Orphan Xavier Is Ready For Some Lovin'

Orphan Xavier

40 x 60

The Sawtooth Star centers are 6.5 inch orphan blocks given to me by others. Most are crumb blocks. I tried to use all blocks that had some pink in them. 

The Star points, sashing and binding are all the same pink fabric. The backgrounds are all scraps of greens and blues. I made the top December 2023 when I was trying to use up piles of orphan blocks given to me over the years. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with swirls of light pink. 

Giant polka dots on pink on back.

Now Orphan Xavier is ready for some lovin' !

And sew on...

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Happy 51st Birthday to my oldest son Sean! How can this be? I thought I was younger than that! 

According to what I wrote in Sean's baby book he was born on Jan. 13, 1974 at 9:19 in the morning. He weighed 9 lbs. 5.5 oz. and was 21 inches long. We lived in Naples, FL at the time and he was born in the very small community hospital. The baby book also says I arrived at the hospital at 12:09 a.m.  We waited until after midnight so we didn't have to pay for just a few minutes of a day. I remember after I got to the hospital a nurse  showed me into a room with a couple of beds. A screaming, wailing, cursing and moaning woman occupied one of the beds. I must have looked horrified because I have to say with my first born I really did not know anything about birthin' no babies and didn't know what was ahead of me. I felt a little better after the nurse examined me and she said, "Don't worry, honey, you are farther along than she is."

I've been going through and sorting old photos. In the pile of "Sean Photos" I found a pic of Sean, me and John. Sean was probably around 2 years old. I say that because I know that shirt I have on is a maternity shirt I made. I was pregnant with my daughter then. I made my clothes back then and liked to hand embroider on them. I can't believe I spent so much time embroidering on a maternity top! But I did want to have a lot of kids and probably thought it would last through many pregnancies. Those were the days before there were many big box stores and when it was cheaper to make clothes than buy them. It's also the days when maternity tops were loose fitting and didn't show off the baby bump like they do nowadays.    FYI - I made my beaded necklace too. 

Orphan Olivia Is Ready For Some Lovin'

Orphan Olivia

40 x 50

I made the top June 2024.  I used mostly green orphan blocks in a variety of sizes. 

I think the only orphan blocks of mine in the quilt are the baskets. The rest of the blocks came from several other folks over a number of years. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with swirls of green.  The binding is scrappy - all greens from the left over binding box. 

The back.

And now Orphan Olivia is ready for some lovin' ! 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Finished a book! The Price of Bread and Shoes by Lonormi Manuel. According to a review...

"Based upon oral histories from women who lived in West Virginia's coal camps during the 1920s and their descendants, The Price of Bread and Shoes examines a controversial piece of West Virginia history through the lens of fiction."

Mostly I thought it was about sexual exploitation in the coal camps. The phrase from the song Sixteen Tons played in my head a few times..."I owe my soul to the company store".  You know...when I was younger and heard the song playing on the radio I never knew what that phrase meant. After reading several historical fiction books over the years that mention company stores I now do. 

In The Pink Again

8 Patch

8 inch blocks

Made from 2.5 or 4.5 inch width scraps

I now have 19 blocks and target is 63.

Posies

8 inch blocks

Pieces cut from floral scrap chunks. 

I now have 43 blocks. Target is 63 blocks.

Posie corner cut offs got made into little Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs). I haven't trimmed the dog ears off yet. After I do they will go into a box with all the other QSTs made from cut offs over the years and someday they will all get made into a quilt. 

Wonky Windmills

8 inch blocks

Made with 4.5 or 5 inch width scraps. 

I made a pile of them last year and made one child sized quilt top mostly from novelty windmills. I divided up the ones left over after that into a pile of florals and a pile of geometric, etc for two twin sized quilts.   Two of these will go into the floral pile and the rest into geo,etc. 

Target for both quilts is 63 blocks. I now have 20 floral and 23 geo, etc. blocks. 

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

One of the seven different Amaryllis my husband gifted me is in bloom. There's one stalk with two blooms open and two more flowers on that stalk ready to open. And there's another stalk!  It is getting top heavy. This one came in it's own plastic pot along with coconut coir for the planting medium. I might have to find a big rock to put in the pot to keep it from tipping over. 

 

Three Little Finishes

Three Litle Finishes

Little Baskets

36 x 36

Cindy sent me this one last year along with the backing and binding and thread. All I needed to do was add batting and quilt! 

Look at all the sweet fabrics. One has a little fairy in it. 

And there's a little fairy in another basket.  I quilted it with three petaled flowers on my sewing machine in light pink thread. 

I had to give this one the Dawn and hot water soak. The purple border fabric bled into the muslin in places but I think it's all fixed now. 

Blue and Yellow Squares

40 x 48

I made the top last year after someone sent me some 4.5 inch squares. A lot of them were blues and yellows. After adding in a few yellow squares of my own I made this top last year. 

This year I finished it by quilting on the diagonals. I used a piece of navy blue gingham for the binding. 

Two backs. 

The floral is the back of the Little Baskets.

The blue Cheater Cloth Log Cabin is the back of the Blue and Yellow Squares quilt. 

Surf and Turf

44 x 52

This is one of several quilts I made back in 2023 after someone gave me a box of fishy fabrics. I had a few of my own. 

