Pending Mending

(affiliate links to my fabric designs)

I was hoping to finish Take Me to the Other Side by the end of August. Now I'm not even sure I can finish it by the end of September. Nevertheless, I'm having fun re-learning all the precision piecing lessons Moda Blockheads taught me. I think I'm going to add another couple of rows of on-point blocks, one on the top and one between my Spoonflower panel and the completed blocks to make the finished quilt a bit bigger. And I'm trying to figure out what to do for the quilt back. I'd like to make more sampler-type blocks, but I'm torn between time constraints and the desire to really make this project sing...

One of the many time constraints is the slowly shrinking mending pile. I think I'm two-thirds through my mending! If I can keep up my current pace, I won't have a mending pile by the end of the year! Happy day!!!

Back in 2018, I bought a package of long-sleeved tees to dye. I hadn't been able to find turtlenecks in the colors I needed to coordinate with my wardrobe, so I decided to create my own. The cheap tees, however, didn't make it through the first wash before seams began deteriorating. Initially, I thought perhaps the dye might have chewed up the thread. But upon closer inspection, the third, still undyed, shirt was coming apart at the seams, too.

These tees have been on my mending pile since December 2018. Now, I'll finally get to wear them this winter!

I dyed some krinkly yarn to match the purple shirt but never even wound it into a ball after I discovered the shoddy workmanship of the long-sleeved tees. In 2020, I attempted to dye a skirt that would match the then still-unmended purple tee. I might finally get to wear this ensemble this winter!!!

Back in 2020, Lizard was forced to convert from button-fly Levis to elastic and tie wastebands because he no longer has the finger dexterity for buttons, some snaps and zippers. I found out really quick I needed to sew ties to the back of the waistbands to prevent the ties from finding their way out of their casings in the washing machine. That was a quick mending fix back then, but I'd forgotten Lizard had one brand new pair of drawstring flannel pants with a broken tie until I found the project in the mending pile last weekend.

I did everything I could to dig out the broken tie end so I could make it longer and even ended up cutting a couple of holes into the casing to try to access that broken tie end. In the end, I wound up removing the tie altogether and sewing a new elastic waistband onto the inside of the casing. This fix won't win any sewing awards, but the pants are wearable again, and cooler flannel weather MIGHT be just around the corner... Hopefully!

Next came one of my favorite pairs of cargo shorts. This one had been on the mending pile so long, I actually forgot I owned them.

I found a fabric scrap that is close to the same color as the shorts. I had no luck trying to pin the patch in place, so I ended up smoothly attaching it with masking tape, and it worked just fine!

Another pair of shorts had more recently made its way into the pile, and it wasn't the first time. I made these shorts from batik scraps from my leftovers back and 2018 and literally have worn them out more than once now! The lavender batik in particular is just really flimsy. I extended its life just a bit with more batik scraps.

One more pair of holy cargo shorts awaited. Another favorite pair for travels because of big, roomy pockets. The masking tape method had worked so well on the first pair of cargo shorts, I decided to use the technique once again. I pulled some fun autumn scraps from my leftover scraps, and after just a few minutes, I was yet another pair of shorts richer!

I wanted to finish a new quilt for this month's Project Linus, but there just wasn't enough time. So I donated a quilt I thought I'd never give away. Scrap Gobbler was really difficult to part with, but some little kid somewhere now has really beautiful warmth, and that makes me feel warm, fuzzy and all kinds of happy inside. This gives me a great excuse to make a Scrap Gobbler sequel one day soon, which will use up lots of scraps, which is always a bonus!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict... Welcome back!!! We have so missed you!!!

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WIP Tastic!

I finally have yet another WIP finish for Devoted Quilter's 100-day WIP challenge!

I'm not sure why this one took so long to finish once I got it quilted, other than work has been very busy, November weather has been extremely mild (meaning I can get some work done on the yard when I'm not working), and we've been saddled with medical checkups because I guess it's just that magical time of year for annuals and biannuals.

