Rickrack has been repurchased. It was on sale even, so $1 each for the spools, cheap enough for me! Should mention that it is a poly trim (most of them are, including Wrights), but it has held up to all my torture tests including the iron steaming like a dragon. With the poly there will also be no dye transfer into the trim.

I was able to walk right by the sale fabrics even though there was most of a bolt of bird fabric that was enough for a back and only $3 a yard. (Able to walk by after I looked of course, but able to leave without any.)

The ordered back for Aunt Debbie's quilt came in, it is a lovely thing.

It is kind of (amazing?) the changes we have all gone through this past 2 years- in ways — in my mind- I should have been crazy productive during the lock down- but … well, you know.
since my TBI happened on October 1, 2019 and I had been pretty isolated, only leaving the house for therapy and neurologist appointments- when the lockdown started in March I thought “ we’ll this isn’t going to effect me- I’ve been isolated for 6 months already “ but you know what? It was different, and it did effect me. Suddenly I couldn’t even go to therapy or appointments- everything was on line. I think it was April, maybe May when my husband asked me what was loaded up on the Longarm. I’m sure I looked at him like he had lost his mind. Nothing! I hadn’t even opened the door to my studio in 7 or 8 months- I had lost the ability to write my name- I couldn’t even think about trying to sew. He said- “ I’m worried about your well being- I want you to go in and load up some practice thing and quilt it. “
I sat around for 2 or 3 more days- thinking about that- then finally got brave enough to go in and load something up, wound bobbins, threaded, everything ready and walked away again. I think it took another week for me to finally go in and start sewing. I grabbed those handlebars, one line across the top then started to write! I couldn’t write At All with a pencil- but with the machine my penmanship was Beautiful! I wrote and wrote and wrote all over that practice quilt.I think that was a major turning point for my recovery, my life was not over- I could still quilt. Even though that was 14 months ago I’m still not productive like I was before the injury. I can sew for about an hour sometimes 2 on blocks/ projects. I can only quilt for 45 minutes to an hour before a headache starts or things start going wonky. And I don’t have a lot of motivation. I have been back to work full time for 8 months now and the people I work with have been wonderful- looking out for me and seeing progress. I want to get more done in the sewing room- I want to get that stack of quilts quilted that Ben made, I want to be creative- but something has changed. I’ve changed. I’ve thought seriously that I need to really get in gear and get the ufos finished up then sell the machine and move on- but then I wonder- would I be ok? I don’t know why this is where my mind goes… guess time will tell. I’m tired of funerals- I’m tired of angry people, I’m just plain tired and I know I’m not alone. We all hate change and when it’s so drastic and sudden….oh well- ( spilling my guts- again, is over) I don’t know why I’ve had this need to ( share) so much lately…just another phase on my journey I guess…
thanks for being here. 🤗

CK; I hear you. healing takes time. And it's so slow, we can't see it happening. Professionals say don't make any major decisions while recovering. Supportive people around us help physically and mentally. We are relationship beings. Very few people survive emotionaly without other people. Kudos to your husband.

I haven't posted here in a while but I just wanted to check in with a purchase. Yes, a purchase. I have been quilting from my stash for nearly two years and now finding some holes in my stash. I needed purple and went shopping! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wink.png I left with 7 quarter yard cuts and spend slightly more than $11.00. The best part was the store had fat quarters on sale for $2.85 but did not have the selection of colors I wanted. So I picked yardage to be cut at 1/4 yard. I spent only $1.25 per cut because the yardage was on sale!! Back to cutting and creating with minuscule additions to my stash.

Great use of willpower, WMUTeach!

Rob

that is great,! Adding just what you need and getting a deal is a win- win.

In my personal challenge to use up my precuts…here is what I did with one Layer Cake..

https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...t-t315847.html

On to the next precut..

Way cool, Teen. I love seeing what you can do with precuts.

Rob

Teen -- that is so wonderful! Earlier this year when I won the thread auction there were some odds and ends included, including a package of precut Moda Halloween squares that I just could think of anything to do with... and now... hmm... possibilities are brewing and maybe that package won't go out of the house at the first opportunity after all.

