Granny's lessons

One of the things I love about quilting is that you never stop learning, no matter how much you think you know! this quit taught me a few things. One is to trust my gut especially when it comes to color. After removing the block that was bugging me and changing out the centers of some other blocks I started liking this quilt more. But I also realized that I really don't love working with whole lines of fabric and actually would have preferred this in a more controlled color pallet. Frankly I prefer each block individually to the look of the whole quilt but maybe it is more that I prefer the fun of
pulling my own fabric collection together. So now I am trying to decide to just finish this or make it larger and
maybe even add back the block that I'm not in love with. Hmmm, so many choices.

More great granny squares

Work continues on my Great granny quilt. I will probably eliminate one block that still doesn't seem to be working. I am now thinking of each block as a little quilt as I choose the fabrics and I like that process better than the ones that are more random. I am hoping to make 25 blocks but don't think the jellyroll with stretch that far. Sure wish I didn't hate that one block but perhaps adding a few new fabrics will help. Lol. I can almost hear Tim Gunn telling me to "make it work".

Great Granny quilt along

Back in the summer, Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet hosted the Great Granny quilt along. I loved the blocks and knew they would be a fun project for the Summer House jelly roll that I had. This week I decided to finally get going on this project and I am having fun so far. Since I like to add my own spin to a line of fabric I added a bit of orange and while I am happy overall, one of the blocks is not quite working for me but I am withholding judgement til I have made more. I still need to square up the blocks but don't have the right ruler here. I guess that means a trip to the fabric store to buy one!

Sewing therapy

If you have been readings blog for awhile you know that I am in the process of moving house. Again. I figured out that this will be the 7th move in about 3 1/2 years, involving 2 countries (China and the US) and 4 states within the US. We currently own 2 houses in 2 different states that are 400 miles apart and I am going back and forth between the 2 while my husband works and I try to get one house ready to sell. Needless to say I am tired and often cranky about moving once again but fitting a little sewing in does help to keep me sorta sane. Last week I finally quilted this little wall hanging I made back in June and I was able to bind it this weekend between bouts of painting. It is hanging in the new sewing space that I am filling with bright happy things to make me smile.

A few more hexagons

I am heading back to the new house today for some more painting. I have finished a few more hexagons and look forward to getting the second set of templates and papers on my return. I also quilted and bound the machine pieced hexagon quilt that I pieced in June. I wasn't really sure how to quilt this one but am happy with the all over swirly design. My long arm has been playing nice this week, what a treat!

Finished toddler quilts

My DIL and I finished these two quilts this week. She made the quilt for her friend's son James and I made the other one for her little guy. I am trying to teach her a new skill with each project so this time we tried machine blanket stitch appliqué. It was such fun coming up with these little critters to add to the basic pattern that we found on the Moda bake shop. We also had fun with the label. Yippee, 2 finishes this week!

Another hexagon

Just another hexagon from This Goes With That. I think I need to go get more papers today so I can do more!

This goes with that BOM

Oh dear, I promised myself no new starts but since I signed up for this several months ago I don't think I'm cheating. This is a BOM by Sue Daley offered at my LQS called "This goes with that". It is much like "Candied Hexagons" which I have loved ever since I first saw it in blog land. Each month we get papers for the Enlish Paper Piecing, the acrylic templates for cutting and patterns for a few blocks. This goes for 8 months and I found lots of extra patterns for the hexagons on Sue Daley's blog. My LQS is also including a few other notions and some small cuts of repro fabric that can be used but I have decided to go in a different direction and I an loving it. The fussy cutting really makes this fun. I do love hexagons and EPP.

More baskets and a little fabric

This week I am back in my main studio and excited to add more finished baskets to the design wall. I have 76 baskets stitched and about 30 more prepped. These setting triangles are stitched and I have more prepped. These are just thrown up for a size check but I like it, though it is time to make a few more 9 patch blocks.

I also went to a Tuesday Mornings store yesterday to see if they had any fabric like I had been reading about. Sure enough I found these 2 fat quarter packs with 7 fat quarters each priced at only $10 per pack. No I didn't need them but I couldn't resist.

My new sewing space

Though we have moved in with only the essentials, while waiting to sell our home in Georgia, a start has been made on setting up my sewing room in the new house. It is just a start as my "real stuff" has yet to arrive but at least I can now see the potential in the space. Looking forward to many happy hours stitching here. It is much smaller than my space in my other home but at least I have windows!

Not much time for stitching

Last Friday we closed on our new house in Florida. Since we still have yet to sell our home in Georgia we are only moving the stuff from the rental place which is good since there is much to do a the new place. Mostly painting and the first room on the list was my main sewing room. It was a dreadful brown color but now is a wonderful shade of white that looks just like Kona Snow. I have always had a lot of color on my walls but I am feeling the white and am going to use lots of this white. It is White Dove by Benjamin Moore and truly brought the room to life.

I have stitched a few more baskets so at least I am making a little sewing progress.