Quilty Orphan Needs New Home

It’s been at least a year or more since I`ve participated with Cynthia B’s Quilty Orphan Adoption, and I am so excited (even if I`m a bit tardy, hehe) to link up this time. The event is a link up where you can explore projects that are being given away free for others to finish up. Each donor sets their own rules and pays the postage to send the item(s) to you!

Last year I started out playing along with the Splendid Sampler, then realized I`d taken on too many things. And truthfully, I was not loving my blocks. I finished about 20 blocks or so then quit. They were pieced together with a couple other blocks plus spacer squares to form the flimsy below. It measures approximately 42x48”.

It’s probably an overly-large baby-sized quilt, yet there are several blocks that wouldn’t be appropriate for a baby, like the “Measure Twice, Cut Once” and the block with the 3-D flowers and beads sewn on (detail in picture below). But they could be replaced. Or, even better, you could add a border or two and make this into a nice girls lap quilt.

The rules are that I offer this quilt FREE to someone who may want to finish it. It does not have to go to a charity, but I would like to see it gifted to someone. I will mail the flimsy, PLUS some additional matching fabric scraps in case you want to replace some of the blocks, to one lucky (or is it unlucky? LOL) volunteer.

If you are interested in finishing it up - and I do want it to go to someone who will FINISH, not just collect it - please leave a comment here on this post and make sure I have a way to contact you. Tell me what you would do with the quilt. I will select the recipient on about March 23rd (Thursday) and contact you. In the case of more than one interested and qualified recipients, I will have my DH draw their name from a hat. Or a bowl. You get the idea.  :-)

And why not join us over at Cynthia's Quilty Orphan Adoption Event to see who else has other quilty things up for adoption?  Quilts don’t need to be fed, or to be walked or get shots, so think of how much time and money you’ll save!!

Notting Hill Splendid Dresdens

I’m whacked, I know. In thinking of what to name this post (something I hate doing), it occurred to me that it’s a review of what I’ve accomplished this week so far. That would be: finishing up the three green Dresdens for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge, my monthly two blocks for my Notting Hill quilt and sewing together all the blocks for my abbreviated Splendid Sampler. Hence, the title.

Last weekend my cousins (really nieces) were all over to sew, and Jenny finished a red and black quilt. Alfie decided to perform the Cozy Test on it before Jenny finished the binding. He rated it two paws up.

Alfie is rarely still (especially when I get out the camera), so please excuse the blurs.

Below are my three Dresden blocks. Using a blue background is a first. Also, because I machine-gathered the center yo-yos instead of hand gathering, there were raw edges. So I finished them off with center buttons. One thing you can say about me is that I am consistently inconsistent.

Once the Dresdens were out of my hair done, I quickly whipped up two more 12” blocks for my Notting Hill sampler quilt. The block immediately below is called Crosses and Losses.

This block is called Origami Box, but I think that the design gets lost with these busy prints. Heck, the whole line (Notting Hill) is very busy, but I should have added some solids as I have in other blocks.... You’ll also see some Architextures in there....

There are now 14 of 20 blocks done, and I have already started cutting out the two for June. I know at some point in June or July I`m going to whip through and just GET IT DONE. At present, there are no plans for this quilt, but I am hoping my DIL will like it enough to select it as her Christmas Quilt. It will have white sashing (or maybe hot pink?). As usual, I haven’t decided yet.

And finally, my happiest semi-completion of the week: my A.S.S. - Abbreviated Splendid Sampler.  The official Splendid Sampler (OSS) calls for 100 blocks. My attention span is not that long, and I was just not feeling the love on this project. So, after completing about 20-something blocks, I added a few blocks of my own (notice the kitten?), added filler blocks and now it’s a finished flimsy.

