Sister's Choice Quilts

Midnight Moon Catch Up

Yesterday I did get caught up in the Midnight Moon sew-along. I knew I had weeks 10 and 11 to do, but discovered I had somehow skipped week 7, All good now, all done. That star block in the middle of the upper row?  I did that three times. I just could not get the colors right. The block on the far right in the upper row is called Darting Birds. I made that one three times too. I kind of hate it. It is a weird block:  easy as sin, but and it was hard to get the colors/contrasts right. I may have to sacrifice that one and come up with a new block.

The Rollin' Along sew along is about to start. I got my Cozy Up fabrics all starched and I am ready to go with the center Great Granny block.

Our weather is warming up, but I am looking forward to it. I love sitting out on my porch reading my book and getting some fresh air. There is a limit though. If it is over 100 degrees, I do not last long! Early morning is the best time to sit out. 

Best of all is the time I have been finding to get some sewing done! 

Ozzie had a birthday yesterday. 15 years old, can you believe it? He definitely has mellowed in his old age. He's still annoying, but not nearly the scamp he used to be.  Here he is, about 13 years ago with a ball of yarn I had been saving for something nice.

Not much sewing going on this week. I wish I had an interesting excuse for not posting much, but I don't, other than we are trying to get into our summer routine of swim team practice, play dates, etc. I did get the Moda Blockheads 4 block finished. When set straight, it is supposed to be a berry with a little stem on top. I plan a diagonal set, so I left off the stem and it turned into a Granny Block. Only a very labor-intensive one, with the tiny squares sewn in individual rows. I wouldn't recommend it as an assembly method! I much prefer the method in Lori Holt's book Great Granny Squared.

Hope you all had a wonderful week. We had our carpets cleaned and are loving the nice clean surface. My husband and I swear we are leaving our shoes by the front door from now on and only wearing slippers in the house. Only he keeps forgetting and wearing his slippers outside and then back in the house again. 

Sunday is Father's Day here in the US, so Happy Dad's Day to all the father's out there. I feel so blessed to still have mine. 

Summer Has Arrived

Summer has arrived and that means some sewing, some reading, and some Eva time. This is a block for the Peace and Healing BOW I have been working on. Love this block.

Eva is really into making smoothies these days. And they are a delightful treat on a warm afternoon. This one was strawberries, bananas, orange sherbet and some juice. It was delicious. I keep trying to get her to try blueberries and peaches, but so far she is resisting.

And of course, it wouldn't be summer without some light reading. The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a perfect summer book. You think you know what is happening, but you couldn't be more wrong. Matthew and Marissa are having some marital issues and seek help from Avery, a therapist who has lost her license due to her unorthodox methods. I was hooked from page one.  I am enjoying this fast, light, brain candy read. 

I have been buying books like a crazy person lately. There are so many new books that have come out lately that are perfect summer fare. In fact, did you know that yesterday, June 7, was the day that more books were published in 2022 than on any other date? And I think I bought six of them!

I hope to get a May book review out this week. Those review posts are a heck of a lot of work, so if I can drag myself away from my sewing machine, I will produce something for you!

It's Feeling Like 4th of July Around Here

Another great table runner pattern. This one is called Zig Zag by Lehman Designs. It is fast, it's easy, and I have made four of them in two days.  lol.  The 4th of July one is pictured above.

I made a cream, red, and brown one with leftover 3 Sisters fabric.  This one could stay out all year, it goes with everything in my house. Seriously, this is a great pattern. It would be wonderful for holiday gifts.

One of my block of the week projects is called Peace and Healing by Piecing the Past Quilts. I had several red, cream, and blue fat quarter bundles that I combined for my version of the project. Unfortunately, they had been in my stash for a long time and I don't recall the exact names of the collections. These designers regularly come out with new groups in the same colorways, so it would be easy to duplicate. Pam Buda, Primitive Gatherings, and Julie Frederickson (of J.J. Stitches) were the designers. Honestly, all the fabrics worked great together and heaven knows I have a million yards of various backgrounds at hand, so it all went together easily. 

These are the most recent blocks I have finished. The blocks started out super simple, and I was tempted to throw in the towel and not bother making more, but they are getting more complex and more interesting, for sure.  The photo below is of all the blocks I have completed so far.  I believe there will be a total of 31.

