What’s another project when you have more projects in progress than you can count on your fingers and toes? I’m a member of the Mississippi Quilt Association and they are doing a Quilt-A-Long since every meeting this year has been canceled. It’s a simple 12 block beginner sampler, and the hope is many of them will be shown at the June Gathering next year.

Earlier tonight I was reminded I elected to participate and decided I needed to get in gear.  The first 4 blocks were sent out last week. Given that I tend to go scrappy, and that I doubt I could round up enough fabric from my stash to use 3 or 4 fabrics through out the quilt, I started looking for the border to base my color choices on.  I found the stripe in the center of the picture above. This is the second time I pulled this fabric to use as a border. Maybe this time I’ll actually use it. I’ll use the bright white as my background fabric.

The first block is Uneven Nine-Patch.

Work on the #mqaquiltalong is not preventing me from working on the lavender and seafoam quilt.

Progress is being made. 1/4 of a gazillion HST are sewn into Broken Dish units, 1/4 of a gazillion HST are cut and ready to sew.

Easy Breezy = 83

Yesterday morning I hung up 1/2 of the quilt top on my shelves and spotted one broken dish unit turned. Fortunately it was on the first row and easy to fix.  When I took it down and hung up the second half and also discovered a turned block, this time on the last row. Now that the top is complete I can contemplate the quilting while I work on the batik version of this quilt.

But first a reminder.  Make notes, especially when you aren’t planning on cutting into the fabric immediately. Last month my sister bought these Kansas Troubles fabrics and gave me great notes.  Turns out she made a sticky note for everything she was buying.

Unfortunately I did not take good notes.  I had a note card indicating how many FQs I needed and total yardage needed.  But when I got to the shop, I ended up calculating on the fly based on what I was purchasing.

Oh, did I mention I’m working from my own pattern?  So, I did the math on the fly, added in yardage for a couple of pillowcases and binding in either lavender or seafoam and came home with my fabric and washed it.  Now 8 weeks later, I’m not sure how I was going to handle my neutrals. Can I find the note card visible on the stack of lavender fabric? No.

So, here I sit. The color strips are cut for the HST.  I purchases 1/2 yard cuts of all but 5 of the fabrics — more bang for my buck than purchasing FQs.  Last night I pressed everything and cut them into FQs. The lavender and seafoam yardage is clearly my choices for binding and pillowcase cuffs.  It’s the neutrals I’m struggling with.

I need strips for HST, and squares.  Per EQ I need 11 1/2 yards of neutrals.  7 1/8 yards for the squares and 4 1/2 yards for the HST. I only have 10 1/2 yards, which is supposed to include yardage for pillowcases.  Clearly my math was wrong. I’ll figure out something…..

Easy Breezy = 82

This month has flown by, or dragged by, I haven’t made up my mind yet.

On the quilting front, I quilted 4 quilts for a customer.  I’m doing edge-to-edge computer driven quilting for hire.  My customer was thrilled with all of the quilts I’ve done for her.  The top 2 are the Minky backs.  Depending on who you ask Minky is a bear to work with, or it’s not.  I suspect it has to do with the quality of the Minky.  This is from Shannon. It is WONDERFUL. It’s also hot, so I was asked to not use batting. The 2 tops came out just fine.

I’ve also been playing with pouring acrylics.  The vase and painting above it were done at the same time.  Then I did the painting on the right.  Finally I attempted to do some Christmas ornaments, but the paint didn’t stick to the inside of the ornaments.  I’ve since painted them on the outside with mixed results, but I haven’t taken a picture yet.

There’s a new quilt shop in town — Stashworthy Fabric.  It’s on the north side of town — about 35 minutes from me.  They had been open for about a week when I stopped in.

As for my quilting projects, I’ve been working on a “gazillion” red/neutral and blue/neutral HSTs.  I finally finished them, and have started assembling my broken dishes units. If I’ve counted right, the red ones are made, and the blue ones are partially assembled.  I am concerned though as I came up with an extra blue/neutral HST.  Does that mean I need 3 more or have 1 extra?  Of course since I’ve already thought I had all I needed who knows for certain.  I hope to finish this quilt top tonight or tomorrow so I can start working on the “real” quilt — which needed even more HST as it is large.

The United States celebrated 100 years of Women’s Suffrage back on August 18, 2020.  Starlight Quilters Guild was asked to make 36  12″ quilts in celebration. We used the purple and yellow stars from a replica of Alice Paul’s banner with one star for each of the 36 states which ratified the 19th Amendment.

This is my quilt.

I based it on the story of Harry T. Burn’s vote in the Tennessee General Assembly.  As the story goes, the assembly was evenly split with suffrage supporters wearing yellow roses and those against wearing red roses.  His mother, an educated woman, wrote him a letter which he had in his pocket urging him to vote for suffrage, which was not the view of the men in is district.  At the last moment, wearing a red rose, he voted to ratify the amendment making Tennessee the 36th and final state needed to amend the constitution.

The blocks I picked are Rosebuds,  Mother’s Choice and Tennessee.  The purple star is from the banner and was a required to be included in the quilt.  Here’s what I wrote on each block:

Rosebud:

He wore a red rose
His constituents said no
Women should not vote

Mothers’ Choice:

Mother’s Choice was vote
So a letter to Harry
Give women the vote

Tennessee:

Harry changed his mind
So Tennessee ratified
Now women can vote

Star:

One hundred years past
The ballot box was accessed
Regardless of sex

The quilts can be seen at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in Overland Park, Kansas through January 23rd. They are currently hanging in the lobby.  The plan is to show them at the 2021 Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival in June and the 2021 Starlight Quilters Guild Quilt Show in the Fall of 2021.

As our grandmother’s and great-grandmothers fought so hard for our right to vote, please make your voice heard and vote on November 3rd if you have not voted early. (I voted last week.)

Not too long ago, I was brought 4 quilts tops to quilt. It was the first time I had a customer in my sewing room. I discovered that thread selection was an issue.  She picked colors off my colors card, but of course, we had to try it on the quilt tops. She was standing on the back side of the quilt frame, I was on the front side, and the thread was in the 2nd drawer of the chest. There were so many spools of thread in the drawer to find anything you had to pull a bunch out.

It started me thinking about a better storage solution for my thread and where it should be in the space.

Monday, I found this cabinet on Facebook Marketplace.

My original plan was to fix glass panes so they didn’t need the backing, but after I broke the glass, I decided I didn’t need to see my thread.

My main thread drawer is empty.  Now I just need to figure out where exactly I’m going to put the cabinet.  For now it’s in the middle of my living room.