MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Floribunda is now a flimsy. I did finally get the borders on in between rounds of freezing the corn from our garden this weekend. (DH and I agree that we should probably cut back on the amount of corn we plant next year. After all, there are just two of us at home now.)

After getting the inner yellow and the dark borders on I felt like it still needed something. I don't usually put light borders on the outer edge of my quilts, but that seemed to be what this one needed. I'll probably have to bind it in the dark floral border fabric--it is the only one of which I have enough.

As you must know by now, this was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Floribunda pattern of the traditional Jacob's Ladder, based on a vintage quilt she found. My florals were mainly of the "dark and dirty" variety, but the splashes of red here and there give it some sparkle.

If you are interested in making one and haven't already heard of Freda's very casual QAL that will be starting soon, check it out here. I would love to make another one but I really need to finish the Tree of Life quilt. I will be hand quilting that one, so I need to hurry and get it in the frame so it will be completed before I am too old to see my stitches (I am so slow at getting things hand quilted).

Just wanted to mention something else. In my last post I told of the quilt I had donated to my daughter's fundraiser for the foundation that researches the seizure syndrome her youngest son has. I also said she was doing another one this month and that I was sorry I didn't have a quilt ready to donate to that one. Friday evening I received an email from a very generous quilter who offered to send me a quilt she was willing to donate for this month's fundraiser. I know quilters are always willing to help other people, but this was so completely unexpected. I was overwhelmed--still am. My heartfelt thanks go out to you!

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where we have a football team that almost beat Auburn Saturday,
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.

Floribunda Lives!!

...and I love it! Mine does not have that 50s look of many others posted, but my florals tend to be of the "dark and dirty" variety and my yellows are more golden and patterned, rather than lemony and solid.

The top six blocks are sewn up (but not together). The
four blocks on the bottom are still each nine separate
pieces waiting on design boards to go to the sewing
machine and get sewn together.

That's okay--it is the pattern and scrappiness that I love about it. I have all of the pieces cut and ready to go. The original was 6x8 blocks. I have cut mine to be 7x8 blocks. I wanted this to be totally from my stash, but today I broke down and picked up 1/4 yard of more yellow (and I grabbed a floral remnant while I was in the store--I can't resist the remnants). I use a lot of mustard and gold in my quilts, but not much yellow, so I couldn't quite make it without a tad more. Can't decide yet what I will do for borders.
 Now I will set aside "Eye Fooler" as my leader/ender for a time, and let this one butt in line. It just wouldn't patiently wait its turn. In fact, it got so impatient that when I was just going to sew up one block to get a feel for it tonight, something happened and you can see the results above. I am going to put my foot down now and keep it in its place as my leader/ender project. Wonder how long that will last?
I am following Bonnie's instructions for this quilt, but I want to share with you one tip I like to use. Maybe you all are doing this already, but in case not, here goes. When I have a bunch of strips or squares to cut in a row I like to use the June Tailor Shape Cut ruler. On this quilt, when you have the two 21" strips sewn together and are putting half of one set on top of the other half (or whole ones on top of each other if you are making two blocks from the same fabric), butting the seams to prepare to slice every two inches as Bonnie shows ...

...then I like to pull out this ruler, which has cuts in it every 1/2 inch,  and line it up so that one of the black lines follows the seam on the strips. Grab your rotary cutter and slice through every two inches.

 

After you have sliced every two inches down the length of the fabric, remove the ruler and you are ready to sew the 4-patch units, and you never had to reposition the ruler. It is so slick! Yes, the ruler can be a bit pricey, but that is what those 40 or 50% off coupons at JoAnn's are for!

Of course, no matter how many slick tricks I use, I have to include some major error along the way. Why couldn't I catch this before having it all sewn and pressed?

I wanted to say thanks to all who responded to my last post. It really seems to have struck a chord--or a nerve, or something. As we are drowning in Bonnie's creative juices I guess we can take comfort in the fact that we are not going down alone. : ) I had some good chuckles over your responses and have met some wonderful new people. I know many of you found your way here because Bonnie put a link to that post on her Facebook page, and thanks to whomever it was that mentioned that to me in an email. I'm not on Facebook, so I wouldn't have known. If you are a new follower, I hope you don't expect me to be that entertaining all the time. I'm usually pretty dry.
My mini, wonky 9-patches are finally a flimsy. I'm trying to talk myself into my first attempt at machine quilting on this, but I really don't want to ruin it with my noviceness (when there isn't a word that says what I need, I'll make one). I'll have to think about it some more. If you can recommend a good book or website about quilting on your home machine, I would appreciate the input.

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where the mosquitos are returning like swallows to Capistrano (I'd rather have the swallows--besides, they eat mosquitos),
Janet O.

An Open Letter to Bonnie K. Hunter

(With Tongue Firmly Planted in Cheek)
Dear Bonnie,
You know I follow your blog faithfully. I love your quilts, your methods, your fun-loving spirit, your boundless energy and enthusiasm for quilting. I have learned so much from you! I now keep baskets of little "leader/ender" pieces by my sewing machine.



 I have a stash of men's shirts from thrift stores that I have begun to disassemble.

I am slowly cutting up my color-separated scraps into the "scrap user system," where they will then be separated by size rather than color (all of this change takes its toll on a person). And I am determined that no fabric is too ugly to go into one of my scrap quilts--it just needs to be cut smaller!!
 But I have to say this is turning into a love/hate relationship. I hate the fact that every time I turn around you are showing off some wonderful antique quilt that hits me right where my quilter's heart lives. And it isn't enough to just show the quilt--you actually figure out the pattern, start making one yourself, and invite the rest of us to sew along. How strong can a body be against such temptation?
The leader/ender method has revolutionized my quilt production and I am doing more than I ever thought I could, but there are limits to what a person can take. One can only do so much (well, I can only do so much--you seem to be able to do everything). I have downloaded several patterns from your website and carefully set them aside telling myself, "Someday." I have taken a vow not to begin a mystery project to turn out one of those fantastic mystery scrap quilts you have created in the past, should you start posting one (I got a bit sick to my stomach when you mentioned something in a recent post about a mystery). I drooled over the Floribunda quilt and even printed out the pattern and started pulling fabrics before I got a grip on myself and put them all back.(Boy, that was a close call!)
I quickly turned away from the cute little bowties that are in wonderful vintage colors! I already have a leader/ender project!!! (I REALLY do love that floribunda quilt!)
Just today I was reading another quilter's blog and she happened to mention that though she doesn't need another project (who does?) she caved and is doing those little bowties you posted. She caved! Is that a good thing? (Did I mention that I have a bunch of old florals that I need to use up somehow?--Floribunda would be just the thing!)

 Before you know it they will need a 12-step program to help people overcome their Bonnie Hunter scrap quilt addiction. (And you know, I got a lovely piece of yellow on sale at a recent shop hop.)
So I am writing this letter to ask beg you to consider your readers. Just show us some really ugly quilts for a while--with no patterns included. (That Jacob's Ladder pattern in Floribunda has been on my bucket list for years!) Who needs another really great scrap quilt to make anyway?
Oh, forget it. I can't resist either. Where did I put all of those florals? But I will draw the line here--I will not put these two very cool colored florals in this otherwise very warm toned quilt!!

See, I really am in control after all.
Sincerely, and with genuine admiration (tongue out of cheek)
Janet O.