Indigo Challenge Complete

I am a little late to this party (as usual). A couple of months ago Sandy posted about a wonderful bundle of vintage Indigo fabrics she received. She invited three other bloggers to accept a parcel of them (that was a hard decision--not) and join her in a little challenge to make a mini quilt incorporating the indigo in some way. We were to post our finish yesterday. You can see the others at Sandy's blog, Wendy's blog and Barbara's blog. Each one is a delightful treasure. What fun this has been!

I had planned on doing just basket blocks with the setting squares in between to show off the indigo fabrics,  but when I made one of those little "Flying Geese" blocks as one of my rogue blocks for my Circa 1880 quilt, I knew I wanted to include them here somehow.

In April I had made a little "test quilt" to get a feel for working with the fabrics. I was really pleased with how the Pyramid quilt turned out, and actually had time to hand quilt it. Here are the two sister quilts together.
Much of the cheddar fabric in each of these quilts came from a bundle of "scraps" sent to me by Grace T. when she had made a wonderful indigo and cheddar quilt that had made me drool (I wanted to link to one of her posts, but she has a few cheddar/indigo projects and I couldn't decide which one. Just go browse her blog and enjoy.).

Had planned on doing hand quilting in the setting squares and triangles this week, but my dear Mom fell down her basement stairs on Wednesday--miraculously broken ribs and bruises were the results. I spent two days by her hospital bed and then another day at her side at my brother's, where she will be staying for now. She cannot be left alone at present. So the hand quilting became machine quilting instead, and I have just finished the binding this evening.



Quilting in the late hours is not conducive to clear thinking and careful work. I hate it when this happens.




Here you can see the size a little better--and the quilting. The blocks are 2" finished.

 

I have cut the long thin leftovers into strips to eventually make some 3/4" finished 9 patch blocks.





As you can tell, I kind of went crazy in the "cheddar & indigo" department. After seeing the quilts the other participants made, I can't decide if I want to use the tiny leftover bits to make a blue/white quilt, or blue and happy colors. I love them both. Maybe I can combine them somehow.

Thank you Sandy, for the indigo fabrics and the invitation to participate in your fun challenge.  And thank you Grace, for the cheddars that were so vital to my little quilts.

My blog anniversary drawing was an interesting experience. The first number I drew was someone who  had asked not to be in the drawing. I tried again. The second number was someone with no contact info. The third number was for Annie O. at Annie's Quilt Orts blog. When I replied to Annie's comment on my last post I asked her if she had ever won a drawing on my blog--because I have won one on hers. Well, now she has, and she has been notified.

Mom's fall has also kept me from getting to many blogs lately. I tend to just read a few that have posted most recently when I have a minute to check in. I hope to get back to you all soon.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Do you ever tie quilts?

When I first started quilting decades ago, that was what I did most of the time. I was so slow at hand quilting, and couldn't afford to pay someone to machine quilt. So this week I went back to my roots.

The binding isn't wrapped around and sewn down in this photo, but my Mom has since taken care of that. She is gifting it to a man in her neighborhood that was really good to my Dad the last few years of his life, visiting him, and helping him with many tasks.

Mom had wanted to give him a quilt, but all of hers have been promised to people already (and she isn't quilting anymore). This is a top I had put together years ago with leftover parts from one of her quilts, so I told her I would tie it if she would bind it, and she could give it to him. She is happy with the results.
When I tie a quilt by myself, I smooth out  the backing and pin it into the carpet around the edges, using T-pins. Then I spread out the batting, and finally smooth out the top over it all and pin around the outside of the top. I tie one quarter of the quilt at a time, starting in the middle and working out toward the edge. Not everyone's knees can do this, I know. Mine haven't complained so far, but my back sure does!!





I basted a couple of little blocks that I will be hand quilting. The one in front is for my brother, made from leftovers from Mom's "Happy" quilt. After he has had 4 heart procedures in the past 5 months, he needs some "happy".

The block in the back was made by Jill Reid, an online friend that has since passed away. It was thoughtfully given to me by Barb (Fun with Barb blog), a good friend of Jill's, and I am going to hand quilt it and put it on my wall of quilts from friends. You can't tell from the photo, but I have marked a feathered wreath in the pink. For all the feathers I have machine quilted, I have never hand quilted any.

