I Like Thursday ~ Fabric, Friends and Fun

 

My first flag block for the 

United Block Exchange 2024 @ Olie & Evie

 is sewn and ready.

The swap closes tonight at midnight, Mountain Time, I think.

Never have I ever starched fabrics,

but I did now to follow the guidelines for this swap.

I washed, dried, then soaked my fabrics in a 50/50% solution

 of Best Press and water and hung them to dry again.

Tuesday was warm enough to hang them outside that day.

Then it got very breezy, so I had to finish drying inside.

Then I pressed and started to cut and sew.

I must admit that this method does make the fabrics very flat,

eliminates the normal stretch distortion,

and is very nice to the touch to work.

That said, I think I will never, ever go to this extent

to prepare fabrics for making my quilts again.

I have also been sewing my daily temperature quilt tree blocks.

I write the date on the seam on the back with a permanent fabric marker.

I now have the fourth row done and the fifth begun.

Our temperatures have been changing rapidly of late.

I discovered two days ago that I made an error on my 

color chart for this quilt and left off the 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 

So I updated my chart to make 60F to 69F yellow.

Then I changed up the upper temperature colors.

Last night it was cold with a biting wind.

Today it barely went above freezing,

but the wind chill made it feel much colder.

Good weather to stay in and sew I did.

Progress has also been appliqueing my Dresden Plates.

This is a slow process as I slow down my machine and use a smaller stitch 

so I only do about one block a day. 

 

Yesterday was monthly lunch day with my friends.

I am usually asked to bring dessert and February

is Homemade Chocolates for dessert.

I blend my own milk chocolate.

This year I made Milk Chocolate Nonpariels,

Cashew Caramel Clusters, 

Orange Creams

and, as always requested, Raspberry Creams.

I only make these when I am going to give most of them away

as they are yummy, but they are  oh, so sweet.

Linking up today with my friends at

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

Hope you are having a Happy Thursday!

Scrappy Saturday Sewing ~ Scrappy Dresden Plates

 

Sewing the Scrappy Irish Chain Dresden Plate Quilt Again.

As my readers know, I started this quilt a s part of the 

Scrappy Irish Chain Sew Along @ Coriander Quilts

and was making good progress in January and February.

I was at the point where my blocks were complete 

and I was sewing the blocks together into rows.

Then in early March I decided to add Scrappy Dresden Plates

to the center of my alternate blocks.

Then the great dining room renovation happened.

 

 At the end of August, my qulty kitties and I were at last able to set up 

our sewing corner again. 

In September, my quilty kitties and I 

Finished Piecing the Dresden Plates

and we were ready to applique.

and it looked like we were back on track.

Then life happened and then holidays happened

and this project was tucked into a box.

Until now.

My kitties and I are playing with these pretty fabrics again

Finishing up the 12 circles needed for the center of the plates.

I am using the non-fusible interfacing method to sew,

turn and make rounded centers.

My sewing machine boss kitty has been very helpful today.

We are ready to applique the remaining 11 Dresden Plates.

Sewing them onto the blocks that are sewn into rows will be a challenge.

Hope to have this done soon!

Happy Quilty Weekend!

Made & Found Free Quilt Along ~ Block 2 ~ Free Pattern Friday

 Here is my Block @ for the Made & Found Quilt. 

This is a free quilt along from the

 Andover Fabric Designers 

I am receiving these blocks in my email.

Sign-Up Here for Made & Found

For this quilt I am using my Alison Glass fabrics and solids from my stash

and Thatched Blizzard for my background fabric.

Here are my first two blocks.

This is looking like a very warm colored quilt right now.

Since this Kona Solids bundle was my starting point for this quilt,

it looks like there will be some blues and cool lavenders, too,

in the future blocks.

Time will tell.

Since on Friday, I like to talk about free pattern finds,

I am also posting this link: 

Andover Fabrics ~ Free Patterns Here

The patterns are fabric collection specific,

so if you are looking for a particular designer's free patterns,

use the "Collection" search box in the upper right. 

