Slowly but surely...

I finished off my 30 string blocks yesterday afternoon. Between working full time, gardening, housework, and spending time with my daughter who is home for 9 days before she heads back to Ottawa for her 3rd year of university, I am not getting much sewing time these days. Christine and I did manage to spend 3 hours working on our Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilts on Wednesday evening last week--it was storming outside, but safe and dry in my dining room as we sewed--at least until the lightening and thunder were coming so fast and furious that the power started to flicker. At that point, we unplugged the machines and headed down to the basement to wait out the storm. Christine almost had a sleepover at my house, but the storm was finally over around 11pm and she could safely drive home.

Here are some of my completed, but not pressed blocks.

Christine got quite a few done too--hers are pressed!

I laid my 30 string blocks out on the design floor to admire them.  Christine and I will get together again next week to work on red and neutral HST's--I have to make 600 of them. Still lots of sewing to do to finish off this quilt. It is good to have a friend to sew with to keep me on task.

Back to Blogging...

Some of you may have thought I had dropped off the face of the earth, but I didn't!  Life has been busy with a trip to Ottawa to visit my daughter, a family member with health issues (resolved now, thankfully!), work in the garden, and, of course, some quilting!

Christine and I got together a couple of evenings since the last time I blogged to work on our Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilts. Both of us are now done our string blocks. I even have mine cut in half, ready for putting the blocks together later this week when we get together to sew again. There are a lot of strings in these blocks, but never fear, I had some strings leftover to make some more, should the mood hit!

Here is another view:

Here is everything we have sewn so far:

 I made a pillow case for my brother for his birthday this week. He is into bathtub boat racing so I used some boat fabric for his pillowcase. I could not find bathtub boat fabric! ;-)

Today, I spent most of the day getting two quilts ready to take to the long arm quilters. I added labels to the backs before they are quilted. I even had to piece the batting because it was not wide enough for these huge quilt tops! They are all ready to go now...I will show pictures when they are done.

One is my "Blue Ridge Beauty" and the other is my "Creamsicles By the Sea", both designed by Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame.

I went to Jacqui's this week for a QNIC with her and Chris. I made the pillowcase, trimmed and sliced my string blocks, and added borders to my SIL's quilt. I still need to purchase a back for this quilt.

I am just about out of batting now--I purchased a whole roll of batting a couple of years ago and I have used it all up. I have one 4' piece left--not even enough for my SIL's quilt. I will have to buy another roll!

Here I am piecing batting for my quilts today.

I have a big bag of batting scraps in my sewing room for just this purpose!

I promise to try to blog a little more often now!  I have to get my sewing room tidied up next--my daughter is coming home to visit and her room is full of fabric and quilts. I will not be a popular Mom if it is not put away before she gets home... 

14 more!

I finished off the 14 string blocks I started earlier this week. 36/60 done now. I purchased more lightweight interfacing earlier this week so as soon as I get more foundations cut, I will be able to make the rest of my string blocks.

Here is a close up of some of the fabrics in these strings--bananas, birds, a Dr Suess print, more selvages, letters, ---endless possibilities!

My husband and I cleaned out the freezer today--a job that was well overdue. I am not sure why I had all those freezer burned buns in the bottom of the freezer--they are not there anymore!  It is all neat and tidy once again...I wonder how long it will last?

Stringing along...

Christine and I got together to sew last night. I finished off my last 4 blocks like this...

My 30 blocks are on the right and Christine's 20 are on the left. She is making a twin sized quilt and I am making a queen sized quilt.

We both worked on string blocks last night. Christine made her first 5 blocks...

She has lots of fun fabrics in these blocks!

I started 14 more string blocks and hope to finish them later this week.

When these are done, I will have 36/60 string blocks done. I have to purchase some more light-weight non-fusible interfacing for the foundations for the remaining 24 string blocks.

We have plans to get together for another evening next week to work on more string blocks. These are taking a while.

RRCB progress

 

After I washed the fabric I purchased at "Mad About Patchwork", I noticed that one piece of fabric had my name on it!   I will have to save this selvage for a special spot in a future quilt!

I made 6 more string blocks for RRCB this past week. I am up to 22/60 now. It still feels like I have a long way to go...

Today, I made 12 more of these blocks. I have 4 more to finish and then these will be done, to this stage anyway!

I like the scissor fabric in this block!

Christine and I are getting together tomorrow night to work on this quilt again. She has been on vacation for the last couple of weeks so I am looking forward to hearing about her time away!