A virtual pat on the back to all of us, whatever we did or didn't do :)

Today is Tuesday, so quilt day. It motivates me to have progress/something to do each week. I have all my fan arcs with the rickrack on and pressed, today I will start pining the arcs to the foundation blocks. Hoping to have enough pins to get exactly half done, but maybe not. It will be good to cover some of that bright yellow, gosh its bright this early in the morning.

Once the blocks are done, I'm going to have to deal with directional fabrics in the layout. There are squares of background fabric and the fabric inside the stars is all directional too. I've been leaning towards having a definite top/bottom, or I can radiate them out more from the center which won't be perfect but maybe better... that way at least the quarters would be interchangeable.

Probably start a thread on the main forum about directional fabric designs... the question to acknowledge or ignore... and why did it have to be so directional in the first place? Scatters are good... even a tilt to the letters would have made it easier to work with and still obvious.

Those are some elegant pumpkins, Teen!

Thank you, everyone!

Iceblossom…I’m not a fan of theme/novelty fabrics but now is the time for Halloween projects. You’ll likely see lots of shops advertising patterns to make use of them. My emails, recently, have been all about Halloween, Autumn, Fall crap. And, I love working with directional fabrics…takes longer but worth it in the end..

So even though Aunt Debby Bleeds Blue isn't done yet, I'm putting my thoughts towards the "next" project.

I had planned, before the Judy Niemeyer UFO came into my life, and then this Aunt Debby quilt that I'd be working on a sampler project that I like quite a bit right about now. Today I'm leaning towards making something more planned/less cutting. Lots of strips of fabric that go together in a top... I have an idea for a pattern, I have an idea for the fabric. I'll let it percolate while I sew on the final arcs to their foundation blocks, one set pinned and ready to go, the other set not quite enough pins.

Don't think you can really see the stitching in either picture well -- here's my hiding Seahawk fabric still pinned already sewn down ditch.

The little pie pieces will go down next, same way, and that will be enough along with the side seams to hold everything together nicely. To help me put the arcs in the right place, I made a cardboard template from the pie piece and trimmed off the seam allowance/plus overhang onto the fan blades -- have to make sure the pie pieces do cover that bottom arc.

Have the fan blocks done, hope to get a layout shot later today but hubby still in bed and makes a big lump under the pictures.

Have a definite contender for the next project, need to see if the yardage I want to use is enough. Project is Full Bloom, from the July 2021 AQ magazine, but my fabric has frogs. Large (directional of course!) frogs in beach gear...

These are my latest prepped FQ quilts. The first three are from the end of last year, at which point I realized how perfect these prep quilts can be as leader/ender projects. The log cabin star has been my leader/ender project for this year as I work on my various BOMs and the Harriet quilt.

Nice projects all, Joe'smom! I'm really liking the lightness of them.

I still have quite a bit of bold and bright ahead of me, here's what Aunt Debbie Bleeds Blue is starting to look like. I need to take some time today and think about the directional fabrics and how I want to deal with them.... It is square and more and more I'm thinking to rotate out from the center -- the center star is deliberately non-directional.

I cut the large floral to be up/down directional but I had to buy more, I think I have enough so that they are all the same if I choose to recut. Sort of the advantage of when the best buy of the fabric was a 2 yard piece...

That's so interesting, Iceblossom. Very innovative use of fans!

Really pretty projects, you guys…. Joesmom….I love the log cabin….that’s one of my favorite layouts for a LC and yours turned out so cool..

Iceblossom…ric-rac adds such a creative touch …pretty fabric..

joe’s mom and Iceblossom: Wonderful creativity in your projects.

I finished my June Color Blocks quilt top. I’m a little behind. Lol! It is 60” by 80” and will be given to my church group to finish. The wind picked up when I was trying to get a picture. 🤷‍♀️

Iceblossom- very interesting arrangement! I like the fans/drunkards path mashup.

Connie- congratulations on getting the June colorblock top done. I'm also behind- June is ready for binding, but July is barely started.

Rob

I'm happy with my layout now for Aunt Debbie Bleeds Blue. I had enough extra fabric that I recut two of the large floral background pieces, instead of being a one-way top to bottom direction, since this is square I've come up with a pretty good layout so that basically all four sides are "top" now...

