February Plan

Saw this finish-along on instagram and signed up 

hoping it will motivate me to tackle Mt. Binding (Mt. Bindmore?) -

2 quilts, 5 wall hangings, and 1 tablerunner, all of them finished except for their binding. 

That cute little bunny quilt at the top of the pile has hung on the wall at Easter for TWO years, sans binding. Hang on, little buddy, this is your year!

We’re planning to be in CO for a week, and February is already short, but IF I get these all done… or I get bored… I have 56 half-square triangles (HST’s) left over from the Patchwork Heart quilt that are ready to be made into… something. Excited to work on this, so motivated to finish the bindings. Wonder how far I’ll get…

Sunny Day Pix

We had a little time to kill before heading to Wednesday’s eye appointment, so I talked hubby into holding up quilts so I could get pretty daylight pix. 

This sweet baby quilt is made from Tula Pink squares leftover from a grandniece quilt I made in October 2023. It’s been done, except for the binding, since March 2024 (here) 

Carousel horses for the backing

and would probably still be sitting in a pile if Cheyenne hadn’t asked if maybe I could make a quilt for her newest niece. Perfect!

60 x 73”

Outdoor pics of Patchwork Hearts show off the colors better than my 2 am shot. There’s a mix of cotton Grunge, batiks, solids, prints… whatever pink, purple or red that was in my stash.

White hearts are bees and honeycomb

It makes me happy just looking at it. Probably won’t be back from the longarmer in time to use this Valentine’s Day but I may leave it out into March and April just ‘cause it’s pretty. 

Done!

All done! Except for a couple of little things… like quilting and binding.

Super happy with how it turned out. Now to arrange a spa day for it at the longarmer…

Hearts Progress

Friday I sewed the left side blocks together,

Saturday I did the right sides and a couple of test blocks,

and today I finished the remaining 22 blocks. Whoo! My design wall isn’t big enough to hold them all…

Hoping to sew everything together tomorrow and take it to my longarmer pal before Wednesday’s eye surgery redo (finally!) 

Really pleased with how easy this pattern is to sew and how quickly it goes together. Without much effort on my part (a bit of pinning) almost every point matches. Truly amazing!

 Patchwork Hearts 2 pattern is here.

Minor Progress

In between entertaining Donovan and Jac (they are playing the same Minecraft game, on separate devices, and talking a mile a minute)

and watching the smoke and ash from the fire in Castaic blow through, 

I managed to clean a minor hotspot (I don’t mind piles on top of cabinets and tables, but when I start dumping it on the floor things are really out of control. 😂)

finished the last 3 top sections for Patchwork Hearts

and sewed, pressed and partially trimmed the first 27 of 54 bottom blocks. 

Maybe… I can sew the hearts together this weekend?? Crossing fingers for sewing time and the predicted rains (just enough, pls, to clear the air and put out the fires. We don’t need a mud slide season this year…)

Double Header

I’m up to 24 finished tops for the heart quilt, just need to cut and sew 6 more (3 lefts and 3 rights) and I’ll be ready to start the bottoms. Whoo!

Today’s declutter challenge was rulers and mats. Mats were easy - I keep them on my cutting table or leaning against the bookshelf. Easy to reach and out of the way. 

Rulers were a bit more work. My big rulers are on top of this cabinet.

It’s a stretch to reach them, but they lay flat up there, so I’m not worried about them getting warped or broken. Smaller rulers that I use most often are in the slotted holder on the side, right above my scissors. 

All other rulers are in this sturdy wood magazine rack I got from Michael’s years ago. It’s the perfect size for small/medium square and specialty rulers.

I took them all out, sorted several into the donation box, and took photos of the rest before organizing them back into the rack. 

I think I’d use these more if I remembered what I have, so the plan is to make a blog page with the picture and name of each one/set. And then challenge myself to use at least 3 of them in projects this next year. 

It’s worth a shot….

