Goodbye, January

 Already, one-twelfth of the new year is in the books. Blinking, it seems, wipes out a month. 

In my search for an appropriate image, I found the one above of Lucy Van Pelt from the Peanuts gang. Perfect, since the quilt I am working on to close out January is called Lucy. In the description provided by pattern author Carrie Nelson, we know that the Lucy to which she is referring is Lucy Ricardo of I Love Lucy fame, but we can be flexible here, I think.

We are having a 'weather event' here today - snowed overnight, raining today, and returning to snow tonight. I believe I heard that there will be some accumulation in the morning, but we are likely on the fringe of the serious stuff, so I am not too concerned. I am perfectly content to hibernate here in my cozy house with a Slow Sunday project on my lap. It isn't stitching, but it is handwork, nonetheless. I am drawing diagonal lines on 276 (+/-) squares for the next phase of my Lucy construction - 60 snowball blocks and 44 half-snowball blocks.

I have my little box of squares ready for action. I plan to work on this task while we watch the OSU men play today. I have earbuds nearby on the chance that we finish the game before I finish the squares. I will go back to my current audiobook, if that happens.

To cut all those 1.75-inch squares, I stacked strips and lined them up carefully so that I could cut lots at a time.

Worked like a charm!

I have a few snowballs made. The corners will be randomly placed; no plan for making any tough decisions here.

I will link with Kathy's Quilts again this Sunday for her weekly Slow Sunday Stitching party. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Dividing the Reds

Lest you think I have forgotten the original task for the month - sorting, organizing and cleaning the sewing room - I am still dealing with a few things. At present, it's the reds.  

A few posts back I shared a picture of my fabric tubs lined up in the hallway. I'd moved them there to facilitate cleaning the stacks and piles of fabrics accumulating on my cutting table and other surfaces. 

These five tubs lived in the hallway for the better part of a week earlier this month. In the foreground is the tub devoted to that blue KF quilt I will return to as soon as Lucy is finished. Meaning this tub will stay close by and easily accessible.

Next are the green tub, the brown tub, and the white/neutral tub. I have tidied these and returned them to the closet. Tidying involves some refolding, restacking, and yes, revisiting all those luscious fabrics waiting to be turned into quilts. This whole process totally motivates me to sew-sew-sew!

While I was in the brown tub, next in order of full-ness to the reds, I pulled this combination of fabrics, and I've been dreaming of a quilt for them to become.

But I digress; today's topic is the red tub. 

At the far end of the hallway lineup is the red tub, a veritable riot of reds and far too many to snap the lid shut on the tub. This tub has camped in the hallway all month awaiting - what? I have been unable to  come up with a way to manage this situation.

I spent some time Thursday addressing all (all?) the issues, and have made progress. First, I took every bit of fabric out of the tub. I sorted large cuts from small cuts. I sorted dark reds from light reds. I separated burgundy-reds from red-reds. In handling all these fabrics so much, I discovered that I also have purply-reds and brown-reds. Some separation was necessary.

Here are some things that I removed.

The piece above looked too pink, so I intended to move it to a different tub (pink and purple). When I refolded it, I discovered that it was a half-yard cut of Paris Flea Market. Ha! I have a Jelly Roll of PFM, so this is still out and likely on it's way to a project tub.

This fabric was in the red tub, but just as easily could go in the blue tub. I have not moved it to any tub yet, because the thought occurred to me that it would be perfect for a backing on a patriotic quilt. So now, I am considering options for yet another project.

All of the fabrics above were in the red tub. See what I mean about brown-red and purply-red? These are stacked together and I think another project has been born. I know they do not necessarily 'match-match,' but they go together well enough for a quilt. And believe it or not, I already have a quilt in mind for these. Awesome!

This stack also came from the red tub, and honestly, I do not know what to do with these. What a mish-mash. I will let them sit out for awhile as I work on other things. Perhaps an idea will niggle its way to my brain. Two of these have already been used in quilts, so they could go into the scrap-cutting stack. Thinking...hmmmm...

