I hate being away from my sewing room for so long so I was happy to be back at work today. Shapes is the April “precut” for our HeartStrings Precut Party so I’ve pulled out my oldest UFO and will hopefully get these Hexagon Flowers to the finished top stage this month. I’m not actually sure when this one was started – I just know that the Flowers were made before we moved from Marietta in December 2006. It’s been lost and found several times since then and I found it again back in February 2018 when we moved all my sewing stuff from Big Canoe.

I’ve decided to scrap the original and back up layouts and go with a simple 9 patch in the alternate blocks.

My goal will be to get these spool blocks assembled into a top next week after I take a couple days to look and see what needs to be moved around.

The design wall is now in a more visible spot in the sewing room so every time I walk in and out I glance over and change blocks around as needed. In Minneapolis, my sewing room was too small for the design wall so I had it outside the room at the top of the stairs – that was great too because I studied the blocks every time I went up and down the stairs. I used to get great photos of Chesty with my quilts in the background because he would run up the stairs and turn around to wait for me!

Tomorrow I’ll have to get the Charm square top loaded and quilted. Luckily it’s a small one and Keith will be home so Finn will stay downstairs. I shouldn’t complain because Finn’s pretty good about letting me work but I’ve got to stop more often to take him out for walks and cuddles so having the afternoon with no interruptions will be nice since Keith has been gone all week.

What if I took those angled pieces cut off the strip-sets I’m using for my spool blocks and sewed them together and trimmed them into squares? I’m sure I saved the leftovers from my first spool quilt somewhere with the idea that I’d see if I could use them for a doll quilt but that quilt was pieced in 2017 and I hadn’t followed through. I do best using the leftover bits for doll quilts if I piece them right after I finish the quilt they came from.

I took a brief break from piecing spool blocks to see what kind of block I would get if I sewed those pieces together. Now that I know, I’ll set them aside until I finish the spools!

I’ve finished the binding on the doggie Strippie and I’ll try to get a photo tomorrow. One more UFO to mark off my list!

Since I finished the binding on the Framed 16 Patch, I decided to get an early start on March’s Jelly Roll quilt for our precut party! After going back and forth with myself debating which pattern to use, I finally decided I’d make another Spools quilt. I’d always intended to make one of these in RWB.

First, I reviewed the instructions myself … my notes often come in handy when I’m remaking a quilt.

There are some floral prints in this bundle and I was worried that it might read too girly but a) there are girl veterans, and b) it will find a home somewhere no matter how it turns out!

Each stripset makes 2 blocks so there’s not a lot of variety up here yet but I’ll move things around as I get more blocks made.

For years we’ve been buying Adam t-shirts when we’re traveling and come across a Hard Rock Cafe and we picked one up for him in Jamaica earlier this month.

I promised him I’d make a t-shirt quilt from them “one day” and I’ve had a bunch of them for a while (at least 4+ years!) so obviously Adam is a pretty patient person but he did bring it up when he was here a few weeks ago and Chris got his map quilt so I guess it’s time to actually make the quilt.

First I looked online for ideas (Google t-shirt quilts) and we agreed on a layout. Then it was time to go through the shirts I had and line them up in rows. I’ve done some quick math to get a general idea of the quilt size but I’ll have to get more detailed before I cut the shirts to the size I need to make sure each row comes out to the same length. The shirt blocks will be framed and then sashed.

Today, I got all the shirts washed and trimmed off the sleeves and backs. Tomorrow, I’m going to go to Joann’s to buy the non-woven fusible interfacing I need and then I’ll be working on this project in the coming months … I don’t like tight deadlines so I told him not to expect it before his next visit in July!

The sashing is done on the Ohio Star and now I just need to add two borders. I dislike sewing long skinny pieces of sashing so I sash my blocks individually.

Not sure why of all my sashing choices, I chose a fabric with a grid. It took extra time to cut the pieces carefully so the grid wouldn’t be wonky – not that I mind wonky but just not in my sashing.

I’m done sewing for the week. We have company coming this weekend so I’ll be tied up with them.