Sister's Choice Quilts

A Dozen Sew Alongs You Might Love

This post is going to be full of information.  I will provide lots of links to a plethora of fantastic sew alongs that you could stitch happily along with while you are "sheltering in place".  If we are all stuck at home, we could at least have something to show for it at the end, right?  Also, if you want a distraction from the COVID-19 situation, these projects provide it. 

The first sew along I will tell you about is one I started last week.  I posted that the pattern "Village" is being provided for free at various websites.  This is a great scrap buster and is super fun to work on.  Charm squares work great for this one.  It is a scrappy house block designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

This sew along is Moda BlockHeads 3.  It started at the beginning of 2020, but all the weekly patterns are archived on the Moda website.  There are also a number of layout options you can choose for the four block sizes.  Pick one size block or make all four sizes.  There is definitely a Love/Heart theme going on, which is super cute.

This sew along is over, but there has been a book published with all the block patterns and some suggested layouts.  This is Moda BlockHeads 1, which started it all.  This is a sampler block of the week sew along, with designs by a number of well known Moda fabric designers.  I had a blast with this project, and as you see, am in the process of trying to figure out my borders.

This was a block of the week sew along hosted by Primitive Gatherings.  The pattern, "Star Studded Event"  is available on their website.  I signed up for a weekly kit which they sent me (it was kind of pricey), but if you have a large stash of scraps, this could be your answer to reducing it.  It is a great block, and you will get really good at piecing that 2 1/2" center star if you decide to make this block.  The pattern makes a very large quilt, but there is no reason you couldn't stop at any point you like and make something smaller.

This sew along is a mystery quilt hosted by designer Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  The pace is pretty intense with this sew along, but you could certainly print out the daily block instructions and go at your own speed.  So far (as I write this) we are on day 6 and I have made 40 blocks!  Edyta also does YouTube video instruction for each block, which is a terrific support, especially for not-so-confident sewers.

Here is a list with links to some other sew alongs that sound amazing.

Summer Moon Sew Along, hosted by Fat Quarter Shop and Carrie Nelson.  This sew along is over with, but there is a book complete with patterns available, plus a slew of YouTube Fatquartershop tutorial videos for the blocks.  The finished quilt is amazing.

Comfort and Blessing Sew Along by Piecing the Past Quilts.  This is a free sew along, but it doesn't start until April 13.  I am so intrigued about this one!  I have a ton of leftover Kansas Troubles fabrics, which would be perfect for this project.

Amber Johnson ( Gigi's Thimble) and Jessica Dayton are hosting a quilt along called The Willow, which looks so beautiful.  I am really interested in doing this quilt at some point.  There are two sample suggestions, one made with Minick & Simpson's Mackinac Island collection and the other a collection of blues.  Gorgeous quilts, both of them.

Sherri McConnell from A Quilting Life is hosting a block of the month sew along, and has released free instructions for three blocks so far.  All of them have been super cute, and have instructions for making two different sizes. 

Gundrun Erla of GE Designs is hosting an Elvira Quarantine Quilt Along.  If you enjoy modern designs, you will love this one.

Pat Sloan is a favorite of quilters everywhere for a good reason.  She has such an engaging personality and is known for her great pattern designs and sew alongs.  She has a free 2020 Wild West sew along going on, which I haven't joined but am t.h.i.s close to signing on for.

If you want to start a Christmas quilt, this is the perfect time for it.  Gather up your red and white fabrics and pick up this little book from Primitive Gatherings.  You can make a different block each week and end up with a fabulous Christmas quilt that will be a family heirloom.   These blocks are challenging, but oh so worth it.

I am sure there are more sew alongs out there, but with any luck, one of these will pique your interest and get you started on a project to fill the empty hours until we can get our lives back to normal!  

If you know of any other sew alongs, please do share in the comments.

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay healthy and engaged in stimulating activities.

