Wow, if I could really bottle time…what would I do…well, more quilting of course! (I mean, what answer did you expect?) Well, we didn’t really bottle any time but I’m having a grand time working on my hourglass project and Carol at Just Let Me Quilt has put together a great lineup of “time turners.”
Come back to see me Thursday but in the meantime, check out these wonderful blogs:
More late night photos…. update in the morning! Sunflowers, approx 58×58
But, we all know that daylight changes things!
Rhythem & Repetition was the prompt this week and with the Ukraine on my (and everyone else’s mind) this week, I decided to try my hand at a Sunflower Quilt. This block is a variation of a block I used for my Sunshine blog hop but I upsized it to a 16″ block and changed the corner. I’m not sure I’m quite happy with the corner yet but that is the beauty of a one-week challenge. I don’t have time to overthink it, it’s just a “grab an idea and go” situation! If I’d known when I started that this would end up with 1050 pieces, I might not have taken it on but it sort of took on a life of it’s own. The biggest trick I have up my sleeve is my Accuquilt. Between using it to cut all the squares and triangles and the strips for subcutting the rectangles, I saved a whole bunch of time! It was a gift from my daughter and I am so glad to have it! I have to admit that the power supply issue is ongoing (I’m on my third one but I’m hoping they’ll get that resolved soon.)
So, having spent the week in the sewing room, I need to spend today catching up on the rest of life’s mundanities…laundry, cleaning, cooking…well, making salads in a jar for this week and a pot of soup. And, of course, more quilting!
Ah, there’s nothing like the morning after of a successful quilt finish! No hangover, just an intense desire to get back in the sewing room and play some more! Unfortunately, after focusing on this quilt all week, there’s a little requisite housework that needs doing! I also need to catch up on some putting away and scrap management work in the sewing room. So, here’s the “morning after” photo…the wind was not my friend this morning so I had a tough time getting a good shot.
Project Quilting Challenge 13.4 – Mining for Diamonds
Here is the badly lit picture from last night. It’s so interesting how lighting changes what you seen in a quilt.
Another late night photo!
This is one of what I call my “free” quilts. The top is entirely made of stuff that was on-hand. The pink was leftover from my Tickled Pink Blog Hop project. The strips all came from the 2.5″ strip bin. I have to admit that the strips were all the ones left over from the pull of the Tickled Pink project and there are still a really large number of them left. I swear those strips multiply like rabbits when you turn your back for even a minute!
There was no rhyme or reason to my fabric choices in the block other than “is this long enough for two sides?” Since this is a one-week challenge and I know I could get stuck on the arrangement piece for DAYS, I only allow myself about 20 minutes to arrange blocks once they’re finished. So, of course, I look at the quilt and think of things I might have tweaked in the block placement. But overall, I really, really like it!
I’m so very grateful to Kim Lapacek and the whole team at Project Quilting for the work that goes into organizing this. I love starting the year with a chance to stretch my creative process and try things that I might not have otherwise done!
So, with that in mind, I’m off to install the idler rail on my Qu’nique system. This whole “I finished a quilt” energy is so much fun that I think I’d like to repeat the process. What’s the old saying, “Cut, sew, repeat”?
I LOVE Pink! It’s my all-time favorite color so of course I wanted to play along on the Tickled Pink blog hop! I love pink in all it’s shades from the brightest fuschia to the palest baby pink. (I even love the singer Pink!) I never have to look too far for pink fabric in my sewing room but for this project I did make an excuse, ahem, “force” myself to pick up some nice deep pink Kona solid. The rest of my project came from my 2.5″ strip drawer (thank you, Bonnie Hunter for your Scrap Users System) and from a free pattern and video from Jordan Fabrics.
Here’s my project (sorry, just a top but I’m hopeful I’ll finish it soon…and, I had to hang it sideways because it was just a smidge too long for my fence.
So, along that theme of not knowing the quilt’s size, I thought I’d share the No-Measure border technique I use. I’m sure I learned it somewhere along the line so if I remember who it was, I’ll happily give them credit.
First, I give myself an idea of how many border strips I need per side and cut those (I used 6 3.5″ strips for this border.) I join them with a mitre seam and make one long strip.
Then, I fold the quilt in half either vertically or horizontally depending on which border you want to put on. Frankly, I’ve done both, I’m not picky. Fold carefully so that the edges line up neatly. Then lay the border strip across the middle of the quilt and fold it to match the fold in the quilt. I like to go ahead and do both strips at one time. This quilt had a seam right at the top so I made sure I lined the fold up with the stitching line and not the edge of the fabric. Then I trim the pieces on a small cutting mat that I slide under the end of the piece. I use a pin to mark the center of both the borders and the top and pin before sewing. This way, you don’t stretch anything out of shape. Press your borders and then repeat the process by folding the top the opposite direction and cutting your next pair of strips. Pin and add your strips and, voila! A math-free border solution! With the possible downside of having no real answer when your friend asks, “How big is that?” And, of course, if you have additional borders, just repeat the process after each addition.
