Design Wall Monday--Catching Up

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

I disappeared for awhile, due to computer issues mostly.  I have been sewing and have a finish to share. 

Grandson Hunter's quilt is all finished.  He chose all the fabrics and the yellow thread for quilting, as well as most of the machine specialty stitches I quilted it with.  It is very busy but he loves it. I used Hunter Green sashing and the backing is a Hunter Green flannel, very cozy.  His Mama sent me a pic of him eating breakfast wrapped in his quilt the next morning. XOXOX  I'm working on some Halloween placemats now for Hunter and Cove. 

I also got started on a secret swap project for the upcoming Sewtopia retreat my sister and I attend yearly.  This year it is in Nashville, the first weekend in November, not too long away! I had a bunch of blocks made in a guild class a couple of years ago, which I sewed up into a table runner.  It needs a backing, quilting and binding, but I was pleased with the arrows created in this setting. 

I also finished a Lizzie Kate stitchery, Moon Over Blackbird.  

I changed it by moving the moon and stars some, and turning the pineapple into a pumpkin.. I'm working on a Halloween stitch now, from a set of Lori Holt stitch cards.  I love these small projects for a quick embroidery fix. 

These funny blobs will eventually look like the Cat in the pattern sample, complete with tail!

Design Wall Monday--Catching Up

Design Wall Monday--see more great design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Well, didn't mean to disappear for so many days!  I've been busy working on projects to enter into our County Fair. Only a couple more days before all entries need to be finalized online. 

I got all the quilting done on this large throw made from long-ago leftovers from another quilt. I abandoned something fancy for the purple/green blocks and kept it simple with a crosshatch. 

Our Nieces crocheted some adorable chickens--and stuffed them, embroidered the mouth and eyes, all while traveling from Riverside County in busy summer weekend traffic while their Dad drove.  I named mine Thimble and she is my new sewing room mascot.  I posed her on the doll quilt just quilted. 

I pulled several repro options before settling on the medium green print--the scale felt right.  I'll hand stitch the binding--it is too tiny to try to machine sew.  Another Fair entry project is nearly done. 

I did simple crosshatching every 2 inches for the quilting.  Sunday I made bias binding and had a heck of a time getting the last join done!  About five tries and ripping later, but finally ready to stitch down by machine, most likely. 

The simple lapped backing has recipes.  I'll end up with "okies and ingerbread" by the time the binding is on, haha. 

On my mind is the end of Picasa, which I have used all these years for the blog.  Google lets you make a copy of your album archive and save it to "Takeout", whatever that is!  Our computer is very old and I don't even know I can save the copy there or if I will have to store it somewhere else.  I only have three days left to solve this issue!  Google Photos is not like Picasa and there will be a learning curve.  If anyone has any helpful hints on this issue, I would be most happy to hear them!

Design Wall Monday--Fixing Meadowland

 Design Wall Monday--see more great quilty things on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

A  problem quilt has been hogging space in the sewing room for months--my Christmas print version of Then Came June's Meadowland quilt.  In December I had done some free motion quilting of motifs with freezer paper, and then attempted a candy cane in the rectangles along the edges of the quilt, which bombed.  The quilt was in time out and taking up space since then.  I finally got sick of looking at it and revisited the issues. The main one was that I had a LOT of threads to bury. 

This pic is before I had blotted away most of the blue marking pen.  

It took quite a lot of time to get all those thread tails buried! After inspecting the quilt post a rinse and dry, I opted to leave the corners and side rectangles unquilted. 

If I change my mind, something can always be added.  I have a few missed spots catching  the binding to mend too. The project box turned out to have extra block pieces I didn't remember were there.

The corner squares were neutral in the quilt pattern (I changed them to one big square for my quilt construction row style), but for this single block I cut squares of leftover We Whisk You a Merry Christmas prints.  Such a fun fabric line.  I won the stack of fat quarters at Sewtopia a few years ago. 

There are also a lot of leftovers from the other fat quarters in this line to play with later.  Glad to have another Christmas quilt to enjoy next season. 

Design Wall Monday--Baby Girl Quilt Finish

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I meant to link up this morning and ran out of time, then forgot all about it when I came home for lunch, but I have a finish to share. 

Binding now completed. Boy, it seemed to take half the afternoon to go all the way around this small quilt made for my nephew and his wife's first baby--and my brother and his wife's first grandchild.

A wide solid turquoise strip brought it up to size.  I used a leftover light block made from the Meadowbloom jelly roll as a label. 

I'll put the baby's name there, once she arrives and I know what it is! Glad to have this ready to mail, along with some baby clothes.

