I Like Thursday

Linking to Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday!

I like Facebook friends who are enablers. One simply asked if anybody else was doing Bonnie Hunter's new mystery, "On Ringo Lake." Well. I haven't done any of the mysteries in the past- and I'm certainly not a member of the Bonnie Cult- but I *really* like the colors in this one, and I haven't in the past. So I started cutting on Friday night.

Saturday morning, I had my first little 9-patch.

By Sunday lunch, I'd completed the first 50 9-patches.

 All stacked up!

I like that my kids like to cook, and aren't afraid to try new techniques (especially this one, the youngest). When we were talking about what to make for Thanksgiving desserts, he first said "Peppermint bark!" and then thought for a few minutes and asked if it was possible to make peppermint bark truffles. So we winged it :)

I like having orphan blocks I can turn into a baby quilt. These are the first four blocks of Pat Sloan's Solstice quilt-a-long. I got distracted after four blocks- but they'll make a nice little quilt.

I like this face. This is Toffee; he's 7 and a complete goofball. He's not breed standard for a golden- he's about 107 pounds and has height to go along with it.

Being tall isn't enough for him, though- I swear he thinks he's a mountain goat. 

He'll stand on anything he can find!

And last but not least, I like my taekwondo class. It keeps me sane after bad days at work.

Starting a Mystery Quilt

Bonnie Hunter, of Quiltville fame, has done a mystery quilt every year around this time for the past few years. They never caught my fancy in the past- but this year's mystery, "On Ringo Lake," uses colors that I actually like and have in my stash. A big THANK YOU to my internet buddy Regina for asking who was doing this one- I don't know that I would've paid any attention if she hadn't brought it up.

Cutting starts:

And then piecing 9-patches:

Pretty soon I have a pile, and eventually all 50 are done:

"I Like Thursday"

My friend LeeAnna from Not Afraid of Color invited members of the Quilt Art listserv to join her in posting what brought us joy over the past week each Thursday.

What better day to start off than Thanksgiving?


My kids bring me joy- most of the time. These two are still at home, and put up with me with good grace. My baby girl isn't home for Thanksgiving, but the internet keeps her close as well.

Alpaca faces make me smile.

This boy. He'd be happy if he had his own personal doorman.

Living so close to DC is awesome. We don't take really good advantage of it, but I'm reminded every time we do what a lovely place it is to visit.

I have SO MUCH to be thankful for, including blogging friends that push me to start blogging again :)

September sewing

So, it's National Sewing Month. I've been trying to sew a little bit every day, and have for the most part succeeded.

I didn't enter any hand-crafted items for the fair this year, because we went to Indiana for the eclipse during the pick-up window.

I got the dining room table cleared off- and then covered back up again- but I think I can clear it off again fairly quickly. I have a couple of quilts that need to be sandwiched and basted so I can start working on them - but they're both fairly large hand-quilting projects. I think I'll do the zig-zag once first to practice for the wholecloth :)

Scrap Quilt Challenge

Kim Lapacek over at Persimmon Dreams is having a Scrap Quilt  Challenge. My kind of challenge :)

Once I saw it, I realized the quilt I made for our guild's Bloomin' Challenge, Bloomin' Friends, would qualify. We were  given three fabrics - the purple floral, the blue/black abstract floral, and the green/pink architectural print, and had to come up with a quilt. I threw a bunch of my scraps into the mix so they would play together nicely.

Not going to post it until I can confirm the size, though.

2017 Friendship Star Quilt Guild Show

Our show was last weekend, and it's been until now that I've been able to think about putting up photos! These are in semi-random order- mine are first, others are later.

This started as a "leaf" challenge from my mini-group. The blocks are mini, but the overall size grew to tablerunner-ish.

This was started for last year's guild challenge. I ran out of the cream fabric, so it's not as long as the rules required.

Our mini-group challenge!  We all agreed to make at least one quilt 12 x 12 or smaller, that qualified as a miniature.

My quilt is the trip around the world with the pink binding in the middle of the bottom row.

A little pink heart quilt.

Mine is the one on the top- made out of the leftover cut-off "ears" from making a heart quilt.

This year's guild challenge was the "Nobel Challenge" using Bob Dylan's lyrics. I chose "Blowin' in the Wind." Not very well subscribed; we needed to have 8 to enter back in March and didn't even come close. There were only three exhibited; I know mine was finished the week before the show.

My quilt for the Bloomin' Challenge. Three unrelated FQ to make a quilt; I added lots more for a scrappy friendship star.

A view of a couple of the flyers. It's hard to remember to look up!!

There were quite a few quilts that I thought I'd like to make.

Overall, a great show.

Project Quilting, Challenge 6 - Time is Up

It's the final challenge for Season 8 of Project Quilting: Time is Up, hosted by Persimmon Dreams.

Like buttons through an hourglass...time flies.

This is 7.75 by 14 inches. Machine pieced, the red is machine quilted. Buttons are from the EXTENSIVE stash! I'm calling it "Time in a Button."

Well-Dressed Man–Challenge 5 of Project QUILTING Season 8

I don't think that a man needs  to wear a tie to be well-dressed - but sometimes a well-dressed man wears a tie.  And sometimes that tie is a bow tie.

I made this little block quilt for Challenge 5 of Project QUILTING  over at Kim Lapacek's Persimmon Dreams. Overall size is six inches square. The body is some suiting fabric I found in the stash. And if you're going to do a bow tie, it might as well be paisley!

I'm sure people already do this - but when I was fiddling with a folded square to make sure I'd have the right size  triangle for the knot of the bow tie, I discovered that I could just fold it and sew it in! It gives the bow tie a little bit of dimension.

Bright- Project Quilting Challenge 4

Still haven't fixed the featherweight, and I don't like piecing on the other machines, SO - a small wholecloth quilt using perle cotton for big stitch improv quilting:

It's 12.5 x 14.5 inches overall.

Project Quilting, Challenge 3

The third challenge done for Project Quilting over at Persimmon Dreams. As usual, I'm queen of the last minute. The theme for this challenge was "texture."

My inspiration was my kitchen floor. It's brick, and despite what an amazing pain it is - it's impossible to keep clean - it has texture out the wazoo.

My original thought was to do a full-size quilt, but the tension on the featherweight went all kablooey. I finally realized I did have another machine I could use. I finished this in basically one day. Finished size is 17 x 32, so a nice tablerunner or wallhanging.

I used some batiks that are AWESOME for texture, but it still needed something. My alumni association president had suggested that I might donate a quilt for our upcoming silent auction, and since one of the University's symbols is the ginkgo, I added the leaves.

 Ginkgo leaves have AMAZING texture - and they're fun to quilt!! 

Project QUILTING, Season 8, Challenge 2

Project QUILTING is a fun challenge found over at Persimmon Dreams. This past week's challenge was "Carolina Lily." I went in a different kind of crazy from the first challenge.

One block, miniaturized, all hand-pieced. Stems are embroidered.

Hand quilted and hand  bound. Finished, with binding, it's 4.25 inches square.

No lily fabric on the first dive into the stash, but I found some with nice colors to go with.

I like it, but BOY is hand-piecing hard work!

Last week's WITB

A few more WITB over the past week:

A project bin with a ton of stuff:

 An abandoned project that needs a bit more to at least finish out a square for a pillow:

 In another bin, the backing for a challenge quilt:

 And one box of doom was explored.

Stash Report – January 8, 2017

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0.2 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 0 yards used

Fabric used is mostly from the little challenge quilt; I also tossed some that was past redemption.