Goodbye August!

Sharon was here to sew with me yesterday! This is worthy of exclamation because we have been unable to coordinate our schedules since late June, as best we could recall. All manner of vacations, illnesses, appointments and family time kept our calendars so densely packed that we could never carve out a sewing day. 

So yesterday was special in that we were able to catch up, but we also got a lot of sewing done, too. Sharon worked diligently on a puff quilt for her 5-month old nephew. She made a lot of progress but needs just a few more "puffs." She plans to back the quilt with flannel, and it will almost be like a weighted blanket for the wee one, as it has quite a bit of heft to it. I did not take any pictures of Sharon's work, but you can click back here to see what a puff quilt is. That was my introduction to puff quilts.

I worked on Lil' Orphan Scrappy by adding economy triangles to my 6.5-inch stars. From the very start, I veered from the pattern by not bothering to fussy cut for the centers of the stars. As I get further into the construction of this quilt, I am finding it necessary to veer even more extensively. I am running out of light fabrics. Look at the picture below and see how much it relies on distinctions of light and dark. I expect I am going to lose this with my overload of dark and medium options.

 

This will be fine. Originally, I wanted to make this quilt because I loved how it looked, but my decision to use the scraps tied my hands a bit more than I expected. Look at that F8th pack - not many light/neutral options. I took out the 4-5 that would work and added them to my scrap stash, but still, I am woefully lacking in lights.

Realizing this, I had to adjust my thinking. Fine. Those WM fabrics look so amazing that this quilt will have its own unique "look" and I will love it. Here are a few pictures of blocks with the economy triangles added.

Note that this layout does not match the layout in the pattern picture. When I have all the triangles attached and trimmed, I will lay the quilt out properly. For now, this look pleases me and motivates me to continue. I have plenty of triangles cut, yet I think I need more red, so I will probably cut some of those today and begin blending them into the mix. And perhaps, when all blocks are made, I can work on placement in such a way as to achieve just a hint of mimicking the look of the original.

According to the pattern, this quilt should finish at 77" x 86". I have yet to consider what to do about those light triangles that are intended for the outer edge of the quilt. I won't worry about them now, though. Somehow it will all come together; I vow to use the existing William Morris in my stash (translation: I won't buy more). 

Remember these wise words: done is better than perfect.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Snowball Blocks + Extras

My guess is that lots of quilters do what I am doing with these snowball blocks. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how we quilters assure that we will never, ever run out of projects.

For the green 9-patch/snowball quilt I am making, there is a point during the making of the snowball blocks that an additional step can be taken to yield a whole lotta' little HSTs. And yes, I am taking that step.

Here's a little stack of snowball blocks. For those readers who are non-quilters, this block is made with one big square and 4 small squares sewn across each corner of the larger square. The part that is cut off the back is waste. With bigger snowballs, though, that becomes a huge amount of expensive fabric being dumped into the trash can. My snowball blocks are 6.5 inches, so the cut away part is large enough that something could be made from those corners.

And that is what I am doing. In the process I am creating a whole new quilt project that was never, ever on my radar.

The steps are as follows. Picture tutorial begins...

With right sides together, match up the corners of the big and one of the small triangles; sew across the diagonal.

Then run the piece back through the machine, sewing a consistent amount away from the previous stitching; ideally we want a quarter-inch seam, but these are obviously going to be lots smaller.

Cut away the smaller corner. These seam allowances are about half what a normal seam would be.

I like to cut off the tails, so I do that as I go. Even though I am not going to be using these small triangles any time soon, they will be ready for me when I get to them.

Since I need about 40 snowball blocks, I am going to end up with about 160 little cut-away triangles. When chain piecing, it doesn't really add too much additional work to take these few extra steps.

A pile of tails soon builds up; this is much easier for me to throw away than what you see in the next photo!

Not everyone is interested in a stack of little HSTs, but I know I will be able to use these for something. With fabric in the range of $11-$13 per yard, I just can't justify wasting these.

With consistent stitching of the second seam (I just eyeball it), I generally have an HST in the range of 2 inches - often just a scant fraction smaller.

I will be sure to let you all know when I use these HSTs. It might be awhile; it might be next week. One never knows around here. 

How's you Monday going? I have had a hair appointment, and now I need to make a very serious grocery store trip. I have procrastinated doing that for so long that my list is a whopper. Yikes.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Cyber Theft

That title gets one's attention, right? 

