Thrift Shop Finds and More Bookshelf Quilting

Tuesday after work I changed out of my scrubs and headed downtown for some shopping time before my hair appointment with daughter Elaine.  I always like to poke around the thrift stores for fabric finds, and was lucky at Goodwill to find a roll of fabric. 

It is an odd width, less than 60 inches, but there is plenty on the roll, maybe 3-5yards or so.

It is a P Kaufman screen print, per the selvage, and feels 100% cotton.  A great score at $15, too!  Neutrals aren't something I see much of at the thrift stores. I also found a kit and a valance. 

Under $3 each--can't beat that.  The valance is a linen/cotton blend and the block kit 100% cotton, never opened. On taking out the valance, it was quite thin fabric, but undamaged; It may get cut up and added to stash later. 

Precut pieces, sticky paper, batting piece, and instructions were included in the block kit.

These fabrics are more likely to enter the stash and precut drawers than be made into the pictured block.

Another section of the bookshelf is complete as of tonight, the middle left one, which had the highest number of books at 11.  I got one of the bookends quilted and two of the leaning books on the bottom left shelf.  Getting there!

Sewing Room and Exciting Update

Over the weekend I had two objectives, one was a requested visit to our daughter Erica and her boyfriend Ryan's residence to keep the cats company  for a little bit while they were out of town.  

Bruce kept his distance, but did come out of the bedroom to keep an eye on me. 

Zuzu was much more vocal and accepted petting--she's amazingly soft..  She was hard to get a pic of, as she was constantly moving and vocal.  I threw some toys for her, but she was really begging to get outside--she's very sneaky and I had been warned to watch for a jailbreak.  After a half hour or so visit, I threw some treats the other direction and hurried to get out the door before Zuzu dashed back.  

Erica had suggested I make a visit to the Cotton and Chocolate quilt store while in town, and I had no objection to that! At the quilt shop, I found a sale bolt that I thought would work well to complete the backing for the bookshelf quilt.  I picked up some on-sale fat quarters and bolt ends, and also a Scrap Bag.   The last time I had been in this shop was when Erica asked me to make a quilt for her boyfriend Ryan's best friend, Gavin,  and we had bought the main fabric there for the Double the Plus pattern.  I found it an amazing coincidence Saturday, when I went up to the cutting counter, that of all the bolts of fabric in the shop, the clerk was holding the bolt of Dublin fabric we chose for Gavin's quilt!  

I got to work on the backing, for which I chose a vintage fabric I picked up in a thrift store some months ago. 

This 42" wide Hoffman fabric has 18 colors in the print. 

I liked the complement with the scale and background of the repro blue and white fabric I found at Cotton and Chocolate on a good bolt-end sale.  Another purchase was a scrap bag for $6.00 that held all these pieces:

That is a lot of fabric for a very low price! It was a good thing I had something to distract me while waiting for a long-anticipated event: 

A proposal and engagement!  Ryan had secretly visited us, showed the gorgeous ring, and asked for her hand.  He planned the whole thing and completely surprised Erica at the winery they were visiting.  Lots of their friends were hiding and she never knew!  She said Yes and we couldn't be happier.  Lots of wedding planning to come! 

More Gift-making

We did not get to see our son's wife and son at Christmas Eve, as our grandson had been sick with a high fever for a couple of days prior.  I got a little more time, then, to finish up a few things for my DIL  However, our younger daughter felt a bit under the weather a couple of days after our gathering and it turned out she has COVID, after 3 years of avoiding it!  I am the only sibling of my family who has not had it yet, amazingly.  Luckily, I am not working this week.

I had leftover Windham fabrics from the Sewtopia challenge--my sister gave me her set.  I decided to make reusable gift bags for my DIL.  She is very consumer-conscious, and a minimalist who avoids having lots of "things" around.  These fabrics were right up her alley, I thought. 

I had already made her a mug mat/hotpad.  The tall fabric bag on the left was my trial effort and I did not do the boxed corners correctly on one end.  I'll keep that one!  The remainder came out very well.  I used a tutorial from Sew Crafty Me. I cut my pieces 9x12".  My boxed corners came out a lot better on this set.  I did not have any ribbon or cording suitable on hand, so went to my local fabric store today, wearing my N95 mask.  I found some striped blue and white cording that I thought would work well. 

I bought 5 yards of the cording, which was very inexpensive.  Hopefully it will hold up to some washing and use.  If not, it is easily replaced through the casings.  Another tutorial I perused did French seams for the bags, but I just used pinking shears on these, as they won't likely get heavy use.  

I love Winter sunsets.  There were lots of clouds moving around tonight and I took many pictures. 

 

This pic was taken only 20 minutes later! 

And Yet Another New/Old Project

Years ago, at the first QuiltCon in Pasadena, CA (in 2013!), I saw a quilt that totally grabbed me. It is called Sidewalk Chalk, designed by Meghan Buchanan of Then Came June.  I bought the pattern then and there, but have never made it. Part of the reason was that it called for 1/2 yard cuts, which is not a size I generally buy.  However, on closer re-reading of the pattern, there was a twist!

