WIP Wednesday 11.19.2025

 Boy, I feel like I am on 'rinse and repeat' cycle. Six more rope bowl candy dishes inching towards the finish line with the 7th one coiled for the start. My goal is to make 10 red with green accent rope bowl candy dishes. I hope to have them finished before Thanksgiving so I am all prepped for the December 10th Howell MelonHeads Christmas party. :)

pattern inspiration: It's a Wrap by Susan Breier

In other party news, I wrapped all 65 sets of silverware! I want to put the silverware at every place setting so it won't need to be carried...I don't have any pockets so I usually struggle with 'where' to put my silverware while filling my plate. :) Our theme is 'Santa Claus is coming to town!' so I pulled out my card stock, Stampin' Up punches, red/white twine and a 'Merry Christmas' stamp. The idea came form Pinterest but the one on the board was stamped with 'HoHoHo'. 

pattern inspiration: found on Pinterest

Sharing today with the Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday 11.18.2025

Another week and another color of candy dish rope bowls. This time I am using red as the main color and green as the accent.

pattern inspiration: Its a Wrap by Susan Breier.

I wasn't grooving to my main design wall empty so I decided to put my 2025 StashBuster blocks up. I do need to sash the blocks. I have decided to make two quilts 40 x 40 for our local WIC program this time. One will be the warm colors and the other is the cool colors on the color wheel. Just as soon as I finish the rope bowls....

pattern: 2025 StashBuster block

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

Finish or NOT Friday 11.14.2025

I'm not showing a lot of finishes but I am making progress on my rope bowl candy dishes!

My finish for this week are the two mondo-type bags for the foster children's program Casual Quilters' support. I understand that new children in the system meet three times a year...Easter, Back to School and December...to choose a bag. I like to support the causes from my guilds even though these bags challenged me! I suppose if I made more (and more frequently!), the sewing would be easier.  <grin>

pattern: Mondo type bag made with fabric panels

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday.

WIP Wednesday 11.12.2025

I said I would make 20 rope bowl candy dishes for the MelonHeads Christmas Party on December 10, 2025. This week I started on the green bowls. It seems like I've been making these forever and I used this book, It's a Wrap by Susan Breier to help me learn. I do use 1/2 inch 100% cotton clothesline rope and wrap quilting fabric strips around the rope. The fabric strips are cut at 1/2 inch.

pattern: It's a Wrap by Susan Breier

I also spent time earlier in the week sorting through the pile on the right hand side of my cutting mat. After trimming and sorting, I was happy with my progress and elected to tackle the rwb pile another day. <sigh>

One spot organized, only about 150 more to go! <grin>

But wait...all this is put on hold as today was WIC/MelonHeads Stocking Demonstration Day! I made about 10 stockings on retreat and blogged about them here. I have modified the original instructions so our leader, MarilynE wanted me to show my methodology too. Here are a few of the ladies sewing and figures, I left my machine at home. Oooops!

photo credit: MarilynE.

Sharing today with the Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday 11.10.2025

 I have two guild meetings this week, so I am concentrating on guild projects. 

My night guild is collecting mini Christmas stockings for Meals on Wheels 2026. Our leader would like 1500 stockings! I have set a goal for myself to make 10 per month. I have been gathering Christmas fabric every time I 'see it' on the free table. I might have ordered a clearance bolt or two. :) 

pattern: designed by Sue...our leader

The other ongoing night guild project is the foster care bags. There is a give-away party scheduled in early December before our December meeting. So I picked up two pre-made kits and hope to make them before Thursday night. It's been awhile since I made one so hopefully I can clear out any cobwebs and figure it out! I selected two kits that I would be able to use the same thread.

pattern: inspired by the Mondo Bag

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

SoScrappy Saturday 11.8.2025

Today is the second Saturday of November. This is our month of assembly. After the show on Thursday, I chose a few of my Happy Blocks. I really like this staggered setting that I first saw on Cynthia's blog, Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

I'm not real happy with the yellow I chose for the top filler but yellow is one of the colors I am limited in the sewing room. :) I made a backing from leftovers but it's not quite long enough. Back to the sewing machine and the leftover bin.

pattern: Mary Johnson's Happy Blocks

Meanwhile, back at the show. This was our group on Thursday. (I'm in my heart shirt all the way on the left)

My job was to fill and give out the swag bags after completing the 'passport' challenge for the attendees.

A few of us QOV volunteers took advantage of the slow times to sew.

