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.

Aqua/Brown Arrow Crib Quilt Finished

 This is the project I took to school with me to finish on my lunch periods this week.  

The aqua/brown arrow crib quilt measures 24" x 52".  That's a great size to be drug around by a toddler.

The backing and the binding is the same fabric.

2026 finishes -- 9

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 -- blocks need sashing and borders

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

True Blue Cutting Progress

I had a very productive day cutting True Blue strip sets.

All of the strip sets are cut now.  It's time to arrange them around the blocks and see if I have enough.

I also trimmed a few of these half rectangle paper-pieced blocks for Lupines & Laughter (2025 Bonnie Hunter Mystery).  Check out Bonnie's blog for info on that here.  I am not very good at making this block.  It is taking me longer than usual.  The block assembly is pretty and something I don't often do, so it is worth it.  I'll keep plugging away at them.  There were no issues using my rotary cutter during my breaks at school.

I let out a little squeal of excitement when I walked into the art room -- I got to help the kids learn how to make stitches with big plastic needles and yarn on burlap pieces!  This bin was waiting for me.

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.

 

Prepping My School Bag -- True Blue Progress

  I got up early this morning to press my strip sets.

Pressing these is one of my less favorite parts of this quilt.  But this should be enough for today:

I'll be using my easy angle ruler, a fresh rotary cutter blade.  I just got this rotary cutter on Amazon last week or so.  I'm not sure if I like the design yet or not.  Sharp is good though.  

The goal is a bunch of these:

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.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

Current project I'm working on in front of the tv in the evenings is the embroidery quilt that my grandma did 50 years ago.  I am slow stitching a light blue striped binding on it.

I finished the binding on my big green charity quilt.  We didn't have school due to snow days during the week of 1/26.  Temperatures were in the negatives and we got over a foot of snow.  Bus stops and bus loops were snowy and icy.  Last weekend volunteers shoveled and shoveled in area school districts so that students could go to school this week.  It was nice to sit and stitch under this quilt in the evenings on our days off.

I also finished all the applique of an old dragon project.  I'm not that in to dragons, but this was something we did as a learning thing at the quilt guild I used to be a member when our son was small.  I'll most likely add some pink patchwork blocks around it to make it crib sized.

Cold stitching... I only had to take the 22.5" mini Kathleen Tracy QA to work with me for two days to have the binding complete.  Here it is on Monday in the parking lot of the school.  I arrived early due to the fact that good parking spots are limited with all the snow plowed in the lot.  Yep, that says -9 degrees.

Here's the finished cutie:

You can find the Kathleen Tracy Facebook group here.

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