UFO's and finishing projects

I recently dug out another UFO, okay it was a tiny thing that got lost in a stack of fabric I had cut for bowl cozies. I had a goal of making 54 bowl cozies for a craft show and while I was sorting my fabric I found two Christmas mug rugs that got lost in the stack. All they needed was binding and they were done. 

These guys were made with scraps of Christmas fabric and two panel pieces from a mask panel I got at the end of 2020. They have been sitting unfinished for only two years. I decided to get the binding done on them before starting my bowl cozies. I got the binding done on them and a recent table runner I made then took them out to a local Einstien Bagels for a quick photo shoot.

After the photo shoot, I managed to make 37 of the bowl cozies for the show on Oct 8th and made the other 17 the day after. I am off to start quilting a few more table runners I have put together. I've got another craft show on Oct the 15th in Oliver springs for October Sky Festival. I hope to add a few pieces to the finished pile before then.

Tea Time!

This photo Is an old one. I have a bad habit of taking a bunch of photos for blog posts and forgetting if I used them or not, The tea is one I got at the local Asian grocery store. It's a Sencha blend. The cup was new when I took this photo and the whole thing matches the vibe since Halloween is approaching.

Brown Bag Mystery Quilt 2021- Double the Fun

 In 2021 I joined Karen Montgomery's Brown Bag Mystery quilt along. Karen will design an exclusive pattern and get with shops that participated in Sewposium in February to sell the bags. In the bags, your fabric is chosen but usually, they give you a hint at one of the fabrics. I joined through The Fiberology Lab. Then during Spring, the clues are sent out once a week. I am a bit of a procrastinator and did manage to finish piecing mine in Sept of 2021, but realized I never shared. My bag was black and white with a pop of color. I am very happy with my results. I do have borders to put on and quilting to do. It has joined the pile of quilts I need to quilt.

Tea Time!

This one is from a subscription service I had enrolled in for a short period of time called Plum Deluxe. I got these lovely teas from my monthly box in May. The French Tart Black Tea was very good. It was made for the box and seasonal, so you won't find it on the site but they have other wonderful teas to choose from.

Mystery Quilts!

I've been working on two mystery quilts. One is a block of the month quilt Murder Mystery. I've already posted a small blurb about this one in my 2020 Projects post. It's been interesting to go blind into this quilting process. We were given a color list to start so we can choose our fabrics and have no clue what we're doing. This month's block used a skill I can say I don't like but can do with medium success. Curve piecing. The name of the block is Desert Flower and we make three of the blocks. The last two we made only one of that block and of course the one thing I am not fond of I have to make multiple. All complaining aside, the practice is good for me in skill-building and I think the block looks pretty.

The other was an international mystery quilt series by Fiberology Lab. This place is truly my home shop. Sometimes I feel like I'm there as much as at home. She's doing this like a quilt club that you can choose to participate by buying the kit.

Each meeting she goes over techniques and ideas for this month's quilt pattern. The kits are all precut, and you're given some scraps to go with it for extra bits. She also included recipes with the pattern.We talk about what was done from last month if you came or if you just had something to share. The quilts are small throw or baby quilt sizes and make great gifts.

I participated in February and got a kit for Italy in pinks and purples. It's a snowball block that represents meatballs. I'm hungry thinking about spaghetti and meatballs now. I have most of the blocks done and sewin into strips. No photo of that, but I will be done soon.

Tea for today a shot of the table at a ladies tea event I went to. My co-worker sponsors a table at her church's even. It's usually a fun social event combined with the church's fund-raiser. Last year was her first year and didn't know she could bring fancy cups. I loaned her some of mine for the table and I think she did a great job decorating. Snow had hit that morning and half the people couldn't come. The guest speaker included, but we still had a good time. She had picked up several different flavors. She found a Moringa Tea and I tried it. I can't say I'm a fan. It had a bit of a grassy flavor. I don't plan on getting any more, but I'm glad I experienced something new.