I will tell you from the get-go that this post is gonna' be long-winded, so to keep you interested I will intersperse some random pictures of my quilts into the text. *wink* 

Picnic at Daybreak.

Since 2009, I have occupied this small space in the interwebs, recording my quilt-making journey since retiring from full-time teaching. I'd spent a significant portion of the previous 30 years journaling the old-fashioned way with my high school students. With hushed classical music playing in the background, we spent a few minutes each class period writing in journals; I was 'modeling' the behavior of daily writing, and whether or not they were earnest in their efforts, at least they were seeing me faithfully scribbling away each day.

Knowing myself as a slacker, I knew I would not be so devoted in my writing once I left the classroom, and for this reason I opted to try blogging. With others potentially waiting to read what I wrote, I would have to be accountable for regular posting. I chose to focus on one of my favorite topics - quilting. For years, I'd stressed to students that the best writing comes when it's about the topics for which one has a passion. Since I intended to do a lot of quilting in my retirement, I would also be accountable to myself - I couldn't write about quilting regularly if I weren't making quilts regularly.

And that is what I have done since the first post on August 19, 2009, a whopping 13 years ago, almost to the day. Last Friday was my blogging anniversary. Hooray!!

Charm About You.

So what all has happened in the last 13 years? First, I have learned that keeping this blog has come to serve additional purposes. It helps me remember what all I have made and when I made it. One bonus is that faithful, regular posting provides me with a complete record of all my work. Plus, I can sometimes glean other details about the past 13 years, like when we went to a certain place, or who of my quilting friends made this or that. More than once I've had a friend tell me they used my blog to look up when we worked on a specific project. 

These are the very pleasing benefits to sharing my little quilt-making journey with the world. Oh, there are more - I connect with other quilters from all around the globe; I actually email and message some; I have learned some techie skills that I would never have learned had I not been blogging; I have expanded my quilting community through Pinterest and Instagram; and I have gained so much inspiration! My quilting plans continue to expand as I see more and more gorgeous quilts I want to make. All good things.

Lady of the Lakes.

And with the good, we also have some bad. Initially, what we think might be bad, actually isn't. For a long time I have been aware of people posting pictures from my blog on Pinterest. Let me tell you, that is a very weird experience to be casually scrolling through Pinterest and suddenly see one of your own pictures pop up there! 

When I click the picture and it takes me to my own blog, then I know that someone liked my quilt well enough that they wanted to save it to their Pinterest boards. This is legit. After all, I am the one who shared my picture with cyberspace. I certainly love looking at the quilts of others, so it seems a fair trade-off. Heck, I probably have gained a few readers/followers because of Pinterest.

English Elegance.

The truly negative part is when clicking on the picture does NOT take me to my blog. On several occasions, twice very recently, I have learned of someone claiming my pictures as his/her own. This is dishonest. This is theft. And sadly, this is common.

When the hijacker has a name, it is probably a fake one; more often he/she is using a generic group name to hide behind. In either case, anyone who comments to say that the picture isn't theirs soon finds themselves blocked from further interaction on the site. 

The two pictures most frequently hijacked from my blog are one of my late grandmother standing beside one of her quilts (click here to see), and one of my scrappy Long Road Home (click here to see). Both were posted on my blog before I began adding my watermark blog name on top of the picture (they are so marked now). I learned that doing this limits (but does not halt) the likelihood of photos being swiped. 

My most-often reposted picture; Grandma standing with one of her quilts.

I share all this with you to make you aware - in case you aren't - that not all you see on the internet can be believed. Shocking, right? If you see something you like on a blog or on any of the numerous social media sites, go ahead and save it or share it, and give credit to the creator of the item when possible. 

Another oft-reposted picture; Long Road Home.

If you see something that seems suspicious, it is probably healthy to be skeptical. If someone is taking one of my pictures and claiming it as their own, then you can be sure that it is happening elsewhere. I hope they aren't using my pictures for some nefarious purpose, but who knows? In the least, they are misrepresenting themselves and souring my blogging journey.

I have no take away from this. I will continue to blog. I will continue to watermark photos. I am going back to those old posts to replace pictures with watermarked ones. 

If you have stayed with me through all of this, thank you. I knew from the start that it would be long. Hopefully it has also been informative. I would be glad to learn of ways others have combated similar theft, but I accept that I cannot prevent it, nor do I care to devote valuable time to curbing it. 

