Still Sorting Out the Stitching Suff

It was a very nice weekend at home.  My sanity benefitted greatly from not leave the house the entire weekend. Being a hermit for a bit felt so nice. We've been on the move most of the summer and early fall with family stuff and special events. The holidays are coming up, so things are going to stay busy, but hopefully we won't be going as much on the weekends till we hit Thanksgiving.  

I'm slowly sorting out what's what in the sewing room. The sewing room was minus my presence for more than 9 weeks, so figuring out where I was on what project has been going on in the background.  There were a few spare parts piled on one side of my sewing machine.  

Those are subunits for the 2021 Bonnie Hunter Rhododendron Mystery quilt. There were a stack of blocks sitting on the cutting table, so those went up on the design wall. 

There are enough half square units for 2 more cross blocks and enough hourglass blocks for another block B. Next step was to check if I had a plan to finish this project or not.  Opening Electric Quilt (which I wasn't able to do on my old computer), I found my final layout.  It needs just two more of the blocks with the yellow cross in the center, but five more of the blocks with the hourglass units.  Other subunits need to be cut to assemble the blocks.  It would be nice to have this one mostly assembled before Bonnie starts this year's mystery.

Next step is to decide what I'm going to keep on the active list for the rest of the year. It won't be long and it will be time to decide on the strategy for next year.   

Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Quilt and Patchwork.  

A Bit of This and That

It was a busy weekend. My Mom celebrates her 80th birthday this week, so we had a party for her on Sunday.  It was especially nice since Grad Girl was able to come home for it. So mom had all her kids and grandkids there. Thankfully she was feeling better after a rough week and we all had a great time. 

Since the weekend was spent with family, there wasn't a lot of stitching time this weekend, but there was a bit of progress in the sewing room during the weekdays.  All the pieces needed for Unity are cut out and ready for assembly. 

The two large panel and pieces for the 10" strip for the middle of the backing are ready to stitch together.  

The only other progress this week was tweaking the fabric pull for the Melodic Mystery. 

The dark burgundy is the background, light pink is fabric A, medium pink is fabric B and the green floral is fabric C.  The light pink works so much better than the beige that was in the first fabric pull. I need to pre-wash the light pink, but that should happen today.  It would be nice if I could make a start on this mystery quilt today.  

So nothing exciting, but at least there was progress.  I'll take that. Linking up with Monday Design Wall and Quilting & Patchwork.  

What's Been Going on in the Sewing Room

It's been months since I've spent much time at all in my sewing room. I did reasonably well this last week at climbing the stairs to do a bit of stitching.  Part of the time in my sewing room has been spent regrouping and deciding what to tackle first, second, and third. 

I've been working on grocery sacks for Grad Girl, her roommates she left behind in Stillwater and My Guy.  I decided to finish these before tackling any of my other UFOs.  Grad Girl's bag was finished before Labor Day so it could make the trip to Texas with me.  

These bags are fully lined, so they are reversible.  

I really like the test tube fabric in this bag.  Grad Girl loves it.  

Three other bags were finished this weekend. The first is for one of the Grad Girl's roommates in Stillwater. 

I've had the green fabric with the pink roses for years. 

The other two grocery bags completed this weekend are for My Guy. 

The math fabric was left over from a graduation quilt and the gray interior has been in the stash for awhile. I really like how the last one turned out. 

The fabrics in this one are left overs from Grad Girls chemistry quilt I made a few years ago.  There are two grocery bags left to finish. They just need the handles attached and the final top stitching added.  Those will probably get done this week.  Then I'll need to sort out where to start on my UFO projects. 

If you are interested in the pattern you can find it here, it's a free download at the Fat Quarter Shop.     

Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall, and Patchwork and Quilts.  

A Little Stitching Time Feels Good

It's been a slow down and rest kind of weekend. I definitely needed it. This is the first weekend in over a month that I've not had to drag out the work computer and look at data.  I was under the weather on Saturday, all the stress and late nights at the computer finally caught up with me, so I  slept most of Saturday afternoon. The sewing room was calling my name by Sunday afternoon. It was nice to get to spend a few hours playing on the sewing machine.  

