Charm Baskets Slow Sunday Stitching

Hope I'm not boring you with my simple baskets (that need trimmed and squared).  I'm still plugging along with them.  Happy 2025.

I stitched the handles to these baskets a couple of weeks ago.  I put them on a pile near my sewing machine.  I only get to a few of the finished baskets here and there.  They are squeezed in as leader/enders.  I LOVE leaders & enders!

The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design. 

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

WINTER 2025 (Ravelry UFO Club) Project List

Here is my project list for the WINTER 2025 (Ravelry) UFO Club:

1.  Old Town Mystery (Pattern by Bonnie Hunter 2024-25)

Units for clues 1-6 are complete.  Clue 7 has been started.

2.  Rail Fence 3.5" blocks

I need 900 blocks for this quilt.  I have to count them and clip sets together.  I'll work on this one during the RSC25 colors of the month.  

 

3.  Piccadilly Circle

I started making this quilt in 2014 for the RSC.  In 2021 I made only three of the border pieces (yellow, light green, and dark green).  I made one yellow and one dark green Piccadilly Circle blocks in 2022.  I still need to make circle blocks in dark purple and lime green.  I also need the other border parts.

4.  Kite Girl

All of the Kite Girl blocks are made.  All of the embroidery of the flower stems and kite strings are complete.  This quilt will have an antique look with mint green sashing.  I plan to work on it during the month for light green.  The inspiration for this quilt appeared at Q is for Quilter. I believe I started this project for the RSC in 2014.

5.  Folk Art Birds

I need to locate the paper bird template for this one.  It could be with another bird I had made.  This was a 2016 RSC project start.

6.  Bitcoin Crib Quilt

This quilt is quilted.  It needs a binding.  It's the quilt I have closest to a finish.

7.  Maroon Sampler

This quilt is a combination of different sampler quilts.  I want to say this was around 2013ish for some of the first blocks.  I need to count to see how many I have and go from there.

8.  Bitcoin Double Sized Quilt

I have cut strips in multi-colored fabrics (fabrics that are more than one color and don't fit into a specific color family bin for sorting purposes.) I have several strips sewn together in anothe strip bin.

9.  Random Ohio Stars -- Started in November, 2022 (needs quilted)

10.  Vintage Flower Garden Blocks -- Top completed 11.23.2024 (needs a back)

11.  Blue Embroidery Quilt, top completed Summer 2024 (needs quilted)

12.  HST Quilt, Three Six Nine RSC22 -- (needs more HST made and rows completed)

13.  Tree of Life Quilt -- I only have three blocks completed, (orange, aqua, and yellow)

 Tree of Life block in orange was made this week.  This is a die from Accuquilt.  

14. Scarborough Fair -- more blocks need to be made.

15.  Unity Quilt (Bonnie Hunter 2020 Quilt Along). I still can't figure out how I want to make this quilt larger and finish it.  I may just do a 3.5" scrappy neutral border and call it a flimsy?

16.  Card Trick -- needs a back made and then quilted.

17.  Acorn Harvest

Photo from the front of the package:

18.  I finished cutting all the HST for Sail Away crib quilt.  It is now a complete quilt kit.

I'll be lucky to finish more than two of these project the first quarter of 2025.  At least I have enough projects to get closer to a finish.  I have a longarm machine.  It is kept in "the other" house that has been under construction for YEARS -- because we are doing everything ourselves.  (The brick and concrete were completed by contractors.). The area is for the most part unheated.  When it gets too cold in the room (below 32 degrees F) my Nolting starts to skip stitches.  It is very expensive to heat the area with fuel oil.  I'm afraid to run the kerosene heater too long--not because of carbon monoxide gas--but for the fumes collecting on the unpainted drywall and making it hard to paint in the future.  (This happened to a rental property that I had.)

Thank you, Joy @ The Joyful Quilter for inviting others to join this challenge.  I'm linking up at the Winter 2025 UFO Club on Ravelry.

Old Town Clue #7 -- Sentimental Fabrics

Today I'm working on clue #7 of Old Town (Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt). The big reveal came out today.  Clues are availble for free while the mystery is still live.

The fabrics in this clue are sentimental.  The top row of blocks have neutrals sent to me from Linda at Art in Search.  As with many quilters, Linda and I have a cherished connection.  She sent me fabrics that were left over from her Horses Quilt.  I have finally found the right pattern to use the other large prints that she sent to me in this collection.  Eventually I will be putting them to use in a Dinner Party quilt (size yet to be determined.)

The other sentimental fabric is the Ohio State pieces.  It's always fun for my sister-in-law (who is a HUGE  OSU fan) to find the OSU fabric in my scrap quilts.  Go Bucks!

There is a BEAUTIFUL blanket of snow outside.  Great day to sew and get caught up on clue #7.

Happy New Year! Hot Mess Tamed

Yesterday I worked and worked at organizing my quilting/sewing/desk area.  See it here if you dare.  I'm happy to say I am much more calm about my organized area now.  Even the fish tank got cleaned.

I now have a little shelf to put things on temporarily!

Project bins only have one to two projects in them.  That big striped tote has all neutrals ready to cut.

