Lucky Thirteen!

That is how many years I have been blogging, as of next week. There is a lot going on next week, and I wasn't sure I'd get a post written on the very day, so this will do. More on that at the end of the post. 

This two-year-old project is a finish! This was started two years ago this month as a SAL with Chooky. Just barely got it bound, after picking it up from my quilter less than a week ago. That must be some kind of record for me, to have a king-size quilt bound in less than a week.

It took two men in the family to hold this over the deck railing for the photo. Its  93" x 106" size was too much for one wingspan.

I've always loved a Churn Dash, and I've made several mini quilts with the block, but this is the first bed size Churn Dash quilt I have made. It was a lot of fun to dig through my scraps and find coordinating fabrics to go in each block.  Then I was crazy enough to accept Chooky's challenge to do some triple Churn Dash blocks. That got tricky, trying to create the 1" Churn Dash blocks in the center. There is a good reason why I only put 3 triple blocks in the whole quilt. Go ahead and try dividing an inch into thirds. ;)

Didn't get the best shot of the quilting, but maybe if you enlarge this you can get an idea of the texture.

And while I am on the subject of this quilt I just bound, I have a question for those of you who use Clover Wonder Clips when binding. Have you had clips breaking on you very often? I have used them for years, having originally purchased a large package of the red (which I think was the only color available in the beginning). Then I was gifted a large pack of multi-colored ones a few years later, and had dumped them all in a container together. I was interested to note that after I had clipped the binding all the way around this quilt, as I stitched my way around the quilt I found several broken clips--and they were always the red ones. Anyone else have a similar experience? I have used these for years, and have clipped around entire quilts before, including the only other king size quilts I have made. Don't remember ever seeing a broken clip before. And now on this one quilt I have all of these. I even found another after taking this photo--that makes it a total of 20 broken clips. 

In April I did my last class on the tiny club blocks for my guild. It has been a delight to work with the gals who were crazy brave enough to make all of these 2" finished blocks. I just want to share one of the last ones we worked on in that class.

This little thing has 68 pieces in it!! That is insane in a 2" block! I think this is the only one where I had to trim some of the seams down to 1/8".

My fabric choices for the lower right quadrant weren't the best for contrast, but you get the idea.

I have learned a lot while making all these little blocks. Lynn is an incredible designer of tiny things, and I look forward to seeing what he does next.

As I wrap this up I need to say thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my blog over the years. I am so grateful for the encouragement, suggestions, sharing of ideas and fabrics, fun surprises in the mail, friendships, Zoom visits, and even visits in real life. I am a better person because of the goodness I see in all of you, and a better quilter from the things I have learned from you. I thank you for enriching my life.

This little "anniversary" drawing involves the following: 3 bars of my handcrafted soap, a magnetic closure sewing themed notebook, a new seam ripper (like rotary blades, I never replace these as often as I should), and a mini quilt I made over a year ago from an original pattern. It was a sample when I taught a class for a guild on a very snowy, blowy day.  If you aren't into batiks, you may not be interested in the quilt. Just mention in a comment if you would like to be included in this drawing.

Until next time, be creative, and be kind!

Janet O.

The valley is green now, but there is still snow on the mountains. In fact, they received more today.

Drawing is now closed.

Much to Share From March

Couldn't believe when March came to an end and I hadn't found time to post. I had been stitching more than I have for a while, but never wrote about it, so I will dump it all here.

Rocky Mountain Christmas was finally bound and sent to its new home.

I had hubby hold it in front of the snow covered mountains for this photo to match the Christmas theme. Made from Men's thrift store shirts, this is based on Bonnie Hunter's free Smokey Mountain Stars pattern. Being a very overcast day, the colors are darker than in real life.

The picture below, taken in my living room, gives you a better idea of the true colors.

I tucked my little Christmas gnome into the quilt to give this a holiday touch. :)

I also FINALLY got the borders on my Churn Dash quilt. This was sewn along with Chooky last year. I had the blocks finished and arranged by the deadline, but hadn't finished sewing it all together and adding borders. I so often stall on borders, even when just doing these long, straight borders with no piecing.

