On this Design Wall Monday I first have a finish. Last week I made the Midi Bag. This past weekend I made the larger Mondo Bag. I think this will make a great reusable shopping bag.
Here are the two of them together for size comparison.
After the bag was finished, I pulled out my Christmas Star Swap blocks from April 2019. I made the 6 alternate squares, now I need to do the setting triangles.
On this first Design Wall Monday of 2023, I have a quilt top finish. This is the log cabin quilt I started piecing at the quilt retreat in September. When I packed up after the retreat half the blocks needed 3 logs and the rest just needed two logs. I got those added last week and started piecing the top New Year’s Eve. I had the first half finished about 4 minutes before the clock struck midnight, ringing in the new year. The 2nd half of the top was finished by 11:30 PM on the 1st. Up next is the quilting.
This is the backing I’m planning on using. Now to figure out the quilting design.
As I was assembling the quilt my Rivanna HST were getting created. At last count I had 11 bags of HST. I still have a few more of this combination, then it will be on to another fabric. I have 2 more fabrics prepped.
I’ve stitched a bit more on my Faux Applique. This is a direct result of the Final Countdown Challenge over at Prairie Moon Quilts.
Chilhowie Clue 6 will be worked on this week. It’s simple enough, but I ran out of bobbin thread the night I was working on it, then got caught up with the log cabin.
First, I hope you had a Merry Christmas – and stayed warm! I can’t say I’ve not been in cold weather like we had before, but it was further north!
First up for the weekend stitching is my Quilts By Hearts Desire Pizza Box Challenge quilt. I was able to finish the quilt top. Later this week I’ll get it loaded on the longarm to get it quilted. This quilt is on my 2023 Brandon Quilters UFO list and I would like to have it done by January 16th QBHD meeting.
Next it was time to work on the Quiltville Mystery Quilt – Chilhowie. These blocks went together quickly. I can’t wait to see what our next step it.
With both the Pizza Box done and the Mystery caught up, it was time to pull something else out. I pulled out the Log Cabin quilt which I started in September and haven’t worked on since I got back from the quilt retreat in September. I just have the last 2 dark logs to add to the rest of the blocks before I can start assembling the quilt top. I’d like to have this one finished by mid-January as well.
Since we are talking Thanksgiving weekend, naturally we have to start with the Quiltville Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter. This year’s quilt is Chilhowie. Information on the quilt can be found HERE. All though the clue was not difficult, it took me all weekend to get it done. Once the clue came out, I decided I wanted another piece of white batik. My SIL and I went to Stitch-in-Frame in Bovina, Mississippi. It’s about a 45 minute drive. Afterwards we went on to Vicksburg for lunch at Rusty’s – awesome catfish and we split a Mississippi Mud Brownie.
We’ve been hearing about how low the Mississippi River is low. It’s about 10 feet where historically it is closer to 13 or 14. This picture was taken at 2:47.
Just a few minutes later – 3:01 the fog started rolling in. I finally started working on the quilt Friday evening.
Saturday morning, after receiving notice that my nephew’s quilt top is on the way to me, I pulled out Baubles-n-Beads to get it quilted. I started by pulling out all my gold thread. I apparently have quite a variety. LtoR: Mocha, Khaki, Biscotti, Sand, Dijon, Military Gold, Buttercup and Vegas Gold. That’s Bombay on the far right which I used in the background. I ended up using Sand since it matched the topstitching on the quilt.
It was after I finished the quilting on Baubles-n-Beads that I worked on Chilhowie. I ended up with 18 HST, which still need trimming for Rivanna, my Leader/Ender project.\
On my design wall proper I have blocks for 2 quilts. The black and bright blocks are from the Pizza Block challenge I participated in with Quilters By Hearts Desire. I have one more block to make. The blocks on the right are from the 2021 Starlight Quilters BOM. I still have a few more blocks to make. My goal is to get this quilt finished by December 6th.
I have another finish this morning. I started this sampler December 31, 2020, drafting the block patterns and giving them to my SIL. Then I decided to move. Last week I delivered the last of the block instructions, so it was time to assemble this quilt. The only issue, is I didn’t like the fabric I picked for the sashing – it was too stark against the blocks. I really thought it was going to be yet another quilt where the inspiration fabric wasn’t going to be used as the border. I posted on Facebook my dilemma, and orange and black were was suggested. My original choice was black, so that wasn’t going to work. So I took my blocks & the border fabric with me when I drove down to Gardensong.
I found an orange Grunge with pink and yellow highlights. I think it works.
The backing is a floral with all of the colors. I bound it with the Grunge.