Today is Tuesday group, I got all the blocks labeled and will pin them together at group. I'm beginning to think about the quilting down, with a long arm I'd do a floral meander over the whole thing with a yellow thread. Don't think I'm up to that sit down so am trying to think of other options.

That Full Bloom project from the recent AQ magazine will be next, if I can find enough "sand" fabric to go with the beach frogs. Think I sent out a good piece of that in a recent box...

I really like the pattern of your blue/gold quilt, iceb. I just used my batik that was the color of sand. All I have left are scraps.

Am continuing to put Aunt Debbie Bleeds Blue together. Am very happy with my frog fabric for the next project... will have to take some pix.

I am 99 percent certain I did indeed send out that nice big piece of sand I had in one of the last boxes of fabric I sent out. It happens. I don't even regret it -- just hope it gets used in its new home. I looked at my remaining options and though I could (in a different pattern) have enough using the various bits of sand I have, it needed to be consistent for this project. So I looked at my usual first stop of eQuilter, and then found some I liked at Fields, a small family chain in Michigan (where my hubby is from) and where I kept finding specific fabrics, Including, of course, some of these for Aunt Debbie's. The rest did come from https://www.collegefabricstore.com/ I was pleased with their service and prices were comparable to fabric stores.

So just after I ordered the 1.5 yards and only the 1.5 yards, I found a piece in my stash that will work even though it's not sand... oh well, the sand will come just as I finish this current top. What I ordered may or may not go well with the frogs, but it can join the other sand fabrics. The other fabrics for the top, including an "olfa green" solid and other accent fabric come out of stash. It will be fast and fun -- and bright! Eyes will be wanting something different but haven't thought that far ahead yet.

Oh, I love Fields. When my daughter lived downstate, she was close to the big one. I paid $40 a yard for $80 a yard fabric for one daughter's wedding dress. My kind of sale. More recently, I found beautiful batiks on the clearance table for $5 a yard. Their clearance is not neatly arranged, but the prices are good. And, yes, I used the batiks - they didn't go into stash.

Field's is having a sale NOW! They usually have a summer tent sale but it is all inside this year at each of their locations.

Isn't it funny our connections to Fields? Here I am in Seattle ordering from what used to be the Hubby's home town... I'm hoping for the package of "sand"/beach comes today or tomorrow and that it works...

I posted pix of Aunt Debbie in the Directional Fabrics thread I had on the main page -- here's a picture of the pieced top, is 90" square.

Then it's the next quilt -- frog beach party! I bought that bolt of "Olfa Green" at the thrift store.

If you get the AQ magazine, pattern is Full Bloom from the July issue, we were passing the magazine around in Tuesday group and it just said that it would be perfect for the froggies... What is light gray in the original will be my sand.

The top is lovely. Lots of blue and gold around here. When I was working, the teacher's lounge was interesting the week U of Michigan (blue and gold) played Michigan State (green and white). The students reflected their parent's views at elementary age.

For you Michiganders, you also know about the rivalry between Ohio State and U Michigan (well of course -- one of the oldest rivalries in college sports...). I chose the sawtooth star here because it most definitely is not an Ohio Star! That would be a hidden insult indeed. There is a block called Michigan that is just a slight variation on the Ohio Star and I decided it was just too close.

It's just a coincidence of proportions and quilt math that the fans connected so nicely with the stars. I actually prefer maybe 5-6 blades to the 8 that is my template, but I really like having that nice hard template for fast and easy cutting.

Very pretty, Iceblossom. I look forward to your frog quilt.

Whew! I have been shopping my stash hard looking for one particular rosy piece of Moda... finally found it after going through that same stack yet again! I found two other frog appropriate choices but my heart and mind were set on this one. Nice to know it was there, I am convinced that the sand had left the stash, but I'm super happy (so far anyway) with the "beach" I got instead. More fun.

While I had plenty of fabric to begin with, I have added an additional row and made the border wider and will be pushing what I have to the limit. I couldn't cut the border pieces nicely along the length of the fabric, was just a couple of inches short so think the borders will all be cut cross-grain and the directional frogs turned every which way.

