Sister's Choice Quilts

My Task This Week and Halloween Figs BOM

The next step in the Sampler Spree Quilt project is to sew each group of four blocks into a larger 13 1/2" block with lattices. Here are my first two blocks. 23 more to go! Next, these four block quadrants will be separated by another lattice of cream and brown Grunge fabric. This has been a very fun quilt to piece, and normally I am pretty bored with lattices and all the finishing touches, but I am still maintaining an avid interest in seeing how this comes together. 

My Month 4 Halloween Figs block of the month pattern and fabric arrived last week from The Quilt Spot. I made the large block you see above plus the three smaller simple stars. Here are all the blocks I have made so far. 

Maybe because it is October, I want to get moving with this project and get more blocks done. Hope I don't lose interest once we move into winter and spring. That being said, the fabrics are pretty and I think the finished quilt will be gorgeous. I sure had trouble wrapping my head around those simple 4" stars though. I got the "geese" and the "sky" fabrics mixed up with both blocks and then even was confused as to which actual fabrics I was meant to be using. I wasted a fair bit of fabric, but hope it will work out in the end. 

Did you have a good weekend? I spent it sewing, reading, and doing errands and housework. Not too exciting But I did try a new crock pot recipe that was a winner. Crock Pot Chicken and Stuffing was pretty darn good. I did not add the green beans as in the recipe. The stuffing was moist, the chicken wasn't dry (I used thighs), and the flavors were great. I had enough for two nights of meals for my husband and me. I made up some chicken gravy from a packet and topped our servings with it. 

Happy October everyone!

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!

Flea Market and Helping Out at the Winery

Everyone must be thoroughly sick of my posting on the endless Sampler Spree blocks, so I will give you all a break from that topic while I wait for my lattice fabric to arrive. In the meantime, I have the blocks all up on my design wall and keep seeing blocks I want to re-make in more effective colors. It is driving me nuts to tell you the truth. I need to leave it alone.

The photo above is the center part of the Flea Market quilt. It has at least two more rounds of blocks to surround the center section, but I think I may only add one more round. I have it all sewn together up to this point and believe I will put it away until closer to spring. The mood of this quilt is rather light-hearted and lends itself more to that time of year in my opinion.

For those of you who don't know, my son-in-law is a winemaker. Right now, it's harvest, and everyone who is able lends a hand to get the grapes processed and turned into wine. That is my granddaughter Eva in the photo above doing something called "punch downs". The grapes have been put into large bins to start the fermentation process, and are releasing lots of juice. The skins and stems of the grapes rise to the surface due to the carbon dioxide produced by fermentation. This cap of material needs to be "punched down" back into the juice to complete the fermentation process.

Yes, it is hard work! But before you contact Child Protective Services, take a look at the smile on our girl's face. She loves helping her daddy. Agribusiness is a family affair. 

 

 

Sampler Spree Light Blue and Dark Orange Blocks

Monday was productive in the sewing room. I finished my fifteen light blue blocks.

Then I finished my dark orange blocks! Now, I have been working on this project for a couple of years and had many of the blocks already made. For most of my colorways, I only needed to make less than six or so more blocks. I need 15 blocks in each of 7 colorways, and I find it helpful as I near the end of the project to put each color up on the design wall and evaluate if I have repeated fabrics, left out fabrics, or used poor fabric combinations. Some blocks might be eliminated, some might need to be re-made. 

For instance, in the dark orange group, the third block in the second row is kind of "meh". The flying geese would be better if made in a darker orange. I may re-do that one. I have three different Basic Grey collections that work great together: Cider, Persimmon, and Nutmeg. I have plenty of fabric for three quilts! Which isn't happening. LOL

This quilt is going to be incredible once I get it all together. What fun I have been having making the blocks and planning my fabrics and colors.

No post from me tomorrow. I have to go to the Bay Area for my annual physical, so I'll miss a day of posting this week. I hope my doctor will be pleased with me. The good news is, my cholesterol is down to normal, which I attribute to my recent weight loss. Yay. That is a first in over 20 years! I'm getting my flu shot too. 

So, we'll meet up on Thursday and talk about house cleaning, a subject that is weighing on my mind. 

 

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.

 

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!

A Peaceful Day of Sewing

I spent a peaceful day sewing yesterday and completed the eight star centers for my Log Cabin alternate blocks for the Designer Mystery 2023 sew-along.

It was so lovely to get all your supportive email messages in sympathy for my "quiet firing" as Cynthia called it. Have you heard of "ghosting"? It's an expression used in dating when a guy asks you out and things seem great, but he stops calling you and doesn't return your calls or texts. I sort of feel like that. Would anyone have contacted me if I hadn't asked what the heck happened to all my future work assignments? It is a very weird way to run a company and to treat someone who you had told previously was doing great work and was a valued member of "the team". 

Oh well, water under the bridge. I need to move on.

I am so pleased with how pretty this Log Cabin alternate block is. I made one up to see what it would look like and love it. For the next seven, I will make them all at one time, going one round and pressing, etc.

It looks so good with the sampler blocks and brings out all the colors beautifully. The other alternate block is in contrast, very low volume. I like how they work together. Maybe I'll finish them today!

Thanks again for all your kind comments. They made me feel a lot better.

 

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.