April Wrap-Up

Gosh, I have a hard time making myself come to the laptop for blogging updates. The laptop has some funky things going on - some keys refuse to type on occasion - so it's just easier to avoid altogether!

The April wrap-up has been ready to share and I have a couple more updates worth sharing, so let's get to it.

ROW 1: You all know that my quilting output has diminished significantly this year, and family has been more prominent! The top 6 pics of my collage represent some special family moments in April. The top 3 pics are all from granddaughter Cate's first Easter Sunday! She is shown with her Uncle Adam, Great Grandma Jeannie, and Great Uncle Mark. 

ROW  2: Later in the month, daughter Emma "Auntie Em" plays with Cate, Mom poses with her first cousin Dave; and I hold my darling sleepy girl.

ROW 3: Now to the sewing - My hexie flowers have reached a grand total of 56, and that is where I stop. I will applique them to squares for a quilt. The William Morris economy blocks are looking good, and I will have more to say about that below. Last, DH and I and another couple spent a fun day antiquing; I came home with this sweet collection of red transfer ware dishes.

The economy blocks are completed, and I have gone straight to work sewing them together. This quilt will have such drama! Those sweeping Morris florals, leaves and birds in various sultry colorways really have impact. I will have a full flimsy reveal in a day or two.

The little adventure DH and I had on Tuesday was to the Cleveland Museum of Art to view the Tudor Exhibit. I have had a long fascination with all things British royalty. I've ready nearly every book written by noted author Philippa Gregory, and would without a qualm re-read most of them. This CMA exhibit featured art from the Tudor Era and while there was plenty of works directly linked to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, there were many additional pieces on display that were from that era, but unrelated to the royal family.

The portrait above is one piece in the exhibit, and in an upcoming post I will share several other pictures I took of the artwork that most attracted me - the needlework. It was exquisite!

A final note today from the quilting room. I shared in an earlier post that I'd had the pleasure of spending Sunday with both daughters and granddaughter Cate. DD Emma wanted help with finishing a baby quilt, and DD Erin was here because S-I-L Jeff was golfing with DH. (Do you have all that straight?)

Gramma,Cate and Erin.

Anyway, because we were in the quilting room, pictures were taken. This was Miss Cate's very first visit to the quilting room, and thankfully Emma recorded the event. 

Does she look as interested in binding a quilt as I think she does? 

Who knows what magic Cate and Grammy will create in this room in the coming years!?!! It will surely provide lots of entertainment! Perhaps I will clean it in the meantime. *grin*

Happy Quilting, Friends!

William Morris Flimsy

Big reveal! Big freakin' deal! For whatever reason, finishing this quilt top became almost too much for me. Maybe it was knowing that my star points and triangle tips were "off" or maybe it was just so darn big - whatever, I really had to give myself a stern pep talk to get back to the sewing machine to finish it.

It has been laid out on the guest bed for most of this month. The troubles were many. First, I ran short of light fabrics, but determined to stay true to my promise to use the existing stash. Then, I found I hadn't made enough star blocks, so reverse myself and finish up 7 more of those. The outer borders which appear at the top and bottom needed to be made with lights and darks in specific order, so with limited lights, I managed to figure that out. Then the sheer size was daunting, too. 

 

Well, it is now done and hanging on the quilting room wall. I do love it, too. I see a lot of blue, which does not bother me in the least. I pick out some stars that seem pretty, and then I find others that are equally pretty. Gosh, I am glad I made this!

The pattern is Lil' Orphan Scrappy by Lynn Wilder of Sewn Wild Oaks. I bought it 3-4 years ago, and have listed it as a goal for most of those years. This year, it again appeared on my list as did a goal of using my existing William Morris stash. When it occurred to me to join those two goals into one, a great light bulb came on! What a beauty this would be. And, finally the goal is accomplished in 2022. Feels like a huge accomplishment.

Here are a few more random photos. And here are a couple of my earlier posts about making this quilt - here and here.

Can you believe I still have a lot of William Morris fabric left? How can a person make such a big quilt and not use more of this fabric? (I ask rhetorically, heh-heh.)

Happy Quilting, Friends!

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!