Design Wall Monday - April 5, 2021

 Happy Easter!

This season of my life (I’m turning 78 this month) is teaching me what bitter sweet means.  While I feel life is deeper, sweeter, and more tender than when I was younger; it also is a season where I grieve good friends who die suddenly.   This is one of those grieving times.  Last week I lost a dear quilter friend who was part of the Churn Dashers of Tidewater Virginia group.  Her kindness to me has been an example of how to be a friend and she will always be remembered with love.

The Drunkard’s Path quilt top is finally sewn together, and I am debating adding a white border to it.  It is 60 inches square now....Maybe adding a 5 inch border on all sides.  What do you think?  It will be lap quilt size, either way.  See below two pictures of vintage quilts, commonly seen with and without a border.

As I was making the Drunkard’s Path blocks, I remembered a story about my father that I thought you would enjoy. 

My Dad became a Christian while on an army ship, traveling to Europe to fight as a soldier in WWII.  After he was wounded, he returned home, went to college on the GI Bill, and later became a pastor and also a school teacher. 

When he came home from WWII, with his new faith, he was earnestly against drinking.  I remember that he took Life Magazine (a popular magazine in the 1950s) and cut out every page advertising drinking in the issue.  He taped them all together and rolled the paper into a scroll.  He spoke at schools and churches for a temperance organization.  This was in early 1950s and I was 7 or 8 at the time and my brother, Jerry, was 2 years older than me.  He would have us stand on the stage and dramatically unroll the scroll of liquor advertisements - Jerry at one side of the stage and Judy at the other side, holding the long scroll between us.  Then he would begin his talk about how all these advertisements in just one issue on a popular magazine was so bad.  It made a big impression on me as a little girl.

So I had this memory as I am making a Drunkard’s Path quilt.  The temperance movement was probably the reason for this block’s name.  Also another block, the T block, is said to be named for the temperance movement.  

What is on your design wall this Monday?  It seems like we are all getting a lot of UFOs finished during this pandemic, which is comforting during the sorrow going on.  If you join in, be sure to mention Design Wall Mondays and how much fun we have seeing the linkups each week.  Also a link to this post from somewhere within your blog post is necessary.  Thank you so much.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - March 29, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  Here is my design wall as it looks right now:

There are 14 Lemoyne Stars that are yet to be completed - most of them have the center star parts sewn together, and just need the outside background edges attached (with the set-in seams).  I pinned them up on the wall.  There are only four that do not have the center parts sewn together.  You can see where these four will go - in the blank spots on the design wall.  I will have to trim all the blocks to the right size, as I tend to make the outside corners/triangles in the Lemoyne Stars a bit bigger that the instructions call for - as I dislike blocks that are too little when I go to trim them up.  The four remaining stars are in a stack in the picture below too.

So here is my assembly line of Drunkard's Path blocks.  I am on the home stretch, with only about 20 of the concave/convex parts to sew together.  Yeah!  I should finish that part this week, and then the assembly of the quilt top will be easy-peasy.  I have enough to make it 5 X 5 blocks, I think.

Last two pictures are of the doggies.  Our rescue dog, Mojo, likes to be at my feet wherever I am.  If I move to another room for ten seconds, he is there, and then follows me when I leave.  I tell him to stay, that I'll be right back, but he doesn't believe me.  He likes to keep an eye on me.  LOL  This picture was taken when I stepped into the quilt room to take a picture of the design wall, and I looked down, and there he was.  So cute.

Penny Lane is usually wherever my hubby is when he is home, and comes and joins me when he is not here.  She's a daddy's girl.  Right now she is also at my feet while I write this post at the computer.  She knows I have "snack" biscuits on the desk to give out when I'm finished writing the blog.  So wherever food is, that's where Penny Lane is.  Her tail is a blur because it is always wagging, sometimes even when she is sleeping.  So cute.

What is on your design wall?  Design floor?  Or table?  Please show us so we can see your progress.  Thanks for participating.  Please provide a link back to this post from somewhere within your blog.  I really enjoyed looking at all of your blogs this past week, and at your progress pictures.    

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - March 22, 2021

 Thanks for all the well wishes and your prayers.  I am feeling much better and am back at getting the two brown and white quilts finished.  They are off the design wall and one is ready to go to the long arm quilter.  Here are two pictures of each side of it hanging over the stairs railing.  I am needing a place to hang up a quilt top for a picture.  There is a new project on the design wall, so I can’t use that for a picture.

I am looking forward to seeing feathered wreaths quilted in the white squares, or something equally pretty that the long arm quilter suggests.

I am also making good progress on the Drunkards Path curved stitching.  I have gone back to the “use 1,000 pins” method as it is fairly mindless to sew them this way.   I am hoping they will all be finished by the end of March. I really do like the pattern when it is together......but sewing convex pieces to concave pieces.....not so much.  