I just draped this over my living room sofa. I don't have floor space anywhere right now to lay out a king size quilt, and it is currently wet in the great outdoors, so this will have to do. I have always loved the churn dash block, and these scrappy ones were a delight to stitch up.  Even the challenge of putting a 1" churn dash inside the triple churn dash blocks was fun to attempt. As soon as I get a back pieced, this will be off to my longarm quilter.

In March I also made another batch of the tiny blocks for my guild class. Only one more month of these and we will have been through both sets of blocks Lynn Hopkins has designed so far. These will finish at 2" square. The rotary cutter gives you a little perspective on the size.

Also for guild I got another 5 placemats made up for our service project for Meals on Wheels. In February the gal in charge of this service project sent me home with a large bag of strips she had leftover from the placemats she had made. 

She told me to make what I wanted from them--she didn't want to see them again. I had fun digging through the strips to find things to coordinate for each placemat. The two on the left are definitely out of my usual comfort zone.

With the talk of the upcoming eclipse (which I am sad that I will be missing), I was recalling our experience in 2017 when we car camped to see the total eclipse a few hours from our home. You can read that post here. Canuck Quilter has a great eclipse pattern out that you may have seen Pat Sloan making. What a fun way to commemorate this event.

This is more than I have usually accomplish lately in a month, and it felt good to make progress on some things. Time with family and friends, time in the sewing room, time with books or violin, and time outdoors walking all fill my bucket when stress presses in. What, besides quilting, brings you joy and peace when you need it most? Please share with me in a comment.

Until next time,

be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

Yesterday morning I saw a glorious sunrise. But to make it even better, when I hurried outside to catch photos, I could hear the Sandhill Cranes trumpeting to welcome in the day. Do you have 20 seconds to see (and hear) how my day began? Make sure your sound is turned up.

Look at me, making big quilts!

Trying to get a second post in here before the month is over. 

First up is a quilt that was a new flimsy 10 years ago. This was my Barrister's SAL quilt, hosted by Randy at Barrister's Block blog. It is made entirely from men's thrift store shirts, right down to the binding, that I attached after taking this photo, but haven't stitched down yet.

Randy did photo tutorials for each block on her blog. I have a page under my header photo that includes links to all of the tutorials.

This was quilted by check, utilizing my usual machine quilter who only lives a couple of miles away, and does an incredible job. Below are two close-ups. It is a good thing my quilter likes to do sampler quilts, because there were 63 blocks in this quilt.

Aside from her talent in quilting, I really appreciate that she gets my style, and when I tell her what I think I want, she will share any ideas that come to her that she thinks might be an improvement, and together we make the final decision. I never pick up a finished quilt and find she didn't listen to what I wanted. 

Next up is the churn dash top--finally assembled, mostly. This is from Chooky's Churn Dash SAL last summer (well, summer here in the states).

The blue fabric pinned on the right is what I have chosen for the border, but I am waiting for DD#1 to indicate how large she needs this to be, so I know how wide to cut the borders. I really enjoyed making this quilt. It is fun to make blocks this size and build a quilt relatively quickly. And I still got to throw a few random 1" and 3" Churn Dash blocks in the centers.

Then we have a quilt for which I can take no credit. Well, okay--I chose the setting fabrics and layout, and sewed it all together. But all of the blocks were made by Karen B., formerly of Log Cabin Quilter blog.

I received a "care package" from her many years ago that contained fabrics and projects that had lost their appeal for her. The center block and four surrounding stars were from one project, and the 8 outer stars were from another. They all played together nicely, and the center of the quilt came together quickly. But I stalled a long time (years) on the borders. I finally took a trip over the mountain to my friend Fran, at her quilt shop (Village Dry Goods), and we narrowed it down to this subtle paisley from a Pam Buda line. I didn't want anything that would pull your eye away from the center, but also didn't want a solid. I stitched that border on the very next day. I think this one will be quilted by check as well. It is too small for a queen bed, but it will fit nicely on the full size bed in the loft spare room.

