FINISH NUMBER NINE

 I quilted, trimmed, made binding and sewed it onto the Babe in the Woods quilt.   It measures 35" by 36".  The top is all flannel.

Its done!  This is finish number nine for the year!

FLANNEL QUILT TOP

 I got the Babe In The Woods charm pack sewn together for a baby quilt.  This is all flannel.  I don't like sewing flannel.  I don't know how I came into possession of this charm pack.  The top is 36" by 36".

HUGS AND KISSES TOP

 I got the last two borders sewed onto Hugs and Kisses while visiting with the BP-Monday Sewcialites.

Its a top!

THIS MONTH'S UFO

 This month's UFO Challenge project is another old one, called Hugs and Kisses.  It was probably made in the late 90's.  I hand-appliqued these Xs and Os onto the squares.  The fabrics are a heavy flannel and woven plaids, all of them from Clothworks.  I usually really dislike flannel, but these are pretty nice.  Found along with the top was a pile of the fabrics I had  used.  There were big pieces, maybe one third yard cuts.

The top was 44" by 56" as found.  I want it to be bigger.  So, the easiest way was to add another border.  I decided to cut all of the extra fabrics into 4-1/2" squares and add them around the outside.

I was only able to sew the top and bottom rows on before the dogs insisted on leaving.

SOLSTICE QUILT QUILTED

It took all week, but I got the last of it quilted this morning.

I took it off the machine and trimmed the batting off and squared it up.  It turned out great.

I started thinking about binding - what was I going to use?

My fallback was using the ugly plaid I put on the back - it sort of matches, but not really.

As I was making the binding (what a pain flannel is) it occurred to me that maybe a print would look good - especially a toile, a white with blue toile de Jouy.  I have some, somewhere.  When I looked through my stash I came up with 3 or 4 that might work, but I did not have enough to do the whole binding.  What about a solid?  I looked through my solids stash - nothing.

But I have a sample card for Kona Cotton Solids.  There are 303 color swatches on it - there's got to be one that matches, right?  Well, as it turns out, there is one that's sort of close.  That means I have to go order it and wait for it to get here.

LAST THREE SOLSTICE BLOCKS

 I got behind, but I caught up today making the last three blocks for the Solstice Challenge.

#23 Eureka!

#24 Lucky Girl

#25 Summer Rose

I need some fabric to use as sashing.  The only thing I have at the moment is pure white flannel, which is not the same as the white in these fabrics.   It's much to white.  I need more of an ivory.  I was thinking I should dye it.  But, how do you dye white to ivory.  I googled it, they all said use tea dye.  That seems wrong for several reasons.  I've heard tea dye is so acidic it will eventually eat up the fabric.  Plus, it seems the wrong color to me.  Too brown.  Ivory is not brown.  But, I'm not sure what it is either.

Maybe I should go to the fabric store.  

SOLSTICE BLOCK 22

Here is the shrunk down version of this week's Solstice Challenge block.

The block was supposed to be 24" square, but I'm making all my blocks just 12" because I have a limited amount of fabric -- and it's dwindling fast.

Even on this block, I used a different background in the corners because I didn't have enough of the other.  That pretty much finished off that little striped fabric.

This is Weathervane:

They came and installed the new countertops today!

The backsplash tile will be installed tomorrow.

SOLSTICE WEEK 21

This one has a lot of little 2 inch squares.

I'm not so sure it works with all these plaids and their lines going every way and not matching up!

I would have used a less busy background if I had had more choices.

WORK FREE THURSDAY

I had to take today off from work to make a decision about tile for our kitchen remodel and get it ordered.

I had a very busy day.

I got a little sewing in first thing in the morning. 

I made the latest Solstice Challenge block.

It's called "Board Games" and was designed as a 24" block.  I have a finite amount of fabric and haven't been able to find any to add to my group.  So, I had made the decision early on to just make 12" blocks instead, and then sash them in a simple setting.

I pared this block down to the basics and made it 12" instead.

After that I took the dogs for a walk in Lincoln Park.  They were so excited!  We haven't been to the park for a while because of my schedule lately.

I took the dogs home and then headed down to the area around the Seattle Design Center and went to several tile dealers.

I thought I had narrowed it down to the one I wanted, but I found another I like even better.  I got a sample and filled out an application to be able to buy from them.

I came home for lunch with the DH, he likes this new tile better also.  After lunch I realized that the quarterly taxes are due on Monday.  So, I sat down and got that taken care of.

I had about an hour and a half until I had to get dinner started so I went back upstairs to start on a new project.

Yes, I said 'new' project.  [What is wrong with me?!]

Hard as it is to believe, I actually bought a kit.  Yes, a prepackaged kit with fabric and pattern.  This is first for me.  It looked so fun I couldn't help myself.

I prewashed the fabrics yesterday.  I ironed some of them and got them organized and then cut out and sewed together the first block today.

It's called Wallflower.

There are two blocks, this is the simple one.  They are 18" blocks.

