Quarantine Quilting

You'd think I'd have tons of time to sew or quilt... Well, I do, but I'm not using it very efficiently.  Almost no sewing at all last week - too much TV time, too much computer time, a little hand sewing.  So this weekend, to top off a week of inactivity, I was busy on the computer... playing Pathfinder - LOTS of fun was had, but little productive work.  However between games, I managed to do a little sewing.  I got my five blocks from Tuesday's Thimblecreek mystery quilt done Friday night and Saturday morning.  These were by far the harder blocks to make (small pieces, LOTS of seams), and I had to make 5 of them!

 then I got Wednesday's Childhood Games block done earlier today (Sunday).

Tomorrow is Monday and I'm hoping to do at least some work on my Whale quilt... I know I should be making more masks, but I'm tired, and maybe later?  I doubt the need is going to evaporate.  Tuesday, another Thimblecreek set of 5 blocks is coming out, and Wednesday is Childhood Games Again.   

Also, Bonnie Hunter is starting a new 'mystery' quilt along tomorrow morning... Haven't decided if I'm gonna play along or not..

Still More Time to Sew

This self-distancing thing is getting old fast.  Still, I'm getting a lot done.  I'm doing so many mystery and sew-along projects right now and blocks patterns for these are coming at me almost daily it seems like.  One of my 'projects' is Pat Sloan's 'Crazy Quilty March' where we have a task to do every day... sometimes it's tidying something, evaluating something, or finding something.  Yesterday it was to make something - a shamrock mug rug.

I was just going to make the block, but then it looked too small for a mug rug (big enough for a mug, but not for a little plate with a goodie on it), so I added a square piece of matching fabric to one side, and actually quilted and bound it yesterday (picture in the current folder).  I also made 5 blocks for the Thimblecreek mystery.

Fun and colorful, and  Dutchman's Puzzle has always been one of my favorite blocks.  I even enjoyed making the strippy flying geese!

I also did some work on a project for a friend (sewing velcro on a table cover, to prevent slippage).  Now I have to figure out how to get dog slobber off his felt table cover... sigh.. I DO love my St. Bernards.

Also, I found time today to make Pat Sloan's 'Childhood Games - Monopoly' block (#8 in the sew-along series).  Even though I really hate pink, I wanted to use cat fabric and this was the first directional one I found in one of my cat fabric bins.

Last night, I re-counted my hexagons for my hex quilt, and discovered I only had 789.  I thought I was up in the 800's already, very disappointing.  I need 990 (an educated guess at the number needed for a california king bed - they are big hexagons).  So I will have to cut more cat fabrics up... and I'm not sure if I have enough cat fabrics left to avoid repeating pictures in the hexies.  I may have to ... *gulp* ... buy more cat fabric.  I've been trying to not do that, sigh.  Not that there's anything wrong with buying more cat fabric, but I'm trying to maintain a budget here.  A lot of fabric is not in that budget and what there was, I already spent on Tula Pink's new fabrics for a challenge quilt.  What to do? - other than sew up more hexagons with the cat hexes I've already cut... (I think I've got about 20 or so more to make before I run out).

At least, if I run out of cat hexes, I will still have plenty to do with all the mysteries and sew-alongs... Hope you are all keeping busy and healthy... Stay well.

Social Distancing Encourages Quilting

I've been so busy of late, I've barely kept up with some aspects of my life, but I've at least been doing my best.  Suddenly, though, I've got lots of time.  The Senior Center where two of my weekly sew-ins take place is closed for the foreseeable future... at least til sometime in April, but will probably get extended.  I'm a bit heartbroken over this - not so much for me, but for the homeless seniors who depend on the place for a hot lunch and a place to hang out during the day where they are welcome, can participate in events and classes, read in the library, do puzzles, play games, as well as clean up and change and such.  Probably both of my guild meetings will be cancelled next month (both have already been held earlier this month), one guild's show in April will probably get cancelled... I will survive but it's kind of depressing

On the good side, if there is one to this, I've got more computer time at home, and more sewing time at home - at least you'd think so.  I didn't do a lot of sewing over the weekend - had a few friends over Friday evening for a game, but we all sat kinda far apart.  Saturday's game got cancelled, as one of our friends, in whose home we were going to meet, was working last week with someone exposed to the virus.  We opted to skip our bi-weekly game at his home.  I watched tv, played with my dogs, went to the movies (yeah, I know, not a good idea, but not many people there, and we didn't sit close to anyone else... it was a special showing of a pristine print of the original King Kong, so not something we could do another time, and the theater wasn't refunding tickets.


In the past week or so, I did finish some things.  I made part 3 of the Murder of the Sphinx murder mystery quilt.  Part 3 consisted of 3 blocks, called 'Desert Flower'.  These are my 3 blocks... haven't read chapter 3 of the mystery yet, but at least the blocks are done.

