Slow Sunday Stitching 11/22

Slow Sunday Stitching comes around again on Kathy's Quilts blog.  I just finished hand-stitching the binding on Twilight Hopscotch and am so happy to have a finished quilt to share. I completed the top in April 2019 and sent it off for quilting in September 2020, far too long a gap!

Pattern is from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book--I enlarged the lap quilt by one additional row--I'm a tall girl so need length for my lap :)

Quilting by David was the quilter.  I chose Paisley Feather to complement the piecing.  The print fabrics are from the Oh My Darling line by Connecting Threads, with Kitchen Twine as the neutral.  The quilt is getting its first bath--I haven't got a label made but that will need to be handstitched on later.  Kathy mentioned her favorite hand stitching tools--I love the Clover Protect and Grip Thimbles that are soft silicone with a metal top.  They do seem to disappear in the sewing room, I am down to one left!   Another just-back-from-the-quilter quilt awaits binding, but it is a large one and I'll machine bind that one.

November News

There has been just a little bit of stitching this 47th week of the year--mostly on a binding for the Twilight Hopscotch quilt in between telemedicine patients, with a few wool applique pieces as the whim strikes. I have been completely ignoring the messy piles in the sewing room.  How do they accumulate so fast?  Umm, can't be shopping related, right?

I hit Superbuzzy recently for some birthday discount shopping, picking up some red prints and solids, a baby print for some peepee teepees, and flannel for grandson Hunter's "square pants"--his term for plaid pajama pants  he wants me to make.  I took a trip to JoAnn's fabric for Minecraft print fabric for grandson Cove's pajama pants.  It was sold out  both in the store and online.  I struck out at the other fabric shop in town as well. Finally I checked on Etsy and found out the reason for the shortage: it appears crafters/makers are buying up yardage to resell for mask material and charging up the wazoo for 1/4 yard cuts of licensed prints!  It was pretty spendy to order a whole yard of fabric, but grandmas do what they must.

On my actual birthday, after a delicious homemade breakfast by hubby Grant, I went to donate blood, and got a special wrapping when finished:

Isn't that bow cute?  Today I got a text saying my donated whole blood had been sent to the hospital for a patient who needed a transfusion--love that they let me know.  

Later  on my birthday Grant and I  went down to the harbor for some ice cream sundaes and wandered along the docks--it was a beautiful sunny day with only a bit of a cool breeze.

There were lots of masked folks socially-distancing while strolling the sidewalk.  Our shadow selves are gazing East here towards the Topa Topa peaks in the background. 

In the far left of this photo, you can see the ice cream cone on the shop front; there was a wishing well with a continuous bubble machine entertaining the little kids, and every other person on the sidewalk had a dog or two. Most all the restaurants had outdoor areas for dining set up. It was great to get out of the house and enjoy a walk and then a drive around town.  As a special birthday week event, I finally got in to see daughter Elaine at the salon and get my wide gray stripe colored. Glad to feel I was looking younger while getting older :)

This weekend I hope to complete the last side and a half of the binding job on Twilight Hopscotch. 

The Paisley Feather quilting (done by Quilting by David) looks terrific and I can't wait to get the quilt washed and softened up, ready to use on the couch.  This pattern is from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book of lap quilts.  After that, I have another binding to make for the just returned Christmas quilt shown last post.  On the to do list is to finish another baby quilt and start on the square pants for Hunter while I wait for the Etsy delivery.  I enjoy variety in my sewing life breaking up the monotony of COVID lockdown.  Glad I have a productive hobby to keep sane!

Design Wall Monday: Twilight Hopscotch finish

Its Design Wall Monday!  Off my design floor is the Twilight Hopscotch quilt.  I added a full row of blocks to Kim Diehl's original layout, requiring yet more cutting and sewing sewing sewing (interspersed with a bit of ripping, boo).  I'm happy to show the finished top today.  

