Yesturday was so much fun

Yesturday I had the Heartfelt group of ladies here to sew all day.  It was so nice to get together to sit and chat, share some snacks/tea, ideas and sew.  Since the Heartfelt quilt is done and gone a while ago, I am going to stop referring to them as the Heartfelt ladies.  Instead we have a chat group name called Sewing Sisters, so I am going to go with that.  It seems more appropriate.  It's interesting how, when people get together, even with different personalities, how they come together to create and come to form a bond.  I think it's the respect for each other that is key to making it all work.       

We have a great little group, who now come together to work on our own things and sometimes work on another project were more then one person wants to join in (like the Smith Mountain Morning quilt).  When we get together we cheer each other on and that is so uplifting.  Two of the ladies were working on their Smith Mountain quilts, one was doing a row by row quilt and I was working on my Low Volume Chevron quilt.

I did four blocks while everyone was here, and after they left, I was still on a high, that I continued to sew and made another four more blocks.  That's fantastic!!!  I've never made that many in one go before!  Just amazing.  Now I have only sixteen more to make to start putting this quilt together.  I can't wait!!

Today I have to do some machine quilting, then we'll see what I can work on after that.

Take care everyone.

Monkey Bar quilt

I've just decided to change the name of this quilt from Sock Monkey quilt to Monkey Bar quilt.  A play on words....lol...I like those.  I last posted about this quilt on Oct 15/2025, called Sock monkey quilt progress, if you want to go read more about it. 

Yesturday I had the day off to relax.  What I chose to do to relax was finish this quilt.  I started with adding the two sets of borders, then I loaded it up on the longarm and quilted it.  This here is one of two monkey quilts that I am making.  The second one is assembled in rows, so it is almost done too.

Here is a close up of the fabrics and quilting.  I think it turned out nice and it all came from my dwindling stash.  I am surprised I can still find coordinating fabrics to go with things, though the second one, I had to make some adjustments as I ran out of the brown with red polka dot fabric and the red border fabric.  I'll show you that one when it's done.

Today I have the ladies here to sew.  I am so looking forward to it.  We have such a nice time!!  Fun and peaceful all at the same time.

Take care everyone.  Have a great weekend!!

NICU star quilt

I started three of these star quilts back in Dec/2024 and finished them in Feb/2025.  I'm not sure why I only took a picture of this one.  Maybe because other than the colour, they were all the same.  I pulled this draft out to post about this NICU star quilt now, as I have five more to make and I wanted to jog my memory as to what I did with this little panel block.

Stay tuned for the next batch of star quilts.  I have five more to make.  I am making them all different colours.  Otherwise, I am going to keep it simple and make them all the same.  

A bit of progress going on with my list that I recently started.  I am caught up on the amount of Smith Mountain blocks for the last two weeks and have two already done to cover off this week, with two more to go to cross this block off my weekly list.  I caught up on the Sea Swept blocks for the last two weeks.  Plus, I did three quilt finishes for the first week I started this list, but nothing for last week and so far nothing for this week.  We are getting to the end of the week and I think it is safe to say that I will likely finish the blocks portion of my list, but not sure I can catch up on the making of quilts.  

I'm not going to be too hard on myself, as I did set myself a very ambitious goal!  And besides, progress is progress!!

Today is Friday, so we'll see what I can accomplish today.  I have the ladies coming to sew tomorrow, so maybe I can get some more stuff done then....likely not though, as we do get to talking, some show and share, more talking and demonstrations, etc.  You know what I mean....lol.  I so much enjoy the company of friends making quilts together and sharing our experiences and lives events.  It is food for my soul. 

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take care some time for yourself.

My cathedral window NICU quilt

While I was surfing through my pictures, I came across these.  It has been such a long time since I finished this quilt.  It must of gotten lost amongst all the rest of the drafts waiting to become posts.  I'm embarrassed to say that I have many drafts that date back to 2023 and 2024.  I want to post about them all, and they will get their time in the spotlight, but it may be a while before I can get to them. 

This particular quilt was started at the HHQG Workshop we had, back in Jan/2024, ran by Jane.  I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and all the comradery that we had.  I enjoyed learning this technique too.  This is a Cathedral Window block which is completely assembled by machine.  By the time I left the workshop, I had this much completed.

The thing about this quilt is that it grew as it went.  I thought I had brought enough fabric, but when it came time to put it all together, I noticed that I was short.  The initial intent was to have one fabric for the accent around the "windows", but I was short on that one fabric.  Luckily, I had a bit of other fabrics that I was able to substitute.  I changed my design to accommodate the fabrics I had.  I thought I was doing good...... 

Unfortunately, I was still short.  In comes a friend to my rescue, who had the purple fabric you see in the picture, which allowed me to make some progress on this top.  Otherwise, I would of had to stop to go home and get something to make it all work.  

On March 25/2024, a couple of months later and you have the finished NICU quilt below.  Even though this quilt was off to a rough start, I think it turned out quite nice.  I used the additional blue and fuchsia fabrics I had, for the frame around the cathedral window, the green for the trim in the centre, and the purple fabric from a friend for the rest of the trims.

Now, here today, after the fact, I think this quilt looks better than it would have looked, if I did it with the initial intended fabrics.  Sometimes things happen for a reason, and this is an example of what can happen if you just work with what you have and make it work, instead of holding ridged to your initial plans.  I like it this way, the way it turned out!!!

Thank you Jane for a great workshop!

Take care everyone.

