Viking Murder Mystery Quilt is a Top!

 I managed to get all the blocks into the quilt top, in a way that satisfied me. I didn't add the suggested border for a couple of reasons. The quilt is a good twin size as it is, and I didn't need it any bigger. Also, the past couple of years I've gotten to the point where I only add a border if I think the border adds something to the design, and another border added nothing to the quilt in my opinion. I had run out of the background blue, but I had a blue in stash that was likely the same color but a different dye lot. It is VERY close in color, but not quite the same. It was close enough for me, and the color difference actually shows more in this photo than it does in person. I've really had a fun time doing this quilt, the online community is fantastic, and watching the way different people are imagining the layout is very fun. I don't have anyone clamoring for this quilt, so it can wait to get quilted. It is already hanging in the quilt closet. 

Next year is Murder in Greece, and I'm planning to pull fabrics for that this afternoon. If you'd like to join in here's the link. I'm still not sure if I guessed correctly on who the murderer was, as we get the last chapter of the book on January 1st. The first block and chapter for Murder in Greece come out January 10th. 

Now that the Viking quilt is off the design wall, I had a chance to lay out one of the baby quilts I'm making. 

This quilt is made out my second sister's clothes, and the solid blue is actually one of her curtains. She passed away five years ago, and this is for her first grandchild. I'm sure she would have spoiled that baby rotten had she still been around to do so. All of the shirts the clothes are from are cotton knits, so I had to add some fusible to make them easier to work with. When I'm working with clothes that are woven cotton, I'll make any pattern, but when working with knits I try to keep it pretty simple. Now that I've got this laid out, I hope to get it assembled while working on clue 6 of the Indigo Way Mystery that comes out tomorrow. I consider this quilt from my sister, so I'm still making the baby a quilt from me. I've got all the blocks done for it, and hope to get it on the design wall this weekend. That baby will be here before I know it, so these two baby quilts need to be my first finishes of 2024. 

Christmas Day was pretty quiet around here. My main gift from DH isn't made yet. I want a wall mounted quilt rack in my living room. I want it at least three layers high, and wide enough to fit 2-3 folded quilts side by side. Why such a large quilt rack? I donate a LOT of quilts, but I usually only turn the quilts in once per year. In the meantime they sit in a closet. I decided if I had a big quilt rack on the wall in the living room that's currently empty, I could actually enjoy the quilts I made before they get donated. I have a freestanding quilt rack in the living room that has the throw quilts we use all the time. The grands will have them all out and everyone has a quilt. That will remain the same. This big quilt rack is just to give me some time to see what I've finished lately. DH agreed to make the quilt rack a couple months ago, but between the scooter rally and getting the next issue of his magazine out he hasn't had time. I knew it would be late when I asked him for it. 

Since I knew I wouldn't have my real Christmas present in time for Christmas, I did something kind of funny. While checking out Black Friday sales in November, I went to one of my favorite sources for jelly rolls. They had jelly rolls on sale like I figured they would, but they also had a freebie going on at the time. The were giving away 15 fat quarters for each jelly roll you purchased! I really enjoy making jelly roll quilts for a quick project without any matching to do, and every quilter knows there is an abundance of jelly roll patterns out there. I chose 4 jelly rolls, which gave me 60 free fat quarters. On Cyber Monday, they had a batik freebie going, and for each batik jelly roll you purchased, you got 10 free batik fat quarters. I ordered two more jelly rolls, so I had 20 batik fat quarters coming. When the packages arrived, I told DH to open them, and only give me the jelly rolls. I chose those myself, so no surprises there. I had him keep all the fat quarters to give me for Christmas. Yes, I knew what I was getting, but I didn't know what the fat quarters looked like so it was still a surprise. So what does 80 fat quarters look like?

The 20 batik fat quarters are on the left, then the others are in the other two piles. I only had one duplicate. BUT, there are actually 85 fat quarters in those piles, because DH went to the quilt shop, and picked me up five fat quarters he chose, along with some more quilting clips, larger ones than the ones I had. I am one spoiled quilter! Fat quarters are easily my favorite pre-cut. I've cut out so many quilts lately, I easily put these fat quarters away, with room to spare in my fat quarter drawers. I've probably cut up about 200 fat quarters in the last couple of months! jellyrollfabric.net has other freebie events during the year, but even if they don't have a freebie event going, their prices on jelly rolls are very good, and worth a look if you are shopping for jelly rolls. 

I hope all of you had a fun holiday season, and if you do something to celebrate the new year, I hope that goes well for you too! We have never been big on New Year's celebrations, and the only reason we're ever awake at midnight is if the neighbors blow off a bunch of fireworks in their celebrating. We're up at 4 AM for DH to get ready for work, so staying up until midnight is not likely. 

