Playing with stash................

This block is made from the other pieces on the Fractured Studio die.  I cut them a couple days ago and sewed them yesterday.  I have made a table topper in the past with these blocks.

I have had a quilt in the back of my mind for a few months, to be made with batiks.  I started sorting through them last night while I watched 3 hours of NCIS.

The pile in front is the pieces to be put back on one shelf.  Behind it is the pieces I have pulled for the quilt.

Even my knitting is green right now.

I wasn't ready to work in the basement yesterday but maybe today I'll get the Fractured blocks down there and play at the design wall.  I need to do a load of laundry because I'm running out of clean clothes.

Last night we got a little rain at 10 and more was predicted to come through overnight.  It is only predicted to be in the mid 60s today.

 

One more day needed......................

There are four corners finished in this photo.  I have 52" left to stitch on the 4th side.  I worked on it 4 different times yesterday.

I also baked the chocolate chip cookies and shopped for groceries at two stores.

The humidity was up a little but still tolerable with the windows open.

When I could see I wasn't going to be able to finish the binding I picked up my knitting.  I was thinking about which quilt top I might be able to finish before the end of the month while I knitted.  Some years August is a big month for finishes.  This year, not so much.

 

Decision................

All of the blocks were finished and pressed yesterday morning so I had to make a decision on the layout.  I needed to clean off my work table.  I decided it will be sashing, but wider than I originally tried.  I was thinking 1" finished when I first showed the fabrics, but I decided yesterday that the blocks need a little more space between them.  Now I'm planning on 1.5" finished sashing.  I haven't decided if there will be cornerstones yet.  I'm putting this aside now and will work on something else, plus I'm still cleaning and organizing the basement.  I can't stand on the cement floor for too long so it has been a slow process.

I pulled a box off a shelf to look through it and found these diamonds in there.  I had to put diamond in the search box at the top left of this post to go back and see what quilt the scraps were from  This post tells all about it.

Last night I decided to try them next to each other.  I love busy quilts that make me look to see what the pattern is.  This would become a table runner if I decide on it.  I need to find the diamond template so I can cut half diamonds to fill in the edges.  If i continue with this as the project, I need to move a few around first.

I started another dishcloth last night with this 4 color yarn, white, lt. peach, coral, and brown.  I was glad I still had a couple balls of it  because they don't seem to be making any more of it.  I have enough of all of the variegated yarns to last my lifetime making dishcloths but I still search the internet occasionally to see if there are any new colors.  I don't find more than a couple shops carrying it; most is through resellers on Etsy and eBay and most of that is solid colors.

The rain all missed us yesterday so we had a dry out day before more hits this morning.  It looks like the heaviest will go south of us.

More sorting fun....................

Here is the whole rack that I showed a portion of in yesterday's post.  Yesterday I sorted the reds, what fun, and there weren't any I wanted to get rid of.  To the right of them is the overflow of Brandon fabrics (which you can see the edge of on the right) and a couple Kaffe yarn dyed wovens.  There is a pile of fat quarters in front of the stack.  So  the second shelf from the top was sorted Saturday and the reds on Sunday.  The 2 unsorted shelves are the Philip Jacobs prints.  On the bottom shelf is Laurel Burch fabric on the left and in the 2 storage boxes are black and white batiks and red and black batiks.  The very top shelf has 2 groups of Robin Pickins fabric and 3 boxes of scraps sorted loosely by color.  Also up there in a plastic bag is the remainder of the Wishwell Weather Report fabric.

Last night I got the rest of the dark brown strips sewn on the 15 ten inch strips for the Kaffe zipper quilt.  Then I knitted for awhile while I watched a cute movie on Prime.  It was called Sheep Detectives.

We ended up with 2" of rain on Saturday, much needed to turn the grass green again.

 

July 2026 monthly recap.........................

 Two favorites were finished in July.  The "Other 16 Patch" was made with Marcia Derse fabrics, front, back, and binding.  On this one I staggered the blocks by using half blocks at top and bottom in every other column.  I think I like it better than the first few I made with the blocks in rows both horizontally and vertically.  This one is 61" x 79.5".

The floral stars was in a time out for a year and half and then I made final decisions to get the top sewn together.  A large percentage of the prints are from the 1990s and I have a huge collection of them in my stash.  This is the third quilt this year from that bin.  I even had a backing fabric from the same time period.  This quilt measures 66" x 78".  Both of these quilts were longarm quilted by Robin Diaz.

The Snail's Trail quilt top was fun to make.  It is an easy block, in this case cut with a GO die.  The blocks are 12" for a top that finished at 60" x 84".  I have a backing chosen so it will be next in line to be quilted.

