Blue and White Ohio Stars

Early last month, my cousin Sam was finishing up dispersing the remaining bits of his parents' estate. Uncle Nick and Aunt Margaret (Maggie) were such fun, and we all loved spending time with them and Sam - which didn't happen nearly enough, as Uncle Nick's job required lots of traveling all around the US. They lived in far-off places: Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas, Tennessee, Maryland. Too far from family here in southern Ohio.

Over the years, Aunt Margaret took up quilting as a hobby and - yes, you guessed it - Sam handed off her quilting tubs to me. In the midst of all my purging, I took those tubs and sifted through - very selectively, I will say - for fabrics and UFOs I thought I would use and finish.

I am pleased to report that one of Maggie's UFOs has now been finished. In the depths of her tubs, I found a stack of hand-pieced Ohio Star blocks, all in blues with a white-on-white background. Stored right there, too, was her remaining yardage of background fabric and the remaining blues used in the stars. 

Having no idea what plan she had for completing this quilt, I decided to make setting blocks in the Stepping Stones pattern. This was her mother's (my grandma) go-to setting, so it made sense to connect the three generations with this common element. 

Finishing this was so enjoyable. It gave me hours of time to think about Aunt Maggie and all the great memories of her. As my mom's younger sister, there were plenty of stories told about her. From her love of kittens to barefoot antics on the farm to her being 'daddy's little girl,' she was the life of any party when she was home for a visit.

So far, all fabric used has been Aunt Maggie's, but for borders I am going to dive into my stash. I am sure I have some suitable options in my blue stash that will work for borders. I am thinking a narrow dark blue first, then a floral outer border. I will be auditioning options this next week.

It's pretty sweet to have finished this quilt. I have to think that Aunt Maggie would wholeheartedly approve of my choice of using the Stepping Stone blocks with her stars. It really makes such a pretty quilt.

I'm off today to visit with the Frankfort Girls! Our bi-weekly Friday morning session will be at Sharon O's house. I will stitch on Lake Effect - yes, I am still plugging away on it.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Counting Counts

Welcome to the first day of fall!

 

Don't ask me how I managed to do it, but somehow I miscounted the number of stars I made for my William Morris quilt. I was blazing through the construction of this quilt top when I realized I was short by about 6 blocks.

I have the quilt laid out on the guest bed. I've been working my way from the foot of the bed to the top of the bed, and row by row, I am rearranging blocks and pinning rows and checking for the proper zig-zag around the border.

I have the bottom border and the next four rows sewn together. I have the next four rows pinned together.

This was all done on Monday and Tuesday. It was Tuesday night that I realized I was running short on blocks! What!?? I was sure I had counted correctly. But short, so apparently I messed up somewhere.

Initially, I was just going to leave off that last row, sew the border on and call it finished. But the more I thought about it the more I wanted it done right. I still have William Morris fabric in the stash. Just make the necessary blocks and get'er done!

So I spent yesterday making blocks. It was pretty straightforward work, but slow. I needed six, decided to make 7 just to have an extra one to plug in somewhere if variety warranted it. I got three made. Slow going, indeed.
 

This morning I made the other 4. Because I had them all planned out and trimmed, the sewing went so much faster. But going faster isn't necessarily good because if you study those 4 blocks in the photo above, a glaring error awaits my discovery. At the point I was taking the picture, I hadn't yet seen it.

I was preparing to show off individual blocks - some of the ugliest; some of the prettiest. Here's my nomination for ugliest.

This is what you get when you are using what has already been cut, and the supply is limited. Garbage blocks are easily hidden in a quilt as busy as this one promises to be.

This is my nomination for prettiest. I snapped the picture, then saw the mistake. Aaaggghhh! How in the world did this slip past me? Because I was speeding through with my chain piecing - a block got twisted the wrong way in the process.

I grabbed the seam ripper and took the block apart. It didn't take long to set things right.

 

Much better! Worth the extra effort to correct the mistake, but such an aggravation so near to the end of the quilt-making process.

I now have the final row in place. All the border blocks are arranged the way I want. Now I sew. Blocks become rows, rows become an ever-growing quilt top. I'm liking it!

