Progress is rolling along here!  I sewed on Friday Sat and a little on Sunday too. I got several more Works In Progress done. These are things that don't really qualify as older UFOs (Unfinished Objects) because I had not started them before the current calendar 2013 year. Anything cut into and started before Jan 1 2013 is a UFO. Anything started after that is a WIP.  The totes and the potato bags were all free motion quilted so I am linking up to Leah Day.s Free Motion Quilting Project. Here are my WIPs number 17 to 20. These are tote bags of varied sizes using up osme of my Mary Engelbreit fabrics that were given to me about 6 months ago by a friend. I am keeping the large one. Gifting the others which are lunch bag sizes. These were done a few weeks ago. WIP number 21, also done previously ,was the Mary Engelbreit porch sofa quilt mentioned in another blog post. Done on Friday, my WIP number 22 is a set of pillowcases to gift my daughter in law on her upcoming bir...

My Row by Row from 2002-03 is finally DONE! This was my 6th UFO completed this year I started this with an internet group back in 2002-03 and it took about 2 years to get my scrap box and the rows from the other participants back. There were 8 of us in the swap and we did our quilts round robin style. Our group of gals was Mary Ellen T in NY, Donna P in CA, Carol B in MO, Robyn W in IA, Renee B in MI, Linda S in IN, Lynn G in ND, and myself. Each person did a row except Lynn who I believe became ill. This quilt is made all from my own scraps packed into a box back then and sent round robin around the country. I made three rows in this eight row quilt. I did the E row and the topiary trees row and the last extender row which I call Keep it Simple, Stupid. (After a common saying at the time). Many small online groups started round robins of 8 quilters. The entire quilt pattern was offered free online back in the day at Patchpeices.com by Patti Anderson. She designed it in 2...

Another UFO bites the dust! I had forgotten all about these indigo blue blocks until four days ago when I was searching from my 1930s hexie quilt to work on by hand during tv time. Digging in the vintage hexie quilt project box (a quilt I also rescued from a garage sale), I found these older blue blocks mixed in with the spare 1930-40s fabrics. Four of them were from a Missouri estate sale back in the late 1970s and I got a couple more of them from my grandmother's house in 2005-6. Since Grandma Helen didn't and doesn't sew, I knew she had gotten them from my great grandmother's cache. They are indigo dyed and calico with plain muslin sashings. All hand sewn seams in the piecing. I believe them to be 1860-1890 era. I finished one block and added a bit more muslin to the sashings of a few of the smaller ones. I then sewed them up into a 8 block table runner. I feather quilted in spiral free form feathers with echo quilting. I added vintage blue ...

Some of you will be happy to hear that I FINISHED the blue lone star quilt that I worked on in the fall shown here. This is my 5th UFO for 2013. It was a 50 year project started by my great grandmother Frances Meyer Gramlich about 1963-64. She cut her blue diamonds by hand with cardboard templates. Alas she got fairly far but passed away when I was 8 in 1968. It then came to my grandmother Helen who does not really sew. She tried a few seams on her sewing machine and put it away.   A few years later Grandma Helen gave it to her sister in law, (Frances's daughter) my great aunt Mille Gramlich Vollmer to finish up for her. Mille worked on it off and on for a few years but she also had her own sewing and quilts to do so it was not a high "must do" on her timeline. She did get it further but her own health failed and it came back to my grandmother Helen again. Helen then asked her other sister in law on the other side of her family  (my great ...

It's a VERY MARY kind of week around here! It's no secret I enjoy the sassy and happy style of Mary Engelbreit art--and have for years. This week I got down to business on a quilt using not only scraps but also some wonderful Mary E fabrics from a few years ago. I made 5 tote  bags/lunch bags first and then with my "leftovers" I got started on a truly great project for my 3 season porch. I have needed a new lap/nap sofa quilt on the porch for a couple years now and finally got to it! This is the year I finish up some of my fabric and sewing UFOs as my regular readers know....Well it was time to work through my Mary E fabrics and this is what resulted.  It is almost a twin size so there is plenty of room to share when sitting watching tv --or plenty of foot-to-shoulder room for one lying down when napping. It is sewn Free Motion Quilting meander style in the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern which is super duper simple compared to how hard it looks. I love...