In My Sewing Room

     I have numerous quilt tops waiting to be quilted and have added to the pile this week. I wanted to reduce my stash of strings so pulled the green and teal strings focusing on tone on tone prints. I cut them into 9 1/2” strips then started to randomly piece groups. After I had a pile of units I made a plan and decided to make them 12 1/2” long so they could be trimmed to 8 1/2” by 12 1/2” brick type units. 

I aimed to piece 20 and actually pieced 21 (miscounted) by only adding 3 strips to my original pile cut. That was lucky.

From my stash I found enough of a similar fabric to piece 2 1/2” strips to the long sides so that the blocks would finish at 12 1/2” square. This quilt top came together so quickly and easily that I plan to use another color set of strings to piece another. Here is the pieced top which measures 54" by 66".

      I also laid out my Hope blocks from GE Designs 2^nd Quarantine Quilt Along.

Blocks are now stacked by rows and pinned for stitching together. That is the plan for today.

With Covid-19 cases on the rise here and around the country, I hope you stay safe and healthy while doing something you enjoy like sewing or quilting.

I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday.  Check it out and get inspired.  

Quilting?

     I seem to have lost my quilting mojo temporarily. I am thankful that I did finish several charity quilts for Hands2Help which was a success during this unusual time. Confession of a Fabric  Addict blog shared that over 117 quilters made quilts to share and well over 500 quilts made as part of her drive. Vendors and others in the quilting world provided gifts for Sarah to share with those making quilts. I was pleased to receive the surprise thank you treat of a cute little zipper bag with 2 mini charm packs from MODA.

Thank you, Sarah and MODA. 

Great job to all H2H participants this year!

      My GD and I enjoyed some time with a sewing lesson and making a pillowcase gift for her friend.

      

       It seems most of my time recently has been spent in my yard or my son's in GA. Here GD shows off some of the plants she helped set out.

Stay safe and healthy while doing something you enjoy like sewing or quilting. 

Sewing Going On

     No quilting has been going on here this week. The sewing I did was to make a dog bed filled with fabric and batting scraps along with 2 removable covers - one cotton and one fleece. Here it is with the fleece cover.

 

     GD2 will have a birthday next month so I spent time making new 18” doll outfits. She requested t-shirts and a gymnastics outfit. Here they are.

  

 

      I have stayed busy the rest of the time in the flower beds or with our vegetable garden.  My neighbors have let me know that they are especially enjoying this showy large yellow daylily named "Soft Summer Breeze".

     We are getting plenty of zucchini. So far I have cooked it for supper several times and also made 2 batches of zucchini muffins. I need to check out how to freeze some for winter. The rest of the garden is also coming along. I have been picking blueberries as well as cucumbers and green beans are filling out.

    I moved Christmas Cacti outside to the front porch and now I have 2 plants blooming.  I think that is very unusual for this time of year, however, enjoying them.  

     

     Our SC Covid-19 cases are on the rise. Hope you stay safe and healthy while doing something you enjoy like sewing or quilting.

Season of Graduations

     Because of Covid-19 precautions this year high school and college graduation celebrations are very different from most other years. This Sunday will be Youth Sunday and recognition for HS graduates at my church with a drive by visit after worship. I wanted to help recognize their accomplishments and recruited a member of my church quilt group to make each a small zippered bag.

     You may have seen one of the many tutorials on YouTube for turning a placemat into a small zippered bag. My church has made several using placemats then transitioned to using our own quilted fabric. For this group of bags I selected sets of fabrics from my stash so each bag would be different. I used a fat quarter for backing and pieced strips to fit. 

 After I quilted the panels, I trimmed and serged the edges before constructing the bags.

 

I FMQ meandered on most but used some areas to practice a few special motifs.

Here are my 3 finished bags.

Congratulations to all graduates!

I'm linking up with WhoopWhoop Friday. Check out what others are working on.

Stay safe and healthy while doing something you enjoy like sewing or quilting.