It's not very likely that I will finish this top in time for show and tell tomorrow morning, but that's okay. It was a self-imposed deadline, and one that kick-started me to finish this quilt. Truth: I need a kick in the seat every now and then. 

Have a great rest of your first day of fall!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Ohio Star Block Exchange

You've read here on many occasions about the incredible enjoyment I take in the group activities of the Frankfort Girls. In addition to our every other week meeting for coffee and stitching around the kitchen table, we often have additional sewing days, take occasional shopping trips and do fun block exchanges and sew-alongs.

We just completed a block exchange, perhaps our most ambitious one to date. We started with 9-patches, then advanced to Churn Dashes, and this time we did Ohio Stars. We try to keep the rules of the exchanges as simple as possible, naturally, and this time we had 3 basic guidelines: 1) dark background, neutral star; 2) 9-inch block; 3) generally reproduction-oriented fabrics.

I took my stack of blocks and spread them out on my cutting table to photograph the variety. They will make a gorgeous quilt, don't you think?

 

You may recall the post from a few weeks ago in which I detailed our gifting one finished Ohio Star quilt to Frankfort Girl Sharon. You can click back here. You'll also see her quilt. I plan to finish mine very similarly to hers. I think most of us are following suit. It's just so darn pretty in its straightforward simplicity.

I doubt I get to this before Christmas, and perhaps not even before the new year. If that's the case, you can be sure it will appear on the goals list for 2022.

Have a wonderful Monday! 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Ohio Star Block Exchange

We Frankfort Girls have had a lot of fun in the last year or two with block exchanges. Our current exchange is to make 9" Ohio Stars. We try to set as few rules as possible, but we did agree that the fabrics should be in the reproduction fabric range and the stars are to be neutral while the background is dark.

My first four blocks are done and I have 45 to go. Whee! I will be going into chain-piecing mode soon, but I just have to see a few blocks completed as I begin a project. It seems to be a requirement for me; I do it all the time.

These four blocks are dark navy and dark green; I believe the camera phone fails to accurately read the true colors. Our final quilts will be quite dark, most likely, but very pretty for sure.

The rest of my fabrics are pulled, stacked up and waiting in the wings. Part of the reason I didn't go straight to cutting all of it was for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary waste. I started by cutting two darks and two lights for the stars I have finished. You can see from the next picture that I cut way too many larger squares; I ran out of small squares for corner blocks. After some math to correct that (*scowling and frowning*), I will go into chain-piecing mode. 

I cut those first stars in rather a willy-nilly fashion, and have been left with way too many squares for making pieced parts and not enough squares for the corners. The large squares are 4.5" and they end up making the star points which are simply hourglass blocks. The small squares are 3.5" for the corners and center.

This excess will not go to waste. I will put them aside, proceed with cutting the rest of my fabric with numbers firmed up. All leftover parts will be mixed together and I will make stars with mismatched parts. I am confident they will play nicely with their more orderly neighbors. They might even add some spice to my eventual quilt.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Reading, Quilting and More Chit Chat

While I sew, it is very likely that I am also listening to an audiobook. I have several apps on my phone with which to do this, but my go-to is Overdrive. I like that it links directly to my local library, keeps me checked in (no needing to remember library card info!), and I can filter my search to just audio versions.

I generally have several dozen books on my hold list at any given time, and they always seem to have a long-ish wait time.

Making over 70 Ohio Star blocks can seem like an insurmountable task, yet with a good book on the Overdrive app, I whip through the tedium without a thought. It really does save my sanity, and I like the idea that I am multi-tasking. I am enjoying some great books while also working my way through all the quilts I want to make. Win-win!

Lately, I have been rotating between two authors with extensive series to their credit. First, for fast paced espionage-type action, the Brad Thor novels often keep me on the edge of my sewing chair.  Featuring Navy Seal hero Scot Harvath, he takes on all manner of evil both around the world and on the home front. He always gets the bad guys; a real macho-man, but fun, and not a lot of concentration necessary. I just finished Hidden Order, which dealt with evil domestic forces attempting to subvert and control the federal reserve. This is book #13 of about 20 in the series, and I think a new one is scheduled for release this July. I have not been reading them in order, but I did read the first one first, just to get my bearing with the character. The first in the series is The Lions of Lucerne.

