Stories from the Sewing Room

After visiting with family in Michigan for several days, I'm taking this week off. I decided to alternate between sewing and doing chores.  Sew a little, clean/sort a little. I'll start with sewing since that's usually what people want to see. I have been very slowly plugging away at the test quilt I'm working on, but can't show that yet. I also cut out clue two for the Bonnie Hunter mystery. Here it is, cut and ready to sew.

I started sewing yesterday afternoon and got half of the units done. I have to admit that I found these mind-numbingly boring. That's why only half of them are done. I guess I'd rather sort through boxes and put things away than sew. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I like how they looked in progress.

Here's the first half of the units. As always, visit the Quiltville blog to get your own copy of the instructions. Sorry for the kinda weird picture. I forgot and took the picture on my cutting mat, so had to remove the background.

I unloaded boxes of books into the newly finished bookcases. I'm pretty certain most of the books have been packed up for 10-15 years due to moving a lot and then having the basement under construction. At some point I had stashed some memorabilia from my grandparents in one of the boxes. There are a lot of postcards, some addressed to my grandma and some blank, with the blank ones all being tourist-type cards of landmarks or scenery in various locations around the US. Here's a selection (you know I had to include the flamingo one!) of the postcards. I'm guessing the ones with the kids on them are from the 1920s.

There were also some pictures of my grandpa during WWII, a mostly unused ration book, forms indicating how much pay my grandma would receive while Grandpa was away, and other war-related miscellany. I have no idea how I ended up with this collection of things, but I sure did enjoy looking through them. Here are some pictures of Grandpa along with a rupee that was in the things. I believe he was stationed in India and China.

Many of my fellow bloggers are recapping their years, so I will join in and add my top five posts of the year.

1. The post with the most views is this one from August.

2. The post that brought back happy memories for me is this one from April.

3. Something I am proud of.

4. This post from May because my garden looked really good.

5. This post from November that deserved more views than it got.

Today's the day to link up blocks 6 & 7 in the For the Love of Geese Flower Patch SAL. I had gotten a bit behind on these, but I'm totally up to date now! Well, I still need to work on block 8, but that released today. :)

I chose the embroidery option on block 7. I stitched a chain stitch for each stem. It's a bit wobbly, but I think the overall look is okay. If you stand back, you can't see how uneven my stitching is. It is soooo much easier to embroider on Aida fabric!

Here are all my blocks together. They're a bit cropped; couldn't fit everything in the picture.

I attempted the pattern matching using glue method as outlined at Suzy Quilts. I didn't have a washable school glue stick, so I used the Sew Line glue pen. It mostly held, but it wasn't great.

I had everything loaded and was starting the pattern my husband had selected for this (for his mom, who used to have wallpaper that matched the fabric, though in a more attractive yellow, back then). My long arm was in a crabby mood and things didn't go well. The quilt is now off the frame for unquilting. 😐

So I did a deep clean and some testing on the long arm and of course everything now works. 🙄

I moved along to the next project, which is a bunny pillow. My daughter selected all the fabrics from my stash (yes! using the stash! awesome!). The paper piecing block for this can be found in EQ8, but I used directions from Threadbare Quilting (Bonita Bunny).

We went with Squatty Squared for the quilting. Fun tidbit: the backing fabric was originally supposed to be a bunny skirt for my daughter many moons ago. I recently used it in a donation quilt and used most of the remaining yardage for the pillow back.

My other accomplishment for the week is getting the test quilt ready for piecing. Everything is cut and laid out and I now need to make time to sew, which will be challenging over the next week. No photos until the pattern releases though.

The only things remaining on my December list that I haven't gotten to yet are assembling the Grassy Creek top, keeping up with the Rhododendron Trail mystery, and making myself a shirt.

I mentioned before that we ordered furniture for the basement, but won't receive it until sometime next year. In the meantime, we have an FTC robot field set up. They use the giant tv (my husband's gift to himself) to display their programming while they work. I guess it's been successful--they had their first league play tournament Monday and the boys placed first! I think they were all surprised.