Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Staying Home

You too, I hope? Nothing much going on here. I make face masks. We walk the dog sometimes. I've been doing a lot of healthy cooking. This means I need fresh food. As often as I can, I try to get my groceries delivered so I can avoid shopping.  For awhile now, many of the stores around here have not had any available delivery times. You load up an online cart and you can't get a delivery date. Or you get one 10 days away and by the time it comes around they've run out of everything on the list. Frustrating. This morning I logged into Amazon just to check and what do you know - Whole Foods came through - Yay! We have a store near us and they had a delivery opening for today. Who ever thought I'd be so excited about getting my groceries delivered?? Put a smile on my face too. 



Weekend before last I was organizing my fabric and sewing room and finally said "Enough of this - I really feel like like just playing around with my scraps and making a little something."  And so I asked my Facebook group if they wanted to join me in a sew along to make a small project.

First, we made some four patches using 1 1/2" scrap squares -


Then we added a little quarter-square triangle block to the pile -

                                            

                                        

Sew the blocks in strips. Next, add sashing between the strips - 


Sew on some borders and Voila! A cute little mini made in a weekend. I've always loved this reproduction brown fabric left over from one of my larger quilts and it was fun to use it again. Makes it look like a little antique doll quilt.


You can find the pattern in the Facebook group files. I called it the 2020 Stay at Home and Sew Mystery Doll Quilt.

I made a few tops this year but can't seem to actually finish any of them. I'm feel like I'm more in the making mode than the finishing mode.


These are all free patterns in the Facebook group files.


 Right now I'm finishing up the pattern for the final installment of the 2020 Mystery quilt. This is as far as we've gotten. It snowed a bit here a few weeks ago.


Over the weekend I was working on the applique for the border, which is the next step, and realized I forgot to make a second heart. The hearts, plus all of those little 3" blocks you made earlier, will be combined with some additional applique to make the border.


If you're participating in this Mystery, stop by the FB group files or visit my website on Friday, May 1, to get the last pattern and see how everything comes together. The applique part for the border is really cute. I hadn't done any applique for awhile so it was nice to take some quiet time and do some hand sewing. I always show up for deadlines, hah! Maybe I need to put "Quilt those little quilts" on my calendar (with a reminder) in the coming weeks. Mostly, I am anxious to finish the Mystery quilt so I can get back to making some quilts I started last year before I got sidetracked working on the new book. Which is still supposed to come out in the fall. I just finished editing the page proofs and it is looking fantastic. I'll be excited to show you more in a few months. 

Aside from getting some sewing done, the other good thing about staying home is I've gotten quite a bit of reading done. This book was one of my favorites. I had read Setterfield's book Once Upon a River last year and liked that. I also read three more Ann Patchett books, Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout and a couple of pretty mediocre mysteries when my attention span was sorely lacking. 


I hope all of you out there are doing well. Stay safe and healthy! 






13 comments:

Sandy said...

I love that darling little quiit you just "threw together" with the four-patches. Of course, you have the best scraps!

sue bennett said...

You always have the best scrap just hanging out in your sewing room. Sweet little doll quilts you have laying there. We tend to go out once a week to make a grocery run. In and out on Senior hour and back home for the week.

Linda said...

Love the quilt...wish I had the book to read..lol looks like a good one. Read every Diane Mott Davidson book in my " collection"

quiltgrannie said...

Loved stitching along with you once again. I'm making masks today with my granddaughter. Do once a week shopping at senior times. Thank god I have a yard to be in when the weather permits. Stay safe Kathy, hopefully we can meet for lunch in the future.

Jennifer M said...

Kathy you do have the prettiest little scraps laying around your sewing room. I enjoyed doing the Stay at Home doll mystery and seeing all the interpretations. Looking forward to seeing the final step in the mystery. Stay safe and healthy.

Anonymous said...

Kathy, it's so great to get a post from you, you have been so missed! All your little quilts are so special. Love your scraps and your magic in putting them together. Thank you for sharing, you surely gave me a boost today.
Jan from CA

Kathleen Tracy said...

Thanks, Jan! I get lazy about writing the blog sometimes . . . . Nice to hear someone missed me!

Kathleen Tracy said...

Sandy and Sue - I DO have the best scraps. That's because I buy a lot of different fabrics. I was telling Sue the other day I don't usually buy yards and yards of fabric - I feel like I have millions of small pieces of fabric from buying 1/4 or 1/8 yards or from bundles for years. I'd rather go into a shop and come out with 20 small cuts of different prints. Nice variety for my scrappy blocks but I get stuck if I need a border haha.

Kathleen Tracy said...

Sue - I still go out once a week too. But I used to shop at several stores every week for different things. Whole Foods has the best vegetables and chicken around here. But they don't carry things like my cereal, Triscuits, Kleenex or Twizzlers etc. . . . so I have to go somewhere else for those.

Kathleen Tracy said...

Karen - we'll try to do lunch when this is all over, LOL.

Sue said...

Always so inspiring!

Cynthia@wabi-sabi-quilts said...

Something about the triangle block in the middle... so special. Your little quilts are so beautiful. Thank you for the inspiration. I'm glad your book is on schedule to be published!

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