Sister's Choice Quilts

Christmas Among the Stars Again BOM Progress

Amidst the holiday hubbub, I managed to get into the sewing room for an hour or so. If I don't keep up with the Christmas Among the Stars Again sew along I am going to get behind. This is one of two blocks for the second month of the sew-along.  I just paid for month four, so I need to step it up a bit. 

How many times have you signed up for a BOM year-long sew-along and lost steam after the first or second month? I swear I have at least three abandoned BOMs sitting in storage. Now that is a real waste. I regret abandoning two of them, one was in Fig Tree fabrics and the other was Bonnie and Camille. At some point, I do want to finish those up. The third one I ended up not caring for because the fabric was kind of ugly (to be honest). It was a Blackbird Designs collection that featured muted colors and had lots of prints in a baby diarrhea gold/brown that was just bad. That one can remain a UFO.

Are any of you participating in this Christmas Among the Stars Again sew-along? I looked on the Fat Quarter Shop website but did not see any finishing or backing kits for this sew-along. I hope they aren't sold out! There isn't much left of the Christmas Morning fabric collection that the BOM is using.

I am enjoying making the blocks and fondling the pretty fabric.  The quilt is Christmassy, but still kind of subtle. 

Next Christmas I will be so glad I made it!

Hope you are all doing great and that you are enjoying a relaxing week between Christmas and New Years.

 

Then This Happened

Oh dear, I am not sure what came over me. This is Fig Tree & Co.'s latest Halloween collection "Pumpkins and Blossoms". It is different from, but coordinates perfectly with their previous Halloween group "All Hallows Eve".

You know I am making the "Among the Stars Again" Block of the Month in a beautiful Christmas collection by Lella Boutique called "Christmas Morning". The BOM I accidentally signed up for with Fat Quarter Shop. Well, I figured since I was already making two blocks each month in the Christmas fabric...

...I might as well make two more in Halloween fabric.

Just to be clear, in case anyone is confused, I am not combining the Christmas blocks and the Halloween blocks into the same quilt. I will be making two quilts. One Christmas, one Halloween.

I am just glad all the thinking is done for me because I don't have the energy to do anything too clever on my own these days.

As an aside, the cream background fabric in the Pumpkins and Blossoms line is a tone-on-tone print. It is cream with a little pumpkin figure on it. I can't show it off properly in a photo, but trust me, if you can get your hands on this background fabric, do it. It will be perfect for any fall or Halloween-themed quilt you do in the future. I managed to get 6 yards from an Etsy seller, and am so glad I did.

This is the design in black and orange. It is pretty darn cute too. The fabric I bought is all cream, with the design printed in white. The SKU of the tone on tone is 20427-21

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Block One Christmas Among the Stars Again

I squeezed in some time to make the first block of the Christmas Among the Stars Again BOM program. I was delighted that one of the units in the block was an Hourglass. I had recently purchased just the perfect little tool for trimming them.

I recently bought a set of Lori Holt's "Cute Cuts" trim tools, which as you can see, have all the markings to perfectly trim an hourglass block. It worked like a charm.

One more block to make for this first month in the program, which I hope to do today before I leave for Palo Alto to take care of Dad. The colors will be reversed in this second block for a different look.

The weather has been mild and fall-like. We got in a little porch time before dinner last night. Ozzie joined us of course. He looks pretty good for an old guy going on 15 years of age. He is pretty deaf, but his eyesight isn't bad. He enjoyed staring at a squirrel off in the distance for a while. There is definitely nothing wrong with his appetite. 

Hope you all have an excellent weekend!

Best One Yet

I squeezed in an hour up in my sewing room yesterday and made the best mug rug yet. Technically anyway. It went together without any glitches or hitches and the machine binding went perfectly. What a great discovery that technique was! A timesaver for sure.

And I also got my pieces cut out for the first block in the Among the Stars Again Christmas version. 

Sorry for the poor-quality photo. It was late in the day when I took it. These are the pieces I cut out for the first two blocks.

I have to say, when you join in a Fatquartershop Block of the Month program where they supply the fabric, they are incredibly generous. This has always been the case, going back ten years or more. After cutting out the pieces for the blocks, I had enough fabric left over to repeat the process for another two more blocks!

This is what I had leftover. If you want to starch, or if you make a mistake, or just need extra, they provide it in their generous cuts. I am sure once this project is done, I will have more than enough to make a table runner or some other small project. It is a good value for the cost.

Hope everyone had a good week. I am off to take care of my dad this weekend. One of my sisters reported that Dad wanted to walk down the block for some exercise yesterday. He pushed his wheelchair and made it down three or four houses from his house. I am glad to see he had an interest in doing that. He is so frail and seems very weak and fragile to me.

I'll try to post Friday. If not, have a great weekend everyone! Bye-bye September!

 

Christmas Among the Stars Again BOM

Well, it looks like I am participating in a Christmas Block of the Month. I admit I was a bit surprised when this arrived in the mail. I recall seeing it and being interested, but I actually have no recollection of joining and ordering it. Oops. Must have been shopping with chardonnay again.

I do adore this fabric collection and the program comes with a book and instructions for a second Halloween version. How cute is that?

Here is the Christmas version I am working on. I tried to find a link to the BOM on Fatquartershop.com, but they must have closed it out, because I can't see it on their website.

This fabric collection is by Lella Boutique, who is becoming a great favorite with me. It is called Christmas Morning. The BOM blocks are 12 inches.

Now all I need to do is find time to sew. I can't even make myself a Halloween mug rug I am so swamped with other responsibilities. I thought I was retired. 

