Random Blue Blocks Hand Stitching Progress

I made more progress on the random blue blocks crib quilt.

I had a beautiful view of the lake while stitching while our son was magnet fishing.  He found this "trashure".  It's some sort of extension pole that will go on the scrap pile.

Glad we went when we did.  It's starting to get colder.  The docks will be removed from the water soon.  They start letting the water out of the dam here 12/8.  If we have sunny days we dress warm and go look for lures among the rocks mid December.  During 2020 when I kept our son home his whole 8th grade year we went.  I found three quarts of cool lures!  

I finished the hand-stitched binding on my 2025 Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Old Town!

I also started hand-stitching the binding of the vintage embroidery quilt.  Boy do I love these clips!

I better get busy quilting what I can before "longarm season" is over due to cold weather in an unheated longarm room.  I'm really enjoying stitching with a nice quilt on my lap while watching tv.

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

 

Darting Birds -- RSC25 AND Hanging Sleeve Info

I decided to continue working on my Darting Birds mini.  I selected a piece of black from my stash for the binding.

Because the binding was black and my erasable gel pens would not be seen, I pulled out my vintage pattern marking tool to mark where to stitch the binding pieces.  I've had this for about 47 years!

When I got this binder mitering tool I thought I'd never use it.  Heck... I use it EVERY time I make a binding.  Didn't know I needed it in my life until I got in as a free gift with purchase of something else.  You can see some of the numbers are worn off due to use.

I tried out a new hanging sleeve technique with less edges to hand sew down. These are 4.5" squares folded twice to get a triangle. Laura from Sew Very Easy showed this technique on You Tube.   I think she used 6.5" squares, but this is a mini quilt in my opinion.

I stitched them about 1/8" onto the edge.  Don't worry about that little pucker... I fixed it.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

 

 

Old Town is Complete -- 2025 Bonnie Hunter Mystery

 I finished my 2025 Bonnie Hunter mystery called Old Town with plenty of time to spare before the next mystery begins NOVEMBER 21!  Read about it on Bonnie's blog,  Quiltville Quips & Snips!  I have all the colors ready in bins for it!  Woohoo!

My Old Town has an extra little border added because I don't like longarm quilting all those little pieces on the edge.  It measures 84" square.  I longarm quilted it with an edge to edge design called Loopys using my Circle Lord giant template board.  The binding is the same fabric as the outer border.  This time the binding is HAND STITCHED!  It took a whole Netflix series of Dead to Me to finish all of that, but I really do like the finished look of a hand-stitched binding on this quilt.  It does not have a home yet.

The backing was made of big chunks of light pieces from my stash, of course.  It really does lay flat.  I just was a little pressed for time when I took the photos.  I am glad this quilt is finished.  It has already found a new home.  

This is my fifth Ravelry UFO Fall 2025 Finish.  See what the group is doing 

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Old Town -- finished 10/31/25

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

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

4.  Kite Girl -- Need one more block and sashing

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

6.  Bear Claw Mini -- Needs finished hand quilting and binding (very close to being done)

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Bit Con double sized quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together

9.  Pineapple Table Runner -- Completed 10/24/25

10.  Four Patch Fun -- Bonnie Hunter leader/ender -- Continue making blocks

11.  Blue Embroidery Quilt -- Needs binding 

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

13.  Tree of Life -- Needs more blocks

14.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

15.  Unity Quilt (Bonnie Hunter 2020) -- Needs blocks for the sides to be wider

16.  Card Trick -- Needs a quilt back made

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Sail Away crib quilt -- Blocks need sewn

19.  Fall Table Topper -- Completed 10/3/25

20.  Scattered Stars -- Completed 10/10/25

21.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

22.  Shirting Blocks -- Need sashing and sewn together

23.  Pinwheels -- longarm quilted this week -- needs binding made

24.  Bright 9-patches -- Need an alternative block cut

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

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

27.  Rainbow Ribbons -- need blocks completed and sewn together

28.  Kathleen Tracey Fall SAL -- on the longarm frame

29.  Blue Orphan Block Table Topper -- Needs a quilt back

30.  Summit Stitches 2025 Quilt Along at Humble Stitches (25" square project)

Darting Birds is on the Frame

 The pinwheels quilt posted yesterday was such a quick quilting project considering the size and the template board.  On to the next item on the frame -- Darting Birds.

