August Monthly Mini--Love Thy Neighbor

If you were around the blog three years ago you may have a faint memory of this--"Love Thy Neighbor."

Three years ago Maureen (pursuitofquilts blog), extended an invitation for others to join her in making a quilt titled "Love Thy Neighbor," and to consider using house blocks. This was in light of the troubles going on in Charlottesville, VA at that time. I made the top, but I didn't get it quilted. Now seemed like as good a time as ever to complete this little quilt. I can't think of what we could use more right now than love for our neighbors.

Once again, I finished it up with some hybrid quilting. It was machine quilted, except for the echo quilting around the hearts. The house blocks were hand pieced, which I rarely do. They were part of an "airport layover kit" sent to me a few years back by my friend, Annie. This is the second little quilt I have made from the blocks in that kit and this one finished at 14" square. You can see the quilting a little better in this photo. Linking this to Wendy (the constantquilter blog) for our monthly mini roundup.

I know you have seen this next quilt quite a bit, but now that I have the binding completed, I want to share it one more time. This is "Mom's Flower Garden," so named for a few reasons. First, Mom and I started making Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts at the same time 22 years ago, after I learned the technique of EPP and shared what I had learned with her. Second, most of the fabrics came from my Mom's stash, since the fabrics I owned at the time were for clothing construction. Finally, almost all of the blocks were appliqued to their backgrounds during the hours I have spent at Mom's side over the past 15 months. Since Mom finished her quilt within a year of starting it, she is happy to have lived to see the day that I finished mine.

 

 

I have to throw in one more glamor shot. After having almost tossed this UFO out a few years ago, I am just giddy to have it finished and to actually like it. When it was haunting me in its unfinished state, I wondered if it would even be worth it to finish it because I didn't love the fabrics anymore. Well, the principle of synergy is at work here, because when it all came together it was better than I imagined. 

We have been getting the smoke from the fires in California, thanks to the jet stream, and at times it has been so bad that we couldn't even see the mountains that surround us. That is why this view from my evening walk was so welcome. A windy day had cleaned out the valley and the mountains were clearly visible again. That is the moon just rising above the mountains and the clouds.

I'll admit that all of the divisiveness in the country has been getting me down. Those who are hijacking the BLM movement as an excuse for violence disrespect the cause and efforts of those who are trying to bring about positive change through peaceful protests. The politicizing of good health practices during a global pandemic seems crazy to me. And the vilifying of all police officers due to the heinous actions of some is unfair to those who bring honor to the uniform. How did all this hate and venom find such fertile soil in our country? Can we not remember how to love our neighbor?

 

Will you join me in seeing if you can find something kind to do for a "neighbor"? Keep it simple or get creative. Just reach out and brighten someone's day, somehow (I know many of you are already doing this). It will brighten your day, too. And couldn't we all use some day brightening?

Until next time,

Janet O.

Twenty-two years in the making!

I began stitching the hexagon flowers for this quilt exactly 22 years ago next week! I know that because back then I was a volunteer for "The Festival of the American West" in our valley, and that is where I was taught English Paper Piecing.

This just came back from the quilter and I love what she did with it.  

I told her I wanted it to look like someone had hand quilted it, and I believe she got the feel I was looking for. In the photo above right you can get a better idea of the quilting, and on the left you can see the fun floral backing I used.

I cut the binding today. I will get it attached and start sewing it down within the next couple of days. So happy to see this finally getting completed.

Fun Fact: Monday I was watching an old movie "The More The Merrier" (starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea) while I made more masks. It is an old rom/com about the housing shortage in Washington D.C. during WWII. I happened to be glancing up at the screen just as they were showing an apartment building lobby filled with people on makeshift beds and one of the men had a quilt this same style over his. For just a second I wished the film was in color so I could see what one of these looked like in the 40s.

Yes, I did mention there that I was sewing more masks. Now that more and more stores are requiring them, and we are being told when school resumes in the fall kids will need to wear masks, I figure there is still a need. Have distributed more than 200, have 50 more made and ready to share, and another 50 or so are cut out waiting to be stitched. I don't enjoy changing thread colors, so I select a few masks that could all look good with the same color of top-stitching, and I make those masks assembly line style. When they are made I choose another thread color and sew whatever masks I have cut out that look good with that thread. You can see the super hero masks are at the top of the pile.