While I'm cutting fabric today, I've got the quilting design for Aunt Debbie's quilt brewing in the background, sort of waiting to see what the weather will do. Right now we cool down at night and mornings would be a good time to quilt, but I'm really trying to avoid quilting in 100 degrees if I don't have to -- and I don't have to!

edit: ooo! forgot, in that big lot of thread I won at auction there are perfect colors for both the top (yellow) and bottom (variegated blue) for Aunt Debbie's quilt.

You have raised two hackles of stash envy in me here... one, that you seem to know precisely what is in your stash (mine has to stay hidden away, so small as it is, I still don't always remember what I've got and end up having to unpack everything whenever I have a project in mind); and two, that you have a thread stash, too! I aspire to that level of awesomeness. Maybe when (if) I grow up. :-D

I lucked into a local auction of a type of thread I particularly like using and got a huge drawer-full of cones of So-Fine in many colors.

For my piecing, I typically just use a beige/camel and a slate blue/gray threads, one each top and bottom. With my scrap quilts I can't match thread anyway, my stitches are small so you don't see the thread poking through the seam allowances, and I can mostly see the seam lines even if I can't see the stitches!

I have a number of different vision issues, one of the problems I have is I need contrast, and cutting this Olfa Green fabric is a challenge, as is just reading the rulers for me on that background. Is easily solved, however, with slipping a piece of paper (junk mail envelopes are great!) under the cutting line.

You'll see I'm using my other mat for this project... First we frame the focus fabric, we don't have to worry about those corners too much because we are going to slice it off into a snowball next.

While I like this project because it is "planned" I can see how it can work with scraps, or photos even. The 8" square is a nice size for that. Say you had a collection of fabrics (or layer cake) that didn't go together so well individually but framed and separated by the coordinating background fabric it would work. Or, the background stuff is mostly HST, a good leader/ender project maybe....

This project is from the July 2021 AQ magazine, if you search on "full bloom cathey laird" you should get a picture.

The frogs are the floral. The solid is the Purple, the pink is the Rose, and the lt grey is the beach! I have just a strip along the selvedge that will be sent off and a couple tiny bits left over.

Well it's been a good week for frugal/cheap/thrifty me! First off, I got a new pair of glasses that have made a big improvement in my ability to drive freeway speeds. Maybe not so important for quilting but helps quite a bit to get to thrift stores and such :p

The framed froggie blocks have been turned into snowballs. I finished up the alternating Square in a Square blocks. As usual, I cut the center square exactly and then the triangles a bit large and then trim down. Is only an extra 1/4" per row and gives me faster easier and more accurate results but I know the trimming isn't for everyone.

At Tuesday group yesterday it was so nice we met outside by choice. This pattern has you make the 8 at a time HST units, I cut those apart and now have a good (?? ironing is never good!) hour of ironing and loud music ahead of me to press them out.

The HST will be arranged around the center Square in sort of a flying square block that connects with the snowball corners of the frog block.

But in other stuff, I won an auction of general sewing stuff and a lovely little hand crank Singer. I'll be picking it up on Sunday. Currently I'm winning an auction for a sewing table, if I win it, pick up for that will be Saturday. With all these tops I have to quilt down, it will be a big improvement to be able to lower my machine for quilting. Bernie, btw, is being cranky again. Having a lot of stitch tension adjustments. And then, on my most desired list of objects, I got a free folding ping pong table!! Still no room to open it in the house but I will be layering my quilts on top of it out in the yard. Will have to get some clamps and options to hold the fabric down dealing with wind but still better than trying to do it on my bed.

Congratulations on your recent scores, Iceblossom! This has definitely been a great week for you with all of the progress you've made as well. You made me think, though, with your comments on ironing... I agreed with you as soon as you said there is no good ironing, but I realized on my last project that ironing for quilting actually isn't all that bad, and can sometimes put me in a really happy zone when everything lines up so nicely afterwards. It certainly beats tricky shoulders and pleats and working around buttons (imho)!

I kept track, it was actually more like 90 minutes of ironing but I got in a few good dance moves at the ironing board. Am now trimming the HST down, if I can slog through the stacks that will be plenty for today's sewing.

