VESTS AND ENCHANTED GARDEN

 Two years ago I started a project with my granddaughter making some vests for her.  Yes, in July 2022 we finished the first one, and had three more cut out and ready to start putting them together.

Finally this week I determined that it was a project I had to get done.  Laid up with my foot in an air boot due to breaking a bone in the foot has me somewhat more off my feet.  But I can still sew and decided this was a good way to keep me busy.

I just need her to find some time to come over and select buttons and placement of the buttonholes. 

I have my first appliqué block with my William Morris fabric collection started.  I think the pattern I am using is a bit more whimsical than I originally planned, but I am happy with the results.

I am planning to appliqué with invisible thread and using 3/8" vines instead of 1/4" which are easier.

This is the patten sheet for the first 8 blocks of the 18 that will be in the quilt.  However I have increased the size of them a bit and will be playing around more with adding or subtracting some of the pieces on each block too.

I have all sorts of fabric to play with, a huge bin full.  It is looking like a fun project ahead.  

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APPLIQUE AND AIR BOOTS

My past week has been a rather eventful week and some of them not very good ones.  More on those later.  I have made some good progress on Morning Flight.

I have a good start on row 2.  At least I thought I had things going well.

The first two blocks on the left are perfect and the right side blocked looked really good too.

However on a closer look I realized that the fabric is upside down.  Oh dear, I spent some time trying to talk myself into saying that is OK.  Well that did not work well.  I have to remake it and I do not have enough fabric in the kit for a new background.  I spent some time and have found a fat quarter bundle of Eclectic Elements by Tim Holtz from an Etsy site.

The real bummer this week is my left foot.  I was sitting at the computer for a good length of time working on finalizing my guild's quilt show finances.  I had my left leg crossed and my foot was numb, when I jumped up to grab something across the room I stepped on the left side of my foot and rolled the foot to the side.  Well I jumped around for a few minutes, ouch ouch and all seemed to be OK.  For a few days it was sore and bruised, but as a few more days went on was really hurting me.  By Monday this past week I hauled myself into the doctor and then X-rays.  I had fractured the bone in a nice Z pattern from just above my left little toe all the way up the bone.  Fortunately walking around on it for 6 days did not displace it.  I am in this contraption for six weeks. It weighs a ton, and I cannot drive, husband is very nice about being taxi service for me.  There is only one plus in all this, I can still sew!

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NEW ADVENTURES AHEAD

 After getting both last week's charity quilt tops done I am back to Morning Flight and a new adventure with William Morris fabric I have hoarded for ages.  I also am working on a sample runner, as I am scheduled to teach beginning quilting again at our local quilt shop.

  

This is the very simple table runner I will be working with three ladies and one of them a young lady 15 years old that is very excited.  Simple and easy.  I used straight line quilting on it and machine finished binding. It is very doable for newbies.

Back to Morning Flight row two.

I have had a bin full of William Morris fabrics, I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to that particular fabric line.  I have three nice books so decided on this particular pattern.  But there are so many wonderful pattern to choice from, even a couple children's quilts that seem to be calling my name as well.

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TWO PROJECTS DONE AND ON TO SOMETHING NEW AND FUN

I spent this entire past week finishing both the Marco Polo and the Butterfly quilt tops. They are bagged up and on Wednesday will be going to my charity group for quilting and binding.  A relief for sure.  Now I can get back to Morning Flight and see what other unfinished project lies hidden in my storage drawers.  I have several collage projects that would be so much fun to start.  

Marco Polo quilt top is done.  The lattice made things so easy to join the blocks.  I am pleased at last with the finish on it.  I did select a yellow print for the binding.  It goes to my charity group for quilting and binding on Wednesday.  

The Butterfly quit is also finished and has joined Marco Polo going to the charity group for finishing.  

I have a bin full of William Morris theme fabric and three pattern books.  I think they are calling me for attention.  Time to do something different.  

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MARCO POLO AND BUTTERFLIES

I should be working on my appliqué project this past week, but I have two pieced projects that have pieces laid all over the sewing room and there is no room to really do anything, but get them together and off my to do list.  

