Week 12, PoD Block

Scabbers the rat is the block I chose this week.

This is a block I have never made before, and it went together easily, considering how many pieces it has.

One Nation

It's time to check in with my cross stitch group.  I've forced myself to work on One Nation the past few weeks.  I've lost my cross stitching joy, but I'm making a little progress. Here's where I was 3 weeks ago:

Here's where I am now:

I am finding the white stripes very hard to work on.  I may try stitching during the daylight to see if that helps.

To see what others in the group are working on: 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda

Social Distancing Sewing

I've been sewing 4-5 hours every day for about a week, and I still haven't finished anything.   The whole time I was working on Sew Many Strips, I kept thinking this will be the ugliest quilt ever.  As soon as I got the blocks together, though, and got it laid out, I changed my mind.  The color looks  pretty good for a quilt that is over 50% ugly, weird and odd ball fabric.

Now I can relax and just sew it all together.  I know someone in my life will like it.  

I had to lay it out on my son's bed because my design wall is occupied by  Sew Fresh Quilt's Forest Friends.

Each quadrant of the quilt has the same blocks arranged in a different order.  I have another fox block,  deer tracks and oars left to make.  Then I will need to see if all my blocks turned out to be the right size, and figure out how and where to add more background if they don't.  This is a time consuming quilt.  I would enjoy sewing it more if the blocks were paper pieced.  

Week 11, PoD Block

I made the cauldron block this week. 

This was a quick and easy block.  The hardest part was choosing the fabric.  For my other PoDs, I tried to find the perfect fabric for each block.  For this PoD, I'm using scraps.

Fall Sew Many Strips

This week I've been working on another Sew Many Strips Quilt.  I am forcing myself to use a fall-colored palette which are not my favorite colors.  I want to use up some browns and some old-fashioned looking dark florals.  I also have some dull oranges to get rid of.  I threw in a few greens and yellows too.   It will make a good Thanksgiving gift for someone.

I have spent the whole week cutting and sewing these patches:

Even though I'm using fabrics that are not my favorites, I have high hopes for this quilt.  I have never seen an ugly Sew Many Strips quilt, and I have seen a lot of them on the American Patchwork and Quilting Facebook site, since they hosted a SAL there last spring.

I have made 2 of these quilts already:

Week 10, PoD Block

Today I finished the teacup block. 

We are practicing social distancing here, but other than my husband working from home, it is about the same for me.  I'm sewing every day, walking the dog, gardening, doing laundry and dishes.  I usually get together with a friend for lunch or shopping a couple of times a week, but I've been so busy, I haven't missed it.  I'm sure I'll be climbing the walls in a couple of weeks, but right now, everything is ok.

Week 9, PoD Block

This afternoon I worked on the spell books block.

I also did my part of a shop sample, Hello Spring.  This is a block of the month.  Our shop owner asked each of the employees to take a month.  Since I chose early, I got to pick a month with no applique.  

One Monthly Goal, March

My March goal was to finish 16 blocks from Forest Friends.  Here they are:

  I made a few mistakes during construction.  Most of them were minor, so I decided to leave them and hope they disappear after quilting.

One Nation

I joined a cross stitch SAL to help with my motivation.  Everyone in the group choses their own focus piece, and we all blog about third every third week.  This is the first week I am participating, and I hope they don't kick me out before I even get started because I'm so late posting!

 I think One Nation is a great cross stitch pattern, but it is so big, it is awkward to work on.  I don't use scroll rods, and with the state of my health, I am trying not to buy any more hobby equipment than necessary.  I am using q-snaps for this project, but it is too big and heavy to use a q-snap frame to fit the whole flag in. I hate putting the q-snaps on top of my stitching, but I'm having to do just that, because the project is so big.  So I've been putting this off, and I want to finish it.

Here's where I am now:

Four more long rows to go, plus the little bit on this white row, and all the stars.  It's a lot of stitching!

To see what others in the group are working on:  

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie

Week 8, PoD Block

I was ready to do an easy block this week.

 I spent a lot of time picking out fabric for the books.  I'm trying to use scraps and not cut into my fat quarters.

Forest Friends, Birds

I haven't reached my One Monthly Goal for March, but I'm halfway there.  Look at my bird blocks!

This quilt is moving along quicker than I thought it would.

One Monthly Goal, March

My OMG for March is to make 16 blocks for my niece's graduation quilt.  I have just started cutting it out.  Here's a link to the pattern, Forest Friends: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/721736433/paper-pattern-for-forest-friends-to-be?ref=shop_home_active_20&frs=1

My niece is on her girl scout troop's rowing team, and I think she will really like it.  I know I do!

There are so many Sew Fresh Patterns that I like:  the Giraffes in a Row baby quilt, Layin Pipe,  Life in the Pond, and Lemur Love.  Every time I scroll through Lorna's site, I find another must-do pattern!

I have made two Sew Fresh Quilt patterns already.

This one was a wedding gift:

This one I kept for myself:

These quilts are not paper pieced.  The cutting is complicated, and you need to stay very organized to make these quilts, but the results are worth it.  

Linking up:https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2020/03/one-monthly-goal-march-link-up.html