Next???

I was determined to finish the challenge between two other friends and spent most of my sewing time this weekend finishing it up. I like how it turned out.

I love piecing my backs and decided to use up some fat eighths that I'd gotten many years ago at quilt market.  I also grabbed some flying geese from my orphan block bag. I also always look for sale fabrics for backings and this light French General was bought for that very purpose.  I think it's perfect for this top.  

 Can you see Max's tail in the corner? VBG.  I think Wendy (constantquilter) just finished hers so we should be able to do a display of all 3 of our projects.

Remember the other day when I was saying my wool appliqué isn't perfect?  Well, I don't feel that way about mitered corners.  To me, they have to be perfect.  It's probably the only aspect of quilting that I strive for perfection.  VBG. I ultimately opted for the darker border, which was the definite majority winner!  This fabric looks like a picture frame to me, so the corners really needed to meet up.

So what next??? hmmm.

 Do you find yourself a little lost once you've finished a project?  Not sure what to work on next?  I always find this to be difficult.

Today I was looking for something to work on and my eyes fell upon a UFO from many years ago.  I think it was a Bonnie Hunter mystery.  I didn't get very far, although I did sew tons of the string parts together.  I pulled it out but didn't really want to work on the quilt as designed, which is why I abandoned it years ago. This is how far I'd gotten putting it together:

I found piles of string pieces for the construction.  I think that's why I generally don't quilt that way---as sew parts as I go, rather than in assembly line fashion.  Anyway, this is what I pulled out of the bag, along with the top and a few other stars:

I'm looking for suggestions as to what to do with all those corner triangles as well as the 3" squares!

I decided I was going to use the top for a donation quilt for the kid's group I sew with.  I fortunately had some fabric here at the cabin that worked:  You can't really tell but the inner border is a nice purple.  It'll make a great kid's quilt, I think.

That's it for my sewing.  I'm still at a standstill trying to decide what to work on next.  I'm feeling the urge to do more appliqué so I'm looking at patterns that I might tackle.

Hope you're having a great week.  Fall has come to Central Oregon already!  It's been about 32* in the early morning!  The smoke is finally gone!

Another Twilight Garden block

 I have finished another block from the Primitive Gatherings SBOW 2018 and may have just another 3 or 4 left before I start on the center and borders, which will be very long projects.  These are my hand sewing projects for the car on the trips between California and Central Oregon.

I have never professed to be a particularly talented appliquér so it doesn't bother me too much when my blocks aren't perfect.  I am loving this project and think that none of my inaccuracies will matter when it's done.  It's definitely not machine produced! ;-)

That being said, I'm finishing up my medallion challenge quilt and decided I wanted appliqué in the corners.  Motivated by the master quilters Wendy Reed and Barb Vedder, I decided to do it by hand (the center of the quilt was done by machine).  I found the little flowers in the same book I found for the center. I added a little embroidery for the stems so the flowers weren't just floating!

I've decided to add one final "solid" border after the flying geese and I'm torn between these two.  I sewed one flower in the upper right corner; the other 3 are waiting for the flying geese to land!

What do you think??  

When all 3 of our tops are done, we'll figure out a way to post them together!  They are all so different but have the same basic parameters!

It's exceedingly smoky here in the Bend area and I'm staying inside until it clears.  I am hoping for rain later this week to put out the fires and clear the smoky air.

Take care, everyone.

A small study of selvages, Part I

 My son arrived with his family this week so my great plans of organizing selvages kind of fell apart.  Back into the bag they went.

 But not before I whipped up a small mug-rug out of some favorites!

Can you make out the sayings on these selvages?  Who knew that selvages had sayings?  I still intend to go through them and organize them and make them into something.  Haven't decided that yet!

Before the kids arrived, I did finish up a donation quilt for the kid's group.  Last summer I bought a baggie filled with scraps... It had two border strips, some squares and another strip.  It's all about glamping.  I wanted to use them up (of course, using up one small baggie doesn't make a dent!) so I found a pattern in an old book I had and punted.  The book is called Block Explosion.  I don't know where I got it from nor do I even remember opening it.  Maybe I picked it up last summer at the quilt show's flea market, when I got the baggie!  This pattern is called Garden Gate

Of course I had to run to the local quilt shop and pick up some go-withs, right??!!  Can you tell there are bananas?  I found a Tula Pink lime green fabric I couldn't resist!  I did mostly use up all the fabric in the baggie!

The true highlight of the week was this surprise package I received from Barb (funwithbarb)!  I recently sent her some puzzles and she decided to reciprocate!  I can't wait to dig into her puzzles.

And as if the puzzles weren't enough, she enclosed some great fabric and Applipops!  And a Barbara Brackman book!  I hit the lottery!! I've been really curious about how those circles work and she had an extra set!

Thanks Barb so very much!

I love sharing sunset photos from our house here in Central Oregon.  Last night, the sun was a huge red ball -- it almost looked like we were in outer space.

Hope everyone is staying well and having a great weekend.  Hard to believe it's the end of summer!  We are heading back to California mid-week to check on the mess the evacuation caused in my house with no power for over a week!  No fires, though, so that's a good thing!

Can I hear a big WOOHOO!!

Wendy  Reed (constantquilter) is not only a great friend, but she's quite the motivator!!  She "runs" the monthly minis and I feel compelled to get at least SOMETHING done by the end of the month.

While this isn't a big deal, I did get a binding put onto a quilt that's been sitting in my closet for months!!

This will no doubt be a donation quilt although not to the kid's group.  Too dark and boring!! :-))

Have I told you the story about my old Bernina that's been in the shop for two months?  I have an 1130 and something went wrong with the bobbin mechanism two months ago.  I took it in to the local repair shop in Bend and they told me they'd order the part.  Fast forward to two months and they realized they couldn't get the part so I could junk the machine, if I wanted.