At this point, with (7) 6” blocks across and (8) 6” blocks down, it should measure 42.5” x 48.5” (with outer unfinished quarter-inch seams). Mine measures 43x49. Yep, it always happens to me. I`m so afraid of not making the blocks large enough that my seams are just a hair too narrow. Oh well.... my piecing is a bit off. I don’t care. It will make a cute (baby?) quilt (except that “Measure Twice Cut Once” block). For now, it will be hung nicely on a hanger in my stitching room awaiting its final destination.

So, I am off to Seattle on Saturday morning to visit my daughter and will be back on Monday afternoon. Short visit. Bruce is stocked up with oatmeal raisin cookies, pizza, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, chicken strips, peanut butter and coffee. He`s good to stay behind and eat.

Let’s Go Green!

I don’t know why this week passed by so quickly, but it just blew me away.  I missed sewing for several days because of Mother’s Day, errands/yardwork and eye appointments - my new eyeglasses should be here in another week. Oh, and then we had new windows installed, so there were wood blinds to take down, new windows to wash and then blinds to put back up. It’s always something, isn’t it??  Excuses, excuses.

But I DID get some sewing done. In fact, my Dresdens are done, although they are not yet appliquéd to their blocks or the center work done. But that is the work of a couple hours and they will be ready to share next week.

This week, I did my Rainbow Sampler flying geese blocks.  The block for May is a 3.5 x 6.5” flying goose. I chose to do two together, making it a 6.5x6.5” block, so I made 12 of those.

Above you can see them as complete blocks, but just up on the design wall to snap an easy picture. Below they are all sewn together in their column. I chose to alternate pairs of light geese/dark sky with dark geese/light sky. I also thought it would add interest to change the directionality, so I played a bit and settled on this. No pointing down; it just looked odd, IMHO. So it’s right, up, left, up, etc.

I should also note that a lot of time this week was spent sewing, pressing and squaring up an endless number of half square triangles. Tomorrow I'll begin my 16-patch and improv blocks, so it will be nice to have the HSTs at the ready.  I have so many green scraps, I really don’t know what to do!  I’m not sure they’ll go back into the smallish drawer from which they came. Even though I’ve used A LOT, I did add all the green leftovers from my Splendid Sampler fabric pull.

I have decided to stop participating in the Splendid Sampler because I am really not enjoying it all that much. One of the blocks I needed to catch up on would have had (for a 6.5” block) 45 pieces!!  That was the final straw for me. I am just not into it.  So, here is a rough layout of what I have so far, interspersed with some scrappy pink blocks:

I’ve decided to add one more row to the bottom, and it will contain 3 plain pink blocks and 4 pieced blocks. I will do a kitten, some flying geese, and two others.  With 1” white sashing and a 3” print border around, it will come out to 56”x63”, a nice smallish lap quilt for a girl. Once it's a top, I can put it away until a specific occasion warrants finishing it.

Both Alfie (my supervisor) and I agreed this would be the best course of action. He also pointed out that I need to replace the center blue circle in the middle block on the very right column. It was supposed to look like Earth, but it doesn’t. So it will be replaced with one of the cutesy pink prints in the quilt.

"Mommy, I need some scratching!"

On Memorial Day weekend I’m flying to Seattle to visit my daughter, so I would like to get all my green scrap sewing done by next week. Yeah, I know. In. My. Dreams.

Once again I am linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at So Scrappy. I always look forward to seeing all the lovely things the ladies are working on - such a great, supportive group. Why not check it out?

First Finish of the Quarter

I finally finished the Cityscape quilt after spending waaaaaaay too much time quilting.  Not to mention too much time watching Netflix, LOL.  And errands, appointments and having our alarm system upgraded.

This is the first finish of this second quarter of the year, and was #1 on my Finish Along Goals, Quarter 2.

It’s been rainy and gloomy here, so my only finished picture is with the quilt pinned (not very evenly) on my design board.  I will try to get better pictures outdoors when the sun decides to shine again.

