What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I have yet to find a really good not-wooded place to get a sunset photo. This was taken off a side road about 8:20 p.m. (Sunset officially 8:32.)

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In the studio: I finished the 22 mug rugs and mailed them to the woman who commissioned them. They will be favors at the Georgia state P.E.O. convention next spring. (I joked it's up to her to remember where she put them!)   2-3 ...

The Christmas churn dashes are a flimsy! I'm auditioning backings.  

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I am halfway through a book that I don't like very much. (Why do I feel compelled to finish what I start?  Nancy Pearl, reader's advisor extraordinaire, has posited the Rule of 50 * and I should follow it more often.)    Here are my reviews of last week's books that I didn't have time to post on Monday. 

(Here is the explanation of this good-luck tradition.)

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Stash report, May:

Fabric IN  152 yards, $26.  That's .17 -- seventeen cents! -- per yard.  (110 yards from the guild rummage sale and 42 yards received as a gift.)

Fabric OUT  68-5/8 yards

Year-to-date fabric IN  232-5/8 yards, $254, $1.09 per yard.

Year-to-date fabric OUT  272 yards.   

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I went to a church rummage sale recently and bought two ziploc bags of rick rack, bias tape, and seam tape for $2 per bag.

I sorted the all-cotton from the synthetic. 

Remember when stretchy lace seam binding/hem tape came out?  And iron-on hem tape? (Fusibles have come a long way since the late 1960's.)

These are Coats & Clark.

It was chilly and rainy outside on Tuesday but warm inside.   The Zion Woman's Club had its year-end luncheon at a restaurant. I wore a mask except to eat and smile for the camera.  Regina conducted the officer installation with a lovely "heart of the club" theme.  I'm now past president. My service continues, though, because Steffi and I are co-vice presidents. (In our club that's program and membership. I do enjoy program planning.) 

And I have the pin to prove it. 

 Both of us were sneezy on Sunday.  My husband suffers from allergies year-round (dust and mold as well as pollen) but I only react in late spring when pollen is very heavy.  We took quick Covid tests and both read positive.   I don't have a fever, just sneezes and sniffles and a few aches.  He, meanwhile, is grumbling because we got our second booster shots last week so we should be immune, right? Umm, no.  I've pointed out that sniffles are a lot better than being hospitalized.    CDC guidelines say to self-quarantine for five days (=through Friday). I ...

The old pinwheels are in the nine-patch blocks.  I made new pinwheels for the cornerstones with a different gold print -- but, by golly, I still had some of that very same tone-on-tone neutral.  

This is an odd size -- 39 x 51.  Maybe I'll add another border. Maybe I won't.

If you do the math you'll note ...

The bird houses are all set!
I wanted a busy setting and that's what I got.   Both the sashing and the border fabrics were purchased at Quiltagious last week. The sashing is Art Gallery (Bari J) and the border is Kaffe's Antwerp Flowers.  Both prints pick up all of the colors in the blocks.

5-1/4 yards by weight.  Approx. 72 x 84.

I will add two or three appliqued birds.

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I know I won't have any completions tomorrow nor do I foresee purchasing any fabric so here's the March stash report:

Fabric IN  14-3/8 ...

The block is called Old Maid's Puzzle, Jacks on Six, Double X 1, Three and Six, and Kindergarten Block. (Brackman #1689a)

6 yards used.

Linking up with Midweek Makers

I didn't get photos of the wonderful Mardi Gras-themed centerpieces at yesterday's Zion Woman's Club meeting. It was our club's turn for reciprocity when we invite representatives from other clubs in the district to join us.  We had five guests and we welcomed a new member.  The luncheon was lasagna, salad, and bread sticks from the local bakery/caterer, with Mardi Gras-frosted cookies for dessert. 

Leftover cookies!

(Here is an explanation of the good-luck charm.)

The January Stash Report:  Fabric IN  52-3/4, $127, average $2.40/yard.  (I received a generous destashing gift.) 