The red tub that went back into the closet looking like this. Neatly folded and easy to identify. Bonus: the lid snaps shut. Looks pretty good, right?

From the reorganizing described in this single post, let me tally up how many new or pending projects were born: 1, the brown grouping; 2, Paris Flea Market; 3, something patriotic; 4, the purply-red grouping. Four. Four potential quilts on the horizon, in addition to those listed on my 2021 goals.

I'm good with that.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Lucy Progress

Completely surprised that I am so quickly reporting on my Lucy progress. I feared that making those 25-patch blocks - 61 of them! - would take me forever, yet I find that I am finished with them  - did the last of them on Wednesday morning. Another surprise: I had cut enough units to make 80 blocks. So I did.

Just how satisfying is this!? Quite. I not only have this first part of the blocks made, but I've kept my cutting table cleaned off, too! Yay!

These blocks simply needed a system for construction, and I came up with one. It's amazing what one can accomplish when one is organized. *wink*

First, I had all my sub-cut units lined up on one side of the table, at the top of my main working area.

I pulled five sub-cut units at random and placed them together for what would become a block. I rearranged when like colors touched or a single fabric was too frequent. If I found myself becoming too OCD about a block, I reigned that in by remembering that this is a big quilt, and so what if a couple of fabrics show up close together? It won't matter. So, no obsessing!

 

I prepared about 5 or 10 blocks in this way and then stacked them in order on a portable flat surface (the lid of a storage tub) and took them to the sewing machine. In the picture below, I have 5 blocks stacked for sewing.

The only variation from the pattern worth noting is with regard to pressing seams. The pattern uses definite lights and darks for these blocks, so pressing to the dark makes sense. Since my blocks are so random, I could not guarantee how the seams would work out. A sub-unit could be turned to go either way. So I pressed in one direction, and cut the sub-units; then if I needed a small unit to have the seam going the other direction, I just used my little iron and wool mat (which is next to the machine) and pressed it to work.

Yes, I could have pressed seams open, but I didn't want to take the time to do that. My method was great for nesting seams. If I were to make more blocks like this for another quilt, I would do it the same way.

And above is my stack of completed blocks. I am ready for snowball making. Yay!

Let me show you one block that somehow ended up with an extra row - I was not paying attention to my system. Instead, I was gabbing a bit too much when Sharon was here for sewing. *wink*

Yesterday, instead of working on Lucy, I finally attacked that overflowing tub of red fabrics that I've had sitting in the hallway. This task lead me to all sorts of dreaming of quilts to make, and I actually pulled a grouping that pleases me. It is entirely possible that an impromptu quilt is on the horizon. (who needs yearly goals??!)

Happy Quilting, Friends!

2021 Quilting Goals

After exerting a whole lot of brain cells on my goals for this new year, I have at last settled on a list that is reasonably attainable. All these goal quilts can be made from my exisiting stash, with the exception of #8. Emma's description of the quilt she envisions doesn't mesh too closely with my fabric on hand. Let's review the list, shall we?

It appears I have very definite plans. Only 4 are a bit on the nebulous side: 3, 8, 11, and 12. I need (want) to make these 4 quilts, but at present which exact quilt is unknown. Sarah's wedding quilt will probably come from one I've already made and needs only to be quilted. Emma, as I mentioned earlier, has given me an idea for what she wants, but I do not have a pattern nailed down. At some point I will put together a more definitive post on her quilt.

Number 11, red and white quilt, could take on a myriad of forms - I have saved so many pictures and I have so much red fabric. I could devote a whole year just to making red quilts. Here are a couple of pictures that have inspired me to follow through with making at least one.

 

The block in this quilt is called the Anvil; I captured the pic from Instagram. With 90 anvil blocks, this seems like a daunting undertaking, but really it would be pretty simple. I could make it smaller, too, if I wanted.

