Moving Forward

Thanks to the quiltathon weekend, all my border units for midnight flight are finished.

as a matter of fact, all my units are pieced. hooray. There are a gobzillion pieces I have put together a little at a time as an away from home sewing project.

Now it is time to retire this quilt from active duty and find another no brain sewing project to take to my small quilt groups. But I have 576 bonus triangles from midnight flight in purple or blue and neutral  that will be the seeds for scrap crystals. I need 684. that shouldn't take long.
I came up 5 units short for piecing the hourglass blocks for pfeffernuese. on the plus side, at this point, there is no stress over what to do with the leftover units haha.

My En Provence  bright is all ready to start assembly

My civil war version needs the 4 patches and both hour glass units.

There is a final link up at Quiltville for En Provence. There will be so many wonderful, inspiring places to visit and see here

I am linking to:

Making Monday

Moving it Forward Monday 

 Patchwork Times

Main Crush Monday

Moving ahead

I had a successful canning batch of vegetable soup. The house smelled soooo good. And there was some leftover enough to eat.

As punishment for buying fabric last week, I was forced to sew some more hourglass blocks.

I have managed to cut all the big pieces of fabric for my one monthly goal American Beauty Rose, in to the strips sizes needed for sewing. When I was done, I was a little disturbed by how much fabric was left over, surely a more efficient way to use the fabric could have been used. Then I realized, the center blocks of background are 17 inches square, and that would have been the best size to use in the 20s when fabric was 36 in wide. So Marie Webster was a quilt genius of her time. LOL

I have done something each day so far, to move this quilt along. Some days I do more than other days, but I haven't missed a day yet in February.

I am linking to:

Making Monday

Moving it Forward Monday 

 Patchwork Times

Main Crush Monday

American Beauty Rose

An actual blue sky. I haven't seen that in weeks. Hooray

Judy of Patchwork times has drawn a new UFO number # 9  and mine is American Beauty Rose, a Marie Webster reproduction quilt. I am very excited to get started on this. I bought it last summer.
It uses quiltsmart interfacing. Which made it look doable for me. But I am sure it will still be a challenge. All I have done is buy the fabric, but I put it on the ufo list because I didn't want it to become lost forever in the black hole project closet.

My One monthly goal is to begin the quilt, working on it everyday in February. At which time, I will decide if it stays as an "in the background project" or gets put away until I can devote another chunk of concentrated time. I think that once I get it to the applique stage, I can work on it in the evenings as my hand project.
 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Linkup.

Yesterday was small quilt group and I worked on my red/ neutral hourglasses for pfefferneuse. If I have counted right, I have all the hourglasses finished, and I have started putting them together in groups of 4.

I am pinwheel challenged and wonder what would be an acceptable percent of failures in the center- 10% 20%? I am only showing the ones that are great. But we shall forge ahead.

I am linking to:
WOW
Midweek Makers
Jo's Country Junction UFO
Bee Social
Silly Mama WIP

Lockerbie street

I had a fun, busy weekend. I traveled to Indianapolis to see the James Whitcomb Riley Museum on Lockerbie street. I have such a sentimental place in my heart for this Indiana poet. My Grandfather had many of his poems memorized, and would entertain me reciting the best ones to me as a child, Lil Orphan Annie, the raggedy Man, The Bar. Still, the fondest memory is of the poem "An Old Sweetheart of Mine" Granddad would say this to my Grandmother, and they would look like young lovers for a moment even after 60 + years of marriage. I had it memorized by the time I was a teenager, but can only quote parts of it now.

Everything in the museum, is preserved and original. It was an incredible home in it's time and even more amazing now. They would not allow pictures, which I can respect, except for an amazing quilt in one of the bedrooms. It was made in 1890 and gifted to the housekeeper. Made with red and white squares finishing at 1 1/2 inches and the white squares had redwork embroidery in each tiny square. And in the center was a label with the date. This is an incredible piece of history and I asked if a picture of it could be purchased - no. I asked if it had been documented in any quilt book or organization - again no. I sure wish I had bucked the system to get a picture of this quilted treasure.sigh...

My son took me to dinner at Olive Garden, and gave me flowers. He said he tried to get the ones with the most yellow since that was my favorite. Aw shucks, he remembered. My oldest son with my oldest Grandchildren turned up in church Sunday morning as a surprise all the way from Martinsville.

My Grandchildren loved the polar bears for hot chocolate and other stuff, and I loved having them to hug on and enjoy. so cute

All I have sewn all weekend was a few red and neutral hourglasses for Pfefferneuse

I am linking to:

Making Monday

Moving it Forward Monday 

 Patchwork Times

Main Crush Monday

stash report Jan 22 2017

I had a chance to mindlessly sew hourglass blocks for Pfefferneuse a Bonnie Hunter pattern.
I started with 576 red quarter square triangles and 576 neutral quarter square triangles.

 I sewed them into pairs.

and then into hourglass blocks. I finished 91 out of 288.

We were out of town last weekend and I visited 2 wonderful quilt shops.These were my treasures. I couldn't resist having a bit of fabric as souvenirs. A little bit of Gardenvale...

I am working on my rug hooking this week as I am slowly quilting my monthly UFO.


Fabric Used this Week: 3.5 yards were sent to goodwill
Fabric Used year to Date:  108 yards
Fabric Added this Week: 3.25 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 3.25 yards
Net Fabric for 2017: 109.5 yards used

I am linking to:
Patchwork Times
Slow Sunday Stitching

Sunday Stash

Garden and strings

We felt that we needed to move our strawberries before frost. We had them in a tier that had finally broken down. The strawberries were not happy there anyway. I built the boxes earlier this year. Jeff had read about filling in the space of the box with limbs and sticks before adding the soil. That way the box needs less soil and the tree composts itself and the soil is richer. It sounds reasonable.

While we were working, we heard something in the tree nearby. It looks like a downy woodpecker is making a nest. That will be a fun adventure to watch.

I've made some string blocks on my treadle. I will be throwing a few strings outside for our new bird family.

I'm linking to Fabric Tuesday
and
sew cute Tuesday
and
Fiber Tuesday

cutting away

I have tried to finish up projects that are hanging around. I like the sense of accomplishment, but I was anxious to start something new. Finding a balance is difficult for me. I found just what filled the craving. I had already string pieced the blocks for pfefferneuse during a string piecing opportunity.

But I hadn't cut the hourglass blocks - cutting is fun - seeing fabric being used  is fun -perfect for a rainy day. There are 1,000 1/4 square triangles in the box in red and neutrals, finishing the hourglass blocks at 3 inches.

So now this project is ready for the "I just have to chain piece" stage and one step closer to finish. But I didn't start a new project.  I am just brilliant. 
This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern from her book