 




You may have seen on Lori's (Humble Quilts blog) blog her efforts to make a block representing the solar eclipse. I have been on a similar quest. Last night I stayed up way too late and tried a block Lori has made using a different pattern. If it hadn't been so late, I may not have messed up the color placement I was attempting.
I may try this block one more time, and try to get the colors where I want them this time. This block finishes at 5 1/2".
 




This is my latest thrift store find for my sewing room. It is making sense of the growing stacks of charm squares and mini charm squares, and fits nicely in about the only empty spot left in the room. It is very stable, so I don't have a fear of it toppling over on me.


Not really much to share this post, considering it has been over a week since my last post. Maybe one day I will surprise you and really make big progress on something--but don't hold your breath.

Until next time, 
Janet O.

Marvelous Mini Flimsy and some sundry things

I have stolen sewing moments here and there and put together my Temecula Marvelous Mini Monday SAL blocks. I made my own setting, as you will recognize if you follow Temecula's blog. I really like the blocks on point.

I had to make 2 extra of the "easy block", one extra sampler block(I made a friendship star), and another one of those supposed-to-be-36-patches-but-mine-are-49-patches blocks. I toyed with bordering it, but so far it will stay as shown. 

While in the sewing room, I also finally finished stitching the two blocks that I had partially assembled in my Midnight Flight class with Bonnie Hunter a couple of months ago.

I am liking these blocks more than I thought I would, but there are so many ways they can go wrong, and I have tried a few of them already.
This layout takes more brain power than I possess at the odd hours I usually find time to sew. I hope I can eventually at least make a lap quilt or throw from this pattern.

This is a Buttermilk Basin Banner that I started quilting near the end of last year. Then Dad passed away and this hasn't seen the light of day until this week. Seemed to be the right time of year to finish it off.
Finally sewed the machine side of the binding on. It is pinned to the other side awaiting some hand stitching time. That is why the edges look wavy, and the corners appear to be curling in on themselves.
 

















You can see the quilting best on the left. What do you quilt on a pumpkin banner border? Pumpkin seeds, of course!

You may recall the little quiltlets I made for my daughters from the leftover bits of my Mom's last quilt. (you can see her quilt in this post.) Mom had named it her Happy Quilt.

After the difficult summer my brother has had, with three heart procedures, I figured he could use some "happy".

I am out of the yellow fabric that formed the setting triangles, but I can make the center section using bits that were still left after I also made a quiltlet for me last year. So this will be handwork to keep me busy for a little while.


When I get the hexie flower finished and appliqued, I will audition other fabrics from the quilt to see if  something else works to set it on point, or if it will stay a small, straight-set square. Then I will hand quilt it, as I did the others.



My prayers are with those who have been devastated by storms in the south, or are anticipating them, as well as those dealing with the fires in the west.
We are looking forward to the arrival of DD#1 and her daughter tomorrow, as they escape the smoky Pacific Northwest. We are smoky, too, but not quite as bad.  Angie and Maggie will be here the rest of the month, so I may be playing more than I am blogging. But I will be back. :)
Until then,
Janet O.

Forging Ahead

I did get a "little" sidetracked as I was forging (sounds like I have clandestine operations going on in my basement, or something). Realizing I only had 3 mini quilts to display with a St. Patrick's Day color scheme, I had to do something to put in my standing clip.
So this happened. Maybe I'll call it "Patrick's Pinwheels".

Shouldn't take long to quilt. It will finish about 7" x 10". 
The pinwheels were made from a couple of strips of the fabric Randy had wrapped around a pincushion she sent me last year. You may  recall the little Valentine quilt I whipped up from the two strips on the right in this photo.
You can see the strips I used in the quilt above--and this took every last bit of them. I just added the black from Moda's "Essential Dots" line. 
The strip to the far left was partially used in my Quilters Madder, so now all of the strips have been put into little quilts.

Okay, here is where I start forging ahead. I decided that rather than spending months agonizing over finding just the right setting, and/or sashing for these 64-patch blocks made from Mom's watercolor quilt leftovers, I needed to just use Mom's scraps to finish this off. This quilt is all about sentimental value, not design perfection. 