Another quilt I have spent a fair amount of time studying is this one, taken from Pinterest. I do not know if there is a name or pattern, specifically, but I think I can find block patterns that would replicate this very closely. Added later: this is a pattern by Bonnie and Camille called Wish Upon a Star. Cool!

My little stash of Temecula fabric is about to be enhanced with a bundle of shirtings (coming out in March.) I definitely want to use this fabric together somehow in one quilt. The pattern will have to be traditional, and it will look very scrappy. The Hovering Hawks blocks shown below (from Instagram) would be perfect with the Temecula fabrics - quite traditional and scrappy-looking. I am drawn to this, for sure.

The Irish Chain and the Double Irish Chain are both very classic, traditional quilts. I could make one using red and white, or I could attack the scrap-busting goal with one of these. Below is an inspiration quilt that uses scraps that I found on Pinterest.

Helen Phillips, a quilter and crafter from the UK, makes gorgeous quilts that I find appealing. This subtle little beauty is featured on her blog.  It would  be an easy-peasy, scrap-busting quilt. Click the link to see her hand quilting this beauty.

So, I have a full year of quilting ahead of me, a situation I am incredibly happy about. I know there is life outside of quilting, but with stay-at-home-orders, and fear of spreading the dreaded virus, I am content to stay home, work on these beauties, and reduce the fabric stash.

Wish me luck on my '21goals!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Reviewing Old Goals

Each January I make a list of goals I hope to accomplish in the next 12 months; additionally, I recap the previous year's goals to take stock of how well I did. I have not yet posted this year's goals, although I have begun working on a few of the items that will be listed. I plan to share the '21 goals tomorrow; today, let's look at how I fared at accomplishing all that was on my 2020 list.

Clicking here will take you to my post that reveals the goals for last year. To avoid having to do that, I pulled just the list to reference in today's post.

 

This past year became such a different year, everyone will agree, and things that one planned didn't always pan out. I cannot blame my non-finishes on the virus, but it may have factored in.

The first 4 items on this list are gifts, only 2 of which are actually in the hands of the recipients. I completely finished and gifted the first two items. I have made the Everhart wedding quilt, but have not yet quilted it, and that goes, too, for Garrett's baby quilt.

Other finishes include the quilts and flimsies listed below. Clicking each link will explain some details, and show you some pictures, if you are interested. As a point of clarification, my listed name might have changed by the time I wrote about the quilt. (For example, Blue and Yellow Stars became Dreamy Stars.)

6-Summer Nights

7-True Blue

8-Frankfort Girls' Sew Along

10- Kim Diehl quilt

11-Larkspur Quilt

12-Blue and Yellow Stars

13-UFO - Purple and Green Thimbleberries

16/17-Diagonal Madness was made with KF fabrics, so I really did both in one quilt.

18-Scrap-busting focus (more on this below)

19-Two-color quilt - Lady of the Lake

20-Test Block 30s Quilt

21-Impromptu Projects - besides #19, Lady of the Lake, I made a scrappy table topper (counts for #18, too), Peachy Surprise, Summer Breeze, Larkspur 9-Patch, and Larkspur Topper.

I feel pretty darn good that I was as successful as this for my goals. It certainly was a year that presented its fair share of hiccups, but at least in the quilt-making area, I feel as though I prevailed.

Two big fails: #9 - quilting 2 quilts per month on the long arm. I really do want to get this goal going in a big way. You all know how many quilt tops I have made here and they MUST be quilted. You can be sure a goal very similar to this is again on the list for 2021. 

Dreamy Stars, above, is one quilt worth highlighting, as I stitched it and quilted it all in the same calendar year. That is an amazing feat. I hope I can get so efficient that I am doing this as the norm, and not as an anomaly.