Bookshelf Quilt Nearly There

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

The long journey of the Bookshelf Quilt for my niece Emma is getting pretty darn close to a end. I have finished quilting all the bookshelf items and am now working on the bottom drawers.    

The above photo was from 5/4/2023 when I had two sections of books to finish...

The above pic was taken 5/6/2023 when I completed stitching around all the shelf section books/items. That was a lot of arm exercise!

And here is Sunday's work; I made the hexagon pulls and quilted some details on the first drawer front, then appliqued the pulls with a narrow zig-zag.  Simple outlining to finish that drawer off.  After I finish the second drawer the same way, my plan is to trim the quilt and attach a black binding (still to be made!), before adding some stippling to the black background portions of the shelves.  I don't want them to get puffy when the quilt is washed.  There is a lot of lint on the quilt from the batting, so I will need to remove that with the lint roller before stippling the black. The outer border will need some  quilting too. Can't forget also some additional SITD on the crown of the bookshelf. It sounds like a lot left to do, but there is so much more behind me!  My niece has been patiently waiting a couple of years for her quilt to be finished. I'm hoping to send it to AZ with my brother his next trip out here. 

Design Wall Monday--Plaidish2 Progress

 Design Wall Monday--see more design wall beauties on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I got the final two rows attached to the Plaidish2 quilt top.  

This is a big quilt already, and will grow another few inches in each direction after the outer borders are added.  I spent a couple of hours cutting up colors from my precut 2.5" scrap drawer, which is completely full!  The outer border is assembled in groupings, so lots of mixing and matching will be happening.  

I love using my rotating Omnigrid mat and a small rotary cutter for trimming jobs like this.  

Caught a couple of crows that landed in the backyard--very unusual to see them here.  I watch flocks of them head inland almost every evening, but they don't often stop!  Our hills and lawns are still very green from all the wet weather these past couple of months, though the snow on the local mountains has melted. My favorite volunteer flowers did bloom recently, after a several year absence due to the drought. 

This patch is below the bridge I pass over every day on my way to work.  So pretty. 

I'd say these flower spikes were about 18-20" tall.  Lots of poppies in bloom in different areas, too, including my small backyard patch.  The garden centers have been crowded with folks putting in spring plantings.  I have avoided going on the weekends but plan to get some flowers soon. 

Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt, More Additions and Decisions

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

I'm continuing to plug away on the bookshelf quilt for my niece, Emma.  I had assembled three shelves' worth of books, but this left the quilt top too small to be more than a wall quilt.  I already had plans to add a cornice to the top and feet to the bottom, and while looking around Pinterest, found a quilt with another feature to add, bottom drawers.  

I sketched out a plan and began pulling options from stash, finally settling on a compatible brown and black textured fabric. 

A bit of glam with a thin stripe of gold fabric a mock-up of some drawer handles were added to the design wall.  After looking at it some more, I trimmed down the depth of the drawers and then stitched the strip to the rest of the quilt.  

This daylight pic shows the color of the drawers better. The sides of the bookshelf now added, it looks more like a proper piece of furniture :)  The strips on the top are temporary--I will cut the correct size piece lengthwise from the solid brown to avoid seams. 

I then auditioned a number of fabrics for the border "wall" the bookshelf will be standing against.  Many fabrics were pulled from stash and I finally settled on a contrasting cream and black print that will look like wallpaper. It is from an antique reproduction line called Carmen, by Nancy Gere for Windham Fabrics.  Naturally I did not have enough fabric and have ordered more.  Lots more cutting and  sewing until this quilt top is finished, but I may actually meet the month-end deadline if the fabric gets here quick enough!  I am thinking of a solid black for the binding, but I will wait to cut that after the quilt center is complete.  

Bookshelf Quilt Assembly Progress

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The bookshelf quilt project for my niece, Emma, got a lot of attention over the weekend--this was mainly because of the rainstorms canceling baseball, as we would have spent about 3-4 hours Saturday at the park watching our older grandsons play!  I was determined to make a lot of progress. 

The bottom right section got a large reworking and some short, fat books to hold up an initial E, for Emma. I used Steam-A Seam to applique onto the black background and zig-zagged the edges. Some book spine details and staggered groupings completed this section. 

For one of the middle sections, I had framed this cherry embroidery I made a few years ago.  I wanted to pose it on an easel and there was a lot of decision making after I had already chosen the warm orange and green framing.   

This project produces a lot of messy piles, but I decided on the frame fabric and built it slowly. 

I liked the texture this brown and black print leant to the block. 

The simple easel  turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself :)  It also filled up a lot of the shelf.

After quite a bit more design and assembly, the six sections were finally ready to sew together by Sunday afternoon. 

