Snow Days = Sew Days

This is what our front yard looked like yesterday morning, as we headed out to church. Beautiful!!

Once I saw this and heard the forecast, I knew that it would be a perfect day to sew. 

I pulled out the fabrics for the additional three blocks I decided to make for my toddler version of Disco Stars and I spent a little time working on those. 

I have all the sashing and small star units made and got excited to see how it was going to look, so I put everything up on the design wall. I really like the deep purple stars and background fabric (Kona Solid - Eggplant). 

On a side note...I am hosting a Disco Stars Sew Along for the members of the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Sewing Facebook group. I fell in love with this quilt when Modernly Morgan shared progress on her Facebook and Instagram pages at the end of last year, and then finally on her blog. I knew I wanted to make one of these quilts and decided to kill two birds with one stone when I chose that to be the long-awaited CRS Sew Along quilt. Toward the end of this post, you'll see a glimpse of my first Disco Stars quilt. This purple version is actually my fourth version. LOL I'll share pictures of the other two versions soon. 

Unfortunately, the machine sewing stopped at this point. I had to step away from the machine and for a variety of reasons, never got back to it. That will change today. My goal is to have this top sewn today and to start thinking about the quilting. Of course that means I have to think about the backing too. This is pretty small (40.5" x 54"), so I'm thinking that I will quilt this on my domestic machine and am pretty sure that I have fabric in my stash that will work for backing. We'll see...

Back to the snow...

We are fortunate to have double glass doors in our kitchen that look out to the back yard. Longtime blog readers know that I enjoy the view from those doors and have seen many pictures of wonderful green trees, lots of snow, and plenty of wildlife (deer, birds, etc.) Last night, I glanced out the door and noticed some snow that had "landed" on the door handle. I thought it was interesting and decided to see if I could get a picture of it. 

Don't ask me why, but I love how this looks. I love the layered look of the snow and the detail of both layers. I find the mirror-like effect of the handle both beautiful and intriguing. 

Jack suggested that I like it because it looks a bit like the front end of a ship and some of my friends just embarked on a week-long cruise. Maybe he's correct...LOL

While I didn't get back to the sewing machine, I did begin the hand-stitching on my first version of the Disco Stars quilt. I love everything about this quilt! 

I am thrilled with my binding choose. I don't usually choose binding until the quilting is complete, but I had chosen this binding even before I started piecing the blocks. I just knew it would work! 

Unlike the binding, I didn't know what I was going to use for the backing until I walked into a store one day as they were unwrapping a new bolt of wide backing. I saw it and just knew it would be perfect. I had only sewn a few blocks, but I just knew. :-)  

Maggie at Chestnut Ridge Sewing quilted this and while I don't remember the name of the quilting design, it is perfect! My other two completed versions of Disco Stars were quilted by Maggie and Linda at CRS, and they are perfect too. Maybe I should just have them quilt the purple version so it looks just as good as the others.  LOL

It's President's Day and we have no appointments. I've got a pot of soup cooking on the stove and Jack is working on a couple of projects at his radio desk. It's the perfect day to head back to the sewing machine and work on my goal. Tonight, you'll most likely find me on the couch hand-stitching while Jack is there reading a book. 

A Little Sewing Time

I've been busy the last few weeks working on a number of things, including some secret sewing projects. I will soon be able to share those; but in the mean time, I decided to do some sewing for me. 

I finished sewing my blocks for my Homespun quilt! I love this pattern by Modernly Morgan. Truth be told, I like EVERY Modernly Morgan pattern. 

Ok, since I'm being honest, I am working on this for a Sew Along that I will be hosting. But the reason I am hosting this Sew Along is because I wanted to make this quilt and I knew that if I used the pattern for the Sew Along, I could justify putting aside a few other already-started projects and make this quilt.  :-)  

I used fabric that I already had on hand and that sure felt good. My background is scrappy, but it works since all of the fabrics are tone on tone whites.  

My goal is to get this top together this weekend and get my notes in order and finalize the Sew Along schedule. 

What are you working on this weekend? 

Black and Red Quilt

Yesterday, I shared a few pictures of my "in progress" Atlantic Avenue quilt. I also mentioned that I had just completed a red and black quilt, and that I would share a picture of that today. 

I am hosting an on-line Sew Along on the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Sewing Facebook group and we are using the Mapleton Avenue pattern. 

Just because I feel like I have to, I am making two versions of quilt. I changed the black and red version a little by adding an additional column of blocks so it measures 56" x 64". (The pattern offers four size options, but none of them were quite the size I wanted so I made my own changes.) This two-color version was made totally out of scraps, and in the school colors of my oldest grandchild. (She is running track this year and I know from experience that she will most likely need this to keep warm during the early part of the season.)

