Staycation Sewing Progress and Plans

Staycation continues! I have been able to spend a lot of time in the sewing room.  First priority was the next grandson's quilt.  I went with a simple design and used stash fabrics.  The sashing was cut from the bolt of Kona Bone I bought from JoAnn's some months ago. It is great to have on hand. 

The bottom looks wonky in this pic but really isn't in person. 

Final white border all around.  The pattern I found online used 1" sashing, which I thought was too narrow, so I cut mine at 1.5"--that also made the quilt longer and wider.  The prints were cut 8x16 and 8x8 square, the long vertical strip was also 8", so it is not a big quilt. My Husqvarna sewing machine needed a service, however, so my older model Husqvarna is standing in; it does not have the main features I love on the newer model, the automatic presser foot lifter and the thread cutter. I took the 40 minute drive to the repair shop, and was sorry to see the Quilty Pleasures shop in the same center  that I expected to also visit had closed. Instead, I wandered around a vintage resale shop that had lots of fun old stuff to admire. I came home with a Fiestaware platter to add to my dinnerware, in a dark rusty color I didn't have. 

A rare opportunity to make a baby girl quilt for a grand-niece had me pulling sweet prints and patterns from my precut scraps and fat quarter drawers. 

The pattern I am using is "Picnic", from Kim Brackett's book, Scrap Basktet Sensations; it's the cover quilt.  Most of the quilts use 2.5" strips and squares.  I used my GO cutter to cut the neutral strips and squares for a 6x6 block quilt; the blocks are 6" square finished. I'm assembly-line stitching them as quickly as possible, as baby is due in the next few weeks. 

I made one for myself about 10 years ago. See it Here.  

The trimmings I am sewing up into cute mini hourglass blocks. 

What a sweet doll quilt these would make--there are lots more made than these few that were on the ironing board:)

Picnic in December

Since the weekend was full of getting the tree and decorating the house for Christmas, it wasn't until today that I finally took the last stitches in the binding of my Picnic quilt today.  It had been waiting for several days under the sewing machine needle before I could get back to it.  That's because my sewing room looked like this:

Yeah, I know.  I did manage to get some sewing done in here, believe it or not! (Shay, are you impressed?)

 The binding is a polka dot.  I love a red binding! The brown print is the last of the Katie Jump Rope fabric I was hoarding.

"Picnic", designed by Kim Brackett, Scrap Basket Sensations book.

The goal was to have green the primary color, then red, then gold, but in the end the mix grew more varied and I love all its scrappy goodness. 

 Here you can see the great texture that Mary of Quilt Hollow gave to the quilt.

 Love the swirls and ginkgo leaves.  

 Mini the quilt inspector checking out the backing.  Originally I planned a green flannel backing but when my MATH was a fail, I went to leftover yardage instead.  I'm happy with the secondary idea. 

See the two sizes of ginkgo leaves?  The best birthday gift I gave myself last month was sending the quilt to Mary for "frosting", as she calls it.  Yum!  I have to give credit to my sister Kathy for pushing me to make this quilt top a priority.  This Picnic is complete and I'm happy to say it is staying with me. It feels great to have another finish.

Quiltfull Weekend

Among the events of the week, some stitching was accomplished, mostly because my sister Kathy insisted on helping.  All the remaining blocks to the wedding quilt were sewn into rows.  While I was doing that job, Kathy basted some quilt sandwiches and cut some binding on another project for me.  I like having an assistant--especially one who cooks.  Grant and I were greeted home from work one night with freshly made, totally fantastic BLTs on grilled sourdough.  Oh, yum! 

Saturday afternoon Kathy and I went to a local quilt guild show.  The Conejo Valley Quilters hold their event at Cal Lutheran University, a clean, bright, well lit space.  Here are a few of the many creative results of their work.

 Here's a version of the cover quilt from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Sensations book.  My version is still just a top but I liked this essentially two color variation. 

