Design Wall Monday--June 11, 2018

Same old, same old from this design floor!  But Narragansett Blues (in Browns) is a finished top at last.

Since I simplified the border of Bonnie Hunter's design by using strips, the corners worked out differently, but I'm not too fussed about it in this very busy quilt.

I chose to highlight the dark/light of the patchwork by making the center square a light in the 9 patches that made up the corners of the outer border. I don't think anyone will notice the break in the alternate design...do you?

Keeping up the momentum, I immediately set about constructing a backing.  The top came out 64x88" unfinished and I pulled more brown yardage to cobble together.  

Both of these fabrics have lingered in the stash for too long.  The Thimbleberries print on the right I have had for more than 5 years.  The brown in the background never matched anything I tried to put it with before, and the block print on the left I couldn't make work into something sizable enough to complement the print since I only had a yard of it.  No matter, they joined another bunch of leftovers to make themselves useful!

Scrappy and make-do are the name of the game for this quilt.  My sister has got her long-arm machine working but still is having some tension problems.  I'm hoping to put this big quilt on it and do a simple design.  The binding fabric I also picked out and will get that together soon. 

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

DH Grant was on vacation last week and we marked his final morning off  Sunday with breakfast out with our daughters, son-in-law, and grandsons.  

 Hunter (2) tried on Papa's sunglasses.  They matched his Tshirt saying well, I think!

Cove (4) drew a picture of Papa and was concentrating on copying Papa's name on the drawing, as his mama had written.  The next generations headed off to Target and the beach after breakfast and I got a few pics later on Instagram of the beautiful day they were having.  This week should be perfect summer weather--it is the last week of school for our district, many other cities in the County have already had their graduation ceremonies.  The ocean still looks full, despite our severe drought status!

Slow Sunday Stitching--June 3

Progress has been made on a stitchery I started a month or two ago, and I have enjoyed working on it some mornings before work.  Our bedroom gets lots of morning light and the sun sure comes up early these days. 

Home Grown Gerber Daisy Love, by AdornIT

Since I last shared a photo, I've completed all the flower petals and almost all of the Mason jar glass aqua color.  The aqua and a gray for the jar lid were purchased for this stitchery, as neither color was present in my thread stash in the right shade.  See more slow stitching on Kathy's blog. There is a stray thread on the stitchery in this picture, from the other project consuming my time, a version Narragansett Blues (Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville pattern).

The plain border was added today and two of the pieced borders assembled and added.  It is now too big for my sewing room so I had to lay it out in the living room to take the photo.  The brown floor isn't the best complement for the shot :)

I am happy with the way the corners look before the border, they really are straight!  This tan print has been hoarded in my stash for a few years and, since every other piece of fabric for this quilt came from scraps and stash, I didn't feel too badly about cutting into it!

The changes Blogger has been making so far have resulted in a lot of alarm by Blogger users--we are not getting any comments emailed to us.  Similarly, it is now impossible to directly reply to a comment on a post, and if the commenter doesn't have an attached email, it's a dead end.  Blogger has eliminated Open ID and is working on changes to permission for third party apps--commenters would all be changed to "Anonymous" and we would have to change settings to allow anonymous commenters.  Many of us who use the Blogger platform restrict Anonymous commenters to keep spammers at bay.  I'm not sure if this is being done so that everyone who wants to read Blogger blogs has to get a Google account or what.  I'm going to try a suggestion another blogger used, which is to make the first comment on my own post and click the "notify me of follow up comments" to see if I get them emailed to me that way.  After nine years of blogging, I'm not sure what the future brings with this platform!

Design Wall Monday--Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day, and I will remember our departed family members who served and lost their lives, the ones I knew, and those who fell before in defense of this nation.  This day of remembrance is mostly credited to Union Army General John Logan, years after the end of the Civil War, as an extension of Decoration Day, when graves of the fallen Union soldiers were tended and visited. My paternal great-grandfather was named after General Logan, and Logan has remained a family name ever since.  My uncle, brother and son's middle name is Logan; that uncle named his son Logan.  My great-grandfather's fraternal twin brother was named Grant, and his other brothers were also named for Union Generals.  

On this Design Wall Monday, I'm continuing work on a quilt for a family member who is a Veteran, my dad's fraternal twin brother (he's not a Logan, though!)   Yesterday I got the last rows stitched into sections and the sections finally became a top.

