More Merry and Bright

These are my latest finished for Pat Sloan's Merry and Bright QAL--blocks 7 and 8, I think. So far, I have been able to keep up. Oh, and there are setting blocks--I have 13 of 18 done.

These are 4 of the setting blocks. Some have red instead of the turquoise, some have green, and some have blue.

Another big project nearing completion is my Thimbleberries "inherited" quilt parts. I finished half the embroidery centers myself, completed 13 of the 20 blocks, having to create or duplicate patterns for all 13, quilted each block, and then put the whole thing together. Now I will work on borders.

Oh, yeah, and I made this banner for church--44" x about 7'. Design by Debbie Noffsinger for our church district's 2016 conference. I liked it so much, I wanted to duplicate it, with Debbie's permission, of course.

Harvest already?

Who would have thought farmers would be picking corn already? It has dried down a lot, however, so harvest is inevitable. The picture below is in our field. Allen has all red equipment (Case IH, I think.). 

This photo below is across the road from us. He uses the green stuff--we all know John Deere. 

I've been keeping up with Pat Sloan's Merry and Bright QAL. This is block #6 from last week. A new one comes out today. I'm using Snow Much Fun fabric. It's going to be a pretty quilt, I do believe.

And these are 4 of the 9 setting blocks I have finished. Need 18 all together. The rest are cut out, ready to stitch. The other 5 I have done are red instead of turquoise.

At our last Sew Day, several of our quilt group made zippered bags from candy bags. Missouri Star has a youtube tutorial on them. 

Here are some sneak peaks of my Pick a Pumpkin blog hop project. It's all done, but I can't show it until my day in November.  😉

Yesterday I finished a new banner for church. In the photo it's hanging from our loft rail--I'll get it up at church before Sunday. This was our district conference theme in 2016, and I asked Debbie Noffsinger, the designer, if I could make a banner from the design. She was gracious enough to give me permission. Our congregation is hosting conference this year (Nov 2&3); my goal was to have it done in time for that. I think I made it! It's 44" x 84".

I'm also working on the Missouri Star binding tool star quilt. I have several blocks finished--maybe 10--with 6 more to go and then the borders will need to be done. Once in a while I get inspired to do some work on my Thimbleberries quilt. I hope to get it done before the year is out.

Never lack for projects, that's for sure!

Pick a Pumpkin hop

Well, I hope I know what I'm doing--I joined Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks' Pick a Pumpkin blog hop. It runs November 5 - 8. Why is that a concern? I am co-coordinator for our church  IL/WI district conference the weekend before--and it is at our church. I figure I can make at least one pumpkin item before then!

Carla's still taking entries, if you want to join. Let her know!

Send her your name, email, blog name and address.

Should be fun!

More quilt blocks

Here's Merry and Bright (Pat Sloan), week 3. I forgot to post earlier, and tomorrow is block 4, which will probably wait until the grandchildren go home next week. I love block 3--made 2 of them, as you can see.

Our LQS, Stewart's Sewing, is doing a block of the month called Marbella. We actually get 2 blocks at a time, or at least we have the first 2 months. This month was applique`. I love the colors in this quilt--that's one reason I wanted to participate.

Twelve members of our quilt group, Cerro Gordo Quilters, are making butterflies so we can swap blocks. Mine are all done, each one different, since I decided to use scraps. I could easily make my own quilt with these, but I'll have a bunch of different lovelies after we all trade.

Merry and Bright BOW by Pat Sloan

Blocks 1 and 2 of Merry and Bright by Pat Sloan

I'm using Snow Much Fun fat quarters by Deb Strain for Moda.

Recent Achievements

Early last week (I think) I FINALLY finished quilting the last block of the Thimbleberries Vintage Stitches blocks that I had inherited and had wanted to finish. This included figuring out my own patterns for over half the blocks, hand embroidering 9 of the centers myself, designing patchwork for 4 other centers, and finding matching fabrics. This is the last of the 20. Now I am trimming them and then will sash them together to finish the quilt. Other projects get in the way, so it's a slow process, but I can now see the end of it. Woohoo!

A few years ago, I bought Accidental Landscapes by Karen Eckmeier at 3 Dudes Quilt Shop in Phoenix. This month I made a small landscape from that book. I love the desert scene based on the Sonoran Desert. 

Here's my finished Christmas tree runner, all FMQed.

The biggest achievement of all was my brother Alan's retirement from over 40 years work in mental health services. He has been CEO and president of ReDiscover in Lee's Summit, MO, for 24 years, and worked in Phoenix before that. Left to right are my husband Glen, me, Alan, his wife Chris, and another brother Ron. We have 2 more brothers, one of which has yet to retire (this summer), and then we will all be retired. :) Congratulations to Alan!

Barn Blocks

I get the Sew Sampler every month from the Fat Quarter Shop. There is always a recipe for a quilt block, and the series right now is barn blocks. We will have 12 blocks when we are done. Pat Sloan decided she was going to make each block, and I decided to quilt along with her on this one. We have received 2 block recipes; I have both finished. My barn doors will be different reds, but the barns will each be different patterns, so that should work out well. I'm ready for #3 in June!

Our Cerro Gordo Quilters' lesson this past week was a Christmas tree runner. Here's my completed top:

and a single block.

Time to get busy sewing again--I'm working on a QAYG--blocks are all done and I am quilting each one before joining them together. Have 15 1/2 done--4 1/2 left to do. It has taken me a year of on-and-off quilting to get to this point. Now that I can finally see the end, I hope I will finish up soon. Woohoo!