Mary (quiltin' grandma's blog) and I had talked about swapping small quilts back in 2017, but mutually agreed that "next year" would be better for us. When 2018 rolled around we scheduled our swap for September. As the deadline drew closer--again, by mutual agreement--we scooted it into January of 2019. But as my January progressed, I knew it wasn't going to happen. We pushed it into February, and I'll admit that at one point I wasn't sure if I was even going to make that--but I did. This is what I "finally" sent to Mary. She has received it now, so I can share it with you. Her quilt is due to arrive here in a few days, so I will share it in my next post.
Our swap was not real specific, other than the fact that we would use fabric from thrifted shirts to make a small quilt. I tried to choose colors I know Mary likes, and other than that I was flying by the seat of my pants. I made the HSTs with a specific design in mind, but as I laid them out, it didn't work for me in these fabrics. I must have changed the layout about 5 times before settling on these sampler star blocks. I think this finished at 14 1/2" square.
Most of the quilting was SITD. I often do that on minis, and throw in something else in the border.
I always enjoy playing in the plaid fabrics from shirts. This was a fun challenge, Mary. Thanks for joining me! :)
This is also my February mini-of-the-month for the challenge with Wendy (the constant quilter blog). How unusual for me to be posting it before the very last few minutes of the last day of the month!
This is another 2 year old "finally." When my Dad passed away the end of 2016 I took his plaid shirts to make a throw quilt for Mom. In 2017 I made the top, but the shoulder issues I was having made pushing it around under the needle of my HQ Sweet 16 out of the question. I thought about "quilting by check," but I wanted to do this one myself. After the shoulder surgery last year I thought I would be back at it before the year was out, but I had setbacks in healing on multiple occasions and I have just recently felt like I could make an attempt at quilting anything larger than a mini. So Friday I did this...
...and then this...
...and most of this.
Today (Saturday) I finished the quilting...
...and now I have the binding cut, sewn together and pressed in half. It has been so long since I have bound anything but a mini quilt that I almost forgot to cut it wide enough for double fold binding. Whew! That was close!
Monday I will attach the binding and I will work on hand stitching the other side in the evenings next week. It will get a label and a good wash to remove all of the markings. I am anxious to get this finished and delivered to Mom--hopefully before the week is over.
My last little progress report is not a "finally." I just started it last month. It is the first of the six little quilts that are part of the Circa 1880 Club. These little quilts all use some of the same uneven 9-patch blocks that are in the featured club quilt. You can click these photos to get a better look.
I switched to a different border print than I had been auditioning in my last post. This one is a Pam Buda fabric called Ditsy Trio. I think it worked beautifully. I plan to feather in the border and possible bind with purple, pink or red, for something a little bit flashy. :)
The
second photo shows the quilting and the backing fabric, which I LOVE!
I drew a name from the 25 interested in the Kim Diehl project--well, actually I drew 3 names. The first two were "no-reply" comments, so I can't make contact. I appreciate it if you include your email address if you aren't sure whether or not you are "no-reply". Marj (eclectic quilter blog) was the winner of the drawing and I will get the kit on the way to her as soon as I confirm her address.
That about wraps it up. Thank you all for your kind comments and faithful reading. I really appreciate the friendships I have made here. It is always a bright spot to check in with your blog, or hear from you via comments or email--or even texts.
Until next time,
Janet O.
And what do I have to show for it? Not much.
Well, there's this (yes it is crooked).
With Pam Buda's Circa 1880 Club there are patterns for 6 little quilts that can be made throughout the year using more of the little uneven 9-patch blocks. This is the first one, and I have pieced it this month using a stolen minute here, a few more minutes there. Because it was assembled in such a disjointed manner, I feel like I didn't have the focus I needed. The distribution of color bothers me--I did unpick one part of a block because there was too much of one fabric too close together. But when I saw how many places were like that, I stopped after the one repair and decided to live with it. The neutral around the edge is being auditioned for the final border, and then it is bound with a dark color. I am still deciding if I will use a neutral, or if I want to make that outer border with a light or medium color.
