Patriotic Folk Animals -- Piecing the Top

Today my son has three different Zoom meetings.  He will be busy.  I have decided to put the top together for Patriotic Folk Animals.  I haven't worked on this quilt since November of 2019.  It was one of the projects in my sew-to-go bag.  This pattern is from the book AMERICANA QUILTS by Sandy Bonsib.

Last week when a friend gave me this bag of scraps there was a patriotic cheater fabric in it.  It has inspired me to dig out this project and work on it.  This cheater fabric will find its way on the back.

Uh Oh, Operator Error -- The Longarm Thread Incident

 I was happy to be in the longarm room yesterday.  My Winter Blues baby quilt (in pink) was loaded flat and playing nicely.  I had a list of fabric scraps to pull for another project WIP.  I removed the bobbin case and the thread from the needle and wrapped it around the handle on the longarm.  I turned off the stitch regulator and locked the head in place.  It hit the start button and let "24" warm up.

All of a sudden I heard it making a different sound.  My husband works on equipment a lot and I am very in tune to different sounds.  It sounded like it was going through a bunch of seams or a thick fabric.  I turned and looked at it and it was sucking up thread in the spool.  It was building on the spindle enough to make it run slower!  Oh dear.  I quickly shut it off.

I'm glad I caught it while it was still in one piece.  There was this much on the tail end that I could pull out.  I snipped it from the spool.

I worked for over an hour to unwind it by turning the aluminum knob.  I have two blisters to prove it.

You can see some of the tread is darker.  That's a good sign that I am oiling it properly inside and the wicks are working.  I'm trying to make a positive thing out of this.  It ALL came out in one piece.  Woohoo!  I am so glad I didn't have to take the whole head apart.  I have learned that next time I better wrap the end that I unthread from the needle and secure it so that this doesn't happen again.

WIP Wednesday 1.20.21

It's been a busy quilty week again!  Hooray for being productive.  I finished quilting Circle Lord swirls on a simple squares patchwork quilt for a friend.

Here's a closer pic of the swirls.  I think it really jazzed up the quilt and gave it movement.

I finished putting my Winter Blues (pattern by Bonnie Hunter) toddler quilt together.  It's cute in pink.  I'm happy to say I started using my sewing machine (Dora) to put together quilt backs.  I can lay the fabrics in the longarm room out on my big table and select fabrics to make the back.  This means that I don't have to grab a bag of fabrics from the one house and take them to the other house where my sewing machine is that I use for piecing.  Then I don't have to go from the bedroom and back to the machine to sew them.  I just use the big table in the quilt room.  This helps me be way more productive!

A friend gave me this little crib quilts to quilt and finish and donate to charity.

Here's crib quilt #2 that will be quilted and donated to charity.  These quilts increase my list two more, but it will be worth it to give a little one and their family a quilty hug from a stranger.

I completed my hashtag blocks for the Full Stop QA that Angela at SoScrappy is leading.  Each month we make some simple blocks.  You can find all the RSC21 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021) info at Angela's blog, SoScrappy.   I am going to try to do an all solids quilt with this grey background.  Fingers crossed that a little over 4 yards will be enough for the background fabric.  I have seen more on eBay just in case, but I shall wait...

I currently have 61 on-going projects on my list.  They are separated into stages.  This seems like a lot of projects, but I used to have 93 items on my list.  I love the fact that it has gone down so much.

Pieces Need to be Cut & Sewn

 1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from 

 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. Peppermint Purple SAL -- Blackwork started 1.1.21 (This is a Facebook group.) 

 7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) 8/8/19

 8.  Leah Day Building Blocks QA

 9.  Jelly Roll Rug

10.  Classic Meets Modern BOM

11.  Veggie Patch from Katie Mae Quilts

12.  Mod Mod QA (from Block Lotto, 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) I can't find it!!!

15.  Temperature QA (changing this project to a 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.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a 2nd quilt)

23.  Dresser Scarf (My Grandma's WIP from the 1970's found 1/1/20

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

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

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March 2017

27.  Unity Quilt Along with Bonnie Hunter (started 4/1/2020)

28.  Orange, pink, grey kite blocks 2015

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA started in August 2017

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

Blocks Still Need to be Made

 1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

 2.  Scrap Crystals (RSC15)

 3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

 4.  Drunkard's Path Variation quilt

 5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt 

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.  Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN Dot Dot Dash Bag, Won April, 2018