 Pretty fun chooks made from animal prints.  The snakeskin one kills me.

 Lots of yellows and bright colored prints.  What a happy quilt.

 I think I read this one was a block of the month quilt.  It is just beautiful. I loved the big splashy print around the feathered star center.

This easy star border gives me a great idea for the future.  I love how they "dance" back and forth, just by using that spacer strip and alternating which way the block is turned.  So simple and effective.

 Here's another clever idea, using a decorative stitch for simple appliqued leaves.  I don't have the skills to do good stems but with this technique, a stem wouldn't be needed.  There's an unfinished quilt top in my closet that needs this kind of treatment to really make it shine.

 This sampler type quilt was made cohesive by the rich medium and dark toned fabrics.  I'm not usually a fan of samplers but this one I liked. 

My sister asked me to take a pic of this tomato quilt.  It was only about 18-20" square but really fun and free form.  Plus it echoed a recipe Kathy was already planning to make.  On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand so she could get some fresh tomatoes that pretty much matched this quilt. Today she prepared the Martha Stewart magazine recipe to a T.

 Simple Cibatta bread lightly seasoned and grilled and some amazingly tasty tomatoes.  It was hard to stop at two pieces so that we all got a snack! 

A Finish, and a New Start

First, the Picnic quilt top did get finished on Monday night and is crossed off the Getting it Done list, hooray!

 A few California poppies--our state flower--add a pop of orange to the scene.

I used mostly medium scale prints, medium tones, and one background fabric.  No idea yet what I'm using for the back but the binding will be a red print I've already picked out. 

And now for the New Start:  After being mostly unemployed for the past six months, I got a full time job which starts tomorrow!  It is doing my favorite thing, medical transcription, and is of the orthopedic type--in which I have 15 years experience.  The fact that I will be an EMC (early morning commuter) is a new wrinkle in my night owl world, but I will adapt and overcome.  Very excited to get going on this new chapter of my working career.  Thanks for all the crossed fingers and well wishes!

Design Wall Monday--Mar 11, 2013

On my design floor is one of the items on the Getting it Done list for the month, the Picnic quilt (Scrap Basket Sensations book, by Kim Brackett).

 Mini the Quilting Inspector taking a work break.

My seam intersections apparently didn't need too much inspection, as Mini was much more interested in looking up at me than the blocks :)  Only two more rows yet to piece, then the remaining two sections can be joined and this quilt top is DONE, the goal for the month.  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Monday--Feb 25, 2013

On my design surfaces are two ongoing projects.  I don't do a lot of applique but love the look so wade in once in a while.

I combed through my American Patchwork & Quilting mags to come up with a simple design for this tablerunner--to go with my simple machine applique skills!

A fat little Anne Sutton birdie, and a flower from another designer.  I'll link these with some green baby rick rack.

A few rows of the Picnic quilt were sewn and joined together.  I've had a bit of difficulty with some of the intersections and had to redo a few, but a perfectionist I am not!  This pattern makes me happy :)  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times. 

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Picnic layout (Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Sensations).

One Word Wednesday

Binding: blue dot or cream?

Picnic

I ran out of my Picnic leader-enders some time ago and have been stitching the bonus triangle cutoffs into small HSTs in the meantime.  However, I need to make three dozen more 6" blocks for the larger 10x12 setting I decided on--it was time to lay out and see what colors I desire more of.

There are more green and gold blocks than any other color, which is fine.  You can see that Mini, my Supervisor, is helpfully holding down the Scrap Basket Sensations book with the Picnic quilt on the cover.  Kim Brackett, the designer, has announced another book in the Scrap Basket series and I will surely buy that one too. 

 Mini proceeded to walk the layout job.

 The gold blocks apparently met with approval.

 More green, more gold, some blue, brown, and much needed reds.  Blue is a color lacking in my stash and will require further digging through my scrap boxes and stored stash to come up with  more variety.  I likely won't repeat any more of the fabrics I already used either.

