Sewing With Sharon

While I don't often report on our sewing together, Sharon and I do still regularly meet to devote time to our projects. We both have plenty of UFOs, WIPs, new projects, and plans for new things. Typical quilters, right? UFOs (unfinished objects) and WIPs (works in progress), regardless of how diligently we work on them, seem never to totally disappear because the thrill of the new project or the project on the horizon is just too alluring.

And sometimes, the project of the day is simply something totally unplanned and spontaneous. Like the wall hanging Sharon worked on this week.

First, though, we need to revisit one of her projects from retreat a few weeks ago. She was in the midst of creating a small wall hanging for her daughter's new cabin. Using scraps from her stash, she came up with this sweet little piece, and stopped when she ran short on one of the fabrics.

While it is a scrappy project, she controlled the stem fabric and the borders. In the few weeks since retreat, she has finished this wall hanging and it looks spectacular. 

What a wonderful finish! Sharon's daughter will be lucky to have a freshly made piece for her new home. Sharon just sent this photo, and I will diverge from my topic momentarily to show you just how challenging it was for her to get a picture!

 

Any quilter with cats knows the uncanny way they gravitate to a project being spread out on the floor or the bed or a table! Their instincts are freakish.

 

Now back to Sharon's sewing - the spontaneous variety, in this case. After finishing this little leaf quilt, she still had so many fall-inspired scraps left over. What to do? Put them away for another day? Let them lay around begging to be used? 

 

NO! Make another quilt, of course! And this is what she worked on while we sewed on Tuesday. She was totally making up the design as she sewed based on a picture she'd seen online somewhere.

 

 

This would have used quite a good bit of scraps, wouldn't you say? She says she already knows where it will hang, and I am sure she is motivated to finish this off since autumn is fast approaching.

 

These 2 projects remind me of my own effort at fall-themed stitching. I had a quilt top hanging on the design wall for over a year, and just this summer quilted it. You may remember it. And yes, it contains a lot of scraps.
 

We all seem to have an endless supply of scraps. I always feel so good about using them; I just cannot stand the possibility of wasting fabric. And no matter how diligently we pull the scraps to use them up, they never seem to totally disappear. I didn't ask Sharon how deep her fall stash is now after these two beauties have been stitched. Hopefully she's seeing some stash reduction. 

 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Jayne 

The Next Quilt Up!

After quilting Good Life Tag Sale a week ago, this week found me loading another one on the Tin Lizzie. 

 Fall Leaves has hung on my design wall since I finished it way, way back in October of '23. I left it there intentionally because I wanted it to continue calling me to quilt it!

Hiding behind the Fall Leaves flimsy, I found these sweet reminders of ideas from over recent years. It prods me more than a little bit to see these and revisit some ideas I'd forgotten.

But first, this quilt gets my attention. I loaded it on in relatively quick order, and cleaned out the machine from lint left over from Tag Sale. 

I've quilted only just a bit; I wasn't sure what sort of free-motion design I wanted, so I have gone with loose loops. I think it sorta' looks like wind whipping the leaves along just like the real thing. What do you think?

I doubt I get much time with this quilt this week. We are preparing to host a family reunion this coming Sunday; so cleaning and cooking will take priority most days. I will sew on Tuesday with Sharon. That will be my big day, as things look now.

Hope you have a productive week! Whether sewing or preparing for guests, make it a great week!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Leafy Decisions

I'm in a pondering phase over here. I've laid out my autumn leaves three different ways, and now I must decide the direction I wish to go with these blocks.

A tidy stack of 72 leaf blocks can be made into a surprisingly diverse number of "looks." Here's the first one I auditioned.

I've left a bit of space between the blocks, as I am leaning toward using a white sashing strip around each leaf and a brown cornerstone at each intersection. Try to envision that, if you can.

Option two has all leaves pointing in the same direction, and still has room for sashing/cornerstones.

Option three creates a wildly different look, and a very interesting secondary design. I like the look, but I really lose the leaves, which all along has been my priority - a leafy quilt in fall colors. 

So, while I thought I wanted a quilt with leaves strewn about haphazardly, I do think I am going to go with the second option. I've got plenty of the background fabric from which I will cut the sashing strips. I am sure I've got a suitable brown for cornerstones. I am taking too much time considering all these options; I simply need to get back to stitching if I am to have a finish for this fall.

