Back in Blogland!

 Hello! Do you remember me?! I can't believe my last post was dated April 18! Where did those days, weeks & months go?! I'm sure someone has stolen them!!! 

Where do I start? You may wonder why I fell off blogland - again!? No particular reason; except it became a bit overwhelming and I needed a break. I lost the quilting mojo but it picked up when I started making Christmas items for my shop. UFO's has been on hold. At least I haven't made any new! Haha! Kidding!!! Of course I have new UFO's! Out of 15 UFO's (counted end of 2021) only 2 are finished! That's too bad! When I lost the quilting mojo I enjoyed counted cross-stitching (show & tell in a future post). 

As much as I love making Christmas items, all Christmas fabrics are packed away for this season. A *gnome lap quilt was put aside when I had to give priority working on other items. I won't be able to finish it this year, hence one of my new UFO's. 'Dear Nina' (my Bernina sewing machine) has to go in for service, after 7 years of hard work! Long overdue, I know!!! 

Last week I finished a custom order; 50 Norwegian Flag Coasters. A fun project! They are going all the way to Michigan. Thank you M.! 

New round coasters (set of 6) for my shop

A new UFO: I'm using a panel from Lewis & Irene's *'Keep Believing' for these blocks. The idea is to make a lap or twin quilt, depending on the yardage of fabric I have. 

New UFO #2: What to do with all the Moda Marbles just sitting there, just in case (once in a while) I need a matching blender?! I got the bright idea - haha! - to make an approximately 68"x78" quilt. I need 42 granny square blocks, set on point. Still some to go...

HAPPY QUILTING! 

A finished UFO and What Came Out of the Rest

 It's early Easter Monday morning. I've had my breakfast and brewed coffee. I love early mornings; enjoying the first cuppa of the day, the quietness (hubby still sleeping) and the best of all; reading latest blog posts to see what dear quilters have been up to lately. You all are so creative and especially I love the RSC challenge many of you participate in. Lots of great projects!

What have I been up to the last weeks? Busy sewing, of course! The best of all, I have a FINISHED UFO; kitchen wall organizer! 

It became a UFO because I dreaded the inside out pockets. IMO; I never get the corners right. I spent quite some time trying to figure out if it could be done different. That failed too, so I decided to go for it! In the end, it didn't turn out that bad? I added Prairie Points to one side of each pockets and it has a sleeve for easy hanging. A fun project to make! Measures 16.50 x 32.50" / 42 x 82.50 cm. Pockets are 8.25" / 21 cm deep and 7.50" / 19 cm wide. For the back I used a floral white on cream.

Here's the second one

This is how I wanted to make the first one, but could not figure out how to add the pockets since they have different placements. It has the same pocket panels as the above one. Measures 12.75" x 34.25" / 32.50 x 87 cm. 

A large table runner

This is approximately 3/4 of the runner - LOL. I was too lazy to empty the sewing table (which is big enough) to take a proper photo. You get the idea; it's the same pattern at both ends. Measures 18.25" x 52.25" / 46.50 x 133 cm

In my previous post I had prepped for some place mats, which is done

Four round place mats, 13.75" / 35 cm diameter

Set of two square place mats, 13.50" / 34.50 cm

...and another set, 13.50" / 34.50 cm

Thank you for your suggestions to turn the small tomato piece into a trivet

I listened, and here it is, 10.75" / 27 cm square

As I've mentioned earlier, one of my goals this year is to use up fabrics from my stash. After finishing the above items, I had some bits and pieces left. A bit too big to be cut into squares and strips, so I made...

...four round trivets / pot holders, 7.25" / 18 cm diameter. As you can see, there's not four, but three. How come? 'Of course' I ran out of bobbin thread on the last one! More on the way, should get it by next week. 

Two square trivets / pot holders, 9.50" / 24 cm

I need the same bobbin thread (green) to finish this rectangle trivet (plus the round one).

Do you keep records (invoices) of fabrics/notions you buy? I do, and just for fun I had a look in the files to see when I purchased these fabrics. Surprise! Purchased February 2012! My goodness! I didn't realize it's that long ago! Well, you know, some fabrics are too beautiful to be cut or I didn't know what to make.

Fabric purchased; 2 yards of the text fabric and 1 yard each of the others. 

   I didn't use all. There's about 7/8 yards left of the cream, used it only for the table runner. 1/4 yard left of the green, one 2.25" strip will be used for binding the rectangle trivet and there's about 0.15 yards left of the red. The green as well as the cream for backing are from my stash too. 

Small bits and pieces are cut into 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3" squares and a few 1.5" strips. 

I forgot to take a photo of the strips. Nothing to show really; a couple of strips from the text fabric, the vegetable/fruit one and the green fabric. 

Now to wait patiently for the thread to arrive to finish the last two items. 

What's up next? I'm not sure... I have some non-quilting related projects coming up, but not sure when I'll get to it. It needs some planning! I've finished a cross stitch project and currently doing a small cross stitched Easter bunny, but that will be for another post. 

HAPPY QUILTING!

 

Sunday, Torrential Rain and Progess on a UFO

 It's the end of the rainy- and cyclone season, or 'summer' as the locals call it. We have had a couple of cyclones that came pretty close (the eye). Fortunate not much damage to our property, except some banana trees that went down and a huge branch off a tree in our garden. Lots of rain which is very good for the water reservoirs. At the second half of March we got some sunny days and we were able to spend four days doing some long overdue yard work, before it started raining again! Since Thursday we've had heavy / torrential rain, which has caused floods and roads closed in some areas. One place recorded 241.8 mm / 9.5 inches in 24 hours. Not so much where we live, but still a lot. Right now (Sunday morning) it looks like it's going to clear up a bit, but heavy showers are still expected. Just read we've got one months rain in two days. 

In such weather, what else to do than hunker down in the sewing area (dining room) working on a UFO, other items and my ODG (one-day-goal). I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier; one of my goals this year is to make one 36-patches quilt block (2.5" squares) each day. 

So far, so good; I have accomplished January 31 blocks, February 28 blocks and March 31 blocks. From earlier I have December 2021 31 blocks. I've already done 4 blocks for April. Did you do the math?? 125 blocks x 36 = 4500 squares pieced together! It HAS made a dent in the boxes; reduced from 5 to 3 and soon there will be 2 boxes only. I have also made two twin quilts using 2.5" squares. I'm beginning to run out of red squares - as if I don't have more uncut! LOL   

Here they are, Dec 2021, Jan, Febr & March 2022.

I drafted the above paragraphs yesterday (already Monday morning). Now I'm going to tell you what I did yesterday; I worked on bindings! Not my favorite thing to do, but it has to be done. The one to the left is the UFO; vegetable wall organizer.

Binding is tread basted to the table runner and the two kitchen organizers. The backing is from my stash.

I love using up fabric (these from the same fabric line), which resulted in eight place mats! 

There will be four round place mats. Isn't this fabric yummy? 

..and four square place mats

How come there's one orphan tomato panel left?!

 

What can I turn it into? I think I know; a small wall hanging? Any other suggestions appreciated.