In the Wake of...

 A sleepless night online with friends last night til 3:30 am.... and fitful and unrestful sleep to follow for a few hours.  I've been up now since 6:30am... and still no answers.  So I took to my studio and made a block, trying to stay busy.

 

This is block 4 of Pat Sloan's 'Cozy Things' quilt design.  A bit wonky, but I was half asleep while sewing, so not surprising... I forgot to reset my stitch length to 2.3 (from 2.0 for applique), so there's a bit of gathering, and I didn't read the pattern thoroughly, so I made the center pinwheel and added the border strips in long strips using partial seam construction (instead of adding 2 pieces of each border to each square of the pinwheel and sewing it together as a four-patch)... I deserved what I get for this one... I really should read the isntructions! 

Shiny & New

Another shiny new project to deflect and distract my mind from the ills of the world.  We all have our own opinions and, as is my general habit, I'm not going to start talking politics here, just suffice it to say that come Nov. 3rd, things will change regardless of the outcome of this election.  I am not looking forward to the backlash either, no matter the outcome.  So... back to my escape:  quilting...

These are the first to blocks in the Hedgies block of the month.  When I first saw these blocks, I HAD to make them.. Just too cute.  Block one is the October block... Little hedgehog with his pet bat.  I still need to give the bat pupils (black french knots in the eyes), and the hedgehog gets button eyes (after quilting, what is showing here are little eyelashes that I embroidered on). 

The pieced blocks are alternate blocks that go in between the hedgie blocks. Below is the first of the pieced blocks. 

I think I'm gonna love this project!  Fun and easy applique (they come prefused and laser cut, though they DO use heat and bond which makes for a stiff quilt imo), easy piecing, too.  The hedgie block is supposed to have teal corners sewn on, but they are using a unitasking tool to make what they call 'folded corners'.  I will wait til I know the correct size of the corner pieces before I piece them on the old-fashioned way.  They call them 2" folded corner pieces, but I'm not sure if they mean 2" finished or 2" cut.  2" cut will make for a smaller corner once the blocks are sewn into the quilt.. 2" finished means I will probably have to cut 2 3/8" squares to have them finish at 2" in the quilt.  So, since the designer didn't actually know when I called her, I will wait and see, so for now, no teal corners... I'll just save the fabric for the corners til the end.  

PS if you like the project and are interested in doing one yourself, google 'Stitches of Love' and look for their 'Hedgies' quilt on their website.

Wake Me When It's Over

This year has just been too much.  Only 2 months to go, but it seems like forever.  I look forward to 2021... but this picture about sums up how I feel right now:  

Now on to quilt stuff... Here is block 3 in Pat Sloan's 'Cozy Things' design:  

And I got my block back from one of my local guild's Round Robin for last year.  This is it:  I started with the pet shop block in the center... unknown ladies in the guild added the darker grey border and the pinwheel/four-patch border.  Haven't decided what I might do with it yet... donate?  finish?  Just can't decide.

Cozy Things, Block 2

Cozy Things, Block 2 (for more about this and other projects, see 2 posts down 'One Myster Ends, Another Begins')

 

Cozy Things, block 1

 Cozy Things Block One (See 'One mystery ends, another begins' post below for more information)

Making but not Posting

I've been doing some sewing... maybe not as much as I COULD be doing and SHOULD be doing, but some... but not a lot of posting.  Some of that is due to some computer issues... seems I'm running out of RAM and computer is freezing up and locking up, requiring a hard reboot.  Keep having to switch to an older system... Ordered memory but it didn't help because the new memory chip was slower than the original hardwired memory chip and we had a compatibility problem... another, faster memory chip is on order... sigh.  Anyway, here is what I've been working on:

Tula Pink City Sampler blocks 21-30 are done:

Pat Sloan's Out West mystery is a finished top.  The backing just needs to be sewn together, batting cut and off to the quilter it goes:

The borders for the 2020 Murder Mystery quilt are done:

Blocks 1 (bottom) and 2 (top) of Pat Sloan's 'Cozy Things' mystery:

  Now, I have to finish masks for my husband and a friend to wear to work for Halloween.  They both want monster face masks, so that's what I've got to make... Saturday is a wash, so Sunday will be a work day for me at least 1/2 the day (the other half, I've got a meeting on Discord/Roll20).

As One Mystery Ends, Another Begins...

 The final block of 'Out West' has been released, and this is mine 'Music', block 9 of 9:

Fun and easy block to make... I really enjoy Pat's designs, even tho they aren't 'representational' of their names, she always designs interesting and easy blocks, some of which look complex, and her final layouts are often interesting and different.  (Layout for 'Out West' is my project for later today and/or tomorrow).

 And the Morewood Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs is just getting underway... Well, we just got clue #2, and here is my progress... all 45 pieces are done:

 I like her designs too, she designs a quilt with easy parts like these four patches or the HSTs from last month, and puts them together into complex designs that look hard (but aren't) and are always interesting.  Not sure about my background fabric yet (the black), but we shall see how it all comes out.

 Now... back to the studio for that Out West layout...