My good quilting buddy, Kevin H., sent me a bag a scraps and leftover parts earlier this summer. I started playing with them and making plans for a small quilt almost immediately. I incorporated many of the "parts", like the 4-patches and the HSTs.

The top has been finished and basted for weeks, but I haven't started the quilting yet. Thanks, Kevin, for a fun diversion from my self-imposed focus on UFOs. This may turn out to be my July monthly mini once it is quilted.

I was on my evening walk one night last week when a quilting friend called to me from her yard. She had just finished assembling a top using a bunch of Lori Holt fabrics with a few other fabrics mixed in. There were a lot of bonus triangles leftover and at first she thought she would do something with them, but after beginning to press and trim a few, she decided they were smaller than she wanted to use. Many of them would finish around 2", or a little smaller. She asked if I knew anyone who would want them, and I told her I could probably find someone. So here they are--they pretty well fill a 1 qt. zipper bag. They would make a cute little quilt in happy fabrics. If you want them, say so in your comment.

Speaking of little quilts, another blog friend sent me some copies of that great classic magazine, "Miniature Quilts." I already had 2 or 3 of them, so if you are interested in those, let me know. Thanks for the magazines, Randy!

Finally, one of my favorite border designs to quilt is the rope. I wanted to use it on the sashing for "The Beast," but I didn't have a stencil for it that was big enough, and I didn't want to freehand it on a king size quilt. I get most of my stencils from Quilt Creations International. I already have this stencil in 3 sizes from them, but I checked to see if they had any larger sizes. They had a 2 1/2" listed, which isn't much larger than the 2" I already have, but it was just large enough. I ordered it, but when it arrived it was only 2". Turns out they had mislabeled it on their website and in their catalog and no one else had caught it. They decided that it was a popular enough design that it wouldn't hurt to make it in 2 1/2", which they promptly sent me in just over a week. So now I have an extra 2" size. Anyone interested?

Enough housecleaning. I hope you are all finding things that give you joy in the midst of all this craziness. Whether it is quilting to your heart's content, peace and quiet in a daily devotional, tending to living things in your garden, curling up with a good book and losing yourself in another time or place, sipping a wonderful lemon peach herb tea (it really is yummy) as you enjoy a sunrise or sunset, or baking up a storm--maybe you are lucky enough to have family in your "bubble" and you get to hug grandkids--whatever your source of comfort and normalcy, I hope you are staying safe and not letting it all get you down. We will get through this!

Until next time (when I'd better have a monthly mini ready),

Janet O.

The Beast Revisited

It has been a long time since I felt my shoulder could handle pushing this heavy, king-size T-shirt quilt around under Gidget's needle. It feels good to be seeing real progress now, and without shoulder pain.

This is my youngest son's college graduation quilt. He graduated 5 years ago. Do you think it is about time I completed it? When I started the quilting on this a few years ago my shoulder problems eventually brought it to a halt. After finally having surgery 2 years ago I thought I would get back to this quickly. But healing was slow and then other projects had gotten in the way. Now this is my machine quilting priority, and over the past couple of weeks I have quilted 16 blocks. I have four to go, and then I get to start on the sashing.

I am doing some pretty dense quilting, and I am trying to make each block different from any others.

Some turn out well--others, not so well. The block to the left is one of my favorites. The one below is in the "not so much" category.

I have never loved quilting pebbles, hence I don't do it much, so I can't do it well. But by the time I decided I wasn't thrilled with this block, I had gone too far to unpick (I just wasn't willing to do it at that point). Of course, this is the brightest, most fluorescent of all the blocks, which makes it  obvious. So be it.

These photos show a few of the other designs I used in the quilting.

         





















This T-shirt quilt has a twin brother. My oldest son graduated from the local university in 2011, and only 4 months later his T-shirt graduation quilt was quilted and bound. Of course, I didn't do the quilting myself. Here is the twin--and they were only born 4 years apart. How is that for a trick?

Between the two of them, these are the quilts that compelled me to learn machine quilting. When I picked up this quilt from my machine quilter, she told me about all of the problems she'd  had with breaking thread and wacky tension as she quilted it. Then she said that she wouldn't be sad if she never had to do another t-shirt quilt. My youngest son was already in college by then and already had the t-shirts stacking up (my sons were joiners). At that moment I figured I just needed to learn to do it myself, and that very month I was attending my first machine quilting classes (where I was, in all honesty, the class dunce).