I outline quilted most of the buildings.  While the rays of light were done a few weeks ago in white (on the light upper background), the buildings were quilted in black. The quilting on the front and back really just disappears. I don’t intend to wash the quilt at this point as it will be a wall hanging for my son. I did add a hanging sleeve to the back.

The first black border, as I mentioned in a previous post, was quilted in the ditch. Then the outer colored border was just given simple straight line stitching, using my walking foot as a guide (but still not very straight...)

When I do the next one (yes, I have another identical panel), I am going to do the same light ray quilting, but it will morph into a simple quilted grid. But I don’t need to worry about that one until fall; it will be a charity quilt.

Meantime, I found an afternoon to catch up on the Splendid Sampler blocks I’ve chosen to do. There are six, and I believe one may be an alternate block. And two were changed by me (the Measure Twice and the house). We are encouraged to do our own thing. I modify designs I want to and ignore the embroidered and paper pieced blocks.

I have 20 6.5” blocks so far. I’m not sure how long I will continue to do these - I should sit down and do some math. I think eventually I would like to add some plain blocks and sashing to extend these. When we get to the months of green, yellow and pink, I will see what the stash says, although I could probably finish a nice sized quilt with just the fabrics I’ve already pulled for this thing.  :-)

And that’s it for this week’s finishes. Tomorrow I plan to cut into some fabric for my next quilt. If I can get it cut out before the May rainbow color is announced (I am betting on red), then it will be ready to start piecing when my colored blocks are done.....

See you on Saturday with my Orange Scrappy Update.

Sampler Update and Why I Hate Paper Piecing (A Rant)

I have been following along with the Splendid Sampler, a sew-along with Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson and Moda Fabrics. It started on Valentine’s Day and will run well into next year. It will contain 100 blocks by 80-some designers, with lots of bonus blocks along the way. Extra blocks are provided so we can either work ourselves to death or to swap out an official block we don’t care for with one we do.

I remember going into this sew-along thinking I would do as Pat suggested. Try it all, she said. Be a good sport, she said. We’ll have tutorials along the way. We’re all in this together! Ok, so there I was, just rarin’ to go.

For the first several blocks, everything was hunky dory. Before I go any further, let me insert a picture here of the 3 most recent blocks I’ve done. They bring my total to 14.  They all turned out well and I had a lot of fun.

There were some blocks with embroidery that I chose to skip. Not because I can’t embroider; I can, and very well thank you. (See some of my old crazy quilted blocks, quilts, etc from earlier years of this blog). But I want to quilt, not embroider. So, I skipped those blocks. No harm done.

And then, last Sunday the first Paper Pieced block was introduced. It is absolutely gorgeous and despite my better judgment, I wanted to try it.

Now, we all know full well that paper piecing was invented by the Devil’s Spawn. But I decided I was going to master the technique and do this block regardless of how many times I’ve tried and failed paper piecing in the past. After all, I thought, it couldn’t be as bad as that other thing - the T word (Tatting) that was invented by the Devil himself. But I digress.

So, I chose my fabrics, carefully measured and cut and read the scanty directions. I even watched a couple tutorials on You Tube (because my buddy Pat failed me in that regard, bless her heart). And speaking of those tutorials, why on earth would anyone teach paper piecing using the Economy Block as an example? You can do that block easier and better without paper piecing!!! But I digress again.

I went to my sewing machine with high hopes. Thirty minutes later I was in tears, a ranting, raving lunatic. What a disgraceful mess! That pile of scraps under the scissors might or might not have been shredded to bits by, um... someone.

Needless to say I have, since this picture, put away the surviving scraps and scissors. The rest has been thrown away after being gustily cut or torn to bits. Thank goodness the Quilting Police aren’t involved in the Splendid Sampler.

I will never try paper piecing again. My brain isn’t wired for such nonsense. It’s bass ackwards. It’s stupid and dumb and f*ing frustrating; (you can insert that f-word that our moms would’ve washed out our mouths for). Seriously? We can’t find a better way to piece than using paper backwards? And what about not using our sewing scissors for paper? I don’t even want to go there!