Progress on Deb's Sea Swept quilt

This quilt is not complete, and it has a history already....lol.  Sometimes a quilt takes a long, long, time to make.  Though in this case it was mostly marinating, both in my brain and through taking my time to collect fabrics for it.  

I went back into the past posts to see just when I started it, and came across a few posts.  The first one was way back on March 25/2018 Storm at Sea quilt variation (QW).  The (QW), for those who are new here, means Quilt Want-to-be......lol.  Another term for a quilt that has been added to my wish list or as some people refer to it as their bucket list.  So way back in Mar/2018, I decided I wanted to make a variation of Storm at Sea.  I've come to find out later, that the version that I want to make is actually called Sea Swept.

Then back on Dec 5/2023 I wrote a post called, The starting of a Sea Swept quilt.  This is where I spoke about collecting the fabric and the making of the first cornerstone block.  I also wrote about this quilt again on Oct 25/2023 called Preparing for an upcoming quilting retreat, where I talk a bit more about it.

So, that was almost exactly 2 years ago, when I last spoke about this quilt.  Though, it's not the last time that I did some piecing of it.  Let me give you an update on it.  I finished all the cornerstone blocks.  These were made shortly after I posted about them in Dec/2023.

Then later, during the retreat of Oct/2023, I worked on the sashing blocks.  I did a bunch of them, but realized that I had cut one shape incorrectly.  As I cut the wrong side, I was only able to salvage the batik fabrics, as they are double sided.  It was a discouragement at the time, and took me until some time later to finally cut another batch of pieces to finish these sashings.  I still have to trim them all and remove all the paper, but the sashing blocks are done.

More recently, I started back up, making the actual blocks for this quilt.  As you can see from the picture below, I have the papers on these ones too.  There are only a few completed thus far, but now I made a pack to start making them again, as part of my one a week goals list.  This one is listed as making 3 per week, so they will start to accumulate quickly....if I stay on track....  These should be done sometime in June/2026, though that will remain to be seen....lol.  Any progress, is progress right?

I thought I would add this picture in here as well.  This is to see how the blocks fit together.  One cornerstone block, two sashing blocks and one actual block.  I can see the design starting.  If you're curious, you can visit one of the previous posts, for a full picture of what the quilt will look like.

I'm surprised it took me this long to write a progress post on this quilt.  I guess it's been busy around here and no lack of stuff to write about.  That is what keeps it interesting!!

Take care everyone.

Some more progress...

Friday before I headed to my mom's place to do some paperwork and have dinner, I managed to get all the points for the Smith Mountain Morning border done.  One side is brown and the other side is blue.  There were LOTS of them.....lol.  All done now and put aside until I need them.

Still trying to catch up to the other ladies who are further along on their quilts.  The one person, who has changed up the pattern, to use some Block of the Month blocks, is really going to town on her blocks.  She has this much on her design wall, plus two other blocks done!!!  I really need to get a move on it!

Isn't it gorgeous!  Love what she is doing to customize her quilt.  This is going to be so unique.  

I keep saying I need to catch up, but I'm not worried.  All four of us are at different stages of the making of this quilt.  There is really no deadline for it, though the person above would like to finish hers by the last meeting of the Guild year, which is June/2026.  I thing that is reasonable, considering how much she has done.  You go girl!!  Or as the saying also goes, you sew girl....lol!!

For me, I'll just keep plugging away at it, plus trying to do my various blocks (one a week) and trying to finish as many quilts from my UFO list by Dec/2025.  Eventually everything will get done.  I want to get it all done and I do have high hopes, but I am not being strict with it, as I want to enjoy the process.  No pressure.....lol.....just my own self imposed goals.  

I did finish one more brown star block, not pictured here, on Saturday, while the ladies were working on their stars and checkerboard borders.  So there is that....

Take care everyone.

Saturday's HHQG Workshop.....what a day!!!

What a day we had!!  I think it turned out great!  There was a lot to learn and many steps to do.  Not all of it got done, but I did show everyone the steps they need to take to finish all three borders, and they have the booklet that was made with the instructions and pictures showing the various steps.  Plus they have my number if they need some help.  Pretty much everyone got to make four patches, half square triangles, and hourglass units.  These steps plus learning about rulers, cutting and 1/4" seams, was enough to get them on the way to making the centre star block.

As with all workshops, everyone had their own take on the quilt and selected their own colours.  I love how there was such variety in all the stars.  You saw mine in a previous post and here are the other six participant's stars.  I am hoping that once everyone finishes them, they will let me take a final picture showing their borders.  It will be fun seeing them all!

Above we have fussy cut geese for the centre and the background, plus green for the accent colour.  Below we have big bees for the background, cats for the accent fabric and construction tools for the stars.  Both are so cute.

This one is a Christmas theme, with let it snow fabric for the star points, Christmas candy for the accent fabric and various chocolate treats for the background.

Autumn leave for the accent fabric and the double pink for the four patch with a pinkish red in the block above.  Christmas theme again for the block below.  Love the contract of the red accent fabric against the hunter green star points and I like how it picks up the holly berries in the four patch fabric.

 

Then we have our eager beaver, who made it all the way to the second border, however to keep things in context, this person had the advantage of the pattern in advance and had most of her fabrics already cut, so the others were not behind.  They all had there checkerboard strip and the half square triangles done to do the second border, but ran out of time to attach them. 

This person chose a pretty raspberry colour for her star points, green for the accent and blue and rose for the four patches.  Her second border is a butterfly design.

Every one of these quilts is going to look very different.  That's the part that I really enjoy!

Take care everyone.