I Should Be Sewing

Lately I haven't felt much like sewing, and the guilt is weighing heavily. I have so many projects on my to-do list, which is tacked to my fabric cabinet and stares at me every day.

I've made myself work on Big Cypress Quilters quilt-along blocks. It's a design meant to be made with a jelly roll or two, but since I've never owned a jelly roll (and don't want to start now), I thought to cut all the pieces individually, from scraps. Thus far, these are the 11 blocks, 12" X 12" (finished) I've piece. I have 9 more cut and ready to piece. 

I've also half-heartedly begun working on my Central Florida MQG "Pick a Decade" Challenge. I started strong with the single "atomic-looking" block, and have futzed on a few occasions with machine appliquéing other 1950s shapes. Inspiration for this project is sorely lacking.

Instead I've continued to round loom knit, making two preemie caps, and another Comfort Doll. 

I've also continued to diamond paint, though I hit a big stop last Friday. When I went to Diamond Painting Club. I was stunned to realize I'd diamond painted the sun, and it was completely PINK! Friends verified I had chosen and used the correct drill colors, according to the key. 

A side-by-side examination of the advertised painting, and my efforts thus far, reveal the difference. The mistakes are on the canvas, and I'm missing all the drill colors of the sun.

As you can see, I'm nearly half-way finished with it!

Why did this happen to me?! It the very first diamond painting kit I ordered! I'm feeling sick about the 20 hours of painting (at least) I may have wasted. Assuredly, I'm not happy about this, and am in communication with the company. I expect a fix or a refund.

Perhaps this is a good reason for me to stick with sewing! Linda

End of July: Yardage Tracking and Books Read

July was a low productivity month. Between two trips to visit family - in Kansas City and Austin, Texas - and being captivated by diamond painting and round loom knitting, fabric output was low. And, there was that fabric buying time at KC Maker Studio in Kansas City. Those purchases are yet to be used, but will definitely be part of current WIPs. 

So, 6 yards of fabric came in; 3.36 yards went out, for a net gain of 2.64 yards. 

Makes that used-up fabric were:

• 8 Posh Penelope blocks
• a rice bag, and
• 17 more hand-pieced Inner City blocks (made while traveling)

Still, I'm consoling myself by looking at the 2025 OUT Yardage total thus far. It's 52.75 yards used since January. Ah, I feel better.

Audiobook listening was also at a slower pace. These are the seven titles I read, six of which I scored (5.0 is the highest rating).

1. 4.5 - Under the Tulip Tree, Michelle Shocklee
2. 4.2 - See Me, Nicholas Sparks
3. 4.1 - Tail of Vengeance, Spencer Quinn (a short story that's .03 in the book series)
4. 4.0 - The Sea Glass Sisters, Lisa Wingate (a short story)
5. 4.0 - The Memory Keeper of Kyiv, Erin Litteken
6. 3.9 - Didn't See That Coming, Jesse Sutanto
7. The Helper, Catherine Marshall

I thought Under the Tulip Tree was especially good. It's a good coming-of-age story about a young, aspiring writer, Lorena, whose family experiences the 1929 stock market crash. She determines to find employment to help support her family, but in the process learns more about the hidden side of her family, and how to start making amends.

Nicholas Sparks never disappoints. See Me was another story about people from differing backgrounds finding common ground and love. 

Other titles were short stories, like A Tail of Vengeance, #.03 in the Chet and Bernie series, and The Sea Glass Sisters that I didn't know was a short story that's part of a series.

Or disappointing.

I started the book The House in the Cerulean Sea, by TJ Klune and didn't want to finish. It's about magical children in an orphanage, and the social worker who visits their house by the sea. It wasn't as "delightful" to me as recommended. 

I didn't score The Helper by Catherine Marshall, but I highly recommend reading it if you want to know more about Holy Spirit and His place in one's heart and life.

I'll mention that I caught the narrator mispronouncing several words. The most disconcerting was when she said "morality" when she should have said "mortality." 

Ms. Marshall wrote The Helper in 1978 and though she uses "current" references to make her points (making the narrative historically interesting), her truths are timeless. She was a woman of great faith!

You may know of Catherine Marshall because her popular Christian work of fiction: Christy, written in 1967. I read it when I was in my 20s, and plan to re-read it. Linda

Away and Back, Again

Once again, I was away for a week, this time to Austin, Texas to visit our son and grandsons.