Meghan included instructions to use scraps to make up the different color groups called for in the quilt. I pulled all these from my fat quarter drawers, choosing mostly tone on tone and small patterns.  I already have the solid background fabric on hand. 

A couple of weeks ago I had ordered a bolt of Kona Snow from Joann's Fabrics.  I had received a great mail offer deal and this 10 yard bolt that was originally $99 only cost me $65.  It was also shipped free to the store for pickup.  I didn't even have to get out of my car, as they brought it out to me.  Nice to have on hand and I will certainly repeat this in the future! Meghan has since written many more great modern patterns and recently opened a studio in Portland, Oregon, finally getting her business out of her house.  She has a great eye for color and design and sells curated fabric bundles. I participated in her Meadowland quiltalong in 2020 using a fabric bundle I won at Sewtopia.  It is still a top....

The fabric line is called "We Whisk You A Merry Christmas". This needs to turn into a quilt before Christmas, don't you think?

Design Wall Monday--More Scrappy play

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

I played with more scraps over the weekend.  There were a bunch of long strips left over from the cutting party for my SIL last weekend, which were 1.5" wide, just right for this little project. I used four different green 1.5 x 2.5" prints and a neutral center, but lots of variety for the four corners of the rectangular blocks. 

It didn't take long to sew up the remining sets I'd laid out and sew them into this small quilt.  The blocks finished at 3x6".  For now I'll set it aside. 

I made a visit to Superbuzzy quilt shop on Saturday while hubby Grant was playing golf.  There were lots of new fabrics and patterns to look at.  I wanted to see if I could find a solid fabric to match the nail polish my manicurist picked out for me.  I told my idea to the shop owner, Kelly, who advised that the color was a difficult one to match!  The closest Kona solid was Burgundy, so I got some of that.  Then, while perusing the sale shelves I found a print that was even closer. 

The color was very close and I liked the geometric shapes. 

It is an Art Gallery Fabric called Succulence by Bonnie Christine.  I think it would be fun to make placemats out of this print. I'll have to ask my manicurist friend what color OPI the polish is.  I often let her choose the color for me--she loves that I like to change polish all the time and it's a fun change for her from the same three neutrals most people choose!

Birthdays and Shopping, Sewing

Last of August, hard to believe the month has finally come to an end!  It is a very full one for our family, three birthdays, the last two celebrated together.  Our son and his son have birthdays a week apart, so they celebrated them together last weekend. Here's Dane with his sack, hunting for toy dinosaurs hidden around the yard, with his younger cousin watching with his other Grandma and Aunties. 

Mama hid a lot of toy dinos in the flowerbeds, there was even digging needed.  The boys all had a great time on the hunt. Pin the tail on the Dino, there in the background on the house, was popular as well.  

Here's Dane looking pensive before singing and cake being served.  I didn't get any photos of him smiling, but plenty of video.  Just after he got his mini bundt cake, he pretended to let a plastic dino toy take the first bite, so cute. 

And here's the adult birthday celebrator, Nick, hanging out with his nephews and sisters.  It was a fun party and great to be able to get together for pizza and cake, presents and family time. 

Daughter Elaine finally found a spot to squeeze me in for a haircut and color--much needed /overdue.  I went downtown early and did some thrift store shopping. I was sad to see that my favorite Salvation Army thrift store closed or moved, but there were plenty of other shops. Of course I always look for fabric and most of the shops did have some. One nicely packaged trio of cuts was $1.99 and I snapped it up. 

This Egyptian print was just over a yard of fabric, very nice quality and unwashed.

Being that well-aged, it is even 45" wide. I've never heard of this company, though.  The other two conversation prints were over two yards each. 

Asian tigers in a rich  print...

and Asian figures and flowers on the other.  These also appear never to have been washed.  They will make great backings.  

Some sewing did happen recently, more work on the bookshelf quilt. 

I decided to add more detail to the bookends I made a couple of weeks ago, aiming for a "brass" detail at the base.  I also grouped two books in a tilted block setting. 

Directions are from the Fabric at Work Bookshelf Quilt Pattern.  

I was happy with the way these turned out.  Lots more sewing to do and detail decisions to be made!  

Sewing Room Update, Shopping, Quilting

The former family room I use as my sewing room got a much anticipated update. We recently ordered new blinds for most of the bedrooms, which we had put off doing until we finally replaced the single pane, builder grade original windows. For the sewing room however, we wanted to match the shutters we added years ago to the living room, for consistency.  I've had an inexpensive bamboo rollup shade covering the window for a long time.  

The shutter looks so nice and I love being able to control the light better than just an up or down shade.  Since we replaced the former picture window with an actual functional one, I can even catch a breeze :)  Having moved the the tall fat quarter dresser that used to be in the corner next to white desk, the room even looks bigger.  I spent some time at the sewing  machine today.

These tumbler placemats got quilted, simple walking foot with a specialty stitch from the sewing machine menu. I used a simple hack I saw on Instagram when I attached the binding I'd already made.

