Sister's Choice Quilts

New Project with Sweetwater Fabric

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was planning a new project. It is a small one, just a table runner, but I am in love with the fabric collection and the pattern. 

The fabric is a line called Timber by Sweetwater, with lovely golds, greens and blacks in a national park/camping theme. The pattern is also by Sweetwater, and is called Base Camp. The pattern features trees and cabins. Super simple construction, that a beginner could do easily. I love the way the cabins look like they are nestled in the woods. I can imagine myself in one of the cabins on the lake, slipping my coffee at dawn, looking out at my boat at the dock, imagining a day of fishing. Or more like it, floating in the boat reading a book.

I did get a few blocks made. I won't be making too many more, because I envision this runner on my hall table, which is not super long. I will probably do two rows as shown at the bottom of the quilt on the pattern cover. Eight houses, six trees.


I can't wait to send this out for quilting. It will be wonderful on my table next October and November.

Hope your week is going well. We have plans for a little getaway for part of next week, which will be nice. Lake Tahoe is calling to us and we found an Air B&B that is pet-friendly, so Archie will get to come with us!

New Ironing Board Cover

Another thing I did last weekend was to recover my ironing board table surface. The previous fabric I chose was not working out at all. It was a beige toile print that showed every dribble, stain, and goo that came out of my iron. It really looked awful and was frankly depressing to look at. I got the new piece of fabric all cut out to the right size and my husband wielded the staple gun, which is always a challenge for me. I am thrilled with how it turned out.

If you are curious about the ironing table, it is a metal shelf unit we got at Lowe's. My husband cut it down to ironing table height for me. We got a piece of particle board (also from Lowe's) and I covered it with batting and fabric which we stapled down all around. I am now on my second board (the one underneath warped, but I still kept it under the new board). There must be six or seven layers of fabric covering the two boards. 

The fabric is what is called a "Cheater" fabric. It looks like a patchwork quilt, but those nine patches are just printed onto the fabric. It would make a great backing. The fabric is part of the Denim and Daisies collection that Fig Tree recently released for Moda Fabrics. One nice thing about it is that at 60" it is wider than the average 45" fabric we typically get. Which makes it ideal for backing a smaller quilt. I ordered my yardage from the Fat Quarter Shop. 

Did you buy any of this collection? I just loved it and couldn't resist getting the whole bundle. I love those blues and oranges. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it could be a great choice for a sampler sew-along. For now, I will just hoard it, and pet it from time to time. 

If you go to Instagram and check out Susan Vaughan at The Felted Pear, she is using this fabric group to make the Halloween Memories quilt. Her blocks are just stunning. 

If you invested in this fabric bundle as I did, what is your plan for it?

 

Moda Blockheads- Sewing Top Together

I couldn't resist showing one more picture of Moda Blockheads 5. I just need to sew the rows together and this top will be nearly done. I wasn't feeling great yesterday so I didn't sew, but I hope to complete this task today.

I also may have done a bit of fabric shopping lately. Aren't these little color bundles of Lori Holt's new line "Autumn" adorable? I bought them from an Etsy seller called Farm Road Quilts, and was so pleased with how fast they were shipped to me and also how nicely they were packaged.

I highly recommend this seller and will definitely buy from them again.

More tomorrow when I am feeling perkier!

Six Chair Cushions Done, and a Fun New Quilt Kit

Well, I got six cushion covers made and stuffed with foam. I am waiting on more foam squares before I make any more. If the thickness is different from the ones I have made so far, I will have to recalculate my measurements. I figured it was better to wait rather than make more covers that would fit poorly.

My stripes lined up pretty well. I was off a bit on one or two, but I have a fail-proof system in place now. The cushions will be scattered around an outside seating area and for the most part will be under a table or someone's fanny, so it doesn't really matter. 