After I got Dad's history printed in December, I went to work on this. Mom's birthday is on Groundhog's Day, and I had to scramble to get this put together in time--fifty pages of the quilts Mom has made. She chided me for not using a younger photo of her on the front, but the one I used shows Mom with the quilt she made in 1991 (but the photo was just taken 2 years ago). It won sweepstakes at our county fair, our state fair, and it went on to hang at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. The piecing was simple, as you can see, but what you can't see are the tiny stitches on the feathered wreaths in the white spaces. Her hand quilting was impeccable.
It was fun to sit with Mom on her 89th birthday and watch her go through the book and reminisce about the quilts she has made.
I have to share my Valentine bouquet. DH and I were in town together early in the week and he asked if I would like to pick out my own bouquet. When I saw this bouquet I could not refuse. Purple (they look more purple in real life) and cheddar, with a neutral background! Now I want to make a quilt in these colors, adding the dark green of the leaves.
This project has been gathering dust on my shelf (not really--it has been in a box) for a few years now. I took a class from Kim Diehl, and I haven't touched the project since I brought it home. It isn't that I don't like it, but I know I don't have anywhere to hang a quilt this size. And I don't love it enough to work on altering it. If you would like to rescue this UFO, let me know in your comment. I will draw a name if there is more than one person interested.
We had to come to the class with everything cut and ready, so it is all prepped. It includes everything for the top, except the floss for working with the wool. But the wool is all there.
This is a close-up of the pattern to give you a better idea. Let me know if you are interested.
Hopefully I will have more to show for the second half of February than I have the first half!
Until next time,
Janet O.
Drawing now closed
I actually did it--I finished something this month. So many things are "almost" there, but I got one of them across the finish line. This is my Mini-of-the Month with Wendy over at The Constant Quilter blog.
It is from a Pam Buda pattern in Journey Three of her Prairie Women's Sewing Circle. Her pattern called for 20 blocks, I made mine with 12. She named it "Light In The Window." I haven't named mine yet.
I assembled this top in Oct. of 2016--over 2 years ago. It was a true "make do" project. In Pam's Sewing Circle Journeys, she encourages the "make do" principle used by our fore-mothers. When I was making this I had a bundle of small cuttings from Pam's Old Plum Calicoes line, and I was determined to use only those purples and shirtings. I pulled in the blue piece from another of Pam's lines. But working with that limited pile of purples (a fat eighth was the largest piece in the bundle--many were smaller pieces) challenged me.
Four of the 12 blocks are "make do,"
and it took 2 different fabrics to make the outer border. I didn't have enough of the shirtings to make any more blocks--that is why I stopped at 12.
I cheated with the backing and used a Judie Rothermel print in blue and purple that I love and had been saving for something special. I told myself I had to bind it with the trimmings from the backing. (I talk to myself a lot!) I don't often bind with a lighter fabric than the border, but we are making do here, remember? And I kind of liked lightening up the outer edge a bit.
I thought I would have plenty of the leftover backing with which to bind, and I almost made it. I searched my stash for just one more little bit of this fabric--no luck! (I even looked online, just because I would have loved to have more of this.) And this is a "make do" quilt, remember? Look closely at the bottom edge of the binding in the photo above. In the middle you can see a seam a few inches long worming around the binding. That is made of two little leftover bits that weren't wide enough to be binding--I actually pulled them from the thread catcher on my cutting table. They were destined for the trash. And to the left of that part is a little section of another fabric leftover from one of the blocks. On the back you can see the seam in the pieced section, but on the front (below), that seam is not visible.
And the alternate fabric is not that visible when the quilt is viewed as a whole. I am very happy with this finish. Now I just need a name so I can write on the label and stitch it down. :)
This little top (created from blocks I made at retreat earlier this month) was the other project in the running to get finished for Mini-of-the-Month. But the blue/purple project had been waiting longer and needed its turn first.
The pattern for this little quilt called for a lot more blocks than this, but I felt it was finished, so I bordered it and called it "done." At the moment I can't find the pattern to credit the designer, but I will hopefully have found it before I post about this quilt again.
