I have finished piecing all 50 of Kimberly Einmo’s 6″ blocks. One is not quite right and I will have to make it again. The 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ flying geese were not accurate. It’s easier to make the whole block than to take the defective one apart. I can use it another way that won’t show the defect. Tomorrow or Wednesday I will decide how I want to sash the blocks. I probably will make a first frame in black and then do something else for a second sashing. I bought a pattern years ago at Keepsake Quilters. The quilt on display was so beautiful. I may use the setting in that pattern. The quilt at Keepsake was made with batiques. When I finish the Temperature quilt, I will have lots of batiques left over. I’ll keep them together with the pattern. Then, when I decide to make it, I will have everything together.
I made a file today and listed all the unfinished projects that I have been working on for the last few months. I included all the new challenge quilts, challenge blocks, long term quilts and demo pieces that I have agreed to do. I also included the 25 year old UFO. I read today that there are no UFOs. They should be called QIPs. (Quilts in progress). That way, you are never stress about unfinished quilts hanging around. It’s unbelievable how many items were listed. I can remember when I first started quilting, I made one quilt and finished it before I moved on to the next. I had no stash and no gadgets. Rotary cutters and rulers weren’t invented. I drew lines around cardboard templates and sewed by hand. What a difference from today.
Now that everything is listed, I can include the dates they need to be complete. I can work on the ones that have to be finished first and remove them from the list.
This morning, I was looking for a piece of fabric to use in a block that is due in January. While looking, I straightened out five drawers of fabric. There are so many quilts waiting to be made in those drawers, but no more squirrel quilts until my list is at least 3/4 empty. I’m not even going to think about the leftover quarter square triangles, half square triangles and squares, all cut to 2 1/2″ square, that are leftover from the Squirrel Quilt. Also the trimmings that are in a baggie for a Gaa-Barge quilt.
Have a great day and happy quilting.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the flowers actually bloomed in the garden at the same time. That’s the advantage of growing flowers on fabric.
The day lilies come in so many colors. Many of my lilies have reverted back to orange. The ones that didn’t revert are beautiful. I take pictures of the same flowers every year. I should separate the bulbs next summer.
I’ve started another squirrel quilt. It is one that is not planned, but just has to be made. It has to get out of my mind. All other quilts are put aside until the squirrel quilt is made. When I bought Kimberley Einmo’s book, I decided that I would make all of the blocks. The 10″ blocks have been made and are in a quilt that is waiting to be quilted. That quilt was made last summer. It is the next one to quilt.
I have space for two quilters in the sewing room. The second machine belongs to one of my daughters. She pieces quilts when she stays with me. On occasion, we sew together. It is so much fun to quilt together. My machine overlooks the window. I can watch the world go by as I sew. The new house across the street is almost done. Someday, I will watch my new neighbors move in. 
Last weekend, I finished most of row D. I had intended to make the blocks from the center out, but changed my mind and worked on a row. Row D will go across the top of the center blocks. All the finished blocks have been hand quilted and bound. The quilting is minimal. Just enough to hold the block together. After all, it is only 4 1/2″ square. It doesn’t need much quilting. There is only 20″ of binding to tack down.
I still remember saying that I would never make a Dear Jane quilt. There were too many small blocks. It was a copy of another person’s quilt. How very boring. Now I find that it is a lot of fun making each block and seeing the pile of little blocks add up. I’m glad that I went to the Dear Jane club just to see what was going on.
The Christmas wall hanging is finished and is on the wall. There was a slight delay because I misplaced the fabric that I had intended to use for the binding. It was the same fabric as the background. I went to the quilt shop and bought a piece that I thought would match, but when I got home, it was nothing like the background fabric. So much for thinking I knew what I wanted and didn’t bother to bring the wall hanging to the quilt shop to check.
There was enough of both fabrics to make the flange binding. The binding portion of flange binding is cut 1 1/2″, not the 2 1/4″ or 2 1/2″ as you would for regular binding. The flange portion is cut 1 3/4″. After the two pieces are sewn together, it is sewn to the back of the quilt and then rolled to the front and sewn down in the seam where the two pieces meet. This is a great way to make a binding if the fabric is a little short for regular binding.
Another flower has grown on the wall quilt. I applique in the evening and the flowers are growing very slowly. The newest flower is a blue trumpet flower. Just to the right is a partial small yellow rose. I’ll finish that tonight. Most of the templates have been cut out for the rest of the flowers. I just need to take a day and sit and tend to the garden. I have changed the flower colors several times. I could finish the quilt faster if I used my first choice of colors.
Behind door #1 is one of the Ikea units. Batting is kept on the floor on one side and stabilizer is on the other side. Backings are hung on hangers. On the shelf are quilt tops that are ready to quilt. You can see that I am a little behind in quilting the tops.
Behind door #2 is the second Ikea unit. Craft bins are on the left. They contain UFO’s that I take out once in a while and work on them. There is a Cynthia English piece that I can work on only for a short time. Then it goes back into the closet. It will be finished someday. The right side contains a bar that I’m going to use some day to hang a design board. Also other things that I might use some day. On the shelf are bins that hold most the wall hangings that I’ve made. Also wall hangings that my friends have made for me. I enjoy looking through them every once in a while.
The drawers of the Ikea unit are removable. I can take them out of the closet to find what I want. If you check the bottom of the unit in door #2, you will notice that the drawer is missing. All the fabric, patterns, and supplies that I need for the wall quilt are in that drawer. It is on the kitchen island. When I want to sit and sew, everything is right there for me. When the wall hanging is finished, I’ll put the leftover fabric back in their proper drawers and use that drawer for the next project.
