Sister's Choice Quilts

Calendar Quilt Blocks Done!

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. Typepad (my blog host) has been down for the longest time. Had me worried there that it might not come back. But, here I am, minus the hair I pulled out in frustration.

I have been so busy, honestly. I have finished all the blocks for the calendar quilt for my granddaughter Eva. Today I hope to sew the blocks together and get a reply from my quilter that I can send it to her for a mid-May completion. Here are the blocks I have finished over the past week:

Honeybee block for August

Fall leaf for September

Pumpkin (duh) for October

Mixing bowls because we bake in November, right?

And to finish off the year, Christmas lights for December

Here are all twelve finished blocks! Now to sew them together and get a border on the sides so it will fit a twin bed better. I am so pleased with how fun and colorful these blocks are, and hope Eva will enjoy the quilt and the memories of all our afterschool activities over the past nine years she's been in elementary and middle school. All those times she said "What shall we make (bake, do, create) today, Nana?"

Hope you all had a great weekend. Happy St. Patrick's Day! My winemaker son-in-law invited us over for a fantastic corned beef dinner last night and it was so good. 

 

New Project: A Quilting Life 2025 BOM

"Whaaat? Another project, you say? And a Block of the Month? Seriously, Nicole, I thought you swore off these things for 2025?"  No, no, no. The project I have in mind is technically a Block of the Month hosted by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life. But I don't have a year to get it done. It needs to be finished, quilted, and bound by the end of May, and Sherri's BOM goes through December. I don't have time for that. But she has given me a brilliant idea for a quilt I hope to crack out in a few weeks. Thank you Sherri!

OK, here's the deal. Sherri does a wonderful BOM every year. The patterns are free during the year the BOM takes place, and then you have to buy them if you didn't download the free patterns when you had the chance. This year, each month has a six-inch block that is surrounded by a log cabin setting. Each block finishes at 18"!  That's big. Anyway, by the time you complete 12 blocks you have a really big quilt. You know going into the BOM, you will end up with 12 log cabin blocks with a different cute 6" block in the center.

So here is how I am going rogue with this project. I will not be making Sherri's center 6" block for each month. Instead, for each month, I am going to do my own themed center block that has to do with whatever season/holiday/motif is associated with that month. A heart block for February, a shamrock block for March, an acorn block for September etc etc. The six-inch center heart block above was a Lissa Alexander free pattern  "Zest" in the Moda Blockheads 3 sew-along. The shamrock came from a pattern I ordered off of Etsy.

I don't have time to wait for Sherri to come out with her monthly center block. I will forge ahead and find my own 6-inch seasonal blocks for the center of my 12 monthly themed log cabin blocks. My goal is to complete these easy blocks, send them off to my quilter, and get the quilt back in time to give to Eva as an eighth-grade graduation present by the end of May. How fun is that? Her whole life, we have done seasonal crafts, seasonal cooking projects, and seasonal decorating. Now, she can have a commemorative quilt that will celebrate all those months of the year when we spent time together creating amazing things.

The fabric I am using is Sherri and Chelsi's Laguna Sunrise and Raspberry Summer. I bought a layer cake and a jelly roll in each of those collections. Both lines are cheerful, fun, colorful, and perfect for a young teen's quilt. There are shades of red, blue, green, peach, aqua, citron and more. Each block will pull from one color and be in keeping with a theme associated with the month in question. The background fabric I chose is just amazing, and I recommend that you snap some up before it is sold out. It is a white tone-on-tone (with subtle tiny ditsy flowers) from the Laguna Sunrise collection. This is a great background and would be amazing in so many quilts that need a solid-reading fabric as a background.

Can you tell I am excited about this new project? I get to work with fun colorful fabric and give the quilt to someone I love when it's finished. Win, win, all around! 

 

 

Working on Bindings

For all my talk about binding my quilts on the machine, I decided to go ahead and hand-bind a couple. I have a good audio book that I am listening to right now and it feels good to multi-task while I listen. I picked up my Lori Holt red and white sampler quilt to begin with. It will be nice to get this one on my bed for February.


I got it finished and on the bed and am really enjoying it. That Red and White Sampler was a fun project to work on. Lori still has all the tutorials and pattern links on her blog.


It felt so good to actually get the binding on the red and white one completed that I moved on to my shades of green St. Patrick's quilt. My bedroom walls are actually painted green, so this quilt will look amazing in there. This was another quilt that was fun to make. It is just a rail fence block used as the center of a square in square block. I did use an old pattern by Miss Rosie called "Don't Fence Me In".  I do love how a one-block quilt can really show off a fabric collection. This one is called "Lucky Charms" and I bought the fabric from Shabby Fabrics, but of course it is long gone by now.

I learned something interesting yesterday. You know Jennifer, the pretty blond lady who owns the online shop Shabby Fabrics? She does all their YouTube tutorials and can be found at any quilt show where Shabby Fabrics has a booth. I've met her and she is super nice. Her tutorials are also always consistently excellent. Ok, here is what I learned about her: she is a former commercial airline pilot. How about that for a career change? She sure did make a success of her fabric business!