For traditional fabrics, one of my favorite designers is

Edyta Sitar is hosting another free mystery quilt.

Click on the link below for her 

Birthday Quilt 2024 ~ Free Mystery Here

Block 8 has just been released.

Scroll downward to find all the blocks in reverse order.

I am not sure if I will sew along.

The blocks are looking very interesting

and her mystery quilts are always very beautiful.

Today was very cool and rainy and I was feeling very achy.

No hand sewing for my arthritic fingers today.

The weekend is forecast to be sunny but temperatures will be dropping again.

Winter is still very much here.

May you have a happy stitching and sewing weekend!.

I Like Thursday ~ Quilty Challenges

 

I like learning something new. 

This is my first ever hand appliqued block.

It is not perfect, but I like it!

I learned a lot making this first block and think my work improved

by the end of making this block.

This is the Strawberries Block from the

The Vintage Flower Sampler Quilt Book by Atsuko Matsuyama

For my Vintage Flower Sampler Quilt ~ Started Here

I am using prints from her pretty 30's fabric lines for this quilt. 

For my next block I made this set of templates.

I actually made two sets of templates, 

one for me and one for a quilty friend.

These templates are for the Sugar Plum quilt block from the book.

Hand-piecing is recommended for this block but I like to sew curves 

on my machine so I may try using that method to piece my block.

This block will be a challenge.

I like quilty challenges.

If you like quilty challenges, too, and are interested in making this block,

there is currently a sew along happening for this block pattern

Sugar Plum Quilt Along @ Sunny Day Supply

This is the pattern, 

Sugar Plum by Judy Newman,

 for the quilt along in their shop.

I believe from what I have read that this pattern

 and the templates from Paper Pieces

are for 14 inch finished blocks.

The block I made from the Atsuko Matsuyama book will be 12" finished,

as are all the block sizes in this book. 

I may someday make a quilt like this,

but for now I will be happy to finish one block for my sampler.

So you could also purchase the book to make this block.

My Wordless Wednesday photo shows my useful thimble for 

stitching my applique block.

I like this Clover Adjustable Ring Thimble with Plate

for sashiko, embroidery, hand applique and piecing and any other hand sewing.

I like to wear it on my right ring finger with the plate against my palm.

What finger do you like to use for your thimble

 and what is your favorite kind of thimble? 

Thanks to my online quilty friends 

for answering my applique questions

and encouraging me along.

Thanks also to the lovely group of bloggers at

I Like Thursday @ Not Afraid of Color

for filling my Thursdays with bright photos and thoughts.

Happy Thursday! 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Temperature Quilt 2024 Update

 

I am  happy to say that I am up to date on my 

Temperature Quilt  2024 Tree Blocks

It has been below freezing at night here

and in some cases not getting above the freezing point

 in the daytime the past week. 

Mostly it has been sunny but it has also been very windy

adding a wind chill factor to the cold.

Occasionally we have bits of snow flurries blowing around,

 but we have little new snow on the ground

except for piles along the streets and walks that are not melting.

All in all though, it has been a mild February so far here.

My blocks have been shades of blue and purple to reflect the cold.

The green tree shows it actually went a few degrees above freezing that day.

I added some Tilda Gardenlife 

to my Windy Days and Hibernation fabrics, 

though it is still very much winter in my garden.

I am staying snug and warm inside sewing

and dreaming of spring.

May you stay well and safe an warm in your own happy quilty place. 

Slow Sunday Stitching ~ Hand Applique

This is my current slow stitching project.

I am learning how to do hand-applique my way,

which means after watching many videos and reading many how-to methods,

I am figuring out what actually works for my many thumbs

by trial and error.

I started

  My Vintage Flower Sampler Quilt in January

with my Atsuko Matsuyama fabric stash. 

After completing

 My 2nd Vintage Flower Pieced Block Here

I decided to try one of the applique blocks.

I can manage an adequate raw-edge machine applique block,

but for this quilt I decided to try my hand again at hand-applique.

I attempted to learn needle turn applique many years ago, 

but put it aside feeling all thumbs and not completing a block. 

I have always wanted to try again. 