Decisions Can Be Tough

 First the good news! I'm all caught up on the Indigo Way mystery! I just finished sewing up the rest of clue 4 so I'm ready for clue 5 tomorrow. The few units that aren't pressed yet should get pressed tonight, so I'm good on that.

Here are a few units done in my colorway.

And here are a few in Bonnie's colorway made with men's shirts. Yeah, stripes and plaids going every which way do not stress me out at all, so sorry if this is an eyesore for you. 

I've been so busy catching up on Indigo Way quilts, plus making blocks for two baby quilts as leaders/enders, that I haven't managed to do much on the Viking Murder Mystery quilt. The designer gave three options for layouts, but I'm not sold on any of those. She also gave her blessing to finish the quilts however you please, which is what I'm planning on doing. I like parts of all of her layouts, but I also want to personalize the quilt a bit.

I first put this up on the design wall. Obviously I have bits to fill in, but until I decide the final layout, I'm not sure which bits I need. I did decide I liked the medallion so I sewed it up so it would look correct and be the finished size.

Now the medallion looks much better. Most people are using the flowers as the sails, and I don't like that option. The flowers don't look substantial enough to be sails to me. The medallion doesn't look like a Viking sail to me either, so I'm debating making a red and white striped sail instead. These are all the blocks I made during the Viking Mystery, but a few of them may end being put aside and used elsewhere. I just haven't settled on a layout yet. If Bonnie gives an easy clue tomorrow as promised, I should have time next week to work out a plan for the layout. I'll make the missing part of the ship first, because that's a given. I'd like to have the Viking quilt into a top before the Greek murder mystery starts in January. How the final quilt top will look is still a mystery to me, even with three layout options given to me. I seem to be fond of answer D- none of the above!

Speaking of the Greek Murder Mystery, I need to pull fabrics for that as well. I think I can get almost everything from stash, except for one color, maybe two. I find pulling fabrics for the murder mysteries much more difficult than pulling for Bonnie Hunter Mysteries. I think the most colors Bonnie has used in a mystery is six, whereas in the murder mysteries you are pulling 18-20 colors. It's a lot of fabrics to pull when you don't know how they'll be used in the quilt. For example, I followed the color guide for the Viking mystery, but I think my orange and yellow are both too bright when looking at the quilt going together. Of course, making the mystery quilt is the fun part. I never worry about whether or not I'll like the finished project. Mystery quilts are all about the process for me. 

The other reason I need this Viking quilt put together is so my design wall is free to layout the baby quilts. I have all the blocks done for one of them, but no place to lay it out. My sewing and cutting rooms are both trashed right now because I'm working on so many projects! I haven't been doing any FMQ right now because there is so much going on, and as soon as a baby quilt is assembled it goes to the front of the quilting queue. The clock is ticking on those!

Clue 3, Not Finished Yet!

 Indigo Way mystery is chugging along. I kept up with clues 1 and 2, but I won't be finished with clue 3 when clue 4 comes out tomorrow. That's OK, I figured I'd fall behind at some point. I've got hopes of catching up the week of Christmas.

Where most people will be really busy Christmas week, I won't be. Our family is celebrating Christmas on the 17th, so in just a couple days. Things will calm down for us after that for a little bit anyway. When I decided to do Indigo Way in two colorways, and Bonnie said she'd save the easiest clue for Christmas week, I knew I had a built in catch up week. My main focus has been on getting all the pieces cut for each clue in both colorways, before the next clue comes out. If I can get them sewn up, that's great, if not, that's OK too. 

I did get all the sewing done in Bonnie's colorway that I'm making with men's shirts. These are just a sampling of my units. I am going for a smaller quilt in this colorway. The first two clues, I made 2/3 the units of the full sized quilt, this clue had me scratching my head a bit, but I have a couple of ideas of where Bonnie could go with this. I thought of two ways it could go with her numbers, so I made a few more than I thought I'd need, in case I'm way off. She's pretty sneaky with her mysteries, and although I've guessed correctly a few times, I've also guessed incorrectly several times as well. 

 

These are all of my colorway that are pressed. I actually have about half of the units sewn, which isn't too bad. I should get the ones I sewed up today pressed this evening. 

So what else have I done this week? Well, the reveal for my Viking Murder Mystery quilt came out this week. The designer actually gave three options for the final layout, which was very nice of her. I like parts of each layout, but I also had an idea of what I thought the final layout might end up being, and I might add my own spin to the final quilt. I need some time to think about it. I need to try to get the quilt top assembled this month if at all possible. 

