Show And Tell from the Frankfort Girls

We met yesterday a Jan's for a lovely brunch. Jan is well known for her over-the-top hostessing skills, and our theme was National Golf Cart Day (which was actually a couple of weeks ago, but Jan and her husband used to own and operate a golf course, so she went with it anyway). Our place mats were golf greens made of turf; all manner of golf memorabilia adorned the table and all the serving bowls and utensils were green. It was a ton of fun.

Here are 4 quilts that various girls had for sharing. 

First, Jan had just gotten this from the quilter and was excited to show it off to us. We'd all pooh-poohed the idea of making a wedding ring quilt, and she set out to do one! Gorgeous!

Helen had two for sharing. One was inspired by a quilt that Sharon P. made at retreat and then I imitated soon after. Made with a layer cake, this pattern has ZERO waste!

Helen's second quilt was this fast and super-easy 3-yard quilt from one of the books all of us share around.

Our final show and tell comes from Becky, who is all in on handwork lately. She is using 1-inch hexies to make this flower garden quilt from a jelly roll by Minick and Simpson. I believe she called the pattern Jelly Roll Garden.

She is making fantastic progress on it. It will be so patriotic. The paths look rather gray in this photo, but the fabric is actually a print of blue and off-white.

These girls always keep me inspired. I hope everyone has a source of inspiration as wonderful as these ladies are.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Sewing With Sharon

Isn't it strange how true it is that when we retire, we suddenly become busier than ever? We once thought that after removing the 9-5 from our routine, we'd be free to do as we please. The reality is that we - often unintentionally - over-fill that time with other activities and obligations.

As much as we want to sew together every Tuesday, we sometimes have to cancel. And lately, what with illnesses and basement floodings, we have been cancelling a lot.

Finally this week we sewed together and OMG!! I can't wait to show you Sharon's project!

She has a new grand-niece that everyone is in her family is excited about. For new baby Scotlyn (not sure of spelling), Sharon and her daughter Amanda are making a very special heirloom-quality quilt. Amanda cross-stitched 9 floral panels on linen. Gorgeous workmanship! So intricately delicate!

Now, Sharon is stitching borders around them with pretty Tilda prints. She selected colors to coordinate with the cross-stitched flowers.

Tuesday's efforts resulted in quite a pretty center portion. Sharon is considering option for a narrow inner border and then a nice, wide outer border. You just can't go wrong with those Tilda prints. Sharon is thinking that she will keep the quilting to a minimum, with stitch-in-the-ditch as her main option.

I am sure I will get to see the finished quilt with borders and quilting at some point. I will try to remember to share it here when I do.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

After a Spa Visit...

...one feels spry and rearin' to go!

After over a year of just sitting around gathering dust, I took my little Featherweight to have a tune-up. Last I recall using her, stitches were coming undone and seams were loose as a result. Timing, I'm sure. Anyway, she now has a new lease on life and sits in front of me as I reacquaint myself with her.

 

I've been working on Cotton Ridge Farm, but I did not have the next step ready for sewing. Because I wanted to sew RIGHT NOW, I dug out an old tub of leftovers from a long-ago project. I stitching some random parts together. By gosh, I may now have something workable here.

I needed about an hour at the Featherweight by the time I felt like I was familiar enough to return to stitching on Cotton Ridge Farm. I will have to take into account that problems frequently arise when one switches machines in the middle of a project. 

My next step for Cotton Ridge was the first of 4 borders - a plain 2.5-inch border. That is now accomplished. Next, I have a gazillion HSTs to make.

My Featherweight is a 1951 model. I got her in April of 2019. In six years, I've not used her much at all.  

Lots of Featherweight owners actually name their machines; I have not, as yet. I'm not really sure I will. I'd probably just forget it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

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