Yes, I realize that file drawer is overflowing.  That was cleaned up later.  I keep all the receipts and paid bills in that drawer.  Every year on 1/1 I put them in a box and label them for that year.  It's a messy filing system, but it works for us.

See the birdhouse on the very top shelf in the pic above?  That's the security camera that the kid doesn't know about.  Tee hee.  It's nice to be able to check on him when I have to without invading his privacy.

One of my favorite organizing bins is also on that top shelf.  It holds my 1.5 and 2.5 inch strips.

Accuquilt dies are nice and flat.  I have room for a few more.  The big dies are on the top shelf.  I have a love/hate relationship with the BOB dies.  There seems to be a lot more thinking involved on my part...  Some of them I have to make sure I have the fabric the right side up.  I typically run the two different fabrics through separately...  It's different from the OG (original gangster) dies...

My basket pieces now have their own little bin and can be easily grabbed for a leader/ender.

All my 1.5" squares are in the bins and not squished.  Behind those are four mini milk crates that contain 2.5" squares in neutrals and prints and 2.5" HST in neutrals and prints.  I love to grab from these bins.  1.5" and 2.5" are my favorite sizes!!!

I really need to keep up on taking my blood pressure regularly.  I am now on FIVE pills a day!  Hopefully this is the year I get it all together.  The good thing is that my recent blood work all came back in the green.  Sometimes you have to get healthy before you lose weight.  I will be trying to stick to a ketovore lifestyle this year (which was successful for me in the past).  If you have any tips/tricks, please share!

I still have to work on that stack of books/printed patterns above my computer monitor.  But that's just a drop in the bucket compared to the huge mess I had.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Hoping for a productive 2025.

12/31/24 Pre-New Year Organizing

This time of year is a time that I organize my sewing area at my desk.  I am so much more productive on projects when it is organized.  Aren't we all?  My sewing machine/desk area is currently a MESS.

Bags, bins, unfolded pre-washed fabric.  

Items stuffed on shelves, overflowing green tote of "things the Elf on the Shelf does", more bags on top of things that need to be sorted... Books and magazines others have gifted to me are thrown up on that shelf after I take them to school with me.  It's embarrassing, but honestly I know where the things are.  LOL.

When I read Kathys' Post at Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching it gave me an idea on the 12 x 12 Event by Kea Bee on YouTube.  Basically you start at noon 12/31 and work one hour on twelve different projects.  Some will start a new project, some people work on WIPS.  My goal is to very nicely ORGANIZE projects and have them ready on the shelf in their own totes/bins so that I can easily work on them when I want.  

It's very rainy and yucky outside.  It's in the 50's here in Ohio.  That means winter mud.  There will be no cleaning the chicken coop in the rain as planned.  I need to make it to the longarm room and get the big table cleared of all the things two friends have donated to me over the past month.  I'm excited to continue on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery (Old Town).

Here's what's next to my sewing machine.  Basket handles sewn, but waiting for the bottom of the basket to be made.  A Halloween 2.5" square project is in the back.  Oh these little things could just fall off the edge and go down between the wall and the cabinet.  Hot mess...

I do have a nice shelf I could better utilize.  Wish me luck on my 12/30 organizing.   We have end-of-year doctor appointments to get to today, bowling practice, errands galore.  When things get organized and packed they will go to the longarm room in the other house.  It's a hot mess too.  Let's see what I can get done.  Wish me luck.

Happy New Year's Eve -- Clue 7 Complete -- Old Town Mystery by Bonnie Hunter

 I'm excited I finished clue #7 this morning after my 5:30am aqua fitness class.  Just in time for clue #8.

Clue #7 went quickly for me.  The neutrals were already cut because they are part of my scrap-saver system.  It's amazing to me how giddy I get when I realize that there is a teeny tiny piece of fabric only ONCE in the whole quilt.  That is the case in the majority of these blocks.  Thank you, Accuquilt!  So far all units cut were either cut with an Accuquilt die or the combo of cross cutting with two Accuquilt dies.

This mystery is called Old Town by Bonnie Hunter.  You may find all of the sizes of the pieces and quantities of the units on her blog while it is still live.  Check out Quiltville's Quips & Snips.

I will be working on clue #8 after I do my traditional New Year's Eve cleaning of the chicken coop -- LOL.  I know... I live a very exciting life.  It's supposed to rain here in about an hour.  Then snow later today.  Should be good sewing weather.  

I also plan to do some re-organizing of the sewing/desk area.  That should be interresting.  I'm not sure if I will be able to post the before/after pics or not.  I should be embarassed of the mess.  But I do know where most things are.  I just feel I would be more productive if it was better organized and I didn't live with the fear of books, Accuquilt dies, and other things following off the shelves above my head.

Happy New Year's Eve!  Almost time to get the pork and sauerkraut in the crockpot!

Old Town Mystery (by Bonnie Hunter) Part 2 is Complete

 I used Part 2 of the Bonnie Hunter Old Town Mystery as leader/enders for as long as I could this year.

I had to kick it into high gear yesterday to finish Clue 2.  Now Clues 1-6 are complete.  I'll be working on Clue 7 today between doctor appointments for my son and I and bowling practice and errands.

You can find all the info for the Old Town Mystery here as long as the Mystery is active.

Happy sewing!