What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I've been blogging recently about the quilts I managed to finish during the last nearly two years while isolating because of the Covid pandemic.  I was in a funk for about the first six months of isolation and not sewing at all, but then I started making up for lost time.  Now I'm playing catch-up on my blog.  

After I made the quilt for Shirley A using orphan blocks (read about that here) I had a few teal crumb blocks left and set them aside to do something else with. 

I shopped my stash and found these 2 ...

I'm slowly getting a little bit of quilting done on Bullseye Medallion. I say 'slowly', because it seems like I've been skipping every other night lately. Oh well. At least there's something happening with it even if it doesn't look like much!

Hand quilting Bullseye Medallion

Little doll quilts

Pink and Blue bits and pieces in a 12" block

Brown, Blue, and Green bits and pieces in a 12" block

I'm combining leftover units and parts of units to make an orphan blocks quilt. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, except there is no finished picture to go by!

I came across some orphan blocks the other day and decided to put them on the design wall.

Then a few more were added:

The last row of blocks were not playing nicely with the rest. I also don’t think the outside blocks will work. There are more of them and I thought perhaps they could be used as side borders. And the blocks on the lower right with the large pieces? Well…I dove into another bin and there were more of those! Enough I think to make a wheelchair quilt for Hospice.

This is where I left ...

These 2 Cool Ideas for Halloween and Fall quilts will jazz up your home decor or make a friend happy as they are great gifts! They are my latest finishes and I am so happy to see how they turned out.

This is Witches Party, the Halloween pattern I designed with my favorite Moda Fabrics collection for Halloween: Ghouls and Goodies. This is the third quilt I made with this collection (here are the other two), and I am not quite sure it will be the last. Why? Because of the bright colors, the dimensions of the motifs, the variety ...

Years ago I received a lovely piece of stitchery in a scrap bag. It is done on authentic feedsack material. You can see where the stitches were picked out and some printing on the back.

I didn’t know what to do with it.

I shared it on the blog HERE, and a lovely reader created a pattern for those who might be interested.

But the original languished. I set a goal do something with her in 2021. She has probably waited around 80 years for this moment.

The first thing was to wash. Gently. By hand.

That went fairly ...

 Today I just want to remind everyone that the Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge has begun!

Every year the wonderful Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict holds an event where hundreds of quilts get donated to charities.  It is an event that I have participated in for years.    

You can read more about the event here.

I think this event is a great way to use your scraps to create a fun quilt.  This is a simple quilt I made using a rainbow of colors.  The zig zag blocks are made with 2.5" strips.

          Cynthia Brunz is hosting one of her Orphan Adoption Events  https://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2021/03/spring-2021-quilty-orphan-adoption-event.html  Good news for me to clear some things out.

     First up, is a complete small quilt cut that I started in a workshop with a trained Studio 180, Deb Tucker teacher. I have the small pattern, the template, 2 extra project sheets and all the fabric cut for this small star quilt. It is a Lemoyne Star template. It works well, I liked doing it, but it is not my area of interest. I love the batiks I chose, but I will ...

 I continue to try them out, but Mystery quilts are just not for me!

Late last year, I signed up for a mystery Stitch Along through Annie's.  I really enjoyed the first block.  It was a nice mix of piecing and applique.  But then February's block was released and it was a truck entirely appliqued.  I looked at it and thought I would redesign it so that it was a mix of both techniques.  Before I got around to redesigning it, the third block was released....and you guess it - entirely applique again.

So I will continue to ...

Happy Spring!  

Spring for me always brings a bit of deep cleaning - especially in my sewing room.  I usually find myself looking at my old UFOs and deciding which ones I am ready to abandon.  For years, I hesitated in abandoning my projects - thinking that I should finish them someday.  I no longer think that way.  It is so nice to send them off to someone that will finish them and I no longer have the guilt or burden.

I started the Quilty Orphan Adoption Event years ago to get these projects into the hands of quilters who area ready ...

 I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the projects I have going on right now.  So I am trying to finish a few quilt tops.

Remember these orphan blocks I received from a friend?

I have sewed, trimmed and added some gray sashing to the blocks. 

I ended up with enough blocks to create 5 rows. At first I tried a random color placement but found I liked this grouped placement best.

Well, today I actually worked on something scrappy!  One of our quilt ministry members ended up moving to another state as a result of a COVID-related job loss in her family, and we decided to make a collaboration quilt for her.  I finally picked up all the completed blocks this week and started laying it out on the wall today...

 This weekend, a dear friend sent me a text to let me know she was bringing me a quilt to have quilted.  Then she asked..."I found some orphan blocks.  Do you want them?"

Well, you can guess what my answers was!

I finished my new purse, and once I purged the heaviest items from it, I love carrying it.

My old purse was also homemade, just a bucket style with short handles and the top opening left open. Too many times it would fall over and I would lose items. The last time was when I turned in a loaner car when my own car was repaired, then found out later that all my gift cards had fallen out into the back seat. Luckily they were still there, but I realized I wanted a purse with some kind of covering.

I ...

Every once in a while I dig through my orphan block and spare parts suitcase and see if I can put together a quilt from some of the items.  

Not too long ago I pulled a bunch of green and gray items to play with.

A clean cutting table is such a tempting notion. first, I seldom see such a thing, why mess it up? But, that won't do.. it is a playground of exciting potential messes.  What can I cut? mark? pile? Unfortunately, it is hard to get to my clean table, there are a "few" bags of undecided "things" in front of it on the floor. So, there is the boring place to start.

If you’ve been making quilted objects for a while you’ve probably built up a pile of sewn together orphan bits. They may have been surplus to the final project, made as trials, cut off from tops because they just didn’t … Continue reading →

 As I was digging through all the bags and tubs of partially finished projects to see if there were any items I wanted to adopt out in the Quilty Orphan Adoption event, I came across a bag of a partially started scrap vortex project I adopted from a friend.  

I had stuffed it in a bag and have been adding to it as I came across sewed pieces in the correct color combinations.  I decided to raid my orphan block stash to see what else I could contribute...

Do you have a long list of UFOs that you feel like you will never get done?  Adopting out an unloved UFO may be a better option than finishing it yourself!

I have been working for years to continue to work down my list.  I think I am under 20 projects now.  But every once in a while, I start something that I know I don't want to finish.  And with a LONG list of quilts I want to make in the future, I find it is nice to pass the unwanted onto someone else.

So a number of ...

Recently I was looking through my orphan blocks and came across a several quarter circle black and white blocks. I’ve been doing a few small wall quilts and decided to do something with these. I chose several red batiks for a strong contrast, cut them into 1″ and 3/4″ strips and began piecing.

I played with several layouts on the design wall and mostly straight line quilted it – for such a little quilt, 11″ x 19″, it took a while!

Here it is – “Red Storm!”

Linking: N&TT