Fall Cleaning, Quilts in the Rafters

Fall cleaning happened several weeks ago. The living room furniture was moved back while the quilts in the rafters were removed, the rafters were dusted and different quilts put on display.

This is Star Dance. Her finish was posted here.

9-Patch & Hourglass. Here is a link to the finish. This quilt has been shown before, she was one of the original quilts displayed when we first moved into the new house.

Many of you watched my applique and hand quilting journey with Hearts & Wreaths.

While the tall ladder was inside the house, the farmer dusted the triangle windows. I didn't have him wash them, I thought streaky windows would bother  me more than dusty windows.

Some people have expressed concern about him climbing up such a tall ladder. His response is he climbed up to the top of the silo on the farm for 50 years to adjust the blower. He no longer wants to or needs to do that. Climbing a 12 foot ladder is not a problem at all.

The Christmas cactus have come out of their quarantine in the garage and are now sitting underneath the south windows in the dining room. This is actually the same place they occupied on the porch except now they are inside the house instead of outside.

They're still loaded with buds so I'll have blooms for a long long time.

I don't have many indoor plants. There are the Christmas cactus which are outside in the moderate seasons and one large fern that stays indoors all year round. 

The amaryllis bulbs have been dug up from the flowerbed, they're resting now in the garden wagon. I'll be potting them at the end of the month to bloom this winter, hopefully starting in January.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Craft School Sunday, Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Sauder Quilt Show

I'm interrupting my regular Sunday post about Hearts & Wreaths to show you pictures from the Sauder Quilt Show.

Here is a link to pictures of the class winners and Best of Show quilts.

Here is a link of all the classes and placings in the classes. There are no pictures on this list.

How did I do at the show? I placed 2 out of 3 quilts. The Pastor's Attic Quilt received a 1st placing and a blue ribbon! 

Here is a picture of the back side. I enjoy viewing subtle quilt designs on the back of quilts.

They used to have a separate category for whole cloth quilts but this year Welsh Beauty was the only whole cloth quilt in the show, she received a 3rd placing.

And the backside.

Star Dance didn't place. She was entered in the largest class, Large Quilt/mixed media/long/mid arm quilted. Lynn and I are driving to Sauder's tomorrow to pick up our quilts. She'll go on our bed for the summer.

Here are pictures of other quilts from the show. I decided I was in the mood for brightly colored appliqued quilts and foundation paper pieced quilts.

I am going to post half of the pictures today and the rest next Sunday.

This wall quilt was designed and made by Becky Yoder. She won the sweepstakes for best hand quilting. The cross hatching squares are 1/4"! The flowers with the vine are embroidered! I love this quilt!

This little quilt was so cute! The strips finish at 1/4"!

I will show you the rest of the pictures next week, there are too many for one post.

The 2025 Sauder Quilt show will be held Wednesday April 30 - Saturday May 3.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Star Dance

I started piecing the original blocks for Star Dance way back in January 2017 in conjunction with the RSC. I had thought this would be a 2 year project but it's been 6 years and she is finally finished!

I requested Lori Null use Raindrops on Water for the quilting design and it is perfect! She set the curves 1/2" apart.

Star Dance finishes at 94" by 105" which I consider a large queen sized quilt. She's a little small for our king sized bed but we're using her anyway. I think she makes a lovely quilt for summer.

I know the border looks green but it's not. It's a soft white but there are very faint light green ghost leaves in the background and my phone pulls out the green.

I decided I would use brighter fabric for the binding. I looked in my brights box and found these strips from a jelly roll. I thought they would kind of give a striped effect. There were 5 different colors of the same design with 2 strips of each color. I was concerned there wouldn't be quite enough length so I added 2 short strips of yellow/orange fabric.

You can see in the above picture that the background of the border is white and not green. See the ghost leaves?

The backing fabric is a very subtle white floral on white fabric. I can't capture the flowers with the phone. The fabric reminds me of the tablecloths my mother used to use for holiday meals.

It feel good to have a long time UFQ finished. 

Here is a link to the Star Dance pattern.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party,  Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Happy Saturday, Oh Scrap

Star Dance is a Flimsy!

The first post about Star Dance was back in 2017 when I started piecing the stars using the color of the month from RSC. In 2018 I appliqued the border and finished the lap quilt. She then went into the 'to be quilted closet'. I did pull her from the closet several times with the intention of hand quilting her but she always argued with me. She said she wasn't finished!

In 2022 I was going to make her larger by adding a border of sawtooth stars, again using the color of the month from RSC. But she said the stars were too large, they didn't blend with the smaller center stars, so then I pieced a lot of shoofly blocks, 200 of them!

It was too breezy outside for pictures so these indoor pictures will have to work.

I had thought to make her large enough to for our bed but I didn't have enough of the border fabric. I purchased the border fabric over a year ago so it's long gone. 

I'll see how much she shrinks after being quilted and washed. I might use her anyway even if she's somewhat small.