WIP Happy Haunting Halloween Wall Hanging

Laying out the applique 

So this thing is coming out bigger then I expected. It will end up being more like a throw. The size issue started right from the beginning. When I started making this in 2016, the middle section is from a quilt pattern. I was starting with the block sizing that was given in the pattern. I should have at that time made the blocks smaller but they say hindsight is 20/20 and I can't change it now. So we're going with the larger quilt.

Top without letters

I have it broken up into three sections. I'd be done piecing it but I decided to try to quilt them separately and then put them together afterwards to make quilting it easier and give me a chance to do a higher fill pattern. This is the same technique I used when making my row by row quilts, so I'm fairly confident in going with this route. I've built in strips to cover the attachment points. 

The top portion contains a large open spot and a panel. I found this batik in my stash that has a floral print. Even though it's a floral does seem to work with everything once I put the letters down.

I have appliqued the words from the bonus pattern we got for going to all 4 shops. I didn't get the kit for this pattern because I didn't honestly think I'd use it at the time. I'm still glad I didn't because I got to use the colorful scraps from the corners of the blocks in the center section. They contrast nicely with the background and strangely I don't think they over crowd the whole thing because of the color differences.

Center without 2 inch border strips

Also note this is the first time I've used my machine to applique. Usually I do that by hand but it takes forever when I do. It's hard to get a sense of this because I didn't take a photo of everything laid out together. I'll have to have one for my next update post. This section is complete and has been basted up for quilting.

Bottom portion ready to baste

The center section is suppose to resemble a calendar page. I have 5 rows of seven blocks with two of them being small round accents from the panel piece I got. I just did a small border around this to use as a buffer and to help when attaching the top and bottom sections.  The photo was taken before I added that in. It's the same batik fabric used in the top. This piece hasn't been basted because the fabric I used for backing on the other two sections is too small. I'm going to do some decorative patchwork with the  scraps to fill out this a bit more. It will probably resemble my flying geese type row on the bottom section.

Appliqued letters

The bottom section has the majority of the applique work. I used the kits I got with the house, tree and trick-or-treaters to make this cute scene. I did not measure my fabric when I cut it for this section. I cut it the same size as the top section. The problem came when I realized my appliques were too large. Now I could have quilted it and then attached it to the center then put the applique on, but I decided I didn't want that. So I used all the triangle scraps my Tri-Tri Again blocks left over and made a sort of flying geese pattern row. I did cut the white squares new for this row. I hadn't used that fabric yet. Since it came in the layer cake, I wanted to try to use at least one of each of the fabrics. This section is also basted up for quilting.

Basting down

I'm actually stopping for the night so I won't be tired when I start quilting. I still have thread choices to make. I have some orange variegated thread I'm thinking of using for the center section and maybe a grey or black for the other sections. I have to look at my collection a bit more. The piecing and applique portion of this quilt has only taken about two days. I went out for part of the days and put my work on hold. I'm hoping the quilting doesn't take long because I've already got the next project bugging me for attention.

For tea today I found this Hibiscus Peach by Pure Leaf. It's been a while since I spotlighted their tea because I always get the green or black unsweetened tea. I've become diabetic and need to watch my sugar. This is a new product of theirs and is sweetened but it's not overly sweet. I found it very refreshing.

WIP - A Rose for my Boyfriend

Time for a work in progress check. I think I'm 1/3 done with the quilting now.

As much as I complain about the process of quilting I always feel very proud of my final projects. Piecing is my favorite part, and quilting is fun on smaller projects. If the project I'm quilting on is larger then a crib sheet size then it's a major pain in the butt. I mean I could avoid this by paying a long arm quilter to do it but I do enjoy when a project I'm working on was all me.

Updated work space

My arms have actually been hurting from pushing and pulling this quilt around. Up until now I have had no support around my sewing machine. It made me want to stop constantly.  It also makes me want to skip doing any of the fancy stuff. I've just been going around the block so far. I did one area with extra stitching on one of the big blocks. I figure since there's a lot of space there I need to fill it more.

My biggest issue with this has been space. I don't have a separate sewing room to spread stuff out. Today I managed to squeeze a folding table in behind the table that has my sewing machine on. This has worked wonders. I wish I had room for a table this big all the time.