First on my list was to figure out what had been going on in the sewing room before the never ending work project took over my life. Potions was the last thing in the works, but it's completed and gifted.  The borders are on Unity, but it isn't laying flat, so it needs some additional work before it gets prepped for quilting. I'm not really in the mood to tackle that at the moment. 

The next thing on my list is to assemble the Macaron Mystery quilt. That involved lots of stitching time, so it fit the bill for an afternoon in the sewing room.  The two halves are now all assembled. 

Macaron Mystery: Meadow Mist Designs 2021 Mystery Quilt Along

All that's left is to piece the center sashing strip.  That's on the agenda for today.  Once that's done, I'll need to decide if getting Unity fixed is next or do I stick with Macaron till it's ready to go out for quilting.  Unity will probably win out. I'll have my direction all sorted out before drafting this week's to do list.  

It feels good to be back in the sewing room and spending some time catching up on blog reading.  I've got a ways to go to catch up with everyone. Linking up with Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, and Patchwork and Quilts.  

Finishing Potions

It was past time to get back to our normal weekend activities. We managed to have an uneventful and laid back weekend. I wasn't able to scale mount laundry, but we all have enough clean clothes to make it a week. More importantly, I actually got a solid afternoon of stitching in on Sunday.  It's been awhile since I was able to spend more than a few minutes in the sewing room. It definitely felt good to spend some quality time in the sewing room for a change. 

Last weekend was the Scientist in Training's graduation. So I did spend some time in my sewing room that Friday rushing to finish the hand stitching on Potions so the SIT could give it to her undergraduate advisor. The binding was finished just before 8 PM.

Reactive Intermediates (Potions): Pattern by Flying Parrot Quilts
Started December 28, 2021, Finished May 6, 2022

 

This isn't the best photo. We needed to get on the road early Saturday morning, so I had to go with artificial lighting to get any type of photo of the finished quilt.  

Trudy did a great job with the quilting as usual. 

The background is quilted with a simple meander. The various beakers, flasks and test tubes each have a unique quilting motif of swirls, bubbles or fumes.  I'm really happy with how the quilt turned out. More importantly, so is the SIT. 

The goal was to make the quilt look like a storage cabinet. That's why there is no dark blue border strip on the bottom.  I had to get creative with the binding to keep that look. 

The binding switches from dark blue to the light blue to maintain the look of cabinet legs at the bottom. I wasn't able to get the seam in the binding to match exactly with the seam in the border, but after ripping it out and trying several times, I decided that was as good as it was going to get.  I love the backing fabric. It would be hard to find anything more perfect to go with the front.  

The SIT and I had fun with the label. 

The final version of the label has a message from the SIT in the teal box. Had the never ending audit not happened, I would have finished this is project in April.  I've learned not to stress over being off by a month. In 20 years, one month will not matter at all.  

Reactive Intermediates is finish number 2 for the year. I'm off target by a bit, but hopefully I can get back on track before the end of the year.  

Linking up with Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Not Quite the End of Unity

Saturday was pretty much a nothing but sewing day. A treat to myself since I may not get another chance to do that till May.  Sunday was laundry and taxes. (Is there a worse combination of chores?)  But those chores were finished early enough that I was still able to work in a few hours of stitching in the afternoon.  

The goal on Saturday was to finish adding the borders to Unity.  

Unity: Bonnie Hunter 2020 Sew in Place Quilt Along

I'm happy with how this project worked out.  My version differs from Bonnie's original instructions in a few places. The black border around the center block is made from the background fabric in Bonnie's version.  My friendship star border has the corner triangles in a different spot, so mine don't have the pinwheel look. Plus I used a completely different block in next to last pieced border.  So maybe this project should be called Parts of Unity?  

Next step is to figure out what the backing will be, get that sewn, then clean up the quilt back. That's going to be a chore as the background fabric unraveled badly. I'm hoping there is time to work that this month, we'll have to see how much time work suck up the next couple of weeks. 

Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall and Patchwork & Quilts.   

More Unity

It's the last Monday in March, so we almost a third of the way into 2022.  It's warming up, but it's still pretty cool in the mornings.  My allergies have definitely let me know it's spring.  I just have to remember to take some sinus medicine if I'm going to be outside for long. 