We watched a little of the grandsons' (ages 11 and 14) scuba diving lessons. When all we could see were their bubbles (ha!), we left. Three of us also did some diamond painting on coasters, and played Rummykub and Mexican Train Dominoes.

Traveling by car, I had lots of "Passenger Queen" time (picked up that term from my Instagram friend Susan @canadianabroad). The trip was the reason I started a rice bag.

From my last blog post, I learned that several of you seemed uncertain about the use for a rice bag. In this case, it's not meant to be filled with rice and microwaved to warm your hands or feet. Rather, this rice bag, called komebukuro, was first used for carrying a rice offering to a shrine or temple. Today its purpose is as a gift bag or to carry personal items.

I used this free pattern, offered by a 4-H executive on the Utah State University website, but my rice bag isn't soft-side. Instead, I added structure.

First, I sandwiched flannel between the pieced top and back. Second, the patches I added are not raw-edge stitched in the Boro style, but rather have turned under edges as with Kawandi.

All my choices compounded to make the piece a little challenging to hand-stitch because of the thickness.

I used size 12 Wonderfil Spagetti thread to hand quilt 43 times - about ¼" apart - along the 24½" length of the piece.

Darn it, I forgot to take a thimble along with me! A soft rubber thimble would have eased how difficult it was to pull the needle through all the layers.

Anyway, I got the quilting task completed going to and coming from Texas. When I returned home last Tuesday afternoon, it sewed together quickly. The pattern's written instructions for assembly are adequate. Photos help.

In case you're interested, when I finished quilting it, I used Deco-Bond 809 to back the exterior piece. That added more stiffness, I also fused a square of Timtex to the bottom piece. Turning it inside took a bit of wrestling, but I'm pleased that it stands up like a box.

My friend Peggy gave me the rope and empty wood spool for finishing. Thanks Peggy!

Now that I've been home for a few days, I'm back into activities and making. This week I knitted another round loom cap.

I tried a different design following YouTube to make the Raindrop Stitch. I'm pretty proud of myself for strategically adding the gray color stripes. If I hadn't added gray, I wouldn't have had enough red yarn to make the whole cap. Happily, I used every bit of the red yarn. No leftovers!

I'm promising myself I'll return to quiltmaking this week (my Pick-a-Decade Challenge quilt won't make itself!) though diamond painting continues to call me. I'm about one-third done with my 20" X 20" ocean scene. The sea water is sparkly beautiful.

Between the trip to Kansas City in early July, and the trip to Austin last week, I'm now well-stocked-on two of my favorite things: popcorn and coffee.

Hy-Vee (Midwest grocery store) popcorn is the best when it comes to kernels to pop yourself... which I always do. In fact, it was "dinner" for me last night! You can see I'm impartial when it comes to white or yellow corn. Ten bags should last a little more than a year.

As for coffee, I really like the flavors H.E.B. (Texas grocery store) sells, and the fact that most of their specialty flavors - with names like Texas Pecan, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio - are available in regular and decaf. I like to mix my own half-and-half regular/decaf combo to make individual cups. Nine bags should keep me for a few months.

When we go to/from Austin, we stop at all the Bucee's (four stops this trip!) and stay two nights in a motel. Coming home, we decided to treat ourselves to a balcony room at the Hampton Inn on Mobile Bay, in Daphne, Alabama.

We faced west, and though it was hot (like 94℉), we got to see a beautiful sunset.

The highway going across the bay is I-10, and that's downtown Mobile in the background.

Linda

Starting Something New

Not that I go off on tangents or anything... 😄 but, I've begun a new handwork project. 

I'm giving a Big Stitch Quilting and More program to members of Jacksonville (Florida) MQG in August, so I thought to have another sample handwork piece to share.

Seems I'm always late to the game though - a late adopter. This is the start of my first Japanese Rice Bag.

Recently, during a South Florida MQG bi-monthly, online Sip 'n Sew, after I inquired as to everyone's favorite rice bag pattern, we had a chat about them. Most modern versions of a rice bag will likely not be used for transporting rice. 

After much Googling of patterns, I satisfied by frugal Germanic background with the perfect FREE Japanese Rice Bag pattern. It's a pattern and a PDF download on the Utah State University website, offered by a 4-H Educator. Happy, happy!

I went through all my linen fabrics, and pieced them according to the pattern. What I've done differently is use a piece of flannel (prewashed) as batting, on top of a solid cotton. I want the bag to be sturdy, and stand up on its own.

