Cotton Ridge Farm Progress

Before y'all start thinking I've dropped off the face of the earth, I figure I'd better check in here and do a quick progress report. 

Last time I checked in, I had just begun piecing the blocks for Cotton Ridge Farm, a Pam Buda/Heartspun Quilts pattern. That was almost a full three weeks ago, for goodness' sake.

Even though I haven't been posting to the blog, I have been steadily making these blocks - 30 in all. The name of this block is Colorado Beauty, and it is a fun one to make. A bit fussy with many points to match and trimming required, but all of mine turned out beautifully. It's a joy to make fussy blocks when they turn out as nicely as these have.

Many factors have played into my slow progress on making these blocks. Instead of using the chain-piecing strategy, I made each block individually. I was very diligent about trimming when instructed and I pinned intersections to insure accuracy. I pressed often, too. All these steps definitely slow a quilter's progress, but my results have made me glad to have taken this approach.

I should give credit to Pam Buda's instructions, too. I questioned, at first, her need for making the HSTs so large and then having to trim down to 2.5 inches. However, every single one of my block were spot on with matching up intersections and points. Hats off to well-written instructions! 

The unfinished block measures 6.5 inches. I used 3 different dark blue fabrics and 6 different light/neutral fabrics. One of the neutral fabrics will also be used for the setting blocks and setting triangles.

 I opted to use the stronger of the two yellow prints for the setting blocks. It just seemed a more striking quilt than the more subtle one. In the photo below, I have the two yellow prints laid out on the bed with the blocks placed on top. Tell me which one you would have chosen.

Yesterday, I sewed all the rows together with the triangles on all the ends. My next step involves the final 9 seams to put this center portion together. The pattern says this part should measure 43"x51.5" - I will let you know if mine achieves that.

You see what awaits me, don't you? A gazillion sawtooth triangles - not just one border of them, but two!

I have some triangle paper I will use for these. No sense making it harder than it is, right?

Here's another look at where I currently stand on this quilt. I attempted to arrange the blocks so that the lightest centers are evenly spaced around the quilt. 

Two other factors have kept my sewing to bare minimum: illness - both DH and myself and flooding. 

We have spent most of the month dealing with congestion and coughs! Both of us hauled ourselves to urgent care; DH actually went twice. Mine turned out to be allergy driven, and I have had good results with the meds I was prescribed. DH just cannot seem to shake his cough; so he doctors on.

Because we have had so much rain in our area, we have been dealing with a flooded basement. In 32 years of living here, this is the first time we've ever had this issue. We haven't fully finished with all the cleanup and removal of wet items. It is not a finished basement, so fortunately no major losses for us, but we must get it dried out. At most, we had about 3" of water throughout.

Hope to share more quilting news soon!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Cotton Ridge Farm

Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz bemoans the fact that he has only straw instead of a brain. Well, I don't believe I've any straw in my head, but my brain certainly does fail me at times.

For ages, I've had plans to make a quilt designed by Pam Buda/Heartspun Quilts. 

For ages, the pattern has been pinned to my design wall. 

For ages, I have been erroneously referring to Grist Mill, when in fact, it's called Cotton Ridge Farm.

It wasn't until I reviewed my goals list for this year that I realized my mistake. I have been thinking the pattern I borrowed was called Grist Mill, another Pam Buda pattern. Both quilts have very similar vibes, and are made with similar lines of fabrics. I wrote about my goals in January and did not have the pattern with me, since we were in Florida. 

Enter Scarecrow Brain. 

I thought I was right. I really did. But, no. I grabbed the wrong image from the internet to use. Click here to see the post with my goals.

If you clicked the Heartspun link, you can definitely see that the two quilts look similar. I may go ahead and order Grist Mill just to have it and yes, to even MAKE IT!! I believe I am going to have plenty of my selected fabrics left over, so it seems like a good idea.

Enough on my (lack of) brain activity. I got over my error faster than it has taken me to write all this up. *grin*

I am happy as a clam to be piecing Cotton Ridge Farm blocks out of these fabrics. I had a few more fabrics selected (seen in that link above), but limiting the variety works for the pieced blocks.

