Sister's Choice Quilts

Lots of Red Sampler Progress

I am really coming along with the Red Sampler blocks this week. Not too many more to go. I realized last week that each of those blocks needs to be framed with strips of background fabric. Luckily several Etsy sellers had the fabric, so I have been ordering it. Those Etsy vendors typically are super fast at mailing things out. 

I am really relaxed this week. Eva is at science camp. It is windy and rainy, so I hope she isn't going to be washed out poor thing. She was so excited to go. Lots of hiking and campfires and so on. And the whole staying in a cabin with your friends is too fun.

She is so grown up. I do not know how that happened so fast.

This is an audiobook I finished the other day. Have any of you read it? It is being heavily hyped on Instagram and other places. The author was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her last book, so everyone has been waiting with bated breath for this one. And I thought it was kind of badly done.

Basic plot summary: former alum returns to her high school boarding school to teach a couple of classes as an adult. When she was at this school as a kid, her roommate was murdered and a man was convicted of the crime. Our main character suspects a miscarriage of justice and is determined to have the right guy convicted, even if it's been over 20 years. 

My issues were that one, the book was far too long. Like 75 pages too long. Two, there were too many characters to keep track of. Then there was a side-story romance of the main character and some guy that added zero to the story and could easily have been left out. Next, the ending was a real letdown. And worst of all, the narrator of the audiobook kept mispronouncing the name of one of the important characters. The last name Daugherty is NOT pronounced "Dog-er-tee". The G is silent for heaven's sake. It is "Door-tee". She said it wrong about a hundred times. Ok, my rant is over. 

Did you read this? What did you think?

Don't Fence Me In Block Progress

My sewing was a bit derailed last week, but I am making some progress on my Don't Fence Me In blocks. This is a really fun block to make and you can make a nice little stack of them in no time flat. I've been working assembly style, making the rail fence units first, then choosing my surrounding triangle fabric.

I've been working randomly, just picking up whatever my hand hits. This will undoubtedly come back to bite me when I have a dozen blocks left to make and only have black strips or light triangles left. I don't care. I love the freedom this type of piecing gives me. Working without a plan suits me right now.

While I do this rather mindless piecing, I have been listening to celebrity memoirs. I finished "Finding Me" by Viola Davis a week or so ago. What a challenging childhood that woman had! She has definitely worked hard to get where she is, and best of all has come to accept herself as being attractive and worthy. Last week I finished "In Pieces" by Sally Field. I found her tone a bit whiny, but she too had a childhood with some serious issues. The book is really about her relationship with her mother. The memoir I am listening to this week is Matthew Perry's "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing".  He obviously is very charming and has a self-deprecating sense of humor. He also comes across as very self-absorbed (I know, it's a celebrity memoir, so I should expect that), and dealing with some very serious issues relating to his addiction. He comes across as kind of mean and very cocky. He says some trying-to-be-funny things about Keanu Reeves that are just cruel. The jury is still out on this one.

Do you enjoy memoirs? What are some good ones in your opinion?

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!

Don't Fence Me In Quilt Pattern

Just a quick post today to show my pretty green rail fence blocks. The pattern is Don't Fence Me In by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. (I mistakenly called it Gazebo in an earlier post). The fabrics are called Lucky Charms, which I got online from Shabby Fabrics. I got all the fabric cut out and just had to make a few test blocks. I have 90 to make in all for the quilt top.

The blocks go together like a dream. You make the rail fence section, then attach the four outer triangles, which are then trimmed down to an 8" square quilt block. 

I am using a Creative Grids ruler called "Perfect 10" to trim up the blocks. You line the 4 inch line up at all four points of the Rail Fence unit and trim away the excess on all four sides. Every block is coming out just right. You can use the ruler to trim blocks up to 10 inches.

Hope everyone is having a splendid week.

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!

Let's Get This Done

I buckled down and finished making those darn square in a square blocks for the Family Reunion quilt. I then cut out the 7/8" wide lattice strips that separate them. I made good progress with those and hope to get this darn project done and off the design wall this week.

Are you interested in getting your UFOs completed? Do you wonder how to accomplish that? If you are feeling overwhelmed by your UFO projects, consider using this handy tool from All People Quilt (APQ).

They have come up with a great idea, which they have successfully presented each January over the past few years. Here's how it works. You list 12 UFO projects. Write each one a scrap of paper and put it in a basket. Shake the scraps of paper up and then draw out one at a time. Your first project will be what you work on (or try to complete) in the first month of the year, January. The second project for February will be whatever is written on the next scrap of paper you draw out of the basket, and so on, through the twelve months of the year. Download the project sheet here. The goal is to get those UFOs done this calendar year, and not have them sit unattended to and possibly forgotten. 

I think I am going to give this a try! Only I am going to cheat and make the Family Reunion UFO my completion goal for January 2023. After that, it can be random, I don't care. But I have got to get that thing done right now. 

How do you plan to tackle your UFOs? Or do you not even care if they sit idle indefinitely? I admit I have a few projects that I could never look at again and not regret it. But, there are others that deserve to be finished. Wish me luck!!

Snowman Village Coming To Life

My snowman village is coming alive! I only finished two of the four snowman blocks yesterday, but the remaining two are ready to assemble. I think I will do little French knots for their eyes and mouths. Each block has two strips of trees and a snowman in a hat, scarf, or sweater. They are so darn cute.

