If you’ve been reading the blog, you know that I’ve been away at a cross-stitch retreat. I left Thursday morning and came back at about noon on Sunday. That didn’t leave me a lot of quilting time but I still managed to get a little bit done.
You might remember the week before when the grandkids were here I had worked on cutting out the Tumalo Trails quilt. It is in this book, Scraps and Shirttails II.
Before I left for the retreat I was up early several days. I got all of the half square triangles sewn…not ironed though.
I sewed together a whole bunch of strip sets together. These are for the nine patch blocks. On the left are the dark-light-dark sets and on the right are the light-dark-light sets.
I didn’t get a chance to cut any of these. I had hoped I would over the week but I didn’t get a chance. That’s okay because I’m guessing I might get to them this week. I have a really busy upcoming three weeks or so. We’ll see what I all get done and don’t get done. The garden is coming on heavy as are the flowers and it’s the time of year that those things need to come first.
I did get several packages in the mail. I need to sort and organize those. I’m hoping to get to that as well this week. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
I had a blog reader that was wanting to know how I deal with shirts after they are cut up. She wanted to know how I found the straight of the grain and started working on them. I ended up filming this video to help with that. You can push the play button and watch it here or you can go to Youtube HERE, save it and watch it later on your television or device.
That is all I have for you…a slow report. Hopefully I’ll be back on the bandwagon soon. Please share what you’ve been busy with!
Welcome back from your retreat, Jo!
I spent Saturday working on a memory quilt for my daughter’s friend, then Sunday was spent outside, working in the garden. Making the most of a day without rain!
Thrilled to see my box and now yours. Can’t wait to hear how many shirts I stuffed into it.
I’ve been piecing a new quilt, Koby by GE Designs. I used batiks from my stash and I have all the blocks finished. Laying them out in rows and sewing the rows together are my next steps
Beautiful fabrics in your quilt start!! Looking forward to seeing it come together in a finished top.
I spent the weekend working on applique for a challenge for my local guild. And then I sandwiched a top that will be machine quilted for a wedding present. Going to be my first attempt at anything but straight lines.
I put the binding on a large quilt that was very difficult to wrangle under the machine. It’s all blues and creams and the pattern was from a magazine a long time ago. Looking at it now, I think I could have made it much simpler than how the pattern was written. The quilt is for an old friend who has remarried and I doubt anyone has ever made a quilt for her before. Next up is cleaning up boxes of quilting supplies (bought at thrift stores) and getting ready for my next quilt.
I purchased a pink Nurge cross stitch hoop. The small size. Can’t wait to start a cross stitch project I ordered over a year ago.
I also purchased some leather thimbles to attempt to hand quilt a quilt. My sewing group recently tackled hand quilting and I’m willing to give it a try on one of my unfinished quilts from a few years ago. I even purchased a standing quilting frame at a garage sale earlier this summer.
Wish me luck on my projects!
I quilted two baby quilts, on my domestic machine, for donation to a local shelter. I’m gonna work on the bindings today.
The quilts in the video are wonderful and have held up very well. The ten year old nine patch–what batt might have been used? Great hints about shirts.
I won a closet full of dress shirts (25-30) in an on-line auction. I paid $20 but I’ll see how much of a bargain I got when the postage is added.
FUN!! I hope you got some good ones!!
Jo, you may have addressed this question before but, I wanted to know if you use spray starch when you work on shirt quilts?
Thanks for the great video.
I’ve not fallen down the starch rabbit hole. I certainly think you can if that it what you are comfortable with.
Hi Jo!
I really enjoy looking at your photos. Your half square triangles look perfect! How do you make them so they turn out with perfect corners? Mine always seem to get a bit wonky.
Thanks for your blog! I love reading everything.
I use an Easy Angle Ruler. Here is a Youtube video I made showing how I make them. https://youtu.be/cAyAyy6NC2k