Seems like our days are filled with little odds and ends, like yours, that make up a life...a good life.
Celebrating a special birthday
Taking your daughter to work day. ð
Finding out that my mountain goat needs a new hip
Exploring with Skeet
Building Fences
Sneaking in a stitch now and then
Dancing with Daddy
Soaking in the treasured moments
Savoring summer
Mastering new skills
Kicking off a new school year
Keeping everyone fed
Tending to the garden
Horsing around
In June 2022, the only UFOs I had were at the quilter's and I was ready to start something new. I had been on a mission to sew up my collection of jelly rolls. This is a different type of fabric than I usually gravitate towards, but I'd noticed it in a few quilt shops back when it came out and I was drawn to the quilts made with it. I never bought any and by the time I decided to, I ran across 2 Tilda Plumb Garden jelly rolls on sale in 2020 and brought them home.
I don't buy Tilda fabrics anymore because they are more expensive and I really have come close to reaching my capacity for stash storage anyway. And I finally decided I love fabric so much more once it's in a quilt so I am challenging myself to use what I have and that's pretty easy to do when I've got so many great choices. That led to these becoming a Jelly Strip Stash Buster Quilt.
You can find the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew HERE. I didn't want to think, I just wanted to run fabric under the needle and this fit the bill although it probably took me longer to pair up fabrics than it should have.
Still, 42 blocks came together over the course of about 10 days. And then it sat. For almost 4 years. Yikes. But I finally dug it back out in March and made another 39 blocks
I was short 1 block and cobbled one together
I still have the 2nd jelly roll, but didn't want to break it open for 1 piece. I cut a variety of the chambray fabrics for a scrappy binding
Sandy quilted a design called Asian Fan that complements the quilt top nicely
I was stumped for a backing. I couldn't find anything in my stash that I thought would work and I finally settled on this print that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't completely sold on it, but I really like it now.
I like the way everything came together and at 62" x 74", it'll make a good throw quilt
I'll have to come up with another plan for the 2nd jelly roll. But for now, I think this will work. I like this simple, modern take. It looks somewhat like patchwork which is always a winner in my book.
How is it already the end of July?! We don't live a crazy busy life, but our days are full and every time I turn around, another week...month...year ÃŽs in the rearview mirror.
If I didn't write this little blog, I'd look back and wonder what we did with our days.
But I figure every time I step into my sewing room, I'm making progress on something. This month I surprised myself and finished piecing all the blocks (64) for my America 250 quilt and am ready to get it into a top. I love everything about it.
Focusing on that filled up most of my sewing time in July, but I still really need to have a couple of masculine quilts on hand so these pieces were called into action
I cut everything, pieced it into a top and made the binding, but I still need to press it and make a backing, and binding.
This is currently on my cutting table.
And as we close out the month, I'm binding my Terrifically Tilda quilt
I've been pretty good about finishing 2 quilts most months and I put the last stitch into my Tropical Twist quilt this month
And I finished clipping all the fringe on my First Ride Western Rag Quilt, giving us a cozy finish to enjoy on crisp mountain mornings.
My sister-in-law was up at my in-laws' recently and my MIL was agreeable to parting with a few quilting related items. Once my MIL began to get irritated, they stopped, but she said she wanted me to have this quilt top. I am honored. She doesn't remember making it, but she absolutely did. At 102"x 118", it is huge.
I need to hunt for a backing, but It's just a hodge podge of so many old western prints combined into one fabulous scrappy quilt!
We're thinking she made it about 20 years ago so the fabrics are probably 20-50 years old or whenever western fabrics were first produced.
I don't know if low-volume prints were a thing back then, but she found some great ones to include
She hand quilted every single quilt she ever made and part of me is considering doing the same with this one. Is that the crazy part talking or should I have it machine quilted?
I could use your input. My SIL is a quilter and she thinks it's crazy to hand quilt it.
I'm on the fence....and of course it's barbed wire so I'd like to pick a side because it's a tad prickly up here. ð
