Turkey Trot Blog Hop - My Day to Post

 

Today is my day to post on the Turkey Trot blog hop.   For November's theme we were told to "Think turkeys, thankfulness or Thanksgiving fabric.  November also means beautiful colors of fall, so sew something with oranges, golds, browns, greens or cranberry reds."

Don't forget to check out what everyone else has posted about today.

The first quilt for this month is actually still only a quilt top.   I found this Give Thanks panel while I was on a shop hop a couple of years ago and loved it.   I also had these UFO pumpkin and scarecrow blocks from a long ago block swap that I'd never done anything with.

Laid them out and they worked perfectly to add a border on 2 sides of the top.

Close up of most of the panel.    And yes, those snails mean this quilt will stay with me once I finally get it finished. 

I also have a number of smaller fall themed or colored quilts.  This was my design. and is a small wall-hanging.

This was one of those quilts where I tried a new-to-me technique.  The center of the quilt is paper-pieced in a long curving strip, and then sewn together.   The giant rickrack then was sewn down over the seam to hide all the rough edges.   It reminds me of Phoenix in the fall because there is still so much green around here, but here and there you see touches of fall color coming in.

This little table-topper or wall-hanging started with some little orphan pineapple blocks that a quilting friend gave me.   They sat for years while I pondered what to do with them.  I ended up bordering each block in the brown so that I could square them up to the same size, and then put them together in this little quilt.

Gratitudes:

1. 

ScrapHappy - November 2023

 Progress on one scrappy project was made this month.   All blocks were finished for this memory quilt.   Colored fabrics were from the inherited scrap stash from a friend.   The WOW squares were precut scraps.   Sashing strips were also from scraps.   Yet to go is a WOW border, then will be finished with a print binding.

This makes quilt top #8 from the inherited stash, and it will eventually go to my friends when quilted.

Don't forget to check out what everyone else has posted about today.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

Gratitudes: 

1. Having insurance as I try to deal with gout and other health issues

2. For the coming vacation trip to visit with long time friends next week.

Monster Mash Blog Hop - My Day

 Today is my day to post for the Monster Mash Blog hop.

Octobers theme was "to Sew and share something scary, not scary, or something in between.   If it's Halloween related you know we'll love it!"

I don't normally do Halloween, but when I signed up I was thinking that I could use this hop to get me moving on finishing up a quilt top made several years ago which features blocks made with candy corn fabric.   And what could be more iconic for Halloween than candy corn.   Well we all know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men...........sigh......that silly quilt top is still hiding from me, so it isn't finished.

Which then left me scrambling this weekend to figure out what I was going to do for the hop.   Serendipity though was at play as I was working on cleaning out more at what had been my parents house when I found an applique kit originally meant to be used on a sweatshirt.  My mom loved cats and collected all things cats, and she had found this at one of the local second hand stores .   

I dug through scrap bins for the background fabric (a civil war repro shirting), the backing (scrap from a commissioned quilt), and the binding which was an odd sized piece of University of Texas licensed print that was the perfect colors to match the applique.    The little wall-hanging is now hanging in my cube at work in honor of my first work anniversary at Arizona State University which is Halloween.

Don't forget to check out the others who are posting today!

Monday October 23

MooseStashQuilting

SelinaQuilts

The Morning Latte

Quilted Snail

Just Sew Quilter

Gratitudes:
1. For the new-to-me 2007 Rav4 with only 52350 miles that I found and was able to buy thereby replacing the equinox which was starting to cost me more money than was worth.

2. For the plans in the making to go visit cousins and longtime friends in Indiana Thanksgiving week this year.  With my dad passing this year, it will be good to be around family and friends who are adopted family.

Monster Mash Blog Hop Coming Next Week

 

The Monster Mash Blog Hop is coming next week.   Don't forget to check out what everyone has been working on .