Then, I went through scraps to choose coordinating colors. I've turned the edges under and pinned the pieces in place. I'll use three colors of 12-weight Wonderfil Spagetti perle cotton.

I plan to quilt this Boro-style. Even though scraps for Boro are traditionally raw-edged, for durability (machine washing) I turned under the edges, in more of a Kawandi style. I've made a small start.

In between sewing, I'm happily diamond painting. My ocean scene is coming along nicely. The top part is almost done. The shiny part you're seeing at the bottom are pieces of white release paper that protect the sticky, unpainted part of the canvas. While you're working, you really don't want your forearm glommed to the design!  

This is the remaining top corner that needs to be filled with diamond drills.

In this close-up you can see the painted and unpainted parts. 

My first, 6" X 6" diamond painting, is ready to hang. It's painted with painted round drills (versus squares). I glued it to a 6" X 6" canvas and wrapped it with cording. 

I'm enjoying diamond painting very much. It goes especially well with audiobooks! Linda

Posh Penelope Progress and Postcard

Since making my first two Posh Penelope blocks - pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful - in April 2023, I knew this would be a long-term project. I originally thought blocks would be a piece-of-cake to make. I was so wrong! Though the pattern doesn't count steps, by my count, each block involves ten steps - sewing and trimming repeatedly, requiring undivided attention for each step. It's no surprise that I stopped making them.

However, my friend Elizabeth at OccasionalPiece-Quilt - having discovered the same thing about making these blocks - recently set a goal for herself to make four blocks a month until all 42 blocks were made. Her friend joined her - love it when quilters make a pact to encourage one another! - though she made eight blocks a month. We all agree that making these blocks assembly-line style, is most efficient. 

So I set an eight-blocks-a-month goal for myself. These are July's blocks. 

I now have 18 of 42 blocks made. Those strips and tiny square in the middle finish at ½"! 

I'm also doing something that isn't in the pattern.

In one of the last steps, at each of the four corners of the four-patch block, a square is place (right sides together) to sew a triangle which is then trimmed ¼" from the seam. Rather than do that, I've been sewing another seam a half-inch away, and then cutting to divide and created an extra half-square triangle square. The little 2" (trimmed) blocks are on the left.

They are not used in the pattern, but when I'm finished making blocks, I should have 168, 2" HSTs! They'll be useable in something, I'm sure. 

Our Central Florida MQG recently arranged a postcard swap with South Florida MQG. Our postcards were to have the theme "It's A Small World," and be mailed by July 1. 

I used the theme as an opportunity to make something from the dozens of Curvelet blocks I've hand-pieced. (Templates by Jen Carlton Bailly of @bettycrockerass). I also used my new "arc" template to make four different center blocks. 

After some rearranging, and hand quilting with perle cotton, this is the postcard I made for Nancy @nancyquiltsquilts of Punta Gorda.

This lovely postcard came from Nancy who said it's the first postcard she's made. I really like her additional of hand quilting too!

By the way, I asked the postal worker to hand-cancel the postcard I sent. He put a special stamp on it that cost me $1.19, so I mailed my postcard as-is, without an envelope. Nancy mailed her card to me in an envelope. Linda

While in Kansas City

I just spent a full week in Kansas City, visiting family. I stayed with our daughter, hubs, and two teenage grandsons, while also getting to visit with our son and two 11 year-old and teen grandsons, my Dad, sister/BIL, and two great-nieces - pretty much a sweep of family! I had a great time with everyone, enjoying every moment of being with them. We don't do this often. 

Also while in KC, I wanted to be sure to visit KC Maker Studio and Fabrics, a shop I follow on Instagram and from where I get Painter's Palette solids. I met KC Maker Studio owner Pat at QuiltCon in Atlanta, and have jumped on her unexpected one-day sales of PP solids (watch for them on IG). I spoke with Pat at the shop and learned she has signed a contract to be a vendor at the next three QuiltCons, in Raleigh (2026), Atlanta (2027), and who-know-where in 2028. Even she doesn't know where that show will be. 

Let me just say that KC Maker Studio is pretty much the largest quilt shop I've ever been in. And though I've been to Hancock's of Paducah, by comparison KC Maker Studio has the most extensive variety of fabrics (not just quilting cottons), and notions I've ever seen in one place.

This was my first impression walking in the store. I had to stop for five minutes to take it in. 

I tried to capture it all in a panorama photo, but even that doesn't do the shop justice. It's simply BIG! 

I was blown away by the fabric collections, beginning with Kaffe Fasset at the front. 

