Busy…So Busy

I  just don’t have time for blogging. 

So much to do during our brief summer. 

My Blue Himalayan Poppies are always the star of my perennial beds.

 The orange flower is a Fire Storm Geum. 

My Creeping Thyme moves an inch or so up the rocks every year. 

I captured a photo of a Hummingbird Moth while weeding my Blue Moon Woodland Phlox.

I have several varieties of Columbine in my flower beds.

My main landscaping project is to finish this hill. 

Lots of bear sightings. 

Some from the safety of my car while driving in the neighborhood.

Some screen shots of bears from our neighborhood FaceBook page so they are not the best resolution but…we have a sow with three cubs! I don’t want to run into her anytime soon. Mama bears scare me the most.

I have gotten a lot of handwork projects done...not much quilting. 

The sun is shining so I must get outside!

April Projects

 The weather starts to warm up and my computer time drops drastically. 

In April, many projects were touched...and many were finished! 

Alphabet Zoo is such a fun finish. This adorable panel from Hoffman Fabrics was in my stash for soooo long. I would look at it often and search online for pattern inspirations. It finally happened...a pattern was found and I was driven to get it finished. My February blog post covers my pattern find if you need that info...it is a Freebie.

My grandkids love Cuddle and Minky backings so this one as a wonderful lime green Cuddle.

I turned to working on two panel kits in my stash that were all cut out and ready to stitch. 

The kits both had the same panel, Aurora Borealis by Dawn Gerety from Northcott. 

I bought the kit, Midnight Lights, from one of my favorite Alaska quilt shops, The Quilted Raven, in Anchorage. This shop is geared toward tourists and has an amazing supply of Alaska themed fabrics, patterns and kits. I did have trouble cutting out the narrow strips of animals from the fabric in the kit and had to track down more from online shops as the shops in the area were all out of the fabrics. 

The pattern was designed by Elise Rose, who works exclusively with the Quilted Raven. It's always frustrating when the kit shorts you on fabric and it is the second time a kit from this shop has been super tight on cutting for the project from the fabric in the kit. I will definitely cut out any kits I buy from them right away so I can buy any extra fabric I need. 

Midnight Lights finished at 50 x70-inches, a pretty nice size for a wall hanging or laptop size. I really love it! 

The second kit I finished with this Aurora Borealis panel is, Northern Lights, designed by Patti Carey of Patti's Patchwork. I have made one of her patterns before with another panel and I really liked her pattern writting. The kit came from another favorite Alaska quilt shop, The Patchwork Moose, in Talkeetna...my favorite little town to go for lunch when we take a little flight seeing trip.

I just love having these two kits from the same panel that look so different from each other. There was one fabric in the kit that didn't work for me so I made a swap for it...it was in the bargello section. 

Northern Lights finished at 62 x 80-inches. It will be fun to come up with a quilting design with such a verticle layout.

The next quilt top I will be starting is part of Scott Flanagan's Summer Quilt-Along that started on Monday, May 5th. It is not a mystery so I have been able to stew on fabric choices for a while. The first step is to make 9-patch blocks. I originally planned to go with a green tonal color scheme just like the sample quilt but now I see bright colors mixed with greens so I have picked a new stash of fabrics. Here is a link to the blog post with the first step: City Square Summer Quilt-Along

There have been a lot of fun colorways to see on Scott's Facebook page.

I always have a Bucilla kit in the works. I realized my grandkids are growing up way too fast so I better tackle kits that might be fun with young kids...like advent calendars. I have at least four different advent kits in my stash, three that have numbered pockets with ornaments for each day. I just picked the oldest kit and got started. 

The first part is to get the elaborate top section stitched. With larger areas of satin stitching, I often use and outline stitch first to make it easier to get a smooth finish.

The top section is now done. For the first time, I used quilt batting to stuff most of the appliques on this section. Of course....I have tons of batting scraps so it was nice to use some of those scraps.  I used my 80/20 batting scraps.

I never shared a photo of the completed set of standing mantel pieces from the kit, Easter Parade by Merry Stockings. Another fun kit!!! The mantel kit uses one layer of quilt batting and cardboard as the base for the standing pieces.

You know how the internet can get you into sooo much trouble...soooo many wonderful Freebies. I have always loved Tilda fabrics and her website with tons of free quilt and doll patterns. I tackled my first Tilda freebie, a cat. It turned out pretty cute. Three more are traced onto fabrics for me to stitch, two dogs and a hare.

I spent the first week of May working on finishing two pieces I cross stitched in March and April

The major challenge was to make them into stand-up displays.

I bought the patterns from 123stitch.com which included the embellishments plus they had the called for linen to stitch each bunny.

I watched a video from Vonna Pfeiffer on making a stand-up finish. 

I watched it several times...step by step...as I made mine. 

They are so stinking cute! I missed the Easter deadline but I was determined to finish them so they will be stored with my Easter decorations...ready for 2026!

It always seems like winter will never end...April was a long month...waiting for sunlight and its warming rays to awaken our sleeping landscape. 

The animals started moving around.

One morning a bull moose greeted my dogs...

Another morning I got a frantic phone call from my neighbor to get my dogs inside if they were out in the yard...

It's funny to look at these photos from last month because a photo of this grizzly bear was posted last night by one of my neighbors and he looks like he's gained 100 pounds! 

I sure hope I only see him from afar this spring, summer and fall.

March Projects

Great! I got a quilt top quilted!

This is such a fun little top. The pattern is, "Madame Butterfly," from the book, "Charm School." I think I used a batik layer cake from Island Batiks

.

I am challenging myself to keep my quilting simple so I finish more quickly...

I have soooo many tops that I want to quilt! 