Gotta love the internet.  I went onto the Bernina Vintage Machines Facebook group and posted that I was looking for a particular part and within half an hour I had two people offering me the part!

I showed you that awesome selvage the other day?  Well now I'm on a selvage mission.  Here is my pile of selvages here in Central Oregon.  Forget about the huge bags in California!

They are very much like scraps... they multiply!  I started sorting them and still didn't make a dent.

My next post is going to be a study of selvages.  Tune in!!

 

When nothing goes right? ...

The good news is that the evacuation order was lifted on Thursday and we almost raced down to California to clean the house and see the kids but there were too many unknowns.  We had to get the power company to come out to turn on the gas--had to rely on neighbors to meet them.

The house is intact, the fire is getting under control and we are still in Central Oregon, enjoying the last vestiges of summer.   We will go back in a couple of weeks.

The donation quilt is finished and I found the cutest border fabric!  Can't beat string quilts, although they surely don't use up very many strings!!

I even picked it up on the sale rack!!  And I found the most adorable selvage ever.  What makes a selvage adorable?? Check this out!

If you're curious where that came from, it's from Indigo Gatherings from Primitive Gatherings.  Well, of course once I found that, I had to go back to the quilt store and buy more yardage!! ;-))

Saturday is farmer's market in Bend and my daughter and I have been going every week this summer.  We found the most amazing flower vendor and buy a bouquet every week.  Today I also found gorgeous smelling basil and whipped up a couple of batches of pesto.  One was my recipe; the other was following Barb's (funwithbarb) recipe.

Recognize my placemats?? :-)

I also had some leftover cherry tomatoes that were not looking too great, so I baked them low and slow!  We are cooking fish in them tonight.

Aside from eating, I have been sewing a bit.  I'm trying to finish the challenge that me,  Wendy Reed (contantquilter) and Barb Vedder (funwithbarb) have been working on for months.  I'm on the last border, although I may add an appliqué border too.

These are some small flying geese!  So I'll be sewing them for a while!

Many of you have been asking about my mom, who got Covid about a month ago.  She continues to recover and the facility told me she's been Chatty Cathy these days!  She's eating, drinking and getting up.  Pretty amazing!  92 yrs old and recovering from Covid 19!!

Hope everyone has a super weekend.

As if the pandemic wasn't enough!!!

 Our big plans were to drive down to California to spend the week catching up and seeing the grandkids...

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans, right??

I saw a cartoon a few months ago that said, "If you want to make god laugh, tell him about your plans"!!  So true

California is burning and our neighborhood was evacuated.  Our son drove over to our house to retrieve our photos and papers before the evacuation order was entered.  I couldn't expect him to take my quilts, could I?? And he filled his pick up truck to the brim with our pictures.

Another lesson out of all this?  Get organized.!  HAHA.

I took a few online classes recently on how to digitize your photos and get them organized... Great idea.  Need to implement.

Anyway, a little sewing going on here:

I had the brilliant idea that I needed to get rid of my scraps so what better way than a string block?  I had a lot of this dull gray fabric and decided to use it across all the blocks.  But it was SOOOO dull, I added some neon greens.  I'm going to finish this off and give it to the kid's quilt group I sew for.  Fun, don't you think?

I also needed a fabric store fix so went into Bend and had a ball...went for one fabric only and wound up spending over $100.  Found great conversation prints, some blue/whites and the most adorable kit for a kid quilt!  Just what I needed was MORE fabric, right?? vbg

Hope you all have a safe week!

Does anybody else feel like time is a blur??

 Maybe that's not a great way to start a blog post, but I'm wondering if other people are finding that the days and weeks are a big blur.  I find it difficult to differentiate from one week to the next.  I suppose it could be worse, right?  

I have gotten a bit of sewing done these past 10 days and I'm happy to share these with you.

I finished my 2-1/2" strip project to be donated to the kid's quilt group I belong to. Of course it didn't make a dent in the strip collection! Anybody else find this to be true?

Then I made my mind up to add the next border to the group challenge I'm doing with two very dear friends.  This is a very unstructured challenge.  We all started with our own center.  We agreed that the subsequent 3 borders would be flying geese, half square triangles and four-patches.  I just finished my second border, where I put the half square triangles on point as pinwheels.  I didn't measure the sides before sewing them so you'll notice I added a couple of strips at the ends of two sides and then added half a block at the end of two other sides.  I'm already trying to think how I will sew my flying geese units.  I may also add an appliqué border at the end to tie the center to all the borders.  I'm loving this project.  This is my pandemic quilt since the 3 of us have come together during this period when we might otherwise not have forged this very close bond.

My design wall is covered with some other projects so I had to lay it out on the floor.  That wouldn't have been tough except Max is very attracted and attached to my fabric and projects and always manages to lie down on top of whatever project I place on the carpet.

On a non-quilt related note, we had a most spectacular sunset on Monday here in Sunriver.

I've posted many pictures facing this same view--that's Mt. Bachelor in the background.  

And to share more outdoor photos, I have been kayaking a lot these days with a friend who loves it as much as I do.  Yesterday we went to a fabulous lake surrounded by huge peaks created by volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago;  this peak is mostly made of obsidian rock, which is a beautiful shiny black rock that's very sharp.

That's my kayak before I set off.  Here is the view of Paulina Peak from the water.

Isn't that incredible??!!  

Hope you're having a great week!  We are due to go back to California for a visit next week but we are now rethinking that in light of all the fires and smoke.  This is a tough time for so many.  Stay safe!