The three blocks above are made with this Marco Polo pattern.  I purchased the pattern and fabric as a kit a couple years ago.  Not sure why I did, and wonder what was going on in my mind when I did.  I will admit I can manage to get the blocks together easily and the center comes to gather very well and is flat.  However, this project is definitely not my cup of tea for sure.  I have 20 blocks done, and 25 is the goal and I will be putting a lattice between the blocks.  Sewing those blocks together without one would be a nightmare as far as I am concerned.  I have enough extra fabric from the kit to cut a small outside border and a binding.  I will have it quilted and depending how great it looks in the end it will get a home either for my charity group or give as a gift.  The pattern goes on the free table at the next guild meeting and I am DONE with it.

On a happier note I have 35 butterfly blocks done and the first two rows joined together at the top.

I have joined them with a 1" finished lattice.  Very pleased with them.  Purely a scrap project and it will go to my chairty group for quilting and binding.

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MORNING FLIGHT AND BUTTERFLIES

 I am back to normal life here at home.  I weathered my guild's quilt show last month and all the financial ups and downs of closing the reporting for the guild membership.  My daughter spent 9 days the first week of this month with us and we enjoyed a good deal of family and friends visits and lots of quilting time.  Now I am back to doing something on projects in my sewing room this past week.  

I am back to working on Morning Flight.  I am ready to start the final block on the top row.  After a bit of appliqué thread woes things are going smoothly.  

I have a ways to go on this project for sure.

I can only manage an hour or two of machine appliqué before I reach  
the point of going cross eyed.  I then have to find something simpler to work on for bit.  So I have started this butterfly scrap quilt.  These little guys are fun and go together really quickly.  I'll need 35 of them to have a quilt complete, and every one will be a different fabric for the wings, a bit of a scrap buster.  They will have borders around each one of them in the white dot fabric.

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A WEEK OF SEWING FUN

 I spent this past week with my daughter.  We were able to spend a lot of time with family, a high school graduation event and party with one of my grandsons, and visits with an old childhood friend she went to school with, and her husband's brother as well as doing a good deal of sewing on several projects that she brought with her. 

On a trip to my local quilt store she purchased the coffee theme fabric.  We put together three runners two will be Christmas gifts for friends of hers and they were so cute that she had to have one for herself as well.  A neighbor of mine gifted her with the Kansas Prairie fabric and that will also be one of her friend's gift for Christmas.  Plus my daughter that is new to quilting taught me how to finish binding on the machine.  I have always hand sewn the finishing of my bindings. Just never was able to finish them on the sewing machine that looked good.  Well, you can teach an old dog a new trick.  These binding finishes are just perfect.

This is also a project she brought with her to bind.  It is a birthday present for a friend that is a college librarian, and yes she also has a cat.  The quilting she had done even included a couple of book worms quilted on it.   

And yes one more project sewn together and ready to take home, add borders and off to her quilter. 

My daughter has returned home after a wonderful 8 day visit and it looks like these two think it is about time. They look a bit sad, like they are thinking it's about time Mommy came home.    

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NEW PROJECT IN THE WORKS

Quilt show over and time to have some fun with my daughter and work on a couple of her projects.  

Monique brought this project all finished and ready to take to a childhood friend we are seeing on Monday.  Now have several other projects we plan on working on.    

The last of the 2-1/2 inch strips used for scrap quilt number 6.  All the rest of those scrap strips have been given away to someone else to use them.  

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LUCKY COWGIRL FINSH

My guild's quilt show is over, and as treasurer I spent almost all of last week on the computer finalizing the income and trying to gather up all the reimbursements for expenses.  Still working on that.  But finally almost a week after the show ended I am back in the sewing room working on my most recent project for my charity group. 

Lucky Cow Girl is finished.  Off this week to the charity group to quilt and then possibly back to me to bind.  It was a fun project except I did end up making the dark two hats in the right top and left bottom corners over.  I got both finished and realized the hat band was placed in the wrong position.  I spending several minutes fuming about it, but  decided I could not live with the mistake and remade them, had plenty of fabric so I forged ahead and finally finished the quilt top.

Scrap quilt #5 is also finished and ready to take to the charity group.  One more in progress and all the piles of 2-1/2" strips are gone.  Time for me to get back to my smaller appliqué project.  Plus our daughter is coming out from Colorado for a visit and more quilting lessons, some fun shopping and family gathering for one of our grandson's high school graduation.

Our little dog Zoey is relieved to have all the quilt show activity over.  All the hustle and bustle is over we can all relax and spend some quality time on the sofa lounging.     

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QUILT SHOW FUN

 Last week was full, overflowing, and exhausting, but I survived my guild's quilt show.  I am the treasure for our guild and quilt shows are not only filled with just setting up and taking down all that it involves with putting on a two day show, but I have all the finances to manage as well.  I think if I had one of those watches that counts the amount of steps you take each day, I would have registered at least 30,000 or more each of the 2 days of set up preparations, the 2 days show and the take down.

