February - Severe Weather and Hand-quilting

 February - Severe Weather and Hand-quilting

The end of January and the first week of February brought severe weather, lots of well below freezing temperatures, ice, and then snow. At my house we got almost 5 inches of snow.

One of my goals for 2026 is to hand-quilt one quilt top, one of the many finished quilt tops that I have that still need to be quilted and bound. So the first snowy weekend of February I began working on my hand-quilting goals.

It snowed all day on Saturday around 5 inches of snow and single digit freezing cold temperatures.

I trudged through the snow to fill my bird feeder, the birds were very happy and swooped in to dine.

This bird feeder was a birthday gift and I love it!

I have been enjoying this sight of birds in my feeder everyday since I put it up.

I'm ready for Spring ... 

Single digit freezing temperatures is not my idea of fun!

English Paper Piecing - Hexagons

 English Paper Piecing

Hexagons

I've been working on this EPP Hexagon projects for sometime. This is all hand-stitching and I take out my little box of EPP hexagons and get to work.

I have no idea when this project will be completed or how large it will be, I'm just enjoying the process.

The blocks are KONA solids and fussy cut scraps.

Progress Report - Girl Power - English Paper Piecing

 Progress Report - Girl Power - English Paper Piecing

I've only managed to piece a couple more of the hexie flowers but progress is progress.

😂😂😂

I'm enjoying so many things about this quilt project.

The theme ... Girl Power

The colorfulness

And, the opportunity to sit down, focus my mind, and just relax in the simple task of hand piecing.

This project is helping me to slow down enough to live in the moment.

Often a moment that I need to stop and consider my blessings.

Time to clear my mind of the stressful events of the day and/or the stressful events in our world.

A moment to catch my breath.

Needless to say, I'm not the least bit disappointed that this project will take a long time to complete. 

I'm enjoying the process very much.

Red / White String Pieced Quilt - Hand-Quilting Project

Red/White String Pieced Quilt

Hand-Quilting Project has begun ... 

I used to do a bit more hand-quilting but piecing quilt tops is the quilting process I enjoy the most. Fortunately, I have a brilliant and wonderful friend who also is a brilliant and wonderful machine quilter. In my efforts to slow life down a bit I've decided to hand-quilt a quilt this winter. I'm learning to relax  ...  hopefully ...

Having the floor space to put the quilt "sandwich" together is a chore but when I was rearranging the living room in order to put up my Christmas tree, I took that opportunity to get my Winter 2023/2024 quilt project ready for hand-quilting.

Backing and batting ...

The pieced quilt top ... 

Pin basting ... lots and lots of pins ...

Marking and framing ... and now the quilt is ready for hand-quilting ...

Here we go ... wish me luck!

Sock Knitting Goal for 2023

 Sock Knitting Goal for 2023

As you can see, my goal for socking knitting this year has been to knit 5 pairs of socks. Trust me ... this has never really been a problem ... until I made it a GOAL!

Presently, I am failing miserably BUT I still have two more months to get 3 more pairs of socks knitted!

I had to go to Joann's for quilt batting for my hand quilting project Thursday evening and decided to get these 3 skeins of yarn to motivate me.

2 months + 3 skeins of yarn = (hopefully) 3 pairs of socks.

While I was at Joann's I also purchased these white (tone on tone) end of bolt pieces of fabric for my red/white quilting endeavors. End of bolt fabrics are always discounted.

Hand-Quilting

 Hand-Quilting

I decided to pick one of my finished quilt tops for hand-quilting. It's been a couple of years since I hand quilted a quilt. The last quilt project that I hand quilted was my Modern Maple Leaf quilt in several of my amazing "cat" themed fabrics.

THIS POST has information on my Modern Maple Leaf quilt.

This year I decided to hand quilt this red/white string pieced quilt top that I finished piecing last year.

RED/WHITE STRING QUILT 

This quilt is made up with 10 inch blocks. The strings are placed on the diagonal to give this block a half square triangle look. I love the designs that you can make using half square triangles.