I've gone through 5 bobbins so far and I may run out of this color thread before the end of the quilt. I got it as part of a limited edition set one Christmas. I don't really want to go out and buy more. I have a back up thread that is close in color to use once this does run out. I have used it to hand stitch around in flowers in the second to largest  block. So it won't be unusual for a change in color. Plus I was thinking of going back with dark grey or black when I do the largest and try to do some of the stripes in that block also. I do my best design decisions on the fly sometimes. If I hate it I will find a way to fix it. I think Bob Ross said "there's no mistakes, only happy accidents."

Hopefully my next update will be me putting the binding on and finishing this thing.

For tea this morning I'm just going to make some of the royal palace tea. Nothing new, sorry. It's very refreshing and it has grapefruit and lemon in it. The grapefruit flavor it's as obvious, but it has become more obvious as I've had more. I'm glad I bought two containers.

2018 Quilt Review Part 1. East Tennessee Quilt

I haven't been posting in a long while but I still have been quilting. I have several tops that I finished but have not gotten around to quilting. I finished a quilt that I had started a while back for my brother. I had designed the top to reflect local East Tennessee landmarks and aesthetics.

I call it my East Tennessee quilt. The top is suppose to represent the Great Smokey Mountains that shape a very large part of this area and heritage. The section below is suppose to be the mountain's reflections in the rivers and streams. I used an orange for the mountains to show the fall colors in the leaves but green for the reflection to show how it is in the summer. The bottom checker board area represents the fall leaves and more of the color that can be seen in the area. The surrounding border actually represents the roads through the mountains.

I also have sewn on patches from the national park to show case many of the walking trail. The large patch in the center was an antique boy scouts patch that my cousin had earned. My grandmother found it and had no clue where it came from. She gave it to me to use since she knew I was doing this quilt. When my cousin came to visit I showed the quilt to him and he told me where it came from. I had asked at the time if he wanted it back because I had not started the quilting process but he said to keep it.

The quilt is actually a couple of years in the making. It took me about 2 weeks to do the piecing and another several weeks to find all the patches and sew them on. I did this part in 2017 around September. The only reason it got finished in 2018 was because I decided to finally quilt it. I started hand quilting in February because my wrists were hurting too much when I tried to pull it through my machine. I'm slow at this process so it was a 3 month journey getting it finished. It was suppose to be my brother's birthday present in 2017 but he got it in March of 2018. He has been very happy with it finding new things about it that he loves.

And finally before I forget this post is brought to you by Harney & Son's Paris Tea. I found a tin in World Market and added to my rather large collection. I love this one it smells so good like a citrus vanilla. I took several bags to work and everyone wanted one to use as an air freshener!

Quilting is in the blood.

I got my quilting habit from my grandmother and my mom. You have to admit it's a habit. I have several projects going constantly and plans for new ones. Like to the right here, I have the plans in the works for three of four ideas.

Both my mom and grandmother have been quilting for years. My grandmother has produced lots of quilts over the years. I own three that she has made for me. Like most quilters she doesn't sell hers, just gives them away for presents. And they get used. I use the quilts on my bed year round, sometimes two at once on a cold night. This one is one she's currently working on. It's actually a recreation of one she did a few years ago. (You can see it on her bed next to the loom) Everyone loves this one so I don't know who is getting the new one. (fingers crossed) She always quilts by hand. Her style is very indicative of the traditional quilter. You can see a close up detail of her quilting below.

My mom's style has gone from traditional to more modern. She normally does small projects and sewing. A full size quilt is not always something she has time or energy for. Right now she's working on pillow cases like the One Million pillow cases challenge. She has put some up for sale and has done a wide variety of pillowcases from whimsical and colorful. Currently up is the halloween themed pillow cases. I don't have many photos of stuff mom has currently worked on but I always enjoy sharing projects with her. We often go to shows and quilt shops together. So you can say this is always something special to bond with both of them over, just in different ways.

Also the first photo shows my tea of the day. It is a honey Jasmine Green tea made with mineral water I get from the local asian grocery store.