2019 Quilting Recap

Looking back at what I finished this year, I feel I was very productive. I am very proud of what I accomplished for 2019. I made a top nine photo to post of my creations on Instagram that I was very proud of. I picked specifically only finished projects. I didn't want to include stuff that hasn't been quilted because they feel half done.

Top Nine Projects of 2019

For total projects I finished:

1. A Rose for My Boyfriend
2. Purple Cat convention Bag
3. Tumbler Blocks Baby Quilt
4. Focus Freeway Camera hanging
5. Fruit Salad Quilt
6. Terracotta Greenhouse
7. Double Wedding Ring -wall hanging
8. Lots of Hexie Tags and nerdy coasters
9. 2019 Row By Row- Taste the Experience
10. Berry Box table runner
11. Candy Block and 9 Patch Christmas potholders
12. Christmas Tree Table Runner and Star mug rug - this I just finished yesterday!

Happy New Year! I can't wait to begin the project list for next year.

December Recap

I forgot to take photos of the 9 patch potholders.

I had a busy month of making for Christmas. First Saturday's Fiber Review at the Fiberology lab I was able to show off my candy block potholder and mug rug, as well as a square Christmas potholder I had made. I had a pack of mini charms that was from a Christmas collection a few years ago. I don't even remember how I got the pack now, but I decided it was the best time to use them up. I made a 9 patch block for the front and a pocket for the back. By the end of the month, I had made 15 potholders total with the candy blocks and the Christmas 9 patches. I gave them out to family, friends, and co-workers for Christmas. I also gave away two table toppers I had made and a small quilt. Tis the season for giving and I enjoyed sharing my hard work.

I also worked a bit on a snowflake cross stitch along from Stitchonomy. I admit I haven't' finished that one, but I did have fun while I could work on it. I also still have the pattern to work on later. Cross stitching is one of my hobby's I don't do very often.

Another project I started working on was a block in a block quilt. It's not got a name yet. I've run out of my background fabric, so I'm waiting to get some more before I take a photo. It's got a bright turquoise solid fabric I got from Joann's as my background. Last time I went on black Friday the fabric line it came from was on sale, but they didn't have any of that color left. Once I finish it, I plan on writing a pattern for it. I think it came out beautifully, but I may be biased since I created it.

Speaking of Black Friday, I mostly hit fabric stores. I got some solids on sale at Joann's and my local quilt shop had a progressive sale going on. I picked up a panel and two accent fabrics from the same line. I also stopped at Ulta and picked up a few beauty steals. Most of those went into Christmas presents for the family. I only kept the blush and the mascara from the picture to the right.

Overall the month was fun and busy. I got to spend lots of quality time with the family and give several of them handcrafted goodies.

I'm going to break from my tea routine for this post and bring out the Spirits. My cousin was in town and we toured some distilleries in Sevierville and Pigeon Forge. I picked up some flavored moonshine and a spiced Christmas wine. I had the wine on Christmas day with my cousin and her family. The moonshine came from two distilleries. From Ole Smokey in the Island area of Pigeon Forge, I picked up a Chocolate Chili moonshine. It was part of the last batch, so they didn't have any open for tasting anymore. From Tennessee Legend Distillery I got a Fiery Mango Margarita Moonshine. It's a nice spicy-sweet blend that is worth drinking as shots. The wine was from Mountain Valley Winery. It's a limited edition Winterfest red. The winery is part of a wine trail, that I suggest visiting if you get a chance. When you visit all the wineries, you get a free glass.

November First Saturday Fiberology Visit

I went to the fiber review for Fiberology Lab's first Saturday this month. I turned in last month's block and we decided the blocks are going into a charity quilt. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to get a photo of that finished quilt but I loved seeing everyone's blocks. This month we previewed a chocolate scented fabric by Lewis & Irene Fabrics. We got a sample of Chocolate Box Mint.