Red/White String Quilt

70 x 80 inches

Years ago, I took a class by Pepper Cory at an AQS quilt show on big stitch hand-quilting. Big stitch hand-quilting is a technique that uses pearl cotton floss and I think the results are stunning. Big stitch hand quilting is my preferred method of hand-quilting. Hand-quilting any quilt takes time but I'm looking forward to having this project at the ready to work on this winter.

Quilters

 Quilters

I'm not the only quilter in our family. My sister is also a wonderful quilter. While I was on vacation and not feeling very well, I got to snuggle up under a beautiful quilt that my sister made.

This beautiful quilt in pink and brown fabrics is so soft. My sister hand-quilted the entire quilt and used big stitch with pearl cotton thread around the borders.

There are so many sweet details in this quilt.

The rose backing fabric and the sweet label.

It was so comforting to be snuggled under a quilt made with love by my sister.

Quilt Backings ... Are A Thing ...

Quilt Backings ... Are A Thing ...

Quilt backings have always been a "thing" for me. Part of the quilting process that I often don't think about until of course I need one. Some folks purchase the backing fabric for their quilts when they buy their fabrics to make a quilt. Which makes perfect sense and I'm sure why I don't do the same. Especially when I am making a quilt from a pattern and the pattern gives the yardage needed for the backing. But here's the deal ... sometimes even when I am working with a pattern, I feel like the quilt needs a little something more ... like an extra border, for instance. There are also patterns that I start and ended up not finishing per the pattern. An example of this is "The Mugs" Sew A Long that I started and got bored with. I ended up piecing the mugs I had completed into a quilt top that was a bit larger than the pattern called for. Also ... I have been sewing my stash (for years now) and making scrap quilts. I'm on Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt # 18 (batiks) as we speak. I never know what size these scrap quilts will end up being. So it is safe to say that getting the backings pieced for 4 completed quilt tops over the weekend was very satisfying!

Our local Joann's is moving locations and is presently in the process of liquidating there present store. I purchased 108 inch backing fabric for this quilt over the weekend for 30% off. Which means I got one continuous piece of backing fabric that did not need to be pieced for my Historic Redwork quilt. I will be hand-quilting this quilt top.

I pieced a cute 100% cotton delicate blue and white floral fabric for this backing.

I purchased a cute 100% cotton flannel fabric and Joann's months ago that I was actually going to use for another quilt backing but once I got it home I decided it would be the perfect backing for my Pumpkin Patch quilt top. 

I purchased a 100% cotton flannel of red maple leaves on white, on sale for $5 a yard from www.fabric.com

I'm always on the lookout for sales on yardage that I can use for quilt backings. I was able to purchase 9 yards which was enough to make the backing for my Red/White Orphan block quilt top (pictured above) and for my Red/White Double Dip quilt top (pictured below).

It feels great to get these 5 quilts backed and ready for quilting.

I'm ticking away at getting all of the quilt tops on my completed quilt top list quilted, bound, and FINISHED!!!

 

A Long Time In the Making

 This quilt has been a long time in the making ...

This quilt has been in the works since 2018. I'm not sure exactly when I started this quilt but I do remember the house that I lived in when I finished piecing the quilt top. That house was sold in August of 2018. 

This quilt from start to finish was made for ME. The pattern is called Modern Maple Leaf. The fabrics are from my collection of "cat" themed fabrics. I also knew that I wanted to hand-quilt this quilt. Big stitch hand quilting with pearl cotton. 

I love how soft hand-quilting makes a quilt. 

And, this quilt is very very very soft. 

I'm very happy with how this quilt turned out. I do hate that it took me so long to completely finish this quilt but ... I'm happy with the results.

I love snuggling under this fluffy soft quilt with super soft flannel for the backing.

I see many many years of comfort and warmth under this quilt. And, in years to come maybe I will see grand babies snuggled up under this quilt. Maybe even a fort or two built with this quilt. Maybe a few pallets on the floor for Sunday afternoon naps with said grand babies. One can dream ...

