I don't have a lot to report today. The only maker thing that I got done yesterday was to get the veterans quilt quilted. Because it's bigger than our regular veterans quilts I couldn't do it on one of our wide backs with another veterans quilt so I pieced this back out of some black yardage that didn't dye to an acceptable shade of black for the shop. It worked just peachy for this. Quilting never shows up on these Paula Nadelstern fabrics so it got the quick fans pantograph and was done in about an hour.

In the evenings I sit and crochet for a while so my new blanket is growing. I think it will have a total of 10 blocks and then it will get borders too. I didn't do the bobble rows correctly. I was supposed to do HDC between each bobble but I did DC instead. I was in the white section before I realized it. I wasn't about to rip it out so I'm just continuing with the mistake. Consistency is more important than accuracy sometimes!

There will be no quilting this weekend. I'm spending most of the weekend with my SIL so this blanket will get some attention. We are leaving Monday for a few days of hiking so there's probably no posting next week either. So if you don't hear from me don't be surprised!

I didn't have anywhere that I needed to go yesterday so I was able to focus on things that I wanted to do.

I got this quilt top together. It was originally going to be a wall hanging but I wasn't happy with my plan so I remade it into a veterans quilt and I quite like it! It's a little bigger than our normal veterans quilts so I made a separate back for it and might get it quilted tomorrow. I worked on this off and on with quilting Mom's scrappy quilt.

I was able to get her quilt quilted too! I really love this quilt. She's quite a master of scrappy quilts.

The back is more of a deep golden yellow but the camera washed it out. I only took this photo to show that I quilted it with a very easy pantograph called Woven Wind.

Today is a haircut and some chores. I might get the veterans quilt loaded and started but that's probably it on the creative front.

I'm not quite sure what happened to yesterday. I do know that when I start my day off doing something out of routine that the whole day seems off. Yesterday the trigger was a morning trip to WalMart. I like to go there first thing in the morning because it's the best chance of finding my favorite chocolate (Sam's Choice Swiss Dark 72%) in stock. I had not been there in a few weeks but they had the chocolate and almost everything else I wanted. Toilet paper (which I didn't need) was fully stocked but the yarn aisle (I also didn't need but always check) was decimated. It was a successful trip but the rest of the day was kind of haywire.

I had to pick my car up from an unsuccessful 4 days in the shop ("A/C is fine" - no, it's not, but it won't break again until the warranty expires). I delivered 21 veterans quilt to our VA contact and had a nice long chat with a friend on the phone. I also made some lotion bars which are so easy and they are great for dry feet. There are loads of recipes on the web if you want to make your own. Google will be happy to help you find a good one with simple ingredients.

I eventually sat down for a few hours of sewing and I got the rest of these blocks together for the next veteran's quilt. I'm really glad I didn't make these into a wall hanging. I wouldn't have liked it. I'm happier with it like this but after getting these on the wall I didn't like 2 of the blocks. 

Here it is with the 2 substitute blocks. I might get this together tomorrow and I'd like to get Mom's quilt loaded so I can get it quilted by Saturday.

​It's hotter than Hades here so staying inside seems like a good idea.

My quilt club, like yours, has not met since March. We've had a few small driveway meets and kept in touch through our Facebook group but nothing is better than time together. Today would have been our normal meeting day and Becky suggested that we have an outdoor get together in the picnic shelter near our meeting place. We had no idea how many people would show up but we had over 20  people once everyone arrived! After 3 months you can be sure that we had an epic show and tell! 

I had 11 veterans quilts already collected before the meeting and now I have 22 to deliver this week! I know that the VA has a procedure for making sure the quilts are safe. I would expect that they will isolate them somewhere for a week before using them.

Added to the stack is this quilt that I made and got bound yesterday.

I quilted it with my favorite wavy crosshatch. It's perfect for quilts that are all squares, especially when the squares are less than 6". It quilts up so fast! I had to quilt fast because I quilted this one with the next one and I wanted to get it back to Gwen at the meeting yesterday.

This is Gwen's fun scrappy string quilt. These string quilts always look great.

I quilted it with free-motion "straight" lines. That's also some fast quilting so these were done Monday evening and ready to deliver yesterday.

Today I have some errands to do in the morning but this afternoon I'll either be piecing the next veterans quilt or quilting one of Mom's quilts. I'm still trying to get a focus on my next big project but that inspiration just hasn't happened yet. It will eventually and in the mean I'm enjoying the veterans quilts.

My favorite email to receive is one that starts "can you.....?" Sometimes the answer is "no" but often I get a great new product idea.

When I started producing the Reflections fabrics I was only thinking about pale colors for sky reflections. Then someone asked about dark water fabrics and green/brown reed fabric. Of course you always know best and they have proven to be popular! This week I've restocked the popular colors of the dark Reflections. I have new light versions coming soon!
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Morning Glory is a very popular gradient for pulling bloom colors for applique quilts, like Morning Glorified by Irma Lubbe. John Anderson's quilt shows how versatile the gradients are for simplifying making bargello quilts. Each strip in his bargello has only 3 seams!

Morning Glory is the fabric of the week and it's 20% off through Sunday.

I am really flailing around for an idea for my next quilt project. I don't have a specific need in mind and don't really have any patterns or ideas that I've been hot to try. So until inspiration strikes I'm happily sewing and quilting veterans quilts and that's most of what I did this weekend.

I miscalculated the number of 4-patch blocks I would need for this quilt TWICE! Seriously, how hard it it to count blocks? Fortunately I had tons of leftover 2.5" print blocks so I only had to cut black squares. this quilt is on the frame for quilting now.