My computer issues have been resolved, but it has been a rough three days. Can't seem to live without it. My husband loaned me a PC, but I am used to a Mac and was very fumble-fingered. Thank goodness he had a spare I could use, otherwise, I would have missed three writing deadlines for the company I work for, which would have been very bad.

Hope your week is going well. Eva and I made Blondies (click the link for the recipe) yesterday and decorated the front porch. She was so funny. When I told her what we were making for our Tuesday baking project, there was silence. Finally she said, "That sounds good Nana, but shouldn't we be making something with pumpkin?" I tell you, that girl is into all things seasonal.

 

Serendipity Sew-Along

I know there seem to be an awful lot of sew-alongs going on right now. You may have held off joining in on any of them. The current Serendipity Sew-Along hosted by the Fatquarter Shop might change your mind.

This is the quilt Fatquarter Shop is making. They are using Corey Yoder's Spring Brook fabric collection and a dark blue background. It is a really different and striking look. The quilt itself is a "row" quilt. Every couple of weeks a free pattern will be released by the Fatquarter Shop for one of the rows in the quilt. I believe the sew-along concludes in June. The quilt isn't large, and the blocks are interesting. As far as a sew-along goes, this one looks easy to keep up with, not too easy, but not too challenging either.

I am making my version with Corey Yoder's Apricot and Ash collection and using a Bella Solid (200) for my background. The fabrics are so cheerful and really bring to mind the loveliness of spring. Corey is using these fabrics also and gives more information on her website.  I encourage you to check out her blog posts and sewing tips there. 

If making another quilt isn't in the cards for you right now, you may be interested that there is a cross-stitch group making the same design as a hand stitchery project.  More details can be found here and here. 

The patterns are free, but Fatquarter Shop is asking for a donation to benefit the Make A Wish charity foundation.  As with the Serendipity sew-along, Kimberly Jolly (owner of Fatquarter Shop) is putting out video tutorials on YouTube showing how to construct each block.

Isn't it wonderful these days, that there seems to be a sew-along for every taste and ability level? I am enjoying them so much. Even if I can't participate in them all, I sure am having fun seeing what others do.

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!

 

Block Mayhem

I've been tossing BlockHeads 1 blocks right and left.  I stare at my blocks on the design wall and see one that looks too dark, or one that looks too light, or one that has too much orange and "snap", it's out.  And good grief, is anyone else troubled by blocks that look like swastikas?  I have a little discard pile and it is growing.  Somebody stop me.  I need to move on from making the blocks and get the top finished for goodness sake.

I have remade some of the BlockHeads blocks with blocks from the Summer Moon book and am pleased with them.  This one is Weathervane.

Crown of Thorns. 

I forget what this one is and am too lazy to go upstairs and check the pattern book.

Bear's Paw.

I've been having fun, but it's time to move on.  I need to come up with a plan as to how to best use the orphan blocks.

Oh, and if you are looking for an easy and adorable Valentine's table runner pattern, do check out this new offering from Atkinson Designs.

 

 

Sampler Block Resource

When I realized I needed more six inch blocks for the setting I have in mind for my BlockHeads1 sampler quilt, I started searching for block resources.  The Summer Moon Block of the Month was quite popular last year, and a book has been published to go along with the sew along.  The blocks in this book are in three sizes:  5 inch, 6 1/2 inch and 8 inch.  I knew the 6 1/2 inch size would work for me, so I ordered the book.  It is by Carrie Nelson, so I knew I couldn't really go wrong.

The book arrived while I was away last week, and I had a lovely time going through it Sunday afternoon while my husband and I watched the SuperBowl.  I have marked the pages of block instructions that will work great for my project and can't wait to get started on making the five or six extra blocks I need to finish up my BH1 sampler setting.  I am planning to surround the sampler blocks around a central appliqued medallion, which is also going to take some figuring out.  First the blocks, then the center!

We had a terrific time down in the desert.  The weather was gorgeous-temperatures in the high 70s every day.  I bought some new tee shirts and even wore shorts out by the pool.  Now that we are home, it is so much colder.  As I am writing this post at 6:30 AM, it is 27 degrees outside!  Back to reality.  Like Mr. Groundhog, I need to wait six more weeks for spring.

Pie Birds

This is the first completed block in a Kim Diehl table runner that is made up of seven of these little guys.  It took quite some time to put it together, as each of those block triangles is actually two folded corner triangle units sewn together.  You do the sew and flip method with the black fabric on all the colored strips and then sew the smaller strip units together to make longer ones.  Lots of points and seams to line up, but the super scrappy effect is worth the bother.

34 different fabrics in each block, if you don't repeat any (I'm trying not to, but it's hard).  65 total pieces in each block.

In honor of my year to "Use It Up", I pulled fabrics from my Kim Diehl storage box.  I have so many scraps leftover from her Simple Whatnots projects that I could construct about twenty more Kim Diehl projects out of the leftovers alone.

Pattern is in the book "The Big Book of Table Toppers" by Karen M. Burns.

If you are wondering about the title of this post, "Pie Birds", that is the name she gave this little quilt.  It made no sense to me either until I really looked at the block from a distance.  The little black triangles are blackbirds baked in a pie!  See it?  How cute is that.

Super cute, but just wait.  This quilt was one of the wackiest I have ever made.  Here is how you sew the thing together:

So, where are we going with this?  Well, this quilt needs to be trimmed up.  Keep in mind, each block has 65 pieces.  Seven blocks x 65 = 455.  Four hundred and fifty five little pieces that took FOREVER to line up perfectly with no points cut off, every seam intersection perfect.  And here is what I am supposed to do:

Cut the sides off.  (Sound of Nicole sobbing...)

To be continued.