In this quilt I added some sand I had on hand.   

The squares in the quilt are 8.5 inches. 

I quilted it with swirls in a variegated blue thread.   I didn't notice until I hung it on the line that the blue in the sandy areas is not the result of blue variegated thread but the result of the backing bleeding through to the front in places. 

Now I guess this one needs a Dawn/hot water bath. 

The binding is a sandy color all around. 

The bleeding back - a batik with frogs on blue and a little piece of blue with white flowers. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

I've started winter sowing some seeds...

The first batch...five different kinds of milkweed, a couple of different kinds of sea holly, a couple of different kinds of blazing star, a mix of columbine, bottle gentian, aconite, obedient plant and ironweed.  Most of these seeds need a period of cold stratification. 

In past years I have winter sown in milk jugs, gallon baggies and small pots covered in plastic.  This year I'm trying a new method in addition to my old methods- larger pots covered in shower caps. I've had the pots stored in the barn for a long time so might as well put them to use. I bought the clear disposable shower caps on line last year. I think I bought 100 of them for $8.  I just had to put slits in the shower caps so rain or snow can get into the pot. 

I will be planting several more batches and then there are seeds I start inside under lights in a corner of my sewing space. 

And sow on...

Wonky Stars II Finish

Wonky Stars II

It's a finish!

40.5 x 54

I have this written in my UFO list as top finished in 2020; however, I can't find an old blog post that mentions it.  I made little 4.5 inch finished Wonky Stars from 2 inch scraps years ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. I made one top and had these all on white backgrounds left over so made this top adding in some 5 inch white squares.   I put it to the bottom of a quilting pile at that time because it has a lot tof white in it and a few of the places I donate children's quilts don't want a lot of white in quilts.   Well, I thought I better get it quilted before all the whites start to age and turn yellow. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with swirls of white. 

I pieced the back with a couple of different starry fabrics. They were meant to go together...the stars in those clouds are the same colors as the fabric with lots of stars. 

The binding is scrappy and came out of the left over binding box.

And sew on...

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Read. In between fictional books I've been reading a little bit now and then of Herbal Antibiotics; What Big Pharma Doesn't Want You To Know by Mary Jones.   I was reading about cinnamon and the book mentions that many studies have shown cinnamon oil as an antibacterial that can kill MRSA and other bacteria. The book also mentions the benefits of cinnamon mixed with honey - reduce risk of heart disease, enhance immunity, reduce inflammation.   I Googled and did other reading on this to verify tthe book's claims.   Funny thing is that even before I read that chapter I had eaten honey mixed with cinnamon several times the previous week. I put it on roast butternut squash - the last one from the garden. I made baked apple slices mixed with cinnamon and honey. And almost every day I eat oatmeal for breakfast and there's some cinnamon in the mix I make but no honey. But the oatmeal alone is heart healthy.

Grow.  I ordered my Patterson onion plants from Dixondale Farms. They will arrive in March. Last Fall I prepared the space in the veg garden for them since they are one of the first things planted. Several years ago I started planting onion plants instead of sets and have bigger onion that store longer. I've tried several varieties but like Patterson the best. The storage potential is 8-10 months. 

 

Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2025

 

The Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2025 has been announced and will be starting soon. 

In the previous years I have participated (2022 and 2024) I made medallion quilts.  This year I'm going to make several (5) row quilts to be comfort quilts for kids.  Rows for all of the quilts will be made based on the SAHRR prompts.  The first prompt is January 20. This should be fun!

The starter rows for the five quilts follow.

Basket Orphan Blocks

8.5 x 40.5

Dog and Flowers Border Print

7.5 x 42 (need to trim the width a little)

Big Print Construction

18 x 40

Elephants in Black/White

24 x 42

Big Print Race Cars

19 x 40.5

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FYI - 

My SAHRR 2022

MY SAHRR 2024

And sew on...

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

A box of treasures (orphan blocks) arrived yesterday from Kathy. 

It's A Finish! Wiggle Time Olympics

Wiggle Time Olympics

48 x 54

It's a finish!

Wiggle Time is a Cynthia Brunz pattern.

Last year someone in our Sunshine Online Quilt Guild  (an online group dedicated to making comfort quilts) challenged us to make a quilt using the Olympic colors of blue, yellow, black, green, red. 

I used plaids - mostly men's shirts- for my colors. I didn't have a plaid that was mainly yellow so I ended up using a multicolor for the yellow.  I finished the top in July 2024.

I don't usually have a couple of yards of any fabric to use for backgrounds in quilts but I do have quite a bit of that tan fabric so went with that. 

I quilted it on my sewing machine with squiggles and loops in natural colored thread. 

This one has a pieced back.  I had enough of that striped fabric to use as the binding. 

A long time ago someone gave me that piece of kids at the Olympics and I could never figure out what kind of quilt to use it in. I set it aside for a backing or strippie quilt because it was too nice to cut up. Finally the Olympic kids found their quilt! 

And sew on...

My January quilting marathon continues!

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REMEMBER, TREASURE, GROW, READ (my words of the year)

Yesterday was my lucky day! A lot of treasure arrived in the mail - a bolt of red from Liz and a fully stuffed box of fabric from Dawn.