A better use for paper piecing would be at Guantanamo. We could just make terrorists do some paper piecing - they’d give up all their secrets in a heartbeat if faced with it. Trust me.

And just in case the message wasn’t clear in all the above diatribe wasn’t clear; I HATE PAPER PIECING!!

Hugs,

Midweek Sewing Update

Did you have a nice Easter? Ours was quiet, which afforded a lot of sewing time for me. And yes, we had Belgian chocolate from Trader Joe’s. What more could you ask for?

On Sunday I sewed the borders onto my Cityscape. I’m pleased with it, but dreading (as always) the basting process and the quilting even more.

I’m going to attempt to quilt those rays in the skyline with clear thread.  And I  know the borders will be different than the main part. But that’s all I’ve decided for now.

Below is my latest Splendid Sampler block. It’s #11 for me (I think).  I’m going to sew another one today after I baste the quilt.

I also recovered my ironing board and you can see a bit of the Makower laundry fabric beneath the left of the block. I didn’t take a picture of the ironing board itself because.... it’s just an ironing board. But a cute ironing board now!

That’s it for now. Short and sweet. See you on Saturday!

Spring Stitching

Happy Spring everyone unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, then Happy Autumn!  Either way, the temperate seasons we’re coming into are beautiful!

Last week I mentioned but didn’t show my purple improv (scrap) blocks. They’re 8.5 inches and I had enough of the smaller scraps to do 8. I still have larger chunks of purple scraps - from fat eighths to FQs, but I didn’t cut them up for these blocks. I`m doing other quilt tops that may call for those larger chunks. If not, they’ll be ready for RSC2017.  Speaking of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, why not join us over at Angela’s SoScrappy for Scrappy Saturday. There is always lots of great eye candy!

This week I finished my Birds and Bees quilt which uses mostly fabrics by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller. I love the navy fabric with colored stars, but am not crazy about it as the first border. The quilt finished at about 56x64” (after washing), so it’s not a huge quilt.  I worked out the pattern on Pattern Jam according to the fabric I had on hand. We forgot to take a picture of the back which is made up of the outer border fabric, plus the binding fabric (aqua) and yellow. The quilting is a simple stipple and batting is Warm & Natural Plush. It will go into the linen closet to be added to the pile of Quilts for Christmas Gifts this year.

This is also a finish for my 1st Quarter Finish Along Goals, #6 to be specific.  And this is the 3rd quilt finish this quarter.  I am hoping to possibly finish one more this month.

I have finished three more Splendid Sampler blocks since the last time I shared. They have just introduced block #12 (the 36-patch ), but I have only done 10 blocks to date. Two of the introduced blocks have lots of embroidery and I am not enjoying that right now after doing my crazy quilts (see older blog posts) for the last 15 years.

The bottom block was supposed to have an embroidered center, but I included a Lori Holt little fabric piece instead  and then surrounded it with selvages. It did not turn out as I hoped. In fact, I think it’s fugly.  But it’s done and it’s staying as is. In a quilt, who will know or care?

Moving along, this is what I am working on now. I was originally doing some crazy-pieced 6-inch blocks with the thought of graduating the colors as I went around. But it wasn’t looking good. Then I pinned the 2.5” black strip around it and really liked that. So, from this picture I have decided to include the black border, skip the crazy patch, eliminate the red and olive green, and cut off the top light blue/white part of the print.

And then the colored outer border surrounding the black inner border will be pavers (bricks) of color, and most of them will be from two fat eighth assortments from Vicki Welsh in Blue/Green color wheel and Grape. They are drool-worthy!  So, hopefully I can finish this up next week.

Have a wonderful Easter!

This and That

Now that we are feeling better around here, it’s good to get back into the swing of things. I much prefer to blog at least twice a week, and it gives me an opportunity to show things I might otherwise skip.

