Another Little Finish

 I finished all the hand stitching on this little piece.  It measures 15" square.

The story behind this little piece is that it is something that my friend, Betty, would work on while she and her husband would travel in their RV.  Betty's husband got sick and passed away.  Betty couldn't bear the memory of working on it and she gave them to me.  Then Betty had a stroke and passed away herself.  It is a two-piece set.  These are in the memory of Betty.

It was nice to have something so small to take with me in my sew-to-go bag--even if I've been working on it for about a month.

This is my 12th finish this quarter.

2026 finishes -- 12

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl -- Needs sashing sewn and put together

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs sashing

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Tall Shoofly Block Lotto Win -- blocks need sewn together

11.  Sail Away crib quilt -- finished 2/26/26, 10th finish

12.  Aqua/Brown HST -- finished 1/30/26, 7th finish this quarter

13.  Aqua/Brown arrow crib quilt -- finished 2/12/26, 9th finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project -- 2 fish sewn

15.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Bubble Gum Pink/Blue Quilt -- finished 1/23/26, 6th finish

19.  Green king-sized quilt -- finished 2/6/26, 8th finish

20.  Green king-sized quilt #2 (problem child won't lay flat) -- finished 1/10/26, 3rd finish

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Noel -- finished 1/15/26, 4th finish

24.   Zip It Sew Along -- on the longarm frame

25.  True Blue Sew Along (starts 1/15/26) -- all blocks made; starting the strip-pieced corners

26.  Kawandi 16.5" x 20" -- finished 3/6/26, 11th finish

27.  Cameo Rose embroidery quilt -- finished 1/18/26, fifth finish

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt -- hand stitching the binding in the evenings during tv

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

33.  RSC UFO (six blocks for a crib-sized quilt)--finished 1/8/26, 2nd finish

34.  Betty House #1 -- finished 1/7/26 -- 1st finish

35.  Betty House #2 -- finished 3/25/26 -- 12th finish

Red Disappearring 9-Patch Blocks

I had some red diasppearing 9-patch blocks in a bin.  I found them when I was looking for my red basket blocks.  I decided to put them in an arrangement and make a baby quilt.  Tada...

I did find the basket blocks and a five other red blocks that will look nice together.  Red is the RSC26 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2026) color of the month.  I decided to just work on the red blocks that I had that could be made into baby quilts and work with them to get some finishes.  Stay tuned...

Tall Fly on the Longarm Frame

Last week I loaded Tall Fly crib quilt onto the longarm frame.  I could not get started with the quilting at that time.  We were without power due to storms for over 24 hours.  No Wifi for THREE days!!!  Hence the lack of blog posts.

This weekend I was finally able to quilt it.  Hopefully I will get the binding on it this week.

I decided to quilt it with the Circle Lord Baptist Fan giant template board.  The next quilt planned for the longarm will use this board as well.  Time saving...

It was a beautiful 73 degrees yesterday.  Chickens took a dust bath; ducks waddled in the grass.  It's time to start cleaning out those flowerbeds and get ready for spring flowers!!!

The pink crate protects the tiny catnip plant that I transplanted.  Otherwise the chickens would rip it out and roll in it.  They love the loose dirt around their coop.  This area is where the hydrangea was.  It got too big to stay there.  It was flowing onto the neighbor's hay field.  He mows within two feet of the coop.

The snow drops seemed to get a late start this year.

Binding Time

 I sewed the binding onto this little hand stitching piece so that it was ready for my sew-to-go bag today.  Happy stitches!

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Last Sunday it was 72 degrees.  I took our son to a local dam to magnet fish.  I was able to work on binding my Zip It quilt as I watched him at the dock. (He's the little orange speck on the dock.)

We were there at just the right time.  We got to see the docks being moved into place for the season.  Here's a pic of the floating mini crane moving it towards us.

Sunscreen was needed... just in case.

The Monday came...  Ground covered in snow!

Welcome to beautiful Ohio...

Kawandi -- The Finish

 This week my first ever Kawandi project was finished.  It measures 16.5" x 20".

I like the colors.  It will be on our kitchen table for the month of March.  I love how the stitches look so organic and crooked.  I'm happy that I basted the pieces on as I went so that I could put it in my bag to take with me.  I didn't have to worry about losing pins in the bag.  It was so relaxing to stitch on this project using leftover pieces of embroidery floss (2 strands).  I changed the direction of my stitches as I saw fit.  The floss glided nicely through the good cotton and the Warm & Natural batting.