Free Little Library and a Couple of Good Books

Here is something wonderful.  Have you all heard of Free Little Libraries?  People build a little covered book shelf and put it on a post in their front yard.  (You should Google "Free Little Libraries".  Some of these little book houses are incredible!) Anyway, the owner fills it with books for anyone to take.  The deal is, hopefully, if you take a book, you will put something back in for someone else to read.  My friend and I walk along the same route each day for our exercise, and one day, poof, there was a Free Little Library in front of someone's house.  Intrigued, I took a look at what was inside, and was amazed at the great selection of titles I was interested in and hadn't read yet!  I borrowed a book, called We Must Be Brave by Frances Liardet, which is just excellent.  I went back with Eva later and she put in three books from her bookshelf and I put in three from mine.

What a find.  I am so grateful to have discovered this gem.  This book is set during WWII in Somerset England.  Bombs are falling, and city folks are fleeing to the outer villages in the country.  Right off the bat, newly married Ellen Parr unexpectedly finds a small child abandoned at the back of a bus after an air raid.  Ellen never thought she wanted children, but finds herself fostering this child.  Love grows in unexpected places, and the story had me hooked from the first chapter.  I am really enjoying it.

Now this was a book and a half.  Catherine Wainwright is a professional pianist in 1900's Dayton Ohio.  Socially ruined by a scandal, she is desperate to start a new life.  She accepts a marriage proposal from a childhood acquaintance who lives in Galveston, Texas.  Talk about culture shock.  Catherine has to get used to being married to a virtual stranger, to being a mother to his child, to the horrendous heat and what she perceives to be the lower standard of living in Texas. And then the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 strikes.  Oh boy, give this one a try.  The best kind of historical fiction is when you learn something that you had thus far not been aware of, and this book delivers.  If you pick this one up and read it, I'd love to talk to you about the ending.

On the "shelter in place" front, my local grocery store has started Senior Citizen shopping time, when only old folks and those who are otherwise disabled or compromised may shop.  That would be 6AM to 9AM Tuesday and Thursday.  So, my husband and I bundled up and hit the store along with all the other old codgers.  Lots of elderly men looking bemused and generally blocking the aisles.  The shelves were surprisingly well-stocked.  Still no disinfectant, bread, flour or sugar, but they did have eggs, chicken broth, and woo hoo, toilet paper!!  For the most part, we got what was on our list and were home in an hour.  People stayed six feet apart mostly, and were in pretty good spirits.  One woman fussed when she was told she could only purchase ONE package of toilet paper, but that was the only exception.

Ahren tells me that the shops in Ireland have stuck yellow footprint stickers on the floor six feet apart so people can stand on them and stay distant while waiting in line to pay for their items.  They have also erected little sneeze guard type shields that separate the cashier from the customer.  interesting, right?

Hope your week is going well.

Can I Keep Up?

These are the five days of blocks I have made for the Laundry Basket Mystery Sew Along.  36 blocks in five days.  This sew along is intense, I tell you.  Honestly, I am not sure if I will be able to keep up with eight new blocks a day.  And that is ok.  I am homeschooling Eva and have four other sew alongs I am participating in, so it is what it is.  If quilting was all I had to occupy my time, I would have no problem. However, there are just "sew" many hours in the day.  Yesterday's block is on the lower right--pretty cute I'd say.

I did change out the tan fabric I showed yesterday.  It wasn't yellow enough to "go" with the background, which is a yellowish tan on cream.  Also, the tan prints I was using had no red in them to tie in with the other fabrics in the top.  While I am not 100% thrilled if this tan is going to be a predominant feature in the design of the quilt top, I can live with it now that I found prints that blend in with the others better. They also are slightly different tones, which brings a bit of life to the mix.

On the homeschooling front, we are getting in around four good hours a day.  Math, language arts, reading, science, grammar, and lots of writing practice.  Eva's teacher logs onto Facebook and reads from a book the class had been enjoying.  She is figuring things out day by day, and hopefully, soon everyone in the class will be on board with online learning.  It is not going to be optional, so I hope folks can figure it out.

If I ever wanted proof that this is the Apocolypse, my hairdresser and manicurist both have let me know that they are closed for the duration of the Covid-19 situation.  Let me just say I will now be wearing both a hat and gloves.  Maybe I will bring back a fashion trend?