It’s December. This year has flown by. My monthly wall hanging has been changed. It’s nice to have a different one on the wall each month. I notice that some of my friends and neighbors have their Christmas decorations in place. I haven’t even thought about it, except to work on the Christmas wall hanging from two years ago. It is almost ready for the binding, so I think it will go on the wall this year. The quilting has made it look much better than I thought it would. I should finish it in the next two or three days and then it will go on the wall and I can bring the Christmas decorations down from the attic.
The Temperature Quilt has eleven months finished now. I can see the colors on the right side changing to the colors on the left side. It makes the quilt look even. It’s not a spectacular quilt, but I like it. It was fun to check the temperature every day. I found that I didn’t use the fabric below 0 degrees or above 100 degrees. Maybe we will have a day this month in the frigid zone. I found a large piece of batique fabric for the second border. The first border is black, the same as the sashing, only a little larger. There is a lot of batique fabric left over. I’ll have to design another quilt to use it up. It seems as if I only make scrap quilts. I do have a challenge quilt to make that is not scraps. I’m looking forward to making that one.
I made nine patches for the smaller piece. I didn’t want to use sashing, so I cut each nine patch in half vertically and horizontally. Then I rotated two of the pieces and sewed them back as a four patch. It made all the colors blend. I need a border for the piece to hold all the colors in. Maybe blue, like the small squares or black. Maybe even white. I’ll audition several fabrics and see which color is best. When I was done, I had two squares left over. I cut them down to 3 1/2″ and put them in the drawer with the others.
When I changed my sewing room from the small office/ library/ sewing room to the guest room, the first thing that I did is have the carpet removed and Pergo installed. I am so glad that I did that. It is so easy to keep the floor clean. No vacuuming up dropped pins. As the room is still the guest room, I bought a day bed. It has three drawers and a trundle bed under it. It is taller than most beds, but is great for sorting and laying out fabric. 
The cutting table has only one leaf up. Plastic drawers on the back hold supplies. A little ruler holder on top holds the small rulers that I use most and the rotary cutter. The larger rulers and pressing supplies are in the large garden bin under the table. Sewing machine instruction manuals ,a few patterns and blank paper are between the drawers. I still have a lot of work to do to get my supplies in the proper drawers. My back was to the overhead light and it was hard to see, so I put the Ott light on the table. It is much easier to cut now. The Ott light also shows the real color of the fabric before I cut. The tool box holds all the gadgets that I just had to have. The blue bin behind everything holds a few UFOs Maybe I will get to them, maybe I won’t. The bureau should be in the office as it used to hold office supplies. Now, It has mile a minute fabric, other fabric that I am gathering for a quilt that I will make in the future. and a lot of junk that I should go through and sort out. I use the wall hanging to pin patterns that I want to make next. Also the strips for the Temperature quilt before I sew it to the main body when the month is over. It’s like a bulletin board.
Tonight, I worked on the wall quilt. I love to applique, but for some unknown reason, I’m having a hard time appliqueing the pieces down. I haven’t appliqued for some time but I should remember how to do it. The big rose was easier to applique than the small rose, so maybe by the end of the week, I will be doing better.
I’m appliqueing with bottom line thread from Superior Threads. It is a fine thread. Using the proper color, the thread disappears. When I saw the bobbin case full of the different colored threads, I knew that I should find every color that I needed. There is a lot of thread on the bobbins. I do have to use short lengths of thread which is o.k. as each piece of fabric that is appliqued is small.
As I laid each piece on the cutting mat, I cut the largest square that I could. Then, I cut smaller and smaller until the whole piece was gone. Some pieces could be laid on each other and several squares could be cut at once. My favorite ruler is the Tucker Trimmer. It had a workout the past few days.
The larges square was 5 1/2″ I will put them in the drawer with other charm squares. There should be enough squares that size for a quilt.
I think that I did cut enough 4 1/2″ squares for the quilt that I want to make. Maybe even enough for two quilts.
The next size was 3 1/2″. I can make nine patches for Linus quilts. I have several flannel pillowcases that I will cut apart for the backing for baby quilts. When I get to it, I’ll figure out how many nine patches I need to fit the pillow cases. I should be able to make several quilts with this size squares.
The smallest square in 2 1/2″. There are over 1,000 of these small squares. I have seen pictures of quilts made with this size square. One will surface when I get to use this batch of squares.
As I was cutting and throwing away the small scraps, I remembered the time when I kept every little scrap for the Gaa-Barge project. I decided to save some of the little scraps to finish that project. I had planned to make one Gaa-Barge a week for a year. I made only 32 so I have 20 more to make. The small pieces saved in this box will be enough to make all 20 quilts.
I did sew for 10 minutes on the quilt. It won’t take long to finish sewing the top. It sews together beautifully. The quilt will have one row of colored squares, then a row of white sashing. The last row will be the colored squares. That will be the border. Because the sashing is cut 2 1/2″, the 4 1/2″ squares line up perfectly on each row. I could make a smaller version of this quilt with the 3 1/2″ squares with 1 1/2″ sashing. It’s a thought. I’ll have to figure out how many rows it will take to be the same size as the flannel pillow case. Maybe I could sew two pillow cases together and make a larger quilt. Half the fun is in the planning.
Miss Molly quilts 