Project Progress

 I've been enjoying some time in my sewing room over the past week, but after working on 3 blue-green quilts, I found myself left with a colossal, jumbled mess and I needed to set things to rights before I could move forward.

After making 3 pretty good-sized quilts, you would think there would be a noticeable space in my bins, but I have yet to find it. I will admit to adding a few new pieces - not enough to offset what I used, but a quilter ought not to complain about having an abundance of fabric. I hope the quilts I make bring people joy and one can never have too much of that!

So, the projects continue! I pieced another gingham quilt

Made the bindings, pressed the tops and backings for 2 of the blue-green quilts

Pulled fabric and made the scrappy binding for my Americana Hourglass quilt

And pulled out my potholder bin

I've got to get some made for gifts. Some were already partially made, but I need to finish those and make more. The original idea came from Deanna over at Wedding Dress Blue years ago and I'm betting I've made more than 50 sets of these through the years. I'll include the link to her tutorial below:

                                                            String Potholders

I'm keeping them somewhat categorized into floral, safari, chickens, western, wine and coffee. That pretty much covers everyone in my circle. LOL

So a new mess is about to transpire - let the fun begin!

Americana Progress

 I've been making good progress on my Americana Hourglass quilt - the blocks finish 5" in the quilt and I'm thinking of making it 85 x 95 so I'll need 323 blocks. Some of them are traditional hourglass blocks and some of them are scrappy

Sometimes I use the Easy Angle ruler and strips to cut the pieces, but this time I was working with chunks and yardage - 1/2 yards, fat quarters and a variety of cuts from my stash so I drew lines.

I should try some of that seam tape, but I don't mind drawing lines. I'll listen to a podcast or audio book and sew in between. I've built a well-rounded stash through the years and I love shopping my stash - riffling through my bins and pulling fabrics for projects. I REALLY wanted to include this print, but it's just too white for the look I'm after

So I figured I'd give it a good soak in some tea

And now it's absolutely perfect!

I was tempted to soak all of it, but I know I'll want a true blue and white down the line, but now I've got 2 different colorways

I needed some more tans and creams and dug a little deeper - yes, these will do beautifully 

I also made a batch of Quilter's Moonshine. A friend told me about it. There are all kinds of recipes online but I just bought a bottle of cheap vodka and mixed 4 oz with 24 oz of distilled water and maybe 4 drops of essential oil. It's much less expensive than Best Press and I still use regular starch when I press a quilt top, but I like this for pressing fabrics and quilt blocks. I read a debate about whether your vodka should be grain or potato based. Makes sense since potatoes are starchy, but I haven't looked for a potato based vodka to see if it makes a difference. The lady at the store said  the one I bought was nasty vodka and that I should buy something better, but I told her I wasn't going to be drinking it, I was going to make starch. She got tickled and she probably told her co-workers some crazy lady came in and bought Vodka for starch. Those crazy quilters! 😂

I'm excited to get this one together, but there's a Wedding on the horizon and then 5 days of Cow Works immediately following so all sewing will temporarily cease while I soak up God's daily blessings and remind myself to breath. 😉

Americana Quilt

 I wanted to make a quilt for my folks' neighbors although they're much more than neighbors. Daddy called them 'the kids' because they were about 10 years younger and after 24 years they truly have become family. Through the years they have stayed with us and we always love having them

They're such good sports

One year they joined us for Thanksgiving. They are die-hard Longhorn fans and DH and I both graduated from Texas A&M. Anyone that knows anything about college football, knows that the Longhorn/Aggie rivalry is legendary. Well, just as everyone settled in and watched the game, our electricity went out...and stayed out. They jokingly accused us of deliberately turning it off and they were pretty desperate and my mom got pretty upset and kept telling us to 'fix it NOW'. Alas, it really was out of our hands so they figured they could at least listen to it on the radio in their truck, but they had to drive around a bit to get a signal because we lived in the mountains of far West Texas on a 7.5 mile rocky road. Every once in a while someone would take them a beer and snacks and peace reigned once again. 😂

One year I made them Longhorn Potholders and as I was buying the fabric, I lamented the fact that A&M may cancel my diploma and I told them it was proof of my love for them. I searched for a photo, but was unsuccessful so there's no proof after all...whew. 😉

They truly are a special couple.

Bob is a retired Air Force Officer so I knew a quilt in patriotic colors would fit the bill and I settled on one with an Americana vibe. I pulled lots of fun fabrics from my stash

settled on a simple hourglass block:

and pulled a blue Grunge from my stash for the binding and backed it with a tan Minky that shows Jackie's fabulous quilting

I am so pleased with the way it turned out

Classic and timeless

At 78" x 88" it's a good snuggle size and I hope it will be loved and used. Looks like it's off to a good start and that makes my heart happy!

A New Quilt Project

 After a long, dry spell, I have been able to spend some time in my sewing room. I figure that's worthy of a quick blog post. 😄 I decided to make a couple of Americana-esque quilts for a couple of my folks' friends and neighbors. I was determined to use what I had and I spent 4 days pulling, sorting, cutting, and pressing fabrics. I wanted as as much variety as I could get and I was tempted to do a little online shopping, but I held firm and stuck with inventory on hand. I ended up with 22 different fabrics of each color and I cut 6 - 6 1/2" squares of the reds and blues and 12 - 6 1/2" squares of the neutrals. I'm leaning towards a simple hourglass design:

I had forgotten how much fun it was to begin a new quilt!