Just a guess...

...as to the possible layout of the Nabby's Dowry blocks from Pam Buda's current SAL.

I know, I know--I wasn't going to do this SAL. But recently, when I pulled out the bag of batik HSTs (from the scrap swap with Sandi) and made the little table topper to go under my new African nativity, I realized what a treasure trove of HSTs I had. So Nabby's Dowry looks a little tropical--and yes, I know I made the block in the lower left corner incorrectly. It is staying that way!

I am almost through making Christmas scrap blocks. You may recall I started these last year with Randy's Barrister's Sow-Along. I kept going with my plaid shirt version, but petered out on the Christmas one. So I picked up again with Johna'Lee's Rancher's Daughter SAL. I just completed a few more.

What is it with lower left blocks? I see my error there, too. That one will be fixed!
I already knew that I wouldn't be doing all of the blocks in this year's SAL. I was just planning on a lap quilt for this set of blocks. So I am one block away from the amount needed. Here is how they all look together.

This is not the final layout, and it is much scrappier than I am accustom to making. I usually control color schemes or undertones. On this I decided to just use scraps and come what may. I'll need to use sashing or setting squares to unify things more. There are scraps from a few blog friends in here and it makes me smile when I look at those blocks.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the sewing room. My little tree is bearing more ornaments (a couple of the ones shown were gifts from friends--they are staying put), as I get more little pineapples made for DD#2 to sell at our local Novemeberfest. I'm also making some little log cabin ornaments this year. What would you say would be a fair price to ask for either of these ornaments? What would you be willing to pay at a gift fair? Or would you just think you could go home and make them? : )

I will be making a bunch more, and DD#1 has made a bunch, too. The proceeds will be going to DD#2's fundraising efforts for Dravet Syndrome research.

I was thinking this would be such a short post today, but it is longer than anticipated. At least I am consistent. : )
Until next time,
Janet O.

A Successful Swap and A "Simply Charming" Quilt

Way back in April of this year Maureen (Pursuit of Quilts blog) and I decided to do a summer block exchange. We settled on 6" finished churn dash blocks in CW repro fabrics, with 2-3 fabrics per block. Value placement didn't matter as long as there was contrast within the block. We agreed to making two identical sets of 4 blocks each of the three summer months and to keep one set and send the other off to each other. We have been keeping the results under wraps until we had all of the blocks exchanged.  You can see Maureen's quilt in the making here. Mine is below. I just made one more block for this setting.

It was such fun to get a new package of blocks each month and to see the variety of fabrics used. We only duplicated fabric once, and that was in the last batch--the upper right and lower left blocks. And, if you can believe it, our blocks are the same size!! This is my first block swap ever, but I understand that doesn't always work out.
DD#1 is trying to adopt and while she was visiting earlier this month she indicated that she would like baby quilts in CW fabrics. The light went on in my head. These were on a design board in my sewing room, so I took her in and asked what she thought. It was not my original plan for these blocks, but I am thrilled to have them end up as a baby quilt.

During the swap some other little goodies from Maureen found their way here with the blocks. There is a sweet little thread catcher (purple!!), that I have placed next to Gidget, and a wonderful hexie pincushion, which is currently doing duty at my cutting station.
Thanks for the delightful swap, Maureen! It has been a pleasure!

I finally have the flimsy ready for the Simply Charming Every Other Month Mini Quilt SAL. (BTW, where did everybody go that was participating in this?) I will post it now, because I won't get it quilted before the link closes. This is also for DD#1. It is part of her birthday request. Her birthday was in March, and she wanted two table toppers, but since one was a Christmas table topper from plaid shirts, I wasn't rushing to finish that one when I knew she wouldn't be using it for some time. I chose to do Coal Miner's Tunnel this time, but to make it a runner I removed one of the braid widths and made it just a tad longer. Hope you like it, Angie! : ) I get to deliver this one in person when we fly to NH for a visit in October!

This little project has been languishing for some time. It was a SAL back in May at quiltsbycheri blog called A Piecework Sampler. The blocks are only 3 1/2". As we neared the last couple of sets of instructions I lost my steam--had too many irons in the fire, like most every other quilter. But, happily, I found enough 3 1/2" orphan blocks to fill in the blanks. Cheri's setting called for bordering each block before adding sashing. The blocks have been laying around my sewing room for months and that bordering thing just wasn't happening. So while cutting sashing for the swap blocks above, I decided to just sash these and be done with it. I will be much more inclined to sew this up now.
I was going to link you back to Cheri's blog so that you could see her original setting, but the pictures from those posts are all missing. : (


If you are only interested in quilty content you can stop reading here. I just wanted to add a word about something that has been in the news a lot lately, that is a subject that affects our family deeply. If you saw this story on CNN's website recently, or this story from the CBS Evening News, or any number of other stories I am finding when I Google the subject, you are getting introduced to what life is like for the individuals with this rare form of epilepsy known as Dravet Syndrome. This is what my youngest grandson has and we are watching the developments on this issue with great hope and interest. Ben is such a precious little guy. Here he is on his first day this year at his preschool for kids with special needs. Gotta love him!!