Started: 12/31/2020
Finished (top, quilted, bound and washed): 11/14/2022
Measures 51 1/4″ x 62 1/2″
Legacy 80/20 Batting
40wt Glide in Strawberry Blonde
Quilting design: Airborne
This is one of my UFOs with the Guild.
Earlier this week I pulled out my Genie and set it up on a table in my office, along with my ironing board. The cutting table is in the front bedroom. This is the Mississippi Quilt Association Block of the Month. We got our first set of blocks via email 11/25/2020. The last blocks came in 1/26/2021. I finished the blocks the first week of February. I pulled the blocks out the end of March to finish the top, but didn’t find a border fabric I was happy with. Shortly there after I made the decision to move so there was no sewing/quilting for me.
The finished tops/quilts were to be shown at the June Gathering, but it was cancelled. The Fall Gathering is happening this weekend and the quilts will be shown.
The quilt is pinned to the studs where my design wall will be if I can ever find a contractor to insulate and sheetrock the walls. BTW, this is natural light around 3:45 PM this afternoon. I’ve plenty of light during the day, but night is an entirely different story.
Linking with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.
Sunday afternoon I decided I need to get back in the sewing room to make some progress and so there was something to post for Design Wall Monday. So, 6 rows of my second Easy Breezy top was sewn together. I have 2 more rows made, I just didn’t get them attached. During this assembly process, I made my final 2 Easy Breezy blocks.
My short absence from the sewing room was due to more de-cluttering.
My first stop was the linen closet. Still way too many towels for any one person, but it’s so much better than it was. One large bag of older towels was hauled to the pet shelter. The sheets which no longer fit my deeper mattress gone.
Then I started on other “low hanging fruit” as the saying goes. My husbands shoes, the stuff in the bottom dresser drawer that I haven’t worn in 20 years, the clothes that have been hanging around because “we might lose enough weight” to get into them. Ha!
This week I’m going to focus on the boxes in my husband’s office. I need to get them out to I can get to the musical instruments. It’s time to sell them. Anyone want to buy a marimba?
Since this past July, I’ve made 140 Easy Breezy blocks – the Quiltville Leader/Ender project for 2020-2021. Yesterday afternoon, I decided I’d make two smaller quilts and found this caramel colored fabric in my stash. The first top is complete. I’ll try to get it loaded on the frame later this week.
As for the second quilt, I have a slightly lighter colored fabric, but I think I may dig deeper. Since I decided to make 2 quilts, I need to make 4 more Easy Breezy blocks.
As for Shimmer. I may have to break down and buy more fabric.
Yes, I messed up again! This goes to show you shouldn’t sew when you are tired. The good news(?) is these 2 messed units are the same blue that is in the other messed up block, and I’ve found at least 3 shops online with the fabric in stock. Given I only need 1/4 yard of the fabric, I think I’m going to wait to order it after I get the rest of the blocks made. I only want to pay for shipping once.
Be sure to stop by Small Quilts & Doll Quilts to see what others are working on.
Today’s design wall appears to be a throw back to August 2020.
I know you are thinking — didn’t she finish this quilt top last summer? The answer is Yes, but no.
When it came time to trim it up, (back when I could see my hearth) it wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what the problem was. Look close – see the blue and yellow star?
It’s not lining up. I couldn’t see it last summer, but yesterday when the top was uncovered by my cleaning, I spotted the problem right away. Apparently this top needed to be in timeout for a while.
Gracie helped me rip out the seam.
Once it was in two pieces it was easy to see where the mistake was made. I think this was the last seam. I haven’t decided if I’ll trim it before or after I quilt it. I’m leaning to after. So, I’ll spend a day or two trying to figure out how I want to quilt it. I have to keep in mind, that — oh, this is March — I was thinking in the next 2 weeks I needed to load my nephews graduation quilt on the machine to quilt — but there’s 8, not 4 more weeks to graduation. So, I will be able to keep this on the frame for a couple of weeks and still get his quilt done.
As for my piecing project, I’ve pulled Shimmer out. It went into time out because I made 2 different cutting errors on the same block. Since the above picture was taken, I’ve finished cutting the white for the rest of the blocks, and completed a block.
This is not a quick sew. I watched 2 episodes of Deep Space Nine without commercials in the time it took to complete this block. I have 21 left to make. Hopefully it will get faster.
I’m linking up with Small Quilts for Design Wall Monday.
I still need to bind the wonky dishes quilt, but it is quilted.
The next blocks in Ruby’s Sampler is done. I need to stop and write the directions for this block and the one I did Saturday.
No new Easy Breezy blocks were made. I need to stop and kit up pieces. I think I’ll dig into the scrap boxes under my longarm for more variety since I’ve used just about everything in my 1-1/2″ strip box.
I’m linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday.