I started this project 9/28/25.  These are 4.5" (finished) blocks for a Kathleen Tracy Mini QA on facebook.  I am stepping out of my comfort zone and quilting it with a thread color other than white or neutral.  It is being stitched with an all-over meander.  My longarm is behaving nicely even though it is cooler in the quilting room than normal.  I can't believe we went from still swimming in our above ground pool the first week of October to frost already.  Well... yes I can.  It's Ohio.

Pinwheels Binding Sew-to-Go Bag Prep

 The longarm quilting on my pinwheel quilt went super quilt using the Circle Lord giant template board called Wanders.  It's time to slap a binding on there so that I can take it in my school bag tomorrow.  

See those little pink/neutral pieces by the scissors?  Those are leader/enders.  I am working on the 2025 Bonnie Hunter leader/ender challenge.  I'll have an update on what I did this month in the next few days.  I even use leader/enders when putting on a binding.

I press my binding piece corners for a nice, crisp turn.  I might as well press the leader/ender at that time.

Hopefully I'll be busy in study hall stitching away.  It's stitched on and in my school bag.

Pinwheels on the Frame -- Wanders -- Circle Lord Giant Template Board

 I'm excited to use my new-to-me Circle Lord giant template board on this pinwheels UFO.  

Putting little quilts together quickly like this one is a great place to practice new skills for me.

I thought for sure I could figure out the pattern without reading instructions.  LOL.  But no.  Luckily instructions can still be found somewhere online.  After I read the instructions to just keep quilting through the intersections until you come to a "stop" (corner), it was a quick design to quilt.

I'm not sure if this was the right design for this quilt.  I don't expect to finish the binding on this quilt any time soon.  It will be a nice size to take with me to school once I finish some other hand-quilting projects.  I'm glad I did it.  I think this pattern will be great on two up-coming quilts to hopefully be quilted this season--Card Trick and Kite Girl (once it is put together.)

It's always fun to play with new quilt toys!

Info I found on the web:

I'm thankful the Circle Lord site is still available.  

New Longarm Quilt Toys

 I recently found a few more Circle Lord things to add to my collection.  I'm a little intimidated by this first group of tools:

I am super excited about this giant template board called Wanders.  It arrived yesterday.  I'll take this photo with me today so that I can get the pattern trained into my brain memory.  I think once I get on to it that it will be a quick pattern to quilt.  I have several quilts on my to-do list that I will use this.  I'll be testing it out this week.  Stay tuned.

Random Blue Block Hand Stitching

 I can't believe how much I got done on my hand stitching this week!

All center block stitching is now complete except for the blue border.  I need to hit it with the iron to get rid of the markings.

The border will have an "e" squiggle design, and then I'm going to try to fill it in more with straight lines around the "e's" if that makes sense.  I have a few high school subbing jobs coming up this week.  I plan to get a lot stitched.

I'm sewing the binding to the vintage embroidery quilt.  I only have a few more stitches on the binding on Home Town (Bonnie Hunter 2025 mystery).  Stay tuned for a finish!

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

 

RSC25 -- Darks -- Darting Birds Mini Flimsy Is Complete

I put my Darting Birds project together with black sashings and a cheddar border.

I started this project 9/28/25.  These are 4.5" (finished) blocks for a Kathleen Tracy Mini QA on facebook.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

 

Pineapple Table Runner Complete

 I'm happy to have finished the pineapple table runner.

It measures 16" x 36" and was gifted to a special person that works in the office at our son's school.

 I'm linking up at the Fall 2025 UFO Club on Ravelry.

Our son proudly took it to her office at school.

Then he demanded a selfie with her and the table runner.

Then it made it way home with her for her dining room table.

But my favorite part is that the cat that is NOT ALLOWED on the table sits here EVERY DAY now.  This is my friend's daughter's cat.  I don't know it's name, but it is very photogenic.

I might have to save this photo to enter it in the Pets on Quilts posts when that happens.

