Design Wall Monday--4/25/2020

Design Wall Monday to close out the longest April in history...see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  

Lots more activity in the sewing room, including quilting smaller projects.  I made a Baby size Moda Love Quilt a couple of years ago and it stalled after the top was pieced--a fairly typical bump in the road for my quilt making process!  Something simple was called for and, since I had the right size batting and quickly stitched up a backing, quilting commenced.  

I started this quilt with a charm pack of Bonnie and Camille fabric and added neutrals and a few other additions from stash to finish out the layout.

Chunks of leftovers for a backing.   I used my Hera marker to space lines 1" apart and neutral thread.  I love the texture it gives.  There not being any other Bonnie and Camille fabric in stash, there were many options pulled and rejected.  Finally I happened upon a green print that works and it has been cut and sewn, ready to attach when I have the walking foot out again. 

A leader-ender project jumped ahead of others too.  I finished up the last five blocks of Cross My Heart from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket book and commenced layout of the tablerunner I'm making for my brother, all greens from scraps and stash. 

The bright yellow-green blocks were too loud and got pulled, and I had one leftover double.  I have to cut setting triangles before assembling but have the rows pinned in stacks.

Mini, my 15 year old cat, found the empty project box irresistible...

Her, um, +/- 15 lb body didn't really fit in the photo box...

But she gave it the old college try--for a few minutes anyway, lol.

Qurantine, Family, Masks...Slow Sunday Stitching

Our County's "Stay Well at Home" restrictions still in place make for lots of time indoors.  Add to that working from home, and there is not a lot of mileage added to our automobiles.  I did get out yesterday to mail the doll quilt and also send out another top to be quilted. 

A "quilt in the wild" shot of my backyard poppy preserve before mailing off to Canada.  We weren't supposed to include any extras this year for the Humble Quilts organized swap, but I couldn't resist using a couple of leftovers to make a tiny item. Shhh, don't tell Lori!

This is a coaster made of a sample 9 patch of 1.5" squares and a leftover 4.5" stripe square.  It was small enough to slip into the card I included in the package.  I first went to the local shipping store but after I learned it would cost $43.00 to ship by UPS, I drove myself to the Post Office.  My cost was $14 there--it may take longer, but will find its way through Customs and into the Canadian system in the next couple of weeks. 

Mask making included sewing up child size masks for our grandsons.  Star Wars for Cove, and Paw Patrol for little brother Hunter.

Daughter Elaine had not really wanted me to make them masks, as she said they were not taking the children out, but then she ended up having to bring Cove to the doctor for a small sore on his cheek.  She was afraid it was an infected spider bite.  Fortunately the doctor's office provided masks, had the patients wait in their cars until called in turn, and everyone's temperature was taken before entering.  The doc told her to clean it with a scrub product and get the scab off, then use a topical antibiotic.  We had a "social distancing" car visit with them yesterday and Dada tied the masks on for size.

Cove is stretching out in height and getting shoulders, my husband observed!

Hunter in a more dynamic pose, ha ha!  We had a good visit with the family and can't wait until hugging and kissing is once again allowed.  So hard to stay apart.  

We also had a social distancing visit with our son and pregnant daughter-in-law and could give them the little baby quilt for our next grandson in person.  I set up chairs in the backyard 6 feet apart and they entered the backyard from the street.  My blurry photos of the finished quilt notwithstanding, they  loved it--son Nick observed it had a lot of his wife Ashley's favorite colors.

I originally planned to use the blue solid for binding but did not have long enough strips left to avoid a lot of joins, so chose the same background light gray (Kona Silver) and added matched piecing to the corners for interest. 