Three dark fabrics will suffice, and I've got plenty of each one, so I am not concerned about saving enough for the sawtooth borders.

For the background fabrics in the pieced blocks, I have added variety. The pattern requires 30 blocks, and I will sprinkle all these into the mix. One of those yellows will also be the setting blocks; I will decide which one later.

Stitching these blocks in all the variety of combinations has kept me quite entertained at the sewing machine in the last week. Making 2 or 3 or 4 blocks a day, I've already finished over half the blocks. 

Soon, I will share. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

May Round-Up/June Plans

 As we begin a new month, I like to devote a post early on to review the previous month. Just a bit of an encapsulation for easy reference. Here's how May looks in the rear-view mirror.

TOP ROW: In a gathering with some very extended family, we celebrated my great-uncle John's 97th birthday in early May. He is shown here with my 88-year-old mother, his niece. How many 88-year-olds do you know who can celebrate her 97-year-old uncle? Longevity definitely runs in our family. The middle picture is of the Frienzies as we shared a special May-Day visit with our sweet Kay, who resides in a memory-care facility. It was a great visit. The final picture is of our dear Reagan - a whole 7 months old! - holding her bottle atop her quilt made by my dearest friend, Sharon.

MIDDLE ROW: Besides collecting fabric and making quilts, I have a secret obsession: collecting dishes. I don't know what possessed me one day to pull out some of my blue (and blue-green) dishes, but I thought these looked really pretty grouped together. I ended up using them to decorate a small shelf unit on the screened porch. The middle picture is of my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt which is finished as far as hexies go. I am auditioning border options, with a possible direction taking shape. Stay tuned! The last picture in the middle row is of 4 of us Frienzies as we met in Chillicothe to "throw" pottery. Yes, we all sat at a spinning table and created "vessels" of varying degrees of wonkiness. We go back in a few days/weeks to paint and then glaze our pieces.

BOTTOM ROW: Over the Memorial Day weekend, we babysat Cate, now a super-energetic 2.5 year old. We saw this gorgeous rainbow on our way home from Columbus with her. We made a special stop on the drive home so she could get a good look at it. The next day, one of our destinations was a local green house in which a swing was available for small shoppers. She loved it. Last, the other main sewing effort for the month, Lake Effect. I am finalizing the remaining two borders and will be attaching them ASAP! I've repeatedly referred to this quilt as a "10-year-project" and I might just have it done in only 8 years! *yay!*

 

Now, what about the sewing outlook for this month? In addition to working on Lake Effect, I want to make some little dresses/outfits for Cate and Reagan. I also plan to work on one quilt (Grist Mill, above) which is on my '25 Goals List. And Sharon and I are in talks about a Kaffe Fassett quilt that we each want to make. 

We shall see how the month shakes out. I am definitely noticing that as my time is spent in Columbus with the granddaughters, my quilting output tanks. As does my blogging. As does a lot of other stuff - housekeeping, walking, and so on... I mustn't make excuses, though, as I still find plenty of time to fritter away hours scrolling on the phone/social media/games. Geesh.

Strive to do better!!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne
 

Welcome June!

Gosh! June is here already! I do love a reason - like the start of a brand new month - to make a list and begin attacking projects both old and new. So let's make the most of June!

Have you tried using any of the apps for AI? I dipped my toe into it a little bit in the last month, and this welcome June image is the result of one of my experiments. I could never create an image like that by myself, and I often "borrow" pretty ones from other sources. Well, finally, I can offer one that is legitimately mine along with help from ChatGPT. 

I got to spend the first day of this new month with two of my favorite little people! Cate and Reagan! This business of being a Grandma is really awesome; I rarely miss an opportunity to spend time with them. 

In quilting news, I continue working on Lake Effect. I am very near the point at which I will begin attaching the two final borders to the quilt.

In the poorly-lit early morning, I snapped these pics. Still quite wrinkly, this portion is all attached. I have been mostly working on the border for the left side, and it appears I need to add one more row of hexies.

 For the bottom border, it looks like 3 or 4 more vertical rows will close the gap. I will be so glad to reach this point! It feels as though I've stitched hexies for forever. 

