Go Four It Quilt Top Finish

Go Four It progress! Some quality time in the sewing room has resulted in a finished top.  First there was a lot of MATH to see if the yardage I wanted to use for the border was big enough. 

Kansas Troubles fabric--I do love Moda fabrics. There was a lot of measuring and figuring and refiguring but the fabric was big enough to cut the border size I wanted, 5" wide.  I cut the strips  lengthwise so there was a lot of time with the cutting mat on the floor, as the cutting table was covered with the Bookshelf quilt pieces--I'll show progress on that project tomorrow.

Although I didn't plan this, the border fabrics from stash are very traditional in color.  I think that complements the center--they are "everything" blocks: pastels, batiks, prints, solids, traditional and modern. All the four patch blocks were assembled over several years as leader-enders, from 1.5" squares with 2.5" squares cut diagonally to put them on point.

I did have to seam together the borders strips for length, but I am not too fussed about that.  So glad this is a finished quilt top.  Stash fabrics will be assembled for the backing, and I will send this out for quilting. 

Gobble Gobble and Log Cabin

As noted on my prior post, I joined a quiltalong by Center Street Quilts on Instagram of her Gobble Gobble Turkey pattern (in Quilts and More Fall 2019 and on her website)  and made good progress over several days in short stretches of time. There was some restitching of seams to make the turkey feather parts line up but overall my piecing was good enough.  I then added the outer borders, thinking to myself as I found the pieces oversized that I had done that on purpose as I blithely trimmed it off.

Hmmmm....Well that doesn't look like an 18 1/2" square pillow front, does it? Gobble went into Timeout until I could muster the energy to remove ALL the border pieces, recut and resew.  It wasn't as painful as I expected, since I had plenty of the background fabric, and I also did some sliver trimming to really make it square and true. 

That's better!  Next week we are to layer and quilt the front; I will copy the channel quilting the maker used.  I've chosen and cut the pillow back pieces, so just need to find a binding.  I may just wait until the pillow is constructed before deciding on that.  It's going to be a fun addition to holiday decorating this year.  It will be a very sad if we aren't  able to gather for Thanksgiving due to COVID :(.   

A boxful of Log Cabin blocks has been waiting for a final setting plan. I made these during Julie's Log Cabin Loonies sewalong in 2018.  Recently on Pinterest I saw a setting I really liked, by Judy Martin, and then another pin with reverse layout.  

These modern churn dash swap blocks need a home too, but would require upsizing to match the log cabins.  Can you see the Friendship Star around the churn dashes?  How about in the reverse setting...

I like them better with the dark half of the log cabin blocks surrounding the alternate block.  I also have a baggie of house blocks made over 10 years ago in a swap with the Quiltbuddies online group, which amazingly matched the odd size of my log cabins at 8" unfinished. 

The house blocks are kind of lost in the dark setting so maybe I would use the light setting.  Always happy to find a dynamic design for traditional blocks.  It will be great to free them from their box; there are many more to add to bring this up to a good sized quilt :)

We're expecting very hot weather in California this weekend--near 100 where I live--let the whining begin for those of us without air-conditioning!  Many counties are closing their beaches to keep crowds from gathering.  Hoping people stay away from our beaches so we can get through this crisis faster. Our numbers are improving and barbershops and hair salons are reopening--my Mom and Dad are looking kind of shaggy and need to see their hair stylist granddaughter.  Maybe Grant and I will make it on her schedule eventually...

Sewing Room is Humming

There has been plenty of stitching going on in the sewing room.  I am working on several things at once--a habit I cannot seem to tame!  First up is the Meadowland Quiltalong hosted by the designer,  Meghan of Then Came June.  I showed my fabrics last post and have been having so much fun sewing these big blocks from the We Whisk You a Merry Christmas collection (Maywood Studio).

The first five blocks went together fairly easily, though I did have a struggle with one of the directional fabric prints.  Since it is a text print, I wanted the words to all be in the same orientation.  There was a little surgery and recutting triangles, but not too much drama....that came later when I decided to add another color print from the fat quarter collection for more variety.   I blithely cut out squares for the flying geese "sky" corners without consulting the pattern...naturally I cut them too small. 

