Sweet land of liberty #2

February is a short month, I know, 
but it seemed to me to fly by.
I did seem to accomplish quite a bit in 28 days though!!
I made 66 churn dash blocks for a swap.
I did a couple of Dear Jane blocks to send to a friend who's under the weather.
I'm working on a small quilt for a swap.
AND...
I have my second month of blocks done for the
Sweet Land of Liberty sew-along 
(LINK to see all the fun:  hosted by Lori of Humble Quilts):

Looking at this picture, 
I think I'll add some stitched eyes now 
instead of buttons later, though.
It's fun to be back working on this one again after a long vacation from it.

Oh, and I had a birthday this month!
I get to be 59!!!! 
A friend made me a decadent cake

It's now one candle per decade they said, 
and they rounded up to 60 for me 😊

and Sweetie and friends took me out for a pizza party!

I'm thankful for another birthday to celebrate, wonderful family, and special friends and celebrations of any kind.

Happy Stitching everyone!
Hope your February was sweet and
you had some time to spend with your stitching 
or whatever trouble fun you like to participate in.

stitching away play

I mentioned last week about my 
quilting friends' group challenge
to use up stash.....
I'm just here to say that fabric diets are difficult 😁
But I don't "owe" any fresh pretzels - yet.

I have been playing,
stitching away on some projects in progress,
and it feels good to play with my 'toys' I haven't had out for a while.

In this stitching vein/thread,
I've joined Lori, of Humble Quilts blog,
and a great group of like-minded folks,
to stitch on the quilt -
Sweet Land of Liberty,
an old Cheri Payne design (now out of print).
It made total sense to me, as I'd worked on this great primitive quilt before.
Like nine years ago, before.
Ooops, where does time go when you're having fun?
And I still love it, so I'm not counting how long it's been resting, 
and am declaring it part of my 
Get it Finished This Year challenge.... aka GIFTY.

So, for month one of the Humble Quilts Sew Along,
here are the first blocks I've done...
(link to the group challenge to be added later this week)

I already had the big applique blocks done, but had to add all the embroidery... AND, I made the Economy Blocks, plus a few extra, which I have not trimmed down as of yet, (because I know how some of these Cheri patterns sometimes need a coping strip added occasionally 😀).

I'm off to go do some more stitching, 
(and not purchase any new fabric)!
Hope you are enjoying your day, too!

Meandering and liberty

I'm still limping along without a working computer,
so I feel stiffled.  In the long run though, it's probably a good thing, not having the excuse to spend "extra" time surfing...
That means that I had time for a
little more meandering this last week...
I also had time for a little rumination -
looking at the title of this post and the last -
Liberty. Liberation.
Hadn't really thought about that until now...
I'll have to comtemplate more on that later.
On to the meandering:
First up:

A wall-hanging by Sharon:

(And before you ask, Yes, this kit and pattern are available at The Good Wives)

Along with traditional piecing it has some three dimensional folding in it.  I used my Sashiko machine to quilt it.

Second up:

Stella did a wonderful job with this stitch-a-long

called Sweet Land of Liberty.

She and I were part of a group

that met once a month for a year

(some of us

-read that as ME-

have not finished ours, yet! :)

and that was,

oh,

maybe...

almost...

eh-hem...

two years ago.

Anyway, here's a pic of her finish

Sweet Land of Liberty pattern by
Cheri Saffiote-Payne

I like how Stella only did the blocks

that she wanted to do.

I should give myself the
permission of "liberty" with projects.
Well, off to do some more meandering - and do some thinking about giving myself liberty :)
Hope your week is going well.

Lil Twister and upcoming gifts

Product review:

The Lil Twister pattern is a quick and easy and it's a fun quilt to make. 

I have the small pattern that uses 5 inch squares or charms.  Using a charm pack would diffently help make this a quicker project to complete.  (There is also a large pattern made to use 10 inch squares or layer cake packs.)
I chose to cut the 5 inch squares from 36 different fabrics, so this took a little bit of time to cut them all out. 

I sewed them together in six rows of six

(a little bigger than suggested in the pattern),  pressed,
and then added a 3 inch border as directed. 

Then all you do is put the pattern/template on the sewn top, aligning the black lines of the pattern/template with the sewn lines of the pieced squares. 

Then just cut around the pattern/template,




turn each piece slightly and sew back together in the same order. 

Continue cutting and sewing until all rows are back together and pressed.

I then added another border (7 inches) and --- WaLaa! -- a finished baby sized flimsy about 40" by 40"!!! 

