Showing My Patriotism!

In less time than it took me to write yesterday's post listing unearthed UFOs and PHDs, I finished this patriotic mini-quilt. I mean, good grief, what on earth do I think when I let things go for so long??

We'd originally planned to have a little date last night, but we talked ourselves out of it. That left me with a wide-open evening, so I decided that I ought to just get going on an easy item from the aforementioned list.

I had the smaller of the two hanging in my quilting room, so I found a piece of scrap batting, a piece of scrap fabric for backing and even a piece of scrap binding, and went to work.

This mini is 16" square; consequently, the effort to finish was minimal. I did the simplest, most basic machine quilting on it, and got 'er done in no time! The quilting shows up pretty good from the back.

So now I actually DO have a pretty little patriotic table topper for use as we celebrate over the July 4th weekend.

Celebrating big-time over here! Both our country's independence AND my checking an item off my UFO and PHD list!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Starting All The Things

Maybe that title should be "finishing" all the things. In a curious turn of events (which I will wait to share because of a certain surprise later this summer), I went looking for a very old counted cross stitch UFO - like from circa 1990. It took some digging, but I found it, and (incredibly) I also found the pattern. After a trip to Hobby Lobby for DMC floss I am stitching. This is something I am doing while we watch sports - the Tour de France, baseball, and coming up, the Olympics. Counting stitches is not an easy feat for this math-challenged gal and sometimes I watch more French countryside and cycling breakaways than I stitch, but I am getting a tiny bit done.

I have absolutely zero memory of working on this project 30 years ago. I do not recall deciding to start it; prepping for it, stitching the bit shown, or why I stopped. Puzzling...

I do know that I have moved it around, stored it in various spots; always thinking that one day I would go back and finish it.

A couple days ago, I unrolled it from the frame it has lived on for 30 years, and you see the issue now before me - discolored Aida cloth. It could just be dust and dirt; I hope cleaning will be possible.

Instead of discoloration, I'd hoped to discover that I had a whole bunch of stitching under that roller bar. Nope. No such luck. I began in the center of the design and worked to the right. Nothing on the left finished. I have some work ahead of me.

In the little bit I have done this week, I can tell you that it is not easy starting back up on a project that is so old. I have worked on those shoes at the foot of the cradle, and that is some precision counting going on there! I rather look forward to a big ol' section of brown teddy bear to jump-start my mojo.

Don't worry about my becoming completely engrossed in cross stitch. Quilting is still my #1 interest. I tell you what - I can start more projects than can ever be finished. I can't help myself! Why, just a few nights ago, I was upstairs cutting out 2.5" squares for another quilt. I love it! You'll get to see soon enough.

Starting? Finishing?

Maybe 'Starting All The Things' was the correct title for this post, after all. Finishing a few UFOs will be nice, too. *wink*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Silent, But Busy

 I don't seem to find much time to blog these days, but I do find time to sew and quilt. That's about the best I can do while everything is weird for the present. Remodeling unheaval, DH's continued mysterious ailments and virtual classes - all these have kept this gal off her computer and away from her blog!

Sharon and I found a day this week that we could sew together. She was here Tuesday and we both felt very accomplished as we finished out the day. I have a new finish - a former UFO - and she began stitching the rows together on her dotty Kaffe quilt, Kites. (see previous post)

This is Meadow Lily, a Thimbleberries pattern from way, way back. I do not recall the publication date on the book, but I know I started this quilt in 2006. It earned its UFO status when I decided to make it larger than the pattern called for only to discover that I would not have enough fabric to complete it. 

Back in 2017, I tackled and finished twelve (12!) UFOs with a whole lot of satisfaction. That was a huge accomplishment; I did not have very many more UFOs left in storage. Meadow Lily was one of those 3 or 4 remaining, and it has nagged at me quite a lot since that big, productive year. It became a goal for 2020 and it is done! Well, at least the flimsy is done; quilting it is another goal. Yes, it IS satisfying to finish such an old UFO.

 

I spread this flimsy out on the bed Tuesday and began taking pictures. Sharon started to say something, and then stopped; it was as if she wasn't sure she should mention it. And then I saw what she'd just seen. 

