess. I selected Stardust for the quilting.

Melissa picked In the Swirls for her quilt too.

And here's Haley's, quilted with Triplet.

The weather's been decent the last few days--well, except part of yesterday when it rained. Monday the trees we ordered back in October finally got installed. I hope they grow fast and block the view of the house they built behind/to the side of us. Since they removed all the trees from their lot, it is a wide open view into our yard and our bedroom. 😒 Obviously I disapprove of their actions. You can see their porch in this picture. It was muddy and I didn't want to walk over to get a better picture. The trees look kinda stubby. They are all between 5 - 6 feet tall, but pretty bottom heavy.

Signs of spring are showing up. Can you see the daffodils and day lilies poking through?

I tried hard to get some new pictures of the chickens. My daughter wasn't home to help, so here is what I got. 😆😆😆

So you saw my big news yesterday that I'm co-hosting OMG with Patty from Elm Street Quilts. I need One Monthly Goal to help keep me focused each month, and hopefully there are plenty of others that need that focus and accountability too. I've been shuffling things around on the blog to accommodate the link ups and info. I have a bit more to do, but I think it's pretty functional right now. 

My goal this month, which you likely saw yesterday, is to make binding for all three of these quilts and sew it to the front of each as I'm planning to hand-stitch the binding. Hand-stitching is my preference on most of my personal quilts unless I'm in a huge rush or if I'm donating it and know it will be washed a lot.

Of course I have a million other things I could have chosen as well--Grassy Creek border (I am a bit superstitious and every time I choose that, things seem to go haywire, so I'm holding off for now.), quilting my Tall Tales quilt--need a backing for that one still, catch up on all my QALs, finish some other half-done project, of which there are many. I decided to select the binding because I'm tired of walking around the three quilts on the floor.

I've done a bunch of quilts for others over the past week. 

I completed three of Terry's. She's so artistic! She chose Doing Donuts for the first one.

Next we used Diamond Rain. My daughter won the contest to name this design. 😊 We thought it gave a leaded glass effect--the quilt is shown sideways here; it's actually long and skinny.

Deco Arch was her pick for the third quilt.

Next I did two mini quilts for Jae. The first one is a challenge to create a quilt using colors from a cereal box (I think I have this right? I know Jae's inspiration was one of the pink Cheerios boxes). We went with Doing Donuts to mimic the Cheerio shape.

I did some custom quilting on her other mini.

I've also been working on several of Linda's quilts. The first is quilted with Windswept. The So Fine thread I picked really blends in! (hard to see the quilting)

The other two are both quilted with Rainbow Hearts.

While I've been productive in some areas, I'm a bit behind on the Board & Batten QAL. I got slowed down by needing to replace the running green fabric. I had ordered a Ruby Star fabric that looked like the same shade, but I didn't like it with my other fabrics--too dark. I didn't have time to go shopping in person to find a replacement, so I dug through all my fabric and came up with a batik that worked (thanks, Denise!). I have three of 14 blocks completed from last week's task. This week's task is to complete the other 14. I'm hoping to have a bit of time to myself this weekend to get caught up.

Oops! That third block is not quite right.

The last clue of the Melodic Mystery should come out today, so that is another one I need to complete. 

One area where I am current is the Loves Me, Loves Me Not QAL. This one started on Monday with cutting. I LOVE cutting fabric. I got up really early Monday and cut out everything. I opted to wait on cutting the sashing and borders until I do the sewing so that I'm only cutting once. You know me, I'm a math major and I like my accurate border cutting.

Oh, and I can hardly believe this, but...

We have the worst drivers in this town. The UPS store is back open after its second drive-thru incident last year. People are saying this is the second time someone's driven into the hardware store. Several restaurants have had it happen multiple times, the tattoo parlor, a house that's between us and town, Walmart several times, a gas station. There's actually a Reddit thread about all the places people have driven into around town. 😳

I feel like I've made a lot of progress this week. I'm up to date on the Board & Batten quilt along. I had to sew and trim a ton of HST and I got them all done!

I have the rows made for my OMG quilt this month, so I'm still on track to finish on time.

I'm joining Patty from Elm Street Quilts for the Loves Me, Loves Me Not quilt along that runs from now into May. You do have to buy the pattern in order to participate, however, there are prizes available. I just really like the pattern and I pulled fabrics from my stash to make the quilt. 

Another project I moved forward is my art quilt from the class I took with Cathy Geier last spring. I finally put the borders on--I ordered several different batiks and eventually one was the right colors--and I love it! Now I need to make time to quilt it. Cathy suggested using a very minuscule  stipple or meander over the main body to hold all the fabrics in place. I will need to try again to use invisible thread on my longarm. I haven't had great success with that in the past. 

I quilted a bunch of quilts this past week, more than I thought I had.

First is Lauren's. She wanted Two Scoops quilted in a large design scale and we picked black thread. I also bound this one--that was a shoulder workout! I actually overdid it and had to rest my shoulder all weekend. Aging is awesome! 

Next is Carol's, quilted with Ruby Twist. She did such a nice job with all her miters, though they don't really show in this picture. I just love the Ruby Twist design.

Then I quilted Pat's with Swirling. My daughter and I selected Glide thread in Rust to blend. Random aside--this thread is really close to the color of my parents' basement carpet that they have had for more years than I'd like to admit--maybe 40?! I still need to bind this quilt and I am so thankful that Pat is always very patient. 

I also quilted two of Deb's. First is this one, quilted with Spring Thing and Glide Cool Mint thread. This looks so nice in my sewing room; it matches quite well. :)

And then this one with Stipple. Nice and cheerful!

I also prepped a backing for my friend Katie. I decided to try to match the plaid. I loosely followed the tutorial on Suzy Quilts. Do you have one of these Dritz EZY-Hem tools? I have had this for over 20 years. I also purchased one of the newer Clover ones, but I almost always choose my Dritz one. 

Here's how I did. I didn't have time to press the seam after I sewed it last night, but I think it looks pretty good. And really, I don't think Katie will care one way or the other. I just wanted to try it again.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, though a bit windy, yesterday. It felt like spring and I went for two walks, one alone in the middle of the day, and then another in late afternoon with my husband once he got home from work. Anyway, our plants and trees are confused. I noticed some of the daffodils, hostas, and iris in my gardens are starting to grow. I also noticed that some of the trees in the neighborhood are budding and several very large tulip poplars are blossoming! Look at that beautiful blue sky too!

I was looking around my lower garden to see what was starting to grow and noticed all these weird things on our contorted filbert tree. I've never seen them before and I was really hoping it wasn't some strange bug! Google tells us those are catkins, sort of like a flower, only the catkins are the male part. Looking at them in my picture, the male part makes sense! 😳😆

I also attempted to wash the blankets I had on the guest bed prior to putting them back into the chest for storage. I went to pull one of them out of the washer and it literally disintegrated into chunks! I was left holding a large, white stretchy mesh as the chunks rained down into the tub. What a mess! So instead of putting what was left in the dryer, we put them into a trash bag. 

All in all, it's been a nice week, minus the weird disintegrating blanket thing.