The design wall has a new UFO on it!  I am wondering why I quit working on this quilt when I had about half of it done.   I don’t remember.  But whatever the reason was, it’s on the design wall now and I can see that I have only 14 LeMoyne star blocks yet to sew.  And some of the edge 1/2 stars.  I will be working on this one on Monday nights when my friend Joan comes over.  She is also working on a LeMoyne star quilt.  

I talked about it in early February,  (Here) and am eager to get started again on it.  

What’s going on this week in your sewing room?  Please link up so we can see.  Remember to provide a link back to this blog post from somewhere within your post.  Thanks!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - March 15, 2021

Hello friends!  My plan is to quilt and quilt and quilt all this week.  Why?  Because here is what happened last week:

I was sick with a sore throat all week, and spent most of my time in my bed or on the couch.  I did go to the doctor Thursday and test results ruled out Covid and strep throat.  But I didn’t even reply to comments on last week’s blog post.  Please forgive me!  I am feeling a little better every day, and will soon be back to normal.  Here’s a picture showing what I got accomplished since we last talked:

In other words......nothing much.  Penny Lane and Mojo kept me company which was good for me.  And hubby did all the household things I usually do, and also took care of me.  I am blessed.

I hope you are well, and have lovely things to show us on your linkups to Design Wall Monday. Please add your blog below and we can follow the link to read about your progress.  I would like you to mention Design Wall Monday and also provide a link back here from within your post.  Thank you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - March. 8, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  My design wall is looking different, and I am making progress on the two brown quilts.  Progress had to show if I kept working on them, right?  Here’s the Drunkard’s Path, which has grown:

And here is the Wedding Ring middle - all in one piece finally:

This quilt has a two inch border around it of brown, and then a wider border of white.  I had fun amusing myself trying to hide the one seam on each of the borders.  Below are pictures of the four borders, front and back:

What have you been doing to amuse yourself this week?  Show us what is on your design wall.  Please link up and tell us what you are working on.  Mention Design Wall Monday somewhere within your post, and don't forget to link back to this Design Wall Monday post.  Thanks!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - March 1, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters! 

March 1st, a new month, and I have been working on the two quilts on my design wall.  Plus other projects as well.  I think March will be a good month of progress on the UFOs.  Here is the design wall: 

Still lots of brown and white, but the Wedding Ring quilt has all the edge triangles now cut, and the rows are getting assembled.  I can see the finish line, which will spur me on.

The Drunkard's Path is moving along nicely too.  I sew a few concave/convex pieces each day:

And when I have enough; sew them into a larger block:

All the convex and concave block pieces are cut and stored in baggies, each holding enough pieces to make the block above.  I think there are about 15 baggies yet to put together.  I am getting better at the curves, that is for sure.  It is slow....take 3-4 stitches with needle down when I stop.....then adjust the fabric, take 3-4 more stitches....repeat.  I think it was named by the person who drank a whole lot while she was sewing this quilt pattern.  

The log cabin quilt has one more block, and I am loving working on it.  (The shiny new project).   Here are the blocks now:

What are you working on?  I am so happy to look through all the pictures and go to your blogs and read about your quilts.  You are such a talented bunch.  Thank you for participating.  Please provide a link back to this blog post somewhere within your post, and also tell your readers about Design Wall Monday.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - February 25, 2021

Update:  Oops, I put the 25th in the title when I wrote this late last night.  It is the 22nd, but I’ll leave the title alone as some have already linked to it.   Maybe I am in a hurry to get to spring.

Good Morning Quilters!

I felt like I made progress this week.  Here is another finished May Day Basket block:

I have another one ready to start, and shall work on it this afternoon.  I also made more Drunkards Path squares, enough for another block, and worked on sewing together some of the rows of the brown and white Wedding Ring quilt that was on the design wall.  No picture of the design wall as it looks as brown and white as it did last week.  lol 

The UFOs got restudied again, and I put some of them in the sewing room closet.  So now all the batting, backings, projects, etc. have been looked at, sorted, organized, and have a home.  They are either in the shelving in the basement, or in the sewing room closet.  I was surprised at how many small quilts I have that just need quilting and binding.  I may have a small quilt/doll quilt week soon, and get them finished.

One of the projects I started to put away called me to work on it.  It's a log cabin quilt.  Now, I live in a log cabin all summer.....you would think that I would have made a log cabin quilt!  But I have not.  What I had was a large box of scrap strips and some notes and two blocks made.  So this past week, I've had fun putting more blocks together.  I now have eight blocks, and here is a picture.  It looks like I was sewing dark strips where light ones should be on the center block, but it's all good.  I think about anything goes in a scrappy log cabin quilt.