 

 

 

 

 

Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery Sew Along

Edyta of Laundry Basket Quilts is doing a really fun mystery sew along.  I am usually leary of mystery quilts, but decided to give this one a go.  I am really pleased with the blocks so far, and what I especially like is that she shows you the block layout with each addition.  Now, this sew along is moving along at a very fast clip.  By that I mean, each day there is a new block to make, and you need to make multiples of them.  Day One we made four blocks, Days Two, Three and Four we made eight blocks.  So, in four days of sewing you would have 28 blocks already.  Now, you could certainly take this slower and go at your own pace, but I think her philosophy is that we are all stuck home with nothing to do, so making this number of blocks in a day is achievable.

So far, I should have four corners that are laid out like this:

See?  You can get an idea of where she is going with this.  I hope I don't regret using that tan.  I can always change out that fabric for something else at this point.  That is my main problem with mystery quilts.  If I knew how things were going to be laid out in advance, I could pick my colors better.  At any rate, her quilts are always pretty so I doubt I can go too far wrong.  

It really helps to have a good-sized stash when these sew alongs come up.  I don't buy as much fabric as I used to since I can easily shop at home with the excess fabric I have accumulated over the years.  Once in a while though, I need something.  Since I live in a rural area with no quilt shops, I typically order online and try to buy from small shops that also sell online to supplement their brick and mortar business.  I have also ordered specific fabric I needed from various Etsy sellers with great results.  These people are all small business owners and I am happy to support them.  I have placed a couple of orders recently have been amazed at how quickly I received them.

Hope you are all doing well.  Half the people I know are being laid off their jobs, so that is going to be a problem.  One day at a time, that is all we can do. I understand Amazon and Walmart are hiring thousands of people to help with online orders and deliveries.  Things have gotten very strange in the world.

I  made a mask for Eva yesterday.  When I gave it to her she said, "Now, exactly where am I supposed to wear this?"  I had to laugh.  She's right.  We aren't going anywhere, that is for sure.

Year of the Sew Along

2020 is turning into The Year of the Sew Along for me.  In our current lockdown situation, so many designers, quilt shops, and groups are hosting the most fun sew alongs.  If we are stuck in the house, surrounded by our fabric stashes, why not make the most of it!  I have an all-time high of five, yes FIVE sew alongs going right now (technically one is a UFO, but it WAS a sew along lol), and I am loving it.  I will share the details of them with you this week.

Let me tell you about the one pictured above.  Since we are under orders to "shelter in place" in our homes, working on some cute little house blocks seems just about perfect.  I first heard about it on Instagram #modavillage.   There is a Miss Rosie pattern called Village that features an entire neighborhood of these adorable blocks.  I happened to have the pattern, but it is FREE for downloading on the Sew Lux website.  Lots of people are posting on the Instagram site and it is so much fun to see what they are doing.  There are also helpful tips--for instance, some of the houses have little chimneys which look tricky to construct, and I noticed some kind soul had done a tutorial.

You can use charm packs or scraps to make the blocks, and I am telling you, they are absolutely addicting.  Wouldn't this be a remarkable memento of the time we were all stuck at home but found a way to connect with other quilters?

I had a box of American Jane (Sandy Klop) scraps which got me started.  I wanted the happiest, most cheerful fabric I could get my hands on and this fit the bill.  If you have leftovers from Bonnie and Camille, Fig Tree or any of your favorite designers, they will work perfectly for this quilt.  Or just use any random scraps.  Whatever you choose, it seems to work.  Thelma (Cupcakes 'n' Daisies) made one with scraps from every quilt she made in 2016.

How are you all getting along?  Every day seems to bring more bad news, doesn't it?  We will get through this eventually.  In the meantime, I will try to post positive thoughts each weekday.  If you are alone, feel free to email me or comment on my blog.  I will be happy to answer you and be at least one person you interacted with in a day!

 

A Tea Party and Two Meals

Week One of Social Distancing is now nearly complete and we survived.