It feels peaceful and kind of soothing to work with Civil War Reproduction fabrics. Lately I have been drawn to more contemporary and colorful collections, but these old standbys go with my decor and feel like painting in a way. It's hard to describe, but using these small saturated prints is just like playing with paints to me. Nothing assertive or large scale, just plenty of color.

Around the house, the patriotic decor is coming out.

The hall table.

Something whimsical on the kitchen counter. I bought so many Bath and Body Works candles this season. The house smells amazing.

The coffee table in the living room. Usually Ozzie is on the couch. It is almost camouflage for him (he blends right in), but I swear he isn't in this photo.

My dining table. Not very fussy this year, but that is definitely one of my favorite red, white, and blue quilts. 

I could have sworn I had Hobby Lobby front door hanging decorations, but I couldn't find them anywhere today. My husband says he thinks he knows where they are, so if they turn up I will take a picture tomorrow. If not, I will be stopping at Hobby Lobby on the way to my dad's this weekend!




 

Whirlwind Weekend

What a productive and fun weekend we had! We squeezed in a fun visit with family, some great shopping, and then I even had a day to do some sewing.

The blocks above are part of the Piecing the Past Peace and Healing Sew Along. I think they are perfect blocks for a diagonal quilt setting, which is what I have been planning for them. In all the years I have been sewing, I have never made a Tree of Life block! I don't think I'd want to make a whole quilt of them, but it is fun to have one in a sampler quilt.

I brought Eva along with me to visit my father and sister (who is out visiting from Wisconsin). We stopped at Target on the way and she picked out some cute new outfits. She is modeling a romper suit below. I don't think I have ever had a romper. It is definitely a look that soon-to-be eleven-year-old Eva can pull off. She looked adorable and it was so nice to show her off to my relatives.

Eva and I stopped at a Panera for lunch on the way home. Eva was in heaven with their mac and cheese, but to tell you the truth, I was extremely disappointed, with the food, the presentation, and especially the high price. I had a half a turkey sandwich and an iced tea. Eva had a bowl of mac and cheese, a skimpy yogurt, and a strawberry lemonade. The bill came to just under $25. I think that is ridiculous! The tiny portions were plopped on very large plates which made the small amount look even more minuscule. I used to enjoy Panera, but I doubt I will go there again.

Eva is clowning around for the photo, but she did say the mac and cheese was good. Oh, but it was our second try because the first one was served in a dirty bowl and had to be sent back! Yikes.

Hope you had a great three-day weekend (in the US). Ours was pretty quiet, but we did go see the new Downton Abbey movie and it was excellent! We thoroughly enjoyed it. There might have been a few sniffles at the end.

 

 

June Mug Rugs

The June blocks for the Mug Rug of the Month Club are done. Clearly, with all the things on my "To Do" list, they didn't take long. There was some confusion on my part when I got to the top of the strawberry unit, but I worked it out eventually. The pattern is Strawberry Social by The Pattern Basket. 

I hope to get them quilted and bound on Sunday and then present them to the girls.

In other news, my oven decided to bail on me. It won't hold a consistent temperature, doesn't heat up to the set temperature, and is generally frustrating the heck out of me. One of the activities that Eva and I do regularly is bake, and without an oven, neither of us is going to be very happy.

My husband put an oven thermometer in there, we set the oven to Convection Bake, set the temperature higher than we needed, and let it preheat for a long time. With all that tinkering, we hoped we would be able to successfully bake a Cinnamon Streusel coffee cake. The last thing we baked, Snickerdoodle Blondies, had to be thrown out because of the bad baking situation. And they were for the end of the year school potluck party. Someone was pretty unhappy about that.  To avoid a similar situation, Eva plopped herself in front of the oven for the 40-minute baking time of the coffee cake. She had a flashlight and would peer into the oven and check the thermometer every few minutes. If it was off the 350° mark she would call me over and I would tinker with it.

I think it came out pretty good. I am taking Eva with me to my dad's house this weekend for a much-needed visit, and she wanted to take him a baked treat. Fingers crossed it tastes good! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Three Days of Sewing

I have to say the blocks for the Piecing the Past "Peace and Healing" sew along are getting more interesting. And more complicated! I was worried at first at how simple some of the blocks were, but things are picking up nicely in terms of difficulty. I've made 17 blocks so far and have a couple more to do today to get caught up.

