This week I received my 12x18 pillow forms in the mail and I whipped up covers for them from the Neko Japanese fabric I purchased from Miss Matatabi after reading about her online business.  The prices were great but the shipping from Japan, well...but such cute fabric:

I mentioned last week that I was working on a cover for my swing bench pad that matched the 18" pillows (you can see on the last blog post).  And, "ta da" I finished it.

 Here's a closeup to show the main motif running down the center.  The 16 patch blocks are made from 2.5" precuts of Somerset by Moda.  It all looks a little busy but it feels sunny and bright - just like the porch.  We did get the ceiling fan installed and have really extended the amount of time we can spend out there.  Yea!  This week I'll be working on finishing up a couple of quilts that are overdue but I'm getting close.  Hope you have a lovely week.

Hi, it's been 6 weeks and a bit of a bumpy ride but I did not stop piecing as you'll see below.

First up are the Sawtooth Stars with great tutorial by Sherri McConnell in her blog, A Quilting Life. These are the ones I made:

I also made some 9 patch cross blocks:

At some point I purchased Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks for my Kindle on android and flipped through making blocks that appealed.  There are the ones made so far and can be found in the book as Nos. 42,38,37, and 45.

I'm sorry to say I forgot where I saw the tutorial for the following blocks but they are made kind of randomly and allow space for a fussy cut like these farm animals I've had for well over 35 years!

But wait - there's more!  I purchased pillow forms and made covers for the screened deck chairs:

It was simple and much quicker than I thought it would be, even by hand.  Here's the back:

You can tell I haven't sewn in awhile since I didn't even think about matching the back overlaps.  Next time I should have finished the cushion for the swing bench which is somewhat more ambitious as it has the main motif of this fabric set on point and alternating with 16 patch scrappy blocks. I'm pretty much just winging with this design so we'll see if it works! 

Workmen are currently installing a ceiling fan on the screened porch right now and not a moment too soon.  We're having coffee on the deck in the mornings and could really use it.  However, this morning was the first time in a month that it was just lovely outside.  Low humidity and 63 degrees!

Simply Beautiful.  Praise the Lord!

It has suddenly been an eventful week!  I went to lunch with two of my favorite girlfriends who I haven't seen since I retired in February.  It was great and went on for several hours.  Lots of catching up.  I had promised one that I would be on the lookout for a lap quilt to make her and took some fabric samples to see if we were on the same page:

These are from a Moda Charm pack called Persimmon.  She did like it and I'll be making the charms into a 4-Patch Slice something like this one with a warm mocha lattice and a persimmon border.

However, it will be a while before I start it as I still have to quilt the first one I promised so many years ago.  My walking foot came in earlier this week or late last week - I lose track - so I'll be starting that process next week.

These sawtooth stars and tutorial looked like the perfect next blocks for my blue and white, etc. scrappy quilt --

but on the way to making them, I ran across Island Life Quilts and the "Minis and More" Summer Star Mini.  Something about it just clicked and I immediately stopped everything to sew up the half square triangles and lay one out using another Moda charm pack, Lakeside Gatherings. 

I'm not quite happy with it and may seek out some scrappy red to add a little sparkle before I sew it together.  It should finish out about 12" or so.  It may need a border.  

As you know if you have cats, they add luxury to every place they go and that includes your latest quilt projects.  In future, I'll try to capture some of that luxury (prior to shooing it away) but for now we are grieving the loss of our sweet Purrl who passed away last week with a brain tumor.  She was very self-contained and could even seem aloof until she'd come in the night to rest on your hip while you were sleeping.  Such a precious girl.  We miss her very much.

Well, it's been about a month since I shared my projects and some progress has been made!  I settled on a churn dash block (6") for the next blocks for my multi, mini, sampler quilt. And here they are:

I experimented with a couple of "new to me" techniques on a couple of these.  The first was an attempt at Quilt As You Go. 

The finished one is on the right. I did it by hand and found that the center stripes were fine for the QAYG process but the side panels with the Half Square Triangles had to be pieced prior to being quilted onto the batting and backing.  Hmmm...not quite what I was hoping for but I probably chose a difficult block for that process.  I didn't think much of the look on the back either:

Uneven stitches and difficult to see pattern.  Then the walking foot for my machine came in and I was able to try it out. And that went pretty well:

Obviously, well definded lines as the thread used was black!  But still a more satisfactory look for me.  Learning to use the walking foot is getting me ready to finally, finally finish my friend's long promised quilt (See first blog above).  Here is the completed back ready to be basted and quilted.

Big thanks to Lance for holding everything up!  There is a new project in the offing and a baby blanket to finish up and I'll be reporting on those pretty soon.  Bye for now. 

Today I completed the top and borders of a lap quilt I've been making for a friend for two years, literally.  It is about 45" x 54" unfinished.  Next up back and quilting.  I'm thinking of just outlining the batik boxes in black thread on the machine.  I've not done a lot of machine quilting but that doesn't sound too difficult and I'd like to finish it in the next couple of weeks instead of more years!  Other ideas?

So, after 20 years or so of off and on again thinking about seriously quilting, I pulled together all the blue fabric I could find and began to try to see what I might be able to make of them.  After several days of more or less non-stop Pinterest browsing, I decided to do something really small and by hand to get started.  I picked this little, free pattern from Craftsy by HopeTN from Australia. (Thank you!)  It's called Rainbow Flowers Mini Block!

After about a week, this was the result:

It is about 11" by 9.5".  It has some contrast problems which serve to hide the cute pattern, but is is about learning.  Sew, now I know.  My favorite part was the fussy cut fish on the outer border of the block.  I stumbled across this fabric scrap hidden in a drawer in the extra bedroom.


About two weeks in, I started doodling on graph paper and because I still had lots of blue scraps left settled on a double pinwheel for my next block.  Made 4.

Just need to decide what blocks come next and how they'll all eventually fit together.  Hope you're having a great day!  Auntie D