So yesterday Eva and I got all dressed up and had a tea party.  Three kinds of tea, cucumber sandwiches, scones, lemon curd, the works.  It was just what we homebound girls needed.  You may think you have no reason to get out of your sweat pants, but just do it.  It doesn't matter if you don't leave your driveway, don't see another soul but your family, just make an occasion and celebrate family and fellowship and togetherness.  We may be stuck at home, but by golly, we can still party with one another.

We had a lovely time.  And, whew, looking at that photo, I sure do need a hair cut.  I have no idea if my hairdresser is operating these days, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that this shelter in place rule is over before my hair is down to my knees.

On another topic, what are you all cooking these days?  No excuse not to make a bit of effort since we are home all the livelong day.  I have been trying to make meals that I can get some leftovers from.  On Wednesday my husband roasted a chicken with potatoes, carrots, and onion.  It was a tiny little fellow, and we ate half of it between us.  On Thursday I took all the meat off the bones and made chicken enchiladas.  My favorite simple chicken enchilada recipe is from Dinner at the Zoo, a fun blog site.

This is my dish of enchiladas before I popped it into the oven.  I cut the recipe in half because I only had two cups of leftover chicken.  I used 10 enchiladas instead of 14.  It makes great leftovers too, in case you can't eat it in one sitting.

The superintendent of schools in our county gave his talk yesterday afternoon, and of course, no one has a clue how long school will be closed.  What he did make clear, however, was that the teachers will be providing all the learning materials either online or in physical packets.  The expectation is that every household with a child will homeschool their children with these materials for as long as we have to stay home and schools are closed.  He does not want any child to be unprepared to pass on to the next grade.

At this point, I am pretty much in awe of what these teachers have to do on a daily basis to educate our children.  Since Eva's parents are still working each day, homeschooling has fallen to me.  For the most part, I am really enjoying it, but when Eva gets tired and her attention wanders, it is more frustrating.  I am good at presenting the materials and working with her, but maybe not so good at scheduling breaks and snack times to shift gears now and then.  It isn't like I can say "Recess!" and send her out to run around in the driveway for twenty minutes.  And my goodness, is she ever missing social interaction with other children.

Are any of you homeschooling right now?  How do you meet these challenges?

 

Moda BlockHeads #10

This week's block was pretty simple.  This represents about fifteen or twenty minutes of work, which is not really doing it for me.  I am craving something a bit more complex and time-consuming.   I tried to ramp up the challenge by making the four-inch size.  I think I will need a total of sixteen four-inch blocks for the layout I have chosen. I've made five four-inch blocks at this point.  

This past weekend, I did make a twelve-inch block (I recall I will need a dozen that size).  I like to make those a bit more complicated since they will be so big.  In the future, if the weekly MBH block is too simple to suit me, I will plan to replace it with something a bit more challenging and visually interesting.

In other depressing news, Ahren was planning to come out in May for a ten-day visit and he has canceled those plans.  It doesn't seem like it is wise to plan any sort of travel at this point.  Also, the superintendent of our school district is giving a speech this afternoon (Wednesday, as I write this) and I have a sinking feeling he is going to announce that school is done for this year and won't resume until fall.  It is bad enough news for kids of any age, but what about the high school seniors who won't have graduation, or a prom or a ceremony to receive all the awards they have worked so hard to achieve?  Or disadvantaged families whose children depend on the free lunch they get at school?  It is heartbreaking.  There are horrible ramifications of this quarantine/lockdown everywhere you look.  And what about the homeless people?  I cannot even imagine what that situation would be like to live through.

I am doing pretty well working with Eva and doing homeschooling.  Her wonderful teacher has made available the school books and worksheets and other materials for parents to work with the kids at home.  If they bother to pick them up and use them that is.  I am worried about the lack of physical activity for her during the day.  Eva is such an active child, I am going to have to study up on what kinds of things we can start doing for PE here at home.

Ack enough of this.  I will try to come up with something more light-hearted tomorrow!  Here is something funny:  my sister Kate thinks the Apocolypse has arrived since her local Sephora has closed.  My hairdresser is saying she is going to start charging for her services in toilet paper rolls.  Two rolls for a hair cut, six rolls for highlights, four rolls for a root touch up...We are all in this together, laugh when you can and we will get through it.