As I was searching ..........

It seems as though I am always searching for something and as I am searching I find something I had forgotten.

I was searching for something in my box of odd blocks and I had a stack of large trays on top of the box. I'd  moved this stack a few time, thinking it was a stack of empty trays. This time I moved the top tray and found  3 trays of squares and rectangles that I had cut for blocks inspired by Donna Poster. Oh my! For a long time I have been cutting leftover scraps into specific sizes for future use. I was surprised to find these because I have a shoe box marked for "Donna Poster Blocks".These are sorted by shape and color so I must have been working on these and put them away, meaning t get back to them. I also came across seven 12 inch blocks that were not with these parts but hanging on a hanger in my sewing room closet. This block has been a "go to"  block for scrap quilts. With so much of the work done I should get back to it.

 I found this in a box labeled "components ans pieces and parts and .  This was from a Colorwash 9 Patch project that never got off the ground.   I thought about what I might do with it , other than cut it up for the dog bed bag.



















I moved some pieces and then cut away the triangles along the side and I have a roof for a house like the one below.

I was reminded of this house that I made a few years ago. It has a piece of foam core in the peak and a hanging loop so it can hang on the wall; I had just given it away last week. You can read about it here if you are interested.

I have some ideas about what to do for the house; I should get back to this.

 I found this hanging in the closet. These blocks are the last of the Quail's Nest block the Friendship group made for me a few years ago when It was my turn to receive blocks. I made another quilt with the rest of the blocks and these weren't a good fit color wise. I was using it for a demo on quilting in sections and had two sections put together and I added the other section. I want to make it just a little bit larger for a table topper. I Have been making piano key borders and I think they will make the perfect border to pull it all together.







This collage has the piano key border sections from the Framed 9 Patch, a quilt the is on the foot of my bed, and the "self portrait" that is on my sewing room wall.  I like the way the borders work to make the whole quilt cohesive on each of these. I have that mountain of scraps so I really should get back to this.

So......... there is a lot to do think about; I will have to see what I really want to do and what I might want to pass on to someone else. What takes precedence over working on anything is the task of  sorting out and purging all of the things in my sewing room that I am never going to use again.  I am working on my bookcase today. 

Finished!

The Framed 9 Patch quilt is officially finished.  The binding is on, turned to the back and stitched.

 This is the best photo I can get of the whole quilt. It is on my king size bed and completely covers the top. It will not be used on this bed  is only here for the photo. I can't get far enough away to get a better photo and I can't put it up on my design wall because it is too heavy for me to do it by getting up on a ladder.

This is one section of the piano key border, which was sewn to the inner border and quilted before adding to the quilt. There is stitching in the ditch along the seam where it was added.











This is that section on the back showing the machine stitched edge of the backing.  I had turned the edges under and pressed them and fused them and then stitched in the ditch from the front. I was really happy that all my machine stitched edges on the back  turned out so well.

These are 2 of the corners with Double Four Patch Blocks.  I stitched on the front, in the ditch along the binding.

This is one of those corners on the back. I caught the binding on the back along the whole quilt and all my corner miters came out well.
However, the width of the binding on the back was not even all over. The weight of the quilt at times dragged the quilt and made it hard to manage a uniform 1/4 inch seam. I did examine the edges and fixed some ares before turning the binding to the back but I missed some places and because I had already started to fuse some of the binding down, there was not going back. It is good from the front and because I use double fold binding it is not going to come loose. It probably would not pass inspection from the judges or the quilt police but I'm happy.

This is the last quilt this large I will ever make. Even quilting it in sections, it became really hard to manage after I added the third section.  I don't see how I can make my sewing space different to make quilting something this large easier. I know I will be content to make smaller quilts and I intend to make another smaller Framed 9 Patch and I have other projects in mind also. After all, I have all those scraps to use.

Framed 9 Patch Debut

The Framed 9 Patch quilt made it's debut. Well, kind of, it is almost finished. The binding is sewed on but it still needs to be turned to the back and stitched down.  I was showing it anyway. We had family over yesterday and 2 of our youngest great grand children were here.  I had spread the quilt over our bed to show their moms and grandma. The 2 year old and her 10 month old cousin wanted to get up on the bed and have a look. They spent the next 15 minutes jumping and bouncing round on the bed. It was too much fun watching them laughing having the best time and no harm done to the quilt or the kids.

These are 3 photos of the fun, terrible photography I know; photos are all manipulated for clarity. However, they captures the spirit of the moment.

I think in this one he was just landing.

I hope to sew the binding down on the back today and then I will post a photo of the real finish.

February Bulletin Board.

Here it is Monday and I have not done one bit of sewing on the piano key borders. I think I was too optimistic to think I would get anything done this week.

I did clean up my desk and cutting table and vacuumed the floor and I was amazed that I can pick up straight pins with my long handled grasping tool. I could see there were a lot of pins and I didn't want to bend over to reach for them. Age is putting limits on what is comfortable for me to do.
While I was putting away the last of the Christmas things from my design walls and bulletin boards, I came across some of my quilted hearts and put them on one of the bulletin boards.
 I like to have some of the things out that usually reside in the closet,

The heart quilt is made with uneven Log Cabin blocks from the book "Log Cabin in the Round" by Barb Schaffield and Beth Vickery.  The little house square in the center was from Beth Shibley of Love Laugh Quilt blogspot. She sent then to everyone who participated in her Neighborhood Block Party", The quilt is 22 inches W and 18 inches H. The crazy pieced hearts are valentines  leftover  from the ones I sent to friends. The black and white square is a participant patch made by Lori one of the Basement Divas for the annual Jellyroll Race. The pink square doesn't really show up well in a photo; it was an experiment using red ink to draw a zen tangle inspired heart on a pink fabric. I layered it up and quilted it with red thread on the longer lines. The photo is enhanced but the color isn't really true. It does show up more "in person". Not every experiment turns out to be something to pursue but some of them are worth keeping just  because.

Almost There

It seems as though I have been working on this quilt forever.  In the past when I was excited about a quilt, I worked on it every day and sometimes all day. That doesn't happen anymore but I have maintained my level of enthusiasm and I am closing in on the finish.

This is the body of the quilt with all 3 quilted sections and the quilted side borders sewed together. It is laying on my King size bed because it is too large and heavy for me  to put it upon my design wall. I am not foolish enough to try standing on a ladder to do that.

This is a section of the front of the quilt showing the green inner border and the quilted border sewn on the quilt. I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the 2 inch inner border. I quilted 2 parallel wavy lines along the  length of the borders and then some angled way lines about a hands width apart across the width of the border. It is more utilitarian than artist but that serves its purpose.

This is the same area on the back of the quilt. The black arrow is pointing to the stitching line. it is where I stitched in the ditch on the top edge of the narrow inner border. There were some fiddly steps  I took to get it to com out this way but it was worth the fussing around. I can't hand any seams that long anymore and every seam that I did this way came out the way I hoped for. 

I have  sections for the top and bottom borders on my design wall now and I need to make the blocks for the corners and stitch it all together. I might be optimistic in thinking I can get them on the quilt by next weekend but I am going to try.