On the right is my Trip Around the World top made with William Morris prints.  It is 63" x 77".  I have the backing chosen for this one too so it may get finished in August.

I was playing around a bit with my knitting.  I used lots of ends of balls of yarn for the 3 coaster size pieces.  I decided to use a straight knitting pattern for the pink one instead of the diagonal knit that I usually do.  That makes 30 regular size dishcloths for the year so far.

June 2026 Monthly recap...................

 Three finishes in June, the halfway point of the year.  This makes 14 finishes for the year so far so maybe I can finish just as many in the second half.  On the left is "Glow" made with Marcia Derse fabric and it is 45" x 62.5".  In the center the Single Irish Chain layout worked well with the Terrie Mangat fabrics.  It is 53.5" x 71".  I was happy to get a flannel quilt finished even though it is summertime.  I love the 16 patches.  It is 47" x 71".

The 1990s floral Sawtooth Star blocks waited a year and a half to finally get sewn into a top.  It is 67" x 79".  After 3 quilt tops with these fabrics, I still have 1-1/2 blanket size bins full.  

In the evenings I finished 4 dishcloths.  I think this Sugar 'n Cream yarn is being discontinued because I'm seeing less places carrying it and less variety available.  I think I have enough to last my lifetime so I'm not worried.

Tomorrow I'll show an update to the workbench organization and document how far I have gotten into other areas of the basement.  Since I don't have central air conditioning and my studio is at the farthest point from the window A/C units (and has west exposure with 2 windows!), I didn't do any evening sewing last night.  I'm planning on having a cutting marathon for a few days but maybe I'll find something to sew earlier in the day.  After this week of 90s and high humidity, next week looks like it will be in the low to mid 80s and things can get back to normal.  I watered my tomatoes and cucumbers late afternoon yesterday and then put a top dressing of fresh compost delivered by a friend on Sunday.

Not much inspiration............

I put this medallion piece back up on the design wall and tried a few pieces for continuing borders, trying to figure out if it needs medium or dark or bright fabric.  I have a box full of 4" Broken Dishes blocks that might get used for a border.

I also have the other Maria Derse tall triangles quit top in progress that needs a decision on the insert strip fabric.  I think this one will come down and that one will go up on the wall.

I cut 20+ more green fabrics in 1.5" squares but I see I need more mediums.  I'll look for those today as well as purples.

I got a new color of yarn for dishcloths.  It's a little more toward turquoise than others I have used.

We got up to mid 50s yesterday and now they say high 70s for today.  They originally said we would have 4 dry days but now there is rain in the forecast again a couple times.

  

 

Assembly started....................

I needed to start sewing this quilt together before pieces start fluttering off the design wall.  I had the window open a couple days ago and found 2 pieces on the floor when I returned to the room.  I can sew 2 rows at a time because the triangles are pointing in opposite directions from one row to the other as I work my way across the rows. While sewing I have the 2 piles in the position they are in, in this photo.  When I start the first row I have a little flag attached that reminds me that is the top row.  These triangles don't have nipped corners so I have to figure out the matching point.

Here is how much the rows will shrink after stitching.

All Marcia Derse fabrics in this one, at least 70 different fabrics.

I forgot to take the photo of the March dishcloths for yesterday's monthly recap, so here they are today.

First quilt top for March 2026..................

I love it when I can take a bunch of parts laying around and make a quilt top.  For this one I just needed to make 2 more flannel 16 patch blocks.  There was a box of squares and rectangles that make up the scrappy border.  It is 47" x 71.5", close to the 50" x 70" size I like for throw quilts.  Most of these flannels are from the 1990s when the browns were very popular.

I decided to put these blocks and sewn panels up on the design wall.  The last time I had them out was 6 1/2 years ago.  I have totally lost interest in making these into a quilt.  My daughter-in-law wants a table runner the length of her table and I need to measure it to see if a column of this quilt will work.  I can see making placemats out of the loose blocks, 3 to a placemat.  They would end up about 14" x 20".

This is a picture of the pattern.  It was fun making the blocks in 2013 but once the assembly started, I lost interest in it.  I have other things planned, fun things, so I want to salvage these blocks in other projects and move on.

I pulled out a ball of cotton yarn a few days ago and started this dishcloth.  I couldn't tell from looking at the ball what the colors were.  It is a very subtle change between the 4 colors.  This was a newer ball of yarn, and I had been reading the reviews online by previous buyers.  Several of them mentioned the yarn wasn't soft any more.  I had to agree with them on this one, but in reality, a little stiffer yarn is perfect for washing dishes.

Binding progress........................