I also got an easy quilt pattern called Tumblebug. I have since given this to my mom but not before making a quick lap quilt out of it. I used a half jelly roll that I purchased last month from Joann's that was of cute forest critter themed fabric focusing on foxes, owls, and butterflies. I used almost the entire thing to create the front. I'm planning on using the few scraps I have to make a pieced backing. I also found tags mom made for me that I plan to put on the quilt. I put this one together in a day.

Then I had to look at the project I'm going to use my chocolate fabric sample for. I had picked up two other fabrics in the line and had debated on the idea of a mug rug. I found a designer on Instagram Ellis & Higgs that had a cute Christmas pattern line out. One block was a candy piece and it was perfect for this idea. She also pointed me to a blog called Polkadot Chair that had a neat potholder tutorial. I decided to make that with the block and a mug rug. Now binding round things is something I haven't done yet. So the potholder didn't come out perfect, but I did make extra blocks to practice with.

The Knoxville area has a new Boba Tea cafe. It's called Hey Bear Cafe. They have a lot of options to customize your drink, and they sell some prepackaged snacks. It was a nice place to hang out for a few hours. I sat there and cross-stitched because I didn't want to go home yet. I got a jasmine milk tea with egg custard. It was so good.

October projects done

So I'm eternally writing about what I did last month or something like that because sometimes my ADHD interferes with getting everything documented. I know I get a few views but I do treat this blog as more of a timeline for the starting and finishing of projects.

October wasn't my busiest month but I did have a lot to do. My cousin always throws a Halloween party and I always enjoy making something Halloween inspired. I decorated my office with my Halloween Bunting I made last year and a small pumpkin table topper/wall hanging.

I also started two cross-stitch along's. The first one by Cunning Cross Stitch is a Harry Potter Themed project that they call a stitch your own adventure. I figured this would be a good hand stitch project to do since they give us almost two months between pattern releases. The second was a shorter more pattern of the day stitch along by Stitchonomy based on the Drawlloween prompts for October. Both stitch along's are on facebook and I found the prompts and Stitchonomy's daily patterns on Instagram. She does sell the pattern as a whole in her pattern club on patreon. I do encourage you to check her out because her work is fantastic. I started that one about mid-October so I have the most of it done. Just some decorations outside my frame to finish and cleaning. She also has a winter stitch along coming up you can sign up for.

The other big project I did was a Halloween Wallhanging. I used my ruler I got at the beginning of the month for the witch hats. I didn't have a pattern for any of it. A lot of it was guessing and when that didn't work just add more fabric around it. I did get the ghost pattern online for free. In the end, I got tired of piecing and started the cross stitch projects. I reminded myself none of this had to be complicated and cut out extra squares of the Halloween fabric to fill in the spots. Most of the fabric is from Joann's and I tried to use some stash fabrics. A few are from my Row by Row winnings this year.

Speaking of winnings I wanted to show you what I got. I took some photos of the fat quarters laid out. I love the colors and variety I am itching to do more with them.

Tea for today is actually from me and my brother hanging out last month. We had stopped at the grocery store and got drinks before starting out and he got a Mango Snapple which he wholeheartedly endorses, and I got a green tea. I love matcha and this is the first unsweetened tea I ever got myself use to drinking. I don't drink my tea unsweetened often. Usually, I do add artificial sweeteners. This one is nostalgic for me to drink. It reminds me of the first time I had sushi.

First Saturday Fiber Review and Challenge

Fabric and my new ruler

One of my local quilt shops does a fiber review every first Saturday of the month. My first Saturdays are usually full up anyway but I decided to add going to this. It's conveniently early in the morning which gives me time to go and then do the next regularly scheduled group activity I do for first Saturdays.

Fiberology Lab is a quilt/yarn shop so they review and introduce brand new products and talk about upcoming events and classes. This was my first time going but she gives away a free item and gives us a challenge. Last first Saturday she gave away a mini charm pack and gave everyone a challenge to make something with it. When you bring the item back the next first Saturday you get $5 off whatever you purchase that day.

