(This was supposed to post Wednesday. It didn't so I'm catching up.)
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Last night was our quilt club meeting so I've tried to spend most of my time since coming home quilting veterans quilts. I quilted 4 and 2 of them are for other members.

Betsy made this one. She has been very motivated lately making lots of veterans quilt tops. This was a great way to use string blocks.

I quilted it with the star and ribbon pantograph with red thread. Red is Betsy's favorite color!

Becky made this one. Some guy who loves hunting or nature is going to love this quilt.

The pantograph for this one is Woven Wind. I think it fits well with the idea of blowing snow.

These are the two of mine that got quilted. It's the first 2 of the 6 that I made last month. I'll photograph them once I get the binding done. I have one more to quilt and then I'll get back to the flower quilt. I'm out of quilt backing for the veterans quilts so I'm on a forced hiatus until I order and dye more backing fabric. I'll make myself finish the flower quilt before I get to quilt more veterans quilts. The veterans quilts are so satisfying!

Today is dyeing day and there's LOTS to do to catch up on orders. If I'm lucky I'll get some crochet in tonight.

But let's start with the hiking report. Yesterday we hiked Pemetic Mountain and it was quite a workout! This is part of the trail on one side. Lots of steep scrambling but a lot of fun.

It was worth it for a lot of spectacular views all along the trail. We were both pretty exhausted (in a good way) after that. Today was a quieter day. I kayaked in the morning and then ran some errands, even visiting 2 quilt shops. In the end I didn't buy anything but thread but it was fun to visit fabric.

Two people asked on the last post about the yoga app that I use. I've tried several yoga and exercise apps and my current favorites are Down Dog and HIIT, both by Yoga Buddhi Co. I use the HIIT app most often but do occasionally use the yoga app. There are good options for types, duration and skill level and you can choose the voice and music.    I like the Aussie guy for yoga and I don't like any music background. They are paid apps but I think you get a trial of 5 workouts of something like that and when they introduced the HIIT app you actually got both for one price. I absolutely love the HIIT app. The workout can be as hard as you want it and it's really helped me build strength and stamina. They have other apps for prenatal, barre and beginners. 

Between hikes, paddles, eating and relaxing I've kept going on the veterans quilt tops. These last 2 rail fence tops went together fast. I finished this one yesterday.

...and I finished this one today. These will look even better with my stars and ribbons pantograph. 

Here are all 5 together. I'm really pleased.
Tomorrow we expect rain. There's a remote possibility that we get in a short hike early but otherwise it will by a sewing day. That would be just awful, wouldn't it?
My next project is to start in the big Mardi Gras star quilt. That one is going to be for me!

Another day in paradise!
​Actually it rained all day yesterday but we makers don't mind that. I got started on the next pair of veterans quilts and made some great progress. I only have 6 sheets of triangles left to stitch and I've already started cutting and pressing.

I made some more crochet progress while I've been waiting for the weather to warm up today. This little blanket will be done soon.
​It's 67 now so I'm off to paddle around the lake for a bit.

My first project is done! I usually avoid panels but I don't mind these digitally printed panels because there are options for trimmed size. I really loved this one even without noticing that the mountain was a flag! Chris noticed it yesterday. It isn't obvious up close but it's really clear in the photo. The narrow border fabric is from a coordinating print.
​I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

It turned out so nice that I'm glad that I made 2 of them!

Next up is this project. It will take a little longer but it will also make 2 quilts.

There will be lots of time for sewing and crochet today because it's a rainy day. The next week should be beautiful so I can take a rainy day.
​For Debbie, the yarn is Mandala in the collorway Narnia.

I like an "and then" day. It means that I didn't waste too much time and got lots of things accomplished. After my morning torture exercise session Marcy and I delivered the veterans quilts and then we stopped by a local yarn shop on the way home. I didn't buy anything! Yay! But it was good to see a shop open.

After lunch I headed to the sewing room and was going to put the last stack of patriotic fabrics away but instead I decided to challenge myself to quickly make a veterans quilt top out of it.