I'm happy that another finish gets crossed off the list.  Daylight savings time is coming this weekend... I'm starting to see less sewing time but more outside-in-the-flowerbed time coming.  

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC26.

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

 

I'm linking up for Oh Scrap! at Quiting is more fun than housework.

2026 finishes -- 11

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl -- Needs sashing sewn and put together

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs sashing

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Tall Shoofly Block Lotto Win -- blocks need sewn together

11.  Sail Away crib quilt -- finished 2/26/26, 10th finish

12.  Aqua/Brown HST -- finished 1/30/26, 7th finish this quarter

13.  Aqua/Brown arrow crib quilt -- finished 2/12/26, 9th finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project -- 2 fish sewn

15.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Bubble Gum Pink/Blue Quilt -- finished 1/23/26, 6th finish

19.  Green king-sized quilt -- finished 2/6/26, 8th finish

20.  Green king-sized quilt #2 (problem child won't lay flat) -- finished 1/10/26, 3rd finish

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Noel -- finished 1/15/26, 4th finish

24.   Zip It Sew Along -- on the longarm frame

25.  True Blue Sew Along (starts 1/15/26) -- all blocks made; starting the strip-pieced corners

26.  Kawandi 16.5" x 20" -- finished 3/6/26, 11th finish

27.  Cameo Rose embroidery quilt -- finished 1/18/26, fifth finish

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt -- hand stitching the binding in the evenings during tv

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

33.  RSC UFO (six blocks for a crib-sized quilt)--finished 1/8/26, 2nd finish

34.  Betty House #1 -- finished 1/7/26 -- 1st finish

35.  Betty House #2 -- some stitches done

Binding in Que

 I'm still slow stitching the binding on the Rosebud embroidery quilt that my grandma stitched a little over 50 years ago.  I'm about half way around it.  Yes, I did say SLOWLY stiching...

I did put a binding around the Zip It quilt this week.  It will be next in que to have the binding slowly stitched.  It is nice to sit under a quilt and watch tv in the evenings when there is snow on the ground (or basically any time of year is good for binding stitching.)

Below is the Zip It quilt top before quilting.  Oh how I love the navy blue scraps!

Zip It is a sew along with Emma Jean Jansen on facebook here.

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

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge RSC26 -- Last Green of the Month

I was motivated to work on this quilt last month because of the blue blocks.  It turned out to be such a fun block to make that it is now finished.  Thanks, RSC group for the motivation.This week I finished the crib quilt called Andrew & Patrick Sail Away.  It measures 29.5" x 41".

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC26.

Andrew & Patrick Sail Away Crib Quilt is Finished

 This week I finished the crib quilt called Andrew & Patrick Sail Away.  It measures 29.5" x 41".

The quilt is posed on top of the teacher's computer monitor.  I  stitched on it while watching Survivor this week and then finished it on my lunch break.

I quilted it with an edge-to-edge bubbles design.  I do love the polka dotted fabrics for the boats and the unusual paisley-floral with dots for the waves.  I found the anchor fabric for the border in my stash as well.  Fun use of scraps!

2026 finishes -- 10

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Bit Con quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together -- size yet to be determined

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" RSC block -- 900 blocks needed/need arranged

3.  Piccadilly Circle -- Need a few more circle blocks

4.  Kite Girl -- Needs sashing sewn and put together

5.  Folk Art Birds -- Need more birds and alternate blocks

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs sashing

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Dicey -- Blocks need sewn together with sashing and cornerstones

9.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

10.  Tall Shoofly Block Lotto Win -- blocks need sewn together

11.  Sail Away crib quilt -- finished 2/26/26, 10th finish

12.  Aqua/Brown HST -- finished 1/30/26, 7th finish this quarter

13.  Aqua/Brown arrow crib quilt -- finished 2/12/26, 9th finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project -- 2 fish sewn

15.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

16.  Random Blue Blocks -- Hand Quilting -- In the hoop

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Bubble Gum Pink/Blue Quilt -- finished 1/23/26, 6th finish

19.  Green king-sized quilt -- finished 2/6/26, 8th finish

20.  Green king-sized quilt #2 (problem child won't lay flat) -- finished 1/10/26, 3rd finish

21.  Lupine and Laughter (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery quilt) -- in the piecing process

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Noel -- finished 1/15/26, 4th finish

