Wednesday UFO Squirrel -- Bit Con!

I was working on cutting border pieces for the tulip table runner that I was working on yesterday. 

An old squirrel jumped out in front of me this early morning.   Little pieces were appearing.

I reached for the bin to put the extra strips away... but wait... I could use this as a leader/ender project and just move it along.  It's really neat and self-contained on the shelf.  I got it out and started stitching pieces together between current project pieces:

Bitcoin Double Sized Quilt-- 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 another strip bin.  This is a pattern designed by Bonnie Hunter.

Don't you just love it when you fall in love all over with a UFO?

Weather forecast here in our part of Ohio today is some rain (hopefully God will water my plants that need some steady, gentle rain.) Then I'm sure it will get quite warm and muggy in the mid-upper 80's.  Seems like a good day to clean my closet, sew, and play in the pool with the kid.  Happy Wednesday.

Arranging Tulips

 I started playing with these blocks again this week.

The pattern is Tulip Table Runner --a pattern by Amy Chappeli from Ameroonie Designs.

I cut all the rest of the pieces needed of the green stems and leaves and background fabric while at the shop with my truck last week.  Time to get it moving along.

I made it this far yesterday.

Hourglass Crib Quilt on the Frame

 This little leftover hourglass block crib quilt is on the frame.

I made the crumb hourglass blocks to use up fabrics from another project.  It's a little out of my comfort zone color-wise.  I don't think they are good colors for a baby quilt.  Hopefully it will be just someone's thing.

If you see frog eyes staring at you at the bottom of the quilt, you're not seeing things.  I'm using a fleece that I most likely won't use for anything else as the batting.  The fabrics are dark enough that it won't show through.  I actually finished the quilting of this quilt on Sunday.  It's soft and I can't see the fleece batting when I hold it up to the light.  Next to bind it.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I did move my hoop over a bit to outline another shape IN THE SAME BLOCK that I was working on last week.  I stitched on this block about an hour at the car dealership and and two hours at magnet fishing.  Boy this hand stitching is taking a long time with the stab and jab method.  

 

I switched to a longer needle and ordered some different ones on eBay.  I'm going to try making the stitches from the top.  Either way, I am still enjoying the relaxing stitching therapy as I sew.  The important part to me is that it is relaxing.  I love the improvement I'm making on nicer stitches.

I'm still stitching on this row!!!  I knew this would be a long-term project.  When I finish the current block in the top photo I will be 25 percent done with the hand quilting.  

I really liked Kathy's diagram at Kathy's Quilts about how we start new projects and and finish them once in a while.  During one of my last school days while our son was home and I was still working, he sent me this diagram of some of his summer plans.  It makes me happy that he has a lot of creative plans.  some that make me giggle are "listen to the family" and "don't be mad".  "Lisen to mom" and "Love Family" are on his list.  "Organize cards and stuff"-- thank you AGAIN for the cards that you sent him he just LOVES them!!!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here. Can you believe it's the end of May?

 

Kitting for the Day

Today is my major maintenance scheduled for my 2004 Dodge Ram.  I will patiently wait with it for about three hours.  I am taking two projects with me to pass the time.  Hopefully I'll get there early enough to get the little cubby area that faces the wall like a desk.

The maintenance is sort of expensive but worth it.  For Christmas in 2024 my transmission gave it up.  The shop that handled my Forever Warranty has to replace the transmission FOR FREE because I kept up on all the service of the truck.  You can read about that in the blog post.

I need to cut the leaves and stems and background fabrics for six tulips that I made last month.

The other project I will take with me is my hand quilted crib quilt.  I don't need the cubby area to work on this project.

A fun thing that our son and I are doing this summer is T-Mobile Tuesday deals.  He is LOVING exploring new places for CHEAP lunches and getting deals like swag from T-Mobile.  Here he is eating his lunch that we got for $3.99 - $4.59 each (he had the "premium" mac & cheese vs. the steamed broccoli.

It's a great lesson on how to download the app, how to access the deal on Tuesdays on the T-Mobile app, how to pay with the app.  There's a lot of following directions and entering data like name, e-mail, address...  Food is his love language.  Might as well utilize it to teach.  He learns soooo much faster when he is really interested in the topic.  He's even getting good at remembering passwords and/or saving them.  Sometimes it's me that needs a little of his help (or at least I act like it so that he has to help me). Teehee.

