To Do Tuesday #95

Hi Everyone! We are having a beautiful spring day here in San Jose. It is the high 70’s here and so pleasant with a blue sky. I am enjoying every minute of it. I visited my sister Dorothy in Modesto, California which can be very hot, but instead it was a beautiful day which we spent most of in her backyard. I loved the visit.

I will be linking up with Carol over at Quilt Schmilt (hopefully). Come take a look.

Under the Needle Last Week

I got home on Wednesday morning from my train trip. I pretty much spent the day settling back in before I spent all day Thursday cutting and prepping for my Quilt Zoom day on Friday. The momentum from Friday carried all the way through the weekend. Last week was very productive!

• The House block for Bunny Knoll on Wander Lane was finally fused. I will be showing you some more pictures of the process it little later.
• I continued working on my English Paper Piecing project Ruby’s Garden block 23 on the train. This week I was able to finish the main block. I just need to add some sashing.
• This month was yellow for the May Monthly Color Challenge. I went through my scrap pile and settled on these fabrics for my block. I had to do it inverse (light/dark) because of the scraps available. I love it!
• I did the first 12 days of May for my May Temperature Cottage. With it being spring, the temperatures have ranged from 58 -86F. Makes for a colorful block so far.
• I cut four blocks of the 2023 100 days 100 blocks (81-84) and was able to sew 3 of them this week. #feelingaccomplished
• I have been meaning to work on my 365 block challenge quilt for months. Instead I have been procrastination. With May upon me, I figured it was time to move forward. I was able to cut and sew both August 30th and August 31st blocks.
• I have a bunch of precut churn dash blocks. I set a goal of completing one of those this month. It turned out so pretty.
• FINISH!!!! I finished my December Gnome Is Where The Heart is this week. I took it on the train to finish binding it by hand. I decided to add tabs with buttons for hanging instead of a sleeve. I like it.

I think my monthly goal list is working.

May Goals List: Week of May 21st Possibilities

Changing things up again. At the beginning of May, I spent the whole day working on an active WIP list to try and get my ADHD under control. (Plus I love to plan). I came up with a pretty comprehensive list – see the side bar for detail list. Here is the next step in finishing that list plus a few extras:

1. Cut #100days100blocks2023 blocks 85-90. I pulled fabrics last week.
2. Sew #100days100blocks2023 blocks 84-87.
3. 2023 Sweet Childhood Memories assemble two side borders
4. Continue working on Leaders & Enders blocks Daydreamer.
5. Tula Pink Butterfly Quilt – make so half square triangles for Section 1
6. EPP Ruby’s Garden finish block 23
7. EPP 1920’s Farmers Wife recut and baste missing pieces for block 45
8. EPP 2021 Lost & Found ~ sash one block
9. Decide on backing for #100days100blocks2019
10. 2019 Zuma charm quilt make one side border
11. 2017 Halifax Temperature quilt ~ finish September 2018
12. 2021 Sunshine Quilt ~ make 4 flying geese units for pieced border
13. Blooming Pointsettas ~ finish red applique
14. A Year in Words Christmas ~ finish red applique
15. Bunny Knoll on Wander Lane – assemble top
16. Add borders to Patriotic Table Runner
17. Spring Placemats – Cut backing
18. Design boards – finish last 2
19. Call Gammill back to finish scheduling maintenance
20. Organize pink threads
21. Cut 4 coordinating spring napkins
22. Build Foundation Paper Piecing quilt in EQ8. I downloaded fabric swatches to be imported to EQ8.

Look at that! The list is a little shorter. Down from 25 last week. Yea!

Afterthoughts

I definitely have a process when appliquing. I usually assemble the background first. This one needed the hill fused on before finishing the background with the checkered border.

I like to fuse units together such as the house, the flowers, the bunny with tail, butterfly, and the eggs. I use a light board to aid in that step and then slid it over to be fused.

After peeling all the units off, I lay them out. With this new applique mat, I can peel off the sheet while still warm. The old style applique sheet you have to wait for it to cool or you lose your fusible web.

Some people use the light board for laying out the units on the background, but I just eyeball it and get it as close to the photo as possible keeping in mind the 1/4 inch border on the outside.

I forgot to add the bush behind the house. I peeled back the house while it was still warm to get the bush in there. Same thing happened with the roof and the awning over the door on the house. Normally if you peel it back right away, everything is still soft and gooey so it all fuses back nicely.

For Shamrock Place I added a lightweight stablizer to the back of the house block and did all my applique before assembling the top. I realized that the top is actually fairly small, so this time I am going to layer with batting and backing. I will do some stay stitching on the top before appliquing each piece. After I finish this one, I will determine which method I will use for the rest of the series.

Peggy Stockwell in San Jose, California