Bouncing Around

There are a lot of different new projects swirling around in my brain, making it easy to ignore the several dozen (cough) already in progress. Generally new ideas barge in when I am looking for something else, or am trying to use up leftovers. I'm still on a baby quilt kick and while cleaning up the cutting table after the houndstooth baby quilt, I got to thinking about using up all the bonus HSTs from that quilt. Several years ago, during the Thomas Fire disaster in our county, we made quilts from 12" finished Perkiomen Valley blocks, many of which were donated from all over the continent--and overseas.  The shaded blocks can be laid out many different ways. One of our guild members set hers in a pattern that came to be known as "The Stacy".  It's a very dynamic setting.

I decided to crop just a corner of the layout for a 4x4 setting to use up the odd sized leftover HSTs that are 4" unfinished.   I chose solids and graphic prints from stash in many colors for the dark half of the block, and light solids and a few prints for the light half.

Many scraps and 5" charms got cut for the 16 blocks needed for this setting.  I also sketched a Drunkard's path block substituting for the HST.  That would be fun to play with too.  The ideas never stop coming!

I quickly wrote up my plan on an index card, as lately I have come across too many baggies of parts that were specifically grouped but without any idea what I thought they were going to become!

While waiting for Telemedicine visits to commence during the work-from-home hours, I like to have some stitching to pick up.  Last week I finished the Lizzie Kate Summer Sampler remix ...

...and think it turned out cute.  This was from a $.95 thrift store find of a couple of years ago, a design from the 90s.  Rummaging around in the tub of embroidery stuff today, I came across an even older item to stitch.  I did have some floss with it so at some point it had escaped the bin for a time, though nary a stitch was yet made.

The packaging says it was printed in 1987!  There were some long lags between patients today so the rind of the watermelon was finished.  Red floss is at the ready for tomorrow's lags.  I'll need to pull out some black floss for the seeds as well. 

I have a few pics from our Father's Day gathering to show next post.

Design Wall Monday--Baby Quilt Finishes

I'm late to Design Wall Monday, but there are lots of great posts already linked on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog for enjoyment.

There was a lot of binding finished since the last post.  I completed four baby quilts for Philanthropy donation for Guild. 

I forgot to take photos of the bound quilts and had a fellow guild member take a few after I dropped them at her place. 

Pink binding for the girly cupcake and ice cream parlor quilt...

Pezzy Print in black and white for the farm animals. 

Speckled aqua for the X-Plus block quilt.

I pulled out another unfinished guild project and scrapped a larger  Houndstooth quilt for a baby sized one.  I had to do some block unstitching to include additional colors, and a little bit of trimming of the pieced blocks, but in a couple of hours the top was finished.

I made the blocks with 10" and 5" cut squares in reverse colorways, paired and stitched on either side of a drawn line down the center, and then cut apart.  There was a pile of already trimmed striped blocks at 9.5" and that sped things up a bit.  Jenny Doan of Missouri Quilt Co has a different method starting with 5" precuts and yardage to make the striped blocks, but I like these big ones which make a quilt with far fewer blocks.

This subtle print fools the eye, right?  This should quilt up fast with likely some channel stitching.  I have some bright plaid print fat quarters for the backing.  These are going to a Mom and Baby exercise class, which hopefully will be able to meet someday again soon. 

..And that leads me to the countdown for our next grandson, who is now 10 weeks from arriving!  We also heard the news that he will be getting three more cousins later this year, identical twin girls arriving in December via our nephew and his wife, and a boy cousin from our daughter-in-law's sister and her husband.  Happy news to celebrate is a very good thing!

Design Wall Monday--New Blogger and Binding

Design Wall Monday comes around again.  See more design wall's on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Amid all the world's problems, small frustrations seem to get amplified while "hunkering down".  Blogger now forcing all of us to move to the new platform by the end of June is one of them.  I previously had tried the new platform but did not care for Google Photos.  Their editing choices were far less broad and did not allow me to do what I wanted.  I am continuing to use Picasa but don't know if that will be permitted.   Here's my first try:

Usually when I upload photos, they are small but I can click to make them larger before saving the blogpost; I was able to drag the image to a larger size in New Blogger.  These little blocks were made from cutoffs of the Summer Breeze quilt last shown on 5/18/2020.  I decided to make a doll quilt for guild donation--do you like my heart block?  The plain strips are 1-3/4 inch so these are little blocks. 

Yesterday was an all binding day.  I took this pic after I had attached the binding on the tablerunner on the left.  Quilting the tablerunner was a late night exercise.  I originally started quilting with a three-step stitch that I frequently use, but after several diagonal passes felt it was too small and busy and ripped it out.

New Blogger won't let me adjust the size of this photo, but you can see the ghost of the stitches.

Another quilt that got binding was the Jewel Box quilt I got back from David's Quilting early last month.   I am going to hand stitch this binding down, but the others were machine done.  New Blogger is not allowing this one to enlarge either.  Sigh.

Going to hit post!

Stitching and Sorrowing

Stitching is a creative calm in the storm that is our reality in 2020.   Summer Sampler by Lizzie Kate is under my needle now.

Harrowing news stories of oppression and violence outlining the racism that has always underlain the American society we live in.  The county I was born to and live in has a lot of people of color, but not many of them are Black.  I was not raised to fear or hate any people, we have taught our children not to fear or hate any people based on their color.  The few black co-workers I've had over the years I hope saw my interactions with them as completely regular.  Six years ago, while working a different job, I made a friend on my bus commute who happened to be a Black man; we spent our daily hour on the bus talking and sharing our families and lives, and I miss that.  He had three children, two were teenage boys at that time.  I stand with those protesting and desire equal treatment by law enforcement.  I will say a few of their names, among the many whose lives were taken: George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. Dion Johnson. Eric Garner. Ariane McCree.