Until next time,
Janet O.

Thanks for your support!

This was the donation quilt for my daughter's fundraiser yesterday before we went to the event. Thank you, Doniene, for relieving so much stress from my shoulders by providing a finished top.
This was the quilt this morning when the happy winner, Debby P., and her daughter picked it up. She was thrilled to receive it.

Several of you have asked how you can help in our efforts and some of you have already donated. I have been trying to think of a way for you to be able to participate in our drawing and while I was working on the binding of this quilt I came up with something. When Doniene sent this quilt top she included some of the leftover background fabric. I had backing and binding fabric left, too. As I was stitching the binding I saw the pile of these leftover fabrics sitting nearby. I also saw the Temecula Summer Stars that I have made sitting on a design board. That is when the idea clicked. These lovely fall colors with the Summer Stars blocks seemed to need to come together in "Fall"-ing Stars (get it?).

Today was the culmination of my daughter's first fundraiser. The second and last one for the year will wrap up September 15. Between now and then I will be getting this quilted and bound. During that time any of you that make a $10 donation to help support Dravet Syndrome research on my daughter's blog HERE, will be included in a drawing for this little quilt (It will be about 23"x30" finished). Those of you who have already donated are automatically included--one chance per $10. If your name on the donation is something I wouldn't recognize because it is so different from your blog name, just leave your blog name in the notes or email an explanation to me. I will draw the winner at midnight on Sept. 15th.

I appreciate your patience with me as I spread the word about this devastating syndrome that has my youngest grandson in its grip. I am not begging for money--I am just trying to provide a way to thank those who have chosen to help, and to invite others to participate if they choose. I'm sure if you had to stand by helplessly and watch a precious grandchild repeatedly endure seizures that at times have lasted 30 minutes or more, I think you would want to do all you could to raise awareness and funds for research. The photo to the right is Ben wearing the helmet that helps protect him from head injury when seizures cause him to fall, which can happen many, many times on a bad day.

Two other quick items--I have been making the Temecula Stars in Civil War scraps and had been thinking there would be eight of them. That was before I noticed on the calender this week that there are 5 Fridays this month. I had already been guessing at settings for 8 blocks--in fact, the setting I used for "Fall"ing Stars (above) was my guess. So now I am caught up and will wait for the 9th star before assuming that I know how they will be set.

And finally, I was happy to be able to snag the last of the three AAQI quilts that were a collaborative effort between Lori D. and Kathie H. When I finally figure out where my wall of little quilts is going to be, I will be happy to include this.

Oh, you patient followers (and lurkers) who endure these long posts. Bless you all!
Until next time,
Janet O.

Generous Bloggers

It has been my good fortune to become acquainted with so many good people among this unique breed  known as quilt bloggers. Several examples follow.
I have shared a little bit in the past about my youngest grandson, Ben, who was diagnosed last year with Dravet Syndrome.

What a sweet face, even when it is smeared with ice cream.

It is a rare, severe seizure disorder that doesn't respond well to current treatment options. After receiving the diagnosis my daughter jumped into high gear and quickly put together a fund raiser to help collect money for research. I donated a quilt to the first fund raiser, held last August, but lamented on my blog that I didn't have another quilt ready to donate for the second fund raiser in September. That is when Randy, of Barrister's Block blog (and Sow-Along fame) generously offered to send a quilt for the second event. I was blown away, but as I have come to know Randy better I see that this is just her nature. You can see her donated quilt here. She was such a blessing, and continues to be a dear friend. (This reminds me, now I need to get the latest Barrister's Sow-Along blocks made.)
For this year my daughter was thinking she would not be doing the same kind of fund raiser, so I was not concerned that I didn't have a quilt prepared for the August event. But her other option didn't work out and it was back to the original plan. I was trying to figure out a quick quilt that I could sew up and get quilted in time and just mentioned that fact in an email to my good blogging friend, Doniene. The next thing I knew she was emailing that she felt impressed to donate a top for me to quilt and that would relieve some of the stress of the deadline. She very graciously (that's how she does everything) sent a top she had recently put together from blocks she had won in her guild. Here it is as I had it spread on my living room floor for marking and basting. Words can't express my thanks, Doniene.

I've mentioned several times that this will be the first bed-size quilt Gidget and I have tackled together. I've been pretty apprehensive about it. So I chose to use stencils. After finding the ones I needed I marked the quilt and pinned each block as it was marked. Next I warmed up on a practice sandwich. I stitched over the design 3 or 4 times. 

Then I put the design on the center of the table topper I pieced and never quilted last March, and stitched over it.

You can almost see the stitching. : )

Finally, I could avoid it no longer. Gidget had to get serious about this. I put the needle to the cloth. I must say that trying to situate a queen-size quilt is a whole different story from quilting minis and table runners. My shoulders and arms were tired and achy after just the first couple of blocks. I forced my way through 6 blocks before resting. There are 25 whole blocks and I just finished the fifth one. I salute those of you who quilt this size quilts on a DSM with 7 to 9 " harp space. How do you do it?

While on the subject of generous bloggers, Teresa has loaned me her Marti Michell templates to ease the process of cutting out my Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown (aka Random Roses in Jamestown). I already had 7 blocks finished and now I have cut three of the remaining 5. If I could stay home for a whole day sometime I would be finished cutting the other two. This is what I have so far, with the most recently cut blocks residing on the design boards at the bottom. Thanks, Teresa, it has been so much nicer to cut the blocks with the stencils.

Another kind gesture came from Sandi. I offered her some KT strips and in return she sent two bags full of lovely batik scraps. The bag in the photo contains HSTs. I've got the strips all sorted. Aren't they gorgeous? Batiks are so not my usual color/design comfort zone, but I can't get enough of them! Thanks for the wonderful bag of goodies, Sandi! Ideas are brewing, but time is too limited right now. I will share when I start putting things together.

Until then, keep stitching!
Janet O.

A rose by any other name ...

Floribunda has been my leader/ender project while I have been working on the Tree of Life quilt. I got all of the 4-patch and HSTs sewn in that manner and then I would sew together a block or two when I needed a break from the other quilt. Since I am still toying with the border options on the Tree of Life, I used my "sew time" today to finish up the blocks on Floribunda and this is what I have.

I can see that I need to rotate a couple of the corner
border blocks. I mean to have them echo the
direction of the inner corner blocks.

This is the original size of the vintage quilt that inspired Bonnie's pattern (6x8 blocks). I had planned on going bigger, but as I got to this point I realized something. If I just added one row of blocks each way (7x9), the pattern would no longer be symmetrical. That won't bother everyone, but I admit it would bother me. I didn't think my leftover floral fabrics would sustain an 8x10 block quilt (neither, I think, would my attention span), so I opted to stay with the 6x8 and just add borders. It will finish at 72x88. I need to check the LQS today and see if they have a floral I can use for the border (I know, the pieces I have up there aren't cut straight--it's all I had) on their clearance table at $4 a yard, hopefully something not quite so dark as my test pieces. There isn't enough of any floral left in my stash to make this border and I think this quilt is busy enough. I would like the border in just one print, rather than pieced. Once I get this to flimsy stage I'll probably set it aside until I have a purpose for it. It has been fun to make using fabrics I wasn't sure would ever find a home.

While on the subject of Floribunda, maybe I was so drawn to this pattern partly because of the name. The word floribunda means a plant, especially a rose, that bears dense clusters of flowers. Maybe you also grow floribunda roses--six of my seven rosebushes are of the floribunda variety. Hybrid Teas are a little less hardy and don't do as well in my location. Recently I got a couple of photos of some of those "dense clusters." Both of these roses have lovely scents, as well. I always look for that when buying rose bushes. I think it is rather disheartening to bend over to smell a beautiful rose and be met with no scent.

I hit the jackpot at a thrift store a couple of days ago. They had scrap bags and I found two that looked promising. For a total of $3.50, these fabrics are going into my stash. There is at least 1/8th yard of most of them and some are more like 1/4th yard. There are KT fabrics, Kaye England, some batiks, homespun, and several other good pieces.

What was crazy was that among the "not-for-quilts" scraps that I won't be keeping, there was a substantial piece that my mother and I recognized. When I was a girl (many decades ago) she made most of my clothes and she had made a dress for me out of that very fabric. It is a fall colored floral, but it isn't 100% cotton, or I would definitely have worked it into Floribunda.

One final note--Chinese Coins found a home. My youngest grandson has a rare and severe seizure disorder. My daughter and her husband just got the diagnosis confirmed with a genetic test a couple of months ago. As soon as it was known, my daughter was determined to raise money to help with research. She has run a local 1/2 marathon a couple of times and was prepping to run it again this year. She approached one of the organizers who happens to be a neighbor of hers to see if they would let her do a fundraiser in conjunction with the race. In just a few weeks and with the help of some very good friends, she got a logo designed, gathered prizes from sponsors, had stickers, tickets, a banner and fliers printed. She had the logo and sponsors on t-shirts for the volunteers and family, and on running shirts for her and her friends that ran the race. This quilt was sitting in a closet at my house, already quilted, but not bound. I offered it as one of the prizes and my Mom bound it, knowing that as slow as I am it probably wouldn't have been ready on race day. It was very satisfying to see it go to help a good cause and the winner was very happy to receive it. Just in case any of you have noticed that I have a new Favicon--I know it is too tiny to see, but it is the logo used for the "Running for Ben" fundraiser. Here it is in a more readable size.
Ben is about 2 1/2 years old and has been having seizures for 2 years.

He is such a sweetheart and we are lucky to know and love him.

My daughter will be doing a fundraiser again this month for the full marathon. I wish I had another quilt that would be ready to go.

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where the wind has been blowing all day and the pollen count is too high for comfort,
Janet O.