I've had two baby quilts I've been needing to make, and although I had chosen patterns I really liked for both, I just couldn't get myself to start them. I know when I have a mental block like that, I'm better off going in a completely different direction than try to force it. Giving myself permission to go in a new direction was just what I needed! Once I gave up my original ideas, I started cutting both quilts, and one of them I sewed up all the blocks and it's ready to assemble! The other is partially cut out, but I'm ready to finish cutting that one, and I'll have fun sewing the blocks for that one too. I had some fussy cutting to do for my revised plan, and I'm finished that, so all the remaining cutting is easy. 

Am I the only one who gets stuck because when the time comes, you just aren't feeling your original plan? I genuinely like my original plan, and I think sooner or later I likely will make both quilts I planned. I'm just not making them for this baby. The last time I was really stuck on a baby quilt, I went completely off book, and improv pieced the whole thing. I loved it! I'm not always in the state of mind to improv piece a quilt, so for one of the quilts this time, I decided to piece a bunch of different 4" blocks, using specific colors to give the quilt the overall feel I'm going for. A lot of the pieces will be interchangeable with other units, so how the blocks go together with which colors I'll decide as I sew them up. I should have more blocks than I need, so when it's time to lay out the blocks, that's where the real decision making comes in. I'm now excited about the project instead of stuck! 

Tomorrow clue four comes out for Indigo Way, and I'm really hoping for some strip piecing! I'm thinking four patches would work well with what we've already got! You never know though, it is a mystery after all. 

Clue 2 done!

So far I'm keeping up on Bonnie Hunter's Indigo Way mystery. I'm not counting on keeping up the whole time, but so far I have.

Here's my colorway. My "red" is peach and one fabric, and my "neutral" is lilac and one fabric, so all my units are identical in this clue. I still have to trim dog ears but I can do that while watching tv.

Here are my units in Bonnie's colorway, made with men's shirts. I have no idea how the units will be in the quilt. These are pretty versatile units. I was just playing around with them. I need to trim the dog ears on these too. 

I finished MY Christmas quilt this morning. It's notable when I make a quilt for our house, and the fact I got it finished the same year I started it when it's for us is amazing! Usually I put stuff for us on the backburner. I started a quilt for our bed two years ago and I still haven't assembled the blocks into a top yet, nevermind get it it quilted. I backed this quilt with flannel so it's nice and snuggly. 

I've got two grandkids this weekend, so it won't be the easiest start for clue 3. The Viking Murder mystery quilt reveal comes out next week, so that's a LOT to do. We're celebrating Christmas with the family on the 17th, so I'll be able to catch up a bit when everyone else is ramping up for the holiday. 

I got most of the gift wrapping finished today. The three packages that needed mailing got sent out yesterday. I'm still waiting on one Christmas gift, and I have a birthday gift that needs wrapping, but it just arrived today. I should get DH another gift as well, but I've not been able to think of anything good. We still haven't gotten the Christmas tree or other decorations up, and I'm thinking that will start tonight. The grandkids can help with decorating the tree tomorrow when they get here!

Mystery Season

 Bonnie Hunter's new mystery, Indigo Way, has started. I'm attempting two colorways this year, one full size of my own color choices, one smaller version with Bonnie's colors, but only using men's shirts.

This is clue one in my colorway. The lilac is my neutral, the teal my indigo. Not all my sets are shown here. 

Here's some of the clue one with men's shirts. When going for a smaller size, you never really know how many units to make. I'm doing over half, hoping to have enough units to make a cohesive pattern and extra units will just go into something else. Bonnie's colors really worked my men shirt stash, so I'm opting to do two quilts this year. I made two Allietare too, one my colorway, one men's shirts. That was a while ago though. 

I'm also still working on the Viking murder mystery quilt. 

I left the first and last inch of the bias tape loose so I could match up whatever may need to be matched in the final layout. I've managed to keep up with all the months this year, always finishing the blocks before the next one came out. That's much easier to accomplish with a BOM mystery than Bonnie Hunter's one clue per week. 

I happen to know I'm getting next year's murder mystery as a Christmas present. 2024 will be Murder in Greece. One thing I can say about the quilt murder mysteries, is the facebook clue crew is easily the nicest online quilting group I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot of them. I've been in Yahoo quilting groups, IO quilting groups, multiple facebook quilting groups, and the murder mystery quilters are the nicest. No quilt police, only encouraging words, no comments making anyone feel bad about how their block came out and lots of help for the new or inexperienced quilters. You can only join the clue crews if you sign up for the mystery quilt, so it's not open to everyone.  I've already made my guess on who I think the killer is, and I'm hoping I'm right, even though I'm not thinking I'll win the prize even if I am right. 

I'm always working on so many quilts at once, you may question my participation in the mysteries. I debated not doing anymore for a while, but the thing is, mystery quilts are projects I do just because I want to, I do them for me. I may or may not keep the quilts when they are finished, but the making of them is just for my own enjoyment. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in making quilts for gifting, or quilting for charities, that I lose sight of the fact that I quilt because I enjoy it. Mystery quilts remind me that I should be enjoying the process, enjoying the journey, and not be so focused on the productivity aspect. I need the reminder, maybe some of you do too.

Scrap Thoughts and Fabric Prep

 Scrap quilts are my favorite, super scrappy everything goes in is my personal preference. I find them interesting, every quilt becomes an I Spy quilt, I just love it. BUT, I don't keep very many of my quilts, and a lot of people find those type of quilts a hot mess. Color controlled scrappy allows me to work in as many fabrics as I like, but also make quilts that non-scrap lovers enjoy. 

The funny thing is, going color controlled combined with my RSI (Repetitive Stress Injury) in my right arm, has really changed the way I deal with my scraps. I found Bonnie Hunter early on in my quilting journey. Her Scrap User System really resonated with me, and it absolutely works for me, though I only save strips and squares, no bricks. I also don't save as many sizes as she does, as I'm trying to simplify my storage. 

The last couple of years I've really tried to decrease the amount of rotary cutting I'm doing, to put less stress on my arm. I have enough Accuquilt dies that I've managed to cut the last couple Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts completely by die cutter. I'm hoping to do the same this year. 

Now even with a die cutter, there is still rotary cutting to do. To waste less fabric, I like to rough cut my fabric with 1/4" all the way around the shape so if I don't have it positioned just so I can still get the cuts I need. Yes, this wastes some fabric, and Bonnie's methods of cutting strips and using specialty rulers wastes none. I still use those techniques I learned from her on a regular basis! When there is a LOT of cutting that needs to be done, and I'm going scrappy anyway so running out of fabric isn't much of an issue, I've switched to die cutting. I'm being honest here, I have a HUGE stash, and I'm not likely to run out of fabric in my lifetime. Run out of certain colors, likely, but run out of fabric, nope. I am very blessed in that I can afford to waste a bit of fabric, and once you learn how to correctly position your fabric on the dies, you don't waste very much fabric. Last year I made Bonnie Hunter's Mystery quilt and didn't have to trim a single dog ear, because my dies cut them off for me. I was shocked at how much time that saved. So even when figuring in some rotary cutting, I'm still saving time by die cutting, and saving stress on my arm. By die cutting, I'm also not having to sliver trim units, because they come out the right size every time. If you are always oversizing your units to trim to size, you are also wasting fabric. I'd rather waste with the least amount of rotary cutting. 

When I started making the switch to die cutting more, I realized my scrap user system was growing faster than I was using it up. The scrap user system wasn't working as well when I was trying to die cut as much as possible. Fat quarters became my go to pre-cut, to give me variety and allow me to die cut. Inevitably, I had leftovers from the fat quarters, which I cut for the scrap user system. I've tried sorting scraps just by color, and even when die cutting, it just doesn't work for me. There is no neat way of storing a bunch of different sizes of scraps, so it ends up a jumbled mess and needs to be pressed before die cutting and that is neither motivating nor productive to me. I can still use the scrap user system, but I spent a couple years busting it down to reasonable amounts and now I want to keep it on the smaller side. 

I realized I've had a mind shift about scraps that happened organically, without a lot of forethought, but it's totally working for me! 

I've been prepping quilts for next year's sewing. 

The pile on the top is leftover space fabrics from Mr. LJ's quilt that I'll be die cutting for a Take Five quilt. The fabrics on the bottom are prepped for a king sized quilt I'll be making for a family member. I'll be using my 10" Crazy quilt die with those. I mostly used fat quarters, but there were also some half yard cuts in there. Anything leftover from those fabrics I cut into 2.5" strips, and if I didn't have enough for a 2.5" strip I cut a 2" strip or stuck it in with my strings. I didn't end up with many 2" strips, so those will go into the scrap user system. 

I did end up with a bunch of 2.5" strips though, so now I'll be sub-cutting those for another quilt. I already pulled out those coordinating fabrics, why waste that work when I know they will work together to make a nice quilt? I already know which quilt pattern I'll be cutting, and when I'm done cutting that pattern. I'll evaluate how many strips I have left. If it's enough for a third quilt with the same fabrics I'll cut another one, if not, at that point it will go into my Scrap User System. 

Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts calls these type of quilts After Quilts, and she usually uses them to back the first quilt. I prefer to make other quilt tops with the leftovers, and use yardage for the backings, although if I'm a bit short of backing fabric I don't mind making rows of scraps to add to the middle of backing to make it wider or taller. 

I realized I've been working this way for the last couple of years, without thinking much about it. I ended up with a bunch of purple/blue/green quilts because I was requested to make a couple of those, and I ended up with so many scraps of those colors I just kept using that color scheme in my scrap quilts to use them up. This past summer I did the same with orange/red/black quilts. When I'm working on the last one or two quilts in whatever color scheme I've been working on, I'm usually adding to the scraps from my scrap user system, because by then the scraps are pretty picked over. That keep me interested in the projects by adding new scraps to the mix, even if I'm tired of the color scheme. If you keep most of your quilts, this way of working would not work well for you. If, however, you are like me and give away or sell most of your quilts, this method of working might suit you just fine. If I'm donating quilts, they'll likely go to unrelated recipients, so what difference does it make if the quilts are made with the same fabrics or color scheme? 

This method of making quilts until you are out of fabrics is especially helpful when I'm trying to bust a category of fabrics. A great example of that is the space fabrics above. I had one grandson that wanted a space quilt. I bought a bunch of space fabrics unsure of which direction I was going for the quilt. Now that that quilt is finished, I have a bunch of leftover space fabric, plus I have two space book panels I got in a bag of fabric at a thrift shop. Some of the fabrics are quite realistic and appropriate for teens or adults, and others are more juvenile like the book panels. Because most of the fabrics are large scale, I took all the more realistic fabrics and prepped them to be cut with the Take Five die which has large pieces and won't chop up the fabrics too much. The strips I cut from the leftovers, I'll use for framing the page blocks, or piece blocks to use with the fabric pages from the book panel, along with adding in the juvenile prints I set aside to use with the book panels. I'll end up with several space quilts, busting the entire category of fabrics, and have some fun donation quilts! Very little will be added to the scrap user system at the end. 

The first clue of Bonnie Hunter's Indigo Way mystery went live today, and I've got my fabrics prepped.

I changed up her colors as usual, and I'm going scrappy on my teals. I pressed my dark teals and light teals. My "neutral" is purple and coming straight off the bolt. My red is peach, and I have yardage of it. 

I'm thinking of using Bonnie's colors in a second quilt made with men's shirts. I've got to do some digging in totes for a deadline quilt that needs to be cut, so I'll decide when I get to the tote with men's shirts in it. If it looks like I have enough in Bonnie's colors, I'll do two mystery quilts. I am not worried about keeping up, I'll download the clue's as they come out. If I can keep up, that's great, if not, that's OK too. I still haven't quilted last year's mystery quilt! 

I was originally planning to baste a bunch of quilts in December, and I may baste a couple, but overall I've changed my mind to cutting out several projects I plan on making next year. I've got some empty project boxes, and if I get the quilts cut out I can easily use them as leader/ender projects throughout 2024. 

Scooter Rally Wore Me Out!

This has been a sloooooowww week! I'm still tired from everything I did last week! I had a ton of little jobs to do last week, along with the big stuff, and a few last minute projects we added. 

We like to add personalized stuff to the rally bags, and this year was no exception. 

DD#1's family made these awesome wooden ornaments for the rally. They have a fancy laser etcher engraver printer, and they were nice enough to make an ornament to go in every rally bag. 

We made custom candy bar wrappers to put around Hershey bars.

 

One of the last minute projects was something I was calling a MacGyver kit. DH wanted to put zip ties in the rally bags, but he was trying to think of a fun way to add them. I suggested adding some duct tape as well, and the idea took flight. We decided to add a glow stick and a piece of bubble gum too, because if you're trying to fix something on the fly, you never know, gum might come in handy. Since the theme of the rally was steampunk, I decided to design an old time medicine label for the kit.

Why Dr. Herringbone? Well, I had been looking at a bunch of images of herringbone quilts the day prior, and doctor names with body parts in them is just funny to me. We stuck the label and items in a small baggie, and they were a big hit. 

This is how the table toppers and centerpieces looked on the tables. 

My sister had made enough of these centerpieces to put one on each table. For the dinner we added a LED votive candle inside. My sister is the Queen of Upcycling. The containers are Crystal Light containers. The robots and animals are made from used wine corks and misc. electric pieces. Every robot and animal was different. The roses that totally look like leather, are made from toilet paper tubes! She has such incredible talent, and works in a completely different creative wheelhouse than I do.

My sister also made a ton of steampunk accessories for the photo booth had.

This is DD#2 and family, they were a huge help for many parts of the rally.

Here is DD#2 with Mr. Z, our oldest grandchild. We borrowed him for a good part of the week as a helper.

These are some of my "adopted" family. Not legally adopted, just adopted in our hearts and they come to most family events. 

Here are DH and I dressed in our steampunk costumes. My sister made most of our accessories as well, not all, but most. 

Besides the rally bags, and running registration and just making sure things ran smoothly, we made a meal to feed everyone Saturday night. DH smoked brisket and pulled pork. I made baked beans, pasta salad, and homemade rolls, which we served with a huge vegetable tray. For dessert I made some vegan GF apple butter-oat bars, and DD#2 made so many mini cupcakes!

I'm not sure why but I only have photos of two of the three kinds she made. She loves making up cupcake flavors, and for the rally she made Smoked Bourbon Butterscotch, Lavender Earl Grey with Blackberry Buttercream, and Coffee cupcakes with Cookie Buttercream. My personal favorite was the coffee cupcakes, but I run on caffeine so it had a definite advantage 😉

We had lots of food left over, so I gave all of my helpers food to take home. 

DH and I are holding up the quilt with the winner of it. That's Erin from Sikk Scooters in Los Angeles, and now the quilt I made is hanging in their scooter shop. We raised $981 for the local food bank!

Mostly this week has been a rest week. I did finish quilt Mr. LJ's quilt this morning, and I need to get it bound and washed before his birthday party on Sunday. Quilting his quilt is the only sewing I've done this week. 

I did pull some fabrics with Bonnie Hunter's mystery in mind. Her colors will work great with men's shirts, and that's still in my mind, but I prefer using different colors to hers. 

I'm thinking the solid purple as my background, the dark and light teals as my blues, and the peach instead of red. I'm only going scrappy on the teals. I debated not going scrappy at all, and these were my choices for that.

I'm still not 100% decided. I'm not sure if I'll even do it at all. I'll decide when I see the first the clue on the 24th. My right arm is just eaten up with tendonitis right now, but I can usually cut Bonnie's quilts with my Studio cutter. Rotary cutting and FMQ is hardest on my arm. Most of the next quilts in the queue can be cut with my Studio cutter, which I can easily do with my left arm. Piecing doesn't really aggravate my arm much, so as long as I can do a minimal amount of cutting and take a break from FMQ, I should heal up. It's really a matter of icing it several times a day and cutting way back on activity with that arm to get the inflammation down. My sewing and cutting rooms are a mess, so spending some time tidying up is a good use of time, as well as cleaning out my computer. Google keeps telling me I'm out of space for photos, so it's time to cull the ones I don't want anymore, and that always takes much longer than I expect! I can press fabric left handed, so I'm thinking getting myself a few projects cut out with the Studio cutter will make for a good start on 2024 goals. 

It's Been a Very Busy Week!

 Next week I won't be doing any sewing at all. DH's scooter rally starts on Thursday the 9th, and I'll be busy all week getting ready for that. I have rally bags to fill, cookies to bake for said rally bags, plus DH and I are cooking all the food for Saturday evening's dinner. We are borrowing our oldest grandson to help us, plus DD#2 will be making cupcakes for the dinner and helping where she can. Yeah, definitely no sewing next week, and no blogging either, I simply won't have time.

This week I have been prioritizing what needs to be finished before the rally, and what I just wanted done before the rally. 

The table toppers I've been working on I need for the rally, so those came first.

Here are 4 of the 7 I made. The other 3 are duplicates of ones shown here. Two of the table toppers have another block in the center, like the one in the lower left. I only did that because I ran out of the fabrics I used as the setting triangles. 

Mr LJ is getting a quilt for his birthday which is this month, so I needed to get his quilt top done and basted before the rally. I'll have enough time to quilt it after the rally, so the fact I got it to that point is a win. Since I did get that done, I also basted the Christmas quilt for ME!!! Once it's basted, I can work it in pretty easily. No pics of either of those.

I finally got the binding on this 64 patch quilt. If you count the 7 table toppers as one finish, the 64 patch makes my 25th finish of the year, if you count the table toppers separately, it's finish number 31. How do you count smaller projects?

I had been assembling stacks of UFO blocks into rows while I was working on my last few projects. This week I decided it was time to sew those rows to each other and get some finished quilt tops. I thought I had rows for 5 quilts, but it turns out I had rows for 7 quilts! I sewed up the last quilt top yesterday, and pressed the last seams this morning. I was in a hurry so I didn't take time to take photos of all of those. I do, however, have photos of them on my design wall, so here they are before they were sewn together. 

Those three are all the same pattern, but different colors of sashing. I made the 16 patches last year as leader/enders, and these three quilts used 240 of them. The sashing for all three quilts were scraps from widebacks. Those 108" long scraps can really add up!

I made the blocks for this quilt last year as well. I was busting some batiks that were leftover from DD#2's pineapple quilt. 

I could have made a queen/king out of these blocks, but I opted to make two throws for donation instead. They are the same blocks, I just oriented one differently to the other when putting it up on the design wall.

This quilt and the previous two were made from the epic fabric birthday cake my sister gave me last year! Some of my scraps are added in as well. The first two of the bright quilts are Carolina Chain blocks, and the third one is Bonnie Hunter's leader/ender challenge from 2022, Triple Treat. 