My design wall has been hosting these blocks for far too long now. At last sighting they were just separate blocks, with the top two rows actually sewn into rows.
Now all of those rows are actually sewn rows, and the last two rows that are missing from the photo above are waiting beside my featherweight for their turn at assembly. I am going to do a border or two around this when the rows are all sewn together. This may be coming off the wall soon (except for the fact that I really stall when it comes to borders).
In one of my "what was I thinking?" moments, I signed on for the Kim Diehl BOM with our LQS. I have never purchased a BOM before. Who am I kidding? When will I make this? But I love it--however, I am already designing alternative corner blocks in my mind.
I do hope everyone in the path of the Polar Vortex is able to stay safe and warm! My prayers are with you.
Until next time,
Janet O.
...is never enough!
I always have such grand plans, and I honestly stay pretty well focused while I'm there. My roommate and I are not there to play (but we do still have fun). We are there to make serious progress. But it is never enough.
Once again our retreat was held at the lovely Academy Conference Center in downtown Brigham City, UT.
There were classes going on in a downstairs room most of the time, so the sewing room hardly ever seemed full, though there were about 35 of us there.
I did end up with 11 finished rows on my Circa 1880 quilt. I had six finished when I arrived, so I added five. (One more was made after this photo was taken.)
I haven't touched my Scrappy Trips (Bonnie Hunter free pattern) quilt since retreat last January. This time I added 12 blocks (4 of them were made after this photo was taken). Six more blocks to go. I'd better finish this up before next January!
This little quilt pattern was added to my luggage as a last minute afterthought (along with a basket of HSTs), but it turned out to be the only small project I brought that I actually worked on. There are supposed to be 5 more blocks, but it is really tempting to just sew up these 4 and call it good. I think the Broken Dish blocks finish at 2"
My leader/ender blocks were added to, when the project I was sewing didn't create its own leader/enders.
I almost have 200 of these windmill blocks now, and I have a bunch of them cut out. I think I will finish the ones I have cut, and then I will be done with this one. I have been doing these for years.
The first two days they provided a make-n-take project at 7 p.m. I just brought home the kit for the first one--it is a project bag.
But the second day they hit me in a soft spot--foundation paper piecing mini flying geese!
It all came together to make this key holder that slips onto your wrist.
The retreat ran for three days and the sewing room was open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. We took full advantage of those hours. We were the first ones there each morning, and among those being shooed out at closing time each night--except for the last night. Technically we could stay and sew until 10 even the last night, but a good share of the quilters had packed up and left by 5 p.m.
In the photo above you can see three diehard quilters to the back of the room, and the ladies to the left are employees and owner of the sponsoring shop, just waiting around for the rest of us to go home, so they can do likewise. My retreat buddy got a shot of me about this same time.
We finally left around 7:30, and the other two gals were beginning to pack up to get on their way.
It was a great escape--just what I needed, and just in time to preserve my sanity!
Now back to real life. :)
Until next time,
Janet O.
I actually squeezed in a little sewing time the past couple of days. On Wednesday I made house blocks for quilts for folks in Paradise, CA.
Lori posted about it here, with a pattern and the address of where to send them.
I had fun fussy-cutting novelty prints for the windows, and also digging through my brighter scraps to make some happy houses.
I sent the house blocks on their way on Thursday and came home and made more X blocks for the 70273 Project.
These will probably be the last ones I get made for the project. It is amazing how quickly the X blocks are adding up, and I think Jeanne could very well have reached her goal before I get a chance to make more. I don't ever feel like I get enough time in my sewing room to make quilts to donate to worthy causes, so I appreciate times where I can donate blocks. There is one more X block floating around the house somewhere, but I have lost it somehow. If I find it tomorrow, it will join these on their journey to Jeanne.
Next week I will be spending 3 days with my retreat buddy at the Village Dry Goods Winter Retreat. I think I have my projects narrowed down. Now I need to get organized and ready to go--well, I am SO ready, but I need to get my things ready to go with me. :)
Until next time,
Janet O.
