September Color Challenge - Pineapple

This block is for Jen's 2021 Monthly Color Challenge. This year the colors are from fruits and vegetables, and you can read all about it on Jen's blog, PBJ Patterns by Jen right here. The color challenge this month drew inspiration from pineapple, and that is a mouth-watering challenge if there ever was one.

My "yellow" is really more of a yellow-ish cream that doesn't show as warm in the photos.

Here are all the blocks I have so far in this challenge - some are the 6-inch size, and I do need some more of those. (I have to fix the embarrassing cat pulls in my design board!)

Each month Jen provides a pattern for the challenge, and it is free for the month. Be sure to check out the pattern for next month - the color is pink grapefruit! You can find other participants' versions of her block at the linkup right here.

To Do Tuesday 9-28-21

Welcome to To Do Tuesday! It's the last week of September - how did that happen? It's time to discuss the status quo of our projects and make plans for the coming week. If you're in a hurry, head on to the bottom of this post and add your link!

If you haven't participated in To Do Tuesday before, join the fun! Feel free to post about any kind of project(s) you are working on or even one you are contemplating. You don't have to be a quilter! You can be a knitter or crafter or photographer or crocheter or anything that brings you joy and feeds your soul. As Tangina said in Poltergeist  "All are welcome. All welcome."

Lonely spot waiting for Janice Janome to come home

Last week I took my Janome in for service and decided it would be a good time to get some quilts sandwiched and start quilting. Well wouldn't you know, I forgot to piece the backings! So I ended up doing other things in my room. "Janice" should be ready today, so tomorrow I hope to be back in business!

Here were my goals last week:

1. Sandwich Exploding Heart - Nope

2. Sandwich DashAlong - Nope

✅3. Slow stitching - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project Progress - I stitched on RBD

Please ignore gaping holes in the design board, compliments of sweet little Rosie pulling the batting!

Remember the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) in the early part of this year? I found a panel (see above photo) in my stash and will piece it with another fabric I chose for the backing for my flimsy. I love that panel and had forgotten all about it. I am ready to get finish so I can use the quilt during Christmas season!

I also played with fabric pulls and cut out a few pieces for various projects, so all in all it was "kind of" a productive week. I am hoping for more activity when Janice Janome comes home. With that in mind here are my goals for next week:

1. Piece and sandwich Exploding Heart and DashAlong

2. Piece backing for SAHRR Christmas quilt

3. Big stitch, embroidery, and cross stitch at night

4. Catch up on Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail blocks

Now it's time to see what you have been up to! Linkup is below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Quilt Inspiration - Tips And Tutorials

Each month Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing hosts a Tips and Tutorials linky party. In her monthly post she includes links to some great tutorials and invites us to link up any that we have found to be helpful. You can check out all her tutorial posts right here!

Last week I read Sherrie's post about how she had her adorable Salt and Sand quilt in the hoop for tying. Sherrie blogs at Food For Thought, and I asked her if she had any tips for tying. Well she wrote up a tutorial! It's the best tutorial ever for tying a quilt, and she has great photos to click on to see exactly what she is describing. Go read about How To Tie A Quilt right here!

40 year old "quilt" for my husband

Back in the 1980s I made my husband a "quilt" with cheater fabric and a flannel backing - that's it pictured above. Look how long and narrow it is - lol! Since I didn't know how to quilt, I tied it with yarn. After many washings and LOTS of use, most of those ties have disappeared. My son and daughter have always loved that quilt, and it was their standard for a "quilt". So for Christmas in 2018 I made them each a quilt and hand-tied those quilts so they would be "just like Dad's". You can read the details of those quilts right here on my old blog.

Hand-tied quilts for my son and daughter

After I read Sherrie's tutorial I realized I had left out an essential step in order to keep those ties strong throughout the life of the quilt! It involves the use of a second piece of yarn for each tie. I highly recommend you read her post "How To Tie A Quilt" right here.

Thanks to Sherrie for the excellent tutorial and thanks to Kathleen for hosting this event each month! I'm linking this post to Kathleen's link party.

To Do Tuesday 9-21-21

It's To Do Tuesday - time to share the status of your goals and make a list for the coming week. The linkup is below, so join in the fun!

Our area is due a fairly strong cold front today and lower temperatures tomorrow will coincide with the Autumn Equinox. That really puts me in the mood for fall! My autumn fabric love got the best of me when another Squirrel-spiration fought for dominance in my sewing room last week (see photo above). And it won! You can read all about it here.

