Sunday, March 24, 2024

Project Quilting 15.6 Irish Chain

For whatever reason, maybe a lot going on this past week, this last challenge for Project Quilting gave me pause. We were to work with the Irish Chain quilt block.

I first played around in my graph paper design book, originally planning a quilt for myself, baby size, as another of my take-to-yoga-class quilts, or else a placemat for my good friend John. I knew I would do a triangle in a square in the alternating squares. I made a quilt with this design in a 9-patch exchange about 20 years ago and I just love the effect. It was a busy week and although I plan to do that yoga class quilt or 'Baby Boomer Blankie', a placemat, hopefully two, it had to be. (Baby Boomer Blankie is a term coined by my friend Rose, and since I am born in the last year of the Boomers, I guess it can apply to moi as well), 
I finally got to my sewing machine on Friday and by Saturday around 10 pm (gulp) I had one complete. 


Of course I had to make delicious soft ginger cookies, a recipe Brady shared with me. Brady also gave me that mug. The cream and sugar pottery is now 45+ years old, a pre-marriage gift from Pat, my SIL. It’s all about the photo shoot right?!

Friday, March 22, 2024

Rainbow Fish SAHRR Complete

It was another fun year of brain work in the Stay At Home Round Robin hosted by Gail of QuiltingGail, along with several co-hosts who gave a directive each week as to what to do for that specific round. My forlorn fish and heart blocks have grown into this adorable baby/toddler quilt and I just love how it all came together.


When I drove down Main Street earlier this week, I spied that mural and thought I think I should use it for a quilt photo of my fishies quilt! Thanks to some ‘rough surface’ tape, I was able to tape it to that wall. Don’t worry: I first checked in a small corner that it wouldn’t harm the mural. Eeee! I did a little squeal when I stepped back to snap the photo. It is good!

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Eighth Annual Quilt Along Heads Up!

Happy first full day of Spring to those readers in the Northern Hemisphere where the Vernal Equinox occurred last night at 11:06 EST. Happy first well due to getting this out later than planned, make that the second full day of autumn to my Southern Hemisphere readers, where the Autumnal Equinox occurs at 2:07 AEDT. In both hemispheres the amount of daylight and nighttime is almost exactly equal. The world is totally in sync!

If you are looking for my Villa Rose Designs post, click here.

So today is an auspicious day to announce that exactly two weeks from today marks the kickoff of my eighth annual quilt along, and I am excited to give you a little teaser of what we are doing this year. First of all, here is the graphic:


Feel free to grab it for your sidebar or for other social media. At the end of the post is another graphic to post on your Instagram stories or wherever else you post if you are participating. I appreciate the help in getting the word out about my free, yes completely free, QAL!

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Villa Rosa Designs Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the hop! I am Sandra of mmmquilts, which came about from the original name of my blog which I started in 2013, Musings of a Menopausal Melon. It was started when I quit teaching because my husband took early retirement, and I was certainly not going to work if he wasn't. Along with that major decision we made a major move across Canada, and the blog (I love to write) became my way of keeping in touch with family and friends afar as I mused about our new direction in life, life in general, and quilting, which led to a whole new journey in and of itself! When quilting became the predominant subject of the blog, I shortened the name to mmmquilts, all one word, lower case. I also design patterns, which have appeared in several publications, and you can also find them in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts. On April 3, my eighth annual Quilt Along begins, running through June 15 at a nice relaxed pace. This year it is once again free to participants, with some great prizes to be won.

I was thrilled to be invited to participate for the second year of this hop which showcases five fast and fun quilts to make. The one I chose came together from start to finish within a few hours!

Rufus, my quilt model

This design is named Gypsy Rose, but I’ve named my quilt Around the Block for a couple of reasons. Read on for that explanation, as well as to enter for your chance to win some truly fantastic prizes, many of which are open to quilters around the globe this year.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Project Quilting 15.5 Wearables

I actually was excited about this prompt because I felt it would be the impetus to get me doing a little garment sewing again. I still have kept a few pieces of yardage in the thought (hope) I’d sew some clothes again one day. 
Here is the top I made!


A couple of years ago I made myself a pair of pajama shorts using the same pattern as we’d used when Brady was here visiting to make his. I originally had a dress in mind for this fabric but, since I had scads of yardage and I really liked the print, I decided to make the shorts. They turned out great and I thought why not make a top to go with them? A top would be a faster make since I only had from Thursday on to get something together before the deadline.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

SAHRR Round 6 Letters and Numbers

And just like that, another Stay at Home Round Robin is done. This was my second time participating, and once again, I really enjoyed the work for my math and creative brain, and really enjoyed where the quilt ended up, as much a surprise for me as those watching!

Many thanks to Gail of QuiltingGail for dreaming this up and being the main host. 

Friday, February 23, 2024

SAHRR Round 5 “Four”

This round’s directive was given to us by Gail at QuiltingGail. She said the theme this week is ‘4’. We could do whatever we want but it has to have an element of four in it. I decided to make 4-patches, and my first plan was to put them in the four corners. Here is how my quilt ended up:


Read on to find out how it got there.