I still did more quilting than I intended...but freehand so no major ruler work.

My granddaughters really love Cuddle backings on quilts so I went through my stash and pulled several tops the would work with 60" Cuddle widths. 

The next planned quilting job is this panel quilt, "Dragonfly Dreams." 

I have a great piece of Cuddle for it. 

 

I did finish piecing my Winter quilt top...another for the To Be Quilted pile.

Of course...half my mind always seems to be on the next quilt to start. 

I pulled some green batiks for the upcoming 

Summer Quilt Along Scott Flanagan is starting May 5th.

I've ordered some more batiks from the Fat Quarter shop...I hope to get a really dark green and a couple of other greens to add to the colorway.

I made one more doll dress. The fabric has been in my stash for at least 30 years! I bought it to smock a baby dress. Works great for dolls!

I also found an interesting  Barbie Felt Playset kit on the Fat Quarter Shop website. It has good reviews and runs about $20 so thought it was worth a try. It took a solid afternoon to sew it all together...bonding all the fusible interfacing and fusible fleece took the longest amount of time...and really made my iron dirty despite my best efforts.

It opens flat with big pockets on each side to stash the clothes and the Barbies.

The clothes are not interfaced... just felt you carefully cut out. Paper dolls for the 2020s.

My granddaughters, 2 and 5-years-old, enjoyed playing with them. 

A pretty good toy to keep at Gigi's house.

One of the biggest projects I tackled in March was finally finishing the seven cross stitched shamrocks I made last spring. 

I made matching cording with DMC floss. I stuffed them with a combination of lizard litter and Poly-fil I like the weight the lizard litter adds but the Poly-fil really helps keep the corners nice and full. I glued the cording in place...Aleene's Tacky glue. 

I finished cross stitching the last two Jim Shore ornaments from 2023, Pinecone Gnome and Mushroom Gnome. 

I started another Mill Hill Jim Shore series, Chick ornaments from 2018. These ornaments have a front and backside.

Jim Shore designs have so many color changes...so cute and little...they took more time to stitch than I anticipated.

I'm on the last piece of the Easter Parade kit from Merry Stockings...the egg. Hoping I get this set completed for display by the end of the week.

We have a little snow falling now and then which doesn't amount to much except to get us all frustrated with messy roads...but mostly we are down to bare ground...though it is frozen ground. We are getting lots of wonderful sunshine with 11 hours of sunlight. I'm very envious looking a blogs of warmer locations where green plants are sprouting. 

March in Like a Lion

 Somehow...I failed to add a March retreat on my calendar but I was really glad to get a reminder text and realize I didn't have any scheduling conflicts. That is how I started the month of March.

I had not unpacked from the Fabruary retreat...we did a trip to Austin, Texas to visit family and a quick stop in Las Vegas on our way home...poof! February was gone. 

I had worked on constructing oval blocks at two previous retreats and just had to square all the blocks and decide on a layout. Stitching them altogether was super easy. The pattern is, "Blue Onion," by Saginaw Street Quilts. The trick is the specialty ruler for cutting the oval pieces. Find a couple of friends to share the ruler with as it is very spendy.

My version of "Blue Onion," is bigger, 48 blocks instead of 35.  I used a set of half-yard cuts of a Moda batik series, "Confections," from Kate Spain. I added two other fabrics from my stash. Finished size is 57 x 76-inches. I trimmed my blocks to 10-inches.

I also started and finished a panel kit I bought at the last retreat. This fabric line is from Jason Yenter of In the Beginning Fabrics, "On The Go." The free pattern did not have mitered borders but I had enough fabric to do it...so I did! 
Finished Size is 71 x 79-inches.

I also made two pillow cases to match quilts I made at the February retreat.

I'm feeling rather proud of myself for having just enough fabric leftover to make the cases.

And...I still had a couple of hours left on the last day to work on a project I had barely started. It just required me to sew strip sets. I had about 10 strip sets left to sew at home...which I did the next day.

This is a GE Designs pattern, "Strip Lash." I made this in fall colors several years ago and it's one of my favorite quilts...the way I quilted it has a lot to do with why I like it so much. And for the last three years I've wanted to make a winter version. I've got all the pieces laid out and it will be a little tedious to stitch is all up...lots of diagonal seams to match.

But I have a detailed quilt design already figured out...which is weird. I'm making a quilt top to fit a quilt design...as opposed to making a quilt top and struggling to come up with a quilting plan.

I managed to snap a quick photo of the finished, "Hootie Patootie," quilt before I gave it to my granddaughters. They absolutle love all those fun owls. The finished size of this quilt is 66-inches square.

One of my handwork projects is a set of Spring Ornaments from the Australian designer Lynette Anderson. This was my travel project which also got worked on while waiting for hubby during several of his recent surgeries. He had a nasty basal-cell carcinoma site on his nose which required three surgeries...mostly plastic surgery. He looks good as new!

I'm working on my EQ8 progam to try and come up with a little quilt pattern for the embroidered blocks. The blocks finish at 3 1/2-inches.

I'm behind on making the Mill Hill ornament series from 2023...I have the series of Gnomes by Jim Shore. I've started stitching on the last two ornaments. I like to add the beads to a couple of ornaments at the same time as many of the beads are the same in all the kits.

Four of the ornaments are done.  I really focused on stitching these the last couple of weeks. 

Always a felt project to work on too! I'm making good progress on a set of stand-up pieces from 

Merry Stockings, "Easter Parade." 

I think I accidentally bought two of these kits...it does occassionally happen.

My sewing studio is an absolute mess but somehow I am managing to work around the mess and get a lot done. I am getting that annoying voice telling me I need to start some spring cleaning.