Slow Sunday Stitching--12/12/21

 Slow Sunday Stitching--see more great handwork on Kathy's Quilts blog.  

I'm still being faithful to one project, the DMC Cat kit stitch.  There's been good progress this week. 

The tail is complete except for a few details and I've made it down to the bottom of the design where the cat's toes are.  Still enjoying this very much.  Otherwise I have a couple of names to embroider for tree ornaments, one of which is my husband's, and that will get done this week.

I went more minimalist for our smaller tree this year, limiting the Christmas balls to red and gold and paring down by at least half on the other ornaments.  As you can see, the tree needs to be small to tuck into everything that is already packing the living room/dining room, including two toyboxes for the grandsons :)

We dropped by my parents' house to check on the new HVAC install.  Mom and I were accidental sweater twins, lol! Otherwise we hardly look alike at all 😉

Mom had this old photo pinned up in her kitchen.  That's my brothers, sister and me mimicking the stairs behind us.  My Dad still stands exactly like that--and so does my oldest brother.  We were at our paternal Great-Grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary party.  I posted this pic on Facebook and my paternal cousin confirmed that this was Logan and Lizzie's apartment in San Pedro.  I must have been about 6 years old; I'm the middle child. I remember running around a lot with cousins at the party!  Great memory.  

Design Wall Monday--Quarantining and Sewing

It's a Covid-19 Quarantine Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

So, I have been sewing a lot these past days.  I was still working up until Thursday, when our County Public Health Department decreed a shelter in place order in addition to the one the Governor had imposed several days before.  The medical group where I work has two doctors with Master's degrees in Public Health--they are both women--as well as a number of other very smart and adaptable doctors and staff.  Telemedicine technology for our group was virtually invented overnight by one doctor and her husband.  I scribed with my doc for three days while he "saw" patients before the Public Health edict and most everyone but me got sent home with laptops. 

I took this pic on a break before being released to home.  A bit of snow on our TopaTopa Mountains, framed by orange and California Oak trees.

Since being called off work, I had plenty of time to add binding to the Chunky Churndash quilt that I got back superfast from Quilting by David.  Love the swirl pattern I chose, which they scaled wonderfully.  After briefly considering a scrappy binding from the leftovers drawer, I abandoned that idea for this perfect 1/2 yard dark navy print from stash.   

So satisfying to see it all finished.  There was a near disaster when I washed the quilt and forgot to change it to cold water setting--the binding had not been washed and bled with the warm water cycle.  After several more rounds of cold water soaks and washing with color catchers, most of the excess dye came out.  Some of the light fabrics in the blocks turned blue, but being so scrappy, that didn't matter a bit.  I sure didn't mention it to my Dad when I brought it over!

 I stood by the door to take photos, admonishing my parents not to get close!  Dad was very pleased with the quilt.  My artist Mom (one of her paintings is above the mantel) kept exclaiming about all the colors.  She took the quilt and spread it out on the floor to get up close and personal ...

Silly woman!  I received many dozen thanks and much praise from both of them, and a photo the next day of Dad napping on his couch with the quilt. Sweet.  I still have to finish a companion pillow but didn't want to delay delivery of the quilt since several other things have jumped ahead of it.

Not that I don't have a couple dozen UFOs I could work on, but I couldn't resist the Mystery Quiltalong by Laundry Basket Quilts.    She is working from one of her fabric bundles, but mine is all scrappy--with tans for the blues, and red for the pinks she is using, and lots of different light fabrics from stash.  Most of the fabrics are from a long hoarded fat quarter stack of a Minnick & Simpson line called Crazy for Red.

Love the primitive redwork print, and all the yummy creams and tans with the red prints.  I'm also pulling from the fat quarter drawers and scrap bins for variety.  I am caught up to the third block and looking forward to the next.

The blocks are in position but will be in the corners.  Total blocks in the quilt is 100!  Not sure how many days the quiltalong will last, but I plan to make at least a block or two of each release.

