Update and more Stonefield's Blocks

 Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by today.  Sorry for the absence.  I don't usually do personal updates, so I'll put that at the end of the post so you can skip over it if you'd like. 

Here is a little progress on my Stonefield's quilt.  These are blocks 7 and 8 called Pomegranate.  Looking at the photos, those melons in the center look a little lopsided.  I'll just blame that on my photography.  That sounds good anyway.  

I've been working on a new project called Avignon.  It's a pattern in The Charm of Quilts, Feathering the Nest 4 book by Brigitte Giblin.  I bought the English Paper Piecing parts when I first bought the book sometime in 2025 and then put them away.  I bought the floral fabrics on a trip to Tennessee earlier this year so I decided to use some of them in this quilt.  I love that hexagons are so portable.  

Our weather here has been wet to say the least.  We've had some rain every day for the last 7 days.  Where I live there is no flooding, but there are a lot of people here in Indiana that are flooded out and have lost everything. Thanks to those that have written to check on me.  

One night we even had hail.  This was really loud and sounded like someone was throwing rocks at the windows.  Of course we went out on the front porch during this to take photos.  

This was 11 o'clock at night, and the temperature was in the low 70s so it didn't stay around long. 

I enjoy the hummingbirds coming to the feeder.  This little guy is kind of unusual because he doesn't constantly flap his wings.  

He even lands on the top of the pole.  Most of them that come to the feeder are constantly in motion.  We have a couple of finch feeders and another regular feeder but haven't filled them lately because there are ducks in the pond that come into the yard and eat what the the birds kick out on the ground.  I met one of our neighbors down the street recently, and she said "oh your the ones that feed the ducks."   (Okay, at one time I counted 30 ducks in our yard.)   So for awhile we aren't filling those feeders so hoping to discourage the ducks.

All of the rain and storms lately have made some beautiful sunsets.  Here's one from a couple of nights ago.  

Update:  Again sorry for the absence.   For the last month my son, daughter-in-law, 2 grandsons and my daughter all went to Europe for 3 weeks.  They went to Germany, Austria, France, Scotland and Ireland.  They ended the trip in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the International Handbell Festival and then flew home from Ireland.  So while they were gone, we have been cat and house sitting.  My son lives just over a mile from us, but our daughter lives a half hour one way.  So I've spent a lot of time driving back and forth.   And I enjoy all of their cats so when I go, besides feeding, etc., I spend time playing and sitting with them.   I tried taking some hexagons to stitch on while I was at my daughters, but her cats soon knocked them on the floor to play with.  I did do some embroidery though.  More on that later on.  

The day after they got back I went to Simple What Nots club at Back Door Quilts and Knotty Girls in the afternoon with lunch in between.  That's always a fun time.  I've been working on the project for next month.  I'll post it when I'm finished.

And the day after fun at the quilt shop I had an appointment with my knee surgeon.   For those of you that don't know I had a right knee replacement July 21, 2025 so this was basically my one year check up.  I've had pain on the outside of that knee since last December.  I had an appointment with him in January and another in March complaining of knee pain.  The first visit he told me to exercise which I'd been doing.  The second visit he said to keep exercising and that he doesn't do anything in the first year after surgery.  This visit he gave me a shot of cortisone (with a really long needle) in the outside of my right knee.....AND, he's sending me back to physical therapy 2-3 times a week for 8 weeks.  No, I'm not thrilled.  To say I'm not thrilled is pretty much of an understatement.  But, I'll do it because I don't know what else to do.  So in between that, I'll just keep on stitching.  

I'm linking up with Judy for Design Wall Monday.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Back to Stonefields - Blocks 5 and 6

 Hello Everyone  

I hope you're doing well today.  It looks like we're about to have another thunderstorm.   We don't usually lose power, but just in case I'll get this typed and ready to post.  

Here is Stonefield's blocks 5 and 6 called Orange Peel.  You probably could have guessed that.   