Besides getting seven quilt tops sewn together, well eight really, since I sewed together Mr. LJ's quilt this week too, I also got caught up on the temperature quilt, so October's column is done. I also did October's blocks for the murder mystery quilt.

November's blocks come out next week, but they will have to wait until after the rally. 

I only have one more sewing goal for this week.

I need to finish appliqueing these gears onto this vest fo the grandson that's helping with the rally. I've only got the brown ones sewn in place, the others are just lightly fused. Fusible doesn't like sticking to whatever this vest is made from. Once this is done, it's all about the rally until November 12th. The rally will still be going on the 12th, but my part ends the night of the 11th, so aside from putting massive amounts of stuff away, and cleaning up any dishes left from the night before, I can start back to sewing if I'm up for it on the 12th. Come to think about it, it will probably be the 13th, a rest day may be needed!

Never Too Busy for Compassion

 DD#2 called me on Monday, and asked if I had any quilts made that had a lot of florals. I'm not big on florals, so unfortunately the answer was no. I asked her why, and she told me that a friend was just put on hospice and she loves florals. Can I just say cancer sucks? This woman is very young, I think late 20's, and a newlywed to boot. DD#2 is going up to see her this weekend. Am I busy? Yes. Do I have a quilt she can have? Yes, but it's not the right quilt. The thing is, I had some fabric on the way with which I was planning on making a floral quilt, but it was scheduled to arrive Wednesday afternoon. That wasn't going to give me enough time to get the quilt done before DD#2 needed it on Friday. I pulled out a colorful quilt to give her, but I wasn't satisfied. 

Tuesday morning I started the day by binding two of the table toppers for the rally. All seven are quilted now, but I've only bound those two. When I came upstairs from the basement, it was only 7AM, and I had a package outside my front door. Now I want to make this clear, I've lived in this house for 20 years, and I order online a LOT. I have NEVER received a package so early in the morning. I grabbed the package and opened it, it was the solid fabric bundle I had been expecting Wednesday afternoon, but here is was, early Tuesday morning. Hmmm, Tuesday morning, could I get it done by Friday midday? 

I had seen a photo of a quilt online that had inspired me to order that fat quarter bundle. I'm not usually one to work with pastels, but I had seen a photo of a quilt where each solid was paired with a floral of the same color. I really liked the quilt, and since it's much different than anything I've been working on, I thought it would be a fun experiment. Now I've got the solids, should I attempt to make a quilt in just a couple days? I decided it would do no harm to look in my stash and see if I had a floral to match each fat quarter. Now remember, I'm not a floral girl, nor am I into pastels, so anything I had was likely going to be something that came in a bundle or was given to me. It only took me about about 30 minutes to find a floral to go with each of the 20 solids in the bundle, I was shocked at how easily it came together. Some of the florals were the only florals I had in those colors, yet somehow they worked. It was meant to be. 

I don't have much time, and now I'm working with 40 fat quarters. First up, press them all. While I'm pressing I decide to make HST's like the quilt I saw, but because of time, I need to make them large. I decided to go for 8" HST's. Everyone has their favorite way to make HST's, and since I don't want to waste any fabric, I decided to use the EZ Angle ruler, I have three sizes of EZ angle ruler, and the largest one would work. I cut an 8.5" strip from each of the 40 fat quarters, then matching the floral and the matching solid right sides together, I cut the HST's. Turns out I could get 4 HST's from the strips from each pair of the fat quarters. That gave me 80 HST's set 8x10 for a quilt that measures 64"x80" That will work. I got all the HST's cut and sewn, pressed and snipped the dog ears all before DH got home from work. That evening I actually cut up the rest of the fat quarters, I'll be making another quilt from 6" HST's, again set 8x10 for a 48" x 60" quilt. All the scraps I cut into 2" strips for what I hope will make a baby quilt. I think that's the first time I've ever cut up 40 fat quarters so quickly for different quilts. 

Tuesday evening I also got the HST's up on the design wall. I knew I had no time to keep rearranging them, so since I had 4 of each colorway. I divided them into four identical stacks, then laid the quilt out by quadrant. 

I was pretty happy with it, and I knew having it laid out would make assembling it easier on Wednesday. 

Wednesday. I need to get this assembled and basted today. I had ONE wideback that would work with these colors. Remember I don't do pastels. It was amazing I had one at all. Sure I could have pieced a backing, but time is at a premium here. Assembling an 80 block quilt isn't that hard, so I was done before lunch, and then since DH was off, I had him help me layer the backing, batting and quilt top so I could pin baste it. I'm very blessed to have a sewing machine with a 13" throat, so I decided to lightly baste the quilt since I'd be quilting immediately, and the Warm and Natural batting I used clings pretty well to the fabrics. I only put one pin in each block, and two in each block on the edges. Since I got it basted so quickly, I decided to start quilting that same day. Time to choose thread. I vaguely recalled having a pastel variegated thread. I only purchased it because it was a buy three spools get three spools free sale, and they were out of the colors I wanted. Do I still have it? Yes I do.