Lastly, our guild has learned of the need for protective masks that can be cleaned and reused and we are making as many as we can for the County hospital.  I have volunteered 10, with one finished and  several already cut out and marked.

Here I've made the pleats and am stitching them down. The pattern was made by a nurse and they requested ties rather than elastic as these will be cleansed in an Autoclave and need to withstand high heat.

The color is dreadful in this nighttime pic, but for a first attempt, I was pleased with the binding and pleats.  I'm sure the next 9 will be faster!  It looks like I'll have plenty of stitching time for the near future.  Glad I can do something useful in this awful time.  We have had 30 cases but only one death in our County so far.  Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, everyone!

Sewing and Celebrating

On and off my design floor are several small projects.  I spent more time with charm packs, as I mentioned last post.  The baby sized Falling Charms quilt got laid out and rearranged. 

This charm pack was called Wing and Leaf, lots of bright fun prints.  I have since sewn the blocks into rows and it will become a top in the next day or two.  I believe I have a good option for the backing in stash.  

I got the binding on Sid's quilt (for a family friend's son) and laid it out to show the quilting my sister did before I washed it. Love the baseball hats.  The cloudy day turned my tile pink in this photo but showed the quilting pretty nicely.  A label is all that is needed to get this one off to its new home.  

My mom turns 80 this month and there was a grand party for her this past weekend.  All told, we  were about 50 folks, most of them family, including her sister and 6 brothers, all 5 of us kids and most of her 16 grandchildren, and the three great-grandsons.  Mom requested a bagpiper to play and I managed to get a photo of them. 

He played a few songs, finishing up with Amazing Grace.   My grandsons weren't fans, covering their ears and heading into the house, but the rest of us enjoyed the novelty.  I decided last minute to make Mom a little quilt and cast about in the sewing room for something already in progress.  I happened upon the Sajou quilt from Humble Quilts' mystery sewalong a few months ago.  I had forgotten that I'd completed a backing as well.  I had set aside a green fabric for sashing but opted instead to bind the quilt as is.  A quickly pieced batting from scraps and SITD quilting and I was ready to add binding, which I pulled from stash.  

I didn't label the quilt as I wanted it to be double-sided.  Mom loved it and got lots of compliments on her gift.  I really enjoyed getting this finished and giving it to Mom.  Happy Birthday!

Log Cabin Loonies--Julie's quilt along

Well I didn't mean to disappear for so long, there was a lull in the sewing room after the Fair frenzy and a secret home improvement project I'll share next.  

But first, sweet Julie of  Julie K Quilts is having a sewalong making Log Cabin blocks, she calls it Log Cabin Loonies.  I decided to jump into the fun, but upsize the block to suit the size of scraps I trim down and save.  She is using 1" strips and mine are 1.5".  I started out making a test block, as she suggested, before I cut the logs to size in abundance. 

I'm really glad I did that because my original numbers were way off--I was figuring on paper adding only .5 inch to each round but needed to add 1"due to my larger width strip.  I made a cheat sheet for cutting the rounds from 1.5" strips, starting with a 2" center block. 

Julie's measurements using 1" strips are HERE.  I'm linking to her Log Cabin Loonies linkup.  

It has been a long time since I made any Log Cabin blocks, though they are one of my favorite old blocks and can be set so many different ways.  Looking back in my photos, the last Log Cabin blocks I made were for a Quiltbuddies swap way back in 2007.  This was for a Yahoo Group I belonged to for some years.  We made 12" finished black and white blocks and from mine I made a quilt for my Mom and Dad's guest room--Mom was calling it her Paris Room then.

I accidentally matched the quilt--this pic makes me want to buy another red jacket, I loved that one.  The blocks came from many states and a few countries and it was amazing how many different prints there are in that color combo.  The barn raising setting is also a favorite of mine, I've used it many times for different blocks. 