24.   Zip It Sew Along -- on the longarm frame

25.  True Blue Sew Along (starts 1/15/26) -- all blocks made; starting the strip-pieced corners

26.  Kawandi 17.5" x 22" -- backing and batting sewn together.  Rows are being stitched

27.  Cameo Rose embroidery quilt -- finished 1/18/26, fifth finish

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt -- hand stitching the binding in the evenings during tv

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

31.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (HST and a Square)

32.  Classic Meets Modern QA from 2014 -- block complete, need sashing

33.  RSC UFO (six blocks for a crib-sized quilt)--finished 1/8/26, 2nd finish

34.  Betty House #1 -- finished 1/7/26 -- 1st finish

35.  Betty House #2 -- some stitches done

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Prepping my school bag

The binding is being attached to the Andrew & Patrick Sail Away crib quilt.  It will be in my sew-to-go bag for hand stitching this week.  This is about the largest size quilt that I take in the bag. It measures 29.5" x 41".

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

 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge RSC26 -- Green

More Lupines & Laughter Bonnie Hunter 2025 Mystery blocks were made this week.  You can find out the details about the quilt along on Bonnie's blog here.  I didn't really care for the colors of pink, purple, and ice blue.  I let my husband pick the colors of black, grey, and forest green.  I can barely tell in the photos that the center cross part is forest green, but it's more obvious in real life.

As with almost all of the Bonnie Hunter blocks that I have ever made, it just seems like every time I make a scrappy block I sit back and look at it and say, "Now that's a pretty block."  Then I make another block and say, "That block is even prettier than the last."  I'm amazed how with her designs that my scraps work.

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC26.

Accuquilt Cut Binding Strips

These days, my Accuquilt 2.25" strip piece die is one of the dies I need to keep close to the top of the pile if I want to finish a quilt.  It seriously helps me get through the binding process.  Here's a great example of how I use it.

I find a scrap in my stash that I want to use as binding on one of my upcoming finishes (Tall Shoo Fly in tomato colors).  Will this be enough fabric to make a binding for it?

It's an odd shape.  Who knows who was hacking in to it and what fun thing did they make?  But this is what was left of what the person didn't want that was thrown in to a scrap bag and given to me.  This is very typical.  I receive stuff like this.  That's where Accuquilt dies come in.  I take something no so perfect, give it a press and a run through my die.  

And just like that it gets sewn together, pressed into binding, and ready for use.  And yes, there is enough binding for the Tall Shoo Fly in tomato colors that will hopefully be quilted this weekend.  There won't be a lot to spare of this fabric.  The remainder of the binding will most likely be run through the 1.5" strip cutter to become a 1.5" strip that will be used somewhere else.  I LOVE 1.5" strips!

I am happy to finally be finished with the last sets of the half rectangles for Lupine & Laughter.  I have been taking them to school with me to cut on my lunch periods since I don't have any small quilts to take to bind.  Here they are in the intervention specialist's small group room:

True Blue Progress

I'm at the point of the quilt that I don't want to do.  This is usually what stalls a quilt and puts it into UFO mode.  Well, I'm going to try to complete at least two blocks per week to keep True Blue moving forward.

FAIL:

I don't like matching strip sets.  Then I don't like attaching them to corners.  Blocks do not lay flat for me!

I ripped the two apart while my son was at the dentist office.  Starch, starch, starch the center block. There, it is mostly flat.

Then attach again making sure I do not stretch the strip set unit.  That's better this round.

Oh ok.  That's getting better.  

Second block is now ok with just a little ripple I can live with in it.  Whew.  Next I'll slightly dread trimming the block and sewing it to the next.  But let's get the blocks done first.

And now I'm just showing off when I let you see my fancy, smancy, custom row placement markers -- and no, I didn't buy them on Amazon or Etsy.  Ha ha.  Oops, sorry for the blurry photo.  You get the idea.

True Blue Sew Along--American Patchwork and Quilting put out a pretty tempting quilt along that starts 1/15/2026.  It's called True Blue.  You can get the details here.

Andrew & Patrick Sail Away is on the Frame

 This cute little baby quilt is on the frame.  

The pattern is called Andrew & Patrick Sail Away.  I found this pattern in The Simple Joys of Quilting ~ 30 Timeless Quilt Projects by Joan Hanson.  I borrowed the book from our local library.  Finished block size is 6".  This will be a small quilt. 

I was going to get all fancy and outline the sails, put lines on the boats, put waves in the sashing, clouds in the skies, and stipple in the borders... then all ambition went out the window and I just wanted to quilt it edge to edge like I do.  I'm quilting it with a bubbles pattern.