As you examine these photos, I wonder if you can detect a problem? It isn't readily evident, but I know the issue and I surely must fix it.

The left border is 7 hexies wide; the right border is 8 hexies wide. Don't ask me how I made such a mistake. I will blame it on the many weeks of NOT working on this quilt. I forget what I'm doing during those weeks of inactivity. Yes, I will remove the outer-most column of hexies on the right. Maybe they will be needed in finishing these last two borders; I am getting rather low on my options at this point.

What new plans are in store for this month? I have a few ideas; let me share those in a future post. I will also need to do a round-up collage for May, so that will be coming soon, too.

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching party.  

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Back To Lake Effect

Now that I've proven to myself that I can do hard things (heh-heh), I have returned to the 10-year project Lake Effect. It has languished fall, winter and spring in a pile on the quilting room floor, and I've just decided that enough is enough. I've had a stern talk with myself.

Look at that wrinkly mess! I do not exaggerate when I say it has spent 6-8 month heaped in a corner on the floor. 

It appears that all I need to do is make a long border of hexies, then attach it to the quilt, then finish the corners where the applique vine was interrupted. It may or may not look like the pattern. At this point, I'm going for nothing more than a finish. It is fine with me if it is not an exact replica of the original. 

This bottom border is not yet attached, so add that to the to-do list. The top and right side borders are attached, thankfully. It was rather simple to accomplish, as I recall.

It is somewhat surprising that it is as big as it is. I had no idea I was making something big enough to cover a queen-size bed. I rather like that it does.

I refer to this as a 10-year project because I was new to both applique and EPP when I began this journey in 2017. I was allowing myself the time I figured it would take me to master all this hand stitching.

Since I made Grandmother's Flower Garden mostly January through May, I have proven to myself that I can do this faster than I realize. So on with the needle and thread! Queue up a good audio book (or two or three) and let's get to stitching!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

A Proud Reveal

Yes, today I am proud to bring you a completed center panel for a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Little did I think that something like this would ever come from my hands. 

What began with a curiosity about English Paper Piecing and related techniques has resulted in this. Almost exactly 10 years ago this was all totally new to me. After quilting friend Jan shared two of her incredibly impressive quilts, I fell into the EPP rabbit hole. 

That was in March 2015; by May 2015, I had bought a glue stick and made some hexies. I played around with Lucy Boston blocks and fussy cutting as well as hexie flowers. Some of those early flowers are in this quilt.

Dabbling in a new technique has resulted in a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Never ever did I think it possible! My thought back then was that all this endless handwork was probably the most daunting quilting task one could ever undertake. 

I guess I have learned never to say never. 

My quilt has 9 rows of flowers with 9 flowers in each row for a total of 81 flowers. Above, it is spread out on the king-size bed, which gives a bit of perspective on its size. My final stitches taken on this were adding path hexies to fill gaps around the outer edges. See below for one such gap.

I wanted the white/neutral hexies (paths) to completely encircle the quilt so that the flowers would stand out better when a border is added. My plan is to applique the quilt edges onto a border fabric to square it all up.

All along this journey, I knew I would select a solid fabric from my stash. I also envisioned that I'd use green. Wouldn't you know - I had no green with sufficient yardage to make a border. I did find this purple, however, and the more I look at it, the more it grows on me. 

Have you any opinions?

I will close today with a few more shots of the finished quilt center. I can look at these flowers and show you ones that I made in the very early efforts; I can show you which fabrics were scraps of other quilts; I can tell you where I bought certain fabrics and which fabrics came from Grandma's remnants; I can tell you on which vacation certain ones were stitched. Such stories stitched into this! That's one of the beauties of quilting.

I've been eager to share this with the quilters who participate in Kathy's weekly Slow Stitching party. I invite you to click over there to see what all the other folks have in store for us this week. From cross stitch to crochet and applique to quilting, all the needle arts are represented.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

My Hands Have Been Busy

While my fingers have not been clicking away here on my laptop writing blog posts, my hands have been super-busy with a couple of projects.

I have a whole lot to say about my Grandmother's Flower Garden, but I will hold that for the next post. Today, I will quickly share a fast and super-easy layer cake project.