A cute elephant print found on clearance at Superbuzzy.  I hand stitched down the binding, which I don't often have time for as a last minute finisher!--but there is lots of extra time these days for slow stitching.  I'm linking to another Canadian's blog, Kathy's Quilts, for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Plans for today include an unpleasant task my husband wants to do--sorting out and closing an offsite storage unit.  Sigh.  I hope to get back to my sewing machine sometime today....there are more masks to work on.  Our guild is now tasked with sewing elastic on some paper PPE N95 masks which have dried-out plastic band elastic.  I believe these masks may be going to the homeless, but am not sure. Another guild member has cut the elastic to size and packaged it with the boxes of masks, so helpful! I'd like to get through the box of 35 in the next couple of days before getting another box delivery :)

Design Wall Monday--Endless April

It's Design Wall Monday again, see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

I have a finished doll quilt, save for a label, which I will soon be sending to its new home far from SoCalif. 

Simple crosshatch with the walking foot.  I used a "hand quilted" stitch from the machine menu.

I like the extra texture of the thicker stitch.  You can also see the plain square's stripe detail in this pic.

The paisley fabric used for the Bar back and binding have been in stash a long time.  The background color of the paisley was hard to match with thread, being really neither brown nor gray.  

I sat outside at the patio table to stitch the binding to the back, ending up with brown thread as the best match.  There were a lot of steps added to the FitBit while cleaning off the chairs, tabletop, getting out the chair pads and opening the umbrella.  This requires checking for insects--we have a lot of black widow spiders around here.  A small spider did emerge onto his front porch from the top of the umbrella as I raised it, demanding to know what in tarnation was going on, but after glaring at me six feet below, turned and went back inside.  

While I had the walking foot on the sewing machine, two other small quilt sandwiches took their turn under the needle.  First was a small quilt for philanthropy donation that was cobbled together from a small bundle of fat 8ths that has been in stash awhile, with some stash additions. 

I have very little girly fabric in stash, but did manage to puzzle it out.  The binding is  Kona Pink Flamingo and the backing a mint green dot yardage.

Very simple quilting for this playmat that will be donated to a mother and baby group through the County. 

The next quilt took three different tries at choosing the design.  There was a lot of ripping happening before I was satisfied with the direction the quilting was taking. 

 

This is a playmat for our grandson due to be born in a few months.  I did not want the quilt to be stiff and finally struck on an offset plaid sort of design. I did not mark anything, just aimed for intersections in the piecing.

I love how it turned out--modern prints and straight line quilting worked out great.  Binding to follow...

Doll Quilt Moving Along

Lori of Humble Quilts' annual Doll Quilt Swap is in full swing.  I've seen a number of great doll quilts other participants have received on her Facebook group page.  I got the little top sewn together, it measures about 21". 

The uneven 9 patch blocks look pretty humble, but I'm hoping the quilting will add more charm.  The quilt sandwich is resting until tomorrow for the quilting step, and binding has been made.  I took a pic of the 1880 era antique quilt that inspired my layout, since I couldn't get a link to work from the auction site where I found it through Pinterest several years ago.

The description notes the border is a tiny red check, not a pink print.  Is this not striking?  I've never seen anything like it.  It was hard to see the quilting but appears to be a simple crosshatch in each triangle quarter.  The quilter's nine patches are much simpler than mine, with a single muslin/off white and mostly two different prints.  I want to get this little guy in the mail by Tuesday, and also send off large quilt to be quilted. 

I have made a lot of scrappy cross blocks while sewing 9 patches and masks.  These will become a tablerunner for my brother when I finish all the cut pieces.  I made a similar runner a couple of years ago from a charm pack--the full quilt pattern is in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book. 

The latest batch of masks went to my fellow employees who are still seeing patients at one of our practice locations. 

That was a lot of cutting and sewing over two days and my fingers need a rest!  A family friend has requested masks so there will be more cutting and sewing over the weekend.  Our county is still doing well with under 400 confirmed cases recorded, and low number of 13 deaths from COVID-19.  There is a cautious hope that we may soon have quite a downturn in new cases and more recovered folks.   We will stay the social distancing course...and wear a mask in public :)

See What I Did There?