This is my fourth Ravelry UFO Fall 2025 Finish.  See what the group is doing 

Here's my Fall 2025 Ravelry UFO Club Projects:

1.  Old Town -- binding almost finished

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

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

4.  Kite Girl -- Need one more block and sashing

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

6.  Bear Claw Mini -- Needs finished hand quilting and binding (very close to being done)

7.  Maroon Sampler -- Needs two more blocks

8.  Bit Con double sized quilt -- Needs more rows of strips sewn together

9.  Pineapple Table Runner -- Completed 10/24/25

10.  Four Patch Fun -- Bonnie Hunter leader/ender -- Continue making blocks

11.  Blue Embroidery Quilt -- Needs binding 

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

13.  Tree of Life -- Needs more blocks

14.  Scarborough Fair -- Needs more blocks made

15.  Unity Quilt (Bonnie Hunter 2020) -- Needs blocks for the sides to be wider

16.  Card Trick -- Needs a quilt back made

17.  Acorn Harvest -- Quilt top needs assembled

18.  Sail Away crib quilt -- Blocks need sewn

19.  Fall Table Topper -- Completed 10/3/25

20.  Scattered Stars -- Completed 10/10/25

21.  Fireflies Wall Hanging -- Blocks need appliqued

22.  Shirting Blocks -- Need sashing and sewn together

23.  Pinwheels -- Needs a frankenbattening pieced together and quilted

24.  Bright 9-patches -- Need an alternative block cut

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

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

27.  Rainbow Ribbons -- need blocks completed and sewn together

28.  Kathleen Tracey Fall SAL -- Needs longarm quilted

29.  Blue Orphan Block Table Topper -- Needs a quilt back

30.  Summit Stitches 2025 Quilt Along at Humble Stitches (25" square project)

Random Blue Block Mini

 I started working on the hand stitching on this Random Blue Block Mini.

I was supposed to sub for and intervention specialist at an area high school.  The US History teacher reported off unexpectedly. I was switched to her classroom.  It turns out that it was pretty much study hall/make-up work all day for all of her classes.  I got a lot of stitching done.  Glad I brought this project.

This happened yesterday -- Regional Corn Hole Tournament WINNER!

Headed towards another finish, I'm binding on Old Town!  I can't wait to show off the pieced back.

It will be a little while until it is done.  I just started enjoying stitching binding by hand.  All this practice on hand quilting mini quilts has really payed off on my skill set.  I also LOVE these binding clips.  I bought them last year to keep my Bonnie Hunter mystery pieces counted and organized.  They are handy.  Looks like it's going to be another beautiful, sunny day in Ohio.  I'll be outside getting yard and chicken coop things done this week.  I might have an hour or so each evening for stitching.  No rush.  I feel that this will be finished before Bonnie starts the next mystery on Thanksgiving weekend.

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

 

Darting Birds RSC25

I finished five more darting birds for the Kathleen Tracy Mini Fall QA.

Here's all nine of the 4.5" (finished) blocks.  Now to cut the black sashing. I found a scrap right size.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC25 here.

 

Vintage Embroidery Quilt -- Half Done!... I mean DONE!!!

 The longarm quilting on my vintage embroidery quilt is still looking good.  It's half way done!

Having zero issues with the longarm catching on the embroidery.  ...and yes, a quilt that is done is better than one that is waiting to be quilted by hand.  I just think this is bubbles giant template board was a great choice for this quilt.  I was going to use the Baptist fan because it is a vintage quilt.  I'm so glad I picked this one.  

Although you can't see it in the photos, the center panel is just slightly yellowing from being a WIP so long.  I need to research what to wash this quilt in to help it.  Any suggestions?

Can't wait to see what it looks likes with the pre-printed hand quilting marking out of there.  Yes, the feathers would have been beautiful with the lines as background filler.  I'm just not there yet, and I didn't wait this quilt to have to wait forever.  There will be other quilts to hand quilt when I retire and the quilt room has been moved to its real location (upstairs) of the house.

I'm trying to work on this quilt at least an hour or two every evening after school until it is quilted.

I got a little carried away last night and just kept going.  The quilting is DONE!!

I only had time to take it off the frame and pose it for a quick photo.  The troops were hungry.