Patchwork Hearts

Cutting the pieces for Patchwork Hearts took awhile, 

but once that was (mostly) done the sewing is going quickly, thanks to chain-piecing and sewing in batches.

Week 1 of the quilt-along (here) calls for making 7 complete heart blocks 

but I decided to make like things first - the snowballs, the right/left sides - and then sew the quadrants together at the end. It makes more sense to my brain. 

The first 16 of 27 top sections are done, with 8 more cut and ready to sew. 

I may add new colors for the last 3 blocks that aren’t yet cut… I think this needs more darks?? More prints?

 Making progress!

Squirrel!

Our weekend getaway put me several days behind on the declutter challenge (worth it!), plus Jac and Donovan have been here every afternoon after school. Rather than stress about being behind, I’m going to wait for the weekend to play catchup. There are several areas I still badly want to do, and we’re just getting to fabrics in the videos, so… I’m still in. 

I haven’t been much interested in quilting for awhile, but I saw this pattern… and the related quilt-along… 

and thought about the pretty fat quarter bundle in my stash… and quick as you can say “squirrel!” I was signed up. 

The quilt along is 5 weeks, with Week 1 encompassing choosing and cutting fabrics, plus making several blocks. Not sure I’ll be able to keep up with the schedule but I’m going to try. 

Jac: “Grandma, that looks just like a heart!” Looks like I’m doing it right. 🤩

Tip to remember: the lines on index cards are 1/4” apart, so when starting a new project you can check your needle placement using the lines. And it works! Gotta remember this…

Vacay

We’re heading home in the morning, after two full days of doing… not much.

We saw the Hearst Castle zebras for the first time in a few years. So cool! 

Some reading… staring at the ocean… visits to a couple of favorite shops…

Views from the Cavalier Hotel grounds

Almost ready to get back to real life. 

Practicing some artsy shots.

The requisite ’Cambria at Sunset’ pics. It’s tradition!

Break Time

We’re taking a winter break, with a quick weekend trip to Cambria and San Simeon, home to Hearst Castle. 

With in-room, wood burning fireplace. Whoo!

Planning to spend the next two days rocking on the balcony 

and staring at the surf, 

waiting for the sun to set. 

And maybe reading a book or two. 

Declutter Update

I’ve been following each day of the declutter challenge, but it’s been a bunch of little, boring not-so-exciting stuff, so here’s a multi-day update.

Bought some, inherited some.. can you ever have too many scissors??

Day 6 was paper archives (here) which I don’t keep. One less thing to sort through! Day 7 was either a Hot Spot or a day off. I cleared off a chair that was piled with paper files and washed a load of curtains. 

Storage box for rotary blades and other sharps. Safe from the Littles and I can find them when I need them. 

For Day 8 we were to go through our scissors, rotary cutters and snips, decide which to keep and where to keep them. Snips by the sewing machine, ironing board and sewing chair? Check! Useful to have in each place.

Three pair of old paper scissors went into Jac’s art supplies, but everything else went into the “sharps” box, the scissors rack by my ironing board (so handy!), or the yarn bowl repurposed to hold rotary cutters. 

Today - Day 9 - was decluttering threads. 

A couple of years ago, I joined a year-long thread club that shipped me 3 spools of very pretty Aurefil quilting thread each month. Do I have more thread than I could use in 3 lifetimes? Yup! Am I going to give some of it up? Nope! 

I got rid of all my old, off-brand threads last year and organized the rest into clear, slotted containers that live on one storage shelf.

A drawer next to my sewing machine holds the neutral colors - black, white, snow - I use most often for piecing, along with a pretty bowl for spools I need to sort back into the big containers … eventually.

Embroidery threads/supplies and Sashiko projects each have their own separate bins. Makes it so much easier to find them when I get an urge to stitch. I didn’t declutter much these last few days, but I straightened and sorted and confirmed I still like the system I’m using.