This month's challenge was to make a square out of a free fabric she gave us. We were given a fat eighth of a new fabric she got and she encouraged us to use more of the line if we could. She did say she wanted to use the blocks as part of a shop sample if we don't mind. I did purchase a few more of the fabric in the collection to make my challenge block. I also picked up the ruler she demoed. It's a 45-degree Kalidescope & Dresden plate ruler from creative grids. I ended up using the ruler to make my challenge blocks. I wanted the ruler to help make a Halloween quilt I had an idea for. I figure this was a good test for it. I like my blocks and I can't wait to show them off next first Saturday.

The shop also does a sit n stitch 3 times a week.  I can only go to the one on Tuesday nights because the other times are while I'm at work. It's a nice time to be social and if I need any help with a project I can ask the shop owner's advice.

Tonight's sit and stitch was quiet since there were only 4 people. It's handwork only. Most of the people that go, crochet or knit. I can't do those but I have enough handwork with my million hexies project to keel myself busy. I usually grab dinner before I get there and tonight's tea came from dinner. I stopped at McAlister's Deli and got a tea to go with my sandwich. I like their tea. It's not something that stands out as very different, but it's still a good tea to have with lemon.

Berry Box Table Runner finished

Table Runner front

After I finished my row by row I did take a few days off but got back to work. I have a few projects pinned together ready to quilt. I have so many that I don't have any more basting pins. I pulled out the smaller safety pins I had, to put together my Berry Box table runner.

Quilting it was easy for me. The design was a four patch in a four patch so I played on that theme and did a four patch on point in the boxes. It took a day for me to work on it but I feel I was being thorough. Plus I was working on laundry and getting a lot of distractions from family and friends.

Table Runner back

In the end, it's a pretty spring/summer table runner that I have yet to decide what to do with. I may put it on display later or give it away as a Christmas present. It does have a lot of fabrics I really love it so that's a hard choice.

I did not get a tea shot for Sunday while I was quilting but I do have a photo from a previous visit to a tea room I use to go to a lot. It was called Tea at the Gallery and unfortunately, it is closed but it was a fun place to visit. They had all their teas in silver canisters on one wall so you can pick your flavor. I remember this was one of the first places I saw some exotic teas. The first time I saw monkey picked oolong tea I swore the label said 'monkey pickled oolong' which sounded bizarre and gross. This mistake still makes me laugh to this day.

Row by Row Experience 2019

So this year's row by row theme was Taste the Experience. I wasn't certain about this year because I didn't end up making last year's. I did get into traveling for the rows this year and found time to go to some new shops because of it. I had a few of the rows put together before I started my hustle for Dragoncon but I didn't start the bulk of working on Row by Row until I got home. Even then it took two weeks for me to get my attention back to sewing. I had a touch of the con crud the first week and then spent another week obsessing over if anyone got the tags I hid.

When it was all said and done I made 8-row patterns and found a new way to connect them all. The shapes lend themselves to a different looking quilt then what I've done in the previous years. I think I like this one a lot. I finished it on Sept. 29th but wrote the 30th on the label because I worked myself to death and forgot what day it was. I was tired of looking at the thing.

Not as many shops were participating in my area so quite a few are from out of town. I had gone through Georgia for half the rows. I was able to turn the quilt into my local shop. The shop owner has seen all my previous row by row quilts and said she thinks this one is my best yet. I feel the work put into this one.

Small errors that caused a few headaches

I do have to say, every time I've participated in the challenge, I do learn something new. This time it was the pineapple row that taught me something new. I have been told next year is going to be completely different so I'm excited to see what happens next.

Dragoncon Swag n Seek

Another one of the major projects I did was hexie tags for Dragoncon. I did make 25 costers from the smaller hexagons but then I had cut some larger 3 1/2 hexies and made these cute tags out of them with a bit of batting, a stabilizer and a piece of ribbon. They were super easy to make and super cute.

