Summer Finishes!

 Hi there!  

It's been a month since my last update and I'm happy to say I've gotten several projects moved to or very close to the finish line!  Even though we are taking care of my mother now full time I have managed to carve out sewing time just about every day.  It's important to us to keep our routine as close to normal as possible while providing for her care.  I can often get some sewing done in the afternoon.  All it takes to make progress is a few minutes a day.  It adds up more than you might think so if you're struggling to find time to quilt, sew or craft I encourage you to try to get in 5, 10 or 15 minutes a day.  You'll see progress and it will make you feel better, too!

The baby quilt I showed last time has been hand delivered to the messenger.  We met up with my cousin and his wife and had a delightful catch up over lunch.  They will gift the quilt to their friend.  I'm sure I'll get a picture or two when that happens.  

I have another quilt going off to a new home!  I'm excited that this one which I made years ago will now be enjoyed by a little one.  I shared it during my livestream but I'll share it here too.  The large squares are cut 6.5", the smaller corner squares are cut 3.5", the rectangles are cut 2" x 3.5" (8 per block).  I did a color wash arranging the blocks from light to dark.  I still have SO MUCH FABRIC left from collecting for I Spy quilts; it would be fun to make another one some day soon in a different pattern.  I'll have to add it to my list so I don't forget.  

I decided to get the flannel quilt done next.  It just needed a couple more borders before being quilted and bound.  I got that done and I'm so very happy with it!  I tested it for size on the queen size bed it's meant for.  Added enough strips around for a good drape.  

I quilted it with a gorgeous feather design by Bethanne Nemesh called Acadia.  The backing fabric (not shown) is a quilting cotton extra wide backing in a warm toasty brown tone on tone floral I bought at the One Stop Shop Hop I just attended.   I decided I'd rather have a single piece of fabric for the back than to do a whole bunch of piecing for it.  This is finish #14 for 2026, started in 2015 so it's about time it got done! It feels good to  get an idea out of my head and into a quilt.  Now it needs a name!  Any ideas?? I'm terrible at thinking of names for things so if you can suggest something I'd love to hear it.  The name from the pattern designer is Soul Searching and that does not fit my version of it.  The pattern is in a book called Material Quilts by Kathy Doughhty.  It's made entirely of 2.5" cut strips, that's the only hint I can give you. 

Next up I worked on my string quilt.  I only needed a few more blocks to complete the top.  These are 16" finished blocks made with mostly 30's fabrics.  I have a tutorial on how I made these blocks here (along with a funny OOPS moment and how I corrected it 😂).  It did a pretty good job using up all the strings I'd accumulated in that drawer!  I made 30 blocks for setting 5 across and 6 rows down.  Along the way I took a couple of pictures of what it would like set 5 x 5 and 4 x 5.  I often wonder what quilts would look like with different number of blocks so this time I remembered to take pictures along the way!  

   

25 blocks

20 blocks

With a border

I tried adding a border to it too but, I didn't like it so I took it off.  ( I asked for opinions during my live stream which you can check out on my YouTube channel Everyday Sewist August Livestream).  It's been quilted so next time I'll show you the completed quilt when I finish the binding. It looks really good so you'll have to come back and see. 😁  I started this one in March 2026.

Even more quilting happened on the longarm!  Quilt #3 this past month is my leader/ender project started in October 2024 called Offset.  I decided enough was enough on this one.  I could have made it a bit bigger but I really wanted to move on to other projects so I assembled the columns over the course of 4 days.  I sewed in batches of about 10 columns to keep it from getting unwieldy.  I ended up with 32 columns for a width of 64" and length of 84" (28 units per column).  I'd call that a generous couch size, maybe even a twin size.  Here is the finished top before quilting.  It's quilted but I still need to make the binding and attach it.  Super important:  I stay-stitched around the edge of the top before quilting to keep those seams from popping open and to keep the pieces pressed in the direction I wanted.  

I've completed a couple more Make It Happen Monday projects.  I haven't done one a week but close to that.  It's been great way to get to some smaller projects and make sample blocks (which may end up in my orphan quilt.) Make it Happen Monday

I did not work on the quilt with the shattered backing yet.  I think it's going to get a new backing tied instead of adding more quilting to it.  Maybe next time I'll have it done.  

I've made a couple more each of Hollow 9 patches and Box Kite since finishing up Offset.  I've pulled out my yellow scraps and smaller pieces of yellow for those.  Box Kite is looking like a cute kids quilt as I've pulled out some novelty prints to use.  I think that will be quite fun!  I hope to keep adding a few more of each during the rest of the month.  I have nothing cut and ready to sew right now so I'll have to have a cutting session to keep things rolling along.  

For the rest of this month I have lots of hand work to do:  binding to stitch down, a Sashiko project I enjoy working on, I'd like to start another Kawandi project plus I'd like to get the repairs done on one of the quilts needing that done.  I have two more quilt tops plus a couple of tablerunners to get on the longarm and I'd like to keep stitching up something with my yellow scraps.  Even though August is a long month I doubt I'll get to all of it but I'll try.  

Thanks for being here!  

Happy sewing, 

Stephanie