How adorable is this little quilt kit? When I saw it on Fat Quarter Shop I just had to have it. If I ever get out from under all these seat cushions I can't wait to make it. It is a table runner called Hatchery Hack. I went for the whole kit, but you can just get the pattern if you want. 

Once I get up the nerve to open that pretty box I will show you the fabric. I can't bring myself to mess it up just yet. Once you take the printed cover off you can't put it back.

And here is one more thing I just couldn't resist. It is called a needle minder. It is magnetic and will attach to the throat plate of your sewing machine. As you sew and remove your pins you can scoot them onto this little plate and deal with them when you finish your seam or whatever you are sewing. They come in a ton of adorable designs. You can get a pumpkin one for fall, a Christmassy one for the holidays or just generally cute sewing-themed ones. A collection of them could be really fun. I dare you to go down the needle minder rabbit hole at fatquartershop.com.

Ok, maybe someone can help me out here. This past week, THREE different people have asked me if patterns I had used for my projects were still available for purchase. From me. Like I am in the business of selling patterns. Is there anything about this blog site that gives the impression that I am selling anything? If so, I need to correct it, because to be very clear, everything I use in my projects I have purchased with my own money and is for my own personal use. I certainly don't sell anything new or that I have used. 

It was just weird to get three requests in one week. Let me know if you can imagine why people would get that idea.

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Update on Current Projects

You all know that I work on multiple projects at a time. I love the variety of having all sorts of different things going on, and I sure never get bored. The following projects are those that I am actively working on each week. I also have projects in line to finish: mainly with borders and backings still needed. I also have a couple of block-of-the-month projects I have let languish. Designer Mystery 2023 and Halloween FIgs. But here is what you see when you enter my sewing room.

My ten Mercantile blocks are on the top of the design wall. Mercantile is a free two-blocks-per-week sew-along hosted by Lori Holt. I am not doing the applique step with these blocks. Instead, I will combine them in a diagonal setting, with each block having a low-volume background. The sew-along is fun, but I do wish there were printed sewing instructions for each block. The cutting instructions are printed, but to see how to assemble the block you have to go to Lori's blog and scroll though a hundred photographs until you get to the current week's sewing instructions.

At the bottom of the design wall is a project called Etoile Rouge (I've been calling it Rouge Etoile, which means red star in French). This sew-along is hosted by Kathryn Kerr, and you can get the info on how to sign up on her FaceBook page. This sew-along features a weekly block with 48 versions of the Ohio Star block. I purchased a membership for the sew-along a couple of years ago, but evidently, you have to start fresh each year if you want to follow along. For some reason only a limited number of sign ups are allowed per calendar year. I only had to pay once, but my access to the patterns ended after 12 months and I had to wait to see the patterns until the next group started up the following year. The pattern is $25 for 48 different block instructions. I wish I had kept up and printed out the patterns each week. Now I have to wait a week for each one to be re-released. 

I have bins of French General fabric and this project seemed like a good way to use it up. For the setting, the blocks will be separated by a pieced lattice. 

Here we have Moda Blockheads 5. I am using a fabric collection called Harvest Road by Lella Boutique. This is a free weekly sew-along, with blocks released on Wednesdays. The patterns, instructions, and tips are great with a Blockheads sew-along. All the blocks have a star design. My plan is to do a setting using five 12-inch blocks and twenty-four 6-inch blocks. 

I sometimes make an extra block if I am in the mood, using a pattern I find in a book or on the internet. These are the two blocks I made last week. The one on the right is the actual block of the week (funnily enough, another Ohio Star). The block on the left was from a free pattern offered by Jessica Dayon. It isn't a star block but I thought it was interesting. 

Hope you all had a great weekend. The snowmageddon we were told we should expect never happened. It is just raining and raining. 

Mercantile Sew Along

Today I'd like to tell you about a new sew-along that Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet is doing. It is called Mercantile and features a new fabric line of Lori's as well as a gazillion of her products and notions. There will be two blocks a week, with tutorials on her blog site. The sew-along starts this week and ends in April. As you see, the quilt is in her typical style: very cute, kind of vintage, with that 30s feed sack vibe she is known for. 