Some sweet prints accompanied leftover blocks on the back.  As I remember, I bought the toile bird print from a shop in Bakersfield when we were visiting family.

I recently inspected the quilt I made my Dad, also in 2007, and it needs replacement.  He uses it every day so it gets a lot of wear.

This was during the Turning Twenty craze.  Some of the fat quarters Mom and Dad bought while traveling in Montana/Wyoming and Yellowstone Park area.  Now the flannel binding is worn, and the thin fabric that shows as pink but is actually a rusty red is shredding.  I've got another scrap project  going from the 1.5 and 2.5" bins, a Bonnie Hunter design called Chunky Churndash.  

I think these would make a great scrappy quilt for my Dad.  They finish at 6" but are set with an alternate hourglass block that sews up quick.  Pattern is free on Bonnie's Quiltville site under the Free Patterns tab.  Back to sewing!

Sewing with friends, and visitors

Memorial Day brought several people to our house, one planned, and two of them unexpected.  First, my friend Tanya arrived in the morning with her sewing machine, new Arrow portable sewing table, and several projects to play with.  She went home with a finished pillow cover, which we started last year:

Tanya and her husband have a travel trailer they take to the beach and this fun and bright 24" pillow will probably live in there. 

The light washed the color out, but this pink and brown flannel made up the majority of the backing, a simple overlapped slipcover.  I also showed her how to use the rotating cutting mat for squaring up blocks on another of her quilt projects and we worked on sashing and border ideas while she trimmed.  I love to sew with friends!  We had a great visit and I hope it is repeated soon.

My mom and dad just returned from a trip to Yellowstone Park with Cousin Florence (whom we stayed with in Cincinnati in April).  Mom came over bearing gifts and bringing their two new companions.

I helped Mom name the new companions.  Meet Jackson the Buffalo and Cody the Wolf.  Cousin Florence had generously ordered rooms at the Old Faithful Inn, with a fabulous view of the geyser from the rooms--the buffalo came from there. Their trip included a lot of dodging of weather due to plenty of storms, rain and snow showers.  They saw some amazing scenery and plenty of moose, buffalo, and elk.  In Cody, Wyoming, they went to a quilt shop that turns out to have been featured in the spring/summer 2011 Quilt Sampler magazine.  Called Friends and Co Quilt Shop, my dad picked up the issue and had the owner, Vicki Mollett, sign their page.  I loved the western style quilt she designed.   

Mom and Cousin Florence looked for fabric souvenirs. Cousin Florence remembered that I love Civil War prints and a jelly roll was the lovely result.  Barbara Brackman's blog, Civil War Quilts, has some fascinating history in addition to the wonderful blocks she is featuring and many in blogland are making.  We finished off Memorial Day with a barbecue with a different guest, son Nick's new girlfriend, Alison.  It was a lovely way to end the day.

Favorite Things Friday

My friend, General Pyjamas, is having a new feature on her blog and I'm linking up.  It was already Friday in her part of the world--Down Under--but she graciously has allowed for the remainder of the world to join in when Friday gets to them. Isn't she sweet?

The favorite item I'm showing is a painting.  I have the artist's permission to post this on my blog with the caveat that no one steal the photo.  So please play nice, especially since the artist is my Mom. 

Used with permission of artist.  Do not copy.  Thank you!

This is a painting of Two Trees, a hill that is the backdrop to a great deal of our city.  I grew up in the flatland at the base of these hills and my parents still live there today.  This was the hill that was on fire a couple of months ago, as shown in this post.  My mom was in the middle of painting this piece, many years ago, when she developed a detached retina and had to undergo emergency surgery--a very scary time.  Fortunately she regained her sight and this was the first painting she finished afterwards.  It means a great deal to me.  I am also fortunate to have many other original Ledlie works of art in my home. 

Here we are standing in front of another.  Love you, Mom!  Go see more Favorite Things Friday here, until I put her button on my blog.  I seem to be lousy at grabbing those suckers.