How on earth did I NOT see this mistake? Incredible. I have not yet decided if I want to fix it. After all, it is such a great representation of this crazy, mixed up, coronavirus year we are having. It might get to stay the way it is simply to salute 2020 - maybe. I still may take the seam ripper to it and turn that little flower bud around the right way. It wouldn't take long at all. So I am still in the deciding process.

Early this week, I graded the biggest assignment of the entire semester; whew, I am always so relieved when that is done. I have rewarded myself with that sewing day with Sharon, and a few hours here and there with some additional projects. It feels like I might get back to more regular blogging since that big assignment is past.

Sharon did some great sewing, and I will be bringing you an update on it. I traveled to a quilt shop in DH's home town not long ago; I plan to share it, too. I do have some planned posts, so come on back! I will try not to be gone so long from here on out.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

2020's Single UFO

 The 2020 goals I published back in January had only one UFO listed - to finish a Thimbleberries quilt begun in 2006 called Meadow Lily.

I have gone back through the blog to see how often I have spoken of finishing this quilt, and I am embarrassed to admit that it's been more times than I care to count. But by gosh, I am doing it now. At long last. 

The setting blocks are all completed, so finishing simply requires making those lily blocks. Here are the ones done so far.

The quilt is very pretty, and I am making it almost exactly as pictured. The main colors are green and purple with a background of tan/beige. I need 18 full lily blocks for the center and 4 partial lily blocks for the border. 

 

The pattern is is this very vintage Lynette Jensen book, At Home with Thimbleberries Quilts.

Progress is slow with the craziness of school and kitchen construction, but I am steadily plugging away at those lily blocks. I hope to have a flimsy by the end of the month.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Beginning A Modified Quilt Retreat

 The pandemic forced us to cancel the annual Canter's Cave Retreat which was supposed to happen in early April. We tried rescheduling for this week, but so many of us were needing to cancel or cut short their stay. What to do? Trusty friend to the rescue: Terry offered to host us for the week at her house; we canceled Canter's Cave entirely and are now set up in every inch of her family room. We are not staying overnight since we all live so close, but we are gathering there each day for sewing, quilting, and camaraderie. I will miss two afternoons for my classes; others will miss for various and sundry reasons, but for the biggest part of the week we are making it work.

My first objective for the week is to stitch as much of this quilt - True Blue - as I can. I made a valiant start this morning before having to leave for my classes, and first thing tomorrow I will be removing papers from my Thangles HSTs. I anticipate that this quilt will go together quickly; the instructions couldn't be more straightforward. And since I have already been working on that earlier churn dash quilt, I sorta' have a system established. 

I did pack the other churn dash project for a backup project. I knew I would end up working on these two projects simultaneously. And I do not regret this in the least! In fact, we Frankfort girls are going to do another sew-along from now until Christmas - make 42 6.5" churn dash blocks for a group exchange. So I need to get started on that! Whoo - hoo! I went from just dying to have a churn dash quilt to working on 3 all at the same time. 

I do not have a problem with this!

In other news, I have been visiting the one UFO that was on my goals list for 2020 - Meadow Lily. I cannot explain why I have drug my feet on this; from all my investigations, I see no mistakes; only potential. I can offer a couple of pictures of the situation as it now stands.

All I can figure is that my plan was to make more blocks than the pattern called for; then I realized I would not have enough fabric to make the setting blocks - so I stopped. Hmmm. Puzzling.  I've decided that I will make the pattern as it was written, and deal with all these extra flower blocks somehow, sometime, later. FYI: it is a Thimbleberries pattern.

Now, here we are at the end of August. My goodness, it went fast. September needs to have some goals, and I am working on those now. I will share soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Finished UFO

Happy news! I have one less UFO in my sewing room! Celebrating!!

This is Six Degrees, a UFO in storage for maybe 10 years, give or take. It has been a really fun finish, and I honestly don't know why I quit on it without a little more time and effort. I recall being dissatisfied with the sizing of the center medallion, but honestly, the bit of pull that is evident will easily be masked once quilted. 

Here's the post from about 6 weeks ago when I pulled it out for consideration. 

I was close to a finish when I discovered that I was going to be short on my background fabric by 4 - 6.5" squares. I searched the internet and asked friends - nothing. What to do? Go shopping, of course!