Monday October 23

MooseStashQuilting

SelinaQuilts

The Morning Latte

Quilted Snail

Just Sew Quilter

Tuesday October 24

Scrapdash

Words & Stitches

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Domestic Felicity

Wednesday October 25

Karrin’s Crazy World

Just Because Quilts

Quilt Doodle Designs

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

MS P Designs USA

Thursday October 26

Just Let Me Quilt

BeaQuilter

Inflorescence

Quilting Gail

Quilted Delights

Gratitudes:

1. That the lingering odor in my new-to-me car seems to be lessening.

2. For the blessings of friends who will help me make it through tasks that would be very hard to get thru on my own.

ScrapHappy October 2021

 Welcome to ScrapHappy Day, the day where we share what kind of scrappy projects we've  been working on over the last month.

Blocks for memory quilt #6 were finished and assembled.  This used all of the strings and strips from the inherited stash.  Sashing on blocks was a remnant from my stash.

Inspiration pic for memory quilt #7.   Yes, the pic was taken in the bathroom at a roadside rest stop here in AZ.

I started using up the remaining 2.5" cut squares from the inherited stash to make these blocks.  WOW background squares were cut from scraps several yrs ago.    Have finished 4 more blocks, but no pics of them yet.

Squares left to use up.   Should be able to get about 35 or 40 finished blocks all total.

A mini wall-hanging was made using scraps and a kit my mom had picked up at the local 2nd hand store.   Background, backing, binding and batting were all scraps.   

More postcards were finished up this month.  Blue flowers were made from a pair of drawstrings that I cut off a pair of capris.  

Don't forget to check out what everyone else has been doing this month.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, 
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, 
Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

It's a Dog's Life Blog Hop - My Day

This month's challenge for the blog hop was to " Make anything dog or vintage related.  Sew your project with dog themed fabric or applique/embroidery of dogs.  As an added challenge if dogs don't ring your bell, think vintage.  Vintage blocks, quilts, fabrics or whatever old designs make you happy.

Here are the blogs for today, don't forget to check them out.

SEPTEMBER 20

Quilt Doodle Designs

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Quilted Snail

Domestic Felicity

While I have a quilt top made with dog fabrics waiting to be quilted, I decided to let this blog hop get me in gear to finish up one big project that fits in the vintage category.  Along the way I worked on multiple smaller, vintage projects as well that I've found in what was my mom's stash as I've been going through things in what was their house (now mine).  I've found a lot of vintage embroidery projects my Mom had started many years ago and never finished.   

This first one was a half yard sized piece of muslin that my mom had  used an iron-on transfer onto.   There were two big motifs at each end, one of which was completed and two smaller motifs.  The red transfer ink was 

The flower petals were stitched, but not the centers.  And the green stitching in the bottom left piece and black frame needed completing as well.   These three motifs will end up in postcards.

This full large motif that was complete will be made into a mini wall-hanging at some point.....if I can ever make up my mind on what color to use for the underlaying fabric.  I have to say, the stitching my mom did on these is amazing.   The teeniest of buttonhole stitches was used on the flower petals. and everything else was satin-stitched.   And yes, that partial flower in the top left of the photo will end up in a postcard as well.   

This little pair of bluebirds had been started and was all done except for the right-hand bird and the right most flower and leaves.  This will likely end up in a postcard. 

This little dresser scarf just needed the two right most leaves finished, along with the berries and branches at the top of the motif.

This was about half way complete - the fences had been stitched with grass around 2 of them done as well.  Only one set of flowers were complete.   Not sure what this was supposed to be, or how I'll end up using it.

One of the pieces I found was a panel of 8 stamped cross-stitch motifs, 4 bugs, and 4  wishing wells.  Only of the wells had been started, but not finished.  These are stitched with 6 strands of floss.  So far I've completed 5 out of the 8 panels.  3 full skeins of floss have been used, along with threads that have been leftover from kits that I completed sometime in the past.  The current plan is to use them in postcards because the fabric used in the panel is a heavy weight muslin type fabric, ravels easily, and isn't really good for a quilt.

My big project that I used this blog hop to spur me into getting finished over the Labor day weekend was making repairs to this Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  Made in approximately 1937 by my Great-Grandmother on my mom's side, this was one of the antique quilts (out of 10 or so finished ones) that I found in working to clean out things in my mom's bedroom last year after her death in 2021.  All of the quilts that were found had been used and I loved that.   This one had sashing strips that had holes worn in them, dresses and bonnets in some of the blocks that had not held up, and cornerstones that had holes.   