Are you ready for big quilt #4? I don't know if I am. Here goes. Chooky has invited those attending Scrub Stitchin' (and any who want to sew along at home) to spend some time making a Moda Love quilt--in any of the 3 size options in the free pattern found at the link here. There are three pages to the pattern, each page giving instructions to one size. This is what went up on my design wall when the previous quilt top was completed. I may mix up the colors a bit more. This was the first time I had actually seen them in the places I had imagined they should go.

The fabric in each corner is a KT Christmas print of holiday words. I felt like the holiday color scheme would work with it, but seeing it in the photo, I'm not so sure.

The floral fabrics were sent to me by a dear blog friend many years ago. They are from a Kansas Troubles line. I had waited to find a quilt pattern that would let them shine, but not just be made of large squares. When I saw a Moda Love quilt on Annie's blog back in 2017, it just spoke to me, and I printed her photo from her blog, writing notes all over it as to which fabric I wanted where. I pulled other matching fabrics from my KT stash, cut everything to size, and pinned them together in numbered groups. I even placed right sides together of the fabrics that would be making HSTs.  I packed all this in a tote and took it with me to two retreats in a row (2019 and 2020--just before COVID), without ever getting to it.

With Annie's permission, this photo below shows what was in my "kit", with her photo in the center, very marked up. 

That is why this is NOT a new start, so I didn't break my rule. 

However, this did break my rule--I signed up for Lori's doll quilt swap at Humble Quilts blog. This is the 10th year, and I have only ever signed up one other time, two years ago. Since I have been on my "No New Starts" program for 6 months, I figured I could treat myself to one little doll quilt. And I already have the top assembled. Here is a peek. ;)  Now you know exactly what it looks like, right?

Utah is experiencing the winter that keeps on giving. After years of mostly dry winters, with very little snow, we have been getting dumped on week after week. Every single week has at least a few days with snow (and now occasionally it is rain). We get most of our water in Utah from the snowpack that builds up in the mountains over the winter. With years of drought, our reservoirs are depleted. This winter we are breaking records for snowpack in much of the state (which also means there are flooding problems as that snow melts faster than it can be absorbed and contained). But it just seems insane after going weeks and sometimes months with barely measurable precipitation, to be waking up to new snowfall several times a week. It is snowing as I write, and is supposed to snow all night. The next three photos were all taken last week. (I think the poor birds have been confused, asking themselves if they flew too far north.)

I need someone to explain to me how the mountains are reflected in the flooded field, when the field is about 5 miles away from the mountain. Just puzzled by the science here.

This next photo was taken on my walk earlier this week. If you enlarge the photo and  look along the mountain ridge line, you can see a little glow. The wind is whipping up the loose snow at the top, and as the sun sets it highlights that flying snow. Under the right conditions, it looks like flames. I have posted some of those photos in the past.

Enough rambling.

I've enjoyed quality time in the sewing room lately, and it has felt really good. I hope you are finding time for things that bring you joy, without having to neglect the things that make you a responsible adult. 

Until next time, be creative, and be kind,

Janet O.

Working on 3 neglected projects

First up is a project I started back in October of 2015. Sure, I have UFOs that are much older than that, but the fact that I started this for a show being held in 2017, and it is still unfinished speaks volumes for how I feel about entering shows. Here, it is--my 2-color, mini Burgoyne Surrounded--frozen in time.

After completing my first mini Burgoyne Surrounded (seen below) I made the very uncharacteristic decision to enter a quilt show. Not with that quilt, but with one I was yet to make.

I was a member of our state quilt guild at the time and they had their Ruby Jubilee coming up in a couple of years. They were planning on a traveling Red/White quilt show around the state to celebrate the event. We were encouraged to make quilts to enter. There would be no judging--just voting by viewers on their favorites. Sounded non-threatening to me, and I decided I could make this a 9 block quilt (wasn't sure I could work with just 2 colors for more than that), and enter it in the "Mini" category of the show. I got busy on the quilt, but when the entry information became available, I saw that there was not a mini category. I had attended a few shows by the state guild in the past, and had seen a mini category, but apparently for this show they had decided to just lump everything together. For some reason that took the wind out of my sail and I never finished the quilt. And I have still never entered a show.

