Hodpodge!

On Easter we went to Hannah and Jeremy's.  I got a semi good picture of Hazel and I...she tends to not want to pose when I have makeup on!  We played Doomlings while the kids napped which was fun.

I got a picture of my Friends All Around quilt outside finally.

I sewed with Becky and Barb last Thursday and Becky was working on her Merry Mayhem mystery from NYD #148 so Barb and I were trying to find ours on the blog and I realized neither made it there.  So here is my finished (back in January) mystery!  I do like how it came out.

Kathy had surgery on her neck last week Wednesday.  She had to be opened on both sides.  Her sister came out from New York for five days to help us out and cheer Kathy.  Her granddaughter Ayla is having a baby in July, they plan to name her Luna Mae.  So I sent some books and toys that Indie is too old for now (or that we did not need) since Indie is sitting up for Luna.  I also managed to tie and bind this eye spy quilt in one evening when we realized she was leaving the next day!  

I also let Kelly (Kathy's sister) pick out a baby quilt from the three I had done and she chose this one.  So Luna has two quilts coming her way.

My new favorite solo game (which can be played with up to four people) is Regicide!  It can be played with a regular deck of cards and the directions are free online on BGG.  I love it so much I bought the deck as I love the art.  I have played this game 38 times in the past two weeks.  Not bored yet!

Yesterday I sewed up my A Quilting Life BOM in yellow for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Loving this double check off each month.  I took me til the 11th to sew them since I have been more fatigued than usual and doing more as Kathy is not able to do all she usually does.  

I am doing the bonus HST's on these each month.  I always iron them as I go (learned from having a huge basket of them unironed at one point) though I do not trim them as I go.  They do wind up getting used.  

 

Friends All Around!

I added twenty more blocks to Friends All Around.  It is now big enough to go on the back of the couch for a summer quilt.  I think the top is done, but giving it some time before I decide for sure.

                                         

I also printed out the label (and one for the most recent Quiltville quilt--I am behind three or four labels there) and redid the math to make the backing bigger for my longarmer.  I need to piece it together so I can get it quilted.

I am currently working on Moth in the Window blocks.  I have 42 out of 81 made.

Happy National Quilting Day!

I participated in the National Quilting Day sewalong on the Modern Quilt Studio page.  We sewed Friends all Around.  Here is my first block.  I originally wanted to make a baby quilt so I only did twenty blocks.  I love it so much I decided to add twenty more and we will see from there.

                                        

I also FINALLY started my second Moth in the Window quilt!  Hazel laid them out for me on Friday.

Then I laid them out!

                                        

I have made five more since then.  The one below has my Dad's shirt in it.  Love seeing it in my quilts! These blocks are like potato chips, you cannot make just one!

 

Indigo Way is a Flimsy, a Wedding, and my RSC!

I am all caught up on A Quilting Life's BOM and my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2024.  I went back and made a second January block in green and then made two blocks in purple for March.  Loving these scrappy blocks!

For Christmas Becky sent me a Halloween table runner.  It arrived in early February I think, but accidentally went to our old Milwaukee address.  The people there took it in their house and their dog got to the package.  They thought it was not damaged, but one green square was ripped apart.  I did not want to mention it to Becky (I love this table runner) so I got a spider and sewed it over the top.  Looks even better!  I have one more smaller spider that I might just add to the other side!

Last weekend my goddaughter (and niece from ex hubby's side) got married nearby.  She lives in Milwaukee.  Kelsey and Tony have been together for ten years and finally decided to marry.  She was a beautiful bride and I predict many happy years for the two of them!  Hazel was the flower girl which was super cute.  

I held Indie for about ninety minutes (the whole ceremony and some of the dinner/reception) and as far as I know there are no pictures of it.  Kathy had her for five minutes, but I got a picture.  Indie is such a snuggler and a happy baby.  She has a helmet til April for a slightly wrongly shaped head.  It is pretty much fixed now.  She looks so cute with her helmet and when we take it off we barely recognize her.  She wears it 23 hours a day.

