Winging It Finish - A Quilt For Sissy

Finger tips and shoes belong to my favorite quilt holder

Here is my finish on a QAL I started in May 2023. This one is a surprise for my sister-in-law, Sandy. She is 3 years older than my husband, and he often calls her "Sissy", which was his name for her when he was a little tyke.

Side view

Full backing

Closeup of backing

Sandy's favorite bedroom color for years was turquoise - she even painted the walls of her bedroom turquoise  -  and this quilt was originally intended to lay across her bedspread. It was sandwiched and ready to quilt when Sandy innocently and excitedly told me that her new favorite bedroom color was pink and sent me a photo of her new hot-pink bedspread! I "un-sandwiched" the turquoise backing, which was the same turquoise background as the front. At my favorite Etsy shop (That's So Janice), I located 4-1/2 yards of a Tilda-ish print with pink, coral, and turquoise flowers. There is no pink on the front of the quilt, but the fabric blends well as a backing, so it will have to serve as pink for her!

I decided to try a flange binding and used a tutorial by Jenny at Missouri Star. My quarter inch sewing was a little "fat", so the flange is not quite as wide as I prefer, but I do like the result.

My first and favorite block, before and after quilting.

Closeups of Great Barrier Reef variegated thread

This well-written pattern is Winging It by Wendy Sheppard at Ivory Spring. I used my current favorite Great Barrier Reef variegated thread by Y.L.I. Threads for the top and a creamy high sheen thread for the back. All of the butterflies are from stash, background was purchased at Joann's, and the backing from Etsy. This quilt finished at 72" x 63".

Quilting was done with a butterfly themed panto called "Fanciful Flyers" from Urban Elementz.

The turquoise background is imprinted with dragonflies, so it is definitely a "winged" theme!

Rosie, my quilt assistant, checking for loose threads.

Baby Boy Ryker Quilt

Marvin is trying out the baby quilt

As if I did not already feel old enough, my nephew Gary is now a Grandpa, which makes me a great-great aunt! Gary's son Cory and wife Brooklyn are the proud parents of  "Ryker", who was born in November 2024.

Brooklyn and Cory with Ryker

Little Ryker has 3 given names - Ryker Lennox Gray plus his surname!

Cory and Brooklyn were the recipients of a wedding quilt which I made in 2022. Brooklyn still likes grays and blues and told me her nursery theme was clouds, stars, and moon. I used stash except for the purchase of a bit of Dear Stella Shooting Stars in navy. I did take the liberty of adding in some soft gold/yellow, because after all, the moon is made of cheese!

A big thank-you to Nancy for encouraging words on minky selection - I picked embossed minky in soft gray for the backing. After feeling it, my husband wants all future quilts to be backed with minky!

This quilt measures 48" x 48". I used a petite panto called "Timeless's Stars and Clouds" from Urban Elementz. Although I really like the design for this quilt, I will not buy a petite panto again, because the design is only 5-1/2 inches tall, and I had to roll the quilt frequently on Longmire the Longarm.

Up next up on Longmire is my sister-in-law's butterfly quilt, which was a finished flimsy in October 2023. My SIL has since changed her bedroom from turquoise to pink - lol - but I think she will love it anyway.

On a sad note, my good friend and fellow blogger Nanette has passed away. Nanette was a passionate and kind person who made beautiful quilts. I knew she had health issues, but I was still stunned, as she had posted as recently as February 16. She will be missed. You can find a tribute to her with a really lovely photo right here.

This post is shared with:

Joy's This and That at Days Filled With Joy

Joy's Home Matters Linky Party #519 at Days Filled With Joy

Melva's Sew & Tell at Melva Loves Scraps

Brenda's Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Alycia's Finished Or Not Friday

Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) - Christmas In July

Peggy of Quilts and Adventures and Jeanna of Slammin' The Screen Door, regularly tempt me with their cross stitch projects, and I noticed Jeanna participates in the Friday Night Sew In (F.N.S.I.), hosted by Wendy at Sugarlane Designs blog. There is also a Facebook group, and I thought this might be good motivation for me to work on a Christmas project. 

Joy of Days Filled With Joy has a Christmas In July Stitchalong that began a few weeks ago. Tonight is catch-up night for this cute little design!

I hope to blog about this pumpkin stocking on the next FNSI. Again, Jeanna to blame!

I am linking to Wendy's FNSI

Dog Days Doings

Rosie in the supervisory kitty hammock

I keep looking out my window hoping to see clouds, better yet, thunderstorms marching our way, but we have a dismal forecast of hot, hot, hot. So to take my mind off the weather, I am sorting out the piles on my cutting table today. What follows is a little peek into my world these past few weeks.

This has been the summer of the slump for me (in fact several months of slump), but Karen's plan of doing "a little each day" struck a chord, so I did some actual sewing yesterday and finished the next block in Joy's Say It With Flowers BOM. This sweetly simple block of the month has required the least amount of thought for me along with a great deal of enjoyment stitching in front of the TV at night, so it is one of the few things I have "kept up" with this summer. Joy has been nursing a broken wrist, so I appreciate her providing these pretty embroideries.

I did a little rearranging, with the assistance of my chief quilt holder, and switched the design wall with the fabric shelves. The fabric shelves were the first thing on the right as you walk into my room, so now you can see that the space seems more open. I'm not sure I ever shared that I changed rooms with the guest bedroom a few months ago. This room is a bit smaller, but now we have a guest bedroom that is connected to the bathroom, and it is more privately located in the back of the house.