Another fail is #14 - the UFO called Row-a-Month. That thing is so old, and the part that needs to be dealt with is applique. Well, I am pretty busy with my ongoing WIP, #15-Lake Effect, which is presenting enough applique for now. Row-a-Month is just gonna have to wait.

A moderate fail is #5 - working on the Blockheads is fun, but I fizzle out on them; I have them nearby, and work on them occasionally. I will get back to them, eventually.

Sorry for another word-laden post, Peeps. Clicking will get you lots of pictures, though, so have at it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Books Keep Me Going

 Today's post is going to be about the reading I did in 2020. To satisfy those who come here to see quilts, I will share one from the way-back machine - March of 2018. If you are interested, you can stay for the book stuff. If not, at least you had a quilt to look at. This is called Prairie Vine; I chose not to add the applique vine to the border, so the name is misleading, but oh well.

Retirement has afforded me so much more time for sewing and quilting, however my other love - reading - suffered. While I taught (high school English), I could justify my voracious reading; I kept up with the literary trends, read lots of YA literature, and tried any way I could to engage my freshmen and juniors (the two grades I mostly taught). My goal was to get them hooked on reading, and to have it become a lifelong love like it was for me.

I had a conundrum: while full time teaching, my quilting suffered; in retirement, my reading suffered. 

What to do??

Enter audio books. It completely surprises me that I have enjoyed listening to books as much as I do. I was reluctant to get on the audio bandwagon initially. Friends sang the praises of listening while driving, but it just never clicked with me.

Then I tried listening while I sewed, and VOILA!! 

I have been an avid listener for several years, and have tried several of the standard audio services: Kindle, Nook, Audible. The one I have come to use the most is Overdrive, a service from my local library that allows me to borrow audio versions of books. All those others, to the best of my knowledge, have some expense involved. 

Overdrive links to my library and allows me to place holds. I use it from my smart phone, and like any app, learning it and becoming proficient comes by using it. 

Somewhere along the line, I decided that I needed to keep a steady stream of enjoyable books lined up in the queue. I dislike down time between books. It made sense to me to queue in titles by some of my favorite and most prolific authors. There are many, but in 2020, I went with Brad Thor, Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, and Philippa Gregory. Quite a difference between Thor and the others, yes, but those spy and espionage thrillers are fun! 

I have introduced and explained enough; let me get to the actual 2020 reading. I read 56 books in that calendar year, a personal best, I do believe. Here is the breakdown by author:

Thor - 16 titles - finished all that he's written; did not read in order, but it didn't really matter.

Penny - 11 titles - finished all her titles; should have read in order, but didn't.

Cleeves - 8 titles - trying to read in order; the hold list is long.

Gregory - 6 titles - I'd read a couple of her books over the years, but realized that if I wanted a complete look at the long history of English royalty, I should work through them chronologically. That is a very  long list of titles, and I am working through them in order, rereading any that I may have already read (there's a good chance I don't remember a smidgen of them anyway). She has several different series, so I keep a list nearby and check them off as I read them. Sometimes, the waits are rather long. She has a large, loyal fan base.

Others - 15 titles - three by Elizabeth Berg; the rest were just one apiece from 12 different authors. Do you want some specific titles? This post is already word-laden (although, if you are still with me, I suspect you must be a book lover, and don't mind all the words). 

I will mention a few favorites. Oddly, my top two favorites are nonfiction. I really loved Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. I actually listened to it twice, and then had the pleasure of seeing the movie. Both very good. 

I also liked The Pioneers by David McCullough. Living in Ohio and visiting Marietta, it was especially relevant, but this book would appeal to all history buffs. The whole idea of coming to this vast, forest-filled land with plans to tame and settle it fascinates me.

In the fiction department, I enjoyed Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing. Amazing read; I was so glad to have read it after hearing various friends give it positive reviews. Of Elizabeth Berg's, I liked best The Story of Arthur Trulove. It reminded me a bit of Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove. 