Sharon inspired me when she made this pretty throw-sized quilt from a layer cake of French General fabric. She created this beauty so fast - like in two days! - and the result is so pleasing that I just knew I had to make one, too. 

Of course I had many options, as my supply of layer cakes is bigger than I care to admit. I selected the newest one in the stack - one I bought in Daytona at the AQS Quilt Show. This is Lydia's Lace by Betsy Chutchian/Moda. With little to no effort I had mine completed.

I know there are patterns you can find on the internet, but one is not needed.  It's very easy; beginner friendly, for sure. And there's absolutely zero waste. That's almost as good as having a super-fast quilt.

Step 1: A layer cake has 42 fabrics in it, so match up 21 pairs consisting of a light and a dark. From each pair, cut in fourths. You'll have 4 stacks of  5" squares. Take out a light and dark square for the center of the blocks. 

Step 2: Cut 4 light and 4 dark of these sizes: 2.5" squares and 2.5" x 5" rectangles. Refer to the pictures if you need a visual.

Step 3: Working with the predetermined pairs, put all the dark squares with the light rectangles; put all the light squares with the dark rectangles. Stitch like you would any 9-patch block.

Step 4: Arrange the blocks to suit your eye. Sew rows for a quilt that will be 6x7 rows total.

Now, let me tease you with an update on Grandmother's Flower Garden. I have the center portion all together! I began stitching the flowers to the paths in January and have worked on it in earnest ever since. Here we are in mid-May and I have it all together. Now on to borders.

This is the very last flower to be sewn into the quilt top. I am now searching the stash to come up with a pretty solid to use as a border. And one more thing - I have a gazillion hexi papers to remove, too. *grin*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

April Wrap-Up & Current Hexie Progress

Once upon a time, it was hard for me to narrow down my options to 9 pictures for the collage because there were too many quilts to report on and document. Since two darling granddaughters have entered our lives, I can barely locate quilt pictures for the collage. 

Such is life, and isn't it grand!?

April offered up lots of opportunities to love on Cate and Reagan, plus it was a memorable month for some milestone reasons. 

TOP ROW: The first pic is my joyful reunion with the babies after having spent three months in Florida. Even after a long drive home, it was no trouble at all to go another hour to Columbus to see these two. Next is Emma's family. She took a position with the same company at a new location which shortens her commute significantly. The folks at her previous place had a little party for her. Last, I'm entering the home stretch on hexie flowers for my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt; I have just a few more to make.

MIDDLE ROW: A quilt retreat gave me the time needed to finish a flimsy. This was supposed to get done in Florida, but I just couldn't stay on task. The middle picture is from Easter. My mom, Cate's Great- Grandma Jeannie, admires the bounty from Cate's Easter egg hunt. And, there is sweet Reagan getting some loves from Pappaw Kevin.

BOTTOM ROW: Erin's family had a milestone, too, when they purchased a new home. Here they are pictured on the front porch step. Move-in will be late May or early June. Sweet Reagan is all smiles, sitting on her newly-delivered quilt. Last, my scrappy Kaffe Fasett 4-patch quilt top is finished and ready for either borders or quilting or both.

An additional milestone this month involves our son Adam. He's moved back to Ohio and after staying here for a couple of days, he's settled in with his Aunt Kellie to assist her as she recovers from some recent surgeries. I've not been up to visit them yet, but DH has and it seems to be working well. 

The last of the hexie flowers are prepped and ready for stitching. Soon I will be adding paths and flowers to finish off the remaining rows and edges. Some mighty big celebrating will take place when I have this baby done.

 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Welcome May! Scrappy Kaffe Flimsy

May! It's a pleasure to welcome a new month!

 

April ended on a super-high note as I finished a flimsy! It feels so good to have a finish to share. Feast your eyes on this Kaffe Fassett beauty.

Last November, I  began sewing my collection of 2.5-inch squares of Kaffe Fassett scraps. A block even easier than the 9-patch, I opted to keep it really basic with a 4-patch. The collection of random fabrics collected here in this scrap quilt date back a whole lot of years. I did some serious reminiscing with some of these beauties.