EARTH DAY 2017

Today is Earth Day.  There are marches planned all over the country.  We will be participating in the one here in Seattle this afternoon.

In the meantime, I got some sewing time in.

I made the recent Solstice Challenge block, number 18, called "On The Go".

And then I made another Splendid Sampler block.  

This is Flights of Friendship by Barb Groves and Mary Jacobson

The blue block in here gave me fits.  I had to pick out the top and bottom rows because I got the triangles in backwards (you wouldn't think that was even possible).  Then after I got those straightened out, as I was sewing the rows together, I see that I had one of the background squares in wrong side out.  Out came the seam ripper again.   But, it's together and it's done and it's right.  I can check that one off my list.  Yeah!  

Now off we go to the Science March.

SPRING FEVER

Yes, I do have a small case of Spring Fever.  I'm starting the remodel project of our kitchen, but that's another story.
This story is about the next block in the Solstice Challenge.

It is called Spring Fever.

SOLSTICE BLOCKS OF THE WEEK

Here are the last two Solstice Challenge blocks.  I'm catching up.

Number 15 is called  Precious Fabric

Number 16 is called Friendship block.

HONEY BEE BLOCK

This is block 14 of the Solstice Challenge.


I finished the applique while at work on this rainy, drizzly day.

STUDIO TIME

"Studio Time" is the name of last week's Solstice Quilt block by Pat Sloan.
She has been re-doing her studio.  She removed everything, moved in new Koala furniture and re-organized.

I've been sort of doing the same thing, but not at such a frenetic pace.

I sold my Ettan press to make room for my new longarm coming soon.  I have a strong desire to downsize and declutter, but it is so difficult.  I don't even know where to start.
I've gotten rid of a few books and some bookshelves.
I need to reorganize and make some tough decisions.
Come on!

JACOBS LADDER BLOCK

I was making the next block for the Solstice series and had three fabrics picked out, a light, a medium and a dark.  Then I was invaded by a little girl who came with her dad to visit my husband downstairs in his shop.

So, I'm going to blame it on her.  I accidentally cut the pieces out from just two fabrics.  Since I am very limited on the amount of fabrics I have, I had to go with what I cut out.

It turned out okay.

Years and years ago, my sister Sue and I made a beautiful quilt with the Jacobs Ladder block.  I wonder where it is now...

CATCH UP DAY

I spent my sewing time catching up with the Solstice Quilt and the Children's Library Quilt.

I am behind by three blocks with the Solstice Quilt.  I made two today.  I'm conflicted about the other block, it's very big and I don't think my fabric will stretch far enough to make it and the rest of the blocks.  I'm still thinking about what to do.

[I spent a wad of money buying blue flannel plaids online and none of them ended up being good enough to go with this group of fabric I'm using.  So, I'm not going to use them here - which means, I have a big pile of flannels that I have no plan for...omg.  I think that soured me on buying fabric online for a while].

Here's the next block for the Children's Library quilt, which only comes out on the first of the month.  I'm only a week late!

I'm really liking this quilt so far - 

SOLSTICE #8 SORTA

The block for this week is 18" square instead of 12" square, like the rest have been.

I started this with a bundle of blue flannel fat quarters which are over 15 years old (which means I probably couldn't find anymore).

So, I've been concerned that I'll just barely have enough to finish the 25 blocks if they were all 12" blocks.

Pat showed the setting she has in mind and instead of doing that, I was thinking I'd just stick with a 5x5 or 6x4 setting (still thinking they'd be all 12" squares).  

Anyway, long story short, this block uses a lot of fabric.  It has three big hearts, the biggest of which would use up a half of a fat quarter.

So, I'm not doing that.  I'm just making a 12" square for now.  I'm going to think about what I want to do.  Some of the things I'm thinking about is:  just putting one heart in the square, or putting a 5-pointed star (I like stars more than hearts).  And if I was going to add another fabric or two, maybe even a red, then maybe the star should be red.  I don't know.  I'm going to let it stew for a while.

In the meantime, I need to start looking for plaid flannels that will go with.

This is the block as I made it.  Now I'm wishing I had just shrunk the 18" block down to 12" and made the whole thing.

This is the block as presented.

SOLSTICE #7

Tidy Rows

SOLSTICE BLOCKS

Here are the next two Solstice Quilt Blocks:

Gramma Anna's Basket 

Crosswalk

BLOCK OF THE MONTH, WEEK, ETC

I'm working on my Solstice Quilt, made two more blocks out of the plaid flannel:

 Week 3 - Tidal Pools

Week 4 - Cobblestones

And started Pat Sloan's "Children's Library" quilt, too.  I'm using the "Alice Through the Looking Glass" fabrics I purchased years ago, plus some go-withs.   I need to find some better greens - uh, oh - that means a trip to the fabric store!   The 'background' fabric', which is white and has little card-men standing on it, has a definite up and down.  I'll have to think about each piece and orient it properly.