 4.  Split Stars (blocks won from the Block Lotto, October, 2012)

 5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)

 6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto; October 2012)

 7.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May 2018)

 8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt

 9.  Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blcoks

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks 5/17/17 QA

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

Quilt Back Needs to be Made (Tops are Done)

1.  Card Trick (pink and blue)

2.  Hunter Green Star Quilt

3.  Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018

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

5.  Fortune Teller (RSC14)

Ready to Longarm

1.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

2.  Soul Searching -- Julianne sent it to me on 8/29/19

3.  Charity Crib Quilt of patchwork squares -- from JB @ CSHS

4.  Charity Crib Quilt of Christmas trees -- from JB @ CSHS

5.  Winter Blues in Pink (Bonnie Hunter pattern) (started 1.1.21)

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

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication   Enjoy all the eye candy -- especially the super cool peppermint reindeer this week.

Basic Square Patchwork Quilt

 I picked up this quilt top last week to longarm quilt for a friend.  She'll be happy that it's already on the frame.  The Circle Lord swirls quilting design really jazzes this up!

Slow Sunday Stitching -- Blackwork Project -- Peppermint Purple SAL

 I finished week 1 of the Peppermint Purple SAL Group.  It is my first blackwork project.  I think it's cute so far.  I put my 5" Fiskars next to it for size comparison.  I do like this hoop.  I'm getting used to it.  I like the size of it.  I think this took me a little over TWO hours to do!  I'm a newbie.  It's not how long it takes...It's about how much enjoyment I get doing it.  :)

You can join in on the FREE fun in the facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/PeppermintPurpleSALGroup

You may have heard me mention that we have a herd of outside cats.  We had a nice female stray and a nice male stray.  We can't catch the male.  The female has had kittens before and they all found new homes.  BUT we had two different litters that were born during the pandemic.  For a while we had a nobody in/nobody out rule except for people that delivered things (Amazon, UPS, FedEx...)  Now we have TEN cats!  Pictured below is one of the kittens from the first group.  Her name is Ezra.  She likes to come to the window by my sewing machine and tap on the window.  She is also the first one to get pet when we walk out the kitchen door.  She sits on top of the grill by the steps.  She is very friendly.  I'm getting attached to several of them.  I never considered myself a crazy cat lady, but here I am crushing it!

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

RSC21 -- Pink

 I finished my hashtag blocks for the Full Stop quilt.  I will be trying to use solid scraps with a grey background.  Fingers crossed that 4+ yards will be enough of this background fabric.  Instructions for this can be found on Angela's blog, SoScrappy, here.

I can't believe how fast this quilt went together.  This is the Winter Blues pattern by Bonnie Hunter.  I was making a baby quilt.  It's a lot bigger than I wanted it to be, but it will still make a nice baby blanket for a sweet girl someday. 

 If I were to make this again as a baby quilt I think I would go with a 4 x 6 layout instead of a 6 x 8 layout as above.  I did not put the border in the pattern on the quilt.  It was getting too big already.  Also, I already had these strips made from several years ago when I was using up tiny scraps during an RSC pink month in February of 2014.  I made them using the long brown paper with the instructions on it from Warm & Natural quilt batting roll.  I sewed them all together and then cut them accurately with my Accuquilt 2.5" strip die.  It went amazingly well that way.  You can read about some of that post here.

Below is a picture of the quilt that I finished using the pink strips back in February, 2019.  You can read all about that quilt here.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog for the RSC21.  Click over that and be amazed by all the fun projects others have created using pink scraps!  Join the fun here.

WIP Wednesday 1.13.21

 I haven't updated where my projects were for a while, so it's time for a WIP Wednesday post.  I am starting off the year with a list of 58 projects.  If you think this is a lot of on-going projects, this list has been in the 90's before, so I am doing awesome of getting this list down.  I do plan to start a project here and there, but my goal is to get this list in the 40's by 2022.  Here we go on what I've been working on...