I was able to rescue myself by using Bonnie Hunter's Essential Triangle Tool to cut more geese and HSTs from the fat quarter scraps.  I am happy with the pink brightening up the darker prints. Since I chose to piece by row instead of constructing full blocks, the background white fabric squares are missing yet.

I'm up to 11 blocks and will have an extra to choose for my 16 block layout. They look pretty good stacked next to each other too.

 Pink and red block for Valentine's Day :)

Our Guild is having a block party this year and we are making X-Plus blocks to turn in and hopefully win others.   I couldn't stop at one!

Three very disparate blocks from scraps and stash.  The purple one required surgery twice--this pic is before I noticed the right lower corner orientation did not match the others.  I took off the corner and had to completely recut and resew it.  More surgery for poor lining up of the top and bottom edges was required, but eventually it came out right. I didn't win this month's block lotto, but will sew up some more to play next month.  

Meanwhile, I have been working on the next round of the Dreamweaver quilt for my son and daughter in law but it is currently in Timeout as the points are not coming out correctly.  No photo of that mess.  Sigh.

Last weekend daughter Erica asked me to check on her kitten, Bruce, as she wanted to stay another night out of town with her boyfriend.  I arrived at her house and observed a plant murder had taken place. 

I had to remove the pot to the garage and do some clean up.  Bruce eventually came out from under her bed and ate and drank.  He's shy so I didn't try to pet him at first.--just played for a bit.  He's also quick so hard to photograph! 

Bruce is 3-4 months old now and has classic Tabby markings and green eyes. I was able to get a few pets in toward the end of my visit, and he almost climbed onto my lap from the coffee table--at least one paw was on my knee!  Hopefully he'll get used to me as I'm sure more kitten sitting opportunities will arise :)

Design Wall Monday-February 4

It's Design Wall Monday again.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Is is just me, or did January go by in a flash for everyone?  Well, maybe not those stuck in the Polar Vortex...we've been getting plenty of rain and road closures due to flooding and mud flows from all the burn areas around here.  The hills are green green green, so pretty to look at, but all the grass can become fuel for fires later. 

I've been mowing down projects in my sewing room, trying to add stash fabrics to anything I can. The Moda Love Quilt quiltalong is going on now, and after making a layer cake sized Love quilt last year, I have wanted to try a different size, from a hoarded Bonnie and Camille Vintage Picnic charm pack.  I spent a great deal of time pulling neutrals and stash additions for the quilt--it became abundantly clear that I tend to buy off whites and not many light print backgrounds!

The charm pack had a lot more aqua and I had to sprinkle it around some.  I tried Bonnie Hunter's "webbing the top" method but had two blocks tangle and turn on me and had to take out seven seams to get them out of the red star center.  Of course they couldn't be on the edge!  This finishes at about 32" square so is nice wall quilt size.  #modalovequilt

I played with leftovers from the QOV blocks and came up with these little paddlewheels and windmill, so fun to put together.  I'll add this to the stack of blocks to mail in.  The QOV info said that while they accept other quilts, the majority of Veterans chose a patriotic themed quilt, when given a choice.

Since passing off a baby quilt to my sister to longarm for me, I got out the next priority project box.  I bought the charm packs and background fabric for this quilt probably two years ago--it is a long overdue gift for my son-in-law's  mom and stepdad.  I chose the Falling Charms Quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Co for this grouping: 

The Maison de Provence charm packs were from Connecting Threads, as was a neutral background.   Since I only ordered two charm packs of 28 squares each, I added stash fabrics to make up the 80 blocks for the 8x10 setting I want.  There is a very good video on YouTube for the quilt.  A jelly roll works but I cut the 2.5" strips with my Accuquilt GO cutter from yardage.  The squares now all have the first background strip on, and I got a dozen or so blocks done with the L-shaped sashing.  

Meanwhile, our younger daughter dropped a bridesmaid's dress alteration onto my list.  She called around but no one could make her deadline of Wednesday to shorten the dress before she gets on a plane for a friend's wedding.  So I'll be hemming a lot of chiffon and lining.  Fussy stuff but not a fit problem.  Erica laughed when she challenged me to find a matching thread for her mauve dress and I pulled out a perfect spool from the thread bins!  Stash is a good thing...except when it gets overwhelming. 