In the last post I showed a picture of my blocks for the Splendid Sampler.  In the “group” photo in the bottom right was a horrible version (of a very nice block) that I knew I had to redo. Here is the redone block and it measures a perfect 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

I think I figured out what I did wrong the first time. In cutting out the blocks, I was so worried about color placement that I didn’t trim all the pieces to size. Oooops. That other block ended up at 7.5”, LOL. I have caught myself before - forgetting to trim the last two sides or something. Either I am starting down the road to dementia, or I had better pay attention when I cut!

I also did my two monthly blocks, as planned, for my Notting Hill Quilt. It is named after the fabric line Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry which is the primary (but not the only) fabric I am using.

This month, for the Sugar Block Club (see link in sidebar), Amy designed a variation of the orange peel block. It was labor intensive, but I really did enjoy the process.

And since I’m doing two Notting Hill blocks per month, I pick the second one myself. This month I selected Card Trick, a block that I once used in a wall hanging about 15 years ago. I should get that out and snap a picture some time. Anyway, here is Card Trick.

So, that brings my total up to 10 blocks of 20 needed - I am halfway there!! Still on track to finish the blocks in August. I will have white sashing between the blocks in the final quilt.

Back in November I was selected in three different prize drawings/contests as a prize winner (Gingher Scissors from Cynthia Brunz’ Quilty Adoption prize drawing; Hand-dyed fabric from Vickie Welsh in Angela’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge monthly participation drawing; and 3.5 yards of fabric from Fabric Jam in their December Design Contest).

Fabrics I selected from Sew me a Song

My good luck is back again (my lottery ticket bought when we visited Arizona notwithstanding).  First, I won a $25 gift certificate to  Sew Me a Song, a cute fabric shop on Etsy for my Helen’s Garden quilt being drawn in the 4th Quarter 2015 Finish Along.  The fabric I selected is in the picture on the right. Becca, the owner, is so amazing!

AND just this week (on my birthday, the 14th), I won the Pi Day Giveaway from Laurie3.14 on Instagram. The prize? 314 bits of fabric, ranging from inchies to triangles, rectangles and a piece leftover from a tumbler quilt.  So awesome!

If things DO come in threes, I’ve got my fingers crossed that maybe this Friday’s lottery (which is the last one on my ticket) will be fruitful. HA HA.

Scrappy Purple Cats and Butterflies

This month is for the color purple in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. To join in with all the other sewists* (see end of post) at Scrappy Saturday, I am linking up with Angela. Swing by and see all the scrappiness and happiness in purple.

The REAL Purple Mama Cat arrived last week! The first one, made when I was “high” on cold meds at the first of the month, had a crooked tail and a decided list to starboard.  I decided she was feral and let her go. Into the litter (trash) box. New Purple Mama Cat came together sweet as a song, and before I knew it, kittens started arriving. They took no time at all to gather around Mama, forming a 24” square.

The kittens were so happy that they invited their brown and blue cousins for a visit on the design board. A good time was had by all, hehe. Thank goodness I don’t have to feed them!

From cats I went to butterflies and began plugging away at the RSC Sampler blocks for March. They are 6” butterflies, and for the size of quilt I am making, I needed 12. 

They were sewn flew into their column after I took the pictures and now hang with the other two January and February columns. 

This one is my favorite butterfly. I love the colors, contrast and touches of yellow (and pink). The fabric is leftover from my Helen’s Garden quilt and is by Tamara Kate.

And I’ve been continuing with the Splendid Sampler, although I didn’t do the embroidered block (may come back to that later).  So here is my next block, which I love.

The picture below also shows all of them to date, including one that I need to redo (the lower right). It’s too wonky and big (so much for scant 1/4 seams). But I like how they’re  looking.

In the coming week, I’ll be making 2 purple Dresden blocks and more of the 16-patch scrappy purple blocks with white and black centers. Then from there, who knows. I have lots of purple left. I also have a quilt to baste, etc. At least I have my energy back.