At the quilt show last Friday, I checked every vendor's table to see what I could find. Just one fat quarter! That's all I needed! So below, you will see the variety I bought. 

Arrow A shows my original background, and the square has been pieced so I can use it. I have two squares in the quilt made from waste-bin scraps. Arrow B indicates my substitute. I worked it out so that the subbed fabrics are on all the corners. It does not bother me one bit to substitute - our ancestors did this all the time. I certainly had no desire to stress over it. And I didn't.

What next? I am working on an Ohio State T-shirt quilt for DH. Then I have a whole bunch of quilts that I MUST quilt! That means getting myself right about that long-arm. If you have followed that saga here for awhile, you know how good I am at avoidance. *wink*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Goodbye July!

Incredible. July is ending, and we are just five months away from a new year. Yikes!

Well, I don't want to think about that right now. I have too much I want to get done before facing a new year. (If I don't think about it, time goes slower, right?)

When Sharon was here on Monday, she continued to work on her Tag Sale quilt using some gorgeous 3 Sisters/Moda fabric called Double Chocolate. And typical for me, I have no pictures of her progress to offer. Shame on me!

I returned to working on Six Degrees, a pattern by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie Quilts. Through all that bedspread construction and applique practice, I have ignored this UFO. It is made in sections around a central medallion, and that construction process had been started when I last worked on this quilt. I sorta' hoped as I revisited this on Monday, I could very easily finish this quilt top by the end of the month.

But doggone it, finishing the quilt top will have to wait. The photo above shows the center medallion and three of the four sides. While working on that 4th side I ran out of fabric for the setting squares. Major bummer! It is a Moda fabric called Garden Magic by Blackbird Designs. I think it is from 2005, quite old, in other words. I don't know if I can locate a half yard somewhere or not. I am searching all the interwebs for any signs of this fabric. Here are some helpful pictures, in case any of you readers might have a lead on it. I only have two bits of identifying selvage, but I think it's enough.

Alas, this Six Degrees will be a UFO for a little while longer.

Tomorrow I will have my July collage to share and - hopefully - a peek at some August goals.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Six Degrees - Slow and Steady Progress

Gracious, there has been precious few moments in my last week or two for any significant sewing! I have been busy with all sorts of "other activities" - those summer sorts of things like cookouts, vacations, family fun and garden/house projects.

The UFO I pulled out last month is still spread out all over my sewing room. Parts are laid out on the guest bed; parts are stacked and strewn on the cutting table, the ironing board and beside the sewing machine. I just need to find time to get back to it.

All of the blocks are made. I have been trimming them to 6.5 inches, even though they mostly came out very close to that measurement; I am finding that the rows are matching up more accurately with the trimming (duh!).

On the upper corner of this picture you can see the center medallion laid across just for a sense of the effect. I am really loving this! I am so eager to get back to stitching!

And that time is coming, for sure. However, while there is summer fun to be had, I don't want to miss a minute of it!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Considering UFOs

In addition to the new projects I shared yesterday in my quest for what to work on next, I have two UFOs that I might return to.

I have both of these quilts on my goals list for the year. This should present me with some sense of urgency since the year is half over already. Maybe it has, just a little.

When I rooted through some of my project tubs yesterday, I came to this one labeled "Meadow Lily." It was begun in 2006; I made a mistake which sent it into a 13-year time-out. I hate dealing with mistakes, sometimes. Maybe enough time has passed and I can now figure out how to fix and finish.

 I have made all these setting blocks - easy blocks, and they look pretty good.

I have only one of the lily blocks finished. I do not know what mistake was made, or what I will have to do to fix things.

I am guessing that when I sort through this little stack of pinned pieces, I will discover the error. I hope I have enough of the fabrics for making corrections. We shall see.

The pattern is from this Thimbleberries book, published in 1997. I return again and again to Lynette Jensen patterns, even after all these years.

The other UFO is by another designer whose patterns I have made often - Carrie Nelson. This is from 2004, and I worked on it at Sherrie's Veteran's Day sewing.

Six Degrees became a hostage in time-out because that center medallion section did not fit somehow or other. I don't recall precisely. I suspect that my quarter-inch seam allowance is too wide. I hadn't learned, probably, about scant quarter-inch.