All the while I was making the 4-patches, I had absolutely no plan for them. I trusted that when I had a while giant mess of them made, I would know what to do next. I knew that an idea would come.

 With my best sewing bud Sharon's input, we came up with the easiest and (as I see it all together now) the very best option. Keep it super simple and use just one fabric for setting squares. Let the 4-patches be the star of the show. And they truly are. I love-love-love this quilt top. 

The nature of scrap quilts - at least in my experience - is that piecing small bits is acceptable as is making blocks with 'near matches' when necessary. Using the scraps is the main goal, so improvise as needed.

Pertinent details on this quilt: Blocks are 4" (finished); 4-patches are made with 2.5-inch squares; it is 18 x 22 rows and measures 72" x 88"; it contains 396 blocks; 198 pieced and 198 setting. It does not have borders, but I may add some. We shall see...

Are you a fan of Kaffe Fassett fabrics? When they first began appearing on the scene, I was not a fan, but they grew on me. And then I sorta' became obsessed. I have a way-too-big stash, and even though I've made quite a few KF quilts over the years, I really need to get crackin' on making more.

Maybe sometime this month, I will devote a post to sharing all my KF makes in one place. That'd be fun.

I'll try to be back tomorrow to do the April collage and share some plans for May.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Recent Activity - Kaffe Scraps and Babies

Life is pretty good when one can play in these two realms: granddaughters and fabric scraps. And the scraps of late have come from my tub of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Scrumptious stuff, indeed.

Old business - I promised to share more complete looks of two projects from last week. First, the baby quilt I removed from the long arm machine. Geesh, what a lot of bother. Thread breakage isn't fun, and towards the end of quilting this, I had a lot of breakage. But it's done now and baby Reagan seems perfectly content with her new Effie's Woods quilt.

 

Quilting pal Jan gave me her scraps ages ago, knowing my little darlings would be in need of cuddly quilts. I took the panels and some scraps to make the center part, then just found pretty larger pieces for borders, backing, and binding. 

My other effort has been to work through the 4-patch blocks I'd made using Kaffe Fassett remnants. I am so excited to get this top put together. I have all the horizontal rows connected with chain-stitching and have begun the vertical rows. It's gonna' be a sizeable thing at 18x22 rows measuring 72"x88".

If all goes as planned, I will have the top completed either late today or tomorrow. 

And, I mustn't leave out my other granddaughter, so I will close with a picture of Cate helping Grandma make buttermilk pancakes. We had the pleasure of babysitting her on Saturday; this was a fun activity. 

I hope you have a pleasant Monday! I will be off to my mom's for a portion of the day which promises to be warm pretty here in southern Ohio. We'll find something to get into, I'm sure.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Slow Sunday Stitching

Grandmother's Flower Garden continues to be one of my main sewing endeavors, as I make my way through the last of the flowers. I calculate that I need just 7 more flowers to complete my top, then I must stitch the remaining top together with the paths.

In order to avoid having a cluster of flowers too similar in the same spot, I am waiting to attach the last several I've made until all are done. Then I can sprinkle around the colors in random fashion. Honestly, I've tried not to be too fussy about placement up to this point. So I don't plan to be overly concerned about where these last flowers 'grow.' If my goal is to have the look of a frothy, English cottage garden, then I won't try to control things too, too much.

Here are a few more flowers yet to be sewn in.

And I will rerun the latest picture I've taken of the completed top of GFG so far. I've not added to it since before we left Florida - at least a month - but I've made lots more hexies for the paths and these remaining flowers.

Soon, I will need to have a decision about borders. I hope my tub of solid fabrics will have enough of a green to use. My possible plan is to applique this center to a green border. Then perhaps add more borders. 

All border considerations are conjecture at this point. Ideas are constantly swirling, and until I am actually DOING a border, only then will I know my definite plan. *smile*

Have you checked in lately with Kathy's Quilts? I've not participated in her Slow Sunday Stitching party for awhile, so I invite you to check out what other like-minded hand-stitchers are working on. 

I hope you have a pleasant Sunday and a productive week ahead. We've got a beautiful day here, but it's also a chilly one. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne