Unity -- A Sew In Place QA with Bonnie Hunter Part 1

This morning I couldn't sleep.  No, not because of the problems of the world, but because a certain 12 year old was up and walking around the house with his flashlight because the bulb burnt out in his Spiderman light... 

I got up for a bit and finished sewing the medallion center of my Unity QA quilt with Bonnie Hunter.

I have decided that I'm not going to pick fabrics or worry about color placements so much on this quilt.  I am working from my neutrals scrap bin.  I did use the same fabric to frame the medallion center.  I love it already!  That's what matters.  I know I'm adding a new project to my long list, but I am just being tugged to play along with this QA.  We're all in this together.

You can find the instructions for this on Bonnie's blog, Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

WIP Wednesday 3.31.2020

Here's what happened this week.  I finished putting the Sand Castles quilt top together.  This is a pattern by Bonnie Hunter in her book, String Frenzy.

I decided to start the new Bonnie Hunter sorta mystery quilt called the Sew In Place Unity Quilt Along.  I am going to make an all neutral quilt.  I will using the scraps from this bin that is in my sewing area.  I'm not going to stress about picking colors.  All I need are pieces that are large enough.
I'll press the scraps, throw them on my Accuquilt dies, crank and sew.  That's it.  Little thoughts...

I will most likely use the Bonnie Hunter pieces above as leader/enders for my SSSSQ (with Kevin the Quilter.)  I started that project at the end of summer in 2019.  It's time to continue.  I finished this instruction this morning.

Here's the pieces of the SSSSQ that I had done that were stored in this cute hat box.

I made a few more stitches on Grandma's dresser scarf.

My chickens have been super happy that I am home because they get to free range when I can watch them and keep them safe from predators.




My husband was wearing a shirt I bought for him at Goodwill yesterday.  Our son took this picture.

Every day for 2020 someone in our family takes a picture with an older camera with an SD card in it.  Here's the picture from yesterday.  Our son is getting better at taking pictures than I am.  :)

It was warm on the weekend.  Sunday it was 72 degrees.  I had time to work in my flowerbed.  It much colder (in the mid 40's) on Monday and Tuesday.  Brrr again.






I currently have 69 on-going projects.    One finished this week...a new one was added.

Pieces Still Need to be Cut & Sewn

1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from Mama Spark's World 

2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)

3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt

4.  Picadilly Circle

5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)

6.  Go Four It! -- Scrappy 4-patches started as leader/ender June 2017

7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) -- hand work-- found the book 8/8/19!

8.  Parallelogram Strings -- 2019 String Along at Humble Quilts, started 1.31.19
9.   Leah Day Building Blocks QA
10.  Jelly Roll Rug
11.  Classic Meets Modern BOM
12.  Mod Mod QA (turning this one into a baby quilt) (from block Lotto, mostly circles w/lines)

13.  Owl's Well That Ends Well (RSC19 project started 1.26.19)

14.  Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery (started Summer 2017) 

15.  Temperature QA (2019 block-a-day according to high and low temps--changed to table topper.)

16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)

17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)

18.  Cabins at the Lake (from Fons & Porter Magazine) (only one house block complete.)

19.   2.5" Scraps from Dani making "cracker" blocks

20.  Sand Castles -- Bonnie Hunter string quilt started January, 2019 -- an RSC project

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a second quilt.)

23.  Set of note cards and envelopes

24.  Simply Summer Sensational QA with Kevin the Quilter 2.5" blocks (started 6.27.19)

25.  Slabs with White Rectangle (RSC14 started -- need blocks each month)

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March, 2017 (Will make baby quilt.)

27.  Kevin the Quilter 2019 Mystery Quilt -- SSSSQ, 1.5" squares

28.  2015 Orange, pink, grey kite blocks (from Accuquilt die, RSC17)

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA (started again with Angie at Gnome Angel, August 2017) (2019 QA)

31.  Kathleen Tracy’s 2019 Mystery Quilt -- Facebook QA started in March, 2019. 

32.  2016 Plus Blocks (from left over pieces of Soul Searching blocks)

33.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds

34.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019) RSC19

35.  Kevin the Quilter 2019 Mystery Quilt -- SSSSQ, 2.5 " squares

36.  Gingerbread Men pattern by Edyta Sitar started November, 2019

37.  Linen & Threads Mystery SAL, Started 1/1/20 for my sew-to-go bag.

38.  Dresser Scarf (my grandma's printed WIP from the 70's) 1/1/20 for my sew-to-go bag.

39.  Veggie Patch (from Katie Mae Quilts)

40.  A Year of Blackwork, Peppermint Purple SAL (started 3.17.20 -- Coronacation distraction)

Blocks Still Need to be Made

1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

2.  Scrap Crystals (working on blue pieces for RSC15)

3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

4.  Drunkard's Path Variation baby quilt

5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt (my seams don't match Julianne's seams...)

Blocks are made but need to be sewn together (and/or some sashing)
1.  Block Swap Adventure Orange/Yellow Sampler (2011-2012)
2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby
3.  Orange/Blue Fish Blocks (that I won)
4.  Split Stars (blocks won from Block Lotto; October, 2012)
5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)
6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto, February, 2013)

7.  Fortune Teller (RSC14 started)--It's not long enough...needs 4 more blocks

8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt 

9.   Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blocks 

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks (New QA starting 5/7/17 Gnome Angel)

11.  Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18

12.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May, 2018 sew-to-go bag)

13.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17.)

14.   Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN.  It's the Dot Dot Dash Bag. (new to the list April, 2018)

Quilts back needs to be made (tops are done) 

1. Card Trick (pink and blue) HUGE charity quilt for local quilt guild
2. Hunter green large (bubbly -- will be a challenge to longarm) charity quilt for the local guild
3. Bubble Gum pink and navy charity quilt for local quilt guild
4. Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Quiltville Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018
5.  Soul Searching -- Julianne sent it to me 8/29/19!!!

6.  Wings of Spring -- Block Lotto win 3.31.19

Ready to longarm

1.  O - H - I - O quilt 2.5" blocks

2.  Blue & 4-Patch Customer Quilt (CM)

3.  Kim Diehl's Short & Sweet from her book Simple Charm (Started August, 2017 for to-go bag.)
4.  Gingerbread Men (a slow stitching applique project started October, 2019.)

I'm linking up with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers

SSSSQ -- Clue #3?

The next project I decided to work on is my SSSSQ -- Clue #3.  Kevin the Quilter led us in this fun QA.  Work got in the way as school started for me and it was set aside.  NOW is the time to work on it again as I think of Kevin and his travels and hope he is well.

It has been in a cute hat box that my sister-in-law gave me.  Here's where I left off:

I saved the instructions on my computer on my monkey tail USB thing...  It's called Intro to Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt (I need to start doing that now because I forget where I saved so many fun and different projects and under what name...)  It can also be found at Kevin the Quilter's blog post here.

In my version, I am using pink scraps in place of Kevin's batiks and green scraps in place of Kevin's neutrals.

Okay... I need to learn to make notes when I put a UFO away so that I don't have to do a lot of research when I pull it back out.  (We'll see how I stick to that in the future.)  I am tempted to start Bonnie Hunter's mystery project that started today.  You can see it on Bonnie's blog, Quiltville's Quips & Snips!  It's sooooooo tempting...  I know I'm not going to be able to resist...

Anyway...  from clue #3 on Kevin's blog it looks like I left off on page 17/34.  That's why I had that one unit on the bottom left with the three green and one pink 2.5" square and the one strip of three pinks in the middle with a green on each end.  Now I know where I am.

Sand Castles Flimsy Is Complete

I finished my Sand Castles flimsy yesterday!  Sand Castles is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

It was super windy yesterday.  It was exercise running around the quilt to take a photo without a corner flying up or a side rolling in.  But I got it.

I will have to grab some big pieces of stash and make a back sometime soon.  It's almost time to be able to longarm.  It got up to 72 degrees here in Ohio yesterday.  It's only 42 this morning.  Brrr.

I am 2/3 finished with my flowerbeds.  I was hoping to share a picture of the finished one here today, but tomorrow is another day.  It's a little gloomy out this morning even at 8am.  It's still windy.  Looks like a great day for some to "home school" and then sew.

I can show you my first case of poison ivy for 2020...  Do you have a favorite home remedy for it?