The "chains" and nine-patches are ready to pair with the solids

Let's see how I did on my goals from last week:

1. Sandwich Exploding Heart - Nope

2. Sandwich DashAlong quilt - Nope

✅3. Slow stitching at night - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project - Progress on RBD big stitching

✅4. Indian Corn blocks - Finished sewing all the components, now to put the blocks together

✅5. Catch up on Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail blocks - Progress. I have three blocks and I need eight.

I took my Janome in for service yesterday, and it won't be ready until next Tuesday. That should give me plenty of time to do my goals for the coming week:

1. Sandwich Exploding Heart

2. Sandwich DashAlong

3. Slow stitching - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project

I can't wait to see what you're up to this week! Please add your link below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Pumpkin Patch Mini Quilt

Pumpkin Patch mini (metal pumpkin purchased at Hobby Lobby last year)

Squirrel-spiration this week came in the form of an ad by the Missouri Quilt Co for their Pumpkin Patch Espresso Ornament Kit. I kept looking at the photo and thinking what a cute mini quilt it would make. With a real "cold" front (50s at night) due here next week, I was perfectly happy to welcome another squirrel invasion, especially since autumn officially starts on Wednesday!

Missouri Quilt Company Ornament Kit

The above photo is Missouri Quilt Co's kit, which is for a 5 inch tall ornament. I wanted a mini that would fit on our bar table, so the easiest conversion for me was to use 2-1/2 inch squares and HSTs. As usual, the most time I spent on this project was choosing scraps!

I wanted to feature a darker leaf against the pumpkin, just like the kit. I used one of my favorite dark brown fabrics for this  - one that I cannot find any more! For the "stem", I found a piece that looked stem-ish.

The backing is a metallic blend, perfect for the metallic thread

For quilting, my first inclination was to use big stitch. But then I found a spool of Superior Metallic in Variegated Gold on my shelf that was perfect. There was a bit of breakage at first, but then I used Superior's suggestion to lower the tension on my Janome to "1" and to use a 90/14 needle, and it sewed flawlessly.

I love this "edible gourd" fussy cut from Carrie Bloomston's Dreamer collection

This table serves as our bar, and the end is the perfect spot for a seasonal mini quilt!

I hope you are doing something fun this weekend!

To Do Tuesday 9-14-21

Welcome to To Do Tuesday, where we share our goals and accomplishments (or delays!) If you want to go ahead and link up and skip my To Do list, just scroll to the bottom of this post.

DashAlong flimsy done!

Last week's goals:

☑ 1. Continue to make blocks for Indian Corn - Progress - I made two more blocks.

☑ 2. Slow stitching at night - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project - Progress - I worked on all three!

☑ 3. Finish and sew together Dash-Along blocks - Done.

4. Sandwich Exploding Heart - No Progress.

Kit in the Corner block from Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail

A Squirrel-spiration that was not on my list took my attention last week, so I am allowing time for it this coming week! Melva Loves Scraps is hosting a Sew Along - Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail - and I finally succumbed to the temptation. You may read more about my inability to resist right here.

My list for this coming week:

1. Sandwich Exploding Heart

2. Sandwich DashAlong quilt

3. Slow stitching at night - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project

4. Indian Corn blocks

5. Catch up on Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail blocks

What do you have to share with us this week? Join the fun and link up below!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

9/11 - Never Forget and DashAlong Update

I intended to post this yesterday, September 11, to remember and honor those who fell on that horrific day 20 years ago. But my husband had a bad reaction to a new med, so I spent the day taking care of him. He is much better today, and he won't be taking that medication any more! We had been watching 9/11 documentaries all week and enjoyed the tributes at college football games yesterday, as well as the emotional pre-game ceremonies at the New York Mets-Yankees game.

Now on to quilty things. This DashAlong began in June, hosted by Kairle Oaks at Virgin River Quilt Company. I did not keep up with the quilt-along but have finally finished the flimsy.

I made a churn dash as one of four basic blocks in my first quilting class in 2010.  I did mine in Christmas prints for a table topper and it sat as a UFO for 8 years after the class. You can read about 2018 finish right here on my former blog. In the photo above, you can see that the churn dash block (lower left) has red HSTs turned opposite the "norm" for a churn dash layout, a rookie move on my part! So it is hard to see it as a churn dash, but I like it anyway.

I chose a Gingham Gardens layer cake and love the colors and prints. Because I used a very light background, I considered putting a sashing between blocks to showcase some of the lighter-value fabrics. But I am planning to keep this quilt for myself, so I like the simple, clean look. The flimsy is a good size at 72 x 72 inches, so I won't add a border.

