Discombobulated

  
Am I the only one who doesn't know what day it is, not sleeping well, and have a serious debate with myself daily on whether or not to get dressed or stay in my sweats all day? I've also put on five pounds in the last week!!!

I  have no attention span, so there has been a minimum of sewing done...

Elvira goes to the orient and slays a dragon.

The dragon fabric was directional, I didn't have enough yardage so I had to piece the block. If I didn't tell I don't think you'd of noticed. There are more dragons in the gold fabric below.

This quilt made a pretty good dent in my (very old) Oriental and metallic fabrics. The quilt is 63 x 84. I don't have anything large enough for the back - I'm trying to decide if I want to find something to buy or to piece my scraps and other Oriental and metallic fabrics into a back.

I actually know how I want to quilt it - surprise. I wish my quilt frame was set up and functional, it would be much easier to do the quilting with it. I'm waiting to have new carpet installed - which I haven't ordered yet and probably can't have installed even I had. I'm discombobulated and indecisive.
 

National Quilting Day and Quarantine Along

Last week was interesting...only word I can think of to describe it. Like a few others I was social distancing / quarantining. I'm a natural hermit so I thought - no problem; as a quilter / stitcher I thought - definitely no problem.

I got caught up on my Peppermint Purple SAL - hmmm, just noticed I missed a stitch.

And joined two sew-alongs: Project Linus had a one day mystery sew-along last Saturday and GE Designs (Gudrun  Erla) had a one day Quarantine Along last Sunday (yesterday).

Since the Project Linus quilt was a mystery I couldn't pull fabric ahead of time. The pattern was released about 4 a.m. Saturday morning. I opened my eyes long enough to look a the pattern/quilt and decided it was cute but could wait until I was really awake.  This is a picture of the designer's quilt - picture is from Facebook:

So when I finally decided to get up, I pulled fabric...

Waited for Bella to take her nap...

Then managed to make a mess of my sewing room.

By the end of the day I had cut the pieces and parts for all the houses and actually got six houses made.  Can you say bright?

Gudrun posted the fabric requirements for her free pattern, Elvira, last week so I was able to pull those fabrics before the pattern was release on Saturday. This was my start, I added a few more fabrics as I ended up making the lap instead of the crib.

I decided the quilt was easy enough I didn't need to get up early Sunday. I watched the tutorial video and started cutting. By the time I went to bed I had all the A blocks made and all the pieces and parts of the B block ready to sew. I might have had a glass of wine and cut a few of the B block slashes at 7 inches instead of 8 inches - don't tell.

I swear Bella can hear fabric hit carpet, she was in her bed in the sewing room when I started laying these out on the design floor for a picture and before I was finished putting them down she was in the middle of them.

Today was a kitty lap day (very very rare).

 This is her "don't even think about moving" look.

I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to get out of the house today. I braved a trip to Walmart. I was out of wine and kitty litter. Two very essential quarantine necessities.
 

Foggy View

Lately this is what my morning view looks like...a bit like my world view.

This is my not really a surprise but SURPRISE finish. My mom went to Arizona for a week and while she was gone the long arm quilter called saying my log cabin quilt was finished.

My mom had seen the quilt top but not the finished quilt. I made up her bed with the quilt so she would "find" it when she got home. It looks much better on her bed than it did mine.
 
I quilted and machine bound the guild donation quilt.

I couldn't find a binding fabric that looked good with the quilt top and backing so I just matched the top as much as I could. I quilted it with a simple meander.

I've joined a couple of Facebook cross stitch / blackwork groups - so many talented and creative people - and the designs are nothing like when I cross stitched 25+ years ago. One thing new I've noticed is all the cute needle minders. I have two but decided I needed more (more is better right). But instead of buying them I decided to make them. Harbor Freight carries very strong earth magnets so I made up the five needle minders below.

Three are old buttons, the heart was given to me (I think), and the other is an old clip earring (I'd lost one and saved (hoarded) the other because I always thought it was so pretty). I have a feeling I'll be making more of these.

There are a lot of junk / antique / thrift stores in Grants Pass. Last week I checked out few and found these treasures...

I've been chain piecing a bazillion half square triangles for this quilt:

I cut it out two years ago when I also cut out the Land of Lincoln Sampler. I'm making good progress on it but I am mostly procrastinating from marking the Land of Lincoln Sampler quilt.

Saturday is National Quilting Day. I've signed up for another Project Linus one-day only mystery quilt sew along. Mary Bakunowicz Balagna designs the Project Linus mystery quilts and always has fantastic patterns. She has even published a book Quilt it with Love. I am so looking forward to this sew along.

Odds and Ends

Okay folks, remember to press to the dark side.

I spilled on a table runner I made a few years ago so I washed it...some of it came out with the second washing. There were two blocks, but only one ran.  Kinda worried as I have that fabric in a lot of quilts.

This one was weird...the background fabric turned green (???). It was a cream. Everywhere it was used turned green.

This is my addiction (notice bag is empty), I love these jelly beans and I'm so happy they are only around during Easter or all my teeth would probably fall out from the sugar.

I wanted something sweet a few days ago - and the pantry was empty. Instead of finding / fixing something healthy I made candied almonds.

 OMG these were good! Sugar, water, cinnamon and almonds. These could be a problem as I always have those ingredients around the house. (This is all that is left - the tub was originally full - oink oink) You can find the recipe here with a video but I warn you they are really addicting.

I picked up another donation quilt from my guild. This time I checked the back and the pinning. Back wasn't too bad but the pinning was an issue again. Batting size was a little iffy also.

I'm sorry, but this is a quilt only a mama could love and I'm not it's mama. Squaring this up after it is quilted is going to be a challenge. I'm going to do a simple meander. It didn't come with binding fabric...what do you think? dark green? yellow? red?

I do have a finish I want to share, but it's a surprise, so I have to wait another week to show you.
 

Oops, Almost Forgot

I almost forgot what day it was, even turned off the computer. But I'm doing such a good job of posting every Monday I don't want to break my posting streak.

The civil war sampler top is finished...the pattern called for two narrow borders but I didn't like it and couldn't find any fabrics in my stash that I thought would work as borders. But I did want it bigger, so I made four more block and four long rails. I like the results.

And yes, it is pinned and ready to quilt.  I want to quilt Baptist Fans on the quilt so I ordered Barb's quilting template. I probably should have waited until I received the template and marked the top before pinning the quilt. Oh well.

I finished this little project this morning. I think I started it two years ago. Wouldn't think something so little would take so long huh?
 

Have to show a few funny Bella pictures... I shoved the dinning room table to the side and stacked the chairs so I would have room to pin the quilt. Only Bella would walk the chair rungs.

Doesn't she look like she is really studying the quilt picture?  She isn't.

She is intently watching the pushpin holding the calendar up.  What you can't see is how wet the back of her head is.  She goes for the pushpin, I squirt her with the water bottle. She sits back and starts watching the pin again. She normally gets squirted four or five times before she will jump down. This happens at least twice a day.