Both sides of the tall aisles were full of Kaffe. Though I'm not a Kaffe lover myself, I could sure appreciate the beautiful view!

So much Kaffe color!

Then there were the Tula Pinks. Again, I'm not a fan, but was impressed by color.

Here are Anna Maria Parry fabrics.

Marcia Derse fabrics.

Alison Glass fabrics.

And then I looked up. Fabric as far as I could see to the back wall! To give you an even better understand of the store size... the women's bathroom has three stalls! 😀

The opposite (left) side of the store repeats the size and structure of this right side (!) with the left side stocking wide backs, canvas, knits, and garment patterns. Seeing it all was overwhelming. 

Being a linen-loved, I was delighted to see how much Fableism she stocks. If I'd known what I wanted to make with it, I would have bought some.

In the end, though I meant to visit the shop only to browse (Who was I kidding?) these are my purchases: 

1. 8 ½" X 11 Ultimate Appliqué Freezer Paper - for foundation freezer paper piecing
2. brown .005 micron pigma pen - for marking seam lines when using my Inner City template
3. 4 spools of thread - 1 Aurifil and 3 Scanfil (Scanfil is my new favorite thread)
4. a skein of #2 cotton yarn - for making a crocheted amigurumi teddy bear
5. and, fabric:

• 2 yards of a wideback for the Posh Penelope quilt I'm working on
• blue lollypop print - Ruby Star, Eye Candy, to make a Cielo Top
• ½ yard pink - Benartex Sunny Day by Christa Watson 
• ½ yard pink/aqua stripe - Michael Miller Fly By Butterfly

The pink and striped pieces are mean to go with the Pick-a-Decade Challenge Quilt I've just started.

I recently finished this atomic-looking 20" block. I had thought to surround the teal and pink circles with bias tape, but that was a big fail. I ended up making circles, pillowcase-style, so all the circles have a turned under edge. No raw edge appliqué.

I made the pink circles first, with white fusible on the back (sew right sides together; clip raw edges of the circle; slit the interfacing; turn right side out) press to fuse onto black fabric; machine appliqué, then make a pillowcase circle with black fusible on the back. Fuse and machine appliqué the double-circle to a background of Oyster Painter's Palette. Whew. It worked. I achieved the 1950s vibe I was going for.

Anyway, the pink print and stripe will work into this project nicely. I don't know where at this point, but having these prints gives me options, even if it's to use the stripe as binding. 

About the threads I bought... At QuiltCon, I bought a three-pack of Scanfil thread - 50-weight/2-ply - that's made in the Netherlands. I love it! It's fine, practically lintless, and machine pieced beautifully in my recently finished Diagonal Scrap Quilts. It's also organic, if you're into that sort of thing. The spool itself is wood. So, seeing all the colors on a store shelf made me happy. 

Thread Trivia

KC Maker Studio charges $9.29 for a spool of Scanfil; and $15.95 for a spool of Aurifil. I thought to do a price per yard comparison. 

• Scanfil - 500 yards is .0186 per yard
• Aurifl - 1422 yards is .0012 per yard

• Scanfil is .0074 per yard more expensive than Aurifil.
• Scanfil is 66% more expensive than Aurifil. 
• If Aurifil was priced the same as Scanfil, you'd pay $26.45 for a spool of Aurifl. 

I will continue to use Scanfil - it's that nice - and I'll keep using Aurifil too.

After an hour or so at KC Maker Studio - I could have spent much longer! - I met up with my friend, Carla. She and I met 16 years ago through our blogs, and in September 2010 (when I lived in Iowa) we met for the first time in person in KC! I blogged about her HERE. She blogged about me HERE. Maybe you remember Carla when she blogged at  Lollyquiltz.blogspot.com? 

I treasure our special friendship. Even though we haven't seen one another for about six years, when we're together we pick up right where we left off and could talk for hours and hours. 

As wonderful as it is to get away, it's also good to return home. I feel reenergized and invigorated about getting to work on projects, though which project is the biggest dilemma. I want to keep going on the Pick-a-Decade Challenge; and make eight Posh Penelope blocks to meet my July self-imposed quota; and make that Cielo Top; and begin crocheting an amigurumi "Cuddle Me Bear;" and do some diamond painting.

There's also Saturday morning's Central Florida MQG meeting to attend, and Maria Shell's Improv For Everyone: Scrapbuster's Edition virtual workshop Saturday afternoon. 

There's nothing like jumping in with both feet, right? I can do it all! Linda