I did finally finish a little flag quilt, compliments of Melisa's generously offered pattern right here. I really had fun with these. It is 34"x34" and will hang above our still-standing Fourth of July decorations on our entry table. I'll try to update with a photo - once we stop eating pie and cookies and get it hung on the wall!

Messy shelves

I pretty much shoved all the fabric back into the cabinet after we moved it. And yes that is a referee shirt. My son-in-law referees high school games, and he asked if I would do a little sewing for him.

Quilts for Baby (Everett's ragged, stuffed dinosaur) and Bunny (Delaney's dilapidated bunny)

The Littles have been here a couple times this summer, and we have never enjoyed them so much. They are 8 and 5 years old, nicely past diapers, bottles, and tantrums, and they are little goofballs. And they love to sew! It is the first thing they ask to do - I am so blessed - and so we made small quilts for Baby and Bunny, their stuffies. Everett can't reach the foot pedal so Grandma bends over to do it for him (and Grandma's back pays for it), but Delaney can do it all. They also love to go into the garden - they easily spot the tomatoes for me but I pick them because . . . "there may be spiders Grandma".

Hubs surprised me with these Guggenheim scissors. I had not asked for them, so I really am blown away that he chose them. They are made right here in Texas! They are surprisingly hefty, and they cut like buttah. I love using them!

Sour cherry pie

Made this Sour Cherry Pie a few days ago, and it's already gone. Don't let the name fool you - it has plenty of sugar to overcome the tart cherries. In honor of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day today, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, so those will be in the oven soon!

I am linking this post to:

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs 

Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps

FON Friday at Alycia Quilts

Stitching Stuff at Life In Pieces

How is your summer going?

Feeling Pensive

Written by Melania Trump

In the face of yesterday's events, it is difficult to put my feelings into words. We were watching President Trump's rally in Butler PA and saw the attempt on his life in real time. I am so grateful to God that President Trump is still alive. I am grateful for the men and women of the Secret Service who selflessly protected him with their lives. I am sad for the family of Donald Trump and for Melania Trump, who wrote those eloquent words above about the situation in which she finds herself, because their stress has just been magnified. No matter what your feelings are about Donald Trump, he is still a man who has a family that loves him.

Facebook post by the daughter of Corey Comperatore 

And I am sad for the family of the former firefighter, Corey Comperatore, who lost his life protecting his family. He was simply a man whose life ended tragically while enjoying a day with his family.

President Trump moments after the shooting

I pray for the families of all affected - President Trump and his family, the family and friends of Corey Comperatore, and for the family of the alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. I cannot imagine the shock, disbelief, and grief that his family must be feeling.

President Biden speaking about the shooting

I am thankful that President Biden put aside his politics to make a personal phone call to "Donald" and to publicly condemn the shooting. It is notable that both President Biden and President Trump agree on a call for unity! My hope is that we may all put aside our partisan politics and simply be grateful for life, to feel love for our fellow man, and to pray for unity in our nation.

Weather, Gypsy Quilts, and Other Quilty Things

Here in far north Texas we have been dodging EF3 tornadoes, hail, lightning, and floods. Somehow our area has remained unscathed with a little bit of hail and wind, but mostly good spring rain. Some of the communities to the west were not so lucky! The radars above were from four days of Radarscope screenshots as weather approached, and the radar capture on the right shows velocity radar just about the time an EF3 was hitting the town of Celina, 30 miles southwest of us.

In between checking the radar, life in the sewing room continues with fits and starts, and here are two flimsies made from the Gypsy pattern from Villa Rosa Designs. This was one of the patterns available for the Villa Rosa Fast and Fun Blog Hop. If you like fast stash busters, I highly recommend this pattern. The pattern has been renamed as "Onstage", and you can find it right here.

For the first Gypsy, I centered my choices around a dark blue floral from the Riley Blake Indigo Garden collection, some Decostitch by Art Gallery, and the rare and wonderful PB&J collection by Basic Grey. (Side note: I recently saw a PB&J jelly roll on Etsy for $140.00! - gasp!) I made the flimsy bigger with borders. You can see the batting and binding ready to go in the photo above.

For the second flimsy,I was inspired by Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing, who made a blues-y version of Gypsy. I decided on blue-ish purples with a bit of green thrown in. I left it at the original size, and I am hand quilting it. Slowly. And with huge stitches that are intended to be small and even. But this is a good quilt to experiment with hand stitching, because it is going to a sweet, wheel-chair bound lady who will simply be thrilled to receive it.

Since I finished my Villa Rosa Blog Hop quilt, I discovered an HST that decided to go another way (see above photo inside red heart), and so I have affectionately chosen the name Rogue Star for this quilt! I refuse to say it is a mistake. It reminds me of me, as I have so often decided to go another way rather than do the "expected" thing - lol!

I continue to lag behind on two of my sew-alongs. In the photos above:

1) Pieces Of My Life by Melva at Melva Loves Scraps - a post is coming soon!

2) I only have two blocks for the Mercantile Sampler SAL I am doing with Karen, but there is no hurry!

3) A BOM (Block of the Month) by Joy of Days Filled With Joy called Say It With Flowers, and I am caught up with it!

I am thinking about starting another SAL - I've had total fail on my vow to stay away from sew-alongs in 2024, so I might as well add another - right? This one is called Ticker Tape Heart. It is a 3-day challenge starting May 31, and it just looks different and fun. The block reminds me of Diann's pretty Crumb Hearts quilt!