Before I get to today’s post, I’ve had a lot of people questioning Facebook and why they aren’t seeing my posts there as often as they typically did. I talked to my daughter Kalissa about that and she ended up writing a blog post about that. Please follow THIS LINK to her blog so you can read about what you can do to see more of our posts on Facebook.
Now to today’s post…
I was pretty scattered about with the sewing this week. I had kids many of the days this week so the time I did get to sew, was in bits.
A kind blog reader sent me two UFOs. I was able to bring them downstairs this week and one day when I was watching my grandson Anders, I pulled them out and tried to decipher what I had.
I quickly knew the first one was Frolic, a previous Bonnie Hunter mystery.
There were lots of bits and pieces but they were all sorted out so nicely.
I decided not to let grass under my feet on this project and immediately put it into totes and made plans to start slowly working on it.
The second one, I wasn’t too sure about.
It was mostly triangles. Oh my goodness there were a lot of them too. I am sure the blog reader who sent it told me what project it was but darn. I couldn’t remember. So I sorted that thought and sorted and thought some more. I ended up sending the picture to my friend Connie asking if she might have a guess on what pattern this might be. I came to the conclusion that the project needed 1008 green half-square triangles and string pieced blocks. Hmm.
Connie didn’t know…and then I had an idea. I ran to the sewing room and pulled out the String Frenzy book by Bonnie Hunter. YEP, I was right. Emerald City. You can find the book HERE on Amazon. (the book is only $18 right now)
Well, I won’t be tackling this project yet. Soon I hope. I sew all of my string quilt projects on my Singer 15-91 and right now, I still have my grandson Anders’s baby quilt at that machine and only sew one project at a time on that machine.
As I started packaging up the project, look what I noticed…The bag that the project was in said “Emerald City” on it. UGH. If only I had looked more carefully.
I am hoping to get working on them in between other things.
I ended up setting the Frolic baskets on the island in the sewing room and I ended up grabbing the partially sewn blocks.
I finished the last… seam so now I have a few of the blocks done.
I’m happy to be working on this. I have other Frolic leftovers so I want to get this finished and put together before I pull those out and start working on them again.
I likely won’t set the world on fire with a fast finish but I’m going to try to put some work into it every week until it’s finished even if it means only finishing a block or two each week.
Ila sent me a stack of American Jane fabric triangles. 
In between things, I got these all sewn together. I was up early a couple of days and squeezed in a few minutes here and there until they were finished.
Then one day over naptime I got them all ironed.
I make a cheat sheet with all of my projects something like this. It’s just scribbled jibberish unless you know a bit about quilting.
I thought I would explain it in case you want to start using cheat sheets if don’t already.
I make sure this stays with the project so that if it gets set aside, I always have it and know where to pick the project up again.
Under “HAVE” it says 41. At one point in this project, I sewed and ironed some blocks. At that point, I had 41. I sewed and ironed the rest, 118 more so under that it says 159 total.
My next hurdle was to figure out what my setting for these would be. I thought 12 x 12 would use 144 blocks. I did the math and a 13 x 13 setting would leave me needing 169 blocks.
I needed something in between or I needed to make more blocks. I really don’t have a bunch more American Jane fabric. I might be able to find a similar color but, I could just get it done. If I wanted to get it done and only use what I have, a 12 x 13 setting sounded like a good idea. That would use 156 blocks….leaving only 3 unused. That sounded good.
So how big would my quilt be? The blocks are 5 1/2″ unfinished so once in the quilt they would be 5″ finished. So, 5 x 12 = 60 and 5 x 13 = 65. That means my quilt would be 60 x 65.
Oh my…that’s so close to a twin-sized quilt. Maybe I should dig and see if I can find any fabrics that might coordinate with this….or maybe some border fabric. I really don’t have much yardage as I really only have fat quarters and smaller ones because I made scrappy quilts.
I made a backing and loaded my Iowa Hawkeyes quilt on the frame. Here is Izzy trying to help…
It was later in the evening that I came downstairs from loading the quilt and this is what I came down to. Izzy had grabbed a bag of cards I use to wind my DMC floss on. She opened them and had them all over the living room. Thankfully only one was ruined. For the most part, she doesn’t do stuff like this so I was a little surprised.
