A Jumble of Things

The donation quilt was completed, mailed and received on schedule. It was fun to break my "No New Starts" rule and make something for a good cause. Thanks, Nancy, for sharing this opportunity with us.

I did the "piped" binding for the second time, and liked it just as much as I did the first time. Most of my quilts will still get the hand stitched finish on the binding, but when doing a quilt in a hurry, or just one that will likely get dragged around and washed a bunch, the "piped", or "flanged" binding is sure slick.

Below is the finished top of one of the projects from the Pam Buda class I attended last month. I made fewer blocks, and added the purple on the corners where they met up to form squares on point. I am toying with calling it Geode Crystals, or Amethyst Crystals. Pam calls it Haunted Maze.

I wasn't really careful on the matching of points as I stitched this together, but it has so much movement to it, I don't think it is as noticeable as it usually would be. I have to say, I LOVE that border print. It is from the previous Cheddar and Coal line (Pam just came out with Cheddar and Coal II), and I think it may be one of my favorites of Pam's fabrics. I thought I had more of it in my stash, but this FQ appears to have been it. I have about half of it left. And there doesn't appear to be more than one FQ of it online, that I can find. Pam has several lines in the works, so hopefully my attention will be caught by a print in one of those lines, and I can stop obsessing over this one.

I'd share the other blocks I worked on at the retreat, but I can't find them. Seriously. When I first got home I was just in recovery mode. Once I was back into the routine of life, I decided I should make some progress on those projects from retreat. This was the only one I could find. I had only made one block each on the other two projects, but I did have one of them entirely cut out, and I'd really like to find it. I decided they were lost because my sewing room was a disaster, and was sure that when I took time to clean it, I would find the missing blocks.

So I have really been trying to get more organized in my sewing room. Last week I went through cupboards, drawers, closets, and boxes. I boxed up scraps from several baskets and shipped them to a friend. I sent other boxes of fabric to a worthy group. I then made a list of every finished top that still needed to be quilted, and every UFO I discovered (this is something I have been itching to do for some time, but at the same time, kind of afraid of what I would discover). I dug up 28 UFOs, and only 7 of them are mini quilts. Then there are the finished tops--25 of those. Since that discovery I have three of them prepped with batting and backing to go to my longarm quilter as soon as she is back from vacation. Only 6 of the 25 tops are doll quilt or mini size. Three of them are baby quilt, wall hanging or lap quilt size. I didn't realize I had that many bed quilt flimsies waiting to be quilted.

And I still haven't found those missing blocks. But I found some other things I would like to pass on to someone who might actually use them.

1. A half yard of the turtle fabric, with one turtle fussy-cut out of it.

Also 4 FQs of coordinating fabrics, and the leftovers of the brown FQ that I used part of in the donation quilt at the top of this post. All of these fabrics were from Hobby Lobby.

2. Leftover yardage from Lisa Bongean's Snowman Gatherings and Snowman Gatherings II lines. Also 2 full mini charm packs and one partial.

I made three small quilts and a wall hanging from these fabrics, and it is time the leftovers find a new home.

3. These are scraps that I think I may have picked up from a scrap bin at a shop where you stuff a bag for a set price. I thought I could make a cute mini out of them, but apparently I burned out on making snowmen quilts on the fabric above.

4. What we have here are the 2 Midnight Flight blocks I made in a class with Bonnie Hunter back in 2017, along with whatever pieces I had cut for more blocks (I'm not even sure exactly what I have cut out), and the leftovers from her Easy Street mystery. I had cut out enough for more blocks than I actually made. These are all cut from thrift store shirts.  I know I will never make more of these blocks. I really had a hard time keeping the pieces in the right places, and used the seam ripper SO MUCH just to make these two blocks. Someone braver (and smarter) than I can tackle it.

If you are interested in any of these, mentioned it in your comment--and include your email, if you have never had a response from me before. If I don't have your email, you won't be eligible. I will draw a name if more than one person is interested in any of them. 

I won a prize on a blog this month. Deonn, over at Quiltscapes, held a drawing for this book, and now it is mine! You can check out Deonn's blog here, to see more of the technique from the book.

That is all the quilty content for today. You all know I love sunsets, and we have had some amazing ones this month. Sometimes as I walk in the evening I feel as if the clouds are  coming to smother me. I thought I'd share a few from the past couple of weeks. You can click to enlarge these for more of the effect.

One last thing I want to share. When I am on these evening walks, often row upon row of birds will pass overhead. Early in the month it was the very noisy Canada Geese honking loudly as they flew over. But more recently the birds are very quiet, and I don't always know they are there unless I happen to look up--unless they are a larger bird, and then I can hear the whispering sound of their wings as they flap their way past me.

In the attached video, watch for the line of birds coming from the horizon. Make sure your sound is turned way up and your surroundings are quiet. It helps to expand the image to full screen, too. As they get directly above me, you should be able to hear their wings for just a moment. This never fails to thrill me. And the crunching sound you hear is my feet on the gravel road as I turn to capture the birds flying over. I hope this works. I haven't attached a video in a long time.

Hubby and I are off on another adventure soon, so it may be a couple of weeks before I will post the results of any drawings we may need to have.

Until then, 

be creative, and be kind.

Janet O.

Drawing is now closed.