May OMG Complete

I finished my goals!

I made a kit from my Fresh Squeezed FQs.  Have to choose another background for another kit from that FQ set

I set my envelope blocks and then decided to add borders.  Can I count that as two finishes??  Lol

Finally, I finished all the blocks for my Peaches and Dreams.  I even set the middle.  I need to buy a little more orange for an inner border to add the borders.

I worried that the middle would look like mush.  I actually like it.  I made sure to have contrast in each block to help with the overall effect.  My assistant likes it.

Linking with Patty at Elm Street Quilts.  Now I’m off to find my project for June!

Oopsie!!

I try to blog at least once a week and just forgot last week.  We'll blame it on Mother’s Day.  I think I had a bonus day sewing at the church which was probably the true reason.  I’m head down on my goals.  I’ve read my blog a few times to refresh my memory of what those were!

I also turned another year older.  There was lots of activity surrounding that event as well.  Work was super hectic.  I continue to work at putting my house in order.  Just...stuff going on.

My first goal was to set the envelope swap blocks into a top. There is still a possibility of a border.  I have to see if I have enough for an idea I have swirling in my head.  I am calling it done for now.

I consulted with Mary from Making Scrap Quilts from Stash on her instructions for the wonky setting.  She got right back to me on my question and here you have it!  When I swap blocks I reserve the right to fix and/or replace blocks.  I fixed three to improve the contrast and substituted one of the blocks completely with a spare I had made.

My second goal was to get all four block types sewn for my Peaches and Dreams by Judy Laquidara at Pstchwork Times. I have three completed and I have a good start on the fourth.  Most of the cutting is done.  The goal is in sight!

These are the biggest blocks.  They’re done now.  I have to make 80 of the smallest size. I think I have 25 done as of today.

Finally,  I counted the FQs I had shown previously.  My goal was to make at least one kit.  I have 31 FQs of the Fresh Squeezed line by Moda, plus a piece of yardage.  These were from 2007 or so.  Doubt you can get them any longer but I’ll be googling.  My original intent was to make Split Decision.  I have selected the 9 FQs I want to use and have to find one more to coordinate with the lightest print.  I will more than likely make a Thread Count as well.  Just need a background.  I’ll shop for the backgrounds.  I’ll cut the Split Decision and TBD on whether I’ll cut the other.  The Kona Snow is too stark.

We went out to dinner as a family for my birthday.  My daughter had promised to come to the house and finish cleaning out her closet.  She finally made it over after dinner and left me with a stack of stuff that could go.  I hopped on the Nextdoor app and listed everything.  When I got up in the morning everything was claimed.  I spent the day setting things out for happy recipients.  I enlisted my son to move my batting rolls into my now emptyish closet.  I’m cleaning up the area where the batting was previously.  I am amazed at the amount of paper I hang onto.  I got rid of a huge amount and  also a broken plastic tote.  I’m consolidating some things and still have a ways to go.  Inch by inch life’s a cinch!

What fun things are you up to?

May OMG Setting

If it weren’t for One Monthly Goal I’d hardly blog it seems.

My goal for this month is three parts.

1) Set my envelope blocks into a top.  At this point I don’t think it will have borders but we will see.  Here is a peek at the planned setting.

There are 30 blocks.  They’ll trim to 12.5” so the top will be about 60x72 without borders.  Not a bad size.

2) I plan to get all the blocks made for my Peaches and Dreams.  I still have a fair bit of cutting to do.  There are four block types.  I have 1done.  I have a second that is in process of being sewn.  The other two have a fair bit of sewing to go.

 

3) Finally, I have found a set of FQs that I have been looking for over the course of months now.  In the process of cleaning and clearing I found them!  I plan to make at list one kit from them.  In reality, with the addition of some solids, I can probably get two!

I’ll talk more about these as I work with them.

Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts has been issuing various challenges over several years.  They are usually decluttering things related to your sewing room.  The challenges are posted about twice a month.  For the month of April the challenge was to get rid of one thing a day.  Now I have been decluttering and trying to get my stuff in order since 1998.  Suze Ormangot me started with mentioning Flylady.  I sort of followed her routines and room rotations.  I encountered other things like the KonMari method.  Each thing brought me through various decluttering challenges helping me overcome hoarded of stuff.