Let's talk about the first block, Birthday Cake, which I think is adorable (Photo from Lori's website). First, you make the cakestand block, then frame it with the background fabric. Next, you cut your block into a circle, using Lori's special circle template, and sew it to Lori's brand of interfacing. Turn the piece inside out and press to form the circle. Last, applique the circle to four print squares you have sewn together. As a final step, you trim the block down to size using Lori's special trim up ruler. That's a lot of steps, right? The resulting quilt is amazing, but for me, it's a bit too busy. And the amount of fabric required is staggering.

Don't get me wrong, I am susceptible to suggestion more than the average person and I considered buying the kit for about five minutes. The kit costs $260 and weighs contains about 30 pounds of fabric. Lori is a marketing genius and has created rulers, trim tools, applique templates, design boards, fabric "clappers", seam guides, thread to match her fabrics, and about a thousand other products that may make your sewing experience more fun and accurate. I have bought a lot of her products and do enjoy many of them. But honestly? If you are going to make this quilt and buy all the suggested products/notions this project will cost you a LOT of money. That being said, the block patterns are free on her website!

So here's my plan. I am going to make the blocks with the fabric and tools I have on hand and see what happens. I am not going to cut my blocks into circles and applique them onto yards of additional fabric. I am thinking of using several different neutral backgrounds and a diagonal setting and perhaps a pieced border.

As you can see, I have purchased plenty of Lori Holt fabric and it is hard to justify buying more when I have so much on hand. 

Are any of you doing this sew-along? The first block came out Jan. 29 and the second one will be on her website this Friday Feb.2. Are you planning to do the project as Lori suggests or are you a rebel like me and plan to switch things up? 

 

Moda Blockheads 5 Switch Up and Search for Fabric

Moda Blockheads 5 started back up with 30 blocks to go in the sew-along. And I have decided to change up the fabric I have been using. My palette had been rust and black, but even though I had a great selection of fabric, I think it was too limiting in terms of how often I would use a quilt with those colors. 

When rummaging in my sewing closet I rediscovered a fat quarter bundle of an older Lella Boutique collection called Harvest Road. I absolutely love the navy, brown, sage, and light blue colors in this group. The background is an eggshell color, and I had several pieces in my stash that will work perfectly.

These colors would coordinate beautifully in my main bedroom and would make a quilt I would use and cherish for years. 

My problem is, I do not think I have enough fabric to make 30 more blocks. It was a popular collection around 4 years ago, so of course finding any for sale online is like searching for hen's teeth. 

The main fabric is the navy floral. The other pieces that work best for my blocks are the ones to the right.

Do any of you have any of this fabric that you would be willing to sell me? If you happen to have a fat quarter bundle, I'd be willing to purchase the whole thing if you are of a mind to part with it. I'd like to use the floral for the border, but only have a yard and a half of it, and I would probably need at least that much more if anyone has it. 

Please do let me know if you have any of this fabric you would be willing to part with and what your price would be. Thanks, friends!

 

 

Moda Blockheads. Week 7 and a Little Change Up

Week 7 of Moda Blockheads 5 was designed by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life, and I love it. This is a great block and I will definitely be making it again for other projects. 

I am making a little change to my color palette for this project. I was originally using some brighter oranges in the blocks and I decided I just wasn't loving those tones. The bright orange seemed a bit jarring, which wasn't what I was going for. Then a kind lady commented on my Instagram post that she loved my "Halloween quilt" and that pretty much cinched it for me. Halloween is not what I want this quilt to be. I want to play up the darker rusts and butternut colors and take the bright orange out.

This is what I am talking about. I absolutely love this block, but the colors aren't working for me. If you compare it to the block in the top picture, you can see the difference. I plan to remake it, but it will take a bit of effort, as it is all paper pieced. Man, that one came out great too...