I have slowly worked on this now and then over the years, but it has been a while since I last pulled it out. I decided it is time to get this little quilt top finished. Using those pieces in the first photo, I completed all the 4-patch, 6-patch, and 9-patch units, and then did the critical sliver trimming that makes such a  difference in mini quilts. 

Next I sewed the pieces together by rows, and then sewed the rows together.

When sewn into a quilt, each block will finish at 3 3/4", and there are 97 pieces in each block. Crazy, huh? Seven of the 9 blocks are now completed, and the pieces for the other two blocks are laid out on design boards, and should be completed in the next few weeks.

The next neglected project is the labeling of my little quilts. Seven years ago I did a post about labeling quilts without labeling them. In that post I explained that I always attach a label to my quilts--I just don't always write on the label. At that time I bemoaned the fact that I'd had a stack of 45 little quilts that needed labeling. Well, it happened again.

Hubby took the photo of me above, left, while I was hard at work writing labels. On the right is the photo I took when I had completed the pile of almost 60 quilts this time around. I would go to my blog and work backward, writing dates and info on 4 or 5 quilts. Next I'd go back to the table, find those quilts, and fill in the labels.  Then the process would start again. I really hope to do better going forward, and finish the labels before I consider the quilt completed.

The third neglected project that has received my attention this month is my Churn Dash quilt for Chooky's SAL last year. The blocks finish at 9". A few of them have a 3" block in the center, and three of those have a 1" churn dash in the middle. I had all of the blocks made when they were supposed to be done, but I never made the deadline for the assembly of the top.

Still not there, but getting very close.

The empty space is the row of sashing I am currently sewing together. At the time of the photo the row above that space was not yet attached to the upper half (which is all sewn together). All the blocks below the blank space still need to be sewn into rows. Once this is all assembled I will be auditioning borders to make the quilt as large as desired. I am leaning toward a dark blue that would be similar to the sashing, but no decisions have been made.

It seems like most everyone I know is currently dealing with difficult, stressful things. You may be familiar with the following saying...

"When you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble, and you will be right more than half of the time."

I'm thinking we could be right almost all the time these days. I want to choose kindness, even when faced with the opposite treatment. Not easy--it has to be a very intentional choice, but I'm working on it.

Until next time,

Be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

We have had such a snowy winter, and have more in the forecast next week. I like winter--and I don't even ski, but I also don't have to shovel the snow. I used to enjoy shoveling, but shoulder and back trouble have made it off limits for about 6 years now. I can still enjoy the views of the snowy countryside and mountains. The dirt road along the edge of the family farm gives some great vistas on my evening walk.

This is looking east--the sunset is behind me, but the glow reflects onto the tops of the mountains across the valley.

A Churn Dash Theme

My monthly mini is something you may have seen before. It was Pam Buda's Circa 1880 Club's Small Quilt for August, in 2019.  I had the top finished in September of that year, and it has been waiting ever since to get quilted and bound.

When I finished the top I posted this about it, "I really messed with the value placement on this quilt, making some of the churn dash blocks sink into the background, while others stand out. A few of the bits of fabric had to be pieced in order to be large enough to cut out the piece I needed. Three of the sashings were pieced. I wanted it to appear to have been made from a scrap basket, where choices were limited. I also slipped a little churn dash block into the center. I had fun playing with this one."

This gives you a little better look at the quilting. It is mostly ditch stitching (as usual), with a rope pattern in the outer border.

You can click to enlarge for a better look.

And here is a glamour shot just for the fun of it. I'm linking with Wendy, The Constant Quilter, for the list of other Monthly Mini-acs. Check out what the others have done.

In keeping with the Churn Dash theme, for Chooky's Churn Dash SAL, I have all the blocks made, and sashing, cornerstones, and setting triangles cut. It is all up on the design wall, awaiting assembly.