Until then ... me and my fur babies will enjoy the comfort of this handmade hand-quilted quilt.

💖💖💖

Laundry Mat ...

 Laundry Mat

Oh my word! I think I need to own a laundry mat ... wow!

I have a small front loading washer and dryer at my house, which works fine for doing my laundry but does not work for washing and drying quilts.

So I spent a little time over the weekend washing and drying a few newly quilted quilts and a few that just needed it.

For the larger washer it costs $7.75 a load

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

The dryers ... cost .50 cents for 4 minutes .... 4 minutes ...

Needless to say it was over $20.00 to wash and dry my quilts!!

I understand overhead and maintenance and even waste water ... but geez!

I think there is A LOT of profit here!!

Life of a Quilter

 Life of a Quilter

Sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I am a quilter through and through. When I'm not in my sewing room working on a quilt project ... I'm thinking about being in my sewing room working on a quilt project. I adore the creative process of quilting and sewing. I enjoy every moment that I get to spend in my sewing room, shopping my favorite quilt pattern designers and fabric designers online, getting one of my projects back from the long-arm quilter ... all of it ... I adore all of it.

Time in my sewing room = threads on my clothes 

It makes me smile!

I've completed 57 of the 81 blocks that I need for the Happy Camper Valerie quilt project that I started last weekend. I love these bright blocks. Beginning last year, I decided to start making quilt projects that interest me. Quilts that I want to keep in my personal quilt collections.

My Red/White Quilt Collection and My Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt Collection

I have really enjoyed making quilts that tickle my fancy.

I've also gotten my sketchbook back out. This year, instead of making a yearly resolution I'm making a new year resolution each month. I want to begin drawing/sketching on a daily basis. So ramping up to February's resolution of drawing daily I've unearthed my sketchbook and pencils. I think I'm going to draw a different coffee cup every day. 

Hand-Quilting Update

 Modern Maple Leaf hand-quilting update

I finally finished hand-quilting it!!!!

The hand-quilting has made this quilt really soft. The back of this quilt is a very soft cotton flannel.

I love the feel of this quilt.

I made this quilt specifically for me and the reason that I decided to hand-quilt this quilt was because I knew it would make the quilt really soft.

Now that this quilt is quilted ... it was added to the stack of the 3 machine quilted quilts that I need to put binding on.  Looks like there is a binding weekend in my future.

Quilt Top Review 2021

 Quilt Top Review 2021

           Modern Maple Leaf                                              Cactus Quilt

                 70 x 70 inches                                               70 x 80 inches

      Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park                         Fancy Fox II

               60 x 67 inches                                                60 x 72 inches

       Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt #12                        Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt #13

                        Triangles                                                                 On Point

                     60 x 70 inches                                                        80 x 90 inches

           Red/White Sampler Quilt                      Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt #14

                   60 x 60 inches                                                 Jelly Rolls

                                                                                         64 x 78 inches

                  Candy Crush 2.0                                    Mode Charm Pack x 4

                    64 x 64 inches                                            

        Red/White Historical Rework                              Crescent Moon I

                   72 x 96 inches                                             60 x 72 inches

                     Crescent Moon II                                     Stars & Stripes

                       60 x 72 inches                                         60 x 72 inches

    Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt #15             Sewing My Stash Scrap Quilt # 17

                  Easy Patchwork QAL                                  Solids - Paint Drips

                       72 x 72 inches                                            68 x 70 inches

                         Pumpkins                                                    HEARTS

                      66 x 80 inches                                             75 x 75 inches

            Red/White Mugs QAL                                    Red/White Strings

                  67 x 67 inches                                               56 x 67 inches

It has been a very productive year in my sewing room. Over the years I've been making scrap quilts for my fabric stash and that will continue. Then there is my obsession with Red/White quilts and this year I really dove into making quilts that I have always wanted to make. I joined a few quilt-a-longs with a few of my favorite fabric designers. It has been such a fun and relaxing year in my sewing room. So much so that have 20 completed quilt tops that I need to get quilted and bound.