T-Mobile didn't used to work very good in our area, but a new tower was installed less than 20 minutes away.  We were told that we would not be able to access our AT&T landline after 6/30.  Spring break was a great time for us to switch.  The price averages out the same, but when we utilize all the freebies (like Netflix, Hulu, Paramount Plus, and the food/movie/event stuff...) It works for us.  If you are thinking about switching, give them my name and I think we BOTH get a savings!

Ours is a little more expensive due to our remote area and our son needed a personal hotspot to utilize his laptop in the garage and on the road.  We are very happy with not losing service and a lot less buffering on the things we are streaming.

My husband was working out of town yesterday.  We finished the evening with eight wings from Pizza Hut for $1 each.  Luckily it was right on the way home and pick-up was a breeze.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I'm back to working on this hand-quilted crib quilt in the evenings.  I do it when I don't have something that needs the binding hand-stitched.  Guess I need to get some things on and off the longarm...

This is what the Random Blue Blocks quilt looks like:

I'm still stitching on this row!!!  I knew this would be a long-term project.  When I finish the current block in the top photo I will be 25 percent done with the hand quilting.  I'll take it with me when our son goes magnet fishing if I don't kayak that day.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.  Can you believe it's the end of May?

 

Poppies and a RSC Finish

School is DONE for the 2025-2026 school year.  I did not work on any orange scraps this month.  I do have these beautiful orange poppy blooms to show:

I do need to thin out that hosta.  The yellow buttercups (to the left of it) have not bloomed yet.  They need thinned as well.  I'll have plenty of time for that this afternoon!  Woohoo!  I'll also move more of the purple sedum to another bed.  I checked on the deer-resistant plants that some of you mentioned or e-mailed to me.  I have most of them.  Yeah!

I finished this RSC project this week.  I call it Kite Girl.

Kite Girl started as part of one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenges (RSC) in 2014 (I think).  The block is made from 2" squares.  The block pattern can be found at Q is for Quilter blog.  I then started to learn to do the chain stitch for the kite strings and stems in May of 2017.  In 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.  I randomly stitched kite strings with pieces of floss from my grandma's tin. I made the last orange block in 2017 and waited until I knew what I wanted to do with the border and sashing.

This quilt does not have a specific recipient in mind yet.  It measures 61" x 87".

I was going for an old-fashioned look when I picked the green for the sashing and borders.  It was a great fabric deal when I purchased it at JoAnn Fabrics years ago using a 50 percent off coupon.  I miss JoAnn Fabrics.  But then again I save money by not going there so much when I have to wait on our son to finish one of his activities in the area.

I backed it with a gently used sheet that one of my friends gave to me.  The quilting design is Baptist Fan (using my Circle Lord giant template board).  I used taupe thread to blend into the backing.

It has been such a busy month.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders with this eight-week long-term sub job complete.  I will be going back to the same job at the start of the school year in August.  

Graduation has come and gone.  Thank you so much for those that sent him a card in the mail. Special paperwork for our son and the next chapter of his life is 75 percent complete.  Bring on summer.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC26

6 finishes this (Spring) quarter

Here's my Spring 2026 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 --finished 5.28.26 -- 6th finish

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

6.  Hourglass Mini -- Needs a quilt back and then quilted

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.  Red/White basket crib quilt --finished 5.15.26 -- 5th finish

11.  D9P Red/White -- finished 5.11.26 -- 4th finish

12.  HST -- Needs more blocks made and sewn into rows

13.  Red/White House in Center baby quilt -- finished 5.2.26 -- 2nd finish

14.  Fish -- a 12-block RSC26 project

15. Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

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

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Horsen Around Crib Quilt -- needs a back and then quilted

19.  Horsen Around Scrap Quilt -- needs blocks cut and sewn

20.  Pink Houses crib quilt -- Needs blocks made

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

22.  Christmas Memories 4-patches sewn, need more

23.  Dinner Party (school print blocks) blocks cut, needs blocks sewn

24.   Layer Cake Lattice -- pink blocks cut -- needs blocks sewn

25.  True Blue Sew Along (started 1/15/26) -- needs corners sewn to blocks

26.  Zip It Sew Along -- finished 5.1.26, 1st finish this quarter

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

28.  King Rosebud embroidery quilt --finished 5.5.26, 3rd finish this quarter

29.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #1 (pinwheels)

30.  Kathleen Tracy Mini #2 (squares)

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

32.  Cheddar Jack crib quilt -- cat blocks are sewn, some 2.5" squares are sewn

You can find the 2026 Spring Ravelry UFO club here.