When Shelly issued that challenge, and after reading about a lot of bloggers moving house and then considering I might move one day I grasped onto that challenge.  Why not get rid of things now?  Big things!  At first I just identified the objects destined to leave my home.  Then one day I went and grabbed these things plus more.  I easily had my first 15+ things the first week.  I even found a home elsewhere for everything.  Once that was gone I made another pile of stuff and another and another.  So far I have found people to take all these items.  Shelly had a paper decluttering task and I finally was able to empty my parents filing cabinet now that everything had aged to my target time of 7 years.

I’m starting to see and enjoy the things I love.  Today I dove into my sewing room because it was almost unusable.  I pulled a lot of things out of there so that I could straighten up and put things away.  Once that’s done I’ll be able to sort and put away the things that I had pulled out.  It’s a process and I feel very motivated right now.  Im probably never going to be done but things will be a lot more manageable.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts OMG.

Hope all is well in your world!

Swooze

OMG Completion

My goals for the month were to:

1) top my thread count in the Purrfect Petals line - done

2) Make 30 envelope blocks - done and swapped back already!

Here is what I got back.

3)  Cut Peaches and Dreams - done.  And I got a sweet gift in the mail from Julie.  A completely cut kit and the pattern!  Cutting, sewing and receiving.

4) Kit up more projects.  I overachieved!

Stacked Squares

Thread Count

Split Decision

Thread Count

Thread Count

I have some sewing to do!  So there it is.  Done and done.  Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal.

Cutting Again!

I went to church to sew on Saturday.  I really intended to get a lot of sewing done.  A lot!

But first, I had taken two kits, one for me and one for Linda, that I thought we could whip up in an hour or two.  Let me say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”.  I knew we could not complete them as we needed walnut shells and I couldn’t put my hand on them before leaving the house.  

I carefully read the instructions, then I read them again and again.  They were not overly complex they were just not written very clearly.  The kit was for a “proper upper”.  It’s a gadget that can support your phone or tablet.  It can also act as a pincushion, an eyeglass rest.  There are optional tabs that you can slip your scissors through or other accessories.  Before I read that was their intended use I thought they were to clip wonder clips to.  I opted to not add them to mine. 

I cut the first one from the fusible and realized there was enough to make two.  I decided I’d make them both for myself.  One for home and one for away.  I went to press the fusible to the fabric.  The iron was too hot and melted the paper layer causing fusible to stick to the iron.  It also warped the sewing lines so they were not straight nor were the corners square.  No big deal.  I drew new lines with a pencil.

Before folding it in half to form a pouch I had to sew two registration marks.  I read and read instructions again.  Sewed the lines, folded the pouch in half and consulted the instructions again.  I sewed the lines I was directed to and back to the instructions.  Had to make a fold and sew another seam.  Finally, I was able to turn the pouch.  Then I had to top stitch on the registration marks.  I quickly sewed the second one to that point with no consultation of the instructions.  Yeah!  The picture below shows after the pellets were added to the top part before hand sewing it closed.

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So now I’m waiting for Linda to sew hers.  I showed her where I got tripped up and what to avoid.  She decided to make the tabs.  She got those made and pinned to the sack.  I explained to her what lines to sew.  She sewed what she understood, turned the pouch and her tabs were on the inside.  She sewed her second one correctly, turned it, top stitched it and had forgotten to fold the pouch and sew the final inside seam.  You know we we’re rolling with laughter by now.  I suggested she just turn under part of it and top stitch instead of picking it all apart.

After all the reverse sewing she had her two pieces sewn.  I had brought poly pellets to put inside.  We ended up only having enough for three.  I have to find the bag I have here somewhere.  We have two hand sewn with the top part complete.  I took the walnut shells back today but we ran out of time.

We did have extra help pouring the pellets.  It took one to hold and the other to pour.  Someone else got in on the act.

He really wanted to taste those pellets!  Can’t wait to see how much help he is with the shells!

So while Linda was on her adventure I continued cutting for one of my animal print quilts.  Needed a background.

Then I continued cutting for my Peaches and Dreams.  I cut the centers for all the blocks except one type.  I decided to work on one block type at a time.  I chose the block and continued cutting.  I quit cutting and finished the proper uppers to the point of needing the shells.