Yesterday I went to one of my Tuesday quilter's houses. I had asked her if I could make some blocks for some of her group project tops, but I wanted to know ahead of time how many she wanted -- like if I made 10 pumpkin blocks but she only wanted/needed 2, but if I only made 2 and she needed 10... She admitted that things were getting a bit out of control and she didn't know where they were right now. I said that mostly I just wanted to play with fabric and was going to run out of this project pretty fast, so maybe I could come over and we could play with her fabric until we found me a few projects to work on. Anyway, to show her what I had in mind I went through my house and grabbed all the "escaped" fabric in little piles and bundles and bags, shoved them together and we sorted through the huge pile in about an hour. We had a good time and she feels comfortable with us doing it again -- this time with her stuff. We'll start doing it weekly.

And then yesterday I won my auction for the sewing table! Hooray me :)
https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/...ble-c-3127253/

But be careful of what you wish for because this now means that every single thing in my sewing room now needs to come out. And when I say out, it means out and not coming back. My Bookcase needs to be gone. The little night stand I use next to my current sewing table, there will be no room. Everything that has been in long term storage in the closet has to go and the goal is that all my fabric has to fit inside the closet. I think I might even have room left over at this point! I have rolling storage carts in front of the closet for the fabric now and haven't even been in it for about 10 years. I know there is my cradle (no longer safe) and a Jenny Lind Spool bed frame in there, along with sleeping bags... maybe bags of stuffed animals? It will be an adventure to go inside.

it's like dominos. the chain reaction can be beautiful

In between moving things about the house, I did trim my HST yesterday. Whew! Put them safely in a box so I don't have to worry about them while I get into serious moving mode. You can get the idea of the alternate block now, but probably be close to a week before I get back to them.

I've gotten a significant amount out of the sewing room, one of the rolling racks of fabric is in the living room, the other is ready to go. I have to go through the bookcase today, I actually don't have that many quilt books I'm keeping and I have a place for them in the new layout. Only one shelf was quilt books anyway. Going through books is hard on me, I've kept these for so many years because they were important to me but with my vision issues, it's a loss thing. So while I'm glad that it's finally time to take the bookcase out of there, I'm sad that I have to take bookcases out of my life.

I am so thankful to have "a room of my own" for my quilting. Spent so many years setting up on the dining room table... it's not that I don't appreciate it, but it would be nice to have just a little more room! Of course, the other option is less stuff and I'm working on that, too :)

Wow- that’s a really nice, good sized sewing table, Iceblossom. Congratulations on all your recent scores!

Rob

Well I royally screwed up last week-sorting stash, pulling all my red, white and blue fabrics for some special exchange blocks I need to make for a group I belong to, many log cabin blocks, a string block, a star and a snails trail. I was on a roll and excited to have cleaned/ organized the room. I set up the Accuquilt Go and grabbed a strip die- not really thinking about what size strips I would need to accomplish 12 1/2” blocks- and cut up a ton of strips all 1 1/4” wide. Ugh! I need 1 1/2” strips for all those log cabin blocks…so, guess I’m going to make my own scrappy string block quilt with all the extra strips. I know I have plenty of whites and blues yet to cut the correct size strips but I’m not too sure about the reds- sometimes I jump in without thinking things through.
I did try a couple different log cabin blocks- with different size centers- they just really don’t work because that final strip is too narrow for sewing into a quilt. I like the string blocks though.
live been wanting to use up more scraps- didn’t really plan to create more - oh well…

I understand you pain. I cut up bricks from my scrap bin and they have been sitting on a shelf becuse most of them do not play well together. Oh, well, a truey ugly scrappy quilt is in my future. Chin up girl, you will use those little strips and make a beauty!.

Poor Ckcowl! I do stuff like that too often. Sometimes vision related, just simply cut the wrong mark. Sometimes though, just gotta call it brain related.

What I'm wondering about is if you can vary the width of the rounds and use what you have already cut, at least/especially the reds. Whether that ends up with a offset block, or just every other round narrower or something, there has got to be a way to use those long skinny strips.

The other 'blossom solution would be to sew the red strips together, not worry about matching fabric, just color and cut them down from 2" to 1.5" strips or whatever size you were going for. If you kept your seams scant, you could sew 3 of the skinnies together and cut (2) correct size.

Here's a tutorial/cool project on the uneven widths.
https://quiltsocial.com/3-strip-widt...g-cabin-block/