Slow Hexie Stitching!

Let me re-introduce everyone - including myself - to Lake Effect. Yes, I have taken this little gem out of storage and have been making some progress on it this past weekend.

A few days ago I checked my 2024 goals and one was to have this quilt finished to the flimsy stage. Yikes! I need to get in gear!

From the very beginning, I knew this quilt would take me a long time to make, thus I frequently refer to it as 'my 10-year project.' Lake Effect is a Minick and Simpson pattern which I saw way back in 2017. I immediately began collecting suitable fabrics for making it. Thinking I could just "figure it out" (like I often do), I soon gave up that idea and bought the pattern. That is when I discovered that I'd prepared about 500 elongated hexies in the wrong size. *good grief*

Since then, it has spent more time in storage than being worked on. Compound the fact that it is all hand-stitched and it contained applique, with the newly discovered sizing error I made, I lost my verve for it.

So, back to what I've been doing to address my goal of completing this quilt top. First, I spread it out to see what still needed to be done. Last I recall is my dithering over how to turn the corners on the applique border. I will continue to think on this while I get down to the business of completing the hexie border.

My verve has returned. Thankfully! I spent several hours over the weekend finishing the right-side border. Overall, I am rather surprised to see how much more I need to add. I had estimated that the borders were closer to completion than they are. You can see below in my little box that I have plenty prepared for completing the border.

 

My next step is to give it all a good pressing and remove cardboard templates along the top and right. I will then lightly mark a stitching line and get down to the business of attaching the hexie section to the applique section. 

 

Once the top and right are finished, I'll move on to completing the bottom and left. By then, perhaps I will have had a brainstorm about handling the appliqued corners. (I'm thinking several artfully-placed leaves might just be the simplest approach. Or perhaps add another bird.)

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her weekly Slow Sunday Stitching party. She's been actively stitching while watching Olympic coverage. According to her awards system, I believe I have earned a Silver medal for working on two projects. You'll hear about the second project in an upcoming post.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Hello August!

Welcome August! How you have arrived so quickly absolutely amazes me, but here we go with a brand new month.

Over the last week or so, the time I’ve had for either quilting or blogging has been minimal. But it’s all good! This particular whirlwind was fantastic!

We hosted the 6th annual Honnoldpalooza last Sunday (picture us cleaning, prepping and cooking), and then we turned around Monday morning and left for a 4-day vacation to Michigan. 

Niece Julie, grand nephew Alex, niece Lori and great-grand nephew Milo.

 

Pleasure boats lolling on Lake Superior.

 

So let me do some housekeeping and catching up. Or catch my breath, maybe. The easiest way to start is to review last month's highlights.

TOP ROW: Temecula Baskets was in the binding stage as July began. We enjoyed fireworks at a 4th of July picnic hosted by friends Gary and Cheryl. They go all out, and have been hosting this event for probably 20-some years. The master bedroom remodel was mostly finished by mid-month, although we are still tweaking things.

MIDDLE ROW: The first quilt top to be photographed on the new bed was Tiny Nine Patches. Believe it or not, this quilt is now loaded on the long arm and is waiting for my attention (soon, I hope!). Darling Cate gets the center spot, as usual. She is 22 months now! Growing and talking and running. In that next picture, she enjoys some Graeter's Ice Cream with her papaw.

BOTTOM ROW: A random picture from the Honnoldpalooza; this one features Christina, Jamie, Lisa and Eric. The middle picture is from the northern shore of Lake Michigan looking toward the Mackinaw Bridge in the distance. And finally, there's DH and I posing in front of Tahquemenon Falls near the town of Munising, MI.

Not a lot of quilting, was there? Seems like this entire calendar year has been rather limited on productivity. With the bedroom refresh, I've instead been sorting and purging and organizing with hopes of utilizing my upstairs spaces more efficiently. We shall see how that continues. We really needed to do the refresh, but it did create quite a lot of off-shoot projects for me. 