I did get in some good stitching time this weekend.  I always forget how long it takes to add borders.  

 

With all the seams in the last pieced border, there's a lot of pinning to keep the Unity seam allowances laying in the right direction.  And then there is my least favorite part of adding borders, laying the quilt out to measure for the next set of border strips. 

Unity: 2020 Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt along

By dinner time last night, the narrow border of background fabric was finished and the green strips for the final border were cut.  By the end of next weekend, Unity should be a finished quilt top.  

Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall, as well as Patchwork and Quilts.  

Following the Quilt Plan

Sadly, spring break is over.  It's back to work for me this week.  The Scientist in Training is back at college. We both had a good week of hanging out and spending time in the sewing room.  She finished two embroidery projects and I got Potions sent out for quilting.  Cabins and Fans (Fluorescence) and Potions have been my focus projects since December.  With Potions out for quilting, it's time to refocus and identify the next project to move towards completion.  

Unity is the next quilt on my 2022 quilting plan.  I finished and attached the last pieced border this week.  

Unity: Bonnie Hunter Sew-In-Place Quilt along (2020)

It's gotten too big to photograph on the design wall so I laid it out on the floor.  That's when I noticed that the quilt isn't lying flat in places.  The problem is with both flying geese borders. I didn't do the best job with my seam allowance on those two borders.  So I spent most of my sewing time on Saturday and Sunday with my seam ripper adjusting those rows. It's definitely laying flatter now, so I'm on the right track. There are still a few more seams to adjust. The plan is to finish that up this week and get going on the last two borders. 

 

The plan is to add a narrow border of the background fabric and then finish the quilt with the green in the last border.  The green makes a very nice frame for the quilt.  

Unity has been my leaders and enders project since some time last year.  Now that's it's moved up to be my priority project, something else from the list can take it's place.  Project #4 on my quilt plan is Bonnie Hunter's 2021 Mystery Quilt Along project, Rhododendron.  Bonnie's mystery quilts often have components that are made of small pieces and require a lot of stitching, that type of stitching works really well as leaders and enders.  

Rhododendron: Bonnie Hunter 2021 Mystery Quilt Along

 

The hour glass blocks that are used to make block B aren't hard, but require a bit of time to assemble enough to complete a block.  I've never been very good at just powering through and stitching up all the components at once, I get bored with that. So these will make great leaders and enders while I focus on finishing up Unity.

Linking up with Monday Making, Design Wall Monday along with Patchwork and Quilts.   

First Finish of 2022: Cabins and Fans (AKA Fluorescence)

With all the craziness going on the last few weeks I didn't get photos of my first finish till last Monday.  Our house is on the dark side, so you need both a sunny day and a free afternoon to get decent inside photos. Cabins and Fans, renamed Fluorescence by the Scientist in Training, was finished on February 24, 2022.  

Fluorescence (AKA Cabins and Fans), self designed
Started Jan 6, 2017: Finished Feb 24, 2022

Fluorescence started out as my 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  Since I tend to stall out on figuring out a setting for my RSC projects, it seemed wise to work out a setting before I get started on making the blocks.  All the blocks started out as a paper pieced fan block.

It appears that even with a completed design in EQ, an RSC project needs to marinate a few years before it gets added back to the in progress list.  Even though all the fan blocks were made in 2017, quilt assembly didn't start up again until April of 2021.  

Trudy didn't disappoint on the quilting. 

The quilting is easier to see from the back.

This quilt will be going to one of the SITs college mentors, the professor that requested her as a teaching assistant.  Here's the label (minus the message to the professor)

I will miss working with these colorful blocks. I've played around in EQ with making a version with a white or gray background and the colors just don't seem to pop as much. I have some other versions drafted in EQ with a combination of  two blocks (one of which does have a log cabin block).  With the push to work down the UFO list, there haven't been any new RSC challenge blocks the last couple of years. Maybe a few more projects will come off the list this year and I can add a new RSC project to next year's list.  

Linking up with Monday Making, Monday Design Wall, and Patchwork & Quilts.  

