A Good Day to Sew

It's cold, dreary, rainy and very overcast.  Welcome to Michigan.

I've been keeping busy and I am ahead of schedule on some of my projects.  I have a few to share with you.

1.  Quilt Doodles BOM

These blocks are 20" x 20"  and I am using scraps for the background.  

2. Cheddarback BOM

I'm so excited that we are almost done with this quilt.  One more month.  I can't wait to get this quilt all put together and start hand quilting it.

Well my to do list is dwindling down.  I have finished a few more blocks but can't share till the end of the month.  

I have 3 quilt tops ready for quilting and hope to get them quilted by the end of the month.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  

Hugs, Cathy

End of the Month Round Up

I can't believe how much I got done this month...knock on wood...I hope I can do as well for the next month.

So here we go.

1.  Celebrating Mary Brown.

 Don't look at it too long...it's a little lopsided.  But the good thing is that it is done.

Be sure to visit Karen, Jennie, Robin, Rebecca, and Nanette to see what they are doing.

2.  Mrs. Lincolns Quilt.

This is a fun quilt to work on.  I love having a pieced and an applique block to work on each month.  I'm working on this with Julie  see what she is up to.

3.  Monthly Mini

Of course my Mini had to have a heart on it for February.  I'm linking with Wendy


I finished up with my to do list so I decided to work on a couple of UFO's.

The first UFO was a project I started a couple of years ago  It was going to be a wedding gift for my grandson till I found out they didn't want anything with brown.

I made it a little smaller than originally planned but it is still a good size lap quilt.  Now I need to get it quilted and then I will have another Christmas quilt made.

The second UFO is my Floral Hexie Quilt.

I'm looking forward to quilting this one.  I've quilted a hexie quilt before and it goes really quickly.  Once finished it will be another Christmas gift.

Well that's it for now.  Tomorrow starts a new month and more projects.  Don't tell anyone but I signed up for another BOM.  It starts next month.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Cathy

Keeping Busy

I've started so many new BOMs that I have to keep them all written down so I can keep track of them all.

In my last post I shared a photo of my Cheddarback blocks for the month.  Now I will share 4 more BOMs.

1.  Quilt Doodles.  These blocks are 20".

I'm making my blocks scrappy looking using different reds and whites or off whites.


2.  Pat Sloan's Out West.

I bought a FQ bundle for this.  I liked the dark blue so much that I purchased some yardage of it to use for the border and binding.


3.  Barbara Brackman's Yankee Notions.

I am using the same background in all my blocks.  I am really loving the grays and tan fabrics.


4.  Minick and Simpson's Derby House.

For this BOM I receive the patterns and fabrics each month.  I absolutely love the fabrics.


I have a finish to show you.

This is a 2016 Sugar Block club BOM.  I've shown pictures of the quilt top that I finished last year.  Well I got it sandwiched and machine quilted using my free motion foot.  Then I sewed on the binding.  While doing this I noticed how bad the quilting was....I mean really bad.  So what I ended up doing is taking out the machine stitching one block at a time and then hand quilting the block using gray #12 Perle cotton.  I really like how it turned out.

Here is a close up.


I have so many UFO's and tops that need quilting.  I'm slowly working on them.  I have chosen my next UFO to work on.  It is a quilt inspired by the Fat Quarter Shop's Patchwork Quilt Along.  There are 12 different blocks but I have chosen to only use 3.

I plan on doing a row of each different pattern.  You might remember that I started working on this as a wedding quilt for my Grandson.  They didn't want brown.  So I made a different quilt for them.  The quilt will be 8 blocks by 9 blocks.  3 rows of each block.  The blocks are 5" finished, the sashing is cut 1 1/2" and finish at 1", and I have made corners stones out of the blues.


I want to thank you for stopping by.  I hope you found something you like.

Hugs, Cathy

Sunny Skies

Sunny skies this morning.  I am so over the gray, rainy, snowy days we've been having.  I decided to try posting more than once a month.  So here goes....

I worked on my Cheddarback blocks for this month.  I can't believe we only have a couple of months left on this quilt.

I got a few projects finished at the end of last month but I needed to get the binding sewn down before I shared photos.

This is my version of Lori's Sew Along called Almost Amish.  Instead of a square wall hanging I added a block and turned it into a table runner.  This is going to be a Christmas gift.