This angle kinda makes Owen look distorted... I was standing up on a rock when I took it.   He's showing me how much mud I splashed on him while he was in the wagon behind the four-wheeler.  Wanna know a secret?  I did it on purpose.  He's not a big fan of having stuff on him such as paint, mud, tape,  bandaids.... (It's a sensory thing.)  He complained at first and then realized that it's okay.  By the third trip to dump the wagon he wanted me to go faster through the mud.  YEAH!  Mission accomplished.  He even has a dot of mud on the tip of his nose.  LOL.  Oh he was such a great helper yesterday.  He loves being home with both parents for sure.

Honey Gold

Have you been buying much on eBay since we started social distancing?  I have been using Honey Gold for over a year.  There's no fee to join and you get credit for using it each time.  It also helps you locate coupon codes on other sites.  I get small discounts on stuff I'm going to purchase anyways.  Here's a link:  https://www.joinhoney.com/

Use this code for possible additional savings:   joinhoney.com/ref/yo3k3c5

Disclaimer -- I do get a $10 gift card if two people sign up.

Linen & Threads SAL -- Slow Sunday Stitching 3.29.20

Just in time for the next clue I finished stitching the Linen & Threads SAL clue for March.

I also had time to arrange one of the Goodwill projects I found.  Although it has a $1 sticker on it, the kit was only $1.49/pound.  I have no idea how much it weighs, but I'm sure it's only an ounce or two.  This is the first kit I purchased that had the embroidery floss organizer included.  Neat, huh?

My outdoor plan for now is to work in my flowerbeds.  This is what it looked like in August, 2019, when everything is grown up with all the leaves out.



I made it outside yesterday to work in my big flowerbed of perennials between the rain storms.  When I went out in the morning there was lots rain, thunder, lightening and some non-damaging hail.  Then it got pretty warm (mid 60's).  When I started the flowerbed looked like this:

Here's a close-up shot of my flowerbed.  There's a lot of briers in there!  The bushes are overgrown.

Here's my view down to the garden/chicken area.  I can still watch for predators and keep an eye on the chickens from here as I take my 4-wheeler and wagon full of stuff to dump.

The helper kept going back and forth between what I was doing and what Dad was doing.

Every year I trim these shrubs waaaaaay back (except for the rhododendron).  You can see that I got about one third of the bed cleaned out.  Don't worry about those buckets...  I'll get them next time.

Meanwhile my Sweetie set up a make-shift curtain and some cardboard so that Owen didn't get welder's flash.  (Welder's flash is harmful to eyes and causes damage and a burning sensation if you stare at the welding area without protective lenses or a welding helmet.)  It was raining pretty good when I stopped cleaning the flowerbed.  I was done for the day.  My husband asked me if I wanted to "burn some sticks".  This is a stick welding reference.  You probably don't know this, but I am a certified welder.  Back in my day I was the welding supervisor for Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corporation in Orrville, Ohio.  It was an awesome, awesome company!  They moved to Virginia.  I did not.  I'm thankful I stayed here.

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Scrap Happy Saturday Sand Castles

I thought for sure I would have this quilt top together.  I'm distracted by things in the world.  I'm also just going outside to pick up sticks, work in the yard, play in the flowerbeds, home school the kid.

I did get five rows of my Sand Castles quilt put together.  This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

This quilt is laying on our bed, of course.  With all three of us home I can't use my "design floor".  It is on top of my 1052 tumblers quilt that I totally love.  Last week when I started putting the blocks together I really didn't care for this quilt as much as others.  Now that the rows are starting to go together it is starting to grow on me--just like my dear bloggy/quilty friend, Joy, of The Joyful Quilter, told me it would.  I always love the friendship and encouragement of the people in our groups.

I'm linking up with Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for The RSC20.  Grab a cup of coffee or something and come look at all the inspirational and colorful projects going on.



Mr. Sunshine was super excited to have his first video chat with his teacher from school yesterday.

I did make him a cake to celebrate his YouTube followers.  It was followed by a better cake that wasn't so dry.  Woohoo!  He has 15 subscribers now.  He's so excited.  You can find us at:

TheShahann

Thank you for those that hit the subscribe button in this group!  It really made his day!