I hope your week is going well. I am spending my time just the way I love to: lots of sewing and lots of reading. I made another loaf of sourdough this week and it turned out great, and I have been regularly walking Archie, which makes him a happy camper. You can barely call what we do "a walk" however. He moves at the pace of a snail because he has his nose to the ground smelling everything that has passed along the way before us. I have started calling our outings "Sniffaris"

 

 

Sewing Again and It Feels Great

It was a beautiful clear crisp day in my neighborhood yesterday. I got started with my plans to sew every morning by starching the fabrics for my sister's Neutral Granny Square runner. It may be chilly, but that fabric dries fast anyway.

I went up into the sewing room for the first time in ages and tried not to be disheartened by all my paused and abandoned projects. Remember this adorable Halloween Memories project? I'll get back to it.


And this Christmas at Granny's project? Gosh that was a cute one and I was really enjoying it during back in early November when I started it. Then things got real around my house with my husband coming home from the hospital and rehab and there was no more time for sewing.


My lack of sewing time didn't completely stop me from doing a bit of fabric shopping however. How cute are these Fig Tree bundles? Farm Road Quilt Shop is a great Etsy shop and I have purchased a lot from them. I love that hey have a great selection and fast shipping. Don't know what I will make with these yummy fabrics but trust me, I will come up with something. I find I am increasingly drawn back to Fig Tree fabrics and 3 Sisters collections lately.


While I waited for my starched fabric to dry, I completed Block 8 in the Designer Mystery project from 2012. No, that isn't a typo. 2012. I love these cheerful colors and am pleased with how the blocks all look together.


I didn't buy the finishing kit for this project, so I will have to get creative when it is time to set the 12 completed blocks.

That little sunflower block at the lower part of the design wall was an experiment. I think several of those blocks put together as a table runner would be super cute. There is always a new project to look forward to, isn't there?

Are you getting back into the swing of things now that the holidays are behind us? I feel as if I am and it makes me very happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very Productive Weekend

I was determined to get some things finished this past weekend and I am happy to say that is just what I did. I got the borders on my Summer in the Country quilt, and am pleased with how it came out. I wonder what sort of quilting design would be best for this one?

Pat not only finished her quilt, but it's back from the quilter already! She did a fabulous job and I wish I had thought to include a flag block in my quilt as she did in hers.

I also got the borders on Jubilee, a Pattern Basket quilt. The fabrics are from a couple of older collections by Sheri and Chelsi (Summer Sweet) and Coriander Quilts (Canning Day). I have no idea what I'll do with this quilt. It is so summery and cheerful. It would be a good quilt for a little girl I suppose.

I also got the bindings attached to two quilts. Now I just need to sew them down by hand. I have quite a setup next to my tv chair. I have my super bright light, and a handy magnifying glass for when the thread gets tangled. Luckily I can see well enough out of my right eye to do the stitching. It's coming out pretty good I think.

I've been rationalizing that since I have gotten so many projects into the finishing stage, I should probably start something new.  lol. Just a small project, maybe a table runner. I'll share more tomorrow.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

 

Designer Mystery 2023 Finished---On To Something Else!

Designer Mystery 2023 is finished. Honestly, it took hours to get all the borders on this quilt, and I felt like I was wrestling with a circus tent the whole time, but I got it done. I think those large blue areas will be pretty when they are quilted. I have the quilt turned sideways so there is more of an overhang on the sides, which works best in my opinion. 

Now I just want to put it away and not think about it for a while. I am so happy to move on to some other project! Definitely not one this big!

I am thinking of making the Fat Quarter Shop Spooky and Sweet Halloween mystery wall hanging/table topper. My fabric is all starched and ready to go. I plan on making a few modifications to the pattern, which I will share as I get to them. I actually may need your advice on how to go about them. I want to round out the shape of the characters' eyes and heads, which I should be able to do with easy flip and sew corners, right?


This weekend I was on a step stool rummaging in a closet and found a tub with the Designer Mystery block of the month quilt from 2012 if you can believe it. I had made two blocks, but that was back in the day when I didn't starch my fabric, so the blocks seem flimsy and floppy and not very well made.  Being a FQS project, there is plenty of fabric to remake the blocks, so I remade one of them. If I do make these 12 blocks, I will set them simply (I didn't buy the finishing kit apparently), so the quilt shouldn't be too large. 

The fabric is an ancient Bonnie and Camille collection called Vintage Modern. The blocks are sweet and very cheerful. I can't believe all the money I have spent on these block-of-the-month kits which I have not finished. It is pretty ridiculous, really. I aspire to do better. 

Blocks one and two. I remade #2.

Hope you all had a a great weekend!