So, please make sure to check out the rest of this week’s Tickled Pink bloggers and be sure to say thanks to Carla at Creatin’ in the Sticks for putting all this together (she, Carol and Joan are cat-herders extraordinaire to pull all this fun together!) There are lots more fun blog hops to come….watch this space for updates!
What a fun challenge! I just love these prompts and the chance to stretch my creative legs a bit. When I made the big star for the first challenge, I got a few questions about how I got a larger quilt done in a week so this week, I tried to pay attention to my process. Now, for what it’s worth, I’m a widow and my daughter works nights so I have a lot of free evenings. I’m also not opposed to eating leftovers…lol!
So, here’s how the week went…
Sunday – Kitchen Inspiration is announced. I spent the afternoon finishing the piano key border on my “cat vomit” quilt (I’ll explain that some other time) and working on ideas…food fabric? Blue food? Kitchen plates? I’d been eying up the Chandelier Pattern by Lella Boutique and, guess what? It’s a free download!
Oh, and on that note, if you want the pattern, please download it here. I’m going to explain how I sped up the piecing process but the pattern isn’t mine and I want to respect the designer.
So, Sunday – inspiration found….a stack of Fiestaware plates in my cupboard. A few years ago, I asked for Fiesta for Christmas (now that our house was full of adults.) I love the bright, happy colors and even doing the dishes is more fun with all that color! Next step was fabric….I didn’t have to look far to find a trio of 1/2-yard ombre cuts that I’d picked up somewhere.
Monday – no forward momentum just some contemplation of how the pattern would go together.
Tuesday – first blocks and strip sets…and why is ombre so much fun in strip sets? Because you get so much variety and it looks like you worked much harder than you actually did! So, here’s where I changed up the process – instead of using the squares in the original pattern, I made two strip sets to create blocks. One strip is two background and one ombre. The other is a much wider background and one ombre. Then you sub-cut your strips to make the units. The math was simple…the original uses 5″ squares so my colorful strip was 5 inches wide. The pattern called for 2.5″ squares so the strips of narrow color and narrow background were 2.5″. The pattern called for a 7″x2.5″ background strip so I made a strip set with 7″ wide of the background, added it to one ombre strip and cross cut them every 2.5″ inches.
Wednesday – finish blocks and throw them on the design wall to marinate.
Thursday – audition one color for setting triangles, dislike it, cut them again, begin sewing rows on the diagonal. I allowed myself a 20 minute window to rearrange the blocks…I wasn’t liking how all the yellow in the lower left sort of “faded away.” I also know that I can spend hours rearranging so I set a time limit.
Friday – finish piecing the top and find fabric for back in the stash. I had almost more trouble finding a back (not for lack of fabric) than I did choosing the front.) I ended up using a much older Jenny Beyer border print that I had found at a thrift shop and knew would make a good back. I ended Friday evening’s sewing with the top finished, the back chosen but not pieced and the batting cut.
Saturday, piece the back, get the quilt on the longarm (I have a Grace 21 pro that I LOVE!) I’d love to have explored some different quilting on this but, again, the is a timed challenge so I used my tried and true swirly quilting. A bit about my Qu’nique, It’s a 21 pro on a continuum frame. The thing weighs a TON and glides like a feather! I can quilt one handed on this. I’m still new at this and had to stretch to get into one but I’m loving it and saving up for the module that does the programmed quilting. In the meantime, I’m learning a lot! (Thanks Leah Day, Angela Walters and HollyAnne Knight for amazing youtube content that inspires and encourages me and the the Just Wanna Quilt team for being my Grace dealer and tech support all in one!)
Can I just say for a moment that I thought I would have had ACRES of that tone on tone fabric but it turns out there was very little of it in my stash. So I cut an entire set of side triangles out before I decided they jsut weren’t working for me! Thank goodness for big hunks of Kona white that live in my sewing room for just this kind of situation.
Saturday afternoon/evening – finish quilting, bind the quilt, bemoan the fact that I still have to add a daylight picture tomorrow, take the dog on a walk and then write a blog post. (And, yes, I’ll upate pictures tomorrow.) In the meantime, here’s my fiestaware-inspired quilt…
And here’s my morning photo! The wind just did not want to pause for my photo (so very inconsiderate…lol) so that lower corner was as flat as the wind would allow.
And that is how I made this quilt in one week. Now, I need to see if I can do that to move a few of my other projects along in the off week. I did spy three that just need a binding…wish me luck! And, thanks as always to the PQ team for this challenge….sew much fun!
Joan over at Moosestash Quilting put together a fun challenge to make a polar bear inspired project…. something blue or icy or in my case, just a good, old-fashioned polar bear!
When the Polar Bear Plunge came along, my mind kept coming back to this bear…I wondered how he would look as a Polar Bear?
Turns out, he’s pretty darn cute! I turned this little guy into a pillow but you can bet I’ve “bearly” scratched the surface of how many colors I want to make this cute bear up in!
Thank you, Joan at MooseStash Quilting for hosting this fun hop! I can hardly “bear” to wait to see what everyone else has made!