I had expected to do this sewing yesterday, but a certain darling granddaughter needed a sitter - and you know I didn't say no to that request! DH and I left here about 6:30am, (!) and had the most lovely day with Cate.

I love having the flexibility to drop everything and go on a moment's notice. I have to give a shout-out to Sharon. We'd planned to have a sewing day, but she knows all too well the tug of a grandbaby in need of a granny! I appreciate her flexibility, too!

Hope you are having a great Friday! It is simply gorgeous here today!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Fall Leaves

Every year as fall approaches, I've admonished myself for not having made a quilt to reflect the showy, colorful leaves we enjoy here in south-central Ohio. This year, if all goes as planned, I am finally going to have my quilt. 

The 24 blocks above were all made at last week's quilt retreat. I had the parts cut out and ready to sew - a smart idea for every retreat project, I've learned. All the fall fabrics are from my existing stash. Since I wanted my background fabric to be consistent, I bought a couple more yards of Thatched, by Robin Pickens.

Now, since being home from retreat, I have 50 blocks completed. I needed to make more 'sub-units' - that is, stem parts and HSTs. It takes no time at all to get a block made if the sub-units are done up ahead of time. It's fun to pull random browns or golds out of a pile of 2.5" squares and then 'build' a leaf with ready-made parts. These blocks are 6.5" (6" finished).

Mostly, my efforts have been to be as random as possible with each leaf blending in a wide variety of colors and prints. Just for an experiment, though, this morning I made a leaf from all dark colors, and another leaf from all gold colors. 

I like these controlled looks, too, and they will meld effortlessly into the rest of the leaf blocks.  I don't know how many more leaf blocks I will make - perhaps I will stop at 72, for a quilt that will be 8 blocks wide by 9 blocks long. I have a full tub of brown fabrics, so a border is very likely, both to make it larger and to use more stash.

Happily looking forward to making more colorful leaves!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Made At Retreat

A real quick post today and mostly pictures. I think you will like the two quilt tops I made at last week's retreat. 

First on my to-do list was making the floral layer cake into a 9-Patch Garden. It went together as fast as one would expect; 3-inch squares make for a quick finish.

I made the best use of the layer cake by cutting 9 of the largest squares I could get; I matched up the fabrics into pairs and cut them together. I sewed two 9-patches from this combination, and then placed them randomly in my quilt.

This resulted in a lap-quilt; one layer cake does force a smaller quilt, but I do like how it came together. I don't plan to add a border. 

The second day of retreat found me once again playing with large squares. I'd prepared stacks of 4.5" squares for what I hoped would be a cheerful buffalo-check quilt.

I had no clue how many squares I'd cut; I just knew that I'd sew until one of the fabrics was gone. It all worked out rather nicely because I now have a quilt top big enough to cover my queen-size  bed. It is not "pretty"; instead, it is quite bright and cheerful - it screams "spring". It looks better suited for a picnic table cloth, and I may end up using it for that rather than on the bed.

My third and fourth days of retreat were spent making blocks for my fall maple leaf quilt. In advance of the retreat, I'd raided the fat quarter drawers and pulled all the brown, orange, beige and gold fabric I could find. That was quite a big fabric pull. 

Once again, I was making a quilt with no precise pattern, so I did not know how many blocks I would need. I made a few stem blocks first, then I made a little supply of HSTs. When I had a good-size supply of parts, I began assembling blocks. My intent was to create blocks containing a whole lot of random fall colors.

And today, I am still making blocks. The coolest thing occurred. I had made a couple of blocks at home before going to retreat. The background fabric I'd used was Thatched by Robin Pickens. I only had a 1-yard cut, and I wanted the whole quilt to be consistent with this background. I had very little hope that I'd find more, but by gosh, I found an entire bolt of it at Mae-Lynne Makers in Nelsonville, where our retreat was located. I got enough to use for my entire quilt. 

I still don't know how big I will make this quilt, but I figure I might as well make it big enough for our bed.

If I return to all those post-it-note reminders, I can see that I've checked off several. Fall leaves quilt from the top pic and flowery layer cake from the lower pic are done or soon to be done. (I'd previously finished the pine tree quilt and the blue dot.)

Happy Quilting, Friends!