In the end, I made 300 of them to give away and hada blast doing it. The two weeks before Dragoncon I did nothing but make tags. Everyone who found them or I swapped with loved them. I'm not planning on going back next year but I am going to make more of these.

The con was a blast and I have tons of photos if anyone wants to see them. I think the best part is hanging out with my friends. I got a lot of swag from just the swap meet and then shared it back out to all my friends that didn't go. I plan to make a shadow box to display some of the items I got.

Fairest of the Fair?

Mom turning in her quilt

Mom's pillowcase.

It looks like Skipped a few months but it's not because I wasn't busy. Quite the opposite really. I submitted quilts to two local fairs. Two quilts to the Anderson County Fair in July and three to the Tennessee Valley Fair in August. Mom also submitted quilts to both of these fairs. She was reluctant at first but because labeling and prepping is not as strict as a quilt show I convinced her to do it.

 I think we did really good at both fairs. I placed on most of the things I submitted. Anderson County is a small local fair they do get a lot of entries but not as many as the bigger fairs. At Anderson County I submitted two quilts, my Rose for My boyfriend in small bed quilts and the Fruit Salad quilt as a baby quilt. I won a blue ribbon for Fruit Salad, and third on the other. The larger bed quilts category is usually got so many quilts I'd never place due to the competition. I was still thrilled about what I received.

Quilts hanging at Anderson County Fair

Mom submitted a pillowcase and a quilt in the first time category. Since it was her first time ever showing something she felt that fit her. Her pillowcase won first place and she got second for her quilt. It was successes like that that fueled us to enter the next show in the regional fair in September.

At Tennessee Valley Fair we submitted three each this time. In table toppers and placemats I submitted my camera and then the same two quilts I submitted for Anderson County. The larger quilt had to go into the general bed quilt category because they didn't have a baby quilt category for this fair and Fruit Salad is too small to be a bed quilt. I did not win anything on Rose for my boyfriend in this fair but took home second for the other two projects.

Ribbons won at TN Valley Fair

Mom submitted her quilt in the same category as fruit Salad and got third place on it. She submitted an appliqued placemat in the table topper category and got third there. The pillowcase won second in Tennessee Valley also.

Overall the experience was really fun and it's always encouraging to win. I am going to try to submit to a quilt show one day. I keep telling myself I plan to.

Today's tea is another specialty tea I got from my travels. This one came from a shop in Pensacola, FL. I don't remember the shop's name and I'm surprised I had the tea as long asI did but it was tasty and now it's gone. It was a Belgium black chocolate tea. It was very nice with a dark chocolate hint. There were actual chocolate chips in the blend. I hope to find more in the future. I just have to remember the name of the shop I got it from.

WIP Berry Box table runner

Fabric from Loose Threads

After I got the top completed from the east Tennessee shop hop blocks, instead of quilting one of the many projects I had, I decided to start a new project with some of the fabric I picked up. I had gone back to Atomic Fibers and picked up the Straight out of Line ruler and decided to use one of the patterns in their videos.

I used four fat quarters I picked up from Loose Threads in Harriman. I used a wood grain fabric and 3 Downton Abby fabrics as well as a grey Zen Chic fat quarter I had in my stash. I used the blocks to make a four patch surrounded by the wood grain. I am calling this one berry box since there are berries on some of the fabrics and the colors are very berry-like. I used a solid grey from my stash as a border and used the scraps to make a backing for it. Now all I have to do is quilt it. The only problem is all my basting pins are in other quilts right now. I need to get something quilted.

Shop Hop: 2019 Row by Row

flowers at the rest stop

So for this year's Row By Row I'm a bit behind in gathering patterns. Up until today, I've only gotten one from my local shop. Mom and I had a road trip to try to fix that. I went to the Northern Atlanta area to stop at four shops. Most of the shops were new to me and I am always excited to visit a new shop.

