Pressing

I spent last evening pressing fabric. I couldn't stand the mess of all that washed fabric piled everywhere! At least this pile is ready to go. I still have a few more pieces that need pressed. There are also a few more pieces of fabric that still need washed, but I am making progress!

I worked on pressing one piece of the flannel for the future zig zag quilt. This fabric is 54" wide so I ripped it down to 43" and starting cutting strips. I don't remember exactly how much I paid per yard, but it very inexpensive. After washing the flannel has a wonderful hand to it and it is thick.

I am cutting these strips 3 3/4" wide. I want a nice bold zig zag.

Flannel quilts - progress

The courthouse steps quilt is now pin basted!

I have had this backing for some time. I had to take my time to piece it together so the stripes sort of matched. The fabric is 56" wide and a bit thinner which made it better for a back. I have enough to make a second back for a quilt this size - approx. 60" x 76" after quilting.

I need 19 more log cabin blocks for another top - I had one already made - so I got to work. I chain stitched the blocks which means I laid out the blocks and rough cut the piece I needed. I wanted to make the blocks look random, so some planning had to go along with this! Kind of an oxymoron! LOL!!!

It took me longer than I thought it would, but I did get all 19 blocks made. Here are the blocks ready to be sewn together.

I still had a bit of the blue flannel left so I cut these strips to make a zig zag quilt. I will be adding some natural colored flannel in between these.

But wait! There's more! I have these pieces left which I have another top in mind to make with them. I will be adding some solid navy and medium blue flannel in the mix.

And finally there will be a top with either four or nine patches to use up the pieces that were too small to use in the log cabin quilt.

So that will be 5 large lap quilts once they're done! I will have look for the sales order for the blue flannels to see how much I had bought. I am just curious. I also spent time washing fabric. Some of the fabric was from the recent sale including the 6 yard piece of flannel, and some of it was flannel I have had for a while. I had bought a whole bolt of natural color flannel and one of a gray flannel from Zink's in Berlin, Ohio, years ago. I needed to get a piece of the natural washed for the zig zag top. Here it is tossed on a chair waiting to be pressed.

Oh that's a big pile!

Courthouse steps progress

I got three more courthouse step blocks sewn last evening. I rearranged the blocks to mix up the fabrics a bit and here is what it looks like now.

I have the last four blocks planned out.

My goal this weekend is to get this top done and get going on the next top which will be a traditional log cabin layout. Have a great weekend!

Garage clean up and two more blocks

As soon as I got home from work I headed to the garage to make space for my neighbor's riding mower. Here is the before - quite a mess!

After an hour and a half of work, here is the after. My neighbor came over after I was mostly done. He moved the heavy stuff - two bags of sand and four bags of potting soil.

Plenty of room for the mower

I then headed inside and managed to get two more courthouse step blocks made using one of the new light colored flannels I just bought.

The sale was in a tent

I went on a road trip yesterday to Country Fabrics in Shilo, Ohio. They are really south of Planktown, but Shilo is their mailing address. This was my first time to one of their tent sales.

I was the first customer so I grabbed a cart and started shopping after the ladies said it was ok. They were still busy bringing out fabric and setting up signage. I bought more stripes and plaids.

I found these Moda fabrics. I loved the color and they were only $6.50 a yard! How could I not buy them!  I bought three yards of each.

Some solids jumped into my cart. The off white was a flat fold of flannel. The darker stone colored piece was from inside the store and was 10% off.

These were some odds and ends for projects I have going on except for the turquoise and lime batik. I just loved the color and there was just a yard and an eight of that left.

Inside I found three more blue flannels. I needed more variety for the blue and cream flannel quilts I am making for someone at work. The selection was pretty sparse for blue flannels.

It's a good hour and a half drive to the shop. By the time I got home it was 11:30 and I was so hungry! After getting some lunch, I was very tired but I got some fabric in the wash. These are wash, pressed and flannel strips cut.

I paired up the new flannel strips with what I had and these will be the next five blocks I need for the first top.

I pushed myself to get something done and I did get the striped courthouse steps top pin basted.

I got a phone call from my neighbor asking if he could store his mowers in my garage for a few weeks. He is having a new French drain installed in front of his garage door and wouldn't be able to get his mowers out. I have a two car garage. I told him if he comes over tonight and helps me straighten up the garage to make room, he would be more than welcome to put the mowers in my garage so you know what I will be doing tonight!  LOL!

 He is having the entire front yard redone and getting his retaining wall replaced too. His steps are horrible. They lean at angles so it makes the steps dangerous. The plantings are old and have gotten too big. The new design sounds very cool with big landscape boulders. This is what I see out my front window now.  The contractor is scheduled to start tomorrow.

Red zig zag is now a top

I struggled on Sunday. I was so tired from the long day on Saturday. I did some laundry, watered the gardens, and worked on the zig zag top. I forgot to measure it, but it is pretty big for a baby quilt. Now I just need to figure out what I will use on the back.  The reds are brighter in person. 