Fabric OUT: 53-3/4    I'm ahead by one yard.

The "fabric out" count includes 20 teal/aqua spinner blocks for the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

There are two parts to my ...

(BTW, that's the hood of my car in the photo. I picked it up from the body shop where it's been for three weeks. (We've been using Stevens' car in the meantime.)  Someone sideswiped the car when it was parked (photo here). Repair entailed replacing the rear side panel and the ...

The left box overflows with the completed Step 5 units for Rhododendron Trail.   The HSTs were Step 1 and the wing triangles were Step 3.  Step 5 nvolved sewing large pink triangles and then smaller neutral triangles. That resulted in cutaway triangles which I promptly sewed, trimmed, and pressed. They're 1-1/2" unfinished. I have no immediate plan for them but they'll be ready when inspiration strikes.

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Here are my most memorable quilts of the year. Click on the highlighted title to read more about the design or ...

Finish #4 for November, quilted and bound.  54" x 61".

I made the flimsy earlier this year to use up some of the scraps I created during the CWRSRP (Civil War Repro Scrap Reduction Project).   I'm sure you understand that I still have yards of CW Repros and many scraps. 

The back uses up nearly all of these two prints.

Linking up with Susan and other quiltmakers at Midweek Makers 

While we were away my Janome was in the shop for a long-overdue cleaning.   I took it in on Wednesday (10/6). We left on Friday.   Fortunately the Singer 301 was at hand.   I hadn't used it in a long time but it fired right up and I could sew those final two evenings.

Rather than begin something elaborate I turned to the box of 2.5" squares.  I made 11 sixteen-patches before the trip and the remainder when we returned.   They called for a simple setting.   This will be a nice donation quilt.

I picked up the Janome ...

Welcome autumn!  A cold front came through on Tuesday and the temperature dropped 10+ degrees. Our afternoon outing to Lyons Woods was very comfortable both for me to walk and for Stevens as he sat in the car.  (He's unable to walk long distances -- especially at the pace I've developed over this past year of near-daily walks!)

Left: the rose hips from Japanese or Seven Sisters roses look more ...

69 x 69. 6 yards by weight. 

The blocks are 8x8 finished. They were rather ...

Rabbit, rabbit goes back to school.  

(Here is an explanation of this folklore.)

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Stash report, August: 

Fabric IN:  38-1/2 yards, $195

Fabric OUT: 45-7/8

YTD fabric IN:  271-5/8 yards,, $1046, average $3.85

YTD fabric OUT:  340 yards

NET:  68 yards USED (yay!)

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I need to trim the top.  I'm not 100% wild about this but I can imagine using the 1.5 x 2.5 column idea in alternate settings ...

On Monday we enjoyed revisiting Lyons Woods for the 2021 Hike Lake County Challenge.  Tuesday was too hot and humid to do more than run errands -- 95 temp and heat index of 105.  When I sat out on the shady patio later in the afternoon a front came through with clouds and wind gusts. Quite dramatic!  I came inside before it began to rain.  We got about an inch -- so badly needed.

Rose hips, gray dogwood, a burl. 

Joe Pye weed, sawtooth sunflower, evening primrose.   Hedge bindweed, rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan), field thistle.  Woodland sunflower, whole-leaf rosinweed, another woodland sunflower.

 When Preeti announced the Positivity Quiltalong I thought, "I can do this!" but I confess I forgot about that pledge until one of the other bloggers posted her initial PQAL blocks.  I quickly went to Preeti's blog and copied all the relevant information.  (If you've missed the details, start here and follow the tagged posts.)

The block construction is simple.  Preeti's blog shows some variations (triangle corners, square corners) and layout ideas.  The fabric choices are the challenge.  Miscellaneous scrappy? Rainbow? Floral? A genre -- but which one? (Aussie, Kaffe, batik, Civil War, 30's....)

I went with ...