I am happy with the focus items in each section.  There seems to be enough of the black background showing to highlight all the groupings.  The top and bottom shelf pieces are not yet attached as there is more to decide about an outer border, perhaps a crown and some feet for the bookshelf. Then, of course, will be the backing, quilting and binding to complete!

Design Wall Monday--Bookshelf Quilt

 Design Wall Monday--see more great design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I gave myself a month-end deadline with the Bookshelf Quilt for my niece, Emma, that has been hogging the design wall for months. Real life interruptions will likely push back a finish, but progress is being made after a long hiatus. 

Sandwiched books between the brass trimmed bookends--and another grouping of three books are stitched together now.  Directions are from the Fabric at Work Bookshelf Quilt Pattern.  

I also made a start on another grouping.

I added the toile black and white strip to one book spine.  Lots more decisions to make, but I am having fun playing in the scrap drawers, as usual!  Next task is to make some horizontal book stacks to support some feline friends.

I did buttonhole stitch down the tails but don't have a photo of that.  These cats are about 7 inches tall and need probably both more black background at the top as well as some book spines under them. 

There are then a couple of embroidery pieces that need enlarging/framing for the bookshelves.  Good to be working on this again.

Design Wall Monday--Chocolate and Cheddar

 Design Wall Monday--see more great projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I have a finished quilt top to share--I'm now calling this Chocolate and Cheddar.  I had a lot of fun making up this quilt along the way, starting with a pile of  precut 3.5" scrap squares.  Everything came from stash, and I continued the 3.5" measurement for all the additional rounds. I ended up making a total of four blue background stars to use for each corner.  The top measures 45" square, a good size for a wall quilt, and I am stopping here. 

A backing will be cobbled together from stash--I sure have plenty of fabric to choose from.  This scrappy foray  was a good distraction from recent real life concerns. 

My sister was the victim of a very bad rollover car accident on the freeway last month and suffered a neck, sternum, and clavicle fracture, but fortunately no brain injury. She was in the ICU for four days and has been in a hard cervical collar since the accident. She worked very hard in physical rehab at a local hospital and is doing very well, but has limitations.  She is staying with us temporarily until she is cleared to remove the collar by a specialist and can cope on her own. I took her to the harbor mouth today for some outdoor change of scenery.

It was a pretty calm day and lots of folks were enjoying the sun and sand. There was even a seal swimming in the harbor, but I didn't get a very good picture. Kathy motored about slowly but was glad to be out of the house for a bit.

Lots of beach visitors on the South Jetty side, too.  

Now I really must get back to the Bookshelf Quilt top I planned to work on this month!

Design Wall Monday--Borders for Scrappy Squares Quilt

 Design Wall Monday--see more great projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The latest squirrel project made of scrappy 3.5" squares had made it to about 35" square, but that isn't really big enough to be a useful quilt, to me..  

In my yardage bins I found a number of strips that were border cuttoffs from the Go Four It quilt top I put together last year. 

I wasn't too happy with the joins for these borders, but overall the quilt is so large and busy, I wasn't too fussed about it. For this smaller, quilt, however, I took more care with the joining. 

One of these strips has a pattern-matched seam.  It only took three tries to get it perfect :)

Originally I thought I would do a narrow border, but this brown print looked better cut wider, 3.5", same as the block size. 

I haven't decided how many little stars/churn dash blocks I will make, perhaps not the whole length of the top. I may end up with partial borders or cornerstones in this cheddar fabric.  Not very much of this is left either, but using up stash is certainly a necessity, as storage is at MAX !

Design Wall Monday--Matching Up the Mats and Storm Damage

 Design Wall Monday--see more great quilting projects on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

All the pieced mats I showed last time are now matched up with a backing. 

It is so good to use up backing cutoffs and partial fat quarters for this job. 

Some more backings.  I will rummage through the leftover batting box first for suitable chunks. These will be stitched and turned, and minimally quilted. 

These blocks from the last scrappy play are now assembled.  Pondering the next step, borders. Maybe some little star blocks would be charming.

Grant and I went to the Ventura Harbor  last week to check out the recent surf/storm damage and see the sunset. 

It was very windy and cold.  This is called Kiddie beach as it is within our manmade harbor's protective jetties.  What a mess!

On the south side of the jetty there was a lot more damage.  You can see where the surf carved away a lot of sand. Tons of debris everywhere.

 

The waves even came up over the jetty! There was some standing water on a few of the big boulders. 

The sunset was gorgeous behind the Channel Islands.  We met up with our daughter for dinner at a favorite local fish taco place downtown, and stopped at the ice cream parlor too.  It was nice to get out of the house.