I don't like working with printed panels like this. By "like this" I mean panels with printed borders. They are impossible to get square. I had a fat quarter of the same blue used on the panel that I could use to camouflage the wonkiness of the panel print. I didn't have enough to go all the way around so star cornerstones seemed like a fine plan. And then I started looking for the next border. I had 2 half-yard cuts of the red and tan stripe. That seemed a fine choice.

By this point I had decided that there would be two more borders in blue to hold everything. That means that there are 3 remaining borders: blue, something else and blue. So far so good.

The blue round got star cornerstones to tie in with the first blue border. For the next border I had 4 fat quarters of tan prints. I cut 4.5" strips from the 4 fabrics and then sub cut those into random chunks. I didn't want to have to measure out blocks to fit the border exactly. Random chunks solved that.

Finally one last blue border and this was done in just a few hours. I had a half yard of the red stripe left so I cut it into binding strips.

This is the rest of that panel. I don't think I'll be using it in future quits. I just don't think it will be very uplifting for a veteran dealing with a  cancer diagnosis.
​And then the power went out.

We had a great summer storm around 5:30 last night and that knocked the power out for almost 2 hours. I got my lantern from the basement and added a lot more rows to my blanket. I'm almost halfway through the first ball. 
And then the power came back on.

So before heading to  bed I decided to clear out 2 big bags of batting scraps and make some dog beds. I'll drop these off with my friend tomorrow. Everything about these is about turning trash to treasure. The fabrics are all free giveaways and I use thread that I don't use for anything else anymore. It only took about an hour and a half to make all 4 of these.
Today is another day full of options and I don't really have a plan. I'll just see what I'm in the mood to do next.

Today's post is a summary of the past few days of work. I needed to get the piles of patriotic fabrics off the floor so I decided to devote a few days to just working on veterans quilt stuff.

I have a total of 7 quilt tops that need to be quilted. One is going to Marcy to pair up with one of her quilt tops and I hope that some of the other quilters can take some of the others at our meeting next week. But I did get these 2 done Sunday after I finished my own veterans quilt that I shared Monday. I know that Betsy made the one on the left because tiny blocks in repro fabrics are her signature. Her quilts are always precise! The one on the right is similar to 3 that my Mom made a few months ago but I don't think she made this one....I'm not sure. We'll figure it out Tuesday at the meeting.

​After I finished these it was on to a couple of days of cutting kits.

I purchased 2 of this panel with a coordinating fabric for borders and binding. I pulled lots of hand dyes that coordinated and will create a wide border of 2: strips around the bordered panel.  think they will go together really quickly. I cut all of the pieces so I can just jump right in to sewing.

These are a couple of fat quarter sets that Anne gave me. I saw that block on Alycia's blog and thought it would be perfect for these fabrics paired with white. I've had this roll of triangle paper for probably 20 years. It looked like it was finally ripe and ready to use. I cut the white and print chunks and I'll be ready to go to make enough HSTs for 2 quilts. I think it will look really cool.

These fabrics came from 2 kits that I bought on sale. They are all half yard cuts. I dithered over about a dozen ideas, including the one in this photo that was ultimately rejected. I wanted something that would use all of the fabric. In the end the answer was a rail fence. Everything got cut into 2.5" strips and should come together really quickly. There's enough here for 2 quilts also.

While we are on vacation I usually have a couple of hours of sewing time every day so these can easily get done in 18 days. I'll take one other new project that I'm planning. 

I have one other set of fabric that is a set with this panel. The panel has other parts to it but they are too "memorial-ish" to give to veterans dealing with health issues. This one will be a series of borders and I'll work on it here because I'll need to cut as I go and I really prefer cutting on my big table.

The kits are packed and ready to go. 

Here's the current stack of 19 finished quilts! Marcy and I will deliver them to our VA hospital contact tomorrow.  

After 15 years of owning a longarm I finally did the one things that I knew would happen eventually. I ripped a hole in a quilt by accidentally putting the needle down as I moved the machine to the other side of a quilt.

Yesterday was dyeing day but I finished early and had time to get this veterans quilt loaded and could have started quilting. But after I got it basted on I was moving the sewing head from one side to the other to change the bobbin and accidentally hit the needle down button and I ripped a hole in the quilt! 

I've been luck because this hasn't ever happened to me in 15 years. I knew it would get me one day but I'm happy that it was one of my own quilts.

