Finished Donation Quilts and September Goals

Over the last couple weeks I've been working to use up some of my scraps and at the same time finish some small kid-sized donations quilts for Quilts for Kids.

It started out with some 9-patch variation blocks that I won a few months ago from the Block Lotto. Each block contained two 3-inch 9-patches plus one dark and one light solid fabric, forming a 4-patch (Nine in Four).  I played with them and was not crazy about them, then finally had the brilliant idea to just use them to make a couple smaller quilts for donation instead of one large one.

So, with a half yard of some red grunge fabric plus some fun navy fabric with dots for the borders and backing (all from my stash), this first quilt whipped up very quickly.

The quilt measures 40x46", perfect for a small child. The quilting was just a simple cross-hatch done with my walking foot.

But there were still lots more Nine in Four patch blocks left, and my ideas started going downhill from there, LOL.  I had some cute (relatively speaking) pirate fabric and some leftover gold 1.5" strips from a former project. So I combined those with more leftover blocks and got this quilt.

This is Ugly Pirates I, and it measures 36x46.5".  I used the pirate fabric on the back too, and did a self-binding (as with the previous quilt and the next one). The quilting was a fun and quick stipple.

But I still had leftover blocks PLUS leftover pirate fabric and leftover gold strips.  What to do? I shopped my stash, determined to find something to make it big enough to use up the dang blocks. Don't run away screaming; below is Ugly Pirates 2 and it earned its title.

I had to use a brown windowpane check for the back/binding (admittedly a poor choice), but the pirate fabric is gone. The blocks are gone (well, there might be 2 little ones left in the Parts Department) and the brown fabric is gone. There are more gold strips, but they are reserved for a cute yellow and gold giraffe fabric I have that I'll use to make a similarly-styled baby quilt down the road. This quilt measured 36.5"x45" and got loopy quilting. By then I was loopy too. But they are done!

And you know what? Using these blocks was my Goal #7  on my 3rd Quarter Finish-Along list, which you can see HERE.  Only instead of making one quilt, I made three!  YAY!!

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It's also time to set a personal goal for OMG - One Monthly Goal.  Looking back at my goals for this year, I am proud to say that so far I have finished every monthly goal I've set for myself this year. That surprises me, because some were really last-minute finishes.

This month, I would like to finish a quilt that I'd hoped to finish in August, but personal circumstances (Bruce's surgeries) prevented that from happening. But it's a new month and everything is looking up - including spare sewing time, so I would love to finally finish up ONE International Sisters 2-sided quilt.

The ladies pictured above are only some of them that I've made, and will eventually be used in more than one quilt. In fact, I'm planning several over the next year; one for me to keep and the others to go to Harambe Humanitarian for fundraising purposes. One side of the double-sided quilt will be these International Sisters blocks, and the other will be an African fabric panel print.  I'm linking up to Elm Street Quilts and the September Goal-Setting post.

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Finally, my son Shane sent me a picture of granddaughter London (now age 10) on her first day of school. She is in 4th grade this year. Where does the time fly?? It's just a candid, and her eyes are closed..... but she is laughing. It is So London!!

The Blues - a Quilt Finish

For lack of a better name, I’ve been calling this quilt The Blues. It doesn’t give me the blues - in fact, it makes me rather happy - but it is mostly from leftover blue quilt blocks that have been sitting in the Parts Department for far too long.

It was my Goal #10 for the 1st Quarter 2019 Finish-Along, which you can see HERE.

You can see I had to add in 4 green blocks (corners) and some other multi-colored blocks in the center column, but it did knock out most of the blue blocks I had as well as some other blue “parts”. I love how the blue pieces came together in the center row, third block down, to make what looks to me like a necktie! Kind of a bow tie and necktie together, hehe.

I used all the leftover gray swiss dot I had to do the sashing, but ran out before I was able to do sashes across the top or bottom. But that’s OK - it measures a cozy 44x54” (before I washed it; it shrank a couple inches in each direction after). The batting was Franken-pieced Warm and Plush.

The backing was a 2-yard piece I’d won in a contest last year, and even the binding was pieced from leftover bits of other projects.

The quilting was simple loops, using the remains of two different blue spools. A true scrappy project through and through. This child-sized quilt will be donated to one of the Hands 2 Help charities this spring. The donation stack is growing!!

Linking to Moving it Forward Monday at Em’s Scrapbag. 

A Busy Week

If the first week of March is any indication, then it’s going to be a busy month! This was Bruce’s first full week of retirement (or re-retirement as we call it. He retired once about 9 years ago, was home for 3-4 months, began volunteering at The Leonardo Museum, then they hired him part-time, then full-time, etc etc. He worked there for 8 years!)



We ran all sorts of errands this week between continual rain showers. Not complaining about the rain; it’s better than drought. And at least it’s rain and not snow, although I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the snow this season. I’m hoping it warms up for next week, which is my birthday week. Last year I got a bicycle and was out riding it in shirtsleeves.... We did treat ourselves to some cut flowers to brighten things up a bit. I had another pic that was a better view of these tulips and daffodils (bought from Trader Joe’s), but it wouldn’t upload. Oh well. I’m also preparing for a joint birthday party for my older son Ryan and me this weekend, reading two very good books, and just generally enjoying having Bruce home these days!

And another cool thing - I already have my Lattice Birds quilt back from the quilter! I sent it to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads Quilting and apparently caught her at a good time (between Quiltcon and a family vacation) when she had nothing in the pipeline. I sent it off on a Thursday (a week ago today), from Utah to Georgia. She got it Saturday and sent it back to me on Monday. I had it yesterday, Wednesday. How cool is that? But the best part, of course, was the amazing quilting she did.  I will get the binding on in the next couple days, but I’m going to have to wait for some decent weather to take some glamour shots.

In the meantime, though, I do have the two elephant quilts basted. The one on the left is spray basted, the right one is pin basted. I’m not at all happy at how wrinkled the back gets when you spray baste the quilt layer by layer. But we’ll see how the quilting goes. Yesterday I quilted the pin-based one and will start on the spray basted one today. I’ll show completed pictures when they’re done.

And I bought another sewing machine!!  This one has actually been planned for at least 2-3 months. Meet Sofie, the Singer Featherweight!

Sofie was born sometime in 1968-1969 in Kilbowie, Scotland, UK (She is a 221K, with the K referring to Kilbowie).  She has all her parts, a case and foot pedal, a light, and is in excellent condition. I got a screaming deal on her ($350) from a friend at Weight Watchers (yes, I still go - I’ve maintained my current weight for a year after losing 30-35 pounds, and am now gearing up to  lose the next 30). Anyway, this machine is not for me - I bought it for Cousin Kim. Her old Kenmore is dying a slow death, just like my Kenmore is. Both of our Kens still work, but their motors are weary and have lost most of their power. So Kim’s been using my Brother Innova (“Bob”) when she sews here. But I wanted her to have a nice machine for her home, and she prefers solid vintage machines, so Sofie will be hers.

Now, our next sewing machine project is to get my Singer treadle up and running. That is a project for later in the year. Then I can sew if there’s no power! I also have an old 1951 electric (don’t remember the brand offhand) that is a tank that I need to pass on to someone. I don’t think that Bruce or the repair shop are up to the task of fixing it. Have I ever shown that one? I don’t think so.....   but I digress....

And then I got a wild hair this week to piece a quilt from some of the blocks in the Parts Department. This is what I came up with.

I had hoped to get something out of just all the blue blocks, but there weren’t enough. So I added four green ones (quarter log cabins); one in each corner. That still wasn’t quite enough, so the bottom center block is actually 4 multi-colored quarter logs in warmer hues. And the block above that is just made up of random pieces and squares. I love how the upper right part of that, pieced from a couple different things, looks like a men’s tie. Anyway, this one is also basted and will be quilted soon. It’ll finish at about 44x54”. I’ve got a white with gray swiss dot fabric as sashing, also a scrap, but there wasn’t enough to add a final border to the top or bottom.

So that’s what I’ve been up to this week. I’ve also been sewing on my green scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and will be showing some of my green blocks in Saturday’s post and linky party. But between the blue flimsy above, plus the elephants and birds quilts, I will have four finishes in the next week. But I’m not going to think farther ahead than that until I get them done, photographed and blogged.

First Finish - A Donation Quilt

HA! When I was typing the title of this post, I typed “A Donation Quail”. Don’t ask me where my brain was, but it definitely wasn’t connected to my fingers. Anyway, I corrected it as you can see. So I have a QUILT, not a bird, to tell you about. It’s the Scottie Dog quilt (and here I keep typing God instead of Dog. We all know that cats are gods, not dogs, right? At least the cats think so). But I digress.

On Monday I sorted through all my batting scraps, which were piled high in the closet of the bedroom off my studio. I evened up the edges then either sewed or fused/ironed them together. The results were three Frankenpieced medium-sized quilt bats for donation quilts, neatly labeled with the size for future reference and 8 kennel quilt bats (less than 24” on all sides). And the remaining smaller pieces (less than 12” on a side) are saved for future zip pouches and smaller projects like that. I guess they could also be sewn together for more kennel quilts.

So, I pulled a Frankenbatt for the Scottie Dog quilt, layered it and quilted it up with a basic loop design. That was easy because it’s a small quilt. Then binding it was interesting. I used at least five different pieces of red and black binding, but that’s why we save the bits and bobs.

But the most challenging part was washing the darn thing. RED. I’ve never had reds bleed in the wash before, although I am always prepared when I wash any new quilt, fabric or clothing. It went in with 2 color catchers. They came out red, so I washed it again with 2 more color catchers, and they came out pink. Then I did a third wash and they just barely had some pink on them. I called it good. But it sure did shrink!  It went in at 44x52” and came out of the dryer rather scrunched up. I ironed it (who irons quilts?) and it measured 42x49”. But it’s soft and cuddly and ready for snuggling.

The backing was also a study in fabric variety - mostly the scottie dog fabric, but also large chunks of three other reds. It was a great use of lots of fabric pieces, binding, batting, etc.!

This donation quilt now goes into the pile. It’s my first finish of the year and is #4 on my Quarter 1 Finish-Along goals. You can see my list HERE.

Now it’s nose to the grindstone to finish up Saguaro Sunset by month-end. I have two more weeks to work on it, so I think I’m OK. Bruce and I went to JoAnn’s today where I got some flannel to use as batting. I do that for quilts that are going to family members in Arizona, because they don’t need the thick warm cotton batting. We had several other errands to run, then ended up having lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant. I brought leftovers home, so there will be no cooking tonight. YAY!! That means more time to sew! (and do laundry...)

A Red January Saturday

The weather is bleak and gray, the nights are long, the politicians are all crazy ..... yep, it must be January. Thank goodness for friends, family (and that includes the furry members), and sewing. I’m doing my best to keep my sanity until we get to the Vernal Equinox (only 67 more days, if you’re counting) ... or vacation in Arizona, whichever comes first. And this month we are focusing on the color red in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. That’s a cheery color, so it’s fun to see my sewing room decked out like a bomb went off with red.

Last week I showed you samples of the cracker block and the classic anvil block that I intended to make. Well, here are their red little friends that got made this week.

10 Red Crackers (will finish at 7” each):

In addition to the blocks above, and in case you only drop by for Rainbow Scrap Saturday and didn’t see any interim posts, I made 42 more of these red cracker blocks out of some Scottie dog fabric I’ve had sitting around for awhile. This picture shows the blocks just pinned up on the design wall, but it is actually a completed flimsy now. I hope to have it completed by month-end into a gender neutral donation quilt for kids.

And then I sewed 5 red anvil blocks. Last week I called them “Little White Doves”, but that actually was the name of Jen Kingwell’s quilt that used this block in white. The blocks themselves are actually the classic Anvil block. And many thanks to Mari for pointing that out to me so now I can just call them anvils!  They are 8.5”, unfinished.

Much of the week was spent focusing on Saguaro Sunset. My goal for the week was to finish the 4 cacti in the second row, and I got it done. This is how the two rows look together so far.

Please excuse the blue painters tape. I had to get the first row up as high as I could to allow room on the design board to work the second row. The rows are not yet sewn together. Instead, after this picture was taken I pinned the second row up where the first row is so that I have room to work on the third and final row. That will consist of 4 more saguaros on a background that fades from light orange to golden yellow to light yellow. How it will look is anyone’s guess because I’m having to pull in whatever solids or ombre fabric I have left lying around. I hope to be able to squeak it out without having to go shopping for more fabric, which would be tragic (muahahahaha). Fingers crossed.

Next week’s goal on Saguaro Sunset is to get two more cacti done. The blocks take For.Ev.Er. when you are cutting pieces and playing with colors. But I am enjoying it.  :-)

I also sewed up eight “Fireball” blocks for the January Block Lotto. They are 6.5” each and I grouped them together for their glamour shot.

Darla had a dental appointment at the vet’s office this week and ended up having to have 2 teeth pulled. I told her she ought to brush better. She was NOT at all pleased to be caged in her carrier to and fro (the indignity!), but finally forgave me by the next day.

Alfie, on the other hand (paw?), was not in the least upset with Darla being gone, because he didn’t have to take turns in my lap.