Sorry I can't give credit for the idea, but I was struck by the "duh, I should have thought of that" simplicity of using a binding clip to keep the quilt sandwich gathered up and out of the way while joining the binding ends.  Clever, right?

Bad nighttime shot! This print was leftover from a backing, as was the binding   A visit to Superbuzzy  today to spend my Mother's Day gift card resulted in a perusal of the clearance bolts for another quilt backing. 

The red cookies recipes print and brown geometric were a great match for the quilt I made last year during Meghan's (Then Came June) Meadowland quiltalong.  I got the Christmas fabric FQ bundle  (We Whisk You a Merry Christmas) as a prize at Sewtopia Seattle.  I'm trying to keep the quilt tops to finished quilt ratio a reasonable amount!  It would be fun to enter into this year's County Fair, which is coming up next month.  Hmmm....

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  We're planning a BBQ with a number of dads--should be fun :)

Stitching Things Up

Lots going on in the sewing room.  I started with the pile of Memory Lane blocks hogging the end of the cutting table. Pattern by Ellen Replogle from her book Laps From Fats for Family and Friend, 2006.

They went together easily as there are no seams to match at this point. I plan to finish all the rows today, but did not feel like working on them last night.  Instead I played in the leftover blocks and pieces drawer.

That was fun!  Another Plaidish2 block was partially assembled as well.  None of these are pressed as I was too lazy to get the ironing board out for this late night play. 

My leader-ender blocks also didn't get pressed.  I'm  down to just a few more of these Adam's Ribs block pieces; maybe they will last through completing the Memory Lane top. 

After my manicure appointment yesterday, I took a turn through my local fabric store.  These remnants jumped into my hands!  Some good chunks there for less than the cost of a fat quarter. The black and white yardage was also discounted 30% so I got a yard and a half.  I liked that is non-directional.  Ok, off to get some sewing done before grandsons' ball games. 

Design Wall Monday--Easy Breezy Blocks Play and a doll quilt

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

Bonnie Hunter's Easy Breezy Blocks, a leader-ender from 2020-2021, have started being sewn together.  She did not give any particular setting for the leader-ender, but set hers with scrappy sashing and cornerstones. I'm using only a rectangle between my blocks for a lighter look.  I tried to figure out a way to make the blocks nest row to row but that did not work out on my first try and I had to re-press all the seams, ugh.  

Two rows of 8 EB blocks are completely assembled--13 rows are planned. Love all the scrappy colors and chains. 

A lovely 1/2 hour was spent at the local fabric store over the weekend.  I needed batting to move along more quilt tops, including one that's been hogging one end of my cutting table for a couple of months!  There were 20 and 30% off tags on many bolts and I picked up this dark red/maroon that would be a great binding fabric.  A couple of remnants also jumped into the basket.  How could I resist the under $2 prices?

I'm going to have to break down a lot of my sewing room this week when the new windows we ordered a couple of months ago finally are going in!  Not sure if they will start upstairs or down.  Either way, it is very exciting to change the northwest facing picture window to a functional one in the sewing room to catch a breeze!

Design Wall Monday--Christmas Sewing

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

I hadn't sewn much in the past several weeks, but wanted to make some Christmas items.  The Scandinavian folded stars have caught my eye.  I rummaged through a big tub of Christmas fabrics for some fun prints. 

These are not hard to make but do require cutting and prepping.  I used this tutorial for the cutting sizes and directions.  

Some came out better than others but I like them all.  I'll use some embroidery floss to make a hanging loop.  The red fabric in the lower left star is nearing vintage status...

..well at least legal drinking age!!🤣  I used to really like the sweet Cranston prints back in the day. 

I cut my strips 4x16" and the trimmings during the star point folding were often more than 2" tall.  I cut them all to 2"x4" pieces and made a mini mat and perhaps a future placemat. 

The mat is pretty small--I used a 7" strip for the backing and cut my binding 2" wide.  I think I'll give this to my friend and manicurist when I see her this week.

I'm way behind in my Christmas shopping but did get a few things off the list! 

Design Wall Monday--October 25, 2021

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

I worked on the Square Dance Quilt--which I mistakenly was calling the Livin' Large Quilt, but that is the name of the pattern book.  The narrow border was tedious, as usual, but went on without too much trouble. Fabrics and pattern by Heather Mulder Peterson, Anka's Treasures.  Book is available in her shop. 

The quilt inspector was in her box for the night so she missed a QC opportunity. 

This pic shows the solid brown's warm tone better than some other pics, but revealed a missed point meeting. 

We emptied the sewing room for a carpet cleaning and that gave me the opportunity to use the wide open space to layout the final border the following day.  I had sewn all the rectangles together the night before the cleaning. 

The top is now complete.  I'm very happy with it.   The two lightest blocks in the upper right are washed out in these pics, from the patio window, but look fine in person.  I may use the leftover border pieces on the quilt back, but haven't started that process yet.  For now, Square Dance will go in the closet with the rest of the finished quilt tops.  The To-Be-Quilted list is getting out of hand.