One other near completion, my "Mom's Flower Garden" quilt finally got the border attached. Here it is on the guest room bed, making sure it is the size I want before I send it off to be quilted. Yes, there are too many quilts in the queue, so I am quilting this one by check.

Every couple of years I hire a friend that does excellent work and let her finish one of for me, and this is one of those times. I am excited to have her work her magic and get this 22 year old UFO into the "finished" pile!

And lest you think you are on the wrong blog, I do have a couple of small quilts that are in the works. One of them should end up being my mini of the month and will make an appearance here soon.

Our little valley has had an explosion of Covid cases in the past couple of weeks. We went from under 100 to over 700--heavily related to employees at a meat packing plant. Hope you are all able to stay safe, wash your hands, social distance, and wear a mask when you can't.

Until next time,

Janet O.

Much sewing, minimal quilting

Last August I decided I would make a table runner for my brother's dining room table. He has one old one Mom made decades ago as a "dresser scarf" for her bedroom, but it doesn't match the colors or decor of his dining room, and is quite worn. I heard him talking to my younger sister about wanting to get one that would fit in better. He has a quilt Mom made hanging on the dining room wall and wanted to pick up the colors from it. 

Mom's quilt hanging at my brother's. This is Pioneer Sampler designed by Eleanor Burns.

My sister was talking as though she would do it for him, but she has done very little quilting, and has very little spare time. Later I told her not to worry about it and I would do it. She was relieved. Within a couple of weeks I had pulled fabrics that matched the colors of Mom's quilt and had made a stack of 9-patch blocks, not sure where I would go from there. And then they sat. Last month was his birthday, so I took the blocks to his home and told him what I was trying to do and he gave me some input. I promised him it was my quilting priority. This is the results so far.

Poor lighting in this photo. Since this was taken I have marked it, basted it and completed the ditch-stitching. I tried to start free motion quilting Monday, but Gidget (my HQ Sweet Sixteen) was having tension issues. By the time I straightened it out the good late afternoon light that streams in my sewing room window was gone. I'm hoping to have some time to work on it Wednesday.

I had said I wasn't going to make face masks.The hospitals here won't take them, and there is so much contradictory info as to which pattern is best or whether any of them are effective. It made my head swim. But I wanted to do some sort of "helpful sewing", so I answered Lori's call for "pillowcase dresses" for little girls for her future mission trip.

Check out the link above if you want to join in. I used the first pattern option on the Nancy's Notions link she has listed, and they go together easily. These use the same elastic that are needed for the masks, so if you don't already have some on hand, you may have a hard time finding it. Luckily I already had a large pack.

Then ED shared a pattern for face masks that was requested by a health organization in her area. So I changed my mind, made a baker's dozen and sent them her way.

And now that it is recommended we all wear a mask when shopping, etc., I decided to try a different pattern. Trying to tie a mask behind my head just seemed to invite my hair to get tangle in the ties, and I could see it would be too frustrating. 

So I looked around the web a bit and found I liked this pattern from Lorrie Nunemaker. I decided to try making it with elastic loops instead of ties. I used batiks for the outside of almost all of them and lined them with T-shirt fabric. The pattern includes a pocket for more filter material, if desired. I included it on some of them, but not all. The tightly woven batik and  T-shirt material (which is recommended as one of the best options for filtering capability) combined make a pretty good DIY mask, I believe.

There is an adult-size template and a child-size one. The "Frozen" and "Cat in the Hat" masks were made with my youngest two grandchildren in mind. These were all made for my family and whatever they don't want I will find somewhere to donate. They make up quickly and there are no long ties to sew up (thank goodness). I understand that healthcare workers who have to wear these all day say the elastic can bother their ears after a while. But these are just for quick trips to the store, etc. And they used up the last of that big package of elastic.

One more brief quilty note--hopefully soon this border will be pieced and sewn onto the Flower Garden quilt. The center is all assembled. I get almost giddy when I see this top so near completion after 22 years!! I am so glad I didn't give up on this.

