Sister's Choice Quilts

March UFO, and Probably April and May too

Now that my green Don't Fence Me In quilt is a finish, I thought I had better stick to my goals and pick a UFO to work on for March. As I went through my bins of UFOs, I came to a halt when I saw my red blocks from the Lori Holt/Bee In My Bonnet Red Sampler Quilt Sew Along. That was it, for sure. I checked my notes and figured I was on Week Nine. I got out my fabrics and stitched away happily on the three blocks for that week. 

Then I thought it would be nice to lay all the blocks I'd made so far out on the design wall and enjoy them all together in their red wonderfulness.

Oops. So, not on Week Nine. Yes, friends, this is what happens when you set aside a project for a year or more. You get all mixed up and don't know where you are. Darn it. Clearly, I need to go through all the blocks I have made so far and figure out where I am. 

I did make this little guy though, and he is as cute as can be. I was supposed to have made him for an earlier week, but as I recall I was having trouble finding the instructions. Lori said the center block was from her Granny Square book, but she made it in a different size and then added star points so everything finished at a 6 inch block. Ok. That took some research and watching her YouTube tutorial and figuring out that she was using 1 1/2 inch pieces instead of the 2" ones in her book, and I needed 2 x 3 1/2" flying geese...You see what I mean. It came out great in the end though. If any of you are confused as I was as to how the heck to make this block, email me and I will tell you the measurements of all the pieces. 

Here's what they call the "beauty shot". Look at all those pretty blocks. After seeing how cute they are, if you are inspired to make this quilt, the instructions are on Lori Holt's Bee In My Bonnet website, all organized and everything, week by week. You do need at least three of her books to make the blocks though. 

She also has YouTube videos showing her progress. And Fat Quarter Shop has a fat quarter bundle of Lori's reds to get you started. It seems like a good deal for $65.

So there you are. I will get myself up to speed on this project and look forward to sharing my progress with you. It is a sixteen-week sew-along (you make several blocks a week in 12" and 6" sizes) and I figure I am at least half way done. 

Don't Fence Me In - Finished

Well, I did it. Here is "Don't Fence Me In", an old pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, made with a collection of fabrics by Andover called "Lucky Charms". I am super pleased with how it turned out and will order backing for it and get it sent off for quilting. It will be fun to use it next year in the early Spring.

As always, it is a good feeling to get the big design wall cleared off. In my effort to tackle some UFOs each month, I've decided what older project to carry on with next. I think I am going to pick up the Red Sampler Quilt project I started with Lori Holt so long ago. I am more than halfway finished with those blocks.

This is a picture of Lori's finished quilt. As you can see it is huge! Who doesn't love a red and white quilt? I've made several of them over the years and they are a true classic. 

My husband and I watched Brendan Fraser in "The Whale" last night, in our Oscar winners movie marathon. I have to admit, Brendan Fraser's acting performance was definitely award-worthy. Although the movie was possibly one of the saddest I have ever seen. I was left thinking about all the delusions we comfort ourselves with in order to feel that our lives have had some purpose. Very depressing.

Sara is coming over tonight and we will have our St. Patrick's corned beef recipe a day early. My corned beef recipe is absolutely the best. Here is a link to the post where I shared my recipe. Do not make the mistake one reader made when she tried it out. The recipe calls for a glaze made with Jack Daniel's whisky. After you apply the glaze mixture to the roast, KEEP THE COVER OFF THE POT. Otherwise, your entire oven will blow up from alcohol fumes and you will be very unhappy.

Don't Fence Me In Finished Blocks

"Don't Fence Me In", a pattern by Carrie Nelson/Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. Fabric is Lucky Charms by Andover Fabrics. I finished my 81 blocks! These blocks are so fast and easy and I highly recommend this block for a scrappy quilt in just about any colorway. 

I hope to sew all the blocks together this week. I will. I will. Only I got distracted by an idea to use up the remaining Lucky Charms fabric to make a tiny table topper. I looked through my patterns and found one I liked.

Once again, I chose a Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. pattern. I ought to be able to use up every smidgen of that green fabric. This is a "Little Bites" pattern called "Grain". Carrie's Little Bites patterns are the same concept as her Schnibbles patterns: patterns for small table toppers. Only Little BItes are super tiny, most around 18-20". I am making the version on the bottom, which finishes at about 20 inches square. Just the perfect size for that spot at the end of my kitchen peninsula where I like to put a candle or a vase of flowers.

I happily started making four patches while listening to a book review podcast, and before I realized it I made over 80 of them, which is way more than I need. Oh well. I can pick and choose the ones I like best for the design, right? It will be fine. 

I'll keep you posted as to how this little side distraction is going. Won't it be cute for St. Patrick's Day? 

Star Studded Event Quilt: Finished!

I am happy to tell you that I finished my second UFO of 2023! This is the Star-Studded Event quilt, started in the summer of 2018. This was a block-of-the-week kit/program sponsored by Primitive Gatherings. The pattern is now available on their website. 

It's a great scrap quilt project, and once you get those center 2-inch stars completed, the rest of the piecing is easy. I really like this quilt, especially its generous size! It ended up being 84 inches square, which as you can see, fits great on a queen size bed. 

I did remove the dark pink blocks but left in the light blocks that had some pink in them. In the grand scheme of things, the pink isn't particularly noticeable in the lighter-toned blocks. I made some additional lighter "dark" blocks in pale blue, sage green, and light brown. Before I did that the quilt had a somber tone to it, as one reader mentioned. I much prefer it now that it has been lightened up. I have lots of leftover blocks. About 10 pink ones, and some navy, black and dark brown. I will probably end up making a table runner out of the pink ones. For next year's Valentine's Day.

I am totally happy with the finished quilt top, as well as being thoroughly sick of working on it. I'll send it to the quilter as soon as my backing fabric arrives. Once I get it back from her it will go right on my bed. 

Hope your week is going well. Eva has been staying with us this week because her daddy has come down with the flu. She's been lots of fun, and as always, keeps us on our toes. I forgot to tell you that we finally got our new oven. It works great. Baking is now fun rather than a frustrating exercise in adjusting the temperature up or down depending on how it is working.  We have made chocolate chip cookies, a quiche, and various snacks for Super Bowl with great success.

February UFO

This is my UFO for February. I thought I had more blocks to make, but the quilt is vast, and I think I have enough blocks made to cover my queen-sized bed nicely, with overhang. So I started laying out the blocks and sewing together the top few rows. I think I love this quilt. 

It is an old Block of the Week Sew Along from 2018. Primitive Gatherings sponsored it and sent out an envelope of scraps every week one summer to everyone who joined up. For the most part, the fabrics were fine, largely prints from various Primitive Gatherings collections, with some other Civil War reproduction fabrics thrown in. The rather ungainly name of the quilt is "Star Studded Event".

I've got just over 200 blocks made. The plan was to make 240 blocks, but I have plenty for my purposes. Half of the blocks have dark strips and the other half has light strips. They finish at 6", and that little star in the center of each block is 2". Since the blocks are made, all I need to do is sew them together. This will be a fast finish.

So here's the thing, where I need you to weigh in. I am not feeling the pink in this quilt. What do you think? Should I swap out those corally-pink blocks for different colors? Maybe more light blues? The other blocks are brown, red, dark blue, lighter blue/grey, black and some olive/sage. I tried gold and that looked weird. Let me know what you think!

Take It Easy: A Finished UFO

This is my first UFO finish for 2023. I had promised myself that I would finish one UFO each month this year, so I am off to a good start. The quilt is a pattern by Primitive Gatherings called Take It Easy. The fabric was one or two jelly rolls of a past (really pretty) red and white collection, also by Primitive Gatherings. It will be a L.O.N.G. time before I use another jelly roll. Even though I starched in advance, which usually reduces the lint/fraying issue, there was lint everywhere when I worked on this project. 

I am very happy to have this project behind me. Just as I finished sewing the blocks together for the border, I realized that the pattern made no mention of the fact that you need to change the orientation of the blocks on the side borders of the quilt in order for all the strips in the border blocks to line up properly with the quilt top. Do you see how the border blocks having crossways strips must line up with blocks having vertical strips in the quilt top? You have to pay attention to that when you sew your borders. Sure wish the pattern had mentioned that even though the pattern cover shows it done right. I hate that feeling. "Oh swell, I'm nearly done! Oops no, I have sewn two borders completely wrong and need to take them apart". I did a lot of ripping and looked like my clothes dryer lint trap at the end of it.

But the quilt is done at last, yay! I think this will be for my brother-in-law who told me his dogs had ruined a favorite quilt I had given my sister. This one will be going off to the quilter post haste.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I spent all day Saturday in my sewing room, and even though I was using my seam ripper a fair amount of the time, I really had no place else to be. No work deadlines means I was free to putter about as I pleased and I made the most of it. I got my February UFO up on the design board and will knock that one out this week without a hitch.

Take It Easy

Well, friends, it seems that I may indeed finish a UFO for the month of January! I picked the Take It Easy quilt project I had started heaven knows how long ago, and tackled finishing up the blocks. All blocks are made, and all border blocks are made. This week, actually today and tomorrow I plan to get these all sewn together into a quilt top.

It feels very gratifying to actually check something off my "To Do" list!

However. I noticed that there is one print that when not cut out straight is crazy-making in its "Offness". I don't think I can stand having it in the quilt top. I have a date with my seam ripper tomorrow and plan to replace the more crooked strips. If you enlarge the photo, I bet you will see what I am talking about. Third row, second and fourth blocks for instance. It's the print with the diamond pattern. Some are cut straight and look fine, while others are on a slant that is quite noticeable. 

Did you all have a good weekend? Was it All Football, All the Time? That is pretty much the story of what was going on at my house. No matter, I didn't get much sewing done, but I sure did plow through some good books. Looks like I will finish 14 books for January, which I believe is a record for me.  I will be sure and do a review of the best of them in the upcoming week or so. 

I made a really good batch of chile con carne for dinner on Sunday night and spent some time writing some goals down in my journal. I do not know how it happened (yes I do), but I have gained 8 pounds since early December. I have been enjoying way too many baked goods and after-dinner snacks. I've worked out a plan to drink more water, walk 4 or 5 times a week, eat salad for lunch, and consume nothing after dinner. How did you do with weight gain over the holidays? Is it an issue for you, or do you manage to stay the same?

Tackle Those UFOs

Have you made a list of your UFOs and started tackling them? My January UFO is Take It Easy, a jelly roll quilt pattern by Primitive Gatherings. I started it a couple of years ago and it has been sitting in a project box half finished for a while. 

I do love a red and white quilt, and think this one may be a gift for one of my brothers-in-law. A quilt I made for my sister that he always loved has been damaged by his dogs and he asked me if I could replace it. I think he would like this one. Actually, she would have liked it too. She was always so appreciative of the quilts I gave her.

At any rate, I digress. I finished all the blocks for this project and plan to see if I can sew them together this weekend. I have a major tip for any of you who plan to make this quilt:

TRIM YOUR BLOCK UNITS AS YOU SEW.

Because of the nature of jelly rolls, I was dealing with more variation in the width of the strips than I would have had I cut 2 1/2 inch strips out of yardage. Consequently, I don't think two of those block units came out quite the same size. They were real close, but not precise. 

I did trim the final 12 1/2 inch blocks to size, but I sure would be happier with these blocks had I trimmed each of the block units as I made them. Construction is super simple, although you can get mixed up as to the placement of the 2 1/2 inch square in each unit if you aren't careful. 