The pattern is shown made up in rose, burgundy and green. My plan apparently switched the green to blue. I like these colors and fabrics that fill this tub. To like a project after more than 10 years is something, isn't it?

Above is the center medallion. I pressed it, and found that the center of each star was big, so maybe that was what dissatisfied me way back when. I think it would be fine when quilted, so I probably should have kept going on this quilt.

All these parts - in various stages of completion. I wonder how it will look? My curiosity is getting the best of me.

Now, in addition to the three possibilities shared in the last post, I have these two UFOs to add. Five really promising quilts; I am leaning toward Six Degrees. I am also leaning toward Larkspur. Hmmm.

Decisions; decisions.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Two Double Nines

That little saga I wrote of a few posts back has been completed. Both quilts are now finished to the flimsy stage and I am anxious to move on to whatever happens along next. Let me show you my two double 9-patch quilts.

The quilt hanging on the design wall is made with the blocks that were constructed accurately. Honestly, I did not have very many of these when I sorted out my UFO tub. Most of the blocks in the quilt on the wall were pieced just in the past few days since I have revisited this UFO. I found a pretty feathery fabric (by Moda) in the stash that makes a fantastic border. I am very pleased with my efforts.

Then I turned my attention to all those poorly constructed blocks. I still don't fully understand what I was doing wrong, but so many of them were off kilter in all sorts of ways. They were a mess. I just couldn't bear the thought of throwing them all away, though. I decided, instead, to make a second quilt and just allow for inaccuracies as I went along. The result looks surprisingly good, and that could be a lesson for all of us -- we don't have to obsess about everything being perfectly constructed to have a quilt that meets the "eye test." If I weren't telling you here that the quilt in the foreground is made with wonky blocks, you would never know it.

I used the same beige setting fabric on both quilts, and for the second quilt used the Debbie Mumm burgundy print from the little 9-patches for the border. And now it, too, looks fantastic and I am equally pleased with the results.

I am having fun making all these quilts using the 9-patch block, but I do think I am about ready to switch things up and try something different for awhile. Maybe a Churn Dash? An Ohio Star? We shall see.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

The Saga of a UFO

When a UFO comes out of hibernation after 20-25 years it's hard, exactly, to recall why it was sent to this quilter's purgatory in the first place. In studying the parts and pieces in the tub marked "Beige and Burgundy Nine-Patch," I believe I can make a few assumptions.

Apparently, I was okay with things through the making of the small 9-patches. My troubles appear to have surfaced when I started making the double 9-patch blocks. Nothing seemed to be square, or even, or sized right, making the matching of intersections dang-near impossible. 

This is one of those less-than-stellar blocks. What an aberration! No wonder it and its wayward mates spent so long in time-out. I shake my head in shame that I was responsible for such shoddy work.

While pressing all the blocks, my mind worked on how I could salvage the mess and come up with an acceptable finish.

The tub still had quite a bit of workable materials in it. Lots of partial blocks, strips, and yardage. This was promising. 

I made more blocks using the already-cut fabric. Here is a block that measures out exactly as it should. How could those old ones have been off by so much?? I don't dare fathom a guess.

My next step was to determine which of the pieces of yardage I would use as setting blocks. I auditioned two - this one is the same as the light fabric in the 9-in-9s.

 

The second choice won out - this beige print. And I went ahead and made the rows I could make with the newly sewn 9-in-9s, setting aside those wonky blocks, still not sure how to deal with them.

 

And as it typically happens, I had my eureka moment in the midst of making my quilt top.

Make a second quilt. So simple! I had ample background fabric with which to work, and that is how I have proceeded. Below is a picture of the two quilts to come out of one UFO tub. The top quilt is made with wonky blocks. The lower quilt is made with the correctly-sewn blocks. See the size difference?

I would have made myself totally nuts if I had tried to force all the blocks to work in one quilt. Utter madness! The aggravation is not worth it. Since I had plenty of fabric to make two quilts, I have taken the path of least resistance.

And it pleases me ever so much.

I am not stressing at all - the newer blocks are made painstakingly correct and fit nicely with the setting blocks. The old block have all been trimmed to a uniform size, and I am making the best of their imperfections.

The "correct" quilt is ready for borders, and I have pulled out a feathery Brackman and Thompson fabric to serve. I will finish off the "wonky" quilt and bring you the results of both soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!