Sister's Choice Quilts

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.

Family Reunion Catch Up

I picked up this project again, which had been gathering dust on my smaller design wall. It is a Moda Bake Shop sew-along called Family Reunion. The pattern of the same name is in the Moda Bake Shop Rollin' Along quilt book. The Family Reunion pattern was designed by Christine Wald. 

There are some really helpful posts on how to construct the quilt blocks on the Moda Fabrics blog. 

I got the center section put together and have started on the next round of smaller blocks.

 It is a relaxing project that doesn't make me think too hard. I am giving myself some grace to just be quiet this week.

Here we are at Wednesday already. Where does the time go? Eva has a basketball game tomorrow, which I am looking forward to. Who knew Nana would become such a sports fan? Eva will spend some time with us this weekend, as her mom is on a business trip to New York. We made Halloween cut-out cookies yesterday, which taste a lot better than they look! Hope your week is going well. 

Do You Have Project Overload?

Do you have project overload? I've been thinking about how many concurrent quilting projects I have going on at the moment, and it's a lot. I know many of you are disciplined and just take on one quilting project at time. You work on it until it is finished without getting distracted by something new and shiny. Once the top is pieced you probably even prepare your binding and put it somewhere you can find it. I admire your focus, orderliness, and discipline.

I am not that person. I get so excited about new projects that I often can't seem to help but start something even if I have others that I am working on at the moment. At this point in time, I have seven projects I am working on. I have many many more projects that I have not yet started or have started and set aside. I may get to them, maybe I won't. These seven projects are ongoing, and I work on them steadily, some more than others. These projects are (in the order I am paying attention to them):
1) Peace and Healing
2) Midnight Moon
3) Moda BlockHeads 4
4) Cozy Up
5) Flea Market
6) Red Sampler
7) Cider

Peace and Healing is on the larger design wall. I am in the process of sewing the rows together, so I anticipate that one will be a finish fairly soon. To the left is Cozy Up, which is a smaller size quilt and should not take long to wrap up once I get the next round of blocks made. Everything else is in the tall project bin unit from Ikea in the first photo.

Am I overwhelmed? Well, maybe a little. I'd say I am more frustrated that life gets in my way and I don't have as much time to sew as I would like to. But what made me think about the topic of project overload is a terrific YouTube video by the great Pat Sloan. I highly recommend that you take a few minutes and watch it. Pat discusses project overload and has some terrific tips on how to control it, or at least manage your feelings about it. 

She suggests first and foremost, making a list of your current projects. She talks about deadlines (a baby shower or graduation gift for example) and making that a priority. She suggests making some of your larger projects a smaller size- turning a quilt size project into a table topper (which I have done many times!). She even mentions that if you aren't loving something you started as much as you hoped, to set it aside temporarily or forever. Best of all, she has some tips on how to get caught up on the projects you do love and want to finish.

I have been thinking about this a lot over the weekend, and would also add that if a project you are working on is seasonal (say a Halloween or Christmas quilt) and you hope to use it in the near future, that you move that project to the head of the queue.

I'd love to have you readers chime in on this subject. What kind of quilter are you? Disciplined or schizophrenic? If you have multiple projects going on, does it make you feel overwhelmed? How do you prioritize your projects? Please do share your thoughts and tips!

 

 

 

 

 

I Found My Moda BlockHeads 4 Layout!

I am so excited to have gotten the inspiration for the layout I will use for the Moda BlockHeads 4 quilt. The fabric I am using for the quilt is several collections by Linzee McCray. The greys, aquas, yellows, and navy in all the fabrics coordinate beautifully together and the overall feel of the blocks is upbeat, cheerful, and a bit retro.

This is my inspiration layout, by Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilts. She published fabric requirements and instructions on her blog post this week.