My project this week will be to put this veterans quilt together. These are blocks that I had planned for a wall hanging that I eventually decided that I didn't like so they are going to be a veterans quilt instead.

This veteran's quilt was made by Ellen and I got it quilted last night. Quilt club is going to have a picnic meeting Tuesday at a picnic area near our meeting place so I'm trying to get some things done to deliver there. Then later this week I'll get a stack of quilts delivered to our VA contact.

This week I want to get 2 more veterans quilts quilted and the one at the top bound so it can be delivered this week. I'm going to spend a couple of days with my SIL so I'll take my crochet to do there. I'd like to get the grey/white/yellow blanket done by the end of July.

I also started another crochet project! Chris and I are taking a little road trip soon and I need a really simple project to work on in the car. This yarn requires a bigger hook (I) than I usually use so it will be perfect. I had to get it started before the trip just to make sure I'll like it enough. I like it just fine.
​While I was at Hobby Lobby buying that yarn I also got some lobster hooks to finish off these crochet marker beads that another SIL made for me. I know that I should have gotten silver but they didn't have this size in silver. The gold will be just as functional as silver and they will be very cute stitch markers!

This week's inspiration comes from Irma Lubbe. Irma has made several Jane Sassaman-inspired quilts and this is another beautiful one! She didn't want to run traditional quilting lines throughout, so she quilted with a decorative stitch that floats in the background. She like how Jane Sassaman's use of the zigzag stitch gives vibrance to the shapes.

Irma included Jenny Lake and Woodlands Gradient along with other fabrics from her stash.

For sharing, Irma received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. ​

It may not be officially summer but summer is here in Virginia. As I was driving to my shooting lesson yesterday my car thermometer said it was 95. It felt like 95 on the course but it was so nice to be back out there again. I was pretty rusty but I had fun. My car goes in the shop this morning to fix the A/C. It has a temporary patch for now but the compressor needs to be replaced and there  are only 4 weeks left on the warranty. The fix wouldn't be expected to hold very long anyway so it's time to get it taken care of. We'll head to my brother's after that to help with a few remaining moving chores.

Yesterday afternoon I started phase 2 of the annual weed spraying. That always takes a couple of weeks because I can only take so much time in the sun covered head to toe. 

After dinner Chris and I ended the day with a little paddle around the lake. It was really lovely yesterday evening. I saw a deer, egret, green heron, lots of swallows and a flock of geese.

On the sewing front I am almost done with the veterans quilt but I got this far and realized that I was still 6 4-patch blocks short! How could I do so much bad math in one simple quilt?

Hopefully this evening I can get this little quilt wrapped up.

Speaking of wrapping up, I delivered the last of the food pantry checks and some donated items today to finish that project off. There were some tea towels left and I gave those to another friend who will sell them to raise money for the food pantry that her church runs. My next task is to deliver a batch of veterans quilts to the VA hospital contact. Maybe next week I can focus a bit more on my projects!

On the crochet front I was ready to start the next project this week. The next blanket will be for my friend, Laura, from England. Their first grandchild is due at the end of summer. I picked this pattern and made sure to use the exact same yarn and hook size as the pattern. Unfortunately the swatch looks very little like the actual blanket. I'm really disappointed but after several tries it was time to accept that something is wrong with the pattern and I needed to move on.

This Hugs and Kisses blanket is REALLY popular on social media so I decided to try that but in straight rows instead of a ripple. This looks much better! It really does pay to make a swatch.

It will be yellow, gray and white and I think it will look pretty nice. I sent this photo to Laura to show to the new mother. If it doesn't appeal to her I will do something else but I'll still finish this one. There will be other babies!

I'm also planning a really simple project with a thicker yarn to work on in the car. We're heading to the Great Smokies soon for some hiking and our marriage is much stronger when I'm occupied in the car.

​I hope you have a great weekend. I'm hoping for a lot fo quilting and sewing.

We got my brother and SIL moved into their beautiful new home Tuesday, my tea towel project is about to wrap up and after one more trip to my brother's Friday I believe that I will have the weekend to myself!

I didn't keep track of the tea towels proceeds (I collected checks in 2 batches and some checks were mailed directly to the charity) but I think the final total was about $1000. I'm really happy with that. I had about 20 towels left over and I gave them to a friend who works with another food bank and she will probably get a few hundred more for her pantry. All-in-all, I'm really happy.

I've had a few minutes here and there to sew on this double 4-patch veterans quilt. I'm assembling it in rows and I got this far and realized that I had completely miscalculated the number of 4-patch blocks that I needed. I was short 36! 

I already had a stack of 2 1/2 print squares and only had to cut some black squares and I was back in business.

Last night I was back to putting rows together. I might be able to get this together by tonight if my clay shooting lesson and errands don't take too long. I haven't been able to practice shooting since covid started and I'm anxious to get back out to the practice field. Hopefully the time away will not have set me back too far. Virginia is officially moving into phase 2 Friday, although with the allowed protests it seems to me that, for all practical purposes, we've already tossed the covid restrictions aside. I hope that means that my quilt club will get back together soon!

This week is busy helping my brother and SIL unpacking but I had a little time to sew some 4-patch blocks together for the next veterans quilt.

In the evenings I've been doing a little crochet and finished this baby blanket. The yarn is Lion Brand Cupcake in color Beach Ball. I used 2 balls. It's simple blanket stitch and it's a really soft blanket.

It finished 26" x 34". I bought both balls of yarn at the same time but you can see that one ball was a lot more mottled than the other. I'll know going forward to check dye lots! But it's still cute.

One more blanket for the donation pile and waiting for donation recipients to start accepting them again.