How am I going to quilt this? I was originally thinking I might just have to stitch in the ditch or meander because of time constraints. All those solids are really going make the quilting show. All the flowery designs I know take too much time to quilt out. How about leaves? Those don't take too long, especially if I make them larger. 

That will do. I quilt for an hour on Wednesday afternoon, and my arm is a bit sore so I stop for the day and do nothing the rest of the day. Today is Thursday, and I really need to finish this today. Since I quilt by timer all the time, I knew with an easy quilting pattern I can usually quilt a twin sized quilt in four hours. This is a little smaller than a twin, so maybe a little less. I start quilting as soon as DH leaves for work, it's still dark outside. I quilt for an hour then make myself take a two hour break. By break, I mostly mean unloading and loading the dishwasher and making a grocery list! Still, it gives my arm a bit of a break. I go back to quilting and by going over my hour by about ten minutes, I finish the quilting! Time to trim the quilt and choose binding. 

I really want to use a gingham, and I like the green the best, even though all of them match. After another break for my arm, I machine sew on the binding, and toss the finished quilt in the washer. 53 hours from start to finish. Not something I could do on a regular basis. My arm is pretty sore, and I rarely make a quilt with such large pieces. The thing is, I'm satisfied. I can't cure cancer, but maybe I can show some compassion and bring some comfort to an awful situation. 

Do I still have a list of projects with tight deadlines? Yup, and that's OK. If I'm ever too busy to show someone compassion, I'm too busy. If you ever need a quick quilt, I can tell you from experience large HST's work up fast. 

Fresh from the dryer, I'll drop it off at DD#2's tonight. 

Pro-craft-ination

 I've been doing things, just not what I should be doing. It would have been nice if I had finished the table toppers for the rally this week,  but at least progress was made. All of them are basted, two of them are even quilted. They need to be finished before November 11,  so I still have time, right???

One of my grandsons really wants a space-themed quilt for his birthday in November. Yesterday I finally started dealing with that.  I cut the panel I'm starting with to size, evaluated how much of each fabric I have and realistically looked at how much time I have. I spent yesterday afternoon with EQ8, and came up with an easy quilt to make up, only ten blocks to piece then lots of wide borders to show off the space fabrics I splurged on. It's definitely not my usual style, but it's the best chance I have of getting the quilt done on time. Finished is better than perfect.

I would have preferred using an orange as the border around the panel instead of that teal, but this particular grandson is not an orange fan. I auditioned several blues and they all fell flat. I tried a lime green like in the last border and there just isn't enough lime green on the other fabric to make it look right. There is more contrast in real life than in the photo, but after looking at the photo on my computer screen instead of on my phone, I think I'll audition a gold and a purple fabric before I cut that first border. He's not a yellow fan either, so maybe I'll just audition purple.  I hope to make final selections and cut at least all the borders today. The outside border is from a border print that I've already fussy cut down into border strips. This grandson's favorite color is pink, and I had three space prints with a lot of pink. One of them had satellites and such in too large a scale to use in a border.  The other was mostly stars in a galaxy type print, but Mr. LJ prefers planets, so I opted to use the planet fabric. I think I'll make him a pillowcase out of the galaxy fabric, plus use it in the star blocks I'll be making.

So what have I been doing with most of my time? Working on UFO's. I have a scary amount of UFO's at block stage, needing to be assembled. In the last week I've sewn eight quilts into rows. Only one of those had the rows sewn together.

The nice thing is, none of the quilts I'm in the middle of assembling need borders, so once I get all the rows sewn together, I'll have a stack of new quilt tops for the quilting queue. (Not that I didn't already have plenty in the quilting queue ;-) 

I'm not often in the mood to assemble a bunch of quilts, so when the mood strikes, I try to run with it even when I should be doing other things. 

Yesterday while designing the space quilt I was feeling less than "stellar", and this morning I found out why. Turns out I have covid. This is my fourth time having Covid, and I've had really mild cases each time, and I'm hoping that holds true this time. Since DH works in a hospital I'm probably lucky I've only caught it once a year. I think in the last four years the only time I was sick besides covid is when I caught a stomach bug from space quilt grandson! This is definitely the longest stretch I've ever gone without a cold. 

I'll just keep doing what I can, when I can. I work pretty well under pressure, so I'm not too worried about getting things done at this point. I think I can probably do it.