I made this quilt for a special lady in Ohio. When my sister passed away it broke my heart to hear her husband say he didn’t stay in the room with her as she said goodbye to this world. I just couldn’t imagine that. I was happy though that the hospital Chaplin was a church friend and she stayed with her till she went home to heaven. I wanted to make her something and what better that a quilt using a block called God’s Eye. She sent me a beautiful note and included that it was a blessing to her to stay with Jill till she left. I know I’ll see her again one day and we can talk about the God’s eye quilt. She learned to quilt a couple of years before she passed away and immediately fell in love with it. She made some beautiful quilts,

I made another one in similar colors for the church to donate. It was a great fundraiser.

Nothing special on these, just a couple of bargellos finished since I last posted. The green/purple was a special request from a friend. The orange and black was just a pattern I had for a while and had been wanting to try. Because the directions were so crazy I decided to pull random fabrics rather than buy new just in case it didn’t work out. I really like it but I think it came out like a nascar flag. the gentlemen that received it as a prayer quilt loved it.

I listed these 2 separate just because I love them. The blue one has a special place in my heart as I made it for my only brother while he was fighting cancer. He lost that fight earlier this year and he will be missed. I have to say he lived his life the way he wanted. Work hard and play hard. I hope he left feeling like he did most of what he wanted to do while he was here. This is him with a cousin and a picture of his quilt. Took me a while to decide on one for him. I know once the cancer got serious the one thing he missed most was his boat and fishing. I used this fabric as it would hopefully remind him of the water and the coral he loved diving around in the Keys. Rest well brother. Your struggle here is over.

This one I posted separate from the rest just because I think it my be my favorite of all the hexagons I’ve made. Not sure I’d add cubes to anymore as I didn’t enjoy making them but they sure made this quilt pop.

It’s funny. In the last month 3 people have asked about my blog. I was surprised to see it’s been a year since I posted anything here. My sister loved reading all the boring things in my life and I think after she passed away I just kind of forget about it.

So what exciting things have I been doing over the past year? Well, that’s easy. Not much. Between the doctor, work, dogs, home and quilting that pretty much fills up my time. I guess I can share some quilts I’ve made between last November and now. That’s about the only activity I have spare time for.

Here are some of the hexagon and octagons that are finished. I think I might be addicted to making these. I have probably another 15 cut and ready to sew.

With the ladies finished with their women of the bible quilts and the men of the bible being another 24 plus month project, we found 2 more ideas for the ladies to make in 2024. They always have individual projects but we usually have one or two everyone tries out.

Pam found another bargello pattern she’d like to try. I think we need a short bargello break so this will be a while. It should be interesting to see how many different color ideas the ladies come up with. and how different they all look once they are finished.

I also want them to try the blooming nine patch. I think they’ll like it when finished and they will learn a lot about color placement. How you line up colors is what makes the final look of this quilt.

Apparently I love salt a lot more than I love food. At the rate I’m going I should be 100 pounds lighter but that hasn’t happened – lol.

I have found you can flavor food with anything you like, and as much of it as you like, but the bottom line is, salt is delicious. Food without it is just well, blah. However I found one breakfast that you can make ahead and it isn’t terrible. Note I didn’t say it was great, I said it’s not terrible. It requires you to season your own pork sausage, use nasty swiss cheese and Hawaiian buns as they are lower in salt, but they reheat well and are edible.

This one isn’t low salt except I just didn’t season it with salt. Since pasta has no sodium and ground beef has very little, the only thing you have to count is the sauce and the mozzarella cheese. It’s called sheet pan lasagna. I didn’t have a sheet pan but I made do. It’s made with all the same ingredients you just don’t layer and bake for an hour.

I made my sauce, added some cheese and meat then once the noodles were boiled I just chopped them up and tossed them in the sauce. Added cheese on top and baked 30 minutes. It was pretty good. Just needed salt lol. I should have taken a picture after I cooked it.

Ok if you’ve never had a nuclear stress test, they will give you stress. It takes about 4 or 5 hours, most of which is waiting around. You get an IV and wait, then meds and wait, then pictures, then wait, then a treadmill and more meds, then wait and more pictures. I think the test gave me stress. But at least that is past and so is my week of wearing a heart monitor. Funny they warn you the tape may irritate your skin but don’ tell you the small electric monitor will leave blisters on your skin. I guess it’s all for a good cause.

I am believing it will be good news just ruling out possible things and I can just stay on my current meds.

I can’t believe I’ve had this pattern for probably 3 or 4 years. I decided it was time to make a traditional lone star. I think this one said it’s a version of a pattern called Bethlehem Star. I’ll have to look that up one day.

I don’t normally quilt mine this dense but I hoped it distracted from the few places where my seams could have lined up a bit better. It must have helped because I had to really look for them. I like how this came out but it’s one of those quilts I can say I made it, but I likely wouldn’t make another. It’s pretty and came out as I expected, but I didn’t enjoy making it enough to do another.

I normally wait and post once finished but this is a gift for my dog groomer. She comes Saturday and I’ll be hard pressed to get the binding finished and it washed in time so I might not get another picture. I won’t see her again till after Christmas. The second picture is the binding I’m using. I love using striped and polka dot binding whenever I can.

I tried to talk the ladies into trying this one but so far only Claudia has done one. Maybe once the others catch up on projects they will give it a try also. This was made using jelly roll strips I cut from various Tula Pink fabrics.

Wow our quilt group is sewing up a storm. I could literally fill up a blog with the quilts the ladies have made this year. Thought I’d share a few they recently finished.

This is Pam’s puzzle box she made using some of the fabrics she bought on her trip to Italy, Spain, etc. It came out so soft and pretty. All 3 ladies made this pattern,

Another one of Pam’s. She found this pattern on line called Tessa. It really is a super pretty pattern and she did a great job deciding on colors. These fabrics came from her trip also.

This is Pam’s women of the bible done in Christmas fabrics. We spent 24 months making blocks and it is finally quilted and done. I’ll post the other ladies once theirs is finished. She did an amazing job on this quilt.

This is Marilyn’s puzzle box. In person those colors are amazing. Very feminine. Another one we used her stash so I don’t know the fabric lines.

This is Marilyn’s Tessa quilt. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it once it was completed. She has a couple more finished but I need to get pictures. This one is all random fabrics we picked from her stash.

Aww I should not have said just ladies. This is Robert’s newest one block wonder. The orange really set off the colors. I don’t have a pic since it’s been finished. Can’t wait to show you his compass quilt that is almost finished.

This is one Claudia just finished. I spent about a year deciding on the colors then made the large center and realized I couldn’t see the pieces well enough to finish the top with the smaller stars. Claudia asked to finish it and she did a great job. The blue background is what really makes the look of this quilt. I’ve seen one done in yellow and one in white and not near as pretty.

Claudia made this beautiful version of a pattern called Fresh Grapes. The colors all blend together so well. I’m not sure of the jelly roll line or I’d include that for you.

This is Brenda’s first finished quilt. She is kinda of new to our local group. She joined when the group started and had to quit to deal with some health issues. She is back and doing a great job. This came out lovely and I’ve seen a few more she has finished and just waiting for lessons in how to baste her tops. Can’t wait to see what all she accomplishes. She used a Robert Kaufman vintage Christmas jelly roll.

Some of the ladies in my local quilt group had never been to a quilt show so we decided instead of our monthly group, we’d take a road trip. Our plan was originally to go to Spring Hill but then I heard that was a small show, maybe 30-40 quilts. We decided to try Ocala since it boasted 200+ quilts and vendors.

I have to say I haven’t been to a show since before Covid and maybe that’s what affected it, but it wasn’t the best I’d seen. I think the local guild tried their best but they were way short of 200 quilts and I was surprised to see how many were the same pattern, in the same fabrics. I was more surprised that the few vendors they had only brought their sale fabrics instead of new lines and there were no food or drink vendors. They did have an excellent array of donated gift baskets. They looked enticing until we found out they won’t mail. We’d have to make a 4 hour round trip to pick it up if we won.

So was it worth a 4 hour round trip? For the quilt show, maybe not. For the fun and fellowship, I think so. We had a day away from home with breakfast and a lot of funny stories and I had a great time. We even found an Ocala quilt shop retiring and offering 45% off the entire shop.

I think the ladies had a good time. I didn’t get to talk to Pam or Claudia before they left but Pam messaged to say she had a blast and Marilyn and Brenda were thrilled for a day away from hubby with friends and having fun.

So all in all, I think it was a great day. we’ve already planned to go to the sewing expo in January so that should really give them a look at quilt shows.