Thursday, March 26, 2026

ONCE UPON A TIME TOP

This morning I finished trimming the HST blocks to 4-1/2" and put them up onto the design wall.  These were made from a charm pack called Once Upon a Time with some Kona solids added to make the Half Square Triangle (HST) blocks.

After lunch I started sewing the rows together.  Then I sewed the rows to each other.  It is now a finished top, ready to be quilted, after I make a backing for it.



 

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

MUD CLOTH TABLE MAT

 I started with a piece of black fabric 24" by 36".  I cut randomly sized pieces from my collection of African Mud Cloth and fit them onto the black backing.  Then I zigzagged them down onto the backing, connecting them to each other also.

I cut some wide binding from the black Kona and bound it by machine.

It will now reside on our dining room table for a while.




Friday, March 20, 2026

ANOTHER HANDMADE BOOK

 Here's the second handmade book I made from a cookie box covered with some painted papers.  The signatures inside this one are made from mixed media papers.  The seven signatures are stitched in with a mixture of an 'X' stitch and Saddle stitches and beads. 




Thursday, March 19, 2026

COOKIE BOX BOOK

 I stitched together the signatures made from leftover papers into a cover made from a cookie box.  The box was covered with paper I had painted and printed.  The closure uses some silk sari ribbon and an old button from my Grandma's Button Jar.





Saturday, March 14, 2026

HAPPY PI DAY

It's Pi Day.  I've made several Pi quilts.

Here's my Pi quilt, Nine-Patch Pi. 


Okay, start at the upper left and count the colored squares...

Thursday, March 12, 2026

MONTH 3 BOM

 They uploaded the instructions for this month's SeaMQGbom2026 and I was on it right away assembling some blocks.




Tuesday, March 10, 2026

CHANGES

 My design wall is oriented horizontally.  I like quilts that are vertical, so I end up putting them up on the design wall sideways when designing.  Sometimes it's bothersome.  

I've been having this problem with my current project, Improv That Block 2026.

Today I wasn't satisfied with way the Fan blocks were and wanted to change them, so I put them up, took a photo, then reoriented the photo to vertical then decided if it was looking how I wanted or not.

I went through several iterations.  Here they are:






Lots of work to do now.


Sunday, March 08, 2026

FINISH NUMBER SEVEN

 I found a fabric that would work for the binding, made it and sewed it onto the quilt I just finished quilting.  It is done.

Finish number seven for the year!

"Clouds" 50" by 50".


Last night was the change to Daylight Saving Time.  We moved the clocks ahead an hour.  We basically lost an hour. I really don't like this.  I didn't sleep well and didn't feel like doing anything today.  But, I am very happy I at least got this project done.


Saturday, March 07, 2026

QUILTED WITH RAIN DROPS

 The little (50" x 50") quilt called Clouds is finished being quilted with a pantograph of rain drops.

It is off the longarm awaiting binding.




Wednesday, March 04, 2026

CLOUDS ON THE LONGARM

 I loaded the small quilt top, Clouds, onto the longarm today.

This top was made from six wide selvedge to selvedge strips with the same print of clouds but in different colorways sewn together side by side and bordered with some black fabric.  I believe I picked up this collection from a fabric distributor back in the day.  I never knew what to do with them.  The top has been languishing around for a long while now.

It is on my list of UFOs to finish this year.




Tuesday, March 03, 2026

MADE A BAD CHOICE

I got out a charm pack, Roses and Arrows, and picked a  fabric for the other half of the half square triangles.  I cut the squares and marked the sewing lines on the backs of them. 


 I thought it best to cut a few and see how they'd look before sewing them all together.  

Good thing I did.  I did not think they were a good match after all.  So I took them apart and looked for a better match.  I settled on a light grey, Kona Lighthouse, and started over.