Brewed Potions

It's the last day of  February.  Time to report on my progress with my One Monthly Goal. I cut it close this month.    

The goal for this month was to finish all the Potion blocks, assemble the rows and add all the sashing.  I finished sewing both halves together yesterday afternoon. 

Potions: Quilt pattern from Flying Parrot Quilts 

I'm really happy with how this quilt top worked out.  It was fun to pick the fabrics for each container.  The Scientist in Training really likes it.  I did a quick mock up in EQ and we agreed that a narrow border of the dark blue added to the top and sides goes a long way to making the quilt look like a shelving unit.  So that's the next step. 

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the end of the month One Monthly Goal link up.  Also linking up with Monday Making,  Monday Design Wall and Patchwork and Quilts.    

Potions Progress

I'm not ready for a new week.  It's going to be a rough one on several fronts. I'm slated for jury duty this week. I called on Friday and the message was to call again on Tuesday to see if I have to show up on Wednesday.  But we are supposed to get freezing rain and sleet starting sometime on Wednesday into Thursday.  We'll see how all of that works out.

The weekend was quiet with much of it spent in the sewing room.  The Potion blocks have been sewn into rows and the dark blue sashing strips have been attached. 

Potions: Pattern by Flying Parrot Quilts

I'm actually ahead of schedule on this project.  There are six sashing strips of the background fabric that need to be added between the rows, and at the top and bottom of the quilt.  That's the plan for this week.  The pattern doesn't include borders, but I'll probably add a very narrow one of the dark blue as a frame.  We'll see how it all looks once it's assembled.  

Progress on my other projects has been pretty slow with all the focus on getting Potions far enough along to send it out for quilting.  Linking up with Monday Design Wall, Making Monday and Patchwork and Quilts.  

Brewing Potions

Happy Valentine's Day!  

One of the restaurants in town offered a special Valentine's dinner for two. That sounded good. So we'll pick that up on our way home from work tonight. A nice, quiet dinner, at home works for both of us. Hope you have a wonderful holiday with your Valentine.   

It was a three day weekend for me. I spent Friday morning running errands, but the afternoon was reserved for working on Potions.  The flasks are all finished and the "shelves" are pieced too. 

Potions: Pattern from Flying Parrots Quilts

I still need to cut and piece the background strips that go at the top of each row of glassware. The blocks also need to be sewn into rows. That's on the agenda for this week.  I'm actually just a little bit ahead of schedule.  The plan is to have this ready for quilting by the end of March.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday. 

Mixing up Potions

It's back to the office today after three days of working from home last week.  It is nice to have that option, I'm not looking forward to braving the cold this morning. The weekend was sunny, but definitely too cold to do much other than laundry and sew a bit.  I did a bit of both over the weekend.  In the sewing room there was really good progress on the flask blocks.

Potions: By Flying Parrot Quilts

Half the flasks are completed and up on the design wall. There's also a pile of partially stitched over at the sewing machine. 

This project has to be done by mid-May. So far, so good at staying on task and on schedule. The plan is to finish the rest of the flask blocks this week.  I'm off work this Friday and planning a nothing but sewing day as My Guy has to work. I may get as far as starting assembly. 

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.  

January One Monthly Goal Wrap Up

It's been a busy few days and there wasn't time to post this morning.  It's the last day of the month, so definitely right at the wire to post my January One Monthly Goal wrap up and link up with Elm Street Quilts.  

My plan for January was to make good progress on the Potions quilt by finishing all the test tubes and half the beakers. 

Potions: pattern by Flying Parrot Quilts

 All the test tubes are made and all the beakers are made.  Which puts me ahead of schedule on this project. I need this quilt finished by May, so I'll need to keep the pace up or it won't be ready by graduation.  

Linking up with the OMG January Wrap Up, Monday Making and Monday Design Wall. 

A Few Beakers

It was a nice weekend. We spent most of Saturday hanging out with the Scientist in Training, so I didn't get to spend a lot of time in my sewing room. But between having Friday off and finding time to stitch Sunday afternoon, I was able to finish just over half of the beaker blocks for Potions. 

The beakers have a few more steps to them than the test tubes did.  Thankfully there aren't as many of them in the quilt.  I moved the Potion blocks over to the large design wall. This is what it looks like now. 