Mini seemingly likes this one a lot.  Me too!

What I'm Working On Wednesday

There's a lot going on in my sewing world and I'm getting distracted easily.  But here are a few things needle and thread are changing:

The quilting is complete on the first of the witches quilts.  Lots of stitch in the ditch around all the faces, lips, hats, bands, background, and the borders, whew!  I timed myself on the white background sections and each only took 6-10 minutes to quilt--in a very herky-jerky zig-zaggy filler style.  Happy about that!  Only the binding left to do and I already have the strips cut.  I really want this one to be finished today.

2.5" scrap strips are being turned into small tablerunners for sale at the senior craft shoppe.  This will be bordered with some cream and will end up probably 12 x 26".  I hope purple and pink are popular since another, smaller runner will join this one.

Next, piecing of batting scraps for a larger tablerunner.  The backing is cut and binding choice already figured out.  Simple quilting will be key to getting this out on the sales floor.

More Picnic blocks have been completed while piecing the strips.  Soon the leader-ender box will be empty and I'll need to lay them all out to see what color I need more of.  I'm guessing green, my favorite color :).  What are you working on?

Night Work

The heat was oppressive these last few days, so much of my sewing time was at night.  While making items to sell at the craft shop more Picnic blocks have appeared.

Finished blocks now total 49, just a bit under half of the amount I'm making for my slightly larger version of this quilt (from the Scrap Basket Surprises book by Kim Brackett).  I have about 20 more block sets already cut and will determine when they are completed how many more of each colorway I desire.  I like seeing these piles grow!

For the UFO of the month, the two Any Witch Way quilts, the first has been basted for quilting.  While I am ignoring pondering quilting that one, I've started working on the names for the second quilt.  Here I have added background fabric to make all the letters the same height.  Hmm, the "h" is going to need some at the bottom too or I'll lose the legs.  Next, spacers between the letters, then trimming to even height.  I think I'll wait until all the names are complete before deciding exactly how I want to position these beneath each witch.  Thankfully, the humidity has gone and cooler weather is on the way so I can sew any time :)

What I'm Working On Wednesday

I'm having a lot of fun playing with leftovers, scraps, and ideas from the pages of magazines.

When I made Kitchen Sink last year (Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Surprises), I cut a lot of extra pieces since I was considering making it larger than the pattern required.  In the end, I simply added a wider border.  With the leftovers, a 9 paddle wheel layout was my choice and, serendipitously, I had just the right amount of leftover cut print pieces and exactly enough triangles to fit the setting I had decided on.  Gotta love that! 

This is about 24 inches square--no borders on this one.  I've got the backing there and already picked out prints from the 2.5" strip bin for a scrappy binding. 

Leftover orange and blue squares from a Quilts for Kids project, a few bright Aussie prints from a 6" precut pack I bought on my trip to Queensland, some leftover flannel, and a small cuddle quilt is born.  I will sell this at the crafter's shoppe. 

These prints are from a jelly roll I bought at Tuesday Morning for a song--I'll get at least three more cuddle quilts out of it.  This setting idea was from a Quilts and More magazine from a few years ago.  Quick and easy.  Enjoying myself immensely, and ideas are teeming for more scrappy fun with leftovers! 

What are you working on?

Design Wall Monday--August 27, 2012

On my design surface today is progress on this month's UFO, Zig Zag 9 patch.

Half the rows are sewn together and six more are left.  This is going to be a nice big quilt--it is already 68" wide before borders.  However, for the UFO Challenge purposes, I only assigned myself completing the top. 

The Picnic leader-enders are piling up.  I found it much easier to start on the side of the segments than the top.  The painter's tape guide is working out very well. 

Picnic parts all paired up and ready to sew...the ruler made a nice transport vehicle from cutting table to sewing desk :)

Here are the first eight blocks.  This block would be fun to do in a single color, too, wouldn't it?  Six blocks would make a perfect sized placemat.  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.