My second finish is a Halloween Quilt.  This is going to be a surprise gift to someone special.

For now it's back to the sewing room to see what mischief I can get into.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Cathy

Long and Photo Heavy

I was hoping to get back to posting more often but that dreaded virus that has been going around visited my house.  First my husband had it and then I got it.  He's feeling fine and I am on day 10.  Feeling better but still not back to normal.

Any way I got a lot done this month.

1.  Celebrating Mary Brown.

This block was much easier to make than it appears.    Be sure to stop by and see what my fellow conspirators are up to.

Karen, Nanette, Jennie, Robin, and Rebecca.

2.  Mrs. Lincoln's Quilt.

I'm working on this quilt with Julie.  She thought Mary Brown would be too much (and she was right).  This is a quilt I've been wanting to do for a while.

3.  Cheddarback Quilt.

This photo is a little blurry.  This is month 10 so we are coming to an end.

4.  Derby House.

This month we had both pieced and an applique block.  I really love the plaids.  I can't wait to get February's patterns and fabric.

5. Pat Sloan's Out West.

Once again I said I wasn't going to join in another sew along....hee hee.  For this quilt I purchased one of the recommended FQ bundles from the FQ Shop.  The blocks are 12". 

6.  Quilt Doodles BOM.

I will be doing this in reds and lights.  This block consists of 4 10" blocks.  So there will be 12 - 20" blocks.

7.  Barbara Brackman's Yankee Notions.

 I'm going to be using neutrals for this quilt.  The blocks are 12"

I think that is it.  But who knows.

I did get a mini quilt finished.

This quilt was started a couple of years ago.  Don't know why it was never finished because all it needed was a little bit of hand quilting and the binding.

Well that's it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hugs, Cathy

Finished

I finally finished my Celebrating Mary Brown block.

The light of the flash made some of the stems look blue.  They are really dark green.  I'm so glad to have this finished.

Here are all the blocks I have made so far put together.  I am loving how this is looking.  BUT....I have a long way to go.

I had started a quilt kit I got from Bluprint.  Yesterday I finished the top.

My hubby is holding it up.  I'm hoping to get this quilted by the end of the month.  It will be a cheerful quilt.

I am working on these blocks again.  I want to make a quilt for my bed using them.  I made another block yesterday making a total of 9 blocks.

I need to make 33 more blocks for my quilt.

My New Year started out sewing.  I'm looking forward to a healthy year and making lots of quilts. I'm hoping to do more posts this year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Cathy

End of Year

I tried to finish up some projects and just missed the mark.

I finished this months blocks for Mrs. Lincolns Quilt.

I'm working on this quilt with Julie.


Next is Celebrating Mary Brown.

 As you can see I didn't get it finished.  Also it is a really bad photo.  This is Block 4 Row 1.

Be sure to stop by and see what the others are working on.
Karen, Julie, Nanette and her friend Jan, Jennie, Robin, and Rebecca.  I love how everyone does their blocks.


I also finished a few other blocks.  Here are my Cheddarback blocks.

I made Christmas Table Quilt but I didn't get it quilted so it is going to be a Christmas gift for next year.

It is a large Hexagon.  It looked a little plain till I added the snowflake in the middle.  I used a Sizzix die for the snowflake.

For an early Christmas gift I ordered the Derby House BOM.  It comes with fabric and pattern each month.

I love the fabrics.  I finished these yesterday.  I can't wait to see what blocks we will be working on in January.


Well this year had some low points.  We lost our youngest brother to a brain tumor.  In the last 20 years he had had 2 surgeries to remove the tumor.  They told him each time it would return and it did.  We were lucky to have had him as long as we did.  We miss him so very much.

The second is (as you know) I was diagnosed with breast cancer in September, surgery at the end of October, and Radiation treatments in November and December.  I finished the treatments Dec. 18.  They told me I would feel worse before I felt better...they were right.  My breast looks like it has a sunburn.  But gradually it is getting better.  I see the radiologist on Jan 2 and then I will start taking the hormone reduction pill.

I also had a bone density test which showed I'm in the normal range.  And I saw a geneticist.  They did a blood test.  I was negative for both Brca1 and 2.  And negative for a whole list of things.  Great news for me and my girls.

So here's to the new year.  I know it will be a good year.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I'm always glad to hear from you.

Hugs, Cathy