What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Why is it called the Topper Quilt? Because it started out as a TUTORIAL from Free Motion by the River. Great use of Mini Charms (one per block, or a bunch of scrap-cut squares.) AND, if you get carried away, suddenly you have a quilt top. With pillows.

NOTE: This is the front yard of my home. And you are seeing my locally-famous front yard garden. Keeps me honest about weeding…

I love how each block came together and how I was able to use fabric I had on hand. If you have mini charm packs without a purpose, each ...

OH MY --- I was exhausted when I got home. I had a decent sleep the night before, but it was short. Can you believe I went to bed at 6:30 last night and got up at 4:30 AM—that is a rarity for me. I had five minutes of awake time and 1 hour and 13 minutes of deep sleep! Phew --- I feel great this morning, and that was probably my best sleep score ever. Those sleep scores only give you excellent if the sleep duration is long. 

But let's step back and see what happened in ...

 You guys are the best—so many good comments and suggestions. 

It was another amazing day of progress. And guess what? I have worked on almost all my projects - there are two bundles of scraps that I have not touched, and one quilt top! There are a few projects that didn't get finished, but they got advanced, and that is all that counts!

Here is the plaque from the BMO Museum in Montreal. What a hoot to see that. Thank you so much, Daphne, for spotting that and sending it to me, as I had no idea. I don ...

I know—I said NEVER, and will likely be saddled with fleece and flannel forever!!! But more progress in that department in a minute. 

As I surveyed what I'm working on at this retreat, the title for the blog came to mind. By poor, I mean someone with not much of a budget. I finished cutting all the fleece into usable bits. A job that most people would have just said no to and tossed the fleece. I get enjoyment from it. 

Then this happened. 

I had to hand-stitch the facing around the collar of this jacket that I ...

In case anyone thought I was too harsh yesterday about my comments about the planet, I want to clarify that slightly. Yes, people visit these places to learn about them, and then they can be protected, but there are two types of people. OK -- so I'm generalizing there -- there are many types of people, but to keep this train of thought somewhat simple. There are two types of tourists -- those who just want to conquer the place/event so they can check that item off their to-do list. Get to the end as quick as possible, get to the ...

When I am sorting scraps, or cleaning up after projects, I cut likely pieces into standard sizes: 1-1/2″, 2″, 2-1/2″ squares. They are so handy, sitting there in their little tubs just waiting for a project to come along.

And here it is! Double four-patch.

A large (queen? king?) size quilt made out of 4-1/2″ blocks. Yes, it is a lot, but I have a lot of squares. And I am not in a hurry. And, I already have 11 blocks. Only something like 550+ to go.

Art is art! Oh my—I love Tammy's comment about the CN Tower from yesterday's blog. The person who criticized the block recognized it as the CN Tower. Mission accomplished!!! I NEVER think of the good comebacks at the time. 

Imagine if we were all quick on our feet and could put the "Karens" in their place immediately!! I have to work on those witty comebacks! 

And it was time for our UFO Club. The amount of UFOs that most of us have is obscene, but slow and steady, and we will whittle them away. That's my ...

 I must admit that adding stitches to the sky in my current cross stitch project is not that exciting...I try to break it up by adding stitches to the bottom part of the picture too.  You can see from the picture that progress was made on both fronts this week. Someone asked about stitching on perforated paper--the paper is quite thick and I have not had any issues with it tearing.  I have had to unstitch in a couple of spots and did not have any issues.  

My daughter has been working on her crochet in the evenings this ...

How about a set of potholders? Yes, I seem to be stuck on potholders right now, but they really are fun.

This hockey fabric must have been very popular, because there were pieces in multiple scrap bags. Match on!

This has been on the go since last fall.  It was to be something else, but then saw a photo ..... ummm ..... a squirrel ..... on Pinterest and the layout changed big time.  What kept me stalling was all those white blocks.  I decided to start making them up from my scraps and stash.  Finally, bit the bullet and started making them.  

Happy Mother's Day

I must say, it feels great to get back to sewing, and, well, I just picked a "random" project to work on. Actually, it's on my Visual To-Do list under UFO, so I'm allowed to work on it! I had picked five projects under the UFO category, and my plan is to finish them all this year. They are in various states of completion. 

When I first started the sew-along quilts, in year two (2004), we did something different. Instead of choosing one large quilt, we picked two small quilts from a four-season collection ...

This is truly an Economy Baby Quilt–the block is an 8″ economy block, and it was built entirely of hand-me-downs and scraps.

The feature fabric is adorable (not sure of line). And the quilting echoes the theme.

Finished size is 40″x40″.

It goes in the donation pile.

No fabric out this week.

Girls day out yesterday.  We stopped several places that sold fabric.  I don’t usually buy fabric at quilt shops (I know, I know, if we don’t support them they won’t be there), but yesterday was the exception.  I love a good scrap bag, and this one was screaming at me to take it home and make a table runner out of it. 

The bag contained a section of panel, coordinating fabric and neutrals.  What’s not to love?

The trick will be fitting it in between my challenge projects and still making ...

The Scrappy Sampler top (my version) is at the quilters. Hope to have it to share soon. In the meantime, I made a pair of potholders (slightly different sizes, due to quilt math).

It is a great way to use up small pieces, units or even entire blocks at the end of a quilt.

It's great to be home!!!! I managed to get a bit more sorting done before we left shortly after lunch. It was another amazing retreat with great company, a new house, and a return date for next year! You can't beat that! 

My hand was a bit sore this morning when I woke up, and I'm guessing that was from all the cutting I've done. I'm surprised it wasn't sore before, but then I wasn't making big swooping cuts -- most of what I did was piddly little trimming. 

Once I arrived home, I ...

 For those not aware of the Magic Bags, they are bags of grain (not sure what kind) that you throw in the microwave to heat up - like a heating pad. However, Jill's comment is chilling!!! The smell was quite bad, and I can still smell it on my PJs because I held the bag to me for a bit. The smell is still very much in the bag, and I suspect that when I get home, I'll be shopping for another bag, because the moment it goes in the microwave, it will stink up the place. 

As for ...

Not that I get around much, but there is one thing when you go to someone's house, or in this case, a retreat house, that always throws me for a loop. One thing every time, and it's in the kitchen. Can anyone guess? Almost everyone has one, and while they all look similar from the outside, they are NOT!!!! I'm talking about the microwave. The difference is the wattage? Power? I'm not sure what you would call it, but oh my --- they are totally different. 

I know from cooking oatmeal in many microwaves. Yesterday I struggled ...