I got my 'Out of this World' quilt back from the quilter last Thursday... haven't put a binding on it yet, but I'll be trying to do that sometime this week.  Here is the quilt, the back, and a close-up of the adorable quilting:

the Front of Out of this World

the back of Out of This World 

close up of the quilting on Out of This World

I know some people say the back looks like the front, but it's not.. the back was a panel I got dirt cheap in the discount section of my LQS.  $3.00 for that lovely panel... but I had no idea what to DO with it, til I made this quilt, designed by Pat Sloan.  It just needed to be enlarged, so I took my leftover fabric from the front, plus some stuff from my stash, and added some large flying geese, because it IS a space flight quilt, and some strips and some galaxy fabric, and voila!  a back!

Today, I finally got to sit at my machine and quilt!  - I spent some time quilting my hexagons... Only did 11 of them, and I've got another 40 or so to go... Once I get those all quilted, I can sew some more of them.  (note: this quilt requires 990 hexagons.  I've done about 800 so far, so these 50 won't finish the quilt...)  Anyway,  I stopped because the tv in the studio lost signal (damn this rainstorm!) and I was in the middle of a fun episode of NCIS.

So now I'm back in the den, watching tv and writing this post.   I think when I'm done, I might take a nap... I can't go to the store, I don't feel like going out in the rain and I need tp - the stores here have none.  And I NEED tp... I'm not a hoarder and didn't go crazy buying a bunch when this started, and everyone is out of what I use, even Amazon, sigh.  Maybe I'll have to start buying kleenex as a substitute.  or yuck - using fabric!

Stay Tuned, Planning and Sorting

Well, today was the Southern California version of a 'snow day' - it rained almost all day.  I sewed for a couple of hours, then went out for a little bit pre-rain - got the new screen protector for my phone put on at the Verizon store (they are better at it than I am, and faster)...  did my 'dailies' (Pokemon Go and Wizards Unite), and picked up lunch, came home and played a little Pathfinder with some friends. 

My sewing was working with very small patches... making these 6.5" blocks for the Thimblecreek mystery 'Stay Tuned'.

Playing for a while was a good thing, because I needed something good to balance out my day.  Why?  Because after the game, I checked my email and text messages and got the WORST news ... My sew-in tonight was cancelled (ok, that was only mildly bad news), My April retreat at the beach has been cancelled (been looking forward to that for a year!), Hamilton (at the Pantages in Hollywood) is shut down for at least a month - til March 31st - My tickets (with friends) were for March 22nd... they are refunding our ticket price but that's not the point!  I've been looking forward to this since November, when tickets went on sale!  (yes, I was on the computer an hour before release time, waiting to hit the button and buy 4 orchestra seats on the aisle!)... I'm so disappointed!!!... and Disneyland is closed (or will be on March 14th), Broadway in NY is shut down (ALL the theaters) - was planning a trip to see a show in the near future... I'm just furious and bummed at the same time... fummed?

Oh, and I labeled all my catchall drawers in my sewing room with what's in each drawer so I know.  Today's Quilty March Madness from Pat Sloan was Sorting... my stuff was mostly sorted, but I always had to rifle through drawers to figure out which one was which... Now I don't have to do that.

And since tonight's sew-in has been cancelled, I'm home with my husband... maybe going to make a Costco run for gas and a few other items (NO WATER and NO TP! - don't know if they are in stock or not, don't care, don't want them, just saying... I'm not stocking up on that kind of stuff, lol) - We have our emergency supply of water, food and other items in case of earthquakes - that will keep us for a while anyway, and panic buying water and tp seems silly to me... Some people are going to end up starving in their homes surrounded by rolls of toilet paper.  Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now and go back to sewing again!  I've got more quilting to do!!!

More Fun and Games

Today has been a busy day.  It started with sun and rain, and a beautiful horizon to horizon double rainbow.  I was inspired and uplifted by the incredible sight.  The picture didn't come out as bright and beautiful as the sight, and you can barely see the outer rainbow on the left side... but it was all there to the naked eye.

Then I went to sewing and got ONE hexagon done before I had to leave to come home... But the company and talk was fun and worth the effort to get out of the house for a couple of hours.

Came home, played Pathfinder (like D&D) for a few hours.

After the game, I went to my sewing room to work on my ongoing projects.  I finished the Childhood Games block for this week - Badminton...

I worked on the Thimblecreek Mystery 'Stay Tuned' for the week as well, but didn't get those blocks finished yet.  Likely won't until tomorrow.  I sewed some HSTs and I'm ready to cut my background fabric for the five blocks now - maybe later tonight or tomorrow morning. 

I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all my ongoing/recurring projects, but today's 'March Madness' task from Pat Sloan was to make a calendar to plot all these projects and make some semblance of order and sense out of them.... I'm working on that now as well!  (Google 'Pat Sloan March Madness 2020 to join the fun).

Is a Round Robin a UFO?

I'm doing Pat Sloan's March Madness (completing a simple task every day in March).  Today's task was to work on a UFO.  I chose to work on a round robin block today, but I am in a quandary... is a round robin technically a UFO?

• For anyone who doesn't know about Round Robins, here's the skinny:  Everyone involved in a round robin chooses a block or UFO project (usually just an orphan block) to use.  These blocks are distributed each month to a new recipient to add something to that month.  In some Round Robins, it's carte blanche to whoever gets it, sometimes your goal is stated in the instructions... But the task is to add something to the block that month - it might be a border (that's typical) or some applique or changing the orientation of the block (e.g. putting it on point).  You do something to a different block each month, and at the end, you get your own back, ready to quilt!  (hopefully).

I have chosen to call it a UFO (after all it is SOMEONE's ufo), and mine is being worked on by someone else.  In this particular round robin, our goal is stated for each month in the instructions.  For example, in month one, it was to add at least one triangle to the project.  (As you can see in the photo below, the first recipient of this block added four borders (two light and two dark) with an inset triangle in one border).  Month two (this month), our goal was to add negative space.  I thought about putting it on point, but that would require a LOT of fabric, make the block very big, and tilt the pictures in the nine-patch, so I decided against that.  I added instead two borders, one light, one dark, in colors already in the block, and with mitered corners where the colors met. 

Because I used batiks, the borders I added are a little 'busy'... I hope they still qualify as 'negative space for the eyes to have someplace to rest'.  I'm calling it done for the month.

I don't have a 'before' picture of the block I put in the round robin... and I missed round one, so maybe I won't get a triangle border, but we'll see what happens... but I WILL have a picture of the finished project when I get it back at the end!  Can't wait to see it!

Seth's Quilt

Seth's quilt is a finished top... it's too large for my design wall, so taking a picture of it was a bit problematical... I just had a couple of friends hold it up for me.  I can't wait to make a back and get it to the quilter.  Was hoping I could get it done by the 15th, so I could get it to him when he's here in California, but it's not looking good for being finished in time for that.  Still, I'm glad the top is done.  Today, I will be working on the back and a label... just need a name for the quilt ('Seth's quilt' just isn't gonna cut it).   I've already used 'You Lucky Dog' for another quilt, so that won't do... Maybe it should be derivative of a song title (he IS a musician), or a movie title?  I've gone through all the titles I can think of (or find on Google), but can't settle on the perfect one... Well, I've got all day while I make a back and a label to think of one that will work...

More Childhood Games

Another block for Pat Sloan's Childhood Games quilt-a-long... I made a change to this one (switched the dark and medium in the center pinwheel so the outer HSTs would make a bigger pinwheel, and added a second dark fabric for fun)... was gonna make this originally in yellow, red, blue and green (the colors on a Sorry board, since Sorry was the name of the block), but I changed my mind and went with what I liked.

Tonight, I go back to finishing the top of Seth's quilt... so much to do.... so little time, sigh.

Sticking With It

I've been trying to take on too much lately.... I'm doing 3 mysteries, a couple of quilt-a-longs, Pat Sloan's March Madness (a daily to-do, changes every day!)...  I'm starting to flounder, falling behind on things.  Sigh.  Why aren't there a few more hours in the day? - just for crafting, tho!

I did get this baby back from the longarmer, Doug Sobel, the Quilt Hero.  I love all the custom quilting he did on it... Now just need to make a little bias binding to finish it off.  This quilt, which doesn't have a name yet, was a Saturday Sampler from a local quilt shop... I made lots of mistakes, not all my fault, though.  But it's done and ready for binding.  I'm happy with it, and got to explore a few rarely used techniques (hand applique, EPP, following directions, lol)...

Joe and Roxy Wood of Thimblecreek quilts are offering a little mystery quilt this year.  The quilt and the mystery may not be little, but the blocks are (all 6")... LOTS of seams!  Anyway, here is week 3, all finished and ready for week 4 next Tuesday!  Super fun to make and I DO love star blocks!

Pat Sloan is doing a March Madness event this year.  Each day she presents another task to handle.. some are easier than others, some more fun than others.  Yesterday was to tackle a 'pile'  I chose to tackle the ones in my den.  I half-cleaned off the piles of stuff on the coffee table, but the BIG pile on the floor got reduced as well (that big pile on the floor was my main task, but my husband would disagree... as a result, each one only got partially done)...  Here are the before and after pictures:

Before

 

And After

Today I will do other things... I've got a doctor's appointment and a game and my mini-group sew-in.  Maybe I'll find time to cut some fabric so I can sew tonight, otherwise, I'll have to do handwork.... And sometime in there, I've GOT to get my round robin block from guild finished... It's due next Wednesday! Aaaargh!!!!