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May 2, 2024
Midweek: good-bye, Quiltmania + charity challenge but not OMG from With Strings Attached




Rabbit, rabbit!   Welcome, May.





Illinois Beach State Park yesterday:  strawberry, red-winged blackbird, the restored beach, lupine, starry false lily of the valley, puccoon.  

The erosion control project is nearly finished. They've moved the temporary construction h.q. building off the parking lot. (Details here)

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The quilt publishing world is no different from the general publishing world.  Magazines have been hard-hit with fewer advertising dollars. Production costs have gone up.  Still, it's sad when a magazine goes out of business -- most recently, Quiltmania.  

I started reading Quiltmania in recent years when I got a few back issues at a ...

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Pieces of My Life ~ Block #6 - Hours from Melva Loves Scraps


Welcome back to Melva Loves Scraps and the Pieces of My Life Sew Along! Block #6 is named "Hours".

I remember being asked about my age as a kid... the typical, "how old are you?"  I went through a phase of responding with a very precise "I am 7-1/2 (or 8-1/2) years old."  I must have recently become familiar with fractions (probably from baking cookies on Saturday mornings ;) and I once answered even more precisely that I was 8-3/4 years old. LOL! I remember that my brother made fun of me.  Apparently, every day counted for me ...

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Quilt Backs: Cut From the Same Cloth… Or Not! from - Barb Robson ::: quilter

It has always been suggested that quilts should have a backing that is one piece of fabric or a backing which has as few seams as possible and the pieces are all cut from the same cloth. I have always struggled with this since I usually just buy a half meter or one meter of fabric so that I have a lot of variety in my stash. As my quilts got larger, using one piece of fabric was a challenge and I really liked the idea of a pieced back. Sometimes I have leftover blocks that I can piece into ...

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Chookshed Stitcher's Challenge, Appliqued Hour Glass Blocks, Cake, Garden Gift from Canadian Needle Nana

Happy May to all! Though it feels a little like one step forward and two steps back, spring is getting here. Fresh snow out west; here no snow but cold overnight and early mornings have a chilly wind. But it doesn't stop the two who venture out every morning for a good walk. Of course, one of us is wearing a fur coat so he's going to be toasty no matter what. 

As another Ned said...

"What is the good of your stars and the trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our ...

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End of the month: OMG and stash report from With Strings Attached

 


I rarely post on Tuesdays,  but it's the last day for the April OMG link up.

My OMG was to make a hollyhock wall hanging for the outgoing president of the Zion Woman's Club. Hollyhocks are the club flower.  I bought the pattern from Ladybug's Cabin Creations.  It was fiddly to make but the instructions were very clear.   All batiks from my stash.

I'll present it at the ZWC luncheon next week.


Stash report for April:  

Fabric in 76 yards, $110, average $1.44/yard.

Fabric out: 58-1/4 yards.

YTD in: 580-1/2 yards, $955 ...

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it's time! from Quilt Nut Creations

 Our first quilt show of the year is this Saturday and Sunday. 

So if you are local, come on out and say hi!




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Sea Turtles for Damien from The Colorful Fabricholic

My great nephew Damien didn't get a baby quilt. I knew when his mom was expecting his older sister, so I made one for her, but since I'm not on FB, I didn't know about my niece's second pregnancy. They live near Miami, so I don't see them often. Recent family events brought us together, and - surprise - my niece has a little boy Damien who's about 18 months old now. 


Obviously he needs a quilt. After all, his big sister has one, so he deserves one too. Making the quilt is not a surprise ...

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April 2024 PHD Report from Life In Pieces

Hard to process that April is over.  Between our travels for the eclipse early in the month and then knee surgery mid month, my sewing room time was down considerably.  Even so, now that it's May it's time to put together a progress report and link up P Designs USA for the April PHD report.  




There's been no change in my PHD spreadsheet.  No finishes, but no new starts either.  So I'll take that.  Even though there were no finishes, there has been a bit of progress on a few projects.  




Most of my stitching time ...

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Embracing the Scrap Life: From Scraps to Gifts in My Sewing Room from Sewing Under the Little Mushroom Cap

Welcome back to my little corner of the internet. Today, I’m excited to invite you into my sewing room to talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart: the scrap life.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a stash of fabric scraps that seems to multiply overnight. But fear not, because those seemingly insignificant pieces of fabric hold endless possibilities, waiting to be transformed into beautiful creations. Last year, I had the opportunity to share my love for scraps at the Scrap Summit event. It was such a joy connecting with fellow quilters ...

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Pin in the Quilt - YIKES! from Grandma's Red Needle

Finally! A UFO is under the needle!


This quilt was a result of the RSC - Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2023.
I had all those purples I wanted to use and ended up making two purple quilts. 
After the tops were done, both were put away. The main reason I wasn't sure how to quilt them. 