Finally she's finished! She's actually bagged and going to the long arm quilter next week! She is ok with machine quilting which is good because I don't think I have enough patience for hand quilting her.

As of now she measures 95" by 105".

Here is a link to more posts about Star Dance. Blogger did not place them in consecutive order.

Here is a link to the Star Dance pattern.

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

SAHRR, Round 5

The block for the 5th round of the 2023 SAHRR is a square in a square block. Of course I'm not making simple square in a square blocks, mine all have pieced centers.

These little stars are extra blocks left from piecing Star Dance.

The next block is made from extra HST's that were in the orphan box. I've always like the broken dishes design so I made one.

This block was originally made for my Nearly Insane quilt. 

Another star from Star Dance.

After I added the triangles to the sides of the blocks, I added sashing to bring the smaller blocks to the same size as the largest block, 10", 9.5" finished.

I've sewn the blocks together and made a row. The applique block was a practice machine applique block that I don't remember making. I didn't add one of the square/square blocks so I would have room for the applique block. There is also another broken dishes block that I just sashed and added.

The dark blue, turquoise, pale blue sashing was leftover border from another quilt.

I didn't think about how awkward it would be to take pictures when I placed the cutting table in front of the display wall. That cutting table is going to get moved sometime, it's on the list at least.

This won't be the exact placement of the rows. I'll make a final decision after the blocks are made for round 6.

Linking to SAHRR Linky Party, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Scrap Patches

What's Happening in 2023?

A year ago I had big quilting plans for 2022. I was really going to sew those quilts that had been on the sometime list. A lot of them didn't happen, so what do I have planned for 2023?

I'm not going to attempt to be as ambitious as I wanted to be a year ago. The for sure projects are . . .

1. Lady Jane is the quilt designated for hand quilting. She needs to be marked then put into the hand quilting frame. The backing is waiting and wool batting will be used. She will be quilted with white thread.

2. Hearts & Wreaths -  The borders need to be marked and then the vine embroidering will start. After that, the leaves will be appliqued.

3. Make some Christmas quilts. I've already pulled fabrics and put them with patterns.

4. I'm NOT going to start any new projects for the RSC this year. I have 3 projects that need to be finished from last year, Star Dance, Dancing Stars and Scrappy Sprouts. Hopefully these will be completed this year.

4. There are several small quilts that are to be machine quilted by me.

5. Maybe this will be the year Writer's Block happens, this quilt has been waiting for so long.

Writer's Block is the from Red, White, and Sometimes Blue book.  I cut strips for this quilt four years ago but never found the time to actually sew anything. Of course my quilt is going to be blue & white. The background fabric was purchased earlier this year. It's a soft white with a gray dot.

I don't know why it's named Writer's Block, the design reminds me of a variation of the Burgoyne Surrounded design. I plan to add an applique border.

6. Finish at least 2 UFQ's besides the RSC projects. There are several.

I think this is a manageable list. We'll see what has happened by the end of 2023.

Linking to Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

2022 Challenges, 6 - 10

 I made a list last December of challenges for the year 2022. Now at the end of 2022, I'm reviewing how many of those challenges I've met. I'll be posting about those challenges all week. As I said in my last post, moving into a new house slowed down the quilting progress.

This post is about challenges 6 - 10. Click on the title of each number to follow a link to a post.

6. School auction flimsy - I decided to combine #2 with #6 and pieced a Blue Ridge Beauty. She is in the process of being hand quilted for the 2023 school auction.

7. Finish ongoing RSC projects -

    Star Dance - All the shoofly blocks have been pieced but no progress since. Hopefully a 2023 finish.

    Scrappy Sprouts - All of the blocks are pieced but no progress since, maybe in 2023?

    Dancing Stars - Again nothing, still in the bag, maybe in 2023?

I've decided I can't start anymore RSC projects until these 3 are finished.

8. Welsh Beauty - hand quilting - The challenge I had issued last December was to be halfway finished with the hand quilting by May. I actually reached the halfway point in March but I finished the hand quilting in October! 

9. Hearts & Wreaths Applique quilt - All of the blocks for the center have been appliqued. Now I need to prep the borders. The borders will take at least a year to applique.

10. UFQ's (unfinished quilts) - Finish at least 1 of them.

Several UFQ's were finished.

A. Another String X flimsy. I did think about keeping this quilt for our own use but then decided to donate it to be knotted for a comforter.

B. Indian Hatchet - I love this quilt. This one is staying here for our own use.

C.  Arrowhead Blocks - This is a small quilt that I've machine quilted. He has gone to a nursing home for use as a lap quilt.

I think I've completed other UFQ's but these were the main ones I thought of.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, 

Purple Shoofly Blocks

I made 19 purple shoofly blocks for my Star Dance quilt. 

Now I have over 200 blocks which is enough to make the border around the center of the quilt. I don't know how fast that border is going to happen though, summer is just a very busy time of year!

The pattern for Star Dance is found here. My Star Dance is going to be larger than the pattern.

Linking to RSC, Oh Scrap