What I’m Working On…

I had a busy week.  I had all of last week off so one would think I got a lot done.  Nope.  You’d be wrong.  I made progress and I’m content with my progress.  I did do a lot of other things during the week that I was really wanting to get done…and in the end, I am happy I didn’t sew and got the other things done instead.

I worked on the baby quilts for Kelli’s boys.  If you remember I  told you it will be a version of this quilt…

As I said before, one quilt will have a blue tractor as that’s the kind of tractor Papa Moo (Kramer liked).  That will be Eli’s and Emmett’s tractor will be green.  The pattern is in Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage book.  Find it HERE on Amazon.

I had hoped I would get the big tractor blocks done but I didn’t.  Instead, I told myself to just work on the pinwheel blocks…and that’s what I did.

I ended up getting some done…

My tally is 78 pinwheels completely finished…a few here that need to be ironed…

a few more are at the machine waiting to be sewn.

I need 90 for each quilt so I won’t be quitting anytime soon.

I also worked on… my Bitcoin quilt from Bonnie Hunter.

You can find the pattern HERE.

The premise of the quilt is to sew strips together and then sub-cut them into a specific size.  After watching many of Lori Holt’s videos I’ve seen her use these small rulers, Cute Cuts.  You can find them HERE on Amazon.  All along I’ve told myself “You do not need any more rulers.  It’s silly to spend more money on rulers when the rulers you have can cut what you need.”  Well, a moment of weakness struck.  I ordered them.

…and immediately fell in love with them.

I feel like I have a lot more control over these rulers.  A certain amount of pressure needs to go on the ruler when cutting.  The bigger the ruler the wider the spread of my hands that are putting the pressure down to hold it in place.  If my hand isn’t stretched as far, I have more control over the pressure and the ruler doesn’t slip.  I love this little ruler a lot!

I’m glad I broke the bank and sprung for the new rulers.  I feel like I am more accurate in my cutting.

I have more sewn, ironed, and cut…there is more to do too!!

This is my box with all of those that are sewn together and ready to put in the quilt.

I am really having fun with this project.  I’m hoping to film a “Sew with Jo” coming up as this is a good project to do it with.  We’ll see if time allows.  I know many of you have asked more more “Sew with Jo’s”.

Here’s the update on my Iowa Hawkeye Tumbler quilts.   I finished the first one and shared that with you on Saturday.  You can read about it HERE.

I put the second one on the frame and started working on quilting that.

A blog reader asked the size of the tumblers I made.  I used this...Linograph Clear Acrylic Tumbler Quilting Ruler.


It is really easy to use.  I cut the strips at 4 1/2″ and then laid the ruler on the strips and cut the pieces flipping the ruler as needed to make the cuts.  I like the ruler as strips can be cut at many different widths.  You can find the ruler HERE on Amazon.

I also machine quilted this one…

Now I have some binding that needs to be done.

I am currently behind on the American Quilter’s Stitch Along.  I was supposed to complete two blocks this week but that didn’t happen.

I did sew along with Lori Holt’s Red Sampler Quilt Along.  I think this week is the last week of this so I will be forging FULL SEAM AHEAD on this.  I would really like this finished up and out of the sewing room.

I’ve loved the project but am ready to move on to something else.

Speaking of the sewing room, EVERYTHING is tidy again.  I planned on getting upstairs with a vacuum to really clean it all the way out but, alas, that didn’t happen.  I’m sure I can do that one day this week.

In the process of that, I pulled two quilt tops that needed to go to the quilt shop for a little consult.  Both needed borders so on Friday I went to a quilt shop.  It’s been over a year since I have been in one.  I ended up finding what I needed so I am hoping that these two projects can get finished too.

I got interfacing for the beagle cross-stitch blocks that Maxine sent for me.  I’m not ready to jump into that project yet but the interfacing is here and with the project so once I get a few of these cleared out, I can move on to it.

Right now I have several quilts that need to get on the quilting frame.  I’d really like to move them out before I jump into anything new.  We’ll see.  I’m known to bite off a bit too much so who knows.

That’s the update from the sewing room.  This next week shouldn’t be terribly busy so I’m hoping to make some progress on several of the projects.