2-3 weeks ago I pulled the tops out from their 'hiding places' and got both sandwiched. The biggest one, the one I'm currently quilting, has a partly pieced backing (to use up more purple). It wasn't enough for the backing (no other fabric ...

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I Like Thursday #232 from Knitting Quilter


 It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more bloggers. I'm making steady progress on quilting my son's wedding quilt. I just finished this block yesterday. I love the look of straight lines with free motion quilting. I quilted some pebbles and ribbon candy along with the ruler work. It just adds so much depth to the block. I love it!


I've been shopping for a dress for my son's wedding. I found a lot I liked but they just weren't the right ...

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I Like Thursday #232 from The Knitting Quilter


 It's time for I Like Thursday! Please visit LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color to link up with more bloggers. I'm making steady progress on quilting my son's wedding quilt. I just finished this block yesterday. I love the look of straight lines with free motion quilting. I quilted some pebbles and ribbon candy along with the ruler work. It just adds so much depth to the block. I love it!


I've been shopping for a dress for my son's wedding. I found a lot I liked but they just weren't the right ...

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Sewing leads to organizing - sometimes from My Sewing Room

As I have been working hard to finish some quilt tops and some small projects lately, I've also "stirred up" the fabric in various bins and drawers.  

Boxed Squares has been an on-going Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for a couple of years.  I've always liked mixing black with bright colors, and have collected a lot of black and white prints.  Every time I dug into the drawer full of black solids and black/white prints the contents of that drawer became a bigger and bigger mess.  Now that Boxed Squares is a finished top (48 x 66), it ...

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Bowling Green, Kentucky from ... Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to Bowling Green!


We're back on Central time, but only for the next four days. 


On Sunday, we'll head on over to Lexington, Kentucky, where we'll be back on Eastern time again. I'll leave it up to you whether you want to adjust your watches again. This part of the trip was supposed to have been done in a different order, which is why we're going back and forth a little bit. We had to rearrange to accommodate a tour to a horse ranch in Lexington. 

Before leaving Shepherdsville ...

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Bowling Green, Kentucky from Cat Patches

Good morning, my friends, and welcome to Bowling Green!


We're back on Central time, but only for the next four days. 


On Sunday, we'll head on over to Lexington, Kentucky, where we'll be back on Eastern time again. I'll leave it up to you whether you want to adjust your watches again. This part of the trip was supposed to have been done in a different order, which is why we're going back and forth a little bit. We had to rearrange to accommodate a tour to a horse ranch in Lexington. 

Before leaving Shepherdsville ...

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It's time to get things in order! from Crazy Quilter on a Bike!

Thanks for the comments. I need to respond to them, but I seem never to get to that. I read them! And YES—the statement stamped on my carabiner is to protect them from liability. It's sad we live in a society where we have to make those statements. And you know, whenever you see a warning about something, someone has tried it. There are probably people out there who search for opportunities so they can sue the companies. 

Did anyone ever think about how much that adds to the costs of products? They have to be on their ...

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Stitching Progress on And God Saw from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

As mentioned yesterday, I’m working on And God Saw and this is going to be kinda my tribute to Rita. If you missed that post, you can read it here. You all know that I love Teresa Kogut’s work and this chart really has me wanting to do nothing except stitch! You may notice I...

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Hometown Stars Quilt Pattern - a Baby in Sweet Picnic from Busy Hands Quilts

I love this part of my job where I have something new and exciting to share with you!  This week I am featuring a brand new quilt design called Hometown Stars!  This pattern includes 8 sizes for you to choose from, so it will fit whatever quilt size you have in mind.  Hometown Stars is the perfect quick and easy quilt pattern that will brighten up your happy home and add a homey-feel to your nest.

The Hometown Stars quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.



Meet Hometown Stars!


Hometown Stars quilt design really puts the emphasis ...

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Hometown Stars Quilt Pattern - a Lap Quilt in Back Porch from Busy Hands Quilts


It's that time again!  I have a brand new quilt design that I am so excited to share with you!  Meet the Hometown Stars quilt pattern - available in 8 sizes.  This quilt design really puts the emphasis on Home in Hometown Stars, and it's perfect in summery red, white, and blue!

The Hometown Stars quilt pattern is available in the Busy Hands Quilts shop.


Introducing Hometown Stars


Hometown Stars is the perfect quick and easy quilt pattern that will surely brighten up your happy home and add a homey feel to your nest.  This quilt was quilted in ...

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April 2024 monthly recap.......... from Exuberant Color

Three quilts were finished in April.  The Bear Paw quilt is 68" x 82", Charley in the Forest is 65.5" x 87", and Friendship Star is 62" x 71".  The 2 largest ones were quilted by Robin Diaz and I quilted the third one.


I finished 3 quilt tops that were either cut or started several years ago  The 4th top was started from scratch in March.  The blocks were all made for the neutral 16 patch so it just took a design wall session and stitching it together to finish this 55.5" x 72" top in one ...

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