On the advice of my chief quilt advisor (the DIY guy - he's one step above the kitties), I chose this black floral print from the collection for the backing and found it on sale at Etsy! I bought four yards, which should be enough, and it will be here Monday.

Hope your weekend is going well!

Late To The Party: Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail SAL

I started reading about Pieces of the Santa Fe Trail Sew Along on Wendy's blog several months ago, when Wendy posted some photos of a recent trip to New Mexico. (It's a great post - read it right here!) Melva at Melva Loves Scraps started hosting this SAL in April, and the blocks are inspired by the book Land of Enchantment, written by Melva's distant relative Marian Russell. 

At first I just admired Wendy's blocks, but then I began reading the excerpts on Melva's blog. Marian's memoirs of traveling the Santa Fe Trail as a young girl are evocative and memorable, and I don't use those words lightly. I liked the excerpts, which Melva manually types into her posts, so much that I bought the book. As I read more SAL posts I would occasionally save a pattern (they are free for 6 weeks), and this morning I downloaded the rest of them at Melva's Payhip shop (a bargain at $2.00 each!)

The first pattern in the series is called Kit in the Corner, so-named for the mention of a kitten in the excerpt read about it right here. Nine-patch blocks have always been a favorite of mine, and I like the little "kitten" in the corners of this nine patch. 

Back in 2019, I ordered several fabrics from the Elizabeth's Dowry line by Marcus Fabrics with the intention of making a quilt inspired by an original Mariners' Compass quilt from the 1800s. I never got around to making it, but when I was looking for fabrics for this SAL I was so happy to find this stash from which to pull!

I even have a panel from the same line that should work as part of the backing!

I'm planning to finish the first eight blocks by the time Block #9 becomes available on September 23. If I can catch up, then you know it's not too late for you to join in the fun!

To Do Tuesday 9-7-21

Welcome to To Do Tuesday, where we share our goals, accomplishments, projects on hold, and anything else we think is share-worthy! If you'd like to skip to the linkup, you'll find it at the end of this post. If you would like to add the To Do Tuesday "button" to your sidebar or blog post, you can grab the code in my sidebar.

Indian Corn blocks

As usual, I got side-tracked by Squirrel-spiration, this time in the form of a pattern called Indian Corn, and you can read more details here. I did finish two of the 20 blocks, and I like the results.

Completed embroidery block! You can get an idea how the embroidery will look with the blocks.

These were my goals from last week, and they were carried forward from the week before:

1. Work on piecing a backing for Exploding Heart - Progress - I found some nice fabric at Joann's to complete the backing, and I also bought some pretty binding! Tomorrow I plan to finish piecing the panel I made and start on sandwiching.

2. Start on Welcome Autumn cross stitch - Very little progress - I attached the linen to the frame - lol!

3. Continue to big-stitch on RBD quilt - No progress. The RBD quilt has been nothing but a cat bed this week.

4. Continue to stitch and piece on Christmas project - Progress - I finished one embroidery block (see photo above) and traced out another one.

5. Continue to make Dash-Along blocks - No Progress. However, I've been reviewing sashing options for the blocks, and I hope to have a post up soon.

Here are my goals for the coming week and hopefully will have some completed by next Tuesday!

1. Continue to make blocks for Indian Corn

2. Slow stitching at night - Welcome Autumn, RBD quilt, and Christmas project

3. Finish and sew together Dash-Along blocks

4. Sandwich Exploding Heart

Now let's see what you've been up to this past week and cheer on those lists for next week! (It's my very first link party, so if you encounter any issues, please email me at rubymitch12@yahoo.com)

UPDATE: For those of you who encountered a closed link and notified me, thank you and please try again! A big thank you to Roseanne of Home Sewn By Us for all her kind and patient support. 💖

Add your link to the Inlinkz party!

Click here to enter

Labor Day Weekend 2021: Squirrels Welcome!

Somehow "Squirrel-spiration" entered my sewing room last week in the form of plaid and autumn, so guess what I will be doing on this Labor Day weekend!

I saw this pretty cross stitch on the Instagram feed of @fqsxstitch (Fat Quarter Shop Cross Stitch), and was squirrel-spired by the colors. I knew I had to make something!

I love all these colors! Don't they remind you of bolts of fabric? 😍

I am very susceptible to fall colors, and I wanted something plaid-ish, so I pulled out one of my older (2003) pamphlets by Teri Christopherson of Black Mountain Needlework called Mad About Plaid and found a great pattern for a quilt called "Indian Corn". It's the perfect name because those are all the colors in the cross stitch. 

I cut all the neutral pieces yesterday, and today I will get to cut the fun colors!

I hope all of you are doing something fun this Labor Day weekend!