Plans for the month are firming up. I have a 4-day retreat mid-month, which you will be hearing more about. And currently, there are not one, but two quilts laid out on the floor - one upstairs and one downstairs. Yes, I am dabbling in a mix of new stuff and UFOs.

With that little tease of future posts, I will leave you for now.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Putting It All Back Together

Mostly, our remodel is complete. However, the mess left in the wake of the remodel is ongoing. Bit by bit, tweaking things here and there we will eventually have everything put back together. Temporarily, my quilt rack sits along one wall in our bedroom. Before the remodel, the quilt rack sat at the foot of our bed, and the wall was filled with bookshelves.

I doubt this surprises no one, but I like displaying quilts. I am happy to have these colorful additions back in this room. Let's look at them a bit more closely.

In front, Long Road Home and Temecula Baskets. Note that both quilts are set on point and use red setting triangles to border the designs. I do like that look. Another similarity is that the placement of the blocks affords the chaining across the quilt, two directions on Long Road Home and just vertically on Temecula Baskets.

 

On the middle row of the quilt rack we have Paris Flea Market Find and 6-Pointed Stars. Here are close-ups of them. Two items of note with these: PFMF is new this year (!)  as I totally made it and quilted it in April, May and June. My 6-Pointed Stars, on the other hand, has been around for awhile. I'm especially proud of it as it is the only quilt I have totally hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

 

Hanging on the back of the rack, I've got two of my older lovelies - soft and squishy from washing and use. Tag Sale and English Elegance both have a cottage-y vibe about them with their pastel colors and floral themes.

 

Both of these quilts were primarily hand-pieced (by me), and both were hand-quilted. I quilted Tag Sale and my late grandmother quilted English Elegance. I made these quilts while I was still working full time with all three children still at home. I suspect it took me years to complete them.

The quilt rack is just one of many item being returned to their proper places. Yes, with concerted effort and focus, things do eventually fall into place.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne 

Tiny Nine-Patch Update

You better believe I am glad as can be that I spent those winter months turning my massive collection of 1.5-inch scraps into 9-patches! When I began, I had absolutely no idea how I would end up using them, but I trusted the process. I was confident that eventually some form of inspiration would come. Here is a link to one of my earliest posts - very near the beginning of it all - which alludes to the inspiration I found.

Just look at what that inspiration did for me! Yay! My completed quilt top looks amazing!

Within weeks after beginning the scrap management and the making of 9-patches, I discovered an Instagram account that was hosting a Tiny Nine Patch Challenge. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I immediately had a goal in mind for my scrappy 9-patch efforts, and the sewing became all the more focused.

The last time I posted about this quilt, I had not added borders. I've always been open to border possibilities, and willing to 'go with the flow' so to speak. Perhaps because I have basically run out of 1.5" squares, I am stopping here.  The inner border of 4-patches surrounded by an outer border of background fabric looks very much "complete" to me.

I love looking at the variety of fabrics contained within this quilt. Near and dear to my heart, the blouse fabric from my wedding rehearsal dinner and my job interview with CHS is in the block with the 4 purple floral corners and tan center, with light lavender background. It may be the last time I use that fabric in a quilt.

The quilt is chock-full of special and/or sentimental fabrics. The pink and diagonal plaid block sorta' centered in the photo above are fabrics from my mother's stash and my friend Kay's stash. The green block just under it and to the left is an example of how I did 'almost matches' as I neared the bottom of the tub. I was having to force combinations there at the end.

This blue block is another example of forcing fabrics to work together. It was easy to let go of rigid matching standards when I reminded myself that this was a scrap quilt and I was to make it work the way our great grannies would have.

Back in March, when I was down to the odds and ends of the 1.5-inch squares, I switched from 9-patches to 4-patches. Here's a pic of the little assembly line set-up I had in Florida.

Those 4-patches came in so handy for creating the inner border. I just can't believe how wonderfully this entire project has worked out! Trusting the process really does work out, at least for this quilt that has been the case. *smiles*

My next step is to load it onto the long arm and get it quilted. Up top there, I have it laid out across our new king-sized bed, and look at that glorious overhang. I wanted it to be big enough to use on this bed, a goal I have definitely achieved. 

