Three for September: Garden Pinwheel update

Three for September:  I'm choosing a different WIP to move along every third day this month. Today is the third day for the Garden Pinwheel quilt.  Last night I prepped more leaves for the borders and did a rough layout on the quilt.

 Purely serendipity that a 9" strip for two of the larger leaves exactly fit the width of Steam a Seam2 sheets.  Gotta love that. 

Here is a closeup of the fabrics that make up the pinwheels and "stripes".  I love the scrappy look.

I think I prefer the partial border but will make it extend to halfway down the side.  This was all the leaves I had  cut by last night. I will frame two opposing corners as in the inspiration design. 

Of course I was closely supervised by the QC Cat, Mini.  She helpfully secured the pattern to the floor.  This free pattern was an insert from a 2008 (!) McCall's Quilting Magazine offer.  It is called Summer at Mom's and a quick online search shows it is available as a digital download from The Quilting Company.com.  The bright green HST border is very pretty but I will not be adding that, particularly since I already made the backing and binding.  

Lots more leaves were prepped this morning with the Accuquilt GO cutter, and I will fuse them down before the end of the night in my final layout.  My finishing plan is to assemble the quilt sandwich and quilt with a fancy stitch around the leaves, but that will occur at a later date.  I'm hoping it will turn out as nicely as I see it in my head!  

Then it will be time to choose another WIP to work on for the next three days :)

Three for September, and Log Cabin Loonies

This morning I pulled out the next Three for September project, wherein I am working on one WIP for three days at a time, then switching to another.  I snagged the Garden Pinwheel flimsy from the depths of the coat closet where it has hung for an age. 

Would you look at that?   I had to laugh at the saggy plastic hanger, so pitiful!  And, hey, I already made the binding... 

...and the backing!  I have no recollection of constructing this back, but am happy to see it.  At lunch time I dug out the old plastic project box from the depths of the Hoosier cabinet. Fortunately I am in that cabinet often enough to know the fabrics I set aside for the leaves were in there. 

The quilt pattern sheet came in a magazine solicitation and that inspired the pinwheels I made.  You can see that a bias vine was part of the detail and that is where I stalled.  The Accuquilt GO cutter and Alex Anderson's Pomegranate die (which I specifically bought a few years ago for this project) were fished out after dinner, and I started adhering fabric pieces to sheets of Steam a Seam 2.  

I have not yet decided if I want the leaves to extend the length of the borders, or stop short as in the inspiration pattern.  There are lots of green scraps to cut and play with.  

Speaking of scraps, today is the link up for Log Cabin Loonies on JulieK's blog.  I am up to 20 finished blocks now. 

I've already shared this photo on Lori's Humble Quilts Facebook page, and on Instagram.  My plan is for a total of 80 blocks to made a nice couch quilt.  So fun to play with all the colors in the scrap boxes!

Three for September Report

An update on this experiment, working on one project for three days and then switching to another every three days through the month of September.  I started with some placemats that were in progress and am happy to say I finished them on the third day.  In the 11th hour, but finished!  The green photographs very dull but is actually a brighter shade. 

I had just barely enough of the aqua floral binding for the four placemats.  In fact, I was short until I remembered to look in the 2.5" precut scrap drawer and found a 12" piece to add to finish the last placemat!

The back is finished to make them reversible.  My newlywed nephew and his wife hopefully will enjoy using these placemats in their apartment.  I got their address today as part of the tasks associated with the project :)

I perused the remaining list of 9 WIPs and decided on an oldie but goodie for the next three days.  It appears this poor quilt has not made an appearance on the blog since 2012.  Sheesh. It has been aging a long while in the coat closet.

I made these pinwheels with cutoffs from the Rick Rack Road quilt, way back in 2011, and made the big HSTs to form diagonal stripes.  The borders have been awaiting a detail of leaves ever since.  I have had a pile of green fabrics set aside for years, and plan to back them with fusible web and use my GO! cutter to die cut the leaves, then use a fancy stitch around the edges after fusing them on, like so:

I saw this detail on a quilt at a local guild show in 2013 and liked the impression of a vine without having to mess with bias strips.  Getting the fabrics prepped and cut into leaves is the main task.  Since I work the next three days it may be all that gets done, and I will be happy with that. 

Labor Day Weekend Doings

Ah, the Labor Day Weekend--always anticipated and enjoyed.  I was free after 12 noon Friday so got an extra half day's start on the holiday, pottered about in the sewing room playing with more log cabin blocks, cutting scraps and did a little embroidery on Sue Goes to the Orient while watching TV.  Saturday morning we went to grandson Cove's soccer game.   

It was hard to get a good shot of the moving objects.  Cove is the yellow Tiger on the left of the group.  The rules for the little players works well, they meet once a week at the same time for a 30 minute practice and then the 30 minute game follows immediately afterward.  The field is a lot smaller and they play at most 4 on a side, switching out players.  

Little brother Hunter got in some plank exercise while the action was on the far end of the field :)  The Tigers scored 4 goals and Mama Elaine had snack duty this game.  

Pretty cool banner, one of the other moms designed it, if I recall correctly.  This age group plays a very short season but they are learning and having fun.  It is pretty entertaining to watch, too!

After the game we took a drive and then it was back to the sewing room.  I was intrigued by a WIP busting idea I saw on a stitcher's blog: She proposed for the month of September working on one project for 3 days, then change to another for 3 days, etc.  While I don't think she decided to do that after all,  it sparked for me.  There were certainly plenty of choices in the sewing room!  I jotted down 10 WIPS but numbered them only for reference and will pick and choose the next as I go.  