I hadn’t intended to go back and sew today but I did.  I got 18 of the 24 blocks needed sewn for Peaches and Dreams.  The last six will go quickly, then I’ll have more cutting to do.

I had also pulled 4 FQ bundles that had 5 each.  From yesterday to today I mulled over the possibilities, selected the pattern and did some math.  Today I pulled 12 and cut 2.5” strips for my chosen pattern.  Another kit!

The chosen and the monochromatic version to check contrast.

The kit!

The sewing is what made me feel accomplished.  Well, the block sewing.

Hope you have a great week.

Cutting Up

I went to sew with my friend today.  My usual Saturday activity.  Today I cut and cut and cut.

First I trimmed up all my envelope blocks that I had completed sewing the night before.  Bonus, my friend drove me to drop them off.  Glad to have that off my list.

I had a spare so saved my favorite to substitute in with those that I receive.  Can’t wait to see what I get.

Remember the box of treasures I showed a week ago?  I made two kits from the animal prints.  Actually I made one full kit and got a start on a second one.  I rejected the idea to work with the Christmas prints for now.  My friend wants to work in Halloween prints so I’ll be pulling those out to kit up a few quilts.

For that second kit I just need to choose a few more animal prints and a background fabric.  I want something vibrant.  Stay tuned on the kit making.

Finally, I pulled out my peach 30’s fabrics and started cutting Peaches and Dreams.  Three different strip widths are used so I cut one of each width to get me started.  I’m anxious to start sewing but time ran out.  I hope to get back to it this week.

Wow that was a lot of cutting!  I think I have a good selection of fabrics and tones here to give good variation.  I think I’ve met my OMG goal already so will concentrate on kit making and Peaches and Dreams for the remainder of the month.

Hope you have a great sewing week.

Pfeffernusse Borders

I made this top with leftover parts from the two Orca Bay quilts I made.

I’m contemplating a border.  Do I NEED a border?  Not really.  But if I can come up with something interesting and complementary then I’ll go for it.  The black and white HSTs are all scrappy.  I have a limited amount of the greens.  I might be able to get more but haven’t checked.

I do have leftover green HSTs and could finish the corners then just finish off with black and white slab borders. I could make more black and white hourglass blocks.  Someone suggested piano key borders but I’m not a fan of those.  I’ll pull some fabrics and start playing with ideas.

What are your ideas?  To me this looks like the star lite candies and I bought a big hunk of fabric

 with that on it for the backing.  The greens don’t match or I’d be adding that as a slab border.

Sewing Saturday

I had my usual sit and stitch Saturday.  I actually snuck in a few hours the day before.  

Fridaygoal one complete.

It’s even DD approved!

Saturday I started work on the envelope blocks.  The hardest part is choosing the fabric combinations.  I had started picking and cutting block by block.  It seemed so slow and tedious.  Finally, I stopped and selected the fabric combos.  Then I just had to cut and cut and cut some more.  It took a lot of time with the added pressure of them being due by the 15th.  I still have to cut the background but have selected a gray for all of them so the decision is made.  I’ll be sewing like crazy this week!  Here they are for your viewing pleasure.  The lower right corner shows one block without its background.  Of course one set blended with the gray so I chose another background.

I also chose some fabric to make kits from.  I’m going to cut several using the Thread Count pattern which is the quilt shown at the top.  I did not get time to play with it but it’s gathered.  One from animal prints the other from Christmas.

Finally I have a quilt that I feel needs a border but what?  I’ll show that next time.  Bring your design hat!

What are you working on?

April OMG 2021

Multiple goals again.  It’s kinda my thing.

1) Finish topping my Thread Count quilt.

2) Make 30 envelope blocks for a swap.  Those are due April 15th and I’ve been procrastinating.  If I just choose the centers that will give me the boost I need.  The picture is a sample and not my own.

3) Cut Peaches and Dreams and start sewing.  No plan to finish in case I have to get more fabric to bump up my contrast

4) Kit up some more projects.  I have lots of ideas swimming in my head.  I’d like to do thread count in other color ways so thought I’d pull fabric for those while they’re fresh in my mind.  I have a set of FQs that I bought a long time ago at the Houston International Quilt Festival.  I had a project in mind for them and would like to get that put together now.

Linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts for April One Monthly Goal.