Technically, this should have been a finished top by now, but it just didn't happen. However, during a Zoom with Chooky a week ago, she admitted hers wouldn't be finished either. I don't feel so bad now, and I will shoot for the end of November to have this a flimsy. I love the scrappy goodness of this quilt. The blocks were cut from scrap baskets, using 4 different neutrals as the backgrounds. Only the sashing and setting triangles were cut from actual yardage. I have enjoyed making this!

I haven't been active on the blog this month, but I did join in with Chooky's Zoom last week--three different times. Just popped in and out when I could, and saw a different group each time. But I only remembered to take a photo once.

What an encouraging, supportive, funny and talented bunch of quilters from around the world! I appreciated the help in selecting the setting triangles and cornerstones for my Churn Dash quilt. If you are a blogger and want to join in, follow Chooky's blog (link included above) and you will see when she has a Zoom meeting of the Chookshed Stitchers scheduled. Then you will be able to request an invite. Rumor has it there may be another one soon.

I am trying to be really good and obey the sign I put on my sewing room door. It reads: NO NEW STARTS! I have so many UFOs and WIPs, so I will still have a regular monthly mini, and plenty of other projects to fill my time. But it is so hard not to join SALs from favorite bloggers and designers. 

November is one of my favorite months--the month of Thanksgiving. I am very blessed, and I count the friends I have made through this blog as one of the many blessings I treasure.

Until next time, 

Be grateful and be kind!

Janet O.

A sunset after a snowfall on October 26th.

Monthly Mini, Churn Dash SAL update, and Alaskan Adventures

Here is my monthly mini for September. With the cruise prep and participation, I didn't have time to make something from scratch, so I just quilted something that has needed it for quite a while.

This was loosely based on Lori D.'s Sajou SAL, found here. When I chose Abe to go in the center medallion, I didn't know he was going to end up on point. I couldn't leave him tipsy like that, so I reconfigured this quilt 2 or 3 times before I was satisfied with the outcome. This SAL was 4 years ago, and I am embarrassed to barely be getting the quilting done.

It was mostly ditch-stitching around the squares and border triangles, with echo quilting in the triangles, too. The center medallion received a little bit of hand quilting to outline Abe and his frame. You can see the quilting a bit better in this photo.

This finishes at 12 1/4" square.

I chose a splashy star print for the backing. 

A few years ago I had such a stack of unquilted mini quilts that I spent most of the year getting them quilted--almost reaching 50 in number. Dad's passing at the end of that year (2016) prevented my reaching that goal. I am beginning to wonder if I should not allow myself to make any new monthly minis until I have quilted the ones that are piling up around the sewing room now.

I am linking up with Wendy (The Constant Quilter blog), for our monthly mini parade. Check out her post for the links to the other mini makers. And while you are at it, look around her blog at her many beautiful quilts made using the potholder method. Then check out the latest issue of Quilt Mania (#151) for a lovely article about Wendy and her potholder quilts, written by the wonderful Cecile Denis of Patchwork Inspirations blog.

Just this week I completed the very last of my Churn Dash blocks for Chooky's Churn Dash SAL. I am toying with the idea of putting them on point.

I still have quite a ways to go with the switching around of blocks. Chooky commented that the left side all seemed quite dark. They are dark blocks on that side and I will see if I can balance that a bit more, but it also doesn't help that the window is on the right side of the design wall.

These are 9" blocks, and I am thinking of using 1 1/2" wide finished sashing. I have been going back and forth with myself about using neutral sashing and colored cornerstones, or the dark blue I originally bought for the sashing and maybe a red for the cornerstones. I was considering cheddar for the cornerstones with the blue sashing, but that would be such a predictable move for me.

This is going to end up being quite a large quilt if I set the blocks on point.

That concludes the quilty portion of this post, so if you don't want to read about my experience in Alaska, you can stop here.

Well, I survived my first cruise. I have never really wanted to cruise, but hubby has. We ended up going to the inside passage of Alaska, with a group of 10 friends, and we had a great time. Just a little outside of Juneau, we kayaked a total of 5 miles, going across Lake Mendenhall to the Mendenhall Glacier, and back to our docking point. A very cool (pun intended) experience. 