Added later: I've linked this post to Oh Scrap! Since I make so many quilts using my scraps, I ought to get in the habit of doing this more often. Cynthia's blog is called Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. Yes, I agree! *wink*

And those pics up top also give you a little preview of how our master bedroom is coming together. I need to adorn the walls, add some furniture, rearrange some things. This room is nearly complete; the rest of the upstairs, however, is still in quite a state of flux. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Repairs and Handwork

I have mentioned several times here in recent weeks (months?!) that we are remodeling our master bedroom. Funny how redoing one room ends up affecting three other rooms plus a bathroom, but suffice it to say, our entire upstairs has been rather a chaotic mess for awhile now.

Here are a few pics taken throughout the process which depict the upheaval.

Top of the stair; look to the left.

Top of the stairs; look to the right.

Top of the stairs; immediate right.

So, while digging for space in my sewing room, (moving old shelves out - see pic above; better shelves from bedroom in) I came across two quilts given to me for repairs. One I have had for probably 20 years; the other for perhaps 6-8 years. Yeah, I'd sorta' forgotten about them. It made sense for me to just stop rearranging things for awhile and fix these quilts so I could GET THEM OUT OF MY SPACE! I will free up valuable space if I just fix these and pass them back to the owners.

First, I worked on the larger item - a scrap quilt that was so very well-loved. It was worn and threadbare in many places. Longtime family friend Shirley had asked me to do what I could with it and gave me an old flannel shirt to use for patching. The binding was so threadbare that I cut the original binding off and adding a new one from my binding scraps. Then I began cutting squares and rectangles out of that flannel shirt and hand-stitched patches over places that were most worn. These two bits below are examples of what I patched.

I have returned this to Shirley who reminded me of the history of this quilt. Her mother had made it from scraps and it was a particular favorite of her son Tim (Timmy to me, as I babysat him when he was little). Making this even more special is the fact that several months ago, Timmy was killed in a freak accident at age 47. Far too young. Returning this to his mother all these years late, might have been a comforting salve for Shirley. She did seem thrilled to have it back.

The second repair quilt was much smaller and given to me maybe 20 years ago to repair. As I worked, I realized that my daughter Erin made it when she was about 12 for her little cousin Will. Back then, all the cousins were into those I-Spy and Where's Waldo books that came out in the 90s. We shared books and studied those pictures for hours! Will was especially taken with them, so Erin made this I-Spy quilt for him using squares of novelty fabric. I'd totally forgotten that Erin made it; seeing this block jogged my memory. (A reminder of why we should label our quilts, ladies!!!)

Some of the seams had come undone, and my sister had handed it over to me for fixing. I just popped it into a storage tub and forgot about it. A mere, brief stitching session while watching the Tour de France and it is ready now for delivery back to Sandy and Will ... and Will's 2 little ones, who will be the next generation to enjoy "I Spy."

So I've done a bit of hand stitching and I have rid my sewing room of things that I needn't have had in there in the first place. 

Linking with Kathy's Quilts and her weekly party, Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

Reveal! Sharon’s Paris Flea Market Find

All manner of events have taken precedence over my blogging lately, but I figured it was high time to prioritize an update. 

In mid-June, Sharon loaded her PFMF quilt onto the long arm machine and the plan was for her to quilt it that day. As good-intentioned as that plan was, the machine had other ideas. As she got just one row across the quilt, threads were breaking or, in this case, running out, tension became touchy and timing went wonky. 

All the long arm problems! That day we experienced every single one of them, daggum it!

Below is her quilt spread out on the bed. Believe it or not, as much time as it spent on the long arm, I never stopped to take a picture of it all loaded up.

I believe I've share these three photos before, but who doesn't love having a second look at a beautiful quilt?

