First Quilt Finish for 2021 and 2020 Recap

It’s a great way to start the new year with my 2020 Monthly Color Challenge quilt finished during the first three days of 2021. The last of the blocks were sewn during the last week of December and was briefly a flimsy  on New Year’s Day and a Finally Finished last night. Photos were taken around Midnight in my studio knowing that outside shots were going to be impossible with the cold, snowy weather coupled with cloudiness we’re experiencing lately and I’m sure the Master Quilt Holder appreciates not having to stand outside.

Last year when the 2020 Monthly Color Challenge hosted by Patterns by Jen and learning that the theme was going to be Birds, I knew I wanted to participate because  it met one of my major requirements for joining a QAL—I had the perfect fabric in my stash.

I purchased these fabrics during our visit to Granby, Colorado in June, 2018 at The Fabric Nook.These fabrics are from three different collections: the Birds are from a P&B Textiles, Bird Watchers by Norman Wyatt Signature, the black print on the upper left corner is from Henry Glass, Black, White & Bright and the ombré prints are E.E. Schnenk, Daiwabo Selection. The Bird prints probably caught my eyes first and was lucky to find the other accompanying prints which really went so well together with my quilt I named Sweet Tweety Birds. Not only did these fabric fit the Bird Theme but after seeing which colors were going to be featured each month, I knew these colors in the fabrics were going to “fly”.

I will admit that I tweaked some of the colors to better match the ones in the Bird prints. Also, I found early on that my ombré prints couldn’t be used as much since some of the patches were too big and/or the right colors were found elsewhere in my stash, mostly tone on tone.

After the blocks were finished, I had to come up with a layout which I could best include the Bird and Black Stripe prints and I came up three alternate blocks:  a vertical rail block with the bird houses, a horizontal rail block with the birds and the Puss In Corner (funny to use these for a Bird quilt) Block. I decided to exclude the feather and egg prints of the Bird fabric line and will save it for another quilt. I did not have enough fabric for a border and really didn’t want one anyways since this quilt already measures 52”x72”. These alternate blocks really are what we would call sashing but in order to get around not having a border and feeling less guilty, I had to think blocks. It could be a quirk of mine to think borders and sashings sew together in a quilt.

After going through my head the number of ways I could machine quilt Sweet Tweety Birds (horizontal straight lines, cross hatch with straight grid lines, etc.) vertical straight lines 1” apart, except for the alternate blocks, won. I decided, almost when I was done, to do some horizontal quilting to accent the black squares in the Puss in Corner blocks.  I used an #2105 Aurifil thread, 50 wt. and I love how this creamy yellow went so well with all of the colors in this quilt.

The backing is a multi-color batik print from the backing vault and might I mention is as colorful as the front of the quilt. I decided to bind the quilt with the same black fabric used in the Puss in Corner blocks.

I am loving my Sweet Tweety Birds quilt so much it will be hanging around the studio for a couple of months before it migrates to the GP House. I can say this is my favorite finish so far this year. It is so nice to already have a first finish and when you read my 2020 Recap a little less UFOs is certainly welcomed in the studio.

For the past several years, my New Year’s Day tradition is watching the Rose Bowl Parade while recapping my 2020 projects and compiling my 2021 projects. This year, I forgot about the parade, recapped my 2020 projects and just didn’t want to commit to anything for 2021 except to participate in the Famous Canadian Birthday QAL which I’ve been doing for the past five years and to continue with the last six months of Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge.

2020 Recap 

I had 29 Finally Finished quilts/projects for 2020 which my goal is to have 24, two for each month. 

• Fifteen were new projects in which only two of them used new fabric purchased last year and fourteen were UFO’s and a big sigh because three of them were over 20 years old, one from 2004, two from 2013 and four from 2016.
• Nine of these were lap size or larger and twenty-two were smaller (wall hangings, table runners or baby quilts)
• Five of these projects were for the darling Granddaughter.
• Nine of these  projects were squares which almost is unusual for me who prefers rectangles.

I also have twelve flimsies which for the past several years I had zilch or just a very few. What’s making me wonder is that only two of these involved new fabric and I tried but fail to observe a 2020 fabric fast and must have mostly bought basics. I am going to have to reorganize my two backing vaults since my 2020 projects gave me some room which I should have no problems filling up.

Also, I have and sure most of you have finished in 2020, countless face masks which I know I’ll be making more in 2021.

Here is a Link to my 2020 Quilts and Projects for your viewing pleasure.

I’m glad to be able to post this before we head to the GP house tomorrow.  I plan on bringing my Country Threads Dirty Dozen project for January which will involve no sewing, just pressing and trimming blocks and, of course, staying warm.

December Duo-ings

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all of the projects which needed to be finished, are and then some, so I am saying, I’m done with December. I had a pretty productive month with five Finally Finished quilts and two Flimsies. It helped that I spent more time at home than the Grandparent house although I did miss my darling Granddaughter but we were playing it safe by staying home for two weeks after Thanksgiving. As in November, I once again have dueling “Duos” which included Doll quilts and a Dirty Dozen which puts the “D”in December, along with Delightful. (It’s that time of year when the photos are all interior shots; no snow but it’s cold outside).

First up, were the two Christmas quilts which needed to be finished before we left for the Grandparent House on the 12th which wouldn’t have been hard to do except I was deterred by some recently purchased fabric but more more about this distraction later in this post.

The Christmas Hoot and Loot quilt has been in the makings for the past several years with indecisions if I should make a Staggered Strips and Squares quilt but decided against it so the pinwheel and eight-patch blocks were made last year. I finally decided this year that the Hoot and Loot green fabric would be cut into 8.5” squares rather than using long strips or rectangular blocks.  The eight-patch blocks were made mostly from a jelly roll of Me an My Sisters Red Dot and Dash. Sadly these were cut last year and if I knew my Bee Sista Jan was looking for this, I would have happily sent this to her. We have a Me and My Bee Sista fabric friendship.

Surprisingly, when it came down to quilting it, I couldn’t decide on the backing since there was nary a Christmas fabric in my stash and I was determined to use something from my backing vault so this is what I came up with-not very exciting, right.  Also, how to quilt it was a challenge and decided on wavey cross-hatching with straight grid lines so I didn’t have to do any marking which is a pain to do when I can’t depend upon the blocks.  I used a green thread for the top and for the bottom I used an Aurifil thread in Natural which I love how it blended with the back.  The binding is the red dot fabric used in the pinwheel blocks which is almost or at least a twenty year old Piece of Cake fabric line.  

This quilt measures 56”x72” and is now hanging around the Grandparent House which was not the plan since I was envisioning this being thrown around the floor by the darling Granddaughter.  The Hoot and Loot quilt is covering the red and black quilt which normally drapes on the ladder and sort of has a Christmas tree effect,  doesn’t it?

While I was finishing the Hoot and Loot Christmas quilt with just a few days left before leaving for the Grandparent House, I still had to make a quilt for the darling Granddaughter.  The plan was to make one using the leftover blocks but I was sort of tired looking at these blocks plus I thought it wasn’t too exciting for a little girl.

I had hanging on my design board some 4” HSTs made with Lori Holt’s Cosy Christmas fabric and the plan was to make two zig zag table runners.  I thought of using these for her quilt but it would only measure 32”x40” which be way too small for my very tall for her age Granddaughter.  I then had an epiphany that if the HSTs were placed horizontally and I could find a perfect fabric for the sashing to make it longer, this would work.

No surprise that I found an aqua mint with red pin dot stripes in my stash which is also a 2016 Riley Blake fabric like Lori Holt’s but from a different designer.  I love when I buy fabric with no project in mind and finally am able to use it.  Plus, I found this right away and knew it would be perfect. When this happens, I feel vindicated for buying so much fabric and let Hubby know about it.

I decided to use fleece instead of batting and backed it with a red star minkee which was leftover from another Granddaughter quilt from Christmas past, another nice happenstance in making this quilt.  This quilt has weight which is perfect since she likes her compression blanket.  I quilted vertical squiggly lines with red thread.  I named this quilt Holiday Hearts and it measures 40”x52”.

Holiday Hearts was well received and immediately shared with the darling Granddaughter’s dolls and menagerie. Remember this image of the other quilt on the floor which inspired another duo of quilts to be mentioned later in this post.

Upon our return from the Grandparent House on the 17th, the next project I needed to finish was my #4 of Country Threads Dirty Dozen QAL which is my I Love London, the flimsie made almost six years ago. This was the last of the 2016 Flimsies waiting to be finished and happy this one is off my plate now.  I made this after I had accumulated London fabric from different lines which was popular around the time I retired eight years ago.  I always dreamed of going to London since it holds a special place in my heart because my father had fond memories of this city (not the devastation-but taking violin lessons while he was on furlough)when he was stationed somewhere in England during WWII.  Sadly, I don’t like flying and my trips are limited to places where we can drive to our destination.

Here’s a close-up of some of the prints which are quite fun.  The pattern of this quilt was based on the center 18” square of the I Love London print and the surrounding square/rectangles measure 4.5”x6” finished.  You can see the crosshatch and grid machine quilting I did in blue thread and I would like to mention that I wanted my crosshatch lines to be nice and straight and spent the time marking it with a Hera marker. Unfortunately, my lines were not straight and veered off course several times because I couldn’t always see the markings.  I guess you can see Hera marks better on solid fabrics.

I seem to be having mishaps with batting and backings lately and this quilt was a testament to this being that I had purchased 108” wide backing for this quilt but somehow cut into it to back another quilt thinking I had enough. I didn’t so I had to piece it together to what I thought would be the right size and still wasn’t enough so I sewed the blue/white ticking stripe which still only gave me an one-inch left to spare on both sides. Whew! This quilt measures 54” square and the stripe binding was from one of the fabric lines.  Even though the quilting is a little wonky if you look at it close enough which you may notice since this quilt is designated to be a picnic quilt or maybe a tea party quilt—something that can be laid down on the floor or ground-which brings me to the subject of the darling Granddaughter and the earlier photo with the quilts on the floor. 

During our last visit, she has been taking table toppers, place mats and even picking up the kitchen floor mat to place over her dollies, stuffies and any other toy she deems as needing to be covered.  Most of the time the toys are laying on the floor.  I don’t like seeing my quilts laying on the floor since at times, we have two to four dogs at the Grandparent House at one time and two of them are shedders. I was thinking of some of the small toppers at home I have made which would make suitable doll quilts and remembered these two quilts above which were made from Little Quilts’ panels and I started hand quilting them over twenty years ago.

What’s funny about Little Quilts is that my Bee Sistas this year had a conversation about them starting with Wendy who had posted about their book being her first quilt book and then turning out that three of us made the same little quilt pattern.  But that didn’t spark me to finally finish these two quilts, it was the need to give the darling Granddaughter a proper doll quilt.  I thought I just needed to bind the quilts, but the Star quilt on the right still needed to have some of the leaves hand quilted with my still intact big stitches skill.  I think I did this when it wasn’t acceptable but it’s hard to do fine hand quilting when using perle cotton or three strands of embroidery floss.  As for me being the big believer that calico is going to make a big comeback, I found the right blue Little Quilt fabric in my stash, just enough to bind these two quilts.  I thought Pipertown was going to be my oldest UFO finish for this year, but it turns out these two quilts are going to have this distinction.  Jan, previously mentioned in this post, commended me for remembering I had these quilts and finding them which I have to admit I had them stored in a clear bin under my quilting desk and were hard to miss. I’m rethinking about giving them both to the darling Granddaughter; I want to keep the Star Quilt to hang in the hallway outside her bedroom since I find it precious and don’t want to see it laying on the floor. Hopefully, she won’t yank it off the wall.  These panels really are nice and with some quilting, it looks like the blocks were pieced and yes, the yesterday colors still make my heart sing.

And now for the third “duo” quilts for December which are these two flimsies which were the distraction that deterred me from the finishing of Christmas quilts.  I guess these quilts could be called DREAMis  and the squirrel’s name would be Bernie since these two would not have been made if I hadn’t bought some of the fabrics from her. To put it in a nutshell (such an appropriate use of this word since we’re talking squirrel), after I made the quilt flimsie on the right, I realized the colors reminded of the yellow dot fabric seen on the left quilt so of course I had to find it which led me to the Julie Comstock 23 fabrics which I already had cut several years ago to make another Jack in the Box quilt. I then had to make this quilt since I seem to like sewing in duos. We’re not leaving for the Grandparent House until after Christmas, so I thought I could quilt them but decided I would add them to the Flimsie pile.  For the past two years, I’ve had no flimsie carryover but this year I have a dozen.  I should mention I have 29 Finally Finishes but still surprised at the number of Flimsies which will be waiting to be a Finally Finished in 2021.  I still think I should relax for the rest of the year.  

December wasn’t going to be “Done” until I finished sewing the last two blocks, Buff Breasted Sandpiper and Cardinal, of the 2020 Color Challenge QAL which I have not been on schedule as in the previous months. I bet you can tell by the colors which block is which bird.  I have to say after I finished sewing the Cardinal block, I felt like playing Angry Birds and not because there were so many patches.  Turning these blocks into a quilt is definitely on my 2021 To Do list.

So I’m finishing this lengthy post right before the start of Christmas Eve which will be quiet.  I appreciate you stopping by to read this post and I’m still not sure if Bloglovin will pick this up. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and may you be blessed with a very healthy and peaceful New Year and also may all your hopes and wishes for this year happen in 2021.

It’s an OFF (October Fabric Foraging) Month

I’m using the word “foraging” loosely in this post since the truest meaning involves the acquisition of food by hunting and in my case I’m replacing “food” with fabric which helps explains how my Finally Finish and Flimsies came to be in October.  It started with my foraging in my Halloween stash  to make face masks after having a funny exchange with Demando asking me to make him a Halloween mask, responding with a “you know you’re 38 years old look” and then realizing he meant a face mask made with Halloween fabric. I came across some wonderful collection of past purchases and decided I needed to make some quick projects with them after putting it off for so many years.  I would like to mention that fabric foraging was very frequent during the days we weren’t at the GP House.

The first project which is a Finally Finished is the Mr. Halloween table runner which I had a charm pack, a fat quarter and some yardage of this past Thimbleberries collection.  I only had a fat quarter of the wonderful focal print which I wanted to keep intact so I designed a table runner around that and used the charm pack as accent squares along with the stripe fabric.

Quilting was simple wavey lines with black Aurifil thread.  Normally I don’t back my quilt with fabric from the same collection but decided to use the orange/black argyle print since I wasn’t able to use it in the top and didn’t think I would have another use for it since I have very few pieces left of the Mr. Halloween collection now; okay maybe enough for some placemats. This table runner measures 20”x38” and it’s a wonderful addition to the other Halloween/Fall quilts adorning the house now.

The next project is the door quilt made with Robert Kaufman’s Eerie Alley which I’ve accumulated some fat quarters and yardage. Again, I had just a fat quarter of the focal print and sort of used the same layout as the Mr. Halloween table runner but I’m calling it a storm door layout.  As I’m writing this post, it is still in a flimsie state and the plan is to quilt it the same way as Mr. Halloween.  This door quilt measures 28”x62”. Sadly, 31 days in October may not have been enough for me to finish in time to hang on the door for Halloween enjoyment.

As I was working on the above projects, I remembered the 8” appliquéd and embroidered Cat block designed by Half Pints made several years ago and waiting to be made into a pillow using the the fabric pictured above.  I am not a pillow person and can only see this in between the mouths of one of our dogs and not sitting pretty on the couch or shelf.  

So, I thought to finally finish this long waiting project, I would make a wall hanging instead by bordering with with a Thimbleberries black print and a wonderful fat quarter of a Simply Spooky print by Indygo Junction foraged once again in the Halloween stash.  Easy straight line quilting with Black Aurifil thread, which is getting a lot of use with these Halloween quilts, paired with the black and white mini check for the binding made this 20” square quilt what I thought was going to be my favorite finish of the month.  But it’s not, it’s the next quilt.

October was #6 for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge which was my Wizard of Oz flimsie made in 2006.  On a side note, that was the year I returned to the office workforce at the community college after taking a brief hiatus when I quit working at the local quilt shop, one of the reasons being I was accumulating too much fabric. I was then trying to balance working and quilting and made this flimsie after feeling bad that the fabric was sitting in my stash since 2000.  A simple quilt of double four patches with a plain block of the focal print which was also used in the border was made.  It was a flimsie for so long, I added it to the Dirty Dozen Challenge so it could be finally finished.  This flimsie, sad to say, was more of an annoyance and something I thought didn’t have any fondness for and was I wrong.  After quilting it with alternating diagonal straight and wavey lines starting at the border with soft yellow thread, I’ve become quite smitten with the many prints in this collection, especially the focal print.  The collection was designed by Beth Bruske, David Textiles and I don’t know the source of inspiration for the prints.  Even though it was approved by the L. Frank Baum Trust these are not from the original books.

I was ready to bind this quilt with a yellow print, not from this collection, but decided to use the perfectly pink gingham I found or foraged in my pink stash. I needed to offset the green and gold to make this quilt a little sweeter. For some reason, I did not set aside the binding in the drawer which I usually do. This quilt measures 40”x50” but it feels and look larger.

Some mysteries surrounding the making of this quilt is that I cannot find my remaining stash of this fabric which I know I had. After several time foraging around the studio I decided not to make myself crazy and just go with the thought that I must have donated it when I wanted to stuff the box full and made a mental note that I would remember doing this.  I don’t do good mental notes. But I’m hoping it will appear since I still have 1.5 yards of the blue fabric used for the backing left.  I’m also wondering why I didn’t make a Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson with this fabric which would have been cliche’ but cute.  I know she just celebrated the 20th Anniversary of this wonderful pattern and guess I could commenorate or commenomake with the second collection of Oz prints from the MGM movie but right now I’m not liking these prints so much.  Maybe a little more fabric fermentation or another 10 years will make my heart grow fonder over them.

Some more finishes made possible with more fabric foraging:

A simple Ernie quilt made from Two Canoe Scraps given to me from Kathleen after sort of whining from me and foraging through the Cotton+Steel, Zen Chic and Crazy Mom stash so I would have enough for this 40”x50” quilt.  Right now it is in a flimsie state, but the plan is to quilt it with horizontal straight and wavey lines and then donate it.

And look at the fun greens I foraged from the many green bins for October’s College Challenge hosted by Patterns by Jen for the Ruby Crown Kinglet.  Olive Green was this month’s color and I think it looks awfully wild with the lime green, almost Citronickle print.  If you’re wondering what Citronickle is, it’s a yellow green which I call Citron and Wendy calls Pickle and she came up with this name which is quite fun as the color.

Since I used the word “forage and foraging” so much in this post, I thought I would include a photo of the many acorns I foraged in the park at the GP house during the past weeks to feed my squirrels.  I’ve collected at least three full boxes and am still feeling some aches but it was worth it.  Acorns and fabrics feed my squirrels.  I’m hoping one of the studio squirrels will tell me where the missing OZ fabric is.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween.  Also, please remember to VOTE! I already did.

Sweet September SewJo

Despite making four trips to the Grandparent House and only spending fourteen days at home, I have five Finally Finished which makes this a very busy and productive month for me.  Apparently when only having a limited schedule for quilting, I can be pretty focused.  The first Finally Finished for September was my Shine Quilt which I posted on September 8th.  My next four quilts were for the Jelly Snowflake QAL, a Dreami, Country Threads Dirty Dozen QAL and a surprise finish; here are the photos with a brief description of each.

Emily, The Darling Dogwood, and I decided since we already did two of the same QALs this year without us knowing that neither one of us was sewing together, we would do a third one together and we decided upon Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Snowflake QAL.  You can see Emily’s beautiful interpretation Here.  I have mentioned in previous posts that I consider myself a QAL Escape Artist and Emily seem to have followed in my sew steps, in that, we did the first two blocks as per the pattern and then veered off with our own  finishes. The Jelly Snowflake pattern was beautiful and made great use of jelly roll strips but I wanted to showcase more of the fat quarters of the Stacey Hsu North Pole fabric which I received several years ago in one of the Fat Quarter Shop’s Christmas Sampler Box. That’s all I’m going to say about the Jelly Snowflake pattern and named my quilt Frosty Flake because of the snowmen on some of the prints and because it is my favorite breakfast cereal.  After the top was completed, I immediately knew how I wanted to quilt it with the straight-line diagonal quadrants with red thread.  Frosty Flakes measures 48” square and it’s going to be nice to have a new Christmas quilt to hang up this year.  BTW, I thought that instead of calling myself a QAL Escape Artist, I would give myself a new name or descriptor: Sewing Rose-gue, it seems to better explain how I quilt.

While searching for the red binding for my Frosty Flake Quilt in my red stash, I came across the Watermelon fabric with the matching large red gingham print and immediately knew I had to make something for the darling Granddaughter.  Since I’ve been spending so much time with her, I’ve become quite fond of the CoComelon videos which are fun and addicting to watch. Even when we’re not at the GP House, Hubby and I are humming and singing many of the tunes.  A simple patchwork blankie was made with some fun green prints from the stash and another red print.  I had the perfect shade of a coral pink Minky yardage in the stash and a quilt was made before the next GP visit.  This Blankie measures 40”x56”, which is a nice size for snuggling for one person but I would have made it bigger if I had more of the watermelon and red gingham print.

The month of September also meant a new UFO finish of our #11 for Country Thread’s Dirty Dozen which was my Flea Market Square. The top was made over seven years ago and it seems that during this time, I made a lot of square quilts and some of them I have committed to finishing for this QAL.  I didn’t keep any notes on the making of this quilt and I was able to ascertain that a charm pack of Moda’s Three Sisters Flea Market II was used along with some yardage.  At first I didn’t remember even what fabric line was used but was able to guess after looking at one of the charm squares which had a Paris map and was able to connect it to one of the Flea Market lines.  I was happy that I found the quilt top with the backing and binding safely tucked away together.  

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how I was inspired by Mary Etherington of Country Threads to do straight line quilting on traditional quilts so I thought since I was finishing this quilt as part of her QAL, it would look appropriate for Flea Market Square.  I quilted it with a very pale pink Mettler thread to keep the quilting  quiet and simple. I usually don’t back my quilts with fabric from the same line, partly because of cost and not wanting to waste it especially for a wall hanging, but I must have purchased the plaid when it was on sale because I had three yards of it.  I do love pairing plaids with florals.  Now that this quilt is a Finally Finished, I have a place to hang it on my bedroom wall since I’ve been meaning to replace the current artwork which has been hanging around for over twenty years.  Sad I won’t see the backing, but I’ll know it’s there.

