Sister's Choice Quilts

A Few More Cute Quilt Blocks

I can't seem to stop myself. This Moda BlockHeads 3 quilt is never going to be done. I keep thinking I need to add more "cute" blocks to it. You have to admit, that fat blue bee is pretty darn adorable.

So naturally I had to give him a house. Isn't that little bee skep too much? Both the bee and the bee hive and the dahlia flower came from Lori Holt's Vintage Farmhouse 2 book. If you ever want "cute" blocks, she is the source.

One of the reasons I have been dragging this project out is because I have run out of my main background fabric. That is the fabric shown in the bee hive/heart block above. My friend Tracey is sending me a fat quarter, but it's coming from Canada on a slow boat. Does anyone have any amount of that cream-colored print? It is from 3 Sisters "Snowberry" collection. If anyone has some they would like to sell, please let me know. SKU is 44145 11.

Hope you had a good weekend. Our weather has suddenly turned gorgeous and we had our windows and doors open constantly. I think it got up to 74. We have new neighbors with little kids and it has been so nice to hear their happy voices while they play outside in the sunshine.

And woo hoo, it is spring break for Eva, so I will have a couple of free days this week to sew and read and catch up on chores around the house. It seems amazing that we are saying goodbye to March already.

Little Blocks 76

Sorry for the lack of content this week. Honestly not much is happening. Eva and I finished up the week and she is now enjoying Spring Break. Her other grandparents, who have been missing her so much, have rented a room at a local motel and are coming up to see her this weekend. They have both had their COVID vaccinations and are so excited to get out for a little getaway.

Eva has her own activities planned for most of next week, so with luck, I will have more sewing time than I have had in a while. 

My Little Blocks 365 progress is stalled out, but I did sit down and make Block 76 yesterday. I enjoy paper piecing but am having a lot of trouble thinking about how I will use these blocks. I have absolutely no interest in having a large quilt with 365 of these blocks in it. But what shall I do with them all?

 I think due to their small size (3" finished) that they are better enjoyed close up in a smaller project. So, what if I made a dozen or so of the blocks in a single color story and used them in individual table runners? An all blue one, a green and gold one, a red and pink one...What do you think? 

I would set them in ways that would set off the blocks, perhaps diagonally with a solid fabric separating each one. Or a lattice between them.

For those of you who are participating in this paper piecing adventure, what is your vision for what you will do with your blocks?

Have a great weekend!

Done and Dusted

The Little Village quilt is officially finished. All the borders are attached and it is ready for quilting. Here are the quilt details:

It was a sew-along hosted by Jessical Dayon called Little Village
It consists of 16 free block patterns with different classic quilt block "inserts"
I used Minick and Simpson fabrics from several collections, mostly Farmhouse Reds
Quilt finished at 64" square

It was a fun sew-along, and the instructions were mistake-free and easy to understand. I had all the fabric on hand in my stash except for the lattice and outer borders. I was able to buy those through Etsy sellers, which was fortunate since Farmhouse Reds was an older collection.

I hope your week is going well. Would you believe outdoor sports activities have resumed in my area, and Eva is back to swimming. It was gosh darn cold when we went at 11 yesterday morning, but she was tough. I sat on the sidelines huddled in my coat and had her discarded clothes draped over me for extra warmth! I was actually glad for the mask covering my face as it provided protection from the wind.

Eva is sitting right in the middle of the photo in her coral tankini and goggles. The instructors for swimming are always the perkiest friendliest older teenaged girls. They make it a blast for everyone who participates. Eva will sleep well tonight after swimming a gazillion laps. So glad she can exercise again and be around other kids.

Two Down, One to Go

I came home from seeing my father on Sunday afternoon thinking I would tear upstairs to the sewing room and get those three outer borders on this Little Village quilt. And I just couldn't. I was running on empty. The kind of empty where you just want to sit and play solitaire, or scroll mindlessly through Instagram, or watch make-up gurus on YouTube.

So, I did nothing. I may have read my book for a bit, but certainly did nothing sewing-related. Or housework related, or cooking related. And that's that. My weekend was a wrap. My dad is great, and oh, get this! He has gained almost 10 pounds since my sisters and I started staying with him and making sure he eats three times a day. Back in January, he was quite frail looking in the low 150's, and was 163 when he saw his doctor last Friday. She was a bit alarmed at the sudden gain, but my sisters and I are delighted. He seems much more robust. I told him he weighs more than I do, and he looked at me skeptically.  Seriously Dad? Give me some credit.

Monday was better. Eva and I put in our time with homeschooling. Long division. Ugh, that is a time sink. We took a walk with a friend who has been housebound (even more than normal!), made a delicious coffee cake, and started a new book called The Beast and the Bethany.

When Eva left at 2:30 I did go upstairs and got two of the outer borders on. I wanted to make the lentil soup that Kathe recommended recently, so I quit around 4:30 to cook.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.  Some notes on the recipes linked above: The coffee cake calls for
2 1/2 cups of cake flour OR a combination of regular flour and corn starch. Use cake flour. I got the most amazing rise and the cake was really good. I was afraid it wasn't done after 55 minutes and left it in the oven for another 5 minutes, and probably should not have done that. The recipe calls for an astonishing amount of streusel for the top, but trust me, go with it.

The lentil soup has a twist that makes it so much better. Kathe emailed me when I asked readers for their favorite soup recipes, and this one is a keeper. It is called Molly Ringwald's Mom's Mom's Lentil Soup. Everything about it is pretty standard: lentils, onion, celery, carrot, broth, a ham hock. But then you add a pound of browned Italian sausage at the end and that takes it up considerable notches.

Wish you could smell my kitchen right now!

Little Village Lattices

Woo hoo, more progress has been made on the Little Village quilt. I got all the middle of the quilt lattices on. This Sunday when I get home from my father's I will put on the top, bottom and sides. Next comes a solid red containment border and finally an outer border of a cream print with a large red floral design. The overall effect of the quilt will be the red houses surrounded by a pretty light-colored setting.

I am happy with the look of the top. I am also happy that it won't take much to finish it up.

Maybe it will be part of my red and white front porch decorating plan for this summer! Except for my husband just planted blue and yellow flowers in all the containers out there. We may have to do some switching around.

Hope you all have a great weekend. My plan is to visit with my dad, do some reading, and to work on two or three articles for the company I am working for as a writer. Never a dull moment, right? Happy Friday!

Little Village Revisited

I revisited my Little Village house blocks yesterday. I had finished 12 of the 16 blocks and decided I needed a kick in the pants to finish up those last four blocks and get this done. None of the blocks was difficult, even the pinwheel one on the upper right.

I think I will re-do the churn dash block on the lower left. I am not feeling the joy in that one. Too many directional pieces give me a headache. 

If you recall this was a free sew-along hosted by designer Jessica Dayon. Here is a link to her website.

This quilt top will finish with lattices around the blocks and three borders as I recall. The separation of the blocks with a cream-colored fabric lends a lightness to the look of the top overall. The photo below is Jessica's photo of her finished quilt top.

Hope you are all having a great week. Super chilly here. I can't seem to warm up! Just so you know, I am a California sissy.  The high was 54, which means if you live in Wisconsin you are probably out wearing shorts and flip-flops.

Serendipity Sew-Along

I know there seem to be an awful lot of sew-alongs going on right now. You may have held off joining in on any of them. The current Serendipity Sew-Along hosted by the Fatquarter Shop might change your mind.

This is the quilt Fatquarter Shop is making. They are using Corey Yoder's Spring Brook fabric collection and a dark blue background. It is a really different and striking look. The quilt itself is a "row" quilt. Every couple of weeks a free pattern will be released by the Fatquarter Shop for one of the rows in the quilt. I believe the sew-along concludes in June. The quilt isn't large, and the blocks are interesting. As far as a sew-along goes, this one looks easy to keep up with, not too easy, but not too challenging either.

I am making my version with Corey Yoder's Apricot and Ash collection and using a Bella Solid (200) for my background. The fabrics are so cheerful and really bring to mind the loveliness of spring. Corey is using these fabrics also and gives more information on her website.  I encourage you to check out her blog posts and sewing tips there. 

If making another quilt isn't in the cards for you right now, you may be interested that there is a cross-stitch group making the same design as a hand stitchery project.  More details can be found here and here. 

The patterns are free, but Fatquarter Shop is asking for a donation to benefit the Make A Wish charity foundation.  As with the Serendipity sew-along, Kimberly Jolly (owner of Fatquarter Shop) is putting out video tutorials on YouTube showing how to construct each block.

Isn't it wonderful these days, that there seems to be a sew-along for every taste and ability level? I am enjoying them so much. Even if I can't participate in them all, I sure am having fun seeing what others do.