Now it's finally finished, and I think I now have three quilts finished for future grands, nieces, nephews, new neighborhood kids, whatever child quilt needs pop up unexpectedly. It's always fun to design a quilt for a specific child, but it's also nice to have a few ready for those last-minute gifts.

This quilt is entirely scrappy and wasn't on my official WIP list because I didn't have a child in mind to receive it and because I have plenty of other WIPs that really need the attention more than this one did. I think I've been procrastinating a bit on two particular WIPs, and this project gave me a break in list boredom that apparently had set in pretty dramatically.

Every time I got a few minutes I could have sat down to sew or quilt the last few months, I deliberately picked up something else to do, either to stay busy or because I dreaded having only a few minutes to work on a project that would take hours and possibly days to finish. The starting and stopping... I guess I needed something easy to finish. Something I could actually complete in just a few minutes.

Blocks in the quilt came from leftovers of ocean-themed quilts I've finished for grandkids, nieces, nephews and neighbors. Sashing came from Jelly Shelly leftovers. The binding was cut from one of the few stash ocean fabrics big enough to support an entire quilt binding.

I tried drawing edge-to-edge freehand fishies and water bubbles mostly to practice my pebble motion on the longarm. I am not entirely happy with most of the fishies, but I'm glad I practiced. I'm very thankful I didn't fall to the temptation to do wavy lines. Those are very easy for me on the domestic machine and the longarm and would have been finished much faster. I'm satisfied I challenged myself to do something outside my comfort zone. I'm hoping I can keep pushing myself and develop my skills so that I'm not afraid to try something new.

I also pulled out my mending pile and used scraps from my stash to patch four batik tears in my second favorite pair of homemade scrappy shorts (crafted from favorite scraps back in 2018). Now that the temperature is too cool to wear them until perhaps March or April...

Now these batik babies are good for another year or three.

Last winter I got this wild idea that the WIP hexie project that's been on my official WIP list for many years might be the perfect way to patch my breezy jeans so they would be warm enough to wear in cooler weather. I thought I'd be able to use my coordinating blue crochet thread to stitch patchwork patches into place sashiko-style. I had no idea whatsoever how difficult that was going to be. I never finished the first patch. Until now.

And now I'm rethinking the plan. I'd still like to patch up all the unwanted air-conditioning in both of my favorite jeans, and I'd still like to use that hexie booboo project that didn't really have a plan other than using up the gorgeous blue, green and purple batik fabric that had been one of my favorite dresses. I'd fallen through the weathered and unmaintained porch steps of our fixer upper home when we first bought it, and the dress was ripped beyond repair.

I still loved the undamaged portions of the dress, so I began stitching them into hexies whenever I could carry along a quilting project. I worked on them last year while Lizard was in the hospital and I unexpectedly was able to stay with him to minimize staff/patient contact during the height of the pandemic (although they are saying we may have more cases now in my state than we had last winter).

When the weather turned cold last year and my jeans couldn't keep my legs safe from the chill (and I was still working from home, so able to wear jeans every single day), I thought this would be the perfect use for those hexies. Using a big needle in order to pull the crochet thread through two layers of denim, batting (for softness right where I need it and extra padding for future hard wear) and the hexies was more of a bear than I can bear! I finally ended up zigzagging all the way around the knee hexie flower patch with my domestic sewing machine (which also was too much of a skunky stinker, thanks to denim bulk), so I don't think I want to repeat that process either.

I don't know yet how I will finish this, and I'm tempted to take out the leg seams so I can more easily finish the project by machine, but I am determined to wear these jeans again this winter. I will find a way!

Last but most definitely not least, I updated my snowflake pattern directory again, a necessary task that had escaped me since May 9, 2020, which probably was close to the time we realized Lizard was going to need another surgery. I understood why it had been so long, but I was spellbound by the number of flake patterns I published in the 18 months that followed, particularly the number of new patterns I created during that time, which required a total of five hours and two mugs of peppermint hot cocoa to finish. My directory now contains 666 snowflake pattern links.

I have written 762 snowflake patterns so far, published 690 of them (some are only in the eight charity fund-raising PDF booklets I've used to benefit the Colorado Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and/or the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Davis Phinney Foundation), and I still have a pile of about 30 snowflakes on my desk and in my book case that need patterns written. The directory is 70 Microsoft Word pages of html coding in 10-point arial font I have written on my own. (I think this last catch-up session added 13 of those pages... How's that for a lucky number?) And right this moment, my snowflake directory truly is the Number of the Beast! This was a beast of a project on which to catch up! I hope it counts as a WIP finish! Although I guess it's never truly finished as long as I keep designing more snowflakes. I am anxious to add next week's pattern to get rid of that ominous 666!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Thursday Thumb's Up

Finally! Some progress! Lots of new things going on, but old things in the works, too!

I made my Lavender Sunrise gradient five years ago this month, not having any idea what I would do with it. I just loved the Kona solids left over from other projects so much, I thought it would be cool to string a bunch of the best colors together and see what happens.

I also made a gradient wall panel with blue leftovers at about the same time, and I finished quilting it two years later.


I'd thought about doing a desert scene on the purple panel, and I also thought a peacock might be pretty awesome. When I sat down with the chalk earlier this week, the owl is what happened.

I've now sandwiched the layers, and the wall quilt is ready for quilting. I'm probably going to do free-motion quilting. Good thing it's not huge! I'd hoped to do it on the longarm, but Lizard's quilt is still hogging up that space.


I asked Lizard about seven weeks ago what he'd like to quilt on the back-to-back wide backings I'd put together for him years ago when I first started teaching him about quilting. I thought he'd want a lizard or a roadrunner, but he asked for an elephant, perhaps because, at the time, we still thought both of us might be able to do at least a few miles of some of our favorite organized cycling events this year. Typically, our first big event each year, other than a training trip to Moab, would be Elephant Rock. There are no Moab trips on the horizon now, and Roll Massif will announce on May 7 whether the June Elephant Rock weekend will be postponed. Even if it's not, I don't know if either of us would be ready to do even the shortest route.

Lizard's Parkinson's and December knee replacement had pretty much cleared our summer schedule, and the current worldwide situation is putting the final kibosh on everything for all cyclists.

Elephant Rock is kind of the equivalent of the official start to cycling season in Colorado, so a sentimental favorite for all cyclists. I have collected several jerseys and T-shirts I intend to make into a quilt one day. I think Lizard thought he could get in on the Elephant Rock quilting trend, too, when we first put this baby on the longarm. I may help him get started on it this weekend to nudge him along; I think he may be worried his tremors will cause him to ruin any project. I want to try to help him build confidence.




A jar of avocado pit dye and a jar of avocado skin dye sat in my living room window all winter long, baking in the sun. Last week I drained the dyes and stuck a hank of crochet thread in each. I wasn't sure what color I would get, if any, because both jars were third or fourth dip after a summer and autumn of extensive dyeing.


The colors of the two new balls of thread are not dark, but I really like them and how they fit in with the existing avocado hues from last summer.




Of course, finishing up the final avocado dyes made me yearn for more... And it isn't freezing at night anymore. Perfect time for tacos and burritos!!! And more avocado skin and pit dye! Both jars are on the porch, catching the afternoon sun every day. If we do get another cold burst (which typically happens every Mother's Day or later), I'll bring the jars in, then stick them back outside when the danger of freeze is gone. And in another month or so, I will have at least a couple more balls of freshly dyed crochet thread. I'm hoping for a couple of hanks of darker shades for a motif project I've been working on for an upcoming Snowflake Monday for about three months now.


It's not fiber, but it's just a little like quilting. I have a very hard time throwing out glass bottles that would look great as vases. Before Shelter in Place had begun, I had ordered a few mosaic tiles to see if I could do something fancy with some of the bottles. I've now finished my first two vases, and I think I've developed a whole new addiction.






Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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