Weather, Gypsy Quilts, and Other Quilty Things

Here in far north Texas we have been dodging EF3 tornadoes, hail, lightning, and floods. Somehow our area has remained unscathed with a little bit of hail and wind, but mostly good spring rain. Some of the communities to the west were not so lucky! The radars above were from four days of Radarscope screenshots as weather approached, and the radar capture on the right shows velocity radar just about the time an EF3 was hitting the town of Celina, 30 miles southwest of us.

In between checking the radar, life in the sewing room continues with fits and starts, and here are two flimsies made from the Gypsy pattern from Villa Rosa Designs. This was one of the patterns available for the Villa Rosa Fast and Fun Blog Hop. If you like fast stash busters, I highly recommend this pattern. The pattern has been renamed as "Onstage", and you can find it right here.

For the first Gypsy, I centered my choices around a dark blue floral from the Riley Blake Indigo Garden collection, some Decostitch by Art Gallery, and the rare and wonderful PB&J collection by Basic Grey. (Side note: I recently saw a PB&J jelly roll on Etsy for $140.00! - gasp!) I made the flimsy bigger with borders. You can see the batting and binding ready to go in the photo above.

For the second flimsy,I was inspired by Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing, who made a blues-y version of Gypsy. I decided on blue-ish purples with a bit of green thrown in. I left it at the original size, and I am hand quilting it. Slowly. And with huge stitches that are intended to be small and even. But this is a good quilt to experiment with hand stitching, because it is going to a sweet, wheel-chair bound lady who will simply be thrilled to receive it.

Since I finished my Villa Rosa Blog Hop quilt, I discovered an HST that decided to go another way (see above photo inside red heart), and so I have affectionately chosen the name Rogue Star for this quilt! I refuse to say it is a mistake. It reminds me of me, as I have so often decided to go another way rather than do the "expected" thing - lol!

I continue to lag behind on two of my sew-alongs. In the photos above:

1) Pieces Of My Life by Melva at Melva Loves Scraps - a post is coming soon!

2) I only have two blocks for the Mercantile Sampler SAL I am doing with Karen, but there is no hurry!

3) A BOM (Block of the Month) by Joy of Days Filled With Joy called Say It With Flowers, and I am caught up with it!

I am thinking about starting another SAL - I've had total fail on my vow to stay away from sew-alongs in 2024, so I might as well add another - right? This one is called Ticker Tape Heart. It is a 3-day challenge starting May 31, and it just looks different and fun. The block reminds me of Diann's pretty Crumb Hearts quilt!

Family News and Sewing Stuff!

Grandson Brandon and Raegan are engaged!

Brandon said she started crying as soon as he got down on one knee

Proud parents! That's our son and daughter-in-law on the right.

THE ENGAGEMENT

Our grandson Brandon surprised his sweetheart Raegan with a  proposal in the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Golden, Colorado on March 17! Both sets of parents were in on the surprise.

Raegan recently graduated from Oklahoma University law school and is studying for the Bar. In August she will begin a job in Dallas, where Brandon already lives and works. She is such a sweet girl! They are planning an April 2025 wedding!

THE GRADUATION

Our beautiful Granddaughter #1 - Sydney - graduated from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX last week. We drove down to our old stomping grounds, attended the ceremony with our son and family.

Our oldest grands - Samantha (Sammy) - soon to be 21, Sydney - 23, and Brandon -25

All of us ate at Olive Garden, then we spent the night with our son and daughter-in-law in The Woodlands.

Not sure why poor Papaw was shoved over to the curb to awkwardly straddle it - lol!

A FINISH!

While we were there I was able to give #1 Grandson Brandon his Texas A&M quilt before he headed back to Dallas. He graduated Summa Cum Laude back in 2021, so this is overdue! He was very pleased and even texted me late that night to tell me how much he loved it - words a grandma loves to hear!

#1 Quilt Holder on duty

The back was (obviously) a Texas A&M print

I used this disappearing nine-patch pattern. I struggled with the layout for this and did not want to add more blocks, so the quilt only finished at about 55" x 70" after laundering. It is not quite long enough for Brandon's tall frame, but I have a feeling it will be used as decor rather than warmth! The binding (didn't get a close-up) is the same as the block background pictured above, and I used Spirit #805, a red and black variegated thread by Superior Threads, for quilting. I used the Drift panto  from Urban Elementz for a quilting pattern, although I widened the area between the rows.

 

Birthday Cake block and Angel Star block

SEW-ALONGS

In spite of my resolve to not engage in any sewalongs this year, I have succumbed to three! These are my blocks for the Fat Quarter Shop SewAlong Mercantile. I am joining in with Karen at  Quilts Etc. Karen is a great resource for me (thank you Karen!) as I try something new-to-me. Lori Holt is hosting the sew-along and has tutorials available on her blog.

These is one completed block and the start of the next one for Joy's block of the month and my second sew-along, Say It With Flowers. The little centers are easy to embroider. I hope to have a quilt from this, but I have a concern. Have any of you had any color-bleeding with floss when it is laundered? I have color catchers and wonder if that would keep that from happening.

My third sew-along is Pieces Of My Life with Melva at Melva Loves Scraps (see below)

Left - Flimsy sneak peek and Right - Pieces of My Life blocks

COMING UP

One of my Villa Rosa Quilt Hop flimsies will be a quilt soon. And I plan to catch up with Pieces of My Life memory blocks this week. You can find details of my first memory block post right here.

Hope you are enjoying your week!