Pincushions

As I was digging around the sewing studio looking for orphan blocks to use in making shopping bags, I found two 4.5″ Lemoyne Stars that I had hand stitched many moons ago.

I made two muslin pouches and filled them with crushed walnut shells.

Then I put those pouches inside the Lemoyne Star pouches that I had sewn.

They sure make cute little pincushions!

And they aren’t orphans anymore!

I made my Lemoyne Stars from the free Diamond/Triangle/Square Collection from Inklingo.  Try it!

March OMG Update

My March goal was to come up with a plan to put together a round robin/friendship strip quilt.

You can read about this UFO project here.

I thought I would unify the strips by adding paper pieced trees to the sides of each strip.  This would make them all the same width.

You can see the post about my plan here.

I have completed all of the paper-pieced tree blocks.

And sewn them to the ends of each row.

I wish I had a better way to show the rows to you, but I don’t have a design wall.

I don’t have enough floor space either.

I managed to sew 190 four patch blocks this month, too!  They are pinned in groups of 10 (easier for me to count them).

My plan is to sew the four patch units into sashing/border rows to add between the friendship rows.

That may not happen for awhile, since the next number drawn for April, may be a different UFO project to work on. 

But I feel good.

I’ve made progress!

I am linking up with OMG at Elm Street Quilts and Patchwork Times.

Friendship Row by Row – March OMG Update

My March OMG is to work on a friendship row by row quilt from 1999.

Don’t have a clue why I took the pic at this angle!

Since the rows are uneven lengths, I decided to piece tree blocks to both ends of each row.

I used my EQ7 program to come up with a plan and the sizes of the tree blocks.

The rows won’t necessarily be pieced in this order; I just needed a plan to make them all the same width.

I’ve printed out the patterns for the tree blocks, and I’ve paper-pieced three blocks so far.

It has been a long time since I’ve paper pieced anything.  Some unsewing has happened.

This is going to take a while.  Maybe the rest of the month!

Meantime, I’ve been playing around with border ideas.  I think I am going to piece four patches. 

A lot of four patches.

Probably another month’s worth.

Ignore the colors in the above settings.  The colors have nothing to do with the plan. 

And I know that the trees are not symmetrical.  I don’t care.  They aren’t symmetrical in nature, either.

March OMG 2017 Goal

Patchwork Times announced the UFO number for March.  #5 was chosen.

My #5 UFO is an old row by row Round Robin project.

It is from 1999.

The rows have silk ribbon embroidery, various applique methods and piecing.  The nine group members had plenty of freedom to be creative.

I have journal pages with the thoughts from each member.

The one below is written from my young (at the time) daughter.

I have pictures of the rows that we all created, as well as the picnic gathering to celebrate our friendship.

It is long past time to let the memories out of the box and display them in a quilt.

I‘ve given myself a couple of months to work on this project.  For March, I hope to come up with a setting and get the top sewn together. 

I am linking up with OMG, at Elm Street Quilts, and Patchwork Times.

February OMG 2017 Goal

Patchwork Times announced February UFO goal number 9 which happened to be a threadplay project for me:

I decided it needed some ‘spark’, so I added gold thread to the ribbon.

I am using Sulky rayon thread for the free motion embroidery.

I used a simple meandering loop (with Sulky rayon thread) for the free motion quilting.

Leftover fabric was used to piece the backing.

I am happy to have this one finished!

It has already been gifted!

I have spent the rest of the month continueing scrap control.

I feel like I’ve gotten a hold of Mary Poppins’ carpetbag; my little scrap bags seem very deep!  Ha, ha!

However, I am gaining a whole lot of useable strip sizes…all neatly stored and ready to use.  I feel so much better!

Just the reds, pinks, purples and browns to sort.

I am linking up with Patchwork Times and One Monthly Goal.

February UFO 2017 Goal

Number 9.

9 is the number that was drawn for the monthly goal over at Patchwork Times.

My #9 is old.

Really old.

The wall hanging began by playing around with Libby Lehman’s threadplay technique.  Then I was asked to teach it.

I have no idea how long ago that was.  A long time ago.  I haven’t taught in years.

And I have no idea what I’m going to do to finish it.

I am linking up with Patchwork Times and One Monthly Goal.

January One Monthly Goal 2017

Yay!  My January UFO goal was to finish quilting Aunt Sukey Spins Off. 

I am so happy to say that the quilting is done, but so is the binding.  This quilt is finished and out of the sewing studio!!!

I am linking this finish up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts and Patchwork Times.

If you own EQ7, then you can get the project file for this quilt by clicking on the Freebies tab at the top of this blog.

Aunt Sukey Spins Off Part 1

Aunt Sukey Spins Off Part 2

Aunt Sukey Spins Off Part 3

Aunt Sukey Spins Off Part 4

Aunt Sukey Spins Off Part 5

My scrap bags are all full.  Each and every one of them.

I have decided to use Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User’s System.

It is quite surprising to me how many strips, strings and crumbs I have managed to cram into one bag.

This is going to take a while.