Two More Blocks

I had to share two more cute blocks with you. The Dahlia and the Beehive blocks are from Lori Holt's Farmhouse Vintage 2 book. I love the whimsical element that they add to the quilt top. They add to the heart/love theme of the quilt and tell a story about the things that make me happy.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. I had a really full day Sunday and never got around to writing a blog post for this morning. It is around 6:30 (Pacific Daylight Time) as I write this on Monday morning and it is still really dark! As in 5:30 AM dark. Is it just me, or it is crazy hard to get used to the first days after a time change?

I hope you all had a great weekend. My father continues to improve and is in great spirits. When asked, he always says he is "in the pink". My husband and I got our corned beef and cabbage fix taken care of, due to an invitation to join my first son-in-law and his wife for dinner. The bonus was we got to take our Leprechaun Eva home with us. And the last big event of the weekend was that I managed to get my COVID shot scheduled for this week! I will be sure to let you know how that goes!

Cutest Quilt Block Ever

Cherries. How cute is this quilt block? I got it out of the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage 1 book. It is a 6-inch block, so the pieces are pretty tiny, but it wasn't too bad to make. It took some time, but wasn't difficult. I think it is adorable. 

I have been plugging along on my remaining blocks for the Moda BlockHeads 3 quilt. Just a few more to go. Would you believe I have nearly 100 blocks in this quilt? It is massive. I want to make some more blocks like the cherries above. I think blocks that are "pictures" or represent something will give the eye a place to rest amongst all the more traditional quilt blocks. 

So far my background fabric is holding out, but I think I have less than a fat quarter of it left. I am using every single smidgen of it. So glad the remaining blocks I have to make are pretty small!

Heading out to spend the weekend with my father. I am so challenged as to what to feed him. His appetite is so small that I had to launch into a full blown cooking frenzy because I will be left with too many left overs that will get wasted. He pretty much eats about two tablespoons of whatever I give him and leaves the rest, saying "I can't eat all this". He does like a bowl of soup, so perhaps I will go in that direction. I can make a pot of something and just take a small container of it to my father's house and leave the rest with my husband. Do you all have any favorite soup recipes?

Have a great weekend.

Additional Moda BlockHeads 3 Blocks

For the setting I have in mind for the Moda Blockheads 3 sew-along, I have found that I need to make some additional blocks in the 12-inch and 6-inch sizes. I am actually having fun going through various sources looking for blocks in those sizes.

This 12-inch block is from a Moda Bake Shop sew along from last year called Spring Flowers. The blocks for this sew-along were all 12 inches finished, and the designs were super cute. However, that being said, I was absolutely appalled at the errors in nearly every single pattern I tried. This one is called "Bouquet" and did turn out ok after I remade eight half-square triangles in the correct size. 

This 12-inch block is called Daffodil and is also from the Moda Bake Shop Spring Flowers sew-along. I ended up having to actually throw away two blocks from this sew-along because after I had cut my fabric I found that the instructions were full of errors and the wrong measurements. There were a ton of comments on the website from very unhappy people who, like myself, had wasted time and valuable fabric. Some people who were making all the blocks claimed there was an error in every single block pattern they tried from this project. And I was being so careful not to waste any of my precious background fabric because I am running so low. It was a huge disappointment to have to throw some away. I can forgive one error, but time after time? No sir. Do the authors/designers actually not bother to test the blocks before they publish them? That is shameful. I have never in my life had this issue with any other Moda sew-alongs. BlockHeads has been so excellent I have participated in two different year-long projects. Going forward, I am going to be leery of any patterns from Moda Bake Shop. Ok, rant over. Just be warned to check your measurements before cutting if you ever participate in a Moda Bake Shop project.

One last 12-inch block. I have already forgotten where this pattern came from, but isn't it cute? I love the frame effect that the blue fabric has around the red star.

The rest of these blocks are all 6-inch. My source for a lot of them was various Lori Holt books-Farmhouse VIntage 1 and 2 primarily. Now, her instructions and measurements are always impeccable. 

This last one is a favorite for sure. I love how the red checked fabric looks like a folded-over envelope flap. I was even able to use four of the too-small half-square triangle blocks from the sloppy Moda Bake Shop instructions for "Bouquet".

So, good progress, all in all. Only a half dozen or so more 6-inch blocks to go. This project may be out of control. You can see how my design wall is filling up. Think I could use a bigger design wall?  lol