I had thought I would do a diagonal set, but I like how her layout looks so much that I am switching gears immediately. Her setting appears very complex at first glance, but it really is deceptively simple. The great thing is that it only requires 25 blocks, so at the end of the sew-along I can eliminate a few extras that don't "play as well with the others".  I swear, whenever I make a sampler quilt I end up making extra blocks to replace several that I don't care for. It will be great not to have to do that.

I needed some grey yardage to complete the setting layout, and Fat Quarter Shop had this grey in stock from Linzee's Morning Light collection, one of the groups I have been using for this sew-along.

Some things just have a way of working out! 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.

How Nice It Is To Sew

What a nice week this has been to get caught up on my several sewing projects. The two blocks in the photo above are for the Midnight Moon sew-along.  Nothing like a Halloween quilt to pick up one's spirits. Isn't that apple green color divine? It is the perfect accent to a quilt with black and orange. I still have no idea how I am going to set these blocks or how large the quilt will be.  I will be happy with lap size. I am making only the 6" blocks.

These two blocks are for the Moda Blockheads 4 sew-along. I love these muted spring colors and think a quilt featuring them will be just about perfect come April. The fabrics are from three different collections designed by Linzee Cull McCray for Moda. Who would have thought grey and yellow and aqua would be such a great combination?

Eva and I spent the day together yesterday. We made banana chocolate fudgecicles and went to the pool. The pool was super crowded with loud boisterous teenagers, so she didn't feel like staying too long. Also, her mermaid fins have become too small for her growing feet, which really bummed her out. She sure loved pulling on that mermaid get-up when she went to the pool. She has loved that thing for three years, so we got our money's use out of it. I wonder if I can find one in a larger size? She just isn't done pretending she is a mermaid. Childhood just doesn't last long enough, I tell you.

Putting a Quilt Top Together

This week I am focusing on putting a quilt top together. This quilt is "Peace and Healing" by Piecing the Past Quilts. The sew-along started this spring and each week I received the patterns for three or four blocks. The patterns were free at the time, but you can purchase all of them now for $19.99 from their website. I didn't care for three or four of the blocks and swapped out different ones.

Now it is time to sew the top together and I am making some changes to the layout.

The biggest change I am making is that the blocks are supposed to be "framed" before attaching the lattice. I suppose the reason for this is that the designer wants to be sure all the blocks can be squared up to the same size. My blocks all came out 9 1/2", so I don't need any squaring up, thus I am skipping the frames. I'm not bragging, I am just careful. It is amazing how accurate one's blocks can be when you starch your fabric first, pay attention to careful cutting, sew a consistent 1/4" seam, and trim up your units to the correct size as you sew. 

The lattice is pretty cute I think. It has little red and white four patches for the lattice posts. I am going to use the red (from the four patches) for a very narrow inner border, then add a wider border of the cream (same as the lattice). I think that will set off the blocks nicely.

I used all fabric from my stash, a mix of Primitive Gatherings, Pam Buda, and Julie Hendrickson. I did have to buy the lattice fabric, and got a ton of it, so maybe I can use it for the back as well.

Hope your week is going well!

 

Among the Stars Again Border

I finished the border units for the Among the Stars Again quilt. The piecing was kind of repetitive, but once it is on the quilt, I can tell it is going to be striking. The colors in the quilt are kind of subtle for a Christmas quilt, and this red and white border will really make a statement.

I have been also meaning to share the book holder I purchased from Fat Quarter Shop. It is designed by Lori Holt and is perfect for holding a quilting book or pattern instructions. I've been using it non-stop and can't imagine how I got along without it all these years. The bright yellow color is so cheerful and fun too. 

In a burst of energy, I also got the quilting done on my 5 mug rugs for June. If my health holds up (and I don't get COVID) I will attempt to sew the bindings on today.

Every time I make a new Mug Rug of the Month, I think it is my favorite so far. But this one is so cute and summery, it may be in first place. Pattern is Strawberry Social by the Pattern Basket.

Have a great weekend everyone!