I did the whole thing from cut to pressed in under 4 hours.  Think how fast you could go if you used charms!
(Note to Mary:  You won't believe how fast this is.  You won't believe how easy this is!)
This same afternoon I had a little show of production:

• This "Twister" flimsy has the backing ready and awating the HQ Fusion to be up and going.  :(   This emoticon = me sad that the new Fusion is still awaiting parts.
• I got TWO more backs ready for baby top flimsies, prepped the bindings, and have the batting cut to size. 
• AND,  I have a table topper ready to quilt (this is a Christmas gift UFO-sorry, recipient).   On this one I have a specialty thread I'd like to try - I think it's called "sparkle"? 

Anyway, the baby quilt "Lil Twister" was a hit for me.  Quick and cute.  I will change out some of the larger prints in the "twisters" next time, but it definately is a keeper and worth making another.  It may be my new "go to" for needed baby gifts.
(Oh, I almost forgot, Mary, you should try this Twister quilt....it is sooo fast and fun and easy.  You won't believe how fast it is and how fun it is.  Really, Mary, you should try it.  You won't believe how fast.......)
Now, back to work for me! 
Thanks for stopping by.

Fat Quarters, who has Fat Quarters?

Fat Quarters...I now have it, the book, and them, the fabric pieces...

This past weekend I was able to go to a local quilt shop and meet up with Jennifer McCann.  She has published a book and was here doing a meet and greet with a reading!  

That's Jennifer up front in the green and black.

The book is a short novel called "Fat Quarters". 

It also has a quilt pattern called

"Star Struck Quilt", with full size pattern pieces.  

Jennifer wrote this along with Tess Rich.  I saw the quilt in person and it is just a gorgeous piece!  Jennifer is a wonderful long arm quilter, teacher, and now... Author!  Pick up a copy soon for yourself or a great gift!

Also this weekend, I went to a nice quilt shop in Waynesville.  And, are you ready for this....I did not buy a thing!! 

I know, take my temperature!  I thought I was feeling fine, but really, nothing! 
I "needed" a couple of pieces of Kona tea-dyed for some stitching.  There were Kona cotton bolts filling at least a 12 foot shelf.  Just not the color I was looking for. 
Oh well, another day, another quilt shop. 

But, I did receive a huge stack of homespuns and flannels from a friend.  (Thanks, D!) (she doesn't do homespuns/folkart on a regular basis, so she was cutting her stash!)
Check out this picture:

Isn't that a great friend???? 
I will use these in my block of the month that starts the end of this month:  Sweet Land of Liberty. 

Off to do a little stitching before hitting the sack! 
Thanks for stopping by!

bad, bad, bad

First off...........Happy first day of October!  Whew, it came in on the cold side, didn't it?
Anyway...............
That's me... yesterday..... bad, just bad.  I did a few errands yesterday.  One of the errands was to pick up some fabric for a project for my momma for her birthday  (I can't show you yet, 'cause she might see it here.  At least I hope she follows my blog, that's one of the things momma do, isn't it?). 
Her birthday is only a month away, and she lives out of state, and THIS year I promised myself I would be better and do something and have it ready and mailed before the last minute. 

I had something in mind, knew where to find it,
went with a list, of course, and came home with:
exactly what I had in mind for my momma,
and I also came home with this: 
See this large group of nicely folded homespuns and flannels?  Maybe a yard, yard and a half of it will be used in conjunction with the above mentioned project.  The rest............bad, bad, bad.
So here comes the rationale..........
I have signed up for
a block of the month group

with a great group of gals

at my LQS. 

It meets

the last Thursday

of the month, for a year

starting this October.

And because they meet once a month

it helps me keep my act in gear and keep close

to the monthly deadlines.

This year, the project is

Sweet Land of Liberty

by Cheri Payne

http://www.quiltsbycheri.com/index.html

There is machine piecing, wool and cotton applique, some hand embroidery and it looks like fun! 

But, this is not my usual cup-o-quilt-tea

and I NEEDED more homespuns and flannels

to get started on this.

Doesn't the new group of fabrics

so look like they were made for this quilt?

So, I already have a lot of my fabrics ready for this NOW;

I am ahead of the game by a month!!!..........and all except for two pieces, were 30 or 40% off.  Yippy!

Still..............bad, just bad, but...........now reasoned to justification! 

I also quilted yesterday and today:

Sorry, must need to clean my

glasses, this didn't look fuzzy when

I took it.

But here's a close-up of the quilting

and it's not so fuzzy!

And, another quilt done:

These were both block of the month samplers

that were on a to-do list.

Aren't they pretty? Great colors.

Yea! off Patty's list and now off my list!

Well, I'm off,

hope you get to stitch a little today, too.