Potions: Pattern from Flying Parrot Designs

I'll cut more of the spacer blocks along with the pieces for the flasks.  That should happen next weekend. Hopefully I can stay on schedule with this project.  So far, so good.  

Linking up with Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt and Monday Design Wall sponsored by Small Quilts and Doll Quilts. 

Totally Test Tubes

Saturday was cold and snowy, Sunday was cold and sunny.  Both were great days to stay in and hang out in the sewing room. Which is what I did after tackling laundry and finally dragging all the stuff out so I could put the Christmas tree away. 

Most of the weekend was spent piecing the rest of the test tube blocks for Potions.  

Potions: Pattern from Flying Parrot Designs

Once I figured out the seam allowances, the test tubes went together pretty quickly.  Next step is to make all the beaker blocks. When the lights went off in the sewing room last evening all the beaker pieces were cut. Next time I'm in the sewing room those blocks will be at the top of my list.  I suspect they will be just as fiddly as the test tubes were. 

Linking up with Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt and Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  

Making Potions

It's been a few months since my last Monday morning post.  So far, 2022 has been calmer then the end of 2021. Fingers crossed that remains the case as we get deeper into January.  

I didn't get as much stitching time this weekend has I had hoped.  It was the Scientist in Training's birthday, so we went out to dinner for her family celebration then did lunch with a friend so she could celebrate with a buddy.  She's back at college for her last undergraduate semester. Her impending graduation has me working to finish up a couple of quilts for her mentors. 

 

Potions by Flying Parrot Designs

I'm halfway through the test tubes.  I'm hoping to have all of those made by the end of the week.  Then it will be time to start on the beakers.  

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday and Love Laugh Quilt for Making Monday.  

October One Monthly Goal Met

Hard to believe that October ends in just a few hours. I just managed to squeeze in the completion of my October One Monthly Goal before the month ends.   

The plan for October was to finish adding the borders to Cabins and Fans. 

Cabins and Fans:  Self designed

That was finished pretty early on in the month.  I'm really happy with how this project worked out.  The harder part of the Octoer OMG was to finish piecing the backing. Vacation, a birthday party and a wedding made it a bit tough to get back into the sewing room to finish up the second half of this month's goal   A weekend at home meant there was time to get all the mearsurements, cutting and sewing all done. Even so, I only beat the deadline this month by just a few hours.  I'm good with that.  

The backing is stitched up, but it still needs a good pressing.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but the backing is actually a purple print from Connecting threads.  

Fingers crossed getting both the top and the backing finished means I'll have a new finish soon.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilt's October One Monthly Goal, Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.

A Finished Mystery

There hasn't been much sewing room time the last couple of weeks.  No point in posting if there isn't anything to post about, so there were no posts last week.  October has proved to be a busy month, with late nights at work and we were on the road the first two weekends of the month.  We were mostly home this weekend, so I had time to sew a bit and to finally get some photos of my last finish. 

Morewood Mystery (Wrapped Sweets)
Meadow Mist Designs 2020 Mystery Quilt Along
Started 9/4/2020, Finished 9/26/2021

  

The Scientist in Training noted how the square in a square combined with the light blue/teal HSTs looked like a wrapped candy.  So Wrapped Sweets seemed like a good name for this quilt. This project is my fifth Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilt. I really enjoy Cheryl's mystery quilts. She gives great information on how the fabrics interact with each other, so it makes it much easier to pick fabrics that work well with each other. I'm really happy with how this project came out. 

Trudy quilted Wrapped Sweets with a leafy motif. It gives the quilt a really nice texture.  

   

The backing is pieced from the darker teal and the multicolored print used in the blocks.  

The binding is the lighter teal/blue also used in the blocks. 

This quilt is staying here for now.  It will find a home eventually.  

Wrapped Sweets was finish number 3 for 2021. It's one of 3 quilts started in 2020.  The UFO count is down to 19, which is where it was when 2020 ended.  I'm still hoping to work down the UFO list before the end of the year, but at least that number isn't going up.  I'll take that.  

Linking up with Monday Making and Design Wall Monday.