Andrew & Patrick Sail Away Flimsy Complete

I finished assembling this little 31" x 40" quilt called Andrew & Patrick Sail Away:

 I'm happy with the novelty anchor fabric I found in my stash for the border.  

I found this pattern in The Simple Joys of Quilting ~ 30 Timeless Quilt Projects by Joan Hanson.  I borrowed the book from our local library.  Finished block size is 6".  This will be a small quilt.  There are only 12 sailboat blocks.  I cut all the pieces for it at school one day in November, 2026.  I'm super cautious about taking a rotary cutter to school.

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Kawandi

My Kawandi project is coming along.  I am really enjoying making the stitches and feeling them!  It's so relaxing for me.  I like the organic look of not having to be perfect.

I stitch in rows and turn when I feel like it.  My stitches aren't even or straight.  I love it!

I somehow managed to also put the sashing/border fabric around the Kite Girl quilt.  This was an RSC project I think I started in 2014.  It was also a slow stitching project.  It was a good place to learn how to embroidery a chain stitch.  For some reason all of the blocks got done except for that last orange one in the bottom right.  I didn't make that one until 2017.  

The block is made from 2" squares.  The block pattern can be found at Q is for Quilter blog.  I enjoyed finding things that fit easily into my school bag that made me feel productive vs. doing cross stitch projects where I had to focus on counting and couldn't keep a good eye on students in study hall.

For some reason the blocks sat idol until I made the last one in orange in 2017.  

I was excited to get it stitched and wanted to get a photo of it in the snow before the "muddy" days come to Ohio.  Looks like a doom and gloom photo with the time of day (about 5pm) and the cloud situation.  Hopefully there will be sunny days ahead to take the photo, but I doubt if it will be on the ground with warmer temps predicted this week.

I'm hoping to get to the quilt room today to look for something fun in my stash for a backing.  I'm pretty sure I will longarm quilt it with my Baptist Fan Circle Lord giant template board.

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

 

I'm also linking to Quilting Patch Blogspot and Life in Pieces.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2026 (RSC26) Green

I couldn't sleep one night this weekend.  I got up in the middle of the night and stitched the Tall Fly blocks that I won in the Block Lotto.  I picked this project to work on because it has green in it.  The guidelines when we made the blocks for the Block Lotto was that the colors were tomato colors of red, green, and black.  It measures 43.5" x 47" like this.

I won these tall shoo blocks back in February of 2013 (I think) from the Block Lotto.  The Block Lotto helped me learn so many things one block at a time.  Each month, quilters would make blocks for the lotto.  At the end of the month a winner was drawn.  Blocks were mailed to them.  I won more blocks than this, but used some in a table runner.  You can read about that here.  Photo below:

Three Scarborough Fair blocks were made in green.  These blocks are so simple, yet make a cool jiggly pattern that gives the quilt a lot of movement.  Each row alternates the block framed with the neutral on the left or right.  I have found a new interest in this project--yeah!

I moved my Lupines & Laughter Bonnie Hunter 2025 Mystery along by a few blocks.  You can find out the details about the quilt along on Bonnie's blog here.  I didn't really care for the colors of pink, purple, and ice blue.  I let my husband pick the colors of black, grey, and forest green.

I somehow managed to also put the sashing/border fabric around the Kite Girl quilt.  This was an RSC project and a slow stitching project.  I was excited to get it stitched and wanted to get a photo of it in the snow before the "muddy" days come to Ohio.  Looks like a doom and gloom photo with the time of day (about 5pm) and the cloud situation.  Hopefully there will be sunny days ahead to take the photo, but I doubt if it will be on the ground with warmer temps predicted this week.

I have been coaching our son to be independent for years.  Each week we take two grocery carts to a small grocery store.  He selects and pays for his own groceries with a debit card (money is not his strong point--yet).   He loves to try new things.  The first week I let him pick something new, I cook it for him to see if it's something he wants to purchase again.  If he picks the item the following week, he has to learn how to cook it with me.  I excited that he's looking at the instructions when he buys things to see if they have microwave or air fryer instructions.  He's super confident with the microwave and quickly learning that the air fryer isn't that hard.  This may seem simple to a typical person.  It's really helping him gain confidence in things with multiple steps.  This week he thought of his girlfriend while at the store.  (Using the calendar in his phone is a strong point for him.) He proudly added a box of chocolates shaped like a heart in his grocery cart.  Notice he wrapped them with my expensive wrapping paper... aluminum foil.  LOL.  Then he was thrifty and made her a personalized card.  Yes, we are so proud of him.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC26.