Finally, I got a new iPadAir2 this past week. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven. It’s faster, has better graphics, and doesn’t crash like my old iPad2 (which was four years old). I’m keeping it for the grandkids to use for their games. Maybe. If they give their Grammy the required quota of hugs every visit!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* OK, so do you say SEWIST or SEWER (sow-er)?  I say SEWIST, but many people still say sewer. To you, here is this:

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SEWER 

Credit for this brilliant discovery (many years ago) goes to Melody Johnson .

Until next time,

My Sewing Studio: Purple Haze

It’s PURPLE month in March for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. And as this is also my birthday month (and a new iPad Air will be mine this weekend!), I am tickled purple that Angela at So Scrappy has chosen it for us.  The accent color, which is optional, is yellow. A little yellow goes a long way (especially with its complement, purple), so we will see how that goes.....

For the last month I have been dying from   suffering with dealing with the nasty 100-day virus.  Let’s just say that my personal color for February was green..... (ewwww!)   But even though it’s only been 4 weeks, I feel so wonderful today as I write this. It has been in the high sixties temperature-wise today, and I have thrown open the windows to get some fresh air. I’ve had no meds for 24 hours, and I even slept through the night with no coughing or nose-blowing. I have energy!!  It is common to feel good with this virus, then relapse, but I am hoping that maybe I’m finally over whatever it was..... Fingers crossed.

So, here is my Purple Progress for this week:

These are the Vintage Sheet Rail Fence 9.5” blocks. There are 12 of them, and they will join the 18 blue and 3 brown. At the end of the RSC (or maybe I should just say “at the end of the rainbow”) there will be enough to make some sort of zig-zag rainbow scrappy sheet quilt. Or something.

I did pull all my purple scraps and sort them by size. I have been cutting like a madwoman and the picture below is my proof.  It contain the makings of: 12 kittens (foreground on tray), Mama Cat (purple with yellow stars fabric pile on right, 2 piles of 20 Dresden blades to be made into two blocks (one on pale pink, one on pale yellow) and 2.5” squares which will be sewn into 10-12-ish 16-patch blocks with white and black centers.

I hope to get at least half of that done this week, as I expect Angela will be introducing our RSC Challenge Quilt Block for March. Then I will need to make lots of those, depending on size.   Whatever is left over from that will go into purple crumb slabs....

And although there is a purple haze in the studio this month, I am working on several other things (like any quilter worth her salt, right?)

I am playing along with the Splendid Sampler hosted by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. These are my first five blocks. I chose those colors because they are what I have most of in my stash, and I wanted to trim them down. The result is a very girly-girly look, which is really not me, but IS perfect for my granddaughters. So who knows how long I will play along or how many quilts it will end up making. I’m thinking that by the time these 6” blocks are done (100 of them in the Sampler), I can sew up some basic alternate blocks to use with them. Another one to wait on and see....

The block below is my favorite. It was designed by Jen Kingwell, However, instead of using fabric circles as the pattern calls for, I went with my crazy-quilting background to add crocheted flowers, bits of lace flowers, yo-yos and some embroidered greenery.  And doesn’t that green fabric look rather like enamelware?

The project below is that Hoffman digital cityscape print that I am adding borders to. I have two of the prints and will do the  same for both.  They should both finish out at about 48x60, which is either a large wall hanging or small lap quilt. As I get further along, I will be using a lot of my Vicki Welsh hand-dyed batiks in the border piecing. Stay tuned.

And finally, my Birds and Bees quilt has been pieced and bordered. I have the backing sewn and the batting ready. All I need to do is baste it in order to quilt it. But I have not felt remotely like doing that for weeks.  If these good vibrations keep up, however, I expect I may baste and quilt it this week.

Sorry for the long post. The non-purple items should have been a separate post earlier in the week, but...... you guessed it. I didn’t feel like it.

If you like scraps, why not join us at So Scrappy for Scrappy Saturday, and see what everyone else has been doing with their purple!