This is what the finished quilt top will look like. 

Say, I have a question for you all. I have a friend who is taking a trip to Tuscon, Arizona next week. She would love to visit any quilt shops in the general Tuscon area. Can any of you make a recommendation? She would sure appreciate it!

UFO for January

Does anyone remember this UFO? It is a pattern called Take It Easy by Primitive Gatherings that uses one or two jelly rolls. I don't know if you can still get the pattern. I checked on their website and couldn't find it.

I chose it for my January UFO Challenge. I decided I couldn't be completely draw-it-out-of-a-hat about it. I am a mood quilter, and have to feel like working on whatever project is in front of me. My goal is to pick one of the many UFOs I have laying around each month and work on it. Hopefully to completion. For this one, I need 30 blocks and have almost 20 done, so I've got this in the bag. 

What I like about this pattern is that it is dead easy and I don't have to think while sewing. Which is a good thing, because I started a new audiobook and I am OBSESSED.

This book is so good. The audio version especially, since Prince Harry is narrating it. This book has turned my perceptions of Harry and Meghan upside down. The overall impression I get from the book is that he is telling the truth. Harry understandably has a lot of issues about paparazzi and lies in the media, so his aversion to having those things affect his wife and children is completely reasonable to me. And not getting the support he felt he should have gotten from his family was critical to his decision to move away. I know feelings run strong regarding the Royal Family and Harry and Meghan in particular, but I have to say, hearing his side of the story sure altered my view.

Speaking of altering one's view, did you all read the comments from yesterday's post? Carol had a very well-stated dissenting opinion on the subject of "Finished Is Better Than Perfect", which I encourage you to read. She put me in mind of the Quilts of Gee's Bend, which if you don't know about, take a look at this link and learn all about it. Those quilts are far from the standard idea of perfect, yet they are works of art and heart and history. Thanks to everyone for a very interesting discussion. You guys are so great.

Is Finished Better Than Perfect?

Is that something you believe? I'm going to be controversial today and say that I am not sure I fully agree that "finished is better than perfect". I follow a couple of Facebook Groups, Sewcialites being one of them, and so  I regularly see people proudly post pictures of their weekly blocks. Blocks where they have completely turned a unit around, or with seams that sadly are not even close to matching. Some other "helpful" readers love to point out the mistake to the poor chump who unwittingly posted the faulty block. "You might want to turn that upper left hst around..." or "You've attached the butterfly wings upside down..." However, in contrast, many people provide words of comfort such as "It's fine. Keep it as is. Finished is better than perfect". 

I think if a mistake is a glaring one, such as a flying geese unit that is facing the wrong direction or a half square triangle turned wrong which spoils the intended star design of the block, it should be corrected. A minute with the seam ripper and that puppy can be set right and the block will be as it should be. And I don't mind if people point out my mistake in a kind way. I once made a Christmas quilt with one block turned the wrong way round that completely spoiled the quilt for me. Of course, I didn't notice it until it came back from the quilter. I would have loved it if someone pointed out that boo-boo to me in time to fix it.

I guess what I am saying is, that if an error is easily fixable, it should be fixed. Take pride in doing your work well. Finished is not better than perfect. Lazy is not better than perfect. Sloppy is not better than perfect.

On the other hand, let's look at my Family Reunion quilt in the photo above. I have got three out of four square in a square borders on that quilt top. It has taken me f.o.r.e.v.e.r to finish those units and get the borders made. And the bias edges of those borders are so wavy and rumpled it makes me crazy to look at it. Maybe it will sort itself out when the top is quilted, I don't know. But am I going to take those borders off and fiddle with them until they lie flat? Nope. 

(Note to future self: square in a square blocks are fine when contained in an individual quilt block. They do not make good borders. At all).

So in this case is finished better than perfect? I think I may take a chance on it.