I completely disagree with the president encouraging force and "domination" over people who are protesting unfair oppression by police.  Black Lives Matter.   I am a privileged white woman who values diversity and inclusion and people of color in all walks of life.  We are all human beings. Let us treat our fellow humans with respect and recognition of their rights, the most basic of all being LIFE.

 

Design Wall Monday--Dreamweaver progress.

Design Wall Monday starts a new month.  See more Design Walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

The Dreamweaver quilt top laid untouched all week on the cutting table; I was stalling on adding the "spokes" of the dreamweaver after making the bias tape last weekend (pattern by Jen Kingwell Designs).  Finally, late Saturday evening, it was time.  Just moving the quilt top to the sewing machine helped motivate me to keep going.  I stay stitched all the quilt patchwork edges and then played more with the spokes and leaf appliques I have made so far

It was fun to see all the great colors and prints on the background squares. I chose a light blue 40 wt thread from a collection that has been in the stash for a couple of years.  I think I won it at Sewtopia New Orleans, as I remember someone needing the light apricot spool to finish a project.

 Aurifil thread has such a great sheen.  These are smaller spools but the thread is fine.

My Husqvarna machine likes Aurifil thread, too.  The pattern instructions advised to leave openings for the bias strips, but since I was machine sewing and not hand sewing like the pattern, I first sewed the inside edge of the bias tape down with a tiny buttonhole stitch. 

Michelle McKillop's pattern cover photo of this quilt was my inspiration for the spoke placement.  Since the middle one was straight, it was easy to sew down.  Best choice for late night stitching!

Next morning the remaining spokes were measured, gently curved and pinned in place, buttonhole stitched, and then the outer edge of the medallion was closed.

My daughter-in-law was pleased with photos of the progress on her quilt.  About this time last year I was buying a lot of light prints on a shop hop with my sister for the background squares.  A lot more applique leaves and circles will be cut this week as time allows.  Happy with the progress at this point!

Weekend Sewing--Design Wall Monday

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

It's been a quiet Memorial Day, I spent most of it in the sewing room doing a lot of cleanup.  The scrap drawers saw a lot of activity this past week when I was cutting for a Plaidish Quilt. 

The pattern is free on the Kitchen Table Quilting blog by Erica Jackman, with a tutorial here.    It uses more medium value fabrics than dark or light, which suits my stash well. She has introduced a second Plaidish 2  quilt just recently which utilizes a lot more light fabrics.  Lights seem to be hard to keep stocked in my sewing room!  I'm making a 6x8 version of her pattern, which is block-based so you can make it whatever size you like.  I'm looking forward to a lot of plaid piecing in my future.  

Meanwhile, in between Telehealth visits last week I assembled all the rows to the Cross My Heart tablerunner for my brother. The full size quilt is in Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Beauties book.  

I got a lot of exercise picking up and sewing all the rows and setting triangles.  Another task crossed off the list today was choosing backing fabrics for the runner. 

The cutting table got cleared of all the assorted scraps and strips that get thrown in a basket as I cut, fat quarters and larger scraps went to their drawers, and I stuffed more yardage in the groaning tubs under the table.  Good thing the only fabric related purchases I made recently had specific projects attached to them :)

Our son and daughter-in-law came over Saturday for a socially distant lunch they picked up; we sat at opposite ends of the 6 foot patio table, lol.  Our future grandson is poking out a bit more, only 3 months to go.  They had a virtual baby shower and DIL Ashley was very excited for a particular item we purchased from her registry--a baby-wipe warmer.  I wish such a thing had existed when our kids were babies! 

A friend gave her a nice rocking chair, which she repainted, but the cushion covers were quite worn and she asked me to make some new ones--the old ones are pictured on the table.  We are getting very excited about having a new baby in the family again.  Meanwhile, there was great progress on the Dreamweaver quilt I started for them a year ago when they got married (pattern by Jen Kingwell Designs).

I was finally able to pick up my Superbuzzy fabric order on Friday, after a week's wait, and made the bias tape from a 3/4 yd cut of Kona Jade fabric.  I only needed to make one join for the medallion.  After I took this pic I looked at the pattern again and realized the streamers were too wide and needed to be adjusted to 1/2" wide.  My version of the quilt is much larger than the original and I changed the disappearing 9 patch background to simple patchwork.  Many prepared applique leaves and circles will be fused and stitched along the streamers.  Lots more time needed to cross this off the list!

Humble Quilts 2020 Doll Quilt Swap-Linky Party

Lori of Humble Quilts blog has been having a wonderful doll quilt exchange for a number of years, and I have participated frequently.  I previously showed the quilt I made for my swap partner in Canada--who has yet to email that the little quilt was received, fingers crossed it was! Now we are sharing the quilt we received from our partner.  I have shared on Lori's FB Humble Quilts group page already the lovely work of Dana Wild,  which received a lot of attention, as it should!

 Mini closely inspected the little quilt, and definitely appurroved the sweet tiny prints in the Churn Dash blocks, hand quilting, and the coffee staining.  I'm a lucky swapper!

Linking up with Humble Quilts blog Exchange post--lots of wonderful little quilts to enjoy there.