Luckily it didn't rip the backing at all so i was able to repair it with it still basted. The rip was on the white and red fabrics. I had some leftover white so I patched it with a little hand stitching and slipped it under the seam. For the red I fused a little patch of another red fabric under the rip and whip stitched it together through both layers. I finished it off with a little Fray Check. From a foot away you can't even see it. I'll put it back on the machine this afternoon after my clay shooting lesson this morning. I hope I don't melt in the heat.

On the crochet front my blanket is coming right along. It will eventually have 4 sections of turquoise and 4 of the variegated. I think I will finish it off with a navy border. I do like working with the Hobby Lobby yarn. I expect it's a lot like Red Heart.

My plans for the weekend are to stay inside and stay cool. I want to start planning my vacation sewing projects, get this veterans quilt done and maybe get the flower quilt back on the frame for the last of the quilting.

Two more veterans quilted and BOUND! 
​It's way too hot to be outside so I'm staying in and doing my projects. Yesterday it was these 2 quilts.

Both of these quilts are my Blockade quilt pattern. They go together so fast and there are so many options with color layout. I haven't gotten tired of this one yet.

This one is made with scraps from my Paula Nadelstern fabric stash. The quilting doesn't show on this at all!

Both of these are true trash-to-treasure quilts made with leftovers from other projects. I'm really pleased with this one. It uses the same Blockade pattern but with a completely different effect.

The backing is a grayish purple and I quilted it with my fastest pantograph, Woven Wind. the quilting doesn't show well on either of these quilts so it didn't matter what I used.

I have one quilt back that's only big enough for one quilt so I'm going to get this one loaded and quilted tomorrow.

Today is dyeing day so I don't expect to get much done. This evening I might have time to start doing some planning for my travel projects.

Yesterday was dyeing day so I didn't have a lot of time for my projects but I was able to get this top together after dinner. I didn't quilt on the flower quilt but I will today and might have the fist pass of ruler work done by Saturday. Then I'll take it off for a few days and quilt some veterans quilts.....if everything goes to plan.

One day last week I spent about 45 minutes on hold with Direct TV and the consequences of that time arrived in the mail today! Yarn for 4 more baby blankets. I love the Mandala yarns for baby blankets. The Mandala Ombre is something new to try and the Red Heart is for a gingham blanket. If the gingham blanket goes well I think I will try an adult version. But these will keep me busy for a couple of months.

​Today I'm running errands and then it will be back to quilting!

and this is why. One of our neighbors cut down some trees and offered the wood at a great price. Chris brought home the first load Wednesday and I needed to get it all stacked before the second load (the piles in the photo) arrived yesterday afternoon. The wood in the back is leftover from last year but the 3 stacks in the front are what I did yesterday morning in the blazing heat. After this I completely forgot about the blog and everything else other than the fabric dyeing I needed to do. I'll have more to stack this weekend after Chris splits the rest but we'll be pretty well set for this winter.

It's not all work though. I'm making a little progress on the vintage flower quilt and I got all these blocks made for a veterans quilt. The Ikat fabrics are leftover from a quilt that Anne made and I did replace the darkest fabrics that were too close in color to the dark purple. There's almost nothing left of the Ikat fabrics so this was a good use of them. I think it's going to look fine. I'm dyeing dark purple for the binding.

I also might need to make a baby quilt so I played around in EQ last night to come up with something simple that I could use as a go-to baby quilt blanket. This one would be based on a 4" finished square and I think could be a really nice and quilt pattern. I think it would be really sweet in feedsack fabrics with a white background. I also have a set of really bright plaids that would look good too.

I'm also getting ready to cut a bunch more veteran's quilt kits. While I was at Anne's we took a break to visit a couple of nearby quilt shops. When I was there for tiling I bought the fabrics on the left and they have already been soaked and are ready to press and cut. When we came back to grout she had bought me 3 more FQ packs as a gift! I'll get these soaked this weekend and then I'll be ready to start planning some more quilts for our veterans.

This weekend I don't have any big plans. Aside from stacking wood I hope to stay inside and I hope the air conditioner doesn't break! My plan is to finish a crochet blanket that I'm working on right now, finish the veterans quilt top and make some serious progress on the vintage flower quilt.