And for a total 180-degree change of pace, I read the gentle, yet compelling murder mysteries by Louise Penny featuring Inspector Armand Gamache. Oh what a man! He is thorough in his investigations, and Penny is equally thorough in developing characters, plot and setting. I am currently listening to Bury Your Dead which once again has readers returning to Three Pines, a fictious village in remote Quebec.

The Gamach series contains 16 books, possibly more. I read the first one A Still Life with my book club several years ago. Then some of those friends went on to read more of the series, but I did not get on board. After a time, when they repeatedly spoke of these books with such delight, I figured I must be missing out; now I am playing catch-up. The books are very satisfying, but I especially enjoyed The Beautiful Mystery which takes place inside a remote monastery with a cast of Gregorian-chanting monks, and Kingdom of the Blind, which addresses the present-day illicit drug scene and the inherent deadly consequences. It's actually hard to pick out a favorite, as all of them are wonderful.

Between Thor and Penny, I do lots of stitching. Having these available keeps me in the sewing room longer and prevents me from becoming distracted by other things (like Word with Friends, Facebook and Instagram).

Interestingly, the folks at American Patchwork and Quilting magazine recently surveyed quilters, asking what they liked to listen to or watch while sewing. Many quilters say they watch movies and television series, while others listen to music. And there are those who listen to books. Here are the top mentions in the books category:
*The Man on the Mountaintop by Susan Trott
*Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny
*Beartown by Fredrik Backman
*The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
*Belgravia by Julian Fellowes
*Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
*Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens
*The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

If you would like to see the entire list of movies, shows, books, and music, this link will take you there. I have read several of the books and maybe, just maybe, yours truly was the respondent who offered up the Gamache series. *wink* 


When Sharon is here to sew, we listen to music. Years ago, we got into the habit of listening to classical music, and we continue to do that to this day. Our current source for classical tunes is KUSC on I-Heart Radio. Since it comes live from California, we can tune in at 10am, yet hear their early morning programming which we enjoy.

And speaking of Sharon, tomorrow I will share a few snapshots of her current activity at the sewing machine. It sure has been great getting together for these past two weeks. The quarantine conditions made us realize how greatly we depend on one another for girl-talk and chit-chat.

In other big news we have upped our bird-watching game here. For about a year now we have been consistent in putting out mealy worms to attract a wider variety of birds to our yard. It seems to be working, too. We had a banner day earlier this week with sightings of 4 new birds this spring: red-headed woodpecker, hummingbird, indigo bunting (photo above), and rose-breasted grosbeak. Earlier we had a bluebird and he seems to be staying around. Hope that continues. We have all the normal standard backyard birds - robins, wrens, cardinals, blue jays, eastern towhees, mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, thrushes, yellow finches, purple finches, tufted titmouse (titmice?)and sparrows. In addition to mealy-worm, we offer sunflower seeds. DH is setting up the hummingbird feeder this afternoon. Squirrels and raccoons get their fair share, but the birds sure seem to love swooping in for the good stuff.

I am sewing together rows of Ohio Stars, at last. Hoping to bring a  decent picture of my progress soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Ohio Star Marathon

A few blocks are simply too perfect not to make in mass quantities. I have long sung the praises of the 9-patch and have countless quilts and quilt tops featuring it.

Another block that lends itself to all manner of fabrics, colors, and adaptations is Ohio Star. Again, it is a block I've used in dozens of quilts and never grow tired of it. That's a good thing, too, because I have undertaken a project that could possibly require 90 of them!

My runner husband and son would say "it's a marathon, not a sprint."

I have made a few of each color just because I wanted to see how they played together. I am loving the combination (see earlier post here) and now I am in the process of cutting all the parts for a marathon day of stitching hourglass units and then building the star blocks.

 

I need two sizes of blocks: for the hourglass blocks, I am cutting 4.5" squares. For the plain blocks, I am using 3.75" squares. This results is a block that is 10.5" unfinished. All that above is some of the cutting for blocks; I am sure I will be doing more. Does it surprise you when I admit that I have lost track of the count, and now I am just flying by the seat of my pants? (This is my norm.)