The outer border design continues the chains, which I just love.  Fingers crossed that I have just enough of the star fabric to bind the quilt.  The pattern, from her Simple Comforts book, called for 8 strips of binding...I have 8 1/2 strips.  The top currently is roughly 62x80" so on paper it looks doable. 

See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.  

Daughter Erica and I went dress shopping for her brother's upcoming wedding. The wide variety of sizes in dresses between manufacturers makes for quite a guessing game amid the racks.  The couple wants to wear light colors for picture taking, so that adds a focus for the search, though neither of us found a suitable option this outing.  Erica has asked me to make new placemats for some time, so we went into Joann's afterwards to look at fabric.  She fell in love with a precut roll's mauve print, to which we were unable to find a match in yardage.  Nor was there a single bolt of fabric with that exact color in it!

We bought two jelly rolls so she can at least have one or two strips in each placemat.  I looked through my fat quarters when I got home and found only ONE fabric in my stash that was complementary---the bottom one in the photo.  We did find a very nice dark purple print for the binding and backing.  The neverending list of things to make keeps my sewing room busy!  I'm not mad :)

Sewing Sewing Sewing

That's been the motto for the last little while--lots of piecing for the Twilight Hopscotch quilt (Kim Diehl pattern, Simple Comforts book).  Today I finished piecing the star/chain blocks into rows with the sashing and assembled all together.  

I'm so happy with how it is turning out, though this photo isn't the best.  I plan to add one more horizontal row of stars and sashing, so there is more cutting and piecing to do prior to adding the final border.  

Pressing directions in quilt patterns always get a big thumbs up from me--I appreciate someone else doing that tedious figuring job!

Late afternoon found us on the field.  T-ball season is winding down, only a half-dozen or so games left.  Grandson Cove appears to be levitating on 2nd base:

If Cove plays next year he will be in a different league due to their upcoming move a few miles away, but I doubt his antsy-pantsy ways will change!  

After the game we went out to eat with DD Elaine and the boys--Cove picked the restaurant: "Red Robbing Hood", lol, otherwise known as the Red Robin restaurant. He likes it because you can play games on an iPad at the tables.  The wait time to be seated, delay in getting menus, ordering and getting food meant we didn't finish eating until 8 pm.  Elaine texted later that the boys fell asleep on the way home and she just took off their jackets and shoes and put them in bed!  I remember doing that any number of times with small kids. 

Still Sewing Stars

Over the past week I've devoted any stitching time to the Twilight Hopscotch pieces and parts. I work on batches of parts to build the stars and try to leave something ready to sew before I shut down the sewing room for the night. This is a quilt by Kim Diehl from her Simple Comforts book.

The pile has grown over the week, though I ran out of the double four patch blocks to finish this last one of the original number of blocks per the pattern. I want to make the lap quilt a bit bigger and need to make more blocks.  Initially I thought of adding two additional rows  both across and vertically, but likely will not have enough of the star  fabric for that many.  If I can make two more rows across (8 more stars), the quilt would finish in the 60x80 range.  I really do prefer rectangular quilts. 

Lots of pieces and subunits have meant more room for mistakes.  My seam ripper has been busy near nightly!  Only one block got discarded as the trimming of the background behind the flip-and-sew corners made the seam allowance too narrow to salvage.  

Otherwise we are preparing for a couple of events in the family, including our son's wedding and our older daughter and son-in-law moving halfway across town in the near future.  Our grandsons will be sharing a room at their new address but still have a playroom until they outgrow that.  Meanwhile, Grant and I have been looking at houses and contemplating putting our place on the market. The idea of moving after nearly 30 years in the same neighborhood is a bit jolting, but downsizing to a single story for our future retirement makes sense as well.  We can be picky, since we don't HAVE to move, and, as we live in Southern California, house prices are crazy high--we've seen 50-60 year old houses listed in the $400-500 per square foot range.  We'll see what happens...meanwhile, there is the safety and surety of fabric to cut and sew--or unsew, as the case may be!