 My pattern has pretty decent line drawings, so I'm able to put the pattern and my background piece on the light box and draw the applique lines.  Then I draw the orange peel shape onto freezer paper, iron it and trace around it with either a Frixion pen or a chalk pencil depending on which one shows up better.  Now I don't always trace 8 orange peels onto freezer paper and then trace around them.  Sometimes, I just draw a couple and hold them on my fabric with my thumb and trace around them.  (I know a lot of you are cringing....but, it works for me.)

Here are a few of the hexagons for the outside border.  They are 3/4" hexies.  I know some people that are making this quilt may not be doing all of the flying geese and hexagon borders, but I think that just adds so much to the quilt.   So I'll keep going.  This is a REALLY long term project.  I'll try and not get too sidetracked.  BUT, these blocks are a bit tedious so after awhile it's nice to work on something else.

So, here's the kinds of things that I do.  I was just looking for something when I came across this zipper bag with a container and another zipper bag inside it.  I guess for me, it's kind of out of signt-out of mind.  I found these 1" hexagons.  They are all sewn like I typically sew my hexagons.   I sew all 6 hexagons together leaving an opening to sew the center in.  

This is what was in the container inside the zipper bag.  These are 1" hexagons that I've collected to be sewn in the center of the ones that were there in that zipper bag.  The only thing I can say for myself is that 1" hexagons really aren't my favorite.  I really like the look and feel of 3/4" hexagons so that's mostly what I sew.  Maybe here is where I should say that sometimes I am forgetful.  

I have another container of 1" hexagons that are in bright fabrics.  It's probably time that I put these together into some kind of quilt.   I'm open to suggestions.  

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Now how do I quilt my small quilts?

 Before I start this post, I want you to know that I'm not an experienced machine quilter.  I enjoy it and love to do it on smaller quilts. Remember, this is just how I do it.  Anything that's too big goes off to a long arm machine quilter. 

 This quilt is Social Climber, the latest one that our Simple Whatnots Club did.  

In a lot of the quilts that I've quilted, I let the piecing of the blocks be my guide.  When I quilted Social Climber (above), I just did straight lines on the nine patches.  The squares in the nine patches are 1'" so straight lines seem to work best for me.  That is an easy way to do nine patches or anything with squares where you can mark a straight line (the longer, the better) and just sew across the quilt.  

This quilt from the Simple Whatnots club is Box of Chocolates.  I used a chalk marker that you can find on Amazon to mark the lines.   The straight sewing is pretty easy with just squares.  

This is the small Strawberry Table Mat that I did the tutorial for in this blog post.    You can see that I did a swoopy thing in each block.  I did that because I think it's harder to quilt straight lines when you've got half square triangles in a quilt.  

So here is how I quilted the Strawberry mat and the basket blocks in Social Climber.  (Thanks to my husband for drawing the graphic.)  If  you start at number 1 and follow the numbers, you will eventually end up at the top right hand corner and will finish quilting across the top and end up back at number 1.   This is what I call the Swoopy Design.  

The quilt below is Star Drift.  That's the first quilt I did from the Simple Whatnots club.  I did some swooping and straight lines on this one.  

This table runner, Out for A Spin,  is our project for next month.  

Here's what I really like to quilt.  If you Google Angela Walters Paisley and watch her video or any of her quilting videos, she really makes you feel like you can do it.  I go to the dollar store and get a sketch pad for $1.  Well, I guess it's $1.25 now, and I get a marker.  Then I watch her video and  try and draw what I've seen in the video on the sketch pad.  I start in the corner of the page and draw what  I've seen and try and work my way across the page filling it with the design and then try and get the whole page covered.  Like I said before:  I'm not good, but I really enjoy it.  

Our Simple Whatnots leader, Nancy, draws up a design each month for a charity block so if we want to make a few to donate to her, we can.  Then she makes them into tops and quilts them to donate to different charities.   I have some  a lot of Lori Holt fabric so I used some to make the rail fence blocks.  

This month's charity block is a half log cabin.  Here's what I've made so far.  

I've been doing some embroidery,  and of course I'm always gluing hexagons.  I don't really have much else to show right now.  Doing the little quilts and making the charity blocks is keeping me busy for the most part.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding time to stitch today!!