Sister's Choice Quilts

Project Discovery

I was rummaging in my sewing room closet the other day and discovered an old project I had started, who knows how long ago. The project box was labeled "One Block Quilt". Upon further investigation, I learned that I had made over 150 of these little 4-inch blocks. There was no pattern in the box, but I did find my handwritten instructions on how to cut and assemble the blocks. I have no idea where the idea came from, but a niggling memory keeps coming up with the idea that it may have been a Carrie Nelson project.

ADDED LATER:  I searched my blog and found the description of where the idea for this project came from. It is a project that Temecula Quilts came up with. They were doing something called "One Block Wednesday" and this was apparently one of their offerings.

Luckily I also rediscovered that the pressing directions are important, so I will have to go back and press again!

Whew, that box is pretty dusty! The instructions say to use 2-inch strips of fabric, making it a great jelly roll project. I evidently used starched strips from fat quarter pieces because I have two matching strips for each two blocks, rather than one strip cut WOF. I must have dug into my Civil War Repro stash, as that is the theme of the fabric I chose. That is always a favorite for me. 

150 blocks already made seems like quite a lot, but the instructions say I need 357 to make whatever size quilt top I am supposed to end up with. It's a mystery. I will try to keep making these fun little blocks when I have a minute or two and see where I get.

Honestly, you just never know what may turn up when you start rummaging around in your sewing room.

Happy weekend everyone!

Remember Sampler Spree?

Do you all remember the Sampler Spree Sew-Along? It is based on a book by Susan Ache that has patterns for over 100 6 inch quilt blocks that are sewn into a sampler quilt. I had joined in this sew-along a couple of years ago, but of course, set it aside for various family obligations. It has been patiently waiting for me.

So, today it all came back to me when I was browsing Instagram with my morning coffee, and came upon Thelma's post on her quilts of August. Each month she changes out her gorgeous quilts that she has on various bads and walls in her home, and she shares photos on Instagram. And there it was, her glorious finished Sampler Spree quilt. Go take a look, it is amazing.

The idea of this sew-along is to make blocks in various colors that will harmonize together in the end in a gorgeous sampler quilt. Blocks are 6 inches finished and there are plenty of small pieces, so starching, pressing seams open and sewing carefully are part of the challenge.

Moda Fabrics did a weekly posting with photos of various people's weekly blocks, which is really inspiring. I encourage you to take a look at that too. 

There is also a gal on Instagram, Tina Taylor Ockey, "@girl231t" who is still working on her blocks and has frequent posts on her progress. Interestingly, she is using the same fabrics as I am. She is very prolific and has tastes very similar to mine. She is worth following, I think.

Back in the summer of 2021, I finished some navy blocks,

some orange blocks,

and some light blue blocks. I finished additional blocks in gold, light orange, and brown.

After seeing Thelma's quilt and being reminded of what a gorgeous quilt these blocks could become, I had to take the project out of its bin and revisit the situation. The four blocks at the top of the post are what I made yesterday. 

I am using three different Basic Grey fabric collections: Persimmon, Cider, and Nutmeg.

I highly recommend "Sampler Spree" the book, which is less than $15 on Amazon.

Were you like me and did you start this sew along back in the summer of 2021? If you want to sew along with me, let's do it. I think this is a quilt worth finishing.

 

Lots of Finishes in the Works

I have lots of finishes in the works at the moment. I hadn't really realized just how many projects I had that were nearly done. I got the containment border on the Red Sampler quilt, and am just waiting for an Etsy order to be delivered with the border fabric. I am going with a white background print that looks like chicken tracks for the border. You can see it in the gingham print block above.

Next, I got the binding attached to my Primitive Gatherings scrappy star quilt. My gosh that thing is a monster. It was a struggle just to control all that heavy material while sewing the binding on. Now I need to sit down with a good audiobook and get it sewn down to the quilt so I can put it on a bed. That is such a gorgeous quilt but those tiny stars were a project, I tell you. They finish at 2 inches. What was I thinking?

Lastly, this is Lori Holt's Flea Market quilt. It was a sew-along that kind of fizzled out. I know I dropped the ball, but I wonder if anyone finished this project! Now I have the basket blocks all finished and am ready to do one more round of blocks to surround them. I made four basket blocks yesterday, so that was productive. Next up are 40 small 4" "primrose" blocks, which look pretty easy, although there are a lot of them!

This is another large quilt, and I am thinking I may do something simpler to keep the size down somewhat. It doesn't need an 8-inch border in my opinion. To give you an idea of the size, my design wall is 72 x 72". The pattern calls for two or three more borders, producing a 96" square quilt, but I may eliminate at least one of them. That size is way bigger than I need.

I do love the look of a medallion quilt. 

Hope your week is off to a great start.

 

Sewcialites 2 Finished

Sewcialites 2 is a finish! Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to bother putting these blocks together. I didn't care for the settings provided by the Fat Quarter Shop or the participating designers. They all seemed too fussy to me. What I did was put the blocks up on my design wall and take a good look at them. I decided I wanted to focus on the blocks and not on some kind of elaborate setting.

I did a simple diagonal set, with lattices in the background fabric. Once the blocks/rows were all sewn together I debated on what to do for a border. I had tons of fabric and had been thinking of a red containment border and a green floral print outer border.

But, that just didn't feel right. I had lots of the cream background fabric left over and decided to go with that. I made the lattices out of the background, then made the corner squares out of the same fabric, but with a grey dot, and lastly added a 6 1/2-inch border of the same cream background. Nothing takes away from the blocks and overall, I am happy with the end result.

Yesterday, when I had the blocks pictured on my large design wall, Gloria commented that the second block on the bottom left, second row looked odd and that maybe I should double-check it. I admit, from a distance, this block does look kind of wonky. It turns out, it is supposed to be a butterfly block, and I did actually make it correctly. But you can certainly see that from a distance its asymmetry makes it look like a block that has been put together incorrectly. In retrospect, I probably should have substituted something else, because this block doesn't really show well when placed on the diagonal. I could also embroider antennae or something, but I doubt I'll bother.

Oh well, too late now.

Overall, I think once this quilt is quilted, I am going to use it and really enjoy it. After all, the fun of the project was that each week a different designer submitted a new sampler block, so why not just focus on those different blocks without distraction?

Resurrecting Red Sampler

I had the best weekend. I sewed for hours and got so much done. My Designer Mystery 2022/23 top just has one more row to attach and the center of the top will be together. The next step is to add a navy containment border and the outer border. Kathy's fabric arrived super quick!

To give myself a break from sewing Designer Mystery rows together, I brought out my next UFO to complete, which is Lori Holt's Red Sampler Sew Along from 2021. I tell you, it took me a minute to figure out where I was with this project. I thought I had completed all the blocks, but no. I had actually made some of them twice. (Seriously?) and there must have been at least four 6-inch blocks and two 12-inch blocks that I hadn't even made yet. 

I got everything arranged on the design wall, and love it. You can see some blank spots that need to be filled in, but these blocks are mostly done. I made a couple over the weekend and there isn't much left to do. What took a while was that each block needed to have a sashing sewn around it. Ugh. That was a job.

The quilt is sewn together in vertical rows, which is different. The blocks are all up on Lori Holt's blog if you want to see what fabrics she used. You do need three of her books for the block patterns.

Is this not the cutest block ever? This was one I hadn't made and I certainly had fun putting it together on Sunday. The fabric I used for the windows says "Sew Sew Sew". Love it. 

Hope you had a productive weekend. We had a thunder and lightning storm Saturday night. We get the occasional summer storm because we are near the mountains, but they aren't typical occurrences in California as a rule. My husband and I sat out on the back porch and watched the sky light up in the distance as the storm approached. We went in to keep Archie company when the storm got closer. He is not a fan, to put it mildly.

Designer Mystery 2022/23 Blocks Finished!

I did it! I got all the blocks for the Designer Mystery 2022/23 project finished! 

Now, I have to say, those bold log cabin alternate blocks absolutely make the quilt, don't you think?

I am quite pleased with how it all came together. I'll start sewing the blocks together in rows today. My gorgeous border fabric should get here in a few days. First, I plan to attach a narrow containment border in navy, then the light background floral border.

I did make one significant change in the log cabin blocks. I just had to swap out the light blue plaid strips for a more solid light blue. The lines on the plaid were all over the place, and I just can't stand that. I think the only way to make the stripes straight would be to cut out each strip individually. The lines in no way lined up with the straight grain of the fabric. 

The one block I made first isn't too bad, but all the others were crazy crooked.

Plaids are great, but I like them best in small manageable pieces where you don't need to worry about the lines being wavy. Throughout this project, on the FaceBook group, people complained constantly every time one of the plaid prints had to be used.

Here we are, going into another weekend. It is blazing hot here. 104 as I write this. Friday is supposed to be a few degrees cooler, and then we can expect temps in the low 90s for a week or so. I'll take it!

Summer Memories, Finished!

I am so proud of this quilt! Summer Memories, a pattern by Susan Ache, is finished. The sew-along was sponsored by Fat Quartershop, based on a quilt pattern from the book by Susan Ache called Summer Memories.  The quilt pattern itself is called Picnic, I believe. 

Honestly, I found it rather tedious to make. All those half-square triangles and basket blocks got old after a while. But the finished results are spectacular and I could not be more pleased with the look of the quilt top. It is also one of the flattest tops I have ever made. It really came out so well.

I have a couple of quilt tops that are near the finishing stage that I hope to pull together in the time that is left of this summer. Also, I got three tops back from my quilter that need bindings. I look forward to sharing those with you.

Do any of you have a go-to source for 108-inch quilt backings? I really hate piecing quilt backs and love to get the 108 wide pieces when I can. Fat Quarter Shop really doesn't have that great a selection right now, so I am open to any and all suggestions. 

Hope that those of you in the US had a great 4th of July! We live in a golf course community and each year our neighbors go all out and decorate their golf carts and have a parade. It was so much fun to sit curbside and wait for the parade to pass by. Some folks went all out, dressing up as Uncle Sam or an eagle, with golf carts decorated with banners and balloons, and inflatable decorations. It was folksy and fun. My son-in-law invited us over for a shrimp boil for dinner and it was so good. We got home before dark and settled in before the craziness of the fireworks began. 

Major Tidy Accomplished and a Finished Project!

Opening Day, an older Miss Rosie pattern is now finished. You can find the pattern in Carrie Nelson's book "Miss Rosie's Farmhouse Favorites". I am so glad to get this off the design wall and move on to something else! It has been a UFO for over 12 years. Not sure what I'll do with this one. I have it in mind to give as a gift I think. 

The best news is that before I tackled a single thing, I cleaned up my messy sewing room. What a dusty cluttered mess it was. Here is a little tour:

The biggest mess by far was my cutting table. That table collects clutter like nobody's business. My most-used rulers are all sorted, notions organized, and my next blocks for Haunted Halloween cut out and ready to sew.


The top of the dresser collects dust mostly, but also ironing-related detritus, random fabric, and notions. The drawers are still a complete nightmare, but that is a project for another day.


My ironing station is usually fairly neat because I am using it all the time. But I did take down everything that was on the small design wall and think I will start putting up my Haunted Halloween blocks as I complete them.


Ta Da! Next to the ironing station is my large design wall, which has had Opening Day on it for months. As you know I finished that project and now I've put up my Summer Memories Sew Along blocks. Only four more to go! Then it gets a lattice and an outer border. Should be done in a couple of weeks. I see a block turned round (1st block, 2nd row), don't worry, I'll fix it.


Here's where the magic happens. And also the second biggest mess. This table is a clutter magnet for sure, and there were a heck of a lot of items on it that belonged elsewhere. Mischief managed and I am all sorted out. 

I accomplished quite a lot yesterday and spent about 8 hours in the sewing room tidying and sewing. It feels so good. 

Hope your week is going well.

 

 

 

 

 

Borders Nearly Done on Opening Day

This project is very nearly complete! I am halfway finished with the border blocks. Just 12 or so more to go and this Opening Day quilt top will be DONE! The blocks look kind of haphazard on the border, keep in mind I just slapped them on the design wall, they aren't sewn together.

I will be thrilled to have finished this. Good grief I have been looking at the project box for going on 10 years I think. I think I started this quilt when I lived down in the Monterey area, and that's two houses ago. Oh well, Ben Franklin said, "Well done is better than well said". Very true. I can stop talking about this darn project and put it behind me.

More starching happened today. The weather has been glorious. I can spray starch a whole drying rack of fat quarters and they are dry and ready to go in about an hour. There is an upcoming sew-along that I have in mind and I want to be ready for the start date of May 1.

Fat Quarter Shop is hosting a sew-along called Summer Memories, based on a new book by Susan Ache. The quilt is done in red, light blue, and pink, and features a variety of basket blocks. Here is a link to the FQS intro to the project: Summer Memories Sew-Along

What do you think? Are you sewing along too? What summer sew-alongs have caught your eye this year? I do love a summer sewing project. For this one, I am sure there will be a specific FaceBook group for people to show their fabrics and blocks etc. That is always fun to see what other folks are doing.

When I was prepping my fabrics and sorting them into a project box (which I had to search for because I had none empty), I was very much agast at how many UFOs I have going on. It is rather appalling actually. When I think of all the money I spent on that fabric to make the quilts, I really need to start focusing on finishing things. Seriously, I have at least a dozen projects in the works. I know that must make some readers literally twitchy to imagine themselves in that predicament. I vow to try to be better.  

Slow But Steady

I am making slow but steady progress on the Opening Day quilt. I have finished the border of flying geese. There is one more border of pieced blocks, that should go quickly. These blocks are comprised of fairly large half-square triangles and solid squares and should be a snap to construct.

I sure would like to get this project off the design wall in order to finish up a couple of other projects!

My mind has been distracted lately with various personal issues, so my progress is comparable to the movement of a tectonic plate. I'll get through it. Everything gets resolved over time, right? And it could always be worse. 

On a good news front, I have been losing weight! Not that I needed to lose that much, but most of us would be happy to be at least 10 pounds thinner I think. I had put on a few pounds over the holidays, which seemed as if they would like to take up permanent residence. I got a super offer from Weight Watchers to join for three months for $11 per month. What the heck I thought. Well, their program is constantly changing, and seems to get more complicated every year. And I did not want to attend any meetings. I thought I could lose 15 pounds in three months doing it on my own, online, so I signed up.

The thing with Weight Watchers now, is that they use a "point" system, where you are allowed a certain number of points a day. I get 23. All foods are assigned a point value, and fruits and veggies are pretty much all zero points. In the past, I have found Weight Watchers recipes to be bland, uninspiring, and practically inedible. Nowadays, however, with their brilliant "app", many professional chefs are in putting their tasty, low-calorie, and low point recipes into the WW app system for everyone to look up, access, and make at home. We have enjoyed so many really (and I meant restaurant quality) good recipes lately that are Weight Watcher-endorsed and have an actual point value you can track. 

The down side to Weight Watchers is that they have made loads of changes lately, including closing a lot of their meet in person locations. So, if you like the experience of regular meetings with other people, you may be out of luck. That wasn't a big deal for me as I prefer going it alone.

Last night we had brown rice salmon bowls, with grilled salmon, brown rice, red onions, grated carrots, sliced cucumbers, and a dill yogurt sauce. 4 points.  Hello. Yes please. And in a month I have lost 10 pounds, even with a vacation!

Are any of you Weight Watchers out there? Are you eating well? Finding the program easy to stick to? I live for those Starkist Tuna packs with the already seasoned tuna. 0-2 points per pack, and they are good!  And only $1 at Walmart. 

Feel free to comment with your WW experiences, tips, and favorite meals!