Shirley A's Quilt - "Just Breathe"

At some point during the pandemic isolation (it's all kind of a blur to be honest) my online group of quilty friends decided to have an "Orphan Block" Challenge.  The challenge was to take all those blocks left over from other projects, unused sample blocks, or maybe blocks made to learn a new technique, basically sad and lonely blocks in need of a home, and put them all into one project.  And believe me, it really was a challenge.

First, every single one of my orphan blocks went up on the design wall.  

Then, play time!  Making something out of this was a lot more of a challenge than I thought it would be.  I took some of the blocks, cut and stitched them to combine them with others to make new blocks, and some of the blocks I cut into smaller pieces.  It took a while to go from the above to this .....

..... and after deciding to fill in empty spots with checkerboard sashings, to this.....

And then it went to this.

I didn't want to end up with any "orphaned" orphan blocks, so I put most of what was left on the back.

I free-motion quilted this, and not without excitement.  I have a habit (a bad one) of getting my fingers a little too close to the needle while I'm sewing, but at least this time it was just my free-motion quilting glove that got caught and not my finger!  Whew!

Just a closeup.

One really special block went onto the back.  My grandson, Gavin, made this block when he was just a little guy and had decided, for about five minutes, that he wanted to learn how to sew.  I blogged about that here.

I am very pleased with how this turned out.

I named this quilt "Just Breathe" and gifted it to my precious friend, Shirley A, who was going through a very hard time.  She loves it.

I ended up with only these teal orphan blocks left .....

..... but I already had a plan for those!

Linking up with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop!

Paige and Paul's Wedding Quilt

Another niece, another wedding quilt.  This time it was Paige's turn.  I was on a roll using up those batiks!  The Organized Chaos pattern by Cozy Quilts is perfect for batiks.  I'd been wanting to use this eggplant batik with gold stars for a while.  I had never auditioned it next to other prints before.  It turned out to be perfect.  I need to "play" with my stash more often!

I worked on this quilt during the Covid isolation while I wasn't even thinking about blogging, so I only took two photos.  Let's just jump ahead to a picture of the finished quilt .....

..... and the happy couple.

Hmmm, it doesn't seem right to leave you after such a short post and so few photos.

I'll just share a little bit about two of the quilts I made for Paige as she was growing up.  Actually, she helped with one.  She decided to learn to sew; she wanted to make a quilt; and Aunt Sandy was just the one to teach her. 

We picked out a panel (aka "cheater cloth"), a bright aqua for borders, and hot pink and yellow for a checkerboard border.  Paige did some of the sewing, but decided pretty quickly that sewing wasn't really for her.  I finished up the borders, added some bright buttons as cornerstones, named it "Girlfriends", and called it "done"!

In 2005 I thought she needed a more grownup quilt.  She was thirteen by then, after all.  I wanted to use Judy Laquidara's pattern "Rainbow Connection", but as you can see I didn't want to use rainbow colors, just two colors - pink and black.

It was a fun surprise that Christmas and a big hit as well.

Linking up with So Scrappy

Linking up with Oh Scrap!

Getting Back on Track

When I left you almost 2 years ago (can you believe it?) I never dreamed the Covid crisis would keep me away this long.  I certainly didn't think being in isolation would keep me out of my sewing room for over six months.  It should have been the opposite, right?  I should have been sewing up a storm (as my mother used to say).  Alas, motivation is an interesting thing.  Its appearance has been pretty random around here.  

Right before I took my blogging break I had been doing "A Little Housekeeping" in my sewing room.  I recovered my ironing board and design wall and sorted through and organized all my scraps.

The next part of my housekeeping was just the simple basics.  First, cleaning and oiling my machine, and wow, did it ever need it! 

Next, cleaning up threads.  I have a great thread catcher right at my elbow .....

..... but it seems that when you throw threads at it instead of putting them into it, they end up on the floor instead. Huh.  Imagine!

Do you know what happens if the floor is covered in threads and you don't sweep often enough?  The wheels on your chair stop rolling because they're bound up in thread and snippets of fabric!

I'm not even going to tell you how hard it was to clean up that mess.  Let's just say it involved scissors, tweezers, and a lot of time.         

It wreaks havoc with your socks, too!

Once my sewing room was cleaned and organized I felt more like sewing.  Next time I'll show you everything I accomplished afterwards.

Oh!  One more thing!  When you clean your sewing room I would advise you to sort through your trashcan before emptying it.  You never know what might have ended up in there after it fell off the cutting table.  Yikes!

Now that I'm back (AND motivated) I'll see you soon.  I promise!