So the log cabin project got sorted into two smaller bins of darks and one bin of lights.  For the present time, all three small bins are under the ironing board, right near my machine to remind me to make a block or two whenever they call me.  And making these blocks helps break up the brown and white sewing I've been doing lately.

March is coming soon, and then April.....and you know what happens in April? Spring!!!  March is usually a good quilting month for me, so I am enthused again to get more things finished.  How about you?

Please show us what is on your design wall (or design floor...or whatever) and tell us what you are making.  As usual, I ask please that you talk about Design Wall Mondays in your post and also provide a link back to my blog from somewhere within your post.  Thanks!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - February 15, 2021

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  I hope you got more sewing done this last week than I did!  My design wall hasn’t changed for quite a while, and I am resolved to get things moving there before next Monday.  The two quilts that I seem bogged down on are both brown and neutral.  I think the lack of brighter colors on these two has something to do with my lack of progress on them.  But here’s a picture of the status quo:

I sewed convex/concave pieces (16 pair in each stack) for another three Drunkards Path Blocks:

The embroidery has progressed a little bit on one of the May Basket Blocks.  I am so excited to be thinking about sashing and or setting blocks.  Pink and yellow (30s solids) were both good suggestions for me.  

Remember this from last Monday:

Today:

  

This coming week I plan to look at all of my UFOs (which I was going to do at the start of 2021) but my energy wasn't there then.  Now it is back, and I'm feeling like I can do another list and purge some of the projects.  I love it when the spring cleaning urge hits me.

What are you working on this week?  Thanks for linking with Design Wall Monday every week.  You are all so talented, and it makes my week to look at all of your blogs, and read about what you are working on.  Please link back to this particular post from within your blog.  Also talk about Design Wall Monday so others can join us. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - February 8, 2021

 This post will be about several topics, as that is the way this week has gone:

(1) I have drawn one of your names for the extra book giveaway of "A Bouquet of Quilts" which is a book of quilts from the Japanese quilting magazine, "Quilts Japan".  The quilt I made from this book is below, "Buds in a Basket":

The name I drew is Andree G. Faubert and she is one of our faithful linkups.  Her blog is Quilting and Learning Combo and she always has something she has learned to report to us.  Congratulations Andree!  Please send me your snail mail address and I will send this quilt book to you.

(2) I have continued on the Drunkard's Path.....haha.....I mean I have continued to work on my Drunkard's Path blocks.  I decided to slow this project down and do a few blocks each week, as I am at the boring part of making the same small part of the block 16 times.....all in brown and cream.  I made 32 this week, enough for two blocks.

(3) The May Day Baskets quilt is nearing the end.  I accessed what blocks need to be made, and I am happy to report that there are only a few more.  There are six rows in the layout I am using, and I have all the blocks finished in three of the rows, and only a few is rows 4 and 5.  All of the sixth row needs to be embroidered.  Here is the original layout:

I like almost nothing from this picture (border is not happening....alternate blocks will be something else....green is not happening....)  But other than those things...I like it. haha  Let me know what you think would look good with these embroidered basket blocks.  Thanks!  Here is the next basket block I have just started.  As usual, the main flowers in this block are French knots.

(4)  Happy Valentines Day!  Two of my favorite quilts are out on display this month.  The toile one is usually on the back of the couch, and is a simple made-up pattern (a four patch makes the red heart):

and the red and white postage stamp one is usually on the railing by the front door.  I used a cross-stitch pattern (with permission) for most of the hearts.  Here it is on the design wall when I had just finished the quilt top:

I love Valentines Day!  As I have written here sometime before, I have saved most of the Valentines cards from my husband over the 57 years of our marriage, and I re-read them and put them out on the bookshelves in the living room.  I tell him to choose one to "re-gift" to me because cards are so outrageously expensive now.  I have saved the ones I gave him, so I re-gift one to him too.  We are blessed to be in love and having fun together during all these years.

Well, I guess that's it.  What has been happening on your design wall, or what have you been sewing, planning, or completing this week?  Please link up below and let us know.  Your blogs are all so interesting, and it makes my week to read and see what you are working on.  Please talk about Design Wall Monday in your blog, and also link back here from somewhere within your post.  Thanks!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - February 1, 2021

It’s  February 1st.....and January went by so fast that I can’t believe it.  I haven’t even reviewed my  list of UFOs to see where I’m at with my goals of getting them all finished.  I do know I made good progress in 2020, and am continuing on in 2021.  So it’s all good.  

I did find the staff at my sister’s nursing home could add to her care the sitting  with Nancy M W F while she is at dialysis, so I am relieved of that duty.  I can still sit with her when I want to, but this allows us to go back home to Grand Rapids for some rest. We came home Friday and are catching up on our own lives.  