 

With the 4.5" blocks, I layer a white onto one of the colors, draw a diagonal on the wrong side, and stitch on either side of the line. This is old-school; so many machines have laser lights to mark the stitching line, while others follow a line on their machine table. I know this takes time, but this method works for me.

Of course, the two HSTs that come from the step above have to be turned into the hourglass block, so more drawing of diagonal lines is required.

At last, we get the sub-units, and we are good to go for the construction of the blocks.

I may come back soon with a more complete breakdown of making these units. It's pretty basic, but for any new or beginning quilters out there, the step-by-step might be useful.

I spent a good portion of yesterday cleaning in my sewing room. To look at it, one might not see any change, but anytime I came to something that was a scrap, I cut it into the units I have been amassing. And, when I came to anything that fell into the category of "mending," I actually DID it, then put it back where it belonged so it no longer cluttered up my space. Working this way doesn't show instant results. It will take days of very focused effort to improve the orderliness of this space.

Hope you are staying safe and doing something creative!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Deep Stash Dive

That desire to start a new project took hold of me yesterday, and this is what I reached for. At last a notion that has been floating around in my head would come to life. Literally years ago I put these two fabrics together with the idea that they would become a quilt using stars as the main design. To me they just look so dreamy together. The yellow Thimbleberries print called Lake Life (3.25 yards) and the blue 3 Sisters Shangri-La paisley (3 yards) would look great with a white/cream neutral added to them. It would be lovely.

It might be hard to see, but the date on the Lake Life selvage is 2012. I would venture that Shangri-La is of similar vintage. I am not kidding when I say that this has been a notion rattling around in my head for years.

I spent a lot of time deciding things. I mean a lot. The size of the stars. The style of the stars. The most efficient way to cut fabric. How to set the blocks together.

I made 4 Ohio Star blocks and laid them out on top of the blue which I pinned to the design wall.

 It wasn't much help in my 'seeing' the final quilt, so I went to a layout app on my phone. Here is a simulation of how a straight set would look.

Not bad, but I still had uncertainties. After waiting so long to use these fabrics, I want to get this right. I tried putting the blocks on point. That looks pretty good, don't you think? Below is another simulation.

Still unsure, I decided to make some blue stars to see how I'd like alternating blue and yellow stars.

I turned this picture into a simulated layout using that phone app and here's what we get.

So, this final layout is the one I think I want to go with. All the stars. All the blue and yellow dreaminess. So yes, this is it.

Whaddaya' think?

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Dorothy Gifts Her Quilt

My neighbor and good friend Dorothy has been quilting for less than a year, and already she has made three quilts. All three are finished, too; no lingering UFOs to be seen! Click here to see Dorothy's first and second efforts.

Below are two pictures of the quilt top before being quilted. Dorothy, who is our district's lunch lady, found a woman who subbed at school to do the long-arm quilting. It was serendipity, for sure!

This third quilt is by far a more challenging quilt with all the triangles in it. Ohio Stars in navy and white - it is gorgeous! Dorothy found the pattern free on line, and I helped her cut it out last summer. She worked on it as she had time. She was motivated because all along Dorothy intended to give this quilt to her mother for Christmas.

About a week ago, Dorothy picked up the finished quilt - have a look!

This past week Dorothy traveled to Jacksonville, FL, to visit her mother and the gifting happened. These pictures sure do tell the story of a happy surprise!

Doesn't this just thoroughly warm your heart?? I just love how quilts can be such a welcome gift, so appreciated and often unexpected. Dorothy is still such a new quilter; I am doubly impressed by her determination to learn and work at this craft. She is definitely a go-getter in all that she does.

* * * * * * * * *

Christmas Eve! Are all the gifts wrapped? All the cooking finished? Our guests will be arriving later today, and tomorrow after we open gifts, we will be traveling to Hillsboro to have a Christmas feast with my family at my mother's house. Then Tuesday, we will head to my father-in-law's house to continue celebrating! Such excitement!

Happy Quilting, Friends!