Another Flimsy and a new skill

Today I finished another flimsy! While I was waiting for my thread order to arrived so I could start the quilting on my Harmony and Light quilt, I started deconstructing some more clothes that will again go into a memory quilt. Working on the last piece, I realized I probably should have taken a picture. 

Here I started deconstructing the sweatshirt. 

The useable pieces as well as the scraps!

Slowly, I pieced all the butterflies from the pieces, getting 2 butterflies from each deconstructed article of clothing. 

I used Kona Dusty Peach for the background on this quilt and again I'm using the Metamorphosis pattern. 

Here is a peek at the top!

After returning from the Holidays, my Knitting Club decided that we should try Tunisian Crochet. It is a cross between crochet and knitting. I tried it many years ago and I found it really hurt my arthritic hands but said that I would try again. We watched a video on how to do the Tunisian Crochet basic stitch and made practice swatches before starting the scarves.

We are making scarves to donate to our local school district to help the new immigrants and other underprivileged children during the cold winter months. Before Christmas, we donated 20 scarves with matching hats which were much appreciated. 

I finished my first scarf yesterday. 

Tunisian Crochet tends to curl at the ends so I added the pompoms to each end. 

Have you ever tried Tunisian Crochet? 

I'm not sure if I will make another one as I don't think I'm as fast as I am just knitting. Tunisian Crochet is also very dense and you need to use a needle about 

2-3 sizes larger than the recommended crochet hook for the yarn being used. 

My only Tunisian needle is an 8 so I should only use yarn that is DK or lighter.  Most of our yarn for donations are worsted weight so I would have to buy a larger needle. It was a fun skill to learn!
Linking to Off the Wall Fridays, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, and Wait Loss Wednesday. 

A little bit of this and that

 I'm not quite ready to share my almost finished secret project (a birthday gift for my SIL)! I am hand stitching the binding and then need to label and gift it! Soon!

But since July rolled around (how can this year be going so fast?), there is a new color of the month for the RSC, dark blue, and a new block for Covered in Love charity (stars).

I cut and sewed 10 wonky shoo fly blocks and 10 joy luck blocks in dark blues. 

wonky shoo fly

Joy Luck

I also cut many dark blue and purple scraps for my tumbler blocks.

(I never got around to cutting purple scraps in June) 

Now to hand stitch them! 

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @So Scrappy.

Here are my star blocks for the Covered in Love charity. 

Kat @Kat & Cat Quilts is back to hosting this round after taking 2 months off to catch up. May/June was hosted by Tammy @Travelin' Sew I. 

July/August is typically star blocks, a favorite! There are so many to choose from!

Linking to Midweek Makers @Quiltfabrication, Stitch and Show @Life in the Scrapatch, and Monday Making @Love, Laugh Quilt

 

July also means a new calendar and the finished calendar for the month of June! 

June is a birthday month in our family including mine! 

July is the start of the Macaron Mystery Quilt hosted by Cheryl @MeadowMistDesigns. This month is all about fabric requirements and picks!

Here are my choices.

Mostly from my stash but I needed to add the light polka dot fabric and get a bit more of the Kona cactus and Kona white. 

This is my 3rd mystery QAL with Cheryl! It is a nice, easy pace and Cheryl's designs are great! Will you be joining? 

At my knitting club (we meet on Monday nights), one friend asked if anyone heard of a knitted potholder that was a folded type (her niece wanted to know and sent some pictures). So in usual fashion, we all start a google search to see what we could find. It turns out that the only method we could find was crochet. 

So on Tuesday night after I finished knitting my project, I started to crochet one that I found on YouTube. It is a pretty interesting technique that intrigued me.

It is double thick and made from cotton yarn. It was actually pretty fun to watch come together and fairly easy so I offered to teach it at knitting this past Monday!

Hope to be back soon with my secret finish!   

The start of 2020

Now that we are about 3 weeks into 2020, I thought I should give an update as to what's happening in my sewing room. The 1st week was busy with a family visit to Austin to celebrate our grandson's 1st birthday, my daughter's birthday and have our Christmas so nothing happened in my sewing room.

'I'm So Big!

Surprise visit by her sister!

Family time is so precious!

I came home to a busy work week but I managed to finish up a few things. 

I put together my flimsy to the Mosaic Mystery Quilt. My goal is to sandwich and start quilting this week!

I really like the way this quilt top came together!

Linking to Brag about your Beauty @From Bolt to Beauty, and Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

I also worked with the color for January for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This year I decided to work long columns of the monthly colors with squares and HST with a gray background. 

Column 1 done. Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday.

In 2020, I will continue to make bimonthly charity blocks for the Covered In Love charity hosted by Kat & Cat Quilts. Here are my January/February blocks.