I ended up repairing 3 dresses and 4 bonnets by appliqueing new ones over the original ones.  7 sashing pieces and 3 cornerstones were also repaired in the same manner.   I used as close of matching to what the colors in the quilt were.   The cornerstones were interesting - original color I think was a green, but in today's colors a blue matched the ones that were left in ok condition.  Sashing and cornerstones were hand quilted to match the quilt.

This block just needed a new bonnet because the dress was still in good shape, although faded to an off-white.

Dress and bonnet replaced on this block.  There were 3 total that needed work like this.  Pattern for the blocks was made by tracing one of the blocks.   All pieces were adjusted to cover the original girl.

Batting in the quilt was home made from cotton grown in the area where my great-grandparents lived, perhaps even from their farm.   No scrim in it and after so many years of use it is quite clumpy in places.

This is being gifted to a cousin who remembers her mom helping to quilt it.  

This started out as a framed piece of cross-stitch I made for my dad many years ago as a gift.  With my dad's passing, I decided that I wanted to send it to a family friend in Japan who my dad traded stamps with over the years.  I know my dad would appreciate it going to his friend.   Because it was framed, and I couldn't find a box that it would fit, I decided to rework it into a little wall-hanging.  Finished size is 8" by 9".

Gratitudes:

1. For the unexpected provision of a refund from a pension plan I wasn't vested in that will pay for an unexpected car repair bill.

2. For a job where the bosses are willing to work with the employees when unexpected things (like car problems) happen.

ScrapHappy September 2023

For most of the month I've been tied up with getting other projects done and hadn't done much in the way of sewing or quilting.  I did finally, however, make a layout decision on these 15-patch blocks.   

All of the pieced blocks were made with 2.5" squares that I cut from scraps in the box of inherited stash scraps that I was given by a good friend.   This is quilt top #6 from that box of scraps.   

255 squares were used in the pieced blocks, and there are 400 or so more left yet to use.   The two yellows used in the setting blocks were remnant pieces that were in my stash.  Finished size is 40" wide by 54" long.   And once finished will be going back to the friends who gave me the fabric to use or give as they want to.

I also finished off two pillow covers.  Both of  them feature the puppy panel shown in this picture.  These were old UFO's I found in my mom's stash of stuff.  Much to my chagrin, these two were stitched by myself, and then for some reason I abandoned them.  

The Gingham border is from a men's shirt that I had cut up for another project but never made.  Backing is blank Kona cotton and was a remnant piece in my stash.

Don't forget to check out what everyone else has been doing with their scraps this month.

The final scrappy project for this month was to pull bits and pieces of embroidery threads leftover from past cross-stitch kits, along with a scrap piece of aida cloth for this little chart.   I've got a short timeline for getting this done.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Gwen, Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith , Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin, Amo, Alissa, Lynn, Tierney, Hannah

Gratitudes:
1. For a job that was understanding when my car was in the shop for almost 2 weeks and I couldn't afford to rent a vehicle for that amount of time, and letting me work from home.

2. For the morning temps finally starting to cool off.

It's a Dog's Life Blog Hop - September 18-21

 

The It's a Dog's life blog hop is coming September 18-21.

This month's challenge for the blog hop was to " Make anything dog or vintage related.  Sew your project with dog themed fabric or applique/embroidery of dogs.  As an added challenge if dogs don't ring your bell, think vintage.  Vintage blocks, quilts, fabrics or whatever old designs make you happy.

Don't forget to stop by during the hop to check out what everyone blogs about!

SEPTEMBER 18

 

Just Let Me Quilt

Inflorescence

Quilting Gail

Quilt Schmilt

Sew Many Yarns

 

SEPTEMBER 19

 

Ms P Designs USA

Karrin’s Crazy World

Just Because Quilts

Crazy'boutquilts

Days Filled With Joy

 

SEPTEMBER 20

 

Quilt Doodle Designs

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Beaquilter

Quilted Snail

Domestic Felicity

 

SEPTEMBER 21

 

Moosestash Quilting

Selina Quilts

Words & Stitches

Vroomans Quilts

Scrapdash

Gratitudes:

1. The weather seems to be cooling down a little bit finally.

2. For friends who were willing to drive me places when I needed it.