The tv kept me company Sunday with watching the Browns lose again, watched the Savannah Bananas against the Firefighters, and got thru part of the Eagles Kansas City Chiefs game.

The quilt, another show, a fabulous gift, and sushi

The quilt is done! It turned out 82" x 95". I washed it Saturday and here it is!

It needed a bag

I made a double batch of oatmeal raisin cookies to take to the show Saturday. I got so busy that the only picture I got is this. I almost didn't have enough! The show was local and lots of friends showed up so the bags of cookies went fast! I did get one and it was pretty good.

Here are a few pictures of the show and merch booth. We had a good crowd.

The gardens at this venue in downtown Kent, Ohio are beautiful. I have no idea what that big plant is at the right.

My friend and her husband came to the show and I handed the quilt over to her. She was so happy to see it all put together. It was made by a friend of hers that passed away 11 -12 years ago so it was meaningful to see it done. For all my work getting those two quilts done, she brought me from California this gorgeous granite and metal sculpture that her dad made. He is 88 years old and was a shop teacher. It can go outside or inside so now I just need to find the perfect spot to display this work of art! It is 2 feet tall and signed!  I think I got the better end of the deal!

The fellow that helps out the band with loading unloading, setting up equipment and generally is my brother's right-hand man, gave me a tub of fabric. The place he retired from bought huge bales of rags that were wrapped in fabric. He saved the fabric and was going to use it but never did. He brought me a tub of it and I will use it for tote bags for the merch booth

I was so hungry after the show I stopped by the Giant Eagle and got some sushi. It was so good. Smoke salmon Philadelphia Roll is my go-to sushi, and I would eat it every day if I could afford to! LOL!!

Progress made

I had to make a couple stops after work so that cut into my quilting time. I did get a fair amount of quilted though.

I am still confident that this will be done by Saturday. I am ready for it to be the weekend and get a few extra hours of sleep.

Call me crazy! LOL!!

Remember the second quilt that was in pieces that I put together for a friend? You could look back at my posts June 30 - July 3, 2025, where I worked on assembling this quilt. The binding is already done and the outside board is quilted. I just need to quilt the black background and outline stitch the floating squares and half of the center medallion. I just found out my friend will be heading over to see my nephew's band play this weekend so I decided I would get this finish and hand it over to her. Yes, call me crazy, but I now have a fire under my backside and want to get this done! To paraphrase an old disco song "Ain't no stopping me now!" There is no deadline on the flannel quilt so it can be put to the side and I will go back to it after I get this quilt done. I am free motion meander stitching the background.

I outlined the area I got done last evening which was a lot! At that pace I will easily have it finished by Saturday and it will be one more project done and it would not have sat on the list for years! Woohoo!

More courthouse steps blocks and the big handoff

Four more courthouse step blocks are done and I managed to get them up on the design wall. They are not in their final places; I'm just sticking them up there so I can see where I am going with this quilt top. 11 made; 9 to go.

I handed off the leather jacket yesterday and the fellow was quite pleased with it. He wasn't sure it fit him anymore, but he tried it on and it was a perfect fit! He said he couldn't wait to show it to his mom. His dad died 5 years ago. He thought the lining fabric was perfect and approved with a big smile the way I fixed the edge of the cuffs and patched the vents at the sleeves. Whew!

More blocks and design wall space

I got four more blocks made last evening. I only have four light flannels and 5 dark flannels, so there will be a lot of repeating. The four on the left are the new blocks

I am running out of space for the flannel blocks, so it looks like I am going to have to sew together the red zig zag top.

Making binding, cutting flannel, and pulling weeds

I had a few strips of this red and white striped fabric I want to use for the binding on the red and white zig zag quilt.

Three strips were only 2" wide; I cut my bindings 3 inches wide. Here is my solution. I sewed the stripe strip on to a white stripe of fabric.

I pressed the seam open

Trimmed the strip to 3 inches

Joined the strip with a strip of 3-inch fabric at each end. I don't want to have that joining seam in a corner. It would be harder to get a nice, mitered corner with the extra bulk.

Flip the binding to the other side and you would never know the binding was pieced.

I still didn't have enough of the striped fabric so I added a couple pieces of the red polka dot fabric.

A woman I work with asked for two lap sized flannel quilts in blue and cream. I just happen to have the fabric on hand. I bought this flannel last fall when Hancock's of Paducah had it on sale for a ridiculously great price. I got cut some strips

Then I started sewing some blocks. She doesn't want them exactly the same so I thought I would do a log cabin for one and courthouse steps for the other. The courthouse step blocks go together much faster. These blocks will finish around 15 inches.

I did go outside for about a half hour to pull thistle. One plant had matured and had gone to seed. I will be fighting with those next year. I ended up pulling up 47 plants of different sizes.