I also finished another knitted charity blanket and have done some sewing and knitting for Australia; making bat wraps, and joey pouches. 

Our knitting club is also knitting red baby hats for February's heart awareness month. These will be heading to the hospital soon. 

Sorry no pictures. 

Small Steps

I made some small steps in my sewing room. I put together the top to one of Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts:Waterfront Starburst! The backing is also ready so now I need to find some time to sandwich, quilt and bind it.

Another small step was to finish Step 3 in the Mosaic Mystery Quilt ~ The Diagonal Block.

 Wouldn't this make a cute quilt!

I will link up to the November Diagonal Block Linkup at Meadow Mist Designs. 

I made 2 charity blocks for the Covered in Love charity hosted by Kat & Cat Quilts. The November/December block requested the color palette of sea foam green, navy blue, true blue, light icy blues, snowy off whites, and some grays.

Here are my blocks! I really love these blocks.

My knitting club does charity knitting for a local hospital and other charities. I just finished this baby blanket.

Doesn't it remind you of the Neapolitan Coconut candies? Remember these?

My grandson will turn one on January 1st...his golden birthday! To make it special I made this crown to go with the theme of his birthday based on the story Where the Wild Things Are.

He will be treated royally! 👑

Another finish from my 2019 goals!

Back in January, I posted that I wanted to make the Optical Illusion BOM 

(January block) from Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design and in April I had the flimsy done. It was then that life got too busy and it was set aside in the UFO pile. 

I finally got to sandwiching and quilting it! 

I used both FMQ in the center, an all over curly cue design, 

and straight line quilting in the borders. 

All the blue fabrics came from my stash except for the Kona navy border. 

(I ran out of navy in my stash)

I also pieced the back with most of the leftover fabrics. 

This quilt finishes at 48" square. It will be gifted to a dear friend who is going through cancer treatment as a comfort quilt. 

I also finished another block for the Quiet Play Pattern Club. 

I just had to make this cute pin cushion in tomato red! 

I still used a rainbow of colors for the seam ripper. 

I also do quite a bit of charity knitting with my Knitting Club. This baby blanket was so soft and cute that I needed to share! 

I have been busy in my sewing room so I will be back with more soon!

Friday Night Sew In

Last night was Friday Night Sew In!

It snuck up fast as April is flying by! 

I did join in the sewing fun! 

I have been working on quilting the T-shirt quilt! I am about 3/4 done! I am finding that my machine doesn't really like sewing over the screened prints on the t-shirts. I must go very slow over these areas. It is also a heavy quilt so I must take breaks from quilting as it is hard on my hands.

I'm quilting it with meandering swirls and I'm pretty pleased with the results even through the quilting difficulties. 

I also put together my Temperature quilt! 

I sew the rows together after 18 blocks are made.

It is now 6 rows complete! As you can see, our Spring has been much colder than expected.

And since the Chicago Cubs were playing a late game last night, I decided to switch gears and knit this baby hat while watching the game! 

(and what a great game!)

I adjusted this pattern from an adult size to a baby size. I really like the swirl through out and especially looking down from the top. The self striping yarn shows it off beautifully! 

This will be donated to the hospital to be given to a newborn baby!

I'm linking up to Show Off Saturday @Sew Can She.

Did you join the Friday Night Sew In? 

Time Is Flying!

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by! 

After Spring Break, school tends to get very busy as we head to the finish line. To add to the busy schedule, my daughter made an unexpected but much loved trip home for a long weekend. Her BFF since birth was turning 30 so she came in! Naturally, we spent as much time as possible with her and packed in the activities! We took a walking tour of some local street art with 2 of my daughters.

The following weekend was another packed with activities. The International Quilt Festival was in Chicago/Rosemont! It is very close to where I live. As always, it did not disappoint! Here are a few of my favorites!

I like the colors of this quilt.

I love the indigo color of these vases and the details in the stitching!

I like the Cherry blossom fabrics used as the background for the Chinese letters.

I have seen colored pencil quilts before but I loved the idea of a child's doodles in the negative space!

This quilt reminded me of my blue houses quilt! I love the story behind this calendar quilt.

I have been working on a few things in my sewing room, too! 

It is April and the color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is yellow! 

These blocks have been done for a bit however I haven't had time to blog about them. 

I'm linking up to SoScrappySaturday.

My knitting club knits for a local hospital and here is a blanket that I recently finished. 

I have also been playing with all the cut offs from the Regatta quilt and I finally settled on this layout.

It is still in flimsy form as several quilts are ahead of it for finishing! 

That brings me to Friday Night Sew In which snuck up on me! Stay tuned!