I just hope that at some point karma steps in on those dishonest sorts.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Snowball Quilt

Yes, I started another quilt. When I was packing for last week's retreat, I literally made a very rash last-minute decision to throw in 2 fabrics that I have quite by accident put together, and I think this might be just the thing.

Let me back up a bit to provide some pertinent background details. I bought the green print in 2021 (I think!) while at the Needles and Pines Retreat in Nelsonville.  It has been moved to various locations around my quilting room as I have tried frequently to find complimentary fabrics to work with it. Finding nothing that "wowed" me, I went with a blotchy neutral of creamy gold and beige. I bought the neutral while vacationing this past June; we found a little quilt shop in a remote part of Nevada - Winnemucca.

One entire morning of retreat was devoted to cutting strips and squares for these two blocks. First I made a few of these.

 And then, I made a few of these.

On my goals list for this year is to make a quilt like this - snowball blocks combined with 9-patches. I like the look of the 2-color quilt, so I stopped dithering over fabric combinations; this shall be a 2-fabric quilt. Here's my inspiration pic.

And here is how my first few blocks look when paired together. 

Like I frequently do, I put this pic through a photo-editing app to see a mock up of the eventual quilt. 

I'm going to be happy with this, for sure. The two blocks are super-easy to construct, I can work for a good long while as I listen to my audio book. The outlook is promising from where I sit!

Hope you are creating a bit of magic today! I am headed back to the quilting room.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Three-Yard Quilts

Earlier this year the up-and-coming world of 3-yard quilts came to my attention. In April at our earlier retreat, quilting friend Jan gifted all of us girls with a 3-yard book (there are several, so we each got a different one) and 3 yards of fabric. What fun! Several of us went to work on ours straight away. Click to this post to see a few from the April retreat.

Then when I attended the Circleville Quilt Show, I noticed that several vendors had the books for sale, and had combined a variety of fabrics into 3-yard groupings for easy and fast quilt-making. I bought one such grouping.

So, at this most recent retreat, I took a day to make a quilt. Yep, from cutting out to borders, this was one super-easy and super-fast quilt to whip up.

My original thought was to make a quilt that incorporated pinwheels, but that lightest fabric is a stripe, and I just couldn't make myself think about how I would be satisfied using a strip in a pinwheel, so I did some quick re-thinking and used the exact same design that my friend Sheryll used! 

This particular pattern is called Crossroads, and it worked absolutely perfectly with my striped neutral. I have all my stripes going the same direction with the exception of the inner border. Limited fabric (3 yards!) and borders - well, you know it's gonna' be okay.

Before we left, I took pics of Sheryll's and mine together. I just love seeing the same pattern used in a variety of fabrics. The difference the placement makes as well as the fabric colors is always so interesting to me.

Same pattern; two looks. If you are looking for easy, fast quilts to make, the 3-yard quilts are a definite way to go. She includes yardage for enlarging all the quilts, in case you prefer to make a full-size, queen-size, or king-size quilt. That's a nice little bonus.

It's Monday and that always feels like a clean new slate for me. I wonder what I can accomplish this week??

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Progress on Lil' Orphan Scrappy

Quilt retreat was a huge success, and I am happy that I took that brave first step in starting Lil' Orphan Scrappy. I believe I bought the pattern in 2020. I put the quilt on my goals list for 2021, pulled a bunch of fabrics for it, and ultimately, did nothing with it. I believe the first mention of it on the blog is here, and the reference is woefully brief I regret to say.

Mostly undaunted by my inactivity on Lil' Orphan Scrappy, I put it on the 2022 goals list, and finally, I have found myself brave enough to start it. It was as if I'd psyched myself out of it by overthinking my fabric choices and fear of facing such a multi-block effort. This quilt has 70 stars which measure 6.5 inches. And those stars are then turned into economy blocks with surrounds of triangles.

I used this picture in a previous post, but it is the best one readily available which shows the pattern. Lynn Wilder of Sew'n Wild Oaks is the designer, and I have followed her blog of the same name for years. I watched her make the original Lil' Orphan Scrappy way back in the mid-twenty-teens - maybe 2015? - and absolutely loved the variety of her blocks and the use of the scrappy fabrics.

I determined that progress on Lil' Orphan Scrappy would be my main effort at our retreat this week. I now have 40 stars made, parts cut for many more, and would like to think that I could get the remaining 30 stars made in a week. 

Earlier I mentioned that I had been overthinking the fabrics to be used in this quilt. On my goals list for this year, in addition to wanting to make this pattern, I also wanted to use my supply of various William Morris fabrics somehow. I had an "ah-ha" moment several weeks back in which I thought to pair this pattern with these fabrics. 