My friend Joan Brink and I each picked out a UFO of ours to work on together on  Monday nights and to spur each other on to their completion.  Both projects have LeMoyne stars which have set in seams.  My project is a kit I bought based on an 1830s quilt found in New Jersey.  I am getting it out today to see how far along I got before it got put in time out.  Here is the kit picture:

It’s one of the Howard Marcus moda Collection for a Cause quilts, “Warmth”.  If you have made this quilt let me know, as I might have questions.  I know I stopped working on it a long time ago.

On the Drunkard’s Path project, I did a “big picture” assessment, and cut as many pieces as I could from the fabric I had.  So It will be a 5 block by 5 block quilt that will measure 60” by 60” as each block will finish at 12” x 12”.  I spent my time last week tracing the templates and cutting fabric with scissors.  When life is stressful, I love to do the simple mundane things the old school way.  Very soothing to trace around a pattern with a pencil and cut fabric with scissors.  I have decided to put this project by the sewing machine and do a few every day.  

Each block has 16 convex/concave pieces.  The actual sewing of the two pieces has gone very smoothly after I added a step.  I used to crease each of the two pieces in the middle and put a pin there, and a pin at each end.  Well, I was fine with the first end, fine at the middle, but the two pieces didn’t always come together at the end......plus often the end pin came out.  Sooo, I now sew (tack about 4 stitches) the ending together before I start.   Plus now I really don’t have to put a pin at the beginning....and the middle pin where the fabrics are creased is the only pin to take out while I’m sewing......and the ending comes out right because it has to!  I just sew right over where I tacked it.  The trick is to sew slowly and try to ease the fabric pieces as I go.  It is an extra step, but much less aggravation as the ends of the convex and concave pieces are forced to meet.  And I like it when they bend to my will.  I am the master of the universe.  Or at least I am the master of these two little concave and convex pieces of fabric.

What are you the master of this week?  Your projects have been so inspiring lately.  I love to read all the blogs.  Thank you so much for joining in!  Please link up below and remember to provide a link back to this post.  I will be drawing a name next week to give one of you the extra book I have with the “Buds in Bloom” pattern in it.  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Design Wall Monday - January 25, 2021

Sometimes I feel I can’t handle everything right now.  That life has handed me more than I can cope with.  When I start feeling like this, I step back and think about the bigger picture of life.  I think about all the wonderful things that are happening in life.  For example, a dear friend of mine sent this picture of new grandbabies:

Their shirts say    “OMG....yes we are triplets!!!   I am so happy for my friend Pam, and her daughter!  And as I was smiling about this miracle the other day, God reminded me that this miracle of three healthy beautiful babies were given to just the right Momma and Grandmother and their families.

God has given me just the right things to deal with right now, and I laughed when I thought of how frazzled I’d be with triplets to take care of.  I am coping just fine, God.  I see the big picture and feel so blessed with my life right now.  

We are still at the cabin up north, and I am sitting with my sister, Nancy, at the hospital while she receives dialysis every M W F.  I am interviewing care companies to hire a caregiver  to sit with her.  Nancy doesn’t understand that she can’t get up and walk around, and needs someone to gently tell her it isn’t time to leave yet.  I am getting a lot of embroidery done while I sit with her, but must get back to Grand Rapids at some point.  Hubby and I have obligations there and I miss my quilt room.

Also through complicated circumstances, we have acquired a nephew’s dog.  Here is a photo of Mojo:

He has had two major surgeries in January, but came through both like a trooper. I want to keep him as our dog, as he is such a good boy, and deserves us, but hubby is still undecided.  Two dogs are more than one dog........but not like three babies are more than one baby!  I think I’ll use that thought with hubby......would you like another dog, or triplets to care for.

Penny Lane has been super understanding and gentle with the recovering patient.  When I give Mojo medicine in a chunk of peanut butter, Penny gets a chunk of peanut butter also (with no pill in hers).  So Penny Lane says it’s all good.

So, all the above is to tell you I haven’t any quilting progress pictures to show you.  I hope you will have some to show me, and I promise to have some Drunkard’s Path progress for you next Monday.  Please link up below and also talk about Design Wall Mondays in your blog.  Also please include a link back to this post.  Thank you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Bernie Sanders

On inauguration day, Bernie Sanders was at President Biden’s outdoor inauguration.  He was all bundled up (and social distancing).  Because it was cold in Washington, DC., Bernie wore some mittens made from a recycled sweater.

Let me say that I would also choose some warm and comfortable mittens to wear on that cold January day.  But the picture of Bernie and his cute mittens has taken off across the internet in a funny way.  With our country so divided politically, I enjoyed seeing the creative mimes about this image that followed in the next few days.  Enjoy with me!

 

And for our crowd, here is Bernie in a fabric store:

Design Wall Monday will be tomorrow.  I just wanted to give us a laugh today, as I know we all could use one.