I spent a several months working on items for the show's boutique.  We spent almost an entire day setting the boutique up.  I was a great success.  

My two favorite quilts displayed by our two guild featured quilters.

Of course there is also vendors for shopping.  Lynn Wilder was our guest celebrity.  I could not resist one of her appliqué patterns and 2 fat quarter bundles.

And these three yards from another vendor.

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LUCKY COWGIRL UPDATE

 This past week had me busy for sure.  I spent a good part of Monday with a group of us pricing a huge amount of items both quilted items and a lot of donated fabric for our guild's quilt show on the 17th and 18th this coming week.  Over this past year several families have donated family members quilt stashes after they passed away.  Like so many of us several of the families found enormous fabric stashes of really lovely fabric.  Every thing was measured and cut by us into every thing from 1 yard pieces up to even 8 yards.  We priced most at $6.00 per yard.  

An update on my Lucky Cowgirl project.  I have 5 blocks of the 9 done.  The fabric in this kit is so much fun to use.  

The hats were a bit of a puzzle in the beginning.  The pattern called for embroidery of the lines to create the bill of the hat and the crease on the top.  I do not do embroidery, so ended up using 12wt thread and a triple stitch on my machine.  Worked out really well.  

I came home with two huge bags of fabric from the donated fabric we priced for the quilt show.  With what we do not sell at the show and what we just had no time to prepare for the show we are using for charity quilts.  One group we work with makes twin beds with mattresses for foster families when they do not have a bed for the child they just took in.  We make a quilt to go with the beds.  My job is just to cut 9 1/2 inch squares, yes 63 of them and a binding.  I cut and give them to another lady that sews them together and they move on to quilting and binding by others.  I spent an afternoon cutting these three.  Lots more to come.  

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QUILT KIT MISHAPS

This past week I attended my usual charity group and was asked if I would make a quilt from a donated kit that could be used as an auction quilt for one of the agencies we work with.  Over the last two years I have sewn 2 previously for the group.  I enjoy doing it and since I was asked again figure they must be happy with my work.

The kit came with the pattern Wanna Be A Cowboy, and the fabric matched the pattern, but the Lucky Cowgirl pattern was also tucked in with it.  

However there was a problem.  I went over the pattern requirements and discovered that there were a number of fabrics missing in order to complete the Wanna Be A Cowboy quilt.  In fact, many of the pieces that were there had more fabric than required.  I know that kits sometimes modify the fabric, but after a good couple hours it was easy to see that the intended pattern was not going to work.  So no real choice it was going to be the Lucky Cowgirl pattern.  I do love appliqué so did not upset me and frankly was my personal preferred choice.  

I got the nine center blocks completed and the first appliqué on the center block of the quilt.  This is going to be fun. 

Our little Yorkshire Terrier Zoey has found that the early morning sun at this time of year comes in from a window above our fireplace.  It shines for about half an hour every morning on the end of the sofa, just enough for her to get a brief sunbath.  This dog's life is good!  

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APPLIQUE RELIEF

This week I have done a bit of shopping for my sewing room.  Once I was able to finish up with all the painting of a good part of the house and the painters were finished and the house returned to a normal state I figured to do something about the carpet in my sewing room.  It is old, we figure about 20 plus years old.  Time to replace it.  I considered laminate as most of our home is wood floors or laminate in the office.  Not sure how all that thread and pins that seem to end up on the floor would do rolling around on laminate flooring.  So we opted for carpet again.  They install next Friday.  So have to empty the room for a day or two, guess I will move the machine and ironing board into the dining room.   

I did manage to get another scrap quilt top put together for my charity group out of the scrap bins of 2-1/2" strips I cut up.  My idea was to rid myself easily of all my ever growing scrap bins.  It has not helped at all.  I still have tons of the strips left.  I now have a third quilt top  ready to put together.  However, making these is a bit of a relief from dealing with my current appliqué project.

Last week I got the first block, one on left side, completed and thought that I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this kit.  I figured will just forge ahead and see what happens.  These blocks and the pieces are tiny like 3-1/2 by 6-1/2 inches for the little block in the middle and the other two not much bigger.  I have been  surprised that they are not that bad.  So plan to just keep going until either I get them all done or lose my mind, which ever comes first.   

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