I posted a photo last night but this morning I’m updating to add better photos. Can I just say how grateful I am for the work Kim and everyone put into putting on Project Quilting because I would not have made time for this quilt without the Silhouette prompt? And, honestly, I love, love, love how this came out! I didn’t go for a big quilt this week but it still finished at about 30×45″. I made my sunset background by laying out strips from my 2″ scrap strip drawer (thank you, Bonnie Hunter for the Scrap Users’ System!) If they were too short, I just added a few smalled pieces and joined them with a mitered join. I had this thought that I’d miter all in the same angle but, well, that didn’t work and I’m glad of it. I think the random angles give it a lot more movement.
I decided to try some new things with the quilting on this, too. Even though I’ve had my Grace 21 Pro for over a year, I still feel like a newbie. Rather than using one thread color, I used three different colors in the sunset and played with echoing and wavy lines.
This is last night’s photo…it’s amazing what better light will do!
So, now that I’m done with the challenge, I’ve got a bit of housework to catch up on and a cool project to finish for the Polar Bear Plunge…and, I need to catch up on the scrap blog hop….sew much fun!!!
Since it’s after 3 am, I’m going to post this picture and update in the morning when I’ve got decent light. For my 13.1 challenge of “All the Colors” I made a 65×65 eight- pointed star with a flying geese border using the color wheel as my inspiration.
But more on that in the morning!
OK, I’ve had a modicum of sleep – thanks, kitty crew, for the wake up call. Actually, I’m just wired to wake up when it’s light out.
So, here’s a better picture…
I’m afraid this is going to be a “foster fail” quilt situation. I often start these thinking, “Oh, maybe I’ll donate this one….” Nope, this one’s staying because I’m really happy with it!
I even did a color wheel binding with leftover bits from the binding bin. I keep my leftover bits of binding in a bin in little rolls and then I use them for scrappy bindings like this one. Ppl
Now we’re on an “off” week for Project Quilting so I’m laying down a personal challenge to myself to cross off a UFO (or two….) this week.
Oh, I am late again and there was so much that has happened that I think I’ll go easier on the words and heavier on the photos! I had two weeks off over winter break and had a lovely time with my girls, my cats and the granddog and grandcat. Holidays have been a little low energy the last couple of years so I pushed myself to step my game up a little including making matching flannel jammy pants for each girl and their boyfriend and wearing my Santa hat for my one run to an actual shop.
December brought its share of sorrow as our dear Chet passed peacefully from this world on the 14th. His had been a long battle bravely fought. Here he is with the string quilt I made him.
Another family tradition was revived this year on a much smaller scale and we held a Gingerbread Party with just our little bubble. Six houses, much candy and a lot of laughter (and calories.)
The struggle continues and the tiny tidies in the sewing room resumed with this tiny attempt. I remain convinced that everything that gets pitched or re-homed makes space that will eventually make a huge difference in my sewing area! (Eternal optimism…that’s my plan and I’m sticking to it!)
There’s been a bit of long-arming going on and I received my idler rail which I plan to install later this week. This was a gift from my friend Kathie to my friend Jennifer so I got the added blessing of being in on the gifting!
My hopefully last column of additions to the scrap vortex top are in progress. I’m not sure if this one shrinks in the bin or what but every time I take it out, it seems like I need to add a little more to get it to the right size! I refer to this as the “cat vomit” quilt as I need something sturdy that can go in and out of the wash. Four cats vs one of me means lots of laundry…lol.
My big excitement of the moment is that Project Quilting is up and running! It’s not too late to join in for this year! I’ve already started my challenge quilt for this week and, like last year, my twin goals are 1) use what I have and 2) make larger quilts (lap/throw size.) I’m hoping some of these may end up as donor quilts but we’ll see. My first challenge quilt last year was promptly claimed by a daughter.
We have had some tough news on the kitty front and, I’ll be honest, when I was joking about not replenishing the herd as attrition occurred…well I wasn’t expecting this. Poor Jack is failing quickly from a mystery autoimmune something and my poor little Gizmo has just been suddenly diagnosed with a severe cardiac issue. If life has taught us anything these last few years, it’s that nothing is certain and I’ll just keep loving these little fur babies while they are here.
In the meantime, may your day be filled with friends, furbabies and fabric…what could be better?
Ack! Like the white rabbit, I’m late! For a very important cookie date! Somehow, I muddled up my days and was certain my day was Thursday! So, here I am cramming this post in as Ms. Winnie-Poo hovers on my hip reminding me that I’m also late to bed.
So, cookies, what would the holidays be without those tiny, tasty time machines? One bite of the right cookie can take me right to Christmas past!
Of course, having to give up gluten put a crimp in my cookie considerations…I make a killer chocolate chip but haven’t been able to taste one in over a decade. Luckily, my friends are happy to do quality control! I did actually make some of them promise that if I ever lost my touch, they’d tell me straight out.
This year, I decided to branch out and add a new recipe to my gf repertoire. I always loved crinkle cookies. These are like chocolate fudge in the center and powdered sugar gives then just the most lovely crackle top. In my gluten-eating days, I always spotted these on a cookie tray!
They were very easy to make and I used the recipe and tutorial found here:
Words & Stitches 