This first one was kind of fun. My fabric starching and new iron seem to really be helping me achieve accuracy. Seriously loving my new CHI iron.

Love this basket block. 

Ooh boy, this one was a doozy. Very challenging. I got it done, and it came out ok. Had to redo the flying geese units, but in the end, it was fine. These larger 9 1/2 inch blocks are kind of forgiving.

I think tomorrow I will do a post on some of the tools I have been using that are helping my blocks come out so well.

The school year is winding down, Eva has gone to stay with her mom for the rest of the week, and I have two full days to spend any way I choose. That will be sewing and reading of course! Hope your week is going well.

Peace and Healing

Peace and Healing is the name of a free sew-along, not my present state of mind. Although, who couldn't use a little peace and healing most days?

Piecing the Past Quilts almost always has one or more free sew-alongs going on. I have done a few of them and really enjoyed them. Since they are free if you sign up for the weekly pattern emails, it seems like a no-brainer way to expand your collection of sampler quilt blocks. These particular blocks are 9" finished, which is larger than I typically like, but I am enjoying how accurate they are turning out!

Here is a previous Piecing the Past sew along I did. The quilt is quilted and I have really enjoyed using it on my bed. 

Oh, I should mention that the patterns are free up to a certain point, then they go away and are only available for purchase. 

Piecing the Past Quilts specializes in Civil War Reproduction fabrics, but I don't see why one couldn't make the blocks using any choice of fabrics. There is a Facebook group that is very lively and supportive, especially for less experienced sewers. Lots of encouragement. 

I really raided my stash for fabric for this patriotic-inspired quilt. I had a vintage Primitive Gatherings red white and blue collection, plus a really older group called Threads of Time by Julie Hendrickson for Marcus fabrics. The fabrics worked great together along with a couple dozen different cream-colored shirtings I had on hand. I did not purchase a single thing!

Can you tell I am getting more time to sew during the week now that homeschooling is winding down?

Moda Blockheads 4 (with changes) and Current Books

This is the latest block in the Moda Blockheads 4 sew-along. Block 8, "Wild Geese", designed by Kate Spain. It was supposed to be all half-square triangles, but that was too many seams for me. I changed it up and made flying geese units instead. For the 9" block, my sewing units were one 3 x 5 1/4" rectangle and two 3" squares. Once made into a flying geese unit, I trimmed it down to 2 3/4 x 5". 

I've been on a total reading tear this week. Four books down so far since the weekend. I haven't been feeling great, so I have spent a lot of time sitting still in my chaise lounge. I won't go into detailed reviews in this post, but you should know, that every single one of these books was GREAT!

From the top, The Paris Apartment (Lucy Foley) is a spooky mystery/thriller set in Paris. Bloomsbury Girls is about three feisty women who work in a bookstore in post-WWII London. The Change is a revenge/fantasy novel about three menopausal women who discover they have certain powers and use them to help others. Lessons in Chemistry is set in the 1950s/60s and features Elizabeth Zott, a chemist working in a male-dominated field, who gets no recognition and is treated shabbily. Among other things, she ends up hosting one of the first tv cooking shows. Every one of these was so entertaining and enjoyable.

As you can see by the dust jackets, I've been trying to concentrate on my Book of the Month purchases and get them out of the To Be Read pile!

Today is my daughter Sara's birthday!  Happy birthday Sara!

Moda Blockheads Progress

These are the latest two blocks in the Moda Block Heads 4 sew along. Both were designed by Lisa Bongean. The block on the left was supposed to have a nine patch center. I made it originally for the block on the right, but decided it was too much navy for one block. So I used it for the star block on the left instead. Both centers were 5" square, so it worked out great. I am pleased with the outcome.

Here are my two weekly sew-along projects on my small design wall. I am at the point where I am going to have to take them down because there is no room for more! The bat block I made for the Midnight Moon project really stands out! It is going to force me to do a diagonal setting for those blocks, which I was considering anyway.

I am still feeling exhausted for some reason. I hope I get some pep back soon! Hope your week got off to a good start.