The benefit that the Iowa Hawkeyes quilt is going to would really like a photo of it finished so they can promote it for the benefit so that means I need to get at it. In fact, that’s what I’m doing after I get this blog post written.
It will be so nice to have it finished!!
That’s what I’ve been up to this week. What have you been working on??
I’m glad to know I’m not the only quilter that does “hen scratching” (that’s what we’ve always called those kind of notes)! I have to do it to keep up with most anything I’m working on. Thanks Jo for always inspiring us with ALL you post, in case you didn’t know it, you’re amazing!
I went to a retreat last week, and finished 3 tops, using cheat sheets for directions. Now I’m tying the quilt made with 16 patches and sashing. I haven’t done this in over a year, so I’m enjoying the change.
Could you use more frolic leftovers? I have those thin sashing. I also have American Jane triangles if you need them.
I’ll happily take more Frolic leftovers or American Jane triangles!!
I have a bit of American Jane too if you need it. I’ve been doing cheat sheets for a while thanks to you!
Hi Jo, i look everyday on youtube to see if you’ve posted anything. how often do you do a live sewing session. i have picked up so many tips when you are sewing and talking and your machine. most of all , Inspiration!!
I don’t have a scheduled posts for Youtube. I hope to have another soon. Thanks for checking in.
Your Monday post of “What I’m Working On” is my favorite post of the week!! Thanks for sharing!
I do cheat sheets too. Keep posting! I learn something every time you post. Thank you!
Been going through my stash and making baby quilt kits!! Also making the background to embroider a bench pillow AND getting out long ago hand embroidered stamped quilts!!
I have been working on gowns, undershirts, hats, and hoodies for LWR. I have several that just need to find a sleeve, add the elastic to the bottom, etc. I have lost steam for cleaning my sewing room, but everything I finish and send on its way helps too. Someone sent a box of the cutest fabric. I can’t wait to get started!
That looks like GREAT progress to me, Jo! I’m spread so thin that I rarely make much sewing progress, at all. I wonder what got into Izzy? I guess she REALLY didn’t like all the time you spent at the longarm!
Izzy still has a lot of puppy in her. She loves some good shenanigans.
I’m still straightening up my sewing space – now named my “vacation spot” thanks to Mary from Country Threads. My daughter helped me with moving stuff around and heavy lifting. Now I’m left to go through mainly notions moved to my ironing board and cutting mat. Also going through books. I purchased a couple of new books from the Martingale going out of business sale and want to donate books that I no longer need. I needed a little sewing time, so I did clean off enough space to get some BOM done so as to not get behind on those. In cleaning, I found a project with black that was not Halloween for December Dirty Dozen, will be a larger Three Yard Quilt project. Glad that Mary gave us a couple of months to regroup. Look forward to your blogs each evening.
Hi Jo
Going to start using “cheat sheets”, makes sense, instead of sitting for 20 plus minutes scratching my head and wasting valuable stitching time.
Are you sure it was IZZY as ROSIE looks too innocent? Whenever my two have done something naughty , all I have to say “who was it” and the innocent one looks at the other, so funny , I cannot be naggy at them ever.
So cute. I’m positive it was Izzy. Rosie is too proper to be naughty unless it’s stealing food from the kids or digging in the garbage.
I’m trying (or should say have been trying for the last couple of weeks) to finish a table runner. I have one block I need to unsew and fix. Maybe that’s keeping me from getting it done. Oh, well. Maybe this weeks the week to finally get it all put together.
Thanks Jo for your blogging I always learn something. I also like to see all the finishes by everyone. I do cheat sheets as well. I’m currently working on several HST quilts trying to perfect HST’s. Thanks for doing what you do and letting us in on.
I gathered all the scraps I have and am cutting them like you talked about on your video. I didn’t realize how many I really have. I should be finishing two quilts, and I will be…. soon.
Love the little notes in the totes. I too make a playlist so I know how much is made, and how many I need.
It really keeps you on track when you are going back to projects!!!
Glad to get your blog again. Don’t know why they had stopped but we have a fly by night internet co.And sometimes the inbox hasn’t changed for 6 hrs… or more… We’ve had so more house issues but hopefully will be sewing again. I think Izzy tried to con Rosie into opening the bag…lol