Ann Patchett's The Dutch House was another book I listened to twice. I loved her characters and the descriptions of the house. It was read by Tom Hanks, and if this book is ever made into a movie, he HAS to be cast as the main character. He did a great job. 

I hope this brief review of my reading has inspired the book lovers in my audience with some new titles to investigate. I am on Goodreads, so if you are, too, you can peruse the titles in my "Read" list or my "To Be Read" list. I am not overly prompt at keeping my titles up to date, but I am trying to do better.

Happy Quilting, Friends! (And Happy Reading, too!)

 

 

Lake Effect Update

Since January is the month to take stock and organize things for the year ahead, I figured I'd better do just that with an old WIP (work in progress) that has sorta' been off my radar in recent weeks.

Lake Effect is a quilt I began in 2017. I have been digging through old posts to find this one in which I detail shopping for the fabrics. So sometime before April 2017, I had seen the Minick and Simpson pattern and had determined that I would make this quilt. The last time I wrote about Lake Effect was here; you can see the pattern and my early work on the appliqued border.

Now that we are up to date on this WIP's history, let's see what I am stitching this fine day.

Strange-looking appendage there  - it is a branch of a limb. This is a small portion of a long, thin vining-type border in this quilt. If you clicked on the earlier links, you saw that the pattern has a prominent applique center and border. Vowing to complete these appliqued sections were instrumental in my giving myself 10 years to finish the quilt. I know me: I procrastinate even more than usual when the task is less than enjoyable.

I have always claimed that applique was definitely not my favorite thing to do, but this pattern was going to force me to apply myself and learn how to do it. Then I found a method called "back basting" and gosh, did my opinion of applique change! Quilting friend Becky uses this method and in addition to demonstrating the technique for me, she recommended following the work of well-known quilter and teacher Jeana Kimball (find her on Instagram or Facebook). Talk about a game-changer.

I have one long panel finished, and have just begun this second long panel. Then there will be two smaller panels to tackle. But I think I am ahead of schedule, assuming I am still shooting for the 10-year deadline. I would like to think that I will finish way ahead of that.

It has been awhile since I last linked up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching party, so why not click on over there to see the lovely projects from some other quilters and seamstresses.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Heartfelt Thanks

 Sometimes showing one's gratitude can be very difficult, and for more than three years, I have owed one huge debt of gratitude. If you have been a reader for awhile, you may remember when my friend Sharon O. gave me her long arm quilting machine - A Tin Lizzie. You can read the post I wrote about it by clicking here.

The Tin Lizzie started her new life here in the basement, however I never really got comfortable with it down in that cold, dark, damp, and rather dungeon-like space. In 2019, we cleared out a spare bedroom, and after giving the room a fresh coat of paint, updating the lighting, and steam-vaccing the carpet we moved Tin Lizzie in. I am still taking my time getting comfortable using it (still a chicken), but all along I have known that one day I would gift a quilt back to Sharon in gratitude for her generous gift.

 

That day has at last arrived. Yesterday the Frankfort Girls met at Sheryll's house, and I took the opportunity to present my gift. This sampler quilt is one that began quite unintentionally. A year ago our group had a little sew-along and I made the green Ohio Star as a trial block. I liked the trial so much that I continued to make one each month using the 30s prints. I soon knew that those blocks would become a quilt for Sharon. I kept my plans for this 30s quilt under wraps to preserve the surprise. The 'real' quilt I made in this sew-along can be seen here.

My hope was to have this quilted by Christmas, but the long-arm decided that her encoders were tired and needed to be replaced. After some TLC at the repairman's shop, this little cutie quilted up nicely.

Sharon's kindness and generosity is limitless. This lap quilt is a meager thanks for such a tremendous gift, I know. I pledge to try to make the absolute best use of her long arm machine, and create as many beautiful quilts as possible while spreading joy to others. Just like Sharon does.

Happy Quilting, Friends!