I cannot recall when I have had so much fun working on a quilt! 

Several of you asked what fabric I showed yesterday in my post about wanting to make a Christmas quilt. The background and red fabrics are mostly from Primitive Gatherings latest collection "Garden Gatherings". They are a beautiful clear Christmas red. The dark greens are from that group also, and the lighter greens are from Jan Patek's latest collection for Moda. 

Oh my gosh friends, if you like to bake but can't ever finish (or don't want to eat it all) a whole cake, this book will be perfect. Each recipe makes an 8-inch round, an 8-inch square, or a loaf cake. Eva and I made the Pumpkin Spice Cake with a Maple Glaze, and it was truly outstanding. If you aren't big on pumpkin pie, this could be an easy and delicious Thanksgiving dessert. Flavorful, moist, and that maple glaze was brilliant. My husband said, "This is the best cake I've ever had". I put a green post-it flag on some of the recipes we want to try and practically ran out of flags. 

Weird Weather and Product Review

Honestly, we are getting some weird weather. It seems like a few weeks ago it was in the 90s. On Tuesday night it hailed, and then snowed! We might get snow at our altitude, but in early November it is pretty unheard of. And my goodness is it ever cold. Like you don't want to forget your jacket when you run out to the store or to pick up the kid at school.

Eva was feeling well enough to go to school, so that is good. She still has a bit of a sore throat but is fine otherwise. 

I am making progress with the square in a square blocks for the Family Reunion quilt. I will be glad to wrap up this project. Not much more to go. 

I have a product review for you all. I am always looking for seam guides I can attach to my sewing surface to help me keep to a scant quarter inch seam. I have tried several with good results and recently saw this advertised somewhere.

So, I didn't really care for it. I will tell you why, but if any of you use it and like it, please explain why in the comments. My problem with it was that even with the little positioning tool I was not able to line it up properly. Also, the sticky strip guide was too short for my way of thinking. It is hard to see in the photo, but there is a pale blue plastic thing with a hook you wrap around your needle when you position the sticky strip guide. I must have been doing something wrong because I could not get it anywhere near a quarter inch.

This is Lori Holt's Seams So Easy seam guide. I like this one. See how long the seam guidelines are? That's a plus. The cutesy flower petal shape serves no purpose, but that is what Lori Holt does. The cuteness factor is important to her.

This no-frills seam tape by Cluck Cluck Sew works great. It is inexpensive and you get a lot of it. I've used it and once you position it as shown in the photo above it is a great success.

Do you use a seam guide? It is especially helpful when you have to make a lot of half-square triangles and don't want to draw dozens of diagonal lines on your fabric. I use mine a lot and think it is a time saver and leads to better accuracy.

Please share your thoughts on seam guides in the comments!

 

 

Too Many Projects?

I admit it, I have a few projects going on. For some reason, I have always loved doing multiple things at once. I typically am reading three books at a time, I can work and eat lunch at the same time, and I could do housework and fix dinner while nursing the baby.  And as you may have noticed, I am constantly starting some new quilt project before finishing others that I have started. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I do finish things, but often get distracted by something new and shiny. These are some of the block projects I have going on at the moment. My Sewcialites 2 9-inch blocks are in the upper left corner of the design board. My five Nantucket Summer, Designer Mystery BOM 2022 blocks are on the right. On the bottom left are 6-inch Sewcialites blocks, which I plan to turn into a runner or lap quilt.

Did you notice something new? This is the first block in the Designer Mystery 2015 Snowman Gatherings BOM. I think it is called "Grandmother's Cottage". It turned out super cute and was very fun to make. Tons of pieces. I used all my A-Z Alphabities plus some numbers just for this block. I am going to need to square up the block units constantly because with these small pieces, things can go sideways fast.

On the large design wall I have the Family Reunion quilt. This quilt is in the book "Rollin' Along" by Moda Bake Shop. I have started making the border square in a square blocks. I need 68 of them. They are kind of boring to make, so I am pushing myself to make at least 10 a day. 

I think I mentioned that Eva is with me this week since her Dad is on vacation. Wouldn't you know she came down with a sore throat? I kept her home from school and she's been drinking gallons of tea, and eating soup. It was pouring rain all day long so it was a good day to stay inside under an afghan.

Hope all is going great with you!

Family Reunion Progress

I have made some real progress with my Family Reunion quilt. I have one more round of blocks to make. The next round will be square in a square blocks that finish at a crazy size: 3 3/8".

I wonder if I can use my 3 1/2" square in a square piecing papers and just trim my blocks down a teensy smidge. Have any of you made this quilt? How did you handle the weird finished size of these blocks?

The previous round of blocks that I just finished were supposed to be 6 1/8", which is a totally weird size too. Mine all came out pretty consistently at 6 1/4", and I hope that won't be a problem. There will be lattice strips separating all of those little blocks, so I hope that will allow for some fudging.

Wouldn't it be awful if I got to the end of making all these blocks and they don't go together right? Now I'm worried!

It's been a fairly quiet week. I have had a lot of work to catch up on because my nice boss changed all my assignment deadlines after my dad passed away, but now they are all coming due next week! I've had to write a couple of articles a day just to catch up. I just wrote an article on what to do if someone barfs in your hot tub. I am not even kidding. FYI you have to drain it. Duh. Ok then, moving on.