These are the fabrics I took out of the mix.

This is what I am left with. I also ordered some butternut shades from a Pam Buda collection called Butternut and Peppercorn that will work in well.

Do you ever do that? Jump headlong into a project and after making a few blocks, decide that your color mix needs changing up? A quilting instructor once told me that if a color you are using in your quilt seems jarring to your eye, you either need to take it out or add a lot more of it!

Seasonal Projects and Eva Gets a Surprise

I just love working on a seasonal project in keeping with whatever season I am in. I started this Fatquartershop free sew-along a week or so ago and am nearly finished with it. It is called Bats and Boos. All the free patterns are on the FQS website. I just need to make the center block and add the border and I'll have a fun little table topper or wall hanging for next year.

Adhering to my love of seasonal projects, I think I need to work on something to get me in the Christmas spirit. I am all set with a couple of great collections of Christmas fabrics. Some are from Fig Tree Christmas Figs I and II, and the little fat eighth bundle is from Sheri and Chelsi's "Favorite Things". Once I finish up Bats and Boos I will starch this next batch of fabrics and start piecing a Christmas table runner.

In other news, over the weekend, Eva got a new member of her family! Meet Winston, a 12-week-old West Highland terrier. When my daughter Sara and Ryan were married, they had a Westie named Remy, who was much beloved by the whole family and was Ozzie's best (and only) friend. Sadly, Remy passed away a year or so ago, leaving a big hole in our hearts. 

On Sunday, Ryan told Eva that he and stepmom Stephanie wanted her company on an errand to Fresno (three hours or more from us), to "pick something up". Not a huge fan of long car trips, they had to bribe her with a promise of lunch at In-N-Out Burger. Well, surprise, the errand was to collect Winston from the breeder and take him to his new forever home. I haven't met Winston yet, but am hoping he and Archie will become friends. I'd say the little guy looks pretty agreeable, don't you think? You can sure tell by the expression on Eva's face how she feels about him.

Winston's breeder has a great Instagram site featuring the dogs he raises. Go check out @fivewesties for more photos, including one of Eva. Get ready for cuteness overload.

Fun Non-Quilting Project

When it is a known fact that one can sew, one often gets requests to make alterations or DIY home projects involving fabric. About 35 years ago, my husband and I bought a wrought iron patio set consisting of a loveseat, chair, and coffee table. We enjoyed it for years and I must have recovered the cushions at least twice, if not three times. 

Eventually, we gave the patio set to my daughter and son-in-law. I recovered the cushions for Ryan about six or seven years ago in the starfish and anchor fabric you see above. There are six cushions in all (and a couple of pillows) and the fabric was literally ripping apart at the seams. My son-in-law bought enough upholstery fabric to recover the patio furniture for everyone in the housing development and asked me if I would once again recover these cushions. 

The fabric he chose is this colorful awning stripe. I love his selection and think it will look great on the patio furniture, which is painted blue. 

But. It is striped. And any of you who sew, know that stripes bring their own unique challenges to a project! Obviously, the stripes have to match. And ideally, each cushion will be identical to the others. It took me all day Tuesday to figure out the measurements and make the first cushion. After I got my system down, on Wednesday, it was taking me about a half hour to construct each cushion cover, including zippers. 

This was a fun project and a nice change to quilting. I made some improvements to the method I had used in the past, which I think will add to the look and convenience of the cushions.

Can you believe in the history of making cushion covers repeatedly for this patio set, I never put in zippers, but always sewed the openings closed by hand? What on earth was I thinking? Well, no more. I went to Joann Fabric and bought six polyester zippers and every single cushion and pillow has a zipper for easy removal and laundering. 

Here is the happy pile of them all ready to go home. You can see all the leftover fabric in the background.


All settled in on Ryan's patio!

I guess it's a good thing there is so much extra fabric. He has just asked me to use it to make 16 seat cushions for the chairs in his tasting room....