General

I sewed together RSC2024 project #5 of 8, which is the Lori Holt wonky FPP hearts. I used most of two layer cakes to make a lap-size quilt & am super happy with the rainbow goodness. Also that I got to use my hoarded Tula Pink Fairy Dust background. It’s so awesome! With everything that’s happened in 2024, I’m pretty impressed that I’ve gotten this much done on my RSC projects this year. I may even get them all finished next month!

I had fun doing Bonnie Hunter’s winter mystery last year, although it’s quilted & still needs binding, but hey, I sewed it up by the spring! Then life happened. Anyway, I’m in for another year, so I got Part 1 all cut out, which is a challenge with the healing hand. Cutting is hard for my broken left hand to hold templates.

Then I got them all sewed up, a third of them trimmed, & strips sewn for Pt. 2. So it’s coming along but sub-cutting is next & I have to take the cutting slowly. And there is some Christmas gift sewing in my future.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it in the US, & have a great wintery sewing week!

With that in mind, I made two center blocks for the large log cabins in the QAL from Riley Blake called From Our House. I cut out all the logs before I fell & made one block, so I can turn these into cabins now. I’m behind in the QAL, but no stress. I’m downloading the patterns as they drop each week & will finish at some point.

It was hard to wrangle this big project, but I got the sashings attached & made the flimsy for my Split 9-patches. They were laid out on my design wall when I fell, so I’ve had plenty of time to mull over sashing options. I went with the offset to give it a little movement & some keystones. This is the fourth finish of my eight RSC2024 projects, so I’m really not too far off track!

I needed my design wall, so I sewed together Patchwork Hearts & that’s my first RSC2024 flimsy! I’m still loving the cuteness, but it may be a while before it’s quilted & all done, so it’s in the closet.

I made brown & gray large Scrappy Hearts but need more, so maybe a catch-up before the end of the year.

A black & a gray set of split 9-patches, leaves only brown now. I laid them all out & am going with this layout with a strip between to offset them in columns. I’m leaving them on the wall & will slowly sew together the four blocks into a 4-patch.

Four black rail fence blocks with 2.5″ squares. I also got a bunch of County Clare Leader & Ender Challenge blocks done this week, but haven’t sashed them yet. Maybe next week I’ll get them together & see my progress, but next week’s focus needs to be the Breast Cancer Awareness quilt I started.

My vestibular physical therapist is giving me outings to work my balance & get better at navigating different spaces since the surgery. He wanted me to go to a garden & I said I’d been talking myself out of going to Garden of Quilts because of the uneven terrain, but if he thought I could do it, then I wanted to try. Hubby went with me & it was so great! I haven’t been since the first year & have wanted to go again. So many lovely quilts & although I got dizzy a few times, I recovered quickly & we saw the whole thing, including a Q&A with the Doan girls!

I made these gray Two-Step blocks from Lissa Alexander’s book “Scrap School”, using 2.5″ squares. I got out the year’s worth of colors & laid them out on the design wall to see where I’m at with this quilt. By putting together about 20 more in previous month’s colors I had a good size lap quilt, so the columns are all clipped together & ready for webbing in the next month or so.

I also got out the Patchwork Hearts by Quilty Love to make the gray hearts & laid them out to find out I’d messed up on the blue month & made an extra, so when laying it out, I decided to make another purple & not have any gray. It’s been on the wall for several days because I don’t have time to sew it together right now & I just stop & gasp at the cuteness every time I walk in the studio, so for now it’s eye candy!

You may remember seeing this tabletopper flimsy done last month. Well, I quilted it & did the binding this week so it’s a finish. And it was gifted to my daughter-in-law for her birthday to match her quilt from last birthday. She was very surprised!

And this week I pieced, quilted, & bound this tabletopper for my November decorating, thus continuing my goal of getting square toppers made for my new square dining table. It’s from a free Moda Countdown to Christmas block giveaway a few years ago. This is called Snowfall by Lisa Jo Girodat at Neverlandstitches.com. So nice to actually use free block patterns I have saved. LOL

This is what I’m working on now: my fourth Breast Cancer Awareness quilt. I make one annually in Sept since my friend passed away in Sept 2021. I bought this kit on sale last Sept & have saved it all year to make now. I got it all cut out & was feeling good about myself.

Then I just got busy making 120 HSTs. Good! Then I started on the hearts. Then I put a couple blocks together. So I’m well on my way now.