Carey Family

Sue

RSC2026-Feb week 2

by 4 Comments

RSC26 Button

My WIP goal for February is done! This quilt by The Pattern Basket was begun with my quilt group in 2018 & then abandoned by me with two birds left. My partners finished theirs immediately. I should say that the bird house was my own addition, replacing two bird blocks. It’s now with one of my quilting partners for quilting. She’s thinking clouds & aqua thread because the background has aqua polka dots.

This week, I also got started on the Quilter’s Cove QAL. My pattern choice has houses & trees, so I cut out all the pieces for 19 green tree blocks & chose fabric for January’s blue houses. Hoping to get all caught up on that in the next two weeks, plus green Starlets & Nine-Patch/Snowball. Happy Valentine’s Day!

RSC2026-it’s green February

by 8 Comments

RSC26 Button

It turns out that green-centric WIPs are thin on the ground in my studio. So I pulled out an old group quilt project. I hated every minute of these birds & when my partners went ahead & finished on their own, I left it in the box. I don’t know how long ago we did this but it was long before COVID, so…..years.

One of my quilting partners gave me a gift for Christmas of free quilting, so I told her I would get the birds done & have her quilt it. She LOVES the birds, so that will be fun for her. These are the last two birds I needed to do before sashing & border.

I’ve since done a couple other quilts by The Pattern Basket & understand her method of pattern writing, plus I have more experience & all the things that frustrated me back then seemed no big deal now. So these went together quickly. I also got the first two rows sashed this week, but with two funerals this week, one of which included an overnight trip, I didn’t have much sewing time. But I’m thinking that even with the short month, I should stay on track with green blocks & maybe start the houses??

RSC2026-January blues are over

by 8 Comments

RSC26 Button

Rocky Road to Grayson is a blue WIP January finish! First goal accomplished. I started in January 2022, so it’s been around the studio for an age. It took much longer than I anticipated to finish, so I did not get any blue houses made for the Quilter’s Cove QAL.

I got seven full & one half block made for Starlets by Modernly Morgan & 14 string blocks for Stardust. The previously posted Nine-Patch & Snowball blocks round out my goals for the month. So I feel pretty dang good about things, even without the houses.

I got blue binding made & attached to County Fair from last year’s RSC & evening binding has begun.

Since it’s blue this month, I thought I’d report on my orange peels. I’m appliqueing these by hand each Monday morning in my handwork group. I got them all out this month to check on progress. I’m about 2/3 of the way through, so I should finish these up this year!

These charity baby quilts got bound this week & are ready to be donated. The left was made from orphan pieces leftover from the quilt I just finished, & the right was made from a friend’s unwanted charm pack.

2026 What’s in a Name?

by 1 Comment

I’ve done this reading challenge for several years & was sad that it seemed to have disappeared, but hooray! It’s back on!

-The challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2026. You can sign up any time, but only count books that you read between those dates.
-Read a book in any format (hard copy, ebook, audio) with a title that fits into each category.
-Don’t use the same book for more than one category.
-Creativity for matching the categories is not only allowed, it’s encouraged!
-You can choose your books as you go or make a list ahead of time.
-In 2026, choose 6 books that have titles that contain:
Six/6: Titles for this category need to include the word “six” or number “6” somewhere in the title, even if they are part of another word or number.
Cold weather: Your title for this category should include a word that describes cold weather such as “snow,” “ice,” blizzard,” “frozen,” etc.
Peace: Titles for this category need to include a word that describes peace: “peace,” “serenity,” “still,” “calm,” etc, even if it doesn’t directly mean “peace.”
Pathways: Titles for this category need to include words that are types of paths: “trail,” “road,” “avenue,” “sidewalk,” etc.
Terrain: Titles for this category need to include a word for a type of topographic terrain or the name of a particular part of terrain. Types of terrain: Mountains, Hills, Plains, Plateaus, Valleys, Deserts, Forests/Jungles, Wetlands, Coastal, Glacial/Polar
Flower: Titles for this category need to include a type of flower or the word “flower.”

RSC2026-week 3 of January blues

by 3 Comments

RSC26 Button

Progress on my blue WIP for my monthly goal. Can I finish this week?? Rocky Road to Grayson is a Bonnie Hunter pattern so the sashing is a ton of sewing: 3 strips with all 4 corners snowballed, then 1.5″ 9-patches for the cornerstones. So lots of time sending stuff under the needle. But the first two rows are together, the third is ready to have its top sashing attached, leaving two more rows for this week. Bonnie loves borders & I do not, so my lap-size version of her pattern is looking big enough for me. (Peeking out on the right are the first of the 4.5″ string blocks for Bonnie’s Stardust. Lots more are started on my table but these made it to the finish line.)

Cozy evening binding got this quilt group project all bound up. It’s a Brightly pattern, made after we did our Christmas version. This uses up all the leftover Songbook kit fabrics, with some stash thrown in, for a fully scrappy stash quilt. The night after I finished it, my son & daughter-in-law were over & I showed it to her. She loved it & asked if she could inherit it. I said, no, she could just have it now. So she chose the name, “Autumn Bloom”, I wrote on the tag, sewed it down & she left with a new quilt.

In other blue news, our current quilt group project is a flag quilt, each in our own fabrics. We’ve been working on these sawtooth stars since November. There are 60 total so lots of tiny flying geese. For Christmas, one of the group gave us each a Wing Clipper I, by Studio 180 Design, so the last set went much faster. They got sewed together with sashing this week & the blocks are now done. Next week we start sewing red & white stripe blocks.

I still need to sew my blue Starlets blocks, which are cut out. I’ve chosen my pattern for the Quilter’s Cove QAL, but no fabrics have been cut or sewn. It’s the My Town Quilt by Material Girl Quilts. I feel like blue may bleed into February!