Pieces and Parts

Start-itis struck me this week, as usually happens when I clean up the cutting table. I had been doing a lot of organizing in the sewing room and, looking over my list of WIPs.  In June 2017 I took a class from Bonnie Hunter when she came to the Camarillo Quilt Association, for her My Blue Heaven quilt (a free pattern on her website).  I chose purple and green and named my two color version My Lupine Heaven.  The hills are covered with lupine just now. 

These are the only two blocks I managed to finish in the class, but pieces and parts aplenty were cut that day.  I guess I could call this Continue-itis!  I cut a lot more from the project box of all the different parts, which will make good leader-enders.  

Bonnie's Essential Triangle ruler saved a lot of fabric, using strips instead of large squares to make the quarter square triangles. 

Another quilt waiting its turn is from Kim Diehl's Simple Comforts book...

 

 

...but not the cover quilt, High Cotton, I already made that one :)  

This is the Twilight Hopscotch quilt, isn't it striking?  I made a pillow cover from stash cheddar fabrics a couple of years ago, and bought two greens and background fabrics for the quilt from Connecting Threads from their Oh My Darling line.  I planned to make the lap quilt bigger yet managed not to buy extra of the star block fabric.  Thinking myself clever, I used Bonnie's Essential Triangle Tool to cut triangles instead of squares for the star points.  Smarter folks than I can see where I went wrong...

I saved fabric but not time, as I did not think through what  pre-cutting off the corner instead of using a marked square would do to the assembly.  Very tedious job to align 64 of these star points.  You'd think I'd have learned a lesson about following directions for the next step, but just wait a sec...

I decided to cut the sewn and matched four patch strips into larger sections and cut after sewing on both sides, as I find pushing 1.5" pieces under the needle tedious.  However, this meant that the two resulting four patches spun in different directions, which I had also not considered.  Fortunately, that was unimportant for this particular block. 

Love these two green prints!  The background fabric is called "Kitchen Twine" and is a subtle ecru.  Many more pieces are ready to assemble and I look forward to more Twilight Star blocks piling up.  It's good to have more project boxes see the light of day. 

County Fair Time and Entries

Friday night was County Fair Time for me and my hubby, Grant.  We were expecting big crowds for the first weekend and went early.  Admission prices were unexpectedly lowered, which was nice, and after passing through the gate we immediately proceeded to the Home Arts building to look for my entries.   The first one I spotted was high on the side wall. 

I was pleased to see a 3rd place award for my professionally quilted twin size quilt--pattern is Judy of Patchwork Times' June Mystery Quilt in 2010. I was disappointed that this quilt was not displayed fully as I spent all that time sewing on a hanging sleeve at the last minute.

Next we looked in the display areas for more. 

The big chicken sculpture was really interesting.  I spied my little quilt on the wall.

A lucky Blue Ribbon!  How nice.  More hunting in the display booths.

Interesting quilt on the upper left, and I spy my Twilight Hopscotch block pillow.

Another lucky Blue Ribbon!  Very exciting. 

On the opposite wall, my Modern Row Robin quilt also had a lucky Blue Ribbon!  This quilt was entered as a group project, since four people worked on it.  I had also expected this quilt to be fully displayed since I attached a hanging sleeve on this quilt as well.  

More searching led us to a big display area with a very strange, huge quilt made of clothing on the back wall.  I was not sure what was going on with the tire tracks, but spied another entry of mine on the right.

Honorable Mention for my patriotic tablerunner!  Not sure why it was displayed vertically.  We took another turn around the building to locate the last entry, only to find we had walked right past it earlier without seeing it.

A lovely 2nd place ribbon on the modern Flying Geese Baby Quilt.  I received a ribbon on all 6 of my entries and feel very lucky.  Many other guild members entered items and had wins as well, so we had a good showing from our Modern Guild.

My sister Kathy had already gone to the Fair on Wednesday's opening night to see how her entries did, but was strictly forbidden to tell me how mine did!  I got these photos from her:

Her art quilt with a dark desert sky and dead tree got an Honorable Mention.

