Design Wall Monday - September 6, 2021

 Good Morning Quilters!  It’s Labor Day and I am celebrating all the workers who keep our country going.  When this holiday was created, in the late 1800s, working conditions were dire.  In the United States, the average American worked 12-hour days and seven-day weeks in order to eke out a basic living.  Despite restrictions in some states, children toiled in mills, factories and mines across the country, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts’ wages. Thankfully those days are gone, and we celebrate our labor force today and appreciate all they do.  

My “labor” for this week has been to sew binding on a UFO.  i have four quilts just back from the long arm quilter that need binding.   I started this quilt way back in 2015  (Here) and am happy to report that it is now quilted and bound.  Yeah! Another UFO kicked to the curb.  

The quilt is 81 x 94 inches and is made of LeMoyne Star blocks and snowball blocks.  It is part of the Collection for a Cause series by Marcus Bros. and is called "Warmth", and was a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.

Here is a picture taken last night of the completed quilt, and it's held up by the newly weds, Mr. and Mrs. Angel Morales:

Mica and Angel are the couple who just got married at the wedding we went to in Delaware last week.  They flew to Michigan and spent a week at our cabin for a honeymoon.  We are taking them to the airport today in Grand Rapids so they can fly back to Delaware and start married life together.  Can you tell that they had a super time on their honeymoon?  The quilt isn't gifted to them (they were just handy to hold it up for the picture), as we gave them several of our smaller wall quilts as a wedding gift.

The Jane Stickle quilt is still on my design wall, staring at me.  It will stay there until I sew the blocks together.  It may be this week!  September is a month for completing old UFOs.  Anyway, I'm telling myself it is.  

What are you working on now that it is September?  Please join the linky party and show us your project of the week.  Or projects of the week for some of you.  I appreciate those of you who provide a link back to this post, and also mention Design Wall Mondays in your blog.  Thanks!

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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.  

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