Finally Friday--Variety Post

Is it just me, or was it a long week?  We were pretty busy at work, two days this week I never even got a chance to sit down for the first three hours of the day, as I was catching up on my notes between the doctor's patients.  

 

Tonight I'm sitting down typing this as we have a rare lightning storm.  For the second time in  a week we found ourselves standing outside with our neighbors watching the sky; the first time was for the SpaceX rocket launch on Sunday.  We are about 80 miles south of Vandenburg Air Force Base, where the launch took place.  We all watched in wonder as the rocket soared.  I took these pics with my phone.

This is after the separation of the first part of the rocket. 

And this blurry shot is of the rocket returning to the Vandenburg.  My daughter described the perfect landing of the rocket back on the base as "like parking a car".  Very cool to be able to see this successful launch from our neighborhood. 

Lori of Humble Quilts blog is having another Fall sew-along which she is calling Sajou, after a fabric shop in France (I've linked to Part 1 on her blog).  Being preoccupied with the paper piecing earlier in the week, I caught up through Part 2 yesterday morning before work.

Here is my center before  stitching.  I mostly used fabrics from a swatch sample of Dargate Treasury a guild member gifted me several years ago.  It seemed the perfect time to cut into it for this small project.

I pulled some pieces from stash for variety, and a stripe for framing the center in Part 2.  Here's how it looks now, at about 13" square:

Since I started my version after Lori posted Part 2, I was able to orient my flower center so it is upright in the on-point setting.  Looking forward to Part 3 and the finale next week.  

There was fun mail this week when I received some needleminders I bought from the Spinster Stitcher.  I have been reading Coni's entertaining blog for several years after finding it through Carol's sidebar blog list (Polka Dot Chicken).  Coni is making and selling these needleminders to help pay for a kidney transplant.  Meanwhile, she is on dialysis three times a week and sometimes is able to stitch while she receives her treatment. 

I purchased the two cups and the witch's boots and received a free Stewey-minder, of her cherished pooch who had so many adventures before succumbing to cancer.   I put the green star travel cup to use immediately while I finished up the Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings stitchery.  

It turned out pretty darn cute, if I may say so myself :)  Perhaps a plaid ribbon around the sides of the frame and adding a hanger are left to do. 

We have family in town this weekend for my Dad's birthday, so I'm not sure how much sewing room time I'll get.  There is a new toy in my sewing room I'll tell you about next time.  Happy Weekend!

More Log Cabins

I spent a good deal of time over the weekend pawing through the scrap drawers and sorting out pieces for the Log Cabin Loonies blocks for Julie K's sewalong.  I sewed up the first batch with the 18 red print 2" squares I had. 

I then sewed up the first batch with 18 red print 2" squares.  While Julie's directions said to assemble these counterclockwise, that didn't really happen in my case.  But the result is overall the same so I am not concerned.   My photo is a little blurry, sorry!

I got through the first two rounds of all 18 blocks before pooping out for the day.  More cutting ensued over the weekend and I'm ready to add the final two rounds on these.  I'm just concentrating on scrappy and not particularly a light to dark gradation in the colors--that requires more thinking than I'm willing to expend!  Linking to Julie's blog  HERE.

Also over the weekend I washed the Adornit Mason Jar embroidery project, which I had taken the last few stitches in at last. 

The Solvy dissolved much faster than I expected it too and after some drying time and then pressing, it is ready for a frame or hoop.  I'm planning to start some small Christmas Lizzy Kate designs next. 

Design Wall Monday

Still plugging away on the wedding quilt, with a deadline fast approaching. I have two more weekends!

Luckily my sister is here to help. She re-ironed every other block's seams the opposite way so I could nest them as I assembled the rows. Yesterday I sewed five rows, leaving four to finish that task. There was a little complaining about the boring job I gave her, but it sure was a big help to me, lol!  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

Over the weekend we had a huge party at our house. There was even a band.

That's my hubby on the far right, playing with some friends at his 60th birthday party. It was a really good time and having the food catered was terrific!  First time ever that we didn't spend all night in the kitchen :). Today is his actual birthday, though, so happy birthday, honey!  Love you bunches!