Back to the troubles...Early on, try as I might to fix things myself, I just couldn't do it. The timing was tripping me up. I obtained a phone number for a repair man who makes house calls - some of the Frankfort Girls have used him. I was so fit to be tied that would willingly absorb the cost of a house call if I could get things straightened out. 

Shane, the ever-so-blessed-repairman, walked me through a fix over the phone! Turns out, I had done everything properly, and just one small correction was all that I needed. I am so grateful for his willingness to assist me - free of charge! After all was said and done, I had a big  "well, duuuuhh" moment because I should have known what was wrong. Each little glitch ends up teaching me something.

So with the Tin Lizzie all set for action, troubles began on Sharon's side of things. First, she had a particularly bad migraine episode that put her out of commission for several days.

Next her mother fell and fractured a bone in her leg. Gracious! Hospitalization, additional complications - Sharon and her mom have had a plateful of worries. Needless to say, returning to finish her quilt wasn't a top priority. (Much like my blogging!) 

She was apologetic about tying up  my machine for so long, but truly, with all our bedroom remodel, I was not inconvenienced in the least. Not having the long arm available through those days forced me to attend to some of the less glamorous parts of the remodeling process like purging and cleaning. I got a lot done without the temptation to quilt!

Finally, this past Tuesday, our schedules meshed and Sharon came to finish her quilt. And oh, it was so worth the wait!

I snapped this picture without her knowledge. Once you get into a rhythm with free-motion quilting, you don't need to be interrupted. Sharon's large, sweeping circular designs really accentuate her quilt.

Ta-Da!! This quilt is SOOOOO Sharon! To those who know her, that gorgeous floral border and the bright red star points are clearly ‘trademark Sharon.’ She wrapped it up to take home for trimming and binding. No doubt very soon, it will be on her bed!

In an effort to be more timely with posting as we head into the final week of July, I have couple more posts almost ready to share; hopefully I will follow through.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne

A Long Arm Plan I Can Stick To

Today's post is about my tendency to be indecisive. Sometimes, making a decision is harder than the actual DOING!

Since becoming more proficient with the long arm machine, I find that I often feel stymied by which quilt to choose for quilting. Duh. Such a dumb thing, this indecision. 

Cobalt Stars - pieced in 2021; quilted in 2023.

Often, I decide based on need. Like right now, I have two baby girls needing quilts, and those will be at the top of the long arming list (but first I have to actually MAKE THEM!!)  My plan is to make them both like this one that I made for Cate in 2022.

Copy-cat Kaffe - pieced & quilted in 2022.

Sometimes, I decide based on seasonal changes. For example, that fall leaves quilt I made last year will very likely find itself quilted just prior to our changing of leaves here in Ohio - around the first of September, very likely. It's still hanging on the design wall.

Fall Leaves - pieced in 2023.

I've had an idea for a more definitive plan to combat all my dithering. It is one I think I can actually work with, by George.

When not pressed to quilt something in a timely way, I will reach for the earliest quilt in my closet and load that onto the long arm.  I will continue working my way forward through the years until everything is quilted.

Since I keep track of what I make each year on yearly pages, this should be easily managed. When I click on 2010, my first year of blogging, I see that only two quilts still await quilting. 

Americana Rose - pieced in 2010.

 Americana Rose was made from a kit - a rare thing for me. I've always envisioned this as a table cloth for our screened porch table. Wouldn't it look great for a July 4th celebration? 

Hourglass Quilt - Pieced in 2010.

Hourglass Quilt is a Thimbleberries pattern (and not necessarily Thimbleberries fabrics), and I still love the colors as well as that feathery outer border. I'd love to have this finished and displayed in the fall or at Christmas time. It has a primitive vibe, wouldn't you agree?

Honestly, I could so easily finish off all the 2010 projects. Everything else I made that year is done, which quite frankly, surprises me. I had no idea! Perhaps it's why I like this idea of working through the years chronologically? Yes, probably.

Doing this post makes me think that I have not checked back over my 2024 goals list lately. I ought to see how I am progressing. I've had a few 'tangents' lately, so I could be way off-kilter - who knows.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne