Sister's Choice Quilts

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!

 

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.

Dig Out Those UFOs

Under the current state of madness we find ourselves in, we all need to find at-home activities with which to occupy ourselves.  Our governor has stated that all of us over the age of 60 really need to self isolate at home and only go out for essential reasons.  As long as my grocery store stays open I think we will be fine.  Eva's school emailed everyone this weekend that they will be closed through April 14.  Caring for her and keeping her occupied will take up some of my time, and I plan to fill the rest with reading and sewing.

This weekend I decided it was high time to dig out some UFO projects and get them done.  This is the ideal situation to accomplish that mission.  Do you all remember a couple of summers ago I participated in a summer sew along sponsored by Primitive Gatherings called Star-Studded Event?  Each week we received a packet of scraps and were to make twenty blocks a week for twelve weeks over the summer.  240 blocks.

I got sidelined after week 7 after making 140 blocks.  The blocks are so interesting and after making a few dozen of them, that
2 1/2" center star gets a lot easier.

  The blocks are 6 1/2" square and I will end up with 240 of them.  This is going to be a big quilt.  

Half the blocks are made with dark strips.

And the other half with light strips.

This is what the finished quilt will look like.  This is a photo of the Primitive Gatherings quilt from Pinterest.  As you see, by the way the blocks are laid out, there will be no seam matching, so construction should be fast and easy. 

Now that I have dragged out the project box and gotten going again with my block sewing, I am pretty excited to get this finished.

So, how about you?  You must have a UFO or two you might pull out and work on, right?

Do-Over

I needed a do-over for my ModaBlockheads block #9.  I just wasn't happy with my construction of the first one.  So this version (credit to Lissa Alexander) is the eight-inch size, and I am much happier with it.  The scrappy center is adorable.

I liked it so much I did another one in a six-inch size.

I am satisfied with how this one came out too.  The plan is for all my six-inch blocks to be set on the diagonal, so I think the two blocks will be quite different from one another.

We had a chatty Facetime visit with our son Ahren yesterday. He was telling us how Ireland is handling the coronavirus scare. He is the IT engineer for a Swedish bank in Dublin.  He says the company moved all the employees around and split them up between two floors of their Dublin high rise building.  That way, the programmers, IT people, and software engineers will be all split up and if one floor of employees get sick and sent home the whole computer system of the company won't shut down since the other half of the computer staff will be on another (hopefully) unaffected floor.  He has taken to wearing food prep gloves when he takes the bus back and forth to work.  (Which must be a great look).  He wipes everything down with anti-bacterial wipes.  He bought masks to wear but hasn't used them yet.  He was told the masks help others if you are sick and wear one, but it isn't really a preventative measure to protect the wearer from illness.  So far, 90 Irish citizens have contracted the virus.  However, as a precaution, the head of their government, the Taoiseach (pronounced Tee-sha) Leo Varadkar has shut down all the schools, colleges and daycare centers.

We found a fantastic price on airline tickets to Ireland online yesterday, for September.  We are afraid to buy them in case this situation is still going on in the fall.  Couldn't be, right?

On a personal note, I am still working my way through an entire sour cream pound cake since there isn't much else to do.  If anyone is interested in joining me, here is a link to the recipe:

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/sour-cream-pound-cake/

ModaBlockheads #9

I made this week's MBH block #9, and am feeling just so so about it.  I need to tighten up some of the seams so things line up a bit better.  I am also thinking of doing an 8 inch size and have the center section have a scrappy mixture of sixteen little squares instead of a line up of same color squares as the one above has.

I've been busy cooking and reading and generally not doing much.  My husband and I did go to our local grocery store and stocked up on pantry items and meat for the freezer so we don't have to keep running to the store every day, which is what we typically do.  We are trying not to leave home any more than we have to with the Coronavirus hysteria that is going on.  The elementary school in the next town over is shut down for two weeks because one of the students tested positive for it.  Every day brings more news of things being canceled or shut down.  Is the virus affecting your life at this point?

My son in Ireland tells me the Dublin St. Patrick's Day parade has been canceled.  That is a first, for sure.  Lots of money going to be lost due to that.  Our local Irish Day has been canceled as well, which will be a huge loss for local businesses.  What a shame.

So far, we aren't hoarding toilet paper or anything, but are trying to be vigilant about handwashing and not going out into public places so much.  So I made a fabulous pound cake today and have nothing better to do than stay home and eat it.  This crisis could be a disaster for my waistline.