On the left we are the canoe in the foreground. On the right you can see the Mendenhall Glacier behind us.

At Icy Strait Point we caught one of the last gondola rides to the top of a mountain, because it was going to be dark soon. That prevented us from being able to zip line back down, but it was still quite an experience to get to the top and look back at the cruise ship, which looked like a toy boat from that vantage point.

Looking up to the mountaintop. And looking back down to our boat.

On the left I was getting harnessed up for zip lining, in the rain, in a rainforest. It was so fun. One of the platforms even went out over the ocean. I have to say, I don't like heights, so I have wanted to do this to challenge myself. I loved it, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

On the right was our group of brave souls who went snorkeling. It really wasn't cold--we had on fleece "bunny suits" under the dry suits, and Sitka is quite a temperate climate, so the water was near 50 degrees.

I will never forget the amazing sights we saw--starfish in a rainbow of colors and a variety of sizes (even got to hold one our guide pulled out for us), sea urchins everywhere, tiny crabs, several varieties of fish, and lots of shells, and seaweed. I would also do that again, if given the chance.

Our first full day at sea the waters were a little rough. We were out walking laps around the promenade deck when a friend took the photo on the left. You can tell balance was an issue by the wide stance of our feet. On the right we were stopped in Glacier Bay, in much calmer waters, in front of Margerie Glacier, which you can read about here. It was a stunning sight.

Overall it was a very positive experience. Hubby and I decided that we would not use the elevators, after the initial trip to get to our room. My Fitbit recorded between 30-40+ flights of stairs per day, and my record was 57 flights in one day. I am happy to say that I made it through a 7 day cruise without gaining an ounce. I have worked hard to get in better shape this year, and I didn't want to ruin it all in one week at sea.

On the drive home from the airport, we passed this sight on the freeway.  I guess it is getting to be that time of year. Break out the pumpkin spice everything!

Until next time, be creative and be kind!

Janet O.

August Monthly Mini and Churn Dash SAL

I might just be able to sneak this under the wire before the clock strikes midnight. Here is my August monthly mini, for the mini making mayhem over with Wendy, The Constant Quilter.

This was from a pattern by Sheryl at Temecula Quilt Company. It is called Independence Day, and she released the free pattern on July 4th. I cut it out and sewed the top that very week, but I have been slower than molasses in January at getting this quilted and bound. Obviously not in time for summer, but just in time for Labor Day (after which I take down all the patriotic decor).

In this photo you might be able to tell that I machine quilted around all the red in the pieced blocks. Then I hand quilted diagonal lines through the navy squares, using a dark blue quilting thread. 

If you would like to make one of these little quilts, you will find the free pattern download in the Temecula Quilt Company post here. You know, you aren't limited to making it in red/white/blue. Fall colors or Christmas colors would be fun, too.

If you'd like to make it, go to the link above and download the pattern, and then leave a comment below if you would be interested in a die-cut kit to make this top in red/white/blue. I have an extra kit and would be happy to send it to someone.

Next up is Chooky's Churn Dash SAL. I am just as pleased as punch that I have been keeping up with this. That is a rarity for me.

These are all the 9" blocks so far--including my two attempts at a triple churn dash block, with teeny 1" centers. I MIGHT try making one more of those, somewhere in the remaining dozen blocks. And then again, I might not. ;)

Hubby and I are prepping for our first ever cruise. I have never really wanted to go on a cruise, but hubby has. So if I am going to go, the destination would be Alaska--which it is. We are going with 8 friends from our community, and I am surprised at how much I am looking forward to it. I will be crossing a few things off my bucket list. I am signed up for shore excursions where I will be kayaking, zip lining (I do not like heights, but I am determined to power through this), snorkeling, and riding a gondola. I can't get a single soul in our group to snorkeling with me (they all think it will be too cold), but I am going anyway.  

That is all for now. 

Until next time, be creative, and be kind!

Janet O.