Here are Kelsey and Tony with Talkin Turkey which I gave them for their wedding.  It looks like they love it!  This was a hard one to part with, but I can see they appreciate it! 

                          

Now on to my big finish!  I had two days in a row of sewing this week!  Indie started daycare so I have the girls two days a week now (instead of a third day with Indie) so I am recovering a bit better and can sew more.

I had the top together the end of February and was putting off trimming it and getting the borders on. I did not follow the directions correctly as I thought I could take a shortcut, haha!  So I had to add a partial unit to the end of my border to make it work out.

My corners are not great and I am not sure this is perfectly square, but Indigo Way is done.  I love how the colors came out.
 

There is not enough room to lay this out in the living room.  I had to move furniture, and it is still on top of a chair leg.  So happy to have this one done!

Secret Agent Mystery and Indigo Way Mystery Coming Along!

Here is the last clue for the Secret Agent Mystery Quiltalong  We had to cut things apart and do a bit of sewing before putting our top together.

I ironed most of my seams open since I had to pin like never before to make things line up just so.  I redid several blocks if they were off by more than a 16th of an inch.  

I did press all along, but it still needs another good press before quilting.  Here is my completed top.  I had no trouble with the first half of this, but the second half (the next day) was a bear.  I sewed the parts backwards on the right side bottom and had to take them all apart and do them again.  I felt like I did it the same as the day before, but clearly I did not!  I also did not use the right blocks in the right side (we had alpha a and alpha b type blocks but I used both a's in the top half, which somehow worked out (though the seam is in a different spot, see cherry corner block inside the yellow eye break strip) but in the second half of the quilt one block would not work without unsewing and fixing.  So this may just be the hardest quilt top I have ever assembled!  

I love it anyway!  I am so excited to tick transparency quilt off of my bucket list, and I hope to make another transparency quilt in the future now that I have some experience with it.

This past weekend I participated in my fourth online reading retreat with the Booktube Besties (and 50 other people) and it was so much fun as always!  I completed this book and this fun puzzle.  This is the bookmark they sent us.  We made a friendship bracelet, and we did a book exchange.  I got "Bride" by Ali Hazelwood in the mail today for that.

Yesterday (I no longer have Indie on Mondays as she now goes to daycare) I finally was able to assemble Indigo Way!  It needs trimming and borders but is coming along nicely.  I thought this would be tough to assemble since one of the blocks is turned differently every row, but despite not being able to lay it out it went together well!  I only had to unsew two sets of end blocks. One row I put on backwards and the other was when I got to the two centers.  Other than that it was great!  

I need to press the center parts on this one too!

 

Game Day Mystery and More!

Today I sewed online with BJ and Barb.  Here is my Game Day Mystery from Cuts and Bolts Facebook group

                                              

Here is Barb's.  BJ is making a larger one so no picture yet.

                                                

In between clues I worked on my Secret Agent mystery.  I had pinned everything very carefully and so it was easy to sew things up acurately.  The reveal is this Friday, I cannot wait!  I am loving that we are starting to see the transparency happening here!

I even had enough time to recut, pin, and resew my X-ray block.  If you look carefully you can see which one was pinned.  The other one will be left out of the quilt.

                                    

I also had time to cut and sew two of the A Quilting Life BOM blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I plan to make another green block and then do two a month, I think.

 

Two Almost Finishes and My Favorite Reads of 2023!

I quilted and bound my three little snowmen on Friday.  Hazel has pinkeye and an ear infection, so they kept her home and Indie was content to watch me sew in the morning.  I am waiting on some tiny black buttons (would you believe I did not have one matched set among all my buttons!) to make their eyes.  

Last night, I quilted my snowflake quilt.  Today I will bind it, I think.  
                                                 

I read 327 books in 2023.  This is a record for me.  My favorites this year (not including rereads) were:

This reading year is off to a good start too!