An item that came off the list this week is the longarm quilting of this little crib quilt for a friend.  I quilted it with my Circle Lord giant template board called Swirls.  I probably should have picked a more delicate pattern for this small quilt.  It does give a nice texture.

Here's the back of the quilt.

When I dropped this quilt off yesterday, my friend gave me another quilt to longarm:

I've done so many quilts for the friend (of the above quilt) that I'm not sure what I like more...longarm quilting for her, or the dropoff/pickup of the quilts.  She is such an amazing person.  I love our visits!

Also yesterday, another friend met up with me in town and gave me a bag of fabrics that she wanted me to "adopt".  Of course I will!  I love her bright colors.  Her mom works at a quilt shop.  There are tiny pieces in here that just scream, "Run me through the 1.5" dies and make a quilt like Cathy's rail fence quilt.  Cathy blogs at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting.  She has inspired me (as she always does) to use up those scraps.  Check out her gorgeous rail fence quilt here. 

There are also at least three baby quilts in this pile.  They are all simple squares and kinda small.  I should throw them all on the longarm at once and donate them to my old quilt guild.  We'll see.  They may be good for me to use when I want to teach someone to use the longarm.

Of course we are still bowling.  This little squirt below decided on his own to try out a new technique in bowling.  He moved all the way over to the right of the marks on the floor and started to throw his ball diagonally towards the head pin.  He bowled his first three games with this technique at 142, 132, and 130!  He works best when I give him a challenge and he figures it out himself how best to meet it.  Amazing!  I lost our little side bet and I will be taking him bowling again later in the week.

I started a new project.  I've never tried stitching blackwork.  It is called the Peppermint Purple SAL Group on Facebook.   Each week a little square or rectangle of blackwork is released.  I'm going to try...

I made a lot of progress playing with pink scraps in the RSC21 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021).  I am making a Winter Blues (pattern by Bonnie Hunter) in pink.

I recently finished my Go Four It quilt top.  The next step is to put together a pieced back.

A big finish for 2020 was my Garden Party quilt.  I was happy to finish it on Christmas Eve so that I could deliver it to the friend for which I made it.  Garden Party is a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

I currently have 59 on-going projects on my list.  They are separated into stages.  This seems like a lot of projects, but I used to have 93 items on my list.  I love the fact that it has gone down so much.

Pieces Need to be Cut & Sewn

 1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from 

 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.  Winter Blues (a Bonnie Hunter design) in Pink baby quilt (started 1.1.21)

 7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) 8/8/19

 8.  Leah Day Building Blocks QA

 9.  Jelly Roll Rug

10.  Classic Meets Modern BOM

11.  Veggie Patch from Katie Mae Quilts

12.  Mod Mod QA (from Block Lotto, 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) I can't find it!!!

15.  Temperature QA (changing this project to a 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.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a 2nd quilt)

23.  Dresser Scarf (My Grandma's WIP from the 1970's found 1/1/20

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

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

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March 2017

27.  Unity Quilt Along with Bonnie Hunter (started 4/1/2020)

28.  Orange, pink, grey kite blocks 2015

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA started in August 2017

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.  Peppermint Purple SAL -- Blackwork started 1.1.21 (This is a Facebook group.)

Blocks Still Need to be Made

 1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

 2.  Scrap Crystals (RSC15)

 3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

 4.  Drunkard's Path Variation quilt

 5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt 

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.  Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN Dot Dot Dash Bag, Won April, 2018

 4.  Split Stars (blocks won from the Block Lotto, October, 2012)

 5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)

 6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto; October 2012)

 7.  Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May 2018)

 8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt

 9.  Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blcoks

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks 5/17/17 QA

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

Quilt Back Needs to be Made (Tops are Done)

1.  Card Trick (pink and blue)

2.  Hunter Green Star Quilt

3.  Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018

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

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

6.  Fortune Teller (RSC14)

Ready to Longarm

1.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

2.  Soul Searching -- Julianne sent it to me on 8/29/19

3.  Simple Squares CM quilt - Picked up from friend 1/12/21

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers   Enjoy all the eye candy at Quilt Fabrication.

Our son was happy that the CLEVELAND BROWNS are now in the playoffs!  He was also happy to ride his four wheeler this week.  This was taken on Sunday when we didn't have any snow at the time.