 

Designer Mystery 2023-All But Borders

It's great to see this quilt taking shape on the design wall. I have made the lattices that separate the rows but haven't attached them all yet. I have the units for the pieced sides, top and bottom borders all made and ready to piece and attach. After that, the last step is to attach solid borders all around in the primary blue fabric.

The quilt is kind of a weird shape, being so long compared to the width. I will get around that by placing it crossways on my bed. I'd rather have the side overhang than extra room at the head and foot of the bed anyway. 

I think I should finish this up today!

How do you all feel about "mystery" quilts? I would actually rather know what I am getting into from the start. This one wasn't much of a mystery because you were encouraged to start the finishing kit and make the block surrounds each month so as not to have a monumental job of finishing the quilt after making all the blocks. I have to say, that worked really well for me. 

Can you imagine making 12 blocks and then getting the finishing kit? Surprise, now you have twice as much work to do to finish the quilt top.  How do you like that mystery? No thanks. 

Designer Mystery 2023 Coming Together

I've got to say I'm not mad about how this is coming together. Nine blocks done, and the end is in sight. I easily finished three blocks including the block surrounds yesterday. If the stars align, I hope to repeat that again today and get all twelve of these blocks done.

Having the units ready for the block surrounds was a game changer. Make the block, add the surrounding units and sew your row together. Boom. 

Isn't the coral/pink in this quilt beautiful? I think it catches your eye and makes your vision kind of dance over the quilt top. Oh foo, my dancing eyes just spotted a boo boo in the lower left block. One of the hsts is turned wrong. Oh well, serves me right for being smug about how cute this top is. 

So, three more blocks, four lattice rows, an easy pieced inner border, and a plain outer border. This is going to be finished by this weekend!


Here's the cutest girl in 8th grade heading off for her first day of school. She's not only the cutest, she's possibly the nicest as well. She's mostly over her cold/virus and was very excited to see her friends and teachers again. Here's hoping it's a great year!

Designer Mystery 2023 Back on the Design Wall

My next Finish It project is the Designer Mystery 2023 block of the month sew-along. At first, I wasn't sure I loved the dark blue background in the setting, but I have to admit, now I think it is pretty spectacular. The setting really sets off those blocks and is so different from what you typically see.

The only way to go with this project is to work on the setting as you make the blocks. I think I would feel completely overwhelmed if I finished the blocks and still had this complicated setting to construct. 

When I unpacked the tub this project was in, I was happy to discover that I had cut out and even made many of the flying geese and half square triangle units needed for the setting. That saved me a ton of work right off the bat. I had made five blocks and got busy making the sixth one. My first row of three blocks and their setting was already assembled and it wasn't much work to finish up the second row. 

I am excited to keep working on this project and get it wrapped up. It will look amazing on the bed in our primary bedroom. There are a total of four rows of three (twelve main blocks), the block surrounds which form that star pattern, a lattice between the rows, and a couple of pieced borders which add to and complete the design. 

I actually think this is going to go pretty quickly! While sewing yesterday I watched more YouTube videos of one particular quilter who was also making this quilt project. She is Canary Quilts (sorry I don't know her actual name) and she seems to work on a lot of popular sew alongs that I am interested in. Her commentary and instruction are good and she doesn't have any annoying mannerisms to distract me. If you like to watch tv while sewing check her out, you may enjoy her too. 

Petit Four and Christmas Kites

 I am happy to report that my Petit Four quilt is a finish. I won't lie, I sure did use my seam ripper a lot on this one. I must have sewn those Snail Trail blocks every possible orientation until I got them right. If you think I got any of them turned wrong, just don't tell me. 

Towards the end I even sewed the last three bottom rows to the top of the quilt. Honestly. That resulted in a few moments of confusion while I figured out what I had done. 

In summary, the pattern was good, the Bunny Hill Blueberry Delight fabric is adorable, and the Fat Quarter Shop tutorials on YouTube were excellent. Overall, I really enjoyed making this foundation-pieced project. 

My brain is tired now. I am ready for something simple next up.

While I was watching Kimberly's YouTube tutorials I happened upon one featuring the Kites foundation papers. These are super simple little blocks that go together fast and fun. I whipped up this little Christmas topper following the directions provided in the video. The blocks are 6 inches finished, the inner border is 1.5" and the middle and outer borders are 3".

I think it's pretty cute and will make a nice holiday gift for someone. I want to make another one for myself but don't like the light fabrics in the blocks because they don't show up well against the background. Should have thought of that...

The fabric is an older collection by Sweetwater called Countdown to Christmas. I bought a bunch of charm packs and extra yardage, so have plenty on hand to make another one or two of these little toppers. I have no recollection what my original plan for that fabric may have been. 

My house has been turned into an infirmary. When we picked Eva up on Sunday it was clear that she wasn't feeling well. She has gone steadily downhill and is set up in our guestroom with Advil, a wastebasket overflowing with tissues, glasses half full of 7-Up and all the other accouterments of a bad cold. School is supposed to start on Wednesday, but I'm not sure she will make it. How weird to be sick on the first day of school. There ought to be a law.