This is my smaller brown version of Bonnie Hunter's Narragansett Blues from her book More Adventures with Leader Enders.  I used border pieces as leader-enders to assemble the center.

My version simplified her pieced border with single pieces and I assembled them into sections as I went.  However, the proportion of the quilt bothered me.  With borders, it is long and skinny at 57x87.  I cut more brown rectangles for two additional rows, but couldn't face making all the four patches yesterday.  My husband told me I was "overthinking it" and I had nearly discarded the idea of additional rows, but when I laid it out this morning to take a picture, it seemed to need them. 

The sides will then match with a single center four patch as on the top and bottom.  It really is not that many four patches, 13 for each row.  I'll feel better when the quilt is closer in proportion to the 60x80 size I prefer when giving quilts!  It will look nice on Uncle's single bed. 

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

 Last week we were called in for an emergency babysitting session, our daughter's car had a flat tire when she was leaving work and her husband was with the kids.  We finished feeding them their dinners and had another hour or two of play. 

 Hunter, 2, is totally enamored of his safety goggles and wears them everywhere. 

Cove, 4, likes to pretend he is a dentist and helpfully put gloves on before attempting a procedure on a somewhat reluctant patient.  I'm not sure what Hunter thought the leaf blower might be needed for, perhaps sound to cover the screams?  So funny. 

Doll Quilt Swap 2018 Linky Party

While I previously showed the house quilt I made for Lori of Humble Quilts' annual doll quilt swap, I never showed the quilt I received.  Lori is having a linky party of all the doll quilts and they are amazing in variety and size, so fun to see them all together--take a look!

Shannon Ward of Wisconsin sent me this sweet little rail quilt she made and hand-quilted, along with goodies I promptly added to my fat quarter collection and thread drawer.  I love it and appreciate the time and effort put into the little quilt, and Lori's work to get us all paired up and sharing. 

Swaps are wonderful and I have participated in many over the years, and will continue to jump in now and again, especially for dear little projects like the Doll Quilt Swap.

Design Wall Monday--May 21

The week sure flew by, it's time for Design Wall Monday again on Judy's Blog.  I have a finish and a WIP to share today. First up, the baby quilt I showed last week.  Although I managed to delay the quilt sandwiching until Friday, once made I settled in to quilt it. 

I did an organic crosshatch with my walking foot--a fancy term for no-mark, randomly spaced quilting :)  Though hard to see, there are a few lines of green stitching among the blue.  I took my time to balance the vertical and horizontal lines.  Having made the binding already, I moved on to that task. 

The orange is a striped fabric and I liked the pop of color on the edges.  Once again, this pattern is called Meet Cute and is available in the Moda Bakeshop.  I made just four blocks for my version.  It was easy and fun and I'm sure I'll make another.  My scrap bins are overflowing.

The back is a navy blue with waves of blue, gray and cream that match fabrics on the front well.  A label and care instructions and it was good to go.  DD Erica and I drove down to Redondo Beach for her cousin's baby shower today and we enjoyed harbor views while chatting and dining.  I included a stuffed bear and a teething toy in the gift bag with the quilt, and all were well received!  The drive back from LA was a bit crowded, but less than 2 hours, so that was good.  

Last week's Jewel Box blocks all got completed, so I was itching to get piecing something else.  I pulled out another WIP, my version of Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville's Naragansett Blues, from her More Adventures with Leader-Enders book.  However, I needed some more leader-ender squares to finish the border pieces I've been sewing between the row assembly, requiring a bunch of cutting.  Finally I was able to complete another row and get it attached to the previous section. 

The rows finish at 3" wide and are assembled vertically.  So far I am happy with the browns and scrappy 4 patches coming together.  I have 12 more rows to add for the smaller version I'm making, for a lap/twin size.   My feline inspector stopped by to hog the camera shot.

I just learned that my Uncle, for whom I am making this quilt, adopted a stray cat who looks remarkably like my Mini, though his cat is a male.

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

Design Wall Monday--May 14, 2018

On my design surface is the baby quilt I showed the fabric pulled for on my last post.  Over the week I stitched all the sections and then got the final borders cut and assembled.

This pic is before final assembly of the top. I'm happy with the Grunge and modern fabrics.  It will finish about 35".  The backing and binding are cut, I have spray baste, and will need to get this sandwiched ASAP as it will be gifted next Sunday at a shower and this is a busy week. 

