Two Quilts Back from the Long Armer!

I picked up these two quilts from Lora Thursday and got the bindings on them pretty quickly!  I LOVE them!  This one is Jelly Snowflake which was a mystery we did the summer or 2020!  Five years in the making, but worth the wait!

This is Merry Mayhem Mystery # 148 from New Year's Day 2024. For some reason the colors and fabrics in this one just make me happy.  I used the border fabric to pull colors and it really works.

 

Birthdays and Chunky Churn Dashes

 My birthday was last Thursday and I had a really nice day!  Kathy got me the Once Upon a Book Club selection and I saved it to read that afternoon.  If you have never seen this before, you get a book and several gifts to open on certain pages of the book.  The gifts relate to the story.  (If you get this and have not read August's yet, do not scroll down as I do post a picture of what the gifts were--do not want to spoil it for anyone!).  I loved this so much I ordered another one --the classic David Copperfield which I have never read.

 I decided to settle in on a quilt in the backyard with my ice coffee and start reading.  The dogs loved it! Here are the gifts I got.  The book was good "The Last Piece" by Imogen Clark.  Not one I would have picked out on my own, but a nice escape and well developed characters--so much so that when it was over I still wanted to know what happened in the lives of the daughters!

 I have also been sewing and made two Chunky Churn Dash baby quilt tops so far.

Bug is modeling with the quilt

 Kathy also made me a chair for my birthday (we had a pair and a table in AZ and sold them since we knew she could make another set).

 I read in it a bit today and then we painted it Packer green.  Will need some touch up tomorrow.  Kathy will make a second one and a table we will paint yellow too.

 My Mom and Dad stopped by and camped near Milwaukee for four days so we could see them.  We went to their campground twice and played lots of Play Nine.  They came here and toured Hannah and Jeremy's house and hung out here far from the kids since they have been with lots of family in Chippewa and the kids are really protecting my grandbaby--just in case.  Hannah is about 34 weeks along in this picture....it is getting close!

It was nice to have some time with my parents who are now heading back to Arizona early to be with my sister.  Mom hopes to come back when the baby comes, but with Covid and her health I am not sure it will happen.  Mom and Dad gave me a pretty crystal angel for my window and some cash--which was partly spent on the David Copperfield book.  Seriously I was spoiled this birthday and I got to spend it with my parents and Kathy.  Super special since we now live so far apart.

Dr. Scrappy Kathy completed her Jelly Snowflake quilt and it looks great!  The blues were a good color choice for this.  Love it!  

A Flimsy Finish and a Start

I finished the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt top.  Turned out cute and most likely will be quilted by me and become a baby gift.  I never seem to have a shortage of folks who want a baby quilt so I am focused on doing more of those.  To that end, I have been Video Sewing with BJ (and Andrea) and BJ was telling me how much fun she was having with Bonnie Hunter's Chunky Churndash blocks.  That got me thinking I could use my kid fabric and make some more baby quilts!  

I kitted up oodles and oddles.  No counting or anything, just went through my bin and made sets that would work.  Here are the first six blocks...I already have lots more made and today I made the alternate blocks but have not taken more pictures so I guess I better get back to sewing!

Sewing, Gaming and Quarantining Continue

 I needed some cheery sewing so I finally made a Garden Party Table Runner.  I decided to make it to match my quilt (from the Quiltville Cruise) with the green running throughout.  These blocks are really fun to make and come together quickly.

 It is now all layered with batting and backing and ready for me to quilt. Here are Sunshine and Bug who cannot resist getting into the photos.

Someone on Quiltville showed a layout of the Easy Breezy leaders and enders with friendship stars.   I had just been digging in my leftover bin and realized I had a TON of HST's in blue and neutral leftover from BOM's of days past.  So I made 20 blocks and love how it looks.  I also cut some more of the Easy Breezy blocks which are super fun to make!

 I ordered a set of eye spy fabrics on etsy to mix in with what I already have...I have piles of not enough blocks left for several more but need more to round each set out.  I used to belong to a group that did trades for eye spys and wish I could find another one.  So easy to cut out one set from one fabric and mail them centrally where an ANGEL puts them all into sets and mails them back out to everyone.  Anyone have a group like this?  So one of these is already tied (yesterday afternoon while watching Lord of the Rings I) since I was too tired to really get out of bed.  That one will go back to Arizona for the guy who bought our houses' soon to be born son.  He helped load our truck and was such a nice guy that we wanted to do something for him.  The other one I think I will quilt as that is the one I plan to keep here for the grandbabies.

 Hannah and Jeremy came over and played Mysterium and two games of Bang dice with us.  We made fettuccini alfredo and tried to stay cool.  We had two HOT days and now back to windows open and light rain here and there.  I also joined an online solo gaming group and played my first solo game of Kingdomino this week.  I won.  Did not know this was a thing but now am going to try out more of my games that have that option!

 Jelly Snowflake Clue 4 blocks are made.

 Here is Dr. Kathy's (or Scrappy Kathy as she shall now be known as) clue two and three blocks.  Barb, Scrappy Kathy and I sewed for a bit on Saturday and Sunday on FB video.  Really nice to have some company to sew with.

Here is Barb's clue 4.  Thursday the last clue comes out and we can put Jelly Snowflake flimsies together!

Video Sewing with Friends and the Jelly Snowflake Mystery Quilt Block 3

 Today Barb and Dr. Kathy sewed with me over Facebook video.  I got part three of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery sewn up and had to lay everything down to get a guess at what things will look like.  No idea which direction things go in since it is a mystery but fun to play anyway.