Her modern whole cloth quilt received a lucky Blue Ribbon!  Kathy is one of the good cooks we have in the family and I encouraged her to enter in that category too. 

Her Peach Bourbon Jam won an honorable mention.  It was entered under the Liquor category.

She also received Honorable Mention for her strawberry scones, which I love and can eat by the dozen! There was a lot to see and do at the County Fair, and I'll share some more finds on another post.

Stitching Weekend

Sewing room was abuzz with iron, needle, fabric and thread this weekend, as I tried to finish a long list of items to enter into the County Fair.  My first project was the Twilight Hopscotch block pillow, which was stalled at the usual stage, quilting. I told myself to "start by starting", and got the stitch-in-the-ditch portion done, added some straight lines to the corner squares, and then filled in with a very basic stipple in the background.  The star center seemed too empty, so added square in square shapes helped without bringing too much clutter to the simple star shape.  

An envelope backing and regular binding for the finish and this 16" pillow was ticked off the list.  I'm happy with it.   The cheddar fabric in the star has appeared in sooo many quilts, as I bought most of a bolt when the local JoAnn's store closed years ago.  Wish I had a bolt of that Marsha McCloskey background print, I love it. 

Modern Row Robin was next on the list.  It was already a quilt sandwich stalled at the quilting stage.  I doodled some ideas in my Bullet Journal and came up with a plan. 

The overlapping squares seemed just the right fit for my skills and patience, given the time crunch. Bravely, I just started marking squares and rectangles with my ruler and Hera tool.  The walking foot got quite a workout, as did my arms, turning this quilt so many times.  

There were a lot of threads to bury, and a hanging sleeve to sew on by hand, but I applied the binding entirely by machine. The top and bottom rows I made, from Heather Jones' Half Log Cabin class at QuiltCon. It is a very energetic quilt, with all the bright colors and contrast, but I like it.

Unfortunately I ran out of time and none of the quilts got a label, as I spent time adding a hanging sleeve to another quilt and closing binding corners.  All told, I have six quilted items entered--2 larger quilts, a baby quilt, two minis, and a pillow. The projects that didn't get finished will have to wait for next year's Fair, including the Metro Twist quilt, boo hoo.  C'est la vie! 

My sister was waiting for me at the Fairgrounds when I got there 1/2 hour from the entry deadline!  She entered some preserved goods as well as an Art Quilt.  The crocheted items seemed to outweigh the quilt piles, but I hope there are lots of great quilts to see when the Fair opens August 2nd. 

Design Wall Monday--Yep, more of the same

On my Design Floor are the last five Cross Reference blocks for the sofa quilt for son Nick. This quilt pattern is labeled as "Beginner" by the magazine (APQ April 2017), but the simple shapes belie the complexity of sewing 31 pieces into a 9" finished block, combined with an on-point setting requiring setting triangles, plus three borders.  I would label this intermediate in difficulty.

I sure love the way these blocks look.  This was the only sewing I did all week, between three evenings out and babysitting the grandsons one afternoon.  I got thinking back to the first quilt I made Nick, finished in July 2009, and went rummaging through the photo files. 

He wanted only black, blue, and gray in his quilt.  These blocks only had 20 pieces--far less than the 31 pieces in his current quilt blocks, lol. 

Poor light and a bit blurry in the photo, but this 88x96" quilt turned out pretty well, I thought.  It was a pattern called The Big Easy, from an APQ publication, Quilts and More, Winter 2006.  I doubled the number of square-in-square blocks for my version and made it larger--Nick's criteria being that his hands wouldn't pass the edge of the quilt if he spreadeagled them, and he is about 6'4", so you can imagine his wingspread!

Also on my design floor is one block from Kim Diehl's Twilight Hopscotch quilt pattern that I plan to turn into a pillow for the County Fair.  I have less than a week to get everything done. Yikes. 

See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.