I truly enjoy all things Lori Holt. She does the vintage, farm, homespun goodness that I gravitate towards. Before I retired I placed a reservation on her upcoming Farm Girl Quilt. Knowing I would have more time to quilt once I retired (not really true) but also a sort of retirement gift to myself. The goodies arrived this week.

I have a million quilts all ready to be sewn, but I have learned that sewing is only something one does when they are in the mood. Otherwise you make a lot of mistakes. See how cute and farm like this quilt is.

This quilt is very familiar to the quilt I made and sent to the county fair. Alas I did not win any ribbons (stiff competition) but I still like the quilt.

There will be similar blocks but the colors and overall it will be a different quilt. Besides one cannot have too many quilts.

So starting on January 26th I will start the quilt. I know there will be times I fall behind, but that is ok.

It helps to do a Quilt-a-long as I feel compelled to keep up. I would hate to have the quilt police knock on the door.

More to come later.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Just on the heels of the summer bucket list (summer be gone) I am rolling out the Autumn/Halloween bucket list. Autumn time is my favorite season. Chilly night, leaves falling, a nice windy breeze, pumpkins on porches, scary shows on Netflix, hot soup and warm tea at night. Ohhhhh my favorite time of the year.

I keep seeing all these cute pictures on Pinterest.

Amen.

But onto the bucket list.

There are a few new items on the list and a few favorites. More crafts this year and less cooking. But that is fine. Gotta mix it up. I will joyfully celebrate the season. I may do things not on the list. Let’s see where this takes us.

Let the leaves fall and the winds kick up and start the bucket list.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

This year I decided to make a patriotic quilt. Generally when I make quilts I tend to lean toward Halloween (of course) and Christmas. So when I saw this pattern I really wanted to make it.

Once I had enough charms I went ahead and started to sew the star parts of the quilt. But once I got to the red and white stripes I ran out of charms. Crap. I dug thru my stash again and hit pay dirt. The quilt sewed up very fast but got a little heavy as I connected the rows together. My sewing area does not have the space to spread out a large quilt so it was a challenge but I did it with a bit of creativity.

Here my brother is holding up the finished quilt so you can see it. If you look carefully at the bottom you can see his dog’s foot. Oh that silly dog has to be in the middle of everything.

Now I have to get it quilted. I was thinking of a bright blue grunge backing. I can get it in the extra wide size so I don’t need to piece it together. For the quilt pattern I wanted something with stars or patriotic looking. I usually send my quilting to Missouri Star Quilt Company and they had this pattern which would work great.

or maybe this one

I am leaning towards the star spangled banner design. Quilting is expensive so I need to budget the cost. I usually put my own binding on to save money but it is not my favorite part of quilting.

I will post a picture of the finished quilt when I get it completed.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

I finally finished the Halloween Mystery Quilt from Primrose Cottages. At least the top was pieced together. I still need to send it off to the quilter and then do the binding. Speaking of binding. I need to finish the quilt from last year (which was sent to the quilter ) but I still need to sew on the binding. Sewing on a binding is my least favorite part of doing a quilt, so I tend to procrastinate.

I really like the fabric which is called Spellbound by Sweetfire Road. It is a nice collection of oranges and blacks

The kit had a charm pack so there was some leftover charm squares. I think I will make a few coasters to use them up. There maybe a enough to make a nice gift to a deserving friend.

Thank you checking out my blog.

I joined the sew sampler a few months ago. They give a monthly BOM pattern that started in April. I will get patterns for 12 months. This year the quilt is called Pressed Flowers.

I missed out buying the kit from FQS but that is just fine. I ended up getting Sunwashed by Corey Yoder

This fabric collection will make the flower blocks more vibrant which I prefer.

The finishing has corner blocks and I do not care for the gingham corners. I am thinking of using Bella solids in the corners that match the prints

I got this image off the Facebook group. Sadly I won’t get the pattern until the end of the year. I still need to get the binding and the backing so I better get it soon before I cannot find the fabric anymore.

Block one completed. And I love it. I think this will be a beautiful quilt.

#PressedFlowersQuiltAlong

Yes I am doing another block of the month. I saw this BOM in the Connecting Threads catalog and thought that I really had to make it. I love the blue and white look of it. Reminds of my friends kitchen. Her mother had blue and white china on the wall and I always admired it.

The fabric line is called Afternoon Tea. It is just so fitting. But I won’t be drinking tea and eating crumpets on this quilt.

It is a 9 month program. I received the first month and I made the 4 blocks below.

This time I starched the fabric first to prevent shrinkage afterwards. These were pretty easy to put together so I am looking forward to next months blocks.

Thanks for looking.

#AmherstBOM

My friend Tamika was expecting her first baby. I decided to make a quilt for the little one

I thought this was a cute idea from Riley Blake.

It came with this cute panel to make a soft book. Excuse the mess on my work area.

I added a custom label using a similar print.

A close up of the cute quilting.

Just add adorable baby.

It is time again for the annual halloween mystery quilt along and stitch along that Fat Quarter Shop hosts. They generously post a new part of the pattern every week in June to make a cute wall quilt and a cute cross stitch design.

I received in the mail the fabric for the quilt. This year they are using Urban Chiks Owl-O-Ween fabrics from Moda.

From what I can tell, it appears to be a castle, haunted of course.

The cross stitch seems to have a pumpkin and a bat.

I thought about using DMC but went for the fancy floss because it looks like the pumpkin is a large enough piece that the variation would look good.

I decided to make a grime guard for my QSnap in the same fabric line. It makes it all the more festive. See you in June.

This year I did not do an autumn bucket list. No pumpkin bread, forgot the Hallmark movies and I did not add my autumn bedding. But I did do a mystery Halloween quilt designed by Primrose Cottage My sister even joined along.

The fabric is called Bad to the Bone by My Mind’s Eye. There was just a few pattern flaws but otherwise came out beautiful and was easy to sew. I sent it off to the quilters so chances are I won’t get it back until after Christmas. I pieced the back because it was not large enough. I think it will come out cute.

I am designing a cute quilt label so when I get it back and add the binding I will give you an update.

It has been quite a while since I made a full sized quilt. I have this love affair with beautiful fabric. I cannot tolerate anything made with cheap, ugly fabric. Similar to my thoughts on scrapbook paper, life is too short to make ugly things with ugly products. So beautiful fabric it is, and quilting is the game. I decided to do the Ruby Star Society summer 2022 sew-along using the Stay Gold collection from RSS. Beautiful fabric with gold accents. It is a simple quilt only using 5 inch squares but still beautiful.

Starting today we will all start to cut out the fabric. On the hashtag #rsssummersewalong I have seen a nice variety of fabric choices. It will be exciting to see what people choose as their fabrics. I will try to cut it out this week but i am struggling with a major toothache. At least I got an appointment. Hopefully it will be a dim memory soon.

Wish me luck on my quilt a long!