Showing posts with label quilting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quilting. Show all posts

24 September 2026

Quiltless

The sunflower quilt was my goal again this week, but here it is, nearly bedtime Wednesday, and I still haven't touched the sewing machine. I've pulled out every sunflower fabric in my stash and Lizard's stash, but no sewing yet.

The layer cake, which I'd totally forgotten buying, is so pretty, I almost think it would make a better top than my Spoonflower panel, and my panel could be the quilt back... Decisions, decisions...

What to do when you can't decide??? Well, gift baskets work up pretty quickly, and I use stash yarn. I'm tickled pink with my Pinktober basket. It was fun to fill with things I'd mostly already made, plus a few curated items.

Now I'm drooling over the color combo of my trending Halloween palette. I really need to dye some crochet thread with these colors!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

03 September 2026

Change of Season... or Heart

I finished another segment of one of my (four) digital temperature quilts yesterday! I might have to make a new Spoonflower fabric! Below is the fabric design I created after finishing the first half of 2026.

I'd always wondered what it would look like if I included weather conditions, so, I created a three-color option to test it. I changed my template in July because I hated my January "broken heart" theme after suffering a genuine heartbreak, losing my husband in April. (I had to catch up about a month of daily highs and lows because I just couldn't bring myself to work on anything for a while.) I kept the old template version, just in case I change my mind one day.

I don't think I'm going to change my mind on the broken hearts. I still have too much of a broken heart. But I might make yet another version of the whole year and replace the January broken hearts with my new heart templates I begin today. I think I like the new heart template a lot...

While looking up the history of the old template, I found photos of my temperature snake, which I finished at the end of February because Parkinson's had become so overwhelming, I just couldn't manage the project anymore. Seeing those old photos, I'm so thankful I stopped when I did. I had no idea what was going to transpire in the two months that followed, and I'm so grateful now I didn't divert attention away from Lizard when he needed it most. I might do another temperature snake project next year. I haven't decided yet. I have plenty of time to think about it. And change my mind a million times...

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

27 August 2026

Panel Queen

I teased I'd share the cheater panel story one day. I'd rather share a finished quilt. Or even one in progress. I guess my secret life as a panel queen will suffice on a day when I have nothing better to share.

My father-in-law created a quilt stand for me years and years ago. I asked for cactus-shaped, and he delivered. I'm almost embarassed to show how full it is now. But, at least it's organized once again.

In April, I had to move the extremely top-heavy quilt stand from the living room/dining room/kitchen/entrance to the bedroom to make room for the hospice bed. While moving the (overweight) stand, many of the panels I've collected over the years and unfinished projects from the last decade or more fell off. I had to pick them all up and move them out of the way in a hurry because my time was limited. I think I had about two hours before the hospice bed would arrive, and I still had furniture to move.

While recently trying to rush a quilt finish for my new neighbors' toddler, I had to search through my haphazard stash of panels. I realized I had never straightened out the pile. So, before I ever started the rush quilt, I organized my panels. All 60 of them. (Not including the probably 30ish Spoonflower panels I've designed over the years.)

One of these three was one of my first panels. I adored it when I first ordered it online. I was too excited when I first found it to realize the measurement was not going to be big enough for a bed. Not only was it not going to be big enough (and I had not ordered any of the coordinating fabrics so I could try to make it big enough), but it was cut crooked on one side. Back then, I had no idea whatsoever how to fix that. Or that I could have complained and probably exchanged it for a properly cut panel. I later bought two more quilt panels I thought I might be able to add to the first to make it big enough. I think falling off the quilt frame in April was the first time these three panels had ever been moved. PS: I still love the other two panels, and I'm not sure I want to insult them by putting them with the third now.

My kids were grown by the time I bought this one (the last one!!!), but I thought it would make a great gift when grandkids began arriving on the scene. My oldest grands have now graduated, and I still haven't turned this into a fun and useful wall quilt. I confess; I forgot about it. Because it got buried by all the rest!!! Which I also forgot!!! It might make a great gift for a great-grandkid one day...

I went through a butterfly phase.

Actually, I'm still in butterfly phase. I've actually finished a few butterfly quilts.

I've even designed my own Spoonflower cheater panels...

Shoot, I've even designed and crocheted butterflies!

I even love butterflies in real life.

I also experienced a powerful peacock phase. Animal and color. Still in the color phase. Possibly permanently.

And, yes, I did indeed design a crochet peacock.

I can never get enough sunflowers.

Or rainbows.

I love winter. Especially in the middle of a heat dome. I love snowflakes. I love polar bears. And owls. And penguins. And eagles. And tigers (my high school mascot, and Lizard's, too). And lizards. And bicycles. And hot air balloons. And southwest/desert scenes/artwork. And sunrises/sunsets. And northern lights. And flowers.

I apparently also love "last one" descriptions. I could not believe how many of these and scores of others I haven't even shown were purchased not only because of an incurable love at first sight, but because they each were the last one. I guess I have a few collectibles in my collection. I probably have enough to open my own cheater panel fabic store. And on that humorous note...

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

06 August 2026

Quickie Quilt

Found out Wednesday night last week I had been invited to a housewarming. On Saturday night. Yikes. I had to inventory my panel stash (long story for a different day) to find if anything was suitable for a boy toddler.

Baby animals fit the bill, but it took me hours to inventory the panels. Again, long story, but not today. I didn't get to actually start working on the baby quilt for the new neighbors until Friday night.

Made the panel bigger, then created a backing and layered the sandwich before bedtime Friday. I opted for straight-line quilting on Saturday morning due to the time constraints.

Finished the quilt binding (which had to be pieced from every brown solid scrap in my stash) five minutes before the housewarming was scheduled to begin. It was my first social event in years, other than church on Sundays. The quilt was a hit, and the toddler spent about an hour telling me what sound each animal made. Impressive! He could even make an elephant noise!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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