Now I have one and a half sides hand stitched on Purple Rosy.  The long side is 82" so I started with that one.  I'm really happy with this diagonal stripe for the binding.

These are the colors on the needles for this month's dishcloths.

Today will be 30 degrees and then we will be above freezing for a week..or more.  The little bit of snow that was on the grass melted on Friday.  There are still small piles at the side of my driveway.

 

Slowly, getting there............

Strips were cut, seams were sewn, but I stopped at the point where I have to turn on the iron.  I counted blocks and need to choose one more pair to achieve 63 blocks for a throw size quilt, 56" x 72".

This purple is kind of a wild card.  It has purple, green, red, and orange.  The green fabric above it is a possible pairing for it.  I can make blocks from these 2 and if I don't like them, I'll just choose 2 more fabrics.

The Amaryllis that I received the third week of November has grown to over 24" tall and the bud stalk is finally getting ready to bloom.

This isn't a great photo, but it shows that there should be 3 blooms.  I can't see any color yet so I'm not sure what they will be.  I hope I'll be able to show some blooms before the week is over.

And lastly, my calming activity while watching the evening news.

 

Time to get busy.................

I really didn't do much yesterday other than look through things.  I found this stack of 8.5" squares, 87 of them.  They are flannel, corduroy, homespuns, and denim cut from old jeans.  In December 2011 I made 2 quilts with similar fabrics for 2 great-nephews who would graduate from high school soon.  This link takes you to one of them.  Scroll down in this post to see the other one.  I think most of the pieces in this pile were cut within a few months of making those 2 quilts.  If I cut one more square I could make a quilt 64" x 88".

I was looking for this stack of flannel 16 patches, and I thought there was over 40 of them.  I only counted 37 this time.  I wonder if I used some in another quilt or if the pile just got separated.  I might make some more blocks in blue and green for more variety of color and for a larger quilt.

Here are my empty spools from 2025.  The skinny ones with bases on them had 1200 yards each.  I made a lot of small projects last year compared to previous years.

I started 2 new dishcloths while I decided what to do next.  I need to get busy today and get something done.  I need to cut batting and piece a backing for a big quilt and batting for a baby quilt.

Finish #7 for December 2025...............

This quilt was made from a couple trays of plaid squares that were cut several years ago.  I made 16 patch blocks and then went to the design wall for the layout.  It is 39" x 47".  It has Hobbs 80/20 batting in it and was quilted on my Pfaff.

I had this cute farm print fabric that is on the back in my stash.  The binding is a yarn dyed woven stripe.

I think the binding looks good with the fabrics on both sides of the quilt.

I had a dishcloth near a finish so I worked on it last night.  I ran out of the yarn with 7 stitches left.  I tied on the white yarn in the corner to finish the last 3 rows.  I'm down to 12 dishcloths now after gifting several for Christmas.

 

Quilting finished................

I wasn't sure this one was going to bloom.  It was a bud for more than 3 weeks.  This pot is on my kitchen windowsill, west exposure.

Since I am only a little over 5' I am looking across at this pot when I'm standing at the sink.  I kept thinking this pot had 4 pieces that had broken off my pale pink cactus plant, but when I looked closer it is just 2 pieces. 

I did have one more thing to bake yesterday and then PT in the afternoon.  Last night I finished the quilting on this flannel bullseye baby quilt.  I'll get it trimmed today and look for binding.  After I finished it I worked on the current dishcloth.

It was a cold day yesterday and 40 predicted today.  Mid 50s and maybe closer to 60 predicted for Christmas day. 

 

Quilt trimmed, table piece finished.................

Another quilt is back from my longarm friend Robin.  I got it trimmed yesterday afternoon.

Since I needed to turn on the iron, I also pressed the binding fabric and cut the 7 strips needed.  It is Kaffe's Woodear fabric.

I also cut the binding strips for my Christmas table runner and got it sewn on and since it is for me, I hand finished the binding.  It is 14.75" x 34.5".

I also finished the second dishcloth from this color ball of yarn.  15 dishcloths have left my home since the beginning of November so I'm playing catch up to fill the basket again.

While the iron was on I also pressed this striped flannel for the back of this baby quilt.  It will be the next one I baste to prepare for quilting.

I also chose this pinkish red check flannel for the back of the flannel tumbler baby quilt.  I need to press it and find a piece of batting for this one.

When I was cleaning the area around my dryer (for the repairman) I found this Raggedy Andy outfit.  It was for the first Raggedy Ann or Andy doll that I made, when my son was little (he's 64 now).  The dog we had in the 1970s totally destroyed the doll but didn't hurt the suit.  I'm not sure why I am keeping this other than for nostalgic reasons.