I tried greens for the sashing, but the green in the blocks just does not stand out enough to make the green sashing feel unifying. There were a few strips of light purple leftovers from Mom's watercolor quilt, but not enough to sash the blocks. So I dug deeper and came across some strips of purple in a bag of scraps from the last quilt Mom made. I had to give them a try. They were a variety of shades, and when combined with the first purple strips I found, there were barely enough. I decided to put the lightest shades around the darkest blocks, and vice versa.

The setting triangles stumped me. Mom's scraps were not big enough, and there was nothing in my stash that clicked. I'm really trying to meld warm yellows and cool purples and pinks in the quilt, and that isn't easy. That is where my buddy Kris, from Lavender Quilts blog, saved the day. She had this warm yellow batik with a soft purple print. I took a sample home and it did the job for me, pulling the yellows from the inner blocks, through all of the purples, to the edge of the quilt. So this is my final answer. Probably no one would put this all together by choice, but I look at this as a "make do" quilt--making do with Mom's leftovers, and I am okay with the purchase of the setting triangle fabric.

The really big forge ahead was that I finally pin basted "the beast"!

And last night I actually began the quilting!
 
If you have ever made a t-shirt quilt before, you know they are heavy. Quilting a king sized one on a sit down machine really gives the shoulders a workout. After only 1 1/2 blocks quilted, my left shoulder is talking to me. I was supposed to have it scoped the end of December, but it was scheduled for the very day my Dad passed, so I canceled. My shoulder was actually feeling pretty good by that time, too, after having been a problem for over a year. So I didn't reschedule. But after shoveling a few driveways following one of our many snowstorms, it is troubling me again. 
I'll have to take baby steps quilting this, or I might not be in shape to sew when Bonnie Hunter comes to Utah this July to teach classes. Two of the classes are only 30 minutes from home, so I will be there to meet the first quilt blogger I started following, over 6 years ago.

Until next time, 
Janet O.

Winners and other stuff!

First off, I want to let you know who won the Lynn Roddy Brown books. Congrats to Nancy, a no reply blogger, who won Simple Strategies for Scrap Quilts. Nancy, I need you to email your snail mail address to me so I can mail the book to you. Congrats also to Yvette, who won the Block Swap book. Thanks to all who participated! I hope the winners enjoy those books as much as I do!
I finally have another flimsy completed.I cut this out months ago using one of Lori Smith's Fit to Frame patterns.

The inner, pieced border gave me fits. I made it according to the pattern, I thought,  and it didn't fit--it was way too long on every side. Luckily I had only sewn 1 1/2 sides together when I realized the problem. I have no clue what went wrong. I checked my measurements with the pattern and I had cut things right. Anyway, I ended up making 1 1/2" HSTs to create the border instead of the method the pattern used. I have coveted the sample of this they have in a LQS every time I go in, so I decided I needed to just make one. I don't think I will frame it. I want to hand quilt it and bind it and put it on a wall somewhere, but I am trying to decide if I want to add another brown border to the outer edge. This is my first real mini quilt and I have to say that all of you out there blogging about how a mini quilt gives you a quick finish should come give me lessons. This did not go together quickly for me. But I will be making more. I love the result!

Another fun thing in the "little" department (or maybe I should say "tiny") is the foundation paper pieced jewelry made by Julie at Me and My Stitches. Some of you may recall that I won her giveaway a while back, and I chose a flag pin. Well, I finally got around to ordering more. I intended to order some traditional blocks, but when I saw the pumpkin and stained glass heart I was through looking.

Aren't they fun? Julie says she is going to be putting more on her website (which you can access by clicking the header photo on her blog) soon. You can get pins, pendants, earrings, and scissor fobs. I like a seasonal pin on my jacket or coat lapel, so these are all pins.

These are the blocks I have sent already.
They don't need to be this involved.
I always complicate things

One more thing, if you are not already aware. John'aLee has moved the deadline for 8" or 12" (finished measurement) patriotic star blocks to go into 5 quilts she is making for her daughter (whose fiancee was killed in Afghanistan just before they were to be married), the soldier's mother, two brothers and best friend, who was with him when he was killed. If you were hesitant to help because of the deadline, she has extended it to the end of November to try and collect all of the blocks she needs. You can go to her blog, The Scrappy Appleyard, for more info. I've already sent my blocks, but I am going to try and join Freda at The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe in  making one more each week until the last week of November, so we can each send her a few more.


I had more to share but it is late, so I'll save it for another post.

Until next time, from the little mountain valley where the sagebrush grows,
Janet O.