One last thing, it is Springtime in the Rockies again. If you have followed me for a while you may recall that this is when the resident llama on the family farm takes on "babysitting" duty. It sits, and baby lambs climb on. So fun to watch from my sewing room window!

Thanks to all who participated in my National Quilting Day party favor drawing. Names were drawn and notified March 30th. Prizes were sent the next day. I have heard from a few that they have been received and I am guessing that by now all but the two international winners would have theirs. If you are in the states and you have not received the party favor you won, please let me know.

Oh, such a long post. If I would make time to post more often this wouldn't happen. Honestly, just because we can't socialize doesn't seem to have made life less busy. Why is that, I wonder?

Until next time, as our current state campaign reminds us, "Stay safe: Stay home."
Janet O.

 

March Monthly Mini, Mom's Flower Garden, and a little fun for National Quilting Day

I know I haven't been spotted much in blogland this month, so I thought I should make up for it by posting my Monthly Mini earlier than usual--much earlier.

This is the Kim Diehl pattern "Prairie Stars". You may or may not recall that I purchased the kit a couple of years ago, only to get it home and discover it was applique--which, for the most part,  I don't do. But I figured out a way to make it with foundation piecing. I started making the blocks at my usual January Winter Retreat in 2019 and I finished making them and sewing the rows together at Winter Retreat this year. Finally quilted it Thursday and bound it on Friday. There are so many places where the points don't match up, and I don't care. I like it and am glad to have it finished. I'm linking with Wendy at The Constant Quilter blog for our monthly minis. Go see the links to all the other wonderful minis.

 

This blurry photo gives you an idea as to how I quilted it. As with so many of my mini quilts, I did SITD for the blocks, and free motion in the border. 

 
 


And this photo gives you a size perspective. It finished at about 10 1/2" square.













It feels SO good to have made so much progress on my "Mom's Flower Garden" quilt. It was just last June when I decided to take my multi-sized hexagon flowers made over the past 22 years (you can read about this saga here if you are new to this blog) and applique them to a muslin background. Having already mentioned above that I don't applique, you know this was a difficult decision. I thought it would take me forever. But it has been my take-along project whenever I have spent time with Mom, and on a couple of short road trips. Two weeks ago I was at this point. Everything was sewn together except for the bottom row and sashing.

I had mentioned that I was going against the grain (for me) with this quilt and sewing the rows as I went along, which I never do. It has come back to haunt me, as I see some blocks of the same color too close together, but I am letting it be. The blank spot in the bottom right corner was the block I was working on at the time the photo was taken, and the baggie hanging in the space beside it was the one block I had not already assembled. If you know how I feel about EPP, you will know I was not eager to make even 1 more flower! But I did it. I still need to applique it to the background, but for now, this is where this project stands.

Once that pink flower on the bottom row is appliqued I will assemble that row and get it attached. There will be one outer border to add and then this will probably have to marinate in the closet for a time while I decide how I want to quilt it.

My focus this year is really on my UFOs, but with all this "self-isolating", I had to try something fresh and different. I pulled out a Pam Buda kit for a mini that I had purchased last year and decided to give it a go.
I got it cut out earlier this week and have just worked on it here and there between other projects. I love red/brown quilts. This is the one on the bottom of the pattern cover. It is called Cinnamon Sticks and it finishes at 12x15 inches. So cute!


Okay, now for the National Quilting Day celebration. I would invite you all over for a party, but since there are more than 10 of you, that would be frowned upon. So I am offering some "Quilting Day" party favors. Some of these items were purchased specifically for this giveaway and others came from a feeble attempt to clean my sewing room.
One per person, names to be drawn before the end of March.
First up are some Kim Diehl "Simple Whatnot" patterns.

1. Prairie Stars--the pattern I used for my Monthly Mini featured above. Remember, it is applique. :)




2.  Honeycomb--much to my surprise, when I opened this pattern the other day I discovered that it is applique, too. Not going to mess with this one myself.










 3. Frugal Farm Wife






 

4. Next up is this great Judie Rothermel pencil conversation print. I have 4 FQs of it, so 4 of you could be receiving one of these.




5. Then we have a wool applique pattern from Primitive Gatherings







6. Next is a Jen Kingwell Postcard Project #4. When I bought mine, I also bought a set to give away. You can read about my experience with this pattern here. I struggled with some aspects of the templates because it is intended for hand piecing, which I didn't want to do. But I sure liked the finished quilt.








7. Finally we have a mini Tumbler Template with a couple of Jo Morton mini charm packs. The template is just the right size for the mini charms. Works like a charm. (Sorry about that.)

There you have it--10 chances to receive a National Quilting Day party favor. With all of this craziness going on, wouldn't it be great to get some fun mail? So if anything appeals to you, just note the numbered items that caught your eye in the comment section. You will only be selected once, but you can increase your odds by choosing multiple favor possibilities. Let's Party!!

Drawing is now closed as of March 30th

Janet O.

ETA: This is how I honored National Quilting Day.

Flowers and Foliage

My "Mother's Flower Garden" quilt is coming along. I am just finishing up appliqueing the last block to the background on the fourth row. Two more rows to go--you can see the sashing and cornerstones are cut and waiting for those last two rows. The border fabric is on the left. It is a Kim Diehl print fabric in a slightly lighter shade than the cornerstones.


I think I am going to take a big chance (for me) and start stitching the rows from the blocks I have already made. I have never stitched up my rows before without having all of the blocks completed and having spent the requisite days (or weeks) switching blocks around until I have either found the arrangement I like, or have thrown my hands in the air and given up.

Though the fabrics in my flowers are from the 80s and 90s, I still wanted to use 30s colors in the sashing and cornerstones. It just has that feel to me.There was a day when I didn't know if I could face this quilt again, but I am glad I finally pulled it out of the deep, dark closet. I am surprised at how much I like it now.

Other flowers I have been enjoying include this Amaryllis. This photo shows it when 6 of its 8 buds were open.

 











And the Valentine's Day bouquet hubby brought me is a gorgeous bundle of two-toned roses.

Did you celebrate Valentine's Day? Aside from my favorite Fresh Salmon Friday lunch at a local eatery, I spent much of my time making and delivering these. This was one of three trays.

It started a couple of years ago as something I wanted to do for some of the widows or home bound in my community on Valentine's Day. It was so fun--I really enjoy making them, and seeing the surprised faces of the recipients. But when I tried to do it again last year, there was not a strawberry to be found in the local grocery stores. This year I made up for it! 

 

As to the foliage in my post title, I am finally back to the hand quilting of another old UFO, but this one is only 10 years old. I finished assembling this Tree of Life medallion quilt in 2011. It was to commemorate my youngest son's two years as a missionary in Brazil. Each design has significance to his experiences there.
 








It sat idle for years until I had it machine basted by a long-arm quilter so I could start the hand quilting in 2016. With all of the shoulder problems I have had over the last several years, I just rarely felt like working on it. It remained as you see it here for longer than I care to admit.
Just this month I have actually been able to move the quilt in the hoop a couple of times. 

I struggled with what to quilt in the yellow setting triangles. Though they scream for feathers, I didn't want it to look feminine. 
I finally decided on the curved cross-hatching, but needed to order a larger curved ruler in order to do the marking. I have never hand quilted curved cross-hatching before. I find I like it. I finished up the first yellow corner this weekend.


And the last bit of foliage comes from this tiny Tree of Life.
I made that center block on a dare from Karen (logcabinquilter blog)--I don't even recall how many years ago. Do you, Karen?  She just sent me a photo she had seen on Pinterest, with the block dimension. I think she said it was a 4" unfinished block. I tried to make it with just that much to go on. It is kind of wonky, but I am finally making a little quilt out of it. It has been pinned to the side of my design wall ever since I finished it.
I am easily amused and I get a kick out of seeing how much tiny pieces shrink as they are sewn together. On the left are 14 1" unfinished HSTs (I miscounted somehow--I only need 13). On the right are 13 1/2" finished HSTs . I don't know yet if I will add any other rounds to this little medallion. This is as far as my brain has taken me.

Surprisingly, I didn't have to draw more than one name for the soap bundle I promised in my last post. Usually the first name or two belong to "no reply" profiles and I can't contact them, so I have to draw another name. This time I got a winner right out of the gate, and I am thrilled to say it is Wendy of The Constant Quilter blog. I link with her each month for the Monthly Mini. I'll get that sent out to you on Monday, Wendy.

Until next time,
Janet O.