I started 2024 deciding this would be my quilty challenge for the year.

This is the block lay-out and my threads.

This photo was taken when my pieces were cut and not yet prepped.

At that point I had planned a white tone-on-tone background 

before I decided a softer looking background was needed for these fabrics.

I bought the package of 30s colored applique threads at a quilt show

 many years ago and they have been waiting and waiting, still wrapped, in my stash.

Then recently I purchased the creamy white and a few more colors.

This is Aurifil 80 weight cotton thread which is new to me. 

This thread is so much nicer than any of the many others that I have tried before

I think I will never use any other thread again for invisible stitching again.

I had a surprise kitty helper today!

This is the first time Cassian, who was a stray we took in at the end of 2022,

has taken any interest in any of my sewing or stitching endeavors.

Katniss sits with me everyday on my sewing table

 so I put one of her favorite furry cat beds there for her.

Cassian very quickly started settled as my kitty supervisor and inspector. 

It was purrrfectly wonderful to have him sitting with me while I stitched.

My boys came over for a nice visit this afternoon and my needle was idle.

I only have a few more pieces to stitch though so

I hope to have a finished applique block very soon.

Linking up tonight with the lovely stitchers at

Slow Sunday Stitching @ Kathy's Quilts

Enjoy the links! 

Free Pattern Friday ~ Made & Found Sew Along

 I Made & Found Block One.

This was very much a spontaneous quilty happening.

I saw an announcement for this new free sew along on my IG feed 

during my morning coffee break and signed up,

 found some fabric, cut and sewed.

Usually I dither when I see a new sew along.

I tell myself I do not have time,

that I have too many projects in the works,

that I have too many UFOs in my closets.

Maybe I will think about fabric.

Then  I will dither over fabric.

Maybe start to pull out a few fabrics,

soon to be too many choices.

Then I will maybe take a photo or two of my possible choices.

Then I will dither some more.

Then I will talk myself out of it or put it aside to haunt me awhile

before it sinks to the back of my consciousness 

and to the bottom of my fabric piles around my sewing corner

and eventually gets put away when I clean up. 

Not today.

Today I pulled together this fabric plan in a matter of minutes.

It did help that I have started my spring cleaning and the basket 

with the Kona Solids precuts surfaced.

It did help that the Alison Glass Sunprints 2023 charm pack 

was near my pressing board for some unknown reason. 

It did help that when I thought ... hmmm ... background? ... 

that I walked directly to a fabric storage cube, opened it

and my hand landed on this good sized cut of

Thatched Blizzard,

which every time I see it I fall in love with the bright textural tones,

and every time touch it I am in love with the thick feel of the fabric again.

It is just my most favorite bright white background fabric, ever.

It felt like quilty magic happening.

My kitty quilty helpers did not agree

 because it was only a few minutes until their lunch time

 and my hungry kitties do not like to wait.

Maestro expressed her displeasure to my getting ready to cut and sew

by attacking the fabric.

I promised my kitties I would be quick.

I was 37 minutes from "thinking about fabric" to "finishing the block."

But, I was 9 minutes late to feeding the hungry horde of cats

meowling around my feet and jumping on my sewing space.

Maestro expressed her displeasure by attacking the block

 when I went to snap a photo.

I smoothed it out and snapped.

This is the tail ... er, tale ... of my block

and my new quilty start.

If you wish to sew along ... 

... here is the link to join in this free quilt along:

Made & Found @ Alison Glass

Blocks are sent directly to your email after you sign up.

I am looking forward to next week's block.

Back to regularly scheduled quilty plans for the day.

It is still cold and windy here.

Mr. Scrapatch had to clean snow off the car and steps and walk again today.

Not much, but it flurried  heavily overnight.

Mr. Scrapatch has a long weekend and Monday off. 

Hopefully, we will get some more spring cleaning done inside.

The yard is another matter, covered in leaves from last fall 

and fallen debris from winter storms.

Major yard clean up commencing soon, 

if it does not blizzard in March.

I shall be staying in this weekend and stitching 

Have a Happy Quilty Weekend!