Four More Blocks

I made three more 6-inch blocks for the Moda BlockHeads 3 project.  None of them are BlockHeads patterns. This week's block didn't fit my concept for the quilt so I skipped it.  I didn't want to fall behind, so I needed to come up with something on my own.  I used the most recent block pattern from the A Quilting Life sew-along, then I remade a block called Rocky Mountain Puzzle from BlockHeads 1, and another one called Buttercup from a book of blocks I had on hand.  My 6-inch blocks will be on-point, so these designs worked nicely.

I will need a few 4-inch blocks and figured I had better get cracking on those as well.  The one on the lower left is the latest one--Diamond Star from the afore-mentioned book of block ideas.

Are you doing BlockHeads3?  Are you enjoying the patterns and process so far?  I have enjoyed the paper piecing and loved the birdhouse block.  I think my favorite pieced block is the Pinwheel surrounded by half-square triangles that Lisa Bongean designed (between the birdhouse and four hearts below).

Here is my collection of BlockHeads 3 blocks at this point in time-  We are on week 8, and I have been pretty consistent in coming up with an extra "unauthorized" block or two each week.  The more the merrier.  I don't think the Quilt Police will cite me.

I have only made two 12-inch blocks, so I clearly need to make a few more of those.  It is early days yet, so I have plenty of time to get that done.  As I recall, only twelve 12-inch blocks are called for in the layout I have chosen.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I have housecleaners coming on Saturday, so nothing much in the way of sewing will get done that day.  There is always hope for Sunday though!  Daylight Savings Time starts Sunday here in California, which I always look forward to.  We might even get some rain.  Have a good one, everyone.

Radio Silence

Sorry for the lack of posts last week.  My husband has taken over the guest room next to my sewing room and keeps retreating there to take naps and rest up while he recovers from the flu.  I am reluctant to clatter around in my sewing space for fear of disturbing him.  This flu has sure hit him hard.  He is up and about more now, so with luck, I can get back to business as usual.  

I did manage to sew together the latest ModaBlockhead block, #7.  It was a simple heart block as you can see, but there were plenty of suggestions as to how to put it together for different looks.  You could make one heart with one or two fabrics, you could sew four 4" blocks together to make an 8" block, and even make one large heart with a smaller one pieced inside of it.  Clever ideas.  But I think I am done with the heart/love theme and ready to move on.

One advantage of not being able to do much sewing is that I got lots of reading time in.  I actually finished 10 books in February and will do one of my book review posts for you next week.  I have been having a great reading year so far in 2020, with most of my books being four or five star experiences.  There was a dud or two, but mostly my choices have been grand.

Hope you had a lovely weekend, and welcome March!

ModaBlockheads Block 6

I managed to put my book down and go sew last week's Block 6 of the ModaBlockheads Sew Along.  This one was designed by Lisa Bongean, who is known for her multitudes of teeny tiny pieces in her blocks.  I decided to go with the 8 1/2 inch size for this one, which I hoped might be a bit more forgiving.  The half square triangles in this block finish at 1 inch.  I did use triangle papers to help with the accuracy.

I had some issues with my block coming together perfectly in the center, but you can't really see it due to the busy medium value fabric in the pinwheel.  I can live with it.

I do have a tip regarding triangle papers to share with you.  

Some of you may avoid using triangle papers because it is such a pain to rip those darn papers off.  It is so annoying to rip away and still be left with bits of paper stuck in the threads that you have to take the time to pick away at.  I learned this great idea from Carrie Nelson in either a YouTube video or one of her Moda blog posts, I can't recall which.  At any rate, here is what you can do to make the paper ripping process a breeze. Instructions are for right-handed people.  Just reverse if you are a lefty.

First off, when you stitch through your triangle paper, do shorten up your stitch length.  This makes the tear away process easier as well as the following technique.

Hold your triangle as shown, with your left thumbnail pinching along the seam line (through all layers), your right thumb and fingers holding just the paper.  Notice thumb/finger placement is in the middle of the triangle, not on the ends. Grippping firmly with your left thumb and fingers, pull the paper sharply away with your right hand.  It will come cleanly away along the stitched line.  That remaining strip of paper under your left thumb comes away easily.  No fussy paper bits left behind to pick off.

Again, you are not ripping the paper from top to bottom, you are giving it one sharp tug right from the middle.

Do try this.  It makes tearing those papers away pretty painless.

Hope your week is off to a good start.  Husband, daughter, son in law, grandchild all recovering well from the flu, albeit with lingering coughs.  I am still standing and symptom-free.