Since I had a day left before the end of September when I wanted to post, I thought I would squeeze out one more Finally Finish with the Big Blinky Bill Blankie. I made the top earlier this year and is one of the flimsy made during my Flimsy Frenzy February.  The top was inspired by my Slinky and Pinky Quilts which is a simple pattern using squares and rectangles.  When I wrote the posts for these quilts, I mentioned I was inspired to make more and keeping the “inky” in the names.  Good Quilt Mentor Sue of PatchworknPlay offer up Blinky Bill which is an Australian Children Book Koala character.  Since I didn’t have any Koala fabrics I thought the next best thing would be to use my stash of Aboriginal prints which have been sitting far too long in the stash with solid squares of Shot Cotton, Peppered Cotton and Aged Muslin.  I thought this top could be a quick Finally Finished if I made a Patchwork Throw by only backing it with my favorite gray Chenille Plush.  It measures 52” x 82” which would make it a throw according to my rules, but since I love alliteration in my quilt names I’m calling it a blankie, thus the name Big Blinky Bill Blankie.  Since Hubby’s name is Bill, this will be his, especially since with the other patchwork throws I made with the plush for the backing, I’m always telling him how wonderful they are for snuggling and napping.  Now he will have his own to find out how true this is.

I still managed to find time to start others projects and keeping up with my 2020 Color Challenge blocks.  I’m calling this a month now and maybe rest for the remaining few hours left.  But no, I still have 1.5 days left before we leave for the GP House again and the studio here is still where I’m the most productive; probably because I don’t have a sweet distraction beckoning me to play with her.

July/August Blog Break

It’s been six weeks since my last post and I decided to give the new Blogger interface another go, despite reading other bloggers’ comments about problems they’re experiencing and also seeing how elongated photos are appearing on their blog. For the past few days I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to leave  Blogger and join Wordpress which comes at a cost I’m not sure would be worth it. This afternoon I had some luck with editing my 2020 Quilts and Project page and was comfortable with using the editing tools once I knew how to access them. So, here I go with posting what I’ve been sewing/finishing in between the three visits to the Grandparents’ House, mostly photos with brief descriptions.  And if my photos are experiencing the same problems with elongation, I might be posting photos of myself since my Twiggy Days have been long gone.

I’m participating in Country Threads 2020 Dirty Dozen QAL which started in July and I committed to finishing twelve UFOs. Coincidentally, the number pulled was for a Country Thread’s Pinterest Kit for a table runner purchased before the shop closed over five years ago. The runner is now a Finally Finish and sitting prettily on the dining room table at the GP house.

Sandra, mmm Quilts asked me if I would test her latest pattern “Shine” which I was happy to oblige since it was an opportunity for me to use my recently acquired Carrie Bloomston Wish fabrics. The flimsy was finished several weeks ago and the pattern is available from Sandra’s Etsy shop “SandraJaneQuilts”. Once my Shine quilt is a Finally Finished, I’ll write more about this quilt and my adventures of being a “pattern tester”.

Emily, The Darling Dogwood, and I decided our third QAL together would be Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Snowflake and both of us decided independently of each other that our quilt would be a little different. My modified version doesn’t look like a snowflake but there are snowmen in some of the prints so I named this quilt Frosty Flake, so apropos since it is my favorite cereal.

Two baby quilt tops were made for Jack’s Basket.

Granny Squares blocks were sewn for an QAL between Sistas and waiting for sashing and border.

My August block for the 2020 Color Challenge is sewn and the color this month was Pink for Flamingos.

Last of all are two feedsack fabric projects which I was able to work on while at the GP House. Surprisingly, the darling granddaughter showed no interest in my sewing machine, supplies, fabric-it’s a good thing we have a lot of good toys and videos to distract her, along with snacks.

I gave myself a little pep talk these during my blog hiatus to spend more time in my studio and try to commit to a number of hours each day to my “craft”. I should mention that I haven’t done a very good job in recording my activities in my planner and not tracking my fabric log but pretty sure it’s negative, maybe barely. Also it was a little tedious typing my post on my iPad, just don’t like my index finger doing all the talking and also the uncertainty with the new Blogger interface. I’m glad to be able to post before we leave for another visit to the GP house. Here’s to better Blogger Days and to figuring out how to insert links and labels.

P.S. before I published this post, I learned that I inadvertently typed this as a Page and not a Post and thankfully nothing was lost. My index finger could not handle the retyping.