Catching Up, Stitching and Vintage Sewing Machines

I've been busy, even though I haven't been blogging.  I'll play quick catch-up for you.

My son loves to give out the candy on Halloween.  He always dresses up.  We even dress up the dogs for the kids to see.  Despite the snow, we had lots of kids come by.

my son and the dogs on Halloween

I taught Curved Piecing at my little quilt guild last Monday.  I demonstrated on Radiant Sun blocks and Drunkard's Path blocks.  I even taught faux curved piecing (applique a circle onto a square, then cut the square into 4 pieces).

16 Drunkard's Path blocks

I've been stitching those orphan Drunkard Path blocks into something.  I'll show you soon.

Between stitching those things, I've been working on a wedding quilt for my niece.  I'll show pictures of it soon.  It's almost a quilt top.

I did get some of my leaders & enders blocks made.  I've made another 50  9 patch blocks.  Only 350 more to make ; )

50 more tiny 9 patch blocks made

On Friday, I drove to Rockford, IL to meet up with Anne & Bob.  They are helping with taking vintage sewing machines to new owners (Pony Express).  I handed over 3 machines to them.  One is headed to Florida, another to Texas and the last one to New Mexico.  (sorry, I didn't get a photo of the one headed to Florida).  All three of these machines were given to me in the last few months to find new homes for them.

heading to Texas

heading to New Mexico

Yipee!  I can now see my fireplace again!  Now to clean up and re-home some of my own machines.

Of course, we met up at a quilt store to exchange the sewing machines.  We stopped at Quilter's General Store in Rockford.  I've been there many times, but it was a new shop for Anne.  I didn't know that they had a basement, and I found a few things down there.  Then we toured the first and 2nd floors and we both found some fabrics.  I found a pattern for an upcoming Round Robin, but they only had a kit, and I just wanted the pattern (I found it online and ordered it).  When I got near home, I stopped at Sewing, Etc. in Yorkville, IL, and found more fabrics for pillowcases.  Kelly, the owner is a friend of mine.  I found even more fabric at the Caring Hands Thrift Store in Yorkville.  A fun, fabric and sewing machine day!  That evening, my son and I attended a book signing event for Christopher Paolini, for his newest book, Murtagh.  We've been to every book signing for Christopher Paolini at the Anderson's Book Shop except his first (discovered him after his first book).  If you click on his link, you will see the exact event we attended.  We were way up front, on the far right side, just out of the photo.

Meanwhile, I finished hand stitching the binding down on 12 of the 16 Turkey placemats.  I'll pack up the 12 later today and get them in the mail to Alaska, for my grandkids.  Hopefully they will arrive before Thanksgiving.  The other 4 are for me, so I'm not worried about finishing the binding on them yet.  If I'd thought about it (before I'd cut the binding strips) I'd have made faux piping binding and stitched them on the machine on both sides.  Oh well...

Turkey placemats

Now to get back to stitching.....

Not much sewing, but busy

I haven't done much sewing lately.  Instead, I've been helping families find charitable homes for their loved one's stashes.  I was contacted by another lady about her sister's stash.  I was told it was a quilter, but when I picked everything up, it was almost all garment fabrics.  Hmmm....what do I do with garment fabrics (lovely fabrics, but I don't sew clothing, and don't know anyone who sews clothes).  Well, after asking two different groups of quilters, I found a home for everything.  This afternoon, I took buttons to one lady, that will be used for children's sweaters that one of her groups makes and donates.  Then I took 2 sewing machines and all the rest (notions, fabrics, TONS of buttons, etc.) to a church that works with refugee's.  These things will be given to refugee's who can sew, so that they can make clothing either for their families, or to sell so that they can support themselves.  Woohoo!  (now I can get back into my family room again ;).

Back on September 16th, hubby took our kitchen sink out, to replace it with a new one.  Oops!  3 of the 4 corners of the new sink were cracked.  Too late to put the old sink back in.  

no kitchen sink

Well, the new sink arrived after it was shipped from another state (no cracks) but, the pipes didn't fit in the same places as the old sink.  Hubby & our son finally figured everything out, and our new sink works.  It took 2 weeks to get everything hooked up, and a few days longer to finally get the little leak fixed.  Meanwhile, no cooking happened at our house for over 2 weeks.  

new kitchen sink

Now I have to cook again :(  I didn't miss cooking much.

I have gotten some stitching done (not much).  I finished the last block for the Angels Among Us quilt.

December block

I've cut most of the sashing strips and border strips for this quilt.  Now to get them stitched together. 

I've also stitched over 300 HST's for 4 different projects (Angels Among Us, Family Reunion quilt, Quilt Guild raffle quilt and last set of Friendship Star TOBE blocks).  I still have more HST's to make for the Family Reunion quilt.  

Last summer I started a Leaders & Enders project, the Omigosh! quilt. I've been slowly making 9 patch blocks for this quilt.  I've made over 150 9 patch blocks so far (I need 550 total 9 patch blocks).  

150 teeny tiny 9 patch blocks

These 9 patch blocks are 2" unfinished. I do have lots of parts of this quilt cut out, waiting for their turn to be stitched.  This will NOT be a quick project!

Another reason I haven't been sewing much is that I seem to have lost my sewing mojo.  I'm hoping that it comes back soon.  It's been a busy year for me (LOTS of family travel and issues).  Those issues just seem to keep happening (no more travel lately, thank goodness).  I don't mind travel, but it would be nice to travel for a vacation instead of all family needs/emergencies.  Since I finally got home in late July, I sit in my sewing room and just watch movies, with little sewing getting done.  All of my energy has gone into finding homes for 'other' peoples stashes, not using my own. 

Finally Some Sewing!

I'm still organizing my new (clean) closet, and I went thru my scraps and organized them by color.  I now have 16 plastic shoe boxes of scraps (1/2 yard or less is a scrap to me).  

Now that the scraps are organized, I finally got some sewing done.  I have 3 upcoming block exchanges that I'm participating in.  The Fall Basic is 4 patch blocks using 1930's reproduction fabrics.  I just need to sign the blocks and mail them now.  These are 6.5" blocks.

Fall Basic 4 patch blocks

I'd finished the Radiant Suns blocks while I was in Texas, but I still needed to make signature blocks for that exchange. We are supposed to use scraps from the blocks we have made so that everyone can tell which blocks we've made (since we aren't signing the Radiant Suns blocks themselves).  The signature blocks are supposed to be 6.5" square.  I made 48 signature blocks (one for each Radiant Suns block I made).  

24 of each of these blocks

12 of each of these blocks

12 of each of these blocks

I've been working on a leaders & enders quilt.  Years ago I wanted to make the Omigosh! quilt by Sue Garmin.  I started cutting fabrics for this June 1st, and started sewing strips together a few days later.  Sue suggests using 27 different fabrics in this quilt, but I know I have more fabrics than that so far, and I think it still needs even more fabrics.  I added fabrics after the Missouri TOGA (I got some at the quilt store there, and some off the raffle table, too).  I made all of the (480) half square triangles while I was at my mother's (using Triangulations papers).  I have lots of 1" strips cut and partially stitched together, and those strips need to be cut down into 1" pieces to make 4 patch units and 9 patch units.  I'm super please with what I've gotten done so far for this quilt.   This quilt is going to be for ME!  Usually, the only quilts I get to keep are ones made from blocks for block exchanges.  

I still need to get working on one more block exchange for 2022.  My Treadle On group is having an attachment block exchange.  I  need to play with my attachments and start making 6.5" blocks (on muslin) for that exchange.  I'm really looking forward to learning how to use some of my attachments.