#1 chosen is the Tea Time Placemats already started and destined for my nephew and his new bride. I figured the binding strips needed, cut and sewed the binding, then cut batting for the four placemats.  I played with specialty stitches on my sewing machine before spray basting the batting to the placemat backs and fronts.  I like to press the sandwich after spray basting to remove any wrinkles.  The Hera marking tool worked great for the few registration lines I made, mostly I just eyeballed it. 

Each placemat was trimmed after quilting.  They went pretty quickly, I only had to rip out one row of stitching where the first scallop pulled out.  That necessitated removing the walking foot and cleaning off the accumulated sticky fluff from the bottom with an alcohol wipe.  I also changed the needle and wound a new bobbin during that break. 

They were  soon finished and I took this photo before setting them aside for the day.  The binding will go on tomorrow and they will be finished.  The newlyweds have moved and I'll need to contact my nephew to get them sent to the proper address.   I did some figuring for other projects and will use some parts as leader-enders while sewing the next 3 day pick.  While I don't expect to completely finish much, just moving a bunch of projects along will be satisfying. Hope you all are enjoying some late summer sun and fun this weekend.

Home Improvement On The Sly

While DH Grant was away on a weekend with his buddies earlier this month, I secretly planned a painting project, and corralled DD Erica into giving me a hand.   Friday I spent doing all of the boring prep--the cleaning, washing of walls, and patching.  Naturally, it was a hot and sticky weather period and I was thoroughly sweaty and tired after all that.   Luckily I had the paint and all other supplies on hand.  I set up a banquet table in the garage with all the supplies we needed.  Erica joined me on Saturday-- she is the best at taping.

Counter surfing prone...

..and supine.  Look at those hipbones!

Low, behind the refrigerator...

..and high above the doorway.  We got the first coat on, took a late lunch break, and fairly quickly the second coat followed. 

Waiting for paint to dry is really dull.  Erica helped me pull off all the tape and clean up the edges of the cabinets. 

After a couple of hours I had the room reassembled and restaged. I also climbed into the garden window to clean the inside and then on a stepladder to clean the outside. Isn't the hardest part the final clean up and putting away all the supplies and paint?   That got done late on Sunday before I collapsed.  Grant came home Monday while I was at work and was happily surprised to see the Terracotta paint gone at last.  We are enjoying the lighter, brighter look in our East facing kitchen.  Next room to conquer is my adjoining sewing room (former family room),for  which Erica and I mapped out a paint plan.  I'm hoping to get that done in September and have a carpenter add new baseboard trim in October.  Best laid plans!

More Log Cabins

I spent a good deal of time over the weekend pawing through the scrap drawers and sorting out pieces for the Log Cabin Loonies blocks for Julie K's sewalong.  I sewed up the first batch with the 18 red print 2" squares I had. 

I then sewed up the first batch with 18 red print 2" squares.  While Julie's directions said to assemble these counterclockwise, that didn't really happen in my case.  But the result is overall the same so I am not concerned.   My photo is a little blurry, sorry!

I got through the first two rounds of all 18 blocks before pooping out for the day.  More cutting ensued over the weekend and I'm ready to add the final two rounds on these.  I'm just concentrating on scrappy and not particularly a light to dark gradation in the colors--that requires more thinking than I'm willing to expend!  Linking to Julie's blog  HERE.

Also over the weekend I washed the Adornit Mason Jar embroidery project, which I had taken the last few stitches in at last. 

The Solvy dissolved much faster than I expected it too and after some drying time and then pressing, it is ready for a frame or hoop.  I'm planning to start some small Christmas Lizzy Kate designs next. 

Log Cabin Loonies--Julie's quilt along

Well I didn't mean to disappear for so long, there was a lull in the sewing room after the Fair frenzy and a secret home improvement project I'll share next.  

But first, sweet Julie of  Julie K Quilts is having a sewalong making Log Cabin blocks, she calls it Log Cabin Loonies.  I decided to jump into the fun, but upsize the block to suit the size of scraps I trim down and save.  She is using 1" strips and mine are 1.5".  I started out making a test block, as she suggested, before I cut the logs to size in abundance. 

I'm really glad I did that because my original numbers were way off--I was figuring on paper adding only .5 inch to each round but needed to add 1"due to my larger width strip.  I made a cheat sheet for cutting the rounds from 1.5" strips, starting with a 2" center block. 

Julie's measurements using 1" strips are HERE.  I'm linking to her Log Cabin Loonies linkup.  

It has been a long time since I made any Log Cabin blocks, though they are one of my favorite old blocks and can be set so many different ways.  Looking back in my photos, the last Log Cabin blocks I made were for a Quiltbuddies swap way back in 2007.  This was for a Yahoo Group I belonged to for some years.  We made 12" finished black and white blocks and from mine I made a quilt for my Mom and Dad's guest room--Mom was calling it her Paris Room then.

I accidentally matched the quilt--this pic makes me want to buy another red jacket, I loved that one.  The blocks came from many states and a few countries and it was amazing how many different prints there are in that color combo.  The barn raising setting is also a favorite of mine, I've used it many times for different blocks. 

Some sweet prints accompanied leftover blocks on the back.  As I remember, I bought the toile bird print from a shop in Bakersfield when we were visiting family.

I recently inspected the quilt I made my Dad, also in 2007, and it needs replacement.  He uses it every day so it gets a lot of wear.

This was during the Turning Twenty craze.  Some of the fat quarters Mom and Dad bought while traveling in Montana/Wyoming and Yellowstone Park area.  Now the flannel binding is worn, and the thin fabric that shows as pink but is actually a rusty red is shredding.  I've got another scrap project  going from the 1.5 and 2.5" bins, a Bonnie Hunter design called Chunky Churndash.  

I think these would make a great scrappy quilt for my Dad.  They finish at 6" but are set with an alternate hourglass block that sews up quick.  Pattern is free on Bonnie's Quiltville site under the Free Patterns tab.  Back to sewing!