The three of us are doing this mystery together so when we can sew on Sundays we try to get together which makes it fun.  Barb got hers done and Kathy is working on part two since she went camping last weekend.
Here is Barb's Part 1 and Part 3.

I also worked on a Garden Party table runner.  I have all the alternate blocks made.  I decided to do them in green (the same as my Garden Party quilt) because I loved it so much.  Looking forward to making the flower blocks!
Barb and I are thinking about doing the Picnic Mystery Quilt by Pat Sloan.  Anyone doing that one?

Sewing, Reading, and Cooking...oh My!

Finished part two of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery quilt.  Clues come out each Thursday.  Barb, Dr. Kathy and I are keeping up.  I know a few of my other quilty friends are doing this one too.  Hard to resist with the ease of this one!

Barb sent me the last block (kangaroo)and I added it into the baby quilt.  Cannot wait to find a local long armer (do you know any in Milwaukee) and get several of these quilted.

We had to know what Sunshine Cupcake Brady (out latest dog addition since we lost Zoey and Daisy within days of each other last summer) really is.  They told us chihuahua mix.  She has taken to me and has become my dog.  Helps me get through all my shots and all that.  Bug is suddenly more with me (she used to hang in bed half the day now hangs near me and Sunshine--think she was sad when her friends died too).  Anyways, this dog turns out to be up to 37% poodle.  We were thinking Corgi.  Crazy!  

 I have been working on my Easy Breezy QOV leaders and enders too and have this many done so far.  They are fun to make.  I need to kit more up though since they are only 6 inches!  I will be needed a lot more to make a decent size QOV.

Kathy has been sewing a bit too.  She has three of her Frolic blocks done (she did not do Unity) and they are looking good.

 Kathy wanted me to make stroganoff (I have not made it in FOREVER) so I used a packet mix and added in real mushrooms.  I cannot eat canned soup unless organic (and we could not find organic with out online shopping...have not ventured in to whole foods or Trader Joe's here so see what they have).  It turned out pretty tasty!

I have finally been able to enjoy reading again.  For the longest time since Covid started I have just not liked anything unless it was true reading.  I am trying to read what is on my shelf for physical books since there are more books than shelf space since we moved.  However, I saw the description for this book and HAD to have it.  It got five stars from me, learned some new words and really loved the story.  Reselling it so hopefully I can justify breaking my own book buying rule!  

New Quilting Studio and Already Sewing!

Super happy with our new house and the decision to make the living room the quilting studio!  We made the dining room the living room and put the kitchen table in the kitchen.  We use every inch of this house and it is cozy and organized.  Took me about ten days to get everything where I wanted it...lots of naps involved and I had to rest a lot more than I would have liked, but it got done and now my reward is sewing!

We had to trash the old ironing board set up, but I liked it so much we bought the same shelves and oriented them a little differently for our space.  Here is a picture of it in progress.

 There are two built in bookshelves on each side of an unusable fireplace so I have quilting stuff on the one side and my keeper books and books to read the future grandbabies on the other side.  Not much really fits underneath in the cabinets as they are not very deep but I used it the best I could.

 Hung all the rulers behind where I sit on the wall.

 This is above the fireplace.  I have my year round sewing tree up.

 The front door has a little alcove with another door and I hung all of my metal quilts (gifted to me by my godson Koi and his mom Tara) FINALLY.  They were not hung at the old house as I had no walls left.

Kathy sits across from me when she is in here.  We each have our own U shaped space.  We bought (and she assembled) two shelves on wheels with drawers and a cabinet.  Each is under our window and helps since we lost the built ins from our old house.

 I put a bulletin board on the back of the Ikea shelf and stuck some stuff on it.  Works for me.

 This is the view from where I sit.  We put quilts in the large cabinet there and stacked more on top.  The quilts to be gifted are in the office along with the seasonal quilts to change out.  They will not all fit in here.  The top drawer has strings and the bottom drawer has tops and backs.

 My daughter is in her third trimester--YAY.  I gave her an eye spy quilt and then I made this one (she picked it from all the Patch Pals patterns.)  This was fun to make but like a puzzle to lay out!

 My friend Barb (in AZ) embroidered the cutest little animals for me to make a quilt from for the baby.  They all have fuzzy minky fabric in them and are soft and super detailed.  This picture does not do it justice, I need to get some close ups.  She gifted me 12 blocks and I decided to use a mystery pattern from a long time ago and it needed 13.  Barb whipped me up a kangaroo and it is in the mail on the way here now.

 I quilted and bound my second Scrappy Tulip quilt (from Mystery Quilts Anonymous fb group) a few days ago.  The first one I gifted to my ex chair at Basha, Marisol and this one I am not sure goes to who.  I like it enough to keep it but I have so many!

 I started the Jelly Snowflake Mystery quilt that Pat Sloan mentioned on her blog.  Info is on   A Quilting Life here.  Some are doing it in Christmas fabric, but I used the only jelly roll I have which is Moon Shine by Tula Pink.  Second clue comes out tomorrow.

 I also quilted three of my Rock Candy tabletoppers that have been done and waiting for that and binding for a long time.  They are in the gift me pile.

 Bonnie Hunter started her new leader and ender Easy Breezy.  I decided to use up a bunch of patriotic scraps and make a quilt of valor.  I kitted up 30 blocks to start in the six inch size.  They are cute!

 I am also still making a house a day. I have 106 so far.  I need to get them up on my design wall (finally redid it, the first one I put up nothing stuck to!) soon so I can get a picture of them all.  Still social distancing and being super careful.