I am quite glad for the decision. I am loving how these stars look. Here are a few select ones to get an idea of the variety this quilt will contain.

Making the stars is the current and ongoing task. After all 70 are constructed, I will then go back through my fabrics to select the fabrics for the outer triangles - those are to be a precise mix of light and dark fabrics with the end result having the darker triangles helping to form a border on the quilt. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

On the Audio Book Playlist

One way for me to keep myself on task in the the sewing room is to have a good audio book queued up on my library app. Here are some good ones that I've listened to recently.

The Power of Moments was so good that I listened to it twice. It is nonfiction and delves into how to create more memorable moments in our lives and the lives of others - loved ones, co-workers, strangers, even. If I were still in the classroom, I would have a lot of good ideas to add into my teaching. I shared a good section with my daughter who works in HR - as a young professional, she could definitely use the ideas presented in this book.

Not all of my reading has been nonfiction. More often than not, I read fiction. These next few - all mysteries - have been quite satisfying. 

If I were to rank these three, Before the Fall would take top billing. The main character was a man with character, an unfailing moral compass - upstanding, honest, following his conscience at every obstacle. A rare breed, for sure, but I sure did like his heroic efforts in this book. I see that it is being made into a movie; it'll be a good one, in my opinion.

The other two were entertaining, but I can't rave about either one of them, truth be told. I actually had to review the blurb on The Last Thing He Told Me, because I couldn't recall the story line.  Embarrassing, but true. That doesn't make it a bad book; that just tells you something about my short-term memory. 

Listening to books while I sew doesn't have to be the most riveting material. I am content with whatever can occupy my brain while I am stitching or pressing or whatever. Well, I do have standards, though, and not everything makes the cut. There have been a few that were so uninteresting that I quit them after a few chapters.

 

Let me tell you about my backup plan for when I am waiting on bestsellers to make their way to my library card.

I determined a couple of years ago, that I would find authors I liked who had an extensive list of titles from which to choose. I went through a gazillion novels by Vince Flynn, Ann Cleeves, Susan Meissner, Alllyson K. Abbott; Louise Penny, Brad Thor, and more. With most of these, I tried to read in order if the characters were recurring and a timeline existed from one novel to the next. 

My current novelist of choice is Philippa Gregory, whose incredible list of historical fiction titles has kept me entertained for many months. Her knowledge and storytelling prowess of the history of the kings and queens of England is beyond compare. She is the very best in the telling of the stories of the royals throughout England's history. I determined that I would read these novels in chronological order and so it takes awhile if I need to wait on one title or another. Generally, though, the titles are so plentiful that I am not waiting long. I can just about always get something from her to fill down time. And I am not so demanding about staying in chronological order as I was at the beginning.

The King's Curse is my current read. It is the tale of the reign of King Henry VIII, told from the perspective of Margaret Pole, who was descended from the Plantagenets, the family deposed by the Tudors. I have a natural curiosity about all these historic royals, and I am forever impressed by how skillfully Gregory can tell these stories from such diverse points of view. In one book, for example, she tells a story that sheds a particular character in a negative light, yet can come back in a later tale, and show that same character in a positive light. Quite impressive. 

I can do a lot of sewing with a good book playing in my ear; whiling away many hours in the sewing room this way, and I am content to do so.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Getting Started on Lil' Orphan Scrappy

Lil' Orphan Scrappy is one of those quilts that I've had plans to make for quite a few years. For sure, it has been on my goals list for at least 2 years prior to this year, and possibly 3. I just never could pull the trigger on what fabrics to use. Basically, it has been 'marinating' for a good long while.

My first block is nothing special - looks a bit washed out - but I will use it. I need 70 stars with varying light and dark fabrics surrounding them, so this will meld in with the overall quilt most definitely.

 My second block has a bit more interest; I am going to enjoy seeing how all these stars and their surrounding triangles come together. 

I have quite a lot of remnants of Morris Apprentice/William Morris fabrics from a quilt I made years ago called Tapestry. Check out this golden oldie from 2014. Then my quilting friend Becky handed off some of her Wm. Morris remnants to join mine, and I bought a fat 8ths bundle, so I have plenty to make this quilt. 

Happy as a clam over here, selecting pretty combinations to make these 6" stars. I will do a lot of those for now, and then think about adding the surrounding triangles later.

Happy Quilting, Friends!