Bunches of cases

      At our guild quilt retreat in November, I was able to complete sewing the annual Flannel pillowcases as well as some other things. I had washed all the flannel and cut it to size as well as the strips for the little band. I was happy I was able to find great flannel online (Dear Stella, Moda, Northcott, Free Spirit) to make them. Most of them are wrapped and ready for Christmas. I have some extra, which is just fine. The cases are folded in the photos so I could get them all in, they are not that tiny. I kept the sheep one for myself. I adore sheep, wish I had one or two.

Flannel Fabric plans

    Every year I make members of my family flannel pillowcases. I used to buy woodland themed fabric in the Adirondacks on vacation from a store in Inlet, NY. They sadly retired, closed, sold the building and a great tradition vaporized. I have searched for another source for a while and was able to get a bunch of it from Hancock's of Paducah and equilter. Some even on sale. I used to love the quality I bought- it was mostly Moda and Northcott, but they don't seem to be making it much anymore. I like to feel the fabric before I buy and can't do that online. If anyone knows of another source, let me know. It seems plaids and pastel baby print flannels are the majority of what is out there, not useful to me.
    All the fabric I bought seems ok except the blue plaid- not a great texture for against the face. It is all washed and ready to cut. I usually sew all them on retreat in November all at once. Easier that way and I leave all the mess there. I will use the gray dot and green dot as cuffs for a lot of them. I use the taco or burrito method to sew them. I don't own a serger, so I use French seams.

A layout to sew and some pillowcase presents

     These diagonal variation blocks have sat in a plastic bag for a while. I think because I was going to make 2 comfort quilts out of them and have to add a lot of borders. The border fabric choices had me hung up. I put all of the blocks, but 4, on the wall, and I like the way it looks without any borders. It is a bit bigger than the comfort quilts I usually make, but that is ok, it looks good. This is easy block that I got from Liz at jellyrollfabric. It uses WOF strips, 2 1/2" colors and white WOF cut in half the long way. I sewed a fat, skinny, fat, skinny together using up all the jelly roll. Then, the strip sets are paired right sides together and sewn into a tube. The tube is cut at 45 degrees into triangles that open up into blocks. I marked the tops of the rows with painters tape and will sew them into a web first.

Blocks will finish at 7"

     My son in law, the other half of the chemistry professors duo, had a birthday last week and I did not get these done in time. They are finished now, and he will get them when they visit tomorrow.
     I can sew quilts and flat things pretty good, so pillowcases are up my alley. I take a lot of time and thinking to choose the body, sleeve and accent stripe, but sewing goes quick.

Blasted in Buffalo

     I am sure if anyone watches national news, you are aware of the snow situation here. Actually, I live just north of the city and am out of the persistent band. I have only had about 5". However, my friends and family are literally trapped inside their homes. As a lifelong resident of Buffalo, I have never seen so much snow all at once. We are talking 5-6' of snow against homes. This is not the norm around here. I have been glued to the radio and on the phone to my mom and friends. There is no way to get to help them. 
     I have tried to get back on track sewing since last week I watched my grandkids 24/7 for a week while my son and daughter in law took a long overdue vacation, but the situation is serious here. My new lens came in and did not function properly, so I sent it back and with the mail situation, I am still relying on my crummy point and shoot. I continue to quilt away on Circle Dance and cut fabric into a workable system.
     My 4 year old grandson was able to make this pillowcase that he used all week on my Spartan handcrank. We both had a good time. I used Elmer's washable glue to hold the seams instead of pins. Worked great.

     The Frozen panel that I reluctantly bought in Houston has been sewn into a top. I cut off the terribly ugly pink border and added two solids and a snowflake border to make it a nice size for a 2 yr. old. Now it needs to be quilted for Christmas, so I need to get Circle Dance done.

      Also, I continue to cut fabric squares for a colorwash quilt and sort them on cheap cookie sheets. I think there is enough and it is daunting to know where to start.

End of year finishes

    Yikes, the Christmas holidays trampled me. My daughter moved from Rochester, NY to Meadville, PA to join her husband at Allegheny College teaching chemistry (two of them are professors now). They got married in May, he moved to Alleghany in August, and she was able to get her PhD work done in December. Organic chemistry in college sunk my destiny in engineering. Go figure, Ria is an organic chemistry PhD. December 20-21st and Dec. 26th were devoted to moving her. Rain and snow added to the mix. I am so proud of my daughter and her husband, but sad to have her move farther away. 
   I was able to complete a couple of things that I can show. I also assembled and labeled blocks for three comfort exploding squares quilts and the orange one previously. I did not photo the assembling, wait until I sew the tops for photos. I got  a "new" Singer 15 sewing machine that appeared to be in better shape than it is. And I have some machine bumps in the roads.
   First, the finishes. Made my grandson a truck pillowcase, taco style.

Bought the fabric at the Ivy Thimble in Fairport, NY

     Finished the Aurora Aura quilt I started in September 2011 at a Karla Alexander class. The quilting was done in the blue areas to relate to water, and the green bands to suggest leaves. Each band has a different quilt pattern. Just finished the binding yesterday.

56" x 82"

Border Detail

     Next, Flippin 9 patch that I started a couple of years ago as a class at Threads of Time. It sat around just waiting to be quilted. My son and daughter in law want it to top their bed as they love these colors. I used Glide thread to quilt; I just love, love it.  I tried not to use a lot of curved lines to keep it not real feminine. Just the borders have curved lines with added leaf shapes. All the quilts free motion quilted on the Singer 301.

Border lines