I hope every Mom had a lovely Mother's Day.  We had our annual brunch here with lots of family and food and enjoyed it all.  My kids and husband bought me a FitBit to help me get my steps in :)   Later in the afternoon I took a nice nap, we had a light dinner, and then I wanted to sew.  I have been working on a bin of Jewel Box blocks and matched up all the assembled component pairs the last time I had it out, making it easy to sit and sew them into blocks. 

 I just love playing with all  the colors and prints.

There was an Oops block too!

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

I have a few more vacation photos, from our trip to Marble Canyon, fishing on the Colorado River.

 Here's the guide, Mike, powering us up the river to a new fishing spot.  He knows them all.

Here's one of the two fish I caught.  I was concentrating on holding the still live fish so was photographed without a grin.  Very pretty fish, and tasty too.  The water is cold and the canyon deep, so jackets were required early in the morning, especially when we were powering up river.  I was later glad I hadn't worn a heavy shirt under it, though.

I believe this pic was much later in the day.  My Dad and brother noted this was the smallest number of fish they ever caught, but we sure snagged a lot of moss off the river bottom.  The guide noted that the river used to be flushed every spring to get rid of the moss, but they stopped that practice.  We could see a lot of fish as we drifted, but they weren't biting that much.

Our boat trip took us all the way to the bottom of the Glen Canyon Dam; Lake Powell is on the other side of the dam.  Though hard to believe, there were big semi-trucks crossing the top of the expansion bridge, seen as just tiny specks from below.

The rock cliffs were so interesting and different around every bend.  Here the rocks were  shifted to vertical position.  Here and there you could see a green bush that managed to cling to a small amount of dirt in the rocks.  Those bushes in the upper half of the picture were probably 5-10 feet in diameter, but look tiny against the massive cliff face. 

Off the boat, we hiked in a short distance and visited a site with Petroglyphs scratched into the rock face.  I'd say these deer were probably about 10-12" long and high.  There were a number of other figures and symbols on this section of the cliff.

My final picture on the river was of these wild horses.  They totally ignored as they grazed in the setting sun.  We had seen them high above the river earlier in the day.  It was so special to see them closer up.  I'd recommend spending a day on the Colorado River to anyone--there were lots of rafting companies giving tours from Marble Canyon.  It was really spectacular, serene and interesting all at once.  A definite 10 of a day! 

Slow Sunday Stitching--May 6

I'm late with this post, but I did some Slow Sunday Stitching in an airport and on a plane today while returning from Arizona with my sister, Kathy. 

Home Grown Gerber Daisy Love by ADORNit

Isn't it cute?  I finished the light green on the leaves and got quite a few of the petals stitched on the trip.  I had purchased a Snap frame and it was easy to break down and store in a zip bag and carry onto the plane in my purse.  The green was stitched with two strands of DMC thread, but I used a spool of Sulky 12 wt thread equal to two strands straight off the spool for the pink petals.  It was my first time using this thread and I'm liking it.  See more Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy's Quilts.  

I'll just share a couple of trip pics here, I took dozens!  We traveled north from our brother Ted's in Scottsdale on Highway 17 through Flagstaff and then took Highway 89A to Marble Canyon, a couple hours further north, arriving within an hour of sunset.   

While slightly out of focus in this pic, the Vermillion Cliffs were ablaze in the sunset as we pulled up to Marble Canyon Lodge with our Dad and younger brother.  I love the red rocks.  Dad took Kathy and me on a quick perusal of the area, down to Lee's Ferry a few miles away and the boat dock we'd go to and meet the guide next morning.

Our fishing trip lasted most of the day on Thursday.  This pic is of a part of the Colorado called Horseshoe Bend.  We spent a couple of hours over the day traveling up and then drifting back while fishing.  High above, we could see tiny specks of people looking down from the plateau above.  Our guide noted the cliffs were as tall as the Empire State Building here--over 1,000 feet.  Such spectacular scenery I don't think I could ever grow tired of it. 

A selfie while ashore.  My sister said, "Don't wrinkle your forehead!"  

To everyone's surprise, I caught the first two fish of the day (my first time river fishing ever), but no more.  Kathy caught five, Dad and Ted three and four, I believe.  Our guide, Mike, who has been working for 25 years on the river, gutted the Rainbow Trout and cooked them on the grill right on the boat for lunch.  So delicious.  I'll share some more trip pics next post.  It was a great day!