More sewing on the Doll Quilt Swap project--Lori of Humble Quilts has extended the mailing deadline but I hope to be able to send mine off by the original month-end date. 

I used the paper plate method for arranging my blocks and keeping them in order at the sewing machine.  My squares are cut at 2".

Leader ender blocks on the left, and the first five 9 patches with the setting squares. They looked so cute...but, does anyone notice why my heart suddenly sank?  If you see gaps around the setting squares, you will have correctly deduced that MATH kicked my butt again.  I cut my setting squares  at the finished size of the 9 patch block. After despair, there followed a session of option auditioning.  I mocked up smaller 9 patches with 1.5" squares, but they were small and would require so many more that I would not have enough of the striped fabric for the doll quilt.  I then tried cutting down the 2" squares to 1.75" but it still did not work well with the cut setting squares.   I really didn't want to dedicate a lot of time to re-cutting the print squares either.

Mini was of no help during this portion of the design process, laying on the floor in this weird position at the bottom of the stairs!

My next idea was to trim down the finished 9 patch to 4.5 inches, and this turned out to be the best option.  The 9 patch is preserved but will now be an uneven 9 patch when the setting squares are sewn.

Final layout after switcheroo.  I love the setting squares' change of direction in each quarter from the center out.  The design is more striking the larger the quilt gets and I'll do that one day with bigger squares--I can see it in a modern design too.  The rows are pinned in stacks and ready at the machine.  It should sew up fast.  I'll ponder backing, quilting, and binding options as I sew.

Design Wall Monday--Doll Quilt

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

On my design surface are pieces and parts for Humble Quilts' annual Doll Quilt swap.  I have wanted to recreate an antique 9 patch quilt I pinned several years ago, and this small scale quilt is a great place to try it out. The alternate square is a stripe arranged in different directions, quilt is circa 1880 per the description on 1stdibs (sorry,  I am unable to link the URL).  My version will be very scrappy whereas the original quilt used two squares of two different fabrics and plain muslin for the remainder of the 9 patch. 

I dug through my messy box of leftover CW pieces and parts but ended up having to cut most of the 2" squares from larger scraps. The 9 patches will be 4.5" by my figuring. The red shirting stripe has been in stash a long time; I'm happy to have a worthy place to use it.  My swap partner is in Canada so I'll need to get this stitched up and quilted in the near future.  The antique was hand quilted in a crosshatch.  I will likely machine quilt mine, depending on time.

Meanwhile, more masks went out the door today....

Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy

Joining Kathy's Quilts' Slow Sunday Stitching today.  Happy Easter!

I've continued working on a cross-stitch in my downtime between Telemedicine patients, especially when the patient fails to connect with the Video portion and reverts to a telephone call with the doctor, leaving me with nothing to scribe.  

This Lizzie Kate design is from a 2004 Easter Sampler booklet I scored a thrift store a few years ago.  I don't have all the colors called for but will substitute with what is on hand. I'll put the word SPRING at the bottom. I like these prestretched canvases, which I have bought in a 3 pack at Michael's as well as Hobby Lobby.  The project remains in our home office so I don't finish it too quickly!

We don't get to spend Easter with the grandsons, but visited them yesterday for a long time in the front of their house, keeping 6 feet apart, of course!  Grandson Cove was in and out of the house, and when watching from his bedroom window, occasionally called out, "You're too close!" to his parents and us, lol.  He was very upset when Kindergarten shut down as he loves his teacher.  Mama has had to become a preschool and kindergarten instructor in a flash, as the school year was canceled two weeks ago.   Poor Mama!

Our county has done pretty well, less than 300 illnesses and 10 deaths, which were all people in their 70s and 80s with underlying health conditions.  Such a scary and hard time--stitching and sewing masks help to pass the time and feel useful.  I must have made over 50 by now, with a few for neighbors to sew today. 

Happy Stitching!