My other quilt will be the lap size (48" x 64") and that is being made from an old 2 1/2" pre-cut package that I had in my stash. I chose to use a single background fabric, which is making the construction very simple and fast. This is the pre-cut and a grunge that I had considered using. I decided against it and went with a grey dot fabric instead.

Here are a few of my blocks just randomly laid out. I'm very pleased with the background fabric choice!

I have a few sub-teaching days coming, so my sewing time with be limited; but I hope to have this top pieced by the weekend. I'd also like to get the black and red one quilted and bound. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't be overly disappointed if I don't get everything done that I want to. W

What are you working on today?

Design Wall Monday

Since this whole Covid-19 deal started, I've been working on a lot of different projects, including hosting a Table Runner Sew Along for Chestnut Ridge Sewing. I enjoyed that and decided that I really wanted to host another Sew Along, so I got busy on samples of Bloom, a Cut Loose Press pattern. This is the quilt on the pattern and for some reason it just caught my eye. I love all the colors and hexagons. 

Here's my version...

I used the same fabric for the background, setting triangles, and borders, and I'm very happy with how this turned out. This entire quilt top was made from stash fabrics and that makes me very happy. I did have to purchase backing, but I found the perfect fabric very quickly. As a bonus, after I quilted and trimmed this, I realized that the backing fabric was also the perfect binding fabric. Yay!

Of course I can't just make one sample when I'm going to be teaching a project, so I made a smaller version of the quilt too. (Stash fabric again!)

I used the backing fabric for the binding on this quilt too.  It has all the colors from the fat quarters I used and I'm thrilled that I didn't have to buy anything. :-) 

A 60 degree triangle ruler is required to make this quilt, but I didn't mind. I've used the ruler a lot; but I know many people have not. As a matter of fact, I know at least four people that have yet to remove the plastic. That was kind of the catalyst for me to use the pattern for the Sew Along. I really want people to use what they have and not be afraid to learn something new.

With that in mind, I figure there might be some participants who don't want to commit to a large quilt. So, for them, I created a couple of table runners. 

They will learn to use the ruler and have a usable product when they are done. 

After I made the red and white runner, I played around with some layout options and threw together this version of the quilt.

This measures the same as the original quilt, 64" x 80", but it looks so different and only uses 24 blocks. I'm pleased with this and will get it quilted soon. 

We pulled some fabrics, in case any of the Sew Along people want to buy a kit. Aren't these beautiful?

I have a strip of each of these fabrics so I can use them for my demos. I'm happy that will result in another quilt because I know it will be very pretty and I have just the person in mind who would love this. 

What are you working on today?

Check out the quilters' eye candy at 

Beth's Monday Making

and

Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Design Wall Monday

It's been a busy time with lots of projects being worked on here. 

Saturday, I joined Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis for an online class Peaks and Valleys. I enjoyed the class, learned a lot, and got a lot accomplished. Here's the top, ready to sew into vertical rows. 

This is a small quilt, meant to be a baby quilt, but I decided that I wanted to make a Halloween-themed wall hanging. I am very happy with my choice of fabrics; and made mine a little wider than the pattern says because I know exactly where this will be hung. It needed the additional vertical row added to fit in the space perfectly. :-) 

I am sure that I will make another version of this, as I think it would be a great donation quilt. It doesn't take a lot of yardage, so I could easily use fabrics that I have on hand. (All of the fabrics for this quilt were from my stash. 😊)

I am hosting a three-week Free Spring Table Runner Sew Along for Chestnut Ridge Sewing on their Friends of Chestnut Ridge Sewing Facebook page. I've never done anything like this and I'm learning a lot. I'm even adding videos with a lot of helpful information to go along with the piecing instructions. (It's not Facebook Live, and I'm definitely not Jenny Doan, but I am having fun.) 

I'm making two version during the Sew Along (one short runner and one long); but I've already made two samples while writing the pattern. Those are on my design wall. One is partially quilted and the other is up there for me to look at and decide how I want to quilt it.  

We just started block 1 today, which is the alternate/chain block. Here are examples of the two on which I'm sewing now.

These are not great pictures. The bottom one looks like there is grey fabric next to the red, but it's actually a multi-colored dot on a light green background that I've had for a very long time. I'm happy to be using it. 

There's still time to join the fun. Just go to the Friends of Chestnut Ridge Sewing Facebook page and ask to join. The files and videos are ready and waiting for you.  :-) 

What's on your design wall today?

Check out the quilters' eye candy at

Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

and

Beth's Monday Making