I even took a turn sewing the rail fence blocks together! Juki is loaning machines for use and it was my first time sewing on a Juki. It is A.L.O.T. different than my Baby Brother. :)

Sharing today with SoScrappy Saturday.

WIP Wednesday 11.5.2025

There is no sewing happening at Bell Creek Quilt so far this week but I did help set up the QOV Booth at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo, link here.

Here is the before picture of the booth. This is really a large and generous space that Mark has given QOV Michigan this year!

Here is the mid-way point of setting up the booth.

Here is the booth as we finished for the day. 'Things' might move around a bit, it's usually 'a work in progress'!

The best money I spent was on the vendor parking pass! My parking is half of what the show attendees will pay!

Sharing today with the Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.

Design Wall Monday 11.3.2025

Not a design wall post but rather what I accomplished over the weekend. I finally brought the bags of QOV's out of the sewing studio and to the dining room. 

Why? 

I prefer to sew the labels on while at the dining room table...it lived as our kitchen table at the old house. :)

It took me a few hours to hand sew the labels on but I am happy to report 11 QOV's are ready to be turned in on Wednesday and awarded when needed. :) I wish I had one more for an even 12 but 11 donated is alsoa good number!

Sharing today with Judy at Design Wall Monday.

Finish or NOT Friday 10.31.2025

 I have a few finishes this week to share.

My first finish is my Tower to Tunnel quilt. I worked on this pretty steady prior to retreat and my goal was to have it finished before I left Sunday morning. Mission accomplished and now I wait to turn it in at the end of November. It feels good to have this big quilt done! It measures close to 83 x 87 after quilting.

pattern: framed crumb blocks...set on point

                    unfinished crumbs are 6.5 inch square and frames are cut 2.5 inches

                    block is 10.5 inches unfinished

panto: serpentine

My next finish is from retreat. I volunteered to make the candy dishes for the Howell MelonHeads Christmas party. I thought I would pull out my rope and give the wrapped rope bowls a re-visit. Lucky for me the ladies held a rope bowl class (that I didn't attend!) and where happy to suggest ways to end the bowl. I'm making one in green and plan on red for the ending knot. 

pattern: wrapped rope bowl...tutorials on Pinterest and Google Search

My last finish is my QOV blocks I made at retreat Rectangle Windows by Lisa Sutherland. The blocks were super easy to make and great for a pre-cut retreat project. We didn't have a lot of extra space so I decided to wait and assemble the top here at Bell Creek Quilts. This is the challenge quilt pattern for the FB QOV Working Stars group. I'm happy to report that i finished the challenge with almost 2 hours to spare. LOL

pattern: Rectangle Windows by Lisa Sutherland

panto: serpentine

Sharing today with Alycia at Finish or NOT Friday.

WIP Wednesday...Retreat Review 10.29.2025

I finished a few things and worked on a few things but I had a ton of FUN!

First I worked on the WIC Christmas stockings. I made 10 at retreat and along with one I made at home to 'see' if I could jog my memory on the construction! There wasn't a fireplace mantle but the ironing board worked well.  :)

pattern: it's an adaption from Yvonne's pattern.

Next, I made my squares for Lisa Sutherland's Rectangle Window quilt pattern. There really wasn't a very good design wall space so the blocks came home with me to be sewn into the top for finishing.

pattern: Lisa Sutherland's Rectangle Window

The retreater's were also asked to bring a mini wall hanging to place outside their door. I displayed the quilt my friend, LindaJ made for me circa 2011.

I also started a rope bowl that I hope to use as a candy dish at Howell Melon Patchers' Christmas party. I was also dusting out the cobwebs to remember this construction. too. :) I had brought a bowl at Dollar Tree as a size reference.

MaryG and I left retreat early and stopped at two quilt shops along the way home. First was Bittersweet Quilt Shop in Pinconning, Michigan. It is a really cute, uncluttered store in an old church.

Our second stop was at Hartland Quilt Shop in Hartland, Michigan. This shop has lots and lots of stuff!

A little bit of fabric followed me home as my Quilting Buddy always told me that I needed to be a 'good shopper' and buy a little something at each shop I visit so the shop stays in business. I also like to support the shops as I always seem to stop right at 'bathroom break' time. :)

This was a very fun retreat even though I didn't know a lot of the quilters but everyone was very friendly! I definitely want to make plans to go next spring and fall. Who knows? Maybe I'll get to the casino!

Sharing today with The Inquiring Quilter's Wait Loss Wednesday.