Atlanta is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from my home. We set off at 7am to try to get to the shops early. We had a few setbacks due to rain, but thanks to my GPS rerouting me I did get around some serious accidents with no problem. We chose to hit the shop the farthest away and work our way back home.

Antique Quilt at the Cotton Farm

The first shop was InTown Quilters in Decatur, GA. I have been to this shop before. It's a cute shop that had some unique fabrics. They had some precuts of the Ruby Star Society Pop collection. There is one fabric in this bunch I really wanted but I had a budget today and getting the fat quarter bundle was not in it. I will have to keep an eye out for this one though. I did get the kit on their row by row pattern. Their row is called Mmmmm... Donuts. It's 4 donuts using the drunkard's path block. I love the colors to this one.

Antique toy on display

The second shop was The Cotton Farm in Roswell, GA. Their row is the square format called The Big Chicken. I will admit it's not my favorite out of all of them I've gathered so far but I love the shop. It has to be my favorite out of all the ones I visited. It's got such cute kitsch to it. I enjoyed poking around. It's in a converted house in a nice neighborhood. I passed it up first because I didn't see the sign in the yard. They used so many beautiful fun antiques as decoration and display places for the product. They even had an antique toy washing machine. I got several fat quarters from them but there was so much fabric I wanted.

Shopfront for Tiny Stitches

The third shop was Tiny Stitches in Marietta, GA. This was the largest of the shops we visited today. It was a two-story building with the downstairs being classroom space and the upstairs being shop space. They had lots of fun nooks and cranny's to look into. Their pattern is called "Taste the Experience." It is 4 mason jar glasses on a picknick table. I love this pattern but again budget-wise I couldn't get the kit. I did get several fat quarters from Anodover's Full Moon collection. Andover also has a free pattern for this collection to download if you go to the link.

Halloween Quilt from Cottontail Quilts

The last Georgia shop we went to is Cottontail Quilts in Kennesaw, GA. This is another shop in a historic district that is in a converted home. The neighborhood was a fantastic area I would love to explore if I had more time. It's near the Southern Civil War Railroad Museum. I have been to this museum before. It's a fascinating place to spend a few hours. I never realized the shop was nearby. They were having their Christmas in July event going on. They had a sale on all Christmas items as well as a couple of drawings going on. Their row by row is a sun next to a watermelon that looks like it on a picnic table being attacked by ants. I purchased the kit with this one since it had the cutouts included, Intricate cut-outs can be difficult without the right tools and this was one of the cases where it's better to go the easy route with the kits. I did pass on some cute Halloween panels they had because of budget reasons but I hope to get them later.

the bathroom of Tiny Stitches

During this shop hop, I ended up going to each shop's bathroom and as funny as it sounds all of them had cute bathrooms. The two older buildings had fun characteristics that reflected something about the shop. One being the kitsch theme or the other with the classic country look. Tiny Stitches had an elaborate Paris themed mural and decor gracing theirs. All of them had quilts to display.

Chattanooga Quilts window display

The last shop I visited was on the way home. I rushed to get to this shop because I didn't know if I could get there before it closed. I went to Chattanooga Quilts in Ooltewah, TN. I love this shop. It's in a historic building that the owner always has fun decor and antiques. We did make it to the shop 10 minutes before closing. Their pattern is a cute ice cream cone with several scoops. I did get the kit with this one also and a piece of ice cream cone fabric for the backing. When I saw their pattern online I knew I had to have it.

Final Loot for the day

This makes my 6th pattern total because I had gotten the Pizza block from Fiberology Lab several weeks ago.  I plan on starting on what I have now. I hope I get time soon to go visit two more shops before the deadline. I know my local shop hasn't had a winner yet so time will only tell.

Tea today was this Zevia Organic Tea I picked up to try. I did not like it at all. I am not partial to stevia. It tastes too chemically for me and I wanted to give ita chance. The artificial chemical taste to this made it unpleasant. I will stick with my sweet n low thank you.